If Only It Were True (Rated PG)

[hannagreen20]

Hi all! The story is completely written out. I just need to type it all out. I'll post as many updates as I can. Just so you know, this is based on the book, not the movie. I haven't seen it yet. I don't know how different it is from the movie.

Thanks so much for the kind reviews. A lot of this is due to Marc Levy the author. He is SUCH an awesome writer!!

Chapter Eight: Part I-Research
Back at home, Lex sat down at his desk in his home office. He turned on his laptop and logged on to the internet. Their first step was to link up to the Memorial Hospital's web page, where they selected the article with the heading, "Neuropathology and Cerebral Traumatology".

Lex ordered pizza and two beers and announced that there was nothing left to do but read. They spent two days and two nights trying to understand and come up with a key to the enigma confronting them. They concluded that, in spite of the advances of modern medicine, coma remained a mystery, a dark zone in which the body lived divorced from the mind that animated and gave it soul.

Chloe broached the subject by saying, "I think it may be time for you to go back to your real life. You're lucky to have one, and I of all people, know you should live life to the fullest. You can't just drop everything like this. I can visit you after work."

"Don't get dramatic on me,Chloe. I'm simply taking a few days off, doing something I want to do."

"Your embarking on a dangerous and ultimately pointless course."

Angrily, Lex said, "Don't say that!"

"You shouldn't get attached to me, I have nothing to offer you, nothing to share, nothing to give!"

"I'm not doing this only for you, Chloe. I'm doing it for me too. I didn't ask to find you in my closet, bu there you were! I'm the only one who can help you and it's the right thing to do. No one but me can see, hear or talk to you. I can't abandon you now."

"You should have been a lawyer," Chloe said shaking her head.

"I should have been a doctor."

"Why didn't you become one?"

"Because my mom died to early."

"How old were you?"

"Much too young," he said quietly. "Let's drop the subject, okay?"

Part II-Lovesick

"Have you loved many women?" Chloe asked them as they sat on the couch.

"Who counts when your in love!"

"And have there been many who 'counted'?"

Lex told her he had three lovers: one as a teenager, one as a young man, and one as a "not so young man". That struck her as a fair answer, but she wanted to know why it didn't work with Helen. He thought it was because he was too complete. She thought he meant too possessive.

"No, I mean complete. My mother filled me with stories about ideal love...Having such ideals is a heaven burden, at times."

"Why?"

"I set my standards much too hight."

"For your women?"

"For myself." He refused to elaborate.

"So Helen left you?"

Lex didn't reply.

"And you haven't quite healed?"

"Oh, I've healed all right; perhaps the problem was I was never sick. What about you? Have you ever been in love."

"You want to know if I loved anyone? No. Well, yes and no."

"Who was he?"

"He still is:twenty-two, journalist and former farmboy, good-looking, a bit selfish, the ideal guy..."

"And?"

" It was a thousands of light years away from the sort of love your talking about."

"Tell me about him."

So she did. She shared eight years of her life with her "farmboy". Four years as friend and faithful sidekick in highschool, then four years of stormy on-again and off-again college drama in which the actors tore one another to pieces then glued themselves back again time after time. She said it was a selfish relationship kept alive by her desire to feel loved.

"He eventually went back to his highschool girlfriend. A small-town girl with big hopes and dreams that will never lead her any further than the coffee counter at the cafe she worked at."

"Do you miss him?"

"I missed him when we first broke up in January. I've been attracted to the opposite of my ideal man for far too long. Men at the opposite extreme from what would make me happy, that's all."

Lex took Chloe's hand.

"Your being much too serious. Let's get some air."

Author's Note: If you find any typos don't worry. Once I post the whole story I will go back and fix anything I messed up.

[hannagreen20]

Chapter Nine: The end?

Lex spent the next two weeks in the city library. The texts gave him a clearer understanding of Chloe's problem, it brought him no closer to figuring out of how to help her get back to her body. Each afternoon he called Clark to keep up with the details at the office and to reassure him he hadn't yet had a nervous breakdown or a massive stroke.

Clark took this reassurances at face value. "Just do what you need to buddy," he told Lex. "I'm holding the fort at this end. But I miss you. Let me know when you want to get together."

Each evening Lex returned to find Chloe waiting for him. He'd make himself dinner and tell her about the day's research, trying to put the most positive spin on it he could. They argued and counter argued deep into the nights and past the point of exhaustion. Finally, Lex would retreat to his bedroom.

A few days later Lex saw Chloe sitting on the window seat in the living room. She did not rise to greet him, like she normally did, or even turn around to look at him.

"What's wrong?" Lex asked as he walked over towards her. As he reached down to put a hand on her shoulder, she suddenly disappeared. Lex heard her grumbling from the bedroom.

"Jesus, I can't even slam a door!"

"Did something happnen," he called to her as he walked towards the bedroom.

"Leave me alone!"

He entered to see Chloe leaning against the window. Her shoulders shook as if she were sobbing.

"Are you crying?"

"I have no tears! How can I cry?"

"Your sobbing! What's going on? Tell me what's wrong."

"I went to the hospital this morning. Dad was there talking to me. He's been meeting with the ethical committee. They've decided it's time to remove my feeding tube."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm going to die."
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Chloe lowered her head. "I came back here to the window seat. I wanted to soak in all the sights, the lights, all the views, smells and all the excitement of the city. Today's Thursday. I have only a few more day's to live."

Lex took her in his arms, eveloping her in tenderness. "I won't let them do it."

"How will you stop them?"

"Give me time to think. Something will come pop out at me."

" Maybe this is all for the best."

"How can you say that? Do you believe your dad could ever fill the empty space you leave behind? What about Lois? You mention, quite a lot, how devestated she is over you. What would good would your dying for good do to her? What about me?"

She looked up at him inquiringly, "What about you?"

"I'll be there when you wake up. You may be invisible to other people but not to me."

"Is that a declaration?"

"Don't be so full of yourself," he said dryly.

"Why are you hanging around me, making plans, fighting on my behalf? what's wrong in that brain of yours? What's your motive?" She was practically screaming at him.

"You know what my motive is Chloe."

She said nothing, muttering something inaudible.

"I need to try to talk to your father."

Chloe thought for a minute. "She walks my dog, Krypto, at the park every morning.

"Yes but then I'd have to have a dog to walk too."

"Why?"

"Because if I take a leash on a walk without a dog attached to it, my credibility would be shot."

"Ha, ha, ha. Just go jogging then."

He liked the idea. He could time his run to coincide with Krypto's walk. After he made a fuss over the dog, it would be easier to strike up a conversation with Chloe's dog.

[hannagreen20]

Chapter Ten: Miracles Happen

Early the next morning he put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Before leaving, he asked a Chloe to hold him tight in his arms..

"What's with you today?" she asked shyly.

"Nothing. I dont' have time to explain. It's for the dog."

She complied, laying her head on his shoulder.

"That's fine," he said briskly, and pulled away. "Now I"m off or I'll miss him. Without even saying goodbye, he rushed out of the apartment. The door closed behind him. Chloe shrugged and sighed, "He hugged me because of the dog."
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Lex spotted Chloe's father from a long way off, matching perfectly the description she had given him. Krypto trotted a few steps ahead of Gabe
Sullivan, who looked as though he carried the weight of the worlds on his shoulders.

Approaching Lex, Krypto stopped short, sniffing the air with with a circling movement, of his muzzle and head. He came closer to Lex, sniffing the bottom of Lex's leg, and then he lay down at his feet, whimpering, his tail thumping the ground. Krypto was trembling with joy and excitement. Lex knelt down and began to stroke him gently.

Chloe's father drew near, looking surprised.

"Do you know each other," he asked Lex.

"Why do you ask?" Lex responded as he rose.

"He's usually so fearful. But he's falling all over you."

"He looks unbelievably like the dog of a friend who was very dear to me."

"Yes," said Gabe Sullivan.

Lex stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

"I know," Lex said suddenly. "Krypto! Of course, he Chloe's dog!"

"You know my daughter?"
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"How did it go," Chloe asked when he returned.

He sighed. "Not well." He went to explain that her father would not be swayed.

"You never really had much of a chance. He never changes his mind, especially if it's a decision he's taken a long, hard time to come to. He's a stubborn as a mule."

"Like someone else I know," he mumbled.

"I heard that!"
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"What are you thinking?" Chloe asked him later.

Lex had been sitting in his office for over an hour, thinking. It could be done, he thought. He didn't want to do it this way. But he couldn't let Chloe die. He had the means and the way. He could make a few calls to a few people that owed him, and have Lionel open the house in Smallville.

"Hello? Earth to Lex. What's going on?"

Lex took a deep breath and preceded to tell Chloe his plan.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"But that's kidnapping!" Chloe exclaimed.

"What else can we do Chloe? Do you want to die? I know I don't want you too! I can hire doctors to go to the hospital and sign your body over to "paramedics" and have you discharged. Clark and I can pose as the ambulance drivers and take you to my place in Smallville."

"But they'll get in trouble. They-"

"Don't worry. They won't know who ordered it. As far as they law is concerned they we're just doing their job. Besides that's not the hardest part."

"What is?"

"Convincing Clark."

[hannagreen20]

Chapter Eleven: What the Hell?

A half an hour later, Lex invited Clark to sit down.

"What's up," Clark asked.

" I need you to do a favor with no questions asked."

"And that would be..."

"I want you to help me kidnap a body from the hospital."

" What?! No more ghosts, so now you want a corpse? I can give you mine if you keep this up!"

"It isn't a corpse."

"What is it then? A hospital patient in the peak of health?"

"Seriously Clark, I'm in a hurry."

"I'm not allowed to ask any questions?"

"You'd have a hard time understanding the answers."

"Because I'm too dumb."

"Because no one could believe what I'm going through."

"Try me."

"I want you to help me remove the body of a woman in a coma. They're going to terminate her on Monday and I can't let that happen."

"You've fallen in love with a woman in a coma? Is that what the ghost business was all about?"

Lex mumbled a vague, "Uh-huh."

"Your mind's made up?"

"With or without you I'm doing it. I know I'm asking a lot but I swear on my mother's grave, Clark, I have to do this. I have to do this more than I've had to do anything in my life."

That got Clark's attention. He knew Lex would never invoke hi mother's name except in matters life and death."

"Okay, when do you need it?"

Lex's plan called for an initial detour to transfer of Chloe's body from the ambulance to his car. While Clark was returning the "borrowed" vehicle, Lex brought everything down he had prepared for the drive to Smallville. The medical supplies had been carefully wrapped and stored in the front section of his refridgerator.

"Seriously," Clark said to Lex as they eased away from Lex's apartment.

"I'm thinking of this as a dream, verging on a nightmare. On the bright side, I've found Sunday evenings to be dull; at least this will be memorable."

Chloe laughed.

"You find that funny?"

"Stop talking to yourself!"

"I'm not talking to myself."

"Okay, there's a ghost! But stop having a conversations with it.It makes me nervous!"

"Not 'it'. 'Her!' She's a woman and she can hear everything you say!"

"Are you two always like this?" asked Chloe.

"Pretty much."

"What did you say?" asked Clark.

"I wasn't talking to you!"

Clark broke abruptly. "Stop this! You're going too far, I swear!"

"Just drive. Drive! I'll explain everything." As the car wound its way across the city, Lex told Clark everything-from the beginning, from the bathroom closet to that very night in the car.

"She's beautiful, Clark. She's funny, and witty and we talk about everything. Oh, we disagree and bicker sometimes,but an amazing tender has grown between us. I feel at home with her."

Clark cut in, "If she's really here, you've landed yourself in deep trouble."

"How so?"

"Because," Clark said. "I think you just told her you love her. And I swear you just blushed and I've never seen you blush before." Clark called out, his voice echoing in the car. "Are you here, the lady whose body we've stolen? If you are, you can take it from me that my buddy here has it bad."

Deliberately avoiding eye contact with Chloe, Lex interjected, "Shut up and drive."

Chloe, blushing, couldn't remain silent any longer. "You two are like Abbott and Costello. She was smiling radiantly.

When they reached Clark's apartment building, he got out of the drivers seat and met Lex in front of the car.

"Three top models, a couple of weeks in Hawii, a Ferrari and a yacht," Clark said.

"What are you talking about?" Lex asked.

"My fee. Where are you 'two' off to?"

"A place that's also in a deep coma. Smallville."

[kimmie]

This is a really brilliant fic and I can't wait for more!!!

Kimmie

[welshy]

This is a great story, I hope there's going to be more soon

[Kit Merlot]

I just started reading this story, and I have to say that it is wonderful

Please update soon!

[teejei]

squee! update soon! *at a loss for more words*

[Krysia]

What would Clark do with three models?
Great update. I like the fact that Lex has feelings towards her and isn't afraid to admit to them. I wonder how Gabe is going to react, and I can't wait to see how Lex is going to react to having to take care of Chloe's body. More, please.

[leik2]

This is exactly what the doctor ordered. Thank you, enjoying your rendition.