A/N: So it was kinda exciting that they made future Chloe the leader of Oliver and his merry band of heroes. Maybe there is still hope for our girl!

Metropolis

"Again." The tall blonde circled her again looking for his opening. He feinted left, she snapped her right leg to where his abdomen had been a millisecond ago. Twirling on the balls of his feet he threw an uppercut that barely missed and she landed a quick jab to his left lung and then doubled over in pain as his elbow smashed across her ribs.

"Again." She wheezed out as she stumbled back to her feet.

"No."

"Again!"

"No, this is enough for today."

"How the hell do you expect me get better?"

"I don't, this was your goal. I told you I'd help you, but I did not sign up to send you to the hospital everyday. Its enough for today." Chloe glared at him.

"You know I don't ask much of you Oliver." He walked over to her and began unwrapping her hands.

"You can't guilt trip me Chloe while your bleeding through your hand-wraps." Surprised she looked down and did indeed see that her knuckles were bleeding through the tape that was supposed to protect them.

"I thought that last jab should have given you more trouble." Chloe grumbled realizing that the impact had been lessened by slippery knuckles. She yanked her hands away and quickly rewrapped her hands.

"Chloe we are not going again."

"No, you're right. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You could stay awhile." She twisted her lips into a smirk as she grabbed her coat.

"We have no current mission and we're not sparring so…what else would we do?" She asked this so innocently; it almost fully suppressed his urge to strangle her; almost.

"Yea, right, see you tomorrow." He responded, giving in to her obvious desire to keep this strictly business. She sailed out the door with a polite thank you that she had given him everyday for the past three weeks.

He made his way to his mini bar and poured himself a scotch. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he tried to objectively evaluate himself. He was wearing a pair of loose black work out pants and no shirt. His blonde hair spiking naturally from the sweat and his body was in good form being the only weapon he had against the bad guys aside from his trusty bow.

He could honestly say without a hint of narcissism that he was a reasonably good looking man and the fact that Chloe hadn't once taken a look at him was doing serious damage to his ego. Sure she looked at him, at his body but always as a way to read what his next move would be. Never like a woman would look at a man. He downed his drink with a soft chuckle dismissing his musings, they were friends and compatriots, he shouldn't want more from her.

A spontaneous breeze let him know that Clark had decided to visit.

"How's the bonding session going with Zod?"

"You shouldn't let her push so much, she's only hurting herself." If he wasn't such a boyscout, he would deck the alien, always so righteous and judgmental.

"Forgive me, but I'm willing to help her anyway she wants to avoid the impending future, or lack thereof in Chloe's and my case."

"How is beating herself up with you going to help?"

"Listen Clark, I know you don't understand. Its impossible for someone who's indestructible and who's got an entire league of people backing you in your continued existence to comprehend what it is to be mortal. What it is die. She's fighting for her life Clark, and I'll take that over passive acceptance any day of the week."

"I'm changing the future Oliver, it won't happen the way Lois saw."

"Well Clark, even in the worst case scenario of the future; your life turned up fairly roses huh? You got Lois, you got your yellow sun and you got your powers. She and I were shadows of our former selves and bit the dust to boot. I have a lot of faith in you Clark and I know you will do good things in this world but we can't rely on you to always be there to save us, cause in the future you're not. You were busy with getting the yellow sun back to even know that we didn't survive. And I don't hold it against you, taking power away from Zod and his army was way more important than two measly lives, but damned if I'm going to let whatever happens happen."

"I'm already changing the future by changing my tactic with Zod." Clark crossed his arms and gave Oliver his best 'I will it therefore it will be' face. Ollie wasn't buying it though.

"Who says it will be for the better? Face it Clark, let's talk about the real issue you have. You don't trust Chloe. Deep down, you haven't forgiven her for trying to save Davis and on the same coin you condemn her for trying to kill him to protect you. She went against your plan, your intentions and shocked your sensibilities of right and wrong. And maybe, you got a glimpse of the world as she sees it, a world of a million shades of gray. And now you're scared and you're punishing her. But I get it, sandbox love can't last forever."

"Sandbox love?"

"Yeah, you know that intense trust and closeness you have with your very best friend as a kid, just can't survive transitions into adulthood." Oliver chuckled to himself musing how things would have been had Chloe been his sandbox love. But to tell the truth, she wouldn't have given him the time of day, he was a rich spoiled brat and she probably would have sent him crying to his mommy.

"Just let it be Clark, you're letting her go so let her go. Let her forget how important you once were in her life, how your opinion meant everything to her. It's not fair for you to not trust her, to treat her like the enemy from time to time but then turn around and impose your views on her life." Clark shifted uncomfortably not knowing how to respond.

"I don't want to let her go."

"It's a cruelty to keep a gal in your back pocket."

"She's not in my back pocket, she's in my front pocket. I've never met anyone else who could blow my world apart but also put it back together when I need it simply by being who they are. She terrifies me and uplifts me and challenges me and I have this incredibly depressing feeling that I'm never going to be what she needs. What she wants, maybe, but what she needs? I like Lois, maybe I could even love Lois, but deep down I know it's a star-crossed sort of thing. Probably crash and burn and we'll both recover and eventually reconcile to friendship. But Chloe, I'm not sure I'd recover if things went sour. If she realizes I'm not what she thinks of me, that her love and faith were misplaced. Could you recover from that?"

Oliver took a fortifying swig of his drink, extremely caught off guard by Clark's frank assessment of his feelings for Chloe.

"I don't think you give her enough credit Clark. She's seen me at my very worst and she doesn't respect me or believe in me any less than before. Its that trust issue."

"I just think she's pushing herself too hard, I'm asking you to help her ease up a bit."

"Clark we are doing some intense sessions, but no one has ever died from three hours of training."

"You don't know? You don't think this is the only training she's doing, do you?"

Gotham City

Her punch front tuck sent her sailing over the grimy thug's outreached arms. A thready warbled wailing from the middle aged brunette who didn't have the sense to let go of her purse when the thug had grabbed for it provided an annoying soundtrack to this fight. He swung wildly for her again, dodging was a piece of cake and the roundhouse she followed up with was pure icing baby. Knocked out cold, just they way she liked them.

"Lady, you gotta stop wailing. Bad guy is down, no one is going to hurt you." She continued to cry pathetically.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" At that the Lady immediately stopped her lamenting and clutched her purse tighter, murmured a thank you and walked briskly away.

"I just saved you crazy, why would I hurt you?" Chloe yelled half-heartedly after the rapidly disappearing woman.

"Not bad." A voice from the shadows called out.

"But you could have had him in two moves instead of the five that you used."

"Hmph." She retorted through clenched teeth as she looked for her purse that she usually carried.

"You didn't bring one because I told you to get used to traveling light." The shadow voice provided after her initial search proved fruitless.

"Do you know how difficult it is for a girl to be without a purse? Its like an appendage that I constantly forget that I don't have anymore." She could practically feel the mockery emanating from the shadows.

"For once, I'd like you to make it my place without you getting involved in street fights. Its usually quiet this time of day yet you manage to always find trouble every time."

"Trouble finds me my friend. Shall we go?"