The Phantom || Smallville

09|Jitters

"Are you really trying to tell me that not one of these twenty guys can beat you?" Lex asked the question for clarification purposes as he was sitting behind his desk, watching as Andrea walked around the room and all of the security guards were on the floor. It was a combination of his security team and her new security team.

"Uh huh." Andrea stated and Lex scoffed at the words as Andrea sighed. "Get your asses up and let's go again." She ordered and with a collective groan, the security guards were starting to drag themselves up slowly from the floor. "The first ten who are up and ready, get a guarantee to have their jobs safe." At the words, all of them were scrambling faster and Lex was shaking his head at the sight of the chaos.

"I have to admit, while they are a bit different... That your methods do work." Lex said and Andrea was shrugging her shoulders. "How would you feel about taking on the position of Head of Security?" He asked and Andrea scoffed.

"Does it come with a pay raise?" Andrea asked and Lex's eyes narrowed, trying to figure out whether she was serious or not and since she didn't blink, he took it as her being serious about the pay.

"Twenty grand?" Lex offered and they shook on it quickly. "You know by the time you're 18 years old, you are going to be almost as rich as your brother." He said as Andrea shrugged at the words quickly.

"Yeah well maybe unlike Oliver, I can actually put it to good use." Andrea noted as the security guards were up on their feet and she sighed. "So. Which one of you is going to try and tackle me first this time?" She asked in a deadpan tone.

Which was how Lex ended up having to dive out of his chair, as one of the security guards had been thrown over his desk and had knocked over the chair. "Sorry Lex!" Andrea called out as she was totally embarrassing the guards, who were now starting to resort to tasers.

"Hey, whoa there! No weapons..." Lex attempted to intervene, only to see that Andrea definitely had it handled for herself.

As Lex watched the chaos that ripped through the room, he couldn't help but wondering where the quiet kid had gone. The quiet Andrea Queen, who had so often as a child and a teenager used Lex as a translator when she needed to ask people something because she was so afraid of people that she wouldn't speak above a whisper.

The kid who always trembled at the smell of alcohol, who would always call when it got too rough and she was scared. Who always got the most scared on her birthday, since it always fell on Oliver's normal party nights and she was scared that she would be organizing rides and designated drivers for everyone who was drinking that night, all night long.

Andrea who used to wake up screaming with fear, crying out for the parents that she'd never even gotten a chance to know after a night that she insisted was rough for reasons that she was never willing to share. Andrea Queen, who was now beating up twenty guys that she was roughly 50 to 70 pounds lighter than and they were all getting their asses kicked.

"Sorry about the short-notice nosedive." Andrea said after she was done helping the security guys out of the room and she was surprised to see that Lex was laughing. "Oh no, what did I do now?" She questioned.

"You just proved how hilariously incompetent my security team is." Lex pointed out and Andrea's eyes narrowed, clearly not believing him and he sighed. "Look, don't take this the wrong way..."

"Oh great. What the hell did I do now?" Andrea asked, rather automatically now just assuming that it was negative feedback.

"Andrea Queen!" Lex raised his voice to interrupt her rambling and Andrea glanced at him, narrowing her eyes at the loud voice. "Would you just let me finish, before you go on another rambling sort of spree?" He asked impatiently.