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laniew1Months upon months ago I started this fic. It’s Smallville / BTVS Crossover. Set mid season 2 Smallville, post S7 (some events of which didn’t happen. There was no Sunnydale destruction, Spike turned human and is now Buffy’s Watcher.
This is het, no slash in sight. And is, Thank God, almost done.
TITLE: Not All Superheroes Wear Capes – Lex/Buffy
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
Read part 1 first - http://www.geocities.com/laniew1/naswc1.html
Then read on for part 2
Part 2
She just stared at the man that was standing in her doorway. She’d sort of known that Lex wouldn’t trust her to just show up when she was supposed to. In fact she was pretty sure that he’d probably had people watching both the bus station and her room, probably another tailing her to make sure that she didn’t try to bolt town.
And frankly while the thought had occurred to her she still had this demon to take care of which she couldn’t do while she had half of Smallville watching her every move.
She was really going to have to say something to Lex tonight… because she thought telling Lex to back off would be easier than calling Giles and telling him that she couldn’t take care of the Berental demon that she’d been tailing because some guy that she’d slept with a million years ago was being all possessive and stuff.
She could just see Giles’ disappointed look in her… letting her heart rule her life.
Maybe if she introduced him to Lex.
Shaking her head she glanced over the rather burly gentleman standing at her door staring at her with no expression on his face.
She was not surprised that he had sent a car for her, she was however surprised by the fact that he hadn’t come with it.
Most men didn’t like to waste an opportunity to show off their level of wealth.
Or so Anya had once told her.
She wondered if she should be offended that Lex had just sent the car for her. Years ago he would have driven the car himself, showed up with flowers, candy…
She missed the Lex that he’d been years ago.
The one that would snuggle with her until the absolutely, positively last second before she had to leave or be late for work. Nine times out of ten it resulted in her going to work smelling like him… which thinking about it now was most likely his intent.
He had been staking out his territory. Kind of like a dog… only without all the peeing.
“Are you ready Miss Summers?” the driver glanced at what she was wearing and although there was no actual change in facial expression Buffy knew that she’d been deemed unfitting for his employer. She almost snorted aloud at the thought and caught herself at the last minute. “Mr. Luthor said…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Buffy grumbled. “If Mr. Luthor wanted to see me so damn badly he should have come and got me himself.”
For just a minute she glanced back at the room. She could send the driver to the car to wait while she changed into something else. Although what she was currently wearing was the dressiest thing that she’d brought with her.
She’d been stalking a demon not meeting guys.
“He had a last minute meeting with his father,” he stated by way of explanation. As if that explained it all.
“Hmm…” she grabbed her small purse from the dresser, and following the driver she made sure that the key was in her pocket before locking and shutting the door behind her. “Thought he didn’t get along with his father,” she muttered under her breath.
Lex’s father… and Lex in the same house. She could vaguely remember him telling her that he and his father had never gotten along; in his voice she’d heard that wistful tone that meant that he wished that things had been different.
Maybe for him they finally were.
******************************************************************************
Lex glared at the man sitting on the other side of his desk; unfortunately in his current state of blindness his father couldn’t see that glare. Although it made Lex feel so much better.
If he didn’t know better, if he didn’t trust 99% of his staff implicitly he would have thought that one of them had spilled the beans about Buffy… and the fact that she was due to be here in less than 10 minutes.
“I think you’ve stalled long enough father,” he said forcing his voice to sound relaxed and controlled. “Was there anything else?”
“Oh come now Lex, why the rush to get rid of your father?” his father smirked and with a scowl Lex realized that Lionel was quite aware of why Lex was trying to get rid of him. “I just want to meet your new lady friend. Make sure that she’s suitable for my beloved son.”
“And I’m sure that this will be the first time that I take your opinion under consideration.”
“I’m only trying to look out for you. Victoria, Desiree… You don’t seem to have much luck with the ladies.”
“And you’re so much better,” Lex scoffed. “Just how many of your lovers have tried to kill you anyway? I think I lost count somewhere around 70.”
“Laugh now, but don’t come crying to me when she tries to take you for every penny you’re worth.”
“Buffy’s not like that, I’m sure whoever you hired told you that much,” Lex glanced down at his desk. Sitting unopened before him was his own Private Investigators report. He’d called the agency shortly after leaving Buffy’s motel room and had paid out the nose for the rush job.
The thick file in front of him told him everything he’d ever wanted to know about Buffy Anne Summers. And some things that he probably didn’t want to know.
She’d been in and out of trouble since she was a teenager, probably that was the reason that she and Lex had hit it off so quickly.
A kindred spirit recognized a kindred spirit.
“And what kind of name is that anyway? Buffy? Were her parents on drugs when they named her?”
“I’m sure that you’ve learned from your own detectives that it’s short for Elizabeth.”
The sight of Jeseph in the door caused Lex’s posture to stiffen as the older man nodded at his silent inquiry.
“I take it the young lady in question is here,” Lionel grinned widely coming to his feet. Lex scowled as he stood himself. Once again he questioned the possibility of his fathers eyesight having come back. He wouldn’t put it past him to have recovered and continued to play the blind invalid in order to throw everyone off track.
Lex ignored his father in favor of the apprehensive Buffy that appeared in his doorway.
“I can…” her eyes flickered between the two men and Lex wracked his brain trying to remember what he would have told Buffy about his relationship with his father. He remembered being honest with her back then, not wanting to hide anything.
“Ignore him, he’s attempting a new role called doting father,” he smiled, glancing once at Lionel before stopping before Buffy. He barely restrained himself from reaching out and stroking her cheek, if his father was in fact playing at being blind there was no need to give him anymore ammunition than he already had.
“I thought you were joking when you called this place the castle.”
“Lex you didn’t tell her your family history? Shame on you,” Lionel grinned, white teeth gleaming in the light Lex felt Buffy shudder next to him.
That wasn’t the friendliest smile that his father had ever attempted.
“You can leave now father,” Lex stated stiffly. With a long suffering sigh Lionel came to his feet and moved slowly to the door, stopping momentarily in front of them.
“Ms. Summers,” he touched Buffy’s hand and Lex scowled, eyes narrowing as he contemplated blindness once more. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
“Sure,” Buffy drawled out slowly, eyes flickering between the two men her posture relaxed noticeably when Lionel had exited the room.
“I don’t remember you saying that your father was blind,” she murmured with mild interest. The rest of her attention was focused on the room, obviously Lex’s study.
He liked a lot of brown and had a lot of books on the shelves lining the walls.
Giles would probably love him and insist she marry him.
“It’s a recent development,” Lex said softly hand raising he touched her cheek gently, drawing her attention back to him.
“Good… I’d hate to think that the whole time I was feeling bad for you because you had a shark for a father he was actually blind.”
“My father could still be a shark blind.”
“So are you going to tell me the family history?”
“This is Luthor castle,” Lex waved a hand around the room. “Moved rock by rock from Scotland to Smallville.”
“Why Smallville?” Buffy queried quietly, Lex was gratified that she moved slightly closer to him, the length of her arm pressing against his.
“It was the only place with a plot of land big enough to fit the monstrosity.”
******************************************************************************
Once Lex was sure that his father had actually left the property he relaxed quite a bit. And he became much more like the young man that Buffy had met, fell in love with and left.
Dinner was quiet, neither one saying much as they just continually shot smiles over the chicken they were eating. Lex had poured wine for her before she’d had a chance to say anything and Buffy figured if she sipped it that her metabolism would burn any alcohol in her system off before she had to patrol.
She knew what her duty was, she’d always known. But as much as she wanted to find and slay the Berental that she’d been chasing after a part of her wanted it to allude her.
So she could stay.
“Why don’t we…” Lex cocked his head in the direction to what she assumed was some sort of living room, picking up her still half full glass she let him take her arm letting him lead her into the room. Settling on the couch she smiled up at him.
She twisted the stem of her wine glass between her fingers as she studied Lex covertly. She honestly couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen Lex nervous before. She hadn’t been sure that was what she was sensing from him until he shifted for the third time, as if he couldn’t get comfortable.
He shifted on the couch, setting his own glass on the small table in front of them then turning to face her relaxing into the back of the couch.
“You still look the same,” he said his voice very soft. He had his hands folded together in his lap but Buffy knew that was to keep himself from reaching out to touch her. Once she’d given him free reign to roam her body. By leaving him she’d taken that right away and now he wasn’t sure he still had it.
Leaning forward she set her own glass beside his, then mirrored his pose. Reaching out a hand she laid it gently over his.
“No I don’t,” she said quietly. She laid her head on the back of the couch watching him as he enfolded her hand within his. Stroking her fingers with his thumb.
“You’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she closed her eyes as she heard the ache in his voice. She’d done the right thing walking away, she couldn’t protect Lex, she couldn’t even protect herself most of the time.
She knew she was walking a fine line, Lex was going to use the same words that he’d used before. Maybe he meant them, maybe he didn’t… she didn’t know if she had the same strength that she’d had back when she was seventeen to walk away.
“You’ve dated models, actresses, the women you married were probably beautiful, stunning women,” Buffy reminded him. She wanted to scowl, she was angry… in as much as she had gone on with her life somehow she’d thought that Lex would wait for her.
And he hadn’t. He’d married, he’d been engaged. Granted the marriages hadn’t lasted and the engagement had been broken, but still…
“They all pale beside you.”
“Lex…” she knew what was coming next, could feel her survival instincts coming to the fore, the same ones that she’d listened to last time. They demanded that she run, leave, flee the premises before he had a chance to get the words out.
Lex leaned forward, his hand gripping hers so tightly that if she’d been a normal woman it might have hurt. But it didn’t and the scant amount of pain there was seemed far removed. As if she was watching, feeling from far away.
He touched his forehead to hers, his eyes closing. She could feel the tension in the line of his body and she wanted to say the words that would have it dissipate and allow the carefree young man that she’d fallen in love with to re-emerge.
Years later she didn’t think she’d even know what it had caused him to say the words.
“Stay… please.”
******************************************************************************
She’d known the dinner was a mistake. She had very few things that could still get to her emotionally, the list was actually very short and she’d found ways to protect herself against most of them.
Dawn, her mother, thoughts of Angel in better times, Giles… and Lex.
She had no barriers in place to protect herself against Lex, she’d never had to protect herself against Lex. Lex wasn’t like Angel, she didn’t need to see him every time there was an apocalypse that the two of them had to work in synchronicity to defeat. She didn’t need to see Lex at all because they had two different lives.
Separate lives that were never supposed to come in contact again.
But they had and the little seventeen year old part of her that wanted to keep Lex was competing with the Slayer part of her that was telling her in order to keep him alive she had to leave.
She pulled off the clothes that she’d worn to dinner, trying to dim the inner turmoil. She needed to focus on being the Slayer. Once she killed the Berental she could figure out what she was going to do about Lex.
She could decide if she could be a Slayer in Smallville, if it would be fair to uproot Dawn from school… the only problem would be Spike because she would really need her Watcher and while Spike was her Watcher now she didn’t want him within ten feet of Lex.
And maybe she’d already made her decision. Because as fast as she was changing and getting her Slaying bag ready her mind was filled with wondering how long it would take to pack up the house and move the contents.
She wondered how Dawn would like Smallville.
******************************************************************************
This is het, no slash in sight. And is, Thank God, almost done.
TITLE: Not All Superheroes Wear Capes – Lex/Buffy
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
Read part 1 first - http://www.geocities.com/laniew1/naswc1.html
Then read on for part 2
Part 2
She just stared at the man that was standing in her doorway. She’d sort of known that Lex wouldn’t trust her to just show up when she was supposed to. In fact she was pretty sure that he’d probably had people watching both the bus station and her room, probably another tailing her to make sure that she didn’t try to bolt town.
And frankly while the thought had occurred to her she still had this demon to take care of which she couldn’t do while she had half of Smallville watching her every move.
She was really going to have to say something to Lex tonight… because she thought telling Lex to back off would be easier than calling Giles and telling him that she couldn’t take care of the Berental demon that she’d been tailing because some guy that she’d slept with a million years ago was being all possessive and stuff.
She could just see Giles’ disappointed look in her… letting her heart rule her life.
Maybe if she introduced him to Lex.
Shaking her head she glanced over the rather burly gentleman standing at her door staring at her with no expression on his face.
She was not surprised that he had sent a car for her, she was however surprised by the fact that he hadn’t come with it.
Most men didn’t like to waste an opportunity to show off their level of wealth.
Or so Anya had once told her.
She wondered if she should be offended that Lex had just sent the car for her. Years ago he would have driven the car himself, showed up with flowers, candy…
She missed the Lex that he’d been years ago.
The one that would snuggle with her until the absolutely, positively last second before she had to leave or be late for work. Nine times out of ten it resulted in her going to work smelling like him… which thinking about it now was most likely his intent.
He had been staking out his territory. Kind of like a dog… only without all the peeing.
“Are you ready Miss Summers?” the driver glanced at what she was wearing and although there was no actual change in facial expression Buffy knew that she’d been deemed unfitting for his employer. She almost snorted aloud at the thought and caught herself at the last minute. “Mr. Luthor said…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Buffy grumbled. “If Mr. Luthor wanted to see me so damn badly he should have come and got me himself.”
For just a minute she glanced back at the room. She could send the driver to the car to wait while she changed into something else. Although what she was currently wearing was the dressiest thing that she’d brought with her.
She’d been stalking a demon not meeting guys.
“He had a last minute meeting with his father,” he stated by way of explanation. As if that explained it all.
“Hmm…” she grabbed her small purse from the dresser, and following the driver she made sure that the key was in her pocket before locking and shutting the door behind her. “Thought he didn’t get along with his father,” she muttered under her breath.
Lex’s father… and Lex in the same house. She could vaguely remember him telling her that he and his father had never gotten along; in his voice she’d heard that wistful tone that meant that he wished that things had been different.
Maybe for him they finally were.
Lex glared at the man sitting on the other side of his desk; unfortunately in his current state of blindness his father couldn’t see that glare. Although it made Lex feel so much better.
If he didn’t know better, if he didn’t trust 99% of his staff implicitly he would have thought that one of them had spilled the beans about Buffy… and the fact that she was due to be here in less than 10 minutes.
“I think you’ve stalled long enough father,” he said forcing his voice to sound relaxed and controlled. “Was there anything else?”
“Oh come now Lex, why the rush to get rid of your father?” his father smirked and with a scowl Lex realized that Lionel was quite aware of why Lex was trying to get rid of him. “I just want to meet your new lady friend. Make sure that she’s suitable for my beloved son.”
“And I’m sure that this will be the first time that I take your opinion under consideration.”
“I’m only trying to look out for you. Victoria, Desiree… You don’t seem to have much luck with the ladies.”
“And you’re so much better,” Lex scoffed. “Just how many of your lovers have tried to kill you anyway? I think I lost count somewhere around 70.”
“Laugh now, but don’t come crying to me when she tries to take you for every penny you’re worth.”
“Buffy’s not like that, I’m sure whoever you hired told you that much,” Lex glanced down at his desk. Sitting unopened before him was his own Private Investigators report. He’d called the agency shortly after leaving Buffy’s motel room and had paid out the nose for the rush job.
The thick file in front of him told him everything he’d ever wanted to know about Buffy Anne Summers. And some things that he probably didn’t want to know.
She’d been in and out of trouble since she was a teenager, probably that was the reason that she and Lex had hit it off so quickly.
A kindred spirit recognized a kindred spirit.
“And what kind of name is that anyway? Buffy? Were her parents on drugs when they named her?”
“I’m sure that you’ve learned from your own detectives that it’s short for Elizabeth.”
The sight of Jeseph in the door caused Lex’s posture to stiffen as the older man nodded at his silent inquiry.
“I take it the young lady in question is here,” Lionel grinned widely coming to his feet. Lex scowled as he stood himself. Once again he questioned the possibility of his fathers eyesight having come back. He wouldn’t put it past him to have recovered and continued to play the blind invalid in order to throw everyone off track.
Lex ignored his father in favor of the apprehensive Buffy that appeared in his doorway.
“I can…” her eyes flickered between the two men and Lex wracked his brain trying to remember what he would have told Buffy about his relationship with his father. He remembered being honest with her back then, not wanting to hide anything.
“Ignore him, he’s attempting a new role called doting father,” he smiled, glancing once at Lionel before stopping before Buffy. He barely restrained himself from reaching out and stroking her cheek, if his father was in fact playing at being blind there was no need to give him anymore ammunition than he already had.
“I thought you were joking when you called this place the castle.”
“Lex you didn’t tell her your family history? Shame on you,” Lionel grinned, white teeth gleaming in the light Lex felt Buffy shudder next to him.
That wasn’t the friendliest smile that his father had ever attempted.
“You can leave now father,” Lex stated stiffly. With a long suffering sigh Lionel came to his feet and moved slowly to the door, stopping momentarily in front of them.
“Ms. Summers,” he touched Buffy’s hand and Lex scowled, eyes narrowing as he contemplated blindness once more. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
“Sure,” Buffy drawled out slowly, eyes flickering between the two men her posture relaxed noticeably when Lionel had exited the room.
“I don’t remember you saying that your father was blind,” she murmured with mild interest. The rest of her attention was focused on the room, obviously Lex’s study.
He liked a lot of brown and had a lot of books on the shelves lining the walls.
Giles would probably love him and insist she marry him.
“It’s a recent development,” Lex said softly hand raising he touched her cheek gently, drawing her attention back to him.
“Good… I’d hate to think that the whole time I was feeling bad for you because you had a shark for a father he was actually blind.”
“My father could still be a shark blind.”
“So are you going to tell me the family history?”
“This is Luthor castle,” Lex waved a hand around the room. “Moved rock by rock from Scotland to Smallville.”
“Why Smallville?” Buffy queried quietly, Lex was gratified that she moved slightly closer to him, the length of her arm pressing against his.
“It was the only place with a plot of land big enough to fit the monstrosity.”
Once Lex was sure that his father had actually left the property he relaxed quite a bit. And he became much more like the young man that Buffy had met, fell in love with and left.
Dinner was quiet, neither one saying much as they just continually shot smiles over the chicken they were eating. Lex had poured wine for her before she’d had a chance to say anything and Buffy figured if she sipped it that her metabolism would burn any alcohol in her system off before she had to patrol.
She knew what her duty was, she’d always known. But as much as she wanted to find and slay the Berental that she’d been chasing after a part of her wanted it to allude her.
So she could stay.
“Why don’t we…” Lex cocked his head in the direction to what she assumed was some sort of living room, picking up her still half full glass she let him take her arm letting him lead her into the room. Settling on the couch she smiled up at him.
She twisted the stem of her wine glass between her fingers as she studied Lex covertly. She honestly couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen Lex nervous before. She hadn’t been sure that was what she was sensing from him until he shifted for the third time, as if he couldn’t get comfortable.
He shifted on the couch, setting his own glass on the small table in front of them then turning to face her relaxing into the back of the couch.
“You still look the same,” he said his voice very soft. He had his hands folded together in his lap but Buffy knew that was to keep himself from reaching out to touch her. Once she’d given him free reign to roam her body. By leaving him she’d taken that right away and now he wasn’t sure he still had it.
Leaning forward she set her own glass beside his, then mirrored his pose. Reaching out a hand she laid it gently over his.
“No I don’t,” she said quietly. She laid her head on the back of the couch watching him as he enfolded her hand within his. Stroking her fingers with his thumb.
“You’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she closed her eyes as she heard the ache in his voice. She’d done the right thing walking away, she couldn’t protect Lex, she couldn’t even protect herself most of the time.
She knew she was walking a fine line, Lex was going to use the same words that he’d used before. Maybe he meant them, maybe he didn’t… she didn’t know if she had the same strength that she’d had back when she was seventeen to walk away.
“You’ve dated models, actresses, the women you married were probably beautiful, stunning women,” Buffy reminded him. She wanted to scowl, she was angry… in as much as she had gone on with her life somehow she’d thought that Lex would wait for her.
And he hadn’t. He’d married, he’d been engaged. Granted the marriages hadn’t lasted and the engagement had been broken, but still…
“They all pale beside you.”
“Lex…” she knew what was coming next, could feel her survival instincts coming to the fore, the same ones that she’d listened to last time. They demanded that she run, leave, flee the premises before he had a chance to get the words out.
Lex leaned forward, his hand gripping hers so tightly that if she’d been a normal woman it might have hurt. But it didn’t and the scant amount of pain there was seemed far removed. As if she was watching, feeling from far away.
He touched his forehead to hers, his eyes closing. She could feel the tension in the line of his body and she wanted to say the words that would have it dissipate and allow the carefree young man that she’d fallen in love with to re-emerge.
Years later she didn’t think she’d even know what it had caused him to say the words.
“Stay… please.”
She’d known the dinner was a mistake. She had very few things that could still get to her emotionally, the list was actually very short and she’d found ways to protect herself against most of them.
Dawn, her mother, thoughts of Angel in better times, Giles… and Lex.
She had no barriers in place to protect herself against Lex, she’d never had to protect herself against Lex. Lex wasn’t like Angel, she didn’t need to see him every time there was an apocalypse that the two of them had to work in synchronicity to defeat. She didn’t need to see Lex at all because they had two different lives.
Separate lives that were never supposed to come in contact again.
But they had and the little seventeen year old part of her that wanted to keep Lex was competing with the Slayer part of her that was telling her in order to keep him alive she had to leave.
She pulled off the clothes that she’d worn to dinner, trying to dim the inner turmoil. She needed to focus on being the Slayer. Once she killed the Berental she could figure out what she was going to do about Lex.
She could decide if she could be a Slayer in Smallville, if it would be fair to uproot Dawn from school… the only problem would be Spike because she would really need her Watcher and while Spike was her Watcher now she didn’t want him within ten feet of Lex.
And maybe she’d already made her decision. Because as fast as she was changing and getting her Slaying bag ready her mind was filled with wondering how long it would take to pack up the house and move the contents.
She wondered how Dawn would like Smallville.