The Hollow Men

by Isabel5

Chloe/Dean - When Castiel goes in search of God, he finds Chloe instead. What does she have to do with Lucifer and the end of the world? Can she handle the destiny that is thrust upon her? More importantly can she handle Dean Winchester?

11. Bad Moon Rising

Bad Moon Rising

I see the bad moon arising

I see trouble on the way

I see earthquakes and lightnin'

I see bad times today.

June 4, 2011

The Kandorians take to their newly acquired powers like fish to water, much better than Clark ever did growing up. All of them are already flying, something Kara hadn't been able to get Clark to do in the year that she was there. The Kandorian's master it in a matter of minutes. Chloe's even more doubtful now that she's done the right thing but she certainly cannot let Clark or anyone else see that. The glares she's constantly receiving from Lois in no way help her feelings but she soldiers on. She sends the Kandorian's on their first mission and puts them in charge of getting all of the equipment Emil has requested and bringing it back to the camp.

In less than an hour it's finished. The large storage barn on the far side of the lake has been repaired, rewired, and transformed into a fully functioning, completely stocked, state of the art medical research lab and that makes Chloe feel slightly that it all might have been worth it. Emil finally arrives at the camp only a few minutes later, doesn't comment on the way he was told in no uncertain terms that his time was up, or the impossibility of Chloe putting together his lab in less than 24 hours, simply nods and requests some samples so he can get started. Chloe dispatches Zod overseas to get blood and tissue from various infected, "anyway you can" she tells him and he nods, relishing the assignment, perhaps a little too much.

When she finally gets Emil settled in and assigns Zod as his personal Kandorian butler with orders to give the good doctor whatever he requires whenever he requires it she's actually exhausted. For the first time in a long time she thinks she could sleep a full eight hours, maybe more, but she has no time for sleep, she won't for another week at least then who knows how long after that.

She has a meeting with Lois to discuss the things they'll need, so much more than she thought. The only thing they're actually good on is toilet paper and even of that Chloe is tempted to order more. She's put off and put off getting the generators and wiring them into the camp. She knows they will need them once the power fails. She never got around to having the wells dug either which will come in handy when there's no more running water. She's not sure if she simply dropped the ball or if she was waiting until the last possible second in the hopes that she may never have to do these things. Then there's the winter supplies, the coats and gloves and scarves and mittens that likely no one bothered to pack, the extra thick blankets, space heaters and so much more they'll need if they don't want to freeze. Her head is spinning and were it not for Sam and Jo and Oracle she knows that there'd be no way she could keep track of all of it, much less get anything useful done.

She has to stave off questions every time she sets foot outside. Everyone wants to know what's going on, everyone wants to know what they're doing, what happens next and Chloe hasn't had enough time to come up with a proper answer. She tells them they'll be a meeting. She tells them to stay calm. She lies through her teeth.

She pauses in front of the lab and just breathes for a second before heading in. "How's it going Doc?" She picks up a box of microscope slides and flips it over in her hands.

"Chloe, hi, what time is it?" He pulls off his glasses and rubs his eyes.

"Ten." She sets the slides back on the counter.

"What day?" Emil asks her confused.

"Saturday?" Chloe says, not exactly sure herself. "Have you slept yet?"

"No." He shakes his head. He looks tired but he doesn't sound it, he sounds almost excited. When Chloe makes a face he simply smiles at her. "Have you?" She inclines her head to him in surrender. "I wanted to make sure you had something to give to the General this afternoon."

"You could have slept." Chloe winces though she's very appreciative of his work ethic.

"No, no, no, this is fascinating." He assures her. "I've never seen anything like it. Sam brought me up to speed with what you know but there's still so much more to be learned."

"Anything I can give the General?" She asks him hopefully.

"Yes, blood to skin contact is not a threat but I'd still be careful because all it takes is the smallest cut, an injury you might not even know you have to get it in your blood stream."

"Anything else?" Chloe looks up disappointed. She pretty much knew all that already.

"I'm sorry no." Emil shakes his head. "It would be easier if I had a live test subject but as that's impossible-"

Chloe holds up a hand and tilts her head to the side. "Nothing's impossible Emil. Not these days. Give me a few hours."

"A few hours for what?" Emil asks her slowly.

"Give me a few hours." Chloe repeats. She nods subtly at Zod. He's been standing stoically like a good little soldier in the corner of the room the whole time. He didn't even acknowledge Chloe when she arrived but now he follows her outside. Emil goes to the door and sees Chloe whispering something to Zod. Zod nods his head and makes a move to walk off but Chloe grabs his arm. Emil opens the door a crack and catches the tail end of the conversation. "For now, let's keep this between us." Zod nods again and zooms off.

"Can you hear much from the camp out here?" Chloe asks absentmindedly, staring across the lake in the far off distance where she can just make out vague shapes of people.

"No." Emil shakes his head slowly stepping outside fully. "We're pretty isolated out here."

"Good. That's good." Chloe nods. "You're going to have two Kandorian's out here with you at all times now."

"Why?" Emil asks.

"For your protection and the camp's." Chloe says cryptically and Emil frowns. The only thing they would need protection from was if…but surely she wasn't actually suggesting bringing live Croatoan infected into the camp. She sees it the second he understands what's going on. "This thing took over Western Europe in less than 48 hours. For all intents and purposes we have to assume that entire European continent is dead. They're not broadcasting and we can't get through to them by any of the traditional means. It's as if they aren't even there." She takes a deep breath. "In less than a week, what happened there is going to happen here." Emil's eyes widen. "I'm not going to be able live with myself if I know there was something I could have done but didn't because of some prehistoric notion of morality."

"How am I going to do tests when I can't touch the patients?" Emil whispers, understanding fully now that Chloe means for him to use them as unwilling test subjects.

"Sedate them, or if you don't want to do that for medical reasons, that's what the Kandorian's are for." Chloe shrugs.

"Are they immune?" Emil asks suddenly the idea bolstering him. Perhaps there's something in their blood he can make into a vaccine if not a cure.

"I don't know." Chloe answers him. "Does it matter?" At this Emil is surprised because to her it really doesn't matter if they're immune or not. When Oliver had related to him that Chloe and Clark had given the Kandorian's powers Emil was obviously worried. Despite their insistence that they merely wanted to help he knew some trepidation was still required when dealing with the Kandorians. Then, upon arriving at the camp and seeing Chloe with Zod and Alia, it almost seemed as if they had come to some tentative partnership, if not even a friendship of sorts, and maybe that's partly true. But he also understands now that a part of Chloe sees them as simply tools, a means to an end and that thought saddens him more than he thought it would.

"I suppose not, no." Emil says quietly.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 5, 2011

Two days go by and they're all still confined in the relative safety of the pub. Joshua's taken hanging out in the main room upstairs even when it's not his shift at the doors. They were forced in the middle of the night last night to board up the windows but it's still better than being in the basement.

"Lunch time." Jeremy stops in front of the booth Joshua had been trying to nap in and he sits up. Jeremy's got two plates in his hands. "You want beans on toast, or beans on toast?"

"Damn, I was really craving beans on toast." Joshua smirks and Jeremy drops the plates on the table and slides into the booth across for him.

"We're running low on food." Jeremy picks at his toast and Joshua finds he doesn't have much of an appetite either. "We're gonna have to go out for supplies."

"I know." Joshua looks up. "The water stopped running this morning."

"Shit." Jeremy hangs his head. "I really thought they'd have been on top of this by now." Joshua raises his eyebrows. "The government, the army." Jeremy answers his unspoken question of who he meant by they. "I'm all for freedoms and liberties but I'd give anything right now to see a mob of camo clad SAS men storm the city and take it over." Joshua snorts.

"Who will go?" He asks, back on the subject of a supply run.

"Me, Max volunteered." Jeremy shrugs. "And Robbie."

"Robbie's got a wife." Joshua looks up in protest.

"Max has a sister and mother somewhere. Maybe." Jeremy adds. "It's not stopping him."

"I suppose." Joshua nods. He opens his mouth and Jeremy shakes his head.

"You don't have to." He tells Joshua. "Even if it's just for show. We all know that Ms. Haden can handle a weapon better than you and you were training to be doctor right? We need you safe and here in case one of us isn't so safe."

Joshua sags in relief then feels a coward for doing so. "I had two years of Med-School before my scholarship funding was pulled. I've spent the last year working in a book shop."

"You can still put on a band aid though right?" Jeremy smiles.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 6, 2011

"What's our long range weapons situation look like?" Chloe asks before the door to the armory is even shut behind her.

"Long range?" Bobby asks her confused.

"Anything that can kill from arms length." Chloe clarifies for him. "We're not going to be able to rely on close combat weapons with the Croatoan infected, you get close you get dead. I need stuff with long range capabilities, guns, bows and arrows, swords."

"The weapon's we're good on, it's ammo where we're short." Lucas pipes up and Chloe turns to him. "We were making our own, rock salt for the shot guns, special bullets for the demons, we didn't bother to stock pile much regular ammo."

"I was afraid you'd say that." Chloe rubs her temple. "How fast can we get some?"

"How much do we need?" Bobby asks.

"All of it." Chloe answers him with no hint of humor in her voice.

Bobby nods slowly. "I've got a few contacts, I can get us set up before the end of the week."

"You have two days." Chloe stands up to leave.

"Two days?" Bobby scoffs at her. "You know something I don't?" He pushes his chair forward, blocking her exit.

"So many things." Chloe smiles briefly. "Two days. You get in a bind I've got a guy I can put you in touch with." She walks out the door without looking back. She wants a drink, she needs an aspirin but she'll get neither one of them any time soon.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"How'd it go?" Joshua asks when Jeremy slinks back into the basement and nods him over.

"What are you guys doing down here?" Jeremy asks casually, almost too casually.

"Amelia was kind of nervous we were distracting her with a very…what's the opposite of "rousing" game of go Fish." Jeremy frowns. "Ms. Haden refused to play any type of poker or blackjack, pretty much any card game they would play in a casino. What's going on?"

"Robbie got hurt."

Joshua sighs and walks up the stairs. Max is standing over Robbie who is bleeding all over Joshua's favorite booth. He stops dead in his tracks and Jeremy is confused for a second until he understands. "He's not infected, we didn't even seen anyone else. Dumb ass fell off a ladder and through a glass freezer door."

"Did you get any water?" Joshua rolls up his sleeves.

"Not a lot, we sort of had to cut our shopping trip short." Max glares at Robbie who flips him two fingers.

"Lucky for us we're in pub." Joshua climbs behind the bar and reaches for a bottle of vodka.

"Wait." Jeremy steps forward. "Not the booze."

Joshua sighs. "He's bleeding all over my favorite booth. He's living in dingy basement which is going to make the risk of infection quite high especially because I don't have any antibiotics so I have to sterilize the wound any way I know how, hence the booze."

"Yeah ok, I get that, but at least don't use the high shelf stuff." Jeremy begs. Joshua turns back and notices that he's reaching for a completely full bottle of Ketel One. Joshua relents and grabs a cheaper no name vodka.

"Could I get some of that top shelf stuff here?" Robbie groans. "We've got no painkillers and I'll need to be slightly smashed when Amelia finds out."

"Good man." Jeremy jumps up and grabs the vodka then two cups and Joshua raises his eyebrows. "What? He can't drink alone, that's just wrong."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 7, 2011

"That's wrong." Chloe snaps at Ellen. "It has to be wrong."

"It's not wrong." Ellen says calmly.

"Well it's not good enough." Chloe wants to scream. With all her planning, all the money she's spent (all of Oliver's money), all the time and energy she's put into this place and this mission and its glaring obvious it was nowhere near enough.

"Chloe we're stocked up for the end of the month." Ellen tells her, taking the anxious tone and in stride. "We're fine."

"We're not fine and we're not stocked up, we're nowhere near stocked up." Chloe counters. "Look we need more. Like a lot more, like it's-the-end-of-the-world-so-what-we've-got-is-all-that's-left-because-we-don't-know-when-we'll-be-able-to-get-some-more more."

Ellen stares at her for a second. "Why do we need that much?" She asks Chloe slowly.

"Because." Chloe catches herself and takes a deep breath. "We need to be prepared."

"Prepared for what exactly?" Ellen lays a hand on Chloe's arm and she brushes it off angrily.

"Don't ask questions, just fix it." Chloe declares, walking out of the mess hall.

"Hey." Jo storms out of the mess after Chloe. "You didn't have to be such a…" Chloe spins around to face her and Jo stops short.

"A what?" Chloe raises her eyebrows.

"Look, she doesn't get how serious this is because you won't let me tell her how serious this is but even not knowing, this hasn't been easy on her, it isn't easy on any of us but we're trying. We're busting our asses to make you happy."

"This isn't about making me happy. This is about our future, our survival." Chloe says.

"And we get that we really do, you have no idea how much we get that." Jo tells her. She pauses, biting her lip. "I need to show you something." Jo grabs Chloe's arm and pulls. Much to her surprise she allows herself to be pulled along.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" Chloe asks, more amused than angry at this point. She's actually slightly impressed with Jo for calling her out.

"We wanted to wait, until it was finished," Jo says as they head into the woods. "But you need to see it now."

"See what exactly?" Chloe asks. They step through the tree line and into a clearing beyond the lake. Only it's not exactly a clearing, it's a field, or rather fields to be more precise. There are rows upon rows of plowed fields planted with various produce and grains as far as the eye can see. She brings her hand up to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun. "What is this?" She asks as she spies what looks suspiciously like citrus and apple trees lining the edges of the fields.

"It's our farm," Jo says with not a small amount of pride in her voice.

In the distance Chloe can see a red tractor, a very familiar red tractor actually and though it's too far away for her to tell who's driving it, from the red jacket, she can hazard a guess. She puts two fingers in her mouth and lets out a rather impressive whistle. The tractor stops immediately, the driver turns in their direction and then suddenly Clark is standing in front of her.

"So you can take the man away from the farm but you can't take the farm away from the man?" Chloe asks slightly in awe. "Did you do all this?"

"It was her idea." Clark nods to Jo and Chloe turns to her impressed.

"It was an off handed comment. I didn't even think it could be done. I mean I knew we couldn't spare the man hours but then Clark offered to take on the bulk of the work himself and then…" Jo motions to the area.

Chloe just stares. This kind of forward thinking hadn't even occurred to her. They had more than enough money, they had shelter and ammo to last them for years but Chloe was already seeing the difficulty in keeping them stocked with a steady supply of non perishable food. But this was renewable, they could theoretically keep replenishing the fields and the fresh fruit and vegetables would definitely be healthier for them all.

This was their future.

She looks back from the fields to Clark and notices for the first time he looks a bit unsure of himself. His hands are thrust into the pocket of his jeans and he shots a quick sideways glance at Jo. She smiles broadly at him and his mood brightens a bit.

He lifts his head, his stance more sure. "I know no one authorized it, but most of the trees out this way were termite hollowed, so I cleared them and started putting in some produce beds and..."

Chloe puts a stilling hand on his arm, much like she used to back in the day when she wanted to tell him she understood. "This is amazing." Chloe steps forward and runs her fingers through the already hip tall stalks of wheat. She lets out a laugh and turns to Clark.

His smile is so genuine it reminds her of days that had become nothing more than a distant memory. Of hay scented spring breaks and star gazing summer nights. Of innocence and freedom from the responsibility of all the lives counting on her. Her own smile dims and she feels a chill slide through her. "Uh, do you need any extra hands?"

Clark senses the change and pushes on. "The land is irrigated by the lake, there's really not much left to do but open the channels once a night and wait for the harvest. I can handle it. I don't want to take any of the guys away from their training. It's important."

"This is important." Chloe assures him.

"Yeah, I know, but I've got it." He assures her.

Chloe smiles up at him. "Clark." She hopes that the tone of her voice conveys the things that she can't say. "Thanks."

He smiles at her and nods. He gets it and they're not ok but his smile gives her hope that someday they might be. They're not those two kids anymore, the ones who used to spend cool summer nights staring up at the stars in his barn making up stories for the constellations because they couldn't remember the real names, who didn't, couldn't have a clue what the world had in store for them.

They've hurt each other over and over again, Chloe's latest transgression is just one in a long line but they've always made it back to each other, albeit slightly tarnished and a bit worse for the wear. Chloe didn't want to admit it but she was actually worried that maybe this last time was just too much to come back from.

"I better get back...there's the broadcasts, preliminary military reports and..."

Clark folds his arms over his chest. "It's fine, go. But Chloe, you know where to find me... if you need me," he finishes slightly offhandedly. It's an olive branch. He disagreed with her plan for the Kandorians but he still went along with it and this is his way of saying he'll still follow her lead. He's still here for her. With a blink, he's back across the expanse of dirt and on the tractor again, hard at work.

Chloe takes one last look, allows herself one last smile then sets her features and turns to Jo. "You yelled at me." She says stone faced as she starts walking back towards camp.

Jo opens her mouth then swallows rushing to catch up to her. "Yes, yes I did do that."

"And if I'm not very much mistaken, you were just about to call me a bitch."

"You will notice that I did not actually call you that though." Jo points out hopefully.

"You should have." Chloe turns around. "I was being a bitch, I have been a bitch. You stood up to me back there. That took balls that I didn't know you had." Chloe says and Jo smiles standing up straighter. "Don't do it again."

"Of course not." Jo loses her smile in an instant. "Ma'am."

"I wasn't kidding when I said we had a lot of work to do, someone's got me-" Chloe looks down at her watch, "Almost half an hour off schedule." Jo opens her mouth to apologize and Chloe turns and starts walking back to camp. "Let's get to it, Sidekick."

Jo smiles at the nickname, she's heard the stories, it's what Oliver used to call Chloe back in the day. Some people, like Lois, saw it as an insult, meant to degrade, but Chloe knew and Jo knows it means more than that. "Yes ma'am." Jo smiles then hurries after her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 14, 2011

"They'll be back soon." Joshua promises even though he's almost past the point of believing it himself. They left nearly five hours ago to get some cough medicine and they still weren't back yet. Everyone had been so worried about Robbie and infection no one noticed when Amelia started coughing until it was too late. Even she'd brushed it off but after three days with no medicine, whatever it is has settled into her lungs and held on tight. Joshua's sure being stuck in a basement for a week isn't helping things. "Hey." Joshua jumps up when Jeremy and Max walk down into the basement. "Where's Ethan?" He whispers and Max just shakes his head. Joshua swallows, that must have been what took them so long. "Well did you get it?"

"Yeah." Jeremy holds up a bag and walks over to Amelia and Robbie. Amelia coughs again and Robbie smoothes her hair out of her face. Jeremy shoves the bag into Robbie's hands. "The place was a wreck, trashed a few times over, pretty much everything was just in a big pile on the floor. Had to dig through it all but I'm pretty sure I got everything you said to get." Robbie empties the bag and every possible pain reliever, headache medicine, allergy and cold pill on the market spills out.

"Thanks." Robbie says grabbing something and taking out a few pills helping Amelia swallow them.

Jeremy nods and gets back up. "This is crazy." He whispers to Joshua. "It's 2011 and it's entirely possible she's going to die from a bloody cough."

"Hey!" Joshua shakes his head no and pulls Jeremy away as Robbie and Ms. Harden try to keep Amelia calm. "Did you get any food?"

"A little." Max says. "Probably won't last but a day maybe two if the three of us don't eat."

"But it's ok, we heard something." Jeremy shakes his head.

"It's not ok." Max interrupts. "It's ridiculous."

"There was a radio in the shop, someone, somewhere, is still broadcasting and they say there's a ship leaving Cardiff in a month for the States." Jeremy tells him. "I think we should go."

"To Cardiff?" Joshua frowns.

"Well yeah, then America." Jeremy says.

"We don't even know if the broadcast was real." Max protests.

"Does it matter? We can't stay here." Jeremy snaps. Joshua has a feeling they've been having this argument since they heard the broadcast.

"So we should go to Cardiff?" Max asks incredulous as if it's the stupidest suggestion in the history of people suggesting things.

"Well it wouldn't be my first choice obviously but it's better than nothing. Look we're running out of food. We've been to every place it's safe enough to go to around here. We're gonna have to move anyway at some point and even if there's no ship, Cardiff's got to be better than here." Jeremy points out.

"Never thought I'd hear anyone say that." Joshua snorts.

"You can't be considering this." Max protests. "We lost Ethan today and that was just running to the corner Tesco's."

"Yeah and Amelia is down here coughing up a lung, most likely from the all mold in this dingy basement." Jeremy snaps back, his voice too loud and everyone stops and looks at him. The tension in the air is so thick Joshua can hardly breathe.

"He makes some good points. I think we should put it to a vote." Joshua says finally. "If everyone agrees we go."

"Fine." Max nods stiffly. "But, I want it on record that I think it's a bad idea."

"Everyone in favor of leaving this hell hole behind and trying to get to America?" Jeremy turns to the others. Slowly one by one hands are raised in the air. "So, it's unanimous?" Jeremy smiles. They all know they can't stay in the pub forever and the prospect of heading to America is very appealing.

"It's not unanimous." Max points out being the only person who voted against.

"Yes but you said if everyone else agreed you'd go along with it." Joshua reminds him.

"I'll go along with it but I want it clear that I'm doing so under duress." Max stands up and walks to the stairs. "We've left the doors unguarded for long enough."

"There's no infected out there." Jeremy reminds him. "None that are trying to get in anyway."

He's right, the ones that had managed to keep their minds, had stayed sane after the infection took over their bodies had all gone from the city. They'd organized together, set up their stronghold in the Parliament building by the river. Jeremy and Ethan had seen it for themselves when they went in search of food. And the crazy ones, well they were only dangerous when you ventured out into the streets, into their territory.

"Best not to take any chances." Max calls casually over his shoulder. He pauses and turns around. "We'll go out for supplies tomorrow and then come up with a game plan. We can head out of the city before the end of the week, give Amelia a bit more time to rest up." Before anyone can say anything, agree or disagree, he slams the basement door shut behind him and that's the end of that.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 16, 2011

"Oliver seriously, what are we doing here?" Chloe stuffs her hands in her pockets and hunches her shoulders up as far as they can go, trying desperately to cover her ears. The temperature had dropped almost ten degrees in the past two hours, making far too cold for this time of year, almost as if the universe can sense what's coming. "We've got less than twelve hours left, I give everyone a day pass and you bring me here?"

"Yep." Oliver nods not offering any more information.

Chloe had gathered everyone in the Mess hall that morning, told them all that Croatoan would be released in the US tomorrow. She explained that they would all be assigned a specific area of the country, that their job would be to try and contain the infection as much as possible, to help whoever they could help, set up refugee camps, make sure the people were as safe as they could make them and if at all possible, try and stay out of the Army's way. Until that happened, if there was anyone in the outside world that they wanted to bring into the camp before the sky fell down, family members, friends, they were more than welcome to go get them and bring them back.

Sam had left early that morning. He hadn't told Chloe who he was going to get and Dean was just as clueless but he had a few ideas. There was a girl Dean said, Anna, she worked in an auction house but that had been so long ago. The rest of their "family" were hunters and already at the camp. Dean had no one to bring in so he stayed at the camp, helping Bobby get the weapons organized and working with Jo to hand out assignments and coordinate travel with the Kandorians.

Chloe also had no one to bring in. Her father was still steadfastly refusing to leave Paris and her mother…she really didn't want to think about her mother. Oliver would be overseeing California and more personally would be in charge of Star City tomorrow. He'd promised Chloe that they would secure her mom's facility, keep it well stocked and make sure the nurses and patients were safe. Chloe knew it wasn't as good as bringing them to the camp but they really didn't have the resources to take care of all the special needs patients and it wouldn't be fair to simply bring her mom and leave the other's to fend for themselves. She didn't like it, but it was the best they could do.

Chloe had been planning on using the day to make any last minute changes to their strategy, double check the weapons supplies and maybe possibly catch up on some sleep when Oliver practically kidnapped her and dragged her to Gotham City.

"I know I've spent quite a lot of your money in the past year but I doubt sincerely that I bankrupted you." Oliver offers her a small raise of his eyebrows to indicate maybe she's not that far from the mark. "Ok, well, even so, the world's pretty much going to end tomorrow and money will be useless. Besides, I think we're a little past begging door to door for corporate sponsorship at this point." She looks up into the imposing visage of Wayne Manor and then back at Oliver.

"Bruce and I are friends." Oliver reminds her.

"Really?" This time it's Chloe who raises the eyebrow. "Is that why I had to disarm the security system from hell and scale the back fence? Because you're such good friends that the front gate just wouldn't do?"

"We haven't actually seen each other in a few years, or well, as far as he knows anyway." They are at the front door now and Oliver raises his hand to knock.

"Seriously?" Chloe's hand shoots out and grabs his wrist halting his movements. "We're just going to knock on the door?"

"Well, yeah." Oliver nods.

"Ollie, we were chased by dogs after sneaking into the grounds and you're just going to knock?" Chloe lets go of his hand and he knocks on the door.

"How else is he going to know we're here?" Oliver asks her with a smirk.

"You're on KP duty for a month when we get back…oh no better yet. We're probably going to need some latrines dug, don't know how long the plumbing is going to keep working." Chloe smiles as the door opens. Bruce Wayne himself stands there with an amused expression on his face.

"Oliver Queen." He puts his hands in his pockets and leans against the door jam. "Haven't seen you since Excelsior. Figured the world would have to be coming to an end for you to show up on my doorstep."

"It is." Chloe supplies helpfully. "Tomorrow at 8 to be more precise." Bruce pushes himself off the wall and stands up straight. "But could we discuss all that inside, it's freezing out here."

Bruce looks from Chloe to Oliver and then smiles. "By all means, make yourselves at home." He moves aside and allows Oliver and Chloe into the house, closing the door behind them.

"Bruce Wayne, Chloe Sullivan." Oliver introduces them and they shake hands rather amicably, though Chloe is still confused as to why they're there.

"Never thought you'd be the type to open your own door." Chloe says for want of small talk as they walk through the cavernous house into one of many sitting rooms. They pass four before they're actually let into one and Chloe wonders what's so special about it when Bruce walks over to the fireplace and turns it on. Chloe smiles and hurries over, pulling her hands out of her pockets and holding them in front of the flames, trying to regain some feeling in her fingers.

"Well my Butler is otherwise occupied."

"He has an actual Butler." Chloe smirks at Oliver. "He knows how to be properly rich. How come you never had a butler?"

"Because I never had trouble opening my own doors." Oliver nudges her slightly out of the way so he can share the warmth of the fire.

"Oliver sucks at being a rich person." Chloe groans as if this fact severely annoys her.

"That doesn't sound like the Ollie I remember." Bruce chuckles.

"It's true, he's completely horrible at it. I would be so awesome at being rich. I would have a butler."

"Where is Alfred?" Oliver interrupts Chloe, as if he'd heard this tirade many times before.

"He's been trying to contact some family members." Bruce runs a hand through his hair, a bit of weariness seeping through his face. "He's not having much luck."

"Oh, right." Oliver nods and turns to Chloe. "Alfred is from England." Chloe's eyes widen in comprehension.

"I'll make some calls; see what I can find out for you if you want." Chloe offers Bruce and he frowns at her confused.

"What could you possibly find out that I can't?" He asks her moving to stand next to the fireplace.

"I know some people." Chloe shrugs and turns around so the fire can warm her back.

"She's knows some people?" Bruce raises his eyebrows and Oliver chuckles. "Does this have anything to do with the world ending tomorrow at nine?"

"Eight." Chloe corrects him.

"Is that Central or Standard time?" Bruce jokes walking to the tall buffet in the corner and grabbing three glasses. Chloe scrunches up her nose in confusion and he grabs the scotch, pouring an even measure in each.

"I don't know." She sounds seriously disturbed by this. "I forgot to ask."

Bruce carries the drinks over and pauses at the look on his old friends face before Oliver takes the glasses from him and hands one to Chloe. "You're being serious about this?" He sips his own scotch and it burns going down, just how he likes it.

"At Eight O'clock tomorrow morning the Croatoan Virus is going to be released in America." Chloe downs her scotch and sets the empty glass on the fireplace mantle. "I don't know where, probably a couple of places for maximum impact, at least that's what I would do."

"Croatoan?" Bruce asks her confused.

"Right, sorry, that's what it's called, or well what we call it anyway. It'll probably be mainstream by tomorrow." Chloe informs him. That's what she's been using to brief her Uncle so that's what he's been using to brief everyone else.

"After it's released in America?" Chloe nods. Bruce downs the rest of his drink and grabs Chloe's glass without asking. He walks back to the bar and pours another round, this one much more substantial than the previous one. "And how is it you know this?"

Chloe abandons the warmth of the fire and walks over to Bruce to retrieve her drink, the scotch doing a much better job of warming her than the flames anyway. "I know some people." She says again cryptically. "Oliver why are we here?" She turns to Oliver whose been content to stay in the background and watch the events unfold for the most part. He sets his still full glass on the mantle and walks closer to Bruce and Chloe.

"We can use him." Oliver tells her.

"I told you, we're pretty set on money and besides a substantial trust fund I don't really see that he's got anything to offer us. Unless you know being a philandering billionaire is suddenly a survival skill." Chloe smirks and tilts her head. "Hey then you'd be set."

"I was never a philanderer." Oliver shakes his head more amused than insulted by her remarks and Bruce resists the urge to show his own hurt feelings. "And he's got more to recommend him than just the ability to sniff out good champagne at fifty paces."

"A hundred paces." Bruce jokes, more surprised that Oliver Queen of all people is defending him than the fact that the world is going to end tomorrow. Maybe the fact that Oliver Queen is defending him is proof that the world is going to end tomorrow.

"You guys have met before." Oliver smiles between the two of them. "Many times before actually."

"I'm pretty sure I'd remember him." Chloe shakes her head.

"Ditto." Bruce raises his glass to her and she joins in the toast.

"Well, you know each other by different names." Oliver crosses his arms over his chest. "Chloe, I'd like to introduce you to Bruce Wayne, or as you know him, Batman." Before Bruce can process that not only does Oliver somehow know his secret, but that he also feels no need to keep it to himself, he's talking again. "Bruce, meet Watchtower."

Bruce turns his attention back to the petit blonde woman pouring herself another glass of his finest scotch and lets out a humorless laugh. "I take it that makes you Green Arrow? IF A=B and B=C then A=C." He explains at Oliver's raised eyebrow.

"And to think in school you had trouble with basic math." Oliver claps him on the back.

"You're Batman." Chloe is glaring at him now instead of smiling. Considering the only thing that's changed in the last two minutes is that Chloe know knows him as Batman, Bruce tries to figure out what exactly he's done as the big bat to incur that ire from her.

He remembers meeting the Green Arrow vividly. It was two years ago. He'd beat the boys in blue to a robbery in progress in downtown Gotham City and was ready to bang some skulls, only someone else had beat him. When he got to the jewelry store the perps were stuck to the wall, green arrows pinning them in place and a leather clad man standing in the corner. "I was wondering if the police were going to beat you." He said, crunching through the broken glass to get closer. "I'd heard pretty good things about your car, guess the rumors are true."

He'd introduced himself as the Green Arrow, gave him a spiel that read like a mission statement and made him an offer to join his team. Bruce not so politely declined but it didn't deter the man in green. He simply slipped an ear piece in his hand and told him if he ever needed help just ask for Watchtower.

Bruce put the earpiece in his belt then promptly forgot about it and the meeting until three months later when he found himself stuck in bad situation and when he'd exhausted all his options he put his earpiece in and called for a Watchtower. Almost instantly a woman replied to his call for help, confirmed his current location, asked him what kind of assistance he needed, and then put him on hold.

She came back a second later, told him that the door to his cell was now open and then talked him out of the compound and back to his car. "Thank you for choosing Watchtower search and rescue, have a nice day." She'd signed off the comms and Bruce found the whole thing amusing. He used the ear piece a few more times. She was always there, ready to help. She always seemed to know exactly where he was and exactly what he was doing too which should have really bothered him but the only times he thought about it were times when he really needed her help so he didn't care.

"Let's get out of here." Chloe turns abruptly on Oliver and even he looks confused. She just sighs and sets her glass down, making her own way out the way they came in.

"Chlo, wait a minute." Oliver walks after her and Bruce follows.

"Did I do something?" He asks her.

"You suck." Chloe turns around and cringes. "I mean you don't suck, you're actually really good at what you do, I mean if you weren't you'd need my help a whole hell of a lot more than you do but as far as team work goes you suck."

"I suck at teamwork?" Bruce tries to understand what's happening and fails miserably.

"You only ever call me when you're in trouble, two seconds away from total death and destruction. You refuse to become a member of the team and actually help in something bigger than yourself." Chloe turns her anger onto Oliver now. "What could possibly make you think we could use him or need him or that he'd want to even help us?" Chloe asks. "The one time I asked him he was nowhere to be found."

"Chloe." Oliver snaps at her and it's been so long since he's done it, it startles her and she stops.

"He left you to die." Chloe reminds him.

Bruce raises his eyebrows, wondering when this event occurred. "Not on purpose." Oliver tells her softly.

"He doesn't care about the greater good, he doesn't want to join the big fight, and he's certainly not going to take orders from me. He's unreliable and I won't have him on my team so it was nice to meet you. Have a lovely apocalypse." Chloe turns on her heel one more time and storms down the hallway. They both flinch when the front door slams.

"I left you to die?" Bruce asks Oliver intrigued.

"There was a thing." Oliver waves it off as if it were nothing. "Everyone else was busy and she sent you a distress signal and you didn't answer."

"I'm assuming everything turned out ok." Bruce says looking at a very much alive Oliver in front of him.

"She was pretty shaken up by the whole thing." Oliver shrugs.

Bruce remembers now, he remembers the distress signal, he remembers ignoring it and now that he thinks about it he remembers Watchtowers communications turning from snarky to chilly afterward.

They find her twenty minutes later shivering uncontrollably, perched on the edge of the well in the garden. Bruce and Oliver cautiously make their way over to her. Oliver slides his jacket over her shoulders before sitting down next to her. Bruce follows his lead.

"It was the first time they'd gone out since…since my husband died." Chloe explains to Bruce without preamble. "It was the first time they'd all been out, as a team, on something big and all I could think-" She turns to Oliver. "If something were to happen to you, I couldn't fix it. I couldn't heal it and then you'd be gone and he couldn't even be bothered to answer the phone."

"I'm fine." Oliver assures her. "Everything turned out fine and no one died and it's in the past."

"But it's not." Chloe shakes her head. "It's not for me." She stands up and paces. "Don't you see, I deal with that every day. Forget the prophecy; forget what I'm supposed to do. In the here and now every day I send people out there, I send them out to fight. They could get hurt, they could die and I can't do a thing to fix them, to heal them. What I can do is make sure that I trust the people out there who have my back, who have your back. I need to know I can rely on them, know they'll do what I tell them to do when I tell them to do it."

Bruce stands up slowly. "Look, I've always been a go-it-solo kind of guy. It's just a part of my nature and I can't change that. You're right, I was a jerk. I used you when I needed you and never repaid the favor, so let me repay it now." Chloe looks as if she's about to protest. "I want to help, I'll do whatever you need me to do, whatever you tell me to do. Let me make it up to you huh?"

Oliver turns to Chloe and offers her a look that reminds her they really aren't in the position to be turning don offers of help and she groans. "You follow my lead, you don't go off on your own, you don't question me."

"I can do that."

"And you refer to me as ma'am." Chloe says. Bruce looks ready to laugh but stops himself by the look on Chloe's face.

"Chloe!" Oliver turns to her surprised.

"No it's fine." Bruce brushes Oliver off. He knows this isn't some power trip, this isn't Chloe making him do this for the fun of it. Part of it is so that he can show Chloe that he's is willing to do whatever it takes, part of it is so he has a constant reminder of who's in charge and part of it is to show the seriousness of the situation. "I can do that ma'am." Bruce nods at her.

"Pack a bag we leave in twenty minutes." Chloe tells him and he turns and goes back in the house. Chloe thinks it might actually work out.

"I am not calling you ma'am." Oliver says.

"That's fine, you already know who the boss is." Chloe winks at him and follows Bruce back in the house.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When Chloe and Oliver get back to camp, Bruce and Alfred in tow, they see they're not the only ones who brought a friend. Chloe spies Tony, the tattoo artist in a heated discussion with a few of the hunters. "I liked it better when I thought you guys were a cult." Tony calls to her.

"You and me both." Chloe smiles and keeps walking. "Whose idea was that?" She asks Jo nodding in Tony's direction.

"Mine." Jo looks up sheepishly. "I just thought with all the new people that are likely to pass through here, it'd be good to have him close by."

"Good thinking." Chloe smiles at her and Jo beams in appreciation. "This is Bruce and Alfred, find them a cabin somewhere."

"We're running short of those." Jo frowns.

"Get some Kandorians, send them out for supplies and have them build some more." Chloe tells her, she can feel the headache forming just behind her eyes again. Those precious few hours when it was just her and Oliver, out in the world, no camp, no apocalypse, no one looking to her for answers or explanations seems like a distant memory now.

"Of course." Jo nods, struggling with the stack of papers in her arms. "These are the latest reports. Oracle's been monitoring all the military chatter. They're contemplating issuing a Nationwide Quarantine on Friday."

"Day late and a dollar short." Chloe snorts grabbing the papers from her. The government had done exactly what she expected they'd do. By the time the outbreak had spread across the entire European continent, moving into Russian and China and down into the Middle East and Africa before the week's end, they had downed all planes, cancelled all flights into or out of the country. They had their top scientist working around the clock and getting absolutely no where. They came on television practically every hour on the hour, all the AM radio frequencies too and assured the nation that they were working on the problem and they would find a solution.

She knew from her talks with her Uncle Sam that they weren't any closer to finding things out than Chloe was, except they refused to listen to him. They were rather insistent that this was merely a terrorist attack, nothing more nothing less. The General had then had the bad sense to insinuate that if it was a terrorist attack, considering they were among the only non infected left, along with Canada, Mexico and South America, all signs actually pointed to us as being the culprit. That didn't go over too well with the Joint Chiefs and Chloe's almost positive that if they'd had the time and manpower, her Uncle would have been tried for treason and dishonorably discharged. As it is, she's pretty sure that he and his whole unit are now technically rogue.

"Did they come up with a plan for if…when the infection spreads here?" Chloe looks up at her.

"Just like you and the General speculated. Declaring Marshall law, shelters, rationing, all extremely predictable." Jo says.

"And completely useless." Chloe lets out a breath. "Thanks Jo." Jo just nods and motions for Bruce to follow her.

"Chloe!" A familiar voice calls out from across the grounds. It sounds scared and hopeful and relieved, which isn't a strange thing around here. She turns around and her breath catches in her throat. Standing in the doorway of the Mess Hall is Martha Kent, one hand resting lightly over her heart, the other covering her mouth. There are tears in her eyes and Chloe wants nothing more than to run to her, to be pulled into her arms and given that famous Martha Kent hug that makes everything better, makes the bad things go away. She wants that hug for herself as much as she wants it for Martha because if she's here, than Clark has told her, told her everything that had happened and everything that would happen.

Martha walks down two steps and stops. Because as much as Chloe wants to run and hug the woman who had become a surrogate mother to her the moment she stepped foot on the Kent farm for the first time, she cant. There are just too many people around, too many people to show that kind of weakness in front of. So she walks, calmly and slowly across the grounds and up the steps of the Mess hall. "Martha." She nods at the woman and Martha's face falls just barely.

"Chloe." Martha nods back, somehow understanding that she just can't.

"I'm glad that Clark brought you. We can keep you safe here."

"It's all true?" Martha asks.

"I'm afraid so." Chloe nods. "Did Jo find you a cabin? A job?"

"I'm working with Ellen in the Mess." Martha smiles.

"Of course you are." Chloe laughs. "Look, I've got tons of stuff to go through. Away from camp for half a day and…" she gestures vaguely to the stack of papers in her hands. "I have to check on Emil and Bobby but I'd really like to see you later, catch up?" Chloe trails off slightly; something over Martha's shoulder has caught her attentions. "Excuse me." She vaguely registers passing the stack of papers off to Oliver and then walks back down the steps toward Sam.

"Chloe." He smiles at her and lays a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the man next to him.

"Who's your friend?" Her voice is surprisingly bitter even to her own ears and the unveiled venom makes Sam step back.

"This is Father Mac." Sam says slowly and Chloe turns to the priest and looks at him more carefully.

"I told him you wouldn't exactly be happy about it." Dean says from behind her. She's so distracted she didn't even see him come up.

"Let me get this straight, you brought a priest to the apocalypse?" Chloe asks him and Sam shifts uncomfortably. She can't help it but she laughs.

"I'm sorry, what exactly about this do you find funny?" Father Mac interrupts.

"I'm sorry, what exactly about this do you not find funny?" Chloe shakes her head. "Whatever, I'm tired and I want a shower and maybe two or three hours of sleep before everything goes down tomorrow. I'm sure you'll be very useful Father Mac, if anything you can make holy water."

"Indeed I can." He says to her somewhat sadly.

"He was hoping that maybe you could spare a place where he could…" Sam trails off.

"A chapel." Father Mac explains and Chloe laughs again. "With everything that's happening right now, I don't particularly find the idea of place where you can go and worship and seek guidance and forgiveness to be such a comedic thing."

"You do realize, I mean Sam has explained to you that God is missing. He's no longer in heaven. He's not available to take your call right now? Who exactly are we supposed to seek this forgiveness from?"

"Regardless of his current location, I believe that God never truly leaves us and forgiveness can always be found, even in the darkest of times." He tells her defiantly.

Chloe stares at him for a while and she recognizes that although a church is the last place in the world she would want to step foot in at the moment, the others at the camp might feel differently, especially all the new ones, the scared ones. "Talk to Jo. We got a lot of new people today so space is going to be tight, but if you can find a building you can have it."

"Thank you." He smiles at her.

She turns around wanting nothing more than to shower and crawl into bed, preferably with Dean, but she sees Alfred standing behind her, her papers cradled neatly in his hands as he holds them out to her. "Thanks." She smiles briefly at him.

"You're welcome miss." Alfred affects a small bow and she heads toward her cabin Dean hot on her tail and Alfred close behind them.

"Why is the old guy following us?" Dean asks her.

"Alfred?" Chloe stops and turns to see he's still following her.

"Yes miss?" Alfred smiles at her.

"Can I help you with something?" She turns all the way around.

"No miss, I'm fine thank you."

Chloe looks weary but resumes the walk to her cabin. When she gets there Alfred follows her in. "Ok, what exactly is going on here?"

"Master Wayne has requested that I attend to you from now on." Alfred tells her.

"Bruce gave you to me?" Chloe allows a slow smile to grow on her face.

"Indeed he has." Alfred smirks. "He said to tell you that he intends to make things up to you and this is just the beginning. An auspicious start wouldn't you say?"

"I would." Chloe smiles. "Look, I'm fine right now, I'm really tired actually." She cuts a glance over her shoulder at Dean who seems to be waiting rather impatiently for her. "So I mean, I'm good you know, if you want to go get settled and everything."

Alfred looks behind her at Dean who smiles tersely. "Of course miss. I'll see you in the morning then. Wake up call at five thirty."

"Shall we say eight?" Dean asks hopefully.

"Four actually." Chloe corrects both of them and Dean and Alfred look to her. "The virus is going to be unleashed at eight." She smiles at Dean. "And I spent half the day recruiting someone I didn't particularly want to recruit, no offense." She says to Alfred. "I've got to check in with Emil and figure out the best place to send the Kandorians. The government is going to be caught completely off guard because they refuse to listen to reason." She bit her lip and changes her direction from the bedroom to her computers. "Oracle I need you to pull up the projected infection sites again."

"Ok." Dean shakes his head and walks to the door. "Alfred, we'll see you in the morning." He looks back at Chloe who is glaring at the screen in front of her annoyed. "Five o'clock at the earliest."

"Of course sir." Alfred smiles and walks out. Dean comes up behind Chloe and lays his hands gently on her shoulders which are basically two giant knots.

"You've looked at the projections a hundred times already. You've gone over the instructions with Zod and the Kandorians more than a hundred times and there is nothing left to do but sit and wait." Dean tells her seriously.

"I'm really bad at the sitting and waiting." Chloe spins the chair around to look at him.

"I'm pretty sure I can think of something to take your mind off of things." Dean waggles his eyebrows suggestively and Chloe can't help but laugh, releasing a bit of tension.

"I'm sure you can." Chloe nods.

"So, you disappear with Oliver this morning and show up five hours later with none other than Bruce Wayne." Dean tries very hard to appear nonchalant.

Chloe allows a small smile to twist the ride side of her mouth and she stands. "Why Dean Winchester are you jealous?"

"No." He scoffs, his expression however betraying his tone. "But seriously, how many pretty boy billionaires do you know?"

"A girl's gotta have a hobby." Chloe jokes.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

June 17, 2011

Joshua takes a hesitant step outside the bar and onto the city street. It's the first time he's been outside since everything happened and he's almost half expecting to be attacked on the spot. Max had said the best time to travel is in the early morning hours. They aren't likely to run into many of the infected at this time of day and the sunlight will allow them to save the batteries in their torches.

The others slowly emerge behind him. Amelia's heavy breathing is the only sound that Joshua can hear in the pre dawn stillness of the street. He looks to the East and sees the sun rising slowly up behind the eerily stationary visage of the London Eye. Max had said that the sky's were heavy with smoke clouds from fires but since the rioting had all but stopped it's looking like it might turn out to be a clear blue sky today.

"Let's go." Max mumbles gruffly, his deep voice sounding far too loud, practically echoing in the alleyway around them and they all scurry to obey. Joshua's pack is heavy and already weighing him down but he'd offered to carry the bigger load because he knew in a fight he'd be useless. Max found him a gun from somewhere, they're all armed now but Joshua isn't sure if it comes down to it that he can actually use the thing.

If it wasn't for the overturned cars and boarded up windows, the deserted street fronts and the rancid lingering smell of death in the air, Joshua can almost imagine himself on a leisurely early morning stroll. He used to do that a lot with Beth. She loved London in the morning. She said it was like catching a secret glimpse of a hidden city, she was convinced one day if she tried hard enough she would get to see the whole thing.

Most morning's she'd take her sketch book and a thermos of coffee and sit at one of the benches around the fountain in Russell Square and watch all the early morning commuters hurry off to work. There's a huge box in their flat with hundred of sketches of businesses men walking, heads lost in newspapers, morning coffee cup held absently in their hands.

He has the sudden urge to walk in the opposite direction, to go to the fountain one last time. It was the place where they met, and he needs to see it, if only to say goodbye. "Joshua?" Jeremy asks confused. Without realizing Joshua had actually started to walk in the direction of the fountain, his feet leading him there out of habit. "Where are you going?"

They've all stopped now and are staring at him in confusion. "Sorry, nowhere." He turns back toward the group and shrugs it off. The fountain probably isn't even running any longer. With no water or power it just ceases to exist, sort of like London itself.

"You ok?" Jeremy asks him concerned.

"No." Joshua says resituating the weight on his back, but he doesn't elaborate and Jeremy doesn't press.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Dean doesn't snore. It seems strange to Chloe because Dean's a big guy. Not necessarily tall but stocky and muscular, solid. But he doesn't snore. Jimmy, wiry thin Jimmy Olsen who looked like a good wind could have knocked him over, snored like a chain saw cutting through a petrified forest. Even Oliver let out the occasional deep sleep snort. But Dean is perfectly calm and quiet, and yet still solid somehow.

Chloe lays her hand on his chest, splays her fingers out and stares at the distinct color difference in their skin; Chloe's pale white fingers against his dark sun tanned chest. She's not exactly sure when he stopped bothering to go back to his cabin to sleep at night, she doesn't really have the energy to think about it and she doesn't want to admit that she kind of likes having him there.

With Jimmy they rarely ever slept together, actually spent the night in the same bed. Partly because of the snoring which by two in the morning would usually drive Chloe to the couch, but more often than not because Chloe wasn't even there, was off on some mission for Oliver or Clark. The few nights that they did manage to stay the entire night in the bed together it was always weird for Chloe, she could never get used to the presence of another person beside her.

With Dean it's different, even though she rarely sleeps these days she likes to spend the majority of the night in the bed with him while he sleeps. She likes having him there, he makes her feel safe. He makes her feel like, after a very long day of being the boss, of being the one in charge, she can just be herself. He makes it ok for her to be Chloe and he somehow accomplishes all of this while sleeping quietly at her side.

He takes a deep breath, bringing up one of his hands to cover Chloe's. His fingers slide in-between hers and he closes his fist, trapping her hand in his. She smiles somewhat fondly at him before she catches herself and swallows hard. Pulling her fingers carefully free, she slides off the bed and grabs her pants. She dresses quickly and quietly then slips out of the room before he has a chance to wake up and wonder where she's gone.

She stands on the porch for a minute breathing in the crisp air. The sun hasn't risen yet but it's rays are already brightening the sky a bit. Chloe loves the camp in the early morning hours. Besides those on patrol or those who have chores better done in the early morning cool air, she's generally the only one awake. She can walk around undisturbed, not be bothered with questions or worries. She sees smoke coming from the chimneys of the mess hall and heads in that direction.

"Come on boy." Chloe calls to Malachi who's sleeping lazily on the porch. He offers her a disinterested grunt and stays in his comfortable position by the door. "Suit yourself lazy bones." Chloe smiles and walks down the steps.

"Ellen you know you're probably my most favorite person in this whole camp?" Chloe calls out when she finally makes her way into the back room of the mess, sitting in her usual spot at the prep table. Most days she'll sit back here and eat her breakfast in private and have her coffee while Ellen putters around her to get everyone else's breakfast ready. "Well, ok, my most favorite person in the whole camp as long as you've got coffee brewing."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" A coffee mug slides in front of her and Chloe looks up to see not Ellen but Martha Kent smiling down at her.

"Martha." Chloe breathes out.

"I figured I'd let Ellen sleep in this morning, give her a bit of a day off." Martha sits down next to her. "So."

"So." Chloe nods. There is so much that she wants to say, so much that she wants to explain. She wants to tell her everything, she wants Martha to hold her and tell her it will be ok because if Martha Kent says it'll be ok, then even the universe wouldn't dare disappoint her. But she can't. Even in the early morning hours, in the empty back room of the Mess hall, just the two of them and a thermos of coffee she can't do it. She knows she can't do it because if she lets one thing go she'll let everything go and she can't afford that, not today.

Martha senses this and takes pity on her. "How about a Kent Farm special this morning?" She offers instead. It's a breakfast that Martha made up what feels like a lifetime ago for Clark and Jonathan, for those days when there was so much work to be done on the farm only a proper farm house breakfast would do.

"That sounds like heaven." Chloe nods thankfully.

Chloe is instantly transported back to Smallville, back to her customary seat at the kitchen island, watching Martha crack eggs and stir waffle batter. They talk about nothing, about everything. Chloe laughs as she relates how Clark told Lois his secret and how Lois kept him in the doghouse for days afterword. They talk about stupid things and they talk about serious things. "Part of me feels like I shouldn't be here." Martha admits to Chloe flipping bacon on the stove. "Like I should be with my people, my constituents."

"There's nothing you can do for them out there." Chloe shakes her head trying to reassure Martha that she is exactly where she needs to be. "Trust me, you'll do more good here than you could ever do out there."

"I know." Martha sighs. "But it feels like I'm running, like I'm hiding. Like I'm taking the easy way out."

"You're being safe." Chloe says. "Which is almost all you can do these days."

"And you?" Martha sets the food down in front of Chloe. "Are you being safe?"

"I'm…." Chloe looks up and smiles. "I'm doing what needs to be done."

Martha doesn't point out that Chloe didn't actually answer the question. "Are you taking care of yourself at least?"

"I have people that do that for me now." She's joking but only a little.

"Well now you have one more." Martha pats her on the hand. "Eat up, I've got to start breakfast for everyone else."

Chloe digs into the food and it's quiet for a while, the good kind of easy quiet that she doesn't get a chance to relish in much these days. So really she should have been ready for the question, and she is in a way, just not when her mouth is full. "So tell me about this Dean Winchester."

Chloe manages not to choke but just barely, swallowing a mouthful of piping hot coffee just to keep everything down. "What about him?" She looks up. She knows Martha doesn't want to hear about his role in the apocalypse, doesn't want to know that he's Michael's vessel. Doesn't care that he's been fighting this fight since he was old enough to hold a shot gun. That's not why she asked.

"What do I need to know?" Martha raises an eyebrow and leans against the edge of the counter.

"He's a good guy." Chloe takes another sip of coffee. "One of the best actually."

"And?" Martha presses further and Chloe takes that as her cue to leave.

"And that's it." Chloe stands.

"Chloe." Martha steps forward. "It's been almost two years since Jimmy died and I would never begrudge you another chance at happiness. It's ok to want that, it's ok to have that again."

"It's not like that." Chloe snaps, regretting it instantly but she can't help it. Her cheeks are burning and she feels like she's sixteen again having the sex talk with her dad. "We're just having fun, which is in short supply these days."

"Oh." Martha backs off, sensing that she doesn't want to talk about it. "Ok."

"I've got a really busy day." Chloe makes her excuses. "You wouldn't happen to know if Jo was awake would you?'

"She came in here about thirty minutes before you did actually. Got a thermos of coffee and a basket of fruit and bread."

Chloe frowns. "Do you know where she was headed with all that?"

"She mentioned something about a clearing behind the lake." Martha offers.

"I know where that is. Thanks." Chloe takes one last sip of her coffee. "And thanks for breakfast."

"Anytime." Martha nods as Chloe makes her way out of the hall.

By this time the camp is starting to wake up, people are milling about and those everyday familiar noises that have become the background soundtrack to Chloe's life are starting up. She manages to avoid as many questions as possible, slipping past the new people who don't know who she is yet without incident and heading onto the well worn path that follows the lake toward the tree line.

"If you weren't here, where would you be?" Jo's voice pierces through the trees and Chloe speeds up, confused as to who she could be talking to.

"I don't know." The voice is familiar. Chloe recognizes it as Jason, Lucas' brother. "Where ever there was a job I guess."

Chloe moves closer, slipping out into the clearing where the two of them are visible. They're lying on the dew soaked grass, a thin blanket their only protection from the moisture. Jo's head is cushioned on Jason's chest as he runs his fingers through her hair. She lifts her head and turns to smile at him. "I mean if there were no jobs, if you were to settle down, let Lucas go to school."

Jason's quiet, thinking. "I tried that for a while you know. Right after mom and dad died, I got a job at this dinner in a small town just outside of Tulsa. Kellyville. It was just me, this crazy old guy who'd been cooking there since it opened and one waitress, Gloria. Lucas used to come in after school, sit in a booth in the corner and do his homework and Gloria would sneak him pie before diner and it was nice." She smiles at him and he kisses her nose. "What about you, where would you be?"

"College I suppose." Jo shrugs. "I've never really thought about it. There's never been a time in my life when there wasn't a job, wasn't a fight."

Chloe backs away slowly and heads to the camp, giving them this, this time, this moment. She can't believe she didn't see this, didn't notice before this. Jo and Jason somehow make sense when she thinks about it. She smiles suddenly though, glad that something good came out of this, that even in the midst of the end of the world those two have managed to find each other.

A part of her, a part of her that she's not ready to acknowledge is jealous of them, jealous that they can just sit there and be with one another, openly and honestly and not worry about anything or anyone, even if it is just for a few hours.

"Hey." Dean falls into step beside her when she emerges from the trail. Malachi is following happily after him and Chloe spares the dog a withering glance.

"Traitor." She jokes and the dog barks at her.

"I had bacon." Dean excuses the dogs actions. Malachi is normally loyal to Chloe. Loyal to a fault unless Cass or Dean and some sort of meat related product is involved.

"You shouldn't be bought so easily you know." Chloe scratches the dogs head briefly.

"We can't find Jo." Dean looks around the grounds.

"Jo's fine." Chloe brushes him off.

"She's got everyone's assignments." Dean raises an eyebrow.

"Oracle has a backup copy, get it from her and have Chuck take over for Jo until she shows up." Chloe finds herself at the door to the armory.

"Ok, but where…"

"She's fine." Chloe snaps at him. "Just let her be for one day ok."

"Ok, fine." Dean backs off slowly, Malachi following him and Chloe can't blame the dog, she wouldn't want to be around her this morning either.

She sighs. The day started off so promising but she's already snapped at Martha and Dean and it isn't even seven o'clock yet. She opens the door to the armory, unsurprised to find it empty except for Lucas. "Do you ever sleep?"

"Do you?" Lucas looks up at her and smiles.

"Any luck?" She nods to the left where her sword is lying alone on a table. Lucas has had it for two weeks now desperately trying to figure out how it works, how it managed to kill Adriel. Chloe doesn't want to admit that she's missed it, that her fingers have been itching to hold it, to wield it since she left it in his care.

"Nothing." Lucas tells her sadly. "I've tried everything, there's no reason why it should kill angels. It just does."

"That doesn't help us." Chloe sits down and runs her fingers over the blade reverently.

"Not really no. Though from what I gather you shouldn't be running into too many angels these days." He's right actually, most of the angels have gone underground in an attempt to regroup. They're massively outnumbered now with Croatoan infected all over the place. Lucas flashes her a bright smile. "But I made you a better sheath." He reaches for something behind him and passes it to her. The leather it's made of is soft and warn, flexible but strong, but more importantly it's compact. "It'll fit closer to your back allowing for easier access and conceal under your shirt better."

"Thanks." Chloe's finger curl around the hilt of the sword and something in her purrs. She doesn't realize that her whole body has been vibrating with a sort of nervous energy until she's holding the sword again and suddenly it stops. She slips the sword easily into the sheath and slings it over her shoulder. "You've got everything ready?" Lucas nods. "Are you gonna need any help passing out all the weapons?"

"I've got it covered. Jo assigned me some of the new guys." Lucas tells her.

Chloe stops and studies him. "Did you know that Jo and you're brother are…"

"Schtupping?" Lucas asks.

Chloe laughs surprised. There's something about Lucas that never fails to put her in a good mood. "How do you know that word?"

"Bobby taught it to me." Lucas grins. "It means-"

"I know what it means." Chloe holds up a hand.

"Yeah they've been…you know…for a few months now. They work really hard though so they don't get to spend a lot of time together." Lucas says. "They're not in trouble are they? Because she makes Jason smile." Lucas tells Chloe. "He hasn't really smiled a lot since mom and dad died. But now, he smiles every time he sees her. He's happy."

"They're not in trouble." Chloe shakes her head. "Don't worry, I may be a slave driver but I'm not in the business of keeping people from being happy." She heads for the door.

"Are you happy?" Lucas calls out to her and she stops and turns around. "I mean you don't really smile a lot."

"I smile with you." Chloe reminds him.

"Well yeah, because I'm awesome." Lucas snorts. "I'm serious, are you happy?"

"I'm fine." Chloe assures him.

"Fine's not happy." Lucas points out to her.

"No it's not." Chloe shakes her head, opens the door and walks out.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

An hour later Chloe watches from the porch of her cabin as the entire camp gathers on the Archery Range. Lucas is handing out weapons while Martha is giving out rations. Father Mac is even out there at the edge of the field offering up prayers or blessings or whatever it is Priest's do before a battle. People are milling about packs hung over their shoulders and a nervous anticipation permeates the air around them. Those that are staying behind are giving their final, sometimes tearful goodbyes but yet there are still smiles.

Lucas' words are burrowing into her brain, like a song that she can't get out of her head. "Fine's not happy." She tries to remember the last time she was happy, tries to figure out the last time she didn't feel this unbearable pressure on her chest and she can't remember, can't think. She knows now is hardly the time to be dwelling on such an existential question but she can't help it.

"They're almost ready." Dean walks up behind her and the faint tickle of his breath on her neck is all it takes to ground her. He's solid and he's there and Chloe knows that if she just leans back, just a little, just enough so that her shoulders hit his chest, she knows that he will gladly take the weight from her, gladly hold her up and keep her standing and the knowledge of that eases the pressure on her chest, just a little, just enough for her to breath.

She closes her eyes and leans back until all her weight is balanced on her heels but at the last second something makes her lean forward instead. Her eyes open and she lets out a breath. Now is not the time, but maybe someday. "Let's go." She brushes past him and heads for the steps only to stop and turn around. "Dean?" She bites her lip and he looks at her expectantly. "Are you happy?"

He stops at this and thinks, really thinks about it before a slow smile spreads across his face. "As strange as it sounds, yeah I think I am." He tilts his head and stares at her. "Are you?"

"No." She answers him truthfully and his smile falters a bit. "But for the first time in a really long time, I'm starting to think that maybe someday I could be."

Dean's smile comes back at that and it's even brighter for some reason. "Good, that's good, someday is good."

"We should, you know, go." Chloe says feeling slightly uneasy under his piercing gaze.

"We should." Dean nods stepping slowly closer to her. Suddenly he's right there, in her face. His fingers come up and brush her cheek lightly, his thumb running over her bottom lip quickly before he leans in and captures her mouth in a soft kiss. They don't do this, they aren't about public displays of affection or really any displays of affection but Chloe can't bring herself to push him away, to pull her lips away from his. Instead she finds her hands sliding up his chest, her fingers slipping into the hair at the back of his neck, pulling him closer.

In the end it's Dean who pulls away, resting his forehead against hers as he pants trying to catch his breath. "Promise me you'll be careful." Chloe opens her mouth to remind him that she doesn't need to be careful but he kisses her again, quickly, cutting her protest off. "Promise me Chloe." His voice is low and desperate and she doesn't understand what's happening. "I won't be there to…I need you to promise me."

She gets it now. It's sweet in a way really. This is the first time that she'll be out there without him, without Dean to back her up. Even though she knows logically she doesn't need him to keep her safe. She knows that she could probably, literally, walk through fire and come out the other side unscathed. But the fact that she's going out alone suddenly seems to hit her. "I promise." She whispers against his lips and that must be all he needs because then he's gone and the abrupt loss of him startles her. She opens her eyes and he's standing two feet away from her, his fingers clenched at his sides, his eyes screwed shut tight as he consciously breaths in and out.

"Ok." He nods after a minute and opens his eyes. "Ok then. I'm holding you to that." He walks past her, dropping the briefest of kisses on her forehead before continuing onto the Archery Range, taking his weapon and pack from Sam.

Chloe follows him down. As she passes people begin to fall in line behind her without her even having to say a word until they're all standing waiting for her orders. "You all know what you need to do, where you need to go?" There are nods and murmurs of "yes ma'am" through the crowd. "Let's get to work." She turns around and heads over to retrieve her own pack, rechecking the sword at her back.

"I would have gone for something a little more epic…maybe bring a little Shakespeare into it. 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'." Chloe looks up at Lois and raises her eyebrows. "But yours was good too, short and sweet."

"You ready to go?" Chloe adjust the pack on her back and Lois nods holding up Malachi's leash in one hand and her own bag in the other. This is it. Behind her Castiel and the Kandorians are transporting everyone where they need to be. She catches Castiel's eye and he stops offering her a small mock salute.

"Lead on Oh Captain my Captain." Lois smiles pulling the keys out of her pocket.

Chloe plucks them from her hands and walks away. "I'm driving."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The M4 is deserted, it's spooky. Abandoned and severely damaged cars litter the road. A few bodies lie rotting in the sun and the fact that the smell doesn't bother Joshua, bothers Joshua. It had taken them two days to get far enough out of the city that it was even worth it to use a car and now they have plenty to choose from.

They pick the first one they come across that will fit all of them comfortably and is still small enough to maneuver around all the wreckage with relative ease. Plus it's the only one where the seats aren't soaked with blood. Joshua chooses to believe that the driver and passengers simply abandoned the car, that they're safe somewhere at a refugee camp, or possibly also on their way to Cardiff, choosing to go on foot for some reason.

Joshua takes the first driving shift, leaving Robbie and Max free to be on the lookout for infected. Jeremy finds the radio station that's broadcasting the information about the boat headed to America and seems almost relieved. The past few days have been hard on all of them and it's almost as if at this point he was worried he'd made the whole thing up. "Won't be long now." Jeremy relaxes into the front seat of the car, keeping a furtive eye out for any danger that might befall them.

They make excellent time, managing to get from the city limits to Reading in about four hours. They're forced to stop at an abandoned petrol station to fill up and search for food and they're so excited about their progress that they let their guards down.

They emerge from the station to find themselves perfectly surrounded by infected. Joshua drops all his goodies and heads straight for the car. He sees Amelia get grabbed out of the corner of his eye and Robbie, who'd been free and clear and two yards ahead of him, turns and runs back into the fight after his wife. He see's Max physically pulling Ms. Harden toward the car and opens the back door for the two of them to jump in.

Jeremy's on his tail and they both slide into the front. The car starts and they drive off in a screeching of tires, kicking up dirt and gravel in their wake. "We have to go back." Joshua screams.

"No way." Jeremy shakes his head and keeps on. "No more stopping, not until we're in Cardiff."

"I'm afraid that won't do." Ms. Harden says from the back seat. Joshua turns around concerned at the tone in her voice and she pulls her hand away from her neck to show a jagged gash bleeding down her chest. The wound itself is likely not life threatening but the look in her eyes lets Joshua know she's been infected.

"Fuck." Jeremy says, seeing what Joshua's seeing from the rearview mirror. They've put enough distance between themselves and the infected that Jeremy feels safe enough to pull the car over.

"Now, I may be dying but that's no excuse for foul language." Ms. Harden scolds him and Jeremy, Joshua, and Max all have a good laugh at that. "It's ok." She tells them. "I'd never been too particularly fond of the Welsh and have no desire to visit Cardiff." Joshua cracks another smile. "Just let me out here, you three keep going. I'll be fine."

"You won't." Joshua says annoyed at this whole situation, loosing Beth, Harry, Ethan, Amelia and Robbie and now Ms. Harden, sweet little Ms. Harden who baked him biscuits when he moved in. "You'll either turn into one of them or you'll just go crazy."

"Actually I was rather hoping one of you would save me from that fate." Ms. Harden looks between them and Joshua understands what she's asking. He feels the weight of the gun in the waist band.

"No." Jeremy says before Joshua can offer his own protest.

"Now now boys." Ms. Harden says. "It'll be a mercy and you know it, you'll be helping me, not killing me."

"I'll help you." Max pipes up from beside her.

"Max, this is crazy." Joshua argues.

"Not so much." Max says lifting up his arm and showing an ever growing bloodstain spreading out from a wound in his side. "Was planning on…helping myself out…don't see why I can't do her first."

"Max." Jeremy shakes his head as Max opens the door and climbs out then helps Ms. Harden.

"You two get to Cardiff, get to America. Everything's better in America right, isn't that what they say?" Max offers.

"We can't just leave you." Jeremy says weekly even as he moves the car from park to drive.

"You can and you will. Go, we'll be fine." Max closes the door and knocks on the hood.

Jeremy and Joshua sit in silence for a second before they slowly pull back onto the road. They both flinch when they hear the first gunshot and Joshua turns around just as the second one sounds in time to watch Max's body fall to the ground. He turns around and stares straight ahead not speaking, not even thinking really because he can't think, can't process what just happened. He has to think of the future, of Cardiff then the states and he has to believe that everything will be better in America.

Hope you got your things together,

Hope you are quite prepared to die,

Looks like we're in for nasty weather

One eye is taken for an eye.

-Creedence Clearwater Revival