Author:  Minnie
Rating:  PG
Category:  OT/Character piece – Lex
Setting:  The end of Jitters
Dedication:  To Lex ... just because.
Disclaimer:  Woo!  Smallville action figures are coming!  Sadly, that's all I can own.  Not Smallville itself because it belongs to someone else like the WB.  No infringement intended.
Distribution:  Please ask.  E-mail: [email protected]
Feedback:   Constructive feedback is appreciated.
Author's Note:   *sniffle*  Don't let the title fool you.   This isn't sappy.   Well, not that much anyway. Lex POV.
Archive Date:  1/6/02



You watch your father turn away from the gaggle of reporters and see him snake him arms around you. Cameras flash, capturing the touching moment of a father and son bonding.

You hold yourself rigidly in his arms, refusing to give into the manufactured comfort.   You know it's all for show, that the anguish in his face and affection in his hands aren't really for you, but for the media circus hovering outside the LuthorCorp plant.  Just another instance of Lionel Luthor working the crowd, trying to put a human-interest slant on a tragedy.  No, not a tragedy but a public relations disaster of major proportions. 

You hear the wheels turning in your father's head as he tries to pull you closer to him.  "Are the reporters getting this?  Do they need more time to take pictures of this moment?  How much longer should I hold my son?  How much longer to do I have to stand here and make them forget about the Level 3 debacle?"  Long enough to make the front page of the news.

You can almost see the headlines now.   "Luthors put family first!", subtitled "We treat everyone like family, say the Luthors!"  If your father's army of spin doctors have their way, there'd be nothing in the news about a man's life being ruined by secret crop experiments at the LuthorCorp plant's mysterious Level 3.  Or a tale about innocent high school kids being held at gunpoint by the said man.  Definitely no blurbs about the great Luthor deliberately lying about Level 3's existence and putting your life in danger.  There'd just be sappy stories about the love of a father for his son, the intense relief of finding that son safe and away from a crazed ex-employee.  Stories to make folks feel warm and fuzzy instead of outraged and threatened.  

You know all this but don't pull back from his arms.  Because other things are at stake.  The reputation of the LuthorCorp plant.   Your plant.  The Luthor name in Smallville.   Your name.   They're all you really have.  They *matter*.  

Pulling back would bring up questions that could destroy both things.  No sense in doing that just to spite your father.   Your father pretending to care about you doesn't matter.  It doesn't.   Sap doesn't matter.

Luthors don't do sap.  The offending word was erased from the family vocabulary when your mother died.  Erased, along with tender sentiments, and replaced with drive.  Ambition.  Self-preservation.  Dominance.  

You flick your eyes towards the Kents nearby and see what was erased.  Joy.  Relief.  Pride.  Love.  Sap.  You remember these things when you see grateful, smiling parents slinging their arms over an equally grateful, smiling teenage son.   Affection given so freely and easily that it hurts.   No hidden agendas in Jonathan's mock punch to Clark's arm and in Martha's hands scooting about  Clark's waist.  Just the simple joy of having their son return safely to the family bosom.   Love and relief so genuine that it should be *them* featured on the news headlines.  "Kents together again!", subtitled "Harrowing situation with gunman at LuthorCorp ends well for the Kents."

You stare at them sharply, almost wanting to scoff at their wanton display of feelings.   But you don't.  Instead, you keep on staring, unwilling to take your eyes off the seemingly perfect family portrait.   Somehow, it *matters*.  That portrait is all you have, all you *can* have.

Because Luthors don't do sap.

END

P.S.  Everyone give Lex a hug now!!!   He needs it.