Great chapter
Everyone is suffering so much... I can't wait to read more
Great chapter
Everyone is suffering so much... I can't wait to read more
Malu
This story is so profound and fascinating. I love the compexity of the plot and how you always manage to give it another surpising direction.
Still, the fact that you posted in the "Romance" category gives me the faith that in the end it will be happy Chlex :-)
Part 6 Crave Me
They could both pretend that the words were not hurtful, but they were both too intelligent for that. Lex quickly glanced at Lois the way he would never have bothered had she not meant so much to Chloe.
“I’m sorry,” his voice rumbled in his chest.
She smiled tightly, partly because as Lois Lane in Lex’s truth, she deserved the slur, and partly because as Chloe Sullivan it went against her grain to put stock on the idea that Lex could exhibit such unpracticed humanity. He had hardly stretched those muscles since long before she left him.
“Lex, I don’t really think that it’s a good idea to stay under one roof, after everything. You despise me; and I don’t trust you.”
His lips curled into a smirk. “True. And you no reason to.” He turned his attention to the passing streets outside the window and continued, “Late at night when I wake up from nightmares of Chloe burning alive in that attack, I get the urge to hunt you down and press on your windpipe until you’re dying for breath.” Then he regarded her in the darkness of the car. “Then I force myself to remember that Chloe had a mind of her own, and it would have happened anyway.”
She had to know. It was not a good idea to open that can of worms, but she really needed to know. “Don’t you sometimes also remember that she was gone from you long before she died in Europe?”
“What the hell do you know?” he whispered, the softness of his voice belying the rage that thrummed through each word.
“I know my cousin, Lex, inside and out. You would never find anyone who tell you straight out what she really thought other than me,” she said with such certainty she knew she had to tone it down. “She told me everything she’d felt since the moment we were reunited. Lex, you have nothing to hide from me.”
“She told you everything,” he said slowly, digesting the words. “Then you really can answer my questions.”
“Lex, don’t do this to yourself.”
He slid towards her on the cool leather seat and looked her in the eye. Chloe’s eyes.
Have you lost the bitterness
The bitterness that I can see in your eyes
Those wicked eyes
It was so clear. There was no denying it. Lex stared into Chloe’s eyes and she could see him looking at them mystified, as if she had solidified from the million ashes and sat before him again.
Awkwardly, Lex straightened, putting distance between himself and Lois.
“Tell me how she died.”
And what is it you want from me
A best friend or a tragedy
It's hard to get inside your head
“It happened too fast,” was her quick, practiced reply. She had been certain that she would be asked that question often. She would rather not remember. While everyone was focused on Chloe Sullivan, they could not realize how she had lost her cousin then.
He pressed on, uncaring of her turmoil. “Lois, my fiancé was a trained journalist. She knew the ins and outs of wartorn Europe. She knew which roads to avoid and had the survival instincts of a dozen men. I need to know.”
She looked up at Lex’s burning gaze and closed her eyes. As free of emotion as she could manage, she told him, “We were heading north and she… I wanted to stop or turn around because there was a slow moving car heading our way. And then I told her that it was more dangerous to go side by side than to continue along towards our base.”
“She wouldn’t just follow you if her instincts tell her not to,” Lex pointed out.
“She was driving the car,” she whispered.
”Step on the gas, Chloe,” Lois commanded.
“Lois, just stay put,” the blonde argued. “I know what I’m doing.”
The car flashed its lights, yet continued its minimal velocity on the other side of the road. “Chloe, step on it!” Lois yelled.
Instead of slowing down, the car hummed to life and picked up speed. “The faster we pass him by,” Chloe reasoned, “the sooner we’re out of the woods.”
“I can’t believe you’re running again,” Lois grumbled. “That’s exactly why we’re both stuck her.”
“Lois,” Chloe argued, “let’s not do that here. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in serious trouble if that car is what I think it is.”
Lois rolled her eyes at her cousin. “Of course.”
The closer they got to the car, the clearer she saw the driver. Lois squinted and saw the driver’s lips moving feverishly in a chant, with the driver’s eyes closed. For a moment, she wanted to scream. She looked at Chloe and saw her intently focused on the road ahead of her, pressing on the gas and speeding up.
In the split second that they were side by side, Lois closed her hand around the hand brake and pulled up with all her night, sending both of them forward despite the seatbelts and the car careening towards the car beside them.
“It was full of explosives,” she managed. Belatedly she realized that she had been telling the story through sobs. For the first time, she replayed the events consciously, and not in the uncontrolled environment of her sleep. “A suicide bomber, and it was meant for the base that we had just left.”
“You’re not telling me what I want to know,” he whispered. His hand closed around hers and she closed her eyes tighter at the sensation that she missed so much. He held her hand, and touched her ring. “Did she give you my ring? Did she mention me? What did she tell you, Lois?”
“I can’t remember,” she sobbed.
His hand tightened around hers. “This was the woman that I had built my world around,” he reminded her in a tremulous voice. “And you’ve admitted that you played the most part in her death. You will remember everything, Lois, because you’ve taken away my chance to share a life with her. You owe me enough to relive her death and tell me what I want to hear.”
“What do you want to hear?” she demanded, meeting his eyes now.
It's like the way you talk to me
Like we're just a memory
I need to be with you tonight
Lex Luthor’s eyes were naked to her again, the way they had been as he loomed above her as he pumped her full of his child, the night that they conceived Eric.
“That she said my name, even once, before she was gone,” came the whispered wish.
She cried out at the pain of scorching flesh, but managed to lift her upper body with her forearms, biting her lower lip at the searing burn.
“Lois!” Chloe looked around the smoke for her cousin. “Oh God, Lois, where are you?”
The car was shooting flames, and Chloe dropped onto her chest on the ground. “Roll on the ground,” she screamed. “Get rid of the fire on you!” She had not seen her cousin yet. Chloe felt herself thrumming with adrenaline. “Lois, crawl away from the car. There’s gas everywhere.” Chloe took her advice and dropped down to kill the flames.
The ground beside her blew up fire snaking towards her leg. The moment she saw how her leg was soaked with oil, she grabbed some sand from the side of the road and rubbed her leg until it was dry and abraded. Soon it will pus and moisten with her own body fluid. Now she only needed to survive.
Chloe turned to the site of the crash and screamed, “Lois!”
An explosion burst beside her, throwing her off her feet a several feet away. She fell into a crumpled heap right on the sand, feeling her entire body being ravaged by white hot fire. The pain was so much that all she could see was blind white calling to her. Before she lost consciousness, she closed her fist around her ring, then wept.
It was such a conscious action on her part then, because she had thought she was going to die. Chloe cried for the broken that would not be fixed, and she cried for the realization that everything she had placed faith on, of living and dying with the man she loved, would not come to pass.
It was something that Lex did not need to know.
You tried so hard to play the fool
Look at you now your all alone again
Do you find it hard to breathe
“Her fist was closed around your ring when she died,” were the words that left her mouth, despite her decision. In the back of her mind she acknowledged that if Lex were to take away anything from this, he would know that he had at least been loved.
The statement was so simple and matter of fact that she did not expect the reaction from the man that had indirectly killed hundreds.
Lex Luthor bent down and covered his face with his hands, then was racked by tight shudders.
She moved close and swallowed at the sight. Reluctantly, she wrapped an arm across his back and slid her other arm across his chest. Then she drew him against her.
“Lex…” she said softly.
He did not stop, but trembled so violently in her arms she feared that he would just physically fall apart in her embrace.
“Lex,” she hushed. “It will be alright.”
There was no response. Caught in his own world, one that he seemed to have been hiding from for so long, Lex was lost. The tremors, the tight, almost inaudible sobs, the way he hid his face to the world.
He was protected at all costs.
And now you've gone and left me here
Hope that I would disappear
And forget that we ever met at all
The car stopped in front of Lex’s building, and she looked down at him still curled against her.
“Lex, we’re here,” she whispered.
He extricated himself from her embrace but did not straighten. Instead, he rested his elbows on his thighs and placed his fingers on his temples, still hiding his eyes from her with his hands.
Crave me again
Won't you stay with me till the bitter end
Crave me
Stay with me
“Please go on upstairs. I’ve made arrangements for the guest bedroom to be prepared,” he said in his hoarse voice.
“I’m really not comfortable with—“
“Please,” he repeated.
One night. She’d give him that. She was unwilling to leave him alone tonight after this. “Fine,” she surrendered. She got off the vehicle and looked back at him. “Come on.”
“I’ll be there soon,” he told her. Then he picked up the phone beside his door. “Jared,” he said, and for once Chloe realized that he still had in his employ the man who had taken Lex around the city eight times before Lex realized that she had truly left him. “Let’s drive around.”
She slammed the door shut and looked up at the tall building that was now Lex’s home. She missed the house. It was their life, and now he was back living at the top of the world, so far from their dream world.
Chloe turned and watched the car drive away.
Lex was not the man she had fallen in love with. She needed to remember that. Yet there were times, just like tonight, that she wasn’t sure anymore.
Come back to me
Crave me
And it's you and me
Chloe walked into the building and rode the elevator to the penthouse. The doors opened to reveal the posh and luxurious suite that housed all that Lex was as the CEO of a dollar corporation, with nothing to represent who he had been when he was with her.
This was Lex Luthor today.
She had accepted it once, painfully, and that was the reason that she left. Chloe walked over to the glass windows and stared out at the black sky. A figure in blue and red zipped through the sky. She placed her palm against the glass.
And it's you and me
You’re my only desire
Heaving a sigh, Chloe proceeded to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. From memory, she took items and laid them on the table, then proceeded to lay ingredients on top of each other, making a thick and healthy sandwich.
It would not take long for Lex to come home. She was going to retreat to the guest bedroom and stay the night, because it would be too emotional to argue with Lex tonight. Tomorrow, she would leave, and try as much as she could to live her life and stay clear of him.
It was the only way he would recover; and the only way she could pick up the pieces.
Chloe proceeded to the first door she saw and opened the door, to reveal a masculine room of black silk sheets and a pair of boxers thrown on the arm of a chair. It left little doubt that this was not her room. She stepped inside and pulled the ring off her finger. She placed it on the side table to leave no doubt of what it meant. She was letting this life go, and giving Lex the closure of holding the ring in his hand.
She picked up the picture frame, and saw herself and Eric waving to the camera. Her fingertips traced the smile on her son’s face.
Crave me again
Won't you stay with me till the bitter end
Won't you crave me again
He is half the man I am
He came back from the drive, emotionally and physically drained. Lex flipped on the lights to his cold apartment. He was sure that she would be asleep, probably heading straight to bed the moment she walked in. On his way to get some water, he saw the covered plate on the table. When he lifted the cover, there sat a sandwich.
The door of his bedroom swung open, and he looked up to see Lois, teary-eyed as she held the photograph that had been the last thing he looked at at night, before he closed his eyes against his lonely world.
He did not greet her, but nodded as he lifted the sandwich to his mouth and took a bite.
The exact combination of ingredients that he bit into was the same as the one he had made with Chloe one weekend once upon a time.
Crave me again
tbc
WoW!!!! So, she finally slipped up a bit. I hope this can somehow work out because it's just too sad this way. They still love each other despite everything. Can't wait for more.
This is such a lovely story, I can't wait to find out how Lex is goinng to react if/when he finds out that she's actually Chloe
So is Lex going to realize the truth? Better yet is he going to ask her or is he going to let her live this life for a while until she can feel like she can trust him again? I feel bad for Chloe for feeling that she still needs to hide herself from Lex and having to take Lois' life all the while getting a guilt trip about Lois taking Chloe's life. I also feel for Lex who is obviously hurting and despite the things he's dont, that doesn't mean that he's not allowed to genuinely grieve or be looked at as if everything he feels is an act.
That was wonderful
Did she make the same sandwich on purpose???
I can't wait to see him discovering that she's his Chloe
Malu
I understand Chloe’s scepticism over here. I probably wouldn’t have accepted Lex’s responses at face value either. I would have desperately WANTED to believe he has suddenly turned over ‘from the dark side’, but I would have been constantly looking for a hidden agenda.She smiled tightly, partly because as Lois Lane in Lex’s truth, she deserved the slur, and partly because as Chloe Sullivan it went against her grain to put stock on the idea that Lex could exhibit such unpracticed humanity. He had hardly stretched those muscles since long before she left him.
Surprisingly enough, it was Lex admitting that he had to fight the urge to choke the life out of Lois that made me trust him just a ‘little’ bit more. If he had claimed that he had just ‘forgiven’ Lois, or even if he had admitted that he didn’t believe she was at fault… But he didn’t. So, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt (for the time being).“Lex, I don’t really think that it’s a good idea to stay under one roof, after everything. You despise me; and I don’t trust you.”
His lips curled into a smirk. “True. And you no reason to.” He turned his attention to the passing streets outside the window and continued, “Late at night when I wake up from nightmares of Chloe burning alive in that attack, I get the urge to hunt you down and press on your windpipe until you’re dying for breath.” Then he regarded her in the darkness of the car. “Then I force myself to remember that Chloe had a mind of her own, and it would have happened anyway.”
I get the feeling that THIS was the real reason why Lex didn’t hire snipers to stand outside Lois’s window the morning after she returned. He just needed to know about his wife’s final moments.“She told you everything,” he said slowly, digesting the words. “Then you really can answer my questions.”
But I’m still a little wary. Isn’t it possible that he will hire the snipers (or bombers, garrotters, sadistic switchbladed teens) to take care of Lois AFTER he manages to get the information he wants from her?
Poor Chloe. I knew she was in a delicate emotional state. But I always attributed that to fear and paranoia about having her ‘secret identity’ yanked off. I forgot that she was also grieving for a cousin that she undoubtedly loved very much.“It happened too fast,” was her quick, practiced reply. She had been certain that she would be asked that question often. She would rather not remember. While everyone was focused on Chloe Sullivan, they could not realize how she had lost her cousin then.
It was a little difficult keeping track of whether Chloe was talking about her own or Lois’s actions, and I had to read through her explanation a couple of times before I could form a clear picture of who did what. But I get that was probably because Chloe herself must have been confused trying to get the narrative across clearly without tripping herself up.She looked up at Lex’s burning gaze and closed her eyes. As free of emotion as she could manage, she told him, “We were heading north and she… I wanted to stop or turn around because there was a slow moving car heading our way. And then I told her that it was more dangerous to go side by side than to continue along towards our base.”
“She wouldn’t just follow you if her instincts tell her not to,” Lex pointed out.
“She was driving the car,” she whispered.
I always wondered about Lois’s motivations for going after Chloe, presumably to bring her back home ‘as ordered by Lex’. But I get the impression Lois had her own reasons for wanting her cousin to come back. Lois probably wanted Chloe to go back and have a proper final confrontation with Lex, and then get on with her life instead of just running away from everything.“I can’t believe you’re running again,” Lois grumbled. “That’s exactly why we’re both stuck her.”
“Lois,” Chloe argued, “let’s not do that here. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in serious trouble if that car is what I think it is.”
Even now, Chloe is still running, and she’s using Lois to do so. I understand why it would be so tempting for her to hide and spend some time recovering before confronting her husband again, but I hope she manages to find her courage and strength again.
So, now we finally know for sure… it was Lois’s panicked reaction that resulted in the accident.In the split second that they were side by side, Lois closed her hand around the hand brake and pulled up with all her night, sending both of them forward despite the seatbelts and the car careening towards the car beside them.
“It was full of explosives,” she managed. Belatedly she realized that she had been telling the story through sobs. For the first time, she replayed the events consciously, and not in the uncontrolled environment of her sleep. “A suicide bomber, and it was meant for the base that we had just left.”
I really liked the parallels Chloe is drawing over here about the man she used to love, and this desperate human being standing before her. Even if she doesn’t want to be with him anymore, even if she’s now afraid of him… she still loves him.Lex Luthor’s eyes were naked to her again, the way they had been as he loomed above her as he pumped her full of his child, the night that they conceived Eric.
“That she said my name, even once, before she was gone,” came the whispered wish.
I want to cry. For both of them. What a mess they have made of what used to be such a wonderful marriage. Mostly Lex’s fault of course, he has a LOT to make up for to prove himself worthy of being Chloe’s husband again.
I liked this. The visceral details about how, even though Chloe survived the crash, painful it was for her to move herself to safety and apply some war-field medical aid on herself. VERY nice details. It made it seem so much more real, and satisfying.The ground beside her blew up fire snaking towards her leg. The moment she saw how her leg was soaked with oil, she grabbed some sand from the side of the road and rubbed her leg until it was dry and abraded. Soon it will pus and moisten with her own body fluid. Now she only needed to survive.
Chloe turned to the site of the crash and screamed, “Lois!”
I’m glad Chloe decided to exercise a bit of mercy for poor Lex. The poor man might not have deserved it, but he needed to know the truth… that (in the moments when she thought she was dying) his wife was thinking of him.“Her fist was closed around your ring when she died,” were the words that left her mouth, despite her decision. In the back of her mind she acknowledged that if Lex were to take away anything from this, he would know that he had at least been loved.
The statement was so simple and matter of fact that she did not expect the reaction from the man that had indirectly killed hundreds.
Lex Luthor bent down and covered his face with his hands, then was racked by tight shudders.
I can’t believe Lex actually broke down like that. Especially in front of a woman he regards with hate and contempt. He must have been in a truly desperate state to allow himself to appear weak and vulnerable like this.
It might not have been the smartest move to compromise her ‘secret identity’ by comforting Lex like this, but faced with this display of weakness and grief, how else could Chloe have reacted. We know she still loves the guy, and seeing him hurting like this must be killing her.“Lex…” she said softly.
He did not stop, but trembled so violently in her arms she feared that he would just physically fall apart in her embrace.
“Lex,” she hushed. “It will be alright.”
There was no response. Caught in his own world, one that he seemed to have been hiding from for so long, Lex was lost. The tremors, the tight, almost inaudible sobs, the way he hid his face to the world.
He was protected at all costs.
This surprised me. But it seems like Lex’s offer to ‘take care of Chloe’s existing family’ was a legitimate one that he actually plans to honour. How about that?“Please go on upstairs. I’ve made arrangements for the guest bedroom to be prepared,” he said in his hoarse voice.
“I’m really not comfortable with—“
“Please,” he repeated.
It seems like there’s a chance that Lex can earn Chloe’s trust again after all. Excellent!
Lex is acting sweet and considerate towards a person WITHOUT any hidden agendas? I can see why Chloe might be falling for him again. If only she (and the readers) knew this kind of behaviour wasn’t just a temporary phase he was going through.Lex was not the man she had fallen in love with. She needed to remember that. Yet there were times, just like tonight, that she wasn’t sure anymore.
I REALLY loved this part about how Lex’s penthouse was a reflection of himself, and how it reinforced Chloe’s resolve to not get together with the man he had made himself into. It was a subtle, but powerful way of showing why Chloe was unhappy, and why she left in the first place.Chloe walked into the building and rode the elevator to the penthouse. The doors opened to reveal the posh and luxurious suite that housed all that Lex was as the CEO of a dollar corporation, with nothing to represent who he had been when he was with her.
This was Lex Luthor today.
She had accepted it once, painfully, and that was the reason that she left. Chloe walked over to the glass windows and stared out at the black sky. A figure in blue and red zipped through the sky. She placed her palm against the glass.
WOW! That was quite an exciting ending to the chapter. Suddenly ALL the clues have come together for Lex to be ‘probably’ able to form a clear picture of the truth.He came back from the drive, emotionally and physically drained. Lex flipped on the lights to his cold apartment. He was sure that she would be asleep, probably heading straight to bed the moment she walked in. On his way to get some water, he saw the covered plate on the table. When he lifted the cover, there sat a sandwich.
The door of his bedroom swung open, and he looked up to see Lois, teary-eyed as she held the photograph that had been the last thing he looked at at night, before he closed his eyes against his lonely world.
He did not greet her, but nodded as he lifted the sandwich to his mouth and took a bite.
The exact combination of ingredients that he bit into was the same as the one he had made with Chloe one weekend once upon a time.
Then again, perhaps not… Chloe crying over a picture of Eric might be dismissed as ‘Lois’ crying over a picture of the kin she has lost. And the sandwich, perhaps Lex will dismiss it believing that Chloe must have taught Lois how to put together those specific ingredients.
The situation can go either way, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. But whatever the case, Chloe and Lex have a LOT of issues to work out before they can trust each other again. In fact, it might actually get HARDER for Lex to prove he’s a changed man if he reveals that he knows who ‘Lois’ really is. Chloe will believe that any change in behaviour after his revelation will only be an act put on to ‘win her over’ until she settles into a life with him again.
Phew. A lot more hard stuff to be taken care of before the Chlex happens, and I’m looking forward to every suspense-filled angsty moment of it. Please update soon.
Part 7 Creep
She offered a trembling smile. His steady gaze that had traces of doubt unsettled her. “Glad to see you’re back,” she managed as emotionlessly as she could, which was a great effort given the tight constraint of her throat. “I hope I got the sandwich correct. Chloe said it was your favorite.”
His gaze wavered for a moment, as if the answer had taken him off guard. “It’s good. You got it down perfectly.”
She waited a bit before nodding and turning away. His eyes followed her as she vanished into the corridor. The moment that she was gone from her sight, Lex tossed the half-eaten sandwich into the trash. He shook his head free of inane fantasies. It was time to burn out the toxins of the day, the feelings of deprivation that consumed him, and set everything to rest.
He had done the last thing he needed to close the book.
If she could see all this, she would ask for nothing more, he thought as he entered his workout room and started unbuttoning the dress shirt he wore. Lex shrugged off the expensive clothing and dropped the shirt on the floor. He loosened his belt and took it off. Standing in the middle of the makeshift gym in office slacks and Italian leather shoes, Lex looked out of place in the space that had only a treadmill, a bike and a boxing sandbag.
Slowly he wrapped his fists in bandage. His movements were smooth, slow. Then suddenly his fist flew and slammed against the bag with a grunt. Punch after punch he threw his weight against the boxing bag, his rhythm punctuated only by grunts of effort, not pausing even for two second intervals, he hit until he could not hit more.
As sweat poured from his body, drenching his naked torso, his vision darkened at the edges until he could see close to nothing. Still he continued the beating that was more violent towards his body than towards the target. His breath came in loud gasps and his chest tightened until he fell onto his knees, his head hanging from his shoulders.
It took several moments to regain his breath, after which he raised his face towards the ceiling, still panting.
“This has got to be enough for you,” he gasped. Lex could hear his heart’s violent beating in his ear. “Because seeing her every day is almost more than I can take.” It’s her eyes—her fucking stolen eyes.
When you were here before,
Couldn't look you in the eyes
You're just like an angel,
your skin makes me cry
When Clark remembered her, it was easy to glare at the woman who had effectively taken her place in their lives. Lois arrived in the Daily Planet office and took a seat in Chloe’s old chair again, turned on the old computer and met his eyes.
“You do know that we would eventually have to work together, don’t you?”
“We’re partners,” Lois admitted grudgingly. “Perry hates me.”
Clark gave her a smile of discomfort. He took her words as a cue that maybe, they could be friends, and everything would be fine. “I’m sorry about what I said to you your first day back.” He shrugged. “I think I have unattended angst.”
“You lost your friend,” she gave him as his own excuse. “I’m sure you could have been worse, given the circumstances.”
“It’s not just that. We weren’t,” he hesitated,” we weren’t just that.”
She looked up at him in shock, at the words he admitted, of a truth she had tried to bleed out of her body when she had the chance. Her greatest mistake looked her in the eye. “ I don’t want to hear about it,” she choked.
“I have to say it. It’s the only way I can explain why I was the way I was.”
“Clark, I understand. Believe me, you don’t have to confess anything to me,” she pleaded.
He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head, but the images were straight from a dream and they kept coming back over and over again. “Sometimes I wonder if it will help me if I tell Lex.”
“No,” she said sharply. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“I really thought when she came back that maybe, maybe we’d be together.”
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fucking special
”Thank you,” Clark gasped, with his face buried in her hair.
Chloe closed her eyes and swallowed deeply as she achieved her own quiet release. Her heart thundered in her chest. Her hands were splayed across Clark’s sweaty bare back. Gently, she moved her arms so that her palms would rest on his chest. “Get off, Clark,” she whispered. “I need to go.”
“You can sleep, Chlo,” he assured her. “I won’t go anywhere.”
“Clark, get up,” she repeated more firmly. “I’m going to wash up.”
Reluctantly he pulled himself up, leaving her body and wincing at the way she quickly curled herself into a ball. Chloe grasped for the shirt he had discarded on the floor and pulled it over her shoulders, hastily buttoning the front so that it was uneven at the hem.
Chloe padded across the motel room towards the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She turned on the shower and turned it to hot. While she was waiting for the water to heat up, Chloe fumbled with the buttons of Clark’s shirt and dropped it on the tiled floor. Slowly the water seeped into the threat and darkened the cloth.
“Chloe,” she heard Clark call from the other side of the door. “Chlo—“
“Not now, Clark,” she called back.
“I know you, Chloe. You don’t have to feel bad about this.”
She didn’t answer. She turned her face up towards the spray of water, feeling the burning drops of water on her skin. Her face crumpled and then she just knew she was crying, even though the water quickly washed her tears away.
“You know how I feel,” Clark continued. “Don’t be afraid.”
And it was the words that resulted in the heaving sobs that racked her shoulders. Suddenly she was no longer willing to have the water fall directly on her face. Suddenly she didn’t want to be exposed so much. She turned around and wrapped her arms around her body, covering her chest with trembling wet limbs, her soaked hair falling to both sides of her face, hiding herself from the rest of the world.
Clark’s calls stopped and Chloe did not even notice. All she knew was she was crying until her eyes were so dry they hurt. She turned off the shower and grabbed the motel towel, wrapping it tightly around herself.
Clark looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed the moment she opened the door. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Clark, I’m going to leave.”
His eyes were hurt. “Are you going back to Lex? You’re not happy with him, Chloe.”
“I don’t know what to do anymore, Clark, but I can’t be with him. Not after all he’s done.”
“Then you can stay with me.”
She shook her head. “He’s not going to just let me go.”
He stood up, now only wearing his boxers. “It’s not like I can’t protect you from Lex Luthor, Chlo.”
And didn’t she know it. Just a couple of hours before, vulnerable and on edge after leaving Lex, Clark had found her waiting for a bus, always to her rescue. It was when he took her hand that she asked wonderingly, to herself, why she couldn’t have fallen in love with a hero.
“I will protect you, Chloe,” he repeated, his voice firm enough that Chloe almost believed him.
“You could,” she admitted, “take Lex up so high into the air and then drop him into the Atlantic ocean. But I’m not going to let you.”
But I'm a creep,
I'm a weirdo
She hurriedly put her clothes back on and picked up her bag. “I shouldn’t have come back here with you. Clark, my family is falling apart!”
He took her by her arms and his eyes blazed down at her. “And it’s not my fault.”
“I never said it was,” she whispered. She had been shattered by his conversation with Lex, on Eric’s birthday memorial dinner earlier, when he knelt before her and asked her to swear to stay.
“Stay,” Clark said softly, without the tremulous fear that came with Lex’s voice. “Stay and I swear I’ll make you the happiest woman in the world. You say that you wish you’d fallen in love with a hero. Lex will never be one, Chloe. But I am. And I’m here.”
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here
Gently but firmly, she pulled away from Clark and walked over to the door. Before leaving, she turned to face him and set expectations.
“Tomorrow morning I’m asking Perry to assign me out of the country. I need to leave, Clark. I need to leave Lex and I need to be away from you.”
I don't care if it hurts,
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
“She wouldn’t have come back to you,” she concluded with a certainty that came with knowing herself more since her harrowing ordeal.
“You can’t be sure of that.”
He shook her head. “I don’t believe you. We spent her last night here together. She was coming back to me until you came.”
She regarded Clark with silent eyes, reading every curve and hollow on his face. He believed every word. Nothing that she could say now would fix it.
I want you to notice
when I'm not around
You're so Fuckin' special
I wish I was special
When Lex Luthor came back from the meeting and settled into his office chair, he leaned back and steepled his hands on the bridge of his nose. At that moment he saw the small greenish envelope peeking from underneath the stack of magazines on his coffee table. He walked over towards it and picked it up.
Inside the envelope was a piece of Daily Planet stationery. He unfolded the piece of paper. The handwriting made him pause, and the words sent a cold wave slamming on him.
But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
“When I swore you would be in heart forever, I had not been lying. Unlike many people in your life, I would not have deceived you willingly.
I leave with a heart heavy with anguish that our world has come crashing down around us, and also with unwavering affection. I cannot not love you, Lex, despite all of it.
I’ve betrayed you, but I am brave enough to face you in time. Now I’m running away from myself, towards myself… I don’t know.
When I return, we will have an answer.”
Chloe silently watched the lack of emotion or reaction on Lex as he read the letter that she had slipped under the stack of reading material only minutes before.
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here, ohhhh, ohhhh
Lex folded the piece of paper and slid it into the envelope. He went over to his desk and settled back into his chair again, then tossed the envelope onto his desk, staring at it as if expecting it to burst into flames.
He raised his gaze towards the doorway and frowned at the sight of brown hair. He pushed his chair back and strode towards the door, then turned his head towards where she had run to.
He proceeded to the elevators and saw the waiting area vacant. Lex raised his phone and dialed his security department.
“I want the surveillance video of the corridor in front of my office.”
She's running out again
She's running out
She runs runs runs runs...
Lex watched the video emailed by his security. Afterwards, he went to the Daily Planet, determined to find out what she was hiding. He was informed that she had stepped out for lunch, which he expected. Lois Lane would have had to make some excuse to leave the message in his office. She was wearing a coat when she came in, but she was unmistakable. Lex watched the sharp images that captured Lois Lane entering his office.
The moment he saw her, Lex stood up. She walked over closer to him.
“You forget that I’m paranoid, and that I have my building completely equipped with video surveillance.”
She looked up at him. “Lex…”
“How could you keep the letter from me?” Lex asked emotionlessly. “Did she leave it with you before she left?”
She breathed in some relief. “I can’t tell you that.”
“What betrayal?” he asked.
And it was the easiest way she could unburden, but it would not have been fair to him, when he had no one to confront. “I don’t know.”
He grabbed her arms. “Who was it, Lois?” he demanded, his eyes throbbing with tears of rage, of anger, of despair. She wasn’t certain.
She winced at the pain. “I’m so sorry, Lex,” she cried.
Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special
“Who?”
And for that split second her guilt overcame her good sense. She hurt him and he wanted to know this.
"Clark," she blurted.
And the face she saw was that of a shattered soul.
"But she loved you," she told him. "She loved you."
But I'm a creep,
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here
He turned away from her. His stiff movements carried him towards the doors to the elevator. She closed her eyes. If there was one thing that had not changed out of the old her, it was that she could never bear to see him walking away.
I don't belong here...
tbc
My God Catheryne, this was a gorgeous update!
I'm not surprised that Clark is so delusional that he actually believed that Chloe was going to come back to him.
And now Lex is going to believe that Chloe left him because of Clark.
Is Chloe going to let Lex know who she really is?
Excellent work on this fic
KATHY
"Don't quote me to me!" Detective Danny "Danno" WIlliams, Hawaii Five-0, episode 1.8 Mana'o
"This could barely fill up Thumbelina!" SALIGIA by westwingwolf
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