Author: MitchPell
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything that has to do with Smallville, it’s characters, DC comics, or the WB. I’m just using their stuff for a little bit of non-profitable fun. Nor do I own any of the poems. They all belong to their respective authors and publishers or whatever.
Authors Notes: My thanks go out to Adri, the best Beta Reader in the whole wide world, and the one who has helped me since the get go!!! And to my new Beta Reader, Gravity, as well. First off let me apologize for the extreme delay in posting. But after quite a few things have interrupted the writing of this chapter, including: finals, a family member being extremely since the 13th of December, work, another fic I was writing, and a little writers block. All in all, it hasn’t been a good month for me. And I apologize. I’m still waiting for some feedback for my poll. As I’ve said I’ve noticed that my author feed back section is getting rather long. So, would you guys prefer me to move it to the end of the chapter, or keep it here at the beginning? Just let me know in a review. This is taking place shortly after Rogue, right were chapter 10 left off. And just as a little review, chapter 10 ended with Chloe getting the torch back and Lex going into the hospital. I hope that helps you guys know when things are going on. Like I’ve said before I’ve done a lot of research about the medical stuff, but if I’ve made any huge errors let me know. After all, I’m not an expert. I’m going to be using any and all spoilers, so read at your own risk. This story is going to be a long one. I already know that it is going to span the course of 7 years, and probably longer. I appreciate any and all feedback. Tell me whatever you think: the good, the bad, the ok, the grammar errors, etc… Trust me, I need the help!!
Summary: Lex and Chloe just seem right for each other. I don’t know why, they just do.
Email: mitchpell@yahoo.com
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Martha hadn’t accompanied them back to the hospital, saying that though she was sure Lex appreciated her concern; he would rather just have Clark and Chloe there. The two returned to Lex’s room around 3:30 in the afternoon. Once again, Chloe gave a small rap on the door before sticking her head in. She smiled when she saw that Lex was indeed in his bed this time. She slipped into the room, Clark following behind her with the bag they had brought for him.
Clark set the bag down in one of the chairs then turned towards Chloe. “Is he asleep?” He mouthed while gesturing toward the bed.
Chloe quietly walked up to the bed and nodded.
“Do you think we should wake him up, or just go?” Clark whispered.
Chloe left the bed to join Clark on the far side of the room. “I don’t think we should just leave. I mean, it seems kind of rude to just drop off his stuff without at least saying hello.” She frowned. “Though, I’d hate to wake him up.”
“Well, maybe we should leave him a note.” Clark suggested.
“Why don’t we just wait for a few minutes? See if he wakes up soon?”
Clark ran a hand through his hair before consenting. “Ok.”
The two pulled two chairs close together and sat down. “So,” Clark asked, “what did you end up doing to thank Lex for the gift?”
Chloe grinned. “I went over to the mansion and we ate Chinese food and watched Star Wars.”
Clark raised his eyebrows and looked at her. “Lex likes Star Wars?” He asked in disbelief.
“I don’t see why that would surprise you.” Chloe replied. “After all, Clark, just about everyone likes Star Wars.”
There was slight cough from over on the bed, and the two turned to look at their friend. “Lex?” Chloe half whispered, half called across the room. When she got no response she furrowed her brow and turned back to Clark. “Have you ever known anyone to be hospitalized for bronchitis?” She asked him.
Clark frowned. “No, but Lex did say that it was a pretty bad case, and that it might turn into pneumonia.” He glanced over at his friend then added, “Plus, he hasn’t looked to well recently.”
That caught, Chloe’s attention. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s just seemed off. You know. He seems to be tired all the time. He looks a lot paler, and I swear he’s lost an awful amount of weight.”
“You know, it’s funny that you said that about him being tired all the time.” Chloe said. “Because the past couple of times I’ve seen him, I’ve caught him sleeping.”
“Maybe he’s been sick for a while.” Clark suggested. “And just didn’t do anything about it until it got serious.”
“Maybe, if it was something besides bronchitis.” Chloe replied. She frowned as she looked at Clark. “You don’t think it’s drugs, do you?” She whispered.
“No!” Clark denied.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Come on, Clark. I’ve enjoyed hanging out with Lex, just as much as you have. But we have to admit we don’t know him very well. Who knows what he was into while he was in Metropolis?”
“Or maybe he’s just strung out from work?”
“I might agree with that if there was a problem at the plant.” She argued. “I mean, I think they were having a problem meeting their orders. But that’s only been recently.”
Clark gave her a funny look. “How do you know about that?”
“I don’t know Clark. It’s not like my father’s the head manager of the plant or anything.”
Clark ducked his head and blushed. “Right. Sorry.”
Chloe smiled at him. “It’s ok.” She glanced back over at the bed when she heard rusting. She was almost amazed at how quiet Lex was when he slept. He didn’t snore, or breathe loudly. He barely even seemed to move. And as she as once again took in his sleeping form she realized that she liked seeing him this way, peaceful. She frowned as she turned back to Clark. “Do you think we should confront him?”
Clark sighed. “We’re probably just making this into a bigger deal than it is. There’s probably nothing serious going on. And if there were, I’m sure he would have told me.”
“Clark, I don’t think Lex would come out and tell you if he’s taking drugs.”
“No, but he’d tell me if there was a problem.”
Chloe looked at him skeptically. “If you say so.”
The two continued to sit there and chat for a while about various things, mostly school and the paper. Eventually, Clark glanced down at his watched and frowned. “It’s already four o’clock.” He told her. “I should go home. I still have all my chores to do, and my mom will be making dinner soon.”
“Ok.” Chloe replied. “Do you want me to drive you home?”
“That’s ok. I’ll walk.” He said, knowing that Chloe didn’t really want to leave quiet yet. “Just tell Lex why I left.”
Chloe grinned. “Sure.”
“See you later, Chloe.” Clark called as he headed for the door.
“Bye, Clark.” Chloe watched as Clark left the room before letting out a sigh. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She considered watching TV, but didn’t want to risk waking Lex. She glanced around the room for something to occupy her time, when she spotted the book of poetry setting beside Lex’s bag on the chair. She smiled as she walked over and picked up the book. She settled herself in a chair closer to the bed and began to skim the large volume.
She wasn’t sure how long she had been reading various poems throughout the book, when her eye caught on one particular poem by Judith Minty.
“The onion in my cupboard, a monster, actually
two joined under one transparent skin:
each half-round, then flat and deformed
where it pressed and grew against the other.
An accident, like the two-headed calf rooted
in one body, fighting to suck at its mother’s teats;
or like those freaks, Chang and Eng, twins
joined at the chest by skin and muscle, doomed
to live, even make love, together for sixty years.”
When another slightly raspy voice joined hers she nearly fell out of her chair.
“Do you feel the skin that binds us
together as we move, heavy in this house?
To sever the muscle could free one,
but might kill the other. Ah, but men
don’t slice onions in the kitchen, seldom see
what is invisble. We cannot escape each other.”
Lex finished, as he looked up at his guest with sleep-laden eyes and a small smile.
“Sorry,” Chloe apologized. “I didn’t mean to wake you. But my teacher keeps telling us that poetry is meant to be heard, so I thought I’d read aloud.”
“It’s ok.” Lex assured her. He gestured towards the book setting in her lap. “I see you found my book.”
Chloe grinned. “Yep. It was right where you said it would be.” She told him. “We also brought you a few pairs of clothes, your bathrobe, your toothbrush, and some toothpaste.”
“Thank you.” He replied, so quietly Chloe almost missed it.
“No problem.” She said, as she stood up. “Clark asked me to tell you that he had to go home to do his chores. He felt kind of bad about leaving.”
“I’m surprised you stayed.” He said, suppressing a yawn. “I’m sure I wasn’t the best of company.”
“Well, we didn’t want to just drop your stuff off and leave. So I thought I’d stay at least until you woke up.” She frowned as she looked at her watch. “But it is getting kind of late, so I should probably be going…”
Lex reached out and grabbed her hand. “Stay.” He paused, as he looked up at her. “Just for a little while.”
She looked down at him. His eyes were practically begging her to stay and it saddened her to see him so openly vulnerable. She couldn’t resist. “Ok, I’ll stay.” She said with a grin, trying to keep things light.
He gave her a warm smile then began to adjust the bed so he could sit up. When he was once again upright, he reached out and took the book from her. He skimmed the poem, running his eyes over the lines. “Conjoined always reminded me of my father and I. Two people forced together against their will.” He gave her a self-depreciating smile. “It just seems to fit.”
“Is it really that bad?” She asked.
Lex turned back to the book and started leafing through the pages. “Usually.” He absently replied. His eyes brightened as he turned the page and he smirked up at her. “Listen.”
“Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.”
“Lex?” Chloe asked, her voice showing her wariness.
Lex just continued to smirk at her. “Relax, Chloe. It’s just a poem.” He paused for a minute. “One that I happen to find slightly comical.”
“Comical?” She asked in disbelief. “I found it to be rather sad. In fact, I have to say that I feel sorry for the poor man.”
Lex’s eyes darkened slightly. “Richard Cory doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him. He doesn’t want pity. He just wants acceptance.”
Chloe frowned, as she lowered her gaze to look into her lap. “Lex?”
“Yes?” He replied, once again starting to skim the large volume.
“Would you tell Clark if there was something wrong?” She asked. She had said Clark because she knew that Lex had known him longer, and would probably trust him more.
He looked up at her with a guarded expression. “What makes you think there’s something wrong?”
“It’s just…” she paused for a moment, trying to figure out a way to tell him the differences Clark and she had noticed. “You’ve just seemed off, lately. And now here you are in the hospital because of bronchitis of all things.”
Lex sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Chloe, there is nothing wrong.” He looked over at her. “Stress does tend to have negative affects on the body.”
“Stress?”
Lex gave her an impatient look. “Yes, Chloe, stress.” After his response, he turned back to the book.
“The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.”
“Geez, Lex. These are quite the uplifting poems. First the one about deformed onions then suicide, and now child abuse.” Chloe remarked. “I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Lex chuckled. “My apologizes, Miss Sullivan. Let me see if I can’t find something more appropriate.” He flipped through the pages for a minute before looking back at her, grinning mischievously.
“she being Brand
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having
thoroughly oiled the universal
jointed tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.
K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and
again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. Ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning) just as we turned the corner of Divinity
avenue i touched the accelerator and give
her the juice,good
(it
was the first ride and believe i we was
happy to see how nice she acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens i slammed on
the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
brakes Bothatonce and
brought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.
stand-
;Still)”
When he was finished, Lex glanced over at Chloe to find her fighting down a blush. “Was that more to your liking, Miss Sullivan?”
Chloe cleared her throat, before meeting his eyes evenly. “Well, it’s a start.”
Lex laughed, before breaking into a coughing fit. After he recovered, he smiled at her, humor twinkling in his eyes. “The first time I read this poem I think I was around six years old. It hadn’t made sense to me, so I showed it to my mother, to ask her what it meant.” He paused for a minute, before continuing. “You should have seen the look on her face. Though, like any mother would, she told me it was about a man taking his new car out for its first drive. I’d always had a love for cars. And I just thought it was the best poem I’d ever heard. Of course imagine my surprise when I was old enough to catch the not so subtle undertones.”
“I’m sure your world was crushed.” Chloe teased.
Lex shrugged. “Yes, but then I turned fourteen and all was well in the world again.”
“I’m sure.” She replied wirily. She paused for a minute then asked, “Um, Lex? Can I ask you a question?”
“That depends. Are we off the record?” He teased.
“Of course.”
“Then yes.”
“What does the inscription from your mother mean?”
Lex paused for a minute, studying the page in front of him. “When I was younger, I was sick quite often.” He told her. “And when things got really rough, my mother used to sit with me, and we’d read poems from this book together.” He looked up at the woman in front of him. “She said that medicine would heal my body, but poetry would heal my soul.”
“I’m sorry.” Chloe whispered, unsure of what else to say.
He smiled softly at her. “There’s one more poem I would like to share with you, Chloe.”
“Sure.”
Lex coughed a few times, before clearing his throat, trying to rid his voice of some of its raspy-ness.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
Lex didn’t tell her, but Chloe didn’t have to ask. She knew whose favorite poem it was. And she could clearly see the beauty behind the words. She watched as Lex closed the large red book and placed it on the tray beside his bed. “I’ll be right back.” Chloe told him as she stood up and headed into the bathroom.
Chloe looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. “What’s wrong with me?” She muttered at her reflection. All they had been doing was reading poetry. Yet, she couldn’t stop this feeling that was spreading through her. She wasn’t even sure how to describe it. Sure she wanted to be friends with Lex. But looking at him, lying there against those stark white sheets, caused something else to stir in her. She shook her head, dismissing the crazy thought that just entered her mind. She splashed a little could water on her face then reentered the hospital room, the scent of soup hitting her. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was.
Lex turned to look at her, from where he was flipping through the channels on the TV. “Are you alright?” He asked. “I was afraid you might have fell in or something.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “That sounds like something my dad would say.”
Lex tilted his head. “Well, I have been spending quite a bit of time with your father. He might be rubbing off.”
She groaned. “God help us.”
Lex chuckled and motioned towards the tray of food. “Are you hungry?”
Chloe was practically drooling, but she wasn’t about going to steal a sick man’s dinner. “I’m fine.” She lied.
Lex simply shrugged. “Alright. Just let me know if you change your mind.” He said before going back to his channel surfing.
“Stop!” Chloe suddenly shouted, startling Lex enough to initiate a coughing fit.
“What?” He asked through his coughing.
“Go back! I think I saw The Return of the Jedi.” She watched with frustration as Lex continued to flip through the channels. “No, you have to go back!” She exclaimed.
“It doesn’t go back, Chloe.” Lex snapped, still coughing from earlier. “You have to go all the way through.” Eventually, he did manage to get it back to the indicated channel, and The Return of the Jedi was indeed playing. “We never did watch this one, that night, did we?” He asked.
“No.” Chloe replied. “I believe we opted for a food fight instead.”
Lex smiled. “Ah, yes. It is coming back to me now.” He turned to Chloe. “Such fond memories.”
The two slipped into a comfortable silence, simply enjoying the movie. About halfway through, Chloe’s stomach growled rather loudly and Lex simply moved the tray of untouched food in front of her.
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When Chloe still hadn’t come home by eight o’clock, and Martha said she wasn’t at the Kent’s, Gabe Sullivan jumped in his car and headed for Smallville Memorial Hospital. He easily found his daughter’s car in the almost empty lot. After a stop at the front desk for a room number, he made his way upstairs to Lex Luthor’s hospital room. He gave a quick rap on the open door and walked in the room. However, he found it hard to remain angry at the site before him.
His young boss was leaning up against the upright bed, eyes closed, undoubtedly asleep. And sitting in a chair beside the bed was his daughter, snoring ever so softly. The TV was on in the background, and he glanced up to find some movie he didn’t recognize playing. He made his way over to his daughter and gently shook her shoulder. “Chloe.” He called. “Wake up, it’s time to go home.”
Chloe groaned as she peeled her eyes opened. Startled she quickly sat up. “What time is it?” She asked.
“A little past eight.” He replied.
She rubbed her eyes. “How long have I been asleep?”
Gabe laughed. “I don’t know, Sweetheart. I just got here.”
Chloe yawned and stretched. “Sorry. I must have dozed off during Star Wars.”
He rolled his eyes. “Star Wars again?” He asked, backing away from the chair.
Chloe shrugged as she stood up. “It was on.” She told him, pulling on her coat. “Just let me say goodbye, and I’ll be ready.”
Gabe furrowed his brow. “You’re going to wake him up?”
“Yeah.” She leaned over the rail and shook Lex’s shoulder. “Lex.” She said rather loudly.
“Hhmm?” was the reply she received.
“I’m leaving now, ok?”
“Mmm.”
“See you later.” With that, she followed her father out of the room and to their awaiting vehicles.
TBC…
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