Title: Parent Duty
Author: iluvaqt
Rating: PG
Pairing: Oliver/Chloe friendship
Summary: Being a parent presents new challenges for Oliver, in and out of the bedroom.
Status: Complete one-shot
Word Count: 4066
Spoilers: Set after The Legs We Stand On (Chruce) and Checkmate
Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, nor do I claim to own any other characters therefore owned by DC comics.

Notes: Written for latetothpartyhp who requested a Daddy!Oliver fic for my Checkmate universe.

Oliver sat in front of the cold fireplace, staring at the blackened logs and ash, that had yet to be cleaned out. He ran his hands through his short, product- free-hair, wondering how long it was going to take for her to arrive.

Ming had thrown in the towel an hour ago.

"Am housekeeper, not nanny. Hire nanny," she had said throwing up her arms.

Why he'd thought this was a good idea, he grumbled at his naivety. He wanted Olivia to feel pampered. She'd been so tired lately. He knew she rarely took time for herself. In the past two months that Fynn had been born, he watched her appear more and more exhausted. Between managing his campaign for Mayor, raising their overly intelligent, energetic four-year-old and nursing a newborn, he often had to remind her to eat. He felt guilty knowing that she often got up to both of the kids at night, while he slept through it all. She never asked him to get up, knowing he worked a full day at the office, while she delegated a lot of her managerial duties to his personal assistant. She was unofficially taking a short break of maternity leave. She wanted to be back on full time in the lead up to the polls in a few months.

Oliver also noticed that she would often get so busy, that it'd be three or four in the afternoon and she'd only just be getting lunch. She would get so busy, anything relating to her personal needs got forgotten or non-prioritized. His suggestion that she indulge a little wasn't purely selfless on his part though. Their sex life had taken a nose dive since his newborn son's arrival. He knew that he needed to give her time after the birth. He'd been around for this one and the whole thing freaked him out no end. He wasn't going to be suggesting they have another kid at all. At least not until he could get the memory of the whole experience out of his head which he seriously doubted was possible save getting a mind wipe from Zee or J'onn.

But he was a male. A red-blooded male who couldn't help wanting sex. His libido was at an all time high. Call it approaching-middle-age syndrome or maybe he'd been an afflicted horn-dog all his life but he wanted her damn it, and he hated the feeling of being rejected. The one time he'd tried something and she'd fallen asleep halfway through had been a serious blow to his ego.

Not that he could blame her entirely, he didn't have the best timing. Just because he'd taken off an afternoon to spend with the family, with the hopes of some action, didn't mean she hadn't spent the previous week any differently- minimal sleep, short naps in the afternoon with the kids, working the phones in between making breakfast, lunches and changing diapers and writing up proposals and answering e-mails. Ming did all the house work and occasionally made dinner which helped out a lot but Olivia was stretched thin.

He was pretty exhausted himself at times. Usually, at the end of the day, they were both so mentally and physically drained that they fell into bed after the kids when down and when his alarm went off at 7, she as already downstairs, making breakfast.

Three weeks ago, after watching her collapse in bed, fully-clothed following putting their son down and sleeping like the dead at only six in the evening, skipping dinner and not stirring till five a.m. when the boy woke for his morning feed, Oliver thought it was time to stage an intervention. Great idea, poor execution, he lamented in hindsight. He didn't know the first thing about how to take care of a baby and a preschooler on a minute by minute basis.

He'd missed Gabriella's infancy as he had with Connor, and also the majority of his firstborn's youth. He knew literally squat about parenting.

The baby monitor crackled with a wail and he flinched, knocking the small device from where Ming had perched it on the armrest next to him before she'd untied her apron and promptly left the premises.

"Are you going to attend to your son, or are you hoping he'll figure out how to meet his needs himself?"

Oliver launched out of the chair and pulled her off her feet in a hug. "You're here! Thank God."

Chloe tried not to smile and gave him a stern look. "You said it was an emergency. Watchtower gave me a lift. So are you going to go pick him up? Sounds like a hungry cry to me."

Oliver set her down and pushed his hands through his hair. "We've already used up all the milk in the fridge."

"What?" Chloe said planting her hands on her hips in surprise. "Olivia had like a week's supply in there!"

Oliver pulled a face. Olivia worked hard to keep her back up stock too. She was breastfeeding and whenever she had to go out to a meeting, run errands or take parent duty at Ella's preschool, she had the milk there for Ming, or whomever was taking care of Fynn while she was away to feed him.

"I put it in the microwave, which I was told by my three-foot-tall, walking-Wikipedia, was the wrong way to do it, so that got tossed. I defrosted another one in water, but Ella stuck a fork in the toaster to get out a muffin, electrocuted herself and we smoked out half the kitchen. We were fussing over her hand, and Ming was clucking like a chicken, I completely forgot about the milk and by the time I got back to it, it was spoiled. An idiot down the road dug through all the power cables and we were without power all morning. I stuck as much as I could in the ice box with cold packs but Ming said I shouldn't use any more after lunch, just in case. Since they're all thawed and can't be refrozen, I tossed them and went and got some formula..."

At Chloe's aghast expression, Oliver paused. "How did he take it?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not good, he's been screaming. Didn't take anything and cried himself to sleep. Reminds me of the first time Olivia tried giving him the bottle. I don't know how she does it. Every time he cries like that I feel like my head's going to explode." He could feel the veins in his neck and forehead throbbing just listening to Flynn cry over the speaker, and the volume setting was almost on mute.

Chloe nodded and turned, walking briskly out of the library, down the hall toward the nursery. She lifted Fynn out of his cot and held him up on her shoulder. Oliver watched the ease in which she bounced the baby while hushing him softly and patting his back.

"It's okay, honey. We'll try again shall we? I doubt you're going to starve yourself." She looked at Oliver. "When was his last proper feed?"

Oliver shrugged and scratched the back off his head. "I don't know, maybe just after 1 o'clock. I gave up, Ming took over."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Are you sure it wouldn't be better just to call her?"

"She's with Diana, in Themyscira. I can get her by communicator but I really don't feel like calling for help and having the whole duty roster listening in."

Chloe laughed. "Because you're doing such a bang up job so far. You called me, you don't think Bruce knows where I am?"

Oliver scowled. That thought had slipped his mind. He snorted. He'd dare Bruce to even bring it up to his face. All his boys had joined their family, fully toilet trained, self-sufficient and coherent. All Fynn did by himself was suck, sleep, poop and cry. Not always in the same order and at never at predictable times. He snickered to himself picturing Bruce's face if he thrust a screaming infant into his arms. Take that Batman.

Chloe twitched a smirk at Oliver's brooding expression and walked past him, headed for the kitchen. An hour later, with much fussing, Chloe managed to get the baby to finish a whole bottle. She was burping him when her face morphed into panic. "Where's Ella?"

Oliver straightened reactively, before waving her off. "Ming put her down for a nap the same time as Fynn."

"Oliver, that had to be at least two hours ago. Ming left and you called me. Ella doesn't nap for that long! I can't believe I haven't thought to ask before now. I just assumed... shit." She got to her feet, cradling the drowsy baby in her arms.

Oliver jogged ahead and threw open the door to his daughter's room. The bed sheets were rumpled and there were books and puzzles strewn over the floor but Ella wasn't in the room.

His heart started to pound harder in his chest. Adrenaline kicked in and he could feel the first stages of panic start to paralyze his body. "Where would she go?" He stayed silent and tuned his ears for any familiar sounds. She wouldn't leave the house would she?

Chloe looked down at Fynn, he was now fully limp and sleeping soundly. "I'll put him down and we'll start at opposite ends of the house. Call out for her and check every room. She's very quiet when she's engrossed and sometimes she doesn't hear you."

Throwing open the door to every room in the house, they searched the mansion from top to bottom, even the attic and the basement. Oliver felt his pulse thundering harder than a base drum and Chloe looked as frantic as he felt by the time they met up again at the center of the house.

Oliver trust his fingers into his hair and pulled at the roots. "She wouldn't just leave the house would she? She's a smart kid, she would have said if she... damn it!" He cursed remembering brushing off a small voice about half an hour ago, when he'd been on the phone with his public relations manager. "I think she wanted me to help her find something... I don't even know what she was looking for. I'm a rotten Dad."

Chloe put a comforting hand on his arm, while she tried to calm her nerves. She needed to think like a four-year-old. While part of her wanted to throttle him for ignoring his daughter, she understood how easy it was to get distracted. She could see it in his face, Oliver felt enough guilt as it was already without her berating him. Right now the priority was finding Gabriella, making sure she was safe and sound. She needed to channel her stubborn, resourceful, independent inner child. When her parents had been too busy to listen or help when she was a kid, she'd problem-solve herself. Often getting into trouble, biting off more than she could chew. Gabriella had only two staple favorites. She loved her books, and the Themysciran porcelain doll, Diana had given the little girl for her third birthday. Chloe raced to her bedroom and searched Ella's bed for her doll. It wasn't there. "Ollie, do you remember if Gabriella had Mala with her?"

Gabriella had named the doll Mala, after Diana's closest Amazonian sister, a warrior whom had doted on Gabriella on their first meeting and had been her favorite Amazonian since, after her godmother, Diana, of course.

Oliver shook his head in frustration at himself for ignoring his daughter. He'd barely even looked at her when she'd come to him, hair still tousled from her nap, her summer dress rumpled. "I..." He closed his eyes, forcing himself to picture her again. "She didn't have anything with her. I think you could be right, she might have misplaced the doll."

"Do you remember the last time you saw her with it?"

Oliver threw up his hands and started to pace agitatedly. "I don't know, today has been nuts. Maybe she had it at lunch, maybe she didn't. I know she played outside with Ming for awhile in the morning."

Chloe didn't wait for him to muse any longer, she took off for the back door. Considering Watchtower had beamed her in, she had no idea what weather to expect outside, but she hadn't been prepared at all for the blast of rain in the face. Star City was usually blue sunny skies, and warm mild weather 9 months out of the year, with rain and hail only very rarely showing up outside winter. She wrapped her thin cardigan around herself tighter and squinted against the rain. Her hair was plastered to her head in a matter of seconds. It was like a torrential down pour in the middle of spring. She ran out into the back garden. Oliver and Olivia's home didn't have grounds as enormous as the Kings' family property, but it was big enough for a small child to disappear in. She called out for Gabriella but over the rain and and blizzard like winds, she really couldn't be sure her voice was just blown back in her direction. What she wouldn't give to have super-hearing right now.

She was beginning to think that Bruce putting tracking devices on all the boys wasn't so overbearing or paranoid after all. It certainly made it easier to know exactly where they were at all times.

Oliver gave her an umbrella while he pulled on a waterproof coat. "I'll check the tree house and the sand pit, you check the garden shed and the maze."

Between the two of them they found her just in time to outrun the first streak of lightening across the sky. Thunder boomed across the angry gray clouds and Gabriella buried herself tighter into Oliver's embrace, she was shivering, soaked and crying but she had Mala and despite the little girl's state, the doll looked remarkably dry and none worse for wear.

"Where was she?" Chloe asked closing her phone when she spotted them coming up the stone path.

"She was hiding under the maple tree near the sandbox. She fell down and hurt herself and then the rain started."

Chloe noticed that Oliver was shaking almost as badly as Ella was. She put her arm around his waist and squeezed his arm. "It's okay, she's safe now. I'll run a warm bath, get us some dinner. I think you guys could all use an early night."

While Chloe ran a bath for both Ella and Fynn, Oliver ordered them Mexican food from an organic restaurant that Olivia had vetted.

After dinner, Chloe took Fynn to the nursery to give him his bottle and Oliver took Ella to the bathroom to brush her teeth and start their bedtime routine. All through dinner she'd been strangely quiet and withdrawn. Chloe had managed to coax a smile out of her, playing with her damp hair affectionately, but Ella hadn't really said more than a two words since he'd picked her up from under that cold, big old tree.

He helped her brush her teeth and she climbed down off the steeping stool after rinsing out her mouth. They walked to her bedroom, the little girl not clutching his hand as she usually would when they walked side by side. Oliver looked down at her and paused but she didn't wait for him, just dutifully trotting ahead, entered her bedroom and climbed onto her bed, pulling up the covers around her middle. She looked up at him with wide, wet eyes, her bottom lip trembling a fraction. "Do I still get a story, Daddy?"

Oliver's heart twisted his chest. Of course she would think he was angry. He and Chloe had been frantically looking for her, she would have heard the yelling as he'd gotten closer and he hadn't really given her any impression that his mood had changed from earlier either. He could just imagine what his scowl and worry must have looked like to her. Not to mention who he'd snapped at her when she'd interrupted his phone call. He selected her favorite book for the moment from her book shelf, A Bear Called Paddington and sat down by her feet. He reached over and pulled her into his lap.

"I'm sorry I yelled before. Daddy can get a bit mad when he's talking on the phone. That's probably why Mommy usually closes my door, so I don't make anyone else upset," he said with a small grin. He hugged her tight. "I love you Ella. Your aunt Chloe and I were so worried when we couldn't find you. You should never go outside without telling a grown up, okay?"

Ella nodded, tears in her eyes. "I did ask you Dad, but you told me to go find Mala myself," Ella sniffled sadly.

Oliver squared his jaw and dipped his head kissing the top of Gabriella's head and cuddling her again. "I know, and I'm sorry I said that. I should have helped you look. How about we make a deal. Next time I promise not to yell or get angry, and you have to promise to sit quietly until Daddy hangs up the phone, what do you say?"

Gabriella nodded. "Okay," she said with a small resigned sigh.

Oliver chuckled and pulled down her covers so he could tuck her in. "Where is Mala anyway?"

Gabriella sniffled again. "Auntie Chloe said she needs to borrow her, she said it's really important, so I said okay. But she has to keep her away from Damian. I don't trust him."

Oliver grinned. "Probably a good idea." If he could swear his little girl off boys until she was thirty he'd be happy. Especially Bruce Wayne's boys. Not that he wasn't an admirable man and a good father. It's just picturing your baby girl, the light of your life and the most precious creature in the world entangled with a hero who risked his neck on a daily basis, well, Oliver would rather stapled his own hand than endure that kind of worry.

"I love you, Daddy," Ella said impulsively, throwing her arms around his middle and tucking her head to his chest.

Oliver blinked back wetness in his eyes and patted her back awkwardly before coughing out the lump in his throat. "Okay, so Paddington?"

She let him go and smiled up at him brightly. "Yay!"

When Chloe knocked lightly on the door to Gabriella's room later, Oliver was still sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Gabriella sleep. He'd only got halfway through the first chapter and she'd fallen asleep. Nodding to Chloe, he closed the book and tucked a stray lock of hair back from Gabriella's face before quietly leaving the room.

"Fynn's fed, changed and out like a light, dishwasher's on, and I cleared away all the take out. There's another bottle measured, and I filled the thermos with boiled water, so it's all ready to go for his next feed. You can mix and shake, right?" she joked, bumping him with her shoulder.

Oliver rolled his eyes and snorted but hugged her sideways with a genuine smile. "You're my hero, Sidekick. Thanks a million, Chlo. I don't know how I would have made it through today without you."

Chloe smiled and hugged him back before patting his cheek. "You'll survive. It's what being a new parent is all about. I think you should be glad you missed most of the rebellious teens with Connor. Damian's giving Bruce serious stress management issues. Even Zen can't save him at the moment," she said with a small smirk. "Although I know from personal experience that girls bring a special kind of grief all their own. My dad deserves a medal. I'm nominating him for father of the year," she said with a bright smile. "You don't really appreciate all that your parents did for you until you become a parent yourself."

Oliver gave her a rueful grin. "You got that right. I was a rascal and a half but my mother never let me feel unloved for even a second. And I remember Dad always saying that I was his good little boy, and Mom reminding me to never stop at that, to be a good man," Oliver finished softly, he rubbed his neck absently, and Chloe guessed what he was thinking.

"The fact that you can acknowledge that you've made mistakes and you want to do better, make things right proves you're a good man, Ollie. And they all love you. Regardless of what's happened in the past, you're a father, and a husband. And Olivia is crazy about you."

Oliver grinned. "Crazy to love a hopeless fool like me, yeah."

Chloe socked his chest lightly. "Oh stop it. Anyway, I gotta get going. If Damian hasn't run him to the end of his rope already, Bruce'll be getting there shortly. Call me tomorrow, if you need anything."

"Oh so you're ransoming Mala?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "Kind of mean depriving a four-year-old of her favorite doll, don't you think?"

Chloe shrugged. "She trusts me to keep her safe and it's for a good reason. Mala's outfit got a bit torn, and she's missing her shoes. I'm going to buy Ella a couple of new outfits for her but I'll have to get them made since Mala's a unique doll and besides I don't think she should wear commercial doll outfits." Chloe wrinkled her nose in distaste at the thought of pink and yellow unappealing dresses.

Oliver laughed and then sobered. "You don't have to do that, Chloe. I can go buy her some. It's my fault those two were outside on their own in the rain in the first place."

"It's fine Oliver, really. I want to do this for her. Gabriella's like a daughter to me too and since I don't have any girls of my own, she's the only girly outlet I have. And as her aunt, I think I'm entitled to do a little spoiling now and then."

Oliver smiled and conceded with a nod. "Better bring her back soon though. I don't think she's ever been without Mala longer than half a day."

Chloe grinned triumphantly and headed over to the armchair for her coat and the doll. "I'll take her to the dressmaker's first thing in the morning to get measured up and bring her back to Ella ASAP." Oliver nodded in understanding and Chloe tapped her earpiece. "Cave Mistress requesting transport home."

Oliver smirked at the use of her jest code name and Chloe poked her tongue out. "So it stuck huh?" he snorted with a chuckle. Bruce must fancy it. It was something the guys had dubbed her when they found out who really ran comms. and BTS ops on Bruce's missions.

Olivia came home early to a darkened quiet house. Fynn was her baby boy and she'd never gotten over her separation anxiety from Gabriella. A few hours and she was a basket case, a full day and she couldn't stay away any longer. Her first thought coming in was that something happened. It was only eight, Oliver usually watched TV or was on his computer until ten, if he wasn't on patrol. She checked the children's rooms and found them sleeping soundly. After checking through the rest of the house, she made her way back to the master bedroom in search of her husband, a fond smile on her face. She found Oliver sprawled out on his front, still fully dressed. At least he'd kicked off his shoes. Stripping him to his boxers, she undressed herself and pulled up the covers over the both of them. He snuggled close and put his arm around her waist, but didn't wake and she smiled, smoothing back his hair. Seems they'd managed just fine without her. Although she did have a few questions about the blackened toaster, the kitchen trash bin full of spoiled milk and the pile of soaking wet laundry in the clothes hamper for him in the morning.

FIN