(~(~)~)
How many times, and in how many ways, has Jonathan Kent told his son never to use his powers illegally? Never to hurt anyone? Never for immoral ends? These are cardinal sins in the Jonathan Kent breviary.
And yet, how many times and in how many ways has Jonathan Kent told his son that family is everything? Family takes precedence over everything.
Clark has more than enough prior experience to know, when these two dictates crash up against each other, which one wins.
Jonathan, of course, will never tell Clark to break a law, or a jaw, or the Kent moral code, a murky and impenetrable thing that seems to involve support and forgiveness for everyone except a Luthor. But Clark met his father's eyes in the jail, and he understood without a word passing between them what his father was telling him. Family, Clark. Family doesn't let family rot in a jail cell. Get me out of here, whatever you have to do. And Clark had nodded. Clark had accepted the assignment.
Pete had made his little crack about breaking and entering, but Pete didn't seem to understand that Clark now had unspoken license to do all of that and more to clear Jonathan's name. Anything that had to be done to free his father, Clark was now at liberty to do.
So long as he didn't get caught.
And this is why he is sitting, now, in Lex's den, curled up next to Lex on the couch without quite touching him, boiling with slow anger. Jonathan claims to love his son and Clark doesn't really doubt that he does but he has no illusions that, should he ever be caught, unmasked, discovered using his powers for 'evil ends,' Jonathan will leave him to twist in the wind. Oh, Dad would bail him out of jail, break him out of a government test facility, ransom him back from Lionel Luthor, but the censure, the reproach in his voice would be deep, disappointed, and public. "Clark! I told you not to use your powers that way! What were you thinking?"
I was thinking that family is everything.
(~(~)~)
Clark leans forward to pick up his notes on the French Revolution just as Lex leans forward to put his scotch back on the table. Their hands bump, and they both pull back as though scalded.
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
About so many things.
(~(~)~)
Of all the arrogant, diabolical for Lionel to accuse Lex of being responsible for the assassination attempt, simply because Lex had the gall to try and stand on his own two feet! If Lionel had been Jesus Christ and, shit, there's an image far too disturbing to contemplate but if he had been, he probably would've blamed his disciples for the crucifixion. "It's your fault for pissing off the Romans, my sons."
Lionel Luthor engenders hate. He lifts the souls of women and men, peeks inside, and sees what is darkest. Then he pulls out that darkness, nurtures it, makes it blossom as some hideous flower thirsting for blood, or power, or money, or revenge. And sometimes, that hatred is aimed at Lionel himself.
That isn't Lex's fault.
Nor is it Lex's fault that his father chose to respond to his employee buyout and the formation of LexCorp by stooping to blackmail. Did his father really think that the corporate world was so small that there wasn't a place for both companies? Lex hadn't expected LexCorp to be on a level to compete with LuthorCorp for many years, but now he won't even be given the chance to find out, because Lionel's fear
Fear? Is that it? The son surpasses the father. If there was one consistent theme throughout all of those myths and legends that Lionel had relentlessly drilled into his son from childhood, this is it. In those days, the lesson had been Lionel's way of justifying his corporate supplanting of his own father. But now, surely, now that Lionel is the father, the lesson must be returning to torment his nights and whisper in his ear every time Lex is in the room.
Desperation is a powerful motivator. It can lead a man to actions that will enrage an entire town. It can lead him to despise his own son. It can lead him to try to lay the blame for his sins at the feet of everyone else.
But Lex is no longer a child intimidated by every syllable that falls from his father's lips. He is no longer an adolescent so desirous of his father's attention that even Lionel's scoldings are preferable to Lionel's silences. And he is no longer a teenager so uncertain of his own worth that he believes every time Lionel calls him worthless.
Lionel must've missed the memo that said Lex can no longer be intimidated.
"Lex is blood," Lionel told Dominic. Dominic naturally assumed that Lionel was speaking of blood relations. Lex knows better. Lionel meant the hunt. The drawing of blood.
(~(~)~)
Lex leans forward to put his scotch back on the table just as Clark leans forward to pick up his notes on the French Revolution. Their fingers brush, and they yank their hands back roughly.
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
Theirs has become a language of regret.
(~(~)~)
In a way, Clark thinks, Lex is lucky. Not that Clark would ever trade Jonathan for Lionel; not that he doesn't realize that Jonathan Kent is ten times the father and the man Lionel Luthor is. Still, there must be a certain comfort to Lex, to have his father's bastardhood so openly on display. You look at Lionel and see a demon. You look at Jonathan and see whatever he wants you to see: concerned husband, protective father, proud man of the land. A snake is a snake, and you know it. A chameleon can be just about anything.
Not that he can ever make Lex understand that.
(~(~)~)
Not that Clark will ever understand any of this. Clark's family is a Norman Rockwell painting, all smiles and love and unconditional support. He doesn't believe half the things Lex tells him about Lionel; doesn't believe that there can be a father who does such terrible things to his only son. If Clark ever offered him Jonathan for a week, Lex would grab him in a heartbeat, never mind that he hates Luthors.
Lex bets Clark doesn't even realize how lucky he is.
(~(~)~)
Clark's attention drifts from Marie Antoinette to Lex, staring moodily into the fireplace. "You all right, Lex?"
Lex stirs slightly. "What? I'm sorry, Clark; I sort of zoned out there for a minute, didn't I?"
"That's okay. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Nothing bad happened when you visited your father today, did it?"
Lex snorts. "Nothing out of the ordinary." He looks at Clark and the amazing amount of studying he hasn't done. "What about you? Everything's back to normal at your house now that your dad's out of jail, right?"
Clark gives a wry half-smile and turns back to his notes. "Oh, yeah. Everything's back to normal."
END