damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room, Lobby 2

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Day 36: Waiting Room, Lobby 2

Celes had actually relaxed enough, speaking to Naminé during lunch, to allow herself a small smile. It thinned into a line, of course when her nurse materialized from nowhere and swept her off, giggling over her 'surprise.'

"Oh won't it be nice?" she chirped as they walked into the waiting room. "You'll be so happy, I am absolutely sure of it." Celes's small smile thinned itself into a line and she was plunked into a chair to await her visitor. Perhaps I shall be lucky, she thought, looking at some ridiculous motivational poster. It won't be anyone I know, not really. Her nurse wandered away and Celes folded her hands on the table, the picture of impatient waiting.

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Clark opened his mouth, but his mind was blank. Instead he closed it and looked down at his hands, trying to think of what to say and unable to believe they were even talking about the same people here. Just because he was in Landels didn't mean they couldn't talk to him.

"...Why would you promise me that phone call if you knew that?" Clark asked, looking up to gaze at Lex's face. It was unreadable, like it got back in Smallville sometimes. He felt shut off from his friend, and maybe a little betrayed too. He still wasn't sure if he believed Lex - he only had his word that Mom and Dad didn't want to talk to their own son.

"Kal, I didn't promise you anything," he said. "I told you I'd talk to them when they got back from vacation and see what I could do. Nothing more. And I did." Well, the situation had gotten tense all of a sudden between them, hadn't it? Still, Lex remained firm. He wasn't about to back down from Kal.

"So it's not possible for you to call them up right now and surprise them?" Clark asked doggedly. He wanted to hear his parents voices with his own ears. "Please? I'd really like to talk to them, maybe I can make them listen."

Clark willed himself not to get too angry at Lex. Lex was his friend and thought he was doing the right thing, but sometimes his definition of "right" was a little skewed, in Clark's opinion.

Lex was irresolute. "If I called them right now and said you wanted to talk to them, they'd hang up on me," Lex said. "I didn't want to press the issue, Kal, because you don't want to know the truth. It may not seem like it now, but you'll thank me later, once you're better. For now you need to focus on you, on getting away from the rest of these crazies. Most of them are beyond hope...you're not."

Clark managed to keep from blurting out "then don't give them warning, just put me on" but only just barely. He instead bit his lip, stubbornly wanting to grab Lex and make him see that they had to at least try instead of giving up like this. He wanted to know the truth.

"Part of becoming better is knowing the truth," Clark said quietly. He stared right at Lex. Lex had a way of letting the truth out in bits and pieces and while he knew he wasn't one to talk about white lies, Clark still wanted to know just what it was his friend was hiding. He thought he was protecting him. Clark had thought that too when he hid himself and his abilities, had lied all those times. Now he saw just how flimsy that excuse looked from the outside. It was a wonder his friends even stuck around when they had to know how much he was lying: Pete had been the first to get tired of it and call him out on it. "I want to get better. I really do. But I'm tired of being left in the dark like this. I'm not a kid anymore, Lex, I have to face this stuff head-on."

No matter how unpleasant it was. No matter how much it hurt. He'd pretty much killed that nurse, burned her alive because of his lack of control. Lex also said he'd injured two strangers. Clark didn't remember that, but assuming it happened, he had to face up to what he'd done and take responsibility for it. Either way, he couldn't hide away and try to be ignorant of everything - not when he knew he could hurt people if he wasn't careful all the time.

Lex frowned. "Fine, Kal. You win. Your parents don't want to talk to you at all. They're ashamed of you, of you're being here. You've made them look bad by being here, and they're trying to put as much distance between you and them so that your insanity doesn't become an associated concern for your family. Your father's running for congressman, he can't afford to have attachments to an insane son. People are already asking about you, but they've done a good job of controlling that fire before it gets out of hand."

This wasn't how the conversation was supposed to go. "Your parents have all but disowned you. But I haven't."

Clark wasn't sure what surprised him more - his parents supposedly avoiding him or his dad running for Congress. Since when? His dad was more than happy to remain on the farm and run it - if there was anyone who might run for anything, it might be his Mom, but that was already far-fetched as it was. This seemed even more impossible than him hurting people; with these powers, he knew he could hurt people, but his parents were always supposed to be the same people he knew and loved. Now Lex was saying he couldn't even have that much as "Kal" - if everything like that was true, Clark could see why Kal had gotten addicted to Red K. If it was anything like that time he'd run into red kryptonite, then he knew it was tempting to just let loose and stop caring and do whatever you wanted because it distracted you from everything that bothered you.

"If I get out of Landels, then I can make things right," Clark insisted. He couldn't allow himself to get upset like last time. "Lex, I know you're trying to help and I appreciate that. I just need to get a clean bill of health and everything's okay, right?"

He really wanted to see his parents face to face to see if what Lex told him was true. According to Wally, he'd fallen into some kind of bizarro time warp or alternate dimension, but the only proof he had that that was true was Lex's words and Wally's. He couldn't make sure for himself stuck in Landels with off-kilter powers, however.

Would he really be able to make everything okay? Lex wasn't so sure. Kal had a lot more problems than his own mental instability to worry about. Even if he walked out completely cured, he'd still have to deal with his parents, who in some ways made the Luthors look like angels. But he'd save that for another day.

"It'll be a big step forward," Lex said, not quite willing to lie to his friend but perfectly content to offer half-truths that sounded reasonable enough. "I'll keep visiting as often as I can, Kal. You just keep making progress, alright?"

"Yeah," Clark said. He tried to sound gung-ho about it, but it wasn't very easy and he was pretty sure he wasn't fooling anyone.

He was silent for a bit, trying to think of what to say. He wasn't sure how much he could trust Lex right now - he seemed to think the only way he could help him was for him to go through Landels the "right" way and he wasn't sure what could convince him otherwise. Proof he was different? That he wasn't crazy? The only proof he had there was his powers. But Clark couldn't risk exposing his powers to Lex, especially Lex, and instead he had to keep his mouth shut.

Instead, he said, "Thanks for coming, Lex. It means a lot to me."

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Day 36: Waiting Room, Lobby 2

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