One Second Chance

Chapter 9


It was late at night. Oliver could hear the wind against the windows of his room. It was howling like crazy and just the sound of it made him shiver. He was wide awake. After they had arrived at Wayne Mansion nothing had gone very smoothly. Alfred had the staff take their belongings to their rooms while Bruce took both of his new guests downstairs to the newly installed bowling alley.

Oliver resented this on two levels. The first was that Bruce was so unoccupied by his nightly prowls and his billion dollar business that he had time to put in a bowling alley and the second was that Oliver had never been very good at bowling.

So that had been an hour and fifteen minutes of hell that was filled of gutter balls, worrying about trying to get Tess away from Bruce so he could be alone with her and humiliation after humiliation handed to him by Bruce while Tess watched the dark haired man throw strikes the entire time.

Oliver sighed and rolled over onto his side.

Dinner had not been any better. Bruce had displayed his cooking skills by grilling steaks outside and even Oliver had to admit that the man was damn good around the grill but watching Tess fawn all over Bruce and every little thing he did all afternoon was not what he had in mind this morning when he wanted to get away somewhere with her.

And he would have had to sit in misery watching them for a lot longer than he did if it had not started to pour down rain while they all sat outside eating their meals. So they had all hurried inside and mercifully dispersed to their separate rooms for the night.

Oliver wanted to forget all about today. Nothing since landing in Gotham City had gone his way.

Now the storm that had ended his misery was in full force while he just lay awake thinking about everything that had happened in his life in the past few days and everything that would happen to him in the upcoming days.

Both thought processes involved Tess, a horrible collision, and her subsequent death were torture for him.

In the stillness of his large bedroom with only his thoughts to keep him company and after the day he had just had, he was more aware than ever of how little time he had left with her.

And all he could think of now was some way to save her. There had to be something he could do.

"But there's not."

"I take it that you, whatever you are, don't sleep." Oliver said in return. He did not even look around but continued to stare straight in front of him at a chest of drawers. He was getting really sick of this guy. Thomas seemed to think that what he was doing was positive but Oliver would argue that this man only brought him problems and he had enough of those already.

"You can't save her. Why do we have to keep going over this?" Thomas asked.

Olive growled. "I can't stand you right now. I am so sick of you telling me things that I know in my heart aren't true. I know I can find some way to save her and I will do that with or without your input. So if you wouldn't mind leaving that would be great."

"You won't find your answers just laying here staring at your walls. Only when you find out what is the perfect present, and this little trip is not it, will everything else become clear."

The words sank into Oliver's skin like nothing else ever had before. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"What? Are you saying I can save her?"

He waited for a few seconds but he received no reply.

"Thomas?" Oliver sat up abruptly to where Thomas' voice was coming from and looked into the darkness.

"Thomas? Dude, where did you go? I am not done talking to you!" Oliver yelled out into the darkness with confusion, panic, and excitement racing through his veins. He had no idea what Thomas was talking about but he was determined to figure out the perfect present for Tess if it meant that after Thomas would let him know if he could save Tess' life.

"Oliver? Who are you talking to?"

Tess' voice made him sit up in bed with shock but he immediately pushed back the covers of his bed and rushed to the door of his room.

He pulled back the heavy wooden door and was greeted with a vision of Tess so simple and lovely that his heart stopped.

Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail but a few wisps of hair fell into her eyes and her face was freshly washed of makeup. She was glowing but the look on her face was one of freaked out concern.

She looked toward the room and then back at him. "Did I hear you speaking to yourself?"

Oliver panicked and he briefly measured how crazy the truth would seem in his mind and quickly determined a white lie was best.

He shrugged awkwardly and blurted out, "Television."

Tess looked at him even more weirdly, "Television?"

"I had the television on." Oliver said and decided to change the subject. "But I turned it off when you called my name. So what do you want?"

Tess got tense all of a sudden. She started to fidget with the drawstring of her pajama bottoms and looked down at the floor. "I don't want anything… I was just um… you know walking around and I couldn't sleep and I—"

Oliver smiled at her a little. "Tess?"

She looked up at him, "Yeah?"

"Do you want to me to keep you company for a while? At least until the thunder and lightning stops? "

Tess gave him a glare that was not very convincing in its intensity. "Do you really think that I am afraid of a little thunderstorm?"

Oliver grabbed her hand away from her drawstring and held it softly. "I know that you talk tough but you don't have to pretend in front of me. Get in here."

He pulled on her hand while closing the door at the same time. She swept inside and then stood in the middle of the room while he shut the door behind her. He turned toward her and the tension between them could be cut with a knife.

He stared at her while she just looked around awkwardly trying to keep up a strong front for him like she had become so used to doing since their relationship ended years ago. It was in that moment that Olive realized just how far they had drifted from each other.

And in that moment, Oliver also realized that he wanted no more of being so far away from her emotionally and physically. So he walked straight up to her, stood in front of her, and as soon as she looked into his eyes with a beautiful mixture of strength and vulnerability, he kissed her.

It started slowly at first. Oliver stood there with his hands on her face with his lips pressed against hers and she stood there without any movement at all. He started to panic after a few seconds that perhaps he had pushed her too far or he was moving too fast. So he moved to step back but Tess' hands found their way into his hair and she pulled him into the kiss deeper as she began to slide her tongue along his teeth.

They began to push and pull against one another as each enjoyed kissing. It had been too long since they had just kissed. There was no anger motivating the kiss or revenge or itch scratching to be done. It was just the two of them and the joy of the familiarity fighting for dominance with the reality of being together.

Then everything changed. Each of them could feel the mood in the room change as her hand began to roam underneath his shirt. He could feel her touch on the smoothness of his back and he ran his hands down her thighs before he settled his hands on her butt and she jumped into his arms.

The intensity in their kissing began to increase as a heat began to course between them. Hands were roaming everywhere, tongues and teeth were clashing, as skin slid against skin, and the only sounds that could be heard beyond the thunder were their whimpers and moans.

As their clothes fell to the floor and he fell onto the bed with Tess straddling him never breaking their physical connection for a moment, Oliver knew that he did not care what happened in the past and for this moment he did not care what happened in the future because all that anyone has is the present and he would cherished every last second.


End of Chapter 9.

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