The Avatar

By Catheryne/tennysonslady

Characters: Chloe, Oliver, JL, SS, Lois

Summary: No matter the obstacles, Oliver will create the life he wants—wherever it is.

Rating: PG13

Part 2

She was sleeping, and the mild breathing was rhythmic and peaceful. Oliver rested his head on his hand as he looked over from his side of the bed. Right between them Connor slept, his plump arms covered by the full white frogsuit that she had bought from Mothercare when he was away.

Oliver reached for her arm and gently squeezed. Her lashes fluttered, and when her brows furrowed as she strove to open her eyes, he said softly, "It's alright. Go back to sleep. I'm going to step outside for a bit and do some patrolling."

"Okay," she breathed out. "Stay safe."

Oliver leaned down and kissed her eyebrow. When he stood he bent and picked Connor up in his arms. Almost immediately Connor curled in his arms and nuzzled his nose in the small of Oliver's throat.

As he walked towards the door, Oliver heard her soft voice call for him. "I'm just putting him back to his crib."

"No, no," she said. Chloe patted the space on the bed beside her. "Let him stay here. He's my only companion whenever you leave."

How it worked he could not know. For the longest time he had thought this world stopped when he was gone, but the pregnancy and Connor's birth proved to him that the virtual reality happened real time.

Oliver walked back towards Chloe and sat by her in the bed. Chloe raised her arms and took the sleeping baby, then lay down on her side, curving her body, creating a crescent shape that best sheltered Connor.

"Come home soon," she told him when he turned to leave.

He was reluctant to leave, but even as he stayed he almost felt that there was a disruption, an unwelcome presence in their bedroom. Oliver turned and scanned the room quickly and saw nothing. "I'll be right back," he promised her. And then before he could change his mind Oliver quickly left the room.

He reached up his hands to his temples and stripped invisible cables away. He looked down at his hands and dropped the devices on the desk before him. And then his gaze shifted to the corner of the home office. There was no surprise when he found Dinah standing there, leaning back against the wall.

"How did you get in?" were the first words he uttered, as if the fact did not matter that he had been caught doing exactly the thing she was there in his home to keep him from doing.

"How did I get in?" she repeated, as expected. "Oliver, what are you doing?"

"Let's not play games. You know exactly what the answer to that question is."

She strode towards him, and she did not seem defeated but defiant. Often Oliver forgot what a rebel she had been before and during her stint in the League. Almost always she reminded him. With her quick reflexes that showed him just how much better she was at martial arts, she grabbed the QI device that had hooked him up to the computer just moments before.

"How much time did you steal from your own company for this?" she demanded.

"It doesn't matter." His eyes narrowed. "Give it back to me."

The way she grasped the device was sinful. The cables tangled and the magnetic ends were so close to depolarizing. But that was how people who cared little treated the best things in the world.

"Give it back before you damage it!" he demanded, his voice thunderous.

She met his gaze, glare for glare. There was a flicker of something in her gaze. Oliver thought it was a little pity, but he would not consider it. What he had done, what he needed to do, was not pitiful. It was just a matter of survival.

Dinah dropped the device onto the table. Oliver grabbed it at once. He leaned down and opened the drawer, then slid it inside. When the drawer shut quietly, it seemed that all his problems disappeared. He faced Dinah once more. "The last time I checked this was my office, and you're not allowed in here."

"I stayed with you to help bring you back, Ollie. I drew the short straw, but I did what I had to do."

"You never followed orders before. Why start now?"

"Because she saved my life, kept me from being trapped in that hellhole of a computer," Dinah reasoned. "I owed it to her to keep you from suffering the exact same thing."

Chloe had given him everything he needed. But the entire League had conveniently ignored it. She was the one who gave him the VR. She was the one who wanted him to vanish.

"Oliver," Dinah's voice lowered, "I thought I succeeded until I spoke with Victor only to find out you've done it again."

When she spoke it was as though this was an addiction, that she needed to wean him, that he would collapse into withdrawal symptoms more dangerous than when he quit alcohol.

"What I do with my life is none of your business."

"I gave up a career, dialed back on missions for you. This was my mission for the last year and I did it well. I don't give up on missions, Oliver. I stayed. For you."

"I never asked you to," he answered. The one woman he did ask to stay left him with a lifetime—but it was fake. Fake was better than nothing.

"I don't want to watch you throw your life away."

"You think this is throwing my life away? This is the best way I've ever dealt with loss, Dinah." He wanted to be fair to her. She and the team had made the decision to install a sitter for him like he had been a child.

He and Chloe still had a half dozen sitters coming from the interview, filtered by the agency. He had to remember to put it in his calendar. Then again Chloe must have done it already. Someone had to be pulled to program a sync between his calendar in the office and the server uploads.

"I can't watch this. Neither can the team."

The room was uncomfortably cold. He must have left the air conditioning temperature set to a chill. Looking at her, feeling the pinpricks of coldness biting into his skin, it was no wonder his mind drifted again to the warm cocoon of the bed that he had only just moments ago left. Connor must be awake now. The thick, pregnant quietness between Dinah and himself was stifling. By now Connor would be crying in bed. He almost always rose four hours after he deposited him into his crib, hungry and demanding, with a scream so loud and strong the boy made him proud. Chloe would need to get up out of bed and give him his bottle. Before he left Oliver had placed the sterilizer and the bottles on a higher shelf to make room for the can of formula. Suddenly he wanted to go back, because even if she spotted them where he had displaced them she would have to find a step stool to get the bottles.

This conversation with Dinah had no destination, was a waste of time compared to what he was missing.

"You need time to think, Dinah," was his answer. Her brows furrowed. Her jaw tightened. Almost like she knew where he was going. "Because whether you like it or not, this is part of my life. Tell that to the team. Then you decide whether or not you want to stay. It's no great loss to me whatever you want to do."

She blinked. "Obviously I can't get through to you." She reached for the door. "Maybe AC or Victor can talk some sense into you."

Oliver remained silent. Partly because he had nothing to say. Partly because he remained halfway in a place that was not real, a place he would much rather be in.

Dinah's lips moved, but he heard nothing from her lips.

But faintly, as if the voice came from the floors, the song rose. It was like floating fingers that climbed, brushing past his legs, surrounding him, creeping by his shoulders until it reached his ears. It was recognizable, unforgettable. Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird don't sing, mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring—

Oliver blinked. He glanced down at the drawer, itched to pull that small device that connected him to that world.

When he looked up Dinah was gone. She had left the door open, a silent plea for him to emerge. Oliver slid open the drawer and plugged the device back into the computer, raised the band to his temples. The door mocked him. The dim yellow light inviting him to the carpeted corridor. Dinah's words rang in his head, warning with the gentle song. Oliver put down the device and walked to the door.

He reached for the knob. Standing at the threshold, Oliver glanced outside, saw glimpses of Dinah as she gathered bare necessities and her car keys. He licked his lips. Soon he would hear from the team, the entire group would come down on him the way they had done once before when Victor first found him in the lab, strung to the VR.

Oliver pushed the door close. He pushed the lock, then went back to his seat and put on the device.

He was in his Green Arrow suit, and quickly the walls and ceilings, the walls and furnishings built around him as he walked. His legs carried him forward, and his feet rose to take a step even before the stairs materialized. His consciousness wrapped around the binary code that glimmered around him, and before his feet hit the emptiness there was the step. Oliver jogged up the stairs and made his way past the master's bedroom.

"If that diamond ring turns brass, mama's gonna buy you a looking glass. If that looking glass gets broke—"

The worry, the heavy burden that Dinah had placed on his shoulders fell away. He stopped at the nursery door and watched. Chloe stood at the center of the room only in the nightgown he had given her just a couple of months ago, and it was a lovely and sinful sight the way she gleamed golden in the dark room. Animal shapes were thrown to the ceiling and the wall while the musical globe played in the corner. In her arms Connor fussed, but she kept the rhythm and the dance movement that they both knew calmed the baby.

"Mama's gonna buy you a horse and yoke."

Ever watchful, always protective, Chloe whirled around at the small shift in the air. When she saw him she relaxed.

"What are you doing here, Romeo? I thought you'd be flying through rooftops right about now," she said softly. He walked into the room. "Not that you're not welcome. Your son is getting heavy and I could use an alternate."

Maybe he could call the agency and set up the interviews earlier. He extended his arms. When she hesitated, his lips curved. "I'm sterile," he insisted. "No criminal blood splattered on the leather. See?"

He offered himself up for inspection. She bit her bottom lip playfully. "You might want to stop tempting me, Ollie. The doctor did give me an all clear to ravish you." Oliver chuckled. "Whether or not you have fresh blood on that suit doesn't matter. That's what you use to wrestle bad guys to the ground. You're not carrying Connor in that."

"You didn't think it was disgusting when we were making Connor," he insinuated.

Chloe flushed. And he loved it. Adored that despite the bluster and the strength most of the time Chloe would not push the boundaries when their son was around—a son that obviously would understand nothing yet. She gave a small laugh. "Whatever I thought of the Green Arrow that led to this, it doesn't change the fact that Connor's skin is not going to touch the suit, Ollie."

"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll change. Serves you right if Connor decides to be the next Green Arrow."

As he walked out of the nursery, he heard Chloe call out from behind him, "He's going to be forty before I let him." Oliver shook his head and chuckled. The boy's mother started her crusade at fifteen, and he definitely took up the bow and arrow early in life. Then again, Chloe can live in denial the first eighteen years. There should be no problem with it. When he walked back into the room in a t shirt and sweatpants, Chloe smiled in appreciation. His chest swelled. Because even now the admiration was clear on her face, the attraction evident. "By then his skin won't be so baby soft."

"True," Oliver acknowledged. "So it wouldn't hurt to baby him today."

He took the baby from her and watched as she collapsed heavily in the rocking chair, flexing her arms. He took up the spot in the center of the room and rocked Connor back to sleep himself. The baby mewled and complained at the transfer, which interrupted the long journey back to sleep. Oliver shook his head. "Where were you?" he asked softly.

Chloe rested her head back in her seat and smiled as she watched them. "Horse and yoke?" she hazarded a guess.

Oliver nodded, equipped enough with his tools. "If that horse and yoke won't pull, mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull. If that cart and bull turns over, mama's gonna buy you—"

He marveled at the sight of Chloe in that rocking chair, within moments of sitting falling asleep. Oliver walked over to where she sat and shook her. "Go back to bed. I'll be right there," he said softly.

Without hesitation Chloe stood and kissed his cheek, then Connor's. Chloe made her way blindly out of the nursery.

Finally, when Connor was asleep, Oliver deposited him back to the crib and turned on the nature sounds. He put the blanket over his son and tucked to bolster pillows on either side of him. Not a lot could knock Chloe out, but obviously Connor could exhaust his mother so much that he doubted Chloe had had the energy for much else.

He joined Chloe in their bedroom. She was curled in the bed, primly on her side, leaving a wide room for him. Oliver climbed in and pulled the covers over the two of them, relished the warmth that he could not forget. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, then pulled her close to him. She murmured deep in her throat.

"Hi Ollie," she whispered in greeting.

"Sorry about leaving."

"You're the Green Arrow," she said, as if it explained everything. "There's a world out there for you to protect."

Oliver took a deep breath. He buried his nose in the crook of her neck. "I like this world infinitely better," he confessed.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?"

He felt her hands close over his as they held her. For a moment there was a sharp sting in his eyes, which he rapidly blinked away.

"Is Connor exhausting?"

"Connor is supposed to be exhausting. But he's the best thing that happened to me," she answered.

"We'll get a nanny," he promised her.

"I'd prefer it if you were just around more. Work from home. Cut hours from your both your jobs." She turned in his arms. Oliver looked down at her, stared into her eyes, refused to rise above the consciousness where she was real and right in front of him. "Spend more time with us."

He breathed. A pause. "Yes."

"Yes?" She broke into a bright, sunny smile. Chloe grasped his neck and pulled him towards her for a kiss.

Oliver nodded. "I'll take a vacation from work. I'll make sure the League takes over patrol. I'm staying with you, Chloe."

She blinked away tears, and he was reminded of the day he started playing the pre-packaged scenario that started when she was about to leave him, when she spoke sincerely and broke it to him easily, but he had easily manipulated to an end he loved better. The scenario uploaded into the server which ended with them in the small church, dripping wet from the rain, her eyes misty with tears while he recited vows to him that had been long in his head. She had given him a breakup, and he had played the VR well and ended it with a wedding.

All it took was persistence like his, love like theirs. Even in script she could not deny her natural responses to him.

She embraced him, rested her head on his chest. She twined their fingers together. "You know," she said, yawing, "in a year or two, I wouldn't be opposed to another baby, Ollie." His heart stopped. "Maybe a girl. That would be nice. You and Connor could go fishing or camping. You can teach him all the survival skills you learned in the island and I can go make a little reporter out of our daughter."

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Another year or two, and this will turn out to be a lifetime. Slowly his hand crept up to his temples, counting to ten before he would tear the device away.

Her hands caught his. She raised his fingers to her lips. "I love you," she said.

Oliver closed his eyes and settled back on the bed. "I love you too."

~o~o~

Dinah landed in the alley, across where Flagg's van was parked. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of Flagg waving in a delivery in wooden crates that were marked with caution signs and military placards. Victor had given up on Oliver. AC and Bart had no contribution to the discussion. And since she was ineffective in getting through to him, only one person would be able to destroy the wall that Oliver built around him. It would be the person who caused it to begin with.

Chloe hid herself well. Dinah could find no trace of her. But the Squad, despite their uncanny ability to hide or appear dead, was still easier to track than the former Watchtower.

Dinah ran from the alley and crossed the street. In her black costume she was a part of the shadows. Dinah jumped across the metal fence and darted up to the window of the building. Despite the old and dingy exterior, the building was well furnished and high tech within.

That removed any doubt that Chloe Sullivan was part of the operation. After all, she was rather unimpressive outside—simple, plain. Inside was a powerhouse. So much of a powerhouse, in fact, she destroyed Oliver Queen remotely by giving him a fucking key to happiness.

When Flagg was gone, Dinah broke into the facility and wandered around. She switched on the lights and found herself standing in front of the security door. She set up her comm link and called for assistance.

"Canary, where are you?"

The other woman's voice on the end of the line jarred her. She had expected Victor. Now she had to depend not only on one of Oliver's flames but also with a woman that hardly anyone trusted.

Dinah was curt when she gave the specifics of the security device. Just as coldly, Tess related, "Once you remove the cover, cut the green and blue wire and cross them."

No sooner had the instructions been given when the door clicked, and slowly the obstacle moved.

"Did it work?" Tess said into the comm link.

"I'm going radio silent," Dinah uttered.

Her eyes grew wide at the sight of the fog. It was a cold mist. Dinah realized the room was a freezer. She stepped inside. In her skimpy costume, Dinah shivered. She wished there was a jacket, or a blanket. Close to the doorway she spotted a white lab coat. Without thinking twice Dinah reached for it and put it over her shoulders. She walked into the freezing room and found a familiar glass tube, just one, sitting at the very end.

The sight was eerie, reminding him of the VRA lab where the team had been captured. The lone glass containment bed was hooked to the computer. Dinah shuddered. The Suicide Squad should have been working with them. All along they had been working with the VRA. There was no other way to explain the presence of the technology.

Dinah rushed over to the glass and ran a gloved hand over the frosted mirror. She peered at the face inside.

The villain—the hero—by now Dinah had run out of words to use. But she was asleep, soundly and still. Her shock at seeing who it was caused her to press the button on the tube inadvertently. The glass tube hissed. The cover lifted. It was a little different from her own capture. Dinah saw the tiny sensors attached to Chloe. She raised a hand and held it over Chloe's face. Her breathing was faint, but there.

Even at the loud noise as the tube opened she did not stir.

Suddenly there was the eruption of an alert. Flashing red lights surrounded her. Dinah whirled around and saw Flagg racing through the doors. The large man barreled towards her. Dinah tumbled to the side just as Flagg reached her. To her surprise, instead of turning to her to attack, Flagg hit the button on the tube that lowered the cover.

Flagg pointed towards her, then spat, "Get out before Deadshot blows your head off." He narrowed his eyes. "Unfortunately for you, Sullivan isn't up to the task of barking orders for us to stand down."

She glared up at the man.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "I thought you were working for her." And then she hit him where he would most hurt, where most men of his caliber would hurt. "Never figured you for having weak loyalties, commander."

Her mind raced. She could activate the comm link, call out an SOS to Tess Mercer and have the team present immediately. But this was Chloe, and Oliver would despise her even more if she allowed Tess to lead the charge. And if anything untoward resulted from that, then Dinah was sure she would never be forgiven.

With one last glance towards the glass tube that quickly fogged and hid away her discovery, Dinah burst into a sprint out the doorway.