Day Seven: Crafted By Design

Chloe Sullivan doesn't believe in coincidence. It's too finely crafted to ever be anything less than design. So, when she opens the door to her apartment and he's there, she knows instantly that this is no innocent visit.

"You're late," he quips. He's reclining on her couch, his feet up on the coffee table, browsing through the contents of her mail pile. "Late day at the office?"

She'd be irked if there was anything in that pile other than bills. She keeps all her important stuff in the little safe in the closet.

"Lex, hasn't anyone ever told you that breaking and entering is against the law?"

Lex snorts. It sounds odd coming from him, and it makes her grin despite her annoyance.

"If I recall correctly, Ms. Sullivan, you were the one who never quite understood that concept." Chloe ignores his comment and hangs up her coat. She disappears to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee when she hears him call out, "Besides, I'm not exactly breaking in as much as I'm checking on an investment."

She pauses mid-scoop when it occurs to her what he means. She walks back out to the living room, coffee scoop still in her hand, and stares at him. "Tell me you didn't."

He grins. He resembles a shark. "As of noon today, Ms. Sullivan, you're my favorite tenant."

Chloe rolls her eyes. "You know, Lex, some people would just pick up the phone and ask to come over. They wouldn't have to resort to grand gestures to make their point."

"Only because they lack imagination."

"Uh huh." She places the scoop on the coffee table and plops herself down on the couch beside him. "Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?"

"Eventually."

Chloe shakes her head. It only makes his smile even bigger. Just her luck, Lex is in a playful mood today. And knowing Lex, that usually means trouble, or at least some complication in her life.

She supposes that she should at least consider herself lucky that he's smiling. The only thing more terrifying that Lex when he's having fun is Lex when he's not. She's familiar with both moods.

"How was Europe?" she asks, hoping that distraction will at least work.

"Informative," he answers cryptically. "Did you miss me?"

"I didn't know I was supposed to," she says. Lex doesn't take offense. He hadn't told her when he took off, and she hadn't really expected him to. She can't exactly define their current relationship; she's not sure there is a definition. If you'd told her a few years ago that the world's most powerful playboy would be interested in her one day, she would have scoffed. At sixteen, she didn't believe that Lex would be interested in anything that didn't have to do with Clark Kent.

It had started a little over four years ago. She was still in New York, with the Times then. He was there for the opening of a new LuthorCorp development, at least officially. Looking back, she still can't be sure that he wasn't there to see her, and that's not just vanity. He'd gone out of his way to make her acquaintance again. She'd assumed it had to do with Clark.

He'd invited her out to dinner, and she'd gone out of sheer curiosity. It was dinner at the Rainbow Room, followed by box seats at the theater. She didn't know why, but Lex had gone out of his way to seduce her, and she was twenty-six and ready to throw caution to the wind for one night.

Even after they'd slept together, she kept waiting for the questions about Clark.

They never came. What did come, a week later, was a job offer from the Metropolis Journal for an unbelievable salary. She couldn't be sure Lex didn't have anything to do with it, but she wasn't a fool. Three weeks later, she was back in Metropolis.

There were a dozen white orchids on her desk her first day on the job. There was no card.

It wasn't until after her second editorial about the Metropolis Police force's unwise reliance on Superman that she heard from him again. A voice mail left on her cell phone, another invitation to dinner. They didn't discuss Superman, but she heard him quote her on an interview on the six o'clock news.

Chloe became known as a huge opponent of the continued use of Superman to regulate law within the city and the world. Superman had become a larger than life figure very quickly. Chloe could understand why.

Fascination with the hero apparently ran in her family, if her cousin's articles were any indication. The city loved the drama. The two cousins were dueling it out in print, with Lois' articles glorifying the alien to almost mythic proportions and Chloe's urging caution of someone she considered an unknown. Within six months at the Journal, Chloe Sullivan had become a household name.

So it wasn't surprising when Lex Luthor gave her the first interview after the dissolution of LuthorCorp into the newly re-formed LexCorp. Her editor gave her a dozen roses and week off for the journalistic coup.

The first time Lex came to her apartment was the night after Lionel's death. It was cancer and the death had been painful. Chloe never asked Lex for a quote that night. She never told him that she was sorry his father had died. He seemed grateful for the omission.

It was a common occurrence after that. Lex never asked for anything. Chloe became a well-known figure in Metropolis news circles and their paths crossed frequently both professionally and personally. She held her breath every time she wrote something on LexCorp, waiting for him to ask her to toss a story, to change it, to violate her ethics in some way. He never did.

Slowly, she began to confide in him. It was at his urging that she went back to law school, and leaned away from the paper and turned her attention to academics. But even that proved to not be enough of a challenge.

If she'd been thinking, it would have occurred to her earlier. She'd heard the rumors, even understood to a certain extent how Lex was positioning himself. She had moved right along with him, manipulated by strings that she hadn't seen, and the final act was coming together.

Chloe's never believed in coincidence.

"I quit my job today," she says.

Lex doesn't bother to feign surprise. "What do you plan to do?"

She shrugs. "Sleep in? Travel? Maybe write a tell-all book about you?" He smirks at her. Chloe shifts, pulling both her feet up on to the couch.

"Sounds boring."

"Boring might be nice," she counters.

"Not for you."

She eyes him. "The rumors are true, aren't they? You're doing it."

"Interested in a job, Chloe?"

"You've got to be kidding me."

"It's right up your alley. Long hours, hard work, you'll love it."

She squints at him.

"Neither party will back you."

"It wouldn't be the first time an Independent was elected to the Senate."

"It would be for the presidency," she says. "I'm right, aren't I? This is just a first step."

"I'm not just picking up a new hobby. I have goals. I need someone equally goal-oriented to run my campaign."

Chloe laughs nervously. "What makes you think that I want to do that?"

"Why did you quit?" he asks.

"I outgrew the job," she replies, honestly.

"You're a smart woman, Chloe. You want a position where you could effect real change. After all, what's the point of pursuing the truth if you don’t actually get to do anything with it?"

"Is that what you plan to do? Pursue the truth?"

"Chloe, tell me about Superman?"

She growls softly. She hates being set up. "Superman, big alien guy?"

"Chloe."

"Fine. I maintain that I don't dislike Superman, Lex. I distrust him." She breathes out. "No one person should have that much power, alien or human. Power corrupts..."

"And absolute power corrupts absolutely. I need you for my campaign, Chloe."

"To keep Superman from running amok?"

"To keep me."

"When?" she asks.

"When what?"

"When did you decide I would help you?"

Lex grins. "You weren't even seventeen when you testified against my father, Chloe. You impressed me even then."

Chloe shakes her head. It would be easier if she thought that Lex would make a crummy politician. A terrible leader. But whatever else her doubts are, she knows that Lex is ready for this step. That he's been biding his time.

It amazes her that she really didn’t notice that he's been grooming her.

"Do this, Chloe. You know you want to."

Chloe throws her head back onto the arm of the couch, and closes her eyes. At least now she knows it wasn't about Clark.

"Think about it this way. If we lose, you'd still be able to write that book and I bet it'd sell much quicker."

She laughs weakly. Lex isn't going to lose.

"We have to discuss a platform," she says. It's not yes, but it might as well be. Lex grins, and pulls her in for a kiss.

She shakes her head. "We can't be doing that if I'm going to work for you," she reminds him. "Bad office politics."

He quirks an eyebrow at her. She grins, and pulls him closer.

"What the hell," she whispers. "I need a best-seller."

*end*