Category: C/Lex slash humor
Rating: PG for m/m covert ops.
Disclaimer: It's been a long time since I slashed a cape / It's been a long time since I wore out tapes / Carry me back, carry me back, carry me back / Baby where they come from / Been a long night, been a long night, been a long / W, W, W, W, WB night...
Spoilers: General Season One.
Notes: For the CLFF challenge.
Challenge: Write a story about Clark and Lex through the eyes of someone else. Your choice who this someone is. (kira-nerys)
Thanks: to Rana for the beta, and for hitting me with her Punctuation Stick.  Hee!  You're a doll...
Summary: What's a dad to do?

"Is Luthor available?" Gabe asked, nodding to the closed office door.  Lex was definitely in--he could just barely hear the low murmur of voices from inside, and though they weren't loud enough for him to guess who Lex was with, no one would dare to waltz into that office uninvited.

Lori just shook her head, flashing the amused, apologetic smile he'd seen once too often lately.  "Sorry, Gabe--Clark showed up, so...."

"I'll just have to wait," he said for her with a sigh.

"I could give you a call when he leaves...."

"It's okay."  Shaking his head, Gabe looked around hopelessly for a newspaper and fell into the most comfortable of the chairs.  "I'm used to it."

"Yes, well...they shouldn't be too much longer," Lori offered, and for a moment, her cheeks almost seemed to pink beneath her blush.  It had to be the lighting or Gabe's imagination, though, because...well, if it wasn't, then they were probably having one of those conversations they shouldn't, and Gabe tried very hard to avoid those altogether.  "I mean, they've been in there nearly an hour, and...."

"Right."  He nodded quickly, looking down at the report he'd brought, and tapped the blue folder against his knee as he tried to find something safe to talk about.  Lori shuffled papers.  The murmurs from inside seemed almost to be taunting him.

"Do you remember the day he told us Clark had full access?" Lori asked suddenly, looking a little horrified to hear herself speak at all.  Gabe sat back and thought about that, blushing.  Blushing.  Christ.  But it was a little like a train wreck--if you were standing right there, you couldn't not watch.

And it was weirdly funny, now that he was used to Lex.  "Yeah.  When he called us in that day--"

"--and said that if Clark Kent ever showed up, we should send him up immediately--"

"--unless Lionel himself was here and collecting scalps," Gabe finished with a grin.

"I think my heart stopped," Lori agreed, giggling quietly and casting an embarrassed glance towards the office door.  "I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to laugh or not."

"Me neither.  I went home with visions of pink slips dancing in my head for days."  What had that been--the first week? the second?  He'd worked around Lionel, had heard all the horror stories, but it had taken a good month to settle into the idea that Lex really wasn't like his father.  Well, not much.  They could both be ruthless and driven, but Lex didn't lay traps in every conversation, turning a business relationship into a test with no obvious answers.  Not unless you were the enemy--and Gabe was very, very focused on not being seen as the enemy, for any reason.  After all, Lex was still a Luthor.

"But you know, I thought he was...."  Lori bit her lip, flushing a little again, though her eyes were practically dancing.  "You know.  All those women.  Gorgeous women."

Gabe had to agree--he'd seen the kind of women Lex brought home, and there had been that one memorable time when he'd walked in and...well, he'd only seen her back, but if a man could get a naked supermodel to sit on his lap right there in the office, then what could he possibly want with the other side of the field?  Gabe had backed out of there as quick and quiet as he could, and walked shakily away with two realizations.

One, that the 'do not disturb' policy apparently only applied to Clark Kent and visits from dad.  And two....

Lex had ordered bigger chairs when he arrived for a reason.

"I...heard stories," Gabe admitted slowly, and it was his turn to glance toward the door, half-expecting Lex to yank it open and catch him gossiping.  Gossiping about Luthors was really not the thing to do if you wanted to stay in their good graces, but...well, the train wreck analogy was really working for him, and he saw no reason to change it now.

"Stories?"

And of course she was going to make him dredge up details.  Finding himself giving her a helpless look of pure pleading, he cleared his throat and tried to broach the subject with some tact.  Or, at any rate, some balls.  He wasn't a bigot, after all--Lex could keep a full stable up at the manor for all the bearing it had on his business skills, and that was what mattered to Gabe.  Lex was surprisingly good at what he did, all attempts by Lionel to sabotage both his son and the plant aside.  But there were just some things a guy didn't like to think about too closely, especially not when it was probably going on not fifteen feet away.

"Well...I mean, he used to go to a lot of clubs," Gabe said lamely, hunching one shoulder.  "Um...those clubs."

"Sex clubs?" she asked avidly, the pen she'd been fiddling with stilling in her fingers.

"Lori!"  Christ, the woman had no shame.  "And yeah, kind of...I mean, mixed singles.  Like, you know, people who might go...any way.  And, um...leather."

"Leather," Lori repeated, something a little like awe in her voice.  Actually, she looked...dreamy, now that he thought about it, and the fact that she was thinking about it--Lex, their boss, in leather--was just...well, weird.

And what was it about women and Lex?  It didn't even matter if they hated the Luthors or distrusted Lex as a carbon copy of his father--a flirty smile and a few smooth words, and they were eating right out of his hand.  Heck, a lot of them liked the bad-boy image, it seemed like--and he guessed that seeing the perennially overdressed Luthor heir getting down and dirty in black leather would maybe have a certain appeal.  Like coming home to your wife in a French maid's uniform or something.  Unexpected, but good.

"Right.  Well, um...and I guess some tabloid caught him, er, necking with a Senator's son.  This was just before Lionel bought the Inquisitor, I think...."

Lori's eyes were wide and wondering.  "Really?  God, I'd pay money to have seen that...."

Gabe's jaw dropped.  "You...you would?"

"C'mon, Gabe!  You guys like seeing two girls go at it," Lori rolled her eyes, smirking impishly at him.  "And Lex is cute.  Believe me, he could eat cookies in my bed anytime."

"Uh, Lori?  Married?" Gabe felt compelled to remind her, which only got him another eye-roll and a giggle.

"Doesn't mean I can't look," she said primly, and he shook his head, chuckling a little at last.

"I will never understand this fascination you women have with Lex Luthor."

"Well, he's just sexy," Lori offered, as if he'd been asking to be persuaded.  "I mean, he's got wonderful taste, and you just know he's got a great body under those suits.  And he's got that quiet voice that makes you want to listen, and the prettiest eyes, and that little scar on his lip is just...wow.  And he's always polite, and he knows how to treat a woman.  But let's not forget," she added with a grin, "it looks like it's not just women that find him fascinating."

And that really was a problem, of sorts.  Not with him, but....  Sometimes he thought it would've been easier if he'd had a son.  A boy like Pete, always on the make, chasing after this girl and that and just genuinely in love with women, all of them.  Or like Whitney, who'd gravitated to one girl and stuck with her like an old married couple--thick and thin, better and worse.  And it wasn't that he didn't love his daughter--his brilliant, creative, stubborn, fire-breathing daughter--but the thing was...boys.  Boys went after girls, or most of them did.  Having raised one uncomplicatedly straight daughter, he thought the odds were pretty good that if Chloe had been a Clyde instead, Clyde wouldn't be mooning after Clark Kent.

Not that there was anything wrong with the Kent boy.  Gabe had always thought it was great that Chloe had friends as reliable and good-natured as Clark.  Clark was always a perfect gentleman, to put an old-fashioned spin on it, and what father didn't like that in a prospective boyfriend?  And the Kents were good people, steady and solid, and they'd raised a good-looking boy who looked to be going somewhere in life once he got out of Smallville.  Really, Clark was what Gabe's mother would have called a 'catch.'  There was just one problem.

Chloe wasn't the only one interested in Clark Kent.  In fact, her competition was the one person in the world he wouldn't bet on his daughter against.  Pity, really--he'd honestly thought it had a chance after Clark had asked her to the Spring Formal, but when a Luthor went after something he wanted, he got it.  There hadn't been any question in Gabe's mind how it would end.

"Yeah, well...I guess I don't blame the Kent boy," Gabe muttered, his face heating as Lori's brows rose slowly in mute query.  "I mean, all those cars."

"Gabe!" she yelped, clapping a hand over her mouth and trying to muffle her laughter a heartbeat later.  "I don't believe you!  Lex is like the perfect man, and all you can think about is his cars?"

"Well, maybe if he was a Lisa, this would cross over better...."  Shifting uncomfortably, Gabe prayed his blush would be under control when that door opened, or he'd never be able to look at Lex again.  And please, please God, don't let him get sent to somewhere even smaller than Smallville.  Chloe would never forgive him.

"Maybe--but if you're jealous of the kind of women he brings in, I'm twice as jealous of the kind of guy he lands.  I mean, Clark Kent?  Can you say adorable?"  Sighing gustily, Lori tossed her pen into the cup on her desk and pouted.  Literally pouted.  Gabe stared, amazed.

"Can you say jailbait?" he muttered, dumping his report onto the chair beside him staring broodingly at the far wall.  He was starting to feel a little...intimidated, here.  Had anyone ever gushed over him like this?  He couldn't be sure, but he suspected the answer was no.  He'd always been more the class clown than the local heartthrob.  "I mean, he's my daughter's age."  Poor Chloe....

For once, Lori actually looked uncomfortable, sneaking a glance over her shoulder and lowering her voice again.  "Well...yeah, but...Lex isn't really that much older than him, you know."

"Six years," Gabe pointed out grimly, though some part of him wondered why he was going there at all.  Especially when he saw the look Lori was giving him, both pleading and stubborn at once.

"Lex is still a kid too."

"He sure doesn't act like one."

"Well, neither does Clark," she insisted, and the faintest trace of sadness moved in behind her eyes.  "I mean, don't get me wrong, the Kents are wonderful people, but have you ever seen a kid as responsible as Clark?  It's like he's trying to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.  In fact, the only time I ever see him loosen up is when he comes out of that office after talking with Lex--and I do mean talking," she added, glaring at him in case he'd had any intention of correcting her.  "They've always been like that."

And really, when he considered it...Clark was almost painfully serious for a boy, though he had his moments of silliness and stupidity, just like they all had.  Maybe that was what had blinded him before to how mature Clark had always been--not so much in his likes and hobbies and what made him laugh, but the way he always seemed to be taking care of the others.  Looking out for them, being careful of them, like a man who didn't know his own strength.  He'd liked that before this--had wanted to think of his daughter with a careful man, one who'd always be watching out for her and never, ever hurt her--but that wasn't how it was supposed to be.  If Clark couldn't relax around someone, that person would never have his whole heart.  Not like Lex probably did.

"I know.  It's...cute," he offered, one corner of his mouth hitching up in a conciliatory smile.  "Small town boy tames Luthor scion.  Film at eleven."  If Lori's laughter was a tad relieved, he decided not to comment on it, other than--"I've always been a 'don't ask, don't tell' kind of guy, myself."

"Smart man," Lori practically crooned at him, their eyes meeting for a long moment before they both dissolved into laughter.  They were allies, Gabe realized slowly, not quite as surprised as he should have been--both of them keeping a Luthor's secrets, not because Lex was paying them or threatening them, but because they wanted to.  Besides, Lex was far more approachable about boring plant matters after he'd had a visit from Clark.

Of course, when it came to threats, Lex could be just as urbane and cryptic as his father.  Gabe still didn't know why Lex had suddenly started asking him about his daughter right about the time of the ill-fated dance.  Casual stuff, the sort of obligatory curiosity that cropped up in polite conversation--'How's the kid, what grade is she in again, wow, that old already, I bet she's breaking hearts, she's not seeing anybody?'  It was just...Lex had never really been one for small talk, when he thought about it.  Still, he felt silly for being paranoid--Lex was probably just trying to be friendly, and it wasn't like Lionel would have taught him how.  Maybe Clark would have better luck.

Besides, the Luthors didn't employ hit men.  They weren't even Italian.  And even if they did, his boss wasn't going to have his daughter killed just because she had a crush on his boyfriend.  He was pretty sure.

It still left him with a problem.  A beautiful, quirky, brilliant problem that didn't seem to be catching on to the fact that her boy of choice was, well, taken.  And possibly gay.

Still, she'd have to find out sometime--just not from her dad.  There was too much here that even she couldn't compete with--two oddly lonely boys who finally had someone to relate to.  Clark Kent's open invitation to Lex's world, and that was a heady kind of belonging that could melt anyone's reserve.  Those amazing cars, and much as he hated to consider it, probably wildly enthusiastic and highly imaginative sex, if the state of the office lately after their visits was any indication.

It used to be no more than a few empty blue bottles of Lex's favorite water lying around, maybe a soda can or a candy wrapper or two.  These days, however, when Gabe was shown into Lex's office afterwards there would be...clutter.  The cushions on the couch knocked awry, chairs turned out from their usual positions, and once, everything on the desk pushed carelessly to one side, leaving...room.  Space.  Lots and lots of empty space, and...really, he was starting to get used to the smell.  Rather like a teenage boy with unlimited access to the Playboy channel had taken up residence in Lex's office, and actually--

No.  He was not going to compare his boss to the Playboy channel.  He just wasn't.

Of course, that was easier said than done once the thought was in his head, so when the office door came open without warning, Gabe nearly jumped a foot.  At least Lori had the same reaction, so he didn't feel like such a fool, but Lex didn't even seem to notice, still chuckling over something Clark had said.  He looked perfectly professional, every button buttoned and his tie absolutely straight, but there was a lazy relaxation in his posture that Gabe never saw any other time, not so much--God, don't let him blush again--well-fucked as content.

Clark himself was...well, floating.  Gabe could still remember a time when Clark had always noticed him there, with a smile and a greeting for 'Chloe's dad,' but those days were gone.  Lately, Clark was lucky not to bump into the walls on his way to the door, stumbling out with a huge, stupid grin on his face that Gabe really, really hoped was gone before anyone outside this room saw it.

Apparently Lori hoped so, too.  "Mr. Luthor?  I just need to ask Clark about...pies, um...."

"Go," Lex said with a smile, like he always did, and Gabe wondered if Lori knew just how big her yearly bonus was going to be this time around.  Somehow, he suspected that it was going to come as a complete surprise.

The first time Clark had floated past like that, Gabe had stared after him in surprise until Lex pointedly clearing his throat had jerked him back to reality with his heart hammering in his chest.  "You'll have to forgive Clark," Lex had drawled, his smooth voice daring Gabe to say a single word.  "I told him I'd let him drive the Porsche this weekend if he still needed driving lessons."

Lex didn't bother to lie now, and Gabe...liked that.  Trusted the man more for it, even if he knew it ought to be wrong.  It just didn't feel wrong when he watched them together.  And maybe he still felt bad about the whole Level Three thing, and grateful he hadn't been fired for not living up to Lex's notoriously prickly trust, and okay, he'd done his own fair share of covering up.  But you did that when there were people counting on you--people who were impotant to you, like your daughter, or your underage lover, he supposed, and there was no doubt in his mind that Clark was that important to Lex.  Because he was a parent, for God's sake, and not even the Luthor name could have scared him silent if they hadn't been so obviously and unexpectedly good for each other.

Which made him wish, now and again, that Chloe had been a boy instead of a girl--or after that pretty Lang girl instead, because, well, why not?  The Lang girl needed someone to show her how to have fun, let go of the past.  But still, maybe it was time to hint very seriously that the Ross boy was a good kid, all in all.  If Chloe couldn't get that boy to settle down, probably no one could.

"Well, Gabe--you have a report for me?" Lex asked as he watched Clark go--Gabe himself not quite in the same room just yet, not really real until the last echoes of Clark's voice were gone, but Gabe was used to that, too.  It was sweet, the kind of thing he wanted for his daughter one day, the kind of thing he wished he'd had with his own wife.  He wanted to envy Lex for having it, when the man already had so much, but he'd met Lionel, and he'd seen how narrow small-town attitudes could be, even in a big city like Metropolis.  Lex really didn't have it that much better than the rest of them when you looked at it like that.

"Yes, sir.  But if you want to take it home and review it, it's nothing that can't wait," he offered hesitantly, feeling a little silly as he did.  It wasn't like Lex needed his help, but...if he'd ever been that much in love, the rest of the world could have fallen off a tall cliff into a deep trench for all he would have cared, and he hoped the poor bastards around him would be a little supportive of that.  If it ever happened.

Lex blinked back to himself with a small start of surprise, and the long, considering look he gave Gabe would have been enough to have him circling want-ads even three months ago.  Now, he was prepared for Lex's odd half-smile, not quite as cynical as it had been and much more easily pegged as grateful.  Amazing how things changed.

"Thank you.  I think I will."

And Gabe handed over the folder and watched his boss walk out with a light step, and he was a little amazed to know he felt good about this.  Not just in having done the sappily romantic thing but about the whole situation, like this conspiracy of outsiders had a purpose, a place in some half-sensed destiny that was going to change everything for the better.  And maybe it was as simple as this--Lex and Clark, who were going to be unstoppable so long as they were together.  And Gabe liked the Lex he'd gotten to know when they were together.

Of course, Chloe was still going to kill him when she found out he'd known about it...and was it a bad thing that he was more worried about what his own daughter might do to him than by what Lex would do if he told?  Maybe.  But that was the beauty of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.  The 'don't tell' part.  And he was getting really, really good at it.

end