Title: Lifetime of Lies
Category: Smallville
Rating: T
Genre: Angst/Romance
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver, mentioned Chloe/Jimmy
Prompt: #018 - Honesty
Word Count: 491
Summary: "If I told you that you could tell him everything, what would you do?"
Lifetime of Lies
"Does he know?" Oliver asked, the weight of the words so obvious.
She turned away from the computer designated as her own when Watchtower duties were at hand. "No," she said, eyes falling for a moment. "Apparently there are some things soon-to-be husbands and wives can't share with each other."
He nodded. "If he asked you...?"
She frowned. "I wouldn't say a word, Ollie, you know that."
He smiled slightly. "You're going to be marrying him, promising a lifetime... Can you be happy like this? You're essentially living a double life, Sidekick."
She bit her lip. "You know I thought I could and then... There are these moments where he looks at me like he knows that I'm not being completely honest, like he knows that there is something different about me... But he won't ask. And sometimes," Her brow wrinkled, "I want him to, I want him to get mad and tell me that we should be honest, we should tell each other everything. But we don't. There are..." She shook her head derisively, "so many things that he'll never know about me. I mean, is that love, Oliver? Can you love someone if you don't know them entirely?"
"I can't tell you who you love..." He knelt next to her. "The two times that I thought I was in love, I was never honest with them, not really." His brow furrowed almost comically, "In fact, you're the only woman who knows everything about me."
"I still carry an EpiPen everywhere I go," she said with a soft chuckle.
He grinned before letting out a heavy sigh. "I just know that if it was me who was engaged, if I was vowing forever, I would want to know that I can be honest with that person and I would expect the same."
She swallowed tightly, nodding. "So what do I do?"
He stared at her. "If I told you that you could tell him everything, what would you do?"
She bit her lip, her brow furrowing. "I still wouldn't tell him."
He nodded. "There's your answer." He took her hands, stroking her palms with his thumbs. "You deserve someone who knows you and that you know just as deeply..." He half-smiled. "You're an incredible woman, Sidekick. Don't settle."
She tried to blink away her tears unsuccessfully. "You offering yourself up?" she joked in a choked laugh.
He wiped away a tear with his thumb. "When you're ready to date again, I will definitely be first in line to take you out..."
She stared at him, wide-eyed.
He grinned before standing up and kissing her forehead lightly. "Take the rest of the day off. You deserve it."
She nodded, picking up her purse absently. She had to have a talk with a certain soon-to-be ex-fiancé. She paused on the elevator. "Ollie?" she called to him. "Thank you."
He tipped his head to her as the elevator began its descent. "Any time."