Secrets and Lies (PG-15) April15th, 2009 THANK YOU

[purplemoon123]

*blinks* What????

Brother??? WHAT?????

I was expecting for Lionel to give Chloe something but the "brother", not so much.

I love the interaction between Lex, Chloe and Lucas. Lucas needs to grow up and love that Chloe punched him. Hmmm, are Lucas and Chloe siblings???

Now, come back with the update!!!!!

[Nimmie]

OMG this is devine. I desperately want more and am prepared to wait paitiently.

Wow.
N

[lexie]

A/N: Here´s the update, a few hours earlier than usual, by popular demand. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 7: Confessions

Chloe´s heart was hammering intensely in her chest and she felt the tears start to prick behind her eyelids when his words sank in. She had been expecting the moment for two months, but she hadn´t been able to broach the subject without revealing her role in Lex´s miraculous recovery.

“You´re wrong, Lex. How long have you believed this to be true?”

“It´s true, Chloe; I´ve got proof.”

“What proof?” she asked breathless.

“I´ve known it for four years now. That´s why... that´s why I had to sever all ties between us. Chloe... when I think how close we´ve been to... “ he swallowed the big lump in his throat.” It was for the best. I know you´re entitled to everything he´s left you, but... I thought then that I was doing you a favour by keeping you away from him and the filth that comes with being a Luthor.”

“Lex,” she whispered. Wishing she could have told him the truth sooner, she placed a hand on his shoulder and felt him tremble.

`Don´t leave me.´ `I´ll always be there.´

The young billionaire closed his eyes and saw himself again as a kid standing in a dark corridor, looking towards a blinding light, begging not to be left alone.

“It was you, wasn´t it? Your power... it was dormant...” he mumbled, turning around to meet her glassy green eyes.

“You´ve got it all wrong, Lex, “ she started, shaking her head.

“You hated me and yet you saved me. Why?”

“I´m not a Luthor, Lex. Your dad was fond of playing with people. He was one manipulative bastard. He lied to you.”

“I´ve got DNA proof, Chloe; you can´t contest that,” he told her still unable to process it had been her to bring him back from the dead.

“DNA proof? Provided by whom? Your father?”

“When I went to see him in prison one last time, and he told me nonchalantly he understood my fascination... `with young Miss Sullivan´ because we shared more than common hatred for him, that in fact we shared the same genes, I thought he was simply taunting me but, you know me, I had to know for sure. So... I got the vial of blood you had donated to the Red Cross bank at school that year and had it analysed. The results were conclusive.”

“That´s impossible, Lex,” she shook her head.”If you had doubts about what Lionel had told you, you should have asked me for a sample then. Why go all cloak and dagger?”

“And tell you what? That you might be sending your own father to the chair? You didn´t need that on your conscience.”

“Your father must have known you would try to corroborate his sayings, Lex. He must have had somebody switch the samples.”

“That wasn´t the only test I´ve had run on your blood or your spinal fluid, Chloe. Unlike the rest of the 33.1 inmates you were taken there for a completely different purpose. I had started doubting the results of the first test and needed further proof.”

“That´s the reason you had me abducted that evening outside the bowling alley? Not because you thought I was a freak?” she frowned.

“I didn´t know it then. I´m so sorry, Chloe. I´m so sorry to have had to put you through all that, but I just needed to know everything there was to know about you in case something... in case anything happened to you.”

“Like what?”

“You were all the family I had left, Chloe. I couldn´t lose you, too. I had to know how to protect you. I couldn´t present my case to you, you would have never listened to me. You´d have thought God knows what... I´m sorry I had to involve Moira, too; but I needed her to corroborate my father´s allegations about their extramarital affair.”

“Lex, I´ve been visiting my mum these last two months at the clinic. We´ve talked a lot... I... Remember I told you I had to talk to her? When I... touched you in that hospital room... “ she said, acknowledging it had been her to save him- there was no use lying to him now, ” I saw... many things. It was as if I were inside you, reliving things of your past.”

“It was your voice I heard, wasn´t it?”

“I suppose it was, Lex. I honestly don´t know how it works. It was the second time I used it and it was completely different from my previous experience. I´m not your sister, Lex; when my essence left your body... when I woke up in my room... I was bombarded by images and overwhelmed by so many questions. I knew then why you had put a distance between us after that summer. The answer wasn´t the one I was expecting, if anything, it was even more disturbing- that´s why I had to talk with my mum. You need to see her, Lex; it´ll be faster than another DNA test. “

“What makes you think she won´t lie to me, Chloe?” he told her, not wanting to give in to hope, the hope that maybe his father had tried to come clean the last time they had been face to face.

“I´m aware you distrust everyone after what Lionel put you through, but my mother would never lie to me. Trust me, Lex. Besides, there´s something more I´ve got to show you,” she said with the ghost of a smile.

SUNRISE CLINIC

Moira Sullivan was sitting in the sunlit recreational room of the clinic when Chloe and Lex arrived. She raised her gaze from the novel she was reading and smiled at her daughter before letting her eyes rest on the tall lean man next to her.

“Mum, how are you doing today?” asked the blonde reporter, embracing the older woman and kissing her on the cheek.

“Counting the minutes till the time arrived for you to cross that door,” she answered with a raspy voice.”I see you´ve brought him along. Does he know, then?”

“He figured it out,” Chloe said sheepishly.”But that isn´t why he´s here. You see, Lex seems to believe we´re related.”

“Why would he believe such a thing?” the woman asked, boring her deep green eyes into the young billionaire.

“Is it true that you and my father had an affair?”

“I wouldn´t call it an affair. It didn´t even fall into the category of a one-night stand. There was nothing of consensual about what happened between Lionel and me. I was young and madly in love with my husband. I was desperate, and your father could smell fear and despair at a distance. He needed to retaliate and found in me the perfect prey. You see, I had been recently told it was only a matter of time before I got permanently committed. Gabe knew nothing about my condition, and I wasn´t going to tell him. I was happy; we had so many plans. We were going to raise a family. I just needed more time... and Lionel offered it to me. He told me LuthorCorp scientists were working on an experimental treatment that could cure or retard the development of my insanity and... stupid me, I believed him. All I had to do was... “ she cut herself off.

“I get the picture, Mrs Sullivan,” Lex told her, disgusted at the way his father had manipulated her.

“Chloe is mine and Gabe´s, Lex. When I found out I was pregnant my first thought was I was being punished for my indiscretion. I, like you, thought the baby was Lionel´s. It was only when the doctor told me I was over a month pregnant that I breathed relieved. I suspected what you were trying to find out with all those questions you asked me at 33.1. I could have told you the truth but, after what you´d put all those other people through, I decided to keep my mouth shut. I´d never been able to get my revenge on Luthor Sr, so I told myself taking it out on you would have to be my consolation.”

“Even if it meant hurting Chloe in the process?”

“Children should never pay for the sins of their parents. She didn´t know, and she´d have never known you thought she was a Luthor. You see, I was sure that having you think it was true was the best way to secure her well-being. You had had plenty of opportunities to have her killed or exiled where she´d not interfere with your business. However, you kept her close, had her on your payroll and let her live in a property that was yours- that told me there was more to your interest in my daughter than to add her to your collection at 33.1. You´ve harboured feelings for Chloe all these years, haven´t you, Lex?”

“Mum,” Chloe tried to interrupt her, grabbing one of her hands.

“If you have, there´s no reason to feel guilty. If my Chloe has run the risk of losing her life to save yours,” she added, caressing he daughter´s cheek,” there must be something worth-saving in you.”

Lex shifted his gaze towards Chloe and noticed she was trying hard to feign being concentrated on some imaginary lint on her suede skirt. What had Moira meant with her words concerning Chloe´s intervention? That she knew she could have died and yet chose to resuscitate him?

“Mum, we don´t want to wear you out,” smiled Chloe as she got up from the sofa and leant forward to press a kiss on Moira´s forehead.

“Thanks for being honest with me, Mrs Sullivan. I know how hard it must have been to tell me what you did, “ Lex said to Chloe´s mum with gratitude.

“Lionel was a sick man, Lex. I can´t imagine what it must have been like for you to endure that kind of parenting. You can still make amends for your past and prove that the apple can fall far from the tree. You know, I met your mother once; she was a beautiful person,” she smiled, covering one of
his hands with hers.

“Thank you, Mrs Sullivan,” he responded, making a supreme effort to maintain his cool. “Chloe, I´ll wait for you in the lobby.”

“OK,” she told him with glassy eyes as he left the recreational room to escape from a situation which had turned too emotional to handle without making a fool of himself in front of both women.

“Are you going to tell him, Chloe?” Moira asked her daughter once Lex was out of earshot.

“He deserves to know. I think it´ll lift a heavy burden from his shoulders.”

“The bastard did something good after all,” Moira said ironically.

“Knowing him I´m not sure what his original intention was. Why did he choose me to entrust the family secrets with? He was more than aware of our open enmity,” Chloe cocked an eyebrow.

“Lionel Luthor was anything but blind, Chloe. He knew what he was doing when he lied to his son four years ago. And I´m sure he knew what he was doing now.”

Chloe joined a perfectly composed Lex in the lobby of the clinic, and they both walked in silence to the silver Porsche which was parked a few metres away from the entrance. It was a pregnant silence, charged with suppressed emotions, bursting with the energy of feelings which had been bottled up by one of the parties and denied by the other for years.

“Is it true what your mother said? That you could have died when you saved me?” asked Lex, breaking the silence as he gripped tightly the leather-covered steering-wheel of the sleek sports car.

“She was exaggerating, Lex,” she laughed nervously.

“Was she?” he said in a lower voice, turning around to fix her with his intense blue-grey eyes.

“I just passed out; that´s all,” she murmured.

“Passed out? And why weren´t you in the room when I woke up?” he frowned, seeing her fidget in the seat.

“Lex...” she began explaining.

“If you´re going to lie to me, save it, Chloe. I´m not asking you to betray his secret. Your look tells me Clark´s somehow involved in it, and it´s OK. I don´t need to know. I promised this time it´d be different and, hard as it is, I´m trying to live up to that promise. Just tell me, did you risk losing your life when you saved me in that hospital room?”

“I told you this time it was different. When I used my powers before, I slept for a few hours in a row, and that was all. I didn´t think...” she gulped,” I didn´t think it´d be as intense as it was. I... fell into a deep slumber for eighteen hours when I touched you,” she finished, looking at Lex from under her eyelashes.

“Eighteen hours is a long time to be `asleep´, Chloe. What if you hadn´t woken up?”

“But I did.”

“After everything I´ve put you through, you chose to enter that room and use your powers on me without knowing what the outcome could be for you. Why?”

“You´d saved me at least twice that I knew of- at the safe house and after Lana bit me at the Sorority party.”

“Was it gratitude, then?”

“Are you looking for a confession, Lex? I don´t know what it was, OK? We´ve never been exactly indifferent to each other. My feelings are as confused as yours are right now. Can we talk about this some other time? I´ve got something else to show you.”

“I suppose I can wait. It´s the least I can do after what you´ve done for me.”

“I don´t expect you to pay me for saving your sorry ass, Luthor. You didn´t need to get rid of The Planet, by the way. I know why you did it, but I don´t want any grand gestures. Just try not to blow it this time.”

“I´ll do my best to accommodate you, Sullivan,” he smirked, turning the ignition. “All right. Where to?”

“My apartment. You know where it is, don´t you?” she cocked an eyebrow, seeing him smile smugly out of the corner of her eye.

“Your apartment it is,” he responded, putting on his designer sunglasses and driving the car out of the parking space.

CHLOE´S APARTMENT

Chloe had made Lex stop in front of a liquor store to purchase a bottle of first-class whisky- in her fridge there were only cola beverages and a couple of beers Lois had bought the last time they had a pizza together, and the blonde was sure he would need something stronger to process what she´d show him. As a matter of fact, she too would need the Dutch courage necessary to reveal Lionel hadn´t been the only one who´d lied to him.

“You should have let me pay for that, Chloe,” the billionaire told her when they had taken off their coats and she came back from the kitchen with two tumblers.

“Let me enjoy the prerogatives that come with being an heiress, at least, for a little longer, Lex,” she responded, pouring the amber liquid into their glasses.

“Have you got an attorney you can trust?” asked Lex, taking the tumbler she offered him. “There´ll be lots of documents to look over and sign.”

“I´m not keeping the forty percent, Lex,” she said, sipping the vintage beverage and lowering herself onto the armchair opposite Lex.

“Chloe...” he began, setting down the tumbler on one of the coasters she had placed on the coffee table between them.

“Lex, I haven´t brought you to my apartment to talk about the inheritance. There´s something you´ve got to see,” she cut him off, feeling her mouth suddenly dry.

“So you said. I´m really intrigued, I´ve got to admit. There´s very little that can ruffle the Chloe Sullivan I know, and you´re definitely nervous,” he replied calmly, eying the way she rubbed her hands against her suede skirt. “There was no lint on it at the clinic, and there´s nothing wrong with it now, Chloe. I won´t bite your head off.”

“OK,” she sighed, getting up from the armchair and unlocking the top drawer of her desk to get an envelope. “The morning after Lionel and you... were attacked at his office, I got a handwritten letter at The Planet,” she began to explain, stretching out an arm to grab her tumbler and take a quick gulp of the drink. “I suppose it must have been sent the afternoon before your meeting at LuthorCorp Plaza. I told you earlier today that your father had talked to me a few months ago. Now I know he was afraid I´d discover he´d been behind Grant´s death and Lana´s fake pregnancy. His whole plans with Martha Kent and his play-acting as Clark´s surrogate father would have come to an end and every carefully-constructed plan to gain their trust would have crumbled down. Needless to say I kept investigating; he knew I was obsessed with writing exposés on LuthorCorp and that I was intent on bringing you down,” she said, fidgeting with the envelope that felt like a ticking bomb in her hands. “Perhaps he suspected I had discovered the truth, so he thought of using this as a bargaining chip. Maybe he thought I wouldn´t do anything against him if he gave me something to humiliate you or hurt you in public.”

“What´s in that envelope, Chloe?” he asked, leaning forward.

“My first thought when I got it was: `Luthor´s sent me an explosive letter.´ In a way it was... is. It concerns you and your mum,” she gulped, raising her deep green eyes to meet the intense gaze of his blue-grey orbs.

“My mother?” he murmured in a controlled voice as the conversation with Lillian´s ghost at the hospital sprang to mind.

“Take it,” she said quietly, handing it over to him. “I´ll leave you alone to read it in private while I plug in the coffee maker,” she added, getting up from the armchair.

“Stay,” he told her, grabbing her hand to detain her. “Please,” he added in a begging voice she´d never heard him use.

“Are you sure?”

“When I was in hospital waiting for my discharge papers... I saw her... my mum,” he explained emotionally.” I talked with her. She said many things I couldn´t make head or tail of until recently. She told me that you already knew the reason, that I had shown you... I didn´t know she was talking about our distancing or you or your having seen the reason for it while being `inside´ of me. She said... there was a reason for my survival and that I´d have to wait until it was safe... that all the answers I´d been waiting for would find me when the time was right. I think this is it, isn´t it?” he asked Chloe tightly. “What could it be so horrible to make him treat me the way he did? What could she have done to make her ask for my forgiveness at the hospital?”

“I´ve burnt your father´s letter,” she responded, remembering the rage that had overcome her when seeing the contents of the missive and the hurt she had experienced while reading the bastard´s confession of how he had come between her and Lex all those years ago. She had already seen it with her own eyes while being in Lex´s mind but, somehow, seeing the words scribbled on paper by the own perpetrator made the pain even worse. “I found this envelope in the safe deposit box I opened with the key that Lionel sent me to The Planet. I´ve done some digging and I have to say everything looks legit,” she stated as he started to take the papers out of the manila envelope with LuthorCorp´s logo.

Lex threw the envelope onto the coffee table without looking at the documents, got up from the sofa and started to massage the tense muscles of his neck. “After I got shot in Detroit...” he began, pinching his nose,” I started having these dreams... nightmares, actually. I thought all the stress in my life was impacting on my resting hours and making me see things but... the same dream has kept repeating itself. Now I realise it isn´t just a dream but a repressed memory. I see my parents arguing... he is accusing her of having betrayed him... she wants to divorce him and take me away with her... he refuses and then, they start talking about me. He threatens her with hurting me if she doesn´t give him what he wants... he says they´ve discussed it more than once lately... and then, he asks her where she plans to go. He actually refers to someone... “

“Do you remember anything else?” asked Chloe when he turned quiet.

“He mentioned a betrayal of hers again when I confronted him for the last time. He told me... mum knew why he would never...” he responded in a barely controlled voice, remembering Chloe was aware of what exactly he´d always wanted from Lionel because he himself had told her the truth in his study at the mansion after she broke into one of LuthorCorp´s facilities and got infected with the Veritas serum.

“He should have never done what he did to you, Lex. You weren´t to blame,” she said quietly, coming closer to him and placing a hand on his shoulder as she resisted the impulse to wrap her arms around his waist from behind and hold him tight.

This was the same man who had done all that experimenting at 33.1, that had taken several morally questionable decisions she knew of and others she suspected or had no idea of and yet, she could no longer deny she´d never stopped loving him. It had been precisely the depth of those feelings what had made the breach between them so painful and her animosity towards him so incensed. Lex was still the man whose dark half had tried to kill her, but he was also the young man who had protected her against a monster and the first adult male to see her as a sensual being.

Being inside Lex´s mind had changed everything because she was no longer capable of dissociating the sensitive, loving and hurt boy she´d come face to face with in those dark lonesome corridors from the man that was standing before her now. During their estrangement he had tried hard to project an image of heartless ruthlessness and she had made herself believe whatever she´d seen worth-saving in him had been an aberration caused by her infatuation with the sophisticated handsome billionaire. Imagining Lex as soulless and unscrupulous had been so much easier than accepting the truth- that she might never be able to put him behind her and that, maybe, they had all given up on him far too soon.

“Lex, “ she repeated, hoping he´d not close up now and deny her the possibility of being there for him just as he´d once been there for her when she needed someone to lean on.

“Is there a name in those papers, Chloe?” he asked her, feeling the warmth of her hand seep through the expensive dress shirt and start spreading all over his skin, filtering through his pores, enveloping him in the same way it had when she´d touched him in that hospital room. He couldn´t remember when it was the last time he´d let someone get close and actually touch him- he´d tried, really tried when he was with Lana, but there had always been a part of him he kept to himself, a part that remained untouchable.

Lex could feel her soothing presence behind him, all around him, and experienced the almost unbearable urge to turn around and hug her, have her arms hold him to her body and let himself go- cry like the little hurt boy he´d always known he was deep inside; but he didn´t.

“Iaian Seosamh Murray Grierson,” Chloe read the name in her notes and saw a fleeting look of recognition in his stormy blue-grey eyes when he turned around to face her. “Lex? Where are you going?” she asked as he marched purposefully out of the room, grabbed the jacket and the overcoat he´d hung on a peg in the hall and opened the front door to leave. “Lex!” she exclaimed when he stepped out into the corridor and rushed to the lift without uttering a word. “Talk to me. Do you know him?” she asked breathless, standing in front of him as he tried to press the button to summon the elevator.

tbc

[glista]

amazing story, can't wait for next............

[malugargula]

Wow
Really interesting and intense

[Kit Merlot]

Wow
Really interesting and intense

I agree, the Chlex interactions are extremely intense

[hfce]

Thank you Jesus they are not related. I loved the update but what has Lex so upset? More please...

[dagney]

Wow,

Powerful update and so much was revealed and yet more mysteries surfaced. That Lex believed Chloe was his sister for several years, That his actions were motivated by his concern. The letter and the name what else did Lionel do and who is this mysterious man. Yikes Dagney

[Nimmie]

What a fantastic update. I'm dying for more...

thanks
N

[purplemoon123]

Did Lionel actually believe that Chloe was his daughter or did he just want to mess with Lex???

Love the Chloe and Lex interaction. How they each tried to protect the other from the crazy bs that Lionel pulled.

From one cliffhanger to another.