Please, please update!! I really like this story alot.
Please, please update!! I really like this story alot.
Yup, this fic needs to be updated.....please.
D
Sci... come on! *gets down on her knees* Where is the next update? I'm dying to know what happens!!!
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Yeah I'm joining the bandwagon. Please update. I know its weird, but i'm really looking forward to reading more about Adam having a thing for Chloe. That's awesome
The corners of Gregory’s mouth pulled into a quirky grin. On his desk laid a large box full of the information on the daughter he never knew he had. It definitely paid to hire the top investigators in their field; anyone else might have been able to capture some random snapshots and anything in the public records system, but this…this would give him a comprehensive view of the young woman Chloe had grown to be and some of the things that helped make her that way.
“I appreciate this, Gavin,” he said, sliding a penknife across the packing tape and then opening the box.
“I appreciate the money,” Gavin replied with a smirk. “So is this girl really your daughter?”
“That’s what the DNA test said.”
“Wow.”
“Indeed.”
“No, I meant…wow, maybe I should fill you in on some of the stuff you’re going to see in there.”
Gregory looked up from where he had already plucked out a file containing the most recent information on Chloe. “Why? Is something wrong with her?”
“Not with her…not exactly anyway,” Gavin said with a frown. “But the town she lives in…despite its size, it’s not all that safe. I feel it’s only fair to warn you that she’s gotten hurt – really hurt – more than once.”
“Why would her ---” Gregory stopped himself before he said the word ‘father’. Now that he knew the truth of Chloe’s parentage, he was finding it increasingly difficult to accept the fact that his deceased wife hadn’t ever told him about it. “Why would Mr. Sullivan keep them in Smallville if it’s so dangerous?”
“Is there really any safe place to live anymore?” Gavin replied with a shrug. “I doubt she’d have fared any better in Gotham, which was where his only other job offer was before they moved to Smallville. He probably thought the small town life would be better for her than going from Metropolis to an even bigger, darker city.”
Gregory absently nodded a couple of times. He supposed he could understand that argument, but at the same time, it seemed like Gabe should have caught on that Smallville wasn’t quite the peaceful sanctuary he had envisioned after Chloe’s first two times of getting seriously injured.
Even with Gavin’s preparatory speech, he wasn’t ready for what he saw when he purposefully dug through the paperwork for the medical files. He thought there might be a couple of car accidents here and there, perhaps some altercations with an overzealous ex-boyfriend, but not anything resembling the thick stack of records that now lay on top of his desk.
Good grief.
Chloe’s insurance company could keep the local hospital in business with just her caseload alone if the size of the pile was any indication.
He drew in a slow, steadying breath and then looked over at Gavin. “How bad is it?”
“Bad.”
Gregory nodded complacently and set the folder down. He would look through it later, when he was alone and had some alcohol in him to dull whatever emotional reactions might spring up as a result of receiving the information.
He sifted through some of the other material in the box and then grabbed a large manila envelope that contained candid pictures of Chloe taken from afar with a telescopic lens. He was glad he’d ordered the photographs before he found out that she was his daughter, as he had a feeling that he wouldn’t have gotten a genuine overall view of her otherwise.
Gregory knew he certainly hadn’t looked the same after finding out; he could only imagine from what he’d heard that Chloe was in shock as well. A sad grin lifted the corners of his mouth as he began to gaze down at the pictures.
She had blonde hair like his late wife, but his green eyes. It looked like she got his cousin’s nose and…oh.
His mother’s smile.
He felt a lump of emotion rise up in his throat and though he tried to swallow it down, he dared not speak for he was certain that his voice would wobble and crack.
There was a picture of her and her…dad…eating dinner at a restaurant. They looked far more companionable than he would have thought, but he supposed that was to be expected given that Gabe had been forced to raise her alone. The ‘laws of the house’ were probably relaxed quite a bit after Alice left in an effort to keep Chloe from feeling disconnected and abandoned.
Which, essentially, she was, Gregory thought glumly.
Then there were pictures of her with her friends. There was a pretty Asian girl who wore entirely too much pink (a color that was, at the very least, photographically unflattering against her skin tone in the first place) and a black boy too near Chloe’s height to be wearing the letterman’s jacket he had on.
The next few photos showed her with a much taller boy with dark hair and pale skin who had jagged (but gleamingly white) teeth, another boy with dark hair and pale skin but who had rosy cheeks, a charming smile, and a somewhat unsettling intensity in the way he looked at Chloe, and a girl with her long blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail (who only appeared in one of the shots, so Gregory assumed she and Chloe were probably only acquaintances).
And then there was a bald man in an expensive suit who looked to be about five years older than the rest of them. Gregory frowned. The young man in the picture looked familiar, but he couldn’t place him. He held the picture up for Gavin to see and gave him an inquisitive expression.
“Lex Luthor,” Gavin said. “Lionel Luthor’s son.”
Gregory’s eyebrows rose. “And his business with Chloe?”
“His father moved him to Smallville a few years ago and she’s interviewed him a couple of times, but from what I could tell, they seem to be friends.”
Gregory made no comment except for a short grunt of a hum to acknowledge that he’d heard the other man. He had to admit that the younger Luthor didn’t look particularly threatening, but the apple never fell far from the tree and he knew the elder Luthor well enough to wish he didn’t. The man was a snake, pure and simple, and a poisonous one at that.
He flipped to the next picture.
The boy with the intense gaze again. He and Chloe were laughing about…something. Damn. He should have asked for video as well.
“Boyfriend?” he asked, holding that photo up much as he had the last one.
“No. She doesn’t have one currently. That’s Adam Knight.” Gavin stopped and pocketed his tongue in his cheek in a pensive gesture. “A bit disconcerting, that. He’s dating her friend, Lana, but is…highly protective of your girl there. Struck me as odd, so I didn’t a little digging and all his records are new.”
“New?”
“Fabricated, I’m guessing. Most likely was put in the Witness Relocation Program or something along those lines. I didn’t delve too deep just because you wanted information on Chloe, not him.”
Gregory nodded. He’d have to keep that in mind for later.
Last picture.
His eyes narrowed and Gavin cleared his throat uncomfortably.
“Yeah…didn’t think you’d like that one.”
“What does he want with her?”
“Up until a few months ago, she was doing some research for him. Couldn’t find out what – it wasn’t on her home or school computer or any of his that I could get into.”
“He’s keeping it well-guarded. It must be important.” Gregory furrowed his brow. “So, why hire a high school student to look into it?”
“Chloe’s smart, incredibly resourceful…practically fearless even though she’s gotten in her share of scrapes,” Gavin answered with admiration in his tone. “And,” he said, a smile quirking on his lips, “I just recently came across some information that says she may be working with Luthor’s kid to help him bring down the old man.”
Gregory’s eyes widened. “Do you think that’s why she took the job for him in the first place?”
“You’d have to ask her to be sure, but I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Something akin to pride, but closer to a pleased smugness cross Gregory’s face. “Hotels in the area?”
Gavin smirked and leaned back in his seat. “Bottom of the box.”
~*~*~*~
He tried to act collected…innocent…but he wasn’t sure he could keep the mask in place for long when they started into a detailed discussion about his father and the evidence that Chloe had found on him.
How time changes things, he thought. Just a week ago he would have been chomping at the bit for this meeting with the FBI on the plan to bring down the head of the LuthorCorp empire, and now…now all he could think about was how there wouldn’t be an arrest or a trial because his father would be dead and gone before any of that had a chance to occur.
One of the agents took a quick glance around the office and Lex raised an inquiring eyebrow. Both of the agents had been there before, so why they’d expect something to change in such a short time was beyond him. Of course, being suspicious was probably second nature to them – just as it was to him. Suspicion prompted fear, fear prompted survival. That’s what it was all about.
“Shouldn’t Miss Sullivan be here for this?” the agent asked.
Lex inwardly bristled, but congratulated himself on not letting his discomfort over the mere mention of Chloe’s name show outwardly. “I’m afraid she had a previous engagement today, Agent Loder.”
In truth, he hadn’t even told her about the meeting. If he had, then she would have come and he wouldn’t have been able to face her because he now remembered the pain he had caused her. He was protecting her.
Loder arched his eyebrow in questioning and Lex allowed his mouth to curl into a forced half-grin. “School.”
“Ah,” Loder said. “Well, I suppose that’s alright. This is really just a perfunctory meeting anyway. We just wanted to tell you that the information Miss Sullivan sent to us has been verified and we’ve obtained the original documents. An arrest warrant has been put out for your father and will be acted upon sometime…” he stopped and glanced at his watch, “…in the next couple of hours.”
“That’s good news,” Lex said, though he was actually wondering how he could have his father’s accident pushed up to accommodate the new time frame, all while not incidentally alerting the FBI to his plan.
“It is,” Loder agreed. He paused and smiled at Lex, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. “I suppose I’ll see you again when the pre-trial prep comes up. Our lawyers will let you and Miss Sullivan know when.”
They said their goodbyes, shook hands, and Lex inclined his head at the other (mercifully quiet) agent as an impersonal farewell. Then he crashed.
He barely remembered sitting down in his chair, only focusing on the way his hands were trembling as he rested his head in them.
He wondered if Dr. Garner could make him forget again.
~*~*~*~
He was two hours into his plane flight before he summoned the courage to take a look at Chloe’s medical files. Strangely, nothing else he’d ordered had felt like a tremendous invasion of privacy, but this…this made him feel guilty. Especially since he already knew that the news wasn’t good.
He took a sip of his scotch and skimmed through the first few pages, absolutely horrified by what he was seeing. As with most medical charts, the more recent visits to the hospital were up front and the latter stuff was toward the back. Chloe’s rape was just behind an incident where she was ‘attacked by a friend who had been brainwashed’.
What the hell?
Gregory didn’t think it was possible, but the reports stayed as grim as the first few; from being pushed out a window at the Luthor castle to being buried alive by a police officer bent on making a name for himself, Chloe had not just had accidents, but had been intentionally injured by several members of the Smallville community.
~“Is there really *any* safe place to live anymore?”~
Despite the initial logic behind Gavin’s reasoning, Gregory was beginning to think that any place in the world would be safer to live than Smallville, Kansas.
Now he just needed to convince Chloe of that.
*goes off to cry*
But it's a compliment with a story like this, really great chapter yet again. Just angsty great.
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
This story is so good, but so sad!! Will Lex ever be able to face Chloe again? Will Gregory convince Chloe to move? Please, please let Chloe be able to face what happened to her and forgive Lex!! This is such an excellent story!! I can't wait til your next post!! :worship2: :chlexsign4: :worship2:
Yay! You updated! OMG it's so bloody brilliant!
Damn it, but I'm upset! That ended far too quickly, and now I wish I hadn't looked on here, so that I could save the update until later.
I know, I'm sad... unfortunately I can't help it.
Please update soon! I wanna see how Lex reacts when he sees Chloe. And Chloe when she meets Gregory.
Sorry to disappoint you, Gregory, but Chloe'll stay in Smallville with Lex even if it's unsafe town.
Please come back :yay: :chlexsign3:
Thank god you updated!
All I have to say
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