"Chloe, how could you be so reckless!?"
"What were you thinking?"
"You know we are a team and we do things as a team."
Chloe sat with her hands folded in her lap doing her best to look contrite. But honestly, she didn't care. She had passed bored of this little lecture ten minutes ago and was starting to feel more than a little antsy. Oliver was frantically pacing in front of her trying to make heads or tails of her actions.
"Really Ollie, what are you so worked up about? Mission is accomplished, I'd say successfully to boot so what's the problem?"
"The problem is you blew up hazardous, radioactive materials!"
"Okay, but Lex's safeguard prevents any contamination. I'm actually really surprised he thought of that, I mean who knew he cared?"
Oliver rubbed his temple in frustration.
"Which brings me back to the original point. Why in the world did you feel it necessary to be in the building while blowing it up?"
"Well, it was the only way I could think of to do it. The schematics showed it had to be an inside hack. And I didn't want to involve you guys cause it was a one man suicide mission which by the way wasn't suicide for me, since you know, I can't die." She trailed of lamely with a hint of wistfulness. Oliver looked as her sharply.
"Do you want to die Chloe? Is that what you were trying to do?"
"Don't be so melodramatic," she scoffed at him, "why would I want to do a silly thing like that."
"You tell me." He pinned her with his gaze, but she wasn't going to back down, not for him, not for anyone.
"You are dangerously close to crossing the line with me Mr. Queen. I work for you on a volunteer basis, that's it."
"And that's all we are to you? Just a business arrangement?"
"Are you actually going to pretend to be hurt? If I remember correctly, I got into this business out of friendship, out of this naive desire to do good things and keep my friends safe. And then some bad shit goes down, and all these friends that I cared about left me. They couldn't fly fast enough to get away, including you. But did I sit down and have myself a pity party because things didn't go my way like some people? No. I kept going, I kept working and I changed, I'm not anyone's damsel to be rescued, nor am I the obligatory sidekick. So yes Queen, this is a business arrangement, made for convenience and resources and so we don't step on each other's toes."
"If I recall correctly, you yourself disappeared for quite some time."
"I was training."
"With who, where were you, what were doing? Why don't you want to talk about those two years?"
"I think you're right Mr. Queen. It was reckless of me, unprofessional, I don't think I'm a good fit for this team after all."
Oliver sank down in his chair, all the anger and bluster surprised out of him. And he blankly watched her walk away.
Her face was smooth and implacable, her stride long and confident as she left his building. The only tell tale sign that anything was bothering her was her left hand that she had fisted so tightly that only a couple drops of blood managed to escape it.
She went underground to the subway station, taking a few seemingly random rides. After the subway dropped her off at a deserted platform, she unobtrusively touched a part of the wall and a panel popped out. She rotated the panel around and seemed to just brush her hand against the keypad. In reality she had entered in her key code and the panel pressed back into the wall as a larger panel opened up next to it and Chloe walked through. The whole process had taken ten seconds, but it was just enough time for Clark to catch the bottom of the closing panel with his fingertips without Chloe being aware of his presence.
Clark walked cautiously through the dark tunnel and came to another door. There was no doorknob; he scanned for a hidden keypad, which he found after realizing he still didn't know the key code. He scanned past the door to see a short lithe figure talking animatedly to…no one. There was no one else in the room. Concentrating he focused on just her voice.
"I thought you'd be happy about this. This is perfect, I don't have to worry about prying eyes or ears. I can go solo now."
"Chloe Sullivan, I never intended for you to walk this path alone." That voice! That was Jor-El's voice.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure what your plan was. You turned me into a crazy person with voices in her head just so you could train me. You demanded I keep you a secret and keep my life separate from everyone else's so we could remain in contact. What do you want from me?"
"I cannot tell you your future, but for now you must remain incognito. The world is not ready to embrace you. Neither is Kal-El." Clark had to grit his teeth from shouting protests and ripping down the door. Who was he to say when he was ready for Chloe? He was wrong, so very wrong.
"We're not talking about him. I told you he wasn't an issue grandpop." The words were said jokingly enough, but there was a slight edge as he could see her grit her teeth on the word grandpop.
"Just because my son has blessed this world with an offspring, does not mean your destinies are no longer meant to be."
"Yeah I've heard this line before. I'm tired of destiny. I just want to be left alone. I'll do what you want, I'll continue fighting and training to prepare for this big bad calamity you hint about all the time. Just no more hoops, no more Justice League and no more talk of Kal-El." His father gave a deep sigh. His father actually sighed and it sounded like he was sad and somewhat defeated.
"As you wish Chloe Sullivan." Chloe rubbed her hands roughly against her face. Clark was torn between running to her and comforting her or running to his father and demanding explanations. In the end, he didn't get a choice and the door abruptly opened to reveal Chloe standing at the door, hands on her hips and her eyes blazing.
He barely got a glimpse inside of computer equipment and sterile looking walls before Chloe stepped through the doorway and the door slammed shut.
"Clark, I thought I made it pretty clear my privacy was to be respected."
"You've been dodging me Chlo, I had to talk to you."
"What do you want to talk about?" She leaned against the door and crossed her arms in front, the picture of casualness.
"Were you talking to my father?"
"That's not up for discussion." Clark struggled to not push that one, whatever was going on, he'd have to find out through Jor-El.
"I wanted to talk to you about Lois."
"No need Clark, I understand the birds and the bees. If you're having trouble with her, I'm the last person you should go to, we aren't in contact with each other anymore. I don't know her anymore."
"No, I wanted to explain. It was one time, it was a mistake. One that I regretted until now. I didn't even know if I was capable of having a son and to know that I can and I do have one. And he's perfect Chlo, he's more kind and generous hearted than anyone I know." Chloe's severe expression softened a bit.
"Yeah, he's pretty wonderful."
"How do you know if you don't have contact with Lois?"
"I keep tabs on the little runt. You know Lois and her penchant for attracting hot, powerful guys with killer instincts. Didn't want the little guy to be caught in the crosshairs."
"Thank you Chloe." Chloe's face immediately shut down all emotion at his gratitude.
"Listen, I'm happy for you that you learned you can procreate and now you have a mini you running around but I do have things to do."
"Wait Chloe, that wasn't my point!" Clark asked desperately as she brushed past him to go out of the tunnel.
"And Clark, don't ever invade my sanctuary again, or I'll have to think about lining these walls with everyone's favorite green rock." She disappeared into the inky black of the tunnel and Clark was left more confused than ever. Jor-El, he needed to talk to Jor-El. He had to be able to shed some light on why Chloe wasn't Chloe anymore.
