Two Dozen and One Holiday Lies - Complete (NS Advent Calendar 2008)

[skauble]

11. When friends come together in celebration, good cheer abounds.


If Lex had a dollar for every reason that he didn’t want to attend the annual Christmas party at the Talon…well, he really didn’t need another billion dollars.

The intrigue with Lana was quickly losing its luster. He didn’t know if he was tired of the mystery or tired of catering to her to solve it.

He tended to think that it was the latter because, although he was frustrated with the lack of progress with the LuthorCorp warehouse break in, he wasn’t fatigued by the mere thought of it. But then that particular situation involved Chloe.

With both Lana and Clark, things always felt like a struggle. Even when they were supposedly on the same side. It always felt as if he was on probation, and that one small move that they considered a misstep would ruin everything between them.

But with Chloe he’d felt like they were partners. She understood the reality that life was not black and white and that not even the best people were perfect. With her he’d never experienced that feeling that he was the first piece of dead weight to be tossed overboard in a storm. With Chloe Sullivan, you sank or swam together.

Lex had begun to admit that he missed that. Craved it. Longed for that connection with another person. And for all that he’d believed that Chloe wasn’t safe with him, she was right when she’d pointed out that she wasn’t safe, period. She was simply too passionate about too many dangerous things, like justice and truth, to ever truly be safe.

The clock caught his eye, and Lex nearly groaned. He didn’t have the time or the focus to spare for thoughts of what might have been. He had a party to attend.

And thinking, once more about Lana, Lex remembered the gift that had been left for him that had been shoved into one of his drawers. A brief search produced the small, tastefully wrapped package, and he realized that he needed to open it so that he could pretend he had liked it when Lana began dropping rather heavy handed hints about his reaction.

With a handy letter opener, he cut through the tape binding the paper, peeling it away to reveal a small, blue box. Removing the lid, he stared down in shock at the contents.

Inside, on a bed of blue velvet, was a silver lighter with the LuthorCorp logo engraved on it.

There was nothing remarkable about it. It was of good quality, but wasn’t ostentatious or overly expensive. In fact, it would have been seen as nothing more than a tasteful and generic holiday gift by someone who didn’t realize that he remembered every moment of their time together.

She’d called the game, “What would you do if…”. Apparently she and Pete Ross had played it often, and Chloe had said that it made her feel strangely better about living in Smallville to create hypothetical, perilous situations and devise a realistic course of action. After one was solved, the next would be slightly more difficult.

He had been rather awestruck at just how many contingency plans Chloe actually had.

With her at the time they were playing, awaiting a chance to be useful, was a bobby pin in her hair, a handcuff key in the lining of her purse, and a small travel box with both Ipecac and charcoal tablets.

Lex hadn’t known whether to applaud her preparedness or drag her far away from Smallville and never let her return.

He, of course, had done abysmally. And not just by comparison. Even the most basic scenario of being tied to a chair in an empty room had been something for which he’d had no answer other than, “I’m sure I’d think of something”.

Not one to let him so easily off the hook, she’d thrown numerous suggestions at him, the last of which being that he use his lighter to burn through the ropes.

Admitting to her that he had no lighter seemed somehow like telling a child that you’d put the quarter under their pillow after they’d lost their tooth. And she’d reacted with just as much disbelief.

“But- but,” she’d sputtered, “How would you light a signal fire? Sterilize a needle to give yourself stitches? Find your way through an air conditioning duct?!”

Lex had laughed then. He wasn’t laughing now.

Because the small box in his hands held more than just a Christmas gift, more than even an all purpose, life saving device…

It held a second chance.

TBC

[skauble]

12. No one can refuse a gift that comes from the heart


The Talon was crammed full of people Lex would have gladly paid not to see. However, there was one exception, and he carefully scanned the crowd looking for her.

There, at one of the back tables, sat Chloe with her best friend who was clearly distracted with making eyes at Lana and her boyfriend. While he found Clark’s actions almost intolerably rude, he was quite pleased to note that Chloe looked mildly bored with his preoccupation as opposed to crushed or heartbroken.

Grabbing a cup of coffee, he made his way to a quiet table and waited for a moment to catch Lana alone. He needed to begin to extricate himself from his dealings with her. Yes, he wanted to solve the mystery in which she was clearly involved. Quite badly, in fact. But if he couldn’t unravel it without her help, then he would accept that it would remain unsolved.

From the moment that he’d realized that Chloe had been the his mysterious Santa, the moment he understood that she had snuck into his house to give him a gift, knowing that he would most likely credit another and simply so he would feel slightly less alone, he knew that he wanted to rebuild his friendship with her. To possibly build something more.

Seeing Jason excuse himself and head towards the restrooms, Lex stood and approached Lana. There was no time like the present to begin to clear the way for the future with Chloe.

---

Chloe watched Lex advance on Lana with a slightly heaving feeling in her heart. It was one thing to watch Clark moon over her all evening, but to have to watch Lex do so - she wasn’t sure her heart or her stomach was up to that.

And she hated the fact that she was so upset. She didn’t want to care so much. She’d had her fill of being rejected for Lana during her disastrous infatuation with Clark. But the time she’d spent with Lex recently had clarified things for her. Shown her that losing him hadn’t hurt her so badly because she missed her friend. It hurt because she missed someone that she cared about…someone that she loved.

As Lana smiled brightly at Lex, her doe like eyes luminous; the lights glinting of the long, dark waves of her perfect hair, Chloe felt tears sting her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Clark. I don’t feel so well.”

To his credit, Clark’s eyes immediately left Lana and turned to her, full of concern.

“Would you like me to take you home?”

Chloe simply nodded and gathered her things before heading out the back way to avoid the scene that she could no longer bear to watch.

---

Lex practically sighed with relief as he walked away from Lana and back to his table. He’d managed to create some distance between them and, more than that, to convince her that it had been her idea.

Lana wasn’t a malicious person, by any means, but she had difficulty not being the main center of everyone’s attention. If she believed that he had lost interest in her she would begin a complex game of damsel in distress to regain his focus. The worst thing was that Lex honestly believed that she wasn’t even aware of the behavior, therefore it had little chance of stopping and her life would continue in a state of near constant upheaval.

But that was no longer his problem. He was only interested in one woman just then, and by no stretch of the imagination would she be mistaken for a woman endlessly in need of saving.

Once again he scanned the crowd for Chloe. But this time his search yielded no positive results. He was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to speak with her, but he had to admit to an almost child-like excitement as he thought about the gift he’d left at her house.

After all, one good breaking and entering deserved another.

---

Chloe sighed in relief. It hadn’t been too hard to send Clark on his way. He’d been very solicitous of her health, but had clearly been anxious to get back to his pseudo-stalking of Lana. And for once she didn’t mind, as she just wanted some peace and quiet.

Moving to place her keys and purse on the table, she noticed a package placed upon it. It was small and exquisitely wrapped in a paper of deep crimsons and lush greens. It hadn’t been there earlier that day, so it couldn’t have been from her dad, who’d had to leave town that afternoon.

Which, of course, only left Clark.

It wasn’t just that he’d been the only other person in the house that day; it was also the fact that, of her limited circle of friends, only Clark’s mom really had the good taste to pull of something so beautifully wrapped.

Well, and Lex. But he’d spent months avoiding her and she wouldn’t delude herself that their recent time spent together had been due to anything other than their common goal of finding out who was behind the break in at the LuthorCorp facility.

Chloe scooped up the box and trudged up stairs. Entering her room, she dumped it on the cluttered desk. She really didn’t want to deal with a gift from Clark right then. All she wanted to do was get into a hot shower and wash away the disappointment of the evening.

TBC

[skauble]

13. And there shall be peace on Earth and good will toward men


As voices reached him from the hallway, Lex had to admit that, for once, he was glad to hear that one of them was his dad’s. He’d wanted to see the man since Chloe’s carriage ride revelation, but he had been away on whatever business it was that Lionel was currently occupying himself with.

As the older man entered, Lex refused to rise and, instead, waited for his father to take a seat on the other side of the large desk. Having no time for his mind games, Lex cut right to the chase.

“I thought I told you to stay away from Chloe.”

Lionel smile was appeasing as he addressed the clear accusation.

“You know, Miss Sullivan is quite a number of things, but she’s not manipulative and rarely untruthful. I’m sure that she informed you that she approached me.”

“And that stopped you from leaving, how?” Lex inquired.

“I didn’t want to be rude, son.”

“You tried to have her killed,” Lex reminded him. “Politeness in no longer a goal to which you can aspire when it comes to Chloe.”

Lionel waved a hand dismissively.

“Which is exactly why I was interested to hear what she had to say. After all, it would have to be rather important to compel her to endure my presence.”

Pausing for a moment, his eyes took on a serious light. “And I was right. She cares for you a great deal, Lex.”

There was often a false civility in Luthor family conflicts. You spared verbally, inflicted emotional damage, but the majority of the threats of violence were contained in currents and undertones that manifested at a later date as a knife in your back or poison in your Scotch.

But this was different. Chloe was no longer a pawn in their never ending chess match and Lex didn’t care if he broke the unwritten rules of their familial combat to make that clear.

“I won’t let you hurt Chloe again,” he held his father’s gaze and allowed him to see the blazing sincerity in his eyes. “If you go near her again, you won’t be breathing long enough for another trial.”

To his credit, Lionel retained his composure.

“I know that you’re suspicious of my change of heart. And no one can blame you for your caution, least of all me,” he admitted. “But I hope one day you’ll come to see that I honestly regret all of the time that I’ve wasted.”

Ignoring Lex’s dubious expression, he continued, “All I want is your happiness, Lex. If Chloe brings that to you then, as little as it may mean to you at the moment, you have my blessing.”

Leaning down to retrieve his briefcase, Lionel opened it and removed a folder and passed it to his son.

“In fact, that’s one of the reasons that I came here today.”

Lex opened the folder to find shipment manifests for MK Trucking. Much of their business involved Luthor contracts and, as they were one of the companies that had access to the warehouse which was the site of the break in, he’d had all of their records pulled.

A cursory glance at those before him showed that his father had found what he had – there were a dual set of documents; one that was provided for official accounting, and the other that was a record of back room deals and black market transactions. That it hadn’t been discovered before then was likely due to LuthorCorp only just beginning to settle after the massive power shift, and the fact that the actual figures had been expertly hidden in the company’s computers. In fact, even though Lex knew that Lionel still had a vast amount of resources, he was impressed that he’d been able to acquire the information almost as quickly as he, himself had.

“Those,” Lionel indicated the papers, “are a copy of the files that Miss Sullivan hacked into last night.”

Feeling the folder begin to collapse in his clenching fists, Lex forced himself to relax.

Hiding a smile at his son’s reaction, Lionel continued, “She’s very good. You certainly have to give her that. I only found out that she’d been there at all because I had someone looking into the matter simultaneously.

“He had a Devil of a time tracking her down.” Lionel’s voice took on a slightly nostalgic quality. “She always was amazingly resourceful. I’ve often regretted losing someone of her extraordinary talent.”

“Lose?” Lex asked, incredulous and momentarily distracted from his previous anger. “You didn’t lose her. You tried to kill her!”

“And now I’m trying to save her,” his father shot back, impatiently. “Believe me, if I wanted her hurt I could have easily achieved that end by delivering this file to the head of our very crooked trucking company. But she’s important to you, and so here I am.”

Lionel closed his briefcase and stood.

“Believe what you want, Lex. But if you want to keep that young woman safe, there are far more pressing threats than I.”

Lex watched his father leave and he knew the man was wrong. Oh there was a threat to Chloe, but it wasn’t shady truckers. It wasn’t even Lionel. It was him; because when he got a hold of her he was going to wring her neck.

TBC

[skauble]

14. And as the holiday spirit moves us all, one good turn will merit another.


Working her way through yet another boring shipping manifest, Chloe was almost relieved to hear the loud pounding on her door. Normally, she’d be a little wary of such an aggressive sound, but she was fairly certain that she was safe. For one thing, killers rarely knocked, no matter how rudely, and for another, she hadn’t ditched her shadow and so any genuine threat would have likely been intercepted.

In fact, she kind of hoped that it was Lex as she wanted to have a few words, many of them four letters, with him.

Having her tailed by one guy was acceptable. Even the best could be shaken in a pinch. But four was a little excessive, even by Luthor standards. It made sneaking nearly impossible, which may have been Lex’s intention, but was not at all what she had signed up for.

Despite her belief that she was not in danger, Chloe still checked the peep hole. And she’d been correct. It was Lex.

An apparently agitated Lex.

Concerned, she quickly opened the door, only to have him brush rudely past her.

“Excuse me,” she snapped as she closed the door and followed him.

“I don’t think I will,” Lex shot back as he turned to face her. Despite the constant reports from his security team, his father’s claims of Chloe’s recent activities had worried him. Seeing her before him, perfectly safe, calmed those fears, but still left his anger and frustration.

“What is your problem?”

“This,” was his reply, along with the file he’d brought which he tossed on the table between them, watching as it skidded towards her, the papers inside spilling to fan out on the table.

Chloe only had to glance at the top paper to realize that Lex was aware of her activities of the previous night. Not in the least contrite, she merely rolled her eyes at him, “This isn’t going to be another lecture about my involvement in this, is it?”

“Dammit, Chloe,” he ground out when he managed to unclench his jaw, “I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

Throwing her hands up in the air, she brushed past him to take advantage of the extra space near the sofa to pace.

“How many times do we have to go over this,” she demanded. “I’m not a safe person. I don’t have a safe life. And, honestly, I’m okay with that, Lex.”

He opened his mouth to protest but, as so often happened with Chloe, she simply steamrolled past his planned objection.

“I understand that you want to protect me, and I really do appreciate that you care. It’s why I’ve let Blitzen follow me all over town.”

Stepping back towards him, Chloe reached out to lay her hand on his arm. “But Lex, why can’t you accept that I want to protect you, too?”

And he could see that she meant it. That protecting him was as important to her and her safety was to him.

Lex’s face softened, but his tone was more resigned than relieved.

“I’m not going to get you to leave this alone?”

Chloe’s smile was bright, although she tried to screen out the sense of victory. It was never good to make a Luthor feel as if they’d just lost a battle and anyways, as far as she was concerned, they were both winners in this one.

“Of course not. What kind of friend would I be if I left you on your own to find out who is trying to swindle your multi-national conglomerate by leaving empty boxes in your warehouse, simply because we were shot at…”

Pausing for a moment, Chloe slowly played back, in her head, her last words.

“Our lives are weird, aren’t they?”

“Incredibly,” Lex agreed with a small twist of his lips. “I blame this town.”

And he did. Smallville didn’t just manufacture weird; it all out cornered the market. Every week was some new trial to survive, and you were almost relieved to be the victim of the town’s newest killer because it meant that whatever it was that caused such a high percentage of psychopaths hadn’t infected you yet.

However, no matter what his feelings towards Smallville, Lex knew that he would never regret, for one moment, that fate had led him there. Not when it had brought him to the woman before him. A woman who had so little to gain by letting him back into her life and so much to lose. A woman who, instead of using him for the power and prestige his money and name brought was, instead, genuinely angry that he was not allowing her to take care of him.

It was a novel experience for him, and not one he was prepared to waste ever again. In fact, looking into her eyes, seeing the depths of the emotions there, Lex was almost certain that he could get quite used to it.

“Okay,” he gestured to the sofa. “Show me what else you found.”

TBC

[skauble]

15. The many mysteries of the Christmas season are best savored when left unquestioned.


Chloe barely managed to contain a squeal of delight at the fact that Lex was finally accepting her help; finally accepting that she wanted to keep him safe with the same determination he dedicated to her well being.

Motioning him towards the couch, she gestured for him to sit before gathering up the papers and various files that she had collected, placing them in front of him, and sitting down beside him with her laptop.

“Okay, I’ve found a lot of info and,” she paused, “happened upon the shipping manifests for the last two months. There are actually quite a few discrepancies and dubious business practices that you might want to look into, but most of them seem to be minor issues that are unrelated to the current situation.”

Lex waited patiently while she talked and pointedly ignored her mild description of hacking into the files of both LuthorCorp and their sub-contractors.

“So the question I was asking myself before I was so rudely interrupted,” Chloe smiled to let him know she was teasing, “isn’t what are we missing, but what do we know.”

“Alright,” he nodded his agreement with her methods, “what do we know?”

Reaching over, Chloe scooped up the stack of papers from the coffee table and rifled through them. Finding what she was searching for, she opened a file and placed it in front of him.

“MK trucking does a lot of the local transport for LuthorCorp. Since you have a copy of the secondary records I found buried in their system last night, you’re aware of the fact that they’ve been diverting some of their shipments and then fencing them through an organization that deals with moving corporate merchandise.

“By the way,” she briefly halted her explanation to comment, “You should probably do something about that.”

“Thank you for that savvy business advice.”

Smiling at the heavy sarcasm lining his voice, Chloe reached over and pulled another page out of the file he held and handed it to him.

“But you can see that there’s clearly a pattern of theft and then profit. Every time, the merchandise is taken, and they’re paid, presumably, on delivery.

“However, here,” she pointed to a row of numbers, “you can see that there’s a deposit to their off shore account of $25,000; but no record of anything taken. In fact, every delivery they were scheduled for was completed successfully.”

“Which means,” Lex concluded, “that, rather than stealing something on their own, it appears that they’ve been hired to steal something for someone else.”

Chloe was nodding her agreement before he’d even finished.

“Which is why I pulled these,” she handed him the shipping orders for the entire month of December; those completed and those pending.

Looking down at the LuthorCorp logo marked on all the papers, Lex looked back up at Chloe. “You know, when this is all over we’re going to have a long talk about you wandering through my databases.”

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “I’m sure we’ll discuss it just as soon as it stops being useful to you.”

Pulling her computer closer to her, she began to bring up a number of files.

“The only thing that MK Trucking is moving from that warehouse for the next three weeks are the toys for the Give the Gift of Christmas toy drive that you’ve sponsored; and I can’t imagine going to all this trouble just to Grinch up the Christmas of Metropolis’ underprivileged children.”

Having found the page to which Chloe was referring, Lex frowned. Something was off, but he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Reading it over again, he finally realized what was amiss.

“One hundred and sixteen crates.”

“What?” Chloe questioned at the seemingly random comment.

“It says there are one hundred and sixteen crates being moved,” he showed her the numbers as she leaned over. “But when I was given the inventory of the warehouse after the break in, there were only one hundred and seven crates of toys.”

“You’re sure,” Chloe questioned, even though she knew that Lex had an impeccable memory.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “But what’s even more interesting is that there were nine empty crates found that night.”

It only took a second for Chloe to add the two figures together and arrive at the correct conclusions.

“One hundred and seven crates for the toy drive and nine empty crates. So, one hundred and sixteen in total. The empty crates weren’t meant to stay there at all.”

Lex smiled at her, remembering just how nice it felt to have a partner whose mind worked so like his own. “Which tells us that they must have changed the shipping orders that night, before we arrived, and then were unable to change them back when their plan fell through because I’ve had men investigating non-stop.”

“So,” Chloe mused aloud, “we just need to figure out where the extra crates were supposed to end up.”

Leaning over, Lex flipped through the stack of files until he found another, that he’d seen earlier, filled with LuthorCorp invoices.

“From what I understand, the toys were only at that warehouse as a holding point. They were all to be transported on the 24th to a number of different locations so that the charities participating in the drive could pick them up for distribution at the Christmas day festivities.”

A few pages into the report, Lex finally found the destinations.

“This can’t be right.”

Chloe had pulled up the same file on her laptop but didn’t see anything amiss. “What’s wrong?”

“They’re being taken to three separate places – a warehouse in the North Park district, one in the Logan Heights area, and a facility in Lakewood.”

“And” she questioned.

“The warehouse in Lakewood is a high security facility.” Lex looked over at Chloe, hoping that she would understand that, while he knew her to be beyond trustworthy, there were some business details that he couldn’t share. At least not without much greater cause. “It holds many of the prototypes for government defense contracts we’re working on. Who would approve this kind of transfer there?”

“Lawrence Henderson,” Chloe answered as her fingers flew over the keys of her computer, pulling up a myriad of information.

Chloe’s eyes jerked away from the screen and back to Lex as some very inappropriate words filled the air.

“Henderson is on the LuthorCorp board,” he explained. “He’s been attempting to exploit the weaknesses left by my father’s displacement and my subsequent appointment as CEO. He’s been trying to make headway in takeover attempts by going after some of our subsidiaries instead of the corporation directly. I managed to forestall the attempts, which cost him millions. With my father’s release from prison, he must have assumed we’d be occupied with trying to kill one another and decided to recoup his losses and make his final move on the company.”

Chloe almost laughed at the fact that this plan was going to be foiled because Lionel Luthor actually seemed to be playing nice for once in his miserable life. By not making the predictable move towards revenge against Lex, neither Luthor’s attention had been diverted from business. It seemed almost fitting that Lionel could screw someone over by attempting to be good.

“But, Lex, is there really anything there that would jeopardize your hold on LuthorCorp?”

Lex shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Chloe. If he managed to get a hold of the prototypes for any one project, he could sell them for tens of millions of dollars on the weapons black market. But more importantly, it would endanger every defense contract we have. That, in conjunction with his new influx of cash could definitely mean a viable takeover attempt.”

“But not now,” Chloe asked.

Suddenly, Lex smiled.

“No,” he agreed. “Not now.”

And tossing the pages back onto the table before him, he reached over and pulled the computer from Chloe’s lap, placing it next to the discarded files. Turning back towards her, he moved closer and reached out, gently brushing the hair from her face.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

And then he kissed her.

TBC

[skauble]

16. Christmastime is best spent focusing on all those around us and not ourselves


As there lips met, the air seemed to spark around them. A soft moan echoed, but neither was sure who’d made the sound. But as they moved closer, it ceased to matter; nothing mattered but this single, solitary moment in time.

Lex was warm and strong against her, and Chloe leaned into him, allowing his solid presence to surround her.

When he’d first come to town, the girls of Smallville High had given a near collective swoon at the mere mention of the man the press had dubbed ‘Sexy Lexy’. Even though her best friends were both male, Chloe had still heard talk about purported conquests and rumored expertise. It had seemed somehow cold and calculating to Chloe at the time and not at all as exciting as the girl’s around her tended to believe.

But they’d been wrong. Each suggestion, every rumor had been incorrect and Chloe was so very, very glad. Not that he was clumsy or awkward. She wasn’t sure those words could ever be used in conjunction with Lex. It was just that nothing about him seemed remote or practiced. She didn’t feel played or seduced; used or cheapened. She felt…

Like she was home.

Chloe had a good sense of self. She liked who she was and, although she’d made mistakes, she, unlike many, owned up to them and worked hard to make things right. She dedicated her life to the pursuit of truth and the noble cause of enlightening the public. She believed, deeply, in the justness of her call and focused her passion accordingly.

And yet, there had always been a part of her that had felt out of place; as if she never truly belonged.

When her mother had left, Chloe had been crushed. For months she had been as perfect as possible; cleaning her room, doing chores around the house, excelling in school. She’d thought that if she could just do better than she had before, her mother would return. Finally, her father had seen what was happening and explained to her that Moira’s leaving had never been about her or the kind of daughter she was.

For the most part, Chloe had believed him, but there was always the doubt. What she’d never told her father, though, was that not all of the changes had been about her mother. There was a very small place, way down inside, that had worried that he would leave her, too.

Then had come her move to a small town where she’d been barely tolerated because of her ‘big city’ ways, followed by her disastrous crush on Clark Kent, who had little problem ditching her for the girl he worshipped from afar. In fact, even when he was with her, the ‘I wish you were someone else’ vibes were sometimes so strong that she’d often ended up making lame excuses to leave.

It hadn’t broken her. None of those things had. And yet, each had sewn a tiny seed of doubt in the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind.

But sitting there, with Lex’s arms sliding around her, pulling her tight against him, the past, and all of its worries and fears, seemed to fade away.

Her head wasn’t sure why it would. After all, even though she knew that Lex wanted something from Lana that was in no way romantic, it was still easy to believe that he was also falling under whatever spell the brunette seemed to cast on every male in her path. It’s why it had been so painful to see them together.

However, her heart was so certain, so steadfast in it’s acceptance of Lex. There were so many ways in which he knew her that no one else ever had. He understood the pain she carried because he, too, had been left by those he loved. He could soothe the fears she held because, beneath his stoic exterior, he harbored them also.

And, ironically, the fact that he’d tried so hard to push her away, touched her more than she could say now that she could feel, with every touch, how much it had pained him to do so. It was in the way that his arms banded around her a little too tightly. In the way that his lips moved over hers with an urgent sense of need. The way that he pulled back and looked at her for a moment, with a slight disbelief in his eyes, as if he thought it might all be a dream.

To have someone that truly knew her, that understood what drove her, that saw everything she was and still needed her so badly - to actually belong…it was everything, and she was home.

Chloe was soft and lush in his arms, and Lex pulled her closer to him, allowing her nearness to soothe him.

For years Lex had been searching for love. But time and experience had been slowly teaching him that such an emotion was either a poet’s dream or for people better than him, and he’d begun to divide the women around him into two categories – those waiting to hurt him, and those waiting to leave.

But he’d been mistaken, and never in his life had he been so incredibly grateful to be wrong. No matter what she said, Chloe had found more danger and pain since the Luthors had come into her life than she had before his family, and yet she didn’t want to punish him for that fact. And, even more miraculously, she didn’t want to leave him for it either. Never once did he feel unsafe or uncared for with Chloe. In fact, he felt…

Like he was home.

Lex knew he was damaged, emotionally. He wasn’t his father – he hadn’t let his pain and hate and rage shape him into some kind of soulless monster. But he understood that there was a part of him that expected the world to be Luthor-like, and often over-compensated for the attacks that he’d learned to assume everyone was planning.

When Julian had died and his mother had let Lex take the blame, he’d begun to believe that, while someone might love you, ultimately, they’d do whatever was best for them in any given situation. And that realization had driven his life for years.

When he’d come to Smallville and was rescued by Clark, he’d begun to question that belief. But the fact was that his friend really wasn’t as different as he had wanted to believe. True, Clark had saved his life and the lives of many others. But Lex had finally come to the conclusion that the younger man knew far more about the strange happenings in their little town then he would ever openly acknowledge.

Clark Kent had a secret, and he kept it despite the fact that Lex was all but certain that the information he was hiding would allow the people of Smallville to at least attempt to better protect themselves. And that realization had been a crushing blow to his newfound belief in the goodness of people.

Until Chloe.

Chloe, who had made her mistakes and then shown that she didn’t have to be defined by them forever; that she could make new choices, be better than before. At any time during her struggle with Lionel she could have given in. He knew that his father would have been more than pleased to welcome her back with open arms, even after she’d begun working against him.

But she’d held strong. Done what was right, instead of what was easy or safe, and it had given him back a sense of faith that he’d thought lost forever.

It was, ironically, why he’d pushed her away. Yes, he’d wanted to keep her physically safe. But more than that, he’d wanted to protect her from the taint his family carried with them.

Yet now he could see what he’d forgotten in his fear and uncertainty. Being with Chloe didn’t make her less; it made him more. The fact that she knew him on such a deep level; the fact that she understood the pain that drove him and the fears that haunted him, and wanted to be with him still - to be so completely accepted…it meant the world, and he was home.

TBC

[skauble]

17. The joyous season renews one’s faith in their fellow man


As the kiss continued, Chloe swore that she heard bells….then they stopped…then they started again. When Lex groaned against her lips and began to pull away, she realized that it was his cell phone that was ringing.

“Luthor,” he barked into the phone, making Chloe glad that she wasn’t the person on the other end.

Giving him some privacy, she stood and began gathering the various papers and files spread out on the table. Wanting to keep their evidence in order, she absentmindedly skimmed the pages before placing them on an appropriate pile.

As she was reaching to add a shipping invoice to the stack, she hesitated. Something was niggling at the back of her mind and she had learned, over the years, to trust those instincts. Examining the paper once more, she realized what had bothered her.

As she turned to face Lex, her expression must have conveyed her sense of urgency because he immediately wrapped up his phone call with a terse promise to call back.

“Chloe, what is it?”

Handing him the paper, she pointed to the relevant information.

“Look at the date that they’ve scheduled the transfer and pick up from the Lakewood facility.”

“That’s today,” he noted. “But those toys weren’t supposed to be distributed to the local charities until early morning on the 25th.”

Lex stood and ran an agitated hand over his head.

“I have to take care of this,” he told her.

He turned towards the door, but stopped abruptly. Swinging back to face Chloe, he reached out and caught her hand. With one swift tug she was back in his arms.

And then he was kissing her once more. It was hard and hot and they were both short of breath as they parted. Raising a hand to gently cup her cheek, Lex trailed a finger down to run across her slightly swollen lips before promising her, “We will talk about this when I get back.”

All Chloe could do was nod as Lex made his way out the door, his phone already opened as he began handing out orders to rectify the situation.

In a daze at how fast everything had changed, Chloe returned to her task of gathering the various papers. Once finished, she sat with her laptop and slowly began to sort the various emails, invoices, financial records, and personnel files she’d ‘borrowed,’ into different folders as she closed them down. A small ding let her know that one of the last of the files she’d been downloading had finished, and she pulled up the information to catalogue it with the rest.

It was the last of the files she’d retrieved from the trucking company that had been running through a decryption program. Opening it, she could see that it was a record of money received. The amounts were all different, so it seemed almost to be a covering of expenses as opposed to the normal payments for the job. And beside every entry was a name – Merrickson.

Chloe knew that name; she was certain on it. Starting a search through her files, she only had to wait a few minutes before a match revealed why the name seemed so familiar.

She’d called him Prancer. One of the members of Lex’s security team that she’d met the day of the carriage chase.

Of course Lex hadn’t been able to uncover who, exactly, was willing to sell him out on his staff. All this time he’d been looking for connections to Lionel when it had been Henderson who was pulling the strings.

Grabbing her phone, she frantically dialed Lex’s cell. After three rings it transferred her to the answering service and Chloe cursed as she realized that if he’d taken the helicopter to Metropolis then he was most likely already airborne and thus out of touch until he landed.

She thought, briefly about calling the police, but even if she managed to get someone that wasn’t corrupt or incompetent, there was every chance that they would show up at the facility, be told that everything was fine by Henderson’s men, and then leave, having alerted them to the fact that Lex was aware of what was happening.

With that door closed to her, her next inclination was simply to walk outside and tell the men that had been shadowing her for the last few days. She knew Lex’s overprotective streak quite well and that knowledge told her two things.

One, the security detail he’d left with her would definitely be safe to trust. Lex had said that, even though he couldn’t pinpoint the traitors among his staff, he knew which of his men were absolutely trustworthy. He would never have left her safety in the hands of anyone other than those on that short list.

Two, he would have left his men with strict orders that they were to stay with her and keep her safe by any means necessary should anything happen. If they believed that something was going down, they wouldn’t let her leave her apartment and they wouldn’t leave her side until they got the okay from their boss.

So, really, all they’d be able to do would be to call someone and alert them to the situation. And if Lex didn’t know who was working against him, Chloe had little reason to believe that his men would.

Which left her with only one option. Grabbing her keys, she ran outside and climbed into her car. She pulled out of her driveway slowly to give her tail time to get to their own vehicles. She knew that they wouldn’t risk losing her, even if they had to reveal their presence, and so she was confident that they’d be right behind her as she hit the gas and sped down the road at a speed she was sure would turn her father’s hair white.

But at that moment, nothing else mattered to Chloe but getting herself and the few men she could trust to Metropolis and saving Lex.

TBC

[skauble]

18. The holidays are only as stressful as you allow them to be.


After a mind numbingly fast flight from Smallville, which she still couldn’t believe hadn’t culminated in arrest, Chloe slowed down as she turned onto the block on which the LuthorCorp Lakewood facility was located, before finally pulling into an alley across the street.

Before she’d even managed to shut off the engine, three cars pulled in behind her. Pocketing her keys, she opened the door and stepped out to face the four men waiting for her, disapproval written all over their faces.

“That was extremely reckless of you, Miss Sullivan,” the man she’d named Blitzen said, chidingly. “Did you really think that you could lose us?”

She rolled her eyes as she walked towards them.

“I didn’t want to lose you. I wanted to get you here.”

To her amazement and their credit, they had their weapons drawn almost instantly, focused on determining if they’d been led into an ambush.

“Look,” she waved her arms to get their attention, “as nice as it is to see that Lex has actually hired competent security for once, I haven’t set you up. We’re here to save your boss.”

And with that she shoved the papers that she’d brought with her over to Blitzen and briefly explained, “Lex and I found out what was going on right before he left. He came here to stop Henderson from stealing some kind of Defense Department prototype.”

The men clearly recognized Henderson’s name, and none of them seemed incredibly surprised that he was planning to stab their employer in the back; which was good, because Chloe didn’t have the time to waste convincing them of the legitimacy of the threat.

“That page is from the set of second books that the crooked trucking company is running.” Leaning towards Blitzen, she ran her finger down the page until it rested by the name Merrickson. “I’m sure you recognize the name. He’s been acting as some kind of middleman for Henderson.”

There was a great deal of swearing as the paper went from one set of hands to the next and they realized who had been the Judas amongst them.

“I knew you wouldn’t have left Smallville while I was there,” she regained their attention as she explained her mad dash to Metropolis. “But I don’t know anyone other than you four that I can absolutely trust with Lex’s safety. After all, he trusted you with mine so I know that he has faith in you. So I got you here the only way I could. Now go do your thing and make sure that Lex is okay.”

She made a little shooing motion with her hands, which was promptly ignored as Blitzen began to hand out terse orders. When he was done, the other three men moved to the end of the alley, sticking to the shelter of the early evening shadows, and making their way silently across the street. Once there, they split up and were quickly out of view.

When Chloe turned back towards her lone bodyguard, she heard him wrapping up a call with the police. She’d been afraid to bring the police in when there were only Henderson’s men on site to speak with them. But now that Lex’s staff could fill them in she was glad that they were on their way.

“I guess it’s too much to expect you to go with them,” she asked as he hung up.

“Yes. In fact,” he informed her, “you and I are leaving the immediate vicinity. We’re going to pull back and rendezvous with the local and federal law enforcement agencies.”

Chloe hated the thought of leaving without knowing that Lex was safe, but she saw the wisdom in the plan. But as they were about to get into one of the non-descript sedans, a voice rang out from the other end of the alley.

“Hey! What are you two doing there?”

She watched as Blitzen’s hand moved, almost imperceptibly, to the gun concealed by his jacket, before turning to face the men approaching them. But whatever tale he’d been planning to spin was destined to remain unknown as a cry of “He’s one of Luthor’s men” split the air, followed closely by the sounds of gunfire.

“Run!” He ordered her, and Chloe wasted no time questioning him as she dashed towards the street. There was nothing she could do in the middle of a gunfight other than be a target for the bad guys and a distraction for the good ones.

Unsure of where to head, she crossed the street. She didn’t necessarily think it was a great idea to be closer to the facility that was clearly the site of a full scale robbery, but the large rows of shipping containers offered more coverage than any other place she could see on the entire length of the block.

Just as she was settling behind a large stack of wooden crates, she heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming her way. Pressing herself as far back as she could, she waited for them to pass.

“Roger that.”

Chloe could hear the static of a walkie-talkie as one man relayed their orders to his partner.

“We’ve been compromised. Boss wants us to go check on Luthor.”

While Chloe may have been willing to leave when everything seemed under control, there was no way that she was going to do so, knowing for certain that Lex was being held somewhere close by. Giving the men a good head start, she peaked around the corner of the crate and then silently trailed behind them.

Slipping, unseen, into a small hallway, Chloe watched as the two men unlocked the door to what seemed to be a supply room. They didn’t enter but, instead, gave the room a once over and said something she couldn’t quite make out before closing the door and locking it once more.

Once they were out of sight, she carefully left her hiding place and approached the door. Arriving in front of it, she bit back a string of curses that longed to escape.

She’d picked her share of locks in her time, both as a reporter and as someone simply attempting to survive life in Smallville. If it had been a regular lock before her, Chloe had no doubt that she’d have had Lex out in no time.

Unfortunately, staring back at her, its red light mocking, was a shiny, new, electronic lock.

Unsure of what to do next, Chloe’s musings were interrupted by what she was fairly certain was the barrel of a gun pressing into her back.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” said a smarmy and obnoxious voice, “I’d be more than happy to unlock that for you.”

TBC

[skauble]

19. During the holidays, there’s little more romantic than enjoying a fire with someone that you love.


The man behind her swiped a keycard through the electronic lock and the door unlatched with a soft click. Pushing it open, he shoved Chloe into the middle of the room. The momentum propelled her forward unsteadily, but she was promptly halted by strong arms that she’d recognize anywhere.

“Henderson,” Lex curtly acknowledged as he pulled Chloe towards him. He wanted to demand to know what she was doing there, but he knew better than to reveal anything to an enemy.

“Seems I found your little sidekick,” the man nodded at Chloe.

“Hey” she bristled. “For all you know Lex is my sidekick.”

“Feisty,” Henderson laughed as he looked Chloe over. “I like this one. She honestly doesn’t seem to want to kill you,” he told Lex as if the fact was nearly unbelievable. “It’s a shame that you’re going to die anyway.”

When Lex refused to answer, Henderson shrugged an insincere apology.

“I’m sorry that it had to come to this, Lex. I never really had anything against you. You just never could see the bigger picture.

“Now you’re father, on the other hand,” he paused, and his voice took on a tone of malicious glee. “I’m rather going to enjoy having him killed.”

Seeing the look of shock that flitted briefly over Lex’s face, he explained, “You really shouldn’t be surprised. Lionel might try to have you killed on a semi-annual basis, but there’s no way that the old man would let anyone else live for attempting the same feat. Much less accomplishing it.”

Although he continued talking, the gun wielding man was clearly growing more uncomfortable with the lack of response.

“It’s better this way, anyway. It will make my transition to CEO that much smoother.”

“Is this the part where we swear this will never work,” Chloe asked Lex, tired of the blathering man who was using up their precious escape time. “I can never quite tell when it’s a break in the rambling and when it’s just blessedly over.”

The older man seemed almost stunned for a moment, before shaking his head with a chuckle. “Like I said; feisty. Enjoy her while you can, Lex,” Henderson tossed out as he backed through the door, closing it and resetting the lock.

Turning Chloe to face him, Lex looked her over from head to toe, taking in every detail.

“When we get out of her, remind me that I want to yell at you,” he told her as he turned and began to clear off a chair covered in boxes of printer supplies.

“As long as you remind me to tell you my incredibly logical reason for being here,” she agreed, watching as he pulled the chair to the center of the room. “I take it that your activity means that you have a plan?”

Lex nodded. “This facility was recently built and all of its systems are state of the art. They’re geared for two things – protecting our employees and securing the merchandise being housed here.

“So in the event of a fire, for instance, the system works to achieve both of those goals, simultaneously. First, it locks down all of the high security areas – prototype storage rooms, loading bays - and floods them with a specialized concentrated gas that, while mildly irritating, is harmless to people but will extinguish any flames. Second, it activates a more standard sprinkler system in the lower tech sectors and, as a precautionary measure, all minimal security areas – offices and their various restrooms and supply rooms – are unlocked to allow for easy staff evacuation.”

Positioning the chair precisely, Lex faced Chloe.

“There are two reasons that Lawrence Henderson could never run LuthorCorp. One, he never understood that the ‘bigger picture’ is really just made up of a thousand tiny details. And, two,” Lex reached into his pocket and pulled out the lighter Chloe had given him, “he never had anyone with whom to play ‘What would you do if’”.

“You knew,” Chloe gasped.

Taking her chin in his hand, Lex tilted her mouth up to his. “From the moment I saw it,” he told her before his lips caught hers in an achingly tender kiss.

It was over almost as quickly as it had begun, and before Chloe could even begin process all that had happened, Lex stepped up on to the chair, flicked open the lighter, and held the flame up to the sensor. The scream of the fire alarm ripped through the air as a cascade of icy water began pouring from the ceiling.

Jumping lightly to the ground, he grabbed Chloe’s hand and pulled her towards the door. Just as they reached it, the red light flashed briefly before converting to green as the lock clicked open.

Lex opened the door carefully, checking to make sure that the hallway was clear. Seeing that it was, and knowing that this was the only chance that they were going to get, he pulled Chloe close to him and then they ran.

TBC

[skauble]

20. From now on our troubles will be miles away


Lex kept a tight grip on Chloe’s hand as they negotiated the various hallways of the managerial section of the facility. The sprinklers had stopped spraying in the absence of any further indication of fire, but the alarm continued to wail. Despite the blaring siren, they heard the distant, but unmistakable sounds of gunfire.

Chloe stopped, suddenly, forcing Lex to halt, also.

“Lex, the men you had following me are here. That’s why I came; to get them here.”

He saw the concern in her eyes and he longed to soothe her fears, but he knew that they needed to keep moving.

“Chloe, my men are professionals. This is what I’ve hired them to do, and they’re very good at their jobs. Us doing anything other than getting to safety will just mean being in the way.”

Nodding her understanding, Chloe allowed Lex to begin leading them to the exit, once more. Within moments, they entered the lobby and made their way to a large set of glass doors.

Scanning the area beyond the building, Lex waited a moment, wanting to ensure that the coast was clear. With a brief nod to Chloe, he pushed open the door and they dashed out across the small, executive parking lot directly in front of the building, to the field of crates that had sheltered Chloe earlier.

“My car is in the alley across the street,” she told him, and watched as he peeked around the corner to gauge the distance to their new destination.

Before they had a chance to make their move, the distinctive noise of helicopter blades could be heard over the still shrieking alarm. Pushing themselves as far back as possible, they waited for the sound to fade before edging forward once more.

“I can’t believe he got away,” Chloe proclaimed in disgust at the thought of their obnoxious kidnapper escaping justice.

“Believe me Chloe,” Lex assured her, “even if that was Henderson, he won’t get very far. He was right about the danger of leaving a Luthor alive unintentionally.”

Chancing a glance her way, Lex was caught off guard by the satisfaction on Chloe’s face at his words. He was far too used to the sanctimonious lectures on ‘being the better man’ and ‘vengeance not being the answer’ that he often got from Clark and even Lana, that he’d forgotten how wonderful it felt to be with someone who didn’t have a negative preconception of every word that came from his mouth.

With a small smile in her direction, he grasped her hand tighter and moved to the very edge of the containers concealing them.

“Are you ready,” he asked. Seeing her nod, he made one more visual search of the area. “Let’s go.”

They crossed the street quickly, and without incident, and were almost to Chloe’s car when a low voice halted them in their tracks.

“Stop right their, Luthor. Turn around slowly.”

As they did, Chloe saw that it was one of the men that she had followed earlier. He motioned them back towards the street with his gun, and she followed Lex’s lead as they made their way back out of the alley.

Not many people understood what it had been like for them when they had been working to bring down Lionel. Despite Lex’s money and resources, it had been an incredibly dangerous undertaking which they did, in large part, completely on their own. Being forged in that kind of fire created a kind of unspoken communication between them that most people only dreamed of developing. And so, Chloe knew – could feel – that Lex was about to make some kind of move and prepared herself accordingly.

And she was right. The minute that they stepped into the street, Lex released her hand and gave her a small shove in the opposite direction as he turned and launched himself at the man behind them.

Having taken him completely off guard, Lex was able to grab the gun before any shots could be fired, and the two men proceeded struggle violently for control of it.

The momentum of the fight carried them into the street, where the foolhardy thug learned that Lex was not merely a spoiled, rich boy. With an elbow to the man’s midsection, and an uppercut to his jaw, Lex was able to send him flying backwards onto the asphalt.

The gun wrenched free from both of their grips and went skidding to the opposite side of the street. With two more brutal punches, Lex watched as the man fell to the ground before him, unconscious.

Chloe had been mesmerized by the fight but, once she realized that Lex had the upper hand, she found her attention caught by a car that was pulling out of the warehouse’s parking lot. She recognized Lawrence Henderson. Realized that whoever had been on the helicopter they’d heard, it hadn’t been him.

She also realized that he was heading directly for Lex.

“Lex!” She called out to warn him, but knew he wouldn’t see in time and so, with all the speed she could muster, Chloe ran, launching herself towards him. The impact staggered him, and Chloe watched him stumble backwards before catching himself and looking towards her, shock on his face.

And then everything went black.

Lex had heard the fear in Chloe’s voice as she called out his name. He’d looked up, only to find her hurtling herself at him. Unsure of what was happening, he righted himself from the impact as quickly as possible, only to watch in horror as the car that she’d obviously been trying to save him from, clipped her and sent her crashing to the ground.

For a moment, everything seemed to stop. There was no movement, no sounds, only his beautiful Chloe, lying so still on the harsh pavement. And then time snapped back into motion and, with a choked cry, Lex was on his knees beside her, calling her name, but afraid to touch her.

So trapped in his anguish, Lex didn’t hear the squeal of the tires as the car stopped. Didn’t hear the engine rev as it turned back in his direction or someone yelling his name.

In fact, he heard nothing until six gunshots echoed off the nearby buildings and the car that had been heading straight for him suddenly veered off course, crashing headlong into a large, metal shipping container.

His head jerked in the direction the shots had come from and Lex stared, momentarily dumbstruck by the site of his father standing there, gun clasped in his hand.

But the shock passed because none of it mattered. Nothing mattered but Chloe.

“Dad,” he called out. For despite their trials and tribulations, if it meant saving Chloe, Lex knew that he’d gladly deal with the devil.

Lionel had his phone out and was barking orders for an ambulance to be sent before he even made it to where Lex was kneeling next to Chloe’s still form.

Seeing the shattered look in his son’s eyes, Lionel reached out and laid his hand on Lex’s shoulder.

“Help is on its way,” he told him. “She’ll be alright, Lex. I expect nothing less from Miss Sullivan and she has yet to disappoint me.”

He knew his father was speaking; could tell from the tone of his voice that the words were meant to reassure. But Lex couldn’t be bothered to focus on the actual words. All of his attention was for Chloe and his terrible fear of what a life without her would be.

TBC