The Lesser of Two Evils - NC-17, Chapter 56 (May 27, 2016)

[randa]

i love this story. i really do. wanna know why

cause of this web you have spun and the way that everyone reacts to each other is perfect. you are absolutely amazing and ill be waiting for you next update!


randa

[celticangel]

Love this story. can't wait for the next part. Update soon Pleeeeeeeeease!!

[Ori]

This is amazing. You have taken darkness and angst and balanced them in an intruging story. You have an amazing talent.

[fanette]

i love it
i hope you are going to update soon

[hateSmallvilleLoveChlex2]

Come Back!!!!!! We need you!!

[Ainur]

*sighs* No update?

[junelle1]

Excellent update. Cannot wait to see what happens next.

[starmoon]

Update please I need more soon.

[asharnanae]

MORE PLEASE MORE!!!! soo very good!

[kitten]

The Lesser of Two Evils
NC-17/ Angst

Disclaimer: Smallville, the characters therein, and all affiliated copyrighted materials are owned by the WB. This is a work of fanfiction not intended for profit or infringement, only for the pleasure of fans of the series.

Spoilers: All up to Season 4, except things will be twisted to the tune of Lex having never moved to Cowtown, U.S.A.

A/N: What would Chloe Sullivan have had to do to get from under Lionel Luthor’s thumb if Lex had never moved to Smallville? What would she have had to sacrifice to earn the son’s help against the father?

AU for Season 3 and 4, and strongly rated for a good reason:
THERE WILL BE BORDERLINE NON-CONSENSUAL SEX.

I’m posting in very short chapters so readers can choose when enough is enough for them.


Chapter Seventeen


Steely blue eyes were pinning her to the floor, even though she wasn’t facing him. It was a strange feeling but he had a way of doing it without imposing a threat behind the gaze. Still, Chloe didn’t feel any need to be too honest with Lex Luthor. It would only make her look as pathetic as she felt.

He was trying to keep to the polite but friendly distance but Lex saw Chloe’s initial tension stiffen her frame. She didn’t like the question even though he had worded it as carefully as he could.

“I have a few hours,” she hedged, turning around to face him in what looked like an act of pure willpower. “Why?”

He noted the reluctance as she spoke and the way her mood dimmed into calm misery. She suffered his presence. There was no practiced social skill that could change what he was to her.

“We need to talk about a few things.”

Lex tried not to make it sound dire and commanding, but he didn't succeed. He wasn’t used to being soothing to others, had practiced inspiring fear and anxiety since his childhood by emulating his father. Her expression didn’t give him anything to go by but she withdrew physically a little.

Chloe circled the big, gray sofa and looked at him over the characterless piece. She hated how he had used his money to furnish his house with expensive pieces of nothing.

“What things,” she asked warily.

“We need to discuss gathering evidence against my father and a few other details. Your medical situation, some kind of strategy . . . ”

He trailed off to wander back to the bar again to retrieve his water. Once he was far enough away the blond reporter sat down uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa.

“I don’t really - I’m not comfortable . . . “ she sighed and could hear him take a sip of his drink.

Pull yourself together. You are not going to freak out when all he wants to do is talk to you. Do you want to be in the dark about what he’s doing? Would that make it easier to sleep at night?

“I would rather discuss it with a lawyer or someone else you have working on it.”

He had watched the argument in her eyes and then the squaring of shoulders before she fixed her verbal stumble. It gave him some comfort to see a backbone in her, even if she never seemed to direct to the outside world.

“I understand that, but it will give us away if you’re seen in contact with lawyers, private investigators and FBI agents. My meetings with them get lost in all the other business I conduct,” he said.

Her nod wasn’t an agreement as much as an acknowledgment that she had heard him. Chloe still needed to be convinced. Staying by the bar, without looking at her, Lex gentled his tone.

“I know you feel bad and maybe you think there’s nothing left to salvage, but you told me you want to protect your family and your friends. I’m not going to tell you we will win and I’m not going to tell you how to feel. Who you trust is your decision, but I can only help you so much unless you’ll clarify things for me.”

Her head bowed for a moment then nodded in real agreement. She would talk.

“What do you need to know?”

Lex picked up his glass and settled one cushion down on the sofa, slipping back into that polite, safe distance.

“Aside from living in a town that was struck by a meteor shower, is Clark Kent extraordinary in any way that would garner my father’s interest?”

Chloe would have once said he was the best, most wonderful person she had ever known. She didn’t, nor did she think it, and not just because she knew it wasn’t what Lex was referring to.

“He’s adopted,” she ventured, “And I know he doesn’t know who his biological parents are. I offered to help him look but . . . “

In fact she had tried to look into his real parents and had once been in touch with a woman who claimed she was Clark’s mother. He had found the e-mail and accused her of being thoughtless and heedless of the repercussions of her actions. He hadn’t spoken to her for days and she had dropped the subject, still stinging over the memories the incident had dredged up about her own absent mother.

“ . . . he wasn’t interested in knowing. I did find out that Lionel funded the adoption agency that placed him with the Kents and that it was one of only two transactions it made before it was dissolved.”

Lex leaned back casually and draped an arm over the back of the sofa.

“The other adoption being the placement of my half-brother,” he remarked.

“Yes,” Chloe said, darting a glance to and away from his face.

“Are you suggesting Clark is the product of another one of Lionel’s indiscretions?”

He didn’t know how to feel about the prospect of another half-brother. Lucas was as much an enemy as their father at times. There was no genuine loyalty between them and they had little contact unless they were working together against their sire. The discovery of one more family member wouldn’t be likely to bring any comfort into Lex’s life.

“I don’t think so. There’s a certain degree of tolerance when he talks about you and Lucas, but he talks about Clark more like a curiousity or an experiment. Like he’s not even human.”

The billionaire mask was firmly in place as Lex absorbed her answer without making any attempt to reconcile his feelings to it. Clark Kent wasn’t his half-brother and how he felt about that was a moot point.

“I’ll have my people look into the Kents from a business perspective then. If you think of anything else that might be a lead just let me know,” he said.

She was getting to recognize the ways he used the timbre of his voice to be different things; approachable, reasonable, disinterested, unaffected, carnal. She heard them all but they didn’t make her feel the way he meant them to. There was a deep numbness that was getting her through the day and she had to keep it.

So Chloe nodded without looking in his direction and let him believe he was being comforting if that was what he wanted to believe.

“You wanted to talk about my medical situation,” she pointed out. The conversation was best over as soon as she could manage it. Except afterward they would go to his bed again, so perhaps she should be clinging to the words and pontificating to draw it out. It was hard to know what to fear most when she feared everything.

Lex’s glass was empty and he returned it to the bar. His arched eyebrow offered her something as well.

“No thank you.”

“I think you should get a check up from a doctor who doesn’t work for my father, or at least at blood test to make sure the hormones you’re getting aren’t doing any damage to your system.”

Green eyes shiny with a new surge of fear turned to his and soft pink lips pouted at him. “You think they’ll make me sick?”

He tried to convey confidence and a lack of concern, but Chloe was wringing her hands. She looked paler than before and painfully younger. The dark clothing that seemed so fashionable when she arrived now emphasized the drain of colour from her skin.

Lex extended a hand and tossed a business card onto the coffee table in front of her, but he sat back from her. “This is a doctor who is willing to see you anonymously, as much for his safety as for yours. He’s willing to send a nurse to draw a blood sample from you the next time you come here,” he said.

“Okay.”

She was recovering a bit, but Chloe still had her hands clasped tightly. She didn’t want to be ill on top of everything else. It would make surviving all that was going wrong so much more difficult. Submitting to a simple blood test was barely a blip next to that.

“He might need to see you personally once the results come back, but with anonymity we’ll be able to arrange some way to get you there. He’s Metropolis-based, so you could probably use a visit to your cousin as a cover,” Lex suggested.

There was a jolt in hearing how much detail he had about her, but Chloe didn’t think Lois was in danger. It just felt exposed to be in the presence of a man who could have her investigated. Lionel had taught her to fear the power of money in capable hands.

“Yeah, I can do that. Lois and I are close,” she said. “Is there anything else?”

Lex crossed his legs and cleared his throat. He didn’t know how to bring it up but he needed to talk about her previous visit.

“There’ll be other things as I gather more information,” he said, “But there’s something a bit more immediate. If we’re going to be having sex on a regular basis there’s something that has to change.”