What she came up with is plot driven and nothing short of a masterpiece. Chloe gets kidnapped by Lex Luthor in the aftermath of a not-argument about the many things she wants to do with Davis. Davis and Clark go to save her in an uneasy truce. Clark gets called on the mind rape; Davis finds Chloe first and it seems that even while the building is destroyed above them... You have read Leap right?
by paraxdisepink at her lj.
6680 words, from pg-13 to nc-17, post-leap.
He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?
Chloe I was stupid. That was the first thing he planned on saying when he found her. He'd been meaning to say it since he lost her, when she left his apartment in her nightgown and robe of all things.
“I guess this is one of those times you just need to be alone,” she told him in a voice that had more than a little ice around the edges. Being alone had sounded like a good idea until he heard her car door slam. He was tired and trying to fight off the nagging arousal. He was . . .
It all started when he came home from work and found her waiting for him in his bed, literally laying in wait in bright pink lingerie. He got out of the shower and crawled under the covers and she climbed – no slinked was a better word – on top of him, warm and smelling like Bath and Body something or other.
His response was instantaneous and pretty predictable, a rush of excitement, a throb in his groin, and that helpless drowning feeling when she kissed the tender spot behind his ear and started down the line of his jaw. The hunger was there, in him and in her, but he wrestled against it. He'd been worrying about stuff like this all day in the ambulance. He'd even come home ready to talk about it, as soon as he got some sleep. But now that she caught him off guard it all seemed to come out in a different language. Maybe if he wrote it in Kryptonian she'd get it. She was good at that stuff.
“You know, we don't have to do this so much,” he said as he took her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him. “There's plenty of other things I like doing with you.”
Chloe looked confused in the darkness above him, but decided to laugh it off. “Sleeping with you isn't a chore, Davis.” She ran her hand over his arm where the muscles bulged. “Let's be realistic here.”
Davis turned his head away. Chloe had told him pretty plainly that sex with him was better than sex with Jimmy. Once, she had told him pretty plainly she felt a certain way with him that she didn't feel with Jimmy. He should have been flattered, but deep down he felt more like the monster using some kind of mystical allure to keep the good girl in his clutches than a step up in significant others. Feeling like the monster dulled the hunger somewhat and made it easier when he said, “I'm serious, Chloe. I don't think it hurts to take a step back and let you know this isn't all I'm here for.”
She climbed off him and for the first time after all they'd been through she really did look at him in the moonlight like he was from another planet. “Oh my god, are we having too much hot sex for you, Davis? I didn't realize you were that inhibited.”
“I'm not.” She should know that. There wasn't a place in her apartment or his where they hadn't . . . he didn't want to say 'fucked' but he couldn't call it making love either. That was tender, slow, not always her style. “I'm just trying to do the right thing here.”
That was evidentially the wrong thing to say, not surprising since there wasn't a whole lot right about him. He'd been created to hide a sentient weapon of mass destruction. Chloe pulled the covers over her lap, her shoulders stiffening in the dim light. “Sleeping with me goes against your morals now? What, should we be married? I didn't realize I was sleeping with the religious right.” That was a cheap shot. She told him his being Catholic didn't bother her, but she wasn't done. “Or is this some attempt at romance? 'You're more to me than a vagina.' Thanks, Davis. I'm flattered.”
Davis sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Come on, Chloe, give me a break here. You know I'd never think that.”
She climbed out of bed and pulled a matching silky pink robe over her shoulders, and if that wasn't a bad enough omen she grabbed her purse and nothing else and he realized she'd driven over here dressed like that. God, what if she got pulled over . . . ? He hoped she had a coat in the car.
“Maybe you'd rather be alone,” she said as she headed for the door. “I think I've done enough damage to your celibacy vow.”
Davis got out of bed after her. He didn't say he didn't want to . . .
“Chloe . . .”
It was too late. She went out the door and started heading down the stairs for the parking lot. Davis let out a long breath and slumped against the hall doorway. Part of him panicked that she wouldn't come back and he wanted to run after her. The rest of him wanted the confusion and frustration to last as long as possible. He'd gotten into a fight with his girlfriend that he couldn't make sense of. He hadn't had this normal of a problem in a long time.
Ten minutes later after he heard her car door slam and saw the flash of headlights he went to the phone and dialed her number. The best thing was to apologize, say he was just tried, and try and explain himself some other time. Her cell phone rang, but the call went to voice mail. That wasn't a good sign. She was pretty annoyed with him, but not pissed off enough not to answer.
The gnawing arousal faded and he went to the front window. He could see the parking lot from his living room and her car was still there. Maybe she was waiting for him to come out. He got his shoes on and hurried down the stairs, and froze at what the poor lighting and a big tree had kept him from seeing.
Her car door was open and Chloe wasn't inside. Davis scanned the scene inside and out. Her purse was there, but her phone was gone. He remembered the headlights he'd seen earlier and the car door he'd heard. This wasn't a mugging. Someone had taken her. How could he be so stupid? He should have watched her get into her car.
The keys were there in the ignition, dangling with keychains in bright mismatched colors like everything else Chloe owned. Davis glanced around. There was no one in the parking lot, no witnesses. Everyone was inside with the blinds pulled shut.
There was no point in going through her purse. Chloe the queen of the digital era wouldn't keep one of those address planners you wrote in. She had a photo of Lois in her wallet though and Davis thanked God aloud when he remembered that she used to date Oliver Queen. Queen could help. He owed him a favor and Chloe's cell phone was on. Queen could have someone locate the signal.
It wasn't until Davis got Clark on the phone instead that he realized why he'd made Chloe so angry. For someone Chloe had never actually been with, Clark had done more than his fair share of damage. Unforgiveable damage. She hadn't said it, but after the way Clark had violated her she was over sensitive to people she cared about deciding what was best for her. If he didn't hurry up and find her he might not get the chance to tell her that wasn't his intention.
Unfortunately Lois wasn't home and Davis had to explain why he needed Oliver Queen's number.
“You lost Chloe?” Clark had that accusatory note in his voice, as though it was his fault. As though it proved something. Clark had known he wasn't good enough and he was going to take the chance to say 'I told you so' without having the balls to actually say it. Davis felt like throwing the phone. Great guy. What did Chloe see in him again?
“I didn't lose her. She's been kidnapped.”
“Outside your apartment. Why didn't you stop them?”
Davis was losing his patience. He wanted to find Chloe, not sit around and play the blame game. “Same reason you didn't stop Chloe from getting infected with that Brainiac Construct. I can't be everywhere at once.”
“You were right there. I don't see how this could have happened.”
He didn't have time for this. Chloe's abductors could be doing God knows what to her by now. His stomach turned. He didn't want to go there. “Look, can you just have Oliver find out where she is? I have to get her back.”
Clark let out a long breath, but to his credit he didn't deliberate. “I'll be right there.”
**
Davis forgot Clark had what Chloe called 'superspeed.' He wasn't exactly mentally present when he had fought – no, killed – Clark in the Fortress. Up until then he'd thought of Clark as a well-meaning bumpkin who had yet to grasp that big city concept of staying out of the other guy's way. Now, he expected an eternity of pacing around his living room and feeling inadequate because he had to call on another guy for help. But all he'd meant to ask for was Oliver's number and a little assistance pinpointing a cell phone signal. Clark was the one who had decided to come over. Given the powers Clark had, Davis would be stupid to say “I don't need you.” This wasn't a time for his ego and after having the Ultimate Destroyer inside him what did he care about being macho? This wasn't a contest to see who tore the most stuff apart between here and wherever Chloe was and deserved her more. Clark didn't want her and even if he suddenly changed his mind Chloe couldn't forgive him for what he had done to her.
Someone pounded on the door in about two heartbeats. Davis opened it and Clark was there in a newer version of his famous red jacket and blue t-shirt. Doomsday had bloodied the old one beating the life out of him.
“You get ahold of Oliver?' Davis asked as he let him in.
Clark nodded and didn't go further than inside the doorway. This wasn't a sit down on the couch and have a beer type of visit.
“Lex took her.”
“Luthor?”
Clark nodded. Davis didn't know much about Lex Luthor, but he knew from what Chloe had told him that the guy was bad news. But on one hand, being abducted by him was better than some thugs off the street. On the other he had the power to cover up his messes and Davis had to keep Chloe from becoming one of those messes.
“He must be trying to get to me.” Clark lowered his head and started to pace. “Back when we were friends I never thought he'd stoop this low and go after the people I love.”
Because everything was about Clark. “What about Chloe's meteor power? What if he wants to study her? Chloe said he's tried that before.” She had blackouts just like him at the time. Her mother compelled her with her own power to kill Lex Luthor one night. She knew what it was not to remember what she'd done, to be terrified of what she could become. The funny thing was, she hadn't told him that until a few weeks ago.
“You think something she wrote in one of her articles pissed him off?”
“I don't know.” Clark looked lost. Was he really destined to save the world? He pulled himself together and said in a stronger voice. “It's not important right now. We have to find out where Lex has taken her. Do you have speed?”
“Some.” Davis was getting faster every day, but he didn't know whether he could match Clark. He could try though. For Chloe he could try. He opened the door. “After you.”
**
They flew through Star City in the darkness, through the streets Davis walked sometimes when the memories got the better of him. Finding Chloe wasn't as simple as locating her cell phone. They found her cell phone. Lex's people had dropped it off at one of his labs, and after wasting an hour sneaking past guards and finding a stealthy way in all they found was a voice mail message.
“If you want Chloe you'll have to follow the breadcrumbs.”
It made Davis sick to admit it, but if he had the monster inside him . . . No. Chloe wouldn't want a monster coming for her; she'd want a man. But as things stood she'd have to settle for two super-powered aliens.
“This is going to turn into a wild goose chase,” Davis turned to Clark in the moonlight. “Clark, she could be hurt.”
Clark's features tightened. The thought had crossed his mind. “We'll get Oliver on it. We'll find all Lex's hideouts and search them one at a time if we have to.”
That wasn't good enough. That could take all night. Days even. “We'll split up. Give me some places and I'll take half. I'm not going to waste time here.”
Clark made the call and Oliver, who admitted to owing him a favor, came back with some locals. Davis put them in his phone and took off running. Code three was for saving lives, no unnecessary passengers. He didn't know what to call this, but as he watched Clark take off in the opposite direction he felt like they were on some sick Easter egg hunt. Whoever found Chloe first proved they were better for her, and the top contenders were the guy sent to Earth to kill everyone and the guy who had as good as raped her.
It was always darkest before dawn, the saying went, and in the pitch blackness of early, early morning Davis did find her first. It was the blackout hour when he would wake up bloody, the nightmare hour when he got the hell out of the ER before the weeping relatives made it in with their questions. If something hellish was going to happen tonight now was the time.
This building was smaller, just a huge brick rectangle in the open ground between Metropolis and Smallville. He thought about going in alone, but he called Clark at the last minute. Maybe they'd never watch the Superbowl together, but when it came to breaking into a Luthorcorp facility two were better than one.
Clark blurred in and scanned the building, and Davis had to admit he'd changed a lot since he'd last seen him at Chloe's dinner party. Some of the farm boy had worn off and more focus and confidence came through. Maybe it was Lois. Maybe she'd done her best to take the 'boy' out of the farmboy. Or maybe it was coming back from the dead. Davis could relate to that.
“Back entrance is unguarded,” Clark said.
Davis looked at him. He used to think of himself as a straight forward guy. The patients wanted to know their chances, he told him. He liked a girl, he told her. But after a few weeks of whirlwind self-discoveries about his origins and his purpose he wasn't willing to take anything at surface value.
“Does that mean it's a trap?”
“It doesn't matter. Lex can't stop me. He's not . . .”
“Me.” Davis finished for him. Clark may as well say it. It was sickly flattering, in a way. No one's ever hurt me as good as you did. Way to get all nostalgic.
Clark nodded, slowly, like he was ashamed. He shouldn't be. Davis was the one who had beaten the life out of him before Chloe's eyes. “When this is over I want you to meet my father.”
Davis blinked. What? Was Clark planning on proposing to him? Bringing him home to meet the family? Or was he planning on taking him up north for a little mind wipe so he would forget Chloe altogether?
“You're Kryptonian,” Clark hurried on. “I need to know your powers won't put anyone in danger.”
Or maybe it was that. Clark still didn't trust him. The feeling was mutual. Never trust a guy who violated the lady in your life. “Right,” Davis shrugged. “But if you don't stop talking and let me go in that building they will be.”
He stalked off and left Clark to follow. It turned out the back door had guards after all, Luthorcorp guys in bullet proof vests and helmets, paramilitary types. It didn't take much to take them out, just a good hit with his above average strength. They'd wake up with a headache, but other than that he didn't worry about them. Davis heard a whoosh of air and realized Clark was behind him. He grabbed another guard further down one of the near black corridors, lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall.
“Where's my friend?” his voice was rough.
The guy gulped and his eyes went wide. Clark's innocent baby face might have fooled him at first glance, but one look up into his hard blue eyes told him this guy might just choke the life out of him. Davis believed it, but as much as he didn't want anyone to get hurt he didn't tell Clark to stop. The guy knew something.
“Why should I tell you?” The guy's voice was thin. Not a lot of air got between him and Clark's hand around his throat.
Clark's eyes flashed and for a moment Davis expected them to glow murder-red. He'd never known this side of Clark existed, the real violence, the Kryptonian imposing his will on a primitive human inferior. Chloe always treated him like a naïve child who only did wrong by accident. Maybe she'd never seen this side or maybe there was a monster inside every man when someone he cared about was in danger.
Beams of molten heat shot from Clark's eyes, setting fire to the tapestry above the guard's head. Material like that was easily flammable, a few more seconds and the guy's hair would catch fire. He knew it and his eyes went wider with stark terror. He licked his lips, dry where they hung open.
“Turn right. Go up to the third floor and keep going. Double doors. You'll see it.”
Clark let him go and he slumped to the ground, rubbing his neck and catching his breath. Davis glanced at the burning tapestry above him. “Please tell me you spray water out of eyes too. Chloe's human, if the building itself catches fire –“
Davis didn't finish. He yanked the tapestry off the wall, rolled it up and smothered the flames. The guard was watching him, wild-eyed, and the expression on his face said 'Thank God.' Davis shook his head. Who knew he'd be the good cop.
They turned right and went up a rickety flight of stairs in the dark. They found a set of double doors just like the guard had said. Clark was the one destined to save the world and he'd been sent to this planet to save the day, but there wasn't a power in Heaven or Hell or Krypton itself that could have stopped Davis from crashing through those doors first. They should have taken the time to engineer a plan, some kind of stealthy infiltration like you saw in the movies, but sometimes brute force and desperation was all you needed. Caveman vs. Astronauts, the old conundrum. It was ironic, if you thought about it, but either way Lex wasn't hurting Chloe tonight.
Davis saw her at once, before he saw that the lab was empty. Lex had locked her in some kind of glass cage. There were wires, jars of glowing green liquid, but none of it touched her. She was on the floor with her knees folded under her, hugging that hot pink robe across her chest with her arms. That and the slip beneath was all she wore and it wasn't exactly tropical in here. Davis ran to her. Maybe he was the one who should have brought a coat, but all he had one was pajama pants and a t-shirt.
Her eyes went wide when she saw the two of them and Davis didn't know who she was happier to see at the moment, the guy she said she loved or the guy who had the power to burn this place down with his eyes. It didn't matter. There was a key on the ground. Lex had either left it here to taunt her with it or took off running when he heard them.
“Davis . . .” she crawled to him when he opened the cage door. She wasn't terrified, but she was cold. He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?
Chloe pulled back and for the first time Davis noticed she was a little unsteady. They've given her something. Davis was about to demand what when a door at the other end of the lab swung open.
He should have known getting Chloe back wasn't going to be this easy.
A slender figure strode through the doorway, bald head glowing in the halogen lights. He wore a suit and walked like it was plate armor. Davis stared him down over Chloe's head. He'd kidnapped her. It wasn't Doomsday inside him urging him toward violence this time.
Lex didn't seem to see him. His attention was all for Clark. “So you found her. Did you think I just happened to leave that key lying around? Petty oversights haven't gotten me this far.”
Clark took a step toward him. “What are you talking about?”
“I have you right where I want you, Clark.”
Clark stiffened, almost a good half foot taller than Lex Luthor. “I won't let you study me. I know that's what you've always wanted.”
Lex grabbed Clark by the front of his red coat and tossed him into a wall full of glass shelves like a human bowling ball. “You don't know anything about what I want, Clark, and how could you? You're not even human.”
Clark went stock still in the middle of dragging himself up from the broken glass. Lex somehow had gained the power to hurt him, but that wasn't what shocked him, not the pain of flying halfway across the room or the blood running from a cut on his cheek. Lex knew. Clark's eyes went straight to Chloe and her face crumpled. Lex had learned the truth from her, or at least that's what she believed. Davis highly doubted it. Chloe was too loyal, even to someone who had betrayed her in the worst way.
“You don't know what you're talking about,” Clark faltered in a panic. “Aliens, spaceships. None of that makes sense, Lex.”
The words just bounced right off him. “I never said anything about aliens, Clark. But now that you mention it.” He bent down and picked Clark up by the throat, his long legs dangling like a ragdoll. “The shady adoption, my father's interest in you. It all makes sense now.” He gave Clark another toss into the wall beside Chloe's cage. Davis covered the back of Chloe's head on instinct as sheet rock and paint chips flew toward them. The impact of Clark's body made a dent.
Clark's eyes went big where he slid down to the floor with his legs in front of him. From the little Davis remembered of their fight in Fortress Clark hadn't looked this disbelieving. Being thrown around by a monster was one thing, looking up at the violence in the eyes of your human friend was something else. Clark actually looked halfway heartbroken. He never thought the two of them would come to this.
“What are you doing, Lex?” he rasped in a thin voice. He was breathing hard. Davis hadn't seen that from him before.
Lex hadn't broken a sweat. “Fulfilling my destiny. Our whole lives have been building toward this moment, Clark. The day we met, the meteor shower, that painting on the Kawachi cave wall . . .”
Clark swallowed hard. Apparently the painting meant something. “It doesn't have to be like this. Nothing's set in stone. Ask, Davis.”
Lex barely glanced at him. “I think I know all I need to about Davis Bloome.”
Davis glanced at Chloe kneeling next to him, but she was just as shocked by all this as he and Clark. “What's that supposed to mean?” he turned back to Lex.
Lex's eyes went to Clark, on his guard for when he regrouped or healed himself enough to get up again. “Atonement, redemption, all those good intentions. Your need to play the hero and do good in the world. You could have turned yourself in for what you've done, the bodies you buried, but why waste the power you have when you could save the world? I have to say, it does make a lot more sense. It's refreshing knowing I'm not the only one who sees the shades of grey.”
Where did he learn all this? Davis glanced at Chloe once more and she lowered her head. “What did you do to her?” he demanded.
Lex began to pace. “Chloe and I took a little walk down memory lane. You see, Milton Fine taught me a thing or two and he's left his mark on her. It was quite a slide slow, the normal life the two of you try to have after you literally stole away your bride. I guess a good blood bath is what does it for the modern woman these days.”
Davis opened his mouth. That wasn't who had ruined Chloe's wedding. That was some Kryptonian programming so he would take Chloe to the Arctic for the computer construct to possess so it could transform him for good in an ice cocoon. He'd been trying to work and keep his mind off her that night. He had no idea the connection between them came down to an alien plot to destroy the world. He just thought he loved her. He should have known. It wasn't like him to go kissing a girl who said she loved another man, even if he didn't believe her. Then again he couldn't have been thinking straight, manipulated on that level.
He tried not to think about what else he could have done. What if the computer construct wanted the Destroyer to have offspring, to start some kind of army in order to wipe out humankind. His stomach turned. He couldn't think about it.
Lex wasn't done talking anyway.
“But you're nothing more than a tool.” His eyes hadn't left Clark and Clark hadn't moved. “It's you that got my attention. Milton Fine had a lot to show me. I know now, it's so much worse than the lies you've told, over and over every time I looked at you. It's more than your little secret has stolen from me – my father, Lana, weeks of my life in Belle Reve. I've seen everything you've done. Days mysteriously reset, four years of Chloe's life wiped away on a whim . . . If you'd do that to someone you care about I shudder to think what you'd do to the rest of us.”
Davis felt like throwing up. He'd learned all this from Chloe's mind? And who the hell was Milton Fine? He put an arm around her and pulled her against his shoulder. He had to do something worthwhile with his hands if he couldn't get them around Lex's throat.
Clark pushed himself to his feet. “I did care about you, Lex. But you've gone too far.”
Lex casually backhanded him aside. “I'm done with your lies, Clark. It's time to end this. It's time to be the hero of the story.”
Davis stared at Clark sprawled on the ground. What had Lex done? What did that mean? Where had he gotten the power to hurt Clark? Davis got to his feet. It didn't matter. He had to do something.
Clark seemed to know. He saw him rise and shook his head from where he'd landed on his back. “Get Chloe and get out of here. This is between me and Lex.”
It wasn't anymore, not after Lex and this Milton Fine had hurt Chloe. But Davis had come to get Chloe out of here. She didn't have powers like him and Clark. She needed him. Chloe looked like she wanted to object, but maybe a little bit of what Lex had said was at work here. Maybe this was Clark's way of earning her forgiveness. Or maybe Davis was reading too much into it. At the moment Clark didn't have eyes for anyone but Lex.
Davis grabbed Chloe by the arm and hauled her toward the door they'd come through. They had to hurry. Lex might be telling the truth about luring them here to try and destroy Clark, but Davis wasn't willing to take chances. His people might come charging after them and Lex had dozens of people.
He pushed Chloe to go ahead of him and she ran, high-heeled marabou slippers and all. The facility was huge and they didn't have time to slow down. Davis ran after her. His leftover abilities let him see in the dark better than any human could and maybe he should have gone first to make sure she didn't fall, but if someone was coming after them he wanted a chance to fight them off so she could get away.
He heard Clark's voice in the distance, and then Lex's, and then another crash. Davis had a vain hope the farmboy could talk him down. There was something naggingly familiar about Lex and it told him he hadn't always been the bad guy. More glass shattered and Chloe turned to look back over her shoulder. Davis shook his head at her.
“Keep going.” She couldn't do a thing to help Clark unless she counted getting herself killed.
They ran through a labyrinth of hallways, turning sharply through the building and lit by very little light. This must be the top secret way. The places Lex hid whatever he did in this lab from the inspectors. Good thing it doubled as a suitable escape route.
Chloe's legs gave way after she'd gotten to the bottom of the third flight of stairs. This wasn't the way they'd come in. There was a door with the word 'tunnels' marked in red that evidently led under the city. Davis opened it and helped her stagger inside. She sank to the floor when he closed it behind her and he knelt down in front of her on the dirty unswept tile. A lot of foot traffic had come this way, but he didn't hear anything from either direction now.
It was dark here even for him. He couldn't see much but the outline of her and the brightness of her eyes, but he could hear her breathing. She leaned her head back and pulled her slippers off.
“Whoever invented these things should be hanged. Please don't tell me you find them sexy.”
Wasn't that the point of wearing them? He hadn't thought of them as sexy or not. He looked past all that with her. But even though he didn't care about the slippers right now, he was smart enough not to answer yes or no.
“What did they do to you?”
She pushed her hair out of her face. “I'd forgotten just how deeply Lex was in bed with Brainiac.”
“Brainiac? What does he have to do with this? I thought Clark got rid of him.”
Chloe shook her head. “It's not that easy, Davis.” He waited for her to say something more, but she didn't.
“Chloe . . .”
She didn't answer, just sat there grim-faced. She knew what was happening up there. She knew what Lex had done. Maybe she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Davis swallowed. Getting her out alive was more important anyway and she needed to catch her breath.
He smoothed some of her hair down and she tilted her face up toward him. She still hadn't let herself relax and something about her seemed to wind up tighter when her eyes met his in the darkness. This was the part where he was supposed to say he was sorry for pissing her off and that everything would be all right, but he couldn't quite get the words out. He was too busy curling his fingers in her hair and slipping his other hand around her back. He wasn't thinking about kissing her a second ago. He was thinking about possible side effects from what Lex had done and whether he should take Chloe to a hospital and the fact that her pulse was racing. But he touched the warmth of her and something happened. His mouth found hers in the dark and the fingers that were just supposed to soothe the worry or the cold out of her couldn't help clutching.
He could have lost her. She left because of something stupid and he could have . . .
He could have killed people trying to find her. He'd left Clark to deal with Lex. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this hero thing. A hero would have stayed. Maybe he was selfish. Maybe that's what made heroes, they shook off those selfish instincts and served a greater good. Maybe that's why normal people couldn't relate to them.
Chloe wrapped her small hand around the back of his neck, but she pulled back a moment later just enough to look up at him. “You know,” she half whispered. “I think I like it better when I'm being violated willingly.”
Davis smiled, despite himself. Coming on to him had to be a good sign that she'd be okay long enough to get out of here. “All in good time,” he said quietly. He meant to ask her if she was ready to start moving again, but his hands hadn't left her and her fingers began tracing patterns on the back of his neck like she was anxious and needed something to do with them.
He understood. Desperation, relief, adrenaline. But this wasn't the time.
Another crash echoed in the distance, something slamming into the floor high above them. It shook the building, even where they were partly underground. Davis went still. Was that Clark or Lex being thrown around up there? Lex . . . What had happened to him?
In the dark, Davis saw Chloe bite hard into her lip. He swallowed. He should go back. Clark could use the help. Regardless of what he had done to Chloe, she didn't want him getting hurt and he had helped find her tonight.
Another sound. Something breaking. Wood. Chloe froze where she knelt on the dirty floor. Davis ran a hand through her hair and said gently, “You can't help him.”
She nodded, reluctantly, her face strained in the dark. “I know.”
His hand kept moving through her hair. “I could go back.”
It didn't feel right, running away while Clark was getting hurt up there, but she shook her head. “No.” Her hand tightened on his neck and she leaned her cheek against his as though that would keep him there, warm skin a welcome contrast to the cold air. Davis' hand moved from her hair to her back. That pink satiny material was so thin. His hand slid down to her lap and he only meant to rub some warmth into her thighs where the cloth didn't cover, but his palm must have felt like fire compared to the chill in her skin. She turned her head so that her mouth touched his and the pressure of her lips wasn't light, but desperate for something, and considering how he felt about her he wanted to give it to her.
His hand ended up moving along the inside of her thigh toward the warmth between her legs that was, aside from her mouth, the only warm part of her at the moment. That seemed to be the right idea. Her free hand curled into his bicep and she kissed him harder.
Something else splintered upstairs and she climbed into his lap. Davis let her, hard the instant her weight pressed on his groin. She let out a muffled sound and then stopped kissing him long enough to murmur, “Just . . . distract me.”
This isn't the time, he wanted to say, even as he twitched inside his sweatpants with the thought of being in her. The dark room and the dirty floor didn't matter. But there was something . . .
He lifted her off him for the second time tonight, but this time he got to his knees, crawling up behind and pulling her back against his chest with an arm around her waist. No sense laying her on the freezing floor. She ground her body against the bulge in his pajama bottoms and angled her head back so he could kiss her. He did. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't stop himself either, despite the part of him that said it would have been better just to hold her while they waited for Clark. His free hand pulled that ridiculous pink slip up and she braced herself on the floor on her hands and knees. He slapped a palm to the ground to hold himself up and got his stupid sweatpants out the way with his other hand. His mouth drifted to the back of her neck and she crouched down and offered herself, whimpering when he put himself inside in one quick motion. He had to grit his teeth to maintain control of himself. The heat of her was so familiar, but came as a shock every time. She sank down on her elbows and he held her to him with an arm against her hips, pushing deep until the heat of her sheathed him from tip to end.
The noise upstairs rang in the background, glass shattering and wood crashing to pieces, and he tried to block it out. Davis thrust and let the warmth of her squeeze at him, soaking up the sound she made as he hit the right spot inside. She wanted him to distract her and that was part of the thrill, wasn't it? This thing between him and Clark. It wasn't a competition, but he could make her forget all about Clark with his cock. It was selfish, crude, but at the moment if felt like magic. He was only human and his soul was far from clean. He couldn't help what that power did to him.
The hand gripping her hip moved down, sliding into the flimsy thong underwear he'd pushed aside. She cried out when his fingertips caressed the wetness between her legs and her hips ground back against him in encouragement when he started to rub. He got the idea. Harder. He rested his chin on her shoulder, watching her mouth fall open and her hair bounce and the dark edge of a nipple peek out through the lace at the top of her nightgown. He groaned in frustration. No hands free to touch it, and too far away from his tongue. All he could do was soak up her quiet sounds and the wetness on his fingers and rub and pump his hips into her until she cried out, “Davis,” all he wanted to hear.
She came like a tiny earthquake, in tremors and broken sounds, once and then again. He joined her the second time, clawing at the floor and almost losing his grip on her as he shuddered hard. Had he really thought they'd been doing this too much? He couldn't get enough.
Everything went quiet when the rush of euphoria calmed down. Davis didn't hear anyone flying around above them anymore. He let go of Chloe and sank back on his heels, fastening his pants and catching his breath. He looked over at her as she retied her robe.
They didn't have time to stare at each other. They had to make a decision. Either get the hell out of here, wait for Clark, or go back upstairs and see what had happened.
She got to her feet and Davis waited for her to choose.
And by all means, drop her feedback. And pester her to write prey porn. Woops did I say that out loud?
I will harry you into reading this, I will. It is deep and revelatory and deliciously hot.
6680 words, from pg-13 to nc-17, post-leap.
He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?
Chloe I was stupid. That was the first thing he planned on saying when he found her. He'd been meaning to say it since he lost her, when she left his apartment in her nightgown and robe of all things.
“I guess this is one of those times you just need to be alone,” she told him in a voice that had more than a little ice around the edges. Being alone had sounded like a good idea until he heard her car door slam. He was tired and trying to fight off the nagging arousal. He was . . .
It all started when he came home from work and found her waiting for him in his bed, literally laying in wait in bright pink lingerie. He got out of the shower and crawled under the covers and she climbed – no slinked was a better word – on top of him, warm and smelling like Bath and Body something or other.
His response was instantaneous and pretty predictable, a rush of excitement, a throb in his groin, and that helpless drowning feeling when she kissed the tender spot behind his ear and started down the line of his jaw. The hunger was there, in him and in her, but he wrestled against it. He'd been worrying about stuff like this all day in the ambulance. He'd even come home ready to talk about it, as soon as he got some sleep. But now that she caught him off guard it all seemed to come out in a different language. Maybe if he wrote it in Kryptonian she'd get it. She was good at that stuff.
“You know, we don't have to do this so much,” he said as he took her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him. “There's plenty of other things I like doing with you.”
Chloe looked confused in the darkness above him, but decided to laugh it off. “Sleeping with you isn't a chore, Davis.” She ran her hand over his arm where the muscles bulged. “Let's be realistic here.”
Davis turned his head away. Chloe had told him pretty plainly that sex with him was better than sex with Jimmy. Once, she had told him pretty plainly she felt a certain way with him that she didn't feel with Jimmy. He should have been flattered, but deep down he felt more like the monster using some kind of mystical allure to keep the good girl in his clutches than a step up in significant others. Feeling like the monster dulled the hunger somewhat and made it easier when he said, “I'm serious, Chloe. I don't think it hurts to take a step back and let you know this isn't all I'm here for.”
She climbed off him and for the first time after all they'd been through she really did look at him in the moonlight like he was from another planet. “Oh my god, are we having too much hot sex for you, Davis? I didn't realize you were that inhibited.”
“I'm not.” She should know that. There wasn't a place in her apartment or his where they hadn't . . . he didn't want to say 'fucked' but he couldn't call it making love either. That was tender, slow, not always her style. “I'm just trying to do the right thing here.”
That was evidentially the wrong thing to say, not surprising since there wasn't a whole lot right about him. He'd been created to hide a sentient weapon of mass destruction. Chloe pulled the covers over her lap, her shoulders stiffening in the dim light. “Sleeping with me goes against your morals now? What, should we be married? I didn't realize I was sleeping with the religious right.” That was a cheap shot. She told him his being Catholic didn't bother her, but she wasn't done. “Or is this some attempt at romance? 'You're more to me than a vagina.' Thanks, Davis. I'm flattered.”
Davis sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Come on, Chloe, give me a break here. You know I'd never think that.”
She climbed out of bed and pulled a matching silky pink robe over her shoulders, and if that wasn't a bad enough omen she grabbed her purse and nothing else and he realized she'd driven over here dressed like that. God, what if she got pulled over . . . ? He hoped she had a coat in the car.
“Maybe you'd rather be alone,” she said as she headed for the door. “I think I've done enough damage to your celibacy vow.”
Davis got out of bed after her. He didn't say he didn't want to . . .
“Chloe . . .”
It was too late. She went out the door and started heading down the stairs for the parking lot. Davis let out a long breath and slumped against the hall doorway. Part of him panicked that she wouldn't come back and he wanted to run after her. The rest of him wanted the confusion and frustration to last as long as possible. He'd gotten into a fight with his girlfriend that he couldn't make sense of. He hadn't had this normal of a problem in a long time.
Ten minutes later after he heard her car door slam and saw the flash of headlights he went to the phone and dialed her number. The best thing was to apologize, say he was just tried, and try and explain himself some other time. Her cell phone rang, but the call went to voice mail. That wasn't a good sign. She was pretty annoyed with him, but not pissed off enough not to answer.
The gnawing arousal faded and he went to the front window. He could see the parking lot from his living room and her car was still there. Maybe she was waiting for him to come out. He got his shoes on and hurried down the stairs, and froze at what the poor lighting and a big tree had kept him from seeing.
Her car door was open and Chloe wasn't inside. Davis scanned the scene inside and out. Her purse was there, but her phone was gone. He remembered the headlights he'd seen earlier and the car door he'd heard. This wasn't a mugging. Someone had taken her. How could he be so stupid? He should have watched her get into her car.
The keys were there in the ignition, dangling with keychains in bright mismatched colors like everything else Chloe owned. Davis glanced around. There was no one in the parking lot, no witnesses. Everyone was inside with the blinds pulled shut.
There was no point in going through her purse. Chloe the queen of the digital era wouldn't keep one of those address planners you wrote in. She had a photo of Lois in her wallet though and Davis thanked God aloud when he remembered that she used to date Oliver Queen. Queen could help. He owed him a favor and Chloe's cell phone was on. Queen could have someone locate the signal.
It wasn't until Davis got Clark on the phone instead that he realized why he'd made Chloe so angry. For someone Chloe had never actually been with, Clark had done more than his fair share of damage. Unforgiveable damage. She hadn't said it, but after the way Clark had violated her she was over sensitive to people she cared about deciding what was best for her. If he didn't hurry up and find her he might not get the chance to tell her that wasn't his intention.
Unfortunately Lois wasn't home and Davis had to explain why he needed Oliver Queen's number.
“You lost Chloe?” Clark had that accusatory note in his voice, as though it was his fault. As though it proved something. Clark had known he wasn't good enough and he was going to take the chance to say 'I told you so' without having the balls to actually say it. Davis felt like throwing the phone. Great guy. What did Chloe see in him again?
“I didn't lose her. She's been kidnapped.”
“Outside your apartment. Why didn't you stop them?”
Davis was losing his patience. He wanted to find Chloe, not sit around and play the blame game. “Same reason you didn't stop Chloe from getting infected with that Brainiac Construct. I can't be everywhere at once.”
“You were right there. I don't see how this could have happened.”
He didn't have time for this. Chloe's abductors could be doing God knows what to her by now. His stomach turned. He didn't want to go there. “Look, can you just have Oliver find out where she is? I have to get her back.”
Clark let out a long breath, but to his credit he didn't deliberate. “I'll be right there.”
**
Davis forgot Clark had what Chloe called 'superspeed.' He wasn't exactly mentally present when he had fought – no, killed – Clark in the Fortress. Up until then he'd thought of Clark as a well-meaning bumpkin who had yet to grasp that big city concept of staying out of the other guy's way. Now, he expected an eternity of pacing around his living room and feeling inadequate because he had to call on another guy for help. But all he'd meant to ask for was Oliver's number and a little assistance pinpointing a cell phone signal. Clark was the one who had decided to come over. Given the powers Clark had, Davis would be stupid to say “I don't need you.” This wasn't a time for his ego and after having the Ultimate Destroyer inside him what did he care about being macho? This wasn't a contest to see who tore the most stuff apart between here and wherever Chloe was and deserved her more. Clark didn't want her and even if he suddenly changed his mind Chloe couldn't forgive him for what he had done to her.
Someone pounded on the door in about two heartbeats. Davis opened it and Clark was there in a newer version of his famous red jacket and blue t-shirt. Doomsday had bloodied the old one beating the life out of him.
“You get ahold of Oliver?' Davis asked as he let him in.
Clark nodded and didn't go further than inside the doorway. This wasn't a sit down on the couch and have a beer type of visit.
“Lex took her.”
“Luthor?”
Clark nodded. Davis didn't know much about Lex Luthor, but he knew from what Chloe had told him that the guy was bad news. But on one hand, being abducted by him was better than some thugs off the street. On the other he had the power to cover up his messes and Davis had to keep Chloe from becoming one of those messes.
“He must be trying to get to me.” Clark lowered his head and started to pace. “Back when we were friends I never thought he'd stoop this low and go after the people I love.”
Because everything was about Clark. “What about Chloe's meteor power? What if he wants to study her? Chloe said he's tried that before.” She had blackouts just like him at the time. Her mother compelled her with her own power to kill Lex Luthor one night. She knew what it was not to remember what she'd done, to be terrified of what she could become. The funny thing was, she hadn't told him that until a few weeks ago.
“You think something she wrote in one of her articles pissed him off?”
“I don't know.” Clark looked lost. Was he really destined to save the world? He pulled himself together and said in a stronger voice. “It's not important right now. We have to find out where Lex has taken her. Do you have speed?”
“Some.” Davis was getting faster every day, but he didn't know whether he could match Clark. He could try though. For Chloe he could try. He opened the door. “After you.”
**
They flew through Star City in the darkness, through the streets Davis walked sometimes when the memories got the better of him. Finding Chloe wasn't as simple as locating her cell phone. They found her cell phone. Lex's people had dropped it off at one of his labs, and after wasting an hour sneaking past guards and finding a stealthy way in all they found was a voice mail message.
“If you want Chloe you'll have to follow the breadcrumbs.”
It made Davis sick to admit it, but if he had the monster inside him . . . No. Chloe wouldn't want a monster coming for her; she'd want a man. But as things stood she'd have to settle for two super-powered aliens.
“This is going to turn into a wild goose chase,” Davis turned to Clark in the moonlight. “Clark, she could be hurt.”
Clark's features tightened. The thought had crossed his mind. “We'll get Oliver on it. We'll find all Lex's hideouts and search them one at a time if we have to.”
That wasn't good enough. That could take all night. Days even. “We'll split up. Give me some places and I'll take half. I'm not going to waste time here.”
Clark made the call and Oliver, who admitted to owing him a favor, came back with some locals. Davis put them in his phone and took off running. Code three was for saving lives, no unnecessary passengers. He didn't know what to call this, but as he watched Clark take off in the opposite direction he felt like they were on some sick Easter egg hunt. Whoever found Chloe first proved they were better for her, and the top contenders were the guy sent to Earth to kill everyone and the guy who had as good as raped her.
It was always darkest before dawn, the saying went, and in the pitch blackness of early, early morning Davis did find her first. It was the blackout hour when he would wake up bloody, the nightmare hour when he got the hell out of the ER before the weeping relatives made it in with their questions. If something hellish was going to happen tonight now was the time.
This building was smaller, just a huge brick rectangle in the open ground between Metropolis and Smallville. He thought about going in alone, but he called Clark at the last minute. Maybe they'd never watch the Superbowl together, but when it came to breaking into a Luthorcorp facility two were better than one.
Clark blurred in and scanned the building, and Davis had to admit he'd changed a lot since he'd last seen him at Chloe's dinner party. Some of the farm boy had worn off and more focus and confidence came through. Maybe it was Lois. Maybe she'd done her best to take the 'boy' out of the farmboy. Or maybe it was coming back from the dead. Davis could relate to that.
“Back entrance is unguarded,” Clark said.
Davis looked at him. He used to think of himself as a straight forward guy. The patients wanted to know their chances, he told him. He liked a girl, he told her. But after a few weeks of whirlwind self-discoveries about his origins and his purpose he wasn't willing to take anything at surface value.
“Does that mean it's a trap?”
“It doesn't matter. Lex can't stop me. He's not . . .”
“Me.” Davis finished for him. Clark may as well say it. It was sickly flattering, in a way. No one's ever hurt me as good as you did. Way to get all nostalgic.
Clark nodded, slowly, like he was ashamed. He shouldn't be. Davis was the one who had beaten the life out of him before Chloe's eyes. “When this is over I want you to meet my father.”
Davis blinked. What? Was Clark planning on proposing to him? Bringing him home to meet the family? Or was he planning on taking him up north for a little mind wipe so he would forget Chloe altogether?
“You're Kryptonian,” Clark hurried on. “I need to know your powers won't put anyone in danger.”
Or maybe it was that. Clark still didn't trust him. The feeling was mutual. Never trust a guy who violated the lady in your life. “Right,” Davis shrugged. “But if you don't stop talking and let me go in that building they will be.”
He stalked off and left Clark to follow. It turned out the back door had guards after all, Luthorcorp guys in bullet proof vests and helmets, paramilitary types. It didn't take much to take them out, just a good hit with his above average strength. They'd wake up with a headache, but other than that he didn't worry about them. Davis heard a whoosh of air and realized Clark was behind him. He grabbed another guard further down one of the near black corridors, lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall.
“Where's my friend?” his voice was rough.
The guy gulped and his eyes went wide. Clark's innocent baby face might have fooled him at first glance, but one look up into his hard blue eyes told him this guy might just choke the life out of him. Davis believed it, but as much as he didn't want anyone to get hurt he didn't tell Clark to stop. The guy knew something.
“Why should I tell you?” The guy's voice was thin. Not a lot of air got between him and Clark's hand around his throat.
Clark's eyes flashed and for a moment Davis expected them to glow murder-red. He'd never known this side of Clark existed, the real violence, the Kryptonian imposing his will on a primitive human inferior. Chloe always treated him like a naïve child who only did wrong by accident. Maybe she'd never seen this side or maybe there was a monster inside every man when someone he cared about was in danger.
Beams of molten heat shot from Clark's eyes, setting fire to the tapestry above the guard's head. Material like that was easily flammable, a few more seconds and the guy's hair would catch fire. He knew it and his eyes went wider with stark terror. He licked his lips, dry where they hung open.
“Turn right. Go up to the third floor and keep going. Double doors. You'll see it.”
Clark let him go and he slumped to the ground, rubbing his neck and catching his breath. Davis glanced at the burning tapestry above him. “Please tell me you spray water out of eyes too. Chloe's human, if the building itself catches fire –“
Davis didn't finish. He yanked the tapestry off the wall, rolled it up and smothered the flames. The guard was watching him, wild-eyed, and the expression on his face said 'Thank God.' Davis shook his head. Who knew he'd be the good cop.
They turned right and went up a rickety flight of stairs in the dark. They found a set of double doors just like the guard had said. Clark was the one destined to save the world and he'd been sent to this planet to save the day, but there wasn't a power in Heaven or Hell or Krypton itself that could have stopped Davis from crashing through those doors first. They should have taken the time to engineer a plan, some kind of stealthy infiltration like you saw in the movies, but sometimes brute force and desperation was all you needed. Caveman vs. Astronauts, the old conundrum. It was ironic, if you thought about it, but either way Lex wasn't hurting Chloe tonight.
Davis saw her at once, before he saw that the lab was empty. Lex had locked her in some kind of glass cage. There were wires, jars of glowing green liquid, but none of it touched her. She was on the floor with her knees folded under her, hugging that hot pink robe across her chest with her arms. That and the slip beneath was all she wore and it wasn't exactly tropical in here. Davis ran to her. Maybe he was the one who should have brought a coat, but all he had one was pajama pants and a t-shirt.
Her eyes went wide when she saw the two of them and Davis didn't know who she was happier to see at the moment, the guy she said she loved or the guy who had the power to burn this place down with his eyes. It didn't matter. There was a key on the ground. Lex had either left it here to taunt her with it or took off running when he heard them.
“Davis . . .” she crawled to him when he opened the cage door. She wasn't terrified, but she was cold. He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?
Chloe pulled back and for the first time Davis noticed she was a little unsteady. They've given her something. Davis was about to demand what when a door at the other end of the lab swung open.
He should have known getting Chloe back wasn't going to be this easy.
A slender figure strode through the doorway, bald head glowing in the halogen lights. He wore a suit and walked like it was plate armor. Davis stared him down over Chloe's head. He'd kidnapped her. It wasn't Doomsday inside him urging him toward violence this time.
Lex didn't seem to see him. His attention was all for Clark. “So you found her. Did you think I just happened to leave that key lying around? Petty oversights haven't gotten me this far.”
Clark took a step toward him. “What are you talking about?”
“I have you right where I want you, Clark.”
Clark stiffened, almost a good half foot taller than Lex Luthor. “I won't let you study me. I know that's what you've always wanted.”
Lex grabbed Clark by the front of his red coat and tossed him into a wall full of glass shelves like a human bowling ball. “You don't know anything about what I want, Clark, and how could you? You're not even human.”
Clark went stock still in the middle of dragging himself up from the broken glass. Lex somehow had gained the power to hurt him, but that wasn't what shocked him, not the pain of flying halfway across the room or the blood running from a cut on his cheek. Lex knew. Clark's eyes went straight to Chloe and her face crumpled. Lex had learned the truth from her, or at least that's what she believed. Davis highly doubted it. Chloe was too loyal, even to someone who had betrayed her in the worst way.
“You don't know what you're talking about,” Clark faltered in a panic. “Aliens, spaceships. None of that makes sense, Lex.”
The words just bounced right off him. “I never said anything about aliens, Clark. But now that you mention it.” He bent down and picked Clark up by the throat, his long legs dangling like a ragdoll. “The shady adoption, my father's interest in you. It all makes sense now.” He gave Clark another toss into the wall beside Chloe's cage. Davis covered the back of Chloe's head on instinct as sheet rock and paint chips flew toward them. The impact of Clark's body made a dent.
Clark's eyes went big where he slid down to the floor with his legs in front of him. From the little Davis remembered of their fight in Fortress Clark hadn't looked this disbelieving. Being thrown around by a monster was one thing, looking up at the violence in the eyes of your human friend was something else. Clark actually looked halfway heartbroken. He never thought the two of them would come to this.
“What are you doing, Lex?” he rasped in a thin voice. He was breathing hard. Davis hadn't seen that from him before.
Lex hadn't broken a sweat. “Fulfilling my destiny. Our whole lives have been building toward this moment, Clark. The day we met, the meteor shower, that painting on the Kawachi cave wall . . .”
Clark swallowed hard. Apparently the painting meant something. “It doesn't have to be like this. Nothing's set in stone. Ask, Davis.”
Lex barely glanced at him. “I think I know all I need to about Davis Bloome.”
Davis glanced at Chloe kneeling next to him, but she was just as shocked by all this as he and Clark. “What's that supposed to mean?” he turned back to Lex.
Lex's eyes went to Clark, on his guard for when he regrouped or healed himself enough to get up again. “Atonement, redemption, all those good intentions. Your need to play the hero and do good in the world. You could have turned yourself in for what you've done, the bodies you buried, but why waste the power you have when you could save the world? I have to say, it does make a lot more sense. It's refreshing knowing I'm not the only one who sees the shades of grey.”
Where did he learn all this? Davis glanced at Chloe once more and she lowered her head. “What did you do to her?” he demanded.
Lex began to pace. “Chloe and I took a little walk down memory lane. You see, Milton Fine taught me a thing or two and he's left his mark on her. It was quite a slide slow, the normal life the two of you try to have after you literally stole away your bride. I guess a good blood bath is what does it for the modern woman these days.”
Davis opened his mouth. That wasn't who had ruined Chloe's wedding. That was some Kryptonian programming so he would take Chloe to the Arctic for the computer construct to possess so it could transform him for good in an ice cocoon. He'd been trying to work and keep his mind off her that night. He had no idea the connection between them came down to an alien plot to destroy the world. He just thought he loved her. He should have known. It wasn't like him to go kissing a girl who said she loved another man, even if he didn't believe her. Then again he couldn't have been thinking straight, manipulated on that level.
He tried not to think about what else he could have done. What if the computer construct wanted the Destroyer to have offspring, to start some kind of army in order to wipe out humankind. His stomach turned. He couldn't think about it.
Lex wasn't done talking anyway.
“But you're nothing more than a tool.” His eyes hadn't left Clark and Clark hadn't moved. “It's you that got my attention. Milton Fine had a lot to show me. I know now, it's so much worse than the lies you've told, over and over every time I looked at you. It's more than your little secret has stolen from me – my father, Lana, weeks of my life in Belle Reve. I've seen everything you've done. Days mysteriously reset, four years of Chloe's life wiped away on a whim . . . If you'd do that to someone you care about I shudder to think what you'd do to the rest of us.”
Davis felt like throwing up. He'd learned all this from Chloe's mind? And who the hell was Milton Fine? He put an arm around her and pulled her against his shoulder. He had to do something worthwhile with his hands if he couldn't get them around Lex's throat.
Clark pushed himself to his feet. “I did care about you, Lex. But you've gone too far.”
Lex casually backhanded him aside. “I'm done with your lies, Clark. It's time to end this. It's time to be the hero of the story.”
Davis stared at Clark sprawled on the ground. What had Lex done? What did that mean? Where had he gotten the power to hurt Clark? Davis got to his feet. It didn't matter. He had to do something.
Clark seemed to know. He saw him rise and shook his head from where he'd landed on his back. “Get Chloe and get out of here. This is between me and Lex.”
It wasn't anymore, not after Lex and this Milton Fine had hurt Chloe. But Davis had come to get Chloe out of here. She didn't have powers like him and Clark. She needed him. Chloe looked like she wanted to object, but maybe a little bit of what Lex had said was at work here. Maybe this was Clark's way of earning her forgiveness. Or maybe Davis was reading too much into it. At the moment Clark didn't have eyes for anyone but Lex.
Davis grabbed Chloe by the arm and hauled her toward the door they'd come through. They had to hurry. Lex might be telling the truth about luring them here to try and destroy Clark, but Davis wasn't willing to take chances. His people might come charging after them and Lex had dozens of people.
He pushed Chloe to go ahead of him and she ran, high-heeled marabou slippers and all. The facility was huge and they didn't have time to slow down. Davis ran after her. His leftover abilities let him see in the dark better than any human could and maybe he should have gone first to make sure she didn't fall, but if someone was coming after them he wanted a chance to fight them off so she could get away.
He heard Clark's voice in the distance, and then Lex's, and then another crash. Davis had a vain hope the farmboy could talk him down. There was something naggingly familiar about Lex and it told him he hadn't always been the bad guy. More glass shattered and Chloe turned to look back over her shoulder. Davis shook his head at her.
“Keep going.” She couldn't do a thing to help Clark unless she counted getting herself killed.
They ran through a labyrinth of hallways, turning sharply through the building and lit by very little light. This must be the top secret way. The places Lex hid whatever he did in this lab from the inspectors. Good thing it doubled as a suitable escape route.
Chloe's legs gave way after she'd gotten to the bottom of the third flight of stairs. This wasn't the way they'd come in. There was a door with the word 'tunnels' marked in red that evidently led under the city. Davis opened it and helped her stagger inside. She sank to the floor when he closed it behind her and he knelt down in front of her on the dirty unswept tile. A lot of foot traffic had come this way, but he didn't hear anything from either direction now.
It was dark here even for him. He couldn't see much but the outline of her and the brightness of her eyes, but he could hear her breathing. She leaned her head back and pulled her slippers off.
“Whoever invented these things should be hanged. Please don't tell me you find them sexy.”
Wasn't that the point of wearing them? He hadn't thought of them as sexy or not. He looked past all that with her. But even though he didn't care about the slippers right now, he was smart enough not to answer yes or no.
“What did they do to you?”
She pushed her hair out of her face. “I'd forgotten just how deeply Lex was in bed with Brainiac.”
“Brainiac? What does he have to do with this? I thought Clark got rid of him.”
Chloe shook her head. “It's not that easy, Davis.” He waited for her to say something more, but she didn't.
“Chloe . . .”
She didn't answer, just sat there grim-faced. She knew what was happening up there. She knew what Lex had done. Maybe she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Davis swallowed. Getting her out alive was more important anyway and she needed to catch her breath.
He smoothed some of her hair down and she tilted her face up toward him. She still hadn't let herself relax and something about her seemed to wind up tighter when her eyes met his in the darkness. This was the part where he was supposed to say he was sorry for pissing her off and that everything would be all right, but he couldn't quite get the words out. He was too busy curling his fingers in her hair and slipping his other hand around her back. He wasn't thinking about kissing her a second ago. He was thinking about possible side effects from what Lex had done and whether he should take Chloe to a hospital and the fact that her pulse was racing. But he touched the warmth of her and something happened. His mouth found hers in the dark and the fingers that were just supposed to soothe the worry or the cold out of her couldn't help clutching.
He could have lost her. She left because of something stupid and he could have . . .
He could have killed people trying to find her. He'd left Clark to deal with Lex. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this hero thing. A hero would have stayed. Maybe he was selfish. Maybe that's what made heroes, they shook off those selfish instincts and served a greater good. Maybe that's why normal people couldn't relate to them.
Chloe wrapped her small hand around the back of his neck, but she pulled back a moment later just enough to look up at him. “You know,” she half whispered. “I think I like it better when I'm being violated willingly.”
Davis smiled, despite himself. Coming on to him had to be a good sign that she'd be okay long enough to get out of here. “All in good time,” he said quietly. He meant to ask her if she was ready to start moving again, but his hands hadn't left her and her fingers began tracing patterns on the back of his neck like she was anxious and needed something to do with them.
He understood. Desperation, relief, adrenaline. But this wasn't the time.
Another crash echoed in the distance, something slamming into the floor high above them. It shook the building, even where they were partly underground. Davis went still. Was that Clark or Lex being thrown around up there? Lex . . . What had happened to him?
In the dark, Davis saw Chloe bite hard into her lip. He swallowed. He should go back. Clark could use the help. Regardless of what he had done to Chloe, she didn't want him getting hurt and he had helped find her tonight.
Another sound. Something breaking. Wood. Chloe froze where she knelt on the dirty floor. Davis ran a hand through her hair and said gently, “You can't help him.”
She nodded, reluctantly, her face strained in the dark. “I know.”
His hand kept moving through her hair. “I could go back.”
It didn't feel right, running away while Clark was getting hurt up there, but she shook her head. “No.” Her hand tightened on his neck and she leaned her cheek against his as though that would keep him there, warm skin a welcome contrast to the cold air. Davis' hand moved from her hair to her back. That pink satiny material was so thin. His hand slid down to her lap and he only meant to rub some warmth into her thighs where the cloth didn't cover, but his palm must have felt like fire compared to the chill in her skin. She turned her head so that her mouth touched his and the pressure of her lips wasn't light, but desperate for something, and considering how he felt about her he wanted to give it to her.
His hand ended up moving along the inside of her thigh toward the warmth between her legs that was, aside from her mouth, the only warm part of her at the moment. That seemed to be the right idea. Her free hand curled into his bicep and she kissed him harder.
Something else splintered upstairs and she climbed into his lap. Davis let her, hard the instant her weight pressed on his groin. She let out a muffled sound and then stopped kissing him long enough to murmur, “Just . . . distract me.”
This isn't the time, he wanted to say, even as he twitched inside his sweatpants with the thought of being in her. The dark room and the dirty floor didn't matter. But there was something . . .
He lifted her off him for the second time tonight, but this time he got to his knees, crawling up behind and pulling her back against his chest with an arm around her waist. No sense laying her on the freezing floor. She ground her body against the bulge in his pajama bottoms and angled her head back so he could kiss her. He did. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't stop himself either, despite the part of him that said it would have been better just to hold her while they waited for Clark. His free hand pulled that ridiculous pink slip up and she braced herself on the floor on her hands and knees. He slapped a palm to the ground to hold himself up and got his stupid sweatpants out the way with his other hand. His mouth drifted to the back of her neck and she crouched down and offered herself, whimpering when he put himself inside in one quick motion. He had to grit his teeth to maintain control of himself. The heat of her was so familiar, but came as a shock every time. She sank down on her elbows and he held her to him with an arm against her hips, pushing deep until the heat of her sheathed him from tip to end.
The noise upstairs rang in the background, glass shattering and wood crashing to pieces, and he tried to block it out. Davis thrust and let the warmth of her squeeze at him, soaking up the sound she made as he hit the right spot inside. She wanted him to distract her and that was part of the thrill, wasn't it? This thing between him and Clark. It wasn't a competition, but he could make her forget all about Clark with his cock. It was selfish, crude, but at the moment if felt like magic. He was only human and his soul was far from clean. He couldn't help what that power did to him.
The hand gripping her hip moved down, sliding into the flimsy thong underwear he'd pushed aside. She cried out when his fingertips caressed the wetness between her legs and her hips ground back against him in encouragement when he started to rub. He got the idea. Harder. He rested his chin on her shoulder, watching her mouth fall open and her hair bounce and the dark edge of a nipple peek out through the lace at the top of her nightgown. He groaned in frustration. No hands free to touch it, and too far away from his tongue. All he could do was soak up her quiet sounds and the wetness on his fingers and rub and pump his hips into her until she cried out, “Davis,” all he wanted to hear.
She came like a tiny earthquake, in tremors and broken sounds, once and then again. He joined her the second time, clawing at the floor and almost losing his grip on her as he shuddered hard. Had he really thought they'd been doing this too much? He couldn't get enough.
Everything went quiet when the rush of euphoria calmed down. Davis didn't hear anyone flying around above them anymore. He let go of Chloe and sank back on his heels, fastening his pants and catching his breath. He looked over at her as she retied her robe.
They didn't have time to stare at each other. They had to make a decision. Either get the hell out of here, wait for Clark, or go back upstairs and see what had happened.
She got to her feet and Davis waited for her to choose.
And by all means, drop her feedback. And pester her to write prey porn. Woops did I say that out loud?
