Most of this chapter's purpose is making sense of things to come. There are certain things that, I feel, weren't set up properly or made no sense from a character's stand-point. So I'm using Offscreenville to, once again, make sense of it all.
Still spoiling Traveler.
Chapter 24
Lex drank. It was about all that was on his to-do list right now. Kara was gone. She wasn't answering the cell he'd given her. But it rang. It must be ringing from somewhere in those bags he'd seen her pack, which was the last he'd seen of her. Where was she?
He had an idea where. With Clark, no doubt, hearing all about how awful he was.
But what he couldn't figure out was how Clark did it? His friendship with Clark had left him with many questions about what Clark could do. But he was fairly sure of what Clark could not do. Clark hardly knew how to turn on a computer, let alone disable a security system's feed. Not only that, but erase all password protected footage from the last week, something that should be for his eyes only. Even Gina couldn't get to it. Clark had to have had help. And, he suspected, it was help of the blonde and self-righteous variety.
She'd done it before for him. Well, not for him, really...
What I did was not for your sake. It was for Lana. She needs to get clear of you in every way.
Lana. Who else could get into his house unseen? He'd actually shown her the way.
Lana and Chloe. Those sneaky little...
He stood and moved to his desk, pressing the intercom.
"Gina, get me a car."
*******************
"And could we get some more bread?" Chloe asked.
The waiter seemed to hesitate. They'd been through two baskets in the few minutes they'd been here. It might seem weird, but they hadn't had a meal for two days.
"We're just really hungry," Lana pleaded prettily. "We promise we'll order entrees and leave an awesome tip."
He stared at Lana, then smiled. "S-sure," he stammered. "I'll be back with your wine."
"Just bring a carafe," Chloe added.
"Yes. Along with more bread. Please," Lana said softly.
He blushed and moved away.
Chloe wanted to roll her eyes. But she resisted. Lana was pretty and had long, shiny hair and the boys fell at her feet. It was best to stop fighting it. "And we need more butter," she called out, deciding to benefit from it instead.
Lana leaned back, so blissfully unaware of her power. "Isn't it cool that we can go to restaurants and drink wine now?"
"very cool." Chloe sipped at her water, saving room for wine. Wine would be nice right now. They deserved it. They'd done good today. They'd managed to expose Lionel, thwart Lex, escape with Kara, and save Clark. It was pretty much all in a day's work for her, but Lana was new at this. She deserved a celebratory dinner.
Clark was at Met Gen right now, waiting for Patricia Swann to get cleared of a concussion. Chloe had left him with her car as they seemed to really want to talk. Patricia had insisted on coming to the farm afterward and on having some alone time with Clark. "I want to know you," she'd said to Clark. "My father... I think he meant me to."
Chloe believed her and convinced Lana to believe her as well. From what Clark had told her of Doctor Swann, he definitely would have wanted this.
And what better way to know someone than a long and boring drive? She'd left her car readily enough as Patricia had offered her hired car and driver to take them wherever they wanted to go. Chloe opted for dinner at Scarantino's before going home. Lana balked at first (the driver didn't look too happy either), but Chloe insisted that Clark needed some time with Patricia Swann. Patricia Swann who'd told them what Lionel had done, what Veritas had meant...
"Remember when we had that special dinner night when my dad was out of town?" Chloe asked, not wanting to spoil the fun with fear. "We had apple juice in wine glasses."
Lana giggled. "I know. You really can't cook."
"Hey! I microwaved like a champ."
"Yeah, but then you called them baked potatoes."
"They were delicious," Chloe insisted as her wine was set in front of her along with the carafe.
"They were crunchy."
"It adds texture." Chloe shrugged, pouring their wine. "My Dad used to like my recipe."
"How is your Dad?"
"He's good. Finally got a better job in Wisconsin." He'd tried Kansas for years, hardly getting past blue collar jobs. Despite Lionel no longer actively gunning for her and hers, his name had been blackened in the state. Once blacklisted... He'd actually been doing warehouse work down by the river. For a man trained in management, it had been humiliating. "He's managing a fertlizer plant there, which he's more than qualified for, and he seems happy enough." And she was glad. Not that he was away, but that he was away from her drama. He was better off away from her. She often blamed herself. If she hadn't been so set on taking Lionel down, her father would never have been in this position in the first place. But tonight, she'd blame Lionel Luthor just to keep the weight off her. Lionel Luthor who ruined him in the first place. Lionel Luthor, who had them all snowed. Lionel, who Clark had started to trust only to be tossed in a kryptonite cage and...
This really wasn't the night for it.
"Anyway, here's to being grown up enough to drink wine in nice restaurants." She raised her glass.
Lana met it with a clink. "Even if it's nothing like we thought it would be."
Chloe set hers down as Lana sipped. "Meaning?"
Lana swallowed and toyed with her stem. "For you, maybe. You're a reporter at The Daily Planet. So that's according to plan."
Chloe frowned into her glass. "Guess it is." Of course, her plan had never included working for Lex. And her plan had never even a notion of sleeping with him.
"I'm... I don't know what I am," Lana said, toying with a piece of bread.
"Well... You're heading up a foundation for the meteor infected. That's something, at least."
"It was a front," Lana sighed. "I was in a bad place."
"A front with good intentions." Chloe grasped her hand. "To tell the truth, if you hadn't been using Isis to spy on Lex, I'd have been a lot more impressed by it. Considering the manner in which you lost your parents and the number of near deaths at the hands of the meteor-infected... Well, doing this kind of work, helping others afflicted on a personal level by the showers... It seemed kind of cool. Like you were coming full circle. I was ready to do a human interest piece on it before you went all..."
"Insane?" Lana offered sheepishly.
"Well... yeah."
"Despite how it started, Isis is doing some good. It's nice for the meteor infected to have somewhere to go where they don't fear being locked up in Belle Reve or... or worse."
"Hmm." Worse meaning whatever Lex might do to them. It was something that still hung over her, too. She knew that sleeping with him had done her career no favors, but a part of her felt safe from at least that fate. But now...
"...staff is doing most of it, but I know I should get more involved," Lana was saying. "I may not have started it for all the right reasons, but I still think it's a good idea."
"It is," Chloe said. Half the reason she'd gone there was in curiosity, wondering if someone like her could have somewere safe to talk it all over. She couldn't talk it over with Clark. He got so scared and protective, like her powers should never be tapped. Despite Jimmy's eagerness to be her shoulder, she still couldn't open up to him. He wasn't someone that could really understand. But Lana...
"I just feel so bad for them, you know? I mean, I spent all these years hating the meteor freaks for what they did to our town and resenting them and the whole mess because of my parents and... Well, you know."
"I do." Chloe had not only feared them, but exposed them as meteor mutated in the first place. She, along with Clark, was responsible for half the population of Belle Reve. To be fair, they had maimed, killed, kidnapped and stalked. "I wonder if they'd have ended up doing things they did if they were able to talk it out."
"Exactly. I mean, Isis might prevent them from going that way."
Chloe looked at Lana anew. She wondered if Lana could understand. Even if Isis had started as a foil for Lex, she had to have some understanding of the meteor infected by now. Maybe she could tell her about her own...
"I just wish I had some passion for it," Lana said sadly.
Maybe not. It was fine, anyway. Not like she needed to talk it out to prevent going psycho. What harm could she actually do?
"I know it's good and noble and something I should be doing," Lana was saying, "but I just... I still resent them," she said, frowning. "I don't want to, but I do. They have something special and so many of them end up abusing it and I think if only I..."
"If only you what?" Chloe cut in sharply. "If only you were meteor-infected? Because it's no picnic," Chloe stopped herself. "From what I hear," she finished on a quieter note.
"I don't think it is, but I... I still feel so restless, you know?" Lana shook her head. "I don't know. I know what Clark is. I even had this taste of it and I... I want more."
Chloe refilled her wine glass. She wasn't sure she liked where this was going. "More... what?"
"More power," Lana said, a sort of hunger in her eyes. "Can you imagine? Doing what Clark can do? Never feeling like you needed to be saved or..."
"Lana, Clark needs saving a good deal of the time. Trust me on that."
"Not nearly as much as I do and I'm so tired of feeling like some sort of... helpless thing to be protected. Like I'm nothing more than some damsel and..." She groaned. "Oh, never mind. You wouldn't understand."
"Okay." Chloe tossed her napkin down. "Are you just determined to ruin our nice dinner?"
Lana grabbed her arm as she stood. "Chloe, no. I'm not saying this right. I mean..."
"What do you mean? Because here I think we finally get each other and you're picking a fight with this passive aggressive dig about me not understanding..."
"But it's true. You wouldn't understand."
"And why not?"
"Because you're never helpless."
Chloe sat down hard. "Huh?"
"You're always in the thick of everything and you come out on your own. Clark's told me only some of what you've done."
"Did he also tell you how much I've needed to be saved? If it weren't for Clark, I'd be dead a million times over."
"And if it weren't for you, Clark would be, too. You said yourself he needs saving, too, and it's pretty much always you. It's almost never me. I may have helped a little today, but you were the one in the end, just like you... did whatever you did when he went into Lex's mind and... God, I bet I don't even know half the ways you've done it. And I can't save anyone. I can't even save myself. I've even tried to be you, do what you do for Clark. And I can't. I can fake it well enough, but I'll never be you."
"Why would you want to? Lana, being me sucks."
"Maybe to you. But at least you know who you are."
"Oh, please. I..."
"Since I've known you, you've known exactly who you are and exactly what you want."
"You've got to be kidding me." Chloe said, dazed. After years of only scratching the surface as friends, Lana seemed to be laying a whole lot on the table. "Lana, I'm as confused as anybody."
"Well, tell that to the girl who tried and failed to run a coffee shop, be a photographer, an astronomer, run a foundation..."
"I thought Isis was doing well."
"No thanks to me. I... I try to be everybody and I'm nobody. You... You're exactly who you wanted to be."
"Trust me, I'm not exactly..."
"You have everything you said you would."
"I have nothing. The things I want aren't even close to how they were supposed to be. Lex runs The Daily Planet. I'm on the edge of being fired every second. Plus, Gabriel practically turned it into a tabloid before he got himself shot by a mugger and don't even get me started on Lois." Chloe covered her mouth. "I shouldn't have said that," she muttered through her fingers. She was trying not to even think that.
"Lois?" Lana squinted at her. "I thought you'd be happy to work with her."
"I want to be," Chloe said wearily. "But I... I have some issues with her actions on the job and the way..." She shook her head. "This isn't even about her." It wasn't. It was just something that added to her general dissatisfaction. It's about me. You might see me getting what I want, but there's always this bizarre flipside. Job at The Planet? Lex owns it. Clark Kent can't live without me, apparently, but being a sidekick gets you nothing more than a pat on the head and some lip service about how important you are before the hero runs off to who's really important." Chloe glanced slyly at her. "In case you can't tell, this is me being jealous of you."
"Okay." Lana took a deep breath. "In case you can't tell, being important to Clark in this way isn't that great. He treats me like I'll break any second and that's not just in bed, not like there is any in bed to..." Lana's eyes suddenly widened. "Umm... I only meant..."
"Wait a second. He still won't..."
"You know about that?"
"What part of codependent do you not get?"
"He not only won't. He won't even try. It's frustrating." Lana groaned and leaned back in her seat. "It's like looking at this really good cake and you can't even have a bite.
Chloe slid Lana's wine glass away. "Think you've had enough."
"I'm fine." Lana sat up and took her glass back. "I just mean that being with Clark doesn't mean you ever get to... be with Clark. Not unless you... Well..." Lana shook her head. "It's not like I'll do it again. But it was nice to finally be on even ground. He could actually..."
"Please spare me the details," Chloe cut in quickly. "I don't think we're at that place."
"But you said you and Clark have talked about..."
"That's me and Clark," she said with finality. "It's different, us talking about it because... well..."
Lana nodded. "You can get through it for him, but not for me. We're just not that close."
Chloe sighed. "Yeah. Basically. I feel mean, but..."
"No. Don't. It's fine." Lana nodded. "We'll get there."
Chloe stared at her. "Maybe we will." Even when they lived together, they hadn't been close. Maybe it took a serious crazy streak from Lana to finally bring them together. It was odd, but when wasn't her life odd?"
"I guess I was trying to get past everything too quickly. I thought you might be on your way to getting over Clark, with Jimmy and all."
"Jimmy." Chloe pursed her lips. "It's hard to know what's going to happen there. So far, we seem to break up every six months."
"I know the feeling." Lana snorted. "Yeah. Maybe I have had too much wine."
"No such thing as too much wine tonight." Chloe topped off their glasses. "We have a hired car."
"Oh, yeah." Lana giggled. "We should get another carafe."
"Anyway, Jimmy's... great. He's perfect for me. He's everything I want." Or want to want. "We're just taking it slow this time. Trying to connect."
The holding off and trying to connect is just for when it sucks and they need a good reason to have fucked at all.
She wished he'd just get out of her head. She was trying to get clear of him. It didn't help that every thought of Jimmy brought his words to mind. Especially with Jimmy, again, being understanding about taking it slow. He was a good guy, a sweet...
It's so they don't feel like a whore. They can't just walk away from bad sex. There must be a deeper reason they did it. So they, knowing they haven't found that viable partner, will try to turn him into a paragon. They didn't pick a bad one. They picked a noble one. It was more than sex.
Damn it, it would be! She could begrudging admit, she had it wrong before. She wanted to be sure this time. She didn't want to have sex and then decide to make Jimmy her priority in some reactionary way. She wanted to wedge him into that place before they jumped into bed. The sex would be better, she was sure, if she could just find that connection with him first.
"It's not about the sex,' you'll tell yourself. "It's something so much deeper. The sex will be better with time." But it isn't. In the end, it'll just be a waste of time that you'll romanticize as thwarted love.
No. Not this time.
"I'm going to get get it right this time."
"Get what right?" Lana slurred.
"Never mind. But I will," she said with determination.
"It's good to get things right." Lana raised her glass, kind of sloppily. "Here's to getting things right and being grown-ups and finding ourselves and getting everything we want."
"Yeah." Chloe met her glass. "Let's have it all."
"Oh!" Lana slapped the table. "We should do this like every week. Have big celebration dinners with wine and talk about our awesome lives."
"You think they'll be awesome?"
"They can only get better. Right?" Lana frowned. "Well, maybe not. Lex still owns your paper."
"My paper," Chloe sighed. It was once. But the minute Lex stepped in... "I wonder how long I have a job."
"Forever," Lana gasped. "If Lex fires you, you can come work with me."
"At Isis?"
"Yes. It'll be so fun. You can do PR and we can start a newsletter. It'll be totally awesome." Lana cleared her throat. "We are going to be totally awesome," she said soberly. "I promise."
************************
"Are you sure?"
"Well, she's not with me. So, yeah. I'm sure. So... do I still get paid?"
Lex groaned and sank onto a stool in the darkened Talon. He really wished he didn't have to deal with idiots.
When he'd arrived at The Talon with no Chloe, he decided to wait. She had to come home sooner or later. Bored, and sickeningly sober, he'd decided not to waste time and made Gina get Patricia Swann's cell. Gina couldn't whine about having too much else to do now. Kara was gone. She'd succeeded, but it went right to voicemail. It was then he thought to contact the car service she was using... and the driver, who could be swayed for very little.
Unfortunately, he had no info. He didn't even have Swann.
"Where did she go?"
"I don't know where. She just went with this Kent guy."
"Kent?" Lex sat up.
"Yeah, some big dope named Kent, Carl or something. Said she was going to his farm and all."
"Interesting," Lex drawled, standing, pacing the floor in the darkened Talon. This man wasn't completely useless. So, in the same day, he meets with Patricia Swann, loses Kara, who's now with Clark, no doubt, and suddenly Patricia Swann wants nothing more than to rusticate on the Kent farm. It was all coming together. He just wasn't sure how the pieces fit just yet.
"Yeah. She's at the hospital and he said he'd drive her and she left me with..."
"The hospital? Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Which part of 'tell me her every move' did you misunderstand?"
"Okay, okay. No need to get mad, there, Bud."
He would bristle at being called "bud," but this man didn't exactly know who he was talking to. He was going to be keeping things closer now.
Lex sank onto the stool again, wishing the Talon was a bar. He was definitely sober now. And annoyed.
"Just start from the beginning."
"Okay. So I'm told to meet this Swann lady at the airport at like five in the morning and I figure I'll take her to her hotel, so I can lay back and finish sleeping. But she doesn't want to go to her hotel. She wants to go to this heliport and talk to some douche with a beard forever."
"Who was the d... Who was the bearded man?" Lex had to ask. In retrospect, Patricia had been obviously baiting him to go to his father. It could only be...
"I don't know. He got out of a Luthorcorp chopper. He might have been that guy."
"Could you clarify?" Lex tried not to growl it.
"That other Luthor guy. Not the bald one."
What a sad life he'd led if all he really ended up being was "the bald Luthor." It wouldn't happen if he could help it. "Lionel Luthor," he said rather than asked. It was him. Everything was fitting.
"Yeah. That's probably him. Same guy she was going to meet her at the airstrip, I think. I wasn't really listening."
"I thought you said the heliport." He didn't add "moron," but it was implied.
"No, the old airstrip, west side of town. Used to hold planes for rich guys that like to fly on the weekend for no good reason. My brother-in-law used to work there before he got fired for drinking on the job. He was a total loser, lemme tell you..."
"Please don't," Lex cut in. "Why were they at an airstrip?"
"Beats me. Didn't see any planes. Then again, I had to wait outside the gates. Then the place suddenly gets this big hole in the wall and Swann comes out with this guy and a lump on her head and..."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this in the first place?"
"Well, I'm telling you now. Jeez. Anyway, she comes out all banged up with this Kent guy and then these chicks show up and they followed to the hospital and..."
"What chicks?"
"This hot brunette and some blonde. Anyway, I got them now."
Lex wondered if he was sober after all. His head was spinning. "Got who?"
"The drunk chicks. Well... They weren't drunk before, but they are now. Some friends of Kent. Swann told me to take them. Said they were having a celebration dinner or some shit. Had to wait forever before I could drive them back to this shithole town."
"Which shithole town?" Lex hissed.
"Smallville. You know, that place with the corn and the meteor showers and..."
"Got it." He was getting it. Swann, Clark, Kara, Lana, and Chloe. It seemed like everyone was having a little party at his expense.
"So... does this mean I don't get paid? Because it's not like I can control where Swann goes or..."
"I'll transfer the money first thing tomorrow," Lex said impatiently. "With more to come if you keep on track. Now tell me more about these drunk chicks."
The man laughed. "If you're looking for some fun, I already dropped the hot one off. Just got this blonde in the back. She's okay. Like a seven, maybe. Wants me to take her to some coffee shop that's not even on my GPS. I told her it was probably closed, but..."
"Please listen." He clenched his fists, both at the implication that he needed some driver to pimp for him and the idea that he'd slept with a seven... repeatedly. She was more than...
It must be contagious. Now he was getting off track.
"You drop off this blonde," he said carefully. And right into my hands. "Then you keep on Swann. She has something and I need you to get it. She wears a cameo necklace. It's blue with a swan and tiny stars that..."
"Okay. Wait just a second. I might run off at the mouth a bit. But I don't steal necklaces from defenseless ladies. Christ, the lady just got knocked in the head, for crying out... Oh, hold on. Gotta let this blonde out."
"What?" He moved to the window, saw a black car pulling up to the curb. Chloe got out... or stumbled against the driver, a balding moron with a bluetooth glinting on his ear. "Thank you. Jeeves," he heard her giggle, both through the window and through his cell.
"You sure you want to get dropped here? Place looks dead."
"S'fine. I got keys. I live here."
"If you say so." He moved back to the car as Chloe stumbled to the door.
He moved to the side of the window. "Damn it."
The car door closed. "Listen, no offense, Guy. But I got my limits. Now I'll tell you all about what she does tomorrow if you..."
"No. We're done," he hissed, relieved when Chloe dropped her keys.
"Okay. But, uh... Do I still get paid?"
Lex deliberated, but decided the man had given him enough to go on, along with a certain meddling blonde just where he wanted her, had been waiting for her, even. And drunk, too. "I'll get you your damned money tomorrow." And replace you. His staff was shit, but the Black Creek men were still on call from Kara. Gina could get one of them in and on Swann, one not so squeamish.
"Okay. So do I pick it up or..."
"My assistant will get it to you," he hissed, hanging up, then turning his phone off for good measure. He didn't want anything interrupting this. He stayed in the shadows as the door swung open. She swung with it, giggling a little.
He smiled as well, as he stepped into the triangle of light from the door. "Sullivan?" She fell back against the door, closing it as her keys dropped to the floor. He smiled wider as her eyes lit on him. "You've had a busy day."
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
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