Name: Chris
Title: Legacy
Fandom: Smallville/ General DC comicverse
Genre: General
Rating: T
Summary: "There's always a reason." [Chloe/Oliver, Conner Hawke, Dick Grayson] Post 'Doomsday.'
…0…
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."
- Anthony Robbins
…0…
There is a place deep inside Oliver Queen that wonders what life would be like on the other side.
Oliver watched Clark with Lana, saw the deep confliction in his friend as he debated whether to risk the love he always wanted for the duty he felt. He saw the struggle, the yearning, and still he insisted that the greater good trumped all.
And Oliver believes that, truly he does. So much so that he gave up the first chance he had at real love in order to pursue it.
But, as amazing as Lois is, in all of her Lane glory, she is not the girl for Oliver-no matter how much or how long he tried to tell himself otherwise.
Chloe comes to his loft within twenty minutes of the phone call.
Having not seen Chloe for more than two months (sixty-seven days, twelve hours, eighteen minutes), Oliver feels a knot of worry untangling inside his stomach. He's surprised she agreed to come over, and on such short notice, and at the same time he can only imagine how lonely she must have been these last few weeks. No Clark, no Lois. No Jimmy.
And there's another place, just as deep, just as potent, that blames himself for Chloe losing the love of her life before turning twenty-three.
The elevator door opens and she looks…the same.
What was he expecting? He's not sure, but it wasn't for her to look quite so, well, Chloe. Calm. Quieter than usual, that's a given. But she's still Chloe and she offers him up a sad little attempt at a smile that he knows he wouldn't be getting if he hadn't checked in with her at least twice every day that he was gone. (Sometimes more.)
"Well, the prodigal son has returned and he looks a little worse for wear," she teases, tipping her head at the gash above his left eyebrow.
He shrugged, trying for that old bravado he used to be so good at. "Well, if you think this is bad, you should see the concrete I fell on. Big ole' mess." Oliver grins, being rewarded by a big, bright Sullivan grin, the likes of which he hasn't seen in far too long.
By all accounts, Chloe should hate him. At least, in his opinion. But she doesn't.
Or…doesn't outwardly appear like it. That'll have to do for now Oliver supposes as he hands her the flash drive so she can work her Chloe voodoo on it and point his arrow in the right direction.
…0…
Picking idly at a drop of paint of paint that persistently refuses to come off her thumbnail, Chloe looks around the elevator on her way up to Oliver's loft.
The summer has not been a good one for Chloe, even worse than the previous and she never thought that was possible. Everyone she loves is gone and all she had to focus on was Isis and renovating the apartment Jimmy had given her. Her Watchtower duties have been few and far between, not that she's surprised. They're an overprotective bunch and right now she's a great target for some supersympathy.
She's sure they thought it was the right thing to do, that she needed time to grieve. Even the search for Lois has metaphorically been taken out of her hands. Yes, they are the expert crime fighters, but she does have a pretty good track record in this department if she does say so herself.
Chloe tells herself that they're merely looking out for her. Every time she hangs up the phone from one of their daily 'check ins' (even AC, though she heard distinct splashes in the background and a dolphin-she thinks) she has to count to ten, breath, and remind herself that these people care about her and just trying to keep all undue stress away from her.
Still…there is little for her to do once Isis work is done for the day and she doesn't have any other family close by. She needs Lois.
And Lois never, never, gave up trying to find her when Lex had her locked in Black Creek. She owes her.
They're now three weeks into the renewed search and Chloe's apartment is now fully stocked with all the latest in high tech everything and she feels like a kid in a candy store with free reign when she feasts her eyes on the screen.
"You really didn't have to do this," she tells Oliver as they watch the delivery guys unload and hook up her new system. As soon as she sees the size of the monitor her fingers begin to itch. Oliver sees it, eyes her twitching hands and eager expression and chuckles good naturedly.
Tossing an arm around her shoulders, he speaks; all the while keeping his eyes focused on the men working in the room Chloe has designated her 'home office.' "Well, seeing as how you use most of your rather formidable cyber skills for my benefit these days, I figured it was the least I can do."
Chloe feels the corners of her lips pulling up. "Not that I don't appreciate the new toys," her gaze falls on a box by the door that Oliver was saving as a surprise for when the movers left, "but this system makes what I thought was a great set up at Isis look like a Fisher Price play set. We may have to set up camp here."
"Why do you think I insisted on having it delivered here?" Oliver asks, tilting his head towards hers and suddenly she remembers just why she put her faith in this man in the first place.
…0…
The first time Oliver knows that he's in deep trouble is early fall.
The leaves have turned various jewel tones and the whole city smells like smoke from the fires being lit in the chilly evenings. The year is fading, life preparing to renew itself.
Clark has popped back up, in that almost scripted its so perfectly timed way he has, determined to find Lois at all costs, and is a far cry from the farm boy that Oliver met two years ago. He's detached, distant, sure of himself in a way that has nothing to do with his powers. Clark Kent has grown up-and about damn time too if you ask Oliver.
"Chloe, how are you doing?" His voice is that low tone he reserves for the women in his life when he's hurt them the most.
Oliver steps out, walking out of the kitchen of Chloe's new apartment to look his former ally (rather, former friend) in the eye. "She's fine. You know, now that all of us are back in town and are looking out for her. The way friends do." Oliver is not okay with what Clark did; abandoning the person he calls his best friend in the darkest hour of her life.
When Oliver told Clark that the world needed him, he never meant for him to exclude those closest to him. He had a circle of people close to him that Oliver lacked; people who kept his secret. Now that Oliver does have that, he sees the importance of it.
Clark nods his head in Oliver's direction, paying no heed to Chloe's lack of response-though Oliver thinks that maybe it's really Chloe's lack of admonishment in his direction that really has Clark's dander up. (Chloe has Clark blinders though.) "Oliver. Looks like nothing's changed around here."
"What are you doing here, Clark?" Oliver asks, crossing his arms. He's standing beside Chloe now, the tip of his elbow slightly in front of her small frame. It is, he realizes, his subconscious trying to shield her from further pain.
He's simple, direct. He's Clark. "I'm here to find Lois."
"We're handling that."
"Yeah," Clark shoots back. "And given the fact that she's still missing, I'd say you need help."
Oliver wants to retort. Hell, being perfectly honest, he wants to deck the other man, but that wouldn't solve anything and he'd walk away with a busted hand if he tries. Chloe steps in and directs them back to their respective corners until they're both adult enough to leave all the petty 'mine is bigger' nonsense behind and focus on finding her cousin.
They study the scant bit of information left behind in the box of Lois's personal effects from her desk that Tess had sent over. Clark's is there too, thanks to his ill-timed resignation from the Planet.
There's that impeccable timing thing again.
And finally, a lead-in the form of a missing Legion ring. Both Chloe and Oliver know about the Legion, about what that ring does. Tess, for all her posturing on, bragging about her extensive knowledge of alien culture and the Traveler, wouldn't have looked twice at that ring with its overly large face and carnival trinket appearance.
Lois, though, Lois is nosey with a capital snoop and would have thought nothing of rifling through her deskmate's belongings and trying it on-no matter how ugly she found it.
Of course Clark zips out of there in two seconds flat, because, well, because he's Clark and that's what he does, leaving Oliver holding the bag so to speak.
"I hope he's right about this," Chloe says, an offhanded remark that Oliver's not sure is actually meant for him or if she's merely thinking out loud.
Tilting his shoulders in something resembling a shrug that falls short when he realizes she's not looking at him so it'd be best if he actually, you know, spoke right about now, he clears his throat and says, "Me too-if for no other reason than getting Lois home safely."
It takes about three seconds for it dawn on him that he's fallen short of genuineness and his open hostility has made an appearance, live and in person, when Chloe turns to face him, brow quirked like he's a puzzle of binary code that she needs to decipher.
"I know you guys are having issues right now, Oliver." She begins to walk toward him and he watches her mouth forming the words to avoid looking her in the eyes. "But Clark may be our only hope of finding Lois and that's important to me right now."
Can he get away with slapping himself in the head for his lack of tact in front of her?
He doubts it.
"Chloe, we are going to get Lois back. You have my word." His hand lands on her shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze.
He knows that he has no reason to expect Chloe to trust him. Over the last year his actions have leaned on the darker side of morally gray, and more than once she's been the one to call him on it. But he has to hope that her aligning herself with him and his team means more about her own innate desire to help others.
And he really, really hopes that it isn't just because he pays her well.
A small, warm hand comes up and covers Oliver's. The tips of her fingers make their way under the side of his hand, and she graces him with a smile that's about thirty percent hope, twenty-five affection, and forty-five despair.
It may not be the Chloe smile he longs to see back on her face, but it is genuine emotion and it's not entirely sad, so that is something.
Honestly, it's a something that means more to him than he's willing to admit. Oliver's had enough with unattainable women and no one is more off-limits than Chloe Sullivan. Clark, Lois, maybe even his team-they wouldn't stand for it and probably would have been very vocal about the fact had he given any sign of the growing attachment he feels for her and not hidden it from everyone including himself in repeated thwarted attempts to recapture Tess's heart.
So he promises, and he does mean it. Lois may not be the girl of his dreams any more, but she is important to him, to Chloe, and he will get her back no matter the cost.
…0…
Clark returns with a grim looking John Jones-though no more grim than usual.
Oliver's pacing has been wearing a track in her carpet, and she told him as much, garnering her a glance that she figures to be the CEO equivalent of sticking out his tongue at her.
They've been at this all night and Chloe busies herself with cleaning up the remains of their takeout dinner until he comes up behind her and takes the soda cans out of her hands. "Chloe, its okay to be scared."
She turns to face him and the cans get set back on the coffee table. Clark's departure was like salt in an open, gaping wound for Chloe, and she's reluctant to let herself depend on anyone ever again. She depended on Jimmy and he left, he died. Clark left, Lois was (if they're right) propelled into the future. Her dad lives hundreds of miles away. Her mother sits and stares out a window all day. Lana is…somewhere, trying to do some good. Pete's on tour. Everyone that Chloe has ever allowed herself to trust has disappeared on her.
Most days, Chloe knows in her bones that Oliver is a good man. That he has a good heart. Not agreeing with his actions shouldn't diminish that.
She has so few allies these days.
If Clark were here, if he were the Clark Kent that Chloe has been calling her best friend since eighth grade, she would take solace in the solid strength of his arms around her. She would bury her head against his chest, seep in his warmth, and know that she still has the emotional touchstone she needs.
But Clark does not want to be that for her anymore. Clark is not here. Maybe he feels he has no right. Either way, he's not, but Oliver is and Chloe knows that despite the bitter words they've spoken on occasion, he would walk to the ends of the Earth for her and she would do the same for him.
So Chloe lets Oliver pull her to him. Lets herself lean on him because he, like her, is desperate to keep the good things in his life close.
When Clark does reappear, he bursts in with no knock. Typical. And Chloe backs away from Oliver like she's just been caught cheating, like giving in to the comfort from loneliness is taboo because its Oliver and she still feels that loyalty to Clark despite it all and Oliver is just not his favorite person right now.
Tucking her hair behind her ears, Chloe averts her eyes from Oliver's hurt face and Clark's accusatory one. She can't quite explain the guilt. She can try, but there's more to the story here and if she knows it, they might too.
Jones tells them, with no regard to the tension thickening in the air, that there is a way to contact the Legion without a ring. They can use Clark's crystal to open a portal; an interdimensional looking glass as it were.
"Then let's make like Alice and see what Wonderland has done to Lois."
Clark speeds off to get his crystal while Chloe goes to gather anything else that may be useful (a first-aid kit can't hurt) and pretends not to notice how Oliver's confused eyes stay on her back until she's out of the room.
…0…
When it comes to Clark's extraterrestrial what have you, Oliver likes to steer clear.
He's had enough of alien contact and all that comes with it thank you.
And here he is; waiting while Chloe, Clark, and Jones try to open up a portal to the future (how is this is life?) to try and grab Lois out of some undisclosed point in time.
They speak around him, about things that he's heard before but doesn't quite get; Jor-El, Rokk, other Earths. It's enough to make his head spin.
"But if the Legion are dedicated to carrying on your work," Chloe says and Oliver's head snaps up. What work? "wouldn't they just bring Lois back? You said they'd heard of her-shouldn't they know she's supposed to be here?"
"That's assuming she's in their time." Clark replies. "She could be anywhere in time."
That gets Oliver's attention. "So we're telling these guys so they can go in and get her, right? This isn't just some shot in the dark idea here? "
He gets that flat, steely look that Clark takes on when he's fighting the urge to say shut up and be done with it.
At the very least, Oliver thinks he deserves some type of a response. It was a valid question.
They all stand in a circle and it feels a bit like a séance but there's a bright flash and some guy with dark hair in all black and leather (glass houses, he tell himself) and some insignia emblazoned across his chest appears. He calls Clark Kal, which Oliver knows is his Kryptonian name, but has never heard someone call him in casual conversation before.
He tips his head at Chloe, at Jones. Then at Oliver, a restrained look on his face. He acts like he knows him and that sort of weirds Oliver out to be blunt.
"Lois is missing," Clark states, all business and matter of fact. "We think she has my Legion ring. We need your help to find her."
"Understood." He disappears again, and barely three seconds go by before he reappears. "We believe we've found her. Imra has gone to bring her back to our time, then she'll bring her back here." Then in a flash, he's gone once more.
"He's really a man of few words, isn't he?" Oliver quips.
Jones makes his exit, saying that he's done his job.
So they wait.
One thing niggles at Oliver, but it's Chloe who speaks it. "Why would they take her to their time before bringing her home?" Clark shrugs and Oliver feels his blood pressure rising. If anyone knows what these future people are capable of, shouldn't it be Clark?
"You don't-" her voice cracks, "you don't think they'd…do anything to her?"
Oliver scoots forward to sit on the edge of the couch, eyes narrowing as he looks at Chloe in the chair across from him. "What do you mean? What could they do to her?"
Chloe doesn't answer, she just bites her lip and looks away. Oliver turns his gaze on Clark, hoping against hope that because this is Lois he'll say something.
"Imra," he begins after a few seconds of painful silence wherein he avoids both of their eyes, "is telepathic, among other things. I don't know exactly what she can do, but she could get inside Lois's head."
"And since these guys are committed to making sure you achieve whatever it is you do to make them create the Legion, they're going to whatever's necessary to make sure Lois doesn't change anything." Chloe takes the edge of her thumb into her mouth, working the side of her nail between her teeth.
As if the words summoned her, Lois appears then, in a flash of light that makes the crystal glow almost neon and all of them avert their eyes.
There's a wispy little blond with Lois, dressed all in red, and she greets Clark and Chloe in a soft voice before departing.
The light accompanying her exit fades and Lois stands there, dazed, looking none the worse for wear, but clearly full of anxiety about something if the way she stares at Clark over Chloe's shoulder like he's suddenly sprouted a second and third head when her cousin rushes to wrap her in a tight hug means anything.
"Lois, are you okay?" Oliver asks her. But her eyes stay on Clark and then she begins to babble, not really talking to them, more like in each of their directions, in hopes of avoiding the questions until she finally breaks with something about her lease and takes off, Clark hot on her heels.
Oliver stands there, not really sure what's just happened, with Chloe a few paces off, brow scrunched in worry.
Catching her eye, Oliver nods his head slowly, rocking back on his heels. He purses his lips before saying, "Well that was anti-climactic."
Chloe smiles, though it's a tired smile. "I'm just glad she's back and she's okay."
He can't help but agree with that. "What do you think was up with the eyes glued to Clark?"
Picking up the soda cans from earlier, she walks into the kitchen, Oliver following her. "Knowing what I do about the Legion, Lois could know anything."
Oliver thinks about the vibe he'd gotten from Rokk, about Lois's scattered focus, and knows she's right.
Just great.
…0…
It's not at all unusual for Chloe to get used to her reality completely altering itself every few months. So when the entire group gets back to town, she quickly becomes accustomed to seeing them loitering around her living room (or kitchen in Bart's case) at any given time.
Having Lois around for two weeks after her arrival proved a bit tricky when AC and Victor descended on her one morning and she had to think up a quick excuse for why a guy Lois dated for a week four years earlier dropped by and asked for a spot on Chloe's couch.
Then Lois finally convinced her landlord that she wasn't going to disappear for months with no word again (The excuse? A last minute assignment.) and he let her back in to her apartment, then set to work getting her job at the Planet back.
With her gone, Chloe sets up her guest room with another bed for when the team need a place to crash. Oliver's a good leader, but he's also a very private guy and prefers to set them up with hotel rooms rather than have them bunking at his loft.
Having all of them around begins to take her focus away from the fact that everything is so up in the air in her life. And truth be told, she gets used to walking into her kitchen at three am and finding Dinah cleaning the boys out in poker or trudging down the stairs when she's still in pajamas to see Oliver coming through the front door with a wide array of coffees and breakfast pastries.
They all refer her place as the Watchtower now and it's become as much a clubhouse as it has a base of operations.
Plus, yeah, she enjoys the company. Even when Bart comes on to her and Oliver stays long after they've called it quits for the night just to hang out. It's…nice.
And it is…until it gets…odd.
Odd in the way that Oliver has taken his hanging around beyond the team, beyond work. It seems to Chloe that she sees more of him lately than she saw of Jimmy when they were still living together. He's even stopped by Isis three days this week to take her to lunch and did the paparazzi ever have a field day with that; Oliver Queen and the same woman out and about in Metropolis more than once.
On day four of the Planet (who have reported her name by now, damn it) gossip column's speculation about one of its former reporters and one of the world's most eligible bachelors frequent sightings together, Lois shows up at Chloe's door with ice cream and that determined newshound look on her face.
"So…," she begins before the door is even shut behind her, "what's going on with you and Oliver being the new It Couple about town? Something I should know?"
"Lois, come on. Me and Oliver?" Chloe walks from the kitchen to the couch where Lois is breaking the seals on the pints of Ben & Jerry's and hands her a spoon. "Can you really see the two of us together?"
With a shrug, Lois takes a bite out of her New York Super Fudge Chunk and fixes her gaze on her cousin. "Stranger things have happened than two single, attractive people who are suddenly spending oodles of time together letting the boundaries fall by the wayside."
Chloe laughs, in part because it is that ridiculous, but mainly to cover the nerves she's feeling. Lois's comments are bringing up questions she's been having about Oliver's actions lately. But if she lets on, Lois will pounce. Chloe loves her cousin, but she's a barracuda when she wants to be. "Exactly what do you think is gonna happen, Lois? That one night, when we're constantly surrounded by other people I'm just going to lose control of my senses and jump him? Never mind that I'm still reeling from my last foray into the romance department."
"I don't see other people around right now." Lois looks around the apartment in an exaggerated fashion. And of course she chose that part of the conversation to pick at. "Not to mention…"
Obviously, Chloe's going to have to draw it out of her. "Not to mention what? Did the planet report that we were seen together before this week?" She keeps the mock terror in her voice deliberately, trying to get Lois off this track before the train crashed and ignited.
She shook her head. "No, but Smallville did tell me about a certain embrace he walked in on that looked a bit questionable."
She had a feeling Clark would misinterpret that. "Embrace? Lois, it was a hug. And it was just Oliver trying to make me feel better while we were looking for you."
"So there's nothing going on?"
She repeats; no. And would it even matter to Lois if there were?
That's where Lois trips up, flustered, and begins blathering on about Clark which, really, is no surprise whatsoever. Chloe has eyes and neither of them have any stealth in that department.
It's a ridiculous notion anyway. Absurd. Chloe's still in mourning and so not in that place.
Then Lois leaves and she gets a call from Victor about more possible 33.1 labs and as expected, Oliver is at her door within ten minutes and it seems like a blink of an eye and he's leaning over her shoulder while she sits at her computer, his cheek inches from hers and the scent of his aftershave filling her nostrils. Goosebumps trace the length of her spine.
And worse-he notices.
"Chloe, you okay?"
"Mmhm." She bobs her head and averts her eyes and just tries to keep all of her energy focused on getting the coordinates to Victor. A few keystrokes…There.
Oliver's hands come down on her shoulders and spins her chair around to face him. She likes it on the darker side in her office as to better see the screen, and the bright specks of the monitor lights flicker in his dark, dark eyes as he leans in closer to her. "Chloe, you can tell me."
It's a moment as tense as it is intense and Chloe's eyes slip down to Oliver's lips of their own accord and she hears more than sees him gulp.
"Chloe," he says, his voice bursting at the seams with need. Shivers race up her body and back down again. "Do you remember when you said we all know what we want but we don't listen?" Oliver's tone is husky and her control slips another notch.
The sparks between them have always been strong, and she's ignored it, fought it off with doubt, with reason, with the thoughts of other people, but now, in the darkness of her apartment, she knows that it has the potential to burn her alive. All there is left to do is let it happen.
His eyes never leave hers. A warmth rises up in her chest, and she leans in, subconsciously, drawing herself closer and closer…
"Anybody home?"
Bart's cheery voice booms across the silent apartment, making Chloe jerk back away from Oliver, a horrified look on her face and her cheeks flaming.
A shadow falls over them, backed by the brightness of the hallway and Bart leans in to see what they're doing. "What'd I miss?"
Chloe's life has suddenly gotten even more complicated.
As if she needs it.
…0…