Forced Alliances
By, Angie
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!
Chapter One
A/N: Chloe’s mom is not in a coma and never was in one. She is very close to Chloe and is protective of her. Instead of Lana thinking she was pregnant with Lex’s child, she is actually pregnant with Clark’s! Chloe can’t stand Lex – she has bad memories of when they were kids (yep, they knew each other as kids). Lex had been popular and had put Chloe down because she was a nerd with bad acne and she wore glasses. Every time she sees him all she remembers is him laughing at her and treating her like crap. She wants nothing to do with him, but is forced by circumstances to spend the holidays with him.
A/N#2: This was originally written for Lexie's site, but I wanted to share it here as well... Happy Holidays!
Chapter One – Deck the Halls
Nothing was simple when it came to the life of Chloe Sullivan. For 30 years, all she had were painful memories of being a nerdy girl who wore clothes that were outdated, glasses that were enormous, and acne that showed up every time she looked in a mirror. Of course this was when she was a teenager and now she was a full time reporter who solved cases and wrote about them in her newspaper, however back then she was full of pain and resentment, particularly because of Lex Luthor. He was one of the popular guys in school who had hurt her the most by treating her like crap. Chloe had faced all of the ridicule, the loneliness of sitting at home in her room or watching TV along with others that were never called or treated fairly. She was the loner, the girl who was seen as ugly, not good enough or pretty enough to date. So in that realm of misery, Chloe’s mom, Moira had become her best friend. To this day, she was still her best friend and she had been the one who had supported her when she went to college to become a journalist for the paper.
When Chloe’s family moved to Smallville in high school, she had met Clark Kent and they had become good friends, despite the fact that he was madly in love with Lana Lang. Once again, Chloe became the nerdy friend again, the girl who watched as a guy she loved grew interested in and dated someone else. What hurt the most from Clark was his indecision. He pretended to be interested in her for awhile and Chloe being gullible and stupid smiled and felt he had made her whole day by showing that interest. Yeah that had been a great few seconds of her life, only to have them destroyed when superhero Clark had gone after Lana, his precious commodity. Chloe lost and immediately went into a depression that lasted two years, equaling many nights of sitting on the couch eating and watching TV. She’d gained quite a bit of weight and had the horrid pictures as snapshots of those miserable days.
Since high school and later college, Chloe had gotten older, become a reporter, and was semi happy in her life. Those days in her past were chapters she refused to let herself think about much, they were also the reason she never did an autobiography, nor let anyone ask her about her childhood. Her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Olsen, also another reporter at The Planet was a nice guy that she had met in college and dated for a number of years. He was okay, but not the right guy for her – if there was a right guy and at this point she really and truly wondered if there was a right guy for her, but all Jimmy was was a good friend. She broke it off last weekend and was very thankful that he too saw them as good friends and wanted to continue their friendship. Living full time in Metropolis now, Chloe rarely saw Clark and she never saw Lex. Lex she heard lived in Smallville, but as far as she was concerned it didn’t matter. He was a 32 year old pompous jerk who lived in a fancy dancy millionaire style mansion like a royal King who had servants – literally she might add – to wait on him as he treated himself to another drink or whatever he liked to do. Chloe wouldn’t know what he liked to do, despite the fact that she did research and had read articles, she refused to accept that she gave a damn. Closing up shop, she went home for the day.
Her cell phone rang as she walked behind The Planet’s parking lot. Answering it she saw it was her mom. Smiling, Chloe said, “Hi, mom. What’s up?”
Moira said with much worry in her voice, “It’s awful, Chloe!”
Chloe worried herself now as she said, “What is? Mom, what happened?”
Moira put her hand on her forehead and said, “It’s Lionel Luthor…he’s come back to Smallville.”
Chloe rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah…so what?”
Moira said firmer, “Chloe he’s taken over Lexcorp, stolen back the mansion and disinherited Lex from everything. He has nothing, Chloe. Nothing.”
Chloe forced herself not to think about that fourteen-year-old boy who put her down years ago and instead said, “I’m sorry that Lex has been ousted mom, but I’m sure he will make it. He’s smart and he knows how to get back at his dad…I know I’ve done research. I know about what he did when he moved to Smallville, how he took his dad’s company from him.”
Moira took a deep breath and said, “Well his dad decided to get even. Martha Kent told me about it and at first I remembered what he did to you and I wasn’t very nice in what I said to her, but when she told me he was living in her barn, I decided to be a little more considerate. Martha is having a Christmas dinner, Chloe and she’s invited us, but that means that you will be spending the holidays with Lex.”
Chloe felt her head ache and said, “Mother you have to be kidding. I don’t have anything good to say to him! How am I supposed to spend holidays around him?”
Moira shook her head and plopped on her couch saying, “You treat him like you would anyone who has been kicked out of their home and disinherited from everything. I’m sorry, Chloe, I know this has got to be a hard thing to do, but my suggestion is that you chuck it up to being the past Chloe. Think about Scrooge. All those years he treated people badly, but his family and friends forgave him when he changed…(shrugging she added) so can we.”
Rolling her eyes upward, Chloe said with a smile, “Scrooge was a fictional guy, mom, not real.”
Moira said, “Maybe not, Chloe. Maybe this year, he’s Lex Luthor and we’re people who have the chance to forgive him. I think we should try.”
Chloe let out a deep breath and said, “I hope I can, mom…I hope I can.”
Christmas was two weeks from now and she was leaving from work on Wednesday. Great. Another holiday spent in Smallville…deck the halls!
TBC…
Forced Alliances
By, Angie
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!
Chapter Two – New Arrangements
A/N: I’m having this story play on the idea of Lex and Lana being ex boyfriend and girlfriend, instead of ex’s through marriage.
Lex could hear the Christmas music playing in the house from the barn. He smiled, enjoying the songs and how festive they were, despite his current situation. He was staying at the Kent’s and had been since his dad kicked him out, disinheriting him from everything. He was bitter over that, but worst of all was watching as Clark his ex-best friend dated Lana Lang, his ex-girlfriend. Some holiday season, Lex thought to himself as he made his bed in the barn and walked out through snow and ice toward the farm. His head downward, feeling lower in spirit than he’d ever felt in his life, feeling orphaned and literally ousted from his own family, Lex trudged toward the steps. Martha came outside originally planning on inviting Lex inside early, and when she saw him, she felt piteous for him. Putting on a Christmas smile, she encouraged Lex up the steps saying, “Lex, I’m glad you made it to the steps. I kind of figured Clark would have salted the walk for you, but I guess he must have forgotten.” Clark stepped outside into the frigid cold and leveling his blue eyes on Lex’s he said evenly, “Oh did you have to walk in the snow and ice, Lex? I’m sorry…I feel just awful that you had to suffer such a terrible thing as that. It has to be damned awful to walk around in wintry conditions without a butler or hired maid to salt your paths for you. Here on the farm, we salt our own paths and walk on our own, if you get the drift.”
Lex glared at Clark and said, “I get it just fine, Clark, thanks.”
Shocked beyond belief, Martha said to Lex, “I’m sorry, Lex. Clark has no right to be so cold-hearted. From now on I’ll…”
Clark stopped his mother saying, “Lex wouldn’t let you do that, would you Lex?” Clark’s eyes were ice cold just like the weather.
Lex smiled at Martha and said, “No, Martha, I wouldn’t expect you to salt the ground for me or shovel snow outside the barn. You have enough to do around the farm. Since Clark is too busy with whatever he’s doing I’ll be more than happy to help out and take care of that for you, along with shoveling the snow by the car. Thank you for being so thoughtful as to think of me.”
Lex kissed Martha on the cheek and walked inside the house.
Martha turned to Clark and said with heat in her voice, “You had better start being civil to him, Clark or you will find yourself living in the barn and Lex in your bedroom!”
Clark hated the fact that Lex was here and didn’t want to be neighborly, despite it being the Christmas Season. He wanted Lex to leave. He’d be glad when the holidays were over…
While Lana freaked out with an EPT test in her hand, Chloe parked her car in her mom and dad’s driveway. She was home for the holidays, like it or not. Run Run Rudolph was playing on her stereo. She had to let it finish before turning the car officially off. Chloe loved Christmas! She enjoyed the songs of Christmas and normally decorating, spending time with family and hanging out with friends. Somehow she was going to have to come to terms with spending them with Lex Luthor. Right then she had no idea how on earth she was going to do that. Buttoning her white jacket, Chloe grabbed her red purse and put it on her right shoulder. She grabbed her purple dufflebag and walked across a semi snowy driveway, past her mother’s green jeep. It was Christmastime and Chloe was looking forward to a few weeks with mom and dad. Just as she thought this, her mom opened the front door and walked out, a pair of blue jeans and a Santa sweatshirt on, her hair prettily pulled back in a scrunchy. She looked beautiful, Chloe thought. Dad walked back across the street with Max, their beagle dog on a leash. Loving Max since she was a little girl, Chloe ran over to him and said, “Maxer!” Putting her arms around him, on her knees in the snow, Chloe hugged him affectionately, then stood and said, “Dad!” Hugging her dad, Chloe cried and walked inside with her Dad’s strong brave arm around her waist.
Mom had fixed a pot roast, had Christmas Chipmunk music on the stereo. The candles were out and lit, the presents wrapped prettily underneath the elaborate tree in the living room. Mom had A Charlie Brown Christmas’s DVD on the table in front of the TV along with A Christmas Carol. She’d been enjoying the seasonal movies before Chloe got there. Chloe hugged her mom and together they took her dufflebag into her bedroom and began to talk about what was going on at the paper, things going on in the big city of Metropolis, what had been going on in Smallville. Chloe sat with her mom and dad at their round mahogany table dressed in her Rudolph sweats and matching socks. Smiling and visiting with them, forcing herself not to think about Lex, Chloe enjoyed a nice dinner while David Seville and The Chipmunks sang their classic songs…
TBC…
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