Disclaimer - DC and WB own them, etc etc.

Good Lord. It's another Phoenix episode addition/AU. I'm really stuck on those lately! Ho hum...

Clex. Angst. PG-13 for bad language. Feedback would rock. Many, many thanks to my smoochie smooch, and to fashes for her help! :)

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Lex doesn't trust Helen as far as he can throw his Porsche, which is precisely why he's planning this fake second honeymoon.

She's already betrayed and tried to kill him. When Lex gets his revenge it has to be on his own terms, rather than do what's probably the sensible thing and simply let her slip out of his life. He's Lex Luthor. He can't just let it go.

This time, however, he's taking precautions by telling the one person he trusts exactly what he's planning. Clark will worry, frown in disapproval and insist that Lex doesn't have to do this.

Lex will, in turn, argue that it's the only thing he can do before giving Clark the flight plan. Should everything not go according to plan - he isn't expecting a worst case scenario, but the last three months have taught him to be ready for anything - Clark will know where to send help.

Musing that he's really missed driving, Lex frowns as he looks over the approaching Kent property. Even from here he can see the farm house and the moving truck parked near the barn. God, Clark's parents - and especially his father - are stubborn. After he's resolved the situation with Helen, Lex will have to try and find some way to persuade the Kents to let him help. The idea of the family being forced to move away is unthinkable.

Or Clark, at least.

Maybe, if they won't take money, he can secretly help them get a job elsewhere in Smallville so they can at least stay in town. Lex doesn't want them to lose the farm, but the most important thing is that Clark stays nearby.

Really enjoying the feel of the road under the wheels now - God, he really has missed this - Lex slows down when he sees several men appear near the side of the truck. Except, as he moves closer and looks harder, he realises it isn't quite several men.

It's two men holding an apparently unconscious Clark.

He can only be unconscious. That's all. Lex won't let him be anything else.

Anger flaring, Lex instinctively speeds up. Who the fuck are those men and what the hell are they doing with Clark?

But just as quickly as the anger flares it's restrained. Lex knows he'll have to be a lot more logical than just speeding towards them to save Clark. That won't do anyone any good, and will probably end up getting both himself and Clark killed.

Slowing down, he pulls off the side of the road carefully and as quietly as possible. Thanking God for modern engineering, Lex applies the hand brake and switches off the engine.

Climbing out of the car, Lex watches from behind a tree as the men hoist Clark into the back of the truck. Clark doesn't fight them at all, body completely limp.

Swallowing heavily, Lex stays only long enough to watch them close the truck up. As they walk towards the driver's cabin, Lex pulls his cell phone out and gets back into his car.

He immediately starts calling the police, then realises how useless they'd be. He has absolutely no faith in what passes for the Smallville police department - they've proven their ineptitude so often that Lex is stunned they ever stop any crime at all.

But what could he do? He can handle himself in hand to hand, but there were two of them, undoubtedly armed, and it isn't just Lex's life that's in danger. He can't do anything to risk Clark's.

Ultimately they make the decision for him. Before he decides on a course of action they're starting the engine of the truck and pulling out onto the road.

One piece of good luck follows, however - they don't drive towards him. As they head further away, Lex starts the car and follows, keeping a healthy distance back from them.

All he can do now is wait for an opportunity to help Clark.

*

It becomes clear early in their journey that the truck is bound for Metropolis and a little after two hours later Lex finds himself following it through the outskirts of the city.

Lex has gone over countless scenarios in his head. Plans of attack, usually with the help of some outside force. As they've come closer to Metropolis he's seriously considered contacting the police here, but they're not always co-operative and would probably bring in helicopters - a dead giveaway.

In the end he called a number he knew only from memory and identified himself as Mr Green. Even as they drove further into the city an assault team was being assembled, and when it becomes obvious they're heading for the docks the team swarms around the area, all but invisible, holding back until word comes from him.

Far more co-operative than the police. He'll have to pay for it later, but as long as later involves Clark being alive and well, Lex doesn't care.

The truck stops, eventually, just by the water. Leaving his car behind, Lex approaches closer on foot, cell phone glued to his ear.

Hidden between two wooden boxes, Lex frowns. He isn't surprised to see his father there - Dad has been dangerously interested in Clark for a while now - but Morgan Edge, too? What was this - the annual general meeting of Metropolis bad guys?

From the looks of things the guys in the truck are Edge's men - they get out of the truck and head towards their boss, who smiles wickedly as if he knows exactly what's inside.

Lex's stomach turns. He's been dying to know Clark's secret himself almost since the moment they met, but it sickens him to think of someone like Edge knowing. Of trapping Clark, making him suffer.

Whatever the hell the secret is. Early on Lex had thought Clark indestructible, but things have happened since then to convince him otherwise.

Still, whatever Clark's secret is he can save thinking about it until later. Dad and one of Morgan's men are walking towards the truck, and when Dad sees Clark inside it'll mean something bad, mean that something's confirmed even if Lex doesn't know what that is, and Clark will never get Lionel Luthor out of his life.

It's something Lex already has to live with. He'll be damned if the same thing happens to his best friend.

Bringing the phone closer to his face to give the order, Lex opens his mouth.

The truck explodes.

Lex falls back but it isn't the fireball or the shock wave that knocks him over. There are people screaming, accusing, and Lex might be screaming too, and there are guns being fired and tyres squealing against wet tarmac as he drops the phone and runs towards the truck.

Clark.

There is no way. No way. It doesn't matter how fast Clark might be. Lex has been watching the truck the entire time, and there is absolutely no way Clark could have snuck out before it exploded. The door to the back of the truck is the only way in or out and...

His feet stumble on something, body hitting the ground harshly.

Clark is dead.

He's on his back, somehow, facing the darkening sky, eyes stinging as he tries to understand.

Clark is dead.

He understands everything. He always has. But he can't understand this.

Clark is dead.

No. No. Not fair. No. He's survived the island, eaten worms, lost himself but come back, come all the way back home. Clark is not supposed to die. They have a destiny, a future, and he's known since the island that Clark is the only person he can believe in.

So he can't be dead. It's impossible. But Lex had been watching, and Clark never left the truck...

Choking on something - vomit, he realises - Lex turns onto his front and heaves. He's lost weight on the island and now he's about to lose even more. It strikes him as funny, somehow, and he's laughing and heaving on his knees, and there are tears of something on his face when some kind of movement other than the burning truck catches his eye.

It's every dream Lex has ever had. It's every Christmas, every birthday, and every cliche he's ever thought of.

It shouldn't be real. And after the island, for a few moments he's seriously worried that it isn't, but...

Clark.

Clark, rising out of the water. Soaked through to the bone, clothes ruined beyond repair, but...

Alive.

"Clark," he chokes on the word, barely able to get it out, but Clark's head snaps towards him. A brief flash of fear and then his friend - not just friend, he knew now, not after this - is jogging towards him.

"Lex? Lex, are you all right? Are you hurt?"

Looking up at a drenched face and it's like their first meeting all over again as Clark reaches for him.

"Lex? You look..."

Warm, warm hands that should be cold and it doesn't matter that they're not. Lex latches onto them like they'll disappear if he doesn't. "You were in the truck. I saw them put you in the truck."

The familiar, worried gaze turns guilty, the warm, warm hands rubbing Lex's arms. "I got out, Lex. I got out."

It doesn't matter how. Clark's secret will never matter again, not like that. Lex is unable to speak, closing his eyes and grabbing Clark's hands because he's alive and here and not leaving.

"Police," Clark shifts. "The police'll be coming soon, Lex. We have to go."

Yes. Explosion. Burning truck that he's really only now feeling the heat of. The assault team will have left long ago. "I have my car." He gestures towards the general area and almost before he knows it they're standing next to it.

"You drive," Lex says, digging out the keys and handing them over, because he can do that. He can let his best friend drive his car because he isn't dead anymore.

The both climb inside, Clark saying nothing about possibly ruining the upholstery with his wet clothes - that's something that's different about him - and when Lex is sure that the police aren't following, he looks at his best friend and closes his eyes.

When he opens them again he's in his bed, gasping as he sits up. "Clark?"

"I'm here." And he is, warm body next to Lex, lying on top of the covers. His clothes are different from earlier. Whole. He must have changed.

Lex has no memory of waking in the car, or walking up to his bedroom. The only conclusion he can come to is that Clark carried him.

It should probably piss him off.

"You're okay," Lex says, still barely believing it. "Alive."

"I told you," Clark shifts in the darkness, awkward, "I got out when they were-"

Lex grabs him by the face, interrupts, and now he is pissed off. "I don't care. Do you understand? I don't fucking care. It doesn't fucking matter. Just don't lie to me." He's stopping his own investigation right here and now. Tomorrow, he's having the room taken apart. It doesn't matter at all. None of it.

"But..." Clark's voice is confused, not innocent. Something happened while Lex was on the island. "You've always thought there was something about me. You've always wanted to know. Always."

Lex shrugs, releasing Clark's face. "I want you alive more than I want the truth, Clark."

Glancing down, face barely visible in the night, Clark whispers three words.

And Lex realises then, that to get to the truth, all he had to do was stop wanting it.

~FINIS