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bantha_fodderLetters Full of Excuses, by bantha_fodder
DCU/Smallville, rated G.
i do not own these characters. with thanks to resmin.
for A Very Smallville Crisis. a bit of an experiment, actually.
***
"Just a latte," he hears, a husky voice and the whisper of money. He looks up from his books and seeks her out. She leans, side against the counter and hair cascading down her back, and he thinks that maybe she's familiar. Hands intrude into his vision and he follows them back to their owner.
Lana smiles at him, and he feels ashamed. Lana smiles and ducks her head, and when he turns his gaze back there's no one at the counter, but when he looks down again a shadow falls on the corner of his algebra book.
He looks up, and meets her eyes.
"Hi," she says, "is this seat taken?"
He shakes his head. Always so polite, his mother would be proud. "I'm Clark," he says, and holds out his hand. She leans across the table and shakes, and he tries very hard not to notice the flash of skin between her breasts. He is above that sort of thing.
He is not a man. Not human. It is not important.
She wraps her hands around her mug. Smiles softly at him. Does not speak.
He fills the silence.
"I haven't seen you around here before," he says. "Are you new in town?"
"I'm just passing through." She pauses. "It's a very nice town. Do you enjoy living here?"
"Of course," he replies, no thought to his words. "Not a lot of us, we're just a small town, but everyone helps out and does their best."
"Ah," she says quietly, and looks out the window. "That's quite an expensive car for a small town filled with people doing their best."
Clark turns his head, and watches Lex pull up to the curb.
"That's my friend Lex," he starts, but the seat across from him is empty.
He doesn't even know her name.
*
Chloe slides into the empty seat opposite Clark. "Didn't your mom ever tell you not to talk to strangers, Clark?"
"I'm not a child, Chloe," he replies, indignantly. "And I couldn't be rude. Mom always told me that, too."
Chloe smiles at him, because she knows when Clark lies.
He speaks. He lies.
She sips at her coffee. "Well," she says, "Who was she?"
A rustle, and Lex slides in beside her. "Yes, Clark." He nods at Chloe. "Excuse me for this intrusion, Miss Sullivan." She waves her hand and sips again at her coffee. It's kind of hot, and she means the coffee but she sort of means Lex, too, interrogating and obsessed.
Lex turns back to Clark. "You were looking very cosy. Who is this stranger you're so friendly with?"
Clark goes to speak. Bites his lip and starts again. "Just someone passing through, he says," and Chloe glances over at Lex. He meets her eyes and raises an eyebrow.
Just passing through, she thinks, and worries.
*
Lana puts the mug down in front of Lex. "Can I get you anything else?" she asks him with a smile. Lex shakes his head, and his eyes flit up to Lana's face and back across to Clark.
"I'm fine, thanks."
"Okay," she says, and pauses, and when Lex looks up again her eyes are locked with Clark's.
Lex rolls his eyes and wraps his hands around his mug.
"What about you?" she asks Clark, voice timid. Beside him, Chloe stifles a snort. Hides it behind a sip of coffee.
"No," he says, and his voice his husky and deep, and Lex knows exactly what part of Clark's body is answering. Lex skulls the rest of his coffee, and it burns going down, but it's better than the alternative.
"Clark, Lana," he nods his head. "Miss Sullivan."
"Later, Lex," Chloe waves, but Clark barely acknowledges his presence.
Outside, the streets are clear, but he checks his car before he gets in.
Can't be too careful when there are strangers in town.
Before he starts his engine, Lex looks back into the Talon. Clark sits alone, his books spread out in front of him. The door swings open, and Chloe steps out. She huffs, and her bangs flutter up into the air. She pulls a finger back towards Clark, his head down, but he does not look up.
She starts treading down the street, and Lex cruises behind her for a few metres until she turns to him. "Cruising for some ass?" she snaps.
Lex shrugs. "You know it's the only way I'll get some," and when she laughs he takes off. Her laughter rings in his ears, and it makes him smile all the drive home.
*
Lana smiles at him, a soft smile, filled with promise and possibilities, and he smiles back. Wraps his jacket around her shoulders before she gets a chance to shiver.
"Thank you, Clark," she says, and sighs into the night air.
"Something wrong?" he asks, concerned.
"Just happy."
A whisper of claws on bricks reaches his ears and he looks over Lana's head. On a distant rooftop, he sees the woman from the Talon. She meets his eyes and smiles at him. Waves in the moonlight and disappears, and he thinks, beautiful, before he thinks, mutant.
"I have to go to the bathroom," he says to Lana, and dashes off before she can reply, but when he reaches the rooftop, there is nothing left but a discarded coffee cup, and laughter on the wind.
A cat mewls at his feet.
*
Clark wraps his hand around Chloe's elbow. "Hey!" she yells, and bats him with her free hand as he steers her away from the crowds.
"Chloe," he says.
"I'm on the phone, Clark," she spells it out to him, because he's clearly a moron. Waves the cell in her hand. "Can you give me a minute?"
"I need your help," he says, implacable. Predictable.
She rolls her eyes. "Of course you do." She lifts her cell back to her ear. "I'll call you back," she says, pointedly, and Lex laughs.
"I'm sure whatever he's doing is very important."
"Yeah, it had better be," she snaps, and hangs up. She turns back to Clark, who looks impatient. "You have my undivided attention. What do you need?"
"There's this stranger around town," Clark says. "I think she's stalking me. And she's a mutant."
"Oh? What can she do?"
"She can disappear," he says, slowly, and has the grace to look embarrassed.
"Like Star Trek?" Chloe laughs.
Clark shakes his head.
"Okay," Chloe says. "What's her name?"
Clark frowns. "I don't know."
"What does she look like?"
"She's got blonde hair, and she's short, and." Clark fades off into silence. Looks thoughtful.
"So she's me? Clark, does she even exist?" Chloe asks the questions, though she already knows who Clark's looking for.
"You met her," Clark protests. "In the Talon, you saw her."
"I saw nothing," replies Chloe, and the lie doesn't sting, not even a little bit.
*
Lex types. He has no need of a secretary - he types fast enough, and there are things mere secretaries have no business knowing. His father has a plan, he knows, and spies from his father and from the government are anything but few and far between.
His phone rings, and he looks at the I.D. "Chloe," he says. "So prompt."
"He doesn't know a thing," she says, and Lex's hands still on the keyboard.
"Good," he says. "Good."
He hangs up, and thinks about old acquaintances.
Remembers lights in the sky and visiting hours in the asylum.
*
She isn't hard to find. As he crosses through the park on his way to the Talon, he notices her sprawled on the grass. As he approaches, he thinks she might be basking in the sunlight. He stops.
"Clark," she says, "The sun is a glorious thing. You mustn't stand in it." As Clark backs away, she pushes up to her hands and knees and stretches: a big long cat stretch that pulls muscles and makes her sigh.
She looks up at him. Shields her eyes from the light.
"Clark, stop being so tall." She pats the grass beside her. "Take a seat, and tell me what the problem is."
He pulls the grass from the ground, and shreds it as he speaks. "I don't know your name," he says, petulantly.
She laughs. "It's Selina," she says, after a pause. "And I'm very pleased to meet you, Clark Kent." She shakes his hand again.
"I thought you were just passing through," he says.
"I like the sunlight," she replies, and they sit there in the sunlight until he can hear his mom calling him, five miles away.
"I should go," he says. "Don't want to be late home."
"Yes," she says. "Of course. Can't let your mom down."
He thinks that's weird, and he is careful not to start running until she is out of sight.
*
Chloe sits on a park bench. Sips on her coffee and watches the heat rise from the cardboard takeaway cup.
"Hello," says Selina Kyle artlessly, innocently, as she slides onto the bench beside Chloe.
"Hello," says Chloe, who knows how to play innocent too. "Can I help you?"
"I'm new in town," Selina Kyle lies. "Smallville's really lovely, but I don't know what to look at first."
"There's not much to look at, to be honest." Chloe takes a sip from her coffee. "What are you doing in town?"
"Just passing through. On my way to visit an old friend." Chloe meets Selina Kyle's eyes, and knows that it's the truth. Or a half truth, at least.
"A good friend?"
"I've known him for some time now," Selina Kyle replies, "But we haven't spoken in years."
"Is he expecting you? Folks in these parts don't much like surprises." Chloe affects local and wide-eyed as she speaks, and she reminds herself to hate herself later.
"Always," Selina Kyle says, and pushes herself up. "And I should get going." She starts to walk away.
"Be sure to visit the Talon while you're in town!" Chloe yells. "It's not as good as Gotham, but it's the best we've got!" Chloe waves energetically, and Selina Kyle turns. Meets Chloe's eyes.
Selina Kyle rolls her eyes. "Of course," she says, and Chloe knows she's not talking about the Talon.
Chloe finishes her coffee and stands.
She hates Gotham City.
*
He rounds the corner, and in a dark, secluded alley, he finds her, leaning against the wall, smoke curling from the cigarette between her fingers.
"Lex," she says. "Slumming it?"
"Selina." His voice is a monotone.
"This town is lovely. The wide open spaces, the fresh air. The cows." Her grin grows wider with each word. "The mutants. The cornfields. The pet alien you have in your pocket." Lex's heart sinks.
"Aliens? You always were a headcase, Selina," he bluffs.
"Oh, Lex," she says, and her voice is kind. Soft and honey smooth. "Don't lie to me. I've known you too long."
"I don't know why Bruce has kept you around so long," Lex snaps.
"Because I'm worth more than you, Luthor. I know all your fucking secrets." She sneers at him, and smiles. "He misses you."
"Is that why you're here? To woo me back?"
"No," she replies. "He's grown beyond you now. You would only keep him from realising his true potential."
Lex realises she's playing him when she offers the cigarette to him, almost burnt down and stained with red. He takes it and inhales. Blows the smoke out in a ring.
"I'm sure you'll be very happy together," he says, and starts calculating escape vectors and contingency plans.
"Oh, Lex." She stretches her neck and grins, more teeth than lip. "No one is happy in Gotham City."
Lex blinks, and she's gone, a blur bounding off into the distance. She moves fast, like a cat, and he knows she knows he knows her secret.
He drops the cigarette to the ground, and grinds it beneath his boot. It wouldn't do to burn down his safe haven.
He fumbles for his cell, and calls his little spy.
She likes making plans.
*
He smiles shyly at Lana over the counter. "Hey," he says. She frowns at him.
"Clark."
"Lana," he says. "What's wrong?"
"Who was that girl?" she asks, and her voice is nearly shrill.
"What girl?" Clark is confused.
"In the park. The one holding your hand!"
Clark feels the stares of sixteen people boring into his back, and is grateful for once that none of them are like him. "That was nothing," he says, and knows it was the wrong thing to say.
Lana frowns at him again.
"She's just passing through town. I think she's a journalist."
"That doesn't make it any better," says Lana. "What if she's a mutant?"
"I think she is," replies Clark at a whisper and, in her surprise, Lana drops the fork in her hand. It clangs loudly on the floor.
"Oh," she breathes. "Oh."
He's not sure she understands, but she acts like she does, and it's enough.
Lana gasps. "There she is!" she hisses, and points. Through the window, he watches Selina cross the road. A car pulls up to the curb, and Lex steps out. Steps in front of Selina. Moves his lips like he's speaking.
Clark knows he shouldn't, but when Selina absently licks the back of her hand and rests the other on Lex's cheek, Clark tunes Lana out and listens to the words.
"do his dirty work for him, Selina." Selina drops her hand and shakes her head.
"Oh, Lex. It's my dirty work too."
"Have you found what you came for?"
"Of course I have."
"Well, you are very good at what you do."
"And you are very familiar with my work."
Lex smirks. "Have dinner with me."
Selina steps around Lex, and rests her hand on the door to the Talon. "Lex," she says, "You don't know when to stop. Drop by when you're next in town. He'd love to see you."
Selina pushes the door open. "The fuck he would," the cafe hears Lex spit before the door swings closed behind her. Through the glass, Clark watches Lex sneer, and snake a hand out to grab Chloe's wrist as Chloe clomps up the street and tries to enter the Talon. Clark moves away from the counter to help her, but then Selina steps up to him and smiles, and he can't move.
"I have to help Chloe," he says.
Selina raises an eyebrow. "Chloe can help herself," she says. "She doesn't need anyone's help to deal with Lex Luthor."
"Can I get you anything?" Lana interrupts, and when Clark turns around her hands are shaking.
"I'm fine," Selina says. "I just came to say goodbye to Clark." She rests her hand on his wrist, and Lana glares.
"Oh," he says, "You're leaving?"
"Like I said." Selina smiles. "I was just passing through. Thanks for the company, Clark."
"You're welcome," says Clark, always polite. "Going home?"
"You could say that." Selina turns and is out the door before Clark can stop her. He turns back to Lana.
"Is she really leaving?" Lana asks.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Clark says.
*
"I'm going to Gotham City," says Lex.
"Well, d'uh," Chloe replies.
*
Selina walks from the Talon to the outskirts of town, and there, in the old abandoned Samuelson field, a helicopter waits for her. The pilot helps her in, and as they take off, Selina presses her hand against the window.
Waves in Clark's direction.
From there to Lex's door is mere seconds, and he knocks and knocks as Lex strides from his study to the front door. "Who was she?" Clark demands as the door swings open.
"Clark," says Lex, "She's a Gothamite. Stop thinking about her, and get on with your life."
Gotham, thinks Clark. Everything from Gotham is rotten.
In the fading light, Lex glows. Sometimes, Clark remembers that Lex knows Gotham almost as well as he knows Smallville.
Lex shuts the door.
Clark walks, just walks like a regular guy at a regular pace, from Lex's place into town. He stops outside the Talon, and peers in. He watches as Chloe leans back on a couch. She stirs her coffee and reads from the paper on her lap, and when he enters the Talon she does not look up at the ding of the bell.
"Chloe," he says. "You would tell me if you were in any danger, right?" he asks, concerned.
"Of course," she says, and when she smiles at him the smile doesn't reach her eyes.
He wonders when she changed.
He hold Lana's hand, and she gives him what he wants, no questions asked. At least some things, he thinks, and tries to think of nothing else.
It works for a while.
END
DCU/Smallville, rated G.
i do not own these characters. with thanks to resmin.
for A Very Smallville Crisis. a bit of an experiment, actually.
***
"Just a latte," he hears, a husky voice and the whisper of money. He looks up from his books and seeks her out. She leans, side against the counter and hair cascading down her back, and he thinks that maybe she's familiar. Hands intrude into his vision and he follows them back to their owner.
Lana smiles at him, and he feels ashamed. Lana smiles and ducks her head, and when he turns his gaze back there's no one at the counter, but when he looks down again a shadow falls on the corner of his algebra book.
He looks up, and meets her eyes.
"Hi," she says, "is this seat taken?"
He shakes his head. Always so polite, his mother would be proud. "I'm Clark," he says, and holds out his hand. She leans across the table and shakes, and he tries very hard not to notice the flash of skin between her breasts. He is above that sort of thing.
He is not a man. Not human. It is not important.
She wraps her hands around her mug. Smiles softly at him. Does not speak.
He fills the silence.
"I haven't seen you around here before," he says. "Are you new in town?"
"I'm just passing through." She pauses. "It's a very nice town. Do you enjoy living here?"
"Of course," he replies, no thought to his words. "Not a lot of us, we're just a small town, but everyone helps out and does their best."
"Ah," she says quietly, and looks out the window. "That's quite an expensive car for a small town filled with people doing their best."
Clark turns his head, and watches Lex pull up to the curb.
"That's my friend Lex," he starts, but the seat across from him is empty.
He doesn't even know her name.
*
Chloe slides into the empty seat opposite Clark. "Didn't your mom ever tell you not to talk to strangers, Clark?"
"I'm not a child, Chloe," he replies, indignantly. "And I couldn't be rude. Mom always told me that, too."
Chloe smiles at him, because she knows when Clark lies.
He speaks. He lies.
She sips at her coffee. "Well," she says, "Who was she?"
A rustle, and Lex slides in beside her. "Yes, Clark." He nods at Chloe. "Excuse me for this intrusion, Miss Sullivan." She waves her hand and sips again at her coffee. It's kind of hot, and she means the coffee but she sort of means Lex, too, interrogating and obsessed.
Lex turns back to Clark. "You were looking very cosy. Who is this stranger you're so friendly with?"
Clark goes to speak. Bites his lip and starts again. "Just someone passing through, he says," and Chloe glances over at Lex. He meets her eyes and raises an eyebrow.
Just passing through, she thinks, and worries.
*
Lana puts the mug down in front of Lex. "Can I get you anything else?" she asks him with a smile. Lex shakes his head, and his eyes flit up to Lana's face and back across to Clark.
"I'm fine, thanks."
"Okay," she says, and pauses, and when Lex looks up again her eyes are locked with Clark's.
Lex rolls his eyes and wraps his hands around his mug.
"What about you?" she asks Clark, voice timid. Beside him, Chloe stifles a snort. Hides it behind a sip of coffee.
"No," he says, and his voice his husky and deep, and Lex knows exactly what part of Clark's body is answering. Lex skulls the rest of his coffee, and it burns going down, but it's better than the alternative.
"Clark, Lana," he nods his head. "Miss Sullivan."
"Later, Lex," Chloe waves, but Clark barely acknowledges his presence.
Outside, the streets are clear, but he checks his car before he gets in.
Can't be too careful when there are strangers in town.
Before he starts his engine, Lex looks back into the Talon. Clark sits alone, his books spread out in front of him. The door swings open, and Chloe steps out. She huffs, and her bangs flutter up into the air. She pulls a finger back towards Clark, his head down, but he does not look up.
She starts treading down the street, and Lex cruises behind her for a few metres until she turns to him. "Cruising for some ass?" she snaps.
Lex shrugs. "You know it's the only way I'll get some," and when she laughs he takes off. Her laughter rings in his ears, and it makes him smile all the drive home.
*
Lana smiles at him, a soft smile, filled with promise and possibilities, and he smiles back. Wraps his jacket around her shoulders before she gets a chance to shiver.
"Thank you, Clark," she says, and sighs into the night air.
"Something wrong?" he asks, concerned.
"Just happy."
A whisper of claws on bricks reaches his ears and he looks over Lana's head. On a distant rooftop, he sees the woman from the Talon. She meets his eyes and smiles at him. Waves in the moonlight and disappears, and he thinks, beautiful, before he thinks, mutant.
"I have to go to the bathroom," he says to Lana, and dashes off before she can reply, but when he reaches the rooftop, there is nothing left but a discarded coffee cup, and laughter on the wind.
A cat mewls at his feet.
*
Clark wraps his hand around Chloe's elbow. "Hey!" she yells, and bats him with her free hand as he steers her away from the crowds.
"Chloe," he says.
"I'm on the phone, Clark," she spells it out to him, because he's clearly a moron. Waves the cell in her hand. "Can you give me a minute?"
"I need your help," he says, implacable. Predictable.
She rolls her eyes. "Of course you do." She lifts her cell back to her ear. "I'll call you back," she says, pointedly, and Lex laughs.
"I'm sure whatever he's doing is very important."
"Yeah, it had better be," she snaps, and hangs up. She turns back to Clark, who looks impatient. "You have my undivided attention. What do you need?"
"There's this stranger around town," Clark says. "I think she's stalking me. And she's a mutant."
"Oh? What can she do?"
"She can disappear," he says, slowly, and has the grace to look embarrassed.
"Like Star Trek?" Chloe laughs.
Clark shakes his head.
"Okay," Chloe says. "What's her name?"
Clark frowns. "I don't know."
"What does she look like?"
"She's got blonde hair, and she's short, and." Clark fades off into silence. Looks thoughtful.
"So she's me? Clark, does she even exist?" Chloe asks the questions, though she already knows who Clark's looking for.
"You met her," Clark protests. "In the Talon, you saw her."
"I saw nothing," replies Chloe, and the lie doesn't sting, not even a little bit.
*
Lex types. He has no need of a secretary - he types fast enough, and there are things mere secretaries have no business knowing. His father has a plan, he knows, and spies from his father and from the government are anything but few and far between.
His phone rings, and he looks at the I.D. "Chloe," he says. "So prompt."
"He doesn't know a thing," she says, and Lex's hands still on the keyboard.
"Good," he says. "Good."
He hangs up, and thinks about old acquaintances.
Remembers lights in the sky and visiting hours in the asylum.
*
She isn't hard to find. As he crosses through the park on his way to the Talon, he notices her sprawled on the grass. As he approaches, he thinks she might be basking in the sunlight. He stops.
"Clark," she says, "The sun is a glorious thing. You mustn't stand in it." As Clark backs away, she pushes up to her hands and knees and stretches: a big long cat stretch that pulls muscles and makes her sigh.
She looks up at him. Shields her eyes from the light.
"Clark, stop being so tall." She pats the grass beside her. "Take a seat, and tell me what the problem is."
He pulls the grass from the ground, and shreds it as he speaks. "I don't know your name," he says, petulantly.
She laughs. "It's Selina," she says, after a pause. "And I'm very pleased to meet you, Clark Kent." She shakes his hand again.
"I thought you were just passing through," he says.
"I like the sunlight," she replies, and they sit there in the sunlight until he can hear his mom calling him, five miles away.
"I should go," he says. "Don't want to be late home."
"Yes," she says. "Of course. Can't let your mom down."
He thinks that's weird, and he is careful not to start running until she is out of sight.
*
Chloe sits on a park bench. Sips on her coffee and watches the heat rise from the cardboard takeaway cup.
"Hello," says Selina Kyle artlessly, innocently, as she slides onto the bench beside Chloe.
"Hello," says Chloe, who knows how to play innocent too. "Can I help you?"
"I'm new in town," Selina Kyle lies. "Smallville's really lovely, but I don't know what to look at first."
"There's not much to look at, to be honest." Chloe takes a sip from her coffee. "What are you doing in town?"
"Just passing through. On my way to visit an old friend." Chloe meets Selina Kyle's eyes, and knows that it's the truth. Or a half truth, at least.
"A good friend?"
"I've known him for some time now," Selina Kyle replies, "But we haven't spoken in years."
"Is he expecting you? Folks in these parts don't much like surprises." Chloe affects local and wide-eyed as she speaks, and she reminds herself to hate herself later.
"Always," Selina Kyle says, and pushes herself up. "And I should get going." She starts to walk away.
"Be sure to visit the Talon while you're in town!" Chloe yells. "It's not as good as Gotham, but it's the best we've got!" Chloe waves energetically, and Selina Kyle turns. Meets Chloe's eyes.
Selina Kyle rolls her eyes. "Of course," she says, and Chloe knows she's not talking about the Talon.
Chloe finishes her coffee and stands.
She hates Gotham City.
*
He rounds the corner, and in a dark, secluded alley, he finds her, leaning against the wall, smoke curling from the cigarette between her fingers.
"Lex," she says. "Slumming it?"
"Selina." His voice is a monotone.
"This town is lovely. The wide open spaces, the fresh air. The cows." Her grin grows wider with each word. "The mutants. The cornfields. The pet alien you have in your pocket." Lex's heart sinks.
"Aliens? You always were a headcase, Selina," he bluffs.
"Oh, Lex," she says, and her voice is kind. Soft and honey smooth. "Don't lie to me. I've known you too long."
"I don't know why Bruce has kept you around so long," Lex snaps.
"Because I'm worth more than you, Luthor. I know all your fucking secrets." She sneers at him, and smiles. "He misses you."
"Is that why you're here? To woo me back?"
"No," she replies. "He's grown beyond you now. You would only keep him from realising his true potential."
Lex realises she's playing him when she offers the cigarette to him, almost burnt down and stained with red. He takes it and inhales. Blows the smoke out in a ring.
"I'm sure you'll be very happy together," he says, and starts calculating escape vectors and contingency plans.
"Oh, Lex." She stretches her neck and grins, more teeth than lip. "No one is happy in Gotham City."
Lex blinks, and she's gone, a blur bounding off into the distance. She moves fast, like a cat, and he knows she knows he knows her secret.
He drops the cigarette to the ground, and grinds it beneath his boot. It wouldn't do to burn down his safe haven.
He fumbles for his cell, and calls his little spy.
She likes making plans.
*
He smiles shyly at Lana over the counter. "Hey," he says. She frowns at him.
"Clark."
"Lana," he says. "What's wrong?"
"Who was that girl?" she asks, and her voice is nearly shrill.
"What girl?" Clark is confused.
"In the park. The one holding your hand!"
Clark feels the stares of sixteen people boring into his back, and is grateful for once that none of them are like him. "That was nothing," he says, and knows it was the wrong thing to say.
Lana frowns at him again.
"She's just passing through town. I think she's a journalist."
"That doesn't make it any better," says Lana. "What if she's a mutant?"
"I think she is," replies Clark at a whisper and, in her surprise, Lana drops the fork in her hand. It clangs loudly on the floor.
"Oh," she breathes. "Oh."
He's not sure she understands, but she acts like she does, and it's enough.
Lana gasps. "There she is!" she hisses, and points. Through the window, he watches Selina cross the road. A car pulls up to the curb, and Lex steps out. Steps in front of Selina. Moves his lips like he's speaking.
Clark knows he shouldn't, but when Selina absently licks the back of her hand and rests the other on Lex's cheek, Clark tunes Lana out and listens to the words.
"do his dirty work for him, Selina." Selina drops her hand and shakes her head.
"Oh, Lex. It's my dirty work too."
"Have you found what you came for?"
"Of course I have."
"Well, you are very good at what you do."
"And you are very familiar with my work."
Lex smirks. "Have dinner with me."
Selina steps around Lex, and rests her hand on the door to the Talon. "Lex," she says, "You don't know when to stop. Drop by when you're next in town. He'd love to see you."
Selina pushes the door open. "The fuck he would," the cafe hears Lex spit before the door swings closed behind her. Through the glass, Clark watches Lex sneer, and snake a hand out to grab Chloe's wrist as Chloe clomps up the street and tries to enter the Talon. Clark moves away from the counter to help her, but then Selina steps up to him and smiles, and he can't move.
"I have to help Chloe," he says.
Selina raises an eyebrow. "Chloe can help herself," she says. "She doesn't need anyone's help to deal with Lex Luthor."
"Can I get you anything?" Lana interrupts, and when Clark turns around her hands are shaking.
"I'm fine," Selina says. "I just came to say goodbye to Clark." She rests her hand on his wrist, and Lana glares.
"Oh," he says, "You're leaving?"
"Like I said." Selina smiles. "I was just passing through. Thanks for the company, Clark."
"You're welcome," says Clark, always polite. "Going home?"
"You could say that." Selina turns and is out the door before Clark can stop her. He turns back to Lana.
"Is she really leaving?" Lana asks.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Clark says.
*
"I'm going to Gotham City," says Lex.
"Well, d'uh," Chloe replies.
*
Selina walks from the Talon to the outskirts of town, and there, in the old abandoned Samuelson field, a helicopter waits for her. The pilot helps her in, and as they take off, Selina presses her hand against the window.
Waves in Clark's direction.
From there to Lex's door is mere seconds, and he knocks and knocks as Lex strides from his study to the front door. "Who was she?" Clark demands as the door swings open.
"Clark," says Lex, "She's a Gothamite. Stop thinking about her, and get on with your life."
Gotham, thinks Clark. Everything from Gotham is rotten.
In the fading light, Lex glows. Sometimes, Clark remembers that Lex knows Gotham almost as well as he knows Smallville.
Lex shuts the door.
Clark walks, just walks like a regular guy at a regular pace, from Lex's place into town. He stops outside the Talon, and peers in. He watches as Chloe leans back on a couch. She stirs her coffee and reads from the paper on her lap, and when he enters the Talon she does not look up at the ding of the bell.
"Chloe," he says. "You would tell me if you were in any danger, right?" he asks, concerned.
"Of course," she says, and when she smiles at him the smile doesn't reach her eyes.
He wonders when she changed.
He hold Lana's hand, and she gives him what he wants, no questions asked. At least some things, he thinks, and tries to think of nothing else.
It works for a while.
END
