Quietly Devoured

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Over the next few days, Chloe stayed at the penthouse and worked her way through Lionel's journals. She preferred staying in the Penthouse because Luthor Tower didn't exist in her world so she had no nasty associations for it. The mansion, for all it's grandeur, would always be associated in her mind with Lex and to a lesser extent, Lionel.

The journals were mostly hand written by Lionel himself. Each artefact had an accompanying photograph and sometimes scientific conclusions were included, with the printouts folded and slipped into or stapled to the pages.

The notes weren't scientific, they included Lionel's thoughts on how each artefact might be used, how it's technology might be adapted for LuthorCorp and most horrifically, his thoughts on Clark and Krypton. Lionel basically viewed Clark as a possession, something to be used and moulded in the pursuit of power. There was never any talk of love, care for or pride in his son and it made her heart ache for Clark.

The journals were certainly compelling reading but she didn't find anything that might help her get home.

Clark spent a long time at work each day but Chloe was hardly surprised considering he was suddenly helming an empire.

When he was home though, things were easy between them. They ordered dinner from the buildings restaurant every night, made love like it was going out of fashion and talked about everything and nothing. They usually lay in bed talking into the small hours, swapping stories from their home worlds.

Chloe found that it was easy to forget her troubles in this world. This wasn't her world and everyone she cared about was alive and well here. As her first week in this world approached she found that when she really thought about it, she was actually dreading returning home, to the guilt, the anger and the recriminations.

She felt like a coward who was running away from her problems, but she couldn't deny how she felt. At the beginning of her second week she arranged to accidentally run into Jimmy at the Planet. If possible he was even dorkier than she remembered in her world which she found incredibly endearing. His wedding ring proclaimed him to be off the market though and when she asked it turned out that he had married his High School Sweetheart.

She left him feeling lighter than she could remember in weeks. There couldn't be too much wrong in a world where Jimmy was both alive and happy.

She still refused to use Clark's card to buy herself a new wardrobe and the only thing she ever ordered from the Concierge in the building was food from the restaurant. Eventually Clark sent his secretary out to buy her a selection of clothes. He then set up a bank account in her name, deposited five million in it and handed her the card.

As he expected, Chloe refused to take the money, but he managed to talk her out of cutting the card up when he argued that she might get in trouble one day and need money.

After two weeks, Chloe was growing frustrated with her search for the artefact and still refused to take any money from him, though she did wear some of the clothes he had bought for her. She did, however, begin to venture out into the world a little more. She began to read the Planet every day and tried to get acclimatised to the world she now found herself in, though she blatantly ignored any articles about her and Clark. Most were complete fiction, though some contained a kernel of truth. Regardless, she ignored them and their petty speculation.

She soon discovered that the crime rate here was shockingly high and asked Clark why he wasn't doing anything about it.

Clark assured he that he was whenever he could but the police force was totally corrupt and he was just one man. He didn't tell her that he was killing the criminals who didn't give his syndicate their cut, or basically anyone who got in his way. Knowing how much he had on his plate at the moment, Chloe let it slide for now. Plus, he was right, how could one man, even a rich man, stop a country wide corruption epidemic?