Of course Lex would be hiding out at the Kent's farm in the arms of one of their enemy. Lionel was disgusted with himself for not thinking about it earlier. Lex was injured that night he wouldn't have been able to go far. Why hadn't Lionel thought of it earlier?

They arrived en masse on the Kent lands where they were met by the lady Sheriff and the Kents, armed to the teeth and ready to expel them by force.

"Get off our land!" roared Jonathan Kent.

"I will not leave without my son." Said Lionel, cool as ice.

Lex wrapped in a blanket and wracked once more by fever made his slow way across the property and to his Father's horse. He and Clark were just leaving the barn. His father's eyes took in the scene at a quick glance. He wasn't happy with what he was seeing of his son and of Clark Kent. Hay in Clark's hair, rumpled clothes sloppily and hurriedly slapped on to cover up a tryst in the barn with the also rumpled blanket wrapped Lex.

His son gazed up at him coldly. It was of great pride to him that his son was so strong. But what Lex was doing went against everything they had strived for worked so long and so hard for.

"Lex." He began in his usual chiding way, only to have Lex stop him mid next word.

"I will tell you right now Father I will not go with you. Come inside and we will talk like civilized human beings."

Lionel had a mass of people's attentions centered on him and thinking he had the full winning hand, he decided to be benevolent. Patience would serve him well. He donned his mask of a doting, worried, reasonable father, replying. "Very well son."

Lex snorted then led the way in to his and Clark's home. Lex knew he would be painted as the rebelling son yet again and his father would have his loyal men's sympathy.

How was it, that Lionel Luthor always came out of any situation smelling like a cloying rose? Lex was disgusted and resigned. Life wasn't fair, he knew that intimately. If it had been fair he and Julian would never have had a father with a God-complex.

Once inside and in the kitchen at the good sized dining table, the one used to entertain company, things quickly went down hill.

"Lex, I don't want to do this to you. The judge ruled in my favor, as I warned you, son. You haven't any rights. You're ill. You need help, son. I can get you the help you need."

"No, you won't." Said Lex stubbornly, coughing into a handkerchief. Blood splattered the white and made a few of the people uncomfortable.

It made Clark afraid and he shakily poured Lex another glass of warm tea. His arm when finished with the task wrapped itself protectively around his sick lover giving support and much needed warmth.

"Lex is my spouse." Said Clark, fully taking charge of the situation, surprising Lex and everyone. "My rights as his Husband far out weigh yours as his Father."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Scoffed Lionel. "How preposterous! What is this nonsense?"

Lex looked at Clark eyebrow arched. Jonathan and Martha looked stunned. Chloe's teacup crashed to the floor. Lana's eyes grew wide. She did not think he would be so bold or speak so plainly of it. The marriage certificate they had all signed read very clearly in the daylight.

"I, Alexander Joseph Luthor accept this marriage and my place in it as the wife to belonging to and all of my earthly goods and dowry valued at $100 Million dollars, hereby state that I willfully and consciously in God's name take Clark Jerome Kent for my Husband and partner in all walks of our life together until death separates us.

And I, Clark Jerome Kent accept this marriage and my place in it as the Husband to and all of my earthly goods hereby state that I willfully and consciously in God's name take Alexander Joseph Luthor for my Wife and partner in all walks of our life together until death separates us."

Lionel's jaw dropped. "This can't be legal."

Lex actually burst into laughter. "I didn't believe it at first either Father but I guess I was so drunk and so nervous that I actually signed the damned document with my legal birth name. Pretty funny, eh, Dad?" He chuckled until he coughed again. Great big rib cage wracking coughs that had Clark wrapping both arms around him, blue eyes shadowing with further worry and fear. Lex wheezed and stroked a hand over Clark's arm. The next bout of coughing would surely break his ribs, Lex thought, wincing from the aching pain.

"I guess our secret's out of the bag now." Lex rasped, weakly. Clark simply held him more tightly.

"It doesn't matter Lex. Living a lie isn't in my nature. It was bound to come out sooner or later." Reassured Clark soothingly, rubbing his face against Lex's scalp.

Lionel looked to Jonathan Kent exasperated and out raged. "You can't mean to sit there and allow this to be true Mr. Kent. It's disgraceful, what would the town think? The two of them will be burned alive at the stake. You can't mean to let this perversion continue?"

Jonathan Kent sat still as an oak but he was as pale as a birch tree. He looked squarely into Lionel Luthor's eyes then looked at his son and at the sickly feeble Alexander Luthor. He'd heard enough tortured sounds over the last few weeks and seen this young man cower and rage and let madness pass through him to fight tooth and nail to sanity again and there was no guarantee that Lex was going to make it past another couple of weeks. He looked to his wife whose face was as pale as his but who didn't look half as surprised.

Martha was always an observant and smart woman, too smart sometimes even for her or her husband's own good. He could read her expression very clearly she was resigned and stubbornly set in her own mind for doing the right thing and that right thing right now was protecting the obviously wounded and mistreated young Luthor.

"We will abide by the Marriage Certificate. As far as I'm concerned Lex is Betty-Sue and she's one hell of a fine daughter in law. She makes my son happy. That's all that matters to me."

Jaws continued to drop in astonishment. Martha smiled and squeezed his shoulder as if to say, "Ya done good, real good, pa." He couldn't help but feel like a giant among men for having put that smile on his wife's face and even the smile on his son's face and the stunned look of amazement on Lex's face, but most cheery of all was the look on Lionel's face the disgust and hatred that flared there both terrified Jonathan and exhilarated him. Lionel wasn't going to win this battle so easily.

Damn the consequences if it got Lionel Luthor off their backs, his greedy eyes away from his lands, then he would accept Lex as Betty-Sue and let his son and Lex be together for however long Lex's health allowed.

Steaming mad Lionel demanded they go find a judge and get the documents looked at. He knew he would win, those documents couldn't possibly hold up to the light of day. The Kents would be very sorry for siding with Lex and continuing this farce.

The whole lot of them made a trek into town and pounded on the Judge's door interrupting his dinner.

The Judge looked at it and said. "It's legal and it's binding. I'm sorry Mister Luthor but your son, daughter, son whatever he is, doesn't belong to you. Clark, do you wish to have your wife, husband, wife, whatever, committed to the Kansas City Asylum?"

"Hell No! My wife is a perfectly sane and sweet lady. I don't want her locked away. She belongs with me. She's my wife." Said Clark with a mulish clench of his jaw.

Lex blinked then slugged Clark in the arm. Though it was a very weak punch, Clark pretended to grimace and be in pain, hamming it up for the gawkers.

"All right then this matter is over." Said the Judge.

"But this can't be binding or legal. They're two men. They're a travesty in the eyes of God." Protested Lionel.

"Well sir, if it's really such a travesty, why hasn't God himself struck them dead yet? It was one of God's priests that did the binding, weren't it? I sure as hell ain't mess'n with the church, and in case you haven't noticed this particular church don't look kindly on divorce or annulment. Sorry, can't help ya. I don't want to be denied last rights in the last hours of my time on earth. Now leave me be to my dinner." He then slammed the door in their faces.

Lex shrugged. "Well I guess that takes care of that. Sorry to disappoint you, Dad, I guess I won't become president after all." He smirked, his arm slipping inside of Clark's elbow. They were ready to go back home to the farm.

Lionel was flabbergasted. "I won't rest until this gets taken care of. I tell you, I won't stand for this. That oaf is going to pay!"

"Dad he's the only judge in the county and if you pursue this any further, I have an obligation to warn you, I've been saving a little something for just the right occasion. It's called a corporate take-over. As of." Lex pointedly looked down at his pocket watch, "7:35 this morning, I own all of Lu-er- Lex Corp. Now. You have a choice Dad. Retire and live happily in the city of Metropolis or two, get locked up for trespassing. This is "game over", "check'n'mate", daddy dearest."

"No! No! How could you do this to me Lex? I'm your father!" He raged. "I won't let you get away with this. How long have you planned this? How could this have happened?"

"Dad, dad, composure, please, you're making a spectacle of yourself." Said Lex affecting the same droll tone his own father had often employed on him while making insinuations like this. "It's very unbecoming of you. Let me explain, it's all very simple Dad; I had been putting the whole thing in motion since even before the day of my disappearance. In fact, do you recall an old school chum of mine, Bruce Wayne, of Wayne Enterprises over in our neighboring city of Gotham? He helped me with the whole take-over."

"Lex, this is unforgivable. I made you. I can break you. I'll get my company back if it's the last thing I do. I'll see justice done son," irately Lionel threatened. "And then I'm going to see you locked away in another Belle Reve."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Father, such spite, such fire, such malice. Good luck in your endeavors, you're going to need it. Because already there's quite a nasty little story in publication, in syndication, right now on you, and I think you're going to find it very hard to have any friends left after today"

"You've ruined me." Gasped Lionel truly astonished. He'd never dreamed Lex would have it in him to hold onto such spite. To follow through on something so drastic, so underhanded and to make such an impossible outcome, succeed. He couldn't have been more proud. Lex truly was a Luthor.

"Of course Father, fair is only fair after all." Assured Lex with the sweetest smile anyone had ever seen before his body was wracked by another bout of ragged coughing. Clark put a steadying arm around his shoulders and waist and hugged him close.

Lionel took his defeat with grace and retired to his townhouse where he became a recluse and would die a short time later under mysterious circumstances. Lucas and his wife were quickly transferred to another state to work in another branch of the Lex Corporation. Julian was given an office and left alone to quietly do his work in.

The rift between the two brothers seemed as wide as an ocean and just as difficult to cross. Neither brother quite knew how to make the first move in reparation. It was perhaps only a move Lex himself could make if time and health allowed him to. If he felt forgiveness move him to. The thing was Lex Luthor didn't forgive betrayal. It was one of his rules. A rule he never bent for anyone. Besides how could he trust Julian again? Julian had drugged him and played mind games on him. Julian had tried to control him as their Father had controlled the both of them. Julian was a Luthor first and a brother second. It was a painful lesson to learn but learn it Lex had, with great pains.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

A few weeks later

Lex dressed in a heavy nightgown wrapped in a blanket and a knitted shah sat in a rocking chair on their front porch. He was very pale and very sickly still. His chest ached, his body hurt. He was tired but found he couldn't quite give up and die.

He loved Clark too much and stayed, enduring illness and pain for this one person he loved above all others. Lex wasn't truly immortal or so he believed, there was no guarantee that if he died this time, he'd resurrect like the times before.

He was pretty sure his chances were getting smaller and smaller every day.

His wounds healed fast usually but this time he'd healed slower than the norm for him from those gun shot wounds, and shortly after that the pneumonia that had plagued him. He was still suffering from the cancer in his blood. Which shouldn't have been the case but there it was.

He was dying.

Clark was concerned. Their parents and in-laws were each in their own respective homes now. The excitement of the last few weeks was dying down now. Their friends were letting them have some alone time as well. Each one probably trying to get some perspective and come to terms each in their own individual way with what they had just found out about their friend Betty-Sue and that Lex and Clark would continue in a married fashion as they had before as if nothing had changed at all between them.

It was going to take Jonathan Kent a long time to actually come to real terms with it and Pete Ross-Sullivan even longer but he was a good man. Pete and Jonathan were both really good men, good people. Jonathan was usually pretty fair minded, usually, except when he was being stubborn much like a certain young Adonis he had raised.

Lex was exhausted. Clark could see the weariness within him. The heavy spirit and the heartache of having his family betray him over and over again paid a toll on Lex's heart and health.

"I brought you some tea. Piping hot, the way you like it." Announced Clark very clearly and presenting the nice tray with its expensive china, a gift from their wedding day, on it. He sat it down on top of the whicker table by the rocker. He sat in the chair snuggled as tightly as he could up against Lex. Breathing in his dying lover.

"I just want you to live Lex," he whispered hoarsely, burying his face in Lex's neck and giving it a gentle kiss.

"I know Clark. I don't want to die. I want to live too." He whispered, stroking a shaking hand through Clark's silky hair. It always felt softer then anything he'd ever touched. If Clark's hair could be grown and shorn like that of sheep's wool they'd make a killing in the market for expensive soft textiles.

"Every day it gets closer and closer and I don't know what to do." Said Lex. Continuing to stroke Clark's hair, keeping Clark's face tucked in against his neck. It was a great comfort to him. "I'm so tired. You can feel it too can't you Clark. How tired I am?"

Clark bit down on words of denial, even as he lightly bit down on Lex's neck and nibbled his mark into Lex's soft skin. He couldn't lift his face from Lex's neck or quite let the little bit of Lex in his mouth go as he replied in a soft whimper of pain. "Yes."

"Clark, I'm content that I was victorious over my Father. I'm happy here with you. If I'm going to die," He said stumbling over the right words, trying to get his thoughts in order. He wanted to make sure that his last wishes were fully understood, that Clark truly knew what it was he was asking of his husband. "No more doctors, no more medicines or poking or prodding. I don't want to go to a hospital either. I want to be here, on this farm, in this house, near you, when I... when my final hour comes upon me and I am left with no more strength to fight on, when I finally go I just want to be here breathing you in, feeling you near."

Clark swallowed a lump in his throat fighting the sudden sense of hopelessness and tears that came over him. He bit down harder on Lex's neck, wrapping his arms more tightly around his fading flower. "Oh Lex," he moaned. "My Lex. My beautiful Lex."

Clark's mouth was doing delicious things to his neck. The mouser in his lap leaped off smelling where his two masters were headed and ran off to do mischief elsewhere. Clark's hands feverishly ran down Lex's chest and under his gown, gripping his firm thighs and trailing up, up and up to his nipples, bypassing sculpted stomach and engorging cock. Lex squirmed and whimpered.

"We aren't seriously going to do this, out here, right now, are we?" Lex panted, hands convulsively gripping Clark's head more tightly to his neck. His body wanted one thing, his mind told him to take it inside so the in-laws wouldn't witness their boy having sex with another man.

Clark's only answer was to move his arms more securely around Lex's waist then lifted him up never breaking contact with Lex's body. He walked backwards into their house then kicked the door shut. His body hurt he couldn't stop even if he wanted to which he didn't. He needed Lex. He wanted Lex right now.

Right Now.

Lex squirmed and gasped as Clark's hands moved back into place over his chest, thumbs stroking at the hardened tips of straining nipples. Then those gentle strong hands swept downward stroking over taught stomach muscles and still further down to grip him for the first time.

Lex's mouth opened in a silent "oh" as his breath was stolen from him by the unexpected move. Clark's hand stroked him, gripped him firmly, pumped him gently from base to tip and back down again in a maddening rhythm that made him jerk his hips and ache with the full pleasure of such sensations.

This was Clark loving him and accepting him fully as a man. Clark's hand was growing slippery with each gliding move as Lex's cock leaked and made him whimper uncontrollably. His nails bit into Clark's scalp as orgasm wracked through his body making him come harder then he'd ever come before in his life.

Clark purred and growled, biting down once more on his lover's neck and drawing blood. Lapping his tongue along Lex's slick neck, tasting the iron and the salt of sweat and blood, driving him to hump desperately into Lex's cushiony bum. He couldn't find release as he drove himself harder and harder against Lex. He had to get naked, he had to have Lex undressed and under him now. He had to bury his hardness deep and make his claim lasting, make this act of love complete.

This man was his. This love of his heart was a candle burning bright too bright, too fast his flame would be extinguished and it hurt to think these things as he only wanted to make his love know just how much he was valued how much he meant to him. This was the one person he loved and wanted to be with.

Forever.

Even unto death and beyond it.

Lex felt the floor against his naked flesh felt a renewal of arousal as Clark yanked cotton shirt and jeans off, baring tanned golden flesh, muscles and manly beauty stealing his breath yet again.

Clark smiled sweetly then descended upon him.

Clark's ravenous mouth kissing and biting, licking at lips and skin and nipples that mouth, oh how good it felt on him. Working with strong farmer's hands moving in concert to bring Lex so much pleasure.

Clark descended on his body like a hungry wolf on a flock of sheep. Full body contact, drowning him in sensations he never thought to feel from someone so special or so good as Clark Kent.

He sobbed as Clark's mouth traveled down his body and took his erection into his mouth. Tasting him testing the flavor with sensuous licks then full out suction, slowly easing down trapping the head of his cock between the lips of his mouth, tongue teasing the slit for a time then his tongue moved down slithering down the shaft drawing him in deeper into the back of his hot wet mouth.

Lex whimpered and bit down on a knuckle to keep from screaming. He arched his back snapping his spine in a full out cat-like stretch of his body, one hand buried in Clark's curls, while the other hand took abuse from sharp teeth, biting hard to keep from screaming. Even as his hips jerked off the hard wood and he tried to ram himself even deeper into Clark's mouth, mindless with sensation and need.

Lex tasted amazing.

Lex panted breathless and satiated. He'd come twice. Clark was so tantalizing smirking up at him from between his thighs, droplets of cum sliding like tears from the corner of his mouth.

"Clark." He whispered dazed still from his release.

Clark grinned even wider then his mouth covered Lex's in a conquering wet hot kiss that drove Lex into another frenzy. Clark's mouth tasted hot, sexy, he couldn't get enough of Clark's kisses. Tongues dueled mouths bit and sucked hungrily at the other. Clark was still hard and demanding.

"Want to cum baby?" he asked as their kiss finally broke apart, voice husky with renewed desire. Clark groaned and devoured his mouth yet again, traveling down to bite at Lex's throat. Lex's arms tightened in a convulsive hug, his legs spread wide of their own accord.

Clark rubbed his hard dick all over, leaking pre-cum, and mixing Lex's sweat and cum, with his own. Rubbing serpent like all over Lex's body, letting Lex's mouth direct his moves.

Who knew Lex could talk so much? Or that Clark would be turned on by such filthy talk.

"That's it baby. It's so good isn't it? Your hard manhood claiming me. Rub it Clark. Rub it against me, every inch of it. I watch you fist yourself and it drives me insane." He urged hoarsely.

Lex's hips arched yet again off the now soaked with sweat blood and cum wooden flooring. Clark sobbed in a breath of air. Lex was so beautiful like this wild and aroused, wet and slick, from their lovemaking. Clark was so close to coming now and he hadn't even gotten to the best part yet.

Fucking Lex's ass through the floor.

"Lex." he cried. "I'm...I'm so close." He gasped. Lining up his hard aching member, it was going to feel so good, so tight and hot and better then Lex's mouth, well no, Lex's mouth was so good, so hot and sweet and oh what Lex could do with that tongue of his! He stopped half way in.

Lex pounded the floor with his fists and he sobbed. "Clark what are you doing? Bury it in deep. Claim me, take me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me now!" he screamed. "You're killing me! Fuck me, fuck me now." He howled and took the decision out of Clark's hands as he drove his own ass down on to Clark's cock. .
Clark buckled and drove his dick in to the root pounding into his lover's backside with gusto, meeting Lex's upward thrusts with his downward ones. He'd never made love so fiercely or so ferociously before.

Sobbing Lex gasped desperately his lover's name.

Lex's fingers trailed in his sweat slick back, gripping hard round buttocks driving Clark deeper into his body. His lungs hurt his chest ached he coughed but held on to Clark not wanting this moment to end.

Clark bucked and arched and pounded and humped wildly in turn.

"Oh yes, oh yes."

Yes

"YES!" he howled.

Completion at last setting Clark off, his own orgasm gushed and emptied his seed into Lex's body and he collapsed on top of his beloved. His wilted member easily slipped out of the wet loose confines of Lex's well-loved backside. He groaned and felt himself black out for a short time.

When he woke Lex looked very mellow and happy. Playfully twirling a dark curl in his fingers.

"Clark," He murmured dreamily, voice horse from screams and his coughing. "That was fantastic."

Clark smiled, grinning cheekily. He felt like a God. With Lex at his side, with Lex in his arms, he truly felt complete. He felt invulnerable. He felt fantastic. His cock perked up and it was time for another round of love making with his Lex. Another round of playful kisses turned to hungry and passionate ones. Another round of love making later and Clark as well as Lex had to admit that Lex needed to be left alone to rest.

"I've exhausted you. You're ill, you need to rest." Said Clark remanding both of them for their foolishness. He felt guilty.

"Don't Clark. Don't regret this. It's been too long for us, since we've made love. I've missed you so much. I missed our love making so much. Besides I felt so alive Clark, so invincible, while in your arms. I don't care that I've exhausted myself. This illness is not going to beat us. I won't let it steal what happiness I have found again with you away from us. What hours or days I have left I want to live fully Clark. Please let me do so."

"All right Lex." Clark bowed his head. "No regrets."

Lex smiled brightly. "Thank you Clark. You've made me very happy."

Clark tucked Lex into bed after a long soak in the bathtub. Which he'd super heated with his vision. It wasn't important any longer to keep his abilities a secret. Lex was dying and Lex was his mate. It was not a time to keep secrets any longer. It was a time to be honest and to fully enjoy what time they had left to each other.

Clark grieved quietly but stayed strong for Lex. He prayed for a miracle every night and every morning. Lex was waning. His strength was leaving him. Death was only a few short hours away and Clark could sense it. Feel it and he raged against it.

WHY? He screamed at the heavens. WHY?

He needed a miracle so desperately. His heart was breaking again. His mind was growing unsteady again. His parents and friends worried. They tried to take the burden from him but they couldn't. His burden was Lex's dying.

"Make him better." He pleaded. "Please make him better."

Martha held her grieving son and prayed beside him. They sat vigil over Lex through the night. Julian Luthor came to them and sat beside them.

"You're not forgiven yet, but he's dying and he loves you still." Explained Clark quietly. "I'm not happy that you're here. You hurt him. My mother thought it would be best for both you and Lex if you were here for his passing since this will be your last chance at setting things right between you. Despite the pain you caused him, he wants you here for his passing."

"I understand Mr. Kent." Julian replied somberly. "I love my brother. I was misguided in my jealousy to keep him for myself. I was- am a spoilt brat. But I truly love my brother he is dearer to me then anything." Julian insisted.

"Then you should have treated him less carelessly." Clark growled, his impotent anger, finding at last, a target to unleash itself on.

Julian bowed his head. "I know my sins are vast Mr. Kent If I had known what that flower would do to him, truly do to him, I would never have succumbed to the plan of inducing Lex to become dependent on me. You must believe me about that. Please can we not have some peace between us for now, for my brother's passing?"

Clark glowered "You make me sick." He hissed then stomped out of the room.

He couldn't breathe the same air as Julian Luthor. The boy was too much for him to take in. He knew it was unfair to blame the kid for Lex's illness but Lex wouldn't be dying right now if it hadn't been for Julian's flower. Its' substance was the stuff that had compounded Lex's illness and was destroying Lex's abilities to heal.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Julian bowed his head. He knew what he had done was wrong. He was paying for it. His brother was dying and he was helpless to stop it from happening. He was being punished enough. The conscience his father had tried so hard to destroy was eating Julian alive inside. He felt so much guilt and grief for what he had done to his brother.

"Lex was my world. I just wanted him to stay with me, for me to be his world as he was mine. I know now that it was very wrong of me to do what I had done. It was a childish thing to do." He murmured brokenly. Martha Kent's hand touched his shoulder giving comfort to him as only a Mother's love could.

"I know son." She said gently. "I see it in your eyes, how truly sorry you are for the wrongs you committed against your kin. Lex wants to forgive you. He's just not strong enough to say the words yet. You are his child as much as you are Lionel's or even Lillian's. It pains him that he has cut you out of his life. He's dying and he recognizes that there is no more time left for either of you."

"He doesn't forgive betrayal, ma'am." Julian replied sadly. "I betrayed him. He won't forgive me."

"He has no other choice Julian. He's dying. If he wants to leave this earth at peace he has to forgive you." Insisted Martha.

"And what if some miracle happens at the time, on the very hour of his death, and he should live, what then? Will he still forgive me?" asked the desperate youth.

Martha sighed. "I'm not all knowing. If I were I'd be God. But what I think, what I suspect is, that there will be no miracle, I pray there will be, that he lives, but he's suffered so much. Perhaps it would be cruel of us to hold on to him when it would be best if he go on into the next world. If he were to live but still be as he his now, do you not also think it would be best for him that the Angel of Death come for him and put him out of his tortured existence?"

"I'm too selfish Ma'am, that's why all this has happened, why my brother is now the way he is, ill of health and constantly in a state of pain. I don't want to let him go. Yet, I don't want him to suffer any more. I love my brother. I love him so much. If I could reverse what I had done or even instead take his place, and die as he is doing right now, I would."

"I know you would. There is no mistake the love you have for your brother." Assured Martha. "Come, let us see him and visit with him for a little bit. I am sure he will be glad to see you."

A Knight Comes To Town .....

Meanwhile Bruce Wayne of Gotham City, best friend of Lex Luthor and amateur mystery hunter came to town on the stagecoach an octagonal piece of jewelry in his keeping. He was a man possessed with the need to see his friend. The device was so unique it was a discovery that Lex just had to see. He was worried about his friend. Bruce knew he often gave off the impression that he was quite irresponsible and flighty brained but Bruce Wayne actually was quite perceptive and he did notice that Lex had gone for a while too long in not writing him. Bruce felt that there was something seriously wrong with his friend. He felt an urgent need to find him. He just hoped Lex was in Smallville like they had planned.

It glowed now, the octagonal key, guiding Bruce into the hidden caves of the natives. The key floated up and positioned itself in the wall sending out a beam of light so intense that Bruce knew he had to follow it. An answering glow came from the farm several hundred yards away. Bruce Wayne ran after it. Hoping for the next discovery of a lifetime and possibly the answer to the mystery of his best friend's disappearance.

Julian and Martha Kent entered the bedroom where Lex lay bundled under a pile of blankets. His eyes were rimmed in black circles and his cheeks were hollowed, he looked more skeleton than man. His breathing was harsh and it sounded like he fought for every iota of air. He was deathly pale, and his lips purple. The hour of his death was coming ever closer upon him.

"Lex." Julian choked out.

"Julian." Wheezed Lex. "You... came."

"Yes brother, I came. I ...Oh God." Julian hissed as the true impact finally came over him. Julian gulped and fought against an onrush of tears. This was his brother. This was what he had done to his flesh and blood, to the only person in this world that had ever truly loved him. Lex had been his mother, his father, and brother forever, and Julian had been the instigator in his death.

"Please Lex, please forgive me." Julian begged rushing to Lex's bedside and falling to his knees, face touching the blankets nearest his brother's heart. "I didn't mean to do this to you. I didn't think. I was selfish Lex. I did a lot of wrongs to you." Julian babbled. Tears were uncontrollably filling his eyes. The lump in his throat made it hard to talk but he had to tell Lex everything. He needed his brother to know just how much he meant to him, just how much all of this was killing him. "I loved you so much and I was crazy with jealousy. This is all my fault. I know I should pay for what I did to you. I know I shouldn't ask you to forgive me. But please, Lex, I love you so much it hurts so much. Don't leave me. Don't die. Please don't die. Please don't die." He begged. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really, sorry. I am so sorry. Don't die. God don't leave me. I am sorry. So sorry." He sobbed.

Lex tried to speak. How could he trust this? Julian, his Julian, his baby, his baby brother, his good baby Julian, but Julian was an adult now and he was a shark, he was a Luthor. Luthors were never sorry. They were never overly affectionate either.

What Julian had done was unforgivable and yet.... and yet.... This was Julian.

This was his baby.

How could he not forgive his child? He didn't want to see Julian suffer any more and he knew that by dying and leaving Julian un-forgiven it would be a sentence too harsh, it would drive is already borderline brother over the edge. He couldn't let Julian suffer like that.

Lex wasn't Lionel Luthor. He didn't want his son - his baby brother, to be punished forever. He didn't hold a grudge like Lionel did. He didn't need to torture his child or see his child suffer in order to derive some kind of pleasure or satisfaction from life.

"Julian...you...are...my...brother." He gasped, fighting for the air and the strength to say what needed saying. "I for ... give...forgive... you."

Julian wept even harder, his arms thrown around Lex, though Lex could barely feel him through the many layers of blankets and quilts.

"Thank you," whispered Julian, through his tears. "Thank you Lex."

Lex patted his back with a feeble shaking hand.

Martha smiled. "Thank you Lex for finding the strength to forgive him."

Lex was too worn to move or even speak his eyes were closing he needed to rest. He could feel the time coming. It was coming too soon.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

When Clark entered the house after a long walk in the cold evening air, he saw Julian tucked into Martha's side crying. Martha looked as peaceful and serene as ever. Clark thought for a moment he had missed Lex's passing but if he had then Julian wouldn't have been the only one sobbing away like a broken hearted soul.

"He's still with us?" he asked hoping desperately.

Martha nodded. Julian sniffed and coughed. "Yes for now." He managed to say brokenly through his tears.

Clark breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God." He took another breath and then announced. "I'm going to go up to stay with him for a while. I'm not very hungry so I won't need dinner tonight, okay?"

Martha nodded. "I understand Clark."

Martha turned into the host for the Kent household. Their friends waited sitting vigil in their den. Chloe and Pete, Lana and Whitney, Jonathan Kent and Gabe Sullivan. Lois Lane was not there and neither was her Father, the retired general. Which was not a conspicuous absence since Clark's family did not know them very well and Lex didn't know the Lanes at all. Though he did know Gabe from years ago and again in recent years as he helped manage the Luthor Factory in Smallville and Lex had sometimes kept in touch with him through the years and even kept tabs on the Factory and Gabe's family helping them through some of their hard times.

"Lex was a good boss and a good man." Said Gabe quietly. Chloe agreed with her father and Pete stayed neutral he was there for his wife to support her and their friend Clark, not Lex.

The house was silent except for the crackle of the fire of wood popping and snapping from the heat of the consuming blaze that kept them warm in the Kent house.

Some time passed when a strange phenomenon occurred.

Lex and Clark were suddenly both engulfed in the light. A voice reverberated on the air resonating in their ears. "Ah, yes, Kal-El, my son. Your Destiny is at last upon you. Your mate will live. I have put right what has gone wrong with his genetic make-up. Grow strong my son and embark on the path you were sent here to take."

Clark looked on Lex in shock and joy, this couldn't possibly be happening. This was a miracle.

Yet, their miracle came to them but at what price?

It was not a question with an answer any of them were ready to figure out. Clark was just glad to have Lex healthy and well again. He hugged Lex close and decided he wasn't going to let go of Lex for a long, long, time to come.

Following the path of light, Bruce Wayne entered the house where his friend resided. He gained entry easily enough since no one seemed to want to bar his path, hospitality though was markedly lacking, but that could be excused due entirely to the fact that these people had witnessed a true miracle, the workings of a power that could only have come from one divine power, God had made his choice to them and he seemed to like Lex well enough to let him live a bit longer, maybe it was simply that God loved and Clark and didn't want to his favorite child on earth go on living in his world in misery without the one living by his side.

"Lex, my God, man, you look terrible." Came Bruce's pleasant baritone.

Lex rolled his eyes at Bruce and scowled. "Why must you always state the obvious Bruce?"

Bruce frowned. "Because that's just who I am Lex. I see that our plan worked. How are things? You had me worried."

"Things were going well, that is plan wise, health wise I was dying. But now I'm not." Said Lex.

"Truly? I came as soon as I could. As you know I was in Cairo in the deep sands of Egypt doing a little dig exploration, and guess what Lex." said Bruce excitedly.

"What?" Lex asked still exhausted.

"I found what we were looking for. A medallion of an octagonal shape, which I believe to be from the heavens, it has now locked itself into the wall of the one of the caves. And it sent a beam of light here to this farm." Said Bruce excitedly. "For what purpose I do not know. - Imagine it Lex! A connection to the very heavens themselves! It's the discovery of a lifetime!" Bruce crowed.

Lex sighed. Bruce was always so enthusiastic. He'd forgotten how exhausting the man could be. "Our miracle was at your hands Bruce? And here I thought God had decided to answer our prayers for once."

"Maybe he did Lex, it's all about the interpretation and the way you want to see it." Bruce replied. "Anyway, isn't it exciting the discovery of a lifetime?"

"Yes, very exciting. Thank you Bruce but I'm not going to go back with you to Cairo this time. I'm staying here and seeing to business and to Clark."

Bruce looked long and deep into Lex's eyes. Bruce's gaze was as unsettling as always. The man may have acted like a complete jovial airhead but in truth Bruce was a very deep and brooding sort of man. Bruce cared deeply for him and Lex knew that and now could actually recognize Bruce's feelings for the something more that they were.

Bruce Wayne loved Lex Luthor, not like a brother but like a lover and hadn't been strong enough to embrace those feelings or allow them to take over or change the dynamic of their brotherly friendship. Bruce was as much a soul mate to Lex as Clark was, but it was Clark that had captured Lex's heart in the deepest and strongest way.

"I understand." Said Bruce, taking Lex's hand in his. "I'm going to miss spending time with you Lex. I'm glad you're feeling better now and that you've found someone worthy of you. I guess I should be going, it's late and I need to catch the next stagecoach out of town in the morning. Business of my own to take care of back at the dig."

"Thank you for coming and everything Bruce. I mean that." Said Lex in all true sincerity.

Bruce simply smiled and waved a hand as he left them. The others, their friends filed out, one by one, after Bruce; each one happy that Lex and Clark would be all right.

Bruce would nurse his heartache later and maybe in time he would find someone worthy like Lex had been to love and be loved by. Perhaps he would have his own happy ending some day, but today was not that day. He was happy for Lex truly but it was going to take him a while to get over losing the man he loved. They would always be friends. They had too much history and too much of a bond not to be but for right now it was just too painful to stay in the same town or even on the same continent as Alexander Joseph Luthor-Kent.

The Patient Hunter Always Catches His Pray....

"You should have just let yourself die Lex. It would have made this so much more easier for all of us if you had." Lois muttered. Her stooges stood with her in the shadows watching the Kent farm.

"We just need to bide our time a little bit longer boys, then this damned thing will be all over and we can go home and live our lives in total content and peace knowing that we have rid the world of a great sleeping evil."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

The Final Curtain Falls,

The Last Scene Is Set ....

Lois was patient as were her stooges the time came when the Kents' guards were down and even the Luthors' guards were down as well. It was a potluck in the middle of the fields between Luthor and Kent lands that Lois Lane and her stooges descended upon the frolicking couple.

Clark easily protected Lex, covering him with his body as bullets were fired from three sets of handguns. Lex screamed and tried to roll them over so that he could protect Clark. He was blinded by rage and terror. His Clark was taking every bullet hit. Clark was dying in his arms. Lex was convinced of this, since at such close range, how could these bandits not miss?

"Clark!" he screamed, "CLAAAAAARK!"

Soon the gunfire stopped as their assailants had to reload their weapons. Clark struck then. Swift as any speeding bullet he yanked their weapons out of their hands and then melted them on the spot with eyes ablaze with killing rage.

Lois and her crew gaped. They had put enough bullets into this guy to kill even an elephant and there should have been bullet or two in Luthor as well but to their shock there was not a single bullet in either victim.

"Why are you doing this?" growled Clark.

Lex was shaking and stunned. He had known Clark was special but he had never suspected under skin so soft, even corded with muscle that his skin so beautifully gentle to Lex's sensitive touch, which smooth and soft like silk, there was so much steel to it. Enough steel to withstand bullets. Yet how come every time they made love that invulnerable skin opened under his fingernails? Maybe it was a self defense mechanism. Maybe in moments of danger it could become like a shield but become normal skin when in the throws of passion? Clark was a puzzle that was going to last him a long time to figure out.

Lois Lane shook. She was afraid. What kind of man was this? This person couldn't be human. A demon? That would make sense, a demon protecting the Prince of Hell.

How was she to kill Luthor and Kent, if Kent was bullet proof?

"My reasons are pure. I am trying to save the world. I am trying to save women from continued enslavery. In this country where slaves are now free, we women are still without the rights to own land or even vote. This man is destined to be someone powerful in the future and he will destroy the world. My aunt, a seer, has foreseen this."

Chloe Sullivan and an Old Lady were riding their horses hard to get to the couple in time.

"Stop Lois, stop!" Chloe screamed as she then dismounted her chestnut mare.

The old lady at her side hobbled up to them. "Lois, this madness must stop. He is no longer a threat to the world. His path has diverged. I see the future and it is a marvelous place grandniece. His alliance with the Kents was catalyst enough to stop the horror of the coming apocalypse of our time. Please my dear one let this go." Impeached Cassandra, gently.

Lois was stunned. How was she to let this go? She had just found out that Kent was not human. Her fear told her to kill him to rid the world of this unknown creature and Luthor who could still turn into a monster.

She wanted to save the world. She wanted to save women and give them freedom. She wanted to follow through with her mission because that was the kind of woman she was. She never failed at anything and once her mind was made up she could be ruthlessly persistent. It was these qualities that had gotten her where she was in this life when women were treated as less then human beings with minds and feeling and heart.

Yet Cassandra was never wrong. If she said that disaster had been averted then disaster was averted.

`I am afraid. Dear Aunt. How do I stop?" Lois asked, trembling. "How do I stop?"

"By letting go," replied Cassandra, "by simply letting go, my dear."

Lois closed her eyes. Her two men waited for her to speak and give them new orders. They were loyal even if they were faulty followers. Opening her eyes she looked into her men's eyes and into her family members' eyes. She knew what she needed to do. This was a battle already fought and won. If she continued to fight she would be doing evil and that was not what she wanted to do.

"All right. This is done. I will go back to Metropolis and take the fight to Washington. Where our head women's chapter resides. If I kill Luthor today I would be committing murder in the name of stubbornness rather then in the name of what is right."

They each breathed a sigh of relief. Lex though was still not happy. "I should press charges against you. What you did to me was terrorize me and ... and..."

"Lex." Said Clark. "Let it go."

"But she came after me Clark. She was the whole reason behind ..."

"Because of her we met each other Lex. I think out of this gratefulness we should be feeling" he said pointedly, "It is the least we can do to not press charges against her."

"But she's dangerous, who the hell knows who else she might try to kill, all in the name of her cause!" argued Lex.

"Lex, please." Chloe's pleading eyes mixed with Clark's made Lex wilt.

"Fine, but she stays the hell away from me for the rest of my life."

Clark smiled. Then glomped onto him, and nearly hugged him to death. "Bastard." Murmured Lex grouchily, though he couldn't hold onto his mood for much longer, how could he with Clark hugging him and kissing him and... oops... Clark really shouldn't be touching him there, not while an audience was present.

"Enough of that, Clark." Chastised Lex, shoving Clark off of him. "I'm not going to publicize what we do in the privacy of our own home. Now get off."

Clark reluctantly let go of his lover. Chloe and Cassandra escorted Lois and her gang off the Luthor-Kent properties and left the two lovebirds alone to finally enjoy the peace and comfort of finally being safe.

The two kissed and went back to their disturbed picnic, watching as the sun began to slowly sink into the western sky in swaths of blue and purple and oranges.

Lex and Clark stayed in Smallville, where they helped to run, alongside of their friends, the Smallville Torch, the Talon, and The Kent-Luthor Homesteads. As for Clark's true reason for being on earth- who knows? (shrug)

They had a lifetime ahead of them to figure it all out.

Happily,

The End

(Good news a sequel is now in the writing process, bad news though, it will most likely be posted some time next year --- sorry folks, i take a long time to write a story and i didn't think at the time that wrote sv Bride that I would write a sequel but then it came to me in an odd dream. I knew it would be perfect... Lex doesn't forgive easy, Julian has a lot to make up for and he still has to find it in himself to let Lex really go free. Right now all is good between them because of the deathbed confession forgiveness scene. SO, I thought, why not write some more about the Luthor brothers and the new troubles and Clark's feelings of resentment towards Julian's actions. Also, Betty-Sue is still out there and what if she came back to smallville at heart she's a decent woman and she feels some guilt for having hurt her fiance and tricking him, and if she comes to town the whole town will be resentful of her presence because the town still doesn't know that Lex was Betty. And say that Betty also happens to have a child in tow? hmmmm? wicked! I'm not going to give away the whole plot here but let me just say, the twists keep on coming and I'm enjoying the creation of this sequel as much as I did the first story. Thank you to everyone who sent feedback, you have been very generous and it warmed me very much to hear from you. )