Fortress

Hereafter

A/N: I don't own Smallville or any characters and places in the DC universe. Nor do I own the episodes that these chapters are based and contained from.

I also don't claim to be a writer. My inspiration is simply to get a creative outlet going.

I only own Tyla Nevin and what pertains to her character story.

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Lex had set up a small office space for her at LexCorp for her to work in the new year. He hadn't exactly broken the news to his father yet and judging from the fear in her eyes whenever he mentioned Lionel, he decided to keep this as a secret until a later date. He had promised her that she wouldn't be in the crossfire with Lionel, and this would include making sure that she was protected in Metropolis while he was preoccupied elsewhere. In the meantime, Tyla would stay in Smallville. It did not seem like she minded anyhow. She seemed to be a little more at ease managing the crisis she would always dub him as from either the confines of the LexCorp division or in the comfort of her home office.

Today, he was in his own office at LexCorp, signing off a few invoices when Tyla walked into his office. He glanced up, watching her approach him. The woman seemed rather perplexed. "Okay, so every single one of your appointments for this afternoon and tomorrow have been rescheduled, save for your SummerHolt Institute meeting today as you requested," she spoke as she reached at the end of his desk, not looking up from her folder. "You have an interesting way of playing hooky."

"I'm not. I have a date."

At this, she finally looked up but made an effort to roll her eyes. She knew that she would have to throw the poor woman out of the mansion tomorrow. This would also mean that she would need to go somewhere extremely far away to avoid the Lexcapades. Perhaps, this called for an outing to Metropolis. "Of course, you do," she muttered. The man sure bounced back easily. "Which one is it, this time? Wendy or Elise? Or have you not bothered trying to know her name this time?

Lex fought not to mimic her exaggerated eyeroll at her comment. Choosing to ignore the disapproval in her tone, he glanced at the folder. "What's in your hand?" He asked her.

"Invoices and complaints from the Talon," she replied. She placed it on his desk which Lex took almost immediately. "Have you seen the quarterly projections?" She added, changing the subject once more.

"I have, it's 10% above what I expected." He opened the folder and frowned. The Talon this past month was causing a disturbance. He tried hard not to groan and pinched the bridge of his nose. The invoice also brought on more expenditures than profit. Charges for repairing broken windows, replacing furniture; he would have better luck running a brothel.

"Yes, but there are work force divisions that claim dissatisfaction."

More rough news. "And which ones would those be?" He closed the folder and made a mental note to talk to Lana when he returned to the mansion.

"Production management, marketing and PR"

Lex tossed the folder back on the desk and raised an eyebrow. He leaned against his chair, looking up at her. "Marketing and Public Relations," he pondered. "Your old department."

"In a way."

Lex huffed out a laugh. It was clear that the minute that Tyla had left, the replacement had trouble keeping up. The turnover rate was something that he was aware of, but he didn't know that it was that bad. "So, things are going downhill since you left. Tyla, I didn't mark you as someone who did vendettas." He teased, amused at the fact that the mere presence of the woman or lack thereof caused an impact.

"No, I would leave that to your gene pool," Tyla scoffed. This time, it was Lex who gave her a disapproving look. The blonde sighed, giving him an apologetic glance in return. If she wasn't going to tell him all that transpired while he was in Belle Reve, she couldn't really make those comments in passing. "They're understaffed."

That was an understatement. Upon returning, Lex took to relocating some of the staff in the marketing department to LexCorp to ease their commute from Smallville. It was a claim to his father that he was cleaning up shop when in reality, it made things more difficult for Lionel at LuthorCorp. However, it did have consequences, ones that were being put on paper. "Okay, I'll increase 30% of the workforce over to them."

"30%?!? That would put a dent in financial!"

"You gotta spend money to make money, Nevin. When productively bounces back, we'll corner the market in whatever sector we need to be in."

"Lex, that's going to take weeks of hiring and training if people won't transfer-"

"No one is transferring..." The other departments didn't need to be affected by this.

Tyla placed her hands on her hips in defiance. "Then I stand by my earlier statement," she said.

Lex smiled. A brilliant idea just graced his thoughts. "You do it then."

Tyla's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. "What?!" She exclaimed.

Lex leaned back against his chair. He never professed that working for him would be easy. In fact, he might have warned her once she was settled in the mansion that he would make her jump through corporate hoops. "You hire, you train, you build that department to reach that 30% by the next quarter." He picked up the Talon folder and got up, making his way towards the door. He had to be in Summerholt in about a half hour which thanks to Tyla, it would be his last meeting for the day. "I trust you'll do fine. You are the Miracle Angel, after all."

"Right now, I feel like a miracle worker," she said to herself, earning from Lex a smirk but there was no reaction towards her immediate dismay of what would be hours of extra work.

"Then while you're at it, why don't you be an angel and miracle me Adam Knight's records?" He stopped short of the doorway and turned his head back to her. "You'll have better clearance and resources than you did before, Deliver it back to the mansion." He started to walk out. "I'll be at the other end of Metropolis."

Tyla moaned in annoyance as she walked back to her office. "I'll show you a miracle, you spoiled-"

"Can still hear you, Tyla."

".... damnit!"