Lex sobbed in his sleep. Seeing the things of nightmares. A Keening wail escaped his throat. It was a scream that had been building and building in his chest for hours.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO." He screamed.

"Julian! Julian!" he sobbed. "Make it go away. Make it go away!"

He felt the sting of a slap. Felt the needle slip in. Felt the nice feelings suffuse him, comfort him, wrap him in arms of warmth and safety.

His mouth opened to utter a silent "Oh" of relief. Eyes open and glazed as the drug took effect. He looked at his little brother with a happy little smile on his face. He was as happy as a clam in the ocean.

His relief was shortly lived as his nightmares upped the ante. This time his nightmares chased him into the world of consciousness. This time the drug didn't help take away the fear or the pain. This time it only seemed to enhance it.

This time he had no choice but to live through the memory and the sensations. He was cold. It was always dark there in Belle Reve, and freezing too.

Always so cold,

So... cold...

Only bad little children get sent to places like this. No one human worked at Belle Reve.

They couldn't be human if they could be this cruel to the helpless and insane.

No one could be this terrible.

They were all demons.

They had to be.

No one human could possibly be this cruel.

Could they?

That place had to have been hell. And Lex really must have sinned bad to be sent there. Because only bad, bad, bad people ever got sent to hell. Mrs. Levi told him so, in bible school; that only the truly evil go to hell. So Lex must have done something, been born out of something truly evil, to end up in Belle Reve.

He promised his father anything everything if only his father would just take him home, get him out of this place. He was weeping now, begging to be released.

He was bound in a straight jacket and tied to a dirty stinky bed. He was soaked through to the skin because the nurses had just come through with the hose and rinsed them all down. He was shivering. He was going to get pneumonia and die. This wasn't a hospital this was a place of reaping death.

He was bad.

He had to be.

Bad

Bad

Bad, Lex, Bad!

"Daddy put you here because you were bad." He whimpered.

He must have been very bad.

Very,

Very,

"Very Bad." He whispered.

Very bad, indeed; if he had wound up here, in this charnel house.

His father wouldn't put him in this place if he hadn't deserved it. Surely, his father wouldn't put him in this place, if he were innocent?

Surely?

Surely, his Father wouldn't have put him here on purpose, if he hadn't somehow deserved it?

Right?

Right?

He was crying harder now. The tears and snot were choking the breath from his lungs. He hurt so badly.

He couldn't breathe.

He wasn't allowed to see the sun in Belle Reve. He wasn't allowed to breathe in the fresh air of the outside world, except on very, very important days and those days were very few and very far in between.

He was allowed outside when his father came to visit him, but even then he had to be tied to a wheel chair. He wasn't allowed to run free yet. He hadn't earned the privilege of being unbound from his straight jacket yet.

"Daddy, please, please." He whispered, begging. "Please I want to go home. Please. Please take me home."

"No Alexander. I can't have you trying to hurt your little brother again, now can I?"

"But Daddy, I'll be good this time. I promise. I won't ever, ever, ever hurt him. I love Julian."

"Do you Alexander?" Lionel asked, searching his son's face, delving deep into his son's eyes, to his very soul. They were an odd dark color of purple. Usually Lex's eyes were green but today they were purple. "I think you do, Lex." He confirmed softly, carefully stroking his son's sunken pale cheek. "They say you aren't eating. How are you to get well and get your strength back, if you do not eat? Are you trying to kill yourself? Suicide is not the answer son. It's a terrible sin." Said Lionel, chastising gently. His voice eked out compassion but Lionel's eyes were cold.

"I want to believe you son. I think you truly do love your brother. But you have an illness. A terrible, and tricky, illness; if it were a gangrenous limb we would cut it off. But, you see son, it's a cancer of the mind and to cut it out of your head would be to kill you, and this is not something I would want. I want you to live son. I know you can defeat this. It is a terrible disease, a foe not easily defeated. But I believe in you son. You can defeat this. I'm sorry that you cannot come home. Not unless you are cured.

"We're a family, son, and I will not have family betraying each other- turning on each other and trying to kill one another. I can't let you hurt your brother. I can't take the chance that you won't try to harm him or try to harm yourself. I'm sorry Lex, I truly am."

"Times up." Said Doctor Bryce, escorting Lex and Lionel back into Belle Reve. Lex fought, the doctor frowned. Her eyes turned colder then usual and Lex froze. Tonight he'd suffer for fighting her. She was going to do terrible things to him tonight. She always did when he made things difficult.

"You aren't going to make things difficult are you, Alexander?" she asked with what could have passed for concern if it wasn't for the fact that Doctor Bryce didn't have a gentle emotion in her.

Lex breathed shallowly, panic making it difficult for him to answer let alone breathe. He shook his head. Wide eyes looked pleading from his father to his doctor. Lionel narrowed his eyes at the doctor; he could detect an undercurrent of something there too.

"I pay you good money to see to my son's care Doctor Bryce, I hope there isn't going to be a problem. I want his spirit still in tact when he gets out of this place."

"Yes, of course Mr. Luthor," She said smoothly, "There won't be any problems. Alexander sometimes has a problem with his temper but a little dosage usually does wonders for him." Her sweetly false smile planted in place on her face.

False concern in that deceptively kind seeming face, so many times Lionel had fallen for that look in her eyes. He should have realized sooner what she had been doing to his son. The experiments and the sick twisted games she played.

She jammed the needle into Lex's spinal column then pressed the syringe's contents into his nervous system. "There, feels much better now, doesn't it Alexander?" she cooed, gently rubbing his shoulder. "I think being outside tends to strain him a little. I think it would be best if next time you visited your son it were done in the visitor's chambers, don't you think? That way Alexander doesn't get into a state of agitation."

Lionel sniffed then walked out of Belle Reve leaving his son in the hands of monsters.

Belle Reve was a place of torture and fear. Even his peers were a frightening mix of rejects, disabled and mentally defunct individuals, old and young. Some of the inmates screamed day and night. Lex slept little in that place on his own merit. If he slept it would be due to the needle and sleep serum, or due to the fact that he had not slept a wink in several days and nights at a time. He tried to get free every chance he had. He finagled and connived, bribed and fought tooth and nail for every chance he got for an escape. Lex often wished bitterly he'd been a better escape artist.

He never got very far and the punishments were enough to lay him up for weeks at a time. But he never could give up on freedom, not when each time he'd been just that little bit closer to being free. He could understand now why slaves would escape their masters and try to make it to the north. If Lex had been stronger, faster, and not drugged out of his mind he probably could have made it to his own home and freedom. He lost his privileges, what little Lionel's money afforded him in this place, and he would be beaten again and again, nearly drowned a few times to.

Doctor Bryce particularly liked to dunk Lex under the water, cold horrible freezing breath-stealing water, for minutes at a time. He couldn't ever hold his breath long enough.

"This will take the rebellion out of you." She'd hiss.

However, she was always wrong. There was always more of it. Because if there was one thing Lex excelled at it was stubborn rebellion.

He was positive if Lionel ever found out about the truth of what the doctor and her stooges were doing, Lionel would put a stop to it. But then Lex would remember things. Conversations that were suspect, between Lionel and Doctor Bryce, he realized that they were working together to sabotage him. To make sure that he could never see Julian or the sun or freedom ever again.

He was so sad and scared when he realized this truth.

He must have been a terrible son. He must have been bad. Very, very bad to be stuck in this place and to have Lionel pay these people to torture him. He lost the will to fight after that. Everything became darker still and a blur of time passed by.

He hid deep inside sometimes though he would come out for a peek but not often. Sometimes there was so much noise that Lex would have no choice but to join them. His peers screams and rants and raves. He would laugh and scream alongside of them.

Sometimes he would sing to Julian, even though he knew Julian wasn't there with him, sometimes he thought he could feel his little brother in his arms, a baby again, and Lex would rock the baby and sing to him. Maybe this was all just a terrible nightmare. He would dream he was back home even while he was a wake he would dream such realistic dreams. Sweet dreams like that his baby was in his arms again.

He would dream of his Julian needing him, giving him strength to survive this place. This place that just couldn't possibly be real. He was in a nightmare and he was sure that someday soon he would wake up and everything would be all right again.

His father would love him and Julian would sit in his lap as they played chess together.

He didn't have hair to pull but he did have fingernails and he scratched at his arms and legs he found it soothing to watch the red crawl down his arms and legs, like the tears he could no longer weep. He was chastised for such behavior. They would put him in the straight jacket when that happened.

Yet Doctor Bryce was pleased to see him submit. See him finally broken.

"Such a good boy." She would coo.

She would let him stay out of the straight jacket for good behavior and Lex would smile vacantly up at her. The morphine filling his veins making him feel so good. She would clean away his blood and tie him to the bed, but he wouldn't have to wear the straight jacket anymore. Which he was glad about.

She kissed him. Then put him in a warm room and let him stay in a bathtub full of warm water. She'd bathe him then prepare him. She had been his first sexual experience, part terror, part adrenaline, and part heaven.

She controlled him. He was in her power. If it turned painful he would fade out and come back when time again passed, usually days or even weeks later, then he would come to in the cold place in that huge room with twenty or more other beds and kids in them, shivering from cold and mistreatment. Starving for freedom, for heat and the warmth of the sun on their faces.

When Lionel came to visit that last time Doctor Bryce had been doing something bad and Lionel was furious with her. Lex was forced to re-evaluate his first evaluation of his Father and the man's motives behind putting him in Belle Reve.

Maybe Daddy hadn't been the real enemy after all. Maybe Dr Bryce had been all along. But hope was such a distant thing, a rusty memory he couldn't quite grasp.

Home wasn't as safe as he had thought either. Lionel tried to be kind and gentle with his son. Tried to rebuild what had been torn down, but all he did was reconfirm what Lex had come to realize in Belle Reve, that Lionel Luthor was not a good man, was not his salvation, but his downfall from grace.

Lionel was the devil and he was trying to make Lex into his image.

Lionel was the insane one.

The bad one.

The one that should have been locked away and tortured in Belle Reve.

Not Lex.

Lex had been innocent.

"I was innocent you bastard!" he screamed, clawing at his arms and face.

Julian had taken his place once more by his brother's side, relieving Lionel of his vigil just in time for this newest bout of screaming. Julian was struggling to keep Lex from doing serious damage to himself. Trying to soothe his brother out of the bad serum induced dreams and he wasn't having much success at it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lois came to town with her father. The General scowled at the quiet little town.

Remarking, "I forgot just how quaint and retiring this place was. I can't believe your cousin settled down in this place, for God's sake."

"It's a complicated matter, Daddy." Said Lois, "You know that. Our rooms are over at the Talon, Chloe's friend Lana is putting us up for the time being."

The General sighed. He loved his daughter but he was hard put to understand her or her cousin. Both of them were not cut of the same cloth as most other women were. Chloe and Lois were an enigma. Or perhaps it was just this new generation, a call to the change in times. Now that it was the new century it was a different place from when he grew up. The world was changing all too quickly. The Civil War one of the reasons behind the change in the world and times, not just that it was now the 1900s.

Lois efficiently took charge of matters and soon had them both housed and settled in within minutes or their arrival.

Chloe was there to greet them not long after, Pete Ross, her husband at her side. The General still couldn't quite get used to having an interracial marriage in the family. It was virtually almost unheard of and usually inappropriate for such relations to take place, it was even, outlawed, but for some reason in Smallville everything was topsy-turvy, everyone had secrets and no one asked questions, not since the meteor shower.

It was like regular people did not exist in Smallville or regular rules. Everything that he knew didn't matter here in Smallville, which was probably why Pete and Chloe chose the place to settle down in. In spite of his personal feelings and society's take on such things General Lane actually liked Pete. The kid was good and decent and hard working and it was obvious he spoiled Chloe rotten and worshipped the very ground General Lane's niece walked on.

A manly nod was traded between them while the girls squealed and hugged one another like long lost sisters.

"Pete." He greeted.

"General sir." Pete greeted in turn.

"Oh Lois, I couldn't believe it when your letter arrived asking to visit. I was so happy to receive it. Oh Uncle it's been so long. How are you?" she crowed, then flung herself into her uncle's arms giving the older gruff man a bone-shaking hug.

General Lane blushed then patted Chloe's back carefully, awkwardly. He wasn't very good at showing affection.

"I'm doing well. I hear you and Pete now have a press going. How is it?"

"Oh it's good and my friend Clark helps out from time to time." Enthused Chloe then to her kin's shock Chloe dampened down and looked sad. Pete put a comforting arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Clark and his new wife have split up and no one can find her. She was going to have a baby and Pete and me were going to be honorary aunt and uncle. I just know, and possibly even the God Parents. I can't believe she just took off like that. I keep telling Pete there's foul play going on. Betty-Sue was always nervous, almost scared, I'd say even. I think she was in trouble and didn't know how to ask Clark or any of us for help. Or I'd like to think so. Pete thinks so. And Clark's just devastated and no one knows quite how to help him. Things were so wonderful between them, then that incident at the bank and then she was gone." Chloe petered off and fell silent, gaze downcast, a heavy sigh leaving her.

Pete comforted her, encouragingly, "It will turn out, sweetheart. There's no doubting the love they shared. She will come back to him, just you watch. Clark's a great guy. The best man I've ever known. A woman wouldn't leave that kind of guy, not for any reason." Pete assured her. "Julian Luthor was there that day in the Bank. I think he had something to do with it. Hell I think the Luthors are behind all of the cattle rustling too."

Chloe sighed. "We don't have proof yet, but when we do, we're going to print it!" crowed Chloe back to her dapper self.

Lois' eyes narrowed like any reporter's would on the scent of a story. "And what about Alexander Luthor? Do we have news of him?" Lois inquired artfully innocently.

"He showed up in Smallville not long ago, a matter of a handful of weeks ago actually." Informed Pete.

"Yes some insane guy tried to kill him." Said Chloe. "Actually it was a guy from our wall of weird to be exact. He's had a vendetta against the Luthors for decades. Not unlike my Pete here, thankfully I've been a good influence on Pete and talked him out of his own try at vengeance."

Pete actually blushed. "Chloe." He whined, horribly embarrassed. "I wouldn't have gone after them like that Douglas guy did. Not while I still had you at my side. Besides the Luthors didn't do anything different from anyone else did back then. As much as I hate them for owning my Father and Mother and my siblings, I also owe them a debt. If not for the circumstances I never would have met you, Chloe, the love of my life."

Chloe wiped a tear away. "Isn't he just amazing Uncle and he's so good to me too." She whispered. Her eyes and Pete's eyes caught and they stared lost into one another's gazes for a long uncomfortable while.

Lois and the General discreetly cleared their throats and brought their kinfolk back to reality and the present. Their family conversed for a while and had noon tea together, then parted for the evening making promises for shopping the next day and more talk time.

Lois burned with excitement. Finally her prey was at last at the tips of her reach. Her bumblers waited for the night to come to her and discuss the new plan of action.

"Boys, careful my Father is in the next room sleeping. I don't want him to get even a hint of what's going on here, capisce? Lex is in this town and you two, never once reported it to me."

"We're sorry, Ma'am." Said Stewy. "We were doing our observational duties and when Luthor finally arrived we missed it. Some queer person came up behind us and knocked us in the heads till we were senseless."

Lois snorted unkindly. "You're lackwits already and more then senseless to boot!" She hissed. "But for all that you're fairly good henchman, which is the only reason why I don't fire you bums right now. This is your last chance. Do not fail me again."

"No ma'am." Insisted Stewy. "You can count on us."

"For constant incompetence maybe!" she replied sarcastically. "But for all of that, you two are loyal and I appreciate loyalty. So here's the new plan. Listen up. Capture Luthor, Contact me immediately when the job is complete, then bring him to me, meet me in the abandoned farmstead at the edge of Smallville after contact is made. Simple enough for you guys?"

"Yes'm." They replied as one.

"Good. Now get lost."

"Yes'm." They said then scurried out of the Talon and away from their employer's presence.

It was a very sick game Lionel played with his sons but most of all with his eldest, Lex. A game, which Julian found to his own shame and horror, that he was repeating for the sake of his own possessiveness and for his brother's total devotion to him.

Julian was supposed to be Lex's world not the other way around. Lex wasn't supposed to want to leave and wander the world. Lionel ranted once that it was that Bruce Wayne fellow's entire fault. Julian refused to play second fiddle to his brother's love life or to his brother's wanderlust. He wanted Lex's full attentions on him the way it used to be when they were both still children. Lionel played on that. Pitted his children in a twisted game against one another.

His health was getting better. He was recovering a little more with every passing day. Julian was kind to him and denied him little. Lionel was as usual aloof, a distant figure scowling from afar at his two sons. Lionel with his barbs and innuendos; with his false fatherly concern, would caution Lex every day not to strain himself.

Julian and Lionel were in meetings everyday, drawing up contracts for their own purposes. Lex was still exhausted easily. Julian insisted Lex get stronger before he again takes up the reigns of corporate management.

Lex itched to get back in the swing of business or exploration, anything that didn't have to deal with lying in bed all day and being bored.

He struggled to wake every morning. Hearing the wizened man's husky syllables rolling off his tongue sound changing into the thunder of the stormy sky. A village of voices raised in song. The language formed in his mind and he could make out some of the words. They spoke of past victories, they wept with great sadness, and cried out to the heavens in earnest plea. He recognized them. They were praying for him, for their Winter Fox's Brother, they wanted him to live and to heal.

The dreams were so real. They plagued him every night. A place not far from the Indian lands was most prominent in them. He dreamed he heard drums and an old man's voice singing to him in an ancient tongue, old as the beginning of man.

He could feel his heart beating to the drum's pulse. Breathing in time with the rhythm of the hands that beat on the stretched skin of the drum, urging him to live. His blood rushed, pounded in his veins as the fire burned low in his chest, making it ache.

The shaman smiled in his dreams and petted his hairless head. Wiping away sweat as well as his boyish tears. Lex decided with or without permission, he was going to leave the house and go out riding. He needed air. He needed the illusion of freedom.

Julian was being too protective and Lionel was always repressive and oppressive. Patronizing him at every turn. Oozing fake concern. Testing Lex, always testing him. Always trying to keep Lex under his thumb, his spirits crushed. But Lex refused to let Lionel win. This was Lex's life and he would do what he wished and to hell with Lionel Luthor.

Lex wanted air to breathe, clean fresh air, to clear his head of the voices and the dark suspicion that something wasn't right in the Luthor household or right with himself. The first thing he did when he was finally deemed strong enough was high tail it to the stables wherein was kept a small herd of mares and stallions a few of them hand picked by Lex himself on his travels and sent home as gifts to his brother. A few were meant for Lex's own private use as well. Lex always thought he might start up his own stable some day to rival his father's own.

He saddled up his favorite, a dark stallion of high temper and proud step. He was a horse from the desert sands of Arabia. The first horse Lex had ever bought on his own and for himself. The velvet lips bestowed a loving nip to Lex's cheek. Lex caressed the soft jaw and whispered Arabic words of endearment. Then saddled and mounted his precious stallion.

"Carry me swiftly, outrun the very winds and let me know what it feels like to be free again!" He cried further in Arabic. Seeing not the green and brown of the cattle lands of the Luthor estate but the sands of the Arabian and Saudi Deserts in his mind's eye.

He missed traveling. He missed his friend Bruce Wayne. His mount wheeled and reared up then crashed back down to the earth. Powerful hooves digging in then they were flying across grass and over fenced lands.

The air whipped across Lex's cheeks and burned color into his skin.

He smiled and felt better, more like his old self. He felt confident and free. The power of his horse between his thighs, the smell of leather and grass was a heady scent and it made him feel more alive then he had felt in months.

The ride was going well. He stayed to the less populated areas and visited the creek where he and Clark had once shared a picnic lunch. He rode for a while across country and dirt road. Exulting in the rush of speed and power that assailed him. But then something happened that had never happened before. His horse, Dark Cloud, reared up with fright and skidded out of control over the bridged pond, Clark Kent stood under the assault of heavy hooves and a stone of horse flesh, man and horse and rider fell over the edge of the railing.

Lex felt as if his heart was about to burst. It all happened so quickly so terrifyingly quick. He had just killed Clark Kent and he thought his horse and he were going to die as well.

"CLARK!" He screamed silently. "CLAAAARK!"

Grief consumed him as well as remorse and horror. He lost consciousness as horse and gravity crushed him into the water, forcing him down, down, in to the cold chilling depths of the pond. Air and body heat left him in a rush. What struggle there was for life was brief. He didn't want to live if he had just killed the only person he'd ever been in love with.

He woke some time later with Clark gazing down on him, a sad look in his eyes. Lex choked back relief and tears. Clark was alive! Or was it Clark's ghost staring at him with such worry, reproach, and grief intermixed?

Lex couldn't stand up to such a look from Clark. So he looked away and about, searching for his beautiful stallion instead, and gasped out a strangled cry.

"Dark Cloud? Oh no, nononono." He begged hoarsely.

He sobbed. He scrambled to his knees and tried to crawl to his horse's side. He managed to wrap his arms around Dark Cloud's neck when that wicked horse snorted, squealed and reared back up to his four feet. Giving his mighty body a quick shake and trotted a few feet away.

Lex fell back to the grass with relief. His horse was alive.

It was now Lex's move to make. Clark wondered what Lex was going to do. Would they begin a whole new charade? Clark hoped this time around they could be more truthful with each other.

Julian's voice whispered in Lex's head. "Stay away from Clark. Father will send you to Belle Reve again, if you go near him. You know he will."

Lex took a few measuring steps, a few tense breaths later after testing the stability of his legs he then turned to look at Clark. His husband looked less than his usual radiant self.

There were stress lines now around his brow and eyes, where previously there had been none. Shadows in the clear blue eyes that spoke of tremendous haunting pain, much like his own. Lex felt his heart clench.

Clark looked terrible.

"I thought I had killed you." Lex ventured an unsteady hand reaching out to touch what was no longer his to touch but before skin could touch Lex let his hand drop to his wet thigh. Whispering hoarsely. "My horse took fright." He then took a steadying breath and introduced himself. "I'm Lex Luthor, and you are?" he asked trying to summon a charming smile to his face and failing. His usual charm had deserted him. His smile fell flat. His eyes were shadowed with ill concealed worry and obvious clinging illness.

Clark sighed. So this is the game we're going to play now. He thought disappointedly. We're going to pretend to be strangers. Pretend to be new acquaintances eh? Lex looked thinner. He looked more fragile, more vulnerable now than before. Perhaps it wasn't a game, he'd heard that sometimes when people got sick they forgot things, entire years even. yet he found it hard to believe that Lex would forget anything. Not with a mind as sharp as Lex's.

"Clark Kent." he said introducing himself reluctantly. "Your family and mine are enemies."

Lex's head tilted to the side, quizzically. "But you saved my life anyway, why?" Lex asked, real curiosity in his gaze, replacing the fear.

I saved you, because I love you. Instead Clark replied quietly. "Because you were a person in need of help."

And just like that Lex found he was once more uncontrollably drawn to Clark, enmeshed and enfolded, embroiled in Clark's world.

He didn't want to give Clark up. It hurt too much. He had fought against it while at home and deep in his illness, for the sake of sanity and for his brother's pleadings. But now, looking into Clark's eyes. Breathing, living because Clark had saved his life and breathed life back into his lungs, he knew this was kismet.

This was destiny.

He could not escape this.

Nor did he want to.

Yet how to go about being Clark's friend, without letting Clark find out that he was once the woman Clark had been married to?

In what felt like a whole other lifetime ago, he'd been a whole other person back then, pretending to be female to the point where he'd even lost his own sense of self. His identity fully absorbed and assimilated into the Betty-Sue identity. It had been a pleasant life, full of contentment and happiness. There had been very little room for anything Luthor within it. But he couldn't be Betty-Sue anymore.

Now he was Lex again. Though not entirely in the full grasp of his faculties. There were still parts of him that were still very much Betty-Sue and now he had to work very hard to keep that part of him bottled up. Not just from his father but now also from Clark.

He knew Clark was hiding secrets from him. Even as Betty-Sue he'd been sharp eyed enough to see things that he knew no normal human being could possibly be capable of doing. As long as Clark allowed Lex to have his own secrets then Lex would be satisfied in allowing Clark to keep his own secrets secret as well.

But deep down he knew that secrets had a way of coming out.

Clark knows there are always reasons for secrets and he also knows that secrets have a way of coming out. A big part of him dreaded that he might have to one day reveal his secrets to Lex but he wanted Lex to come clean to him and he knew he would be a hypocrite if he didn't at least give Lex the truth someday but he allowed that that day would only come when Lex finally came clean to him on his own.

He wanted truth; he believed that they both deserved the truth. But he was willing to wait until Lex felt comfortable enough to come clean with him. They could someday come clean together and wouldn't that be wonderful, having that weight lifted off his chest?

Clark and Lex's new friendship grew from this strife as well as from the many lunch dates they made with each other. Out of conversations they were always having as they shared tea and coffee at Lana's salon, the Talon, their friendship continued to grow profoundly fast. They simply clicked. Neither man could find the words to describe how, or why or what it was about the other that they found so fascinating or what drew them tightly together in this unusual friendship.

They talked about the Smallville Torch and it's progressiveness in having a woman in charge and how with Chloe's drive it would become an eventual success some day. Each was careful about the secrets they held dear, keeping the other ignorant of the lies each spoke. Clark defended his friendship with Lex adamantly every day they were together.

They shared dreams and hopes, but never the truth.

Pete was angry with Clark. How could he befriend, a lying, thieving, slaver, like Luthor?

Jonathan Kent was furious with his son as well for his friendship with the enemy of their family.

It hurt Clark to be at odds with his family and his best friend.

He bore the strain surprisingly well. Though he did sink deeper into a solitude that no one could understand.

At the Kent home peace went out the window.

Clark and Jonathan were having a row. Martha watched in horror as her husband and son fought with each other.

"What, in God's good name, were you thinking, Clark? That man could have killed you!" raged Jonathan.

"You know that's not true dad. I'm not like you or mom or anyone in Smallville. I'm not a human being. I'm something unspoken of, something unheard of. I fell to Earth. You know that! I'm too different from you and everyone here. If you forbid me this friendship with Lex I will not forgive you. He's not his father! He's a good man. You don't know Lex like I do."

"You don't know Lex very well either son. How can you say you know him at all in the few hours you've spent with him, after he almost killed you?" persisted Jonathan.

Clark clamped his lips shut and ground his teeth. "I told you. I wasn't almost killed. Nothing here can hurt me, except for the green rocks that glow around me. Lex is special dad. He's nothing like Lionel Luthor. He's tried so hard, all of his life not to be like his father."

"An apple from the tree is still an apple, Clark. It doesn't change its colors it simply grows into the shape of its brothers."

Clark growled. "The euphemism has no place in this! Lex is different from Lionel. It's that simple."

"You're blind, Clark. He's the enemy!"

"You're hatred of all things Luthor blinds you to the truth dad. You're misjudging him for the sins of his father and grandfather. Can't he be his own man without living in the shadows of the evil of his ancestry? So his horse went out of control, Dark-Cloud was probably spooked by a mouse or something. It wasn't Lex's fault that Dark-Cloud went berserk. It was Lex who was almost killed that day, not me!"

"A man is what he is Clark, shaped by the hands and the experiences of his parents. Even if Lex wanted to be different from his father, he wouldn't be. In time the corruption would work it's way to the front and he will be like his father, and his father's father, and his father's father's father before him. It is an unending cycle son.

"He'll probably tell himself he's nothing like Lionel, due to some little mercy here and there, but then when someone gets in his way and he explains away the evil of the actions he takes to get rid of them. He will say I gave him a chance I was honorable, but then his methods would still be the same as his Father's. His fate is that of Lionel's, a lust for wealth and dominance. Cut your ties now son and he will not be able to hurt you in the future."

"No! I will not. I know what you're saying Dad. I know you believe it. But I have faith in him. I've met him. Talked to him. Seen him in his relations with others. He's a scholar and an explorer. He's been all over the world and his philosophy is nothing like Lionel Luthor's! There is no cruelty in him. He's kind and sweet and reserved and frightened. And it's people like you Dad that will turn him into his father!" Clark cried then ran from the kitchen. Running into town and as far away from his father as possible for the day.

Martha was very worried for her son. She knew this had to be a manifestation of his distress and grief over Betty-Sue. She believed that her son was still not himself. That his mind was not yet healed from the pain he suffered over the disappearance of his wife. His attachment to Lex was so strange, so odd. Jonathan and she were not the only people to think so. Even Chloe and Pete and Lana and Whitney thought it was strange as well.

Martha was a peacemaker. She disliked having their world turned upside down with bickering. She requested that each person try to have some understanding; that they each reach within themselves to find the patience and the compassion Clark required and needed in order to heal, and for Lex Luthor as well, though this was more of an after thought than anything else.

She wasn't particularly happy with this new friendship any more than Jonathan was, but she wasn't about to burn their bridges. Not with their son and not with the hurt Luthor heir either. She wasn't a fool and she didn't believe in passing judgment until after a wrong had been done, and since to her knowledge Lex Luthor has done no wrong as yet, then he wasn't evil. Though his upbringing and parentage could be considered evidence contrary to the matter.

Still, Martha had known Lillian from the social circles in her childhood. Lillian had always been a sweet girl with an iron sense of right and wrong. Lex could very much be her son as much as he is his father's. Martha would wait and see. Lex wasn't fully formed yet and she wasn't about to damn him for his father's sins.

Chloe was reserved, though she often pestered both Clark and Lex for an exclusive. She wanted to be the first reporter to ever interview Lex.

Lana was a socialite and knew the ways of genteel society. For her it was an honor that Lex visited her salon. It meant she was highly thought of in the higher classes of the social circles.

The fact that Lex even took an interest in future endeavors of the Talon made her very happy. Her salon was a caf but not just that it was also a theatre. Lex would make her swoon with his charms and giggle at many of his suggestions. He suggested several Middle-Eastern forms of theatre and then the more outrageous of all, the art of the Orient theatre, Kabuki. Men dressing in women's clothes and performing plays based off of ninja, samurai and demonic folklore. Of course Lana had to find the politest way of telling Lex that she couldn't possibly consider ever doing such a thing.

The community would be up in arms over it if she had put on such a production.

Meanwhile she like everyone else watched the strange dance unfold between Clark and Lex Luthor.

Clark and Lex were sharing a meal as usual and delighting in the Turkish coffee Lana had spent a lot of money importing for Lex's benefit, but Lex more then made up for the expense, since he often paid full out for the private stash, relieving her of the financial burden of it. And what he didn't drink she was more then willing to sell to others who liked it and could afford it, at the unusual and very costly price of a week's worth of wage, a full dollar for a cup of Turkish Import Brew, which she named "Turkish Gold".

Clark was smiling into Lex's eyes and luxuriating in the newest coffee blend that Lex and Lana had come up with. The two were discussing growing the coffee bean together and making an even more tight profit off of it.

"So, Lex tell me something about yourself. I've heard so many rumors over the years. Knowing you now like I do, I don't believe a single word of the gossip."

Lex laughed and took a swallow of the brew in his cup. "Clark, Clark, Clark." He tutted. Shaking his head and smirking some more.

Clark just gave him the look, "Come on Lex. Come clean for me."

"All right Clark. I'll tell you a story. Personally, I don't see the resemblance but everyone that I have ever met assures me that it is so. Among certain peoples I've earned the name of, Devil, Winter Fox's Brother, Kitsune's Cousin - Fox-Demon, cousin to coyote, servant of the trickster Gods. What do you think of that? Do you agree with them?"

"How did...I mean, why? Who would call you such things?"

"White Devil - gaijin?"

Exasperated Clark protested. "Lex!"

"I earned one or two of the names I've mentioned, others I've just simply been named so; because I merely existed. Pale skinned and bald, I was a freak. I had few friends as I grew up, Clark. I'm charming and I am a Luthor. I have power as well as a charismatic bone or two in my body... well, that and money. Never underestimate the power of money. And believe the gossips Clark. I'm a bad man. I gamble, I sin, I sleep around, and there is little I regret or feel any shame for."

Clark frowned and looked away. He was uncomfortable with the turn of their conversation. He never wanted to believe such things of his friend, of his wife. "No you're not, and besides, whoever said I was a saint or that I could even begin to judge you, Lex? Why do you persist in trying to provoke me? Why are you pushing me like this? Am I such a terrible friend to you?"

Lex flinched. "No! No of course not! I'm sorry I went too far. You're right. I am rightly chastised. I'm sorry Clark. I didn't mean to take the tweaking so far." He explained. "Growing up the way I did, in the home that I did, offense is the first reaction I have, it is my defense. I'm sorry I lashed out at you like that. I had no right."

"No Lex, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was accusing you of anything or judging you."

"I know. I have a terrible temper. My father calls me irrational, overly emotional even. I try very hard not to let it get the best of me while in your company." Or show you the pain I'm in because when I am with you I make myself put the medicine and my obligations last. I need you more then my medicine, but God it hurts!

It hurts.

"That's okay Lex. You're only human. You aren't a saint. I'm not a saint either. We're just men. And men are fallible."

"Ah, philosophy! Clark, philosophy is one of my weaknesses. I could wax philosophy all evening." Except I need to get back to the house and to Julian. Julian can make the pain go away. He has the medicine. Maybe I should go home take the medicine then meet up with Clark later and continue the discussion then?

No, damnation, I hardly get to spend any time with Clark as it is. The medicine and Julian can wait.

"I know. I like your philosophy. You're so smart, so brilliant, compared to me. You've been all over the world. I wonder why you even bother with me. Being my friend and all -I mean - I must seem pretty dumb, simple, boring to you."

"Never!" assured Lex, adamantly. Slyly itching his arm under the table he hated that sensation he got every time he ran late for the medicine the antsy feeling and the itchiness that never went away no matter how thoroughly he itched his arm or other parts of his body. Sometimes he itched and scratched until he bled and the healing just wouldn't kick in like it should but he was too thoroughly miserable usually to remember to be worried about that one important detail. His healing powers were not working like they should be.

"You could never be dull or stupid or anything terrible to me. You're a great person. You're very refreshing to me. I've been locked up in my home for too long. My father's over bearing. My brother's a control freak who is now in the process of becoming an over protective obsessive. You're good to me and ask nothing of me. Which, I greatly enjoy. I feel good with you."

"I'm glad." Said Clark. "Not that your father and brother have turned into -well, into what they've become, I'm glad that you find peace with me. I'm happy for that."

"Thank you Clark." I'm going to stay right here and finish my meal with Clark. I'm not going to let this pain or this itchiness defeat me. Julian can wait. The medicine can wait. No matter how terribly I suffer for it on the morrow. I am not going to shorten this visit with Clark not one iota, not one minute.

They settled back into drinking their coffee and eating the last of their pie.

In the background a dark haired woman watched with intense smoldering angry blue eyes.

Lex was there. It felt like something was mocking her. Like fate or destiny or something, maybe God himself was laughing at her. Frustrating her nearly out of her mind.

Could she not win?

Her jaw clenched and she tried valiantly to finish her own luncheon.

Later that evening at Luthor Manner in Lex's Bedroom.

"You shouldn't have waited so long." Chastised Julian. "You're in pain, how can you do this to yourself? You know you need the medicine every few hours or when the pain is unbearable."

Lex scowled at his brother. "I'm not weak Julian. The pain was bearable."

"Liar." Julian growled. Accusing jealousy flashing behind his deceitful eyes. "You were with that Clark person. You're being such a fool about this! Look your fever is back and you're suffering. Was spending time with this farmer really worth all of this agony?"

"You know the answer to that Julian. You know it is for me. It's worth it." Hissed Lex, no longer able to endure the pain. "Give me the bloody medicine now Julian. God it hurts. It bloody hurts."

Julian retrieved the vial of gently humming liquid, he filled the syringe then helped Lex with his sleeve, rolling it up and tapping on the vein to bring it more clearly to the surface. Lex hissed in a breath of air through tightly clenched teeth. Eyes narrowed in slits of pain filled violet.

"You'll need to stay in bed tomorrow Lex. You can't keep exhausting yourself like this."

"Shut up Julian. I don't need your displeasure. Give me the fucking medicine!" he growled harshly. Fists, digging into Julian's arm leaving bruises behind as the shuttering began. Julian forced the syringe in and plunged the plunger sending the poisoning juice into his brother's body.

"Clark's not good for you Lex. Look at you. You're in so much pain, my dearest brother. Do you want Father to find out about the two of you? You'll go to Bell Reve again, or somewhere worse this time. Friendship's all good Lex but your mind isn't up to this. Your mind is confused and you're still ill. You sometimes can't even keep track of who you are let alone what gender you are! Or time for that matter, you lose days like you lose pennies! This has got to stop. Clark's not good for you right now. Be his friend when you are well."

Lex shook his head stubbornly, eyes tightly shut. "No. I can't lose him. I love Clark."

Julian was displeased in the extreme by this, as well as angry and disappointed and hurt deeply by his brother's confession. "No Lex. I'm the only one you love, remember?" he hissed.

"Let me rest Julian." Pleaded Lex as weariness crept over him and purple eyes turned green with the release of his pain finally ebbing away his body collapsed further onto the bed and sleep made his body heavy. Julian sighed. Then worked his brother's clothes from his limp unmoving body.

Julian took great care in bathing his brother with a washcloth easing the burning fever down then drying him off and carefully slipping a nightgown over his brother's nude form. Then Julian covered Lex with a couple of blankets, and patchwork quilts from the Smallville Sewing Bee. It seemed Lex needed more and more blankets of late. He was constantly suffering from a chill.

"You rest Lex, get well. But remember, you need to be careful and you mustn't keep delaying your medicine. The illness will only get worse if you do. It will kill you if you stop taking the medicine." Lectured Julian to the sleeping Lex then he kissed his brother's cheek fondly then carefully strolled from the room, shutting the oak door behind him and he too then retired for the evening in his own room and under his own blankets.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lionel Luthor indulged his son but it was obvious that he didn't like the friendship between the two any more then anybody else did. The old games were back in full play between father and son. Barely hidden threats spoken in pointed manners. Mind games at their fullest and sickest twists.

Lex craved flight. He craved freedom from his father and from the life of privilege he'd been born into.

Julian too was playing his cards to the fullest and failing. Lex began to have an inkling that things were not as right with his brother has he had once believed. There now was something like a gentle reproach in Lex's eyes every time he looked into Julian's face. Disappointment and sadness and a creeping coldness too seeped in there into Lex's eyes.

Julian felt ashamed and afraid. He knew he was going to lose Lex once his brother figured out his betrayal of him. He could feel it.

Lionel had to give Julian some credit marks for ingenuity but no credit for originality. He'd suspected for some time what Julian's game was. Something out of a dime store novel, no doubt. Make the heir insane and win the game. In Lionel's book that just didn't cut it.

As Lionel had always known Julian's little plan would fall to pieces. Julian had failed. Lucas had failed. But really neither of his younger sons could even begin to compare to Lex in sheer brilliance or business sense or even in power of destiny. So then why did Lionel feel so much disappointment in them? A Father's feelings were complicated.

As Lex's special abilities began to kick in he grew over time less and less befuddled. Lex was able to overcome and become immune to any toxin his body was exposed to over long periods of time. This was fact. He knew these things because of Doctor Bryce and her experiments on his son, Doctor Bryce's research had done much to help Lionel understand his son, even better than anyone else ever could or would be able to. Her research had given him valuable information but under unforgivable circumstances.

The flower's power over Lex would very quickly be null and voided by that gift of Lex's, his ability to heal and grow immune to most viral agents and poisons. Or so Lionel thought. He didn't realize that Julian was brilliant in his own right as a Luthor and had stumbled across a few other compounds to add to his little experiment with the flower's powerful hypnotic scent and morphine dosed with flower tincture.

These substances were in essence blocking Lex's abilities and causing an even more serious problem to develop for his eldest son. It was sheer strong will alone and the Luthor fundamental teaching, dogma and doctrine of "never show weakness" that kept the truth concealed from Lionel and the rest, that Lex was getting worse rather then better. It was this will and the love he felt for Clark, and the fact that he didn't want his father to take advantage of him while in this state that allowed him to go on day after day suffering in silence, hoping he would eventually get well and eventually escape his family.

The Nicodemus plant's toxic qualities were harvested for future planning and the rest, since the flowers' presence profoundly affected the populace of Smallville, the plants had to be destroyed, burned to the ground. Lionel had known this from his own experiences with the substance in his youth. He had been careless not to destroy the stuff back then but now he was taking every step possible to see to its destruction, except in the lab where it belonged.

Julian wasn't acting from a logical state of mind but rather from an emotional one. Emotion clouded judgment and brilliance.

Lex knew how to cut off his emotions. Knew when to hold his cards and when to fold. It is what made him a good gambler as well as a good businessman. Too bad neither Lucas nor Julian ever learned that particular lesson. Lionel knew it was time to step in and rein Lex in.

The time for games was ending, very fast. Poor deluded Julian how could the boy not understand that his father knows everything his son gets up to? Lex understood that, knew it, instinctively, which was why he had tried to get away from the patriarch of the family.

Julian was quite upset over the failure of his experiment, but even more, distressed over the fact that Lex was beginning to cut ties with him. It had taken a while for Lionel to get the story out of Julian but with the realization that he was losing Lex anyway, Julian as usual crumbled very nicely and took his place back in line and under Lionel's thumb.

Lionel positioned the rook on his chessboard into place then smirked.

Check and Mate!

He stood up from his seat and left Julian and Lucas in the game room. Julian looked ashamed. His head was bowed. He knew he had lost. Lucas was drinking another round of scotch. Lionel scowled. Lucas was a total wastrel, if it wasn't for that shrewd wife of his, the boy wouldn't be worth a nickel of Lionel's time.

"Have a good evening boys." He wished them as he slid the French doors shut behind him, cutting off any replies they would have had for him to hear.

He made his way leisurely to the living room on the second floor. He entered the darkened and toasty room. It had all the marks of Lex's presence. Ever since Belle Reve Lex couldn't stand being remotely cold. How the Kent boy had withstood it or anyone else withstand such heat was beyond Lionel's understanding. Lex had to have his room stiflingly hot. It had gotten worse since Julian had dosed him with the Nicodemus plant's toxic liquor.

The fire in the hearth in the living room was burning low and Lex was half asleep on the chaise, a book open in one hand, and perilously close to slipping out of his son's sleep loosened grip.

Lex looked exhausted. For a moment parental love suffused Lionel and he flinched at the small shred of a voice of conscience whispering in his ear.

Look what you've done. You've almost ruined him. He's your son. A father who loves his son doesn't use him like a pawn on a chessboard. He's burning low like the coals in that fireplace over there.

Look at your son.

He was so beautiful once. He looks haggard now on the verge of breaking again. Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to see him break?

He loves you. He shouldn't. You don't deserve it.

Lillian loved you too, and you didn't deserve her love any more then you do your son's. It hissed.

Lex looks so much like her. His eyes full of pain are so much like hers. They're filled with reproach.

She reproaches you from the grave for your infidelities and for the way you mistreat your- her son. He's so much like her. He's almost an exact replica of her- his face, his kindness, his irrationality but you've made him stronger than she ever was, or ever could be.

His memories burned, the bigger picture came into his head and he was once more turned to the fevers of his evil plots. The future, all of his plans, all of his machinations, all of it leading up to one goal and one goal only; his son would be in the white house.

The Luthor Empire would be assured. Luthor domination would begin. A legacy of Luthors in total control of the Economy and in control of this land all loved and hated so much. This land needed guidance and a Luthor would be the hand that did that. Well that, and the Luthors would continue to be a very rich and very powerful little family.

Very carefully Lionel sat down on the seat by his son's sleeping form and gently stroked his son's brow. Such gentle supple skin, as usual his fingers lingered a tad too long, Lex frowned but did not wake.

This was unusual behavior. Lex always had his defenses up. A person couldn't walk on a squeaking board without Lex waking up and flying into a defense position, either with words or with physical combat readiness.

It was obvious that this illness had taken its toll on his son. He gently took the book from his son's hand and read the title and frowned.

It was not in a language he recognized. Maybe it was a book on that archeology stuff his son seemed so fascinated by?

He set the book aside then went back to stroking his son's face. He missed touching Lex. He hadn't been allowed to hug or touch his son since Belle Reve, well perhaps a little before that actually.

Why couldn't they be a happy family?

That was all Lionel had ever wanted. For them all to be a family and happy, but things had not gone as planned and Lex being the stubborn boy that he was, had often been the catalyst in the undoing of his happy plans.

So stubborn!

If Lex would only just cooperate, things would have gone so differently over the years. Maybe life could have been truly as happy as Lionel had dreamed they would be.

If Lex hadn't been so stubborn.

If Lillian hadn't died of cancer.

If Lex's mind hadn't been so frail.

If ....

If ....

IF!

Too many ifs and what could have beens!

Life was not something one could plan and expect to go according to plan. No, life was a fickle bitch, full of twists and turns along an endlessly winding path full of treachery and deceit. Yet, one could certainly try to strive for, and see one's plans succeed, if one did not give up too easily.

Lex stretched in his sleep and repositioned himself more comfortably, falling deeper under the spell of the sandman.

"Ah, Lex, Lex, Lex." clucked Lionel. "Wake up son. I need to talk to you. As sweet as this is and as much as I am enjoying this, you must wake up now."

Lex stiffened then rolled off the chaise and leaped to his feet. His eyes darted all through out the room then he scowled at his father, demanding. "What do you want?"

"Lex, son, is that anyway to speak to your father?" Chastised Lionel, gently, almost mockingly. "A Father who cares and worries for his son?"

Lex shot his father a sardonic look then turned his back on him to poke and prod at the coals in the fireplace. He felt a shiver of cold run up his spine. Lionel was in a strange mood. Almost like a cat playing with his mouse supper.

The slight European accent that afflicted him from his days away at school came out in a rumbling lilt as he once again made his demand to Lionel. "Cut the shit, Father, what do ye want?"

"Can't a Father simply be worried about his son?" Lionel asked affecting an innocence of demeanor that Lex didn't buy for even a minute.

Lex knew his father too well to fall for any kind of caring facade the man could conjure up. Innocence and Lionel had nothing to do with each other. The man was corruption personified.

"Yes, certainly, but not you." Again Lex was being too blunt, but he did have an excuse. He was exhausted. Exhaustion could be a fatal condition to be in when in a confrontation with Lionel.

"Oh son, that cuts me deeply." Protested Lionel, a hand dramatically thrown over his heart. "Of course I care about you. You know that!"

Lex raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Sure you do Dad." He murmured infuriatingly.

Lionel's composure slipped for a second showing a fury that was cold like the man himself, then his concern mask was plastered back into place, pretense firmly in place as an affable father who's sole concern was to see to his son's wellbeing. "You're not well son." He said pityingly.

Lex shook his head. "Not this game again Dad," he said airily, striving for nonchalant, as he made himself a drink from the bar. Hiding his trembling hands. "Seriously. I'm fine. No fevers, no illness, no broken bones. What is this all about Dad, really?"

Lionel continued to look concerned and sad. Playing his role as a misunderstood and wounded Father to the hilt.

"Oh son, oh my son, my poor son. It is not your physical wellbeing I speak of, but of your mental wellbeing." Lionel's voice took on a dangerous edge. "Did you really think I would never find out about the Kent boy?"

Lex's mouth was suddenly very dry, a man dying of thirst in desert sands. He realized where his father was going with this line of dialog. Lex tried to lie, to protest, but Lionel's hand came up fast cutting him off.

"Your recent friendship with the boy became a concern of mine. To my surprise as I delved deeper into the murky waters of your disappearance and where to you could have possibly hidden out."

"Lucas told me about the caves and that little bit of nasty business between the two of you. Tut tut, Lex, Lucas is your brother, couldn't you have been just a little more civil then that to him?" Lionel paused for a moment as if this question, a rhetorical one at that, needed an answer. But before Lex could say a word Lionel continued with a small laugh. "I mapped out your trail son." The laugh grew almost obscene. It was derisive and rose sharply. "Oh what mirth! Did you really think I wouldn't find out son? About that sham of a marriage you had with young Mister Kent?" The amusement in Lionel's eyes grew colder and more ugly.

"Don't bother lying to me son. Julian was quite helpful. I knew that Betty-Sue bitch looked familiar to me. I thought it was old age setting in, a little bit of sentiment hitting me out of left field, she looked so much like my long dead wife that I went soft on her.

"I loved Lillian so much son. It was quite clever of you to put on that disguise and evade your killers. It was admirable and very cunning. I was impressed son." Lionel's presence towered and loomed dominant and deadly over Lex, though the man himself still stood several feet away from him.

Lex's knees gave way. "You didn't go soft on me." Lex hissed. "I out maneuvered you and you know it!"

Lionel ignored this and continued with his steady voiced monologue. "But, that you continued with the sham for six months after evading the scum, then shared a man's bed? Did you have to go so far? Was it truly necessary to live a life against God, son?"

It was a question he didn't expect Lex to answer. He was on a dramatic roll and he had much he wanted to say to his son.

"It was partially my fault. I accept that responsibility. I should have exposed you to a better environment with more normal influences as you were developing. I relied on you too much when you were a child. I relied on your strength to run the household as if you were Lillian. I treated you more as a wife than a son." He paused, sobering even further.

Lex didn't know it was possible for his father's expression to get any more compassionate or any more pitiful, but it did. Where the man got his acting abilities from Lex didn't know. If the man were not the embodiment of pure evil Lex would almost think it possible for his father to actually have a caring bone in his entire body. But Lex knew it for the lies and the manipulation tactics that it was.

"You both suffered terribly for my actions. With Julian's compounded complex and your own growing one. For that, Son, I am truly, horribly, sorry." He even looked repentant. "I'm the one who did this to you. Raised you to be this..."

Lex tried to make sense of it all. How had this happened? How had his father learned so much in such a short time? How had Julian pieced it all together? Just that one glimpse in the bank and that was it?

No, it couldn't be.

Had Lex spoken of it while in fever?

"To indulge in this sickness any longer Alexander... You mustn't. You must stop this at once. Break off your friendship with the boy.

"It's shameful!

"It's disgusting

"And it's.

"Perversion!"

Lionel's voice was drowned out by the over whelming sensation of lightheadedness and dizziness that had overtaken him. Lex knew he was going into shock.

"Son, son, oh son, you need help." Gasped Lionel, brokenly.

Lex felt outraged. That magnificent son-of-a-bitch, that bastard, actually had tears glistening down his cheeks. Shakily, Lex rose from the floor, dusting off his pants, trying for composure and only succeeding in showing his rage.

"No," Lex hissed. "No. I won't go back to Belle Reve. I burnt it to the ground! I burnt it to ashes and laughed while it burned! You can't put me in an asylum again, you can't! I'm your son!" Lex roared. "I won't be put away again. I won't. I'm an adult. You can't do this to me."

"Lex calm down son. I won't put you away." A long pause " So you were the one, eh? I was wondering about that and such a good job at covering your tracks too, I'm very proud of you son. But I do feel it is my duty to inform you that indeed Belle Reve still stands, I had her rebuilt. I bought the place not long after your release. Now calm down son.

"I won't put you away...not yet, that is. The judge already consented to my request once he was informed of your past history with mental instability, and well, I couldn't hide this from him. Your life style...

"He was all for tying you to a stake and making an example of you." Lionel wanted this to sink in, twisting the knife his words had become.

"He was quite an ignorant man, he believed you were possessed by the devil, unlike myself being an educated man that I am, I was able to convince him that it was obviously influenced by your instability. Luckily he was a very reasonable man, Lex. My money is all that is keeping you from being hunted down and keeping them from carrying out such barbaric savagery on you." Lionel went for the compassionate gambit again.

"I'm protecting you son. Don't make me put you in another asylum. I will be happy to fund your next trip to Europe, but only after you cut your ties with the Kent boy and help me get that farm in to our hands."

"No, that's Clark's home. That's the Kents' place and I won't do it. Not for anything. I won't betray them. I won't." Lex hissed.

Lionel became furious, his temper ignited out of control. It was an unusual display for him. He was always cold and in control. Well except for that one time before he'd sent Lex to Bell Reve.

The two clashed like titans of old. Like Zeus and Hercules. The two fought, Lex broke free from his father's hold and leaped through the second floor window, mosaic of purples and flower shaped glass, shattered in his wake, he landed badly but he was still able to run.

He ran through the night and climbed the barbed fence; which separated Kent Farm from Luthor Ranch, cutting open his hands and legs in the process of his escape from his Father.

Clark heard the sound coming from the Luthor home. Heard his friend's cries in the night. He flinched as he heard the shattering of the expensive second story stained glass window. He watched Lex make his desperate flight through the night and met him on the other side of the fence.

"Lex, oh my God, Lex you're bleeding."

"Clark? Clark, oh God, oh God, thank God. Clark Clark Clark Clark." He chanted biting hard on the building sobs in his chest. He clung to Clark buried his face in Clark's chest allowing his weakness to over take him.

He was so tired.

Fighting another fever and the strangest thing of all, he felt in great pain. But he had no wounds to cause him these sensations of pain. The wounds on his hands and legs were minimal. They shouldn't be causing him this much pain or nausea. They should have already been healed, but they weren't.

"Shhh, Lex, I'm here now. I'm here. I have you. You're all right. I'll keep you safe. I'll keep you safe." He whispered soothingly, protectively tucking Lex into his arms, resting his chin on Lex's baldhead.

For the first time in months Clark felt whole. The air in his lungs was at long last plentiful. The pain in his chest was gone. He felt he understood now, the other half of his soul had been lost for this little while, but he was back now, back at last in his life.

He felt awed, bowed, and humbled.

This was what had been missing. This was the lightning to his rock; this was the life he had missed, the one who kept him centered, purposeful, and energized. Clark was the ground and the shelter to Lex Luthor's storm and lightning. Clark kept Lex Luthor coming back rooting him to the earth.

Clark washed him and took care of him like on their first night together. Lex was suffering from a fever and uncharacteristic weakness. He was shivering yet warm to the touch and sweating a lot through the night. Clark nursed him and soothed him with gentle touch, soft words, swipes of a cool washrag over Lex' face and brow and down his bare chest.

There was something wrong with Lex. Something in his body that was attacking the life energy of the one he loved. It was leaching away Lex's strength and will. His fevered mind conjured up visions that made him retch and scream and fight and struggle to escape. Other times he called out desperately for Julian.

"Julian has my medicine." Gasped Lex. He struggled to breathe through a fit of coughing. "I need my medicine."

Lex shuddered. His breathing grew thick. Clark could see fluid rising, filling Lex's lungs. He was frantic the next morning to find a doctor who would be able to help his friend, his wife.

Lex was steadily getting worse.

tbc scBride 9