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Thread: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G - Complete

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    Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G - Complete

    Galvanized
    G-rated Lexmas Post-ep

    Disclaimer: I don’t own Smallville, the characters or plots. No profits for me, etc, etc.

    Distribution: I have posted these stories and have control of them on this site. I don't want them to be posted anywhere else unless I'm the one posting them. Please take down my stories if you have them posted on another archive site. I understand I can't stop you from doing this but I hope by asking politely you'll respect my work and my wishes. If anyone has more comfort and convenience saving the text of a story to their own computer, I have no problem with that.

    A/N: Several things to say about this one. First, this is more a vignette than a full story, but I’m going to call it done with this unless my plot bunny comes up with something unique. It’s a sequel to Sugar Burns Blue and is based on the Lexmas episode. There’s no Lexana, it’s a rebuttal of the dream. Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day (Dec. 26th) and if you’re not familiar with the holiday it’s not that important.

    This could be more polished and fleshed out, but I'm a little busy with some other stories. Maybe I'll take it down and repost a better version, but I might not.


    Galvanized

    Chloe sat up in bed and stared at Lex’s back, torn. He was alive and, even more unlikely, generally well. The surgery that should have killed him had worked flawlessly. He insisted the painkillers weren’t necessary and took only the antibiotics he’d been prescribed to prevent infection.

    The gunshot wound didn’t hamper him for a moment of the day. After signing himself out against medical advice, Lex had set up in the penthouse. All the employees were sent away, he unplugged all the telephones and barricaded the doors.

    She had finally gotten through on his cellphone late Boxing Day. The vague, distracted reassurance he had fed her wasn’t convincing. Chloe hadn’t even known there was anything wrong until she went to The Daily Planet. She’d overheard someone expressing disbelief Lex didn’t get shot every day, his tone uncaring about her lover’s life.

    Her tearful display in the hallway must have penetrated Lex’s extreme focus because he pushed a sideboard from the door and let her in. He tolerated her fussing for a few minutes, hugging her distressed body to his. But he wouldn’t talk to her beyond polite refusals of food and rest. She felt sadly grateful he was letting her sit in the room with him as he worked. Finally, long past midnight, Lex had turned off his desk lamp and gone into the bathroom to shower. He was standing nude in the windows, looking over the city inscrutably.

    And Chloe was in her nightgown in bed, afraid to breathe too loud as Lex became more and more indifferent to her presence. The penthouse wasn’t her place nor did it suit her. Without the warmth of his affection its luxury was negligible.

    "I’m going back to work tomorrow," he said. "You can stay here if you like, but I need to be in Smallville."

    She idly smoothed the bedspread. It would never occur to her to stay in the penthouse without him and she couldn’t follow him around the state. Exposing their relationship would ruin his campaign. Lex had no time for her even when she was nearby. Her endurance was fading and her ego could only take so much.

    "I’ll probably go back to the dorm. It’s easier to keep an eye on Clark when you live with Lana." It was the only reason why she was putting up with the other girl.

    He nodded and surveyed the skyline once more before closing the curtains. When he walked there was the tiniest favoring of one side, but other than that he was tall and composed.

    "I don’t suppose you’re willing now to tell me everything you know about his powers," Lex asked sardonically. "Perhaps as some kind of yuletide gift."

    Chloe wanted to do the right things for him and she knew somehow telling all Clark’s secrets wouldn’t have any good results. Until she could say what it would inspire Lex to do she didn’t want to pass that conflict to him.

    "Will you kick me out if I tell you something holier than thou?"

    He flicked off the ceiling light and got into bed, leaning partly on her as he propped himself up against the headboard.

    "Probably not. I am in love with you," he said, his voice a little fatigued. At least he was treating her personally. His body nudged her to lie down next to him.

    "I could tell you everything. I could arrange a demonstration, even, and you could see for yourself," Chloe said. "But I regret finding out by accident because it means Clark will never trust me for any other reason than needing to. Just like you, I already knew most of the secrets. I wanted him to confide in me. I want him to confide in you so you can put your friendship to rest one way or the other. I want to make you happy but I suspect it’s beyond my power."

    His hand ran over her back softly, a forgiving gesture. His attention wasn’t on her very often but his patience seemed infinite. He put up with her vacillating loyalty to Clark with little protest.

    "I know that sounds really condescending," she said apologetically.

    "I trust your judgment even if I don’t agree. It helps to know you see him clearly enough to point out faults."

    She sighed and found his heartbeat with her palm, cherishing it. He really couldn’t know the burden of secrecy until it was on him. It was probably the biggest secret anyone ever had to keep. Keeping her own was trifling in comparison.

    "I don’t want to lose you and I nearly did. Maybe if I’d told you it wouldn’t have happened."

    Chloe glanced at his shoulder and grimaced. It was badly discolored and looked painful. There were bruises from needles and IVs on his arm and a bandage covering the incision in his torso. She shivered at the thought of people cutting him open while she drank egg nog at the Kent’s Christmas party. She sat up and turned off her bedside lamp, leaving only the one on his side. She lay on her back and closed her eyes.

    If he’d died I wouldn’t have been allowed at the funeral.

    "You don’t want to touch me?"

    The question was dry but serious. She always touched him in bed, even when they were too exhausted to have sex.

    "I didn’t want to hurt you if I move around while I’m sleeping."

    She rubbed her eyes and tried to relax. Grief was pushing up her throat. Lex had nearly died and she wouldn’t have known until she read a paper.

    "At least look at me," he whispered, turning of his lamp. "I want to talk to you."

    She reluctantly turned back, tucking her face into the pillows. Trying not to be such a girl over something that didn’t happen.

    "What do you think I’d be like if I didn’t run LuthorCorp?"

    Chloe mulled it over. "Calmer. Less obsessive. Maybe happier."

    He shifted and wound her fingers through his own. "Would you expect me to be living a middle class lifestyle with a wife and two kids," he asked.

    "I guess it’s not impossible. Fatherhood would suit you. I certainly don’t think you’d have any trouble making ends meet without an inheritance."

    There was a long, thoughtful pause, then he adjusted the pillow.

    "When I was shot I had a dream about the future - a possible future anyway. I’d severed all ties with my father and the company. I was free."

    Chloe heard the awe in that word and mentally questioned it. Lex wasn’t constrained by many things and he mixed business and private interests. He let people influence his decisions for their own ends. Very few of them actually had leverage he couldn’t ignore. She thought a lot of his problems with his father might be solved with only one of them at the company, but then they’d have to build on their personal ties.

    "Was I there," she asked lightly.

    "You were - buying a Christmas tree."

    "Who else?"

    "Clark and his parents, Lana, my future son and daughter. My parents."

    She detected a note of reticence and felt the small tensing in his arm. "Lana was your wife, wasn’t she?" Lex stiffened in anticipation of a squabble, but Chloe chuckled.
    "I’ll bet you haven’t figured out why."

    He shook his head. "It doesn’t mean I have some romantic intention toward her, it probably doesn’t mean anything in particular," he clarified.

    She rolled her eyes in the dark. His legendary charm left him just when he thought he’d need it.

    "Not to mock your near-death experience, but was it more Dickens or ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’?" Sensing his cringe, Chloe nudged him with her knee. "Come on. We’re all derivative sometimes. I can admit it if you can."

    "A mixture I guess. I was this pacifist who had turned his back on two decades of Lionel’s goading to start my own little construction company. I won a humanitarian award for providing housing for the needy. I had a little house in Smallville, a station wagon and a family. It was really . . . normal."

    "It sounds nice."

    He shrugged, unsure what to think of it. "It was really strange at first, but the longer I dreamed the more I started to accept things. It felt loving, at least until the last part," he said hesitantly.

    Chloe pressed her lips gently to his chest and made a questioning murmur.

    "Just when things were complete and I had taken in everything, my mother’s ghost told me I wasn’t going to have that life making the decisions I have been. You know how in some dreams you feel things without a reason? I felt love for my family and I got used to them. I felt satisfied with my life. I never wanted anything to change and the second I got to that point it all fell apart. Lana died in childbirth. My father wouldn’t help me get her to a larger hospital for an operation. He said he had no son."

    She frowned in confusion, trying to sort through the chain of events. "I don’t understand how the lack of a helicopter is related to the decisions you’re making now," she said cautiously.

    "Because I didn’t - or hadn’t run for office and Lionel had disowned me . . . " Lex trailed off. "Okay, I don’t really know. But it was tragic. My wife died because I surrendered to my father."

    She leaned up on one elbow, looking down into his face in the dim light.

    "I don’t think you can take it so seriously. Your mind was giving you stimulation to make you fight. I gave you comfort with a happy little family, then adrenaline with grief and anger. Dream symbolism is just weird sometimes," Chloe told him.

    Lex shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat. "I want to make the right decisions. I don’t want to give up something without even realizing I’m throwing away a possibility. I nearly did that with you."

    His instincts still told him he could trust only himself. Chloe had to be tired of fighting her way back in after a shut out.

    "And in the dream did you give me a bright future?"

    He rubbed the inside of her elbow, not making eye contact.
    "I’d helped you write a book exposing my father as a criminal. It was due to be published. You were happy - with Clark," he added.

    She blew out a breath and covered her face. Lex’s hand paused as he waited for her to clarify her reaction. It could have been restrained humor or anger. The answer came in her wry grin, her teeth glinting.

    "Everyone but me is hung up on that obsolete crush. To an unhealthy degree, I think. Do you want to know why we were all paired off that way in your dream?"

    She sat up, her brain supplying the analysis that had developed almost fully formed. He nodded.

    "You put me with Clark to give me someone with a less complicated life than yours. However, you also put us in cahoots for a career-breaking way to screw over Lionel. In short, you kept me in your life and also safe. Clark is your friend so you didn’t want him to be alone. That’s couple number one."

    Lex might have argued several points, so she hurried on.

    "As for you, Lana and the family plan; it makes sense. Lana has those types of ambitions for her life. She’d be good at the normal thing, if a bit cliched about it. She’s also expendable."

    He blinked, considering the insight. The details of the dream could have included any woman as long as she was willing to be his wife minus the family fortune. "Maybe. But I hugged you and I felt it like I always do."

    Chloe kissed him lightly. "Steamy. Do you think we were screwing?"

    The dream Chloe was familiar in a very physical way. The long blond hair triggered a memory of being surrounded by it, wrapped in blankets and her flesh. Lex shrugged. Her whisper in his ear had been very intimate, though the words weren’t extraordinary.

    "So, why Lana?"

    "Your brain was trying to wake you up. If I had died you’d have been defeated. Her death just made you angry - galvanized you to fight. When you were trying to save me from Lionel you’d invested your whole self into it. You’ve never been that purely concerned with Lana, and the kids were symbols of suburban bliss, so you could leave them behind."

    Lex sighed. She might be right. His brain contained many strange thoughts he didn’t recognize as being odd. He’d been pumped full of chemicals and shocky.

    "I don’t know," he remarked. "Am I going to have to start calling Lana my dream woman?"

    "Not around me if you want to have the use of all your body parts," Chloe threatened, her hand twisting in his. "Thanks for my possible future book deal, though."

    "You’re thanking me for that when my subconscious married me to another woman?"

    It wasn’t the most flattering thing - she would overlook it by taking his blood loss into account. It wasn’t fair to put the blame on his conscious mind.

    "Those were all incidentals. That book to me would be as significant as the kids would be to Lana. I’m career first, you know that. I figure we have plenty of time to have babies if we want," she said. "Also, I don’t think money dooms you to combative misery, so with me you wouldn’t have to drive the station wagon."

    Discussion apparently over, Chloe adjusted the blankets over her bare shoulders and nestled at his side. She kept a little distance.

    "You’re supposed to learn from your dreams," Lex commented pensively.

    "Only the ones that make sense."

    They were quiet for a few minutes, and he spoke again.

    "I’m sorry I didn’t call you."

    That and the wait in the hallway had been crushing. He knew she couldn’t make too much noise if he treated her poorly. If he started actively using it to his advantage she might not make the effort to be there when he decided to let her in.

    "I’ll write it off as blood loss," she mumbled. "Count yourself lucky."

    Lex glanced at her pale skin in the dark, his lips finding hers unerringly. He was alive. Chloe loved him. Maybe a dream was just his imagination doing what it could to save him.
    Last edited by nonky; 18th July 2008 at 06:32. Reason: typos
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  2. #2
    An Accused Heretic Senior Member Kit Merlot's Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    Oh man, Nonky, but this was brilliant

    I liked Chloe's analysis of Lex's dream world--if only this could be translated to the show

    But I love how even in Lex's subconscious, he has a tie to Chloe--and the fact that they were obviously sleeping together!

    Excellent work.
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    Spunky Chick Senior Member hfce's Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    That was deep. I liked it but Lex has to treat her better the jackass.


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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    That was a great way to fix/explain/whatever that atrocity that was Lexmas.

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    NS Senior Member Senior Member letia84's Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    Even though this ended with a bit of hope at passing the dream off as just Lex's way of staying alive the whole things was rather somber.

    Chloe seems a bit out of sorts with Lex and hiding what's happening with them. The election I would assume drives her away from him. I guess there are several things about Lex’s life that drives Chloe away but it seems like Lex didn't consider that the election would be another barrier in his relationship with her.

    I felt so bad when she was saying how she wouldn't know he was dead until she read it in the paper. I would like to think that once he was out of the hospital he would find a way to get in touch with her but, after the horrid dream he did have a lot on his mind.

    I gotta say I wonder how him getting shot would effect his votes. Would people be more sympathetic to him or not. He did get shot twice during his run for the senate seat, as a voter I’m sure there would be some problems.

    "You put me with Clark to give me someone with a less complicated life than yours. However, you also put us in cahoots for a career-breaking way to screw over Lionel. In short, you kept me in your life and also safe. Clark is your friend so you didn’t want him to be alone. That’s couple number one."
    I like this explanation. He kept her but he always made sure she was safe. For reasons unexplained Clark always found away to keep Chloe safe in Lex's mind but then he keeps her by working with her. I could see long nights of exchanging information followed by hot Chlex sex.

    He blinked, considering the insight. The details of the dream could have included any woman as long as she was willing to be his wife minus the family fortune. "Maybe. But I hugged you and I felt it like I always do."
    I love that hug. Every time I see it and the whisper in the ear, I just wonder what the fuck are the producer of the show thinking, those two have chemistry.

    Chloe kissed him lightly. "Steamy. Do you think we were screwing?"
    I think that would be a yes

    The dream Chloe was familiar in a very physical way. The long blond hair triggered a memory of being surrounded by it, wrapped in blankets and her flesh. Lex shrugged. Her whisper in his ear had been very intimate, though the words weren’t extraordinary.
    I how could he forget secret late night romp with Chloe.

    I must say again this was great and very somber. Not so much sad but kind of doom and gloom to come for these two. Lex knowing he made a vow to win the election at all cost and poor Chloe just glad he's alive.

    I would really love the show to have something like this and see Lex starting to cycle into his evil ways and were would that leave the woman he loves. My god I type far to much for this. Great add on!

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    NS Full Member biscuits's Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    You certainly took away the sour Lexana taste left in my mouth after Lexmas. I loved the notion that during the hug Lex still knew the feel of Choe and that even the dream couple were screwing. I also appreciated you not dismissing the elements or importance of the dream to Lex's subconscious. It felt like a real, mostly serious discussion between two people in a relationship. Thank you for that wonderful post-ep

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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    I loved the dream analysis, totally makes sense with everything that was in the show. I don't know if the writers meant for it to appear like Lex and Chloe had a thing, but it certainly felt like that's where MR and AM were taking it, so I'm glad you mentioned that too.

    And Lex has got to learn to not shut Chloe out of his life.

    Excellent work!

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    Fanfic whore sinecure's Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    Excellent sequel to Sugar Burns Blue. I love the way you write Lex and Chloe. You have this way of capturing them and explaining things they do in their own thoughts and words and it's absolutely in tune with how the characters should be. Without all that AlMiles crap getting in the way.

    I'd love to see more of this. As others have said, it felt melancholy and solemn, like they're on the verge of something dark happening, and I'd love to see what takes shape in the future for them. Ahh. Except if it's bad. Heh. I'm already stressing over Zannie's Untouchable. Let's not break me completely.

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    NS Junior Member hellinean's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    I like how you made 'Lexmas' more interesting !
    it feels nice that lex explored his feeling on this dream and nt take it like 'real futur if..'

    good work!

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    NS Full Member ~*~Tasha~*~'s Avatar
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    Re: Galvanized, Lexmas post-ep, G

    Interesting dream interpretation. Better outlook on it than we got. That's for sure. Makes sense.

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