FIC: SPN/SV - Invincible - Lex/Dean, Sam, Clark - PG13
The fourth story in my Jason Dean Winchester series. Read these first or this will make absolutely no sense: A Love Story, Interlude In 5 Parts and Appearances Can Be Deceiving.
Dean called him to vent a lot more often then Clark ever told Lex about.
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Lex/Dean
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own them, but I’ll put them back in almost the same condition I found them in.
SPOILERS: Up to Season 2 for Supernatural, Season 4 for Smallville.
SUMMARY: The cellphone was one of the few gifts that Lex had given him that Clark had kept. His father’d had a fit, ranting about Clark allowing himself to be bought and kept and Clark tried to tune him mostly out, because his father had been ranting a lot since Clark had moved into the mansion.
Invincible
The cellphone was one of the few gifts that Lex had given him that Clark had kept. His father’d had a fit, ranting about Clark allowing himself to be bought and kept and Clark tried to tune him mostly out, because his father had been ranting a lot since Clark had moved into the mansion.
He was pretty sure that Lex and his father would have been in agreement on the stupidity of that action if Lex had even realized that he’d been living there. But it had taken Lex a good three months before he even asked and by then Clark was firmly ensconced.
And firmly resolved to keep Lex from turning evil or going to the dark side or even touching his toe in the pool of evil misdeeds.
That was a lot easier then he’d thought, partly because Jason being missing kept Lex distracted. Which was a good thing because if Lex hadn’t been distracted he would have been asking questions.
One of which would have been how Clark had known that Lex and Jason had been involved.
Needless to say Clark was glad that Lex was distracted by Jason’s disappearance… because it gave him time to come up with a response that didn’t make himself look like a stalker…or a freak.
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The cellphone got a work out for the first month after Jason waltzed back into town and they found out that he had a whole different name and a life to go with it.
It took some getting used to, calling Jason, Dean and he tried because the expression that Sam’s face made when they called him Jason was pure evil.
And while Clark might be close to indestructible Lex wasn’t.
Though Lex slipped up way more then Clark did, Clark thought it might be because he was amused by Sam’s growls and mutters.
When they left, a week after they’d breezed into town, Dean and Sam’s numbers were both in the memory. It would have been a good thing if Dean hadn’t absconded with it for half a day and changed all the ring tones.
If he could figure out how to undo what Dean had done he would, because Dean’s wasn’t bad but it was really hard to explain why ‘My Heart Will Go On’ chirped from his phone when Sam called.
People were beginning to talk.
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Dean called him to vent a lot more often then Clark ever told Lex about.
Grumbling about ‘possessive control freak assholes’ (it amused Clark that only half the time was he talking about Lex) and declaring his intent to harm Lex in multiple and creative ways if he didn’t stop putting trackers on his car.
Clark made the appropriate noises, unsure of how Lex was getting them on the car let alone how Dean was actually finding them to take back off.
If Dean ever caught whoever Lex had watching him, actually watching him… well Clark was sure they would be flying into town to bail him out of jail when he was arrested for assault.
Clark wondered when Lex was going to tell him that St. Louis was cleared up. He tried not to dwell on the fact or think too closely about the fact that Lex would have had to have bought people off in order to do that.
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“Dean’s okay.”
Clark really didn’t like where this conversation was starting, nor where it would most likely end up and he wondered if he hung up if Sam would just call back or if he would call Lex instead.
Dean must have been hurt badly, like hospital bad if Sam was calling him to break the news.
Normally Dean did, quite frequently while Sam was still cleaning his wounds.
They got hurt a lot more often then either Clark or Lex would like. Clark thought it admirable that Lex hadn’t flown out and dragged Dean home and locked him in a room with no exits.
“Okay?”
“He’s still unconscious, but dad and I are working on it, tell Lex to not freak out.”
Clark looked over at where Lex was sitting behind his desk watching him with narrowed eyes.
There was going to be awkward questions because of the way Clark sped across the room when Lex’s phone rang, snatching it right out of Lex’s hand and holding it clutched against his chest while keeping his cell, with Sam still talking away, pressed to his ear.
He thought he might be up to answering the questions finally.
Dean and Sam fought demons and their ilk and Lex hadn’t thought once about treating either one of them like a science experiment.
“You know if Lex would just figure out that Dean is an adult, who makes adult choices and doesn’t need a babysitter I wouldn’t be standing here wondering if I should just take dad and Dean and flee town.”
“Where are you?”
Sam took a deep breath and listed off a hospital, city and state all in one breath.
“Tell him that he’s fine, and not to rush.”
Translation: Dean hasn’t told dad about Lex yet.
Sam hung up and Clark kept the phone pressed to his ear to buy himself a few more stress-free non-Lex going insane moments.
There were very few things that could drive Lex off the deep end; Clark hadn’t ever thought Jason would be one of those things that could drive Lex into doing things that Clark tried not to think to closely about.
Of course for the longest time he’d only thought they were fucking and that no real emotions were involved in whatever they were doing.
Which was wrong, because while he’d never heard them say the words he was pretty sure that whatever else was between them, there was definitely love in the mix.
Lex’s phone was still ringing in his hand and Lex himself was deathly still, pale. Staring at Clark with a mixture of expressions that said he both wanted to know what was going on and didn’t want to have a clue.
It always amazed Clark that he could have multiple expressions on his face that meant different things and still be easily readable.
He said the first thing that slipped off his tongue.
“He’s okay.”
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Clark thought Lex was going to kill somebody when they got to the hospital.
It might have been John Winchester if the man had been anywhere to be found.
Instead there was just Sam looking like he’d been to hell and back and Dean who was still in a coma, looking just as bad if not worse while breathing with a tube in his mouth and Clark had been afraid Lex was going to keel over when the doctor had updated them with Dean’s condition.
Including the fact that Dean had crashed and been narrowly brought back, luckily before they’d arrived because if Lex had been there when that had happened… heads would have rolled.
They might still, because while the doctors didn’t say the words none of them were idiots. Clark, like Lex and Sam read between the lines.
They were waiting for Dean to die. They’d done everything they could do and Clark left Lex pacing in the hallway while he called his own personal doctors and went to stand vigil with Sam.
He was just coming to the door when he heard Sam call for help, heard the alarms scream and ducked into the room before doctors and nurses converged on it.
Dean was choking on the tube down his throat. Eyes open and terrified. Staring at the wall, hand pressed to his chest, Sam was gripping his arm, huge, bright smile on his face as he tried to talk in what Clark supposed he thought was a soothing voice.
He had some work to do on it.
Then Clark’s view was blocked and Sam was shoved back beside him, Lex was standing just inside the door and the doctors and nurses were talking over themselves at Dean.
Sam gripped his arm tightly when someone shifted and they got a clear view of Dean. Conscious, eyes still darting from one person to the next, the lingering fear in them dissipating when he saw Lex, when he saw Clark and Sam.
Clark wondered who he’d been scared he’d see.
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Clark saw John Winchester in person only once.
The man had appeared an hour after Dean had regained consciousness, Medical miracle, no explanation, you must have some sort of angel watching over you son, standing in the doorway looking wary and tired.
Sam was glaring at his father and John had glanced over at Lex and Clark for just a second before focusing on his sons.
When Sam left to get his coffee, obviously Dean got his caffeine addiction from his father not Genevieve, Lex and Clark went with him. Because it was readily apparent that John wanted a moment alone with Dean.
Lex glared as they left, which John ignored. Focused on Dean as he was. Sam didn’t seem concerned, Lex just seemed angry. Nobody was worried so Clark couldn’t figure out why he felt uneasy about leaving father and son alone.
Maybe it was the things that Sam hadn’t told them about how Dean had attained his injuries. None of them figured that Dean would actually tell them, the words, the story would come from Sam when he was ready.
And since Sam had already said that it had just been him and Dean and John, well it didn’t take a genius to figure out that John had something to do with Dean walked the fine line between life and death with gaping wounds on his chest that no one had managed to explain.
Lex paused by the nurses station, Clark leaned against the wall. Sam took the fifteen extra steps and fussed with the coffee machine.
When he walked past again, cup in hand he shook his head at Lex with his phone pressed to his ear again and Clark stayed where he was. Give father and sons a chance to reconnect for a moment because Clark was sure that the instant that Dean was able Lex would be dragging him back to Smallville.
By force, unwilling if need be.
Lex was grumbling into his phone when Clark heard the soft ‘dad’.
Sam’s voice and he wasn’t even sure how he’d heard it, but he took off at a run.
And then there was Sam yelling for help. Screaming for it and when Clark rounded the corner he realized that they weren’t in Dean’s room.
Coffee cup and coffee on the floor right outside the room two rooms down from Dean.
John was on the floor, eyes closed, peaceful looking. Sam on the floor beside him, he’d already started CPR, hands shaking, panicking in the way people did when this was your family and you knew you needed to do this, but knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
He was shoved out of the way by nurses. Doctors.
And this was all eerily reminiscent of the way that Dean had come back to consciousness. Clark flattened himself to a wall, trying to make himself as small as possible as a gurney was shoved into the room and John was lifted. Sam still kneeling on the floor, looking up with tears in his eyes as they took his father away.
“Dean,” he whispered and Clark turned out of the room.
Lex was sitting beside Dean on his bed, trying to keep the other man there, which Dean was having none of.
“Sam, help me,” Dean ordered. Voice still gravelly, soft. Sounding nothing like the cocky, carefree guy he was normally.
Clark wanted to tell him to stay. Don’t see this. Remember your father the way he was, not laying helpless on a gurney as people try frantically to make him live again.
But if it had been his dad… he helped Sam get Dean up and then stepped away. Latching onto Lex’s arm when he moved to follow them.
Lex glared at him and Clark tried to tell him with his eyes, let them do this alone. We’ll be there to pick up the pieces when they fall.
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It became readily apparent that Lex didn’t know how to deal with a grieving Dean.
Mostly because Dean didn’t grieve in any way that was even recognizable as grief.
Sam’s grief was recognizable, he cried, he hit stuff.
Dean… didn’t. He put the word stoic to good use.
When they’d burned their dads body (which Clark still didn’t understand, even after the explanations) Dean had let one tear fall.
And once it was done he’d straightened his shoulders, wiped his face and moved on.
Burying himself under the car that Lex’d had moved from some friend of theirs to his garage. He probably would have sequestered himself with the car 24-7. But Lex went out and got him at night, Sam dragged him in for lunch.
And all the others times, the ones that Lex and Sam didn’t know how to deal with… Clark did.
Perched on the ground beside Dean’s legs. Listening to him swear and grumble. Every so often he’d have Clark hand him something that he didn’t already have within reach.
But mostly they were silent. Clark wondering if Lex was conquering small countries in his frustration at Dean’s silence. Dean concentrating every bit of his energy on putting his car back together.
“What are they doing in there?” Dean asked one morning, two weeks later. The question startled Clark, more because he didn’t think he’d heard Dean’s voice in a couple of days then the actual question itself.
“Conquering small Middle Eastern countries,” Clark said, his goal was to make Dean laugh.
And he did; a small, sharp one. Like he wasn’t used to doing that anymore. Clark wondered how long was too long for someone to grieve.
“I thought that was your whole purpose for being here,” Dean said, Clark could hear the grin in his voice which was a step in a good direction as far as he was concerned.
“Well, I can’t be with Lex all the time.”
Like when Lex managed to drag Dean into the bedroom and Clark and Sam played videogames at the opposite end of the mansion.
Sex was never explicitly mentioned, but everyone knew that Dean and Lex didn’t disappear to paint the bathroom for hours on end.
Then the silence got to be too much, oppressive in its weight because just minutes before there’d been a smile in Dean’s voice and he’d laughed and Clark wondered if he’d screwed everything up by trying to joke with him.
“I think Lex is helping Sam figure out the access codes to your dads’ cellphone,” Clark said awkwardly.
“You mean Lex either bought the company that made them or bought someone in the company that makes them and they’re filtering through the list as we speak.”
“I try not to think about Lex buying companies or people because it seems to defeat my purpose for being here.”
“Lex isn’t gonna go evil if he buys Sprint or their equivalent. Now if he buys Sprint and Verizon and every other cellphone manufacturer, fires all their employees and has them made in China for .02 cents a phone then maybe you can worry about that.”
Those talks, when Dean used to call and bitch about Lex being possessive and a control freak… Dean wasn’t the only one talking.
******************************************************************************
Clark watched from the window as Dean and Sam talked. Dean looked bored, Sam looked frustrated.
He could probably listen to what they were saying but Dean had given him that look that said ‘go away so Sammy can whine in peace’ so he was trying to give them privacy.
“Should I be worried Clark?” Lex asked idly from behind his desk. Clark glanced over his shoulder in confusion.
“You’re spending more time with Dean that I am at this point,” Lex clarified, eyes narrowed slightly. “Should I be concerned?”
Clark shook his head, “he just needs someone to talk to.”
“And why is that you, I wonder. His brother has been trying to get him to talk for days, he won’t say more then three words to me about anything to do with his father or anything else for that matter.”
Clark valiantly did not think about what Lex and Dean could be doing for all those hours they spent sequestered away in Lex’s bedroom.
“Maybe talk is a strong word. He needs someone to not talk to, someone who won’t push him. You and Sam keep pushing him and he’s not ready to be pushed yet.”
Lex raised an eyebrow.
“Sometimes you need to be the one to make the decision to talk about things, and that decision can’t be forced.”
They still hadn’t talked about Clark’s secret. He didn’t know if Lex had been too distracted by Dean to follow up on the evidence that Clark had all but laid out in front of him… or if Lex just didn’t want to know anymore.
If Clark just wasn’t important enough to him for him to push for every single secret that Clark had ever had.
“We broke the password on their fathers’ cell this morning,” Lex joined him at the window, staring out at where Sam was pushing the phone into Dean’s hand.
“So they’re going to leave then,” Clark muttered. He rubbed at his chest and wondered why he felt sorrow at that thought.
He’d thought that with John Winchester dead that Dean would stay. He’d never thought that Sam would, Dean had made more then a few vague references about his brother wanting to back to school.
Clark was sure that Lex had money set aside for that purpose.
And he was almost sure that it was because he wanted Sam to finish school and not that he wanted Sam out of the way.
“They’ll be back though,” Clark looked over at the confidence in Lex’s voice.
“How can you be so sure?”
Lex smiled grimly. “Where else do they have to go?”
Dean called him to vent a lot more often then Clark ever told Lex about.
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Lex/Dean
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own them, but I’ll put them back in almost the same condition I found them in.
SPOILERS: Up to Season 2 for Supernatural, Season 4 for Smallville.
SUMMARY: The cellphone was one of the few gifts that Lex had given him that Clark had kept. His father’d had a fit, ranting about Clark allowing himself to be bought and kept and Clark tried to tune him mostly out, because his father had been ranting a lot since Clark had moved into the mansion.
Invincible
The cellphone was one of the few gifts that Lex had given him that Clark had kept. His father’d had a fit, ranting about Clark allowing himself to be bought and kept and Clark tried to tune him mostly out, because his father had been ranting a lot since Clark had moved into the mansion.
He was pretty sure that Lex and his father would have been in agreement on the stupidity of that action if Lex had even realized that he’d been living there. But it had taken Lex a good three months before he even asked and by then Clark was firmly ensconced.
And firmly resolved to keep Lex from turning evil or going to the dark side or even touching his toe in the pool of evil misdeeds.
That was a lot easier then he’d thought, partly because Jason being missing kept Lex distracted. Which was a good thing because if Lex hadn’t been distracted he would have been asking questions.
One of which would have been how Clark had known that Lex and Jason had been involved.
Needless to say Clark was glad that Lex was distracted by Jason’s disappearance… because it gave him time to come up with a response that didn’t make himself look like a stalker…or a freak.
******************************************************************************
The cellphone got a work out for the first month after Jason waltzed back into town and they found out that he had a whole different name and a life to go with it.
It took some getting used to, calling Jason, Dean and he tried because the expression that Sam’s face made when they called him Jason was pure evil.
And while Clark might be close to indestructible Lex wasn’t.
Though Lex slipped up way more then Clark did, Clark thought it might be because he was amused by Sam’s growls and mutters.
When they left, a week after they’d breezed into town, Dean and Sam’s numbers were both in the memory. It would have been a good thing if Dean hadn’t absconded with it for half a day and changed all the ring tones.
If he could figure out how to undo what Dean had done he would, because Dean’s wasn’t bad but it was really hard to explain why ‘My Heart Will Go On’ chirped from his phone when Sam called.
People were beginning to talk.
******************************************************************************
Dean called him to vent a lot more often then Clark ever told Lex about.
Grumbling about ‘possessive control freak assholes’ (it amused Clark that only half the time was he talking about Lex) and declaring his intent to harm Lex in multiple and creative ways if he didn’t stop putting trackers on his car.
Clark made the appropriate noises, unsure of how Lex was getting them on the car let alone how Dean was actually finding them to take back off.
If Dean ever caught whoever Lex had watching him, actually watching him… well Clark was sure they would be flying into town to bail him out of jail when he was arrested for assault.
Clark wondered when Lex was going to tell him that St. Louis was cleared up. He tried not to dwell on the fact or think too closely about the fact that Lex would have had to have bought people off in order to do that.
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“Dean’s okay.”
Clark really didn’t like where this conversation was starting, nor where it would most likely end up and he wondered if he hung up if Sam would just call back or if he would call Lex instead.
Dean must have been hurt badly, like hospital bad if Sam was calling him to break the news.
Normally Dean did, quite frequently while Sam was still cleaning his wounds.
They got hurt a lot more often then either Clark or Lex would like. Clark thought it admirable that Lex hadn’t flown out and dragged Dean home and locked him in a room with no exits.
“Okay?”
“He’s still unconscious, but dad and I are working on it, tell Lex to not freak out.”
Clark looked over at where Lex was sitting behind his desk watching him with narrowed eyes.
There was going to be awkward questions because of the way Clark sped across the room when Lex’s phone rang, snatching it right out of Lex’s hand and holding it clutched against his chest while keeping his cell, with Sam still talking away, pressed to his ear.
He thought he might be up to answering the questions finally.
Dean and Sam fought demons and their ilk and Lex hadn’t thought once about treating either one of them like a science experiment.
“You know if Lex would just figure out that Dean is an adult, who makes adult choices and doesn’t need a babysitter I wouldn’t be standing here wondering if I should just take dad and Dean and flee town.”
“Where are you?”
Sam took a deep breath and listed off a hospital, city and state all in one breath.
“Tell him that he’s fine, and not to rush.”
Translation: Dean hasn’t told dad about Lex yet.
Sam hung up and Clark kept the phone pressed to his ear to buy himself a few more stress-free non-Lex going insane moments.
There were very few things that could drive Lex off the deep end; Clark hadn’t ever thought Jason would be one of those things that could drive Lex into doing things that Clark tried not to think to closely about.
Of course for the longest time he’d only thought they were fucking and that no real emotions were involved in whatever they were doing.
Which was wrong, because while he’d never heard them say the words he was pretty sure that whatever else was between them, there was definitely love in the mix.
Lex’s phone was still ringing in his hand and Lex himself was deathly still, pale. Staring at Clark with a mixture of expressions that said he both wanted to know what was going on and didn’t want to have a clue.
It always amazed Clark that he could have multiple expressions on his face that meant different things and still be easily readable.
He said the first thing that slipped off his tongue.
“He’s okay.”
******************************************************************************
Clark thought Lex was going to kill somebody when they got to the hospital.
It might have been John Winchester if the man had been anywhere to be found.
Instead there was just Sam looking like he’d been to hell and back and Dean who was still in a coma, looking just as bad if not worse while breathing with a tube in his mouth and Clark had been afraid Lex was going to keel over when the doctor had updated them with Dean’s condition.
Including the fact that Dean had crashed and been narrowly brought back, luckily before they’d arrived because if Lex had been there when that had happened… heads would have rolled.
They might still, because while the doctors didn’t say the words none of them were idiots. Clark, like Lex and Sam read between the lines.
They were waiting for Dean to die. They’d done everything they could do and Clark left Lex pacing in the hallway while he called his own personal doctors and went to stand vigil with Sam.
He was just coming to the door when he heard Sam call for help, heard the alarms scream and ducked into the room before doctors and nurses converged on it.
Dean was choking on the tube down his throat. Eyes open and terrified. Staring at the wall, hand pressed to his chest, Sam was gripping his arm, huge, bright smile on his face as he tried to talk in what Clark supposed he thought was a soothing voice.
He had some work to do on it.
Then Clark’s view was blocked and Sam was shoved back beside him, Lex was standing just inside the door and the doctors and nurses were talking over themselves at Dean.
Sam gripped his arm tightly when someone shifted and they got a clear view of Dean. Conscious, eyes still darting from one person to the next, the lingering fear in them dissipating when he saw Lex, when he saw Clark and Sam.
Clark wondered who he’d been scared he’d see.
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Clark saw John Winchester in person only once.
The man had appeared an hour after Dean had regained consciousness, Medical miracle, no explanation, you must have some sort of angel watching over you son, standing in the doorway looking wary and tired.
Sam was glaring at his father and John had glanced over at Lex and Clark for just a second before focusing on his sons.
When Sam left to get his coffee, obviously Dean got his caffeine addiction from his father not Genevieve, Lex and Clark went with him. Because it was readily apparent that John wanted a moment alone with Dean.
Lex glared as they left, which John ignored. Focused on Dean as he was. Sam didn’t seem concerned, Lex just seemed angry. Nobody was worried so Clark couldn’t figure out why he felt uneasy about leaving father and son alone.
Maybe it was the things that Sam hadn’t told them about how Dean had attained his injuries. None of them figured that Dean would actually tell them, the words, the story would come from Sam when he was ready.
And since Sam had already said that it had just been him and Dean and John, well it didn’t take a genius to figure out that John had something to do with Dean walked the fine line between life and death with gaping wounds on his chest that no one had managed to explain.
Lex paused by the nurses station, Clark leaned against the wall. Sam took the fifteen extra steps and fussed with the coffee machine.
When he walked past again, cup in hand he shook his head at Lex with his phone pressed to his ear again and Clark stayed where he was. Give father and sons a chance to reconnect for a moment because Clark was sure that the instant that Dean was able Lex would be dragging him back to Smallville.
By force, unwilling if need be.
Lex was grumbling into his phone when Clark heard the soft ‘dad’.
Sam’s voice and he wasn’t even sure how he’d heard it, but he took off at a run.
And then there was Sam yelling for help. Screaming for it and when Clark rounded the corner he realized that they weren’t in Dean’s room.
Coffee cup and coffee on the floor right outside the room two rooms down from Dean.
John was on the floor, eyes closed, peaceful looking. Sam on the floor beside him, he’d already started CPR, hands shaking, panicking in the way people did when this was your family and you knew you needed to do this, but knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
He was shoved out of the way by nurses. Doctors.
And this was all eerily reminiscent of the way that Dean had come back to consciousness. Clark flattened himself to a wall, trying to make himself as small as possible as a gurney was shoved into the room and John was lifted. Sam still kneeling on the floor, looking up with tears in his eyes as they took his father away.
“Dean,” he whispered and Clark turned out of the room.
Lex was sitting beside Dean on his bed, trying to keep the other man there, which Dean was having none of.
“Sam, help me,” Dean ordered. Voice still gravelly, soft. Sounding nothing like the cocky, carefree guy he was normally.
Clark wanted to tell him to stay. Don’t see this. Remember your father the way he was, not laying helpless on a gurney as people try frantically to make him live again.
But if it had been his dad… he helped Sam get Dean up and then stepped away. Latching onto Lex’s arm when he moved to follow them.
Lex glared at him and Clark tried to tell him with his eyes, let them do this alone. We’ll be there to pick up the pieces when they fall.
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It became readily apparent that Lex didn’t know how to deal with a grieving Dean.
Mostly because Dean didn’t grieve in any way that was even recognizable as grief.
Sam’s grief was recognizable, he cried, he hit stuff.
Dean… didn’t. He put the word stoic to good use.
When they’d burned their dads body (which Clark still didn’t understand, even after the explanations) Dean had let one tear fall.
And once it was done he’d straightened his shoulders, wiped his face and moved on.
Burying himself under the car that Lex’d had moved from some friend of theirs to his garage. He probably would have sequestered himself with the car 24-7. But Lex went out and got him at night, Sam dragged him in for lunch.
And all the others times, the ones that Lex and Sam didn’t know how to deal with… Clark did.
Perched on the ground beside Dean’s legs. Listening to him swear and grumble. Every so often he’d have Clark hand him something that he didn’t already have within reach.
But mostly they were silent. Clark wondering if Lex was conquering small countries in his frustration at Dean’s silence. Dean concentrating every bit of his energy on putting his car back together.
“What are they doing in there?” Dean asked one morning, two weeks later. The question startled Clark, more because he didn’t think he’d heard Dean’s voice in a couple of days then the actual question itself.
“Conquering small Middle Eastern countries,” Clark said, his goal was to make Dean laugh.
And he did; a small, sharp one. Like he wasn’t used to doing that anymore. Clark wondered how long was too long for someone to grieve.
“I thought that was your whole purpose for being here,” Dean said, Clark could hear the grin in his voice which was a step in a good direction as far as he was concerned.
“Well, I can’t be with Lex all the time.”
Like when Lex managed to drag Dean into the bedroom and Clark and Sam played videogames at the opposite end of the mansion.
Sex was never explicitly mentioned, but everyone knew that Dean and Lex didn’t disappear to paint the bathroom for hours on end.
Then the silence got to be too much, oppressive in its weight because just minutes before there’d been a smile in Dean’s voice and he’d laughed and Clark wondered if he’d screwed everything up by trying to joke with him.
“I think Lex is helping Sam figure out the access codes to your dads’ cellphone,” Clark said awkwardly.
“You mean Lex either bought the company that made them or bought someone in the company that makes them and they’re filtering through the list as we speak.”
“I try not to think about Lex buying companies or people because it seems to defeat my purpose for being here.”
“Lex isn’t gonna go evil if he buys Sprint or their equivalent. Now if he buys Sprint and Verizon and every other cellphone manufacturer, fires all their employees and has them made in China for .02 cents a phone then maybe you can worry about that.”
Those talks, when Dean used to call and bitch about Lex being possessive and a control freak… Dean wasn’t the only one talking.
******************************************************************************
Clark watched from the window as Dean and Sam talked. Dean looked bored, Sam looked frustrated.
He could probably listen to what they were saying but Dean had given him that look that said ‘go away so Sammy can whine in peace’ so he was trying to give them privacy.
“Should I be worried Clark?” Lex asked idly from behind his desk. Clark glanced over his shoulder in confusion.
“You’re spending more time with Dean that I am at this point,” Lex clarified, eyes narrowed slightly. “Should I be concerned?”
Clark shook his head, “he just needs someone to talk to.”
“And why is that you, I wonder. His brother has been trying to get him to talk for days, he won’t say more then three words to me about anything to do with his father or anything else for that matter.”
Clark valiantly did not think about what Lex and Dean could be doing for all those hours they spent sequestered away in Lex’s bedroom.
“Maybe talk is a strong word. He needs someone to not talk to, someone who won’t push him. You and Sam keep pushing him and he’s not ready to be pushed yet.”
Lex raised an eyebrow.
“Sometimes you need to be the one to make the decision to talk about things, and that decision can’t be forced.”
They still hadn’t talked about Clark’s secret. He didn’t know if Lex had been too distracted by Dean to follow up on the evidence that Clark had all but laid out in front of him… or if Lex just didn’t want to know anymore.
If Clark just wasn’t important enough to him for him to push for every single secret that Clark had ever had.
“We broke the password on their fathers’ cell this morning,” Lex joined him at the window, staring out at where Sam was pushing the phone into Dean’s hand.
“So they’re going to leave then,” Clark muttered. He rubbed at his chest and wondered why he felt sorrow at that thought.
He’d thought that with John Winchester dead that Dean would stay. He’d never thought that Sam would, Dean had made more then a few vague references about his brother wanting to back to school.
Clark was sure that Lex had money set aside for that purpose.
And he was almost sure that it was because he wanted Sam to finish school and not that he wanted Sam out of the way.
“They’ll be back though,” Clark looked over at the confidence in Lex’s voice.
“How can you be so sure?”
Lex smiled grimly. “Where else do they have to go?”