Oliver carefully turned the doorknob and slid the backdoor open a crack. He peered into the kitchen and, seeing that the coast was clear, opened the door all the way and stepped inside. Slipping off his shoes and putting them under the bench by the door, as per Chloe's orders, he made his way into the living room. He carefully stepped over the loose floor boards in the hallway and headed for the bedroom, he wanted his arrival to be a surprise.
Chloe's voice rang down the hallway and Oliver froze, listening to her for a second. "The dark planet was getting closer and closer to earth, but Metropolis' hero was nowhere to be found."
Oliver shook his head. He'd bought Robbie that comic book a month ago and ever since then it was the only story he wanted to hear. They must have read it to him at least a hundred times. He'd even had to go out buy his own copy when he was in London last week to read it to him over the phone. Robbie should have the whole thing memorized by now.
Oliver quickly divested himself of his jacket and was pulling his tie over his head as he undid his belt buckle. The flight had been long and tiring and he hadn't been home in a month and a half. He tossed his suit into the dry cleaning basket in the closet and grabbed his favorite pair of warn jeans from the shelf, pulling them on with an almost audible sigh.
He grabbed a grey t-shirt and pulled it over his head as he dug through his clothes for his favorite green hoodie. When he came up empty he frowned, then had a thought and turned toward the bed. He walked over to Chloe's side and leaned down, resisting the urge to just climb in between the sheets and sleep for a week. Instead he reached under Chloe's pillow and smiled in triumph, pulling his hand out, the green hoodie clenched in his fingers.
He walked back down the hall, pulling the sweatshirt over his head and stopped at the doorway to Robbie's room just as Chloe got to the end of the story. "That was the day the boy turned into Superman." Chloe read.
"Wow," Robbie whispered. Chloe closed the comic and turned to look at their son and Oliver couldn't help but smile at the picture in front of him. She brought a hand up to the side of Robbie's face, pulling him closer so she could drop a sloppy kiss onto the top of his head. She was smiling that special smile that Oliver knew was reserved just for Robbie and as the light from the bedside lamp sparkled off of her wedding band he wondered how he ever managed to stay away from them this long.
Chloe moved to set the comic book on the bedside table and Robbie looked up at her, his very best puppy dog face on, and Oliver knew what was coming. "Read it again please," he begged her and Chloe laughed at him. It never worked, but he never gave up. He was just like his father that way.
"There will always more adventures for another day." Chloe said after she climbed out of the bed. "But now it's time for bed."
"But—"
"Robbie," Chloe looked down at him, her smile replaced with her I'm-the-mom-so-do-what-I-say-and-no-one-gets-grounded face.
"Listen to your mom kid," Oliver said from the doorway, announcing his presence. "She controls the snacks in your lunch box. You remember that time you broke the vase in the hall after she told you repeatedly not to play ball in the house?" Oliver winced at the memory as if it had happened to him, which it kind of had, considering he was the one Robbie had been playing ball with at the time. "Apples for a whole month!"
"Daddy!" Robbie jumped out of the bed and ran across the room. Oliver crouched down to catch him as thirty five pounds of pure energy came crashing into him. "You're home!" he squealed as Oliver stood up, lifting Robbie with him.
"Yeah I'm home," Oliver said, squeezing Robbie tightly as he wrapped his legs around Oliver's waist and threw his arms around Oliver's neck.
"I thought you would be gone until the end of next week," Chloe whispered, smiling that special smile that Oliver knew she reserved only for him. She walked up to the two of them and placed a hand on Robbie's back as she stood up onto her tip toes and dropped a light kiss on Oliver's lips.
"I missed you guys," Oliver said honestly. "They can run the company without me for a few days."
"Does this mean we're going camping?" Robbie asked seriously leaning back to look Oliver in the eye. "You promised that we could go camping when you got back."
"I did?" Oliver looked over at Chloe with a slightly panicked look on his face and she just smiled and nodded. "I did. I promised that we would go camping when I got back so we're going to go camping. This weekend." Oliver declared.
"Yes!" Robbie said excitedly.
Oliver had never actually been camping before. Sure he'd lived a few years alone on a desert island but that was a bit more about survival and not so much about roasting marshmallows around a campfire. As excited as Robbie was, Oliver probably wasn't going to be able to get away with just setting up a tent in the backyard.
"Can I bring my arrows?" Robbie asked wiggling in Oliver's arms until he loosened his grip enough for Robbie to slide to the floor. He ran across the room to the brand new bow and arrow set that was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. The same bow and arrow set that Chloe had absolutely forbidden Oliver from buying until Robbie was at least eight but had inexplicably shown up in his room one day last week. "Are you going to teach me how to shoot?"
Chloe looked over at Oliver and crossed her arms over her chest, wanting to hear the answer to this question as well. "We'll see buddy ok," Oliver said diplomatically as he ran a hand over Robbie's head, messing up his hair.
"Robbie. Bed," Chloe said again and Robbie looked over at Oliver. "He'll be here when you wake up," Chloe put her hand on Robbie's shoulder and walked him back over to the bed. "We'll do a big breakfast in the morning and you can tell him everything he missed since he's been gone." Chloe tucked him in and dropped a kiss on his forehead.
"Pancakes and waffles?" Robbie asked and Chloe laughed a bit before nodding.
She stepped away and Oliver leaned down, kissing Robbie goodnight and then followed Chloe to the door. Oliver made sure the nightlight was plugged in as Chloe turned the overhead light off and closed the door behind them.
Her phone rang and she sent an apologetic look to Oliver before answering it, moving further away from Robbie's room so she didn't have to whisper. "Did you get it? I thought you could use something blue."
Oliver smiled, it was Lois. Today was wedding attempt number 23 and Oliver really hoped the two of them managed to get it together this time because he had today in the betting pool. If there was just money on the line Oliver wouldn't care but the winner got time, more importantly time off. Everyone had to do a certain number of overnight on-call hours at Watchtower a month and the winner of the pool got two months off. There was a lot Oliver could do with two months of not being woken up in the middle of the night to stop a robbery in progress.
"Good luck." Chloe laughed.
"No, no luck," Oliver called out. "Drag his ass to the church and handcuff him to the alter with some Kryptonite laced cuffs. I've got a pair in the garage if you want to borrow them."
Chloe glared at Oliver but he could hear Lois' laughter over the phone before she hung up, so he figured she wasn't too mad at the comment. "Let me guess, you have today in the pool?" Oliver nodded and Chloe walked away shaking her head at her husband.
"Hey, look, about the bow and arrow set," he grabbed Chloe by the waist and spun her around pulling her flush up against him. "I saw it at this shop in London and I couldn't help myself."
"It's fine," Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised you lasted this long. I was fully expecting to find him in his crib when he was six months old wearing a tiny green leather hooded onsie."
"Do they make those?" Oliver's eyes lit up and he moved his hand from Chloe's waist to her stomach.
"This one's a girl," Chloe insisted, sliding her hand over Oliver's and slipping her fingers in between his. "I've got a feeling."
"Girls can shoot arrows. Just ask Mia." Oliver shrugged. "Besides, I've got a feeling too and I think it's another boy."
"Yeah?" Chloe tilted her head. "Wanna bet?"
"Stakes?" Oliver raised his eyebrows at her.
"Two a.m. feedings," Chloe offered and Oliver narrowed his eyes at her, looked back down at her stomach then nodded.
"Deal," he said using a kiss to seal it. "When's the next sonogram?"
"A week from Tuesday," Chloe said. "We'll find out then."
"So Mrs. Queen," Oliver smiled down at her. "Big plans for the evening?"
"Well Mr. Queen, since you were supposed to be in London, I figured I'd just curl up on the couch with a cup of decaf and watch President Elect Luther's speech on his new economic recovery plan." Chloe admitted, the words President Elect Luther literally almost too painful for her to say.
"And now that I'm not in London?" Oliver asked, dropping his head to her neck and kissing her pulse point softly.
"Hmm," Chloe let her eyes close and her head fall back as he worked his way up her jaw. "I can get the highlights in the morning at the office." She grabbed Oliver's hand and twisted out of his grasp, eliciting a soft growl from him before she tugged him toward the bedroom.
He'd barely made it to the door when Chloe turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a deep kiss as she backed into the room, taking him with her. Her hands slid under his shirt, grazing along his abs and pushing both the hoodie and the shirt up. Oliver pulled away so that she could get them over his head as he shoved his jeans to the ground.
They tumbled to the bed just as Chloe's phone chirped with an incoming message. "Ignore it," Oliver whispered against her lips and she smiled because she'd been planning on doing just that. Oliver rolled over, flipping them so Chloe was under him when his phone chirped with an incoming message. He was determined to ignore that one too and then Chloe's phone started ringing, followed not to long after by Oliver's phone.
Chloe groaned from underneath him just as the house line started ringing but it wasn't until the doorbell chimed through the house that either of them bothered to get up. Oliver grabbed his pants and yanked them on, pulling his phone out of his pocket as the doorbell rang again and a beep sounded from Chloe's computer. "They're going to wake up Robbie," Chloe said and Oliver nodded, grabbing his shirt and hoodie.
"I'll get the door you get the house phone," Oliver called on his way down the hall.
Chloe grabbed the house phone and walked over to her desk. "Hello?" she asked answering the phone as a message from Watchtower popped up on her computer screen.
Chloe's face fell as she tried to read and listen at the same time. "Chlo," Oliver called and Chloe turned around. He was leaning around the door frame, an apologetic look on his face. "That's Bart at the door. Someone took a shot at Luther when he showed up for his speech—"
"I'm on it," Chloe nodded to the computer. "They think it was a meta, which is just going to fuel his anti-hero legislation."
"They want me in Metropolis to help look into it." Oliver winced. "If someone's gone rogue we need to find them before Lex's guys do and if wasn't one of us, we need to make sure that everyone else knows that."
"Go," Chloe assured him. "I can monitor things from here. Just promise me you'll be back by this weekend."
"Camping, right." Oliver nodded. "Promise. Shit!" He said suddenly and Chloe turned around to him worried. "There's no way Lois and Clark are getting married today now. Is there anything that Lex doesn't ruin?" Chloe rolled her eyes and he disappeared from the door and down the hall.
She turned back to the computer and stared typing, connecting to Watchtower's systems so she could monitor all the chatter. She hacked into the security monitors at the press conference and was piecing that footage together with the various news reels hoping to find some sort of clue when her chair was spun around and she found herself face to face with Oliver. "What—"
He cut her off with a kiss, sliding his fingers into her hair and squeezing once then pulling away to rest his forehead against hers. "Love you," he whispered.
"Love you too," Chloe assured him, returning his kiss with a soft peck on his lips. "Now go be a hero." She pushed him away gently with a smile and he headed for the door.