Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.
Warning: Possible character death.
Chapter 7
Andrew was sitting down watching TV when he heard a knock on the door, he walked over and saw Clark and Chloe at the door, “Umm, hey guys, what’re you doing here?”
“Nothing much, Lex said you might want some company,” Clark said happily.
“Oh, let me get dressed,” Andrew muttered, realizing he was still in his exercise clothes and ran upstairs.
Chloe looked after him and said, “So what are Andrew and Anne doing living with Lex Luthor?”
Clark shrugged and said, “If Andrew wants to tell you he will.”
She frowned and said, “I’ll find out Andrew’s secrets on my own.”
He laughed as they sat down and nodded, he flicked through the channels and shook his head and said, “Look Chloe, what if Andrew wants to keep his secret?”
“Oh,” Chloe said, “I wouldn’t press, you know that right?”
Clark gave her a look and laughed, “Yeah, I know. But please don’t press Andrew; I’m not sure Lex would appreciate it.”
Chloe looked up at Andrew come back in, she honestly liked him; for one thing he wasn’t following Lana around like a lovesick puppy, it was actually refreshing.
“Hey Chloe,” Andrew said happily, “How are you doing today?”
“Doing alright Chloe,” Andrew said, “And you?”
Chloe nodded, “Great,” and she looked around and wondered vaguely why Andrew was living with Lex Luthor?
As they watched TV Andrew looked over at Clark and smiled; time to get to know him better, “So Clark,” Andrew said, “You’re adopted? Do you know anything about your birth parents?”
Clark froze and said, “No, not really. But what about your family back in Sunnydale?”
“Well,” Andrew said, “I have an older brother, Tucker; he’s alright sometimes though he gets a bit odd sometimes.”
“So how do your parents feel about you living in Smallville, Andrew?” Chloe smiled, “I mean it’s pretty far from Sunnydale isn’t it?”
Andrew shuddered at the name and said, “Yeah but I feel better here and I might go looking for those green glowing rocks one of these days.”
Clark shook his head, “Maybe you shouldn’t go looking for meteor rocks, first of all no one is sure if they’re safe.”
“Yeah, that’s what Lex said to me too,” Andrew nodded.
“So tell me about Sunnydale?” Chloe said, “It sounds interesting, I mean you moved to the middle of nowhere from a place that’s within spitting distance of LA so there’s gotta be some changes.”
“Oh there is,” Andrew nodded, “And every one of the changes are good. First of all I feel safer here and when I come to the school I look around and see that all the students are here, in Sunnydale there is always some missing students.”
“You mean some of the students just disappeared like that?” Chloe said surprised, “What’s going on over there?”
“Oh, not just students.” Andrew said, “Teachers, cops, umm I’ve heard at least some of the city morgue personnel have gone missing and Tucker always made sure I was home before dark, kept telling me that the demons were out tonight.”
Chloe laughed a bit and said, “Demons? Really? Well that’s a stretch isn’t it? Maybe someone should investigate it.”
“Umm, yeah,” Andrew, “I think some big reporter tried that, he came from LA and well they found his disembowelled remains in the high school cafeteria, the standard guess is that wild dogs dragged it in and placed it in there.
“When did that happen?” Clark asked looking ill, “I mean wild dogs? Wasn’t that the explanation for the principal getting eaten?”
“Yeah, it seems that it’s always wild dogs or barbeque forks in neck incidents or gangs on PCP,” Andrew said, “So you’ll forgive me if I happen to feel safer in Smallville.”
“Sunnydale has to be built over either a toxic waste or a nuclear waste dumpsite if that stuff happens there,” Chloe said, “Maybe Smallville isn’t that bad.”
Andrew looked at Chloe and said, “Never go to Sunnydale to investigate, please? I happen to consider you a friend now and I’d hate for you to end up like so many others who try to investigate it.”
She nodded and looked at Andrew and said, “Yeah, not going anywhere near that town.”
‘Yeah, thank god for that,’ Andrew thought as he sat next to Clark.
Clark looked at Andrew and sighed, he still couldn’t believe that Andrew was a Luthor. He didn’t have any of the hardness that he noticed around Lex and his father told him about Lionel and his dad, who hated the Luthors, liked Andrew a bit.
“Oh,” Andrew snapped his fingers, “Does your mom want the container back?”
“Yeah, it’s alright,” Clark said, “Though she wants you to eat dinner with us rather than wait at the front door for Lex.”
Andrew nodded, “She told me that last night.”
Clark smiled and they began flipping through the channels looking for anything good. Andrew muttered, “Satellite TV sucks; a thousand channels and there’s still nothing good on.”
An hour passed and Andrew heard Lex come back in and Andrew looked puzzled, ‘Buffy’s friend was the librarian from Sunnydale high?’
Lex came in and said, “Andrew, have you met Mr Giles yet?”
“Umm yeah, he was the librarian from my old school,” Andrew said confused.
Buffy smiled, “Yeah, he’s a good friend.”
Giles narrowed his gaze on Andrew and said, “Mr Wells, I’ve been approached by both Jonathon and Larry trying to figure out if your disappearance was linked to Buffy’s death.”
“Really?” Andrew asked, “My friends were worried about me?” He nearly collapsed; he had hoped they missed him like he missed them.
“Yes, quite so,” Giles nodded.
Chloe smiled, “Hi Anne, so who’s this anyways?”
Lex grabbed Chloe and said, “Follow me,” I’ll explain everything,” and they walked into the library.
Giles sat down and looked at Andrew and said, “Yes, both men were quite concerned about your disappearance and given the nature of our town they were right to be concerned about your disappearance, weren’t they?”
Andrew nodded and said, “So why did Buffy want to see you instead of her mom?”
“I shall explain it in good time,” Giles said with a smile, “But I am glad that your family helped her when she needed it.”
The silence was broken by a loud, “He’s your brother?”
“Well, it looks like Chloe found out,” Clark laughed, “And she’s going to be irritated that I didn’t tell her or try to get an interview.”
Chloe ran back out and said, “I knew you were hiding something, I just didn’t think it was this good. Andrew, when you’re ready can I get an interview from you?”
Andrew nodded and Chloe hugged him and said, “You’re the coolest.”
Lex nodded and said, “Clark, if you two want to stay for dinner you guys can.”
“Alright,” Chloe said, “I am not refusing an offer to have dinner with the Luthors,” and called her dad.
Clark nodded, “Sounds alright to me though my dad might come over to make sure you aren’t corrupting me.”
Andrew bounced around trying to find out how Jonathon and Larry were doing and if they weren’t going to do something stupid.
Giles nodded, “It is good to see that you are worried about your friends.”
“Umm, how are Xander and Willow?” Andrew asked, “I mean were they worried about Buffy?”
“Yes, both in their own ways,” Giles nodded, “And you might want to call them to calm them down and please tell them that they don’t need to accost Tucker again.”
Andrew rushed over to the phone in the library to talk to them in private.
“So,” Chloe said, “Anne, who is Buffy? Because you aren’t his sister, are you?”
“Nope, my name is Buffy Summers; Lex kind of hired me to be Andrew’s bodyguard.”
“Ms Summers has my confidence,” Lex said, “That she’ll do her best to protect Andrew and she is well trained.” He looked at Giles and said, “Mr Giles, could I talk to you in private about something?”
Giles followed Lex out and said, “Mr Luthor, what do you want to talk about?”
Lex looked at him and said, “Mr Giles, you trained Ms Summers to fight quite well and I was hoping to hire you to train Andrew as well.”
“Sir,” Giles exclaimed, “I am not for hire and.”
“Please, before you go into a fit,” Lex said, “This offer comes with several generous options and you will be very well paid for your tutelage of Andrew.”
“But,” Lex added, “It is up to you Mr Giles, I want only the best for my little brother.”
Giles nodded, not sure how to take this young man who frankly he was impressed by. He was almost sure he was going to be worse than what the tabloids had printed about him, not this professional young man who seemed only to want to do right for his brother.
“I shall consider it,” Giles said softly, “And that is all I can promise you.”
Lex nodded and they walked in and Andrew was walking up and down the hallways looking concerned. He looked at Lex and said, “I tried to reach Jonathon and Larry and they aren’t home, their parents said they left for someplace.”
“It might have to do with me,” Giles said, “Like I said they were most worried about you and they may have overheard me talking to Buffy and they have decided to come here.”
“How?” Andrew nearly yelled, “I mean they don’t have cars and the last time Jonathon tried to drive he, umm, ran over his dad’s foot.”
Lex raised an eyebrow and nodded, “Then let’s hope that if they are on their way they aren’t driving.”
Andrew was about to say something when a car drove up, Lex frowned, ‘Dominic? Why is he here?’
“Get behind me Andrew,” Lex said, “Hello Dominic, what brings you from your busy schedule of suckling at my father’s money?”
“Hello Lex, your father was worried about you wasting money on the two new servants and I’m here to make sure that they’re doing their job,” and he looked at Andrew, “I’m Dominic Sanatori.”
“Oh, um, hello Mr Sanatori,” Andrew muttered as he backed away from the man.
“You aren’t coming in,” Lex said, “And I won’t let you harass my servants or guests. Now Dominic, go crawl back to my father and be his dutiful slave.”
“Lex,” Dominic growled, “You aren’t wasting your father’s money on these worthless street kids just because you owe him something. Give the kid fifty bucks and let him go do whatever he was doing before.”
“Get out of here,” Lex growled, “And don’t bother to come back because you aren’t getting in again and if my father was concerned he’d have come by himself and not sent the lackey because, remember Dominic, that’s all you’ll ever be, the lackey.”
Andrew looked at Dominic and paled as the guy looked so mad, he pulled his hand back and looked like he was about to hit Lex, until Andrew pushed Lex out of the way and he got hit instead in the face and he kicked Dominic hard in the leg.
“Well, it looks like your street kid has some loyalty,” Dominic sneered and limped away.
Lex looked at Dominic’s retreating form, his eyes cold. Sanatori was dead and he didn’t even know it yet.
Giles went down to check Andrew and smiled, “It’s just a black eye Mr Luthor, Andrew will be fine. We just need some ice.”
“Thank you Mr Giles,” Andrew said as he got up.
“Andrew, Lex said, “Thank you but I could’ve stopped him.”
“Didn’t want him to hit you Lex,” Andrew said as Giles came back with some ice.
“Let’s get him back in,” Giles said, “And I can check him out.”
They walked in and Buffy nearly had a heart attack, “Andrew, what happened!!?”
“My father’s assistant was here trying to make me justify Andrew and you living here,” Lex said, “I told him to get lost and well, he always had a temper and there was that thing with his sister.”
“He tried to hit you didn’t he?” Buffy said as she touched Andrew’s eye, causing him to wince in pain as she touched the blackened area around his face.
“He’ll be fine,” Giles said softly, “It’s just a black eye but still that man.”
“Dominic Sanatori,” Lex said, “He entertains thoughts of being my father’s heir after my father disowns me, of course he’s a yes man who instantly agrees with him. I’m pretty sure dad will get rid of him soon.”
Andrew rubbed his black eye and said, “I hope he gets fired or something like that.”
Lex nodded, “So do I but he’s going to be after you, especially after you kicked him.”
Andrew made a face, “He was going to hit you.”
In Metropolis Lionel was watching the video feedback with interest, ‘Andrew was willing to take the hit for Lex? Very loyal and Dominic was showing some initiative but,’ Lionel thought, ‘He crossed the line with what he did to Andrew.’
Lionel drank a bit of scotch and waited patiently for Dominic to come back and tell him that he did it to make sure that Lex wasn’t wasting his money on some worthless street kids. He drank slowly, relishing the taste of the scotch while waiting patiently for his assistant.
An hour later Dominic came in and said, “I was told that you wanted to see me Mr Luthor?”
“Yes Dominic,” Lionel said, “I have a job for you and it’s important,” Lionel looked at the smile that formed on his assistant’s face. ‘Yes,’ Lionel thought, ‘Far too eager.’
“Anything you want Mr Luthor,” Dominic said eagerly.
“There are some business associates of mine that you have to meet at this address,” Lionel said, “Now, they have some money for me.”
Dominic left and Lionel picked up the phone and said, “Morgan, how are you? That’s good; I was wondering if you could do me a favour? Ah good, there’s a man going to be at this address, his name is Dominic Sanatori and well, I would very much like it if he didn’t leave that address alive. Thank you Morgan, I’ll be in touch soon.”
Lionel smiled to himself; Dominic made a mistake when he raised a hand to Lex. He decided to go back to read some more about what his investigators were sending him about Andrew Wells.
TBC
A/N: I am still taking in recommendations of what meteor mutants they should meet up with and which episodes can be used will be welcomed.
I will also accept any recommendations for pairings for Giles, Larry and Jonathon. I already have ideas for Oz and Cordy.
What do you think of Lionel’s reaction to what Dominic did?
Please rate and review.