Title:  Not the First Time
Rating:  PG-13
Pairing:  Chloe/Lex with thoughts of Chloe/Lionel
Warning and Spoiler:  Set after Trespass and then everything goes AU.  It might be a little dark, so read at your own risk.  My insurance only covers my own therapy.
Power:  The ability to go inside other people, and actually control them but still being in her own body (like Astral Projection in which her own body is unconscious while controlling the other person).
Three requested items:  A silver necklace, a dagger, a kidnapping.





It wasn’t the first time that his body contained the will of another, but it was the first time that the loss of control hadn’t terrified him on some level; the first time that it had soothed something damaged within him.

Lionel hadn’t been surprised that Chloe Sullivan had been affected by the meteors.  For all her years of warning people away and espousing their dangers, she’d probably had more contact with Kryptonite than ten average Smallville citizens.  What had been startling was how her infection had manifested.  In fact, it had shocked them both.

It had come during a crisis.  The details were unimportant; emergencies had become interchangeable in Smallville.  An explosion had ripped through a building that he and the aspiring reporter had been lucky enough to escape.  However the blast had sent them crashing to the ground while a new danger fast approached.

Luthors didn’t quit; he would have continued to fight until his last breath.  But Lionel had known that last breath had been imminent.

As he pushed himself to his hands and knees a blinding light had surged in the space around them and he was possessed of the deep and abiding belief that nothing was over.  It wasn’t confidence that filled him, not a sense of surety in victory.  It was something foreign and frightening for all of its wonder and beauty.  And even as he realized that his body was standing, fighting and succeeding by no accord of his own, he was lost in the awe of understanding what consumed him.

Hope.

Never a maudlin man, Lionel wasn’t given to hearts and flowers; refrained from fanciful declarations of love.  Unless those things advanced some additional stratagem he found them trite and demeaning.  He’d never seen the value in hope because the belief, however unshakable, that he would prevail at some point in the future meant that he was failing in the now.  It was a weakness he wouldn’t abide.

But Chloe’s presence inside him had altered that.  The intimacy of feeling her soul slide like silk along his own had engendered an emotional euphoria that he’d found himself unwilling to relinquish.

Martha Kent and his wife, Lillian, before her had both been concessions to his need to feel.  But, although they had sparked his desire and need, neither, in all the years he’d known them, had brought his emotions to blazing life the way Chloe’s gently invasive presence had in mere seconds.

And so he’d set out to acquire her.  He’d offered his assistance and the resources at his disposal.  Their history had made her leery and it was, at times, a struggle to maintain an image that inspired trust.

She’d be useless to him broken, so he’d wanted to win her to his side.  However, he’d known from experience how difficult breaking her actually was, and if she wouldn’t respond to his persuasion at least he knew she was strong enough to survive his force.

In the end, it wasn’t a large misstep that cost him victory, no gross negligence on his part.  It was simply that in the myopic perception of his escalating obsession he’d failed to notice that his son had detected his near desperate need for Chloe.  And nothing intrigued Lex more than something precious to someone he hated.

And so, just as it seemed his was conquest was assured, he’d been completely blindsided by Lex’s emergence on the battlefield; wasn’t prepared to lose everything in one fell swoop.

It wasn’t the first time that he had been outmaneuvered by his son.  But it was the first time Lionel had not taken even the smallest amount of pride in that fact.

It  wasn’t the first time he and his father had shared a woman; but it had undoubtedly been the last.

At first Lex had thought nothing of his father’s rekindled interest in Chloe Sullivan.  She was a talented and driven young woman, amazingly resourceful, and clearly the keeper of Clark Kent’s secrets.  She’d played a crucial role in more than one Luthor drama and he’d had no reason to believe that she wouldn’t have a part in more.

By the time he’d studied the situation and learned of Chloe’s power and the profound effect it seemed to have on his father, once he’d realized that she had gained the full and unwavering attention of the older man’s machinations, he was forced to acknowledge that what he’d thought was mere interest was fast becoming obsession.  On both their parts.

It had been painfully easy to divest himself of his fiancée.  He’d allowed the fake pregnancy to end and Lana, believing her “miscarriage” to be a sign, had soon left him to return to her mostly off again relationship with Clark.

The  minor embarrassment of being abandoned for the younger man was a small price to pay for Lex who’d grown weary of the injustice of winning the battle with Clark only to have Lana be the prize.  Returning her to his former friend was an ironic revenge he couldn’t help but savor.

He‘d used the grudging sympathy the loss of his make believe child had won from Chloe and her frustration with a tiresome redux of Smallville’s own version of Romeo and Juliet as a way back into her life.  She’d been suspicious and he’d appreciated that about her, but her chagrin at once again being relegated to third wheel status had done more to wear down her reluctance then any of his gestures of friendship.

But soon his plans had hit a wall.  Years of experiences with his family and general skepticism had her resisting the overtures of both men.  The impressive obstacles crafted by the traumas of her past seemed overwhelming and, briefly, Lex had despaired of ever surmounting them.  But by then it had been far too late to stop.  And so Lex had set about winning her trust.

He’d had her kidnapped.

Using men known to have worked with his father, Lex had arranged for Chloe’s abduction and cast himself in the role of savior.  The gratitude it had won him had been the in he’d needed and all that has been left was to prevent Chloe from learning the truth.

It was a standoff between two men who could almost literarily be termed “the rock” and “the hard place”.  But parent’s were intrinsically geared to rear children whose achievements would surpass there own.  Lionel, in his own way was no different, and Lex did not disappoint.  For all the destruction that the elder Luthor had caused, it was nothing compared to the dark devastation that seethed in his son’s soul.

The police pulled a large Scottish dirk from the gaping wound in Lionel’s chest, but it was the small puncture from an eighth century silver dagger reputed to have belonged to Charlemagne that had ended Lionel Luthor’s life.  Lex had seen to the matter personally, and he couldn’t say if the need to be with his father as he’d died was prompted by a desire to comfort or a demand for proof.

With half the threat removed Lex had had little difficulty calming the majority of her remaining unease.  His scientists became the guardians of her health and his facilities the safe harbor for exploring her abilities.  When he’d finally worked up the fortitude to ask to be her vessel he’d found that, although he’d thought he’d scaled the heights of his obsessive nature, he’d barely left the ground.

His idolization of her for the role she’d unknowingly played in freeing him from his father’s crushing grasp was dwarfed by the genuine awe inspired by touching her soul.  He’d finally understood what had inspired Lionel’s fixation and Lex’s own grew exponentially.

By the time their relationship had moved from friends to lovers he’d adopted two rules when it came to Chloe.

First, he never asked about Clark.

He knew that, no matter how the two might have been appearing to grow apart, Chloe would never betray her best friend and Lex found no profit in pursuing a course that promised so little return and would most likely cost him everything.  Instead he allowed his silence to assure her that he valued her for herself and not as a pawn in a war her knew he could win by other means.

Second, everyone she’d “touched” with her powers had been disposed of.  From his father’s scientists to his own, no one but Lex knew Chloe in that manner and lived.

He handled it discreetly.  Not because of a fear of the authorities; they had always been painfully easy to fool.  But because Chloe was not.  She drew truth to her like a magnet and Lex’s happiness was built on deceit.  In the end the comparison was laughable; the lives he took were never as valuable as the secrets that kept her with him.

It wasn’t the first time Lex had killed for someone.  It was just the first time they’d been worth it.

It hadn’t been the first time that she’d saved a life.  But it had been the first time it had been as easy as wearing a silver necklace.

The LuthorCorp scientists had come up with a way to disrupt the energy build up in her body that preceded her unintentional body jumping.  Housed in a sleek, silver chain, the microscopic wires and powerful microprocessors did an admirable job of protecting life.  But not, as Lex would have her believe, her own.

He’d told her it was to ensure her safety.  That despite the security detail that was a constant companion, it was dangerous for her to transfer unexpectedly.  Because her consciousness left her own body he argued that she would be vulnerable doing any number of mundane, daily tasks from driving to taking a bath.  But she’d learned to read between the Luthors’ lines long ago.

So she’d smiled graciously and thanked him as he fastened the cool metal around her neck.  They were all safer with it on.  Lex was obsessive and possessive in equal measure.  Chloe’s powers were minimally harmful to herself and definitely not dangerous to others.  But he was.  He wouldn’t share her.  The knowledge didn’t shock her, didn’t shake her world.  She knew she slept with a monster.

When the full magnitude of what she’d fallen into had first hit her she’d realized that there was no getting out the way she’d come.  As desperation had given way to outright panic she’d even considered taking charge of his body and killing them both.  But so much of her ability was still unknown and she couldn’t risk failure; the cost would be everyone she held dear.

Resignation took root and she’d curled in the shadows in her heart and mourned the life she was losing.  But she was optimistic by nature and resilient by circumstance and once her grieving had ended she’d begun rebuilding her future with a passion for living that could never truly be restrained.

She still went to college and, surprisingly, had managed to retain her internship at the Daily Planet.  Lex had provided her job security but, unlike Lionel, hadn’t arranged a meteoric rise through the ranks.  Instead he’d made it clear to all the right people that his name was not to harm her career.  She knew that it was only her genuine talent that had saved her from the reputation of a tone deaf mistress shoved into the cast of a Broadway play.  It was a blow to the integrity, but not the quality of the paper, and since the only people in the know never spoke of it, the arrangement seemed to benefit them all.

Besides, no matter what people believed, there was more to Metropolis than the Luthors, and it would take an act of God to keep Chloe and trouble separated for any length of time.  She’d never worried that she’d miss a deadline.

Her personal life, however, had been impossible to preserve.

She’d outwardly cut ties with everyone except her father, who lived halfway across the country, but secretly kept watch over those she loved.  She’d continued to help Clark even though he didn’t know it, protecting both his secret and his life.

In one of her various investigations she’d stumbled across a lead concerning a man named Kyle Dugan  who was quietly stockpiling meteor rocks.  A closer look had revealed an astonishing amount of information about Clark in his possession, including his weakness to kryptonite.  He’d had plans to capture Clark; plans to hurt him.  He just hadn’t planned on dealing with someone far more dangerous to him than a man with the rigid moral fiber of Jonathan Kent’s son.

Chloe worked hard not to abuse her power.  She finally understood why so many of the meteor infected turned into meteor freaks - power.  For years she’d accepted that those rocks could change people, so when she herself had been changed it was devastating but it hadn’t unhinged her reality.  But for the average Smallvillian, those good people who’d lifted denial to an art form, to suddenly be endowed with near god-like powers was more than their narrow minds could process.  And so, ironically, the very thing that had made her a pariah throughout her adolescence had ultimately proved her salvation.

Still, she’d seen no point in  flaunting whatever small good fortune she could claim in the vengeful face of fate.  She had no need, and little temptation, to use her ability for personal gain, and the potential for corruption was such that she almost never indulged it outside of controlled settings.

Almost never.

Kyle Dugan had been an exception.

Chloe had found out all there was to know about the man, his schedule, and his habits.  She’d hidden her inquiries in her research for the Planet so as not to alert  Lex’s minimally effective body guards.  She could have lost them but that just made Lex moody and paranoid and, for once, she actually needed their services.

He didn’t even look up as she headed towards him.  He was getting his mail, as he did every day after work and as she brushed by him Chloe reached up and, with a surreptitious tug, broke the clasp on her necklace.  She barely had time to feel herself falling before she was gazing down at an envelope addressed to Mr. K. Dugan.  She identified herself to the agitated security team and forced herself back into her own body.  While Lex’s men dealt with the disoriented Kyle, she was bundled back into her car and driven home.  Less than five minutes to kill a man.

Of course she’d left the actual killing to Lex, but she wasn’t foolish enough to delude herself that she wasn’t the author of his demise.  Nor was she naive enough to drown in useless regret.  Dugan had been dangerous.  She’d been more so.  It was a Luthor ideal, but it suited her.

In fact, she’d been surprised at the ways that she and Lex had fit.  She’d stopped wearing her necklace when they were alone and, although she never experienced the dormant personality they way they experienced hers, she’d learned to love the sense of intimacy it created between them.  Life had left them with many similar wounds, and Chloe had often found that easing Lex’s pain helped to heal her own.

Sometimes she’d feared that her theory was wrong and that her sanity was diminishing so incrementally that she simply couldn’t measure the loss.  Because most days she was something that so closely resembled happy that it had become harder and harder for her to see the difference.

She enjoyed college, was on track for her dream career, and although she’d lost the friends that had been the center of her world she’d found herself in the unlikely position of being the center of someone else’s.  It was heady and intoxicating to be loved like that and she would have been the boldest of liars if she’d denied that some of her pleasure stemmed from a vindication for all those years of being second fiddle in the Lana orchestra.  She didn’t necessarily like the pettier part of her nature, but she refused to pretend that she was more than human.

And when she’d sometimes struggled in the claustrophobic grip of her life, Chloe looked to the lives of those important to her.  Lex with his paranoia, Clark with his secrets, Lana with her insecurities; they were all trapped in prisons of their own making.  She might not have been living the life she’d planned, but at least her cage seemed gilded and no longer crushing or cloying.

It wasn’t the first time life had screwed Chloe Sullivan.  But it was the first time she thought she might have been grateful.


~End~