Right Man: Right Job?
by Caro

Pete frowned as he read the latest missive from his boss.

Yet again, his ideas were being put on the back burner. Instead, he was stuck with plans that had no chance in hell of working. As the new guy, he knew that he'd have to deal with these situations, but still, seeing all his hard work go down the drain in the face of company bureaucracy frustrated Pete to the extreme.

There wasn't a moment during the day when Pete didn't fantasize about leaving his job. Between the incompetent people he worked with, a boss who wouldn't listen to his ideas, and the dissatisfaction at being constantly ignored, his days seemed as interminable as a prison sentence.

But he had Lana and his daughter to think about. They'd moved to Metropolis because the job seemed like a great opportunity for him to do what he always wanted, to institute changes to ensure his daughter grew up in a better world. Working for the Metropolis Social Welfare League was supposed to do just that. Instead, he pushed paper around all day.

Still, he owed it to Lana to make this work. She'd left behind her home, her business, and the life she'd built so he could follow his dreams.

Not that everything was going great with Lana at the moment. The pressure of the move, not to mention a job that Pete hated, was putting a strain on their marriage. Just this morning, they'd gotten into yet another argument. Lana was bored. After running her own business and all her work on the Smallville Chamber of Commerce, being a stay-at-home mom didn't leave her enough to do with her time. While she loved Laura, Pete suspected that she was going crazy with no one but a baby for company.

The move that had once seemed full of promise for his family now felt like the very thing that was pulling Pete's family apart.

Pete rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache coming.

Enough, he thought. He needed to get out of there. It wasn't quite time to go home yet, but he'd been working late all week. He deserved the extra time to go home and spend with his family.

God knew he hadn't been doing much of that lately.

He shut down his computer and left the office.

***

"Lana," he called, entering the apartment. There was no answer.

She must have gone out, Pete thought disappointedly. He walked into the kitchen to check if she'd left a note. Nothing.

He frowned and reached for the phone.

"Chloe Sullivan."

"Hey, Chloe. It's Pete. You heard from Lana today?"

"No," Chloe replied. "Have you tried Clark? Or Lex? She's been at campaign headquarters a lot, I know."

"Yeah. I'll give her a call there," he said, before hanging up.

He looked down on the phone keypad and growled. Why did Lex's headquarters get a higher spot than his office number on the speed dial?

Because it was programmed in first, the logical side of his brain told him. Still, it didn't make him happy.

He pressed the speed dial and waited for it to be picked up on the other end.

"Lex Luthor for Mayor," a high voice chirped on the other end, after several rings.

"Hello, this is Pete Ross. I'm looking for my wife, Lana Ross?"

"Hello, Mr. Ross. This is Kira. I'm sorry, Mrs. Ross is in a meeting behind closed doors with Mr. Luthor and Mr. Daniels. Is this an emergency?"

"No." Pete frowned into the phone. He didn't like needing to have a reason to talk to his wife. "I guess it's not an emergency."

"Oh. Good. I'll be sure to give Mrs. Ross the message as soon as she comes out, then."

"Um, thanks."

"No problem. Have a good day, Mr. Ross," Kira responded efficiently, before hanging up the phone.

Pete stared at the dead line.

Okay. There was no reason for him to actually be upset. Lana hadn't done anything wrong. And if she wanted to spend her entire day at Lex freaking Luthor's office, that was her choice.

She was a grown woman.

Laura wasn't. Laura was a baby and impressionable. Lex was probably teaching Laura all sorts of underhanded things right at this moment.

Except for the fact that so far Lex had been nothing but generous and loving to Laura.

Still, he wasn't Laura's dad. He just wasn't.

Pete gave up on trying to make sense to himself. He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door again.

***

The place was insane. Volunteers buzzed around like flies. People were running back and forth between offices. Pete couldn't tell if the mess was organized, or just running on sheer luck.

These were the people who were going to get Lex elected?

"Excuse me?" he tried asking a blonde rushing out the door with a stack of boxes. She ignored him.

He tried a brunette on the phone.

"I'm looking for Lana Ross?"

She pointed towards a door in the back and went back to her conversation.

He opened the door cautiously.

"Lana?" he asked, poking his head in.

"Pete?" Lana looked up from behind a desk. There was an unfamiliar man standing next to her, apparently asking her opinion on something in front of them. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Pete said, trying not to sound irritated and doing a bad job of it. He looked around. "Where's Laura?"

"I think Kira has her," Lana said, with a wave of her hand.

"Who's Kira?"

"Lex's receptionist. Laura likes her." She sounded like she didn't think it was odd at all to leave her daughter with some secretary while she worked—-hell, Lana didn't even work here.

"I-Lana, how long are you going to be here?" He saw the other man raise his eyebrows at his tone. Lana didn't look too pleased either.

"Eric, do you think I could have a minute?"

"Sure. I need to run over this with Lex anyway," he said, brushing past Pete with a polite nod as he exited the room.

Lana crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly.

"Can I ask you what that was about?"

Pete grimaced. He hadn't come here to pick another fight with Lana.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm just in a crappy mood."

Lana pursed her lips. He could tell that she wanted to say something more, but probably didn't want to prolong this anymore than he had. She finally came around the desk and kissed him lightly. "Bad day?"

"Yeah." He pulled her in for another kiss. "Better now."

"I'm glad. Hey, what are you doing here so early anyway?"

"Left work early. I missed you," he said, with a sly grin.

"I missed you too, baby."

"So, can we go home?"

Lana stepped back and frowned. "Well, I told Lex I'd stay for a couple more hours."

"So what? Lex won't mind if you leave."

Lana gave him a look. "I promised him. He needs some help organizing his—-"

"Lana, you don't work for Lex."

"That has nothing to do with it. I promised Lex."

"You promised Lex? Lana, you don't owe Lex anything."

"He's my friend. I always keep my promises to my friends." She leaned back on the desk. He could see that she was trying to be patient with him. "Besides, getting elected means a lot to Lex. I want to be able to help him."

"Why?"

She scrunched up her nose. "What do you mean, why?"

"Well, it's Lex. Do you really think you'd want him running this city?"

"Yes!" Lana said emphatically. "Lex has some amazing ideas. And he's passionate, and interested. I think we could do a lot worse than him. What do you have against him?"

"Oh, I don't know?" Pete said sarcastically. "Let's see, the Luthors screwed everyone in Smallville, including my family. Carelessly went around hurting people, breaking laws..."

"That was Lex's father. Not Lex!" Lana exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "You remember Lex, don't you? Our friend? The one who gave you a job when you moved back to Smallville? The one who has helped Clark, and me, and you, and Smallville out repeatedly?"

"I know what the Luthors have done," Pete replied automatically. His words sounded inane to his own ears, but he was tired and upset, and really not in the mood to be arguing about Lex.

"Oh, for God's sake. You're being unreasonable."

"And you're being utterly naive if you think Lex can be trusted," he snapped back. The moment he said it, he knew it was a mistake. Lana's face grew cold.

"I guess then I'm naive," she said quietly.

"Lana..." Pete began, but before he could apologize, he heard someone cough behind him.

He twirled around, saw Lex, and felt his face burn with embarrassment. How much had Lex overheard?

"Lana, Laura's fussing. I told Kira I would find you," Lex informed her. His voice betrayed nothing, but the expression on his face made it clear that he knew what they were fighting about.

Lana nodded at him. "She probably needs a bottle." She headed towards the door.

"Lana, wait," Pete called after her.

"What?" she asked him coolly.

"I'm sorry."

She glanced between Pete and Lex. "I'm not the only one you should be apologizing to," she said, before walking out of the room.

***

"I messed up," Pete confessed, taking the bottle of cold water from Lex and collapsing into a chair, exhausted. They were in the cramped kitchen of the campaign office.

"I'd have to agree with you there."

Pete looked up at Lex, and winced. "Lex, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"You don't think the Luthors are dishonest?" Lex quirked an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't...I wasn't trying to—"

"To imply that you think your wife is making a mistake trusting me?"

Pete fell silent. There was no easy way out of this. It wasn't that he disliked Lex. Not anymore. He'd gotten to know him too well to easily categorize Lex in the same group as men like Lionel Luthor. But neither did he have his wife's implicit trust in the man.

Lex Luthor wasn't an easy man to define. And frankly, the idea of Lex with more power made him nervous.

He took a sip of his water. "Would you trust you, if you were me?"

"No," Lex said seriously.

"I'm not saying you're a bad man, Lex. But you know as well as I do how easy it would be for you to cross some of those lines. Politics isn't as black and white as Lana and Clark believe it to be."

Lex nodded.

"And given the things you know, the things you could hold over-"

"You think I'm going to betray Clark."

Pete shook his head. "Not really. You could have already, if you wanted to. Many times. There's just times I'm not sure how far you'll push everything."

Lex looked thoughtful. Pete contemplated his water bottle. The air between them felt charged and uncertain, too thick with honesty to make either of them comfortable.

Pete wanted to go home and pretend this day never happened. Pete wanted to go home and pretend that he'd never moved to Metropolis. Pete wanted to-

"Stop me."

Pete blinked. "Excuse me?"

"The lines," Lex said "You stop me from crossing them."

"And how am I supposed to do that, exactly?" Pete asked, confused.

"Come work for me."

Pete blinked again. "Excuse me? What?"

Lex looked him in the eye. "Work for me, Pete. Run my campaign. I need someone who I know won't compromise. Won't cut corners."

Pete shook his head. "I don't have the experience needed to run a mayoral campaign."

"I think you do," Lex stated. "I've known you for a while now, Pete. You've never let anything stop you from going after what you wanted. Moving back to Smallville, and marrying Lana; working and going to school at the same time. Why else did you pursue a Poli-Sci degree if not to effect change? Wasn't that what the move to Metropolis was about?"

"Yeah, but-" Pete waved his hand. What Lex was talking about was crazy.

"You hate your job. Lana hates your job. You're both miserable."

"What do you know about how we are?"

"I've talked to Lana."

Pete growled. "Lana said something to you?"

"She doesn't need to say anything," Lex replied. "I've seen the two of you, snapping at each other, fighting. She's miserable, and it's because of you. Because you've been miserable. You wanted to do something with your life. You've been, what, pushing paper around?"

"It's never easy being new—"

"I can make it easy for you."

"Why?"

"Because I want to win. But I want to win well."

Pete shoved his hands in his pocket. What Lex was offering was a chance to do something. But still, working for Lex?

"I won't...if I find anything about the campaign to be less than proper, I'll quit on the spot."

"Understood."

"I'm serious, Lex. I'm not going to overlook-"

"I don't want you to overlook anything. I need someone to keep me on the straight and narrow."

Pete laughed without humor. "I thought it was Clark's job to be your conscience?"

"It's a big job," Lex said, smiling humorlessly. "I'll go tell Lana the good news. Welcome to the team." He left the kitchen.

Pete groaned and buried his face in his hands. He didn't look up when he heard the kitchen door open again.

"That good, huh?" a voice above him asked.

Pete looked up. It was the guy from before. Eric something?

He shook his head. "Ever have one of those unbelievable days?"

Eric grinned. He opened the fridge and pulled out a water bottle. "Just about every day since I started working on this campaign."

"I think I—I think I'm working for Lex now. I'm not quite sure how that happened," Pete admitted.

"That sounds about right," Eric said, laughing. He slipped into a chair next to Pete.

"Do you speak from experience?" Pete asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Two weeks ago," Eric began. "Ran into Lex at a party. First time I've seen him since Princeton. He finds out that I'm working for a senatorial campaign back in New York. Next thing I know, I'm packing my bags and moving to Metropolis, and handling his press."

"Jesus. That soon?"

"Less than a week. He doesn't seem the type to linger over a decision, once he's made it."

Pete mulled that over. Eric pushed his chair back, and headed towards the door.

"Do you think he'll win?" Pete asked him seriously.

Eric looked back at him.

"I don't think he knows how not to."

Pete nodded.

***

"Everything okay?" Lana asked, slipping her hands around his waist. Pete was staring out the window, looking out on the city. Lana had just put Laura down for the night.

Pete reached down to squeeze her hand.

"Everything seems huge, Lana. And scary."

"I know."

"What if I'm making a mistake?"

"Then we make it and move on. You're not in this alone, you know. " She pressed soothing kisses to the back of his neck.

He turned around to face her. "That's exactly what scares me. I don't want to fail you," he admitted.

Lana rolled her eyes at him. "You won't. You're a wonderful husband and a father, Pete. That's what matters. Not a job. You've never failed me when it counted. And I love you, no matter what."

"No matter what?"

"Always."

Pete grinned. "Do you think I'll do a good job?"

"Of course you will," she said with a smile. "With you by his side, how could Lex fail?"

Pete pulled her in for a kiss.

"With you by my side, how could I fail?"

(end)

[ Main ] [ The Stories ] [ The Timeline ] [ The Authors ]