Bandit Stole My Heart
I don't own Smallville/characters mentioned and make no profit from this writing.
Note:
*If I had to say a starting point I'd say, Season 9 after Roulette. (No Zod.)
*Jimmy never asked for a divorce, things were starting to work out before he got killed.
If something doesn't add up it's my fault and I apologise… I was watching season 10 when the idea for this happened and I forgot when some things happened in the story line, sorry.
Please enjoy and leave a review if you'd like.
Chapter One; Moving Day
"I just don't see the point in me travelling such distances. Besides, it's not like there's not enough space." Chloe explained, lifting another box into the back of Clark's truck. He'd thankfully offered to help her move her belongings from her apartment to move into Watchtower. "Unlike right now. I didn't realise I had so much stuff. I'm sorry Clark, Lois probably wants you back right now huh and I'm stealing all your time." Chloe shoved her hair behind her ears, a slight blush forming as Clark lifted yet another box into the truck bed.
"Relax Chloe. I always have time for you. And I'll make a second trip if I have to."
"Now that's where I draw the line. It's bad enough I tear you away from your girlfriend for one trip, but for two… that's too much even for a best friend to ask."
"Chloe I don't mind. Besides, Lois has been busy all week. With Tess running the Daily Planet and working alongside Oliver at Luthorcorp, well, the newsroom's been a mess." Clark turned back, lifting another box into the truck bed, angling the best he could so that no goods would fall out and he could fit as much as possible in. Chloe went back into her apartment for more goods. Would it ever stop?
"Last box." Chloe announced as she dropped another cardboard container to the ground along with the other twenty Clark had yet to pack up.
"I still don't see why you are moving." He furrowed his brow, but kept moving the boxes.
"Clark. I promise I'll be fine. Watchtower is fully operational and I can take care of everything up there. And… Jimmy wanted me to be there." She twirled the ring where it sat on her left hand; she still hadn't the heart to take it off. She knew she should, Jimmy was gone, she had accepted that. But to take it off, it almost seemed like she'd loose the last piece of him. At least now she would have Watchtower to remind herself of him as well.
"I just don't like the thought of you being up there all day and night." Clark frowned. He always worried, about everything, and everyone.
"Clark, seriously. Between working at Isis and helping my heroes from Watchtower, I'll barely have time to myself to get lonely. And compared to travelling across the city every day like I am doing now, it's much more preferable."
"If you change your mind…" he left the statement in the air and stood back against the truck, fastening the back and tying down anything likely to fall off.
"You'll be the first I call. I promise." she swore and climbed in the front of the truck still clutching her purse and laptop bag. Clark followed and pulled away from her last home. She still had another week on her rent and as Clark had repeated over and over, she could come back at any time if she changed her mind. At first she thought Clark didn't want her at Watchtower because she'd be isolating herself. But slowly, with each glance he gave her softening his features into sadness, she knew it was because of the memories she had there. Jimmy dying, to be specific. It had hurt, of course it hurt. But she had honestly moved on. Not so much to the whole serious dating of other people part, but she didn't see blood on the floor every time she walked in. She told herself as soon as she had made the decision to move that she would change Watchtower from the place where Jimmy died to the place Jimmy wanted her to be.
It was the beacon of hope shining above Metropolis. You could look up and just know there were people there that could help you.
But the main reason she had wanted to move was because of the long journeys and commutes to and from each night. Some nights she could barely stay awake to drive herself home after guiding the guys along one of their missions. Last night was one of those. She had fallen asleep on the sofa there, Bart had sped her home. Or at least she thought he did, all she remembered was waking up in her own bed and with no car outside. Chloe cracked her neck to relieve tension and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back against the headrest as Clark navigated traffic. She recalled last night.
"Ollie. I'm serious. Stay still or I'll just stab you with this." Chloe warned, her knees pressed to the cold tile of watchtowers floor as she fiddling with the sitting of Oliver's belt.
"Now, that's not very nice." he jibed and wiggled his hips. She sighed and cast her eyes up at him, glaring under her lashes. How could he be so annoying? "Fine. Point made. I'll be still."
Chloe went back to work fixing the GPS chip into Ollie's belt. As soon as the laptop picked up the signal here, she could pick it up anywhere in town. She moved the chip around, every few seconds looking to see if his red light showed up on her laptop.
"You know… if anyone walked in right now…" he left the sentence hanging with implication. True enough, knelt before his like this, moving her hands around on his belt… well it didn't scream innocence. Especially with the tip of her pink tongue stuck out of her mouth in concentration. She sighed and shook her head slowly. Finally she sat back on her heels and saw the light register with her laptop.
"Good?" she asked. Ollie smirked and wiggled around in his green arrow suit just to test.
"Good" he replied.
The door flew open and Bart returned with the others loaded with food and booze.
"Whoa, if we're interrupting…!" Bart stated and covered his eyes with his free hand.
Ollie laughed.
"Told you."
Chloe accepted his hand, helping her up from the floor. She swatted Bart on the arm and removed his hand from his eyes.
"I was fixing his GPS chip." she hissed and snatched a pizza box. "Men have such dirty minds." she muttered in complaint.
"Apologies señorita." Bart purred in with his fake Mexican accent. "I didn't know that was what you kids were calling it these days." he jibed and ducked her scowl in favour of the couch. "I saved you some margarita." He beamed, waving the plain pizza box in his right hand. Chloe traded the box she had snatched for the original flavour. Too many nights had she eaten trashy pizza with meats cooked in greasy fat. Recently she was sticking to the original. Especially when Bart would run to Italy for her if she asked. Tonight the food was courtesy of Italino's, a small Italian restaurant on the other side of the city. Of course a disadvantage of the boys feasting with her was the amount they ate. They could each pack away two supersized pizzas per night and not put on a single inch. Her on the other hand, she felt guilty after a single slice. Bart of course was flaunting his skill in speed eating, a skill she had been blissfully unaware of till she met the boy. However fascinating it was to watch, soon you just wanted to barf.
She sat beside Bart, feet up on the coffee table, munching on a slice of what could only be described as a fatty heaven. He smiled flirtatiously at her, but that was just Bart. Chloe tried to just ignore it, not wanting to tell him she wasn't interested for the fifth time. It broke his heart when she had to shoot him down, yet he would come back the next day just as peppy and flirty. She smiled back at him, pretending to be oblivious to his hints.
It was times like this she missed the company of Dinah. Tonight she had already been and gone, rushing for a date she had. Chloe glanced at her watch, if she was Dinah she would be feasting on a mega delicious meal, being wined and dined by some gorgeous gentlemen, not sitting with four over-grown teenage minded males. She sighed and finished her slice, wiping her hands on her already dusty jeans and reaching for the laptop to connect the systems on a new server.
Victor had been easy to fix with gps, being a machine anyway. Ac had water issues, but her part Brainiac side had encased the chip with a waterproof layer she could still read. Bart's had to be upped in power because of the sheer speed he moved with, but finally his light kept up with his speed and showed his movements.
An hour later the guys were all chatting about recent saves while she curled up with her technological side, re-routing systems and checking mechanisms. The only reason she was working so hard at this was because a meteor freak had hacked into her frequency a few night ago and tried to fry all their neural electric gridding via the headsets. Thankfully he had been stopped in time and the signals jammed. But her entire computer had been fried. She had to create a new governing matrix and create walls after walls of protections software's and booby traps in the wiring. Anyone who hacked through now would get a severe bug problems and she would receive warning after they breached the first wall. So good for everyone. She could even piggyback the hackers signals and find his location if need be.
She felt the couch indent as Oliver sat next to her, his long legs stretching out onto the coffee table. Without even knowing, her eyes scanned across his long frame and only snapped out at the feel of her teeth chewing her lips. She flushed and returned her eyes to the screen before her. She had just been checking Oliver Queen out.
"There's still beer and pizza." he stated and draped his arm over the back of the sofa, mere centimetres from her body. Chloe felt herself stiffen, an inner war breaking loose. Half of her wanted to lean back, to cosy up to his touch, her other half wanted to spring across the room away from him. What was wrong with her? This was Ollie. The rich Billionaire playboy with a fan club of more than a million girls all chasing to tie him down. And apparently, she was screaming along with them.
"I'm good" she quickly answered, realising he was awaiting a response.
"Chloe, you've barely eaten anything more than a slice all night." His fingers brushed a strand of hair from her face. She felt herself warm.
"I'll eat later."
Ollie shrugged and sighed, lifting from his position to stand. Her gaze followed him up almost like second nature. She was becoming more and more aware of him she realised. Her eyes were always on him. Oh god.
"If you're sure. Anyway's Bart's trashing AC. It's worth a watch. I was thinking of showing them how it's done by a real professional. Wanna come watch?" he held out his hand, yet knew she'd say no.
Chloe smiled but shook her head, despite how much her mind entertained the thought of sliding her hand into his, to sit next to him while he played with the boys on their shoot 'em up game. Apparently, it was something men never grew out of, and she had witnessed first hand Ollie's amazing aim did not stop at crossbows. He held the record for that silly little game, thought she had no idea how they calculated points. Usually she would kick back with Dinah and gossip, but for now, she was by herself.
"You boys go play. I'm almost finished." Of course, that was as far back as she remembered, she had fallen asleep right there on the couch, then woken to the comfort of her own bed, as Bart zoomed out.
"Chloe, you still with me?" Clark's voice finally broke through her recall. Apologetically she bit her lip and turned back to Clark to apologise.
"Sorry, I was just thinking."
"Regretting?" He turned to her, his eyes pleading that she would be. He didn't like the idea of her being cooped up in watchtower at all. He thought it would distance her from real life. And after Jimmy dying, she needed to start living again. He would be more than happy to hear she wanted taking back to her apartment and to go out for coffee.
"No. I promise Clark, I'll be fine. Now on with what I so rudely ignored." she pleaded.
"It's just… I was thinking about that house fire last week-"
"Clark, you were on the other side of the world. It's not your fault." Chloe tried to cut off the guilt before it spiralled out of control, but by now she knew Clark too well to believe her words could ever have the power to stop his pain in its tracks. Sometimes, he just needed someone to argue with, to tell him he did the right thing. As best friend, Chloe happily stepped up to the line.
"I'm meant to be saving people and restoring hope, how can they have faith in a hero if I let things like this happen?" he retorted, his eyes turned back to the road, yet unable to hide the heaviness of his thoughts.
"You didn't let this happen Clark. And you shouldn't be the one carrying the weight of everyone on your shoulders."
"Ch-"
"No. Clark, you were saving car crash victims. You have to accept that sometimes, not everyone can be saved. Death is just another part of life. It's cruel, but it happens."
"They didn't deserve to die like that." He was referring to the arson attack that happened a week ago in which husband, wife and 3 children all perished. It was tragic and was still in the news now.
"Nobody deserves to die. And Clark, believe me when I say that I have witnessed enough of it, but everyone has a time." Chloe's thoughts went straight to Jimmy. She had pleaded Clark to save him, at the time she had wanted to give anything to bring him back. Now, she understood that you had to accept what happened, and although she could say that, it didn't happen quite so easily. Jimmy still hurt, even after all this time. She'd even tried dating… but that hadn't worked out well at all. She just felt like she was being unfaithful to Jimmy. Again, her gaze went to the ring on her finger. She missed him still.
"I just know if I had been there I could have saved them." Chloe blinked, returning to Clarks problems right now.
"And if you would have been there saving them you would be regretting not being able to stop the thousand car pile up across the other side of the world."
"I know. But Chloe-"
"Clark. You did good. Trust me when I say that we are grateful to have you here at all." Clark sighed heavily and Chloe knew this wouldn't be over. Clark needed his guilt like a fish needed water. Best to let him writhe in it for a while and distract. "How's Lois dealing?" Lois had recently and regretfully welcomed her sister into her apartment till she could find her own place.
"It's like a war zone." He sighed again. "Last night I went over to find Lois and instead was greeted at the door by a half naked Lucy."
"That can't have gone down well with Lois."
"I had to break up a fist fight between them." he confessed, shaking his head at the memory. Lois had become pretty possessive of Clark since Lucy moved in and first bat her eyelashes at Clark. It seemed the entire family had a gene that fell weak to Clark's powers of subtle seduction. Luckily, Chloe herself had outgrown that.
Clark back seated his guilt trip during the rest of the journey, allowing the way for friend conversation, and a good deal of work too.
Finally the glorious doors of Watchtower stood before them. Clark had parked at the back of the building allowing him to super speed the boxes all up into the main area in no more than a few seconds. Chloe smiled and turned back from her computer screens to thank him, only her words were cut short by a rapid beeping and flashing on the screen. She turned back and clicked on the police scanner link. Sure enough trouble called and Clark was off in a blink of her eyes.
Chloe shoved her hands in the old jeans and turned to the circular stained glass window, walking up to see out onto the city. Jimmy wanted her here. It had been over a year since she had watched him take his last breath on these floors. But despite the sadness, she still felt guarded and special standing here shining in colours watching city life. The sun was ready to set, casting its warm orange beams around her and softening the harsh corners of the room. She turned back to gaze at her new home. She would be happy here, above the busy life, centre of her world, she could feel it in her bones. Good times would follow.
Reviews are welcome, good or bad, writers like to hear back.
Xx
