The proposal had been the easy part.

Helen Bryce. Brilliant, successful, and easily one of the most physically attractive people Lex Luthor had encountered in his lifetime. There had to be a catch, but he suspected the real catch was the fact that he was himself, and a sophisticated and compassionate woman wouldn't want a real relationship with someone like him.

But she did. And it was terrifying. Over the weeks and months, Lex realized that he had never really known what romantic love was before her. Somehow, that made proposing easier, not harder. Every step forward they had taken in their relationship had come as something of a surprise to him, so he took his shot without any real expectation that things were going to work out.

And then she said yes. It had taken days for that to sink in, and when it did, he was a new man. He hardly recognized himself in the mirror anymore.

The wedding planning was stressful, but not exactly complicated, especially since Helen took care of most of it. The guest list was a little painful to put together, since most of it was made up of her friends and family. Lex didn't have many names to list; he ended up inviting some of his upper level managers to fill out his side of the church. On the plus side, they were honored to have been invited at all.

Asking Aunt Martha and Uncle Jon to stand in as the parents of the groom was a little more challenging. He invited them over to the mansion for dinner, but after they rescheduled twice because of unforeseen farm troubles, he ended up asking them over the phone. Aunt Martha sounded genuinely happy, but Uncle Jon seemed a little uncomfortable, even though he did accept the invitation.

Asking Sam and Dean to be his groomsmen was probably the easiest part of all. He sent off nice invitations in the mail rather than trying to ask over the phone; with Sam at Stanford and Dean running around the country fighting monsters with his father, Lex doubted he would be able to get an in-person audience with either of them.

That left the best man. And that was the most difficult part of all.

Lex had been back on the farm a few times in the past year, since Clark had broken off their friendship. Twice, Aunt Martha and Uncle Jon had invited him over for lunch while Clark was at school. The first time, they had wanted to hear his side of the story, because evidently Clark had told them about the Room of Obsession. Lex was as honest as he could be, and he told them exactly why he had set it up. He could tell they weren't thrilled about it, probably because they knew exactly what it was that Clark was hiding, and they exchanged a few uncomfortable glances, but they didn't really have any way of arguing with Lex's reasoning. Uncle Jon had given a light warning to "be careful with this kind of stuff," because a lot of people had already been hurt or killed by meteor mutants—or at least, Lex assumed that that was why he gave the warning.

The other time, Lex had asked if he could come over. It was embarrassing, but he need advice about Helen, and he couldn't exactly go to his father. He had never liked a woman like this before, and he had already messed a few things up with her. He wanted this one to last, which meant he had to do things right. Aunt Martha and Uncle Jon had been kind and welcoming, and he found himself more than a little relieved that he could still have a relationship with them despite the animosity with their son.

On three other occasions, Lex had dropped by to try to make amends with Clark. The first time, they had just ended up arguing again about the Room of Obsession. Clark obviously wanted him to apologize, and Lex just couldn't bring himself to do it. The second time, Lex was checking in because he had heard about some encounter Clark had had with a meteor mutant, and he wanted to make sure everyone was okay. Clark hadn't wanted to talk to him; in fairness, Clark wasn't exactly wrong when he accused Lex of being there to learn what really happened during the encounter, though he did care about their wellbeing, too. The third time, he had come by to make a confession: it was after he stole that vial of Clark's blood from Helen's office. After that conversation, Lex had had to lie to his employees for a week and say the bruise on his face was from a fencing accident. Clark could really pack a punch.

Stolen story; please report.

He wasn't expecting to get hit for inviting Clark to be his best man, but the inevitable rejection would hurt a lot more. He went first to the front door to see if Clark was in the house, but Aunt Martha sent him out to the barn, to Clark's loft—his fortress of solitude.

The sun has just set, and Clark has telescope out. Apparently he still hadn't learned how obvious it was that he was spying on Lana when he pointed it down instead of up towards the sky, but Lex didn't think this was a good time to point that out. "Clark," he said softly as he climbed the stairs.

Clark turned away from the eyepiece to face him, and his eyebrows narrowed. He didn't say anything; there was an expectation in his eyes. He had made it abundantly clear that he didn't want to talk to Lex anymore until he was ready to apologize.

"Relax," Lex tried. "I haven't done anything else I need to confess."

"Am I supposed to be relieved?"

Lex swallowed. He wasn't getting off to get a good start. "I hear you're going to be big brother soon."

Clarks eyes softened, if only for a moment.

"I'm sure your parents are thrilled."

"Mom's been pregnant for more than six months. You didn't come to congratulate me on that now."

Lex set his jaw and cut to the chase. "I'm getting married."

Lex could tell that Clark was trying not to react to that, but his eyes widened a little, and the tension in his shoulders relaxed. "Helen?"

"Yeah."

"She's very pretty. I hope you guys are happy together." Clark paced a couple of steps away.

"Yeah." For just a moment, this whole conversation didn't even matter to Lex. He was going to have Helen, for the rest of his life; what did it matter what his little brother thought of him? But that apathy dropped away almost immediately. Lex had already lost a little brother once. He would never give up caring about this one. "I came here to extend an olive branch."

"To apologize?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you would be willing to be my best man."

The next half second pause told Lex everything he needed to know about what Clark's response would be, but etiquette dictated that he had to finish out the conversation. He couldn't retract the offer now, just because he was going to be rejected. "Lex . . ."

"I know we've had our differences, but I thought this could be a chance for us to talk things out, maybe find some common ground—"

"I—I don't think it's a good idea."

Lex didn't let the pain show in his face.

"Lex, I really valued our friendship, but you . . ."

Past tense noted. Clark was cutting off the conversation. Still, Lex couldn't help but take one last shot: "Maybe we can talk after the wedding. When things settle down."

"Maybe after the babies are born."

Lex blinked. "More than one?"

"Twins," Clark said, and a smile crept onto his face.

"Boys, girls?"

"Mom won't let the doctors tell her."

Lex remembered that joy. His mom hadn't wanted to know, either. "That's great, Clark," Lex said, though it took everything in him to get those words out. Those kids would never be a part of his life.

Clark shifted his weight. "Uh . . ."

"Right. I'll let you get back to your evening."

"Uh, yeah." Clark took a step closer, as though instinctively to walk Lex out, but he stopped and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's okay," Lex said.

"Good luck with the wedding."

"You too, with your little, ah, twins."

Clark nodded and wandered back to the telescope.

Lex let himself slouch just a bit as he walked back to his car. He'd known it was coming, but that didn't make it sting less. He really shouldn't have asked in the first place. It wasn't a real olive branch; it put all of the power in Lex's hands, forcing Clark to accept Lex's lack of an apology. Of course, Clark hadn't been raised in such a way as to put any of that into words.

The road blurred a little as Lex drove home. He cursed himself for having been stupid enough to hope.

But Helen would be waiting for him when he got back to the mansion. And she loved him, enough to marry him. He was going to be okay.