I may have been winning small battles with Chloe, but I was clearly losing the war against my father.

That is, until an unexpected ally came to my rescue when it looked like all was lost. My father had caught me wearing the FBI wire. When he tore open my shirt to reveal its damning presence, I knew that I would never get anything from him that would satisfy the FBI. I was on the hook for the lab murders and my only shot of freeing myself had just been torn asunder. I had fought against him and lost.

Then Chloe Sullivan stopped by unexpectedly once again. I guessed she had a new ploy to try to twist me into finding work for her father again, and frankly, I wasn't in the mood to humor her efforts. I had been dressed down by my father, the FBI, and Clark all within the last few days. The last thing I wanted was another guilt trip from Chloe. I told my staff to turn her away.

So I was surprised when the butler tentatively knocked on the study door again. "Sir, I'm sorry, but she insists it is urgent. I can turn her away again if you wish, but she is quite...forceful."

I sighed. I knew if I didn't agree to see Chloe, then I would likely have to filter through a report tomorrow about an unexpected break in or security compromise at one of the Luthorcorp labs.

That was just the way Chloe operated when words like "urgent" came into play.

"Fine, let her in."

It was such a strange thing, but the moment she came into the dark and elegantly masculine room, everything seemed brighter. I found myself blinking to determine if it was just a trick of the light.

It wasn't. Yes, she stood there in a beam of sunlight that had peaked out from behind the clouds just for her, but it was something...more.

It was her. She was so bright and vibrant and just so alive, that the static space seemed to react.

And then she handed me my salvation like some sort of unexpected angel. A very snoopy, headstrong angel, but my deliverance nonetheless.

"Lex, I just heard that you've been working with the FBI from Clark. That you are looking for something that could put Lionel away." She paused, before continuing. "I've come to help."

I had less than 24 hours to come up with something before it was me being hauled off in cuffs, and despite her many skills, I couldn't figure out what Chloe expected she could do that I hadn't already tried. As I had told Clark, my father was exceptionally good at covering his tracks. Chloe coming by "to help" almost felt like she was poking fun at me. I didn't appreciate it. I stopped much too far from her for comfortable conversational distance. If she thought she really was going to taunt me that way, I wasn't going to make it easy. There was only one thing that would really help at that point. "So you have information that could put my father in prison."

I expected her to say No, of course. Maybe even hedge that with only access to such-and-such she might be a step closer.

Her reply was quite a surprise. She paced towards me, her expression intent. "So did you before he obliterated those seven weeks of your memory at Belle Reve."

What? Was that what my father had gone to so much trouble to destroy? Something I had known that could see him locked away? The worst part was...I could see him doing it. I could see him subjecting his own son to such a treatment to secure his own freedom. But now that may have been for naught. If Chloe was really telling me what my heart was leaping to hear...

I kept my voice calm as I asked, "You know what he was trying to hide?"

"Lex..." She stepped even closer, within touching distance, but still apart. "Your father murdered his parents. In a tenement fire. He hired a crime lord named Morgan Edge to do the dirty work." My mind raced. There was no statute of limitations on murder, but it sounded too good to be true. Chloe kept filling in the blanks of those missing weeks. "You got Edge's confession on videotape, but Daddy Dearest destroyed it."

And there it was. The hook had set, only to snare me into false hope. Still my voice was a little choked with disappointment. "Then there's no proof."

I moved around her. Away from another dashed hope. It was stupid, but for just a few seconds I had allowed myself to dream that this crusader of truth had actually come to the rescue. I should have known better.

I had mountains of accusations without proof. They were all useless. Just like this one.

Then Chloe turned the tables on both my father and I with a sunny smile. "Only the voicemail confession of Lionel Luthor himself." That caught my attention and I turned back to meet her smiling face. "He tried to scrub it out, but erased voicemails are like deleted computer files, and someone with enough pull and the right password can resurrect them from the cyber graveyard."

Had she done what I suggested all those weeks ago under the truth gas? Had she really gotten a confession from Lionel? It was too good to be true. It had to be a trap. "Why didn't you come to me sooner?"

Her expression told me I was clearly an idiot, as if the answer should have been obvious. It wasn't a look I was used to getting. "Your psychiatrist didn't accidentally wrap her car around a tree. You showed me the investigator's body on a slab in the morgue. Luthor family politics can get a little grim."

She was right about Luthor politics. Almost every twisted thing my father had ever done to me he had written off as a way to "make me stronger." I didn't remember the morgue slab, but it didn't sound out of character. I was probably trying to protect her. To show her what she faced. Clearly, from her run-down she did.

But she was still willing to put herself into danger.

For me?

I felt incredibly, indescribably thankful and impressed by the exceptional bravery of the woman before me.

"Chloe." I stepped closer. Despite everything, I still felt I had to warn her...again. I put my hands on her arms. Her corduroy jacket was soft, but her arms were pleasantly muscled underneath. I don't think I had ever touched her before. I'm not a touchy sort of person, but with Chloe it was...nice. "It means a lot you're willing to do this for me." Her eyes shifted away. Was she not doing this for me? "But if you come forward, you're putting yourself between my father and the FBI. That's not a very safe place to be."

She swallowed. She was afraid. She should be. She'd have to be really stupid not to be. "I know. But I can't get out from under your father's grip by myself." My father's grip? What had happened between her and Lionel? Then I remembered how he had asked me to fire Gabe, and had him blacklisted. Then the incident with the Torch computers. I had thought there was just some minor insult my father had been avenging. It appeared there was more to it than that. Then she said the most surprising, strangely wonderful thing to me.

"Besides, I know you won't let anything happen to me." Then she smiled at me, before catching herself and trying to look properly solemn.

I was sorry to see that smile go. I kept my expression under control, only allowing myself a tiny quirk of a smile in response. I couldn't let her know what that statement meant to me.

She was choosing to trust me. After everything I had done to not deserve it, she was still choosing to trust me. With her very life.

It was an extraordinary gift.

Holding her green eyes, I said the only thing I could. "Thank you."

She smiled at me again - as warm and bright as a summer's day - and suddenly I felt something in me that had gone dark and cold...grow warm.

We sat and talked for hours after that. She told me all about her deal with Lionel. How he had found her in a weak moment and offered to repair her beloved Torch and win her a column at The Planet to boot. She guessed now that it was really him that had destroyed her newspaper to start with, just to seem the white knight when he came to the rescue.

When Chloe failed to abide by the terms of the "agreement" he set with her, the column at The Planet disappeared, she was blacklisted, and the computers from The Torch were seized. Then Lionel decided to use his power over her father's position at Luthorcorp to push home the lesson just a bit more.

And to make it worse, I was the tool my father used to exact his pound of flesh.

By the time Chloe left, a few puzzle pieces started shifting in my head. My father had known about the wire. The FBI agent was pressing me about dropping the case in 24 hours, even though at least some of the recordings should be incriminating enough to keep the investigation open. The raid on the Kent farm. Lionel pressing Chloe for information on Clark.

My father had been busy.

I hadn't realized until then, he had been working behind my back to subvert me at every turn, even going so far as to bring Agent Lodor over to his side. He had tried the same with Chloe, but failed. I quirked a smile to realized that Chloe had more strength of character than an FBI agent. Though if my father had Lodor in his pocket, and had already gone after one friend of Clark's...others may also be in danger.

I fingered the transcript of the voicemail Chloe had given me. Now that I had proof to back up one of my father's crimes, I had to find Lodor and get him back on the right side. My side.

And now, Chloe's side.

Putting down the evidence, I started making calls.

Looking back, I wonder now at what point my father saw his error in making enemies of both Chloe Sullivan and myself. After everything he had done to cow and discredit us both, I like to guess at what point he realized his mistake. Was it when they snapped the cuffs on him? When his voicemail transcript was read? Or was it not until they pronounced sentence? I'm sure he never predicted that we would come together not once - but twice - to bring him down.

I guess when it came right down to it, Chloe and I both chose the side that would set us free.

Even if being free led us to nearly lose our lives, and did cause me to lose...something else.

I'm not really sure why I decided to stop by the Kent farm. Maybe it was because I was anxious about my father going free on bail, and Clark's family home always seemed so stable. Maybe I just wanted to talk over my concerns with a friend. I had already spoken to Chloe, but Lionel was too slick in how he couched his threats to her. Nothing she could provide for the bail hearing would be considered clear first-hand evidence of my father posing an imminent danger. However, I knew that if my father was released on bail, he'd never see the inside of a cell again. The only way he'd be locked up as he deserved, was if he was forced to stay there. He wouldn't be nearly as effective at pulling whatever strings needed pulling to free himself from inside prison.

As I talked it over with him, Clark once again came to my rescue when he agreed to testify about what he saw at Belle Reve during my electroshock "treatments." Lionel had been willing to turn his own son into a vegetable for the sake of covering up his murderous past.

My anger at Clark's revelation that he too knew about my father's crime was brief and hot. He had kept the secret from me, for what he hoped was my own safety. I didn't like it, but after everything my father had shown himself to be capable of, I couldn't blame Clark too much. Especially not when he was now putting himself in danger as well. With the sort of first-hand testimony Clark had from Belle Reve, it would be impossible to argue that Lionel was anything but an ongoing danger.

As his next gambit, I wasn't really surprised when my father asked for me to come visit him in prison. I know his mind must have been furiously working on how to get free from the moment Agent Lodor had put him in cuffs.

What I didn't expect was an emotional plea as part of a dying wish. It was just so...un-Luthorlike. My father would never do anything so...human as die. Not to mention what his death would mean for me. I'd been unable to let him die before, but it would be different if he was taken by illness. I'd be free of him, but without the guilt.

You see, I still had morals back then. Things I wouldn't do.

Still, when he had his doctor's send me his records, I still looked them over. To my shock, he hadn't been lying. He was actually dying.

I think it shows how much my allegiances had shifted, that my first thought wasn't for my dying and imprisoned father. It was for the only person keeping him locked up.

I thought of Chloe.

I called Chloe and asked her to come by the mansion. I had to warn her of the danger. Not only had we caged a dangerous enemy in Lionel Luthor, but now he was desperate and dying too.

When she arrived, I briefly outlined for her what my father had told me about his condition. He had gone to every major medical institution in the western world and none could help him.

Lionel Luthor was dying. Quickly. He'd be gone before the year was up.

"I'm sensing you're having second thoughts. Lex, I understand if you want to back out. I mean, he needs to be punished for what he did, but he's still your father. And he's dying." Her voice was filled with compassion. It was strange to hear someone that had suffered so much at the hands of Lionel Luthor offer sympathy at his death. Then the most bizarre thought struck me. Her compassion was not for Lionel, it was for me. Chloe was concerned for me. I kept my face carefully blank, lest I give away how her words struck me. How touched I was, but I had resolved on a course. My father's imminent demise did nothing to change what needed to be done. If I let the charges be dropped against him, I would stay on the hook for the lab murders. And worse, my father would win the last battle between us. I couldn't let that be how things ended between us.

And I wasn't the only person that would be impacted by this choice. That Chloe would offer to let the charges go - for MY sake, just so I wouldn't have to face sending my dying father to prison - was incredible. I was only just now starting to understand how important my unexpected, but suddenly very precious ally, was to me. And not just because I had promised that together, we would see ourselves free of Lionel. And it certainly wasn't for something as naive as a need to bring much-delayed justice to his door.

I just found that I very much wanted to keep all the promises I had made to Chloe.

For once, I felt like I was on the right side.

"Yeah. And he's gonna draw his last breath in prison, not the VIP suite at Metropolis General." She nodded in agreement, holding my eyes. Her expression was concerned, but I had to be as strong for her as she was willing to be for me. I stepped close and gripped her shoulders tightly, making sure I had her full attention. She had to be clear on what we were up against. "But only if you're still willing to go through with this."

"I don't think I like the sound of this," she said, sensing more behind my words. Smart girl.

I let her go and turned away. If I kept looking into those brilliant green eyes, I wasn't sure what I would do. Probably something dumb like try to protect her, when what I needed to do most was put her in danger. "Chloe, a dying man has little to lose. My father used a bizarre blood platelet cocktail to raise the dead, then pinned the murders of the research team on his son. Who knows what tactics he'll use to avoid going to prison?"

"Yeah, but the FBI guaranteed our safety. I mean, they're putting me and my father in protective custody until after the trial."

"Then what?" I asked. By now, I well knew how little the promises of the FBI meant. My father had easily corrupted Agent Lodor. It would be the effort of only a moment for him to find out the location of Chloe's safehouse. I'd have to find a better option to keep her safe.

"Lex, are you trying to scare me?" She looked scared, her eyes wide.

"I'm worried about you, Chloe. I want you to have all the facts before you walk into that courtroom." Because God help me, if she walked into this blind and something happened to her...

"Your father's intimidated me long enough. I'm not backing down." She looked terrified and her eyes had a suspicious shine.

I've read a thousand versions of the same sentiment - That being brave, doesn't mean an absence of fear. It means that you can do what needs to be done, despite of the fear.

I've never known anyone braver than Chloe Sullivan.

And it was my job to keep her safe.

It was a close call, but Clark did show up to testify against my father as a imminent threat to society if he was released on bail. As soon as Lionel was led back to prison in handcuffs, I knew the real battle had begun. The battle for Chloe Sullivan's life. And my own.

Author's Note: This has been a busy week of writing for me. Check out 2 new one-shots by me. "Choices" a Chlex story, and "Love Letter" a Chlark story.