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tallihensia2013-11-03 05:50 pm
seagull2eagle.livejournal.com) wrote in tallihensia2013-11-03 05:50 pm
Entry tags:
- 2013 big bang,
- adventure,
- clex,
- drama,
- early season,
- fix-it,
- pg,
- reveal,
- romance,
- sv-fic
Fic: Had a Great Fall (Clex, PG) (complete, part 1/3)
Title: Had a Great Fall
Fandom: Smallville - Pairing: Clex. Other main characters: Jonathan, Martha.
Rating: PG - Words: 26,000
Type: drama, romance, adventure, episode-related
Warnings: character deaths (not Clark or Lex)
Spoilers: Tempest S1 finale, Vortex S2
Summary: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.... After the tornadoes went through Smallville (canon end S1 Tempest), brought down a portion of the Luthor castle, and trapped Jonathan in with a reporter that knows Clark's secrets, lives have been shattered, some irrevocably. For what is left, how then can they come together and be fixed? This story is about the journey to the end of the night... and the beginning of a new day.
Notes: For the 2013 Smallville Big Bang. This was plotted and conceived a long time ago. It’s probably one of my oldest plot bunnies and I've wanted to write it for awhile now, but there were always a few more urgent things to write. Finally, though, it just had to be done. ^^ Beta by Tainry - thank you!
Cross-posted to Archive of our Own.
Artwork: The art created for this story - cover and section banners and final portrait - was all done by the very awesome![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fruitbat00. Thank you so very much for it! It fits the story perfectly. :)
Disclaimer: Only mine in my dreams. ^^ This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
(click for larger version)
Lex hated his father. He'd had one of the most horrible days in his life, and it was all because of his father. His Dad had announced he was closing the plant, blamed it on Lex, and cheerfully told Lex that now he could come home. A thousand people out of work, because his father didn't like Lex 'rebelling'.
The workers didn't trust Lex, and Lex was tired of it, but he also couldn't blame them. Asking them to get second mortgages for a buy-out, when he lived in a castle and had a dozen cars... He was selling all his mother's stock, selling his cars, and promising untold favors to line up the voting block that would allow him the buy-out, but it wasn't his life, not like theirs.
It would be, however, Lex's freedom. Freedom from his father, from living his life the way his father wanted him to. It would be the first step on his path for his life. At least he kept telling himself that, pretending that he had a life and a future all on his own. One that wasn't dictated to him by others.
A life his father didn't want him to have.
Lex stared at his father and listened to empty words.
"You braved the weather to tell me that?" Lex couldn't believe it. There was a storm outside and yet his father was here to harass him, intimidate him into dropping the effort to save the plant. On the other hand, Lex could well believe it. It was typical.
"You're not my enemy; you're my son," Lionel said with every appearance of sincerity.
Lex didn't believe any of it. Twenty-one years had taught him not to believe it. As he'd told Clark earlier, his and his father's relationship had been one built on lies and deceit. He replied to his father with those thoughts, "I never saw the distinction." The words echoed hallow, bouncing around inside his heart, shaking out his life.
And now his dad was trying to encourage him using some of life's lessons. Most of the time Lex liked to make comparisons between himself and Alexander the Great, yet when it was his dad being the one to quote at him, it just sounded pretentious.
Annoyed, Lex retaliated with Shakespeare, which he knew his dad didn't like as well.
His dad started to lose his cool, getting angry and descending into threats against Lex and anybody in Smallville who would help him. Generally in an argument, it was rare for his dad to lose his cool. Getting his dad riled up was fun, even if the threats were very real indeed. Lex grinned internally, settling in to do some real needling, but then everything went to hell.
The castle walls collapsed. Lex saw them go down, saw the dust, heard the noise. Saw his father go down with them. Lex was just a foot away from where they'd come down. Just a foot. He couldn't move. There was nothing holding him in place, but all the same, he couldn't move.
"Lex! Help me, Lex!"
Lex stared at the castle stones pinning his father to the ground. He could hear the storm outside through the hole the collapse had created. The storm had gotten a lot worse in the short time his father had arrived. How did it collapse? Wasn't this castle supposed to have been rebuilt to code? His father had probably bribed the inspectors, just to have it done more historically accurate.
"Lex! I can't move."
Shaking himself out of his stupor, Lex shot a quick glance at the masonry around his father and above him. It didn't look stable, and the storm was still raging outside. More of it could collapse at any moment. It was only chance that Lex hadn't been hit the first time. His dad was trapped under one of the bigger pieces. If Lex pulled him straight out, it would probably collapse the rest of the structure, and possibly more of the ceiling. But there didn't look to be any way of stabilizing it fast enough that it wouldn't come down anyhow. If he moved that side beam? Got something underneath it...
"Help me, Lex! Son!"
Son? His father only used that when he was trying to get something out of Lex, bull-shitting him, and trying to put on the charm. Lionel really thought that using it now would make a difference? It might make Lex not want to help! Did his father honestly believe that Lex wasn't going to? That he wasn't working on a plan? His dad didn't really believe in love, no matter how much he spoke of it, or he would never think that.
"I'm your father!"
For a brief, intense, moment, Lex wished his father had been crushed, not just pinned. Dead, he wouldn't be trying to manipulate Lex anymore. Lex wouldn't be having to make this decision, he wouldn't be listening to his dad plead without love, the plant would be saved, and he could live his own life the way he wanted to.
Then Lex stepped forward and clasped hands with his father, pulling him out. What he wanted didn't matter, he wasn't leaving his father to die. He wasn't leaving anybody to die.
The walls groaned and the storm growled.
Both Lex and his dad looked up as the rest of the ceiling fell.
... ... ...
"Clark! Hey, Clark!"
His name echoed through the hospital corridor. Clark turned, seeing the short blonde hair and the worried face of his friend. "Chloe. Are you all right?"
"Never better. I love being dumped in the middle of a dance and then searching for three hours worried that something had happened to you."
The dance. Clark had almost forgotten about it. "Oh jeez, Chloe. I'm sorry. I just..."
Chloe made a face. "Yeah, Lana told me that you'd rescued her. Saving a friend's life is always a good reason for leaving. It happens so often with you, I'm almost getting used to it."
Clark felt like sinking through the floor. He wasn't really sure how to respond. Then Chloe said they should just be friends, and he could tell she didn't really mean it, except she did because all Clark ever did was hurt her. Numbly, he agreed. He'd only done it because she wanted it in the first place.
"So," Chloe searched for a new topic, glancing around them and recalled to their surroundings. "Are you here rescuing more people?"
From one low to the next. Clark's thoughts were instantly back out at the farm. "I was dropping my mom off to get looked at. She's okay," he hastily forestalled Chloe's gasped concern, "just a few cuts and bruises. But my dad..." Clark looked away towards the farm. "My dad was outside when the twister hit. We haven't found him yet. I was just about to go back and keep searching."
Chloe's concern and empathy were what made her such a good friend. Clark heard her out and shared his own frustration and worry. Search and Rescue had told his mom that they couldn't help until tomorrow at earliest. They were full up working on situations where buildings had collapsed with people trapped under them, and clearing roads so vehicles could make it through. The three tornados had cut not just one swath, but multiple streaks of damage through the town and there wasn't anybody available to search. Just himself, for now.
Finally, Clark left. Chloe had offered to come with him, but Clark sent her after his mom instead. He could use his x-ray vision to see through the darkness, and his speed to move around, but only if there weren't any well-meaning friends to help search with him. He'd welcome their help... but also feared it. He wished more of his friends knew what he was... but he couldn't tell them.
...
"Honey, you have to get some rest," Clark's mom told him, even as she wearily made another pot of coffee for herself.
Clark slowly lifted his head and poked his fork at the pancake. He'd been out all night searching. Searched the farm, searched the woods, searched the roads.... He remembered how the twister had picked up Lana's truck and carried it miles away. If that had happened to his dad...
"Hi Chloe, Lana." His mom's voice, not directed at him.
Clark looked up and then over at the door.
"Hi Mrs. Kent." The two girls were subdued in the face of another Kent tragedy.
Clark hauled in his thoughts. It wasn't their fault, and maybe his mom was right and he should get some rest. But his dad was still out there. How could he sleep when his dad needed his help?
"What are you two doing here? Sit down and have some pancakes, there're plenty."
They protested briefly, but then settled in with better appetites than Clark had.
"We came to see how you were doing," Chloe said, then passed the conversational reins to Lana with her eyes.
"I've been working with the Red Cross," Lana picked it up smoothly, "and Matt says they'll have a small team out here to help you search this morning. They're stretched thin with professionals, but they have a lot of volunteers who can do the basics."
Clark and his mom both thanked her profusely. Even if Clark had already searched, it never hurt to have more eyes out. It was easy to overlook things in such a large area.
"What else?" Clark eyed Chloe. She was squirming, which meant she had something to ask, but she knew it wasn't quite appropriate.
"Well..." Chloe sighed and apparently gave up on her attempt to not intrude. "Has Lex come by at all?"
"Lex?" Clark and his mom looked at each other. Clark felt a frisson of anger go through him at his friend's name. Lex had something to do with that reporter, Roger Nixon, even if Lex had denied it. And that meant that Lex was partly responsible for his dad being out in the twister. Chasing after Nixon and that video tape he had of the spaceship. They also now knew that it had been Nixon who had blown up the truck with Clark inside of it. With all of that... what part did Lex play? Clark knew that Lex liked him, or at least he was pretty sure they were friends, but Lex's curiosity and his political games would be the death of him.
Chloe shrugged. "There was supposed to be a meeting about the buy-out this morning. And, well, tornados. But it wasn't really canceled or anything like that, so Dad and a bunch of the others who could get away showed up and Lex wasn't there." Chloe spread her hands.
Why did people always look for Clark when they were looking for Lex? "Did you call?"
Okay, Clark probably deserved that heated glare.
"Of course they did! But phone lines in that area are down, and Lex had sent all his employees home before the storm, and when Mrs. Patterson tried driving in since she thought there might be something he needed her to do, the road going in was damaged and she couldn't make it in."
Lex was in trouble? Without pausing to think, Clark headed for the phone. His fingers dialed one number, got the downed tone, he hung up and dialed another number, got the tone again, dialed a third number, got Lex's voice mail. He paused, thinking of dialing a fourth, but then hung up. "Yeah, it's down, and Lex isn't answering his cell."
"What was the third number?" Chloe asked.
"Huh?"
"You called three numbers. One to the mansion, one to his cell, but what was the third?" Chloe's nose was twitching. Not literally, but really.
Clark looked up for patience. "It's the direct line to the kitchen. We call it to talk to Ms. Stowick about the produce. "
"Oh." Chloe sounded disappointed that it was something so mundane.
His mom stifled a giggle, then cleared her throat. "Why did you come to us, Chloe?"
"Well, Lana wanted to check on you anyhow," Chloe glanced sideways and Lana looked startled but nodded readily, "and Clark'd said something about Lex last night so I thought maybe he knew where Lex might have gone."
Clark turned in the direction of the castle, as if he could see through the miles in-between. "Lex came by before the dance." And had fixed Clark's bowtie with deft, smooth movements, his slim hands right up next to Clark, working on the tie while he stared in Clark's eyes and talked about his father. Touching nothing else before he'd stepped away. Had Clark wanted him to touch anything else? Clark didn't know. He'd been holding his breath, watching more than listening. "Lex was frustrated with his father, with the buy-out, and his dad's shit. Had gone out to clear his head." He'd gone back to the castle after the loft, though, hadn't he? Had Lex been out driving when the tornados hit? Clark had seen Lana when she'd been in trouble... wouldn't he have seen Lex too? He strained his eyes but as good as he'd gotten at the x-ray vision, the way he sometimes saw miles away was apparently not yet under his control.
"Clark." His mom spoke his name disapprovingly.
It took him a couple of moments to go through what he'd said and find the swear word. "Sorry, Mom."
"What did he say about the buy-out?" Chloe asked, all aquiver again.
Clark grimaced. It had been mostly Lexian speak. Relations built on lies. And didn't that just describe them, even as they were talking friendship? Clark worried. As much as he liked Lex, he couldn't ever tell him the truth because then Lex would know it had all been a lie before. Lex kind of knew that now, but if he ever found out for certain.... "His dad bought the bank so he could foreclose on anybody who misses a payment. Lex was upset by that."
There was a trio of gasps in the room. Clark realized that part hadn't made the local gossip line yet, though he didn't know why not. Too soon before the tornado, probably. Had Lex made it home?
"And you didn't tell me last night?!" Chloe was balling her hands into fists, as if she could go back in time and beat it out of him.
Clark shrugged. "On top of everything else... it was just more of the same. Lex was going to take care of it."
"Like he takes care of everything else!" Chloe burst out. "Clark, you might be in love with him, but he's not a god! He's just a kid a bit older than us and he doesn't know how to deal with his dad! You could see it on his face at his dad's announcement at the plant – he was totally taken by surprise. His father is ruthless, and every time Lex tries to rebel, we're the ones who suffer!"
"Hey!" Clark bristled. "He's putting his neck on the line to save your dad and everybody else! He's sold all his mom's stuff, his cars, his trust... everything! He was even considering selling the Talon too! Don't call him a kid, when he's worked so much for everybody!" In the last year, Lex had spent many long nights working while Clark did his homework. Clark remembered well the time Lex had maneuvered to keep his dad from firing a tenth of the employees. Lex poured himself into that plant, and yet all they thought of him was a kid, less than his dad.
Lana's gasp belatedly reached his ears and Clark flushed. "And I'm not in love with him." A little late.
"He can't sell the Talon!" Lana cried, her face pale.
Clark blinked.
Chloe rounded on her friend. "Will you shut up about your precious Talon! For God's sake, we're talking about my life here – my dad's job and Pat's job and Stacy's job and EVERYBODY's jobs! Your stupid sentimental boohoo coffee shop is nothing compared to all that!"
There was a brief stunned silence around the room after Chloe finished shouting.
His mom cleared her throat, but Clark spoke first. "He didn't sell it. Said he couldn't find a buyer that quick and it would have been at such a loss it wouldn't have made a dent in the amount they had to raise. He got more money out of his mom's jewelry."
"He sold her jewelry?" Out of everything, that, surprisingly, was the thing that made his mom sniffle and she started to raise her hand in protest before dropping it.
"Uh," Clark searched around for another topic. Then he rounded on Chloe, "What do you mean, you could see it on his face? You couldn't see it, you weren't there. We were at school!"
Chloe grimaced. "My dad said."
"Your dad---" Clark cut himself off. He was angry at Chloe, not at her dad. Lex always said that Gabe was one of his biggest supporters, and Clark was sure that whatever Chloe's dad had said, it wasn't like that. Chloe was editorializing. Maybe.
"Girls," his mom stepped over, "I think you probably need to get back. What time did you say the searchers would be by, Lana?"
Effortlessly, his mom took control and soothed out all the hurt feelings and got details out of them and everybody's focus back on the rescue clean up and helping others before she sent them on their way.
After the girls were gone, Clark and his mom looked at each other.
"I have to go check," Clark said, finally. He was torn, needing to keep searching for his dad, and yet, if Lex needed him too...
"Yes," his mom agreed without hesitation, "you do." Her eyes showed the same conflict, yet she hadn't even paused. "You won't be able to do anything different while the searchers are here, so it's good timing. Go check the mansion and make sure that Lex is okay."
Clark loved his mom. He hugged her tight. "You... you take care of yourself, Mom." She was so fragile, bandages still covering her stitches from the night before. So strong, holding herself solid for her son and husband. The bedrock which they relied on.
She kissed him and didn't directly answer. "Go." She gave him a gentle push and Clark let himself be guided out the door.
... ... ...
As he ran, Clark saw evidence everywhere of the tornadoes. Much of the area undisturbed, then swaths of land devastated. Trees uprooted, branches dropped all over the place, some buildings destroyed, a few dead cows here and there. Things scattered everywhere and in places that made no sense, like the sink by the side of the road, or the bathrobe in a tree. The storm's effects also lingered, making the normal back-lot dirt tracks that Clark used into mud pits and forced him to run along the roads. Not as safe for who might be looking, however on this day, people had much more on their mind than a blur on the side of the road. There weren't many cars out, and those that were had 'rescue' marked on them, or the people inside had pinched, worried faces and weren't looking around.
A hundred feet past the turn off to the castle, Clark skidded to a halt. He whistled as he looked at the huge tree down and over the road, wire fencing tangled in its limbs, electrical lines too. That was an old one. No wonder Mrs. Patterson couldn't make it through. Or anybody out if Lex had tried.
He glanced to each side. A four-wheeler might be able to go off-road on the left side and around, but with the mud, nothing less would make it. And with that electrical line down, most people wouldn't chance it. Clark was a little leery himself. His physical immunity wasn't so recent for him to take it for granted yet. Then there had been that incident with Eric. Clark shuddered.
Regardless, it was probably safer for him to move it than anybody else. On a direct road to Lex's place, though... there would be questions. Clark didn't think he could stand the questions. He wouldn't know anything, though, right? Why would he have had anything to do with it?
With a sigh, he looked up and down the road, then walked to the tree. If he just pushed it... Giving an experimental shove, Clark was horrified to watch the asphalt break under the tree as the limbs dragged through it.
"Okay..." Clark moved closer and got his hands under the trunk and heaved. The tree resisted for a moment, then went flying off, snapping the power line and carrying pieces of the fencing with it. What was left on the road was passable, at least.
Clark didn't know a thing about a tree, nope, nothing.
With a small grin, Clark headed again for the castle.
Outside the castle, Clark lost his grin. He swallowed, the lump in his throat hard to get around. The tree hadn't been the only thing to come down in the storm.
A corner of the castle itself, collapsed, stones and plaster and lumber strewn around the ground. Just a small corner, admittedly... probably not even from the tornado directly, just the storm.
But why that corner? "Why not the guest wing? Or the garage? Or... anywhere else?" Clark spoke out loud, knowing just what part of the castle that was. The study. Lex's home away from home, where he spent more time than anywhere else.
"God, Lex, please don't have been in there." Clark forced his frozen feet to move.
There was a car in the driveway. Big, black, American-made luxury sedan. Not one of Lex's sexier sport cars, it was one of his dad's. Nobody had said anything about Lionel being around.
The castle was silent. No sounds coming from it at all. Normally, if Lex and his father were both inside, shouting would be going on at some point during the visit.
Clark glanced to the side where the building had crumpled, and the front door. He probably would be able to get inside easier by the door than scrambling over the collapsed area. He thought about using his x-ray vision and shied away. He'd do it the normal way first.
With a swallow, Clark went inside, through the unlocked door. "Lex?" He could barely hear himself. Clearing his throat, he forced himself to call louder than a whisper. "Lex?"
Nothing. Clark glanced up the stairs towards the bedrooms, hoping briefly, then he shook his head at himself and headed to the study. The storm had hit about 7pm. Lex, if he had gone back to the castle, would have been in the study. He couldn't have been in the study. Maybe he'd gone out for a break. The kitchen. The dining room for some food.
Clark kept walking to the study. Every step was heavy, thudding loudly in time with his heart.
The door was shut. It was only ever shut when Lex was inside. Though the door could have closed on its own when the inside collapsed. The wind blowing it shut. Clark didn't believe that.
He listened hard but still couldn't hear anything. He wished super hearing was one of his powers.
With a gulp, Clark opened the door.
Inside was devastation. The destruction he'd seen from the outside, made worse because it was inside the familiar room. Two walls and the ceiling fallen in, books open, their pages torn, shattered relics everywhere, stained glass broken on the ground.
There was a dry dark stain over much of the floor, turning white book pages rust red.
There was a leg sticking out from under the debris.
Clark fell to his knees and started to cry, calling for his friend. Lex was there, he knew it. He knew it, and didn't want to. "Lex..."
/// /// ///
From floating through the darkness, introspective in the inability to move, to sudden awareness of time again. Lex started to raise his head and stopped when he banged it on the beam covering him.
"Lex!" Clark's voice cried out, racked with deep gulping sobs.
Lex tried to respond and found himself unable to, mouth dry and throat parched. He closed his mouth and chewed on his lips, forcing saliva to flow. He swallowed the miniscule moisture and tried again. "Clark."
Nothing but super-powers would have been able to hear that. Lex blinked and thought he could see cracks of light between the remains that covered him. He took a breath. "Clark!"
The sobbing stopped instantly. "Lex? Lex!!"
Visions of Clark throwing bales of hay around came to mind. "STOP!" Fear gave extra strength to his shout.
"Lex?"
It was fascinating how much could be told just by the sound of a person's name. Fear and sorrow in the first, incredulous in the second, wonder and joy in the third, and bafflement in the fourth.
"Don't touch the wreckage," Lex ordered.
"I have to get you out from there!"
"Clark, have you ever played spillikins?" There was nothing but the feel of slightly baffled silence. Lex couldn't see it, but he could feel it. He wondered if feeling emotions of others was a new power of his own. He searched for a more common name. "Pick-up sticks?"
"Yeah..."
"Think of what happens to the pile if you pull out the wrong stick." Lex was fairly sure that's what had happened to them before. Not that the area had been any too stable, freshly fallen, storm still raging outside. But pulling his dad out before stabilizing the area hadn't helped. It may not have helped anyhow. Once part of a structure falls, the area around was weakened, and would also collapse. He tightened his hand around his father's. He hadn't let go. He hadn't.
There was the sound of footsteps hastily moving back. Lex smiled mirthlessly.
"Lex... How do I get you out? Umm..." There was the sound of more moving around, off to the left of where Lex lay.
A loud gulp. "Lex. Your dad..."
"I know." Lex closed his eyes. He relaxed his grip on his dad's hand, but didn't let go. Last night, Lionel's hand had stiffened in rigor mortis, gradually tightening until it had started loosening again. Lex hadn't been conscious through the early stages, but since had been using it as a way to track time. Six to eight hours for it to have reached the hands, maximum stiffness at twelve. It would be gone again 36 to 48 hours after that. Cold could extend that period of time. Lex had wondered if he would even be discovered before then. "I know." He hadn't let go.
"I have to get you out of here." Restless movements around the room, though thankfully sounding far from the debris.
Lex shook his head slightly and opened his eyes again. It didn't help. "Call the rescue group. They have professional equipment. Cribbing, shoring. They can stabilize it and they know how to get people out."
"The phone lines are down."
"So go out to where you can talk to them," Lex said patiently. He coughed. It was dry and dusty.
"I can’t leave you!"
Lex sighed very softly, hopefully softer than Clark could hear. "It's okay." He twitched his lips. "I'm not going anywhere."
Footsteps stopped. Voice from a little lower down, as if Clark was crouching. "That's not funny."
Lex could almost see the scowl he knew must be on Clark's face. Of all the people to find him. He'd both hoped and feared Clark would come. It was funny, really. He was shattered... but he still wanted Clark. He wanted Clark more than anything, and yet didn't want to cause his friend any pain. And now Clark was here and Lex was asking him to be gone. Lex lived in a world of contradictions. Life and death in the same place.
"I'm not dead yet." Lex smiled in the darkness, listening to the slightly stunned surprise of the indrawn breath. He couldn't resist. "Only mostly dead."
"That's not..." Clark choked out, half-giggling in a horrified manner, "it's not funny." He broke down in more tears and laughter.
Lex wished he could put a hand on Clark's shoulder. Touch him. Hold him. See him. He laughed. "Is too."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Is... oh Lex."
They were both silent for awhile after that. Lex didn't really want to send Clark away, even if it would be better. Truthfully, Clark probably could save him, but he would have to get all the rocks and beams off Lex moving so quickly they couldn't shift and fall, and then get Lex out even faster and both of them away. Nobody could do that with normal human strength and speed. Lex thought about apologizing for being conscious. Then he thought about being unconscious. It wouldn't take too much, except he was fairly awake now. He was injured, he knew... but he also thought he was less injured than he had been. He opened and closed his right hand, touching the stone near it. He hadn't been able to do that earlier.
"So, how's the rest of Smallville?" Lex forced himself to ask. "That was quite the storm."
"Tornado."
"Excuse me?"
The sound of a throat being cleared. "There were three tornadoes that came through during the storm. Everybody is still cleaning up."
Lex jerked up, hitting his head again and sinking back. The beam above him quivered.
"Lex, be careful!" Scrambling sounds as Clark apparently got closer.
Lex bit his lip hard before taking in another breath. "How is everybody? Lana? Your parents? Chloe?"
There was not an immediate reassurance of everything being okay. Lex let go of his dad's hand for the first time and he reached in the direction of his friend. He ran up against wood. He tried to force himself not to move more.
"They're... they're all okay." Clark's voice, hesitant and reassuring but unsure. He was a lousy liar.
Clark cleared his throat. "Lana's truck got swept up in one of the tornadoes, but she fell out – only scrapes and bruises. She's helping with the Red Cross now. Chloe's fine, and Pete – we were at the dance. There aren't a lot of injuries, though a lot of stuff came down. Lots of cleanup work still ongoing, and they're still getting people out of buildings. Mostly just broken legs and such, though."
There was a glaring omission in list. "Your parents?" Lex asked softly. He didn't reach for his dad's hand again, pressing his own instead against the wood, trying to get through it to Clark.
"They're fine," Clark said shortly.
Lex had had a year to refine his 'Clark is lying' meter. This one was off the gauge. "Clark," Lex warned, telling him he knew it wasn't the truth and he was going to push it. The voice didn't always work as well on Clark as on his or his dad's employees, but it was worth a try.
The sound of clothing shifting, of a body inching closer then stopping. "Mom's fine," Clark finally said. "Dad... Dad's missing. He was outside when it hit."
If Lex could have gotten up and moved right then, he would have. He would have moved heaven and hell and the very Earth itself. Clark couldn't lose his dad. He couldn't. But Lex was stuck under here. "What are you doing here?" He clamped his mouth shut but too late, the words had already gotten out.
Clark laughed a little bitterly. "There's a search team looking for Dad right now. I was out all night... Chloe said you hadn't made the buy-out meeting."
Involuntarily, Lex snorted out a laugh. "I don't think that's going to be a problem now." Not with his dad stiff and cold beside him.
"Lex, I'm sorry."
Lex was numb. He remembered wanting his father to die. He remembered reaching for his father to live. Then his father was dead and he'd thought he was soon to follow. He wasn't so sure now, but regardless, he knew he wanted Clark's father to live.
"Go and help them," Lex urged. "You can tell the rescue teams on your way and they'll come and help me when they have a chance. Everything is stable now, I'll be fine."
"I can't leave you, Lex," Clark whispered, his voice tortured.
Now wasn't the time to urge Clark to leave, Lex could hear it in Clark's voice. Truthfully, he didn't want Clark to go. He liked hearing Clark's voice, knowing Clark was near. It warmed him that Clark had come to check on him. It astonished him, with Clark's father missing. He hadn't thought he'd rated that high in Clark's world.
Clark had so many friends, such a loving family. Yet he welcomed Lex in happily, responding to Lex's clumsy overtures with homespun goodness and brilliant smiles. Even the mounds of teenage angst that he brought with him didn't deter Lex's happiness in having Clark for a friend. Only the lies did that. The lies and the mystery. He wanted to believe in Clark so badly, yet he was trained from birth to be suspicious and Clark hit all his buttons. Such a contradiction. Such a miracle.
"Lex?" Clark's voice was scared, high-pitched and nervous.
Lex realized he'd drifted off. "I---" his voice choked. He coughed, getting the saliva again.
"Are you thirsty? Can I get you some water?"
Lex smiled ruefully. How did Clark think he'd be able to drink it?
"Um..."
Sounded like Clark was realizing it too.
"'S okay. I'm okay." Lex wasn't so sure about that second part, but he knew he was better now than he'd been before.
"Lex..." Clark's voice broke.
Lex lifted his left hand and pressed it against the wood between him and Clark. "Tell me about your father. Where was he going? Were there shelters near? If not the shelter, a neighbor he might have been helping?"
The silence became that of things held back.
Lex narrowed his eyes. "Clark."
Clark cleared his throat. "He was out checking on the cows---"
"Clark." Lex sharpened his voice, his instincts coming to the fore.
Clark sighed. "He went out after Nixon."
His head hit the wood, hard. "Ouch." Lex sank back down again and wished he had a hand free to rub his head. Regretfully, both arms were trapped in different ways. He was pretty sure his right arm was broken, even though he had feeling back in his hand again. And his left... Lex touched the wood and refused to think about his dad's hand where he'd let it go. "Roger Nixon?"
"You said you didn't know him," Clark's voice quavered. He obviously wanted to demand answers from Lex yet was reluctant to while Lex was trapped.
Lex closed his eyes. All on him. It was his fault, again.
"I know him." What was the point of trying to keep anything back at this point? His dad was dead, Clark's was missing. Would what he knew of Roger help to find them? "He was trying to blackmail me."
"Oh? Oh! Well, no wonder you didn't want to say you knew him!" Clark's voice was full of horror that somebody would do that and understanding of Lex.
Lex snorted and let his hand drift over the grain on the beam. He thought he might have picked up a splinter but could barely feel it. "I blackmailed him back. Threatened his brother. Then sent him out to find out more about the bridge accident."
There was a fearful silence from the other side of the debris. A silence filled with astonishment and horror. The sort of silence that on a normal day would have sent Clark running as far away from Lex as he could.
"I thought... why do you... the bridge..." Clark's voice stuttered through painful fragments of thought. Then he burst out, "You're alive! Isn't that enough?"
Lex opened and closed his right hand, the hand that for most of the long night he'd been unable to feel, unable to move. The taste of blood was in his mouth. He was sure he'd been cut badly on his legs, part of the stained glass windows coming in at him, or maybe it was his desk. By all rights, he should be as dead as his father, even if his own death wouldn't have been as quick. "No, it's not enough." A ripped open car roof, windshield glass shattered as if a boulder had come through it, Lex, alive, not a mark on him. Clark, alive, when Lex would have sworn he'd hit him. "He made a computer model, based on the car skids and the indentations in the bridge railing and on my front bumper. The car... I hit you. I hit you. I lost control of the steering and the car was fishtailing and you were there and I couldn't stop, I couldn't swerve... I tried to swerve, but the car wouldn't respond... I hit you. Just as I knew I had. Mathematics proved it, science confirmed. And I still don't know how the hell I survived. Or you. I don't know. I should have died. I'm glad you're not dead."
Clark whimpered. It was a sound of distress so earth-shattering that it made Lex feel like the most worthless piece of dirt on the planet. He had caused this. He'd caused this and he couldn't put it right again. Humpty Dumpty was shattered, and Lex was the king's horses and men and he couldn't put it back together again. Or maybe he was Humpty Dumpty and nobody would be putting him together at all.
Idly, Lex wondered just how much blood he'd lost and how much he'd regained, and just how bad his head wound had been anyhow. Maybe he was hallucinating this.
"You're glad I'm alive?? But you sic a reporter on me?! Do you know what he did?? He tried to kill me! Exploded the truck, just to see if I would burn or not!"
This time, as Lex jerked up, the pain was more than just an ouch, and for awhile, there was nothing.
"Lex, Lex, Lex... oh, please, Lex, please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't..." a hitch in the soft voice, "God, Lex. I shouldn't have yelled at you. Please, please be okay..."
The blood taste in his mouth was fresh this time, not old. Lex swallowed, trying not to throw up. He'd been wondering earlier if he could ever feel pain again, or if he was permanently numb to it. That question was answered. Pain was sharp and explosive, vibrating through one end of his skull to the other, with no hair to buffer or soothe it. He tried to say something reassuring to Clark, but it came out as a moan.
"Lex!" Shuffling sounds from what seemed like right next to him. "Don't move, Lex, don't move. When you banged your head earlier... the whole pile shifted. Oh, God, I was so worried..."
If Lex was unconscious, that would have been a perfect time for Clark to get him out. Lex thought he'd done rather too good a job at scaring Clark into not trying. And how did Clark know he'd hit his head? Lex blinked at the vague glimmers of light that were all that were making their way through the rubble, and he closed his eyes. "I told Roger to leave you alone. I told him... Once he started sniffing around you," Lex swallowed more blood, "I told him, for his brother's sake. It should have been enough. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Clark's laughter was completely humorless. "You're supposed to be the sophisticated one, Lex, the one who knows people. Heck, I've only been working with Chloe for three years, and I know better than that. He's a reporter. You gave him a story. You tied it up with a cute little bow and handed me right to him."
Lex tilted his head from side to side, wanting to deny it yet confronted with the brutal truth. "Dad has dozens of reporters working with him. I have a few. They want money. That's all they want. Not the truth, but money. Money or position. He's the one that blackmailed me first. He should only have wanted money, nothing else."
"And you call me naïve! Would you stop investigating the bridge for money? You won't even stop for friendship."
There was absolutely nothing Lex could say to that. With his left hand, he searched with his limited range until he found his dad's hand again and tried to hold it. His fingers wouldn't fit quite right around the hand again, or maybe that was his dad's hand, stiff in death. Lex had thought he was better than his father. He really had. Shattered into a thousand pieces and he'd done it to himself. The ceiling falling was less than what he'd done to Clark. His father's hand was cold. So cold.
"Lex..." Clark sounded heart-broken. "Okay, Lex, I do it too. I... I assume things of people, and they're not true, and I am naïve. I hide things from my friends and I still expect them to be my friends. I don't tell you anything, and I lie to your face, and you're just supposed to accept it because you're my friend and I want you to be my friend so badly."
The sentence ended on a fragment, evidence of Clark's own mindset, apparently. And Clark's father was still out there, missing, with a completely amoral reporter who would apparently kill for what he wanted, even if blowing up the truck hadn't worked. Which it sounded like it hadn't. Lex wondered if Clark realized he'd even said that when he'd been yelling.
"Clark, is my desk still intact?" Lex didn't think so, but he wasn't sure.
"Uh, no. No, it's not." Clark gulped.
Lex wondered what it looked like from the other side. "You'll have to go up to my bedroom, then. Second dresser on the left, bottom drawer. There's a bunch of phones in it. Get one of the ones with a purple tag, and one of the ones with a white tag. There should be spare batteries on the top of the dresser with full charges."
"Uh..." Clark's pause went on. "Oh. For the rescue team?"
Lex snorted. "For Nixon. The purple tag is my number. If you call Nixon from it, he'll probably answer, and then you might be able to get some information out of him as to where he and your dad are."
"Oh." Clark had been reduced to repeating his monosyllables. "You think they're together?"
One way or another, they had to be. Lex wasn't saying what the other way would be. "They're together. If they were separated in the storm, you would have found one of them by now. For both to be gone, and you not able to find them... they're probably trapped somewhere." Unless, "Did Nixon have his car?" But Clark had to have already thought of that.
"Mom said Dad was chasing him on foot. I don't know where his car might have been. It wasn't on the farm." Clark was sounding scared again, probably thinking about what might have happened to his dad. The other ways that Lex wasn't saying, didn't mean Clark wasn't thinking them, hadn't been thinking them all along.
"Go get the phones, Clark."
Clark stirred, rattling some debris as he moved, but he didn't leave. "What's the other phone for?"
"That's so I can call you later. You don't want to answer my phone," Lex said wryly. "Believe me, you don't want to answer mine right now. In fact, you should probably put it on mute the second you turn it on. Use it to call Nixon, and then ignore it. When the rescue team gets me out later, I'll call you on the disposable."
"Lex..." Clark hesitated some more.
"Clark, go get the phones." Lex tried to put as much patience and command into his voice as he could, assuring with the command that he'd be fine.
"Okay." The sound of more things stirring, and footsteps, then nothing.
Lex drew in a few breaths, trying to get used to being alone again, and hoping the figurative walls wouldn't close in on him.
"Okay, got them. What's Nixon's number?"
That had been entirely too fast. Okay, so Lex couldn't see anything, but still... it was like Clark wasn't even trying anymore.
"Lex?"
If Lex could have pinched the bridge of his nose, he would have. Nixon's number was on a card in the side compartment of his desk. "Give me a minute." One didn't memorize numbers nowadays, one punched them in and let the phone remember them. But that was a new phone Clark had. Set to the same number, but without the history on it. What was that darn number? Card. Visualize the card...
"Uh, Lex, what's the number?"
"Just a damn minute!" Lex realized what he'd said and he let all his breath out in a long sigh, feeling the weight of rocks on his body shifting with the motion. "I'm sorry. I'm not really at my best right now, Clark. Just be patient with me for a moment."
Clark laughed briefly, then settled into giggling. "It's okay, Lex."
Lex loved that boy. He loved him for his friendship and his loyalty and his way of looking at the world that saw the good and the light. He loved him in appropriate, friendly sort of ways, and he loved him in all sorts of horribly inappropriate ways that wouldn't be right for a fifteen year old. For Lex at fifteen, maybe, but not Clark, and not Lex with Clark. How could he ever have endangered Clark? Mentally, Lex picked up Nixon's card and looked at it. He spoke the numbers slowly once, then looked at the card again and said them again. He hoped he had it right.
"Got it," Clark said, accompanied by the sounds of scribbling. Apparently Clark had opted for the old-fashioned ways instead of the new-fangled. A good precaution, too, not to accidentally call the number before being ready to do something about it.
He should be ready, though. He should be going. Clark should be heading out to rescue his father from Lex's mistakes, and not hang around here talking to a shattered pile of rubble.
Lex closed his eyes. "Go find your father, Clark." He held the fingers of his father's hand. Clark's father was better, and he loved Clark. Clark's father couldn't die. Clark had to rescue him.
There were sounds of footsteps pacing around through the room. With his head on the ground, they echoed oddly as he heard them both audibly and physically.
"I'll be alright, Clark," Lex repeated again, patiently.
"No, you won't be," Clark's voice was frightened but firm. "The stuff on top of you moved when you hit your head. No guarantee it isn't going to move again. And you need help... You're hurt. I don't want to wait for the rescue people even if they do know kibbing – what if they make a mistake?"
"Cribbing," Lex corrected. Clark was older than his years sometimes, making Lex forget about his youth. Other times, he brought Lex into the childhood he'd never had, making Lex as young as he. What was seven years between them? The two of them were more complete than anybody else Lex had ever met.
"Lex, please..." Clark's voice was sad. Lex didn't want Clark to be sad.
With a sigh, Lex opened his eyes and blinked at the fuzzy light. "There's a beam directly over me. It must be resting on something else for it not to have crushed me. It's over my head and I think most of my upper body, though there are other things on my right arm and legs. If there is something that could raise that beam up very very quickly, and then pull me out in a few seconds... it will take a brief amount of time for everything else to start falling, if that beam is lifted up quickly. It all has to be done very fast, though. Otherwise I'll end up like my dad. Which most people say is what comes with the Luthor name anyhow." Humpty Dumpty probably hadn't looked any too good after the wall either.
"Stop it," Clark admonished.
Lex grinned briefly at this normal reaction. Clark hated for Lex to compare himself to Luthors, even if Lex was one. Lex gripped his father's fingers one last time, then let him go. If Clark was going to do it, Lex couldn't bring his father along. Not this time. Not ever again.
The sound of a throat swallowing was audible beyond the rubble. Lex shook his head. "If you want to wait, I think I might be unconscious in a little bit." It was hard for him to concentrate on anything right now. Probably wouldn't be too long. And he could always bang his head again.
"No!" This time, Clark was angry. Who needed visuals, when one had such a forthright voice? "Lex, don't even think about that! How could you think that...? You don't need to be unconscious, damn it."
Lex had driven Clark to swearing. "I've always been unconscious before." He probably shouldn't be saying things like that, but his sense of caution had been lost.
"You get hurt a lot! Too much. Too much..." Clark gulped, and when he started speaking again, his voice wavered. "Hold on, Lex. Or rather, don't hold onto anything. Just... just be ready. I don't want to hurt you."
"You can't," Lex breathed, and held his gaze open, waiting.
It all happened within seconds. Trying to make sense of it later, Lex thought there was a sound, as the rubble blasted away and the beam lifted off him. Then he was flying through the air, as if on a zipline, held in strong arms with a body hunched over him. Then they were in the hallway, and it sounded like the rest of the study was collapsing. They stayed in the hallway for a couple of seconds, while Clark looked at the walls, then they were gone again, ziplining through the mansion and ending up in Lex's bedroom, where Lex was carefully laid on the bed.
Lex stared in amazement at Clark, not letting go of his own grip, his left arm somehow having migrated over Clark's shoulders and holding him tight.
Clark squirmed, not fully releasing Lex either, and anxiously looking at Lex. He didn't say anything, but alternated between blushing and turning pale. They were a foot apart, both eyes wide, just staring at each other.
With a heave, Lex pulled himself up to Clark's level and kissed him.
His right arm still wasn't working, but his left was just fine, and he dug in and kept himself close, pressing his lips against Clark's, his tongue licking at Clark's lips and then finding his way in as they loosened.
Clark made a sound rather like an animal eeping in the night and then was silent with Lex's tongue in his mouth. He held onto Lex and didn't move.
Reality set in, and Lex abruptly let Clark go, falling back against the pillows and getting ready for the slap.
None came, and Lex looked up to see Clark running his finger over his lips, his gaze unfocused.
"I'm sorry, Clark," Lex started, having to at least try to apologize.
Then Clark kissed him.
It was some indeterminate length of time later, could have been minutes, could have been hours, when Lex next came back to himself. He was lying down, pressed firmly into the bed. Clark was still kissing him, and had a hand roaming down Lex's chest, wide fingers splayed out possessively over Lex's skin. Another hand was under Lex's head, holding him at just the right angle to be kissed. Lex's hand was tangled in Clark's hair.
Lex thought it was real. He didn't think he yet merited a place in heaven, not especially with what he'd just carelessly done to Clark and his parents. And yet, here they were. But they couldn't be, not yet.
"Clark," Lex turned his head to get his words out, exposing his neck to being nibbled up and almost losing his train of thought. "Your dad. You have to rescue your dad."
The nibbling stopped, and Clark moved his head back, though he left his hands on Lex. His green eyes were torn between exultant and unhappy.
There was no worse time. Well, Lex could actually think of lots worse times. He hadn't meant for this. He just... Clark had saved him. Openly saved him. Cared more for him than for his secrets. Though Clark saved lots of people, Lex knew. Nothing really that made Lex any more special than any of the rest of them. A person in need of rescuing, and Clark had rescued him. If Clark had slapped him, Lex would have deserved it for the presumption. But instead Clark had kissed him back...
"Lex," Clark said, his voice caught between that same mixture of unhappy and hungry.
Belatedly, Lex let go of Clark's hair, touching Clark's cheek gently as he moved his hand away. Clark leaned into the brief touch, and Lex felt the world fall out from underneath him. He was so far gone. Falling from the wall, uncaring to what might lie below. There was this moment now, with Clark, and that was all. Lex wanted it to last forever.
"Go," Lex tried to put a smile on. "I'll be okay now."
Clark stood up, looking Lex up and down. His eyes lost the besotted look and turned alarmed. "No way am I leaving you here!" Clark scooped Lex up in his arms again, holding his whole weight easily. "I'm taking you to the hospital."
"You can't explain---" Lex's protest was lost in another whirl through space. He closed his eyes and turned his head into Clark's chest as this one kept going.
The motion stopped when they were at the hospital, in the ambulance receiving zone. Nobody was around at the moment.
Clark put Lex down on a nearby gurney. "Trust me, Lex. They're not going to question it. Not right now and probably not ever. This is Smallville." With a grin, he leaned over and kissed Lex, a gentle brushing of their lips together.
Then Clark was gone, and the "patient arrived" bell was ringing, bringing nurses rushing to Lex's side. He would have rather had Clark.
/// /// ///
Fandom: Smallville - Pairing: Clex. Other main characters: Jonathan, Martha.
Rating: PG - Words: 26,000
Type: drama, romance, adventure, episode-related
Warnings: character deaths (not Clark or Lex)
Spoilers: Tempest S1 finale, Vortex S2
Summary: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.... After the tornadoes went through Smallville (canon end S1 Tempest), brought down a portion of the Luthor castle, and trapped Jonathan in with a reporter that knows Clark's secrets, lives have been shattered, some irrevocably. For what is left, how then can they come together and be fixed? This story is about the journey to the end of the night... and the beginning of a new day.
Notes: For the 2013 Smallville Big Bang. This was plotted and conceived a long time ago. It’s probably one of my oldest plot bunnies and I've wanted to write it for awhile now, but there were always a few more urgent things to write. Finally, though, it just had to be done. ^^ Beta by Tainry - thank you!
Cross-posted to Archive of our Own.
Artwork: The art created for this story - cover and section banners and final portrait - was all done by the very awesome
fruitbat00. Thank you so very much for it! It fits the story perfectly. :)Disclaimer: Only mine in my dreams. ^^ This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
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Had a Great Fall
Lex hated his father. He'd had one of the most horrible days in his life, and it was all because of his father. His Dad had announced he was closing the plant, blamed it on Lex, and cheerfully told Lex that now he could come home. A thousand people out of work, because his father didn't like Lex 'rebelling'.
The workers didn't trust Lex, and Lex was tired of it, but he also couldn't blame them. Asking them to get second mortgages for a buy-out, when he lived in a castle and had a dozen cars... He was selling all his mother's stock, selling his cars, and promising untold favors to line up the voting block that would allow him the buy-out, but it wasn't his life, not like theirs.
It would be, however, Lex's freedom. Freedom from his father, from living his life the way his father wanted him to. It would be the first step on his path for his life. At least he kept telling himself that, pretending that he had a life and a future all on his own. One that wasn't dictated to him by others.
A life his father didn't want him to have.
Lex stared at his father and listened to empty words.
"You braved the weather to tell me that?" Lex couldn't believe it. There was a storm outside and yet his father was here to harass him, intimidate him into dropping the effort to save the plant. On the other hand, Lex could well believe it. It was typical.
"You're not my enemy; you're my son," Lionel said with every appearance of sincerity.
Lex didn't believe any of it. Twenty-one years had taught him not to believe it. As he'd told Clark earlier, his and his father's relationship had been one built on lies and deceit. He replied to his father with those thoughts, "I never saw the distinction." The words echoed hallow, bouncing around inside his heart, shaking out his life.
And now his dad was trying to encourage him using some of life's lessons. Most of the time Lex liked to make comparisons between himself and Alexander the Great, yet when it was his dad being the one to quote at him, it just sounded pretentious.
Annoyed, Lex retaliated with Shakespeare, which he knew his dad didn't like as well.
His dad started to lose his cool, getting angry and descending into threats against Lex and anybody in Smallville who would help him. Generally in an argument, it was rare for his dad to lose his cool. Getting his dad riled up was fun, even if the threats were very real indeed. Lex grinned internally, settling in to do some real needling, but then everything went to hell.
The castle walls collapsed. Lex saw them go down, saw the dust, heard the noise. Saw his father go down with them. Lex was just a foot away from where they'd come down. Just a foot. He couldn't move. There was nothing holding him in place, but all the same, he couldn't move.
"Lex! Help me, Lex!"
Lex stared at the castle stones pinning his father to the ground. He could hear the storm outside through the hole the collapse had created. The storm had gotten a lot worse in the short time his father had arrived. How did it collapse? Wasn't this castle supposed to have been rebuilt to code? His father had probably bribed the inspectors, just to have it done more historically accurate.
"Lex! I can't move."
Shaking himself out of his stupor, Lex shot a quick glance at the masonry around his father and above him. It didn't look stable, and the storm was still raging outside. More of it could collapse at any moment. It was only chance that Lex hadn't been hit the first time. His dad was trapped under one of the bigger pieces. If Lex pulled him straight out, it would probably collapse the rest of the structure, and possibly more of the ceiling. But there didn't look to be any way of stabilizing it fast enough that it wouldn't come down anyhow. If he moved that side beam? Got something underneath it...
"Help me, Lex! Son!"
Son? His father only used that when he was trying to get something out of Lex, bull-shitting him, and trying to put on the charm. Lionel really thought that using it now would make a difference? It might make Lex not want to help! Did his father honestly believe that Lex wasn't going to? That he wasn't working on a plan? His dad didn't really believe in love, no matter how much he spoke of it, or he would never think that.
"I'm your father!"
For a brief, intense, moment, Lex wished his father had been crushed, not just pinned. Dead, he wouldn't be trying to manipulate Lex anymore. Lex wouldn't be having to make this decision, he wouldn't be listening to his dad plead without love, the plant would be saved, and he could live his own life the way he wanted to.
Then Lex stepped forward and clasped hands with his father, pulling him out. What he wanted didn't matter, he wasn't leaving his father to die. He wasn't leaving anybody to die.
The walls groaned and the storm growled.
Both Lex and his dad looked up as the rest of the ceiling fell.
... ... ...
"Clark! Hey, Clark!"
His name echoed through the hospital corridor. Clark turned, seeing the short blonde hair and the worried face of his friend. "Chloe. Are you all right?"
"Never better. I love being dumped in the middle of a dance and then searching for three hours worried that something had happened to you."
The dance. Clark had almost forgotten about it. "Oh jeez, Chloe. I'm sorry. I just..."
Chloe made a face. "Yeah, Lana told me that you'd rescued her. Saving a friend's life is always a good reason for leaving. It happens so often with you, I'm almost getting used to it."
Clark felt like sinking through the floor. He wasn't really sure how to respond. Then Chloe said they should just be friends, and he could tell she didn't really mean it, except she did because all Clark ever did was hurt her. Numbly, he agreed. He'd only done it because she wanted it in the first place.
"So," Chloe searched for a new topic, glancing around them and recalled to their surroundings. "Are you here rescuing more people?"
From one low to the next. Clark's thoughts were instantly back out at the farm. "I was dropping my mom off to get looked at. She's okay," he hastily forestalled Chloe's gasped concern, "just a few cuts and bruises. But my dad..." Clark looked away towards the farm. "My dad was outside when the twister hit. We haven't found him yet. I was just about to go back and keep searching."
Chloe's concern and empathy were what made her such a good friend. Clark heard her out and shared his own frustration and worry. Search and Rescue had told his mom that they couldn't help until tomorrow at earliest. They were full up working on situations where buildings had collapsed with people trapped under them, and clearing roads so vehicles could make it through. The three tornados had cut not just one swath, but multiple streaks of damage through the town and there wasn't anybody available to search. Just himself, for now.
Finally, Clark left. Chloe had offered to come with him, but Clark sent her after his mom instead. He could use his x-ray vision to see through the darkness, and his speed to move around, but only if there weren't any well-meaning friends to help search with him. He'd welcome their help... but also feared it. He wished more of his friends knew what he was... but he couldn't tell them.
...
"Honey, you have to get some rest," Clark's mom told him, even as she wearily made another pot of coffee for herself.
Clark slowly lifted his head and poked his fork at the pancake. He'd been out all night searching. Searched the farm, searched the woods, searched the roads.... He remembered how the twister had picked up Lana's truck and carried it miles away. If that had happened to his dad...
"Hi Chloe, Lana." His mom's voice, not directed at him.
Clark looked up and then over at the door.
"Hi Mrs. Kent." The two girls were subdued in the face of another Kent tragedy.
Clark hauled in his thoughts. It wasn't their fault, and maybe his mom was right and he should get some rest. But his dad was still out there. How could he sleep when his dad needed his help?
"What are you two doing here? Sit down and have some pancakes, there're plenty."
They protested briefly, but then settled in with better appetites than Clark had.
"We came to see how you were doing," Chloe said, then passed the conversational reins to Lana with her eyes.
"I've been working with the Red Cross," Lana picked it up smoothly, "and Matt says they'll have a small team out here to help you search this morning. They're stretched thin with professionals, but they have a lot of volunteers who can do the basics."
Clark and his mom both thanked her profusely. Even if Clark had already searched, it never hurt to have more eyes out. It was easy to overlook things in such a large area.
"What else?" Clark eyed Chloe. She was squirming, which meant she had something to ask, but she knew it wasn't quite appropriate.
"Well..." Chloe sighed and apparently gave up on her attempt to not intrude. "Has Lex come by at all?"
"Lex?" Clark and his mom looked at each other. Clark felt a frisson of anger go through him at his friend's name. Lex had something to do with that reporter, Roger Nixon, even if Lex had denied it. And that meant that Lex was partly responsible for his dad being out in the twister. Chasing after Nixon and that video tape he had of the spaceship. They also now knew that it had been Nixon who had blown up the truck with Clark inside of it. With all of that... what part did Lex play? Clark knew that Lex liked him, or at least he was pretty sure they were friends, but Lex's curiosity and his political games would be the death of him.
Chloe shrugged. "There was supposed to be a meeting about the buy-out this morning. And, well, tornados. But it wasn't really canceled or anything like that, so Dad and a bunch of the others who could get away showed up and Lex wasn't there." Chloe spread her hands.
Why did people always look for Clark when they were looking for Lex? "Did you call?"
Okay, Clark probably deserved that heated glare.
"Of course they did! But phone lines in that area are down, and Lex had sent all his employees home before the storm, and when Mrs. Patterson tried driving in since she thought there might be something he needed her to do, the road going in was damaged and she couldn't make it in."
Lex was in trouble? Without pausing to think, Clark headed for the phone. His fingers dialed one number, got the downed tone, he hung up and dialed another number, got the tone again, dialed a third number, got Lex's voice mail. He paused, thinking of dialing a fourth, but then hung up. "Yeah, it's down, and Lex isn't answering his cell."
"What was the third number?" Chloe asked.
"Huh?"
"You called three numbers. One to the mansion, one to his cell, but what was the third?" Chloe's nose was twitching. Not literally, but really.
Clark looked up for patience. "It's the direct line to the kitchen. We call it to talk to Ms. Stowick about the produce. "
"Oh." Chloe sounded disappointed that it was something so mundane.
His mom stifled a giggle, then cleared her throat. "Why did you come to us, Chloe?"
"Well, Lana wanted to check on you anyhow," Chloe glanced sideways and Lana looked startled but nodded readily, "and Clark'd said something about Lex last night so I thought maybe he knew where Lex might have gone."
Clark turned in the direction of the castle, as if he could see through the miles in-between. "Lex came by before the dance." And had fixed Clark's bowtie with deft, smooth movements, his slim hands right up next to Clark, working on the tie while he stared in Clark's eyes and talked about his father. Touching nothing else before he'd stepped away. Had Clark wanted him to touch anything else? Clark didn't know. He'd been holding his breath, watching more than listening. "Lex was frustrated with his father, with the buy-out, and his dad's shit. Had gone out to clear his head." He'd gone back to the castle after the loft, though, hadn't he? Had Lex been out driving when the tornados hit? Clark had seen Lana when she'd been in trouble... wouldn't he have seen Lex too? He strained his eyes but as good as he'd gotten at the x-ray vision, the way he sometimes saw miles away was apparently not yet under his control.
"Clark." His mom spoke his name disapprovingly.
It took him a couple of moments to go through what he'd said and find the swear word. "Sorry, Mom."
"What did he say about the buy-out?" Chloe asked, all aquiver again.
Clark grimaced. It had been mostly Lexian speak. Relations built on lies. And didn't that just describe them, even as they were talking friendship? Clark worried. As much as he liked Lex, he couldn't ever tell him the truth because then Lex would know it had all been a lie before. Lex kind of knew that now, but if he ever found out for certain.... "His dad bought the bank so he could foreclose on anybody who misses a payment. Lex was upset by that."
There was a trio of gasps in the room. Clark realized that part hadn't made the local gossip line yet, though he didn't know why not. Too soon before the tornado, probably. Had Lex made it home?
"And you didn't tell me last night?!" Chloe was balling her hands into fists, as if she could go back in time and beat it out of him.
Clark shrugged. "On top of everything else... it was just more of the same. Lex was going to take care of it."
"Like he takes care of everything else!" Chloe burst out. "Clark, you might be in love with him, but he's not a god! He's just a kid a bit older than us and he doesn't know how to deal with his dad! You could see it on his face at his dad's announcement at the plant – he was totally taken by surprise. His father is ruthless, and every time Lex tries to rebel, we're the ones who suffer!"
"Hey!" Clark bristled. "He's putting his neck on the line to save your dad and everybody else! He's sold all his mom's stuff, his cars, his trust... everything! He was even considering selling the Talon too! Don't call him a kid, when he's worked so much for everybody!" In the last year, Lex had spent many long nights working while Clark did his homework. Clark remembered well the time Lex had maneuvered to keep his dad from firing a tenth of the employees. Lex poured himself into that plant, and yet all they thought of him was a kid, less than his dad.
Lana's gasp belatedly reached his ears and Clark flushed. "And I'm not in love with him." A little late.
"He can't sell the Talon!" Lana cried, her face pale.
Clark blinked.
Chloe rounded on her friend. "Will you shut up about your precious Talon! For God's sake, we're talking about my life here – my dad's job and Pat's job and Stacy's job and EVERYBODY's jobs! Your stupid sentimental boohoo coffee shop is nothing compared to all that!"
There was a brief stunned silence around the room after Chloe finished shouting.
His mom cleared her throat, but Clark spoke first. "He didn't sell it. Said he couldn't find a buyer that quick and it would have been at such a loss it wouldn't have made a dent in the amount they had to raise. He got more money out of his mom's jewelry."
"He sold her jewelry?" Out of everything, that, surprisingly, was the thing that made his mom sniffle and she started to raise her hand in protest before dropping it.
"Uh," Clark searched around for another topic. Then he rounded on Chloe, "What do you mean, you could see it on his face? You couldn't see it, you weren't there. We were at school!"
Chloe grimaced. "My dad said."
"Your dad---" Clark cut himself off. He was angry at Chloe, not at her dad. Lex always said that Gabe was one of his biggest supporters, and Clark was sure that whatever Chloe's dad had said, it wasn't like that. Chloe was editorializing. Maybe.
"Girls," his mom stepped over, "I think you probably need to get back. What time did you say the searchers would be by, Lana?"
Effortlessly, his mom took control and soothed out all the hurt feelings and got details out of them and everybody's focus back on the rescue clean up and helping others before she sent them on their way.
After the girls were gone, Clark and his mom looked at each other.
"I have to go check," Clark said, finally. He was torn, needing to keep searching for his dad, and yet, if Lex needed him too...
"Yes," his mom agreed without hesitation, "you do." Her eyes showed the same conflict, yet she hadn't even paused. "You won't be able to do anything different while the searchers are here, so it's good timing. Go check the mansion and make sure that Lex is okay."
Clark loved his mom. He hugged her tight. "You... you take care of yourself, Mom." She was so fragile, bandages still covering her stitches from the night before. So strong, holding herself solid for her son and husband. The bedrock which they relied on.
She kissed him and didn't directly answer. "Go." She gave him a gentle push and Clark let himself be guided out the door.
... ... ...
As he ran, Clark saw evidence everywhere of the tornadoes. Much of the area undisturbed, then swaths of land devastated. Trees uprooted, branches dropped all over the place, some buildings destroyed, a few dead cows here and there. Things scattered everywhere and in places that made no sense, like the sink by the side of the road, or the bathrobe in a tree. The storm's effects also lingered, making the normal back-lot dirt tracks that Clark used into mud pits and forced him to run along the roads. Not as safe for who might be looking, however on this day, people had much more on their mind than a blur on the side of the road. There weren't many cars out, and those that were had 'rescue' marked on them, or the people inside had pinched, worried faces and weren't looking around.
A hundred feet past the turn off to the castle, Clark skidded to a halt. He whistled as he looked at the huge tree down and over the road, wire fencing tangled in its limbs, electrical lines too. That was an old one. No wonder Mrs. Patterson couldn't make it through. Or anybody out if Lex had tried.
He glanced to each side. A four-wheeler might be able to go off-road on the left side and around, but with the mud, nothing less would make it. And with that electrical line down, most people wouldn't chance it. Clark was a little leery himself. His physical immunity wasn't so recent for him to take it for granted yet. Then there had been that incident with Eric. Clark shuddered.
Regardless, it was probably safer for him to move it than anybody else. On a direct road to Lex's place, though... there would be questions. Clark didn't think he could stand the questions. He wouldn't know anything, though, right? Why would he have had anything to do with it?
With a sigh, he looked up and down the road, then walked to the tree. If he just pushed it... Giving an experimental shove, Clark was horrified to watch the asphalt break under the tree as the limbs dragged through it.
"Okay..." Clark moved closer and got his hands under the trunk and heaved. The tree resisted for a moment, then went flying off, snapping the power line and carrying pieces of the fencing with it. What was left on the road was passable, at least.
Clark didn't know a thing about a tree, nope, nothing.
With a small grin, Clark headed again for the castle.
Outside the castle, Clark lost his grin. He swallowed, the lump in his throat hard to get around. The tree hadn't been the only thing to come down in the storm.
A corner of the castle itself, collapsed, stones and plaster and lumber strewn around the ground. Just a small corner, admittedly... probably not even from the tornado directly, just the storm.
But why that corner? "Why not the guest wing? Or the garage? Or... anywhere else?" Clark spoke out loud, knowing just what part of the castle that was. The study. Lex's home away from home, where he spent more time than anywhere else.
"God, Lex, please don't have been in there." Clark forced his frozen feet to move.
There was a car in the driveway. Big, black, American-made luxury sedan. Not one of Lex's sexier sport cars, it was one of his dad's. Nobody had said anything about Lionel being around.
The castle was silent. No sounds coming from it at all. Normally, if Lex and his father were both inside, shouting would be going on at some point during the visit.
Clark glanced to the side where the building had crumpled, and the front door. He probably would be able to get inside easier by the door than scrambling over the collapsed area. He thought about using his x-ray vision and shied away. He'd do it the normal way first.
With a swallow, Clark went inside, through the unlocked door. "Lex?" He could barely hear himself. Clearing his throat, he forced himself to call louder than a whisper. "Lex?"
Nothing. Clark glanced up the stairs towards the bedrooms, hoping briefly, then he shook his head at himself and headed to the study. The storm had hit about 7pm. Lex, if he had gone back to the castle, would have been in the study. He couldn't have been in the study. Maybe he'd gone out for a break. The kitchen. The dining room for some food.
Clark kept walking to the study. Every step was heavy, thudding loudly in time with his heart.
The door was shut. It was only ever shut when Lex was inside. Though the door could have closed on its own when the inside collapsed. The wind blowing it shut. Clark didn't believe that.
He listened hard but still couldn't hear anything. He wished super hearing was one of his powers.
With a gulp, Clark opened the door.
Inside was devastation. The destruction he'd seen from the outside, made worse because it was inside the familiar room. Two walls and the ceiling fallen in, books open, their pages torn, shattered relics everywhere, stained glass broken on the ground.
There was a dry dark stain over much of the floor, turning white book pages rust red.
There was a leg sticking out from under the debris.
Clark fell to his knees and started to cry, calling for his friend. Lex was there, he knew it. He knew it, and didn't want to. "Lex..."
/// /// ///
From floating through the darkness, introspective in the inability to move, to sudden awareness of time again. Lex started to raise his head and stopped when he banged it on the beam covering him.
"Lex!" Clark's voice cried out, racked with deep gulping sobs.
Lex tried to respond and found himself unable to, mouth dry and throat parched. He closed his mouth and chewed on his lips, forcing saliva to flow. He swallowed the miniscule moisture and tried again. "Clark."
Nothing but super-powers would have been able to hear that. Lex blinked and thought he could see cracks of light between the remains that covered him. He took a breath. "Clark!"
The sobbing stopped instantly. "Lex? Lex!!"
Visions of Clark throwing bales of hay around came to mind. "STOP!" Fear gave extra strength to his shout.
"Lex?"
It was fascinating how much could be told just by the sound of a person's name. Fear and sorrow in the first, incredulous in the second, wonder and joy in the third, and bafflement in the fourth.
"Don't touch the wreckage," Lex ordered.
"I have to get you out from there!"
"Clark, have you ever played spillikins?" There was nothing but the feel of slightly baffled silence. Lex couldn't see it, but he could feel it. He wondered if feeling emotions of others was a new power of his own. He searched for a more common name. "Pick-up sticks?"
"Yeah..."
"Think of what happens to the pile if you pull out the wrong stick." Lex was fairly sure that's what had happened to them before. Not that the area had been any too stable, freshly fallen, storm still raging outside. But pulling his dad out before stabilizing the area hadn't helped. It may not have helped anyhow. Once part of a structure falls, the area around was weakened, and would also collapse. He tightened his hand around his father's. He hadn't let go. He hadn't.
There was the sound of footsteps hastily moving back. Lex smiled mirthlessly.
"Lex... How do I get you out? Umm..." There was the sound of more moving around, off to the left of where Lex lay.
A loud gulp. "Lex. Your dad..."
"I know." Lex closed his eyes. He relaxed his grip on his dad's hand, but didn't let go. Last night, Lionel's hand had stiffened in rigor mortis, gradually tightening until it had started loosening again. Lex hadn't been conscious through the early stages, but since had been using it as a way to track time. Six to eight hours for it to have reached the hands, maximum stiffness at twelve. It would be gone again 36 to 48 hours after that. Cold could extend that period of time. Lex had wondered if he would even be discovered before then. "I know." He hadn't let go.
"I have to get you out of here." Restless movements around the room, though thankfully sounding far from the debris.
Lex shook his head slightly and opened his eyes again. It didn't help. "Call the rescue group. They have professional equipment. Cribbing, shoring. They can stabilize it and they know how to get people out."
"The phone lines are down."
"So go out to where you can talk to them," Lex said patiently. He coughed. It was dry and dusty.
"I can’t leave you!"
Lex sighed very softly, hopefully softer than Clark could hear. "It's okay." He twitched his lips. "I'm not going anywhere."
Footsteps stopped. Voice from a little lower down, as if Clark was crouching. "That's not funny."
Lex could almost see the scowl he knew must be on Clark's face. Of all the people to find him. He'd both hoped and feared Clark would come. It was funny, really. He was shattered... but he still wanted Clark. He wanted Clark more than anything, and yet didn't want to cause his friend any pain. And now Clark was here and Lex was asking him to be gone. Lex lived in a world of contradictions. Life and death in the same place.
"I'm not dead yet." Lex smiled in the darkness, listening to the slightly stunned surprise of the indrawn breath. He couldn't resist. "Only mostly dead."
"That's not..." Clark choked out, half-giggling in a horrified manner, "it's not funny." He broke down in more tears and laughter.
Lex wished he could put a hand on Clark's shoulder. Touch him. Hold him. See him. He laughed. "Is too."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Is... oh Lex."
They were both silent for awhile after that. Lex didn't really want to send Clark away, even if it would be better. Truthfully, Clark probably could save him, but he would have to get all the rocks and beams off Lex moving so quickly they couldn't shift and fall, and then get Lex out even faster and both of them away. Nobody could do that with normal human strength and speed. Lex thought about apologizing for being conscious. Then he thought about being unconscious. It wouldn't take too much, except he was fairly awake now. He was injured, he knew... but he also thought he was less injured than he had been. He opened and closed his right hand, touching the stone near it. He hadn't been able to do that earlier.
"So, how's the rest of Smallville?" Lex forced himself to ask. "That was quite the storm."
"Tornado."
"Excuse me?"
The sound of a throat being cleared. "There were three tornadoes that came through during the storm. Everybody is still cleaning up."
Lex jerked up, hitting his head again and sinking back. The beam above him quivered.
"Lex, be careful!" Scrambling sounds as Clark apparently got closer.
Lex bit his lip hard before taking in another breath. "How is everybody? Lana? Your parents? Chloe?"
There was not an immediate reassurance of everything being okay. Lex let go of his dad's hand for the first time and he reached in the direction of his friend. He ran up against wood. He tried to force himself not to move more.
"They're... they're all okay." Clark's voice, hesitant and reassuring but unsure. He was a lousy liar.
Clark cleared his throat. "Lana's truck got swept up in one of the tornadoes, but she fell out – only scrapes and bruises. She's helping with the Red Cross now. Chloe's fine, and Pete – we were at the dance. There aren't a lot of injuries, though a lot of stuff came down. Lots of cleanup work still ongoing, and they're still getting people out of buildings. Mostly just broken legs and such, though."
There was a glaring omission in list. "Your parents?" Lex asked softly. He didn't reach for his dad's hand again, pressing his own instead against the wood, trying to get through it to Clark.
"They're fine," Clark said shortly.
Lex had had a year to refine his 'Clark is lying' meter. This one was off the gauge. "Clark," Lex warned, telling him he knew it wasn't the truth and he was going to push it. The voice didn't always work as well on Clark as on his or his dad's employees, but it was worth a try.
The sound of clothing shifting, of a body inching closer then stopping. "Mom's fine," Clark finally said. "Dad... Dad's missing. He was outside when it hit."
If Lex could have gotten up and moved right then, he would have. He would have moved heaven and hell and the very Earth itself. Clark couldn't lose his dad. He couldn't. But Lex was stuck under here. "What are you doing here?" He clamped his mouth shut but too late, the words had already gotten out.
Clark laughed a little bitterly. "There's a search team looking for Dad right now. I was out all night... Chloe said you hadn't made the buy-out meeting."
Involuntarily, Lex snorted out a laugh. "I don't think that's going to be a problem now." Not with his dad stiff and cold beside him.
"Lex, I'm sorry."
Lex was numb. He remembered wanting his father to die. He remembered reaching for his father to live. Then his father was dead and he'd thought he was soon to follow. He wasn't so sure now, but regardless, he knew he wanted Clark's father to live.
"Go and help them," Lex urged. "You can tell the rescue teams on your way and they'll come and help me when they have a chance. Everything is stable now, I'll be fine."
"I can't leave you, Lex," Clark whispered, his voice tortured.
Now wasn't the time to urge Clark to leave, Lex could hear it in Clark's voice. Truthfully, he didn't want Clark to go. He liked hearing Clark's voice, knowing Clark was near. It warmed him that Clark had come to check on him. It astonished him, with Clark's father missing. He hadn't thought he'd rated that high in Clark's world.
Clark had so many friends, such a loving family. Yet he welcomed Lex in happily, responding to Lex's clumsy overtures with homespun goodness and brilliant smiles. Even the mounds of teenage angst that he brought with him didn't deter Lex's happiness in having Clark for a friend. Only the lies did that. The lies and the mystery. He wanted to believe in Clark so badly, yet he was trained from birth to be suspicious and Clark hit all his buttons. Such a contradiction. Such a miracle.
"Lex?" Clark's voice was scared, high-pitched and nervous.
Lex realized he'd drifted off. "I---" his voice choked. He coughed, getting the saliva again.
"Are you thirsty? Can I get you some water?"
Lex smiled ruefully. How did Clark think he'd be able to drink it?
"Um..."
Sounded like Clark was realizing it too.
"'S okay. I'm okay." Lex wasn't so sure about that second part, but he knew he was better now than he'd been before.
"Lex..." Clark's voice broke.
Lex lifted his left hand and pressed it against the wood between him and Clark. "Tell me about your father. Where was he going? Were there shelters near? If not the shelter, a neighbor he might have been helping?"
The silence became that of things held back.
Lex narrowed his eyes. "Clark."
Clark cleared his throat. "He was out checking on the cows---"
"Clark." Lex sharpened his voice, his instincts coming to the fore.
Clark sighed. "He went out after Nixon."
His head hit the wood, hard. "Ouch." Lex sank back down again and wished he had a hand free to rub his head. Regretfully, both arms were trapped in different ways. He was pretty sure his right arm was broken, even though he had feeling back in his hand again. And his left... Lex touched the wood and refused to think about his dad's hand where he'd let it go. "Roger Nixon?"
"You said you didn't know him," Clark's voice quavered. He obviously wanted to demand answers from Lex yet was reluctant to while Lex was trapped.
Lex closed his eyes. All on him. It was his fault, again.
"I know him." What was the point of trying to keep anything back at this point? His dad was dead, Clark's was missing. Would what he knew of Roger help to find them? "He was trying to blackmail me."
"Oh? Oh! Well, no wonder you didn't want to say you knew him!" Clark's voice was full of horror that somebody would do that and understanding of Lex.
Lex snorted and let his hand drift over the grain on the beam. He thought he might have picked up a splinter but could barely feel it. "I blackmailed him back. Threatened his brother. Then sent him out to find out more about the bridge accident."
There was a fearful silence from the other side of the debris. A silence filled with astonishment and horror. The sort of silence that on a normal day would have sent Clark running as far away from Lex as he could.
"I thought... why do you... the bridge..." Clark's voice stuttered through painful fragments of thought. Then he burst out, "You're alive! Isn't that enough?"
Lex opened and closed his right hand, the hand that for most of the long night he'd been unable to feel, unable to move. The taste of blood was in his mouth. He was sure he'd been cut badly on his legs, part of the stained glass windows coming in at him, or maybe it was his desk. By all rights, he should be as dead as his father, even if his own death wouldn't have been as quick. "No, it's not enough." A ripped open car roof, windshield glass shattered as if a boulder had come through it, Lex, alive, not a mark on him. Clark, alive, when Lex would have sworn he'd hit him. "He made a computer model, based on the car skids and the indentations in the bridge railing and on my front bumper. The car... I hit you. I hit you. I lost control of the steering and the car was fishtailing and you were there and I couldn't stop, I couldn't swerve... I tried to swerve, but the car wouldn't respond... I hit you. Just as I knew I had. Mathematics proved it, science confirmed. And I still don't know how the hell I survived. Or you. I don't know. I should have died. I'm glad you're not dead."
Clark whimpered. It was a sound of distress so earth-shattering that it made Lex feel like the most worthless piece of dirt on the planet. He had caused this. He'd caused this and he couldn't put it right again. Humpty Dumpty was shattered, and Lex was the king's horses and men and he couldn't put it back together again. Or maybe he was Humpty Dumpty and nobody would be putting him together at all.
Idly, Lex wondered just how much blood he'd lost and how much he'd regained, and just how bad his head wound had been anyhow. Maybe he was hallucinating this.
"You're glad I'm alive?? But you sic a reporter on me?! Do you know what he did?? He tried to kill me! Exploded the truck, just to see if I would burn or not!"
This time, as Lex jerked up, the pain was more than just an ouch, and for awhile, there was nothing.
"Lex, Lex, Lex... oh, please, Lex, please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't..." a hitch in the soft voice, "God, Lex. I shouldn't have yelled at you. Please, please be okay..."
The blood taste in his mouth was fresh this time, not old. Lex swallowed, trying not to throw up. He'd been wondering earlier if he could ever feel pain again, or if he was permanently numb to it. That question was answered. Pain was sharp and explosive, vibrating through one end of his skull to the other, with no hair to buffer or soothe it. He tried to say something reassuring to Clark, but it came out as a moan.
"Lex!" Shuffling sounds from what seemed like right next to him. "Don't move, Lex, don't move. When you banged your head earlier... the whole pile shifted. Oh, God, I was so worried..."
If Lex was unconscious, that would have been a perfect time for Clark to get him out. Lex thought he'd done rather too good a job at scaring Clark into not trying. And how did Clark know he'd hit his head? Lex blinked at the vague glimmers of light that were all that were making their way through the rubble, and he closed his eyes. "I told Roger to leave you alone. I told him... Once he started sniffing around you," Lex swallowed more blood, "I told him, for his brother's sake. It should have been enough. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Clark's laughter was completely humorless. "You're supposed to be the sophisticated one, Lex, the one who knows people. Heck, I've only been working with Chloe for three years, and I know better than that. He's a reporter. You gave him a story. You tied it up with a cute little bow and handed me right to him."
Lex tilted his head from side to side, wanting to deny it yet confronted with the brutal truth. "Dad has dozens of reporters working with him. I have a few. They want money. That's all they want. Not the truth, but money. Money or position. He's the one that blackmailed me first. He should only have wanted money, nothing else."
"And you call me naïve! Would you stop investigating the bridge for money? You won't even stop for friendship."
There was absolutely nothing Lex could say to that. With his left hand, he searched with his limited range until he found his dad's hand again and tried to hold it. His fingers wouldn't fit quite right around the hand again, or maybe that was his dad's hand, stiff in death. Lex had thought he was better than his father. He really had. Shattered into a thousand pieces and he'd done it to himself. The ceiling falling was less than what he'd done to Clark. His father's hand was cold. So cold.
"Lex..." Clark sounded heart-broken. "Okay, Lex, I do it too. I... I assume things of people, and they're not true, and I am naïve. I hide things from my friends and I still expect them to be my friends. I don't tell you anything, and I lie to your face, and you're just supposed to accept it because you're my friend and I want you to be my friend so badly."
The sentence ended on a fragment, evidence of Clark's own mindset, apparently. And Clark's father was still out there, missing, with a completely amoral reporter who would apparently kill for what he wanted, even if blowing up the truck hadn't worked. Which it sounded like it hadn't. Lex wondered if Clark realized he'd even said that when he'd been yelling.
"Clark, is my desk still intact?" Lex didn't think so, but he wasn't sure.
"Uh, no. No, it's not." Clark gulped.
Lex wondered what it looked like from the other side. "You'll have to go up to my bedroom, then. Second dresser on the left, bottom drawer. There's a bunch of phones in it. Get one of the ones with a purple tag, and one of the ones with a white tag. There should be spare batteries on the top of the dresser with full charges."
"Uh..." Clark's pause went on. "Oh. For the rescue team?"
Lex snorted. "For Nixon. The purple tag is my number. If you call Nixon from it, he'll probably answer, and then you might be able to get some information out of him as to where he and your dad are."
"Oh." Clark had been reduced to repeating his monosyllables. "You think they're together?"
One way or another, they had to be. Lex wasn't saying what the other way would be. "They're together. If they were separated in the storm, you would have found one of them by now. For both to be gone, and you not able to find them... they're probably trapped somewhere." Unless, "Did Nixon have his car?" But Clark had to have already thought of that.
"Mom said Dad was chasing him on foot. I don't know where his car might have been. It wasn't on the farm." Clark was sounding scared again, probably thinking about what might have happened to his dad. The other ways that Lex wasn't saying, didn't mean Clark wasn't thinking them, hadn't been thinking them all along.
"Go get the phones, Clark."
Clark stirred, rattling some debris as he moved, but he didn't leave. "What's the other phone for?"
"That's so I can call you later. You don't want to answer my phone," Lex said wryly. "Believe me, you don't want to answer mine right now. In fact, you should probably put it on mute the second you turn it on. Use it to call Nixon, and then ignore it. When the rescue team gets me out later, I'll call you on the disposable."
"Lex..." Clark hesitated some more.
"Clark, go get the phones." Lex tried to put as much patience and command into his voice as he could, assuring with the command that he'd be fine.
"Okay." The sound of more things stirring, and footsteps, then nothing.
Lex drew in a few breaths, trying to get used to being alone again, and hoping the figurative walls wouldn't close in on him.
"Okay, got them. What's Nixon's number?"
That had been entirely too fast. Okay, so Lex couldn't see anything, but still... it was like Clark wasn't even trying anymore.
"Lex?"
If Lex could have pinched the bridge of his nose, he would have. Nixon's number was on a card in the side compartment of his desk. "Give me a minute." One didn't memorize numbers nowadays, one punched them in and let the phone remember them. But that was a new phone Clark had. Set to the same number, but without the history on it. What was that darn number? Card. Visualize the card...
"Uh, Lex, what's the number?"
"Just a damn minute!" Lex realized what he'd said and he let all his breath out in a long sigh, feeling the weight of rocks on his body shifting with the motion. "I'm sorry. I'm not really at my best right now, Clark. Just be patient with me for a moment."
Clark laughed briefly, then settled into giggling. "It's okay, Lex."
Lex loved that boy. He loved him for his friendship and his loyalty and his way of looking at the world that saw the good and the light. He loved him in appropriate, friendly sort of ways, and he loved him in all sorts of horribly inappropriate ways that wouldn't be right for a fifteen year old. For Lex at fifteen, maybe, but not Clark, and not Lex with Clark. How could he ever have endangered Clark? Mentally, Lex picked up Nixon's card and looked at it. He spoke the numbers slowly once, then looked at the card again and said them again. He hoped he had it right.
"Got it," Clark said, accompanied by the sounds of scribbling. Apparently Clark had opted for the old-fashioned ways instead of the new-fangled. A good precaution, too, not to accidentally call the number before being ready to do something about it.
He should be ready, though. He should be going. Clark should be heading out to rescue his father from Lex's mistakes, and not hang around here talking to a shattered pile of rubble.
Lex closed his eyes. "Go find your father, Clark." He held the fingers of his father's hand. Clark's father was better, and he loved Clark. Clark's father couldn't die. Clark had to rescue him.
There were sounds of footsteps pacing around through the room. With his head on the ground, they echoed oddly as he heard them both audibly and physically.
"I'll be alright, Clark," Lex repeated again, patiently.
"No, you won't be," Clark's voice was frightened but firm. "The stuff on top of you moved when you hit your head. No guarantee it isn't going to move again. And you need help... You're hurt. I don't want to wait for the rescue people even if they do know kibbing – what if they make a mistake?"
"Cribbing," Lex corrected. Clark was older than his years sometimes, making Lex forget about his youth. Other times, he brought Lex into the childhood he'd never had, making Lex as young as he. What was seven years between them? The two of them were more complete than anybody else Lex had ever met.
"Lex, please..." Clark's voice was sad. Lex didn't want Clark to be sad.
With a sigh, Lex opened his eyes and blinked at the fuzzy light. "There's a beam directly over me. It must be resting on something else for it not to have crushed me. It's over my head and I think most of my upper body, though there are other things on my right arm and legs. If there is something that could raise that beam up very very quickly, and then pull me out in a few seconds... it will take a brief amount of time for everything else to start falling, if that beam is lifted up quickly. It all has to be done very fast, though. Otherwise I'll end up like my dad. Which most people say is what comes with the Luthor name anyhow." Humpty Dumpty probably hadn't looked any too good after the wall either.
"Stop it," Clark admonished.
Lex grinned briefly at this normal reaction. Clark hated for Lex to compare himself to Luthors, even if Lex was one. Lex gripped his father's fingers one last time, then let him go. If Clark was going to do it, Lex couldn't bring his father along. Not this time. Not ever again.
The sound of a throat swallowing was audible beyond the rubble. Lex shook his head. "If you want to wait, I think I might be unconscious in a little bit." It was hard for him to concentrate on anything right now. Probably wouldn't be too long. And he could always bang his head again.
"No!" This time, Clark was angry. Who needed visuals, when one had such a forthright voice? "Lex, don't even think about that! How could you think that...? You don't need to be unconscious, damn it."
Lex had driven Clark to swearing. "I've always been unconscious before." He probably shouldn't be saying things like that, but his sense of caution had been lost.
"You get hurt a lot! Too much. Too much..." Clark gulped, and when he started speaking again, his voice wavered. "Hold on, Lex. Or rather, don't hold onto anything. Just... just be ready. I don't want to hurt you."
"You can't," Lex breathed, and held his gaze open, waiting.
It all happened within seconds. Trying to make sense of it later, Lex thought there was a sound, as the rubble blasted away and the beam lifted off him. Then he was flying through the air, as if on a zipline, held in strong arms with a body hunched over him. Then they were in the hallway, and it sounded like the rest of the study was collapsing. They stayed in the hallway for a couple of seconds, while Clark looked at the walls, then they were gone again, ziplining through the mansion and ending up in Lex's bedroom, where Lex was carefully laid on the bed.
Lex stared in amazement at Clark, not letting go of his own grip, his left arm somehow having migrated over Clark's shoulders and holding him tight.
Clark squirmed, not fully releasing Lex either, and anxiously looking at Lex. He didn't say anything, but alternated between blushing and turning pale. They were a foot apart, both eyes wide, just staring at each other.
With a heave, Lex pulled himself up to Clark's level and kissed him.
His right arm still wasn't working, but his left was just fine, and he dug in and kept himself close, pressing his lips against Clark's, his tongue licking at Clark's lips and then finding his way in as they loosened.
Clark made a sound rather like an animal eeping in the night and then was silent with Lex's tongue in his mouth. He held onto Lex and didn't move.
Reality set in, and Lex abruptly let Clark go, falling back against the pillows and getting ready for the slap.
None came, and Lex looked up to see Clark running his finger over his lips, his gaze unfocused.
"I'm sorry, Clark," Lex started, having to at least try to apologize.
Then Clark kissed him.
It was some indeterminate length of time later, could have been minutes, could have been hours, when Lex next came back to himself. He was lying down, pressed firmly into the bed. Clark was still kissing him, and had a hand roaming down Lex's chest, wide fingers splayed out possessively over Lex's skin. Another hand was under Lex's head, holding him at just the right angle to be kissed. Lex's hand was tangled in Clark's hair.
Lex thought it was real. He didn't think he yet merited a place in heaven, not especially with what he'd just carelessly done to Clark and his parents. And yet, here they were. But they couldn't be, not yet.
"Clark," Lex turned his head to get his words out, exposing his neck to being nibbled up and almost losing his train of thought. "Your dad. You have to rescue your dad."
The nibbling stopped, and Clark moved his head back, though he left his hands on Lex. His green eyes were torn between exultant and unhappy.
There was no worse time. Well, Lex could actually think of lots worse times. He hadn't meant for this. He just... Clark had saved him. Openly saved him. Cared more for him than for his secrets. Though Clark saved lots of people, Lex knew. Nothing really that made Lex any more special than any of the rest of them. A person in need of rescuing, and Clark had rescued him. If Clark had slapped him, Lex would have deserved it for the presumption. But instead Clark had kissed him back...
"Lex," Clark said, his voice caught between that same mixture of unhappy and hungry.
Belatedly, Lex let go of Clark's hair, touching Clark's cheek gently as he moved his hand away. Clark leaned into the brief touch, and Lex felt the world fall out from underneath him. He was so far gone. Falling from the wall, uncaring to what might lie below. There was this moment now, with Clark, and that was all. Lex wanted it to last forever.
"Go," Lex tried to put a smile on. "I'll be okay now."
Clark stood up, looking Lex up and down. His eyes lost the besotted look and turned alarmed. "No way am I leaving you here!" Clark scooped Lex up in his arms again, holding his whole weight easily. "I'm taking you to the hospital."
"You can't explain---" Lex's protest was lost in another whirl through space. He closed his eyes and turned his head into Clark's chest as this one kept going.
The motion stopped when they were at the hospital, in the ambulance receiving zone. Nobody was around at the moment.
Clark put Lex down on a nearby gurney. "Trust me, Lex. They're not going to question it. Not right now and probably not ever. This is Smallville." With a grin, he leaned over and kissed Lex, a gentle brushing of their lips together.
Then Clark was gone, and the "patient arrived" bell was ringing, bringing nurses rushing to Lex's side. He would have rather had Clark.
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