Found (PG-13)

[S.Ann Smith]

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my computer, and possibly my brain... no wait... that was infested with rabbits with machine guns... uh... so yeah.. own nothing.. what you thought i did? Poor child. you need to take a nap.
Rating: PG 13 - ?
Genre: Angst/General ?? (feel free to move it if it doesn't fit)
Spoilers: COVENANT If u haven't seen it, don't read this!!!

Found
by S. Ann Smith
1. The third glass of scotch

Lex wanted to get drunk, although, given his record, he really should give up his scotch habit. Today he'd make an exception. He was in Gotham City, visiting his old school buddy Bruce, and really really needed to get that artificial courage in his system, he decided as he walked into one of his old haunts. The owner was an old friend of his, and he and Bruce used to get drunk here when they were under age. 'It's amazing what you can buy in a big city.'

It was now September, the autumn leaves had began to turn just yesterday, and his father had died of his condition in prison three weeks ago Lex was told. He was now safe to drink all the scotch he wanted. And oh did he want it.

It was now September. Chloe had been gone, because he didn't want to think of her as - as anything other than gone, for four excruciating months. There was very little hope that she had survived the blast that killed her father, and Lex's most trusted friend, other than Chloe. If she had even thought he considered her a friend. He downed the first glorious taste of scotch as he tried to drown out the thoughts he was having.

"Bartender, can I have another drink please?" he asked the petite brunette behind the counter. Not looking up, she poured him a drink, and continued to serve another customer.

After the third scotch, Lex could have sworn he knew her from somewhere. "Excuse me, bartender?"

"Yes, Mr. Luthor?" She asked with a smile That was it. Those three words sent a shiver through his spine. Mr. Luthor. Mr. Luthor. Her enunciation was identical. And those eyes. That 100 watt smile. He knew her.

"Chloe?" He ventured. Her smile faded, and she quickly looked down.

"You must be really drunk Mr. Luthor. My name is Linnea Lennox." She gracefully swept her index finger across her name tag. Looking deeply into his eyes, she said one word. "See." Choked tears hung thickly in her throat, and he could tell.

"Miss Lennox, may I speak with you after your shift?" Lex asked, inwardly smirking at her initials. 'L.L., She's 'raven-haired with the initials L.L.' I thought you covered your tracks better than that Chloe.'

"I'm sorry Mr. Luthor, but I don't go out with drunken bald guys." She looked at him, her hazel eyes were dancing with humour.

Lex smirked. "Fair enough, Miss Lennox. You decide when you would like to talk about your name tag." He said as he handed her a business card, and quickly took himself out of the bar. He couldn't look at her and pretend that she was somebody else. She would always be Chloe. His Chloe. Hair colour and a new identity couldn't change that.

[S.Ann Smith]

2. Jane Doe

She didn't expect to see him. It was Gotham City, not Metropolis. She was unsafe in Kansas, so she came here. She was lost, and met Bruce. He had connections. She hoped that he could protect her in the way that Lex couldn't.

It was September. Four months almost to the day of her father's funeral. Three months and a week since her first birthday after her Daddy had passed.

He was her idol when she was growing up. Next to Miss Piggy, April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and of course, the local newscaster. She smiled, softly, fondly remembering the way her dad would laugh when she told him that she wanted to watch the news, no matter how gruesome the story was.

She missed him. More than she'd ever admit, and more than she could ever describe. He had been her life. Once, she would rush home after working long hours at the Torch, to make him supper and tell him that he was overworking himself and that supper was her responsibility. Now, she couldn't bear returning home and not having his smiling tired face looking up at her from his favourite chair. She was not returning to the place she had called home for five years. Not returning to Smallville. It held too many memories for her, seeing their home would make her cry. Seeing the plant would make her cry. There was only one place that she wouldn't be able to cry at: the Torch. Her dad had never been inside it, and therefore it held no memories of him.

She was living her happily oblivious life as Linnea Lennox for a month, she was just out of the hospital in, wherever it was the FBI took her. When they finally let her out, she was Jane Doe. They had no idea what her name was and called her Jane. Chloe was gone, she remembered, taking a deep breath. Lex had made her forget who she was now, and remember who she was then.

Lex. When she had seen him, she tried not to get him to look at her. He looked like shit. He looked like somebody had ran him through the dry cycle of a really big clothes dryer and left him in. His clothes were wrinkled, he had bags under his eyes, and even worse, he was drinking scotch again. His father must have really gotten to him.

She kept newspaper articles in a black binder. Ones of Lex's poisoning, Clark's first Daily Planet article, and obituaries of people she once knew. Chloe and Gabe Sullivan. Whenever she felt like Chloe was coming back, she re--read them, had a cry, and went to bed Linnea Lennox again. She did this every night, and she hated it.

She hated all of it. The brown hair. The new name. Knowing she'd never see her dad again, and looking at the scars from the explosion. They were tattoos, memories of what she didn't want too remember. What had taken her life away from her.

The explosion. The thought hung in the air like a thick fog. It whispered into her ears when she was trying to sleep. The sounds and smells will haunt her to her death. The sound of a scream choked in her throat. The smell of burning flesh.

The bright white lights of the emergency room, the smell of bleach following her down the hallway. They now follow her everywhere. It follows her down the isle of the grocery store when she buys her coffee. Extra dark roast. She could really use some of that coffee right about now.

She lay down on her hardwood floor. All the apartments in the building had oak floors, but nobody seemed to notice. She curled up into a little ball and thought about the life she used to have. The life she now wished was still in tact. She would wake up and it would all be back to normal. She was going to find a new meteor freak to investigate, everything would be back to normal.

No. She was Linnea Lennox now. Not Jane Doe, and definitely not Chloe Sullivan. She wished that she was Jane Doe again. Everything is so much simpler when you're on Morphine and Demerol.

[hfce]

Oh wow this was good. More please....


Hope

[autumngold]

Such a heartbreaking beginning!! :crygreen: I'm so glad that Lex knows Chloe is alive now though, maybe he'll be able to get his life back together now and help Chloe at the same time!! Please post again soon!! :chlexsign4:

[buddyfozzy]

This is a great beginning, I can't wait for more! :chlexsign2:

[AlabamaWorley]

I like it!

[asharnanae]

MORE!!!! Love it already!

[ColumbiaBlue]

Everything is so much simpler when you're on Morphine and Demerol.

Ain't that the truth. LOL Loved the beginning of this. Loved how Lex saw right through Chloe's new disguise. More soon!

~Manda :

[Mystykitty]

oh.

I love this. I love any fic where Chloe reinvents herself, I love Bruce helping, I love Lex looking like shit. I love everything.

More soon please

Cat

[S.Ann Smith]

3. It's all your fault

She toyed with the business card in her left hand.

'Why am I even here?' She wondered. But she knew. She wanted to be in a place where Chloe could come back even for a minute. Then she would be happy.

Happy. She smirked. Now it was very rare for her to think of herself as happy. She secretly hoped that Lex could change that, without drugging her up.

She found herself standing outside his office. Not the one she was used to. it was the LuthorCorp rep office in Gotham, and in comparison, it was small. Very small, and therefore very unLuthor-like.

She gave the secretary a name, any name. She wasn't even sure who she was anymore, that was part of the reason that she was here. To set Lex, and even herself straight, who she was and who she is are different, she repeated to herself.

A little voice piped up in her head. "They're only as different as you want them to be" Then she recognized it. It was her father's voice.

"Miss, Mr. Luthor will see you now."

"Thank you." She said numbly, and walked into the office.

"Welcome in Miss... Lennox." He said her name as if it was a foreign word from another planet.

"Hello Mr. Luthor." She said softly. She tried to keep her voice from shaking, her hands were doing all of that on their own. She tried to look calm, cool and collected because she wasn't feeling that way on the inside.


Lex studied the girl in front of him. The head that once held itself high, showing the world it's beauty, now hung itself low hiding very small and hardly there scars. They were all internal. Lex knew. He felt that way a lot. When ever he was brought back to realization that Chloe was gone - but she was here. She was just changed. He missed the old Chloe.

"Chloe," he said softly. after closing the door behind them. The walls were sound proofed. All the walls he installed in his rep office in Gotham were. He didn't want Bruce knowing what he did. Having what he had. Lex never did.

"I told you, I'm not her anymore." She said softly.

"It's alright, nobody can hear you in here." He said moving toward her again. She jumped back. "Chloe, please. I'm not going to hurt you."

"But he - Lionel - he can." She said tears coming to her eyes.

"He's dead Chloe." Lex said softly. He watched tears spring up into her eyes.

"How can you be sure?" She glared at him. What had happened to the once trusting blonde teenager, who had ambitions? Hopes. Then Lex remembered. She blew up in an explosion. All that was left was a broken girl, with brown hair, and a new identity. She had lost her ambition when she lost her father, she had just given up.

"I seen him Chloe. It's over. It's alright now." Lex watched her collapse in exhaustion on the floor.

"It's never going to be over." She said softly. "He haunts me Lex. Follows me everywhere. I want to believe what you say is true, but I can't. He is everywhere." Tears were held in her throat. The tears broke through the invisible barrier that held them back for so long. She was losing it. It was bad.

Everything was messed up. It was all Lex's fault. No. It was all Lionel's fault. He just wasn't here to be blamed.