Chapter Twenty
Lex’s fingers flew across his keyboard as he finished up his last email for the day and closed his laptop down, with a sigh of relief. He had just made it. Logically he knew that Chloe wouldn’t object to him making a few phone calls and writing a couple of emails but he was trying to be on his best behaviour. He wanted this weekend to be absolutely perfect.
He slid along the side of the limo’s back seat to look out of the window. Through the tinted glass he could make out Chloe’s luscious figure as she chatted with some other parents as she waited for Lilly to get out of school. He wanted to be out there with her waiting for their daughter to get out of school but that wasn’t his place and he didn’t want to shock his baby. And so he waited, examining Chloe’s behind as he did so.
She was wearing her good butt jeans (as she called them) again and he liked to think that they were for his benefit although as she leant forward to pluck a flower which had caught her eye he was seriously considering throwing caution to the wind and getting out so that he could wrap his jacket around her waist. That was a view that should be for his eyes only.
Before his resolve could be too sorely tested the school bell rang and the air was filled with the sound of children’s delighted squeals and footsteps. It was an exclusive school, with fewer than 50 students (all from very good families), yet it still sounded like a heard of stampeding elephants. Much to his delight, he noted that his elephant and out at the front.
She careened along the covered porch way: her French plats (which had probably been neat that morning) flailing out behind her, her skirt hitched up just a little too far, one sock settled around her ankle, shoes scuffed, book bag dangling from one hand and crashing into things as she hurried past, and a massive grin on her cherubim face.
As she approached her mother she leapt fearlessly, trusting Chloe to catch her, which she did. A whoosh of air flew from Chloe’s lungs as the tiny lump hurtled into her. She clung to her little girl who returned the embrace, wrapping her arms and legs around her fiercely, and not noticing when her bag accidently swung around and caught her mother in the back.
Lex lurched forwards almost out of the car when he saw his wife catch herself and remembered why they had agreed that he would stay in the car. Lilly would get over excited and start asking questions – as would the other parents – as he was not normally there for afternoon pick up. That was how Chloe had put it at least. In truth Lex knew that he had never been there for afternoon pick up, he had only been there once when she had got out of school and that was because Lilly had called Lionel and forced him into it. He was disgusting and rightly disgusted with himself.
Through the glass, he watched as Chloe steadied her balance and bounced her daughter up so that she had a better purchase on her – a procedure which didn’t appear to bother Lilly in the slightest. In fact, as Chloe gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek, Lilly began to babble. Lex’s heart began to swell. Just watching her lips move he could practically hear her little voice, her expressions so much like her mother’s, telling her all about her day. He couldn’t believe that he had missed out on so much over the last year and a bit. He hadn’t meant to. He didn’t know how it had happened. But now, seeing her here, she knew that he couldn’t bear to be separated from her for another minute.
His hand was on the door handle when Chloe turned and started making her way back to the car, Lex slid back further into the car and tried to compose himself.
The door swung open just as Lilly was declaring, “It’s Daddy’s big car”.
“Yes, sweetheart”, Chloe agreed, a touch of incredulous amusement. She, little Chloe from Kansas, had a daughter who referred to stretch limos as ‘Daddy’s big car’s as if it were nothing. Well, Chloe supposed, the child did had a personal fortune of around 50 million already so it was nothing to her.
Lilly barrelled into the car head first leaving her mother to ensure that she was not inadvertently displaying her panties to the entire playground. “Daddy”, she shrieked and somehow performed a rather impressive feat of acrobatics which left her squarely in his lap, hugging him as if she hadn’t seen him in a year.
“Good afternoon Lillian, I hope that you are well”, Lex said, with absurd formality as he tried valiantly not to let his emotions get the better of him.
“Silly Daddy”, Lilly patted him indulgently and looked over at her mother who was attempting not to snigger at Lex as she closed the door and sorted out Lilly’s school bag the strap of which had somehow become wrapped around her ankle.
Lilly allowed herself to be untangled with great patience as she bombarded her father with questions. “Hello Daddy, what are you doing here? Have you been here long? Are you here to see me? Do you like my new bobbles?” This last question was illustrated by her holding out the end of her braids to him so that he could admire her strawberry inspired bobbles – which he did with a level of appreciation which she seemed to feel proper.
“And yes, of course I am here to see you. Mommy and I have”, he was about to say a little surprise for you, but then second guessed himself. She could think that that meant that they were getting back together and he didn’t want to get her hopes up even for a second. “Only for this weekend”, he prefaced so that she wouldn’t think that she was getting out of school, “we are going on a little, mini holiday”, he explained, inelegantly.
Lilly gaped up at him, not entirely sure what to make of this statement. She stared at him, then shifted her eyes over to her mother just for confirmation, erupting into squeals of delight - which were a little too loud considering the close quarters in which they were seated -, upon receiving such.
“We are really going on holiday?”
“Yes”.
“Really? Honestly? Truly? On holiday?”
“Yes, yes, yes and yes”, he answered with a laugh.
“I’ve never been on holiday before”, she announced with childish innocence.
Lex almost chocked. She had never been on holiday? His sweet little princess, one of the most privileged (financially speaking at least) children in America, had never been on holiday?
“Yes you have”, Chloe interrupted, placing a consoling hand on her husband’s shoulder. “You just don’t remember it, you were too young”.
That didn’t make him feel much better. He hadn’t taken them on holiday since she had actually been old enough to remember.
“Do you remember the day that we got Hippolyta Hippo?” Chloe asked.
“Of course”, Lilly adored her purple tutu bedecked hippopotamus amphibious.
“Well, remember going to the sea life centre and being on the beach that same day?” She continued.
“Yes”.
“Well we were on holiday then”, Chloe informed her. “There aren’t a lot of beaches in Kansas”.
“Oh”, Lilly thought for a moment, “are we going to a beach now?”
“No sweetie”, Lex started but then paused to consider, he could fly them out to somewhere with a beach, he could have the private jet ready in …
“No, not this weekend; it takes a very long time to get somewhere with a beach. The commute would simply be too long for a weekend”, Chloe took over the explanation. She could see what Lex was thinking but they had agreed not to go too far out so that Lilly wouldn’t get too over tired.
“Oh”, Lilly seemed a little confused.
“We are going to stay in a hotel”, Chloe informed her which made her perk up.
“I’m going to pack the second that we get back to Granddad’s”, Lilly decided, already thinking about everything she would need. Books for Daddy to read to her, sweeties, ice cream, Teddy, toys, her toothbrush … and maybe some clothes.
“Actually, I’ve already packed for you”, Chloe explained, “so we can get going straight away”. They were, in fact, already on their way going in the opposite direction to Gabe’s apartment.
Lilly seemed rather affronted by this. She wanted to pack for herself. She was a big girl and Mommy might have missed something.
“But what about Teddy?” She asked, she had heard tales of parents packing before and missing out key things.
“He is safe in the boot”, Chloe promised her.
“In the boot”, Lilly screeched. “The boot?”
“Yes, in the boot”, Chloe wondered where else he would be.
“But he won’t like it in the boot, he won’t know where he is. He will get scared!” Her tiny voice rose in pitch and indignation.
“Peters”, Lex said calmly, as he pressed the intercom button, “please pull up as soon as it is safe and procure Miss Lillian’s Teddy from the boot”.
Within a few seconds the beloved bear was in Lex’s hands as he examined him, “Look at that, he is fast asleep. Well, that’s a bear for you. He hasn’t even realised that he isn’t still on your bed at home. I think that he had better go over to Mommy to sleep for a bit while we do our homework”. He handed the bear over and Chloe cradled it appropriately making it seem as if he were indeed fast asleep.
“I don’t have any homework”, Lilly complained as she reached for her bear, which Chloe would have given her had she not been leant forwards rummaging in her bag for Lilly’s afterschool pick me up.
“Possibly not from school no, but remember we are doing an extra hour every night this week to make up for what you missed on Monday”, Lex reminded her. Lilly’s ability to forget things when it most suited her really was remarkable.
“I didn’t miss anything on Monday because everyone else missed it. If I learn too much then I will be too far ahead of the other students and then they will feel bad”, she tried to explain to her father once again.
“I don’t really care about what the other children are doing, we agreed so we are going to do our maths homework now”, Lex turned his computer back on as that was where we had stored the new information.
“But”, she pointed out, “we already finished my whole maths book yesterday”.
“I know, that is why we are moving onto algebra”.
“I can’t do algebra, I’m too little. Even mommy can’t do it, I heard her telling Auntie Lois so”.
Lex almost smiled at that, it was so different from the normal refrain of “But I’m a big girl”, but he couldn’t let her get away with it. He had set a punishment and it had to be carried out.
“Well then, we had better make sure that you are very good at it so that you can help Mommy, hadn’t we?” He decided.
“No”.
“Lilly”.
“No”, she folded her arms in front of her chest, and stuck her chin out, a mutinous expression adorning her features.
“Lillian, we are going to do this work together so we can either do it now and get it out of the way quickly so that we can have fun when we arrive at the hotel or”, he paused for dramatic effect, “we spend the entire weekend on it. It is your choice”.
Her chin wobbled. But she looked no less defiant.
Lex knew that she didn’t care for extra school work or the fact that it reminded her that she had got in trouble in the first place, but he couldn’t understand why she was suddenly making a much bigger deal out of it than she had all of the rest of the week.
“Lillian”, Lex tried again, although he had no idea what he was going to say.
“Here”, Chloe handed her daughter her juice box and oatie bar.
Lilly’s eyes widened with delight as she saw them and muffled something before cramming the bar into her mouth.
Lex raised an eyebrow and reminded her, “What do you say?”
She turned angry, hurt eyes upon him.
“She did say thank-you”, Chloe informed him gently, “she never forgets to say please and thank-you. That would be rude and a horrendous thing. She can’t believe that some children have to even be prompted, she was quite shocked when she first heard of it”, Lilly’s head nodded, “you just didn’t hear her”.
“Oh, I’m very sorry Lilly, I should have known that you wouldn’t forget something like that”, Lex said stroking her head but found that she was now hiding in her mother’s side, sucking on her straw of her juice box as if her life depended on it.
Chloe tried to shoot him an encouraging smile. It could be hard when Lilly didn’t get sugar immediately upon release from school, Chloe blamed herself. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to become distracted by their conversation and the change in routine. It was her fault. Her baby hadn’t eaten since lunch (almost four hours ago); she was bound to get upset more easily. She squeezed her baby and stroked her arm until the contents of the first juice was gone and she handed her the second one – luckily Chloe always watered them down (3:1 juice to water).
After a few more sucks, Lilly was considerably calmer and offered her mother the straw.
“That’s okay sweetie”, Chloe declined graciously.
Lilly didn’t bother to offer it to Daddy - as he was being so mean and unreasonable - before popping it back into her mouth and sucking gently.
“You know”, Chloe started gently, “I’ve always felt very dumb”.
The little cherub blinked up at her in angelic surprise.
“Not really understanding algebra always made he feel like a failure and I fear that it is something that is just never going to get any better”, she sighed, “And now, I’m too old to learn”.
Lilly shook her head angrily and turned to her father and poked him in the arm.
“Am I to take that to mean that I am going to teach both of you algebra?”
Lilly nodded. Of course she wasn’t going to leave her Mommy alone at a time like that, she reached over and grabbed Teddy as well and seated him on her lap so that he could learn too. It was time that he stopped being a lazy teddy bear, woke up and leant some algebra.
Half an hour later – Lex decided to let her off the last thirty minutes as he was fairly certain that she had no idea whether it had been an hour or not – they stopped.
“Well that was easy, wasn’t it?”
“Yes”, Lilly agreed, her straw having been removed from her mouth the first time she had felt the need to shout out an answer – she wasn’t in school after all, no need to be too quiet.
“I think that I got it this time”, Chloe agreed.
“What does Teddy think?” Lex wondered, from where he now had his arm around both of his girls.
Lilly held him up to hear ear and listened before announcing, “Easy peasey limey squeezey”.
“Limey squeezey?”
“We prefer limes to lemons”.
“Well, now I know that it all makes sense”, Lex smiled as he stored his laptop away. They still had a little way to go to the hotel and he didn’t want her to get fractious though so he tried to think of a new conversation in which to interest her. He was about to ask her about her day – although not sure if he would get told off as she had already obviously told Chloe about it outside and seemed to feel that telling one parent something was enough and that the other should just have magically known it as if there existed a magical invisible line between their ears.
He was saved, however, by Lilly looking around as if realising something for the first time. “Where’s Granddad?”
“He is staying at home, catching up on his sleep after that game of twister someone made him play yesterday”, Lex explained, punctuating the end of his statement with a conspiratorial nudge.
“I didn’t make him”, Lilly protested. She never made anyone do anything, she just used her look on them and they chose to do as she wished.
“Sure you didn’t”, Lex teased, dropping a kiss on her head and noticing that she was suddenly silent. “What’s the matter?”
She twisted her hands together and examined her feet, which were sticking out in front of her.
“You do like Granddad, don’t you?” She turned to him.
“Of course I do. He is just a little tired and I thought that it would be nice for us three to spend some time together, that’s all”, he was privately trying to calculate how soon he could have Gabe on the scene if necessary.
“You love all of your teddies, don’t you?” Chloe interjected, “And they all know that but they are not all coming today because you don’t really need them and because they need to catch up on their sleep as well”.
Lilly nodded at the truth of this statement, but explained, “Because someone at school said that their Daddy and Granddad don’t like each other and”, she looked like she might actually cry at any second.
Lex wasn’t sure exactly who she was talking about but nipped it in the bud. “That is not the case with us. I like Granddaddy Gabe. He and I have known each other for years, I even knew him before I met Mommy”.
“Really?”
“Yes, really”, he said with a laugh.
Seeing that is was distracting her, he smiled over at Chloe who was nodding at him encouragingly.
“And I wouldn’t worry about that other boy. Is he a bit silly?” From what he knew about boys of that age, they usually were.
“Yes, he is!”
“I thought that he might have been”, he tried to hide his smile. “Well then, he probably just misunderstood. Sometimes Daddy’s are overprotective so it seems like they don’t get along when really they do.”
She seemed to be thinking this over for a moment before going back to her original line of questioning. “You really knew Granddad before Mommy?” It just seemed like a very strange notion to her.
“Yes, I knew both Granddads before Mommy”.
“Of course you did”, she rolled her eyes expressively at him, “one of them is your Daddy”.
Chloe sniggered and Lex shot her a warning look.
“Yes, very clever”, he stroked his angels head. It was a silly subject but it had stopped her being upset.
“How come you met Granddad?
“Well, I was born and …”
“No, silly Daddy. Mommy’s Daddy Granddad not your Daddy Granddad”.
“That’s a lot of Daddies”.
“Daddy!”
“Okay, okay”.
~*~
Lex’s silver Porsche sailed through field upon field of corn, to some people the life blood of the state and a thing of beauty, to him just another reminder that he had been exiled to this hick town as punishment for his past. He pressed his foot down even harder on the accelerator, not caring if he met his death.
It wasn’t as if he had done anything that bad, just neglected his school work, partied a little too much, had a few too many women. Hardly anything. Certainly nothing that everyone else his age – with his money – wasn’t doing.
The car sped along even faster.
It wasn’t fair that he was being sentenced to live (or rather, exist) in a town which had nothing in it. He was already bored out of his skull and he hadn’t even got out of his car yet. He saw the factory in the distance, an ugly silver building with absolutely nothing to recommend it. No style, no grace. It was just big and silver, almost grey. It was with no great feeling of enthusiasm that he skidded to a halt outside it. He missed crashing into the wall by only a few millimetres but he wasn’t sure that that was a positive thing.
The smell assaulted his nostrils as soon as he left his Porsche and he sneered, “Welcome to Smallville”.
He stalked through the factory, not bothering with security. Most people recognised his distinctive bald head and scurried out of his way, he didn’t pay attention to them. Some of them whispering something about finding Gabe.
Lex wondered who Gabe was.
He was just coming up to the end of his wanderings when he heard someone say, “And watch out for Daddy’s precious little boy. Lord of the manor was supposed to arrive at nine and it’s eleven now so expect to see him in a couple of hours, probably coming to shut the place down because he lost a bet or something”.
He almost burst out laughing. The man had balls.
The man he was talking to coughed, upon seeing Lex.
The auburn hair man turned about and although he looked shocked, he clearly wasn’t scared and recovered quickly. “Mr Luthor”.
“Please call me Lex”.
~*~
“Ohhhhhhh”, Lilly gasped, “You were really naughty before you went to Smallville?” Lex had of course told her that he had refused to tidy his room and eat his broccoli in his retelling of the story.
“I had my moments”, he admitted it, before tweeting her chin and informing her, “That is where you get it from”.
“I’m not naughty”, Lilly protested.
“Neither was Daddy, just misunderstood”, Chloe assured them both.
That seemed to satisfy Lilly, who continued, “So, you met Mommy through Granddad? Did you go to tea?”
“No, not exactly …”
~*~
Lex stood in front of a wall of pictures, article clippings, and what looked like a police report in one case, trrying to wrap his mind around it. He had come to the small town less than a month ago and had been desperately searching for some way to mend the reputation of his plan and it had been right under his nose (or on top of his head as it were) the whole time. It was all because of the Meteor shower.
Who would have thought that trying to be friendly and attempting to pay a visit to his plant manager’s daughter while at her school would have yielded such results. He continued to read headline aafter headline, marvelling at her genious until he heard someone come in. The footsteps were too heavy to be a womans so he didn’t bother to turn around.
It turned out to be Clark, who after some initial questions about why he was there, chose to enlighten him as to the mystery that was Chloe Sullivan. Lex was about ready to go and hunt the intrepid reporter down when he heard another person entering the room, a woman this time, and knew from the accent that this must be Chloe Sullivan.
“Mr Luthor”.
He turned and a smile broke out across his face. Gabe had talked about his daughter. A lot. He had shown pictures and examples of every single article that she had written and Lex had been impressed by her ability and talent. He had known logically that she was fourteen and exceptionally smart but the way that Gabe always talked about his “little girl”, “baby” and “Chloe bear”, Lex had expected her to be well small.
Instead he came face to face with an eclectically attired, young woman with a bright smile and even brighter eyes, not to mention short blonde hair. That picture of her on Gabe’s desk must have been years old.
“It’s Lex”, he informed her as he strode over to her. He held his hand out to her and she took it immediately with a firm grip. He was even more impressed. “Clark was just telling me your meteor theory, I like it”.
“Thanks”, she looked over at Clark, seeming surprised.
“Espeically since most people think that my company is secretly behind everything that goes wrong in Smallville”, the first time he had refered to it as his company.
“That’s the reigning theory”. She continued to smile up at him.
“Are you the only one who blames the meteors, instead fo me?”
She seemed to concidre this for a moment. “Pretty much”, her brow furrowed, “Well, there is Mr Hamilton”, she turned to Clark and Lex’s interest started to wander.
~*~
“So you all got along …” Lilly summed up.
“Sure”.
“Snd you and Mommy got married.
“Not right then”.
“Boyfriend and girlfifriend?”
“No, sweetheart. Not forquite a long time.
“Oh”.
“Wasn’t it weird being Mommy and Daddy and not being together?”
“Well, no, not exactly because we didn’t know each other that well then. It was far stranger when we di dget together and had to tell Gabe, I mean Granddad”, Lex corrected himself.
“Why?”
“Well, Daddies have a tendency to see their daughters as little girls, even when they are fully grown” He saw the look on her face, “But he was happy for us … sort of”.
~*~
“Daddy, I have something to tell you”, Chloe said, her hands twisting in her jammies as she sat at the breakfast bar. Her date with Lex had been amazing, beyond amazing and she needed to tell her father about this important development in her life – without details of course.
“What is it sweetheart?” Gabe inquired as she finished flipping the pancakes and plating them up. He had thought that he would prepare something special as it was his little girl’s second day at home. He settled himself on a stool and tried not to panic, she couldn’t have got in trouble already, could she? What was he thinking, of course she could have. It only took her five minutes.
Chloe had thought over a thousand possible ways to tell her father, to let him know as gently as possible without it come out as “I’m dating your boss”.
“What?”
She swallowed. Realising that she had said that out loud.
“Please tell me that you mean Lex, not Lionel”.
“Of course Lex”.
“Oh, thank God for that”.
“Dad, how could you think …?”
“Well, I don’t know you made such a big production about telling me”
“I thought that you would be shocked and I was trying to break it to you gently”.
He snorted.
“I didn’t mean to come out and just tell you”, she explained.
“Yes, I had gathered that much”, he took a glug of coffee, trying to restore his equanimity. “But it’s just Lex that you are dating?”
“Well the terms girlfriend and boyfriend were discussed”, she informed him blushing.
“I should bloody well hope so”, he
“And what do you mean just Lex?”
“I have been expecting you to get together for at least a year”, Gabe explained prosaically. “I can’t say that I am thrilled about it but …
“Hang on a second. A year?” She hadn’t even known for a year.
“Yes, ever since he gave me my job back and was so concerned about your eating habits. Then you started mentioning him all of the time so …”
“I do not mention him all of the time”.
“At least twice a telephone conversation”, Gabe said. He noticed these kinds of things. In fact, only a few months ago he had had a conversation with Lex about not interfering with her school work.
“it’s not that often”, Chloe said, blushing.
“Sure it isn’t. So, when do I get to meet him?”
“Meet him? Dad, you knew him years before I did”.
“Yes, but not as his perspective father-in-law”.
“Dad, you’re not his perspective father-in-law, we are not that serious we are not …”
“When Chloe? This lunchtime or this dinner time?”
With a sigh of dread Chloe got her phone out and called Lex.
“Luthor”, Lex answered without even looking at who was calling, as he sat at his desk in the office of his Smallville home.
“Hi Lex, it’s me”, Chloe started, the butterflies swarming in her stomach.
“Oh hello”, he immediately brightened. “Why do you sound so nervous? Is something wrong or did you just tell Gabe?”
“Yeah, I just told Dad”.
“Let me guess, he wants to meet me?”
Gabe, able to hear both parts of the conversation, chimed in. “Yes, as soon as possible”.
Lex checked his watch, “I have a conference call at 10, but I can come by now if you want?”
“Perfect”.
“No, I’m not dressed yet”.
“Lex”, Gabe took the phone from his baby, “that will be just fine thank-you, see you then”. And with that he hung up and returned the phone to his daughter. “Don’t worry sweetheart, it is always better to get these things out of the way as soon as possible”.
“Better for whom?” Chloe wondered as she calculated how long it would take Lex to get there verses shower and changing time.
“You don’t have anywhere near enough time … not the way that Lex drives at least. Besides your pancakes will get cold”.
Gabe had finished his and got up to make a second stack so that there would be plenty for Lex when he arrived, which happened a mere five minutes later.
Chloe wanted to go to the door but Gabe beat her to it.
“Good morning Gabe”, Lex said presently as he took in the head of the Sullivan household’s pyjamas.
“Mr Sullivan if you don’t mind Lex”, Gabe corrected him, he was his daughter’s boyfriend after all, a bit of respect was called for.
“Mr Sullivan”, Lex corrected himself with only a hint of a smile.
Gabe nodded, “Well, as I’ve worked with you for years so we can dispense with the ID and the threats that you will end up at the bottom of a pile of manure if you hurt her, because we both know that I’ll do it”.
Lex didn’t doubt it for a second. He had especially enjoyed that threat when given to the whole of Chloe’s class on their field trip.
“Where did you got to school and what grades did you get?” He already knew most of that from passing but it never hurt to check.
“I went to Excelsior academy in Metropolis and got top marks in everything. I also went to MetU were I fell in with a bad crowd, did drugs but I did get full marks on the end of year exams. I never finished my degree but I only lack the thesis and have been working to complete it and writing an MA and PhD in my spare time in the last few years”.
Gabe resisted the urge to snort at the idea of Lex having any free time but was pleased to hear that he had been honest and that he was doing something about it. And there was no doubting that he was smart so at least his grandkids wouldn’t be idiots and he already knew that he was the only man who could keep up with his Chloe Bear.
“Current occupation and pay grade”, he continued through the list of questions that anyone hoping to take his daughter out must answer.
Lex did smile at that. “Head of Lex Corp and for that I get about 10 million per year, then another 50 million from my investments. The latter could never go lower than about 10 million even in an economic crash. It would be a blow, I’ll admit, but I imagine that Chloe could help me economise to meet it”.
“Probably. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?”
“Dad”, Chloe’s voice came complaining from the kitchen, “haven’t you grilled him enough yet?”
“No, eat your pancakes”, Gabe called back. “Where was I?”
“Five years’ time”, Lex reminded him and then proceeded to answer, “I see myself still working at LexCorp and expanding the business and continuing to campaign for state senator”.
“And in ten years?”
“Hopefully by then I will be a senator and planning my move to the White House”.
“You don’t want much, do you?” He snorted. Then he looked uncomfortable as he thought of what he knew he had to ask next, he really didn’t want to.
“You are wondering how to ask me about my family when you know that I lost my mother and brother and that my father and I don’t get along with my father?” Lex guessed.
“Don’t forget your criminal grandparents who Lionel killed”, Chloe called from the kitchen, hating being left out but deciding that as there was no way that she could clean herself up before he saw her she might as well eat her pancakes whilst they were still hot.
“Thank-you Chloe”, Lex called back. “Don’t worry about it G… Mr Sullivan, I would ask the same questions myself. My father comes from Suicide Slums and after killing his parents managed to start a business which I took from him – more or less. My mother was a socialite from a good family but I think that they are all dead now”.
“I’m sorry”.
“Don’t be”, Lex shrugged. He had always wondered if his mother would have made the choices she had had she had a family to support her rather than just an aunt who from all that he could tell had as good as sold her when Lionel’s offer had come along.
“Religion and politics, then”, Gabe continued. He was fairly sure that Lex was Christian and a little right wing.
“I’m Protestant but I’m the first to admit that I don’t go to church as often as I should”, he didn’t add, didn’t do as he should half of the time either, “as for politics. I’m a Luthor. I’m on whichever side aids me”.
“Me too”, he was technically left wing but if the Republicans ever did something good, ha big if, he would vote for them. Probably. “So, we come down to it. What are your intentions towards my daughter?”
“Would Chloe like to come out for this or just listen in from around the corner?” Lex inquired politely, but ensuring that his voice would travel.
Chloe appeared, grinning sheepishly. She hadn’t been listening in, she had just been eating her breakfast when they had started talking. She couldn’t help overhearing, her ears were excellent. Better than Clarks’ when there was information around.
“I intend to date your daughter and do my very best to make her happy, for as long as she will have me …”
“Smooth little git, aren’t you”, Gabe snorted, but felt that he had done his duty, “So, have you had your breakfast yet?”
“Does black coffee count?”
“No, it bloody well does not”, honestly he didn’t know what the youth of the day was coming to. “Would you like some pancakes?”
“Yes thank-you Mr Sullivan”, Lex accepted as he stepped into the house and saw Chloe and her pyjamas. She was cute in her brightly coloured shorts and tank top and sticky out hair. He could get very used to a sight like that.
“Mr Sullivan?” Gabe snorted, “What kind of kiss up are you?”
Lex started at Chloe as Gabe went into the kitchen to make some more pancakes. You heard him say earlier … didn’t you?”
“Yes sweetie I know, let’s go get you some pancakes”, she patted him on the arm.
~*~
Thankfully they arrived at the hotel before Lilly could ask any more questions and she was awed into silence. The little girl was used to the very best that life could possibly offer but even by her standards this was opulent. The hotel was designed to look like an old Italian villa but set in lush gardens.
She continued to be awed until they got her into bed ready for the following morning and Lex and Chloe could finally occupy themselves in other ways.
A/N: So, how is everyone?
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