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Thread: Burn Out, PG-13, June 20, 08

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    Burn Out, PG-13, June 20, 08

    Burn Out
    PG-13

    Disclaimer: I don't own them, but when I pull this string they dance!

    Distribution: I have posted these stories and have control of them on this site. I don't want them to be posted anywhere else unless I'm the one posting them. Please take down my stories if you have them posted on another archive site. I understand I can't stop you from doing this but I hope by asking politely you'll respect my work and my wishes. If anyone has more comfort and convenience saving the text of a story to their own computer, I have no problem with that.

    Spoilers: General Smallville up to Lex's wedding to Lana.

    A/N: I thought of this last night and didn't want to write it as a multi-chapter, never ending, super story like Trauma. It could be that. But I concentrated it down to essentials and delivered it at less than 2300 words. There's hope for me yet.

    A warning though: Read carefully or you'll miss the plot development. It zips along pretty quickly and sometimes a lot changes from one sentence to the next.


    He is working – as usual– when The Talon explodes a few minutes after the customers are gone. It is ten minutes after that when he gets the call from Gabe Sullivan. Chloe was there grabbing a last cup for the night, and Lois went along to relieve the kitchen of the day old baked goods. Lex has failed to protect his property, his wife, his tenant, and his arguably favourite reporter.

    It is another ten minutes before he drives up and into one of the barricades, doing a dent's worth of damage to car that he no longer remembers the make or model. It is fifteen minutes before he screams and threatens his way to the ambulance. The stretcher holds what looks like a blackened corpse, but the corpse is screaming in agony until morphine drips into her veins. She is nude even of her skin, it seems. Lex is not sure if she can be called a survivor when she looks nothing like human.

    Her bustline is nowhere near the pneumatic heights of Lois Lane's, and she has dark hair that is crumbling off her head. This is Lana. His wife is alive. The doctors pump her full of medications to keep her that way. His only concern is that the flow of morphine is never stopped. If she were to feel any of her body she would die instantly. Lana believes in her own suffering more than Lex ever did. She is not the survivor she thinks she is.

    He sits with Gabe Sullivan after the man is told there are no other bodies, just pieces. He says nothing as the sobs taper to the lack of personality that is catatonic grief. He says nothing as Clark Kent pushes his way into Lana's room and flees almost as quickly. That is the nature of Clark and Lana, both, and their fictional love. All three are stronger in image than fact.

    There are weeks of waiting for Lana to die, then Lex is told she is holding steady. He takes her home to a hospital room where their bedroom used to be. He rarely spent the night in the old bedroom, and he never sets foot in the sick room it becomes. The nurses do their jobs, the specialists visit from time to time. He does his duty by paying for anything she needs without question. He spends millions on state of the art equipment, but he doesn't expect her to live long enough for most of it to be out of the box.

    Lex is wrong. Lana lives two months at home and one of the nurses approaches him with a suggestion that he visit and speak to her. Her comatose state is partially the result of drugs, but she is also healing brain damage. If she is going to be awakened by anything, wouldn't it be the sound of her husband's voice, the nurse asks him erroneously. Lex figures it is easier to play along once and avoid further visits by saying it is too hard. He is not above playing on his mental health issues when it helps him.

    He sits by the bed and looks at the clean new plastic of the rails. He mumbles about work and weather, and his eyes wander to her face. She is ugly, scarred, and unrecognizable. But she sips air in a way that soothes his own breathing, and she is quietly fighting along with the doctors and nurses to live. Lex includes himself in that fight without knowing why, and he schedules times to see her the next day.

    He reads to her often, and the books he chooses aren't ones she would like. They have no stories or romances. They are solid facts and statistics and projections. He has to keep making money so he can pay for the machines that keep her around, though The Talon is worth more insurance money than it ever turned in for profit. Lex wonders if he has always failed somehow in seeing her, and worries this is not so much a second chance as it is a penance long enough to make her loss level him.

    He notices she is losing mass and asks for another feeding tube to be installed, but it is almost too late. Infection nearly kills her and he spends days sitting by her bed and raging at her caregivers. For some reason her body doesn't show the infection until it causes malnutrition. Lex ponders this for a few days and decides it is likely a reaction to meteor exposure. He has always thought Lana had to be effected in some way. He pays more attention to her appearance, and is outraged when her hair starts growing in white. The texture is entirely different and he misses the bald, mottled skin underneath. Looking at it was less like outliving his wife.

    He reads up on therapies that can wake coma patients, and has the nurses try all of them. He even shrugs out of his jacket to help bend and flex her slack limbs in time with a too happy music that makes the exercise like a demented fitness tape. He bites back disgust at the ugly details of a life without any higher function. He kisses her forehead when he leaves her to go to his own bed.

    Lex is alone with her when Lana opens her eyes blearily. He has to squint for moment to make sure they really are blinking instead of twitching. He puts his hand on hers very carefully, and she squeezes it once, pauses, then squeezes it again.

    He is thrown out as specialists arrive to test her, and Lex paces in the hallway. He tries not to hope for much. It was months after the explosion before she was counted among the living, and this might be the final bit of strength she has – playing itself out cruelly with false optimism. He shakes the lead doctor's hand sweatily when he is told she is awake and will remain that way. He rushes in to see Lana and is pushed out again to let her sleep, which is ludicrous. She has been sleeping for months, he bitches, and he catches a smile from the nurse. He is behaving like an insane husband and for once he is willing to let it show. His reward is a few minutes sitting by the bed and grinning at her.

    Her feeding tube and the one in her throat are removed first, then the IV lines. Her heart monitor is only used during the night. Her morphine is changed to another pain killer and she is weened back to coherence. Her tongue and jaw are mangled and she can't speak well, but there are a few words she can say. Lex explains about the explosion carefully and she weeps as he blots at her face. She asks for Gabe Sullivan to visit, and the man plods up to the castle one night. He pats her hand awkwardly and seems dazed. In the hallway he says he thought for a moment she was Chloe. Lex makes sure someone else is driving Mr. Sullivan home.

    The relief not to be a widower turns into concern to improve her quality of life. Lana is capable of mobility after physical therapy, but needs a wheelchair because her legs are weak. She is wheeling herself around in no time. Lex has to chase after her and he finds it difficult to reconcile that new vigor with the woman he married. He dismisses two of the four nurses because they aren't needed.

    He works at his desk while she reads one of the books she never would have touched before. He gathers from her garbled, but improving, speech that she is understanding them. They read the same book almost in tandem and he has trouble recalling Lana ever reading for pleasure. Her hands are recovered enough to graduate from a notepad and marker to a laptop, and she types the most lengthy, insightful thoughts out while he carries on his end of the conversation. It is about this time Lex realizes he is living with a Lana he has never met before.

    She has started using a walker when she asks for Clark to visit. All hope is extinguished, and Lex assumes he has been a patsy all along. He pays for Lana's recovery, she plays a sweet house guest, but once she is well she intends to return to her true love. He does as she asks, and the second visit goes as well as the first. Clark flees from her melted face and trembling body within minutes, leaving Lana sobbing in her bed.

    Lex goes up to sit with her, and he curses Clark for not being able to hide his horror from the near skeletal woman clinging to his neck. Her need was more important than the revulsion of seeing her burns. She sees herself in the mirror every day, and made the same old mistake of leaning on a Clark who is only there for her in her fantasies.

    The next day Lex clears it with the doctors and brings plastic surgeons. They examine Lana's face, make drawings and scans, then present her with a composite of the reconstruction. She will never look exactly like herself again, but they can rebuild her jaw and allow her to talk. They can make her look normal again, they say supportively.

    She takes the printed page and crumples it into a ball, bursting into tears once more. Lex apologizes hastily and asks the doctors to wait for a decision. It is days before he can make any sense from what she is saying, and she refuses to type or write to him. She clutches his left hand, taps his wedding band, points to herself and shakes her head. “No.”

    He gives her a few days of self-pity before he brings back the surgeons, and she holds his hand tightly and looks at him with such pain he has to send them away. The notepad comes out and she writes her name in shaky block letters. He knows the name before she turns the paper to him and forces it into his hands. She points to herself and he nods.

    She is Chloe, and Lana died months ago to be buried in the Sullivan plot. Their rapport is only because she is not his hated wife. Lex strokes her fine, white hair and the texture is true to Chloe's golden blond strands. She is a living daughter to a grieving father. Lex needs proof before he tells Gabe, so he has an old blood sample retrieved in the hospital and compared to his guest's. It matches.

    Gabe weeps openly and holds his daughter for half the day, only letting go to hug Lex for an uncomfortable moment. He is stunned and in shock, but he is happy. Lex is empty, especially when the loving father wants to take her away. He makes exaggerated claims about Chloe's frailty and scares Gabe into letting her stay put.

    Gabe is staying in the castle, too, and his gratitude is overwhelming. Chloe is receiving the same treatment as before, with Lex's insistence. The plastic surgery is harrowing for all three, but once the swelling goes down Chloe can speak in her own voice. She can smile as she thanks Lex sincerely and with far too many words. He brushes it off and thinks how happy he is she looks like herself again.

    She has the second surgery on her face, and once she recovers a hair dresser comes in to cut and dye her hair like it used to be. Lex strides right up to her and kisses the blond hair, and she giggles. The walker is gone and she can skip around the garden with her father well enough she is asking for her car keys. She will leave soon.

    Chloe makes the offer on a Saturday, and Lex pushes his breakfast back. He tells her she helped him a lot by being there, and he isn't ready to be alone. He tells her he loves her. He tells her to think about it as long as she wants. She is moved out only three months before she is moving back in, planning a little wedding and asking for a cold-weather honeymoon.

    She is mostly healed, but she may never be ready to wear a swimsuit again. Lex doesn't mind, and it saves him from having to find a private beach. The scandal over the mistaken identity is ferocious. Gabe sees the newlyweds off to a vacation in Montreal, and he is the first to hear Chloe is pregnant. Mother and father hold little Madrigal Luthor first, then hand her over to her grandfather. Gabe holds his daughter's hand through most of her second delivery, though Lex arrives in time to see Marcus Luthor's birth.

    The former lot of The Talon was filled with a bank, and Lex thought back only once to the explosion that changed his life. He had regretted marrying Lana and arranged for the accident to kill her. Chloe and Lois were not supposed to be in the building. He remembered Lois as a loud-mouthed army brat with not enough brains for her spunk, but he hadn't meant for her to die. Chloe's suffering was an accident.

    Ultimately, Lex was happy, his wife was happy, and their children were loved and protected. He saw no reason to live in the past.
    Last edited by nonky; 18th July 2008 at 03:54. Reason: To correct timestamp
    Her soul is senstive like a finely made tuning fork. It vibrates and resonates with every little hint of trauma, evil and monstrosity that might be humming in the air, and channels it into expressions of fiction... or recomended websites - somethingeasy

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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 07

    That was such an interesting plot. Good job, I throughly enjoyed it!

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    looking for updates Senior Member somethingeasy's Avatar
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    This was an awesome, amazing story, Nonky! LOL! I definitely saw the potential for making this into a huge epic length feature fic, but I have to admit I also saw the sense and logic in condensing it into a very concentrated dose of Dramatic-Shock-Chlex fic. And the impact was awesome and powerful, despite the fact that it wasn’t traumatically drawn out like you usually like, LOL!

    I found the beginning fascinating and mesmerizing! Even though I ‘knew’ (at the time of first reading) it was Lana who had been killed in the explosion, I still couldn’t help but feel empathy, pity and anguish for the poor burnt, skinless creature that was screaming in agony while being wheeled out of the Talon. The description of her charred body was heartbreaking… especially because you knew that Lana would find double anguish in the fact that her prize and saving grace (her looks) had been stripped away from her so brutally!

    It was interesting seeing how all the various characters reacted to the news of the Talon explosion and the deaths and injuries of the victims. It was gut-wrenching (in a ‘very satisfactory reading’ kind of way) to hear about Gabe degenerating into a grief-stricken zombie like state when he heard that his Chloe has been taken away from him. Oh the poor man!

    Clark… I wanted to SLAP the boy. He spends his entire LIFE panting after his perfect princess, and proclaiming his love to be ‘true, pure and perfect’… only to hide his tail and run because she’s not pretty anymore. I wonder whether he himself felt any kind of self-loathing for his hypocrisy… or did he find some way to justify his behaviour to himself?

    Lex’s reaction to Lana’s incapacitated state was the most interesting, intriguing and fascinating. It became obvious fairly quickly that he didn’t really ‘feel’ that much for his injured wife. He was only a little irritated that he was stuck caring for her until she died. He wasn’t even concerned that she probably didn’t have long to live. In fact, I rather enjoyed the idea that Lex fully expected Lana to die because he observed she was weak-willed and had practically nothing in terms of survivor’s instinct. But it was also evident that he bore her so real ill-will, which meant he was at least willing to tolerate her presence in his home until she expired. And he would help her for as long as she was able to hold on to life.

    He sits by the bed and looks at the clean new plastic of the rails. He mumbles about work and weather, and his eyes wander to her face. She is ugly, scarred, and unrecognizable. But she sips air in a way that soothes his own breathing, and she is quietly fighting along with the doctors and nurses to live. Lex includes himself in that fight without knowing why, and he schedules times to see her the next day.

    He reads to her often, and the books he chooses aren't ones she would like. They have no stories or romances. They are solid facts and statistics and projections. He has to keep making money so he can pay for the machines that keep her around, though The Talon is worth more insurance money than it ever turned in for profit. Lex wonders if he has always failed somehow in seeing her, and worries this is not so much a second chance as it is a penance long enough to make her loss level him.
    This was my favourite part. I loved the way that Lex’s perspective of Lana changed so suddenly, but also so slowly and sneakily in the space of a single evening in her comatose presence. I LOVED the idea that he was able to sense something strong and worthy in her that he’s never seen before… She wasn’t moving, talking, or doing anything besides just breathing, but Lex saw something in her that spoke to him. I LOVED that, Nonky! And I loved that, whatever he sensed in Lana, soothed and reassured him…. And made him want to come back for more.

    He notices she is losing mass and asks for another feeding tube to be installed, but it is almost too late. Infection nearly kills her and he spends days sitting by her bed and raging at her caregivers. For some reason her body doesn't show the infection until it causes malnutrition. Lex ponders this for a few days and decides it is likely a reaction to meteor exposure. He has always thought Lana had to be effected in some way. He pays more attention to her appearance, and is outraged when her hair starts growing in white. The texture is entirely different and he misses the bald, mottled skin underneath. Looking at it was less like outliving his wife.
    heeee! And it was fantastic seeing how Lex’s care, concern and regard for ‘Lana’ grew without him realizing it. He probably started off by telling himself that he didn’t REALLY care for her… but that her room was a convenient place for him to relax and get some ‘quiet time’ for himself. LOL! I loved the idea that he probably chose reading material with the express purpose of boring her and sending her into a deeper coma, because he DIDN’T care if she woke up, dammit, and he’ll never admit otherwise.

    But then… then she actually fell sick(er) and was in danger of losing her life because of infection…. THAT must have sent Lex hurtling into the fact that he DID care if she loved or died. He must have been furious at himself as well as the nurses… and you can bet that he channelled all formed of that fury at the very convenient target of the nurses and doctors. LOL! They must have been terrified by the tirade he inflicted on them.

    Damn, I want to see that in detail!!! His realization he DID care, and the tirade that followed!

    LOL! it was after that incident that we can see he devoted himself to actually caring for his wife. Making sure her limbs were kept exercised and limber… that she was played lovely music to wake her up… and he probably even changed his reading material to something more stimulating. LOL! I wonder whether he cringed his way to reading through a few bodice rippers in the hopes that it would soothe or amuse her, ROTFL! I bet he did!

    Aaargh! I shouldn’t have begun to review this fic… now I want to see ALL of these scenes in full!!! *deprived sobbing sound*

    He is thrown out as specialists arrive to test her, and Lex paces in the hallway. He tries not to hope for much. It was months after the explosion before she was counted among the living, and this might be the final bit of strength she has – playing itself out cruelly with false optimism. He shakes the lead doctor's hand sweatily when he is told she is awake and will remain that way. He rushes in to see Lana and is pushed out again to let her sleep, which is ludicrous. She has been sleeping for months, he bitches, and he catches a smile from the nurse. He is behaving like an insane husband and for once he is willing to let it show. His reward is a few minutes sitting by the bed and grinning at her.
    ROTLMAO! Oh dear me, Nonky! This Lex is acting JUST like the desperate, clingy, worshipful, besotted fool from ‘Survival’ when his Chloe came out of her coma too! He actually fell in love with her while she was asleep?!?? I LOVE that idea! LOL! I can’t imagine how humiliated, bewildered and confused Lex must have been by his own reactions… but he wasn’t about to question such intense feelings… he was only going to act on them, LOL!

    Her feeding tube and the one in her throat are removed first, then the IV lines. Her heart monitor is only used during the night. Her morphine is changed to another pain killer and she is weened back to coherence. Her tongue and jaw are mangled and she can't speak well, but there are a few words she can say. Lex explains about the explosion carefully and she weeps as he blots at her face. She asks for Gabe Sullivan to visit, and the man plods up to the castle one night. He pats her hand awkwardly and seems dazed. In the hallway he says he thought for a moment she was Chloe. Lex makes sure someone else is driving Mr. Sullivan home.
    heh… boy, do I feel slow. It was only at THIS part where I finally put together all the clues you’ve been laying out, Nonky! The ‘white hair’ that grew back on her scalp? The sheer will and survival instinct that kept her holding onto life WAY beyond any expected point? And now Gabe claiming that he recognized this girl as his daughter? Lex’s irresistible connection to her? It was CHLOE all along! I finally realized it when GABE was the first person she asked to see. Who else would have done that?!?? wow, Nonky! That was brilliant! And I love you for not ‘spoiling me’ in the shoutbox when you mentioned this fic. THANK YOU!!!

    It is about this time Lex realizes he is living with a Lana he has never met before.
    ROTFLMAO! I mentioned that Lex fall in love with ‘this woman’ while she was sleeping? Those feelings are honestly nothing compared to how he’s doting over her now that she’s awake. I loved the way he looked at her energy, strength, determination, intelligence and wit with sheer awe. He’s beginning to enjoy her company as a walking, talking companion… waaay beyond the obsession that he had developed for her as a ‘quiet sleeper’.

    ROTFL That last line killed me! A Lana he’s never met before? ROTFLMAO! I think Lex realized at ‘this’ point that it actually wasn’t Lana that he was falling madly in love with.

    Lex goes up to sit with her, and he curses Clark for not being able to hide his horror from the near skeletal woman clinging to his neck. Her need was more important than the revulsion of seeing her burns. She sees herself in the mirror every day, and made the same old mistake of leaning on a Clark who is only there for her in her fantasies.
    oh, Clark! You insensitive, brutal, cruel BASTARD! I loved the way that Lex was initially afraid and even resentful that Clark was going to steal away ‘Lana’ from him, and then outraged because Lana had been rejected. He didn’t even feel that much relief over knowing that Lana had no choice BUT to stay with him… he was only hurting because she was in such dejected pain. Lex really IS in love with her, isn’t he? He actually prioritizes her happiness far above his own. Awesome!

    He gives her a few days of self-pity before he brings back the surgeons, and she holds his hand tightly and looks at him with such pain he has to send them away. The notepad comes out and she writes her name in shaky block letters. He knows the name before she turns the paper to him and forces it into his hands. She points to herself and he nods.
    that was an AMAZING scene showing the ‘revelation’, Nonky! Wow! I loved the idea that Lex actually refused to look at the note because he knew what it was going to reveal, and he wanted to hold onto his illusion for a little while longer.

    Although, this DOES raise the question on why Chloe kept quiet about her identity for so long? She didn’t even tell her dad that she was alive? Why did she remains silent when she seemingly had nothing to gain from this deception? Unless she believed that Lex would stop her treatments when he realized she wasn’t Lana? Did she really think that he would throw her out on the curb after he’s spent SO much time and money caring for her and helping her heal? She had no idea about the attachment Lex had developed for her, did she? And quite honestly, how could she have known? Lex was doting on her the way she imagined he doted on Lana… so it makes sense that she would be afraid that he’d HATE her for not being his wife, and throw her out?

    Gabe weeps openly and holds his daughter for half the day, only letting go to hug Lex for an uncomfortable moment. He is stunned and in shock, but he is happy. Lex is empty, especially when the loving father wants to take her away. He makes exaggerated claims about Chloe's frailty and scares Gabe into letting her stay put.
    ROTFL! Lex, you sneaky bastard! I loved how he contrived to keep Chloe with him. He knew that his time with her was running out… so he fought to keep her for as long as humanly possible. Awww, and that was a beautiful father-daughter bonding scene, Nonky. I was delighted to see them both healing after their separation from each other. Chloe might have had her heart broken by Clark’s cruel rejection, but her daddy is here to make it all better

    She has the second surgery on her face, and once she recovers a hair dresser comes in to cut and dye her hair like it used to be. Lex strides right up to her and kisses the blond hair, and she giggles. The walker is gone and she can skip around the garden with her father well enough she is asking for her car keys. She will leave soon.
    Oh this was beautifully poignant, Nonky! I loved the idea that Lex was revelling in the fact that Chloe was healing and becoming stronger and healthier. But he was also grieving because he knew that every step of her recovery meant that she was going to be walking away from him soon. But even that knowledge can’t stop him from taking joy in seeing her strong, beautiful, confident and WELL again.

    Chloe makes the offer on a Saturday, and Lex pushes his breakfast back. He tells her she helped him a lot by being there, and he isn't ready to be alone. He tells her he loves her. He tells her to think about it as long as she wants. She is moved out only three months before she is moving back in, planning a little wedding and asking for a cold-weather honeymoon.
    hmmm, I’m not entirely sure about what kind of offer Chloe made here. I presume it was a discussion about her leaving? So, did she offer to pay him back for the medical care? Or perhaps she offered her gratitude as well as an offer to ‘be friends’ if he wanted it? Or perhaps it was just an offer to be out of his home by sundown?

    Heh.. whatever her offer, I’m sure it wasn’t enough for Lex… who told her that he only wanted her to stay, Stay, STAY with him… because he was in love with her!!

    Awww, but she LEFT!!! For three months!!! Poor Lex must have suffered. I wonder how many cameras and people he had trained on Chloe during that time to keep track of her every movement. LOL! Good thing she returned to him before he went too crazy.

    The former lot of The Talon was filled with a bank, and Lex thought back only once to the explosion that changed his life. He had regretted marrying Lana and arranged for the accident to kill her. Chloe and Lois were not supposed to be in the building. He remembered Lois as a loud-mouthed army brat with not enough brains for her spunk, but he hadn't meant for her to die. Chloe's suffering was an accident.

    Ultimately, Lex was happy, his wife was happy, and their children were loved and protected. He saw no reason to live in the past.
    Woah! WOAH! That ending was a COMPLETE shocking surprise! LEX was the one who actually arranged that horrible bomb blast in the first place? It was HIS fault that Chloe had to go through such horrific pain and suffering?!?? He might claim (now) that he’s grateful for his decision and the consequences they led to… but I can’t help but wonder about the months of intense, self-loathing guilt that he must have directed at himself for Chloe’s condition. Was he ever tempted to confess and lay himself at her mercy?

    Heh… oh well… whatever issues he might have had, it seems like he’s come to terms with them. And as long as Chloe never, EVER finds out about the truth, he should be happy until his final days. PROVIDED Chloe never finds out the turth… that’s a big ‘if factor’…

    This was a fantastic fic, Nonky! I loved it! I would have loved more detail on choice, select scenes… but it was probably wise of you to keep it condensed to this one-shot. I look forward to more of your writing in the future. Good luck!

    How is Trauma and Lo2E coming along?

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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    That was wonderful. It made me smile when Gabe found out that his daughter was not dead. I loved the twist at the end, and i also love how the twist made me think back to Lex thinking he failed in killing Lana. How guilty and lonely he felt. It was sort of a consequence for his actions. however it wasn't lana it was Chloe. He got his way at the end.

    Great loved it!

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    Dealing w/ a Ship Change Senior Member
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    I applaude your ability to keep yourself to a low word count and still spill out onto the page a dramatic and tragic story that somehow ends brilliantly.

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    NS Full Member dagney's Avatar
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    The story was gut wrentching and sad. I really like your writing but this story was just upsetting to me. I think the problem was that the shorter version I didn't get any real guilt for Lex after him realising he killed another and Chloe suffer so because of the deliberate act, and that he finds happiness and that he wouldn't worry that Chloe would find out. Dagney

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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    This was such an intriguing tale and I sensed that Lex fell in love with the woman he was taking care of and not the idea of the Lana he remembered. I think Clark's reaction is very true, that he is blinded by an ideal and would be scared to live with the truth. I think Lex does feel guilt but it won't change anything and will only cause more pain if he admits to what he did, so he is moving on and making his life better for his family. Excellent story.

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    Spunky Chick Senior Member hfce's Avatar
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    I knew it! I knew Chloe survived when her hair came in white. I said that has to be Chloe not Blana. The fact that she acted differently then she did before sealed it for me. Good job with the clues. I loved this story.
    "Everyone seems normal until you get to know them. "

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    NS Full Member SVfan1286's Avatar
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    Brilliant story! I was so surprised by the twist at the end with Lex being behind the explosion... Fantastic job! I loved how Lex slowly feel in love with Chloe while she was in her coma and after words, without even knowing it was her.

    Absolutely incredible story... I loved it!!

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    NS Full Member zho9's Avatar
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    Re: Burn Out, PG-13, Complete, June 20, 08

    Okay, knew it was Chloe that survived because Lex was right about Lana's self-delusions but that ending just floored me!
    Great job Nonky!

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