Fic: Girls Just Wanna Be Boys Again, Thanks (Parts 1 and 2) (4/6)
Title: Girls Just Wanna Be Boys Again, Thanks (Parts 1 and 2)
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: major for Season 1, though it references some things up to Season 5 and beyond (Oliver, mainly); starts after Jitters (1x08) but goes AU before Rogue (1x09)
Word count: 23,700+ and 24,700+
Summary: Clark and Lex get genderswapped. Real life ensues.
Warnings: Only unofficially beta'd. Genderswap fic (a.k.a. female!Clark and female!Lex). Some weirdness and confusion involving sex and sexuality, as a matter of course. ...It belatedly occurs to me that I should also warn for PTSD and chemical torture.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: Written for the clexmas Spring Fling 2012 -- Changes, Prompt: Changes of gender.
For the full ongoing text (parts further than 2), updates will (eventually) be posted at AO3.
Previous post is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex sighed as he worked alongside Gabe at the plant. Or, rather: Lex sat at a desk alongside Gabe and watched him work, trying to figure out what he was doing, and then contemplated the genesis of his actions and their possible effects, and, only then, tried to ask intelligent questions to confirm or elucidate himself on the business matters he was 'overseeing'.
It actually had worked out rather well thus far -- Gabe was interrupted only minimally during his workday, and Lex was getting his 'first-hand business training'.
"Did you know that your daughter spoke with my abductor earlier this week?" Between the two of them comparing notes, Lex had realized that that had been the case; Clark had planned on getting first-hand confirmation from the girl herself before completely flipping-out about it.
Gabe's head shot up at the casually-stated remark. He looked taken aback, then horrified and fearful, then worried, then panicked, then almost sad as understanding hit him in waves. "I think Chloe may have been absent that day in kindergarden when they taught everyone not to talk to strangers," he said, almost as an apology.
"She needs to learn some restraint," Lex offered, actually feeling a little worried about the girl himself -- it had sounded as though Clark might feel differently, but he himself wasn't about to become angry over her giving information that the bastard had apparently found some confirmation in from his own medical files. There was plenty of blame to go around. --No, what worried him was that the lunatic could have just as easily grabbed her as well, had he not already been in the later stages of his experimentation and stopped using girls for comparison by that point. This time, she had been lucky. This time.
Lex had no doubt that there would be a next time.
"I got her a taser last night," Gabe offered grimly.
"She doesn't need a taser; she needs a keeper. One who can moonlight as a bodyguard," he added after a second's thought, because given the level of incidence of lunatics and psychotic meteor-freaks running around this town that he'd seen so far...
"Pete hangs out with her often enough."
"Clark as well, but neither of them seem capable of reining her in."
"Clark hared off on his own after you," Gabe said, giving Lex a look. "I don't think he's one for showing how to practice restraint."
"You'd be surprised," Lex murmured, looking over one of the summary spreadsheets of quarterly earnings. He grimaced slightly, then started when he heard Gabe chuckle. Lex looked up at him with a querying gaze.
"Oh, no? I heard about what happened in the Beanery this morning," Gabe smiled knowingly.
Oh, fuck. He tried for his blandest, most innocent face. "Honestly, Gabe, I don't know what-- Damnit," he ended quietly and gave up any thought of pretense when Gabe gave him a very parental Look. "How likely is it that someone will tell his parents?" Lex asked as he looked away, running a hand over his head and feeling defeated, trying to think of a good way to blackmail an entire town -- and, fuck, Oliver-fucking-Queen and his goddamn cronies -- and coming up empty.
...Well, Oliver and his pals would probably stay silent on their own. They were too stupid to think of tattling on Clark to his parents having a more dire effect on his friend than trying to beat him up again -- hah! good luck! -- and they wouldn't risk the drop in standing that rumors of their utter rout at the hands a five-foot-nothing girl would have on their own image among their own kind. But that still left the entire goddamn rest of the town...
"Tell them directly? Slim to none. But them overhearing something on the street? " Gabe shrugged. "Less likely over time. After today, probably pretty unlikely."
"What, Clark's sudden backbone won't be the talk of the small-town gossip for years to come?" Lex said derisively. "How horribly disappointing," he ended on a note of sarcasm. Because if there was one thing he couldn't understand, it was how the majority of Clark's peers seemed to think he was a wimp and a pushover. Sure, he didn't get into fights all that often -- avoided them like the plague, in fact -- but he jumped in to help others without thought for his own safety all the time. Surely, he should garner some small credit for his efforts...
"Oh, things like that happen all the time. The town isn't exactly, uh, insular, I guess -- Chloe and I have never felt unwelcome, surely -- but they close ranks. Outsiders who come here causing nothing but trouble get routed pretty quickly." Gabe cocked his head slightly. "Granted, not usually by Clark, from what I hear, but..."
Lex blinked at him, then turned that thought over a few times in his mind, musing.
"And for all that it's called 'Smallville', the town really isn't all that small," Gabe ended with some amusement, and then laughed outright at the look Lex gave him.
"Really, Mr. Luthor, I may be from Metropolis, but I've lived and worked elsewhere. I know suburbia when I see it, and the town has a population of thirty-thousand. Many small cities don't have that many people living in them," he chided. "It may have a small-town feel to it, and most people here have the mindset, but a small town is generally something like three- or four-hundred people. Three-thousand people would be pushing it." With a smile, he added gently, "You don't really believe that I'd have moved my daughter out here, instead of just commuting from the city, if I thought she'd be bored to tears? She's an extrovert -- she needs people, to be around and to talk to. Besides, my budding little reporter would go crazy if nothing happened where she lived besides 4-H fairs and farmer's markets."
"...Three-hundred people?" Really?
Gabe chuckled again. "You'd best stay out of the really rural areas of Kansas then, or the backwoods of Pennsylvania and West Virginia." He paused. "Or any of the less-populated coastal regions, east or west, for that matter. Once you get away from the cities..." Gabe shrugged. "You're used to cities like Metropolis, or Gotham, or New York, and visiting places only an hour or two car's ride away from them. But those are highly-developed areas. Most places aren't like that."
Lex tried to hold on to his shifting world-view, but what Gabe was saying... well, something just felt wrong somehow.
"Look, if you don't believe me, the next time you get some vacation time, just go on a road trip for a week or two. Don't try and visit major cities, or anything tourist-y, just drive around to the smaller places on the map. --A state map, not just one of those fold-out ones," Gabe smiled again.
This really flew in the face of what Lex knew and believed, and what he knew Clark thought about his hometown, but Gabe seemed so sure...
"I'll think about it," Lex said.
Gabe grinned. "It might give you some perspective," he said agreeably. "Most small towns don't need a parking structure to accommodate the congestion on Main Street, after all."
Lex sent him a sideways look. Apparently his preliminary talks with Nell Potter regarding the old theater property in the middle of town had not gone unnoticed... or un-gossipped about.
...Well, he supposed there was no harm done, so long as no-one tried to outbid him for it, or beat him to the punch. He sighed and got back to his reading.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe and Pete walked into the Beanery after school to see Lex Luthor lounging at a very prominent table in the middle of the coffee shop. It looked like he -- heh, she -- was waiting for someone.
"Hot date?" Chloe queried, sidling up to her. Pete followed, looking all sour grapes.
Lex raised her gaze to Chloe's own and gave her an odd look. "No. Though I was wondering if Clark managed to successfully submit his plea for a make-up exam." She brought her coffee cup to her lips and took another sip.
Well, that was a lousy reaction to what was supposed to be a sure-fire conversation starter. How was Chloe supposed to get information out of him if he was all over the place like -- oh, she'd been waiting for Clark. Right. 'Clark' and 'date' and 'Lex' just didn't sit well together in her brain.
Chloe made a face and grabbed a chair, sitting down heavily. "Well, I don't know about that. Clark's mom grabbed her at lunch."
Lex blinked at her, obviously not comprehending. "Clark's mother..." he echoed. "What do you mean?"
Give some to get some, put him at ease. "There was some big Kent family brouhaha in the cafeteria," Chloe started. "Pete and I were in the Torch offices, so we only got to hear second-hand," she made a face, "but Clark's mom pulled her from school in front of everybody."
Lex stared at her for a few moments. Then it seemed that her words finally sunk in, because her eyes widened, she went a little pale, and she looked absolutely horrified.
"Dear god, was his mother home-schooled?!? --That's social death!!" Lex spat out. "Was she trying to force him to commit some elaborate form of social suicide?!" She slammed his coffee cup down on the table, looking irate.
Chloe was stunned at the display. "You--"
"I'm twenty-one, not dead -- I remember high school perfectly well, thank you!" Lex grated out. She pinched the bridge of his nose like she was getting a horrendous headache. "His mother actually-- don't them have intercom systems? And teachers? Runners from the principal's office?" Lex dropped his hand and glared up at her. "What was he doing alone in the cafeteria to begin with? Why weren't you with him? --or he in the Torch offices with you?" he accused.
"Hey, watch it--" Pete said, clenching his fists.
"Shut your mouth, Ross!" Lex hissed, shoving herself upright and looking absolutely irate, yet... Chloe suddenly realized that she was swaying a little and sweating heavily, and had been for some time -- ever since she'd started getting upset, actually. "I wasn't talking to you, you little--" Lex coughed once. "You little backstabbing--!"
Chloe watched as Lex got caught up in a coughing jag, bending over and half-covering her mouth with the back of a hand. When she started coughing up green spittle with flecks of red, Chloe grabbed Lex's arm and managed to haul her up over a shoulder.
"Chloe, what the hell--?" Pete started, looking completely taken aback.
"Don't just stand there -- help me!" she said. Pete looked about to protest, until she gave him a piercing look and he grumbled and took her other arm. With that, she got Lex into the ladies' room; she was barely staying upright at that point.
"We-- I-- he-- we shouldn't be in here," Pete said nervously, finally settling on a pronoun.
"God, Pete -- trust me, nobody cares!" Fuck, if the big jerk dies on me before I can get anything out of her--
They managed to get Lex up against the far wall by the sinks before she doubled over and really started coughing up shit. From the sound of the way she was wheezing between coughs, it might've been coming up out of her lungs, and maybe out of her sinuses, too, when she started sneezing.
Somehow, Lex managed to get it all on the tile floor, and none on herself. Probably got a lot of practice at that from her hard-partying days in Metropolis, back when she was a he. Chloe grimaced at the mess and tossed a few paper towels over the worst, then dug through her purse and handed her a small packet of tissues.
Lex blew her nose repeatedly; hacked, coughed, and spat more gunk at the paper-towel covered mess; and finally tossed the used tissues on the pile. She pushed herself to an upright seated position, loosely bracing herself against the wall. She groaned incoherently as she closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and pushed her knees up a bit.
"Ok, now I know why my dad wanted hazardous duty pay yesterday. Seriously -- what is it about Sullivans ending up as your nursemaids?" Chloe protested, not so very good-naturedly, poking her in the arm.
"No idea. Perhaps Clark is rubbing off on you?" Lex said wearily, almost but not quite slurring the words.
"Doesn't explain my dad."
"I pay him. For hazardous duties." Lex frowned slightly, then placed the base of her palm between her eyebrows. "Or, rather, my father does." She took a shallow breath. "Don't think I like that, much."
Chloe couldn't help but realize she sounded a little odd. It was like something was off in her head. She wasn't exactly slurring his words, but... she was enunciating them weirdly, like she was needing to concentrate a little to sound them out correctly.
"What, you don't like Gabe working for you?" Pete said snidely, standing over the both of them.
Chloe frowned up at Pete, about to tell him to shut it, because antagonizing and distracting Lex like that wasn't helping -- in fact, would put her in the defensive and make Chloe's job that much harder -- when Lex said, "Don't be ridiculous, Ross. Gabe doesn't work for me."
Chloe turned back to see Lex staring up at Pete, eyes wide and looking through him slightly, her hands loosely fallen into her lap. "Gabe works for my father. Everybody does." She closed her eyes again. "I do." She swallowed heavily. "Paid by him. To do things for him. Makes me feel... cheap."
Chloe stared at Lex for a moment, unable to think of anything to say, and then looked up to Pete. Pete looked about as shaken at Lex's unexpected admission as Chloe felt.
Lex turned his head away slightly and muttered something unintelligible. Chloe stared at her for a moment, then realized that Lex was still sweating heavily.
God, is this normal? ...What are the symptoms of radiation poisoning, again? She'd wiki'd them earlier. God, ok. Fatal doses. Fatal doses were... nausea and vomiting (check), diarrhea (ew), headache (the way he was acting in the hospital and out in the Talon? check), disorientation that got worse over time (check, and that only really happened at fatal doses), and...
Chloe frowned a little and brought a hand to Lex's forehead and heard her let out a faint inadvertent gasp at the touch. Her eyelids fluttered open then slid closed again as his eyes rolled back, and something like a small bit of unexpected relief -- and a surprised half-smile -- flickered across her face for a moment. Chloe wasn't surprised, though.
"Pete, grab a couple paper towels and wet them down with cold water," she said grimly.
"What? Why?"
"Because Lex is burning up," Chloe gritted out, turning her hand and moving it across Lex's forehead so her whole palm was making contact, giving Lex some temporary relief while waiting on Pete. Fever, check. She needed to get Lex better, or better enough to talk to her before she started in on the tremors, which would lead to seizures, which would lead to...
Pete grumbled but did as she asked. When Chloe started laying them down across Lex's forehead and a few dripping wet ones over her hair, she heard Lex gasp a quiet "oh!" and then Chloe watched with fascination as she groaned softly and her whole body seemed to unwind, collapse a little, tension seeping out of every pore.
...That was possibly a literal thing, given how much she was still sweating.
"Pete, keep an eye on her for me, ok?" Chloe said, pushing herself upright from her squatting position.
"Why?" he asked, eyeing Luthor, but not moving from his spot.
Chloe touched his shoulder as she passed him, and said quietly under her breath, "Because she's really sick, she knows things about what happened to her and Clark, and she's really out of it right now, so she might actually answer our questions if we're careful," and lucky, because Clark hadn't been talking. How Clark had reacted that afternoon had been worrying as hell -- Clark hadn't been listening at all, or willing to explain anything at all. (It didn't help that she was horrible at apologizing -- and that Clark would have been ok if he'd just waited; he wouldn't have been used like Lex.) Not to mention that Lionel had stripped the warehouse Lex and Clark had been found in, and then he'd snapped up every last lead on the not-so-good late Doctor Smithe. Lionel was not liable to share what he knew. But the way things had been progressing, Chloe needed to do something and soon, and in order to do that...
I need to know what Lex knows before she dies from the radiation poisoning, because otherwise Clark is next.
Chloe steeled herself and refused to glance back as she pushed her way out of the bathroom. It might be too late for Luthor, but she refused to believe that she couldn't help Clark.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe was back in short order with a Beanery employee in tow, who looked none-too-happy about needing to mop up the mess on the floor. She only said "shit" before shutting up and stayed shut up as she worked, though, when she saw the state of Lex Luthor lying there. She didn't even give Pete the hairy eyeball for being a guy in the girl's bathroom, and she got the hell out of there as fast as she could, apparently not wanting to get involved.
Chloe and Pete managed to half-drag, half-wrestle Lex out into the center of the floor between them, but it took some doing. She kicked out once or twice at the rough treatment, but after Chloe laid down a clean dish towel for her head and pressed the other towel full of crushed ice up against her forehead, she tamely let them arrange her limbs however they wanted.
"Cold," Lex muttered, curling up slightly on the floor. It sounded more like a statement of fact, and not so much a complaint.
"Feel ok?" Chloe asked.
"Mmmm," she got as a reply, with Lex being very careful not to move too much and risk dislodging the icepack as she tentatively reached up a hand to grasp it and hold it in place.
Chloe grinned. Smooth movements -- no motor problems yet.
She got up and filled the cup that had had the ice in it with cold water from the tap, and managed to poke Lex into sitting up and drinking a cupful one-handed, the other hand still holding the icepack against her head.
After draining the first mugful in one long draught, Lex didn't protest anymore. With Chloe's help, she drank down four more cups, then lay down again, letting hand and ice pack slowly slip down her temple and forehead onto the floor. Her breathing evened out.
Chloe realized with some surprise that Lex had actually fallen asleep on her.
And then she remembered the symptom she'd forgotten from the list.
...Lethargy, check.
Shit. Chloe swallowed heavily around the lump in her throat.
Mindful of Pete, she kept a smile on her face while she forced down the urge to scream. Lex obviously needed rest to be able to reach some level of coherency, but they were both racing the clock. If Lex didn't wake up before the deterioration caught up with her...
Chloe curled her fingers into fists on her knees as she knelt there and waited. Her nails bit into her palms and she didn't even feel it, really. She was too busy panicking about Clark, worried about Clark, as she stared down at Lex.
There has to be something I can do! I just need to know--! I just need to force Lex to tell me--
Chloe waited.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex came awake slowly. His fingers were cold, and twisted up in some wet cloth.
He was unbearably thirsty.
"Want more?"
Lex blinked up at a sideways-Chloe who was holding a cup, and with no small effort got an elbow under his chest and pushed himself upright. Chloe got a hand under his arm and helped him in doing so, then handed him the cup.
Cool, lightly chilled water never tasted so good.
He finished it off in one great draught, then held it out. Chloe took it back, then got up, refilled it from the sink, and handed it back down to him before crouching down in front of him.
Lex looked about as he drank this one down more slowly. A bathroom, from the looks of things from the floor. Pete was standing against the wall, looking uncomfortable.
He finished off the water, then cleared his throat lightly and said, "We are not in the women's restroom."
Considering the smirk Chloe was giving him, he lost all faith in his ability to keep his thoughts out of his tone, god have mercy on his soul, because the budding reporter-to-be sure as hell wouldn't.
"If you say so," Chloe said brightly -- reveling in his discomfort, perhaps?
Lex sat the cup down on the floor and resisted the urge to strangle people, because Clark would undoubtedly be disappointed in him if he did. "I don't remember coming in here," he put forth, rubbing the tips of his fingers together absently, trying to warm them up from where he'd been clutching the icepack that he'd apparently been gripping for some reason.
"You were kind of out of it at the time," Chloe agreed amicably.
Lex mentally reviewed what he remembered happening since leaving work that afternoon, and then groaned softly as he began to remember snatches of what had happened earlier. He rubbed at his closed eyes with the fingers of one hand. "You people are all crazy. Why does everyone treat me nicely only when I'm being rude as hell and yelling at the lot of you?"
"Because they're crazy?" Pete put out there, sounding annoyed.
"Hey, you helped, too," Chloe put out there.
"I helped you, not him!" Pete yelped.
Lex really didn't feel like dealing with this at the moment. He was still feeling dizzy, maybe even swaying a little bit -- his vision certainly seemed to be indicating that -- and he rubbed a few fingers against his forehead as he tried to brace his other hand against the floor for better balance.
No, he really didn't feel like dealing with this.
He really didn't feel like dealing with anything...
"I don't understand; I was feeling fine this morning," Lex murmured to himself.
"So was Clark."
"Yes," Lex supplied, but then he looked up at Chloe when he realized that she hadn't been talking about their meeting at the Beanery, and...
"He was? What do you mean he was?" Lex asked, because that implied... "What happened?" he growled out as he struggled to stay upright. "I thought... You made it sound as though Clark's mother did not retrieve him at his request."
"She didn't," Chloe said. "But I heard later that Clark ended up coughing up a bunch of gunk into one of the sinks after going to the cafeteria, but before the Kents showed." She paused for a moment, then added, "Clark had just gotten finished with getting all upset with us, too, kind of like you just now." She eyed him, then continued, "You threw up at the hospital before Pete and I came in."
Not exactly a question. She'd more than likely interviewed the hospital staff... or smelled the puddle of vomit from the other side of the hospital bed. Lex nodded, and then realized that that had been a bad idea. He felt a bit of vertigo and had to close his eyes a moment, because it reminded him of the helicopter, and he really wasn't in the right frame of mind for dealing with...
"Did you argue with my dad before you threw up at work yesterday?"
"No," said Lex, having learned his lesson from shaking his head. He cracked open his eyes to look at a thoughtful-looking Chloe.
Oh god, that couldn't be good.
"Huh," Chloe said. "I guess that maybe you're both having the same... uh, symptoms, maybe? I know Clark threw up later after being discharged, but I don't think Clark was arguing then, either. I haven't talked to the Kents yet, so I don't know if--"
"--he did again later at home? Yes, he did -- quite a few times, actually, from what little he remembers from yesterday," Lex supplied, not really paying attention to what he was offering up, because he was slightly more engrossed in wondering whether it was the room swaying from side to side, or if it was him. Logic dictated that the restroom probably wasn't set up on a shaker table, but it was the women's restroom, after all. One never knew.
"Did you?"
"Once or twice. I find my memories of yesterday quite easy to recall, however," Lex shared easily, letting his eyes slowly slide shut.
He snapped them back open when he felt a soft touch on his arm. He frowned quizzically at Chloe, who just said, "You should lie back down."
"Where?" Lex asked.
"Well, here is fine," Chloe said.
Lex looked down at the makeshift towel-pillow on the tile floor before looking back to her. "I can't fall asleep in the women's restroom, on the floor," he said.
"Sure you can. You did before," Chloe pointed out.
Lex frowned and rubbed his forehead again. "I shouldn't fall asleep in here," he amended.
"It's ok. Really."
Lex stared at her as he abstractly tried to count up how many ways "Luthor scion sleeps in bathroom with local high school girl" could be misconstrued.
Also, he had it on good authority (Clark) that he was not a girl, thanks ever so much.
"Look, at least lie your head down. That's definitely ok to do. You're barely able to stay upright right now; you'll feel a lot better," she cajoled. "I'll wake you up if you look like you're going to fall asleep, if you're really that worried about it." Lex frowned because something about her tone sounded a little too falsely-tentative, and the pause a little too... considered?
Lex didn't really have the energy to fight any further just then, so he did as he was bid.
Lex pillowed his head on the towel and slid his arms partly under that. Wonder of wonders, the room slowly stopped spinning on him. He took a breath in and sighed it out again as he closed his eyes in blessed relief.
"Better?"
"Mm, yes," he admitted without shame or embarrassment.
Lex just lay there and breathed for awhile.
"So, when did you visit Clark?" Chloe asked casually.
"Didn't."
There was a pause.
"Then how do you know how he was yesterday?"
"Asked him this morning."
"You saw Clark this morning?"
"Mmhm. Before school." Lex sighed. "He fixed my hair and..." Lex blinked his eyes open to slits, belatedly remembering that Clark didn't want his parents hearing about the fight with Oliver and his crew.
He slid his gaze up to Chloe. "Are you interviewing me?" It wasn't a question. Damnit, he should've known better. Even sick, not feeling well, and laid out like an invalid, he should have had the presence of mind to know better. He narrowed his eyes at her, bringing to bear the full focus of his attention upon her, such as it was at the moment.
"I'm worried about Clark."
That sounded true enough.
"He isn't a story. That's rude of you."
"I swear I'm not --"
Lie. She wanted something -- was digging for it.
"I don't believe you," Lex interrupted, closing his eyes again. He wasn't in the mood for games today.
"Why not?"
Like he was going to answer that truthfully. He tossed her a throwaway truth, instead. "You're a reporter."
"So?"
"Reporters lie." Also true, but not what she'd want to hear from him, either, he was dead-certain.
"No they don't!" Chloe sounded affronted. Lex had to clench his jaw at hearing that, but the effort was wasted, as she just barreled right along. "My news articles are true! All good reporters--"
"--lie to me... or anyone they interview, really." Frankly, he was fed up with everything at this point. "You all just want the story, whatever you decide you think it is, and if you don't like the truth then you simply spin it until it fits. You steamroll anyone who you think gets in your way and you don't care who gets hurt... if that's not actually what you're trying to do in the first place." Really, he wasn't stupid. He shouldn't have to flatly lecture her own what she already knew and strived towards. God, he felt so tired... he sounded weary even to himself.
There was a long silence.
"Not all reporters are like that."
"Yes. They are."
"...I'm a reporter-in-training," she tried.
Lex snorted. That must've taken a good bit of effort, he mused. He paused barely a moment before returning in like kind: "Every time you think you've found a story, you latch on and go after it like nothing and no-one else matters, regardless of who might or might not end up in the line of fire in the process, deserved or not. I doubt it ever occurs to you that you should consider the actual consequences of your actions at any point in time."
"You don't know that -- you don't know me." Her tone was a little odd, but Lex doubted that she thought that type of bulldog tenacity wasn't a bad thing, though -- more a badge of honor. Reporters.
"Clark does."
Another pause.
"Clark said that about me?"
"Not in so few words." Clark hadn't been meant it in a complementary way, either, though Lex wasn't about to tell her that. Let her think the negative bias was wholly Lex's own: sabotaging Clark's friendships was not on his to-do list... except perhaps his inexplicable connection with one Pete Ross. ...Though, given what had happened, Clark could probably use all the friends -- and support -- that he could get ...even if it included one lousy reporter-in-training. He'd just have to suck it up and deal with it.
He cracked an eye open and looked up at her.
Oddly, she didn't look smug. She looked more... shocked.
Why would she be shocked that Clark knew about and commented on her unconscionable tenacity -- weren't they both friends with the farmers' teenaged son? ...And, speaking of questions...
"Why are you asking so many questions about the procedure and the aftermath?" Lex asked.
"I want to know the symptoms."
"Why?" he repeated, becoming a little irritated.
"Because we want to find out if there were any other people who had this done to them. If other people got kidnapped and dropped off at hospitals--"
Well, that last one was easy enough to circumvent. "No-one else survived."
"...What?"
Lex sighed, deeply and openly. "My attacker-- the kidnapper died later from self-exposure to the same process. He kept meticulous records. None of the other subjects, willing or not, survived his so-called 'medical procedure'." He let the scorn drip from his voice, not bothering to try and disguise it. The man was a disgrace to researchers everywhere. Bastard.
Chloe went a little pale. "So, you can't have him finish treating you and then give you the cure."
Treating us? Does she think he just stopped in the middle? Lex thought, strangling a hysterical bubble of laughter that was caught in his chest. Out loud, he said: "A cure implies a disease, and, last I heard..." Lex stopped at the weird noise that Pete made above him. Odd, that. He'd never known the Ross boy to be so stoic. "There is no known process for reversal at present." Lex closed his one open eye again. "My father is working to put together a competent group of scientists to research one, though. Perhaps, in a few years, they might be ready to put such a procedure to good use. I suppose it depends on the quality of the man's 'research' notes." He smiled slightly to himself. "Now, that ought to be enough for your article, don't you think, Miss Sullivan? Proper payment for your help today." Rather unexpected help at that, and he quite probably could have managed well-enough on his own -- it would have been a rather public mess, but that hardly would have mattered in the grand scheme of things -- but Lex was a big believer in payment of services rendered. He didn't like owing people favors, or having a unbalanced ledger. People should owe him, not the other way 'round. It was far safer that way.
He suddenly felt a fist connect with his arm, and he jerked away, his eyes snapping open.
Chloe looked angry, almost as though she might cry.
"How can you be so calm?!" she shouted at him.
Lex looked up at her, warily, slowly bringing a hand up to curl around his bicep. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You don't have a few years! You don't even have a few days! You don't--! Clark--" she choked, shaking.
Lex turned a little so that he was lying on his back instead of his side, and stared up at her too-bright eyes, wet with unshed tears. Oh. ...Oh.
"Clark's fine." Ah, that was perhaps a bit ingracious. "--We're fine," he added, then he grimaced. "Or, rather, we will be."
"But you said--"
Lex closed his eyes and slid a hand up to his forehead, massaging it. God, why me? Some days he really hated being a responsible adult. Couldn't Clark have just--? He didn't understand why she wouldn't have believed Clark -- hadn't she talked to him at school? Hadn't he explained that he was fine? --Hell, she had eyes. How had she been unable to see it for herself?
Reporter. Right. Never let the truth get in the way of the story you're telling. Even if it meant lying to one's self, apparently.
He opened his eyes to slits and glanced over again. God, and looking at her now, she obviously needed to know about the goddamn procedure before she would be capable of calming down. ...Christ, how could he explain this to her, when he barely understood what had happened, himself, let alone how? Don't try to explain it, then. He focused on the aftermath, instead. "The others died almost immediately upon exposure. We've survived this long, I don't see why we wouldn't--"
"The doctors said you were both going to die!" Chloe blurted out, and it looked like she was trying to surreptitiously wipe tears away.
"Chlo?" Lex heard Pete gasp. "When--?" Pete stopped talking after ending on a strangled sound.
Secrets. Lex knew them when he heard them. Suddenly, accidentally aired. That wasn't good.
Lex had a feeling that Clark had been taking things a little too well, and that he was probably still in shock. ...Which meant that, soon enough, Clark was going to be far too embroiled in his own problems to be in any way capable of handling theirs. But, for Clark's sake -- his sanity and well-being, if not peace of mind -- someone had to.
...Some days Lex really hated being a responsible adult.
Lex slowly sat up.
"Clark is going to be fine," Lex said evenly, as soothing as he could be, though that probably wasn't much, given his Luthorian upbringing.
"I heard the doctors say--!"
"They don't know what they're talking about. Not a one of them knew what we'd been exposed to at the time." They probably still don't, he realized. He sighed and briefly closed his eyes against the vertigo -- it hadn't lessened noticeably from before. It seemed that for the moment the dizzy spells were only going to leave him while he remained supine.
"B-but--"
"Mr. Kent said that Clark would be all right. I think he would know better than anyone the state and capabilities of his own son." ...And damn, that didn't sound good. Lex nearly bit the end of his tongue off, he snapped his mouth shut so fast.
"You're not worried about Clark on Mr. Kent's say-so...?" Pete said slowly from behind him, like Lex had just stated the earth rotated around the sun and he was thinking about disbelieving it on Lex's having spoken it, on principle alone.
Lex clenched his jaw and fought down the urge to stand up and smack the youth. ...He told himself he probably wouldn't make it to his feet before collapsing, so it would be a wasted effort, anyway. Instead, he restricted himself to merely saying: "Yes."
There was silence for awhile.
"Clark is up and about. As am I. We are both taking suitable quantities of potassium iodide to bind with any of the remaining radioactive matter that the... that was injected, which will allow our bodies to flush it out of our systems more readily with no further... damage." Lex brought his knees up slowly to his chest and rested his arms out across them, hands dangling downwards. "My degree was in biochemistry. I do know a thing or two about radiation and radioactive substances. People exposed to fatal levels of radiation don't ever improve, Chloe -- they only ever get worse."
"Yes!" Chloe agreed.
Lex stared at her, waiting. It took him awhile to realize that that was all she meant to say on the matter, and another few seconds to realize that she looked fairly unhappily about it.
Lex pinched the bridge of his nose. "What, pray tell, leads you to the conclusion that I am going to die of radiation poisoning?"
"You've got all the worst symptoms," she said, looking away.
"Elaborate, please."
Her head whipped back around and she snarked back, "What, don't you know?"
"Yes, of course I do," Lex said patiently. "But I don't believe you do."
When Chloe glanced away again at the floor and clenched her jaw, Lex knew she didn't have any real presence of mind when he realized that, yes, she had in fact completely missed the light allusion to the Princess Bride quote. Thank you Clark, for inflicting that one upon me, he thought with no small sarcasm and a mental eye roll.
At the quiet snort from behind him, he realized Pete hadn't, though. That almost had him laughing outright, because Clark apparently hadn't been lying about his band's little tradition of somewhat-friendly cult-movie-hazing.
Then he realized that Chloe was glaring at him. He wiped the smirk from his face and replaced it with a 'patient, listening' expression, folding his arms on his knees loosely and leaning forward slightly to indicate interest, which also served the dual purpose of giving him a better, more comfortable position to sit in that would have him less likely to tilt over sideways onto the floor.
"You've got nausea; you've been vomiting. You look like you're having headaches, and you're definitely feverish and lethargic. You've been dizzy and disoriented and otherwise mentally--"
"Pick a Shakespearian play," Lex interrupted.
"--W-what?" Chloe looked startled.
"Pick a Shakespearian play, and pick an act and scene number," Lex repeated. "Or, better yet, grab one of your textbooks and pick a paragraph or two and give me a minute. I'll memorize it and recite it back from memory. Hell, you can time me." At Chloe's confused look, he added, "Ignoring for the moment the several other usual symptoms of radiation exposure I simply am not exhibiting, or to which I have otherwise been displaying quite the opposite effects, my mental faculties are not impaired, Miss Sullivan. I don't doubt your father would have indicated otherwise yesterday, if they were--"
"He said last night that you were kind of out of it yesterday afternoon," Chloe interrupted.
Lex stared at her. Then he grimaced. "I'd only just managed to get myself released from the hopsital," he grated out, pinching the bridge of his nose, having trouble keeping his patience. "Yet I was still able to do my job, despite the fact that I was in no fit state to be..." Lex stopped, realizing what he'd just said, and he felt the blood start to drain from his face.
nonoNO! You idiot -- you idiot!
He dropped his knees to the side and leaned forward, one hand braced on the floor, the other grabbing her at the neck of her blouse, baring his teeth as the adrenaline rush hit and getting in her face. He hissed out at her, in a quiet yell, "--You will not repeat what I just said to anyone -- never, do you hear me!?! -- or so help me god, I will--!"
"Hey!!" he heard Pete yell, dropping down next to Chloe and pushing hard against Lex shoulder, shoving him back away from her with one hand while curling the other around Chloe's waist protectively.
Lex was shaking, his fists clenched at his sides, despair and rage and self-loathing threatening to swamp him completely. He hadn't grabbed the teenager by both shoulders and shaken her until she rattled, but it had been a damn near thing. I shouldn't have kept talking, he thought distractedly. I know better. Damn reporters. Fuck -- I let her get to me-- He hadn't screwed up this badly in years.
"It's off-the-record," Chloe blurted out, and it felt like Lex's world came to a complete halt.
"...What?" he croaked, swaying as he sat back and everything started up again.
"It's-- we're talking. Off-the-record. We're just talking," Chloe said, looking a little shaken.
Lex stared at her in utter disbelief.
"I don't believe you," he said, but the words were automatic, and they even sounded wrong as they came off of his tongue.
No. No! I don't believe her. --I can't believe her. She has to be lying, she... Lex closed his eyes and everything behind his eyes just hurt for a moment. His chest ached. I know better, he reminded himself. I do! He listed off names to himself. At the top of the list was one Perry-goddamn-White.
But then, White hadn't told Lex that he was a reporter. He'd sidled up to him, acted like a nice, friendly, concerned stranger. A sympathetic ear. A sympathetic adult ear, which Lex had found few and far between, back then. Sympathetic and kind... up until he hadn't been.
In fact, most of the worst offenders had misrepresented themselves egregiously, if not all of them, in one way or another. Sometimes they kept the mask on right up until they'd moved in for the kill, and he could find a way to flee his interviewer, though still too late; sometimes they showed themselves to be of the reporting ilk, pretending to be professional and he got through the whole interview, thinking that perhaps, this time, this time would be different... Either way, Lex realized to his utter shame exactly how much these reporters had merely been playing at being rational, reasonable adults only afterwards when their articles had been published with a tone and bias that would make lesser men weep, twisting his words and deeds into Gordian knots.
Chloe, on the other hand, had been very upfront with him, rather from the beginning, and... now that she had something bloody and raw, she seemed to be backing off rather than...
Lex's headache got worse.
Even if she's not lying now, she could change her mind later, he told himself. And even if she's not lying, she's still taking advantage. He mentally shook himself. I'm still sick from everything, still recovering. She knows that. ...Hell, she thinks I'm dying. And what a story that would be! and his mental laugh was dark and echoed long. The last words of Lex Luthor, scion of Metropolis, as he dies ignominously on the floor of a bathroom in the ass-back-end of nowhere, whimpering like a little bitch!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe was kind of glad for Pete's support at the moment. He was sort of warm and physically solid in a nice way, actually.
It let her stop worrying about the little shivers she was getting as chills ran through her. It let her forget about even being the least bit afraid.
Instead, she focused on Lex, and let the pieces start falling into place in her head. And they did.
The picture it was painting was a little fucking terrifying, actually.
She wondered if Lex knew exactly how much she was giving away at the moment: the little flickers of emotion across her face, the fine tremors and growing stress as her muscles tensed and relaxed, the uneasiness and restlessness and uncertainty as she shifted minutely. They all painted very clearly for Chloe a growing picture of her state of mind, and...
"I'm sorry," Chloe blurted out, and she meant it. She meant it for every damn reporter out there.
"You-- what?" Pete said incredulously. "Chloe, god, you aren't the one who needs to apologize, Luthor--"
"Pete," she said quietly, bringing a hand up to his shoulder and glancing up at him. He stopped talking, looking angry and confused, and all for her. She shook her head slightly, just the once. Don't.
It wasn't for herself, it was for Lex. Because Chloe knew -- she'd seen it. Lex is fighting herself. She wants to lash out -- but she also doesn't want to. She couldn't let herself trust anyone... except that she did maybe, at least with some people. She and Clark were friends, as weird as that was -- Chloe was never going to run out of farmboy-billionaire jokes for those two! -- and she hadn't gotten all that antagonistic with Pete -- not since she'd calmed down from her weird fit out in the middle of the Beanery earlier, and Chloe was pretty sure that that had been a symptom from the turning-into-a-girl thing, since Clark had had an almost identical type of blow-up at them just that same afternoon. For all that Pete worked at the Torch with her, he really wasn't a reporter; it was pretty obvious.
So maybe, just maybe, Lex just had a problem with reporters, and Chloe was a reporter, and... now Chloe thought she had a good idea of the reasons why Lex had that problem.
Chloe looked at her head-on as she opened her eyes again. She met her stare-turned-glare.
"I'm sorry," Chloe repeated. "This really is all off-the-record. I'm not after a story. I won't tell anyone what you said."
"Chlo, the bastard practically attacked you--"
"Pete--"
"No! Luthor--!"
Chloe could hardly believe that she was finding herself defending Lex Luthor of all people. --Or at least explaining him. "She was freaked out!" And she had a right to be. Because there were a lot of journalists who would've killed to hear something like that.
"About what?! Getting quoted in some gossip column? Like anybody would care what she says about anything?!"
Chloe stifled a wince. Sometimes she forgot that Pete wasn't from Metropolis. Clearly she still needed to educate him on some things. "She's worried about everybody at the the Luthorcorp plant," Chloe said, because Pete wouldn't care about the entire company, and she had to put this in terms he'd understand and not just brush off. And by this point, Lex was looking confused and almost unsure as her eyes ping-ponged between them at their exchange.
"Yeah, right! What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Pete said, exasperated and upset, but he was looking at Lex when he said it, and he caught Lex's little flinch, too. His eyes went a little wide as he glanced between Chloe and Lex, and his forehead started to furrow.
"...What--?" Pete asked, finally realizing that he really was missing something. Maybe he'd even be ready to hear it.
"It's the stock price, for the company," Chloe explained. "If a CEO or somebody important" -- or somebody's family member -- "gets sick, or ill, or... kidnapped, or something, then the stock price goes nuts. Drops like a rock. It... messes things up." Chloe watched as Lex knelt there right in front of her with her hands clenched in fists on his knees. "And if whoever it is doesn't seem like they're completely ok right after whatever, it happens again. Usually worse. If it gets really bad, the company tanks a little and they have to start laying people off. The Smallville plant is the one with the worst track record right now, so they'd start handing out pink slips here first." She saw Lex turn her head slightly away; she saw her close her eyes briefly and saw the look pass across her face, and she'd seen that look before ...in the mirror. That was the look that said 'why didn't I stop before it got this bad?' and 'my dad is going to kill me when he finds out.' That was the look that said, 'I know I screwed up, I am in so much trouble' and 'I screwed up, I screwed up so bad, and it's all my fault.' That was the look that was always followed by a desperate feeling of, 'what do I have to do to fix this?'
Chloe had to be really careful how she put this, so she said to Lex, "Look, I'm not gonna do something that'll get my dad fired, ok?"
Lex's head came up at that and she began to frown. Ok, good, I have her attention. She took a deep breath. "I seriously doubt anyone would believe me if I said that you said anything like that to me directly. They'd think my dad said something he'd overheard, and he'd probably get fired for it."
"I wouldn't--" Lex snapped her mouth shut on what she'd been about to say.
Chloe felt a little lightheaded, because if she'd really been about to say that she wouldn't fire her dad for something Chloe did, well... "My dad doesn't work for you though, right? Technically."
Chloe heard the slight intake of breath. Lex looked a little grim, and her gaze slid away.
Then she seemed to... pause, almost. She got the slightest smile. It didn't look nice.
Lex looked her straight in the eye and said, "So, there are limits to how far you will go for the truth, then?"
Oh. Oh, that was just a punch to the gut. Not to mention the nasty, lilting, derisive, almost mocking tone it had been delivered in. She's testing me, and Chloe damn near bit the end of her tongue off snapping her teeth shut on the natural, automatic retort. And when Chloe felt Pete tense, she just tightened her grip on Pete's shoulder. He twitched but remained silent, and she glared back at Lex.
Yes, Chloe knew exactly what Lex was doing, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
She waited, and the silence stretched out.
Lex watched her, and then slowly her eyes narrowed.
"Nothing to say?"
I know better, I can handle this, she told herself as she seethed, reining in her temper.
"Oh, I've got plenty to say," Chloe said, pursuing her lips. "But I doubt you'd listen long enough to hear it."
Lex tensed.
More silence.
I'm not going to give her what she expects. I am not going to validate her screwed up beliefs. No, what she was going to do was kick ass.
Lex began to look irritated, and almost nervous, and her eyes started to dart between Chloe and Pete, and then over to the door and back again, before she settled on lowering her eyes and slowly relaxing, staring down at the floor.
Of course, it was the 'casual'-looking sort of 'relaxed' that wasn't actually comfortable. It really couldn't be, given how dizzy Lex must still be feeling, and how she was still clenching her fists so hard the knuckles were white. Chloe didn't know who she was trying to fool.
...Well, maybe Pete, if the way he was tensing up again was any indication. Chloe sighed.
It was almost sad. It was pretty obvious that Lex didn't know what to do when she wasn't fighting, like she couldn't be in the same room as a reporter and not be actively fighting them.
When Lex finally seemed to collapse a little bit, swaying as she massaged her temples and half-whispered, "What the hell is wrong with you?" Chloe smiled. Got you. Because now? She'd already won.
Even if Lex didn't know it yet.
She'd be happy to explain it to her.
"Reporters are people, too," she said. That got her another glare.
"Hardly," Lex drawled.
Chloe clenched her jaw; she wanted to smack her. "You know what your problem is? You can't tell the reporters from the hacks."
Lex twitched.
"All reporters are hacks," she replied.
"Hey--!" Pete yelped, and Chloe felt Pete bristle under her hand and she had to stop him now before it got out too of control.
"--Pete, if you can't handle Lex trying to yank my chain, go wait outside."
Pete made a noise of protest and Lex looked taken aback for a moment. What, you really thought I wouldn't catch on? Chloe wondered how many people he'd tried this bullshit on and had it actually work. Or maybe that's the wrong question...
"You really want to know how far I'll go for the truth, Lex?" Chloe turned back and asked her before she could regain her balance. "Sure, sometimes I go after things pretty damn hard. And, yeah, I'd write you up in a minute, if I had a reason and I thought people needed to know. But I wouldn't make shit up, and if I thought there would be consequences for my dad then I'd talk to him about it first." And then Chloe took a deep breath and added, "And I think you're forgetting that I saw you yesterday in the hospital. If I was gonna do something like that, don't you think I would've done it last night, and had it plastered all over the papers by this morning?"
Lex twitched several times as Chloe talked, but by the end she had been reduced to staring, somewhere between being aghast and pure disbelieving shock at the idea of the bullet she'd already dodged, through no act of her own.
"And yeah, I get it now," Chloe continued, getting back to the elephant in the room. "Clark was eating like a horse this afternoon, and maybe you guys were earlier this morning, too?" It wasn't quite a question, but Lex gave her a slight jerky half-nod. "So no loss of appetite there, and kind of the opposite," Chloe breathed a little in relief as the idea really hit her -- Clark wasn't dying -- "and you've been around a lot of people but you're not sick with some kind of infection, so you don't have a reduced... immune..." Chloe paused as something occurred to her. "Oh. Enhanced immune system," she murmured. "The asthma's back because you're too busy fighting off..." Chloe trailed off, then looked back up at Lex in horror as she panicked all over again.
"Clark is fine," Lex said firmly.
"But he--!"
"I saw him this morning -- were you not paying attention to him at school?" Lex spat out. "Did he look sick to you? Pale, coughing, shaking, sweating, feverish? Did his skin still look as though it was burned in places? No? --He's been healing. People exposed to fatal levels of radiation do not get better," he repeated. Then she looked even angrier as she struggled to her feet and said, "If Clark was in mortal danger of dying from what was inflicted upon us, do you really think I would just stand by and watch? That I wouldn't be breaking down my father's door and demanding the originals of all of that madman's research?" she asked darkly as she loomed over her and Pete, looking for all the world like she'd be willing to do far more than that if she felt the need. "Clark is my friend. Maybe you don't understand what that means, but I do."
Chloe shot to her feet, wanting to do nothing more than punch Lex in the face, because -- how dare he! Clark was her friend first! And-- "Of course I do! I--"
"--seem to want Clark to be on his deathbed, the way you've been going on!" he shouted back at her, throwing his arms out. "Reporters," she spat out like a venomous curse. "Do you really think you can rewrite reality to be whatever you want if you just put out enough copies of an article? Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to suddenly believe what you say if you repeat it enough times?? --Or are you so self-deluded that you actually believe what you're--?!"
"--Don't give me that -- you're the only one here who's delu--"sional, and didn't even know it, but Pete stood up abruptly and Chloe flinched before she got out what she needed to say.
"--Ok, seriously! That's it -- you're both done!" Pete said, holding his arms out between them. "I really don't care if this is some stupid Metropolis pissing contest thing, or whatever, but this? Is over. --No, Chloe!" he said when she was about to protest, irate. "You said he was out of it before, and he's loopy again now." Chloe glanced back to Lex, and realized that he was looking a lot paler than even a few seconds ago. "We know what you wanted to know," and Chloe winced at his tone because she knew Pete was going to explode at her later for keeping the 'Clark may be dying' thing from him. "I'm not gonna stand around and watch the two of you act like a couple of jerks yelling insults and crap at each other all day."
Chloe glanced back at Lex again, who was swaying from the effort of staying upright and looking like she was about to fall over. Oh, hell. "Pete--" Chloe said as she took another step in towards Lex.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pete gritted his teeth, placed one hand on Luthor's shoulder and another on Chloe's, and physically pushed them apart again.
--At least, that was what he tried to do, before Luthor went batshit on him.
His wrist stung from where Luthor swatted him away with a fist, and he turned to yell at the big jerk but the words caught in Pete's throat as he saw Lex stagger backwards and ram himself into one of the stall dividers so hard he was surprised the guy didn't concuss himself unconscious. He had his hands in fists up at his head and was curled inward on himself slightly, dead white, pale as a sheet.
He was shaking like a leaf, taking in shallow panting breaths, and his eyes were going everywhere.
"What the fuck," Pete said under his breath as he rubbed at his wrist, feeling a little freaked out himself.
"Lex...?" Chloe said quietly, taking a step towards him.
Luthor reflexively backed up again, slamming himself flat up against the metal behind him. His eyes widened for a second, staring at nothing, and Pete realized that that was fear in them.
And then, Luthor seemed to focus on Chloe and Pete and the bathroom again, all of a sudden.
Within another three seconds, he had shied away from the both of them, following the wall, and stumbled his way out of the room.
Pete turned and watched the door swing shut. He stood there, kind of shell-shocked.
"What the hell just happened?" Pete asked ...the walls, because Chloe was right out the door after the guy.
Pete cursed under his breath and followed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Next post is here.
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: major for Season 1, though it references some things up to Season 5 and beyond (Oliver, mainly); starts after Jitters (1x08) but goes AU before Rogue (1x09)
Word count: 23,700+ and 24,700+
Summary: Clark and Lex get genderswapped. Real life ensues.
Warnings: Only unofficially beta'd. Genderswap fic (a.k.a. female!Clark and female!Lex). Some weirdness and confusion involving sex and sexuality, as a matter of course. ...It belatedly occurs to me that I should also warn for PTSD and chemical torture.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: Written for the clexmas Spring Fling 2012 -- Changes, Prompt: Changes of gender.
For the full ongoing text (parts further than 2), updates will (eventually) be posted at AO3.
Previous post is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex sighed as he worked alongside Gabe at the plant. Or, rather: Lex sat at a desk alongside Gabe and watched him work, trying to figure out what he was doing, and then contemplated the genesis of his actions and their possible effects, and, only then, tried to ask intelligent questions to confirm or elucidate himself on the business matters he was 'overseeing'.
It actually had worked out rather well thus far -- Gabe was interrupted only minimally during his workday, and Lex was getting his 'first-hand business training'.
"Did you know that your daughter spoke with my abductor earlier this week?" Between the two of them comparing notes, Lex had realized that that had been the case; Clark had planned on getting first-hand confirmation from the girl herself before completely flipping-out about it.
Gabe's head shot up at the casually-stated remark. He looked taken aback, then horrified and fearful, then worried, then panicked, then almost sad as understanding hit him in waves. "I think Chloe may have been absent that day in kindergarden when they taught everyone not to talk to strangers," he said, almost as an apology.
"She needs to learn some restraint," Lex offered, actually feeling a little worried about the girl himself -- it had sounded as though Clark might feel differently, but he himself wasn't about to become angry over her giving information that the bastard had apparently found some confirmation in from his own medical files. There was plenty of blame to go around. --No, what worried him was that the lunatic could have just as easily grabbed her as well, had he not already been in the later stages of his experimentation and stopped using girls for comparison by that point. This time, she had been lucky. This time.
Lex had no doubt that there would be a next time.
"I got her a taser last night," Gabe offered grimly.
"She doesn't need a taser; she needs a keeper. One who can moonlight as a bodyguard," he added after a second's thought, because given the level of incidence of lunatics and psychotic meteor-freaks running around this town that he'd seen so far...
"Pete hangs out with her often enough."
"Clark as well, but neither of them seem capable of reining her in."
"Clark hared off on his own after you," Gabe said, giving Lex a look. "I don't think he's one for showing how to practice restraint."
"You'd be surprised," Lex murmured, looking over one of the summary spreadsheets of quarterly earnings. He grimaced slightly, then started when he heard Gabe chuckle. Lex looked up at him with a querying gaze.
"Oh, no? I heard about what happened in the Beanery this morning," Gabe smiled knowingly.
Oh, fuck. He tried for his blandest, most innocent face. "Honestly, Gabe, I don't know what-- Damnit," he ended quietly and gave up any thought of pretense when Gabe gave him a very parental Look. "How likely is it that someone will tell his parents?" Lex asked as he looked away, running a hand over his head and feeling defeated, trying to think of a good way to blackmail an entire town -- and, fuck, Oliver-fucking-Queen and his goddamn cronies -- and coming up empty.
...Well, Oliver and his pals would probably stay silent on their own. They were too stupid to think of tattling on Clark to his parents having a more dire effect on his friend than trying to beat him up again -- hah! good luck! -- and they wouldn't risk the drop in standing that rumors of their utter rout at the hands a five-foot-nothing girl would have on their own image among their own kind. But that still left the entire goddamn rest of the town...
"Tell them directly? Slim to none. But them overhearing something on the street? " Gabe shrugged. "Less likely over time. After today, probably pretty unlikely."
"What, Clark's sudden backbone won't be the talk of the small-town gossip for years to come?" Lex said derisively. "How horribly disappointing," he ended on a note of sarcasm. Because if there was one thing he couldn't understand, it was how the majority of Clark's peers seemed to think he was a wimp and a pushover. Sure, he didn't get into fights all that often -- avoided them like the plague, in fact -- but he jumped in to help others without thought for his own safety all the time. Surely, he should garner some small credit for his efforts...
"Oh, things like that happen all the time. The town isn't exactly, uh, insular, I guess -- Chloe and I have never felt unwelcome, surely -- but they close ranks. Outsiders who come here causing nothing but trouble get routed pretty quickly." Gabe cocked his head slightly. "Granted, not usually by Clark, from what I hear, but..."
Lex blinked at him, then turned that thought over a few times in his mind, musing.
"And for all that it's called 'Smallville', the town really isn't all that small," Gabe ended with some amusement, and then laughed outright at the look Lex gave him.
"Really, Mr. Luthor, I may be from Metropolis, but I've lived and worked elsewhere. I know suburbia when I see it, and the town has a population of thirty-thousand. Many small cities don't have that many people living in them," he chided. "It may have a small-town feel to it, and most people here have the mindset, but a small town is generally something like three- or four-hundred people. Three-thousand people would be pushing it." With a smile, he added gently, "You don't really believe that I'd have moved my daughter out here, instead of just commuting from the city, if I thought she'd be bored to tears? She's an extrovert -- she needs people, to be around and to talk to. Besides, my budding little reporter would go crazy if nothing happened where she lived besides 4-H fairs and farmer's markets."
"...Three-hundred people?" Really?
Gabe chuckled again. "You'd best stay out of the really rural areas of Kansas then, or the backwoods of Pennsylvania and West Virginia." He paused. "Or any of the less-populated coastal regions, east or west, for that matter. Once you get away from the cities..." Gabe shrugged. "You're used to cities like Metropolis, or Gotham, or New York, and visiting places only an hour or two car's ride away from them. But those are highly-developed areas. Most places aren't like that."
Lex tried to hold on to his shifting world-view, but what Gabe was saying... well, something just felt wrong somehow.
"Look, if you don't believe me, the next time you get some vacation time, just go on a road trip for a week or two. Don't try and visit major cities, or anything tourist-y, just drive around to the smaller places on the map. --A state map, not just one of those fold-out ones," Gabe smiled again.
This really flew in the face of what Lex knew and believed, and what he knew Clark thought about his hometown, but Gabe seemed so sure...
"I'll think about it," Lex said.
Gabe grinned. "It might give you some perspective," he said agreeably. "Most small towns don't need a parking structure to accommodate the congestion on Main Street, after all."
Lex sent him a sideways look. Apparently his preliminary talks with Nell Potter regarding the old theater property in the middle of town had not gone unnoticed... or un-gossipped about.
...Well, he supposed there was no harm done, so long as no-one tried to outbid him for it, or beat him to the punch. He sighed and got back to his reading.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe and Pete walked into the Beanery after school to see Lex Luthor lounging at a very prominent table in the middle of the coffee shop. It looked like he -- heh, she -- was waiting for someone.
"Hot date?" Chloe queried, sidling up to her. Pete followed, looking all sour grapes.
Lex raised her gaze to Chloe's own and gave her an odd look. "No. Though I was wondering if Clark managed to successfully submit his plea for a make-up exam." She brought her coffee cup to her lips and took another sip.
Well, that was a lousy reaction to what was supposed to be a sure-fire conversation starter. How was Chloe supposed to get information out of him if he was all over the place like -- oh, she'd been waiting for Clark. Right. 'Clark' and 'date' and 'Lex' just didn't sit well together in her brain.
Chloe made a face and grabbed a chair, sitting down heavily. "Well, I don't know about that. Clark's mom grabbed her at lunch."
Lex blinked at her, obviously not comprehending. "Clark's mother..." he echoed. "What do you mean?"
Give some to get some, put him at ease. "There was some big Kent family brouhaha in the cafeteria," Chloe started. "Pete and I were in the Torch offices, so we only got to hear second-hand," she made a face, "but Clark's mom pulled her from school in front of everybody."
Lex stared at her for a few moments. Then it seemed that her words finally sunk in, because her eyes widened, she went a little pale, and she looked absolutely horrified.
"Dear god, was his mother home-schooled?!? --That's social death!!" Lex spat out. "Was she trying to force him to commit some elaborate form of social suicide?!" She slammed his coffee cup down on the table, looking irate.
Chloe was stunned at the display. "You--"
"I'm twenty-one, not dead -- I remember high school perfectly well, thank you!" Lex grated out. She pinched the bridge of his nose like she was getting a horrendous headache. "His mother actually-- don't them have intercom systems? And teachers? Runners from the principal's office?" Lex dropped his hand and glared up at her. "What was he doing alone in the cafeteria to begin with? Why weren't you with him? --or he in the Torch offices with you?" he accused.
"Hey, watch it--" Pete said, clenching his fists.
"Shut your mouth, Ross!" Lex hissed, shoving herself upright and looking absolutely irate, yet... Chloe suddenly realized that she was swaying a little and sweating heavily, and had been for some time -- ever since she'd started getting upset, actually. "I wasn't talking to you, you little--" Lex coughed once. "You little backstabbing--!"
Chloe watched as Lex got caught up in a coughing jag, bending over and half-covering her mouth with the back of a hand. When she started coughing up green spittle with flecks of red, Chloe grabbed Lex's arm and managed to haul her up over a shoulder.
"Chloe, what the hell--?" Pete started, looking completely taken aback.
"Don't just stand there -- help me!" she said. Pete looked about to protest, until she gave him a piercing look and he grumbled and took her other arm. With that, she got Lex into the ladies' room; she was barely staying upright at that point.
"We-- I-- he-- we shouldn't be in here," Pete said nervously, finally settling on a pronoun.
"God, Pete -- trust me, nobody cares!" Fuck, if the big jerk dies on me before I can get anything out of her--
They managed to get Lex up against the far wall by the sinks before she doubled over and really started coughing up shit. From the sound of the way she was wheezing between coughs, it might've been coming up out of her lungs, and maybe out of her sinuses, too, when she started sneezing.
Somehow, Lex managed to get it all on the tile floor, and none on herself. Probably got a lot of practice at that from her hard-partying days in Metropolis, back when she was a he. Chloe grimaced at the mess and tossed a few paper towels over the worst, then dug through her purse and handed her a small packet of tissues.
Lex blew her nose repeatedly; hacked, coughed, and spat more gunk at the paper-towel covered mess; and finally tossed the used tissues on the pile. She pushed herself to an upright seated position, loosely bracing herself against the wall. She groaned incoherently as she closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and pushed her knees up a bit.
"Ok, now I know why my dad wanted hazardous duty pay yesterday. Seriously -- what is it about Sullivans ending up as your nursemaids?" Chloe protested, not so very good-naturedly, poking her in the arm.
"No idea. Perhaps Clark is rubbing off on you?" Lex said wearily, almost but not quite slurring the words.
"Doesn't explain my dad."
"I pay him. For hazardous duties." Lex frowned slightly, then placed the base of her palm between her eyebrows. "Or, rather, my father does." She took a shallow breath. "Don't think I like that, much."
Chloe couldn't help but realize she sounded a little odd. It was like something was off in her head. She wasn't exactly slurring his words, but... she was enunciating them weirdly, like she was needing to concentrate a little to sound them out correctly.
"What, you don't like Gabe working for you?" Pete said snidely, standing over the both of them.
Chloe frowned up at Pete, about to tell him to shut it, because antagonizing and distracting Lex like that wasn't helping -- in fact, would put her in the defensive and make Chloe's job that much harder -- when Lex said, "Don't be ridiculous, Ross. Gabe doesn't work for me."
Chloe turned back to see Lex staring up at Pete, eyes wide and looking through him slightly, her hands loosely fallen into her lap. "Gabe works for my father. Everybody does." She closed her eyes again. "I do." She swallowed heavily. "Paid by him. To do things for him. Makes me feel... cheap."
Chloe stared at Lex for a moment, unable to think of anything to say, and then looked up to Pete. Pete looked about as shaken at Lex's unexpected admission as Chloe felt.
Lex turned his head away slightly and muttered something unintelligible. Chloe stared at her for a moment, then realized that Lex was still sweating heavily.
God, is this normal? ...What are the symptoms of radiation poisoning, again? She'd wiki'd them earlier. God, ok. Fatal doses. Fatal doses were... nausea and vomiting (check), diarrhea (ew), headache (the way he was acting in the hospital and out in the Talon? check), disorientation that got worse over time (check, and that only really happened at fatal doses), and...
Chloe frowned a little and brought a hand to Lex's forehead and heard her let out a faint inadvertent gasp at the touch. Her eyelids fluttered open then slid closed again as his eyes rolled back, and something like a small bit of unexpected relief -- and a surprised half-smile -- flickered across her face for a moment. Chloe wasn't surprised, though.
"Pete, grab a couple paper towels and wet them down with cold water," she said grimly.
"What? Why?"
"Because Lex is burning up," Chloe gritted out, turning her hand and moving it across Lex's forehead so her whole palm was making contact, giving Lex some temporary relief while waiting on Pete. Fever, check. She needed to get Lex better, or better enough to talk to her before she started in on the tremors, which would lead to seizures, which would lead to...
Pete grumbled but did as she asked. When Chloe started laying them down across Lex's forehead and a few dripping wet ones over her hair, she heard Lex gasp a quiet "oh!" and then Chloe watched with fascination as she groaned softly and her whole body seemed to unwind, collapse a little, tension seeping out of every pore.
...That was possibly a literal thing, given how much she was still sweating.
"Pete, keep an eye on her for me, ok?" Chloe said, pushing herself upright from her squatting position.
"Why?" he asked, eyeing Luthor, but not moving from his spot.
Chloe touched his shoulder as she passed him, and said quietly under her breath, "Because she's really sick, she knows things about what happened to her and Clark, and she's really out of it right now, so she might actually answer our questions if we're careful," and lucky, because Clark hadn't been talking. How Clark had reacted that afternoon had been worrying as hell -- Clark hadn't been listening at all, or willing to explain anything at all. (It didn't help that she was horrible at apologizing -- and that Clark would have been ok if he'd just waited; he wouldn't have been used like Lex.) Not to mention that Lionel had stripped the warehouse Lex and Clark had been found in, and then he'd snapped up every last lead on the not-so-good late Doctor Smithe. Lionel was not liable to share what he knew. But the way things had been progressing, Chloe needed to do something and soon, and in order to do that...
I need to know what Lex knows before she dies from the radiation poisoning, because otherwise Clark is next.
Chloe steeled herself and refused to glance back as she pushed her way out of the bathroom. It might be too late for Luthor, but she refused to believe that she couldn't help Clark.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe was back in short order with a Beanery employee in tow, who looked none-too-happy about needing to mop up the mess on the floor. She only said "shit" before shutting up and stayed shut up as she worked, though, when she saw the state of Lex Luthor lying there. She didn't even give Pete the hairy eyeball for being a guy in the girl's bathroom, and she got the hell out of there as fast as she could, apparently not wanting to get involved.
Chloe and Pete managed to half-drag, half-wrestle Lex out into the center of the floor between them, but it took some doing. She kicked out once or twice at the rough treatment, but after Chloe laid down a clean dish towel for her head and pressed the other towel full of crushed ice up against her forehead, she tamely let them arrange her limbs however they wanted.
"Cold," Lex muttered, curling up slightly on the floor. It sounded more like a statement of fact, and not so much a complaint.
"Feel ok?" Chloe asked.
"Mmmm," she got as a reply, with Lex being very careful not to move too much and risk dislodging the icepack as she tentatively reached up a hand to grasp it and hold it in place.
Chloe grinned. Smooth movements -- no motor problems yet.
She got up and filled the cup that had had the ice in it with cold water from the tap, and managed to poke Lex into sitting up and drinking a cupful one-handed, the other hand still holding the icepack against her head.
After draining the first mugful in one long draught, Lex didn't protest anymore. With Chloe's help, she drank down four more cups, then lay down again, letting hand and ice pack slowly slip down her temple and forehead onto the floor. Her breathing evened out.
Chloe realized with some surprise that Lex had actually fallen asleep on her.
And then she remembered the symptom she'd forgotten from the list.
...Lethargy, check.
Shit. Chloe swallowed heavily around the lump in her throat.
Mindful of Pete, she kept a smile on her face while she forced down the urge to scream. Lex obviously needed rest to be able to reach some level of coherency, but they were both racing the clock. If Lex didn't wake up before the deterioration caught up with her...
Chloe curled her fingers into fists on her knees as she knelt there and waited. Her nails bit into her palms and she didn't even feel it, really. She was too busy panicking about Clark, worried about Clark, as she stared down at Lex.
There has to be something I can do! I just need to know--! I just need to force Lex to tell me--
Chloe waited.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex came awake slowly. His fingers were cold, and twisted up in some wet cloth.
He was unbearably thirsty.
"Want more?"
Lex blinked up at a sideways-Chloe who was holding a cup, and with no small effort got an elbow under his chest and pushed himself upright. Chloe got a hand under his arm and helped him in doing so, then handed him the cup.
Cool, lightly chilled water never tasted so good.
He finished it off in one great draught, then held it out. Chloe took it back, then got up, refilled it from the sink, and handed it back down to him before crouching down in front of him.
Lex looked about as he drank this one down more slowly. A bathroom, from the looks of things from the floor. Pete was standing against the wall, looking uncomfortable.
He finished off the water, then cleared his throat lightly and said, "We are not in the women's restroom."
Considering the smirk Chloe was giving him, he lost all faith in his ability to keep his thoughts out of his tone, god have mercy on his soul, because the budding reporter-to-be sure as hell wouldn't.
"If you say so," Chloe said brightly -- reveling in his discomfort, perhaps?
Lex sat the cup down on the floor and resisted the urge to strangle people, because Clark would undoubtedly be disappointed in him if he did. "I don't remember coming in here," he put forth, rubbing the tips of his fingers together absently, trying to warm them up from where he'd been clutching the icepack that he'd apparently been gripping for some reason.
"You were kind of out of it at the time," Chloe agreed amicably.
Lex mentally reviewed what he remembered happening since leaving work that afternoon, and then groaned softly as he began to remember snatches of what had happened earlier. He rubbed at his closed eyes with the fingers of one hand. "You people are all crazy. Why does everyone treat me nicely only when I'm being rude as hell and yelling at the lot of you?"
"Because they're crazy?" Pete put out there, sounding annoyed.
"Hey, you helped, too," Chloe put out there.
"I helped you, not him!" Pete yelped.
Lex really didn't feel like dealing with this at the moment. He was still feeling dizzy, maybe even swaying a little bit -- his vision certainly seemed to be indicating that -- and he rubbed a few fingers against his forehead as he tried to brace his other hand against the floor for better balance.
No, he really didn't feel like dealing with this.
He really didn't feel like dealing with anything...
"I don't understand; I was feeling fine this morning," Lex murmured to himself.
"So was Clark."
"Yes," Lex supplied, but then he looked up at Chloe when he realized that she hadn't been talking about their meeting at the Beanery, and...
"He was? What do you mean he was?" Lex asked, because that implied... "What happened?" he growled out as he struggled to stay upright. "I thought... You made it sound as though Clark's mother did not retrieve him at his request."
"She didn't," Chloe said. "But I heard later that Clark ended up coughing up a bunch of gunk into one of the sinks after going to the cafeteria, but before the Kents showed." She paused for a moment, then added, "Clark had just gotten finished with getting all upset with us, too, kind of like you just now." She eyed him, then continued, "You threw up at the hospital before Pete and I came in."
Not exactly a question. She'd more than likely interviewed the hospital staff... or smelled the puddle of vomit from the other side of the hospital bed. Lex nodded, and then realized that that had been a bad idea. He felt a bit of vertigo and had to close his eyes a moment, because it reminded him of the helicopter, and he really wasn't in the right frame of mind for dealing with...
"Did you argue with my dad before you threw up at work yesterday?"
"No," said Lex, having learned his lesson from shaking his head. He cracked open his eyes to look at a thoughtful-looking Chloe.
Oh god, that couldn't be good.
"Huh," Chloe said. "I guess that maybe you're both having the same... uh, symptoms, maybe? I know Clark threw up later after being discharged, but I don't think Clark was arguing then, either. I haven't talked to the Kents yet, so I don't know if--"
"--he did again later at home? Yes, he did -- quite a few times, actually, from what little he remembers from yesterday," Lex supplied, not really paying attention to what he was offering up, because he was slightly more engrossed in wondering whether it was the room swaying from side to side, or if it was him. Logic dictated that the restroom probably wasn't set up on a shaker table, but it was the women's restroom, after all. One never knew.
"Did you?"
"Once or twice. I find my memories of yesterday quite easy to recall, however," Lex shared easily, letting his eyes slowly slide shut.
He snapped them back open when he felt a soft touch on his arm. He frowned quizzically at Chloe, who just said, "You should lie back down."
"Where?" Lex asked.
"Well, here is fine," Chloe said.
Lex looked down at the makeshift towel-pillow on the tile floor before looking back to her. "I can't fall asleep in the women's restroom, on the floor," he said.
"Sure you can. You did before," Chloe pointed out.
Lex frowned and rubbed his forehead again. "I shouldn't fall asleep in here," he amended.
"It's ok. Really."
Lex stared at her as he abstractly tried to count up how many ways "Luthor scion sleeps in bathroom with local high school girl" could be misconstrued.
Also, he had it on good authority (Clark) that he was not a girl, thanks ever so much.
"Look, at least lie your head down. That's definitely ok to do. You're barely able to stay upright right now; you'll feel a lot better," she cajoled. "I'll wake you up if you look like you're going to fall asleep, if you're really that worried about it." Lex frowned because something about her tone sounded a little too falsely-tentative, and the pause a little too... considered?
Lex didn't really have the energy to fight any further just then, so he did as he was bid.
Lex pillowed his head on the towel and slid his arms partly under that. Wonder of wonders, the room slowly stopped spinning on him. He took a breath in and sighed it out again as he closed his eyes in blessed relief.
"Better?"
"Mm, yes," he admitted without shame or embarrassment.
Lex just lay there and breathed for awhile.
"So, when did you visit Clark?" Chloe asked casually.
"Didn't."
There was a pause.
"Then how do you know how he was yesterday?"
"Asked him this morning."
"You saw Clark this morning?"
"Mmhm. Before school." Lex sighed. "He fixed my hair and..." Lex blinked his eyes open to slits, belatedly remembering that Clark didn't want his parents hearing about the fight with Oliver and his crew.
He slid his gaze up to Chloe. "Are you interviewing me?" It wasn't a question. Damnit, he should've known better. Even sick, not feeling well, and laid out like an invalid, he should have had the presence of mind to know better. He narrowed his eyes at her, bringing to bear the full focus of his attention upon her, such as it was at the moment.
"I'm worried about Clark."
That sounded true enough.
"He isn't a story. That's rude of you."
"I swear I'm not --"
Lie. She wanted something -- was digging for it.
"I don't believe you," Lex interrupted, closing his eyes again. He wasn't in the mood for games today.
"Why not?"
Like he was going to answer that truthfully. He tossed her a throwaway truth, instead. "You're a reporter."
"So?"
"Reporters lie." Also true, but not what she'd want to hear from him, either, he was dead-certain.
"No they don't!" Chloe sounded affronted. Lex had to clench his jaw at hearing that, but the effort was wasted, as she just barreled right along. "My news articles are true! All good reporters--"
"--lie to me... or anyone they interview, really." Frankly, he was fed up with everything at this point. "You all just want the story, whatever you decide you think it is, and if you don't like the truth then you simply spin it until it fits. You steamroll anyone who you think gets in your way and you don't care who gets hurt... if that's not actually what you're trying to do in the first place." Really, he wasn't stupid. He shouldn't have to flatly lecture her own what she already knew and strived towards. God, he felt so tired... he sounded weary even to himself.
There was a long silence.
"Not all reporters are like that."
"Yes. They are."
"...I'm a reporter-in-training," she tried.
Lex snorted. That must've taken a good bit of effort, he mused. He paused barely a moment before returning in like kind: "Every time you think you've found a story, you latch on and go after it like nothing and no-one else matters, regardless of who might or might not end up in the line of fire in the process, deserved or not. I doubt it ever occurs to you that you should consider the actual consequences of your actions at any point in time."
"You don't know that -- you don't know me." Her tone was a little odd, but Lex doubted that she thought that type of bulldog tenacity wasn't a bad thing, though -- more a badge of honor. Reporters.
"Clark does."
Another pause.
"Clark said that about me?"
"Not in so few words." Clark hadn't been meant it in a complementary way, either, though Lex wasn't about to tell her that. Let her think the negative bias was wholly Lex's own: sabotaging Clark's friendships was not on his to-do list... except perhaps his inexplicable connection with one Pete Ross. ...Though, given what had happened, Clark could probably use all the friends -- and support -- that he could get ...even if it included one lousy reporter-in-training. He'd just have to suck it up and deal with it.
He cracked an eye open and looked up at her.
Oddly, she didn't look smug. She looked more... shocked.
Why would she be shocked that Clark knew about and commented on her unconscionable tenacity -- weren't they both friends with the farmers' teenaged son? ...And, speaking of questions...
"Why are you asking so many questions about the procedure and the aftermath?" Lex asked.
"I want to know the symptoms."
"Why?" he repeated, becoming a little irritated.
"Because we want to find out if there were any other people who had this done to them. If other people got kidnapped and dropped off at hospitals--"
Well, that last one was easy enough to circumvent. "No-one else survived."
"...What?"
Lex sighed, deeply and openly. "My attacker-- the kidnapper died later from self-exposure to the same process. He kept meticulous records. None of the other subjects, willing or not, survived his so-called 'medical procedure'." He let the scorn drip from his voice, not bothering to try and disguise it. The man was a disgrace to researchers everywhere. Bastard.
Chloe went a little pale. "So, you can't have him finish treating you and then give you the cure."
Treating us? Does she think he just stopped in the middle? Lex thought, strangling a hysterical bubble of laughter that was caught in his chest. Out loud, he said: "A cure implies a disease, and, last I heard..." Lex stopped at the weird noise that Pete made above him. Odd, that. He'd never known the Ross boy to be so stoic. "There is no known process for reversal at present." Lex closed his one open eye again. "My father is working to put together a competent group of scientists to research one, though. Perhaps, in a few years, they might be ready to put such a procedure to good use. I suppose it depends on the quality of the man's 'research' notes." He smiled slightly to himself. "Now, that ought to be enough for your article, don't you think, Miss Sullivan? Proper payment for your help today." Rather unexpected help at that, and he quite probably could have managed well-enough on his own -- it would have been a rather public mess, but that hardly would have mattered in the grand scheme of things -- but Lex was a big believer in payment of services rendered. He didn't like owing people favors, or having a unbalanced ledger. People should owe him, not the other way 'round. It was far safer that way.
He suddenly felt a fist connect with his arm, and he jerked away, his eyes snapping open.
Chloe looked angry, almost as though she might cry.
"How can you be so calm?!" she shouted at him.
Lex looked up at her, warily, slowly bringing a hand up to curl around his bicep. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You don't have a few years! You don't even have a few days! You don't--! Clark--" she choked, shaking.
Lex turned a little so that he was lying on his back instead of his side, and stared up at her too-bright eyes, wet with unshed tears. Oh. ...Oh.
"Clark's fine." Ah, that was perhaps a bit ingracious. "--We're fine," he added, then he grimaced. "Or, rather, we will be."
"But you said--"
Lex closed his eyes and slid a hand up to his forehead, massaging it. God, why me? Some days he really hated being a responsible adult. Couldn't Clark have just--? He didn't understand why she wouldn't have believed Clark -- hadn't she talked to him at school? Hadn't he explained that he was fine? --Hell, she had eyes. How had she been unable to see it for herself?
Reporter. Right. Never let the truth get in the way of the story you're telling. Even if it meant lying to one's self, apparently.
He opened his eyes to slits and glanced over again. God, and looking at her now, she obviously needed to know about the goddamn procedure before she would be capable of calming down. ...Christ, how could he explain this to her, when he barely understood what had happened, himself, let alone how? Don't try to explain it, then. He focused on the aftermath, instead. "The others died almost immediately upon exposure. We've survived this long, I don't see why we wouldn't--"
"The doctors said you were both going to die!" Chloe blurted out, and it looked like she was trying to surreptitiously wipe tears away.
"Chlo?" Lex heard Pete gasp. "When--?" Pete stopped talking after ending on a strangled sound.
Secrets. Lex knew them when he heard them. Suddenly, accidentally aired. That wasn't good.
Lex had a feeling that Clark had been taking things a little too well, and that he was probably still in shock. ...Which meant that, soon enough, Clark was going to be far too embroiled in his own problems to be in any way capable of handling theirs. But, for Clark's sake -- his sanity and well-being, if not peace of mind -- someone had to.
...Some days Lex really hated being a responsible adult.
Lex slowly sat up.
"Clark is going to be fine," Lex said evenly, as soothing as he could be, though that probably wasn't much, given his Luthorian upbringing.
"I heard the doctors say--!"
"They don't know what they're talking about. Not a one of them knew what we'd been exposed to at the time." They probably still don't, he realized. He sighed and briefly closed his eyes against the vertigo -- it hadn't lessened noticeably from before. It seemed that for the moment the dizzy spells were only going to leave him while he remained supine.
"B-but--"
"Mr. Kent said that Clark would be all right. I think he would know better than anyone the state and capabilities of his own son." ...And damn, that didn't sound good. Lex nearly bit the end of his tongue off, he snapped his mouth shut so fast.
"You're not worried about Clark on Mr. Kent's say-so...?" Pete said slowly from behind him, like Lex had just stated the earth rotated around the sun and he was thinking about disbelieving it on Lex's having spoken it, on principle alone.
Lex clenched his jaw and fought down the urge to stand up and smack the youth. ...He told himself he probably wouldn't make it to his feet before collapsing, so it would be a wasted effort, anyway. Instead, he restricted himself to merely saying: "Yes."
There was silence for awhile.
"Clark is up and about. As am I. We are both taking suitable quantities of potassium iodide to bind with any of the remaining radioactive matter that the... that was injected, which will allow our bodies to flush it out of our systems more readily with no further... damage." Lex brought his knees up slowly to his chest and rested his arms out across them, hands dangling downwards. "My degree was in biochemistry. I do know a thing or two about radiation and radioactive substances. People exposed to fatal levels of radiation don't ever improve, Chloe -- they only ever get worse."
"Yes!" Chloe agreed.
Lex stared at her, waiting. It took him awhile to realize that that was all she meant to say on the matter, and another few seconds to realize that she looked fairly unhappily about it.
Lex pinched the bridge of his nose. "What, pray tell, leads you to the conclusion that I am going to die of radiation poisoning?"
"You've got all the worst symptoms," she said, looking away.
"Elaborate, please."
Her head whipped back around and she snarked back, "What, don't you know?"
"Yes, of course I do," Lex said patiently. "But I don't believe you do."
When Chloe glanced away again at the floor and clenched her jaw, Lex knew she didn't have any real presence of mind when he realized that, yes, she had in fact completely missed the light allusion to the Princess Bride quote. Thank you Clark, for inflicting that one upon me, he thought with no small sarcasm and a mental eye roll.
At the quiet snort from behind him, he realized Pete hadn't, though. That almost had him laughing outright, because Clark apparently hadn't been lying about his band's little tradition of somewhat-friendly cult-movie-hazing.
Then he realized that Chloe was glaring at him. He wiped the smirk from his face and replaced it with a 'patient, listening' expression, folding his arms on his knees loosely and leaning forward slightly to indicate interest, which also served the dual purpose of giving him a better, more comfortable position to sit in that would have him less likely to tilt over sideways onto the floor.
"You've got nausea; you've been vomiting. You look like you're having headaches, and you're definitely feverish and lethargic. You've been dizzy and disoriented and otherwise mentally--"
"Pick a Shakespearian play," Lex interrupted.
"--W-what?" Chloe looked startled.
"Pick a Shakespearian play, and pick an act and scene number," Lex repeated. "Or, better yet, grab one of your textbooks and pick a paragraph or two and give me a minute. I'll memorize it and recite it back from memory. Hell, you can time me." At Chloe's confused look, he added, "Ignoring for the moment the several other usual symptoms of radiation exposure I simply am not exhibiting, or to which I have otherwise been displaying quite the opposite effects, my mental faculties are not impaired, Miss Sullivan. I don't doubt your father would have indicated otherwise yesterday, if they were--"
"He said last night that you were kind of out of it yesterday afternoon," Chloe interrupted.
Lex stared at her. Then he grimaced. "I'd only just managed to get myself released from the hopsital," he grated out, pinching the bridge of his nose, having trouble keeping his patience. "Yet I was still able to do my job, despite the fact that I was in no fit state to be..." Lex stopped, realizing what he'd just said, and he felt the blood start to drain from his face.
nonoNO! You idiot -- you idiot!
He dropped his knees to the side and leaned forward, one hand braced on the floor, the other grabbing her at the neck of her blouse, baring his teeth as the adrenaline rush hit and getting in her face. He hissed out at her, in a quiet yell, "--You will not repeat what I just said to anyone -- never, do you hear me!?! -- or so help me god, I will--!"
"Hey!!" he heard Pete yell, dropping down next to Chloe and pushing hard against Lex shoulder, shoving him back away from her with one hand while curling the other around Chloe's waist protectively.
Lex was shaking, his fists clenched at his sides, despair and rage and self-loathing threatening to swamp him completely. He hadn't grabbed the teenager by both shoulders and shaken her until she rattled, but it had been a damn near thing. I shouldn't have kept talking, he thought distractedly. I know better. Damn reporters. Fuck -- I let her get to me-- He hadn't screwed up this badly in years.
"It's off-the-record," Chloe blurted out, and it felt like Lex's world came to a complete halt.
"...What?" he croaked, swaying as he sat back and everything started up again.
"It's-- we're talking. Off-the-record. We're just talking," Chloe said, looking a little shaken.
Lex stared at her in utter disbelief.
"I don't believe you," he said, but the words were automatic, and they even sounded wrong as they came off of his tongue.
No. No! I don't believe her. --I can't believe her. She has to be lying, she... Lex closed his eyes and everything behind his eyes just hurt for a moment. His chest ached. I know better, he reminded himself. I do! He listed off names to himself. At the top of the list was one Perry-goddamn-White.
But then, White hadn't told Lex that he was a reporter. He'd sidled up to him, acted like a nice, friendly, concerned stranger. A sympathetic ear. A sympathetic adult ear, which Lex had found few and far between, back then. Sympathetic and kind... up until he hadn't been.
In fact, most of the worst offenders had misrepresented themselves egregiously, if not all of them, in one way or another. Sometimes they kept the mask on right up until they'd moved in for the kill, and he could find a way to flee his interviewer, though still too late; sometimes they showed themselves to be of the reporting ilk, pretending to be professional and he got through the whole interview, thinking that perhaps, this time, this time would be different... Either way, Lex realized to his utter shame exactly how much these reporters had merely been playing at being rational, reasonable adults only afterwards when their articles had been published with a tone and bias that would make lesser men weep, twisting his words and deeds into Gordian knots.
Chloe, on the other hand, had been very upfront with him, rather from the beginning, and... now that she had something bloody and raw, she seemed to be backing off rather than...
Lex's headache got worse.
Even if she's not lying now, she could change her mind later, he told himself. And even if she's not lying, she's still taking advantage. He mentally shook himself. I'm still sick from everything, still recovering. She knows that. ...Hell, she thinks I'm dying. And what a story that would be! and his mental laugh was dark and echoed long. The last words of Lex Luthor, scion of Metropolis, as he dies ignominously on the floor of a bathroom in the ass-back-end of nowhere, whimpering like a little bitch!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe was kind of glad for Pete's support at the moment. He was sort of warm and physically solid in a nice way, actually.
It let her stop worrying about the little shivers she was getting as chills ran through her. It let her forget about even being the least bit afraid.
Instead, she focused on Lex, and let the pieces start falling into place in her head. And they did.
The picture it was painting was a little fucking terrifying, actually.
She wondered if Lex knew exactly how much she was giving away at the moment: the little flickers of emotion across her face, the fine tremors and growing stress as her muscles tensed and relaxed, the uneasiness and restlessness and uncertainty as she shifted minutely. They all painted very clearly for Chloe a growing picture of her state of mind, and...
"I'm sorry," Chloe blurted out, and she meant it. She meant it for every damn reporter out there.
"You-- what?" Pete said incredulously. "Chloe, god, you aren't the one who needs to apologize, Luthor--"
"Pete," she said quietly, bringing a hand up to his shoulder and glancing up at him. He stopped talking, looking angry and confused, and all for her. She shook her head slightly, just the once. Don't.
It wasn't for herself, it was for Lex. Because Chloe knew -- she'd seen it. Lex is fighting herself. She wants to lash out -- but she also doesn't want to. She couldn't let herself trust anyone... except that she did maybe, at least with some people. She and Clark were friends, as weird as that was -- Chloe was never going to run out of farmboy-billionaire jokes for those two! -- and she hadn't gotten all that antagonistic with Pete -- not since she'd calmed down from her weird fit out in the middle of the Beanery earlier, and Chloe was pretty sure that that had been a symptom from the turning-into-a-girl thing, since Clark had had an almost identical type of blow-up at them just that same afternoon. For all that Pete worked at the Torch with her, he really wasn't a reporter; it was pretty obvious.
So maybe, just maybe, Lex just had a problem with reporters, and Chloe was a reporter, and... now Chloe thought she had a good idea of the reasons why Lex had that problem.
Chloe looked at her head-on as she opened her eyes again. She met her stare-turned-glare.
"I'm sorry," Chloe repeated. "This really is all off-the-record. I'm not after a story. I won't tell anyone what you said."
"Chlo, the bastard practically attacked you--"
"Pete--"
"No! Luthor--!"
Chloe could hardly believe that she was finding herself defending Lex Luthor of all people. --Or at least explaining him. "She was freaked out!" And she had a right to be. Because there were a lot of journalists who would've killed to hear something like that.
"About what?! Getting quoted in some gossip column? Like anybody would care what she says about anything?!"
Chloe stifled a wince. Sometimes she forgot that Pete wasn't from Metropolis. Clearly she still needed to educate him on some things. "She's worried about everybody at the the Luthorcorp plant," Chloe said, because Pete wouldn't care about the entire company, and she had to put this in terms he'd understand and not just brush off. And by this point, Lex was looking confused and almost unsure as her eyes ping-ponged between them at their exchange.
"Yeah, right! What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Pete said, exasperated and upset, but he was looking at Lex when he said it, and he caught Lex's little flinch, too. His eyes went a little wide as he glanced between Chloe and Lex, and his forehead started to furrow.
"...What--?" Pete asked, finally realizing that he really was missing something. Maybe he'd even be ready to hear it.
"It's the stock price, for the company," Chloe explained. "If a CEO or somebody important" -- or somebody's family member -- "gets sick, or ill, or... kidnapped, or something, then the stock price goes nuts. Drops like a rock. It... messes things up." Chloe watched as Lex knelt there right in front of her with her hands clenched in fists on his knees. "And if whoever it is doesn't seem like they're completely ok right after whatever, it happens again. Usually worse. If it gets really bad, the company tanks a little and they have to start laying people off. The Smallville plant is the one with the worst track record right now, so they'd start handing out pink slips here first." She saw Lex turn her head slightly away; she saw her close her eyes briefly and saw the look pass across her face, and she'd seen that look before ...in the mirror. That was the look that said 'why didn't I stop before it got this bad?' and 'my dad is going to kill me when he finds out.' That was the look that said, 'I know I screwed up, I am in so much trouble' and 'I screwed up, I screwed up so bad, and it's all my fault.' That was the look that was always followed by a desperate feeling of, 'what do I have to do to fix this?'
Chloe had to be really careful how she put this, so she said to Lex, "Look, I'm not gonna do something that'll get my dad fired, ok?"
Lex's head came up at that and she began to frown. Ok, good, I have her attention. She took a deep breath. "I seriously doubt anyone would believe me if I said that you said anything like that to me directly. They'd think my dad said something he'd overheard, and he'd probably get fired for it."
"I wouldn't--" Lex snapped her mouth shut on what she'd been about to say.
Chloe felt a little lightheaded, because if she'd really been about to say that she wouldn't fire her dad for something Chloe did, well... "My dad doesn't work for you though, right? Technically."
Chloe heard the slight intake of breath. Lex looked a little grim, and her gaze slid away.
Then she seemed to... pause, almost. She got the slightest smile. It didn't look nice.
Lex looked her straight in the eye and said, "So, there are limits to how far you will go for the truth, then?"
Oh. Oh, that was just a punch to the gut. Not to mention the nasty, lilting, derisive, almost mocking tone it had been delivered in. She's testing me, and Chloe damn near bit the end of her tongue off snapping her teeth shut on the natural, automatic retort. And when Chloe felt Pete tense, she just tightened her grip on Pete's shoulder. He twitched but remained silent, and she glared back at Lex.
Yes, Chloe knew exactly what Lex was doing, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
She waited, and the silence stretched out.
Lex watched her, and then slowly her eyes narrowed.
"Nothing to say?"
I know better, I can handle this, she told herself as she seethed, reining in her temper.
"Oh, I've got plenty to say," Chloe said, pursuing her lips. "But I doubt you'd listen long enough to hear it."
Lex tensed.
More silence.
I'm not going to give her what she expects. I am not going to validate her screwed up beliefs. No, what she was going to do was kick ass.
Lex began to look irritated, and almost nervous, and her eyes started to dart between Chloe and Pete, and then over to the door and back again, before she settled on lowering her eyes and slowly relaxing, staring down at the floor.
Of course, it was the 'casual'-looking sort of 'relaxed' that wasn't actually comfortable. It really couldn't be, given how dizzy Lex must still be feeling, and how she was still clenching her fists so hard the knuckles were white. Chloe didn't know who she was trying to fool.
...Well, maybe Pete, if the way he was tensing up again was any indication. Chloe sighed.
It was almost sad. It was pretty obvious that Lex didn't know what to do when she wasn't fighting, like she couldn't be in the same room as a reporter and not be actively fighting them.
When Lex finally seemed to collapse a little bit, swaying as she massaged her temples and half-whispered, "What the hell is wrong with you?" Chloe smiled. Got you. Because now? She'd already won.
Even if Lex didn't know it yet.
She'd be happy to explain it to her.
"Reporters are people, too," she said. That got her another glare.
"Hardly," Lex drawled.
Chloe clenched her jaw; she wanted to smack her. "You know what your problem is? You can't tell the reporters from the hacks."
Lex twitched.
"All reporters are hacks," she replied.
"Hey--!" Pete yelped, and Chloe felt Pete bristle under her hand and she had to stop him now before it got out too of control.
"--Pete, if you can't handle Lex trying to yank my chain, go wait outside."
Pete made a noise of protest and Lex looked taken aback for a moment. What, you really thought I wouldn't catch on? Chloe wondered how many people he'd tried this bullshit on and had it actually work. Or maybe that's the wrong question...
"You really want to know how far I'll go for the truth, Lex?" Chloe turned back and asked her before she could regain her balance. "Sure, sometimes I go after things pretty damn hard. And, yeah, I'd write you up in a minute, if I had a reason and I thought people needed to know. But I wouldn't make shit up, and if I thought there would be consequences for my dad then I'd talk to him about it first." And then Chloe took a deep breath and added, "And I think you're forgetting that I saw you yesterday in the hospital. If I was gonna do something like that, don't you think I would've done it last night, and had it plastered all over the papers by this morning?"
Lex twitched several times as Chloe talked, but by the end she had been reduced to staring, somewhere between being aghast and pure disbelieving shock at the idea of the bullet she'd already dodged, through no act of her own.
"And yeah, I get it now," Chloe continued, getting back to the elephant in the room. "Clark was eating like a horse this afternoon, and maybe you guys were earlier this morning, too?" It wasn't quite a question, but Lex gave her a slight jerky half-nod. "So no loss of appetite there, and kind of the opposite," Chloe breathed a little in relief as the idea really hit her -- Clark wasn't dying -- "and you've been around a lot of people but you're not sick with some kind of infection, so you don't have a reduced... immune..." Chloe paused as something occurred to her. "Oh. Enhanced immune system," she murmured. "The asthma's back because you're too busy fighting off..." Chloe trailed off, then looked back up at Lex in horror as she panicked all over again.
"Clark is fine," Lex said firmly.
"But he--!"
"I saw him this morning -- were you not paying attention to him at school?" Lex spat out. "Did he look sick to you? Pale, coughing, shaking, sweating, feverish? Did his skin still look as though it was burned in places? No? --He's been healing. People exposed to fatal levels of radiation do not get better," he repeated. Then she looked even angrier as she struggled to her feet and said, "If Clark was in mortal danger of dying from what was inflicted upon us, do you really think I would just stand by and watch? That I wouldn't be breaking down my father's door and demanding the originals of all of that madman's research?" she asked darkly as she loomed over her and Pete, looking for all the world like she'd be willing to do far more than that if she felt the need. "Clark is my friend. Maybe you don't understand what that means, but I do."
Chloe shot to her feet, wanting to do nothing more than punch Lex in the face, because -- how dare he! Clark was her friend first! And-- "Of course I do! I--"
"--seem to want Clark to be on his deathbed, the way you've been going on!" he shouted back at her, throwing his arms out. "Reporters," she spat out like a venomous curse. "Do you really think you can rewrite reality to be whatever you want if you just put out enough copies of an article? Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to suddenly believe what you say if you repeat it enough times?? --Or are you so self-deluded that you actually believe what you're--?!"
"--Don't give me that -- you're the only one here who's delu--"sional, and didn't even know it, but Pete stood up abruptly and Chloe flinched before she got out what she needed to say.
"--Ok, seriously! That's it -- you're both done!" Pete said, holding his arms out between them. "I really don't care if this is some stupid Metropolis pissing contest thing, or whatever, but this? Is over. --No, Chloe!" he said when she was about to protest, irate. "You said he was out of it before, and he's loopy again now." Chloe glanced back to Lex, and realized that he was looking a lot paler than even a few seconds ago. "We know what you wanted to know," and Chloe winced at his tone because she knew Pete was going to explode at her later for keeping the 'Clark may be dying' thing from him. "I'm not gonna stand around and watch the two of you act like a couple of jerks yelling insults and crap at each other all day."
Chloe glanced back at Lex again, who was swaying from the effort of staying upright and looking like she was about to fall over. Oh, hell. "Pete--" Chloe said as she took another step in towards Lex.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pete gritted his teeth, placed one hand on Luthor's shoulder and another on Chloe's, and physically pushed them apart again.
--At least, that was what he tried to do, before Luthor went batshit on him.
His wrist stung from where Luthor swatted him away with a fist, and he turned to yell at the big jerk but the words caught in Pete's throat as he saw Lex stagger backwards and ram himself into one of the stall dividers so hard he was surprised the guy didn't concuss himself unconscious. He had his hands in fists up at his head and was curled inward on himself slightly, dead white, pale as a sheet.
He was shaking like a leaf, taking in shallow panting breaths, and his eyes were going everywhere.
"What the fuck," Pete said under his breath as he rubbed at his wrist, feeling a little freaked out himself.
"Lex...?" Chloe said quietly, taking a step towards him.
Luthor reflexively backed up again, slamming himself flat up against the metal behind him. His eyes widened for a second, staring at nothing, and Pete realized that that was fear in them.
And then, Luthor seemed to focus on Chloe and Pete and the bathroom again, all of a sudden.
Within another three seconds, he had shied away from the both of them, following the wall, and stumbled his way out of the room.
Pete turned and watched the door swing shut. He stood there, kind of shell-shocked.
"What the hell just happened?" Pete asked ...the walls, because Chloe was right out the door after the guy.
Pete cursed under his breath and followed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Next post is here.