OOM: Metropolis, coffee house
Oct. 24th, 2006 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torched_reporter“Miss Sullivan! Miss Sullivan!”
The bodyguard Lex had hired to protect her rushed her past the mob of reporters as Chloe was led out of the Metropolis Supreme Court building. It was a weird sight – to see that many people wanting an interview with her – and Chloe tried to dismiss the nagging feelings. But as one reporter came up to her, a middle age woman holding a press badge from the Daily Planet, Chloe forced Al to stop.
Even though Lex had said no interviews (and Chloe really, really had learned her lesson about crossing Luthors), she always did have a weakness for that paper. In fact, the proudest moment of her life must have been when she saw her name in there this past June. Her name with no attachments to a Luthor-brought column or her cousin’s name, being used as an alias to get an article published when Lionel had blacklisted her (she would have to get that fixed up sometime soon). No, it was her name. Sure it was in the obituary section of the paper, but it was hers just the same.
So now they sat in a small coffee shop across from the courthouse, Chloe with her non-fat non-foam latte, the reporter with a vanilla spice tea, and Al with plain back coffee. He watched Chloe intently as the interview proceeded, with Chloe as the interviewee and not the interviewer for one of the few times in her life.
“So, tell me what happened, Chloe. It’s a bit unusual for an eighteen year old high school student to have testimony to bring down someone as powerful as the head of LuthorCorp.”
Chloe grinned. “Well, you see, nothing’s ever normal in Smallville. I could start from the beginning – with the meteor shower of ’89 and the Luthors arrival in the fall of 2001, but to make a long story short: my best friend befriended Lex Luthor after saving his life that fateful autumn day. It’s been hard to stay out of Luthor family affairs since…”
The reporter nodded. “Continue.”
“About a year and a half ago, Lionel Luthor approached me to spy on…well, someone I knew that he had an interest in.” Chloe paused, frowning for a moment. She didn’t like thinking back on that deal and what it had nearly cost her. “Anyway, let’s just say that it wasn’t the highlight of my life or anything like that, and I agreed in return for that column at the Planet.
“It took me a few months to come to my sense, but I did and tried to break the deal. Bit of advice? Don’t go making deals with the devil, especially ones you know you can’t keep. Not only did I lose my column, but my dad lost his job at LuthorCorp as well. And Lionel never stopped hounding me.”
“What changed?”
“Lex Luthor. He wanted revenge for that unnecessary trip to Belle Reeve last year. And I knew something that Lionel had erased from his son’s mind: Morgan Edge had been hired by Lionel Luthor to start the tenement fire that killed his parents. I managed to get a confession on voicemail – don’t ask, reporter’s secret – and even though Lionel thought he had it destroyed by hacking into my account, well, see, the thing about voicemails is that they’re like deleted computer files. They never really go away.
“I knew I’d never really be free of Lionel’s grasp on my own, so I agreed to work with Lex. He hired someone to dig up the voicemail from the dredges of cyberspace and we now had evidence to use against Daddy Dearest. He also got the FBI to put me and my dad in protective custody for the duration of the trial.”
Chloe shrugged, trying to look brave in the face of the bad memories this interview brought up. “It worked; between my testimony and Clark Kent’s, we were able to deny Lionel Luthor bail last June.”
“But your house was blown up shortly after you testified. I remember reading the article,” the reporter replied, taking a sip of her tea. “Obviously someone wasn’t done with you yet.”
“Yeah,” Chloe said, laughing nervously. Sure, it had only been her home for the past four or so years, but losing it still hurt. “I guess Lionel didn’t really want to die in jail, not that I’d blame him.
“Lex somehow found out about the explosions and had his people usher Dad and me through a tunnel underneath our home. He then set up a safe house that was protected both by the FBI and my uncle.”
“You’re uncle?”
“General Sam Lane, my quite so literal Uncle Sam.” Chloe shrugged. “It was weird having to fake my own death, but it worked for the most part.” She rubbed at a healing bruise on her forehead. She had been lucky Clark had found her in time yesterday, before Lionel’s hit man had a chance to finish the job. “It was worth it though. Today I got to kick Lionel Luthor’s butt.”
Today she had kicked Lionel Luthor’s butt, after hiding for almost three months and after living in fear for almost a year and a half. Today it was over. Today it ended. Done, finito, gone. It’s been the drama that had defined her life for over the past year now. But she survived and she testified. Lionel Luthor wouldn’t be able to hurt her again.
That was definitely worth it’s weight in gold.
The bodyguard Lex had hired to protect her rushed her past the mob of reporters as Chloe was led out of the Metropolis Supreme Court building. It was a weird sight – to see that many people wanting an interview with her – and Chloe tried to dismiss the nagging feelings. But as one reporter came up to her, a middle age woman holding a press badge from the Daily Planet, Chloe forced Al to stop.
Even though Lex had said no interviews (and Chloe really, really had learned her lesson about crossing Luthors), she always did have a weakness for that paper. In fact, the proudest moment of her life must have been when she saw her name in there this past June. Her name with no attachments to a Luthor-brought column or her cousin’s name, being used as an alias to get an article published when Lionel had blacklisted her (she would have to get that fixed up sometime soon). No, it was her name. Sure it was in the obituary section of the paper, but it was hers just the same.
So now they sat in a small coffee shop across from the courthouse, Chloe with her non-fat non-foam latte, the reporter with a vanilla spice tea, and Al with plain back coffee. He watched Chloe intently as the interview proceeded, with Chloe as the interviewee and not the interviewer for one of the few times in her life.
“So, tell me what happened, Chloe. It’s a bit unusual for an eighteen year old high school student to have testimony to bring down someone as powerful as the head of LuthorCorp.”
Chloe grinned. “Well, you see, nothing’s ever normal in Smallville. I could start from the beginning – with the meteor shower of ’89 and the Luthors arrival in the fall of 2001, but to make a long story short: my best friend befriended Lex Luthor after saving his life that fateful autumn day. It’s been hard to stay out of Luthor family affairs since…”
The reporter nodded. “Continue.”
“About a year and a half ago, Lionel Luthor approached me to spy on…well, someone I knew that he had an interest in.” Chloe paused, frowning for a moment. She didn’t like thinking back on that deal and what it had nearly cost her. “Anyway, let’s just say that it wasn’t the highlight of my life or anything like that, and I agreed in return for that column at the Planet.
“It took me a few months to come to my sense, but I did and tried to break the deal. Bit of advice? Don’t go making deals with the devil, especially ones you know you can’t keep. Not only did I lose my column, but my dad lost his job at LuthorCorp as well. And Lionel never stopped hounding me.”
“What changed?”
“Lex Luthor. He wanted revenge for that unnecessary trip to Belle Reeve last year. And I knew something that Lionel had erased from his son’s mind: Morgan Edge had been hired by Lionel Luthor to start the tenement fire that killed his parents. I managed to get a confession on voicemail – don’t ask, reporter’s secret – and even though Lionel thought he had it destroyed by hacking into my account, well, see, the thing about voicemails is that they’re like deleted computer files. They never really go away.
“I knew I’d never really be free of Lionel’s grasp on my own, so I agreed to work with Lex. He hired someone to dig up the voicemail from the dredges of cyberspace and we now had evidence to use against Daddy Dearest. He also got the FBI to put me and my dad in protective custody for the duration of the trial.”
Chloe shrugged, trying to look brave in the face of the bad memories this interview brought up. “It worked; between my testimony and Clark Kent’s, we were able to deny Lionel Luthor bail last June.”
“But your house was blown up shortly after you testified. I remember reading the article,” the reporter replied, taking a sip of her tea. “Obviously someone wasn’t done with you yet.”
“Yeah,” Chloe said, laughing nervously. Sure, it had only been her home for the past four or so years, but losing it still hurt. “I guess Lionel didn’t really want to die in jail, not that I’d blame him.
“Lex somehow found out about the explosions and had his people usher Dad and me through a tunnel underneath our home. He then set up a safe house that was protected both by the FBI and my uncle.”
“You’re uncle?”
“General Sam Lane, my quite so literal Uncle Sam.” Chloe shrugged. “It was weird having to fake my own death, but it worked for the most part.” She rubbed at a healing bruise on her forehead. She had been lucky Clark had found her in time yesterday, before Lionel’s hit man had a chance to finish the job. “It was worth it though. Today I got to kick Lionel Luthor’s butt.”
Today she had kicked Lionel Luthor’s butt, after hiding for almost three months and after living in fear for almost a year and a half. Today it was over. Today it ended. Done, finito, gone. It’s been the drama that had defined her life for over the past year now. But she survived and she testified. Lionel Luthor wouldn’t be able to hurt her again.
That was definitely worth it’s weight in gold.
