Homecoming
by dogpoet

Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Lex/Clark, Lex/Helen
Genre: Drama, darkfic
Spoilers: Season 2, especially "Exodus."

Warning: Don't read this if you are having a bad day. Some non-con.

I've blatantly stolen from both Millar/Gough and James Joyce. Millar/Gough are probably not amused, but James Joyce might appreciate that I have borrowed (formally and thematically) from chapter 17 of Ulysses in order to write a story using television characters from a teen tv show based on a comic book. Irony, indeed. Also, Joyce loved gay subtext. It's all good w/ JJ. As for M/G: I'm not making any money off this...

In what location and in what condition did Lex find himself upon regaining consciousness?

In a bed in room 203 of Mercy Hospital, 1680 Michigan Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, United States. 1.2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. 1,675 miles from Smallville, Kansas, calculating distance based on driving not flying. With moderate concussion to anterior skull, second-degree sunburn, left eye black and swollen shut, and abrasions to 70% of his skin, including his face.

How much currency (U.S., plastic, or other) did Lex have in his possession?

None. His clothes had been discarded and he wore a hospital gown of inferior cotton, smelling of industrial detergent.

What questions did the doctor pose to Lex?

Do you remember your name? Do you know what year it is? Do you know what day it is? Who is the U.S. President? Do you remember how you got here?

Lex's replies?

Alex Kent. 2003. No. George Bush. No.

Was Lex telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

No.

What responses did he deliberately falsify with the intent to mislead?

The first.

In what altercation did Lex become involved after said interrogation?

A dispute regarding his mental and physical capacity and his departure from Mercy Hospital. With great powers of persuasion, he secured his release based upon the following points:

1. Hospitals are under-budgeted and each day of his stay cost taxpayers approximately $500 dollars, not including drugs or special care, and he had (apparently) already stayed three days.
2. He was perfectly capable of coherent, rational thought.
3. He could have someone there to pick him up within hours.
4. He didn't like being waited upon.
5. He was irascible when he didn't get what he wanted.
6. He was allergic to their detergent.
7. He had his own personal physician at home.

To whom did he place a collect call?

To Damien, trusted adviser and confidante, who appeared six hours and forty minutes later with a pair of size ten black patent leather oxfords, one pair of black, wool-blend socks (fine weave, reinforced heel and toe), lavender combed cotton boxer shorts, pleatless black slacks of rayon/wool blend (dry clean only), a v-neck white cotton undershirt, a blue-gray combed cotton button-up shirt, and a black leather belt.

At which of Damien's suggestions did Lex balk?

The proposal that they reach Kansas via American Airlines flight #69, departing Miami International Airport at 4:54 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, arriving Dallas-Fort Worth at 7:11 p.m., changing to flight #1826 departing Dallas-Fort Worth at 8:49 p.m., arriving Metropolis International Airport at 10:04 p.m., Central Daylight Time.

Did Lex give in?

Yes.

Did Damien regret forcing the matter?

As he held the plastic-lined paper bag for Lex during two of the four and a half total flight-hours, yes.

Which of Damien's suggestions was also met with a negative?

His directive that Lex stay in Metropolis because he might be displeased with the state of affairs in Smallville. Lex insisted, however, that he needed to return to the office before his father, assuming Lex dead, took over Lexcorp.

What route did they take from Metropolis International Airport to RR-143, Smallville?

A circuitous one based upon their disagreement about how to proceed. Neglecting the immediate onramp to West 180, Damien steered toward city central, proceeding northward along Airway Drive.

What did Lex see as they sped down Industrial Avenue on the north side of Metropolis?

A familiar figure with dark hair made unfamiliar by leather jacket and uncharacteristic behavior throwing two attackers against the brick wall edging a dirty alley as a dishevelled young female watched, her face streaked with tears and blood. The familiar figure shouting to the men that he hated them, that they hurt innocent people, that they didn't deserve to be alive.

Did Damien stop the car?

At Lex's command, yes. The car, utilizing advanced suspension and ABS, stopped twenty-five feet beyond the alley. Whereupon Lex exited the vehicle (limping, dizzy) and approached Clark.

Did Clark accept Lex's offer of a ride home to Smallville?

Yes. Trembling, he climbed into the back seat of the Mercedes Kompressor (model year 2003, with GPS, PC, CD, FM, AM, VCR, TV, AC, and DVD). Lex sat beside him.

What constituted the entirety of Clark's speech during the seventy-five minute ride to Smallville?

He told Lex that he looked like hell. Said that he did not want to return to the farmhouse immediately.

Was he still wearing the ring with the red stone?

No.

Where was the ring?

It had been smashed by Clark five days earlier after he had, under the influence, killed a security guard while robbing a store. It now lay in pieces in the gutter in the southeast quadrant of the intersection of Third Street and Belmont Avenue in the Gage district of Metropolis next to a 1974 quarter, a Babe Ruth wrapper, leaf litter, and a bent fragment of a hanger.

Had Clark ever confessed to the police?

No.

Did Clark tell Lex anything of what had occured in his absence of ten days, five hours, and eighteen minutes?

No.

What were Lex's most dangerous characteristics?

His curiosity and his trust. The first because he desired to know the truth. A man of science, he insisted upon facts, incomprehensible as they might be. He desired to comprehend them, to take them apart until they could be understood. Things that could not be proven, he wanted to prove. i.e. the existence of God. A conundrum which Lex undertook with philosophical zeal in order to satisfy his own insatiable mind. The second because he had been betrayed many times in his life. And by people he should have been able to trust. i.e. his mother, his father, and his wives. Therefore, he trusted uneasily. And, once betrayed, his trust could never be regained.

What constituted Lex's thoughts during the two hours of silence on the journey home?

He ruminated on the beauty of the boy next to him. The contradiction between his innate goodness and the violence he had just displayed. Between his honesty and his capacity for deceit. His physical strength and his emotional weakness. His devotion to the girl-next-door and his hunger (if perceived correctly) for Lex.

What did the pair discover upon entering the dark house?

The power was out and the furniture had been moved. Lex, who knew the floorplan, immediately ran into a table that had been inappropriately placed in the foyer. In the study, Lex's desk had been removed to make way for yet another couch. Candles remained in their designated location in the pantry of the kitchen, adjacent to the matches. Lex lit and dispersed them throughout the kitchen until he could see clearly.

As host, what consideration did Lex extend to Clark, his guest?

The use of a ceramic mug of German craftsmanship to hold ten ounces of Ghirardelli cocoa made with real milk and raw sugar, heated by Lex himself, at the gas-powered range.

What did Lex ask of Clark?

The courtesy of his honesty in answering the following:

1. Why Clark had not been present at Lex's wedding.
2. What constituted the events of the last ten days of Clark's life.
3. Why Clark had denied being hit by Lex's car.

How did Clark respond?

Evasively. Stating that something had come up, that he hadn't been himself, that Lex had been panicked and had mis-seen Clark being hit by the car.

What did Lex do that he should not have done?

He kissed Clark.

What did Clark feel in the kiss?

Lex's anger. His passion. The accumulation of the past, all the fraught words, accusations, lies, deceptions, cover-ups, misguided attempts to ignore what they both knew to be true.

Did Clark accept Lex's invitation to stay the night?

No. He cited family worry and an accretion of farm chores that necessitated early rising. Additionally, he needed to walk home in order to process the many mixed emotions flooding his conscience.

What memory besieged Lex's mind as he felt his way down the dark corridors of the mansion?

A composite of many instances when he had wandered down dark mansion hallways, alone, lonely, with nowhere to go, no one to go to. Sometimes feverish, ill, looking for a maid to put her cool hand on his forehead. Childhood. His bare feet and flannel pajamas. Cold tiles. Searching for his mother who could not have visitors. Searching for his father, who was away on business. Sometimes searching out both of them as they argued. And then, searching out no one, because there was no one to be found.

What did Lex see when he entered his bedroom in the dark?

Lit by moonlight: Clothes (not his) uncharacteristically draped over an arm of the wingback chair in the corner. A copy of "Crime and Punishment" (also not his) on the night stand. Helen sprawled on dark satin sheets (not Lex's), naked, partially obscured by the top sheet, her hair slithering across the pillow. His father's concubine, paid in full the initial sum of $100,000 with subsequent installments of $10,000 to be deposited twice monthly in equal portion into account number 58-6923 at Metropolis Union Bank and into account number MZ-3791 at Equity Investments. The woman who had betrayed him, lied to him, cuckolded him.

What single word did Helen say upon waking?

Lionel?

Lex's reply?

That he was her husband and she his wife, however she may not recognize him. She had been faithless and had betrayed him. It was time for them to consummate their marriage.

What consequent actions did Lex perform?

Silently, with grace under pressure, he undressed, climbed into bed, and forced Helen onto her hands and knees.

What line ran through Lex's head as he fucked her where she did not want him?

Nothing can be sole or whole that has not been rent.

What qualities of the ordinary (non-mutant) human body amazed and fascinated Lex?

Its resilience. Its ability to withstand assaults, purposeful and accidental. Its tenacity when faced with injury or impending death. Its willingness to shut down certain parts in order that the others might survive. Its ability to produce adrenaline and super-strength during times of stress. Its penchant for genetic replication. Case in point: he was still alive. After many near-deaths during which he had reassessed his role in the cosmos, rethought his destiny, and appreciated the blessings of his life.

What remained of those blessings?

Nothing.

What did he say to Helen?

That he was not his father. That he would not do what his father had done. That he would not go where his father had gone.

Whom did he imagine as he spoke these words?

Clark. Under his hands. Around him, clenching, sweating, begging. His. Clark who had lied to him, who had saved him, who had seduced him, and who had (finally, irrevocably) betrayed him. Who could not be known, physically or otherwise, no matter how Lex attempted to discover the truth. He imagined Clark: beautiful, naked, open to him, welcoming him, telling him the answers, telling him (Lex) that he (Clark) loved him and trusted him.

Did he partake of a post-coital cigarette?

No. He did not smoke. Found the habit foul and plebian. Instead he withdrew and stumbled to the shower where eight gallons of water per minute at a temperature of 110 degrees fahrenheit and with sixty pounds of pressure per square inch washed away Helen's blood and excrement and caused a slight relaxation of first the psoas, and then the latissimus dorsi, as Lex curled fetal on the hand-made Italian tiles.

How long did Lex lie there?

Until his burnt, abraded skin wrinkled. Until no thoughts remained in his brain. Until he was numb with external heat and internal cold. Until tears came. Until they disappeared. Until, somewhere in the outside world, the the sun began to shine on the cornfields. Until even the castle's infinite supply of hot water ran out.

Did he get up when the water turned cold?

He did not get up.

He was home.

*