Title: Golden Slumbers

Author: danceswithgary (danceswithgary@yahoo.com)

Pairing: Clark/Lex

Rating: PG-13 for implied violence

Warnings: Implied character death (not principals)

Spoilers:  None

Word Count: 1170

Archive: Fine, just let me know

Summary: Once there was a way to get back home.

"Lex?"

"I'm here, Clark. Go back to sleep."

"It's dark."

"I know. We're conserving energy. I can turn on a light if you need it."

"I...no, I guess I'm fine. It's been years since Mom...."

Lex needed no light to understand that Clark was crying again, when shoulders that tried to carry the weight of the world shook under his hands. He could feel a warm dampness spreading across his thigh where Clark's heavy head had finally come to rest. Silently, he finished Clark's sentence for him, for they'd laughed over it together so many times before this endless night. ...years since Mom had to put that nightlight in my room because I was afraid of the dark. It was the one with the stars and moon. Remember? You teased me about it when you came to stay...that time when your dad was such an asshole. I only kept it plugged in because it made Mom smile.

A sliver of light intruded on Clark's grief, and then a tentative whisper. "Mr. President?"

Clark tensed and Lex soothed him with gentle touches, making no attempt to move away. His voice was deliberately calm, the timbre low. "What is it, Mercy? Can it wait?" He knew the answer already. Mercy wouldn't have disturbed him while he was with Clark unless it was something important.

The sliver widened as Mercy interpreted Lex's response as tacit permission to enter. "It's the Joint Chiefs, sir. They and the Council of Sciences have their proposals ready."

Lex closed his eyes, hands still stroking automatically while his mind sought composure. "Fifteen minutes, Mercy. Handle the arrangements, please."

"Mr. President." The darkness was absolute once more.

"It's been three years already, and that still makes me stop and look around for someone else in the room." Clark's laugh was belated and shaky, but it filled Lex's heart with hope. He'd feared that the human part of the Man of Steel had finally been so badly damaged that there was no way to repair him. Lex had known that he needed Clark to still be there, to exist as Clark...not Superman, or there would be no reason for Lex to keep trying.

"I've tried to get them to just call me Lex, but they keep muttering something about respect for the office." Lex's hand moved to Clark's face in time to feel the smile bloom under his fingertips.

Clark's snort had Lex grinning in the dark. "If they'd ever listened to you channeling Mick Jagger in the shower, any possibility of respect would be a thing of the past."

"Hey, I swore you to secrecy! Just remember that's treason if anyone ever mentions it to me, farm boy."

Clark sat up and his face drew close to Lex's, his sweet breath tickling Lex's cheek as he rasped a whisper, "My lips are sealed."

The salt of Clark's tears flavored his lips and Lex tasted them slowly, the familiar heat and pressure warming a soul chilled by fear for a missing Clark. It was all too soon when his internal clock warned that their time was up, just as Mercy knocked and then reopened the door. "I have that meeting, Clark. I'm sorry."

Blinking in the light from the doorway, Clark stood so that Lex could get up from the military-issue cot they'd been sharing. "I'll go with you. It's not like this is a secret anymore." Clark's hand came to rest on the famous symbol that spanned his chest. "I kind of blew through all that when I came roaring in here looking for you."

Brushing tousled curls back into some semblance of order, Lex shrugged. "Actually, it was more likely the frantic kisses that gave it away, not that I was thinking about discretion myself when you showed up. I'd been pacing around down here going a little mad from worry about Superman, not my boyfriend Clark Kent. For all I knew, they'd brought along a weapon built specifically to take you out."

When he'd finally calmed down enough to speak coherently, Clark had explained that he'd been positive that Lex had been in the center of the strike that took out the capitol. Halfway across the country, struggling to intercept missiles in between attempts to attack the warships directly, Clark had no longer been able to hear Lex's heartbeat. It had been fading steadily, and then it was simply...gone.

He'd gone insane then, at least for a while, battering himself uselessly against impenetrable shields until some semblance of rational thought returned. The missile barrage had finally ended. The giant ships had just floated there in the skies above a decimated Earth, silent, while Superman hovered, waiting.

Then suddenly, they had vanished without a trace.

Clark had begun looking for survivors in the aftermath and found pitifully few wherever the missiles had impacted. The barrage had been efficient and deadly, the sheer numbers negating Superman's efforts, for every one he'd stopped, three others succeeded. The type of 'smart bomb' employed by the ships had wiped areas clean of most organic life, leaving structures and vegetation intact. Clark had wept in Lex's arms as he reported that the Metropolis radius had extended past Smallville and all his family and friends had perished.

All, that is, except for Lex.

Clark hadn't known that all-important fact until, on a sweep over Washington, DC; he'd scanned underground and found the tunnel. Berating himself for not remembering the presidential escape routes, Clark had immediately headed for the entrance, breaking through any and all barriers with ease as he flew two hundred stories...down. The lead-lined bunker explained why Lex was alive and there to meet him as Clark frantically bellowed his name along the corridors, hearing Lex's heartbeat, but needing to see his beloved face before Clark could allow himself to believe.

Fortunately, with the destruction centered on urban areas, large areas of the Earth remained untouched, and emergency services and the surviving armed forces were being deployed as quickly as possible. Lex had ordered his staff to pull together the necessary recovery plans, as well as recommendations on how to handle the invaders when they returned, while he and Clark rested. They were well-trained and it hadn't taken as long as Lex had initially thought it would, leaving both of them still exhausted. However, Lex had no choice. Any significant delay meant that they might not be prepared in time.  

Placing his hand on Clark's chest, he gave him a shove towards the cot. "Stay here and get some rest."

Clark never moved. "I'll sleep when you do."

Lex gazed up into blue-green eyes that held nothing but devotion and calm resolve. A smile twitched at his lips as he recalled other bleak days, past times of crisis when he'd seen that look...and given in. Each time, it had been the right choice to make. Stretching up, he placed a kiss at the corner of Clark's mouth and nodded a promise.

"Together."

***

Golden Slumbers (Beatles)

Once there was a way to get back homeward.

Once there was a way to get back home.

Sleep pretty darling do not cry,

And I will sing a lullaby.

Golden Slumbers fill your eyes,

Smiles awake you when you rise.

Sleep pretty darling do not cry,

And I will sing a lullaby.

Notes: Written for the gotclex 2007 New Year's Eve Challenge – Beatle's Song Titles.

Standard Disclaimer:  I do not own any of the characters herein. The characters of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent as well as any supporting characters are the property of their creators and DC Comics. Gough/Millar Inc and the WB Network TV own Smallville. Any deviations (or deviant behavior) from the originals, however, is mine.

Feedback is both welcome and appreciated.

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