Doctor Patrick Vogel was sixty-two years old. He was old enough to retire. He even had a bountiful retirement fund waiting for him, but his work was interesting, his partner was pleasant, and his boss was reasonable most of the time. His wife had passed on and his children were grown so his house was lonely and little more than a place he sometimes slept. The little laborotory in a back corridor of Cadmus Labs was far more his home.
A home that was subject to rare, if memorable, tempest storms in the form of Alexander J. Luthor. Like now.
Vogel and his partner, Dr. Audrey Johansen, looked up from the racks of test tubes they were cleaning as the door burst open without warning and their employer charged inside with all the wound tension of a tightly coiled spring. That he hadn't called to tell them he was coming did not bode well. "Mr. Luthor," Vogel greeted, keeping his voice calm and even in hopes that Luthor would adopt the same characteristics.
By the force with which the door was shut behind the bald man, he supposed that had been too much to hope for.
"Vogel, Johansen," he clipped out and moved to claim a stool sitting beside a lab table. He put his arm down flat on the black fire-retardant surface, the palm of his hand up and the veins inside his elbow exposed. "You are going to need a blood sample," he told them though Vogel had already deduced that by his position alone.
As Johansen went about finding and sterilizing a syringe, Vogel asked the obvious question. "Do you believe you've mutated again or gotten pregnant again?" The answer was yes, that was a given. The only uncertainty in his question was which possibility Luthor had recently had a close encounter with.
If it was a mutation, Vogel was glad to confirm that Luthor's new power was not death by glare, though given the amount of contact the young Luthor had with the meteorites, Vogel figured it was only a matter of time before he developed that one. The RGN DNA he and Audrey had been studying for four years now was becoming increasingly susceptible to mutation under certain extreme conditions as Luthor spent more and more time around the radiation.
Twice now since the birth of his daughter, he'd dropped in with reason to suspect a dramatic alteration in his genetic code. As yet, it hadn't happened, but each time had significantly increased his DNA's instability. He was due for a mutation any time now. During neither of the other visits had he been nearly as agitated as he was now. That suggested he knew for certain that something in him had changed.
Whether that change was to his DNA or to the occupancy of his mutant womb was still up for debate.
Not once had he ever come by asking if he was pregnant. The home pregnancy tests designed for women worked equally fine for him. The only reason he would come here for that purpose was if he wanted a second opinion to a result he didn't like.
So, whichever event he was expecting to have occurred, probably had.
Audrey drew his blood with professional efficiency, and Luthor didn't so much as change expression. Of course, given what Vogel knew of his medical history, Luthor had probably had more blood taken out of him than your average terminally ill patient. As she disposed of the needle and latex gloves, Luthor finally answered the question. "You'll be checking hormone levels on that."
It was only because Vogel did, eventually, want to enjoy his retirement that he managed to keep himself from chuckling, snorting, smirking, or otherwise revealing that he found the situation even remotely humorous. Which it was. The first time had been too shocking, too new, too immediate, too potentially lethal to really appreciate. Second pregnancies were relatively safer, especially now that they knew beyond doubt that Luthor was capable of surviving one, and it was probably still within the first week or two since conception. There was time to find it ironically amusing that the second most powerful CEO in Metropolis and the single most powerful man in Smallville could get knocked up as easily as any woman. Probably more easily, given that he didn't have a menstrual cycle.
It was a straightforward test and didn't take long to run. Audrey set it up and all three waited silently for the results. By the time it finished, the air was tense and brittle from the anticipation. Even Vogel was fidgeting a little and Audrey had moved to continue rinsing glassware just to keep her hands busy. Luthor was unnaturally still as he watched the equipment that held the potential to throw his life into upheaval once again. Watching him wait for the results unsettled Vogel, and it suddenly wasn't funny anymore.
Luthor wasn't 'any woman'. Luthor wasn't even 'any man'. Last time, he'd been only been twenty-one. He'd been a CEO even back then, but that was when LexCorp had consisted of a single fertilizer plant and a handful of research scientists like Vogel and Audrey. LexCorp, even to LexCorp employees, had only been a high-risk start-up that was likely to fail and be swallowed up by LuthorCorp any minute. It was created in defiance of Lionel Luthor and had been under attack from that quarter since its conception. There were no expectations. Lex Luthor was untested, he had no expected patterns. He was too young to be taken completely seriously. He could disappear for four months and it would be taken as eccentric, irresponsible, but completely plausible rich kid behaviour.
He was twenty-five now. LexCorp had inexplicably survived. After the rough start and months of stagnant decline while Luthor hid his first pregnancy, he'd returned to the public eye and raised the company up to nearly rival LuthorCorp in only three and half years. There was no way, none at all, for him to vanish like that again. He didn't even live in that isolated castle anymore.
"It's done," Luthor noticed first. Vogel sometimes forgot the man was as knowledgable of the inner workings of a research lab as he was. Despite his familiarity, the billionaire did not approach the machine himself. Professional curtesy or reluctance to have a firm answer? Vogel didn't venture to guess, but stepped up to examine the results.
It only took a moment to confirm, and even as he turned to look at Luthor, his expression apparently gave him away. He didn't even have a chance to say anything before Luthor closed his eyes and breathed out, "Dammit."
An uncomfortable moment of silence passed while Vogel tried to think of a way to express his sympathy without coming across as trite or overly personal. It was Audrey who spoke first. "It's still very early in the pregnancy. I'm sure I can perform an abortion."
Luthor thought about it. That surprised Vogel. The scientist would have wagered that he'd agree immediately with a brusk 'Do it,' and expect them to perform the surgery right then. But he thought about it. Granted, he didn't take long, but the progress of the internal debate could almost be mapped by subtle movements of his blue eyes, a ghost of a frown, and a shift in stance.
Then he shook his head. "No," he refused firmly, shocking both scientists. He continued, apparently riding out the concluding remarks of the debate out loud, "I can spin this."
If that were true, Metropolis was more at risk to Luthor propaganda that Vogel had believed. He wondered if he ought to suggest that the young man was being overconfident. He wasn't sure how well Wall Street would take the discovery that LexCorp's CEO was a pregnant mutant freak, spin or no spin, and his concern wasn't entirely altruistic. He wanted his retirement fund, dammit, and a defunct company couldn't deliver what he'd been promised.
Audrey sounded as dubious as Vogel felt. "Well, if you change your mind, let us know."
Luthor smiled politely at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. Those were distant and a little unfocused as he ran the problem through his mind. Only once before had Vogel been around when Luthor was plotting, but it was unmistakable and a little frightening to behold. Luthor didn't pace, but Vogel almost wished he would. It would look more natural than the stiff perch on the lab stool.
Suddenly, the tension broke, and Luthor launched to his feet, pulling out his cell phone. He punched in a number, then brought it to his ear. The silence was heavy in the room while he waited for the other line to pick up. An look exchanged with Audrey proved she had no more idea what they were expected to be doing right now than Vogel had. By default, it was going to fall to eavesdropping.
"Bruce, this is Lex. I need a favor." A pause, then Luthor began to smirk in amusement. "Bruce, that was ten years ago." Another pause. Luthor was still smirking. "Look, I promise, this time I won't get you suspended." An eyeroll, and a longer pause. His expression turned more serious. "No, you're right, there is some risk. Tell me, Bruce, where's your reputation at right now?"
Luthor returned to his stool and straddled it as he listened to whatever Bruce was saying. "While I applaud that, Bruce, that's not the reputation I was talking about. I mean, will anyone believe you're not completely straight?"
Irritation and an audible sigh. "Yes, I know that was just teenaged experimentation, and no, I'm not trying to get laid." A short pause, and Vogel could almost make out a harsh bark of laughter from halfway across the room. Luthor scowled briefly, "Fine, I'm not trying to get laid by you. But there's going to be a museum opening in Gotham next friday and I would like to take you as my date."
His scowl, which had begun to lessen as he made his offer resolidified. "No, I've not gone insane." His lips pressed into a thin white line, then "No, I'm not plotting to sabotage Wayne stock prices. LexCorp is just as much at risk-" His eyes flashed and narrowed. "Bruce. Stop before you say something I'll have to do something about. I was asking as a friend." Another brief pause and an annoyed shake of his head, "You know what I meant. Yes, I was asking you to the museum as more than friends, but it wasn't maliciously motivated." Another pause, longer this time. "No, just forget it, Bruce. This conversation never happened. And don't even think about trying to blackmail me with it, because I asked you in the first place because I'm trying to come out. Was Scott just experimenting, too, or is he really bi?"
"Thanks anyway, Bruce. See you friday."
He flipped his phone shut then opened it up again right away. Another number was dialed. Vogel wondered just how many phone numbers Luthor knew off the top of his head. "Scott? This is Lex." A short pause. "Yeah, same here. Look, I need a favor." The annoyed expression returned to his face. "Scott, that was ten years ago."
From what Vogel could tell, the conversation with Scott went just about the same as it had with Bruce, only with more raised voices and more bad feelings when they hung up on each other. Luthor noticed Vogel and Audrey watching him and turned his scowl on them. Without warning, he smacked the lab table and stood. Not offering another word to them, he stalked from the room, punching in another phone number into his cell as he did so. "Michael, hi, this is Lex . . ."
When he was gone, Vogel turned to look at Audrey again. She smiled uncomfortably at him. His own smile back was equally shaken. "Well," she said.
"Well," he repeated.
"Less than two weeks," she stated with firm resolve, apparently out of nowhere to anyone who didn't know them.
"Done," Vogel agreed, and they shook on it. It was probably unprofessional to bet on how long it would take Luthor to decide to have the abortion, but if Audrey wanted to throw her money at him, who was he to complain? She should know by now that Luthors took longer than two weeks to realize they were wrong. He wasn't even sure they were capable of it. "Double amount, it won't happen at all."
"Done." They shook on that, too. Even if he never saw his retirement money, at least he'd get her $150. That was something. And he should probably take that Alaska Cruise he'd always wanted now, while he still had vacation pay.
