Truthseekers (PG-13)

[Catheryne]

In response to Adeylan's call at TBT to repost all lost fics.



Truthseekers
by Catheryne

Spoilers: None really, just basic SV and Superman mythology knowledge.
AN: Superman mythology tells it like this--Clark Kent is Superman, and he gets together with Lois Lane; Lana marries Pete; and Lex Luthor is a deranged psychotic villain. I'm changing things a bit for the character of Chloe.



Prologue

Her laughter tinkled in the air as they left the Kent farm, even piercing through the steady white noise of the rain. Chloe's delight spread over Lex like warm honey, and he found himself grinning like a fool. Helping her into her jacket, Lex waved goodbye at Clark. The interrogation was over. Although Jonathan Kent remained disapproving of how innocent and impressionable Chloe Sullivan ended up with the devil incarnate, or rather the son of the devil incarnate, Martha seemed to find something in Lex that assured her that their son's best friend was going to be fine and cared for.

"Maybe you should wait the rain out in the house," Martha suggested, yelling through the noise.

"Oh no," Chloe immediately protested. She ran a hand down Lex's arm. "We have to get going, Mrs. Kent. "We still have a bunch of things to attend to."

"Are you sure?" Lex asked her. "We can call the house and ask them to confirm with the caterers, the flowershop, the church."

Brilliant eyes smiled up excitedly at him. Chloe leaned in close to him, pressing her body against his. "I know that, Lex. But I want to go home with you now. I want to be alone."

He immediately forced his gaze away from his fiancé and regarded the Kent family. "Thank you for a lovely dinner. We hope to see you at the wedding." He pulled Chloe to the car and strapped her in. "Bye."

Martha chuckled lightly as the car left their driveway. "They do make a nice-looking couple," she said.

Clark nodded. "I guess he does love her."

Jonathan sighed. Gabe had been concerned about his daughter marrying Lex, and Jonathan had to agree. Lex had capacities beyond anyone's imagination. But seeing them interact together in his dinner table, he had to admit that the relationship appeared harmless enough.

Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder rumbled through the clouds. Martha looked up worriedly. "I hope Lex doesn't speed out there."

In the car, the couple leaned close together as Lex maneuvered his way through the almost deserted roads leading to the castle. "Aren't you sleepy?"

Chloe shook her head. "I'm too hyped to be sleepy." And then she turned on her seat to face him. The planes of his face were stark against the headlights of the rare car that would drive by. "Maybe if I tell you, then it would subside a bit."

A smile teased the corners of his lips. "You have news. Report, Miss Sullivan."

"Okay." She clasped her hands on her lap. "I wanted you to know before we told anyone. And seeing as I was going to tell my dad tomorrow morning..."

"Suspense is not for the news," he commented. "The inverted pyramid format, remember? Spill the facts, Chloe, before I die."

She stuck her tongue out and leaned back on her seat again. "Fine, Lex. Be like that."

He picked up her hand, managing the steering wheel with one, and brought it to his lips. "Sorry. But are you going to tell me?"

Chloe grinned again. It was so easy to deal with him. This was going to be an awesome marriage. "Are we still going to donate to the public library?"

Lex let out muffled laughter. Chloe was playing him, and he loved it. "You made me promise that yesterday, Chloe. Of course."

"Okay then we're pregnant!" she burst out.

The humor in his face vanished quickly as he glanced at her. And then he looked back at the road. Lex moistened his lips with his tongue. He looked back at Chloe and then cleared his throat. Veering to the side of the road, he parked the car for a moment and then took off his seatbelt. His fingers fumbled as he hurriedly unbuckled hers as well.

Lex cupped her smiling face in his hands, and leaned close to press his lips on hers. "Oh my God," he murmured. "We're going to have a kid."

She answered his lips with a kiss of her own, enjoying the adoration she was basking in now. Lex bent low to kiss her tummy over her blouse, and she ran her hands on the smooth skin of his head. "I think I want a girl," she said thoughtfully. "But a boy would be pretty cool too."

He shook his head and drew her into his arms again. It was with reverence that he dropped butterfly kisses all over her face. "I don't know what I want. I just know I love you."

"I love you too. Now hurry. Drive us home so I can show you how much."

Lex turned on his headlights and started out into the rainy night. A family. This was his long-sought after truth. And he finally found it.

[Catheryne]

Part 1

Lois Lane craned her neck and spotted her partner chatting amicably with the Rosses. Clark had introduced her to Pete and Lana when they were out in Smallville a few months ago. It seemed that the Rosses were celebrating their wedding anniversary here in Metropolis. When Clark saw them, a passing look of hurt crossed his eyes. And then he excused himself to say hello.

Her cellphone rang shrilly, and the people in the restaurant glanced at her before dismissing her presence totally. "Hello." The words from the other end of the line gave her that definite twinkle in her eye. "Are you sure he's going to be there?" she demanded. Lois nodded and wrote down the information. "He agreed?" she repeated in disbelief. Lex Luthor never agreed to be interviewed. "Oh okay." Her eyes flickered over at Clark. "I won't take him with me. Yes. Great! Thanks a lot!"

She picked up her purse and dropped a few bills on the table. This was a chance that she wasn't going to let pass. Lois walked over to Clark. "Hi." She extended her hand to Pete and Lana. "It's great to see you both again."

"Hey Lois. I was just going back to the table."

She shook her head. "I gotta run, Clark," she told him. "I'm going to see you back at the Planet." And then she sped away.

"Tough to handle?" Lana piped up, still looking gorgeous if not a little bit older. Clark was captivated.

"Reminds me of Chloe," Pete commented to his wife. "She has the scoop insanity down to boot."

Clark followed Lois with his gaze until she vanished. "Oh she's a little easier to manage than Chloe. Chloe Sullivan had to be the worst when it came to letting something big pass." How long had it been anyway? Two years. And he still felt that paralyzing way his heart clenched.

He was jarred out of his thoughts by the soft hand that wrapped around his. "Clark." He focused in on Lana's concerned face. "Clark, it's okay."

He patted Lana's hand, assuring her that he was with them still.

Meanwhile, Lois sat in Lex Luthor's intimidating office, feeling small against the amazing furnishings. She had taken down all the answers that Lex offered. Now it was time for the kill. "Why does it seem like you know Superman so well?"

Instead of the effect that she expected, that of Lex being shocked at Lois' knowledge, he merely sat back in his chair and tossed a pen on the desk. "I'm surprised your journalistic skills hasn't gotten you that far yet," he said. "Superman saved my life," he told her. "And took it away the very same night."

Lois was at a loss for words. "Curious," was the only one that came to mind, so she used it.

His eyes flashed. "It's not curious, Ms Lane. It's tragic."

"But you're here, alive and kicking," she said lightly.

"I can kick, yes. Alive? That's still on deliberation."

"I'm only after the truth."

There was a subtle beep from the wall, and Lex pushed the remote. "I have a call."

"I'll give you a few minutes," she said, standing up.

"No, Ms Lane. Please. You want a story on me. Stay and absorb." Lois reluctantly sat back down and saw the suit that appeared on the screen. "What seems to be the problem now?"

"We couldn't extract, sir. The owners of the property wouldn't sell."

"Up the offer," he told them. "If they still won't, then destroy them." Lex pushed the off button and the screen went dark. "We're all after the truth, Ms Lane," Lex picked up on their previous conversation as though they had never been interrupted. "This is the truth you found out about me now." He made a motion to the screen. "We all have a capacity for evil. And I've reached mine long ago."

"How long?" she said softly, knowing it didn't matter, but also aware that she had to say something.

His mouth curved into a humorless smile. "Say... two years?"

[Catheryne]

Part 2

His footsteps echoed through the silent corridors. Lex Luthor stepped before a heavily secured room and entered a series of keys into the small digitized screen installed on the wall. B L I S S 5 1 8.

Three beeps and the doors yawned open, admitting him into the black embrace. "Bliss Sequence Number 518 engaging," came the subtle voice of the machine. The room was suddenly flooded by blinding lights, which steadily grew dimmer until it captured the essence of natural sunlight.

The window at the end of the room overlooked the view of Smallville the way it was in the castle. Lex nodded at the sight in front of him. It was exactly the small activity room he and Chloe fixed up back home. Suddenly, the room was flooded by small boys and girls playing around. Lex grimaced at the noise of little children not even remotely related to him. He scanned the crowd of mothers and brothers and sisters until his gaze rested on the blonde woman at the end of a long table, holding a chubby baby in her arms.

She looked up at him and waved him over. "Papa," she called him. Lex's heart warmed at the sight. He approached the two, whose faces were rosy from the warmth of the candlelight. "Help us blow Alec's birthday candle!"

He strode over to them, his legs carrying him quickly to their side. Lex took the rather heavy one-year-old from Chloe's arms and kissed the top of his head. "My big man can't blow his birthday candle yet?"

The children around them, whom his wife had insisted they invite to the party, sang a chorus of the birthday song. He was delighted to hear Chloe's laughter as she urged their son to blow the cake. In the end, Lex was the one who had to put out the flame.

"Happy birthday, Alec!" she greeted, kissing both their son and her husband.

He drew her into a hug, so that he can hold his entire family at the same time. Lex whispered quietly into her ear. "When are these people going to leave?"

Chloe grinned at him, knowing how much he hated having their home invaded by all these people. She patted his arm and assured him that soon they would be alone. "It's Alec's party, Lex. Let them play."

"Not like Alec is going to remember any of them. Or even need to. They'll remember him."

"Oh you are not raising my son to be a snob, Lex," she warned.

He pulled her to where their son's nanny was waiting. He handed Alec over to the nanny. "We'll be back soon, okay?"

"Of course, sir," the nanny said courteously, already playing with the youngest Luthor.

Chloe looked on with jealousy. She hated having people other than herself and Lex interacting so closely with their son. "Lex..."

"Shhhh." He propelled her towards the door. "I need to ask you something first. We'll get Alec later."

When they were outside the activity room, Chloe looked up at her husband. "What is this about, Lex?"

"Well," he told her, "it's November. I was just wondering where I should book us for Christmas. New Zealand? Paris? You want to drop by Edinburgh again?"

There was a distinct twinkle in her eye as she laid her arms on his shoulders. "I want to be in paradise."

He nodded. "The tropics then. I can do that."

"No Lex!" Chloe chuckled. "I mean let's stay here. You and me and Alec just here for Christmas. That's my paradise."

"I can do that too." He leaned down to kiss her, pressing her firmly against the door. When he was about to brush his lips with hers, her image flickered in his arms, and the lights flickered dimly before vanishing completely. He was standing alone in the cold, dark and empty room.

Lex whirled angrily towards the door as it opened. His executive assistant stepped inside, almost curled into himself with fear. Lex could still smell Chloe, feel their baby in his arms, remember the way her form was sandwiched between him and the door. He was a hairsbreadth away from tasting her lips again.

"Wasn't I clear about the fact that nobody is supposed to interrupt Bliss?" he bit out.

The assistant jerked his head twice in agreement. He held up an obviously trembling hand. "Yes, sir. I apologize, Mr. Luthor. We couldn't hold it up any longer. We had a power drain."

"Fire the staff taking care of it."

"Sir."

"Tell the com lab to prepare. I'm coming up." With that, Lex Luthor left the pitch black room and headed for the elevator, hearing his assistant's frantic radio message to the floor below them.

Lex was quiet on the brief ride. Purposefully, he entered the computer lab. The employees immediately rose to attention at his presence. "I was testing Bliss #518 a while ago."

The head programmer nodded anxiously. "How was it, sir? No problems I hope."

"You hope," he said without inflection. "It was fine. I didn't get to finish it because of the idiots working at the energy department of this building. I'll try it again tonight. But I want you to do a bit of tinkering." The programmer nodded, already opening the program on the screen. Lex Luthor sat on one of the chairs. "Make her hair longer, about two more inches." The programmer quickly worked on the numbers and symbols running up his screen. "And my wife doesn't wear lilac. I want to smell ylang-ylang, Mr. Lee. That's the bottle of perfume I gave her last. That's it," he said abruptly.

The programmer nodded and set about changing the program.

"Create a new sequence for me," Lex commanded. Hurriedly, the man opened a blank file. "Christmas in the castle. Back home in Smallville. Just my family."

"Your father, sir?"

"My family, Mr. Lee," Lex emphasized. "Myself. Chloe. Alec. Put a tree in the living room. I want you to create me a large holoware, Mr. Lee. I want to be able to move about the entire castle. Fill it with decorations. Don't forget the fireplace, and the stockings. The works, Mr. Lee. I will be consulting with more details as I think of them."

Lex promptly stood up and didn't meet the man's eyes. He was an employee, paid to work for him. Lex hated the way the man seemed to look at him with pity whenever he stated the details of the holowares he needed created. He went to his own office to find his assistant waiting inside. "Leave." The simple word set the man scurrying away.

He opened a private door that only he knew of. Even the one specialist he had visiting regularly knew nothing about the existence of that way from his office.

Lex stepped into the cold room he had installed to be linked directly to his office. He drew his jacket tightly around his body and walked over to the long box sitting at the center. He ran his hand over the frosted surface of the mirror and peered down at the face inside. What would it be like to sleep so deeply and so still?

Lex stepped backwards and released the button beside him. With a loud hissing sound, the cover lifted and he walked over closer to Chloe's form. The small sensors attached to her temples were almost completely covered by her hair. He touched her cheek briefly and brushed his lips to hers. It felt so pleasant to him the way he still mildly felt her breath against his lips.

"I apologize for leaving so early and so abruptly, Chloe. I have fools working for me. At least here in Metropolis. Don't worry about a thing. I've sent some of the best people to Smallville. We'll be with each other again soon. If they can extract enough to use for the shot. You'll be back, Chloe. I promised you I wouldn't give up. You'll be back."

He pushed the button on the control panel once more and allowed the top to cover her. He had been warned that he couldn't expose her out for too long. Once again, Lex held his hand over the glass. "I'm having the Christmas you want prepared, Chloe."

Exhausted and cold, Lex Luthor retreated to his office and took a CD from his drawer, labeled Bliss #001. He inserted it in his pc and sat back, watching.

"Lex, wake up!" Chloe shook him heavily from the nightmare. "Lex!"

He reared up from the bed and saw his wife, looking anxious and very pregnant. He laid his hand on her stomach and felt the child kick. He gripped her close to him, so tight that she started to complain. "It was just a dream," he murmured. "It was just a dream."

"Oh Lex. You had a nightmare? What was it about?"

He could chuckle now. It didn't really happen. Chloe was his wife now, and they were warm and safe in the castle, with their son sleeping inside her, tucked under her heart where he thrived. He leaned at the headboard of the bed and drew her with him. She sprawled over his body.

"It was raining. It was the worst rain. We were driving home." She nodded, urging him to continue. "It was after you told me about the baby, Chloe."

"After we had dinner at the Kent Farm."

"Yeah. We were passing by that pile of meteor rocks down at the bend," he told her. "And then this flash of lightning hit it. And this green light exploded right there. It was on your side of the car. We were thrown. Clark... Clark was sent by Martha and Jonathan to check on us. He saved me. But he couldn't save you, Chloe. We saw you lying there, surrounded by all those glowing rocks. And he wouldn't even go to you! I tried, but my leg was broken from the impact. And Clark... he just sat there being afraid. I watched you knowing you were bleeding to death out there, exposed to who knows what kind of radiation, and he just sat there!"

She was silent for the longest time. And then she took a deep breath. Chloe crawled up over him and placed a kiss on the side of his mouth. "That's really terrifying," she said. "But it didn't happen, Lex. We went home and we made love. Then we got married and here we are, just a couple of months away from being parents!"

"Yeah," he whispered. "I love my life," he said, wrapping his arms around his wife.

Lex turned off the monitor and placed the cd back into the case. He slipped the holoware back to his drawer and leaned his head back, his eyes tightly closed. After a while, he brushed at the moisture that seeped out of his eyelids.

Two years tomorrow. Gabe Sullivan would visit an empty grave in Smallville with his daughter's friends. He wondered how long it would take Clark to find enough courage to use his x-ray vision and find that there was no one in there. It was, after all, the source of all the animosity that existed now between him and his friend.

"I couldn't let go of life support. Why couldn't they accept that?"

Clark had argued, speaking for himself, for Mr. Sullivan, even for Pete and for Lana. They would not understand Lex's insistence on keeping her with them. With all the callow naiveté, Clark had said, "You're not prolonging her life, Lex. This is prolonging her death!"

So he had been forced to pull a very Luthor trick. And he fooled them all into believing that Lex Luthor accepted the loss and let his fiance go. A closed casket due to the effects of the meteor rocks. Even Clark did not dare to come close.

And two years to the day, only Lex Luthor knew that Chloe Sullivan was alive.

Only Lex Luthor would push life to the limits, and laugh at death in the face. Because in a week's time, and millions of dollars' worth of research and meteor rock studies, Lex Luthor had found the way to jar his fiancé awake.

[Catheryne]

Part 3

Clark Kent can lift tons of steel with one finger. He was capable of running faster than a speeding bullet. And he can fly like a jet, or a bird, or a plane. But to his frustration, Clark Kent could not fix the boggling puzzle that was his computer’s connection to the printer. He opened and closed the troubleshooting window for the nth time and sighed.

The shrill ring of the phone jarred the man of steel from his glareathon with the computer screen. He picked up the phone beside his desk. “Kent.”

“Hey Clark!” the voice on the other line greeted him.

“Hi there, Pete. What can I do for you?” he asked warmly of his high school friend.

“Well Gabe asked me to give you a call.”

“Really?” Clark had not really kept in contact with Chloe’s father since the burial. It was probably guilt. He still couldn’t look the man in the eye when all he could remember was the night he sat on the muddy ground, weakened by the meteor rocks, seeing Chloe and knowing he would never be able to gather enough strength to wade through the glowing green rocks to get her to the hospital. It did not help either that at the time, curled in the ground with pain, Lex had hissed at him, “I won’t ask how you got here so quickly, or how you managed to lift the car frame from my leg. Just save my family.”

“That’s right. He’s putting together a small dinner tomorrow. Lana is packing our bags right now.”

“And he wants me to come?”

Pete was quiet for a moment. “Of course, Clark. You were one of her best friends. You were one of the last people she saw,” he told him.

“I didn’t save her, Pete. Even with all my gifts,” he said quietly into the phone, making sure that no one in the office heard, “I wasn’t able to save her.”

“Clark, what happened was an accident. You saved Lex. And I know Chloe Sullivan enough that I think she’s very grateful you did—even if he won’t admit it.”

“You’re wrong, Pete. Lex hates me. You weren’t there. I caused all the bad things in Smallville. I killed Lana’s parents; I brought with me these horrible meteor rocks that mutated so many people; and I killed Chloe too.”

When Clark had gone to speak with Lex about Gabe’s desire to let Chloe go, the adamant billionaire had looked into his eyes and asked him, “If you weren’t going to save her, why the hell did you bother to save me?” And Clark couldn’t even defend himself. Explaining his weakness would require him to divulge his secret to Lex.

“Clark, no one is blaming you. If Lex got on your case about it two years ago, just let it go. He was in shock. The man lost his fiancé. I’m sure he didn’t mean to cut himself off from you.”

Clark nodded against the phone, as though his friend could hear him. He inserted a disk into the slot of the CPU and saved his document. “I’ll come, Pete. I was going to visit Chloe tomorrow anyway. I’m sure Lex won’t even bother to put flowers on the grave. He never dropped by after the burial, did he?”

“Actually—“

“What is it, Pete?”

“Gabe. He told me… asked me… He wants you to invite Lex over.”

“What? I can’t do that, Pete.”

“Gabe said he wanted everyone there. Did you think he wouldn’t ask his daughter’s fiancé to come too?”

“We don’t speak, Pete.”

“Do it for the old man, okay?”

Clark sighed. “Fine. I’ll see you and Lana there.” He hung up the phone and took his disk to Lois’ desk.

He frowned when he saw the computer turned off. Lois usually left her pc running. He turned it on and inserted the disk into the slot. The word processor opened and brought up a recovered document. When he scanned the file to see if it was important, his mouth dropped open at the contents. It was details of an interview with Lex Luthor. ‘…he saved my life and took it away the same night…’

“I hope you have a good reason why you’re snooping on my computer, Clark!” a voice behind him snapped.

Clark swung the chair around. “I wasn’t snooping, Lois. I have printer problems.” She nodded and sat on another chair, waiting for him to finish printing. “Why didn’t you tell me you interviewed Luthor?”

A dark eyebrow shot up. “I didn’t know I had to clear a piece with you first.”

“Lois, I told you he’s a dangerous man.”

He expected a biting retort. Instead, Lois bit her lower lip and agreed. Slapping his hands softly away, she hit the down button on the keyboard, pointing out to Clark certain things that Lex had told her during the interview that unsettled her. “Clark, I think he knows who Superman is. I’m worried. He claims he has this capacity for evil that I think I saw a hint of.” She looked her partner in the eye and said seriously, “Lex Luthor will do everything to destroy Superman.”

[Catheryne]

Part 4

The small dinner party in Gabe Sullivan’s small home in Smallville was an informal and relaxed affair. Clark, his parents, and Lana and Pete Ross were in attendance.

“It seems like only yesterday when you were all just teenagers attending high school,” Martha commented wistfully. “Time does fly, doesn’t it?”

“I agree. Sometimes when I pass by Chloe’s graduation picture I can hardly believe that it’s been what—seven years since they all went off to college.” He turned to his three younger visitors. “How’s Metropolis life treating all of you?”

“It’s been great, Mr. Sullivan,” Clark told the older man. “Working in a newspaper is pretty much what Chloe thought it would be—hectic and unholy. But it’s still fun.”

“Do you see Lex often?”

Clark shook his head. “Not as often as I used to. But then—“

“I’m sure that Lex must have a very busy schedule,” Martha interjected, knowing how hard Clark took the loss of Lex’s friendship over something that she believed Clark was helpless about.

“Oh I’ve read enough in the papers to know that Lex Luthor’s days are crammed with activities, Mr. Sullivan. I bet he doesn’t even go out that often anymore,” Lana added.

“He’s probably forgotten about everything to do with this little town,” Pete said. “He’s not even here, is he?” There was a trace of unmistakable bitterness in his voice. “I didn’t think Chloe was that easy to forget.”

Clark frowned at his friend. “Pete, you can’t say that.”

“Why? Isn’t it true? He’s not even here, Clark. I would have thought that if everything he was claiming a couple of years ago was true, he’d at least have paid his respects. It was his fault she died.”

Clark felt his heart grow heavy at Pete’s words. It had been his fault, not Lex’s. Lana placed her hand on her husband’s arm. “Pete, you know that’s not true.”

Pete nodded and speared another beef tip with his fork, hating that everything they said was true. But still angry that a man that he learned to trust only after a few years would disappoint an old man the way he did. It was then that he remembered Gabe’s presence in the dinner table. He looked up guiltily at Chloe’s father and saw him sadly nodding while eating. His wife smiled at Gabe and said softly, “I know that Lex is mourning in his own way.”

~~

They clinked their glasses together and drank the champagne in celebration. Between them lay dozens and dozens of brochures and pamphlets containing tourist spots all over the world. It was Chloe who suggested that they go on vacation.

“You’ve been working so hard. I hardly see you anymore.” Lex had closed his eyes to fully relish the warmth of her skin as she cupped his cheek. “The baby misses you a lot, Lex. And so does mommy.” She had grinned in that typical fashion that she used, the smile that eventually paved the way for him to look at her again and see that Chloe Sullivan, who had once been an acquaintance because of his friendship with Clark Kent, had suddenly grown up and learned how to flaunt the combination of beauty and wit that took his breath away.

He pushed the stray thought that this was all part of a computer program he had had designed so he could visit Chloe’s mind, still active even with the state the accident had pushed her body to, and that although this was he interacting with her, all the sensations that he was experiencing was nothing more than his own mind’s creations, aided by the software that linked him to Chloe.

He watched her bite her lip as she sifted through the various leaflets and travel brochures before her, occasionally stopping to browse one or two longer than the rest. It would have been such a perfect life with her. He could have given her everything, fed all her curiosity and peaked her interest for more. And she in turn would have been the only exception out of all the women he had ever been involved with. Chloe would have known exactly what he was talking about, rather than simply smile and nod a vacuous head. She would have been the wife it would take to fill him so that he wouldn’t ask or want for more.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a child’s cries. Chloe turned towards the baby monitor beside their bed. “Alec is as loud as you are,” she said lovingly. She put down the brochures on the sheet.

As she was about to rise, he closed his hand on her arm. “I’ll check on him. When I get back, you should have decided where you want to go, okay?”

“I think I can manage that.” She sent him off with a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth.

When Lex returned to the room carrying the little boy in his arms, he stopped stock still at the doorway. His wife had changed into a sheer powder blue nightgown and was lying at the center of the bed with smile on her face that hinted at secrets she couldn’t wait to reveal. At the foot of the bed lay the discarded brochures. She held up the one leaflet that she had chosen.

He cleared his throat audibly at the sight. “You’ve picked one, I see.”

“Oh I did,” was her response. “And I just want to thank you in advance for agreeing to take a couple of weeks off in your busy schedule.”

Lex moistened his lips. “I should get Alec back to his room.”

That smile again. Lex took a deep breath. “I suggest you do that, Mr. Luthor. You wouldn’t want your son permanently damaged by what’s going to go on in this room tonight.”

He hurried to tuck Alec in before returning to Chloe. He sat on the side of the bed, and his weight caused her to roll over and press against him. She reached up and pulled him down for a kiss, opening her lips to draw him in. Lex was lost in the web of passion that she wove around them. She pulled away for a breath, and he rested his forehead against hers as he struggled to calm his own racing heart.

Lex met her eyes and smiled down at her. She whispered a kiss on his cheekbone and said so softly he almost missed the words, “You’ve given me such a beautiful life, Lex. Sometimes I hardly think it’s real.” Looking back, he probably would have preferred that he missed her words because the next ones jarred him out to a point where he would not have been able to carry on. “The one thing that could make it even more perfect, Lex, is if we can make another baby tonight.”

He pulled away from her and embedded her look of confusion into his brain. His eyes were stinging and his entire face burned with the effort to control his reaction. Without another word, he strode out of the bedroom and opened a door towards the yawning blackness that led to the doorway out of Bliss.

Lex paid attention to none of the employees who acknowledged him on the way to his office. Once there, he locked the door and proceeded to the hidden room where he sat on a freezing chair and looked at her face through the misty glass partition. It was only then that he shook his head in disbelief. “Even now, you still know just the right words to render me speechless, Chloe.”

The phone in his pocket beeped continuously until he pressed the button to shut off the alarm. 9:48 pm. The exact moment that the car was pitched off the lane. He stood over her and touched the cold glass with his free hand. With the other hand, he pressed two on his speed dial and raised the phone to his ear.

“I knew you’d at least call,” the voice was gravelly in his ear.

“I apologize,” Lex replied. “Actually, no I don’t. I don’t consider spending a night of inane chatter as the best way I could have marked the day.”

“I understand, Lex. I do wish that you would visit sometime. You don’t even have to bring her flowers. Martha Kent does it regularly enough.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Gabe,” Lex said quietly. “Bye.” He ended the call before the older man had even responded.

[Catheryne]

Part 5

Clark took off for a brisk walk outside his hometown. He had been around the area thrice when sounds of whimpers and moans reached his ears. He immediately searched his surroundings and found it empty. He used his enhanced vision and found a family of five struggling over the bridge, the smallest child at the brink of falling off.

Taking off his flannel shirt and revealing the suit he had been using to hide his identity in Metropolis, he raced towards them and caught the child before he hit the water. And then he flew up to the screaming relatives and handed the child to his mother.

“Superman. You’re Superman,” the teenage girl said as she tearfully approached him. “Thank you for saving my brother. We thought you were just a Metropolis legend.”

He smiled reassuringly at them and asked, “What are you all doing out at this hour? It’s unsafe, especially with kids along.”

“We were evicted. Lex Luthor took our farm and we have nowhere to go to.”

“Lex Luthor is in Metropolis. That’s not possible.”

“Superman, Lex Luthor has employees,” another of the children retorted, cold, tired and short of patience.

Clark frowned. “Where is your farm?” He was pointed towards the opposite direction. “I’ll take your somewhere safe and warm in the meantime.” One by one, he flew them to the Sullivan house, asking Martha and Jonathan to make room for them in their farm later. It amazed him how easy it was. Gabe was busy speaking with someone on the phone so he didn’t see him. And neither Lana nor Pete recognized him.

He then went over to the farm surrounded by LexCorp employees. He hovered above them when he felt the strange weakening of all his muscles. Before falling down, he flew away and changed into his normal clothes. He walked towards the area, making sure to stay out in a range where he still felt strong enough.

“Hey!” he called out, seeking to catch the attention of the guy who seemed like the head of the operations. “Over here.”

The man with the brightest orange of all the hard hats frowned at the intrusion. “What is it? We’re under deadline.” Still he walked over to Clark. “Can we help you?”

“What’s going on here? You can’t just take control of someone’s home abruptly, and in the night no less.”

The man removed a piece of folded paper from his breast pocket and presented it to Clark. “This is a public document. A copy was given to the family three months ago. They should have vacated the property last month at the latest. Mr. Luthor was kind enough to extend their stay, but we need the property now.”

“Mr. Luthor has lands of his own. What’s so important about this one?”

“Look, if you have a problem with this, you call LexCorp. My team is under a strict schedule. We’re just doing out jobs.”

Frustrated, Clark headed back to the dinner party. It was the throbbing pain in his head that alerted him to certain movements outside the house. Vaguely, he heard some of the children scamper to the window and point to a large dark truck passing the street. It was the same truck in the farm earlier. Coupled by the fact that he was nauseous enough that he wanted to hurl, Clark correctly deducted what Lex needed from the farm.

“Are you alright, son?”

He gritted his teeth at the pain that his father’s compassionate pat on his back sent. Clark’s spine felt so brittle that it would crack at contact. Soon, the truck had wheeled a distance enough for Clark to recover his senses.

“Are you okay, Clark?”

He looked up at the lovely doe eyes of Lana, and gazed at all the eyes trained on him with concern. “Yes, yes,” he stammered. “Gas.”

Pete smirked, although he had been concerned earlier. Only meteor rocks had that effect on Clark. But if he were to press the matter, people who were not supposed to know would be suspicious.

~~

Behind the glass partition, Lex Luthor watched as the team of scientist lifted the final formula—one vial from the tons of meteor rocks excavated. It had cost him four million in two weeks, but this was the day. They had tested the effects of the meteor radiation on living organisms, and worked their way until they could revive animals they have exposed and caused to fall into comas.

It had been a harrowing two weeks. Lex had been incensed in the first days, when each of the small laboratory animals would get killed after exposure. Worse yet, those who did not die from extended enclosure with the rocks would die after being given the earliest formula.

Until they were able to develop the solution that was the answer for it all. Apparently, all they needed was to add the liquefied and thinned meteor rock to the formula. It made sense. The history of vaccination told them to introduce a corrupted version of the very thing you wanted the body to fight. In this case, to jar someone awake from the effects of radiation, instead of continuing to try and take away all the foreign materials that caused it in the first place, the same cause should be pushed into the system.

The arduous process of perfecting the ratio, heat and viscosity of the final fluid took several days where it should have been done months. Lex Luthor wanted the job done and he wanted it done fast. But before he even dared to try it on Chloe, he had to try the same formula and see its effects first on mice, then on cats and finally on chimpanzees. But it hadn’t been enough. The animals survived. But Lex Luthor never thought anything was too safe with regards to this particular project.

The formula had to be tested on a human first.

And unlike the Green Goblin, he wasn’t stupid enough to test it on himself. He was rich enough to command the forceful testing on others.

When it was done, and he was assured that the formula would work and was safe, he sent all the employees of the building home. His team of scientists would receive their large pay in their bank accounts. Lex took the vial and slipped it into his coat pocket. And then he proceeded to the floor below his office and entered the latest sequence he had his programmers developed for this very occasion.

“Bliss Sequence Number 999 engaging. Thank you for using, Mr. Luthor. Welcome to the end of Bliss.”

The dark room burst into brilliant light, imitating the outdoors on a sunny afternoon. He squinted and waited for the wavering figure. Several yards away from him, she solidified, standing among the tall sunflowers that reached up to her waist. She was laughing and waving him over.

Lex almost ran towards her. He caught her up by the waist and whirled her around and around. Chloe threw her head back in abandon as she grabbed at his shoulders. “You came!”

“Would I have missed it when you plastered notes all over my office reminding me to meet you here?”

“They were a little in your face, weren’t they?” she agreed, grinning.

Lex dropped a kiss on her nose. “The moment I stepped off the car my phone alerted me that I was supposed to come here.”

Chloe chuckled. “Mad?”

“Never.” He pulled her with him to a spot where they could sit without getting strangled by the sunflowers. When he reached the place, there was already a blanket spread there, with a basket of snacks. “Lunch?”

Chloe leaned against him, his body warm on her back, both his legs pressing close to hers. Absently, she reached back and fed him breadsticks, and he savored them so much that his tongue lapped at the crumbs on her fingers. “Life can’t get anymore beautiful than this, can it, Lex?”

His lips nuzzling her ear, he responded, “Life can always get better, Chloe. Especially with me.”

She smiled at the thought. “You will never be content with what you already have, would you?”

“I will be. Not yet though. But I’m working on it. And I will take you with me.” He ran his fingers through the soft blonde hair. He brought a few strands up to his nose and smelled the scent. The geeks got the scent perfectly this time. “Come tomorrow,” he promised, “I have a surprise for you. I know you’ll love it.”

Chloe turned in his arms and met his gaze eagerly. “I know!”

“I don’t think you do,” he murmured.

She swatted him on the arm. “You’re finally going to answer me, aren’t you? You’re going to agree. We’re going to have another baby!”

He pulled her close and pressed his lips on her temple. “We’ll have as many children as you want. You can have houses, cities, newspaper companies. You can have the entire world! Whatever you want, Chloe. And it all starts tomorrow.”

[Catheryne]

Part 6

He stood outside the French windows of his penthouse and memorized the cityscape before him. Metropolis was a beauty, with its tall lighted buildings that kissed the black sky, and streets that never seemed to lose life. And he, Lex Luthor, was king of it all. Here in Metropolis, he was in his element. Here in Metropolis, money was everything, so Lex Luthor could take what he wanted, and hand over a few bills in exchange.

This was what he was meant to be. He had almost everything he could ever want or need. And tomorrow, everything was going to be as it should be again. She would be back where she really belonged. Who said money can’t buy happiness? Lex would prove them all wrong. Investments do work. And because of his success, he would do the impossible. Chloe would be back. They would have a family—a family they should have started long ago had Superman not killed her. Lex might not have been able to save the baby, but there were other chances, other times. As long as he could bring her back.

Something in the sky changed and Lex squinted to focus on the figure approaching. He put down the glass of scotch and stepped aside to allow the man of steel to land on his property.

“Would you care for something to drink, Clark?” came the smooth greeting.

Clark Kent shook his head, half in refusal and half in confusion. “What’s happening to you, Lex?” he demanded.

“And are you going to elaborate on this?”

“Lex, you are evicting people from their homes in the middle of the night!”

“Ahh, yes of course. You flew all the way here from Smallville? No wonder your face is so dusty, Clark.” Lex picked up his beverage and walked into the room, with Clark following him. “The washroom is that way, but you know that already.”

Clark didn’t budge. He surveyed his surroundings and was surprised to find that nothing had changed since he had last been there, waiting for Chloe to finish dressing up for the party they were supposed to go to. On the wall still hung a poster duplicate of a famous Luna painting that Chloe bought from the university bookstore. Lex had insisted that they take it down since if Chloe really wanted the picture, he could buy the original nineteenth century painting for her. She had been appalled, saying that they shouldn’t take away the artistic treasure from the land of Luna’s birth. They would make do with the cheap reprint.

“Haven’t had time to hire an interior decorator?” Clark asked quietly. His former friend didn’t answer. He merely sat down on a dark green leather couch on the far corner of the room. Clark’s eyes narrowed. If he remembered correctly, Lex had wanted the couch moved closer to the bed, on the opposite end. Now the couch remained where Chloe had had him move it so she could dump her bags and papers on it after work. It all made sense now.

Clark strode to the doors of the large closet and threw them open. Lined crisply were Lex’s various suits. Folded on the cabinets were his sweaters and shirts. At the bottom, the expensive Italian leather shoes gleamed. Clark hit the white button at the side and the clothes rack rotated slowly, revealing the stark contrast in contents. Chloe’s jeans and blouses and jackets and sandals, all in disarray, probably the exact way it looked like when Chloe hastily packed up her things to go to Smallville to visit the Kents and Gabe Sullivan and inform them of their engagement.

Well-arranged scenes played in Clark’s mind, of Lex Luthor stumbling into the penthouse he had shared with Chloe after the accident. The closet was still open the way Chloe had left it in her haste. He pressed the button to hide her things, not bothering to touch anything because she might be pissed that he rearranged the mess. Of Lex Luthor being informed over the phone that his fiancé had slipped into a coma that there was little to no chance of waking from, and staring at the cheap poster of a work of art taped up in their bedroom wall. Of Lex Luthor being confronted by Clark Kent and Gabe Sullivan, and told that they would rather take her out of life support than prolong her agony, then Lex’s eventual agreement and his collapse onto the couch, crushing folders and papers that she had left lying there.

“What the hell are you doing to yourself?” Clark whispered.

“What the hell are you doing here in our place?” Lex threw back sharply.

“You’re ruining your life, Lex.”

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I thought you were the one who did that to me two years ago, Clark.”

Clark winced at the reminder of his one great failure. “I would have saved her if I could. You know that. I loved her just as much as you did, Lex, maybe more.”

In a flash, the millionaire had grabbed Clark’s shirt and was hissing right on his face. “You don’t know, Clark. You don’t say that. You don’t have a right to say that!”

Clark could have thrown Lex off him easily, but instead he met his eyes. “Really. Well tell me this, Lex. If you did love her that much then you probably know her so well. What do you think she would say about you evicting children from the only home they know? What would Chloe think about you’re doing?”

The fury in his eyes went cold. Lex’s grip on him slackened and he pushed Clark away. Lex refilled his glass and fixed his gaze steadily on a blank point in the wall. The shift in the wind told him that Clark had left him alone to his thoughts. He went to the windows to shut them, and Superman, out.

[Catheryne]

Part 7

Methodical. That was what he was aiming for. He raised the receiver to his ear and listened to the report. And then he sent his scientists home. The plan had been set into motion, and it had come to the point that he personally chose to execute on his own.

All business in LexCorp was done for the day. He had given his employees the half day off to finish the job he had started. Chloe had been transferred to the sterile room where he would inject the formula into her and wait for her to regain consciousness. Lex Luthor proceeded to the room and stood over his fiancé.

He raised his hand and steadied it before finally touching her skin. His throat closed up at the shock of feeling for the first time in the two years and a hundred that her skin was warm, almost as though she really were only asleep for the day. “Chloe,” he whispered, “time to get up, sweetheart. You have a deadline.” Lex’s fingers stopped on the puncture wound where the IV connected to sustain her. Outside the hypothermic room, Chloe was just like another patient, who needed tubes and sensors and other paraphernalia that made him wince to look at.

His hand went to his pocket and he drew out the tiny vial and a syringe. He forced the trembling to stop but found it too hard. Briefly Lex thought about calling the head scientist back to the building and having him administer the drug, but he tamped down the urge. This was something that he needed to do by himself. If Chloe were to see anyone first, it should be him. Only him.

The syringe filled quickly with the green tinted liquid. He pressed a little to let out the air bubbles and then brushed the hair away from her pale neck. Lex leaned down and pressed a kiss on the warm skin that he was about to pierce, apologizing silently to her. The drug had to shoot straight to her brain, and injecting it on her arm or another part of her body would greatly diminish the effect. He was supposed to inject her right on the soft spot where where jaw and neck met, for the drug to be administered straight and forcefully where it was needed.

After pressing his lips on her skin for an endless minute, Lex straightened and raised the needle. He plunged it in and slowly pushed the contents out of the syringe and into her body. Lex placed the empty syringe on the table and sat beside her. He held her hand and waited for her to take a sharp breath.

The lights flickered around him, and then everything went dead. Lex cursed the department. He had replaced the entire staff there already and still they could not find out what the problem was? He stood up. Since he had sent everyone home, there was no one to check on it except him. Lex took a small flashlight and went out the door.

~~

Colors swirled in her head and even with her eyes closed she felt the nausea overtaking her. One moment she had been sitting in her son’s room, reading him a bedtime story while waiting for Lex to arrive. Alec had been growing heavy on her and she knew that he was already falling asleep. She was about to carry him to bed when suddenly she was plunged into this black, black hole. The next moment, thousands of colors were swirling masses in her sight, and the entire world was spinning. She found her arms empty and was filled with dread.

She turned to her left and to her right, but there were no real images to hold onto. Her son. What had happened to her son?

Chloe shot up from the bed and looked around her. It was so dark. What happened? It was then that she noticed how utterly weak she felt. Her limbs felt so slack, as though she hadn’t used them in ages. But that couldn’t be right. She had just been out with Lex in the fields yesterday, and there was definitely a lot of activity there.

Chloe fell back on the bed and felt the tubes running out of her arms, and the stinging feeling on her neck. “Oh God,” she mumbled. Had she been in an accident? Alec. What happened to her son? “Alec,” she murmured, trying to scream but finding no strength to do be louder.

She ripped off the lines on her body and forced herself out of the bed. She clutched the side of the bed and let her legs dangle off the side. Chloe was surprised to find that her muscles were like jelly, and she immediately slid down to the cold floor. “Where’s my son?”

The sudden flood of light blinded her. Her arms automatically rose to cover her eyes. The door swung open and she heard a frantic “Chloe!” before she put her arms down and looked up.

Lex had just managed to get the generator to work before he raced back to Chloe’s room. After everything that happened, he didn’t want her to wake up alone and without any knowledge of what was happening. As far as she knew, she hadn’t been in any accident at all. Two years ago was a nightmare that only he had. They have been living the life he had been feeding her with through the Bliss sequences.

Seeing the empty bed stopped his heart. He ran to where she had fallen on the floor and knelt in front of her. His emotions warred in his chest so violently he was afraid he would have to vomit. And then she lowered her arms and met him with tearful eyes. He reached out to her slowly, careful about scaring her off, and held her hands in his. “Chloe, it’s all right. It’s me. It’s Lex, Chloe. You’re going to be fine.”

The gathered moisture in her eyes spilled over and she threw herself forward into his embrace. “What happened, Lex? Why am I here? What’s going on? Where’s Alec? I need my baby, Lex. Where is he?”

He closed his eyes, hardly believing that this was real and not a simulation. He had finally done it. He had done it to make them both happy. “Shhhh. Don’t cry, Chloe. Everything will be okay.”

“Where’s my son?” she demanded.

“Chloe,” he said slowly, “there’s no Alec. At least not yet.” He tipped her chin so that she would meet his eyes. “There’s only you and me.”

She pushed at his chest weakly, her gaze sparking with anger. “What the hell are you talking about, Lex? Give me back my son!” She tried to stand, but her limbs wouldn’t carry her. “What’s all this? What’s going on!? What happened to Christmas? Aren’t we supposed to be in the castle now? Lex, what are you doing to me?”

“Chloe, listen carefully,” he told her in a firm voice. “The last two years you remember are not real. Only you and I were real there, the rest was computer fabrication. I needed to keep you with me, Chloe, and it was the only was I could do it…”

“Oh my God,” she shrieked, “you’ve gone crazy!” He was reaching for her, but she swatted his hands away. “Where is my son, Lex? Alec could be out there crying for his mommy and all you’re doing is feeding me this bullshit! Give me back my son!”

“Chloe,” he pleaded, not liking the tinge that her skin was taking, “calm down, sweetheart, please.” When she started hyperventilating, he wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but she kept moving away from him. He was trying to crawl over to her, but she was frantic, demanding that he give her back Alec, who was probably tired and scared and hungry—things he knew that she was probably feeling right now. He needed to calm her down. He took a deep breath and drew out the drug that the doctor had given him for this very likely event. He slipped her the sedative and carried her back to the bed.

[Catheryne]

Part 8

He let her hand fall slowly back down on the sheets covering her. Lex met the nurse’s eyes and silently asked her to look after Chloe, who had been in a catatonic state since she woke from the sedative a few hours ago. Today, Lex was not going to the office for the first time in two years. After the clandestine transfer to the penthouse, he remained with Chloe and did not leave her bedside until she woke, unresponsive. Only after the nurse advised him that she would come back after she had calmed down assured him enough to move into the other room and answer his calls.

Lex had never thought of the office he had installed in the penthouse as a relaxation place. He had been working since he was in his teens, and he had always separated the idea of work and calm. But after the panic that seized him upon seeing Chloe’s eyes open but unseeing, Lex looked forward to the numbers and figures and various problems of the corporation’s factories and labs to drown him. This pressure at least, he knew. This pressure, at least, he could deal with.

The sun climbed high into the sky and Lex never noticed the passing of the hours. He forced himself to work, to think of the millions of dollars rolling and the thousands of people depending on him for their jobs. But even while carefully reading through contracts from different parts of the globe, the woman lying in the room beside his was foremost in his mind. He never noticed when the sun started creeping down. Chloe must be resting comfortably now, or the nurse would have informed him. He had expressly gave her instructions to call him should any change occur—be it good or bad.

Still, he could not push the niggling concern in his mind. He shook his head and retrieved some of the files on the Smallville factory. Gabe had been doing well, even after Chloe’s loss. His attention, which had before been split between his daughter and the factory, had been poured into improving the management of the plant. In the past two years, Smallville had increased its productivity by one hundred and forty percent, and was still steadily increasing every quarter. From being on the verge of closure a few years ago, Smallville was now the most exemplary of the LuthorCorp branches.

He settled back on his chair and glanced at the door connecting the office to where the nurse was sitting with her. And then Lex picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number.

“Mr. Sullivan,” Lex greeted on the phone. It was always formal between them when they called within office hours. “I received last quarter’s reports. I must commend you.”

The older man’s voice was humble when he answered, “Just doing my job, Mr. Luthor.”

Lex nodded. Although Gabe could not hear him, Lex was aware that the man knew him enough by now to know even his silent reactions. All these years of correspondence through phones, emails and faxes brought the two closer than any man and his father-in-law could ever be. Shared grief gave Lex and Gabe the relationship, however grudging, of father and son.

“Gabe,” he began, “I really do apologize for not coming.”

“It would have been special if you’d been here,” Gabe Sullivan admitted. “But I can’t expect you to have the same opinion in this as I do. I know how you feel, at least. That has to be enough for now.”

“I—I’ll go,” Lex promised. “But I won’t visit just to mark a day, Gabe.” The name slipped off his tongue smoothly, and the older man knew that his superior hadn’t caught it, hadn’t realized. Lex was too far inside his own brain to monitor his words now. “And I won’t do it while Smallville is watching.”

“You don’t have to tell me all this, Lex.”

There was a pause. Not long. But for both men, it seemed centuries before one spoke. “Of course I do. You won’t understand me if I don’t speak up.”

Lex knew the other man was smiling now. “Why do I picture my daughter harping that lesson at you?”

“What I wouldn’t give to hear her nag again.” It was an admission that hung in the air between them. Lex desperately wanted to snatch the syllables back, lock them deep inside where it would stay hidden, safe from exploitation by others. No one, not even Gabe Sullivan, had a right to hear that.

It was soon apparent that Gabe had predicted exactly what Lex would say and do. He said, “I’ll disconnect the call now before you say things you will ultimately regret.” Lex wondered how the man could be so perceptive. But then again, he had seen it so many times before in Chloe. He now knew where she got the trait from. Lex placed his finger on the off button. Before he pressed on it though, Gabe continued. “You haven’t checked your email, have you, Lex?”

“No. I’ve been… busy for a while.” He couldn’t tell the man that emotionally he was in turmoil because he was able to bring Chloe back, but now she was staring off into space, her system in shock because of truths he hastily uttered in his exhilaration of watching her move again. Did he really think that she needed the truth now? He never lied to Chloe. Knee jerk reaction to her frantic questions perhaps. He was still the one in the wrong.

“Then download your mail, Lex,” Gabe said warmly, using the first name of the man who could have been his son, had fate not intervened. “You’ll see. You didn’t need to call me to explain yourself.”

In response to this, Lex merely turned off the phone and placed it down. He clicked on the mouse to do as Gabe Sullivan requested. As he waited, he closed his eyes and swallowed, still recovering from the tremor that coursed through him at the way that Gabe said his name to make it sound so much like ‘son.’ He smirked to assure himself that he was not affected, that he merely found it funny. He must be desperately to think like this. There were no two words farther from each other than Lex and son. Even his own father thought so.

He browsed through the long list of unread mail until he found the one from his plant manager. It was dated the night of the dinner. He must have sent it right after they got off the phone.

He clicked on the email and read the carefully chosen words, recognizing them immediately. “Scheler,” Lex murmured. Gabe had typed in one sentence, rather than wax poetic about history and psychology the way he usually did in his letters. But in that one quote Gabe Sullivan was able to extend his understanding of Lex’s absence, and tell him that he accepted his decision.

The single line read, ‘Pain is a private experience.’

[Catheryne]

Part 9

It was so cold. Chloe looked around her and all she could see was darkness. And then she closed her eyes, finding the stillness no different from an awareness of nothing. She took a deep breath and forced herself into the surface.

When she finally blinked and focused on her surroundings, Chloe noted that there was a woman sleeping on the couch. She recognized the room, of course. This was the penthouse. She moved here when they decided to live together. But hadn’t they decided to live in a bigger place? They’ve been living in a real house since they got married. They needed the extra room for the baby.

Lex’s words earlier returned to her. He had been disturbed. That was all she could think of. But why was she so weak? And where had Alec gone? She prayed fervently that Lex had just dropped him off at her father’s. There was nothing but terror in her heart at the thought that Lex had left the baby somewhere in his distress.

She saw a folded newspaper on the floor beside the couch. The nurse had probably been reading it before she fell asleep. Biting back a groan, Chloe forced her body to cooperate. She held on to the edge of the bed, and then the bedside table, until finally, she was able to bed enough to pick it up. The Daily Planet. It was amazing to her how much she had changed. Before she married Lex, working for this paper had been her primary goal. After finding out about the baby, her career hadn’t seemed so important anymore.

Bring on the hatchet, suffragettes. Chloe Sullivan had turned into Mrs. Luthor so easily it scared her. Had she just been using the empowered woman bit to fill the space in her life that Lex and Alec so easily occupied?

Her eyes fell on the byline at the front page and she caught her breath. It was ages since she last talked to him. Eagerly, she reached for the phone and dialed the number listed in the editorial box.

In the newsroom, Clark quietly encoded the article he had earlier written by hand. He kept running into spelling errors simply because his fingers were too large for the keyboard. This publication simply had to invest on computers with keys so small that he kept hitting two letters at once. His partner was carefully plotting a line of questions that she expected to fire at Lex Luthor soon. He couldn’t bear to tell Lois that Lex would probably not agree to meet her anymore. As private a person that Lex was, he would probably decline and send her a press release next time she called.

The phone beside him shrilled, and he jumped back in his chair. The brunette close to him smirked. “Too much coffee?”

Man, he knew a girl who could drink all the coffee in the world and have room for more…

Clark picked up the receiver and said automatically. “Daily Planet. Kent here.”

The voice was so soft that without his heightened senses, he would not have been able to catch it. “Clark.”

His brows furrowed in confusion. As he strained to listen, his expression morphed to anger and disgust. “Who the hell is this?” he demanded. His partner, who only knew a mild-mannered farmboy from Smallville, whipped her head in his direction. Clark was incensed though. It was a prank call. It couldn’t be. But how would a prank caller be able to have her voice? And how could she say his name exactly like she did? If it was a prank call, why did his heart jump into his throat and a rush of emotions fill him? He calmed down as rationale and feelings warred inside him. Clark took a deep breath and met Lois Lane’s concerned eyes. “Chloe?” he whispered into the phone.

“What’s going on, Clark?” Lois asked. Her partner shook his head to shush her. She narrowed her eyes and typed into her computer. ‘Clark Kent.’ And then she cross searched it with ‘Chloe.’ Everything can be found when you know where to look. Links to Smallville High filled the page.

She glanced at Clark again. His face was white. Even his lips turned into the palest shade of pink there was. She saw his hands tremble as he clutched the phone to his ear. She clicked on one of the links. They were in the same batch in high school. Why would Clark have such a reaction to an old classmate?

And then suddenly, Clark’s bewildered murmuring of the single name turned into furious whispered conversation. It was clear to her that whoever it was he was tenderly whispering to earlier, was no longer in the line. She strained to hear Clark’s side of the call, but all she could really catch were a phrase here or there that never fit with what she earlier heard. But that name cropped up so often she vowed to remember it. “Chloe.” He said it again. And again. Again. And then Clark looked at her and saw how interested she was in the call. Reluctantly, he spat words of warning to the person on the opposite end of the line and put down the phone.

Lois pretended to be reviewing her screen again. And then her eyes caught on a personal site link. She clicked and various prom pictures littered the screen. Near the bottom, as she scrolled, the picture formed itself. Her partner as a gorgeous young man smiling down at a lovely girl in pink he held carefully in his arms. “Eureka,” she gasped. The caption: ‘Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan on the dance floor.’ She now had a last name. And from experience, it will be domino effect from there. Clark may not be forthcoming with the truth. He never is. Lois Lane will seek for the answers by herself. This was her job after all.