Cache
Lex stalked into his office, throwing his briefcase on his desk and yanking at his tie. The outside of enough, he thought, and wasn't that phrase just tailor made for this situation? Wouldn't accept a truck- fine. Lex would just give him something else, something which cost him a hell of a lot more. Have the Benefit of my Doubt, Clark. Take it. Run with it. Take this one gift which Lex had never given anyone in his life, the one thing he refused even himself, and wear it in good health. Lie to my face and do it with an uncertain smile that is almost, almost enough to make anyone believe.
Almost.
"He's not going to tell you the truth."
Lex looked up sharply, more than slightly alarmed that he hadn't noticed anyone else in the room. When he realized his visitor was Martha Kent, his confusion increased. "Mrs. Kent- I'm sorry- can I get you anything?"
She looked away. "No, thank you. Lex, I know you're angry at him, but there are reasons. Reasons."
A mother's intervention- he was touched. But uninterested. "Mrs. Kent, it's really not necessary for you to make apologies-"
"I'm not." Her voice was sharp, and he was startled into silence as he looked at her stern face. "I'm making an explanation. I had hoped it wouldn't be necessary, but considering the circumstances- well... Lex, are you aware that I knew your mother?"
Not what he was expecting. "No. I didn't."
She nodded. "I hadn't expected you would. She and I had been...friendly, in high school." There was another story in that pause, but Lex knew he wouldn't be hearing it now. "When she met your father, however, we had an argument. I told her she was crazy to get involved with him, that she would regret it for the rest of her life. Your mother, of course, did not appreciate anyone second-guessing her decisions, especially romantically. When the two of them married, all of our contact was severed. The next time I talked to her was the day of the meteor shower."
"What?" Lex had never known that.
"Yes- she had seen some coverage on the news, and was panicked, because she knew you and your father were in Smallville. It was the first time we had spoken in about twelve years, but she just called our house and asked what was going on, if we had seen you. Questions a terrified mother asks. Then she got your father's call, and- well, she didn't call back. Understandably so."
Lex remembered. The panic. His mother's hand holding his in the hospital.
"Things went wrong when some of your medical reports came to your father's attention. Reports regarding some irregularities in your immune system. Your healing rate."
Lex looked at her warily. How much did this quiet country woman know? The city blood still ran through her, he knew, and for a moment, he wondered why he had ever feared her husband when she was the one with the seeing eyes.
"It wasn't very difficult for your mother to pull some strings. She had her own money, after all, and her own influence. Her own power which your father could never control. You and she were very similar physically, after all. Convincing your father that the medical records were hers wasn't all that difficult, I believe. And so when the testing began, it was your mother who went to the lab to be studied."
Lex clutched at his desk. "My mother never-"
"Do you remember her trip to Milan that year? To visit a dying friend." Martha smiled, but the smile seemed half-made and close to crumbling. "I helped her, then. Made sure her postcards to you were sent at the correct intervals. I even assembled the photo albums which she brought back for you. I actually had an aunt there- she sent back all the gifts and souvenirs, and she was the friend in all the photographs. Your mother was added into them later. That's why so many of the pictures were blurry- image manipulation wasn't as advanced then as it is now."
Lex remembered the pictures of his mother with a faded woman whose hair had once been red. So many had been out of focus- the film, his mother had explained. Somehow gotten damaged in transit, so the quality was diminished. ("Oh, Lex, Italy was so beautiful! But not as beautiful as you. I am so glad to be home." And the words had been ever so vehement.)
"I don't know what they did to her. She never told me, the last time she saw me. Just thanked me for helping you. She never thought of it as a favor for her- everything was for you. She could hardly walk, but her smile was as bright as it had been before she had ever met your father."
Coming back from Milan, his mother had been weak. From travelling, she said. I'll feel better soon, she said. But she never did. Because his mother didn't heal like her son. Her body couldn't handle certain types of torture. Her body had shut down, shielding itself from any further violation.
He looked up from his watch to find Martha standing next to his chair. "Alexander was never to be told that story. I swore to her. Alexander was not to know. But Lex, you are not that boy. And here is what I believe- I believe that at this point, hearing what I have told you will be less painful than not understanding Clark's reasons for keeping secrets from you. I do believe he trusts you Lex, and I think he is right to do so. But he is also terrified of your father. I have taught him that, and I stand by it."
You are not that boy, Lex. You are no longer your mother's son. Your father's, now. "Do you honestly think I would tell my father anything, even a single detail-"
Martha was shaking her head. "Of course not, but he's here, listening. This is his house. His employees and servants people your staff and the town. Understand this, Lex- I am terrified of Lionel Luthor. My family knows that, even if they don't know all the reasons, and so if my husband judges you harshly and my son tells you lies, consider it all a part of their loyalty to me. I would hope you would not fault a boy his desire to protect his mother."
The comment was jagged, and all too meaningful, considering this evening's storytelling. Lex would have lied for his mother. Lex would have killed for his mother. Perhaps he still can.
"Why did you help her?"
Martha looked away then, her gaze faltering for the first time. "It was right after we... adopted Clark. After years of trying and failing to have a child, we finally had a perfect, beautiful baby boy. I had lived for so long thinking I would never have a son- the thought of losing one because he was somehow too special wasn't something I would allow to happen to either of us."
Either of them. Two friends with little boys who were "too special". Different and...hidden. He said it out loud. "Hidden. Both of us."
She shook her head, gently correcting him. "All three of us, Lex. Do you think it was easy for a girl raised in Metropolis to marry a farmer and come here? My parents had been saving for grad school, and instead of becoming a professor, I moved to Smallville and learned how to milk cows. There were reasons then, and there are reasons now. Just remember that, Lex. It isn't always about lack of trust." Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, lightly, carefully. She was a careful woman. "Sometimes, things are hidden for good reason."