Lex was wound tightly after the meeting with Finch. He flinched at every loud sound, and broke more glasses than I could count.
He was calm around me, never betraying more than a shaky voice or hand, but I could see it in the tension in his shoulders, the set of his jaw. Something was about to happen-something bad.
He disappeared in the nights, and when I awoke to find him gone the third night in a row, I decided to take action. He had been working all day, snapping commands down the phone to whoever, wherever. The bags under his eyes had deepened into permanent purple circles.
The night was cold, and I shivered as I threw the blanket off my body. Lex's sweater was discarded on the floor, and I grabbed it. He almost certainly wouldn't be wearing anything close to warm enough, and I doubted he had lit a fire or even turned on the heat in the study.
The house was silent, eerily so. The staff had left for the day, save for the live in crew and security. Not a single light was on, and I could barely see my hands in front of me.
My feet found the stairs with ease, and I crept down them, watching as the sliver of yellow light beneath the study door grew closer. The door was ajar, and I paused for a moment to make sure Lex was alone. The study was silent, so I pushed open the door, blinking as the light hit my tired eyes. Lex turned his head slightly, but continued to stare up at some old painting.
"What are you doing awake?" He asked, as I stepped into the room.
I crossed behind him, and pulled the sweater over his bare arms, rubbing them to warm him. His mouth was practically blue, as were his fingers, and I sighed.
"You're freezing." I said. "How long have you been down here?"
Lex looked down at me, his eyes finally focusing.
"I'm not sure." He flicked his gaze back up at the painting, and I looked at it.
"What?" I asked. He just flicked a finger at it, squeezing his eyes closed.
"It's wrong. It's upside down." He said. I wrapped an arm around him, and he leaned into me. "It should be the other way around."
"Lex, you're cold and exhausted. Come back to bed." I said, tugging on his waist. He resisted, but I wound my fingers through his, and pulled him forwards.
"I can't sleep." He protested.
"But you can lay down and rest." I said. It was the same thing my mother used to tell me, before putting me down for a nap. "You need to sleep, Lex, please."
It took a great deal of pushing and prodding, but eventually I had Lex sitting slumped on the bed. I wrapped the duvet around him, and knelt in front of him. The carpet dug into my knees, but I ignored it and put a hand on his cheek.
"What's going on?" I whispered. Lex placed his hand over mine, and leaned his head into it.
"Come lay with me." He responded. "I can't tell you anything, but at least I can have your near me."
He was snapping out of his stupor, and the relief in my chest was almost tangible. He lay back and opened his arms. I climbed onto the bed and curled up on his chest, pulling layers of blankets over us. His heart beat steadily under my ear, and I splayed my hand on his ribcage to feel it on my palm.
"You've been so tense." I broke the silence. "I just want you to be happy."
The room was quiet, the blankets a cocoon of warmth around us. Lex's hands had slowly returned to their normal shade, and his lip stopped trembling with cold.
"I'm always happy when I'm near you." He hummed back. "And you'll be happy, too, once this is all over."
I didn't press further, but my heart jumped to my throat. Once this is all over. He had confirmed my suspicions-something was about to go down, and it had something to do with me, Finch and god knows who else.
***
Sunlight streamed through the open blinds, the buttery light waking me slowly. The room was silent, but I could faintly hear the sound of a vacuum cleaner. I sat up slowly, and let the beams of light settle across my eyelids for a second, before turning to the empty bed.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he had gotten up. There was no doubt in my mind that he was downstairs, working again.
I yanked on a pair of fuzzy socks, and pattered down to the study, but when I knocked, there was no answer. Lex wasn't inside, and when I opened the door, I could see that the desk was untouched. It didn't matter. For someone with such a large house, he really only frequented three rooms,
It was only after I had checked the kitchen, and the bedroom again that I began to worry. He wasn't anywhere to be found. I was heading up the stairs again when I nearly ran headlong into one of the cleaning ladies.
"Sorry, sorry." I gasped. She tilted her head and looked at me, then stopped to shut off her vacuum.
"Ruth, right?" She smiled. I nodded, and braced my hands on my knees.
"Do you know where Lex is?" I asked. She looked at me in confusion. "Mr. Luthor?"
"Oh. Yes. He left early this morning. I don't know where, only that he was driving like a maniac." She smiled at me again. "Are you alright?"
I nodded, and excused myself, racing to the study. He had a list of numbers by his phone there; one of them had to be his cell.
I grabbed the paper, skimming the scrawled handwriting frantically, until I saw Lex: Cell.
"Thank god." I said, dropping the list. My hands shook as I dialled the number. "Come on, pick up!"
"Luthor." Lex's voice came through, but tinny, as though he was speaking from far away.
"Lex? Where are you?" I cried, gripping the phone. "Is everything okay?"
There was a rustle, and a sharp click.
"I'm fine, Ruth. What's going on?" His voice was clearer now.
"I woke up and I couldn't find you and you were acting so strangely last night and then the cleaning lady said you had left and-" Lex cut me off.
"Slow down, my love. I'm in the city-there was an emergency of sorts during the delivery of one of my....shipments. I thought I would be home before you got up."
I let out a sigh of relief, and the lump in my throat dissolved. I wasn't sure why I had been so worried. I knew he had a lot of time sensitive projects, but the overwhelming feeling off something being off from the night before lingered.
"Incidentally, Ruth, how did you get this number?" He asked.
"It was on your desk in the study. You left me a list to call if there was ever an emergency, remember?" I sat down in the desk chair, pulling my knees to my chest.
"Of course. Listen, I have to go, darling. I'll be home soon. Just stay out of trouble." I could hear the smile in his voice.
"Okay. Love you." I said.
"Be good." The line went dead. I set the phone back on the table, and was about to stand, when a document caught my eye. It was stamped in red, and covered in official looking jargon.
Access to crash site: granted.
Access to laboratory: granted.
Access to remains: granted.
Going against my best judgement, I picked up the document. Pictures slid out of the file, and fell to the desk. Pictures of a huge....spaceship. Pictures of a dead man, laying on a dissection slab. Pictures of a luminous green rock.
Pictures of Superman, pictures of that journalist and his girlfriend.
Pictures of me, the day of the accident, pulled from security cameras.
I gasped and dropped the file, instead rifling through the pictures of me. There were grainy, but they were definitely me, walking along the sidewalk behind my parents.
Why did Lex have these? I felt my throat tighten, and I swallowed tears, shoving everything back into the folder and dropping it back on the desk.
I didn't even want to know. There was some master scheme going on that I was a part of; Lex has made that very clear, but I hated seeing the proof of it.
Lex had a lot to explain when he got home.