Introduction:

This story is the sequel to Something Between Us. You should definitely read that story before this one, otherwise some elements may not make sense.

This tale takes place post-series (excluding the 7-year jump ahead scenes as seen in the finale). All canon elements from S9 and S10 are acknowledged to have happened.

Red eyes in a monstrous face. Roaring, tearing, clawing at the sides of its prison.

Breaking free.

A demon reborn in fire emerging into the world once more, its mind blank of everything except rage.

It had come to destroy, and this time it would not be stopped. It would find and seek the ones that had trapped it, and their blood would flow like rivers.

It turned toward the city in the near distance.

"No!" Davis cried, bolting up from the bed in a frantic cold sweat. His heart was racing and his breath came out in panicked gasps. Next to him, a woman rolled over at the sudden motion and opened sleepy eyes.

"Aidan? Whas' wrong?" Marta mumbled. "Was it the dreams again?"

Davis closed his eyes, centering himself. It had just been another dream. Doomsday couldn't be getting free. The monster had been buried under an entire geothermal plant deep inside the earth's crust. There was no way for it to escape.

So why did he now keep having these dreams of the monster getting loose?

Tess's words from years ago in his recovery room came back to haunt him… Your purpose may not be fully served.

He forced his breathing to slow, to bring himself back under control. Tess Mercer had been wrong. He had no place in the world of monsters and heroes anymore. He wasn't Davis Bloome anymore. He was Aidan Kell, and his place was here. The good he did here was real. Here he may have a chance to balance the scales between his past and present. And maybe, one day, he may eventually clear the stain on his soul for the terrible deeds he'd done – and for the terrible deeds done because of him.

And he could do it without using the dangerous power of his alien heritage. A power he had locked away inside himself when he boarded the plane that took him away from his old life.

With a deep breath, he turned to the girl lying next to him. In the sliver of moonlight that came through the partially closed tent flaps, he could just barely see her. Her wavy brown hair was mussed and the light made her bare skin look near as pale as his, but her dark eyes shone. She was patiently waiting for him to sort out his own mind and answer her. The thoughtful waiting of her manner reminded him so much of…

He quickly shut that thought down.

With a sigh, he finally spoke, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just another dream."

Concern shadowed her face. "The dream you won't discuss."

Looking away, Davis remained silent.

Then Marta asked softly, "Is it about Chloe?"

Davis turned sharply to look at her again, his voice coming out strained, "How do you know that name?"

The sympathy was still on Marta's lovely face as she replied. "Aidan, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you came here to escape something. Goodness knows, you wouldn't be the first or the last to do so. But it's pretty obvious if you look." She began ticking off points on her fingers. "When you first arrived, it took you weeks to respond when someone called your name. As if it wasn't really yours. You never talk about home or your past. Like clockwork, you use the internet station once every six months. No more. No less. As if that is all you allow yourself. I thought it was because you were into some kind of weird porn or something…but that isn't really you, is it?"

The last comment caused Davis' jaw to drop in surprise, but Marta just sailed ahead.

"You work longer and harder than anyone I've ever met, almost like you have something to prove. You've never requested leave. Not once in three years. And that entire time, you've only ever gotten one piece of mail." Her look turned sharp. "A strange crystal sent by the now-deceased head of one of the world's largest companies."

Davis forced his eyes not to go over towards the locked trunk that held Tess Mercer's final "gift."

Marta continued, "I'm not trying to out you or anything. Whatever your reasons for coming here, we are lucky to have you. But my guess is, this is all because of this Chloe."

Forcing his voice to sound calm, Davis replied. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Marta's eyes became teasing. "Of course not. You just call her name out in fits of passion. You mutter 'I love you, Chloe' into my ear as you fade into sleep. You hide your surprise badly at finding me in your bed come morning, as if you expected someone else instead."

Davis felt himself growing red. "I-I do?"

Marta's face split into a wide smile. "Yes, you do. It would be enough to give a girl insecurity issues. Luckily, it works out better for me that you are in love with someone else." Her eyes turned thoughtful as she tucked the light sheet under her arms more securely, keeping her breasts modestly covered during their conversation. "That is why you picked me, isn't it?" She studied his face a moment. "Yes, that explains so much. All the girls throwing themselves at you, and except for one night here and there, you ignored them." Her eyes were far away as she thought. "I see now, they all wanted more from you than you could give." Marta paused, remembering that first time he had taken her to his bed almost a year ago. "Except me."

Unconsciously she played with the wedding ring on her left hand.

Seeing the action, Davis nodded, acknowledging the correctness of her statement.

Marta looked at him, and her eyes turned soft. "Thank you for this, Aidan." She gestured at the bed and their naked bodies underneath the thin sheet. "I understand that part at least. It's the same for me. I miss Jeremy so much, but having a friend like you here…someone to chase away the loneliness at night, it helps." She looked at the quiet camp through the crack in the tent's opening. "It's enough for now." She turned back to him. "But it won't be enough forever. For either of us."

Davis was quiet for a long moment, before the words felt pulled from him. The admission he had tried to suppress for three years coming forth, "This…this or something like it…will always have to be enough for me. With anyone. I can't do more. I'm-I'm still in love with her…"

Marta placed a warm palm over his bare shoulder, her voice gentle. "Does she know? Can you go to her?"

Davis eyes caught a glimpse of the stars outside the tent. He wondered if those same stars could be seen in Metropolis. "No. She thought I was…someone else."

A murderer. The one that killed Jimmy in cold blood.

A lance of pain shot through his chest as he remembered Tess telling him what his alter ego had done. But even then, he'd still harbored a foolish hope. A hope that they might still find their way to each other again. Despite her thinking him Jimmy's killer and dead to boot, he'd held on to that belief. Then about a year ago, he had seen the newspaper article and known it was over. "She's moved on."

Marta wrapped her arms around his back in a comforting hug, but Davis barely felt it. His mind was thousands of miles away…

Chloe sighed, putting down the last of the boxes in her new apartment. The new space seemed both full and empty to her. Full of boxes and familiar wrapped furniture, but so empty of the life she had just left. Looking around and seeing the couch she had used in The Talon apartment, Lana's old posters, and her Go Crows! Mug, she realized that almost all of what she had brought with her were things from before she had ever left Kansas. As if she wanted to use the pieces of the person from so long ago to build her new life, instead of the trappings of wealth she had left behind in California.

Not that those trappings hadn't been offered - the designer furnishings and the closet full of clothes that cost several times her yearly salary at The Star City Ledger…but they hadn't seemed like her. The real her. They never really had. They had just been trappings of the wife…or 'wife' of a billionaire.

Unconsciously rubbed at her sore lower back, she tried to push the thought aside. Thinking like that would do her no good now. She should think about all that still lay ahead of her, instead of behind.

Heavy footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs, and she stepped back to let Clark through. In his hands was a plastic bag full of miscellaneous items that had been stashed in the cab of the rental truck. Placing the bag down, he said, "That's it. Truck's all clear." He paused seeing Chloe rubbing her back. "You ok?"

She smiled at his concern. "I'm fine, Clark, just a bit sore."

He gave her a teasing smile. "You know I could have gotten all this carried up here in about 3 seconds, right?"

Her smile held, but became slightly sad. "Yeah, I know. But this wasn't hero business. This is just...life. It felt like it should be done the old fashioned way, you know?"

Clark quirked that sympathetic little half-smile of his. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"Thanks, Clark." She turned to look at the boxes that filled up the cute little 2-bedroom apartment, forcing her mind to think through how she wanted to set up her new home.

"I can stay, you know," Clark said behind her. "I can help with the unpacking..."

She turned back to him, feeling touched by the simple offer. "No, I need to figure out what I'm going to do first, but thank you."

He gave her a concerned look. "With the apartment? Or..other things?"

She laughed ruefully. "Both."

He put a hand on her shoulder and caught her eyes. "I know I haven't always been there when you needed me, Chloe, but I'm here now. If you need anything, just call."

She laid her hand gently on top of his. It had been years since they'd had a moment like this. "Thanks, Clark. But for now I just need to figure some things out. Decide where to go from here."

"Would it help if I took Lois' advice and knocked Oliver around a little?" he asked with a teasing smile.

That startled a laugh out of Chloe before she replied, "No, but thanks for the offer, and send my thanks to Lois for the thought." She paused before continuing, "But it isn't really his fault. Not like you think." She let out a heavy sigh. "It was just another doomed marriage made under mind-whammy for me. Same old, same old."

"Chloe..."

"No, Clark, it's true, and we all know it. Oliver and I weren't ready for marriage. Maybe we would have gotten there eventually, maybe not, but it was too soon. We loved each other, yes, but not in the way that could support us building a life together."

"But Dinah..."

"No, Clark. Dinah wasn't the problem. It was Oliver and me. If we had been strong, been happy, been more than just a person we each turned to, then..." She stopped, not wanting to rehash it right now. "Just trust me, Clark. It was over. Dinah just gave us the courage to admit it shouldn't have been in the first place."

He held her gaze for a long moment, reading her eyes. Chloe wondered what he saw there, because he nodded a moment later. "Alright Chloe, but I mean it. If you need me or Lois, just call. We're here for you."

She smiled again. "Thanks, Clark." She made a shooing gesture. "Now go, get that truck back to the rental office. Otherwise, I have to pay for another day and I no longer have a billionaire footing half the bills."

He smiled in reply, "Yes, ma'am."

"Hey, that's Ms. to you!"

He just smiled in reply again and walked toward door.

"And give my cousin a kiss, alright?" She smiled as she called out to him.

"Alright." He smiled back.

Then he was gone, and she was alone in the empty apartment. Her smile vanished and she crossed the room to close and lock the door to her new apartment.

Her very own Metropolis apartment.

She remembered when she was young and she had dreamed of such a thing. She loved this city, but had been forced to leave it so many times. First by her father moving them to Smallville. Then when Dark Thursday destroyed her college. Then when she had run away with…her mind stuttered over the name, even after three years…Davis.

Davis had loved this city as much as she had. The city he alternately tried to save and tear apart. The city where he died. The city where he killed.

It wasn't a wonder that she had withdrawn from the city and her life into Watchtower afterwards.

Until Oliver that had finally started to pull her into the world again. She had repaid him the only way she could based on the visions from The Fate Helmet. She had run away from her city again to join the Suicide Squad. To save his life.

Then Zatanna's magic mind-whammy had seen them married…maybe not legally (underground casinos aren't really into due process), but to them it had been true in all the ways that mattered. So she had left her city once again – for what she had thought to be the last time.

But now she found herself back once again in the city she had loved so much.

Though it certainly didn't feel like her dream had finally come true.

Chloe leaned back against the door of her new apartment and slowly slid down until she was seated on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chin. Finally she let fall the tears she hadn't ever allowed anyone to see. Not Clark. Not Lois. Not even Oliver.

She'd kept up a brave face for them all, but now she could let it all out. She had thought with a quite literal magical wedding like she and Ollie had gotten (even if neither of them had a memory of it) that it should have been happily ever after.

But it hadn't.

Between Oliver's corruption by Darkseid, her own insecurity when her oldest friend had turned from her, uprooting and restarting her life (again), nothing had gone anywhere close to the fairytale they should have had.

Maybe she just wasn't cut out for Happily Ever After.

Two weeks ago...

She had come home early, having wrapped up her story for the Star City Journal ahead of time after days of grueling effort. She had hoped to arrange (meaning: have delivered) a nice meal for her and Oliver. They barely saw each other anymore – him the poster child for the vigilante movement and her working her way up through the Journal's ranks the hard way. They'd been married only a bit over a year, but they hadn't had sex for months. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but it seemed more like they were roommates than a married couple.

It was intolerable.

Tonight that ends…she had told herself, thinking of the unused lingerie in her drawers. Months ago, she had bought a green lace concoction intending to use it for some special occasion...that never came. Even on their one year anniversay, they had been apart. Oliver on vigilante work and her back at Watchtower west running the op.

But damn it, tonight she would finally tear off those tags! Tonight her and Oliver would finally get back to where they used to be...or they would end it.

But when she got home, she walked in on Oliver and Dinah arguing. Quickly, she ducked back around the corner, before they could see her. The fact that neither of the heroes had noticed her proved how deeply involved they were in their argument.

Shamelessly listening in, she realized the words had the patter of a discussion played out many times before.

"I said no, Dinah." Oliver told her, unwinding Dinah's arms from around his neck. "I can't do that to Chloe."

"You aren't doing it to Chloe. Not at all from what I can tell. I'm asking you to do it to me," Dinah purred.

"She's my wife, Dinah."

"Psh, some wife. You don't even remember getting," Chloe saw Dinah form air quotes around the next word, "...'married'." Dropping her hands, Dinah gave Oliver a piercing look. "And we both know we would have gotten together before if you weren't so confused and grateful to her for pulling you out of that gutter after you killed Lex."

"That's not fair, Dinah. Yeah, you and I were talking and stuff, but Chloe was there for me in a way no one else was at a time I really needed it."

"I could have been, but I didn't know! I was on the other side of the world tracking down intelligence on the Kandorians. Intelligence that Chloe sent me to find, by the way."

Oliver let out an annoyed breath. "She had no idea there was anything between us, and besides that isn't the point. The point is that she was there for me. She saw the place I was in and pulled me out of it, kicking and screaming. Then she helped me turn back to the kind of person I wanted to be, even after what happened with Desaad. She risked her life and freedom for me. I owe her so much for that. The least I can do is hold to the vows I gave to her."

"But you aren't in love with her!"

"Of course I love her!"

Dinah's voice became quiet. "That isn't what I said. I said you weren't in love with her."

Oliver was silent for a long moment, before replying. "It doesn't matter, Dinah. She's my wife and I will never hurt her. At least not more than I already have."

Chloe couldn't listen to any more. It was too close to her own feelings.

Obligation.

Was that really what things had come down to for them?

The comfort and love they had once found together had frayed so thin, tested by the choices they had made for themselves and not for the life they had somehow ended up sharing. They had been friends for years before they had fallen into bed. But that had had changed quickly to a relationship, then just as they were falling in love, they had found themselves married. Too fast.

Had things come full circle again? She loved him and he loved her, but had they fallen out of being in love? Were they only really together because of obligation and promises made they couldn't even remember? He had waited for her after she had disappeared with the Suicide Squad, so she had felt she owed him. She had saved him from himself after he had fallen into darkness, so he felt he owed her.

That wasn't love - it was obligation.

She had walked around the corner so they could see her. "She's right, Oliver, and I think we should talk."

The Present...

Chloe wiped the tears from her eyes as she pushed the memory away. The sunlight that had come through the large windows was nearly gone. If she didn't start moving soon, she'd be sitting here crying in the dark. Twice-divorced, crying in the dark, surrounded by boxed college decor...the picture that formed in her mind was too pathetic to bear. She climbed to her feet and flicked the light switch, bringing the overhead light in the living room to life. It was such a small action, but it made her feel better to see the apartment bright again. She instantly resolved to paint the dull white walls as soon as possible even if it did cost her security deposit.

Wiping the last of her tears from her cheeks, she made a promise to herself. She was done fitting into someone else's mold. She wasn't Clark's sidekick anymore, she found and trained heroes herself. She wasn't a meteor-freak who could only help by hurting herself, she was an award-winning journalist focused on helping uncover and expose waste and corruption. She wasn't a rich man's not-pretty-enough first wife, she was Chloe Sullivan.

And that was who she would always be.

She squared her shoulders, and started to move across the room when the building began to move under her.

Author's Note: Hello, All! I'm back! At this point, I have this story pretty well mapped out in my head and I'm thinking it will run about 25 chapters. This story will be a bit different from Something Between Us in that I am going to combine the M-Rated parts of this story into the main line instead of breaking them out separately. I will note if the chapter is M-Rated though if you wish to skip it. Currently the story is T-Rated, but I'll change it when we reach the M-Rated parts. I am also not really sure of the update schedule for this story. It definitely won't be weekly, but I think every 2-3 weeks is manageable.

Lastly, I wanted to give a shout-out that the works (including a new story by yours truly) will start going up over at the secret-chlark livejournal community tomorrow, 8/24/15. Go check them out!