hi! update? please ! I need my B,H,T&M fix! So, please!
hi! update? please ! I need my B,H,T&M fix! So, please!
update?! please!!!
.jpg "randa's Avatar"){kind=avatar}
so it appears that i totally forgot to comment after the last chapter and i dont remember why..hmm.
ok so im totally rooting for the two to get back together now but knowing how you two are so good and not getting them together untill the end....IT BETTER BE GOOD!!!
ok, so the frustration is gone. I would really like to see lex have a deep, personal conversaion with himself about his feelings for chloe on his big couch with a beer, cause he would be thinking of her becasue of the beer and now i think im going a little crazy. and besides, he gets a little moody and depressed and all kinds of fun stuff that i love in a story and we all know that he really has feelings for her. ( i dont remember if i said last time but that kiss was hot!)
ok, so now im done (i going to go buy a car) and i loved/hated the fight
more soon
randa
Cant wait for the next update, which hopefully is soon.
Oh man...you certainly left them in a painful situation. Please please update and make them realise how they really feel about each other. Some more punishment for Lionel and Gabe could still be useful, though.
A/N Sabby: So, how did it go? Misery loves Company, except there's no company for either of them, well at least not right way. *evil cackle* enjoy. Oh and a new 'character' is introduced *waggles brows*
A/N: Hello, here is your fix. Sorry we're late. Though, based on the subject matter I'm not really sure if you'll thank us for the update. Try to enjoy as much as possible.
Celeste had listened to Gabe’s story in silence. She had known that something was wrong before her phone had rung. The moles in the company had informed her that there had been a massive fight between Lex and Chloe in his office.
However, it was far worse than she had feared. The children had attacked each other brutally. Aiming not to wound, but to kill.
Lionel was looking at her and asked, “Well, what do you think our next move should be?”
Gabe clearly already knew the answer, he’d been nursing a drink the whole time that she was there and appeared as if someone had died. Lionel clearly wasn’t at the acceptance stage quiet yet.
“From what Gabe has said,” she paused. Usually when she had to report that an operation was unsalvageable, it didn’t give her such a problem. “Lionel,” she earnestly said, “I’m afraid that we are out of moves.”
She didn’t want to sound as soft and gentle as she did, it was unprofessional, but she also thought it was the best way to deliver what would be horrible news to the man that was her employer.
That had been the final word. Gabe had known it was coming as he watched Celeste take in what he told her. She'd just confirmed for him what had already been clear. There was nothing left to say or do. No more tricks to pull. It was over.
Looking up, he waited for Lionel's reaction. When it came, it wasn't the massive outbreak he had expected, at first. The other man blanched and fell back into his chair as if someone had sucked all life out of him. His eyes were wide in shock and his hands clenched almost violently around the armrests of his chair.
Gabe closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. This was most likely merely the calm before the storm.
“Thank you, Celeste,” he voiced monotonously. “I believe that is all.”
When Lionel saw that the insolent woman meant to leave his office without having properly been dismissed by him he spoke up. “No, that is not all.” He leaned forward in his chair.
“You and your team have been a great disappointment to me. As have the plans, or lack thereof, that you have enacted in order to ensure that this job was done properly.” He rose out of his chair and rounded the desk.
He stood next to where Celeste was sitting and said. “You are fired. I want you out of the building within the hour. All files, pictures and reports are to be left where they are. I want nothing touched.”
Shaking his head he said, “And you came so highly recommended. Your apathy for this project has only been eclipsed by your total lack of intelligence for what needed to be done. Now you may leave.”
Even though she had been expecting such a move, being fired did not sit well with Celeste. She knew that arguing with Lionel would only make the situation worse. Besides, she intended to leave the office with her dignity in tact. In time Lionel would come to realize that she didn’t fail…and neither had he and Gabe. Affairs of the heart were far more complicated than hostile takeovers of government and companies.
Celeste nodded once at Gabe and then exited the office. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and began to call her team leaders.
~~~
The purchase of the couch had been an excellent idea. It was the perfect size to flop down on when your day had been bad. The day hadn’t been just bad, it had been atrocious, terrible and any other synonym that one could think of.
Which was why there was a half empty bottle of scotch next to the full tumbler sitting on the coffee table. Celeste usually wasn’t much of a drinker but she thought it was as good an occasion as any to get drunk.
Her problem now was that the glass was very far away and she didn’t have the energy to reach for it. Yet another failure that she had to face during the day.
The calls to her team members went as they usually did. They understood that it was a business and the whims of the clients dictated how long their jobs ran.
It was only once she was cleaning out her office that Celeste’s mood started to get progressively darker. She had the urge to throw things against the walls but she knew that Lionel was libel to either have her arrested or sue her for doing so.
She couldn’t believe how close they had been to getting what would have been the best outcome for everyone involved. Once they had gotten out of Lex and Chloe’s way, nature had taken its course. Celeste had truly thought that a wedding was in the future for her employer and Gabe.
But then something had happened. Something that her team knew nothing about. It was a fireable offense but she knew that her opinion to do nothing for the moment was what had sent Lionel over the edge.
Celeste sighed when she thought about the two men who were probably feeling many times worse than she was. You weren’t supposed to take a job personally but she had started to with this one. She wanted to see Lionel and Gabe get what they wanted.
As she turned over on the couch, her thoughts turned to Gabe…..which was also highly unprofessional. She’d once partaken in a torrid love affair with the sultan of a small country as she worked for him and had sworn off things like that soon after. But it wasn’t as if an affair with Gabe had been a possibility. She was almost certain that the man hated her. Still, she’d been drawn to him for some reason.
Grumbling, her hand reached out blindly for her glass in order to stop these thoughts from running free in her head. She sat up and snatched the glass off of the table. “To unfulfilled potential.” After another few toasts like that, Celeste passed out.
~~~
Gabe wiped the counter down once more for good measure, then threw the towel over the rack on the wall and made his way to the fridge. He took out a beer, settled against the cool metal of the appliance's door and sighed.
All throughout the afternoon and until late evening, he'd tried calling Chloe, but every time he'd gotten the voicemail or answering machine. If he didn't know better, he'd think she was avoiding him personally, but after what he'd seen in the office, she was probably avoiding everyone.
How things could have gone so tremendously wrong, he would never know. He couldn't fathom how it was possible that one night, it looked like they could start planning a wedding and only a few days later, everything lay in shards at their feet. Chloe and Lex had looked so utterly happy together, even when they'd only been friends, the passion between them was palpable. They'd seemed so in love, and even Gabe's breath had stalled at seeing the pictures from the incident at Lex's front door, only a few nights prior.
How could things have gone so wrong? Was it too much to ask that their children would be happy together, lead a life worth having which they both obviously were craving for underneath it all? All it took to know what they wanted was a look at Lex's house. As for Chloe, he knew that she'd been craving a 'real' family for a very long time and he didn't think that this craving had gone away.
Sinking down to the floor, his back against the fridge, Gabe stared morosely at the beer bottle in his hands. Why couldn't they have gotten their shot at happiness? They would have been so good together. That was the reason Gabe had agreed to hooking them up in the first place. He had no sins to atone for, no empire that needed an heir, he didn't even crave a new family as soon as Lionel seemed to. All he wanted was for Chloe to finally find the right person. The one that would make her genuinely happy. He wanted her to have something that Gabe had only tasted for a very short time.
The thought that Chloe's heart had been torn out and trampled on made him furious, yet he couldn't even really be furious with Lex. There had been no obvious sign that Lex was the culprit in this. On closer thought, there was no chance to even say what the entire argument had really been about.
All he knew was that, whatever it had been was obviously an issue so fundamental that a disagreement on it could break a relationship permanently. But how could he have been so wrong? It wasn't the charts or the profiles or the other paperwork Lionel had thrown in his lap that made him sure their children were right for each other.
He'd been convinced quite simply in a small shop in Chinatown. When he'd seen them together after Lex and he had ganged up on Chloe to get her to accept that kimono-dress. When he'd seen the two stand close together, the way they seemed to unconsciously lean into the other, the smiles on both Chloe and Lex's face. That's when he'd known they were 'meant to be', as cliché as it sounded.
And now, everything was over. Everything was ruined and it would never be as it was meant. Chloe would probably go back to dating scum that was not worth her time of day and Lex... Gabe shuddered to think what would become of Lex now. Nothing good lay in the future for a man that was convinced that he wasn't worth the love of any woman, who thought his father hated his guts, or worse saw him as an asset. Who had nothing but a long life of business warfare waiting in his future.
Gabe wondered what any of them had done to deserve all this.
~~~
The streetlight created a soft glow that permeated the sidewalk that Lionel was walking down. It was hard to tell how long he’d been strolling down this particular street. He hadn’t even been aware of the movements of his body in his car that had taken him to this place. Nevertheless, he had ended up on Lex’s block.
His son had not come home while Lionel had been walking around and he was grateful for that. He wasn’t sure how he could face Lex after this last plan had blown up so spectacularly in his face.
Mere hours ago, Lionel had been certain that Lex’s future held everything that his mother had wanted for him. A happy life complete with a woman who loved and challenged him.
Lillian had never been one to think of Lex’s professional aspirations. She logically knew that the Luthor fortune was safe in the hands of anyone that knew the business world well. And she didn’t necessarily believe that Lex would be the one to run it. Lionel had been the parent to push him in that direction.
His eyes scanned the small picket fence that ran along the perimeter of Lex’s house. It was the perfect thing to keep children safely in the yard and other people out. But it appeared as if it would never serve that purpose.
Lionel wondered if it would have been better to have let well enough alone. That way, Lex would not have to go through what was happening to him now. Lionel knew that he cared a great deal for Chloe. Hell, he knew that his son was most likely in love with the woman and just too damn stubborn to admit that. So the fact that they were no longer on speaking terms had to be affecting him in some way.
Any pain that Lex was feeling now was squarely the fault of Lionel. If he hadn’t pushed this crazy idea….
But it hadn’t been crazy. It had been working. For the first time in a good long time both Lex and Chloe were happy. They were just too stupid to understand why it was that they were happy.
He kicked at a stray pebble as he tried to sort out what could be done now. He had to do this. For Lillian. For Lex. He couldn’t just give up and admit that the future was out of his hands. He wouldn’t allow Lex to throw this away.
But even as he had these thoughts, Lionel knew that it was a lost cause. Whatever had occurred between his son and Chloe was something that could not be solved easily. They were both hot tempered but for them to come to such a place as to say what they had….
Lionel wished that he could return home and drink away his thoughts but he knew that it was the coward’s way out. He didn’t deserve oblivion. He deserved to be fully conscious and coherent as he watched his son’s life become a mirror to his own.
~~~
Lex rolled the blue bottle between his fingers as he gazed up at the skies over his backyard. It seemed somehow inappropriate that the night was clear and he could see the stars and their constellations vividly across the wide black expanse. The moon hung somewhere in between, a scythe of pale light.
This had been one of the hardest days in his life, even counting the days that he'd spent on the damned deserted island or the time after Julian and then his mother had died. He would have loved to call Chloe, but knew that he couldn't. Had to force himself to put aside the phone every time he'd been halfway to dialing her number.
The scotch hadn't called to him so strongly in months, not even when they'd had that first fight all the way at the beginning of their friendship. Even then he'd been able to easily resist and find another way to soothe his anger.
But this time, it wasn't just anger. It was anger, frustration and misery. And if he was being honest with himself, it was also a great deal of fear. Something he hadn't known for quite a long time.
Because in the two days between the making of their plan and actually setting it in motion, Lex had deluded himself into thinking that, maybe, there was a way to keep the charade towards their parents while somehow continuing the friendship in secret. But not anymore.
Not after the fight they'd had inside his office, all the words they'd thrown at each other's faces and not after he'd seen her run away from him, crying.
That had been something Lex had never expected. They'd both known that it would take a lot of spite and vitriol to make Lionel and Gabe believe it was over, but when she had actually started to cry before she ran from the room, something had been broken.
He didn't even know if the tears had been real, but what tore at him was the possibility that they were. Lex had had decades of experience in dealing with insults and hurtful comments. Even in dealing with painful truths. He wasn't so sure Chloe did.
Of course the words she'd thrown at his face had hurt, but he could put them aside and move on, forget about them or acknowledge them, but not let them affect him in too deep a way.
But what about Chloe? Lex closed his eyes and pressed them tight together as they started to sting from the strain of staring at the stars. He'd called her a whore. He'd never sunk so low before. Not even with Victoria all those years ago, even though she would have deserved it. Today, he'd looked at Chloe and spat the insult right in her face. How could she ever forgive him that?
Taking a swig from his water, he returned to staring into the sky. Whatever hope he'd had that this plan wouldn't utterly destroy their friendship, it was gone now. Once again, he'd finished his father's job all on his own. Lionel started the avalanche and Lex had made sure that each and every last pebble fell until nothing was left to save.
~~~
The phone had been ringing on and off for the past few hours but Chloe didn’t even spare a glance over at it. She knew that it wasn’t the one person that she wanted to talk to on the other end so she didn’t give a damn about picking it up.
Chloe knew that it had to be her father calling to see if she was ok but she didn’t give a fuck. This whole thing was his fault and she knew if she picked up the phone she wouldn’t be able to stomach talking to him. He’d be concerned and call her ‘sweetie’ and try to make her feel better. Chloe knew that she wouldn’t be able to control her rage so she just let the phone ring and ring.
She was curled up in her bed and had her eyes closed. Coming back to her apartment had been the action that had finally broken her. She’d composed herself after leaving Lex’s office and had even made it through the day at work. But, when she got home and the whole place had reminded her of Lex….
There were tissues scattered over her bedspread and within reaching distance in case she started sobbing again. She had cried for the unfairness of everything, for the anger that she felt at both her father and Lionel, for what she and Lex had to go through because of their parents and for the way that Lex had shut himself down as she had screamed at him.
It broke something inside of her when she considered the idea that Lex had believed what she had said to him. But there wasn’t any way to rectify the situation. To explain to him that she hadn’t meant what she had said. She hoped that he knew that but she couldn’t be sure.
More than anything, she just wanted to hear his voice again. She wanted to hear him relaxed and amused at some stupid thing that she had just done or said. The tears started to prick behind her eyes when she realized that that would never happen again.
Any time she’d hear him from now on would be on the radio or the TV. Or addressing her coldly if they ever ran into each other.
Chloe would never get to talk to her Lex again. When she opened her eyes, her gaze fell on a picture of her and her father. She rolled across the bed and snatched it off of the table. Chloe threw it across the room and started screaming.
“I hate you, you fucking bastard!” As she started sobbing again, the phone rang. Chloe didn’t pick it up.
~~~
Avoiding her father had been easier than Chloe had thought it would be. She had called him back the next day…but when she knew that he was not going to be at his home. Then he’d missed her at the office. The messages that he’d left her in the last few days had been more and more concerned so she knew that she’d have to face him soon. Thankfully, they hadn’t been able to set up their usual lunch date for today so she didn’t have to worry about going over to his office.
On her lunch break, Chloe had decided to take a walk. She needed the break after being hunched over the files on DeHaven. There was something staring her right in the face and she couldn’t tell what it was. The man’s bio wasn’t adding up and Chloe felt as if she were missing something.
Then there was the little symbol that he put on everything. She could have sworn that she had seen it somewhere. And recently. But it was just out of her reach. If she had sat at her desk for one more second, she was going to go insane.
Finally seeing a bench that was unoccupied, Chloe sat down and fished her newspaper out of her bag. She took out her sandwich and started munching on it as she leafed through the sections that she hadn’t read in the morning. Mostly the ads for the various items for sale in Metropolis. People were always trying to sell the most random items.
Chloe failed to notice, however, that she almost immediately went to the sections on pets. As she had been doing for the last few days. She was so used to disappointment that she almost missed what she’d been looking for.
She blinked a few times, thinking that the ad was too good to be true. After making sure that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, she hurriedly got off of the bench and strode towards Pacific St. as fast as she could.
~~~
The last few days had been hell and Lex had tried everything to make it at least marginally bearable. He'd tried throwing himself into his work, but that had only had the taste of bitter defeat, since basically that meant working into his father's pockets. Lex was sick to death of doing that.
So he'd started dawdling, becoming slower, not very noticeably so, not yet, but soon enough Lionel would catch up on the fact and Lex for once couldn't wait to have it out with the old bastard.
It had taken a considerable effort of will to not call Chloe through out the last few days. Especially in the evenings, when he was sitting on his suddenly obscenely large couch and brooding, or watching TV. Or doing both. He hadn't been down to the basement since the last time Chloe had been there with him. Couldn't bring himself to even play with the idea of using the car he'd built.
What was it good for anyway, if Chloe couldn't see it? She'd gotten the idea in his head in the first place and because of her, he'd gone through with the crazy design that would allow an animal to drive it. Well, there was no such animal in his house.
Now, he was sitting once again on the couch and brooding, again, trying to not pick up the phone. It was frustrating to say the least. When had he become so fucking dependent on Chloe anyway? If he looked at it from an outside point of view it was simply pathetic.
Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to look at it from an outside point of view for long. He was simply a guy who missed his best, and only, friend. More than that. In the dark recesses of his mind it felt more like having broken up. Like the first time he'd thought he'd found the right woman and then ended up loosing her. Of course, even back then the reason for the break up had been his father.
The doorbell pulled him out of his dark musings.
Frowning at the clock on the DVD player, he got up and went to the front door, surprised to find Bobby and Anne Martinsen at his doorstep, holding a box.
“Isn't it a little late to sell chocolate bars for the scouts?” he inquired with a raised brow as he looked down at the kids.
“We're not here to sell stuff, Mr. Luthor,” Bobby told him, just as the lid was kicked from inside the box.
Lex's eyes narrowed immediately in suspicion. It wasn't unusual that they came to his house selling the most outrageous things for the Whitman Weasels Boy and Girl scouts. Anything from chocolate bars to light-bulbs had been offered to him at random intervals since he'd moved into the neighborhood. But whatever was in that box was moving. Not a good sign, where Lex was concerned.
“We founds your cat, Mista' Lutha',” Bobby's little sister piped up, grinning widely to show her missing front tooth.
“It's found, Anne, not founds,” the older boy looked down to correct her, but then his gaze went right back to Lex. “But anyway, yeah. Here.” And he held out the box.
Lex made no move to take it. “I don't have a cat,” he answered slowly, enunciating the words clearly.
“But, sir, it's got your name and address on the tags,” Bobby said, already starting to balance the box precariously on one small boney knee to reach inside and confirm that fact again.
Lex automatically reached out to steady the box as it wobbled dangerously, the cat inside giving a shocked and definitely displeased meow from inside. The boy finally managed to open the flaps of the lid and Lex could see a caramel colored furball glaring furiously up at them as the boy reached for the tags.
Things were already starting to fall into place when the boy started reading from the shiny gold tags. “Name: Thor-a Home: 1740 Park Lane, Whitman Heights Daddy: Lex Luthor. See?” The boy almost strangled the cat as he held the tags up for Lex to see.
Lex closed his eyes and shook his head. Only Chloe. “That's my cat,” he said and took the box from the boy. “Where'd you find it?”
The cat in the box, Thora, squirmed around inside the box before she finally settled, looking up at him curiously. Obviously, she wasn't quite sure yet if she'd fare better in Lex's arms than in the boys.
“Uh, uhm, err,” the boy stammered, obviously trying to come up with a lie.
Lex glared at him stonily, pretty sure it would be enough to scare him into telling the truth.
“Re'mber what the lady said,” Anne whispered in her brother's ear. Loud enough for Lex to hear every word.
“Shh,” Bobby hissed, giving his little sister what Lex could only describe as a 'You're so dead', glare.
“The lady?” Lex interrupted their little hissy fit. His voice was smooth, controlled and judging by the looks on the kids' voices, probably very scary.
If Chloe was still around, maybe he'd have a chance to speak to her, let her know that he hadn't meant what he'd said. There was no time to take heed of children's sensibilities, much.
“Uh, err, uhm,” Bobby stuttered again.
Lex bit down on his tongue to not laugh as the boy ended up on the receiving end of a 'You are so stupid,' glare by his significantly younger sister.
Sticking her tongue through the hole where her front tooth had been, Anne made a tsk'ing noise before turning to Lex.
“The lady said, to give you this and that she di'n't mean it and not to tell you something, cause you'd know anyway. Then she got back in the yellow car and go'ed away.”
“Went away,” Bobby mumbled at that point.
Lex bit down on the grin that threatened to break over his face. The innocence of children amazed him at times. Anne didn't even realize that she'd just calmly told him the exact thing she was supposed to keep secret.
“Thank you, Anne,” he said sincerely, hiding a smile.
So Chloe had just dropped in to leave the cat and been on her way. Part of him was disappointed, but there was no time for that now. Not in front of the children.
“Bobby, don't worry about it,” he turned to grin at the boy. “Why don't you two wait here, and I'll see if I can find you some chocolate?”
The kids' eyes lit up. “After all, you brought back my cat.” As if on cue, the sandy-haired furball inside the box started moving again. “I'll be right back.”
He strode inside, leaving the door wide open as he went straight for his office. Putting the box down on the floor, he made sure that the windows were closed, then left the room again, closing the door firmly behind him.
A quick detour into the kitchen brought up two chocolate bars from the last Weasels sale not too long ago and he returned to the kids at his front door.
“Here you go,” he handed one package to each set of grabbing paws, smirking at the eagerness. “But don't tell your mother about this, or she'll have my head.” Lex wasn't really too concerned about that, but he did not want to submit his eardrums to the torture a rant from Mrs. Martinsen would be.
The children nodded dutifully, and Bobby promised he'd make sure Anne wouldn't say a thing, either.
”Thanks again,” he called after them as he closed the door.
Releasing a loud breath, his gaze was drawn to the hallway that led to his office. He had a cat now. Chloe had bought him a cat. Bought it and roped the neighbors' children into delivering it. She'd even named it already.
“Thora,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “Suppose it's a good thing she didn't find a male.”
He pushed away from the door and made his way to the office. As he opened the door and stepped fully into the room, he couldn't help but grin. His cat was sitting on his desk, regally posing, queen of all she surveyed on top of a stack of paper, gazing at him with curious blue eyes.
What had Chloe gotten him into? Closing the door, he slowly approached the cat, trying to gauge her reaction. The cat stayed completely still, observing him carefully. When he finally stood in front of her, Thora craned her neck to look up at him.
Slowly, he reached out to touch. His palm glided down over the boney head, the blue eyes slitting in approval as he stroked his hand down over the smooth fur above the rounded back and to the softly swishing tail. Thora was really a beauty.
She started purring the moment he began trailing the back of his fingers under her arched neck. So he was a pet owner now.
“We should get you some things, then,” he mused aloud, continuing to pet his cat.
“I don't know the first thing about taking care of the likes of you,” Lex warned. After all, she was his first pet.
Thora merely cocked her head to receive some scratching behind one ear. Lex smirked.
“Alright then,” he chuckled. “Suppose we'll just figure it out as we go.”
At least one thing was clear now and it made him feel immensely better. Chloe had forgiven him his harsh words, she still considered him a friend and had extended herself and even risked their plan to assure him of that fact.
Well thank god they're working it out! And thank you for the update
yeah! they still arent speaking, but it is closer now. and besides, I was just as excited about the cat as chloe. More soon girls.
This chapter was both sad and funny. Sad because how everyone is in so much pain. And funny because how much Chloe and Lex really care for eachother. Exhibit A ThoraChloe is to funny. I can't wait to see how you get them back together.
Hope
"Everyone seems normal until you get to know them. "
that was a cute chappie
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