The Memoirs

"Okay, yeah." Wally's hand was scribbling notes across his pad as fast as he could. "Convene the board with the emergency authorization. While you're in with the board, you want me and Charlie Brown here to pull the workers together in the courtyard and get you some kind of lectern or something set up. Okay, we can do that. You want coffee and shit, done, and, hey, boss, there's a pile and a half of papers on Big Daddy's desk and Dom's too."

Lex was speaking into his headset as he drove. "Leave the stuff in Dad's office; I'll get to it after I've taken care of everything else. Also, have somebody go over to the Hercules building and move my desktop, my laptop, and the filing cabinets over to the empty office diagonal from Dad's--the rest of the furniture should already be there, and make sure Charlie gets Dominic's papers sorted and let him tell me what I need to handle immediately and what can wait until tomorrow."

"Okay." Wally kept scribbling, his hand moving unnaturally fast as he took notes just as quickly as Lex spoke. "We'll have it going, boss." He hung up after Lex did, and looked at Charlie. "Charlie my man, we are up shit creek without a paddle."

"Tell me something I don't know." Charlie sulked quietly.

They were sitting, comfortably, in the high executive staff lounge. It was empty, as it was still too early for the big shots to show their faces, so Charlie was sprawled comfortably on the couch, coffee and laptop on his lap, head full of numbers, eyes blood shot and droopy with the need for sleep. He and Wally had pulled another all nighter last night trying to get the paperwork caught up, and until last night Charlie never fully realized just how much stuff Lionel and Dominic had to do. Talk about stereotypes put to shame. He'd never again say Mr. Luthor...s...had the life. Ever.

He yawned again, deeply, and stuffed his cheese Danish in his mouth mid yawn, chewing at it as he stared blearily at the laptop who's words had blurred. "Why're we paddling through the sludge this time?"

"Because Sexy Lexy is gonna be here in about point five seconds, and there's a list of shit long as my arm of things he wants done by the time he rolls up in here," Wally said, shoving the list he'd just scrawled out to Charlie.

"Well, that's... that's just too damn bad, isn't it?" His voice had faltered midway, but it grew strong as he threw back his shoulders and dared Wally to argue that one. "We've been... working out buns off for almost two weeks. Can't… can't expect us to bare a whole companies burden. D-dammit."

"Actually, he can. You should try workin' for Bruce Wayne. Man'll rip the balls right off ya." He shrugged, and took the list back. "We gotta do our parts, man. You go get the board pulled together, cause Lex wants to talk to 'em soon as he gets here. I'll worry about gettin' the lectern set up and gettin' the rest of the people corralled out in the courtyard."

"B-but they're not here yet. Still at home." Charlie swallowed back an unmanly squeak... then heaved a heavy sigh, and turned to the cell phone at his side. He pulled up the list of phone numbers on the laptop and started dialing numbers, as Wally worked beside him. "Bruce Wayne's kind of creepy, isn't he? How is it, working for him?"

"Bruce ain't all bad, he's just got his head in the business and don't really realize that nobody else lives the job 24-7." Wally was working on the desktop, sending out frantic and urgent emails to everybody, so as soon as they logged in their computers, this email would be waiting for them. "Once you get past that, he's all right."

"He's in the Who's Batman poll on my favorite website." Charlie grinned in a little bit of sardonic humor, shaking his head. "If you ask me, its one of the Kennedys." He stopped then, and spoke into the phone. "Hello, Mr. Puri, this is Charles Siegel from Management. Please come in as soon as possible, there's been an impromptu board meeting scheduled for eight o'clock. Thank you." He hung up, and dialed the next number.

Wally choked. "Bruce? Batman? You're out of your fucking mind, man. Guy's got no TIME to dress up like a rodent. When I say he works 24-7? I mean he works 24-7. Unless he's jaunting around the world with Lex. And then and only then is he not working."

"And Lex jaunts like the Queen Mother eats Mickey D's and sucks on a cigarette." Charlie muttered as he set the phone to his ear.

"Hey, they've jaunted. Las' time they went to Australia and pretended to be bait for some sharks on the coast, as I hear it." Wally was typing as fast as he could, clicking send and then starting on the next department's emails. "You need me to make some o'those calls for you?"

"No, I've got it. I'm emailing those who don't check their phone calls till noon. Only got Rutgar to phone, and then I'm set. The big men should be getting here by now, anyway." Charlie answered, as he typed and left another message on yet another answering machine, then hung up and rolled his eyes as he typed. "What's the use of having a cell phone if you never pick it up?"

"So you can look important when you're making phone sex calls to your cat in the middle of a crowded restaurant," Wally answered, sending off the last of the emails.

Charlie made a face. "That's the grossest thing you've said to date." Even if it made him think of Emily, and then he flushed and had to look down, typing furiously and quite embarrassed as he did so.

"I could have said you were making a call to your pussy, but I didn't wanna make you blush." He didn't have to look up to know that Charlie was, in fact, blushing.

"She's not my--!" Charlie stopped. "Oh." And blushed all the harder for it, squirming in embarrassment as he hit "send".

Wally just laughed. "C'mon, Charlie, you should know when I'm yankin' your chain by now." He grinned around the corner of the computer, and ran his hands through his hair. "Okay. Lex wants coffee--you want some? I'll bring it up when I get his."

"N… no." A shake of his head, and he couldn't quite meet Wally's eyes as he shifted and started another email, quickly, to Lionel's email account, giving him the daily news and information as he always did, regardless if Lionel read it or not.

"Charlie, seriously? Get a grip." He thumped the young man genteely on the shoulder as he walked out. As soon as he was out of sight, Wally kicked up the speed and ended up at the Talon in only a few seconds, buying four cups of hot coffee--two for Lex, one for himself and one for Charlie anyway--and then flew back. He paused and ducked into the men's room to hide, letting the seconds tick off so it would seem he'd just gone down to the coffee machine at the end of the hall, and then strolled back in with his bag of coffee. "Here you go. got it for you anyway."

Charlie glanced up and smiled, quietly. "Thanks. Even if I didn't. Took you fast, though." He accepted the cup, the hot liquid happily warming the cup, and he rubbed his hands across it before drinking a sip. "Sorry. About my griplessness. Its just… and... Emily, she... and..."

"I ran," Wally said, with a bit of a smile. "You miss her. I get that, man. Believe me. I'd miss her too, if I had someone to miss, that is." He sighed. "you would not believe how little action I been gettin' since I showed up in this little burg."

"Really?" Charlie looked up, almost dumbstruck. "Why?" A peer at him. "You're tall, relatively good looking, ladies man. The town is really big. You know, maybe I can set you up with Emily's friend, Lois. I think you'd like her a lot." He beamed at that. "She reminds me of you. "

"Oh, man, bring her on!" Wally said with a shout. "Yeah, I know I got it, Charlie, just nobody else seems to know I got it goin' on. There's this lovely lady I'd love to get my hands on, but by the looks of her, somebody beat me to her."

"Who?"

"Chloe. Sullivan." He gave a gusty sigh. "But the young lady looks like she's about six months taken, if you know what I mean." He left the two cups of coffee for Lex out, and he picked up the phone, dialing down to the equipment shed and waiting for an answer.

At that, Charlie couldn't help grinning. "Lex Luthor's friend? Yeah. She's pretty, alright. She and her friend both are. Emily isn't like her, though." Charlie nodded, because Wally had yet to meet Emily. "But she's pretty, just like that. And when she smiles... and her eyes, they're so… and she's just so.." A little, happy sigh, as he sent the last email.

Wally chuckled. "Boy, you have it bad, and I mean BAD." He grinned. "You can't even finish a damn sentence about the girl." He snorted, then gave a brief instruction for Lionel's usual public meeting platform to be set up in the courtyard outside the Zeus building for Lex, then hung up and sighed.

Charlie sighed back, and they sat there for a moment before he rose, with a creak of bones and a low grunt. "I'm more wrinkled than Aunt Jemima." He muttered, trying to pat out the wrinkles with his hands, smoothing them down his slacks and shirt.

"So'm, I but you don't see me worryin', do ya?" He stretched in the seat, which only brought his attention to the paperwork. "Tell you what. Go into the men's room, wash up, get yourself fixed up, and I'll start sorting this shit for Lex, kay?"

"Nah. Its alright. Got my jacket, which looks a little okay." Charlie yawned softly and got his laptop, his phone, and his briefcase, juggling the three things in hand and. "I'm going to go get the board meeting prepared. See you in about a half hour?"

"Yeah, that's good," Wally said, eyeing the stacks. That should be just enough time to get the papers on the desk sorted. "Go on ahead, and Lex'll be here soon anyway."

"Alright, will do. Thanks for the coffee." Charlie added, and picking it up with a few free fingers, moseyed on down the hall. He crossed over the secretarial desk and passed down the main executive hall, stopping in Dominic's office. He dumped all of his things on the desk, pocketed his cell phone, and put his jacket on, running his fingers through his rumpled hair before he slid out again and went to get the coffee started in the board room.

Wally got up and closed the door behind Charlie, and started sorting at his top speed, reading and filing and tossing and piling as fast as he possibly could.

At the same time Wally was sorting, Lex was coming down the hall. He'd dropped Clark off for the exams a half hour ago, and he'd taken the long way into the building to make sure that Wally and Charlie had had a chance to get everything ready that they needed to, and he had taken the elevator up to the top floor, and was heading down the hall now.

The tie was tight and uncomfortable around his throat, the suit stiff and formal, but he was wearing it, and had his briefcase full and at the ready for whatever might have come up. "Charlie!" he yelled, seeing the young man disappear into the room. "Is the laptop set up yet? I need to type up a few things for the board, and you'll have to hurry them down to the copy room."

Meep! "Not yet sir, I'll get it for you right away." He turned and dashed into the board room, quickly lifting the executive panel in front of the chair and loaded the laptop. It quickly came on, booting up in seconds, and he typed a few commands so that the main writing program popped up. As soon as he did he turned from the chair and took in the coffee makers already going....thank God for secretaries...and scurried back to his office for his own laptop.

"Thank you!" Lex hurried down the hall to the office, which was, incidentally, right beside Dominic's. But he refused to think about it any more than he had to, and sat himself behind the chair, barely squeezing in past Charlie before he got run over. He didn't tell the young man to slow down, however, because slowing down would not be the best thing right now. Instead, Lex dropped his briefcase in the floor as he sat down, and started to type in the open program.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice. As I am sure you are all aware, my stepfather recently had a serious accident during a wedding being held at our home. Due to this injury, from which he has not yet recovered, my father and he are both indisposed for an indefinite period. Though it is not yet official, until their return, I will be acting in the capacity of Chief Executive Officer of LuthorCorp. My father's official notice of this change will follow soon, and while your approval is not required for this temporary change of power, your cooperation is highly appreciated and will not be forgotten at the appropriate time.

As I have been away at the hospital as well, it will take me several days to become caught up with the situations that are currently occurring, so if you have concerns or problems that need immediate attention, please see Charles Siegel or Walter West, and they will direct your questions to me until I can deal personally with your problems, which will be as soon as the current situations are in hand.

Sincerely,

Alexander J. Luthor,

CEO-pro tem, LuthorCorp

He scanned the letter over twice, making a few minor changes, and then sending it to the network printer.

- = - = -

The one thing Lex desperately wanted right now, more than anything else, was Dominic awake, and recovered, and berating him about how badly he'd handled the meeting.

Which hadn't, not really, he'd been surprisingly well-organized, and his voice hadn't cut or wavered as he'd read the letter aloud to the board, and took their votes of confidence to heart, including his best friend's, who Wally had called especially to vote for himself in this meeting.

Lex wondered if Clark would mind if he kissed Wally in gratitude later. He plunked down in the empty boardroom in front of the videophone, and loosened his tie. "Bruce, it's hell. Or worse. At least in Hell, you'd get a coffee break."

"Though, got to wonder if the Devil likes it brimstone-hot." Bruce answered mildly, as he leaned back in his chair as well. He was sitting in his office, in the Wayne Enterprises tower, which stood so high it was almost like scraping the moon. It gave him the worst vertigo to look out the windows. Regardless he loosened his own tie and leaned back as he looked at the enormous television that had been set up last minute for this special meeting. "You handled everything flawlessly, Lex. The board members understand what's happening... I think a few of them can even relate. Lionel is very lucky to have such an understanding group of people working under him."

"Yeah, he is; if he'd still had that other pack of jackals hanging around, we'd be fighting off an insurrection or a takeover. At the very least, neither I nor my father would still be in charge." He closed his eyes and rolled his head back against the chair. "I'm lucky that they didn't vote to send me back to the crap factory."

"They didn't because they like Dominic, and by default, like you and Lionel all the more." Bruce answered truthfully, shaking his head slightly. "The man can work a room like no one I've ever seen." he tipped his head. "How's your father?"

"Don't ask," Lex said, dragging a hand over his eyes. "You really don't want to know the answer to that."

"Of course I do." But Bruce let it slide for the moment as he regarded his friend silently. He could see the marks under Lex's eyes, the gauntness in his always slender cheeks, and the sleepy stare looking at him spoke volumes about his own state of health. "Is Clark taking care of you?"

"Yeah, he is. He's actually more than a little angry at me because I haven't been sleeping as well as I should, but outside of dragging me out of the hospital? There's not much he can do." He put his head down for a minute, and looked back up. "It was his idea that I do this, take over here, I mean. I think he's trying to distract me from worrying."

"I think its working." Bruce answered back, quietly and truthfully. "You need to rest, and keep your energy up. From the information you've been giving me, your father is going to need you very much in the next few weeks." His heart thudded quietly in pain at that. "Be there for him."

"And I haven't been giving you half of it, because I haven't wanted to worry you." He sighed. "Dom's... not doing well. Clark finally broke down and called Dr. Nacheyez, Dad's therapist, and she yelled at him a while, got him to break down a little bit, Clark did another bit of yelling a while ago and got him to break down a little more, but... that's about it. All he's doing is sitting in the room with Dominic, reading or talking to him, watching television and scaring anyone else who wants to come in the room. I'm worried about Dom and I'm worried about Dad, and Clark's worried about me and Dad and Dom, and Shayla too."

Bruce heaved a quiet sigh. He'd thought as much, and he just shook his head quietly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Lionel reminds me a lot of what my own father was like. After my nana died he didn't talk to anyone for days. Then one day he just... showed up at the company, barking orders like mad, and scared everyone shitless. He was like that for a few weeks, until it passed and he was better. Those few weeks are still having repercussions of course. Half of Billing won't come near me with a six foot pole."

Lex had to laugh. "That's how my father acted after my mother died. I'm... actually dreading him coming in whenever he does, because God only knows what state he's going to be in." He thudded his head gently against the table as he looked up. "I'm actually hoping he doesn't bother coming in until Dominic's... better."

"You'll probably have to call security, and replace an office or two." Bruce smiled a little at his friend, and wished he could have been there to hug him, touch his thin face. "Dominic will be better. There's too much energy in him yet, Lex. He's a healthy man, he'll fight through this. You know that, right?"

"That's what I keep telling myself," Lex said evasively.

"Can't pull that one with me, Lex." But Bruce let it go anyway. "How's Clark? I know you told me the merge went as scheduled, but is he suffering after affects or anything?"

"Yeah, he is. He's jealous as hell, thinks I don't get that, but I got it clear enough," he said ruefully. "Right now I'm not saying anything about it unless he asks, because he's trying hard not to let me know--trying to keep me from having something else on my mind, I think."

At that, Bruce's lips twitched quietly. "He's a sweet kid." Was all he said, as he motioned a shoulder. "Listen Lex, if you need me, for anything at all, just give me a call. If I don't pick up the cell ring the house... I'm probably in my hobby room." At that, his lips twitched a little.

"Hell of a hobby you got there, by the way." Lex stretched in his chair. "It's good that I'm bald. Otherwise I'd be tearing my hair out."

"You'll be alright. Always are." Bruce answered, eyebrow raised back as he lounged in his own chair. And because he thought the situation called for it, spoke lightly about something trivial. "Dicks learning how to play guitar. He's got a talent for it, Alfred said. I gave him one of the ones I got at the auction last year. I told him if he rubs Ringo's signature off of it I'll murder him in his sleep."

Lex's eyebrows raised high. "You're letting him play the signed one? You're kidding, right? Christ, that'd be like me giving Clark the Hendrix strat to play."

"Dick's got an appreciation for it. I found him a few weeks ago, drooling in the Beatles room. He'd never seen it before, said that if he finds one of the Fab Four stuck in a closet somewhere he won't tell." A little grin. "Lex, I meant to ask you, this summer, want to go to Australia again?"

He shook his head. "That's going to depend on a lot of things. Mainly on if--when--Dominic wakes up, what his condition is, how healthy he is, how long he's in rehab, and if I can bring Clark along."

"Of course, to all of it. I want you to bring Clark, and Shayla and Pete. Whitney and Chloe as well, of course, if Chloe's still alright to travel." He shifted, then. "Do you think there will be a lot of rehab?"

"In a couple of months? Yeah, I think she should be." He rubbed his face again. "I think that we're going to be lucky if he makes it," Lex said softly, and then rubbed his shoulders, because it was the first time he'd said it aloud to anyone, and the sound of it outside of his head was eerie.

"Shh." Bruce heard the tremble in his friends voice and it tore at his heart. "You can't think that way. He is going to make it. Don't give up. Its a show of weakness, remember? Sister Catherine taught us that one."

"And a couple of weeks later, Sister Catherine got caught boffing one of the school janitors, so I figure anything she had to tell us goes right out the bloody window."

"Oh, I remember that. She was hot, though. She had thighs you wanted to sink your teeth into." A little sigh of remembrance, and pleasant memories at that. "If I weren't such a flaming ponce I would have gone for a piece of that."

Lex just snorted. "You could have had her. At the time, the person I was with was a rather selfish bastard who didn't believe in the theory of share and share alike." He wiggled his eyebrows at Bruce.

Bruce smiled at that, quietly, and shook his head with a snort of his own. "Hell no. I don't share what's mine. You're lucky I shared so much as a sock with you when we were still in school. Must have been that talented mouth..." Mock gasp. "Oops. Did I say that?"

Lex laughed softly. "Yes, you did say that, and you know you meant to." He pursed his lips and made a little kissy mouth at Bruce, just to tease him.

Bruce grinned at him quietly, one of the only real smiles he had left to share, and pressed his hand to the screen. "Call me if you need me. Promise."

Lex raised his hand in an echoing gesture, pressing it against the cool screen. "I promise, Bruce. I'll call you if I need you. I'll call you even if I don't need you, to keep you updated." He crooked his fingers just a little bit, as though trying to reach through the screen and link fingers with his friend.

"I know you will. See you." Bruce answered, and before he could say a word more, took the screen off and left his board room, and Lex's, empty.

Lex let his hand fall away from the dark screen and cradled his head in his hands before looking at his watch. "WALLY!"

The man in question nearly bolted out of his seat. "WHAT!" he yelled through the door that connected Lionel's office, where he was working, to the board room where Lex was sitting.

"Do you have that shit sorted yet?"

Wally glared at the piles that hadn't wanted to dwindle. "In five minutes they will be."

"Great," Lex said. "Pack 'em up in an envelope for me--just the urgent shit. I'm going to take them home with me in about ten minutes because I have to pick Clark up. Tell Charlie to make sure the laptop's ready for me to take home--load my father's email and Dominic's both."

"Got it, boss." Wally went to work, and left Lex sitting quietly in the room.

 

-fin-

go on to the next part