Tess
Checkmate.
Luthorcorp. and Checkmate co-own Cadmus. Which, makes sense, because Waller, head of Checkmate, hates me even more then Lex does. And, that's a lot, considering, he tried to kill me eight months ago.
I should call Oliver, Lois, and Clark. But Clark never picks up his phone so I call Lois, hoping that they're together, and let's face it, it's not exactly a long shot. I dial her number. "Tess." The way she says my name makes it sound like the most depressing word in the dictionary. "Good to talk to you too, Lois." Frankly I have no problem mocking Lois, it's one of the only ways we communicate. It's the only way we communicate."Meet me at watchtower," I command. I forgot, we also command each other. Not that we listen without a reasonable explanation. "Is this important? I have a lot of stories that I really need to get done, that and I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now," she insults. "Are you ever.," I quip,"yes, it's fairly important." She simply replies,"We''ll be there in five... seconds. I smile out of the corner of gym mouth and hang up.
Next I dial Oliver. "Hey, Mercy." My heart skips a beat at his voice. I hate that it does that, I hate that he makes it do that. "Oliver, I've told you numerous times not to call me that," I say. And that's the truth, it's only a lie if I say I don't like it. "Come on, I know you love it," he persists.
I ignore him. "You have to meet me at Watchtower. Lois and Clark are on their way and Chloe's already there," I say, my voice not betraying the emotions that he makes me feel. But, I ignore them, too. "Chloe?," his voice, however, does. I understand that they haven't talked since the break-up, but I never expected it to get in the way of 'work', as we all have come to call it. "I think you to will be more willing to talk to each other after today," I reply, rather smugly. "What are you going to sit us down and make us talk it out?," he replies. No, because that would hurt me more then it'd be awkward for them. But instead I say, "No, just meet me there."
I pull up to watchtower. Now, the next step, calming Chloe down. I walk through the doors, go through the 553 layers of security. Not literally, but it feels like it. "Chloe, you want to sit down so we can talk about this," I question. "No, I have to trace the server back," she says, determined. I knew I shouldn't have asked her to start tracing the server, but I wanted to get a head start. Though, I should've known better then to let Chloe start. I should've known she wouldn't stop. I argue with myself, all to often.
"Then just listen," I reply. "I can do that." I'm not so sure. "Chloe, I know how you feel," I start. "How could you?" "You're frustrated, you feel as though you had him in your arms, only to have him mercilessly ripped away,". I explain. I do know what she's going through. This is exactly how I felt when I came to own Luthorcorp. Oliver was there, in my reach, but Chloe, though unintentionally, possibly, took him, ripped him from me. "How did you know that?," she questions. "I can see it on your face." Boldfaced lie. And she could tell. "You're lying, it's something else. What happened, Tess," she interrogates, "It was Oliver, wasn't it?" Unfortunately, all this time together up in watchtower, has given her time to get to know me, a little better then I would have liked.
So I simply avoid the question, "That doesn't matter, now, we're talking about Jimmy. I want you to know we'll all do whatever's necessary to make sure you and Jimmy have the closest thing to a normal relationship you can, when you're best friend is superman," I try to comfort her.
Just at that moment, Lois and Clark walk in. I look over at Chloe and get a small smile, so I smile back, that's when I realize, we are actually friends. We've come a long way from that talk we had when we where locked in watchtower. Which wasn't exactly comforting or happy. "Hey, what could possibly be so important that you had to take us off a lead," rants the ever-enthusiastic Lois, "What's going on?" "Have a little patience, wait for Oliver," I reply, knowing it's killing her not knowing. Before she can start yelling, which she does astoundingly often, Clark says "We can wait."
"Wait for what?," Oliver announces himself.