Hello everyone.
Thanks to rkn for betaing.
And thanks to everyone for giving me feedback, with special thanks to Elisabeth, for reasons which will be explained in the FDK thread. (so not to give away spoilers.)
This is also the chapter which discusses more of the illegal casino and the owner of that. Some of you had a problem with the way I put things in chapter 11. Let me know if this works.
A Box of Swiss Chocolates, Part 17
The next morning she woke up, again brushing her fingers on Larry’s abstract portrait. What was she going to do? She hadn’t been honest with Larry about that, while he had been completely honest with her. She remembered how he spelled out to her all the secrets he had revealed to her about his life. And how hurt he was when she didn’t do the same. He was right. She needed to tell him. Because Superwoman was a part of her.
Of course, in order to do that, she would have to tell her parents about Larry. Could she really do that? Telling Grandma had been hard enough. Then she thought about the hurt and anger in Larry’s face the other night. His screaming, “Why, Kiley, why?” after she left. And Grandma’s comment that if she didn’t tell her parents about him, she WAS living a lie. She couldn’t hide from her parents anymore. Yesterday had taught her that.
She looked at her phone like it was a snake, only worse. Then she took a step toward it. And another. And another. Twenty-five baby steps later, and she was standing right next to the phone. She ran her fingers through her hair. She was about to call her parents to tell them that she was dating Lex Luthor’s nephew and wanted to tell him her other identity. The man who once put her father in a Kryptonite cage. Was she crazy?
Then she remembered Grandma saying “You need to tell your parents. Otherwise, you’re living a lie.” And Larry, once again screaming, “Why, Kiley, Why?” as he pounded into his couch. She picked up the phone and dialed her parents’ number.
“Hello?” her mother’s voice greeted her.
“Hi, Mom, it’s me.”
“Oh, hi, Kiley.” Her mother’s voice sounded a little confused, which was understandable. The Kents rarely used phones to call each other.
“Um…I…was wondering if we could have a family meeting tonight. You know, about,…stuff. We could invite Thomas, too. Of course, if it’s not a good night, we could do it later. Yeah, later would be fine. Definitely fine.”
Her mother laughed. “Sure, we can arrange that. I’ll get back to you. You know, Kiley, you’ve always reminded me so much of your father, but I guess you’ve got some Lane babble in you, too.”
She sighed and hung up the phone. Now what was she going to do while she waited until tonight? She could start a new painting, she supposed, but she couldn’t think of anything to paint right now. Maybe clean her apartment? It had been thoroughly cleaned quite a few times in the last few weeks, but, hey, you can never have too much cleanliness, right?
That evening, after she had eaten supper, she got another call from her mother. “It’s all set, Kiley. Thomas is coming, as well. Come on over.”
Kiley sighed and spun into her Superwoman costume. This was it. Of course, Kiley noticed that the stars were especially bright tonight. And she had always enjoyed flying among the stars. So she was just taking advantage of the clear night to enjoy herself, right?
But eventually, she arrived at Hyperion Avenue. When she arrived, her parents were talking about their latest story. It seemed that casino bust hadn’t ended when everyone thought it would.
“So we found out Mr. Riocci bribed the judge to give him bail. I guess the judge seemed to enjoy the casino as well, even though he wasn’t there on the night of the raid,” Dad was saying. Mom and Dad were seated in the living room on one of the couches. Family meetings were different than Kent family dinners, so they had already eaten. Thomas and Alice were seated on the other couch. Kiley walked in and sat on the chair in between the couches.
“Hi, Kiley,” everyone said cheerfully. Kiley motioned for Dad to continue what he was saying. The longer she could delay what she had to say tonight, the better, as far as she was concerned.
“So Mr. Riocci is trying to restart his casino. But I guess he’s having trouble finding a place for it, because the police are watching the old one.”
“But we still haven’t figured out how he got the Kryptonite!” Lois added. Obviously, this was what had her most upset. Kiley couldn’t blame her. She hated the stuff and its effect on Dad. “We talked to Dr. Klein. I guess we had all forgotten there was a piece missing when we started locking it up in STAR labs. But how did that man find it?” She shuddered. Then she reached over and grabbed Dad’s hand, like she needed assurance he was still with her.
“But enough of that. We’ll figure that out later. You had something you wanted to talk to us about, Kiley?”
“Yeah,” Kiley replied. She took a deep breath. She was here now, so she couldn’t back out. “You know I told you I’m seeing someone in Switzerland, right?” She ran her fingers through her hair.
Her parents nodded in understanding.
Thomas and Alice, who hadn’t known this, looked surprised. “No, I didn’t know that, sis, but I think it’s good news. You really like him?” Thomas asked her, innocently.
Kiley nodded. “Actually,…I love him.”
Her parents smiled at her, and Thomas did, too.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Just what we need around here. More people acting moony.”
“His name is Larry,” Kiley continued, hoping to warm them up to Larry before she dropped the bombshell. “I’ve been dating him for about two months. He owns this great little chocolate shop.” Kiley saw her mother’s eyes perk up at that. “And he’s got a great sense of humor. And he really cares about his mother. But…he’s really upset that he’s told me a lot of things and he knows I’m keeping something from him.”
Her parents looked at each other and nodded. “We’ve been there,” they both said at the same time. “And now you want to talk to us about telling Larry about Superwoman, right,” Dad added.
Kiley nodded. “And I know you’ve been there,” she told her parents. “Grandma told me about your big plans to run away once,” she added to her father. She looked at the floor, remembering how she had done just that a few days ago.
Her father sighed, as if he was ashamed of this idea, and Lois rolled her eyes, and whispered “Lunkhead,” in her father’s ear.
Alice groaned again as she looked at Mom and Dad.
“But,…” Kiley took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair three or four times. “The thing is, Larry’s full name is Larry Luthor. He is Lex Luthor’s nephew.”
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Clark stared at Kiley for a few seconds. Surely he must have heard her wrong. There was no way that Kiley had just said she was dating Luthor and wanted to tell him about her other identity!
Lois jumped to her feet. “Kiley, you can’t possibly mean that! Lex Luthor was evil. The things he did to your father…” she shook her head. “And to ME! To both of us! He’s bad news, Kiley. All Luthor’s are.”
Kiley sighed. “Yes, Mom, I know. I looked up the old newspapers. And Grandma told me about the Kryptonite cage. But Larry isn’t Lex Luthor. He’s Larry. He’s a good man.”
Clark sighed, putting his face in his hands. Were both of his favorite women going to fall for Luthor’s deception? He remembered a night, so many years ago.
******************************(flashback)*********************************
He and Lois were trying to act civil at Perry’s retirement party. But all they could do was snap at each other. He loved Lois, and she was drifting closer and closer to Luthor. The man he could honestly say he hated. Why couldn’t she see how evil he was? He tried to tell her about how he thought Luthor had done to the Daily Planet.
Lois replied, still blinded, “Clark, you’re talking about a man I truly admire, who’s always been completely truthful with me.”
***************************(end of flashback)******************************
And now, Kiley was saying that Larry Luthor was a good man. She was just as blinded as Lois had been. “Kiley, NO Luthor is a good man. Believe me that’s the truth. Deception is the name of the game.”
Thomas and Alice looked from Clark to Lois, to Kiley, as if they were trying to figure out how they fit in this situation.
Thomas looked at Kiley. “I’m happy that you think you’ve found someone to love, but you should probably listen to Mom and Dad. It sounds like they know more about this than you do. Telling the secret is not an easy decision, you know.”
Clark nodded in approval at Thomas, glad that his son was backing him up.
Alice, who was still trying to find her way in the world, threw up her hands and commented, “Love! It’s just not worth all this trouble! Steve is cute,” she added, mentioning a boy she had gone to a few school dances with, “but I’m not planning on telling him our family secret!” Then she ran upstairs calling back down, “Call me when you guys are willing to act rationally!”
Everyone was silent for a few moments. Then Lois began pacing back and forth in the living room. “So you’ve been flying out to see Larry LUTHOR for two months and you didn’t tell us? I thought we told you to be careful, Kiley! We trusted you because you said there were good reasons why you went to Switzerland. Dating him doesn’t sound like a good reason to me!”
Kiley sighed. “See, I knew you guys would react this way about Larry. That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.”
“So in other words,” Lois continued, “You knew you were doing something wrong, something we wouldn’t approve of, and you did it ANYWAY! How can we trust you after this?”
Kiley stopped short as if she hadn’t considered that at all. Clark put his head in his hands again. How could Kiley’s judgment be so terribly wrong? She’d never been one to jump to conclusions. She ran her hands through her hair. “I’m sorry I you don’t think you can trust me anymore, Mom. I really am. But for the record, something you guys don’t approve of and something that’s wrong is not always the same thing. I needed to figure out what I thought of Larry for myself. Now I know. I love him.”
Clark felt like he had been slapped in the face, and Lois looked the same way. How could Kiley disregard their judgment so easily?
Lois, meanwhile, had stopped pacing and sat back down on the couch. She reached for his hand, and he squeezed it She was obviously still quite angry, but seemed to be trying a different tactic. “Have you ever heard about Claude?” Clark rubbed Lois’s shoulders and nodded in approval. He knew this was a difficult subject for her, but it might bring the point across.
“I dated him for a few weeks when I was new at the Planet. He was so handsome and charming. He was funny and he made me feel special. I was so sure I was in love with him. Until the night I told him about a story I was working on. He…ah…slept with me and then took my story the next morning. It turned out he was only interested in me for the story. I thought I was in love with him, but he always had an agenda.” Lois took a deep breath and exhaled. She leaned back against Clark for support.
Kiley, I don’t think you’re looking at this clearly. Larry probably has an agenda. By telling him THE SECRET, you’re giving him the weapon he needs, just like I did with Claude.”
Kiley ran her fingers through her hair. “Mom, I’m sorry about your experience with Claude. And I do appreciate you telling me about him. But I did think about the fact that Larry might have an agenda. The name Luthor, DID turn me off at first. But I really don’t think he has one anymore. That’s not the man he is.”
Clark spoke up for the first time in awhile. “THINK isn’t good enough, Kiley. Not when you’re talking about telling him our secret.”
“I know what you mean, Dad. But keeping the secret from him is driving us apart. I can’t keep pretending around him anymore. I mean, you remember what that was like, to try to keep a secret from Mom?”
Clark nodded. He did, of course. But these were two completely different issues. She was talking about telling LUTHOR the secret. “But I still can’t agree with you. There’s nothing that’s going to change my mind.” Clark said firmly.
Lois nodded in agreement. “Kiley, I’m sorry but this isn’t right. You kept the truth from us, and now you expect us to give you our blessing. This is over.”
Thomas had left a few minutes ago, apparently deciding that this was a private argument. After all, he’d already told Kiley what he thought of the situation.
Kiley’s face crumpled. “So you mean my relationship with Larry is over?”
“If you want to put it that way, yes, but we don’t think it should have ever begun” Clark said firmly.
“Kiley, it’s time for you to leave,” Lois showed her the door. “I want you to think about this.”
************************************************************************
Kiley flew off. She knew that it would be hard to tell her parents, but she had no idea how hard it would be. She supposed her mother was right; she hadn’t been acting truthfully. She had thought about the fact that dating Larry was disloyal to her parents, but she hadn’t thought about that. Still, that was probably what Grandma meant about “living a lie.”
She arrived at her apartment and slumped on a chair. And she hadn’t even told them about the worst thing she had done recently. She tried to run away from her problems and from herself.
Still, they weren’t listening to her at all when she tried to tell them Larry was a good man. Of course she’d expected that, but it still hurt horribly. Larry was the man she loved, and her parents were telling her he was no good. And they said she couldn’t see him anymore. Of course, she had known that already, after the other night. But she really wanted to see him again. She needed to tell him.
Was she really going to be forced to pick between her family and the man she loved? At the thought of having to choose, Kiley burst into tears.
