Title: The Affair
Author: EV
feedback: Yes, please, I'm a feedback whore
Pairing: Lana/Lex, Lana/Pete
Summary: Lana harbors the guilt of a night of passion and discovers the truth of it cannot be burried.
author's notes: I wish I knew who to thank for this plot bunny, but I don't. I just remember once comic Pete's Vice Presidency and marriage to Lana Lang was mentioned in a Smallville discussion and someone responded with something to the tune of 'Ewww, if she marries Pete I hope she has an affair with Lex.' Well, I was never grossed out by the idea of PLana, so I wasn't all 'hey, that's a good idea' right away. Then I thought, there are two things that have been established - Pete's family has a bad relationship with the Luthors and Lana's family has a good one, therefore what kind of feelings would be brought to the surface if Lana was married to Pete and did have an affair. What a bloody good conflict for a fic. I don't know how well I did, but hopefully it will entertain you (and with any luck tug at the heartstrings a bit).
*~~*
Part 1 -- HIDDEN BETRAYAL
The sun broke through the master bedroom of the Mayor's Smallville home. Mayor Pete Ross laid in bed beside his wife, Lana Lang. He was wide awake and looking down at her. He still found it hard to believe. It was a future he couldn't have predicted, a love he hadn't been looking for, and a life he still thought shouldn't be his.
Now when he looked at her, he wondered how even his great love for Clark could have kept him blind to her for so long. He was almost afraid of touching her when she was asleep like this, afraid all this was a dream and if he woke her up she would melt away. It was backward thinking, he knew, but he could never escape the idea that he walked right into everything Clark wanted. He was married to Lana Lang, they had an amazing son, and he had a pretty decent career.
Lana's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him and smiled.
"Good morning Mayor Ross," Lana said.
"Good morning Mrs. Mayor Ross," Pete replied with a grin.
"Very soon to be Mrs. Governor Ross."
"Maybe," he said as he took her hand in his and kissed it gently.
"What are you doing up so early?" Lana asked with a yawn.
"You were gone a week, I missed you. I just wanted to look at you awhile."
"But, after last night, I thought you would need a rest," she said with a teasing smile.
"You know I never get tired of you," he said giving her a tender kiss. That kiss led to another kiss and then a deeper kiss.
"Mommy," a voice yelled interrupting them.
Their lips broke contact and they looked at the baby monitor. The child was four, so they should have removed the thing. But he had been such a sickly baby Pete remained paranoid about leaving him unattended at night. But at this moment they wished they couldn't hear him yelling in to the room.
"Oh man," Pete said burying his head in his wife's shoulder.
"I believe your son is up," Lana said.
"My son? When he interrupts us, he's my son?"
"Well, your genes are the rude genes."
"Oh really?" Pete questioned.
She slid out of bed.
"Wait," Pete said pulling her back on the bed. "A little longer, once he gets you, I won't be getting you back." He trapped her in another deep kiss.
"Ma, daddy," a little voice said now outside the door.
"Coming Clark," Lana said.
"He'll go back to bed," Pete said.
"No he won't, he's stubborn, like daddy."
They shared a final kiss and Lana freed herself from him. She opened the door and Clark came rushing in the room. He climbed on the bed beside his father and grabbed the remote from the nightstand.
"Watch TV daddy?"
"Sure Peanut," Pete said switching on the television.
Lana came back to the bed and sat on the other side of her son. They looked down at their little miracle boy and smiled. They didn't mind the interruption so much when they looked at him. She leaned over the little boy and she and Pete shared a quick kiss.
Lana enjoyed moments like this, quiet times shared with her little family. Nothing reminded her how much she loved them more than being away from them and coming back home. But in one crazy moment she'd risked losing it. She'd slept with another man. And how would Pete feel about her affair, about her if he knew? In these moments the guilt of that affair weighed heavily on her heart, heavier than she could handle some days. She wondered why she wanted this something else when she had everything she claimed to want in her childhood.
"You think it's about time we had another one?" Pete asked.
"What?"
"Another baby," Pete told her.
"Clark's still a baby," Lana said.
"I'm a big boy," little Clark piped in.
"Yes you are," his mother said ruffling his wild curly hair. "I don't know if I'm ready to go through it again," Lana said to Pete.
"Don't you want a little girl?"
"I don't know."
"Yeah, I'd probably end up in jail before she graduated High School."
Lana looked at him confused.
"Well, if she's half as gorgeous as you, I'll have to murder quite a few teenage boys," Pete told her.
Lana laughed. They shared another soft kiss.
*~~*
Lana and Pete Ross arrived in Metropolis. They were one of many invited to see the dedication of the newly re-built 'History of Metropolis' wing of the museum. Lex Luthor had donated the money so he was also in attendance and standing by the Governor's side. The Governor, Rubin Stewart, separated from Lex, came up behind Pete and his wife, and patted him on the back.
"Hey Ross," he said.
"Hey Stewart," Pete said turning to him. "You know my wife."
"How could I forget the lovely Miss Ross?" he said taking her hand and kissing it softly.
"Hello Rubin. Glad to see the Museum re-built."
"Yes, I understand that sometimes Superman has to be little... extreme to apprehend criminals. But I agree with Mr. Luthor, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to just let the criminals get away. Repairing the hole in the ceiling and the wall was quite expensive."
"But the way I understand it, if he hadn't done what he did half of the patrons would have been killed," Lana said. "Surely the cost of a wall and a ceiling is worth the human lives he saved."
"I guess you have a point," Rubin said. He nodded to her left.
"Good job," Pete whispered in her ear.
She smiled at him.
Chloe entered the museum and spotted the Ross couple from across the room. No matter how often she saw them together, she still couldn't believe Lana was the one that stopped Pete's girl hopping ways. And Lana glowed when she was with Pete. She watched them at a distance, saw their fingers intertwined as they shared a laugh over some private joke. The body chemistry said they were still in love. Their smiles communicated that they were friends as well as lovers. Somehow, the last two people anyone expected to click clicked perfectly. But a part of her didn't buy their perfect picture, I mean perfection didn't exist. It just didn't seem real there had to be some dark secret somewhere.
"Chloe," Lana called when she spotted her. Chloe walked over to Lana and Pete.
"Hey Lana, Pete," Chloe replied. "Where's little Clark?"
"With his grandparents," Lana replied.
"There's Lois and Clark," Pete said. "I'll go say hi, I don't want to shout across the room."
Pete crossed the room. Lana watched him with a grin.
"He misses seeing his best friend everyday."
"How are things between the two of you?"
"It's great... except..."
"What?"
"He wants to have another baby."
"And you don't want one?"
"I know he wants a little girl," Lana said. "I mean he loves being a father. I don't think he expected to love it so much, but I don't know. I use to want a ton of kids and he wanted one, just one. A girl, because he couldn't deal with a 'hard headed boy'. But when he actually saw his son it was a whole different story. Now that I know what's like to go through a pregnancy I don't know if I'm ready to go through all that, to put my body through it again... to worry about all the things that could go wrong again."
Chloe started to reply, but Pete rejoined them with Clark and Lois at his side. Everyone greeted each other with the usual hellos.
"So what were we talking about?" Pete asked.
"Your desire for a daughter," Chloe said.
"You're having another baby?" Lois asked. "Already?"
"Already?" Pete questioned. "Our son's four."
"Well I read six years is a good time period to put between births," Lana said.
"The Ross clan turned out okay and there was way less that six years between us."
"I tell you what Pete," Lana said with a smile. "You want the baby, you get pregnant."
"Okay, I get your point."
"Clark we need to talk to Mayor Stewart," Lois said as she spotted him across the room.
"See you later," Clark said.
Clark and Lois walked off to talk to the Mayor.
"The king is here I see," Chloe said with a grin as she pointed across the museum.
Lana turned and saw Lex was heading toward the. Lana wondered when he would make a move toward them and now she regretted wondering at all. She didn't look at him, she couldn't look at him, because then she would remember last month in Gotham and she didn't want to remember last month.
Did Lex remember it as vividly as she did when he looked at her? He came over and shook Pete's hand and Pete greeted him respectfully. God, if Pete knew he wouldn't be smiling at Lex right now. He wouldn't have shook his hand as he came over. And he probably wouldn't want a baby with her right now.
Lex asked to speak to Pete privately. She figured it had something to do with business and she didn't care what the business was, she just needed to distance herself from Lex. So she and Chloe walked off together.
"Sometimes I don't even feel like I know that guy anymore," Chloe said.
"Lex?"
"No, Lex is still Lex," Chloe said watching him. "It's your husband I'm talking about. He's this responsible guy, this good husband, this... father."
"He's still Pete," Lana said with a smile. "He'll always be Pete, that's why I love him."
"If you love them so much, why did you waste time with Whitney, Clark, Byron--"
"Stop," Lana said quickly. "Pete, he's just different from them. Most of the other guys I dated, the good ones, they wanted to be my hero or my prince or my knight in shinning armor. And I realized when I got to know Pete that it wasn't what I needed."
"And what did you need?"
"A friend," Lana said with a small smile. "It wasn't about all these conjured moments of perfection, it was about things like being able to laugh when the worse happens."
"Yes, I know, your life is perfect?" Chloe told her.
"I wish," Lana said. "I mean my husband and child are amazing, but I'm still so messed up."
"What do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm ending it today."
"Ending what?"
"Nothing... it's nothing."
"Lana, are you having an affair?" Chloe asked. She just pulled the question out of the air, thinking it the most logical conclusion. Lana didn't answer. "With who?" Chloe asked in response to Lana's lack of a response.
"I'll see you later," Lana said quickly.
She smiled feebly and walked away.
(more to come....)
Author: EV
feedback: Yes, please, I'm a feedback whore
Pairing: Lana/Lex, Lana/Pete
Summary: Lana harbors the guilt of a night of passion and discovers the truth of it cannot be burried.
author's notes: I wish I knew who to thank for this plot bunny, but I don't. I just remember once comic Pete's Vice Presidency and marriage to Lana Lang was mentioned in a Smallville discussion and someone responded with something to the tune of 'Ewww, if she marries Pete I hope she has an affair with Lex.' Well, I was never grossed out by the idea of PLana, so I wasn't all 'hey, that's a good idea' right away. Then I thought, there are two things that have been established - Pete's family has a bad relationship with the Luthors and Lana's family has a good one, therefore what kind of feelings would be brought to the surface if Lana was married to Pete and did have an affair. What a bloody good conflict for a fic. I don't know how well I did, but hopefully it will entertain you (and with any luck tug at the heartstrings a bit).
*~~*
Part 1 -- HIDDEN BETRAYAL
The sun broke through the master bedroom of the Mayor's Smallville home. Mayor Pete Ross laid in bed beside his wife, Lana Lang. He was wide awake and looking down at her. He still found it hard to believe. It was a future he couldn't have predicted, a love he hadn't been looking for, and a life he still thought shouldn't be his.
Now when he looked at her, he wondered how even his great love for Clark could have kept him blind to her for so long. He was almost afraid of touching her when she was asleep like this, afraid all this was a dream and if he woke her up she would melt away. It was backward thinking, he knew, but he could never escape the idea that he walked right into everything Clark wanted. He was married to Lana Lang, they had an amazing son, and he had a pretty decent career.
Lana's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him and smiled.
"Good morning Mayor Ross," Lana said.
"Good morning Mrs. Mayor Ross," Pete replied with a grin.
"Very soon to be Mrs. Governor Ross."
"Maybe," he said as he took her hand in his and kissed it gently.
"What are you doing up so early?" Lana asked with a yawn.
"You were gone a week, I missed you. I just wanted to look at you awhile."
"But, after last night, I thought you would need a rest," she said with a teasing smile.
"You know I never get tired of you," he said giving her a tender kiss. That kiss led to another kiss and then a deeper kiss.
"Mommy," a voice yelled interrupting them.
Their lips broke contact and they looked at the baby monitor. The child was four, so they should have removed the thing. But he had been such a sickly baby Pete remained paranoid about leaving him unattended at night. But at this moment they wished they couldn't hear him yelling in to the room.
"Oh man," Pete said burying his head in his wife's shoulder.
"I believe your son is up," Lana said.
"My son? When he interrupts us, he's my son?"
"Well, your genes are the rude genes."
"Oh really?" Pete questioned.
She slid out of bed.
"Wait," Pete said pulling her back on the bed. "A little longer, once he gets you, I won't be getting you back." He trapped her in another deep kiss.
"Ma, daddy," a little voice said now outside the door.
"Coming Clark," Lana said.
"He'll go back to bed," Pete said.
"No he won't, he's stubborn, like daddy."
They shared a final kiss and Lana freed herself from him. She opened the door and Clark came rushing in the room. He climbed on the bed beside his father and grabbed the remote from the nightstand.
"Watch TV daddy?"
"Sure Peanut," Pete said switching on the television.
Lana came back to the bed and sat on the other side of her son. They looked down at their little miracle boy and smiled. They didn't mind the interruption so much when they looked at him. She leaned over the little boy and she and Pete shared a quick kiss.
Lana enjoyed moments like this, quiet times shared with her little family. Nothing reminded her how much she loved them more than being away from them and coming back home. But in one crazy moment she'd risked losing it. She'd slept with another man. And how would Pete feel about her affair, about her if he knew? In these moments the guilt of that affair weighed heavily on her heart, heavier than she could handle some days. She wondered why she wanted this something else when she had everything she claimed to want in her childhood.
"You think it's about time we had another one?" Pete asked.
"What?"
"Another baby," Pete told her.
"Clark's still a baby," Lana said.
"I'm a big boy," little Clark piped in.
"Yes you are," his mother said ruffling his wild curly hair. "I don't know if I'm ready to go through it again," Lana said to Pete.
"Don't you want a little girl?"
"I don't know."
"Yeah, I'd probably end up in jail before she graduated High School."
Lana looked at him confused.
"Well, if she's half as gorgeous as you, I'll have to murder quite a few teenage boys," Pete told her.
Lana laughed. They shared another soft kiss.
*~~*
Lana and Pete Ross arrived in Metropolis. They were one of many invited to see the dedication of the newly re-built 'History of Metropolis' wing of the museum. Lex Luthor had donated the money so he was also in attendance and standing by the Governor's side. The Governor, Rubin Stewart, separated from Lex, came up behind Pete and his wife, and patted him on the back.
"Hey Ross," he said.
"Hey Stewart," Pete said turning to him. "You know my wife."
"How could I forget the lovely Miss Ross?" he said taking her hand and kissing it softly.
"Hello Rubin. Glad to see the Museum re-built."
"Yes, I understand that sometimes Superman has to be little... extreme to apprehend criminals. But I agree with Mr. Luthor, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to just let the criminals get away. Repairing the hole in the ceiling and the wall was quite expensive."
"But the way I understand it, if he hadn't done what he did half of the patrons would have been killed," Lana said. "Surely the cost of a wall and a ceiling is worth the human lives he saved."
"I guess you have a point," Rubin said. He nodded to her left.
"Good job," Pete whispered in her ear.
She smiled at him.
Chloe entered the museum and spotted the Ross couple from across the room. No matter how often she saw them together, she still couldn't believe Lana was the one that stopped Pete's girl hopping ways. And Lana glowed when she was with Pete. She watched them at a distance, saw their fingers intertwined as they shared a laugh over some private joke. The body chemistry said they were still in love. Their smiles communicated that they were friends as well as lovers. Somehow, the last two people anyone expected to click clicked perfectly. But a part of her didn't buy their perfect picture, I mean perfection didn't exist. It just didn't seem real there had to be some dark secret somewhere.
"Chloe," Lana called when she spotted her. Chloe walked over to Lana and Pete.
"Hey Lana, Pete," Chloe replied. "Where's little Clark?"
"With his grandparents," Lana replied.
"There's Lois and Clark," Pete said. "I'll go say hi, I don't want to shout across the room."
Pete crossed the room. Lana watched him with a grin.
"He misses seeing his best friend everyday."
"How are things between the two of you?"
"It's great... except..."
"What?"
"He wants to have another baby."
"And you don't want one?"
"I know he wants a little girl," Lana said. "I mean he loves being a father. I don't think he expected to love it so much, but I don't know. I use to want a ton of kids and he wanted one, just one. A girl, because he couldn't deal with a 'hard headed boy'. But when he actually saw his son it was a whole different story. Now that I know what's like to go through a pregnancy I don't know if I'm ready to go through all that, to put my body through it again... to worry about all the things that could go wrong again."
Chloe started to reply, but Pete rejoined them with Clark and Lois at his side. Everyone greeted each other with the usual hellos.
"So what were we talking about?" Pete asked.
"Your desire for a daughter," Chloe said.
"You're having another baby?" Lois asked. "Already?"
"Already?" Pete questioned. "Our son's four."
"Well I read six years is a good time period to put between births," Lana said.
"The Ross clan turned out okay and there was way less that six years between us."
"I tell you what Pete," Lana said with a smile. "You want the baby, you get pregnant."
"Okay, I get your point."
"Clark we need to talk to Mayor Stewart," Lois said as she spotted him across the room.
"See you later," Clark said.
Clark and Lois walked off to talk to the Mayor.
"The king is here I see," Chloe said with a grin as she pointed across the museum.
Lana turned and saw Lex was heading toward the. Lana wondered when he would make a move toward them and now she regretted wondering at all. She didn't look at him, she couldn't look at him, because then she would remember last month in Gotham and she didn't want to remember last month.
Did Lex remember it as vividly as she did when he looked at her? He came over and shook Pete's hand and Pete greeted him respectfully. God, if Pete knew he wouldn't be smiling at Lex right now. He wouldn't have shook his hand as he came over. And he probably wouldn't want a baby with her right now.
Lex asked to speak to Pete privately. She figured it had something to do with business and she didn't care what the business was, she just needed to distance herself from Lex. So she and Chloe walked off together.
"Sometimes I don't even feel like I know that guy anymore," Chloe said.
"Lex?"
"No, Lex is still Lex," Chloe said watching him. "It's your husband I'm talking about. He's this responsible guy, this good husband, this... father."
"He's still Pete," Lana said with a smile. "He'll always be Pete, that's why I love him."
"If you love them so much, why did you waste time with Whitney, Clark, Byron--"
"Stop," Lana said quickly. "Pete, he's just different from them. Most of the other guys I dated, the good ones, they wanted to be my hero or my prince or my knight in shinning armor. And I realized when I got to know Pete that it wasn't what I needed."
"And what did you need?"
"A friend," Lana said with a small smile. "It wasn't about all these conjured moments of perfection, it was about things like being able to laugh when the worse happens."
"Yes, I know, your life is perfect?" Chloe told her.
"I wish," Lana said. "I mean my husband and child are amazing, but I'm still so messed up."
"What do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm ending it today."
"Ending what?"
"Nothing... it's nothing."
"Lana, are you having an affair?" Chloe asked. She just pulled the question out of the air, thinking it the most logical conclusion. Lana didn't answer. "With who?" Chloe asked in response to Lana's lack of a response.
"I'll see you later," Lana said quickly.
She smiled feebly and walked away.
(more to come....)
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