The Memoirs

May had faded into June, and June had flowed into July. Weeks and weeks and weeks had passed; the last week of May, all the weeks of June, the first two of July.

Father's Day had come and gone with a small arrangement of flowers sitting in Dominic's room, a vellum-covered first edition of one of Dominic's favorite books from Lex and Clark sitting on the small table, and from Lionel and silver and gilt edged money clip, with an engraving of Jiminy Cricket. The money clip sat unused in the hospital dresser.

The Fourth of July had come and gone in a flurry of purple and white unnoticed fireworks over the new LuthorCorp site, and instead, Lionel had spent the evening with Dominic on the respirator, watching 4th of July specials on television and reading the day's news from the newspaper.

Ten days later, the respirator was still wheezing away, inflating and deflating Dominic's chest, breathing for him and keeping his body alive.

The doctor was talking to him, talking to him and Rosalyn both, but he wasn't listening. Over the course of the last seven weeks, he'd heard it all.

Transient ischemic attacks--TIAs--also called miniature strokes. Dominic had suffered several of them over the past few weeks, each one worsening his condition. Caused by temporary blockage to the brain, thought to be the swelling from the earlier concussions compounded by the sharp blow to the head caused by the fall.

All of this Lionel had heard before.

No damage to the brain, and no lasting neurological damage.

Tell that to Dominic, who was lying in bed, the left side of his face slack and loose where the muscles had stopped working because of the attacks. Hemiparesis was the name for it, but either way, Lionel hated it. Trouble swallowing, which should have been only temporary, but because of the coma had become life-threatening.

Dominic was on a respirator now, to keep him from drowning in his own fluids, to keep his lungs rising and falling, to make sure he could breathe despite the muscles in his throat wanting to stop him.

All of this, Lionel had heard before.

As the doctor droned on to Rosalyn behind him, Lionel was holding Dominic's hand--his shoulder was healed--small irony there, that his arm and his shoulder were fine while the rest of his body was deteriorating on him--and listening to the steady, droning thump of the pulse monitor as it beeped out Dominic's heart rate.

He'd come to measure his life in beeps, not days or weeks or even minutes. Just... beeps.

Clark was there with Lionel. Had been, for most of the last two months, in fact. He was sitting on the other side of Dominic's slender body as Rosalyn and the Doctor spoke to one side of the room. Dominic's body, always slender, was now downright thin. His muscles had deteriorated from lack of use, and his knee, in a small brace for the last four weeks, was well again. His ribs had long since healed, his hair still short with the cuts the nurses gave him to monitor the healing of the burr holes in his head, which had long since scarred over.

Clark had cried the first night Lionel had to shave Dominic's face.

The respirator was a terrible tangle of tubes and wires, and every time Clark looked at it he had to remind himself that it was Dominic under there, that they were helping him, not hurting him.

It was just so hard to think like that, when Dominic kept suffering from the TIAs, his body breaking out into sweat and trembling with goosebumps each time.

Rosalyn was crying. Clark didn't really care. Aside from himself, Lex, Lionel, and of course Graham and Toni, everyone else had stopped visiting. They couldn't stop their lives, after all, and Clark didn't begrudge them it. They called most every day, Megan three and four times a day, so much that Clark wondered if the phone would ever stop ringing. Dominic's room had been covered with roses at one point, but even those had stopped coming. It seemed everyone knew what was happening, what lay in store, and were saving their flowers for a few weeks, or even days.

Except Clark couldn't think of it that way, not that way. So he just stroked gently over Dominic's forearm, ignoring everything about what Dr. Bryce was saying, and didn't say a word.

Lionel did begrudge them that. He didn't know what Clark was thinking, had no way of knowing, but when he saw Clark's eyes sweeping around the room, hovering at the door and then the quiet, empty places where flower arrangements and gifts had once sat, it hadn't taken a great leap of logic to follow Clark's train of thought.

It infuriated him, to be honest, that Dominic was no longer worth people's time to visit. Rosalyn came as often as she could, which was usually when Lionel wasn't there because they'd had a row, almost a month ago now, and they'd made the unspoken agreement to stay out of each other's way.

He knew Lindy was sitting out in the hallway, waiting for Rosalyn to come out, so she could go in and see her brother. It was only the second or third time she'd visited, and despite the fact he knew personally how busy she'd been as he'd been trying to follow everyone's work schedules... he was furious. With Lindy, with Shayla, with Riley and Marie. With Megan and even with Charlie, who had yet to show his face more than twice.

Clark, in the time he'd been here at the hospital with Lionel, had learned to read the man very, very well. He almost spent more time here then he did with Lex, though Lex sat with them almost as much time as Lionel did. Regardless, Clark knew Lionel like the back of his hand, and he covered the mans hand with his own and squeezed, very gently.

He looked up, then, as Dr. Bryce stopped speaking, and the room was silent once more. "Are you done? Can you go now?"

Once upon a time, Dr. Anthony Bryce might have been offended by that. Had it come from the family of any patient but this one, in fact, and he would have been. But about three weeks into Dominic Senatori's care, he'd realized that this man had... well, extraordinary was the only word that he could apply. Had an extraordinary family that, in some ways, at some time or other, had the entire town traipsing through a single intensive-care unit room.

He'd heard Italian curses, what he assumed was Gaelic curses, Irish songs and accents from every corner of the world come in through that room. Irish, Italian, the occasional twang of Brooklyn from the psychiatrist, even a bit of French from Dominic's sister and her... well, fiancée? Husband? Wasn't sure.

"Yes, I'm done. And I'll be leaving shortly, because there's really nothing else I can do. I've appraised you all of the situation, and the decision is up to you." He closed his clipboard quietly, and slid it back into the plastic holder on the door.

"Go away, then. You can come back later." Clark said softly, his voice gently but slightly hoarse, as his eyes flickered back to Dominic. He lifted his hand gently in his own, cupping it with both of his, and lowered his head so he could press all three to his forehead, for a few minutes, and calm the tears building in his throat where no one could see them.

Dr. Bryce just nodded gently, and slipped out the door, closing it behind him and nodding to the blond woman sitting outside the door, yet another family member he was sure.

Lionel, who would have usually taken Clark to task for his rudeness, had absolutely nothing to say to him that time. "No," is all he said, when he heard Rosalyn take a breath behind him. "No."

Rosalyn, on the other hand, had made no effort to stem the tears in her throat. She sat on the side of the bed, beside Clark, patting Dominic's leg gently and looking down at him in that contraption. "You heard the doctor, Lionel," she said, her voice slightly higher-pitched than usual. "He... the outlook... it's not good. You know he wouldn't have wanted this."

"Wanted this?" Lionel asked quietly, gently placing Dominic's hand back down on the bed, before he squeezed the fragile bones and thin tissues too hard as he looked up at his mother in law. "What part of this, precisely, do you think your son would have wanted? The holes drilled in his head? The surgeries on his knee? The dislocated shoulder, the injured arm, the strokes? Tell me, Rosalyn, exactly which part of this Dominic wanted?"

She gave a high little sob as he yelled at her, but she pointed around to all the machines that were hooked up to her son. "All this. This isn't him. This isn't what he wanted. You should know that."

Lionel's hands tightened by his side. "I am not going to let him die."

"Morgan wouldn't think that this is living!!"

Clark was so upset by the word that he couldn't control the sob that shook his throat, and he clamped his hand over his mouth, the back of Dominic's hand pressed to Clarks forehead, as he struggled not to cry. Not here, not now. All of his hope and determination and siphoned out of him like sink unplugged, leaving him hollow and aching and bare inside. He couldn't speak, not at all, not as Rosalyn sat there and talked about killing him, killing Dominic. No. No, god dammit, no! "You can't, you can't kill him, you heartless bitch, how dare you." He choked out, finally, looking up with eyes that were too bright.

Rosalyn flinched at the attack from the second person in the room, but she just increased her petting on Dominic's leg. "This isn't Morgan," she said again, in that strange, high-pitched voice that was starting to border on hysteria. "Morgan should be up and around and moving and laughing. This isn't my son, this isn't what he wanted, dead everywhere but in the body, hooked up to every machine and wire to keep him going."

Lionel's voice was very calm, even as he was nearly shaking with rage. "You're right. Dominic should be up and moving and laughing. But he isn't. And I'm not going to give up the chance that he will be again. I'm not going to be the one to take away his life, take away the chance that he has of coming back to us where he belongs."

Clark physically choked back the sobs and rose to his feet, setting Dominic's hand on the bed as his entire body began to shake with panic. He wasn't Dominic's family, not in the sense that it mattered what he thought, and it was another hopelessness that made him begin to pace, arms wrapped tightly across his chest as the blood drained from his face. Dominic. They were going to pull the plug on his respirator, and let him die. Let him suffocate on his own mucus and spittle.

He needed Lex. He needed Lex. Lex was coming, he could feel him, but he needed him here, now, as he ran his fingers through his hair and let them fist tightly.

Rosalyn sobbed again, but she didn't back down from Lionel's trembling rage. "You say that like he's coming back. You heard the doctor, he's not. It's impossible that he will. He's been out too long, even his body is shutting down. Lionel, please... don't do this to him. I know you love him, please, don't do this to him. Let him die the man he was, with all the dignity he had. Don't make him into this thing, this shell that's kept alive by machines that never loved him, never knew what they were taking away with every puff of air they send in his lungs. Please, Lionel, please, don't do this to Morgan. You know he'd hate you for doing it."

"Get out," Lionel said softly, and it was not at all the bellow that would have been expected. "Get out now. You... what kind of a mother do you think you are? You want me to kill him just because it's inconvenient for you? Get out of this hospital room this instant, and don't come back. How dare you talk to me about what Dominic wants. You've never known. You've never cared. You've only wanted what was best for YOU, what would make YOU happy. Get out." He turned back to Clark and glared. "Clark, sit down. This instant."

"I… I c.." But Clark did as he was told, his pelvis all but creaking with the force of his sudden plunk into his chair again, throat closing as he closed his eyes as well and fought the every living crap out of the panic trying to take him over. The pain and sadness and he didn't know how he could deal with it, so he hid it all deep and locked it up.

He needed Lex. Lex. Who was at LuthorCorp, who was coming soon, who had to come soon, because if he didn't Clark didn't know what they were going to do. He understood why Rosalyn was saying that, and he understood that Dominic wasn't going to live, but if he didn't have hope he didn't have anything, and his hope was the last shred of self that Clark was hanging onto. Dominic had to live, he had to be okay, because life would not be the same without him. It would be a dull, boring existence without knowing Dominic was there to bring up their spirits, or make them laugh, or just be himself.

The mansion was so quiet. It had taken Clark almost a month to realize that it was quiet because no music was playing.

"Yes, you can, and thank you for doing so!" Lionel bit off. He dragged his hands through his hair as he glared at Rosalyn. "I believe I asked you to leave."

Rosalyn just shook her head. "You can't throw me out. I'm his mother. You can't throw me out of my son's hospital room."

"Rosalyn, if you do not leave, I will remove you myself, by throwing you over my shoulder and dropping you on your ass in the waiting room! Do you understand me? Leave, now!" Lionel stalked towards her, and she jumped up, yelping. "LEAVE!" he finally thundered.

Rosalyn squeaked, jumping to her feet as Lionel bellowed, and she shot out of the room.

There was silence in the room, and Clark saw the other family members on their feet in alarm before the door slammed shut.

Clark didn't have it in his heart to say anything, so he just sat there, in a daze, trembling from head to foot at odd times at the implications of what was going to happen. Lionel had at least kicked the bitch out, to which Clark was grateful, and he ran his ice cold fingers over his face. "I hate her so much."

"As do I, Clark." He sat back down and took his husband's hand in both of his, trying to warm the cold fingers with his body's heat. "Don't worry, Dominic. I'm not going to let her kill you off." He kissed the icy digits, and then clasped them back in his hands again. "I'm not going to let her hurt you."

The door creaked open to show a sliver of blond hair, blue eyes, and a usually friendly face that was drawn in worry. "Lionel?"

Lionel just sighed. "Come in, Lindy."

"If you're going to tell us we should kill him to, get the fuck out," Clark snarled, and he hoped that his pale face and dark, hooded eyes would be enough to scare the ever living crap out of her if she ever so much as thought about conceding to her mom's requests.

"I just came by to see my brother, Clark," Lindy said quietly. The lump in her throat wouldn't let her say much else, because yes, she did agree with both her mother, and Lionel--no, Morgan would not have wanted this, but she couldn't bear the idea of letting her brother go. In the end, she didn't know which side she'd support; Lionel, or Rosalyn.

"It's all right," Lionel said, not opening his eyes. "Come in, Lindy, but if you do agree with Rosalyn, do me the courtesy of not mentioning it. At all."

In that moment, Clark was overwhelmed by the hate for these people. People who claimed to love him but gave up on him just because times got hard. people who should have loved him until the end, but were saying to kill him so as to not be worried about it anymore. It was choking Clark from the inside out, and he could barely breathe, barely think, as he rubbed his hand over his face.

Then looked up, as something vital occurred to him.

"Lionel? Can... can I talk to you, a second?"

"Of course you can." Lionel put his hand gently on Lindy's shoulder. "We'll be outside if you need us." He got up from the side of the bed, and carefully guided Lindy to his seat by the bed, so that she could hold her brother's hand, and talk to him. "Clark?"

"Yeah." Clark motioned for the man to walk outside with him. He snarled at the gathered family, snapping at them and glowering darkly, before leading Lionel a bit of the ways down the hall, towards the nurses station. "Lionel, she can't pull the plug unless there's a do not resuscitate order in effect. You might be able to break it, so she legally can't."

"I know, Clark," Lionel said softly. "I've already thought of that, and I have contacted Dominic's lawyer in order to see if there is one. I've been waiting for a week now to hear from the man, because there was a bit of trouble with me legally being able to access Dominic's papers, but once it was established that I was his next of kin, duly declared and signed for by Judge Ross, the lawyer's been able to perform a search and disclose. However, it's the disclosure that seems to be the problem, as he's been looking and so far, finds nothing to disclose, not even in the will."

Clark fidgeted, uncomfortably, crossing his arms across his chest. "What does that mean? I don't understand you." He said quietly, as so the other family members wouldn't hear.

"It means that, so far as we can find, there has not been a DNR filed in the last ten years. There's a possibility that it might have been filed overseas, which Jonas is checking out also, but there's a good chance that there was no order filed. At all. At which point, Rosalyn is merely veiling what she thinks is best as Dominic's wishes."

His entire body trembled at the words, and he hugged himself harder as he peered at the man. "You won't let them take him away from us, right?"

"No, Clark, I won't," Lionel said, offering his arms. "I won't let anyone take Dominic away."

"Don't let them. We need him." Clark didn't know when in the past several weeks the tides had changed, but as he'd comforted Lionel as much as he could, now he was being comforted in return. He slid into Lionel's embrace tightly, hugging him close and burying his face in the sweet smelling cloth of his shirt. "You can't let them. They don't care about him like we do, you can't let them take him away."

"They won't take him away," Lionel reassured. "They'll have to go through me first, and you know that I won't let them do anything to hurt him." He kept his arms around Clark, holding him tightly. "You should go and get Lex," he said softly. "Bring him here, so we can tell him what's going on."

"Okay." Clark whispered softly against Lionel's shirt, and after another minute, let go. He turned, and snarled at the family watching, making half of them jump, before he turned, nodded at Lionel again, and walked down towards the elevators.

Lionel waited outside the room until Clark disappeared into the elevator and then went back towards Dominic's hospital room.

Only to hear Lindy talking inside.

"...and I really, really wish this had never happened, Morgan. Because I know, I know you'd hate this, I know you'd hate being in a hospital for so long, hate all these things hooked up to you, but we can't let you leave, little brother. I can't let you leave. I watched you grow up, I helped to raise you, and it'd be... it'd be like losing Ellie if you left. Just... please, wake up. Please. So we don't have to make this decision, please." She was quiet, then, dropping her head down to rest on their clasped hands, and Lionel came in the door.

"There isn't a decision to make," Lionel said firmly. "Dominic is not going to die. He is not going to be unplugged, despite what your mother thinks. He is going to remain until he wakes up and comes back to us."

Lindy just looked up at Lionel. "You... call Gran. Ask who the family's lawyer is in the old country. I know... I know my brother, Lionel. He's filed the paperwork. I don't know if it ever went through, but he filed it with the family lawyers in the country shortly after he came to work for you. Find it, please, Lionel. find it before Mama does."

- = - = -

Smallville drifted by in a daze. Clark was barely aware he was driving, trying to recapture the comfort he'd felt when Lionel had hugged him, but not succeeding to much. He was aware he almost ran over an old lady, and ran a red light, but right at the moment he couldn't care less. He made it to LuthorCorp without killing anyone or scratching the car--much--and parked in the parking lot right at the front. Ignored the rent-a-cop who yelled at him all the way up the stairs of the Zeus building, trying to drag him by the arm and instead being dragged, and opened Lionel's office door.

Looked at Lex for a long moment.

"Hi."

"Let him go," Lex snapped. "This is Clark Kent; I told you, he's to be given the run of the compound, and he's parking in my parking space. Let it be or your fired." He turned to look at his lover, took in the haggard appearance, the lack of anything happy in his features, and got up from behind the desk, urging him over. "Clark?"

"Its Rosalyn. Rosalyn is going to make them kill him. She's going to make them pull out the plug for the respirator." Clark said hoarsely, as the security guard backed up and left. "She's going to take him away. Lionel said he wouldn't let them, but I don't believe him."

Lex pulled Clark into his arms and held onto his lover tightly. "Listen to Dad. Dad won't let them. And neither will I. I'm not going to let anyone take Dominic away from us. We need him too much; he's too important to us, and he's got too much left to do."

"We can't let them." Clark began to tremble all over, as he grasped Lex as tightly as he could, not even realizing that Wally and Charlie were sitting right there, and truly not giving a fuck. "They're our jurnei, we can't let them take him, because he will be okay, he will, and they're saving their flowers for his funeral, that's why there aren't any, don't you know? Lex, I can't, I can't, not anymore, I can't, they can't take him away, they can't, dammit."

"They won't." Lex jerked his head towards the door. "Wally, Charlie, go work in Dominic's office for while; I want the stack of paper on his desk cleared out by the time I get in there." He kept his arms around Clark, rocking him just a little and shushing him softly. "It's going to be all right, Clark. Nobody is saving flowers for his funeral; nobody's taking him away. I promise."

Charlie just nodded, jerkily. He'd never seen Clark act like this, and it was both heartbreaking and terrifying. So Charlie got up quickly and motioned for Wally to follow him, quickly skedaddling across the hall to Dominic's office.

"They are, they are, that's why nobody sent him any, they know he's going to die, Lex, they know it. They know it, and that's why." Clark whispered, his voice jilted with his nerves and the tension running through him, even as he grasped at Lex's shoulders tightly.

Wally stopped, and squeezed Clark's shoulder tightly. "Don't worry. Old man's gonna be fine, Clark. Too damn stubborn not to be." He nodded. "I'll keep Chuckie out of your hair; Lex, you take care of this kid."

Lex gave a little nod, and he rubbed Clark's back gently. "The flowershop here in town's been bought out," he reminded softly. "People are going to have to start having flowers sent in from Metropolis soon."

Clark calmed after a few minutes. He just had a little breakdown, that was all, because he needed it. He inhaled stiffly, swallowing air as hard as he could, and calmed in levels, until by the time he let go of his lover, he was calm again. Several shades paler than normal, but calm. He sat down shakily in the chair Wally had just vacated and cleared his throat, running his hands over his face and through his hair. "Can't take it anymore, Lex. I can't. If he dies, our family will be ruined."

"He won't die." Lex went to sit by his lover, hitching a hip onto the chair arm and squeezing Clark's hand. "He won't. You're the one who told me I had to have faith. Now it's my turn. You have to have faith in Dominic. He hasn't died yet. He's not going to. He will wake up."

"I love him so much." Clark said, softly, as he finally lay his cheek on his lovers side and let himself be comforted. "I'm sorry. I should be the one helping you." He whispered, but didn't move away from the good feeling of his lover close to him.

"No. This is right for us, Clark," Lex murmured softly. "We need to helping each other. Not one, not the other, but each other. We didn't do that before, and it nearly destroyed us. We have to work together now." He ran his fingers gently through Clark's hair. "I love him too," Lex said softly. "He's more... he's more like a father to me than Dad is, even though I love Dad too."

Clark was just utterly miserable, so he closed his eyes and blocked out the world. "He's part of our family. He can't die, Lex, he can't. I don't want him to. I don't want Rosalyn to kill him, I don't want his family to agree. They don't know anything." He looked up at Lex, then, and pulled in a deep breath in misery. "You have to come. Lionel wants you to, when you're done here."

"Nobody is going to pull the plug on Dominic. Dad won't let them, and neither will I." He stroked over Clark's cheek, rubbing over it with his thumb. "Come on. Let me make two phone calls, and pack what I'm working on up. It'll take me five minutes and we'll go, okay?"

Clark felt like a rather shame faced two year old. Here he was, crying on Lex's shoulder, when it was Lex's dad and stepdad that were going though this. So he cleared his throat and rubbed his face dry, making sure his cheeks were clean, and rose to his feet to kiss his lover. "Thank you."

"No, don't you dare feel bad," Lex said sharply, and rubbed his cheek against Clark's. "You have just as much right to feel bad as I do or Dad does." He returned the kiss gently, holding him tight. "You love him too; he is your father-in-law."

Clark sighed softly against Lex's cheek, then kissed Lex's neck and lips gently before straightening. "You drive, kay? I almost hit an old lady on the way over here." Clark murmured, eyes closing. "I took the SUV. I hope you don't mind."

"I know you're feeling bad; you don't usually let me drive." He kissed Clark's neck in return, and pulled him over to the desk. He didn't want to be away from Clark for that long, and he wrapped Clark's arms around his waist as he started packing his briefcase.

Clark did as Lex moved him to do, not because they were playing submissive/dominant, but because it felt good to be held by his lover just because he could be. He closed his eyes softly and let his mind drift, cheek sitting on Lex's back as he closed his eyes quietly and let himself drift.

Lex did all that he could, searching inside of himself for the calm and the certainty he always felt about everything, and tried to impart it to his lover. Tried to make him feel better, tried to give him happiness, tried to give him some kind of light in his heart, but he was having difficulty finding the light of his own. "I love you, Clark."

"I know you do, honey, but knowing it won't help this time." Clark said softly, gently turning his lovers face to kiss. "I love you too, for what its worth. Come on… let's get out of here. I need a milkshake before we go back. An orange one. From that Julius place."

"Orange Juliuses all around," Lex agreed softly. "And we'll get one for Dad, too. He could probably use the pick me up." He smiled at his lover, and flicked his fingers through Clark's hair. "I know it doesn't make anything better, but it's worth a lot to me." He hugged Clark again, and shouldered his briefcase and laptop. "Let's go."

"I'm glad." Clark said softly, and hugged Lex back.

And off they went. They walked hand in hand through the office, down the steps. No one bothered them... no one seemed to have the guts to, for which Clark was immensely grateful. The ride to the hospital didn't take long--a pit stop to get their drinks and some coffee for Lionel from the new Starbucks on the corner, and then they were off.

The hospital was always quiet on Tuesday afternoons for some reason, and as Clark led his lover into the hospital, they were just finishing changing Dominic's sheets.

The nurse, Angelina, was just finishing covering Dominic back up with a light hospital smock and a soft nod towards them, and Lionel. "All clean. I'll leave you all be."

"Thank you." Lionel waited for the nurse to leave, and then took the coffee that Lex was holding out to him. "Lex... I need your help." He nodded at Clark, and held his hand out, passing Clark's hand over to Dominic's shoulder, so that Clark would sit down by the bedside and he could talk to his son in relative quiet.

Lex wasn't even stopping to be shocked by the fact that Lionel was asking for help, just nodding. "What can I do for you?" he asked quietly, sipping at his Orange Julius. "Clark told me a little."

Clark sat down beside Dominic, and set the orange flavored crack cup next to him. Orange juice gave him a spectacular rush, but slushed Orange Julius gave him enough energy to run on hyper speed, both in mind and body. So he sipped from it even as he took Dominic's hand softly in his own, gently holding it close as Lionel and Lex talked.

Lionel tugged Lex into the doorway, and spoke in hushed tones. "Lindy came to visit Clark not long after Clark left to bring you here. I had left her alone to talk to Clark, but when I came back into the room, she told me that Dominic has had a DNR filed in Ireland, and so far, our American lawyers haven't been able to find it. Crystabel would know the name of the law firm, but I haven't been able to reach her yet." Lionel ran his hands through his massive mane of hair. "Rosalyn wants to pull the plug on the respirator, and Lindy also says that Rosalyn knows about the paperwork. It's turning into a race to see which of us is going to find it first; Rosalyn to kill him, or me to bury it."

Lex blinked softly, and he knew Clark had heard every word. "What can I do?" Lex asked softly.

Yes, Clark had heard it. And that Dominic's life hung in the balance of who could find the paperwork fastest broke his heart. In a way, he knew Dominic would hate to live like this, especially long term. In another way, Clark also knew that Dominic loved his life, his husband, and his work, and that paperwork filed so many years ago shouldn't matter. But it did. And it could cost Dominic everything if they didn't find it.

"Please, Dominic, please, please wake up. Don't make us have to go through this." He whispered to the man on the bed, his chin trembling as he kissed the back of Dominic's hand. "Don't let it happen this way. Please, Dominic."

"What you can do for me is find out who Rosalyn contacts. Do anything you can to block her getting the paperwork; have the faxes blocked or disconnected. She'll have to go through an agency here in town; get on the phone, have everyone that will do it refuse her service. Dominic's got enough friends in Smallville this shouldn't be hard. Use our influence in Metropolis if you have to; don't let her get a copy of the paperwork. Even if she knows about it, as long as she can't produce it, we can tie it up with a judge long enough for me to eradicate their existence. Second, find who she calls. Once you have the name, call me. Call me right away, and then call Jonas. Have him contact the agency directly, get names of who knows, and have them taken care of. Quickly and cleanly as possible. Do you understand, Lex?"

Lex nodded firmly. "I do. I know where to start; don't trust Enrique; he's still sleeping with Rosalyn. I'll have the phone service to the mansion cut off because that's the first place she'll try, and we've got monitors on all the other LuthorCorp and LexCorp related lines. I'll go from there; I've got the laptop and if you'll give me the wireless router back, I'll work from the car on the way to Metropolis, and clean up everything here. I'll have the plane on standby, in case there's anything that needs to be taken care of personally, and there's nearly a million dollars in liquid assets in the building safe behind your desk; the main safe I can't get into, that Dominic installed, but the one that's behind your desk I can, and I've been putting the regular amount in every week."

Yes. Clark heard all of it, not because he wanted to, but because his hearing was too sensitive that he could hear. And no one could prove otherwise. The saddest part was, he realized, that as he kissed Dominic's hand, he knew what Lex and Lionel were doing was deeply, incredibly illegal. And somehow? Couldn't find himself to care. Not all business dealings were sugar and spice, which he'd learned the hard way, and he had to accept that as people he loved, they were going to do things that weren't exactly this side of the law.

But like before, he didn't give a shit.

Lionel's eyes flicked quickly to Clark, and then back to Lex.

Lex shook his head. "Don't worry."

Lionel looked again, and then nodded in agreement. "Just a moment." He went to the small wardrobe cabinet, and disconnected the router from the laptop. "I'll call a driver for you to meet you downstairs in ten minutes."

Lex just nodded. "I won't let you down, Dad." He looked at Clark then. "Clark? I want you to stay here with Dad." Meaning, I don't want you touched by anything that I do today.

Clark nodded, softly. He'd missed Lionel's eye flick, but knew what Lex's eyes were saying. He understood the implication behind the words, and he settled himself firmly in the chair. "I'll be here. Be careful, okay?"

"I'm always careful, Clark." Lex pocketed the router and crouched down beside his lover. "I'm going to be back as soon as I can. If I'm lucky, this won't take long to take care of. Have faith. And if anyone asks, you don't know anything." He looked over his shoulder towards Lionel. "Watch out for Dad. Don't let him do anything stupid, like order Rosalyn killed, which if I know him is running through his mind."

"Lex, if I haven't done it yet, then I'm not going to." He moved to the foot of the bed, picking up the phone from the table and dialing the garage.

"The old fucking bitch. Dominic's going to be pissed as hell when he hears." Clark said softly, stroking Lex's face and kissing him gently. "I love you. Please, be careful. I'll keep on eye on your dad for you, I promise. Be safe."

 

-fin-

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