Chapter Two
More to Deal With

Clark wasn't able to get to the note until after dinner, and really it was just luck that he even remembered it.

Dinner came and went with strange looks from his parents.  He was sure that when he had been taking his shower, they'd discussed his shouting over the phone.  So now his father was back to worrying.  Only now they probably knew he'd lied to them.

He'd gone up the stairs to his bedroom after washing the dishes, tired and uninterested in doing anything really.  He usually went straight out to the barn to think about Lex, or more recently his face in Lex's hardening lap.  Even sweeter, his fingers on Lex's lips in the wee early hours of the morning.  He was just too tired now.

He'd changed, tossing his cleaner clothes onto the dresser and moved into the bed before he remembered Chloe's visit and, subsequently, the poem.

He got up and moved to the hamper, the summer night's breeze from the open window tickling his bare back.  He found the discarded pair of mud covered jeans; after the tractor had gone bonkers on his father, the two of them had been splashed continuously.  Martha had refused to let either one of them into the house until they had cleaned off best they could.  Then he'd changed before dinner.

He dug into the left back pocket and brought out the miraculously clean piece of paper and walked back to his bed.  He slipped beneath the covers before opening the page.

By Your Side
by Alexander J. Luthor

Lex's full name hit him like a semi.  It was sexy and surreal and he never really saw it; it was like a part of Lex that he knew existed but he got to see the real Lex.  The Lex behind the name.

Then he was struck by how utterly stupid he had been.

Of course the lavender paper would be from Lex, he thought.  He'd never known Chloe to type or print on colored paper.

Then the facts hit him: this was Lex's poem.  From Thursday.  It was titled 'By Your Side' and-

And Chloe had given it to him.

Many questions suddenly fired off in his brain -- most prominent was how Chloe of all people had laid her hands on this particular piece of personal property -- but he struggled to quiet them and, after a moment, began to read.

When the darkness reigns supreme,
and no one's taking numbers,
I'll be there to guard your back.
I'll be the one to take your side.

In my dreams we're together
holding limbs in a light mist
Everyone around us will pale
in comparison to the strength

that we hold in our hearts
that we hold in our minds
that we have for each other
Tell me my dreams can be real.

No one could find
more devoted lovers
domination from the underlords
couldn't tear us apart

You, my angel, stand silently
keeping vigil over us
head bowed in light prayer
on and on you protect what we cherish most

When the darkness reigns supreme,
and no one's taking numbers,
I'll be there to guard your back.
I'll be the one to take your side.

Archangel of my dreams
Cherub that keeps me here
Awake me from the nightmare
Reach out and pull me in

I know the color of your eyes
So bright and tangible
I see myself, my other me
inside your emerald protection

In my life the lightning flashes
and the horrible thunder screams
I can't see you there
but I feel your saintly presence

You're the sun when it pours
and sane when it's rough
I've lost all faith in ideals
But you bring back such hope

Walking the streets at night
Alone, under a cloak of normal
I cry all over again
The sound of my feet the only solace

The answers to my questions
you'll never be able to answer
when you look my way, love
ignore the stains of my tears

When the darkness reigns supreme,
and no one's taking numbers,
I'll be there to guard your back.
I'll be the one to take your side.

But you've got your own heart to follow
your own soul to express
find your other half, my love
I'll salute your deserved delight

Alone in a world that seems so weary
it's tired of my survival here
no funny valentine by my side
just a lonely heart with no tears to cry

When the darkness reigns supreme,
and no one's taking numbers,
I'll always guard your back.
I'll always take your side.

Clark was up and out the door before he realized what he was doing.  Halfway to Lex's he realized that he was going to have to explain to his parents where he went and why.  Then he was at Lex's.  The gate was open and a van carrying a late night delivery of flowers was coming in.

Clark remembered that when the Tornado passed just outside of Smallville, the terrible winds and rain ruined the delicate flowers all around the Luthor estate.  Since there was only a handful of gardeners and a lot of work, it was going to take awhile.

Clark jogged up to the front door at a normal human pace, ignoring the urge to speed up.  He rang the doorbell and stood there, waiting.  And waiting.

And waiting.

He tried the door but it was locked.  So he rang the bell a second time and didn't take his finger off.

A minute later Loomis was glaring at him from the other side of the door.

"Mister Kent, I dare say that was incredibly rude.  What if we had had guests?"

"There's only one guest I'm interested in."  Clark shoved the lavender piece of paper at the butler.

Sam looked down at the paper.  "I've told you, Clark, I don't know how many times, that Master Lex is not present."

Clark looked at him slyly.  "And if he was but told you to tell anyone asking for him that he was in Metropolis."

Sam pursed his lips a moment before continuing.  "Then, of course, I would be obligated to do so."

Clark nodded.  "Just give this to him.  Okay?  I know he's in there somewhere.  Just tell him that I found this and think it should be back with him."

Sam frowned, this time out of curiosity, and took the paper.  He placed it into his pocket.  "I will place this on Master Lex's desk so that when he gets back-"

"Right," Clark interrupted and ran back towards the gate.  He was sure that Loomis didn't really want to lie to him, but the fact that he wasn’t letting up even a bit about the fact that Lex was there was bothering Clark.  He could have sworn the man liked Clark.  Lex had told him so a few times and Clark was sure he could read a person.

Outside the gate he paused to look back at the house.  There was no odd sensation that Lex was watching and he often got that when leaving the castle.  Was Lex really in the city?  He quickly scanned the front of the house.  Bits and pieces were full of lead, but he could see that the study, the library and the entertainment rooms were all empty.

He jogged far enough away that he was sure that no one was around and then got home.  To his surprise he didn't have to answer questions from either parent except whether it was nice out and did Martha's begonias look like they were growing.

Odd, he thought.  Very odd.

+_+_+_+_+

She'd never felt so bad that her songs didn't help.  Remy Zero's Perfect Memory was an amazing song filled with such nostalgia and love that it always brought her hope and happiness.  Even through the sadness of the song, it was a gorgeous tune.

If that didn't work there was always Zero's Shattered.  That was her favorite from any album of any artist.  She was sure that would never change.  So romantic and loving…  God it was beautiful.

When Remy Zero couldn't help her mood there were few alternatives.  Oleander's Halo.  Coal's Stay.  A few of Pink's latest songs like Just Like a Pill and Don't Let Me Get Me, but she'd never admit it.  Another one she'd die before admitting to was Britney Spears' Lucky.  Dido's Here With Me had helped her get over Clark, strangely enough.

Last but not least was her emergency song, the song she only listened to when down.  Jimmy Eat World's The Middle.  If that song couldn’t help, nothing could.

The acoustic version of I Walk Alone was Pete's big upper.  That and Good Charlotte's Seasons.  Sometimes Movies by Alien Antfarm.  Clark preferred Fuel's Bad Day or Gramayre by Remy Zero.  She knew he had this thing for Save Me as well and figured that really fit him.  It was really like the epitome of him.  It seemed to be everyone's song.  The whole mismatched group's and they were all singing to someone.  Someone that she really hoped would one day listen.

Chloe remembered Lana saying that Semisonic's Closing Time perked her up.  She also remembered Lana playing Chantal Kreviazuk's remake of Leaving on a Jet Plane a lot at the Talon.  Then there were various Save Ferris songs, and Reel Big Fish, and Sarah McLachlan.

Chloe couldn't help but wonder what songs Lex liked to listen to when he was sad.

The thought of Lex brought her back to Clark and back to his words from earlier that day.  She stared out her open window and into the night.

~"I don't hate you, you know.  It's not like you're not my friend still.  I'm just mad."~

Mad she could deal with.  Hate, she could not.  She was so afraid that she'd finally done it.  Broken Clark's usually impenetrable temper.

"The last straw," she whispered and wiped her eyes on her pink bell sleeves.  She'd discovered since the dress that pink wasn't such a stupid, sucky girl color.  Not hot pink, anyway.

She sighed and watched the stars.  She was going to have to tell Clark everything.  Everything that she hadn't had the nerve to even tell Pete.

Yes, she knew that Clark had super-duper boy-man speed and super-duper lift-a-car kinda strength.  She didn't doubt that there were probably some other physical mutations from being exposed as a baby to the meteors.  But there was something else he was hiding, something else he was keeping a secret.  Who were his real parents?

She couldn't help but wonder just why things seemed to be opposite for Clark when it came to the meteors.  His strengths were a plus and his personality?  Always in the green.  With the 'Meteor Mutants' they turned violent, troubled and sometimes, even evil.  They had no conscience and…  And the meteors seemed to give them their strength.

It wasn't until Pete explained what had happened with Clark and Amy at the exploding greenhouse that Chloe had begun to put things together.  Albeit slower than she would have liked, but still, she was getting it.

And now she understood even better.

Meteor = sickness.  Lana's necklace = distance.

That was the reason that he could never approach her before.

Chloe had recently caught herself watching Species the other day on FX.  And then K-Pax had been on HBO.  Thought to herself, what if aliens really existed and could look like humans?  What if…  What if Clark was one of them?

She'd laughed at herself before but now, sitting up at two-thirty in the morning, she could grasp that form of reality.  It was in the way that you only could at such a late hour, when everything seems possible and nothing seems absurd.  It was like your mind was more open and willing to accept ideas.  Like the magic hours extended past midnight and if you could stay up your mind would reach new levels of consciousness and understanding.

Then you wake up the next day and wonder what the hell you were thinking.  But she always felt refreshed.  She would laugh at herself, but it was like she needed the late night/early morning portion of her brain to be activated in order to be okay with everything and wake up with a newer perkier perspective.

She wasn't sure that this late night venture into 'Chloe's World: The Alter Psyche' was going to do anything but make her world more weird.  At least for the next couple of days.  Even weeks.  There was no telling when everything was going to calm down.  Clark and Pete and Lex and her…  It was all just a ragged mess.  She had to do something.

If only Clark realized that he could trust them with the truth.  Everyone's lives could be so much easier now.

+_+_+_+_+

"What?" he asked.  His mouth felt thick and fuzzy and he wasn't sure where he was for a moment.  His eyes felt plastered shut.

"Sir, I'm sorry to wake you, but there's a young lady to see you."

"No, Sam.  No more Vicky.  She makes me sick.  Just, you know, just… tell her I'm dead or something."

"Um, Master Lex?"  He could hear the humor in Sam's voice and flipped over in the bed.  "It's not Miss Hardwick."

"Not Vicky?"

"No, sir.  I believe it's one of Mister Kent's friends.  She was sitting at the table with you last Thursday?"

"Lana?"  What the hell was she doing here?

"No, sir.  Not Miss Lang.  The blonde."

"Chloe?"  That was an even bigger surprise, but certainly a more welcome one.

"If you say so, sir.  She looks to be having a rough night."

"But I'm not supposed to even be here."

"I'm sorry, sir.  But I've done enough heartbreaking by now.  The tears are more than I could handle."

"Tears?"  That wasn't like Chloe at all.

"Mr. Kent dropping by today was more than enough for my fragile will."

Lex rubbed his eyes.  "Clark came by?"

"You'd already gone to sleep, sir.  He came by at around nine-thirty.  I was surprised to find you in bed.  He brought me something to give to you.  Said it was yours.  That it should be-"  Sam paused for a moment thinking and Lex looked up at him.  "'Back with you' I believe were his words, sir."

He got out of his bed and threw his robe on over his pajamas.  What could Clark possibly be returning?  What had he given Clark in the past few months?

The saber, he thought.  It was the one thing that Clark had outright excepted.  Lex didn't want the damn thing back.

"Let's deal with one thing at a time, shall we?  Chloe, Chloe," he muttered to himself.  "I don't understand what she's doing here though.  A rough night?"

"Yes, sir."

"And tears."  An image of Clark came to his mind.  Clark tied up on the post.  In the middle of the field.

It seemed so long ago, but his stomach was already knotting from the tension he'd felt when he saw the boy.  It had been fate, he knew it.  He was there when Clark needed a savior just as Clark had been there for him.  He wasn't sure why Clark had looked as rough as he had, but…

Clark could be in trouble.

Clark could be dying.

Clark could need him again.

He raced out of his bedroom, through the carpeted hall and down the marble staircase, taking the wide steps two and three at a time without even thinking of peril to his own body.  He reached the door and tore it open only to find no one there.

What the hell?

"Lex?"  The quiet voice was weak and not at all like Chloe.  Like the tears.

Oh, God.

He turned around to find the girl standing dressed in jeans, a bright pink top and a worn jean jacket that was too big for her.  He was sure he'd seen Gabe wearing the same jacket around town.  She was fidgeting with her car keys.

"Chloe."  He closed the front door and walked towards her.  Her eyes were red and puffy, her hair was limp around her face, absent of the usual hairsprayed-flippy do.  There was no lip-gloss, no jewelry and…  She was wearing slippers.  Blue ones with glittery moons and an stars.  "What's the emergency?"

She bit her lip and looked down at the floor, shaking her head.  "There's no actual emergency, I just-  Well, I didn't have…"  She sighed and looked up at him.  He could see her eyes watering.  "I'm very sorry, Mr. Luthor.  I've made a mistake.  I'm just…  Impulse decision, you know?"  Her tears started to fall.

What the hell?

"I'm sorry."  She walked towards the door.  "I've gotta get home."

He beat her to the entrance and stood in front of it, blocking her exit.  "Okay," he said trying to sort everything out.  Was the clock on the mantle in the living room right?  Was it really four in the morning?  Anything that Chloe came here to say or do…  That had to be important right?  It wasn't like Clark's on-a-whim drop-ins.  She'd never done this, before.  And she didn't smell drunk.

"First of all, it's Lex," he finally continued, and that got a small smile.  She was what sixteen?  Seventeen?  Something like that.  She'd never seemed her real age before.  Never seemed so fragile.

"Second, I know all about impulse decisions.  Are you sober?"

She nodded.

"Then you're way ahead of me.  I never made impulse decisions on a free-from-intoxication mind."

"But-"

"This is one of the smallest 'big mistakes' you could make, Chloe.  You're here.  I'm up.  So let's hear it."

"You're not mad?"

He smiled.  "Why should I be?  A friend of mine is feeling sad and, for some reason, deemed me worthy to turn to.  I'm at your disposal, Miss Sullivan."

Her lip trembled.  "You consider me a-a friend?"

He hated seeing her like this and wondered just why she wasn't with Clark or even Pete.  They were a couple now, right?  Wasn't it his job to take care of her?

"Of course.  Any friend of Clark's is a friend of mine."

Her face crumpled up and her grip on the keys in her hand tighten.  "Oh, God."

He stepped forward, now beyond utterly confused, and did the only thing he could think to do.  He held her close, his hands running small circles around her back.

"Everything's gone to hell since the poetry contest and-"

"The poetry contest?" he asked.  He hoped that, as close as she was, she couldn't hear the sudden increased beat of his heart.

"Yeah.  You left right before it went up in flames.  I'm surprised that Lana hosted another one after last week."

"What happened?"

"A mess of things.  Now Clark's mad at me and Pete's mad at both of us and my dad's been spending so much extra time at the plant that I can't get a moment in with him.  He tells me it wont always be like this-"

"He's telling the truth," interjected Lex, unable to help but feel like shit.  It was his own fault that in her moment of need she was unable to turn to her father.

"I know, but I won't need him when it's over and you stop pretending to be in Metropolis."

He stopped rubbing her back.  "Does no one believe I'm there?"

"I just needed someone to talk to and…"

"And I was the last resource."

She pulled away.  "I'm sorry to make it seem that way.  I don't want to make you feel like I couldn't get anything better."

He gave her a humored smile.  "But that's the way it is, right?"  He shook his head before she responded and wiped tears from her cheek.  "Don't worry.  Some of the best friendships are based on rock bottom life situations and last resorts."

She smiled.

"Now, that's more like it."

"You're not offended?"

He shook his head.  "Of course not.  Now," he put his hand on the small of her back and pushed her gently towards the living room.  "Come with me and let's see if I can't be a good substitute confidant."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To be continued...