Nexus continuity
It's the day before Valentine's Day. To Clark, however, it's just another day. In fact, chances are it hasn't even occurred to him that it's nearing on any sort of special occasion. As far as he's concerned, he and Anna are just meeting Chloe and Jimmy for a cup of coffee and small talk at the Talon. Nothing special
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She clenches her jaw, too busy being angry to respond with words.
It's too easy to recognize the signs, though, so after the moment of blinding rage passes she stops herself from saying anything hurtful. Dammit.
She has to get him out of here before he does something else he'll regret later.
Unfortunately, trying for a fire-move in front of all these people would not be wise. Also, she doubts she can get his consent, and she's seen people after they were moved without their permission. It can trigger some very nasty flashbacks in torture victims - especially, ironically enough, people who've been through the kind of pervasive techniques used by Jasmine.
Anna doesn't think she can put him through that for any reason short of preventing him from committing an imminent murder.
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"I'll live," he groans, accepting her offer of a hand up.
"Come on." She looks around, frowning at the shocked guests. "Let's get you someplace I can have a look at that. I know a thing or two about injuries."
Lex is still himself enough to smirk and murmur, "I'll bet," as she helps him out of the room. There's a sitting room nearby, and Anna guides him to a couch, frowning again and touching a hand to a bruise visible on his arm where his sleeve has ridden up slightly.
A series of thoughts occurs to her in rapid succession.
"Lex," she says slowly, "let me guess. You're going to want to go after them."
She gets a you're kidding me look for her trouble. "Of course I am. Give me a minute and I'll be down to the garage to get my Porsche. I can only assume you have a similar goal in mind - would you like a ride?"
Anna grins. It's not a terribly nice grin. On drugs or not, Clark is pissing her off.
"I've got a better idea," she announces. "I'll give you one. I'm a ( ... )
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She sees all of this. She's pretty sure Lex does, too, though she knows he's going to be distracted by the intensity of fire-moving. She can't hear any, though, until she gets close enough.
Which is just in time to hear her boyfriend passionately declare his love for another woman.
She was going to set Lex down gently out of sight, really she was. Not anymore. The two of them materialize in the barn's doorway and stalk up to the loft very nearly in unison.
"Lana!" Lex calls. "Lana?"
Anna just growls, ignoring Lana completely. She needs to have Words with Clark, and she'd prefer to have them out of earshot of Lex Luthor if at all possible.
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Clark walks slowly down the stairs, stopping on one of the landings and leaning against the railing. "Go ahead, Lana, tell him," he gives Anna a cursory glance, "that you'd rather be with me."
"Don't listen to him. He's on something." Lana likely is saying this as much to Anna as she is to Lex.
Clark laughs. "Oh? Well, it didn't seem to bother you two minutes ago when you were kissing me."
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"Clark." Anna speaks first. "We need to talk. Somewhere that's not here."
Lex shoots her a glance, querying. She responds with a raised eyebrow; did he really think she was going to let him shoot her boyfriend if a more palatable option presented itself? He concedes the point with a tiny shrug. The whole exchange lasts perhaps three seconds, and then he moves to take Lana aside, though not before tossing off a one-liner.
"What do you really expect is going to happen now, Clark?"
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Lana, still clinging to Lex, glares at Clark. "I'm not a competition." She does, however, allow her gaze to shift briefly to Anna, just in case Anna isn't aware who the centre of attention here really is.
"You are to Lex. He didn't tell you? He's always wanted everything I've ever had. And you were at the top of that list. You're just a trophy to him." Clark sneers at Lex. "And he's nothing but your consolation prize. Now," his attention focuses back on Lana, "tell me you don't love me. Lana. Tell me you don't."
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"Stay away from her," he says, pointing the gun at Clark.
"Fuck," mutters Anna, regretting this already - she can see very clearly a few possible outcomes of this situation and none of them are any good. Clark is ignoring her, so the only thing she can do that'll affect him is fire-move, which she's already ruled out except for absolute emergencies.
Her course of action is pretty clear at this point. She grabs Lana and manhandles her out of the way, putting herself as much between the fragile living woman and the testosterone-filled showdown as possible.
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Clark eyes Lex and the gun with nothing short of outright amusement. "You don't want to do that. You can't win. You don't even know the rules of the game."
When Lex doesn't back down, Clark sidesteps the gun and shoves Lex hard through a glass plate and up against a barn wall, hand wrapped around Lex's throat. "If I'd have known who you were going to turn out to be, I never would have saved you on that bridge."
Lana continues to struggle against Anna. "Clark stop it! You're killing him!"
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This doesn't stop her, of course, from turning towards the scuffle herself. Lex, madly scrabbling for a weapon, picks something up - Anna can't quite see what - and stabs Clark in the side with it.
Fortunately for Clark's secret, if not for his health, this action exactly coincides with Anna spotting a familiar lead box on a nearby shelf, picking it up, and flipping open the lid. She holds the whole contrivance in one hand on the opposite side of her from Lana, effortlessly adjusting her body language so it looks as though she intends to use it as a simple bludgeon.
"Clark," she says, her tone warning but sympathetic.
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Lana runs to Lex and helps him up, although it probably isn't missed by Anna that she sees something on the ground that shocks her before she starts helping Lex toward the door. "Come on, Lex, it's over. Let's go home."
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Lex, for his part, is just glad to get out of here with his neck intact. He follows Lana out, already concocting a lie to explain his lack of a vehicle.
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"Anna?"
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She closes the box fully and sets it down, kneeling by Clark and kissing his forehead gently.
"I'm here. They ain't. Got something to say to me?"
At this point, she's not sure what to expect from him. Anything from thanking her for keeping him from murdering Lex to berating her for interrupting his makeout session with Lana seems likely.
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