Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Nothing is going according to plan. I was hoping to make a concrete resolution by this chapter, but so far nothing. I wanted to end this by next chapter but apparently my muse has a different plan for me. And since if I don't follow her I would likely find myself completely chapterless. So I follow my muse blindly. I just hope she directs me towards the resolution I have planned. Anyway, enough ranting. Thanks for the lovely reviews. I thoroughly enjoy them. That said, on with the story...

Watchtower

Chapter 14

The sun woke her up.

She could hear voices. Angry voices.

Her lids felt heavy. She couldn't open her eyes. She tried to open them, without much success.

"He ended up at the hospital!" She tried to place the speaker.

"He's still alive." Someone else said dismissively.

It was annoying her. Not knowing who was talking. The pounding of her head added to her annoyance.

"That's not the point-" Clark, she definitely knew that tone. It was her bestest friend in the whole wide world.

She was saved from the clutches of a normal evil mastermind. She just can't remember how it exactly happened.

"Let it go Clark." Oliver, the voice definitely belonged to her love.

She finally managed to open her eyes. Sitting beside her bed was the man who just asked her best friend to let it go. At the foot of her bed was her best friend, who was frowning in return.

"You would think that you would be smiling." She croaked out haltingly. She needed water. Now if only she could get one of these two attractive guys to give her some she would be set.

The two looked startled at her words. She smiled weakly at them.

Oliver grabbed her hand from the bed and stroked it gently. He placed a soft kiss on the back of it and smiled at her widely. "You're awake."

"And in need of some water," she hated the way that her voice sounded.

Clark scrambled towards the table and got her a glass. He walked towards her and smiled grimly. "I was so worried about you." He murmured soothingly as he helped her sit up.

She winced at the pain. Her left shoulder felt like it was burning. But the need to hydrate overcame her discomfort. "Thanks." She gave him a grateful smile as she leaned back on the bed.

Clark put the glass back on the table and walked to the side that was unoccupied. He took her hand in his and held it tight.

"So who's in the hospital? Aside from me." She looked at Clark and then at Oliver.

Both men were clutching at her hand like it was some form of lifeline.

"Goran." Oliver answered quietly.

"Oh. He needed treatment for the arrow?" It was slowly coming back to her.

Kidnapped for days, almost killed by an evil drug lord, saved from the clutches of said drug lord by the Green Arrow and Clark Kent. By some stroke of luck the evil villain managed to shoot her. She could remember that Goran was shot by an arrow, but that would not exactly require a lengthy stay at the hospital.

Oliver nodded curtly. Clark was just tightlipped.

"There's more?" She looked at them suspiciously.

The two just kept mum. She huffed in annoyance. She did not like being kept in the dark. She averted her gaze from the two of them. That was when she saw the room. Truly saw the room.

Tulips and wild flowers everywhere, if she owned a flower shop she wouldn't need to order any flowers for an entire week. "So is this a hint that I should just start a flower business instead of chasing after stories?" she grinned at the two men, momentarily forgetting that they were keeping something from her.

Clark smiled at her. "I suck at waiting. So I made a quick run and brought you back some flowers."

Chloe just smiled in return, he was holding her hand that was connected to her injured shoulder. "By quick, you mean too fast too furious. And this run of yours was it just all over the country or did you make an international stop or two?"

"I may have stopped at a number of other places." Clark answered sheepishly.

"And I'm assuming that the tulips are from you." Chloe turned to look at Oliver.

Oliver just nodded in response.

Chloe giggled. "You two were better off getting me coffee."

And as if someone had been listening to their conversation the door opened. Lex Luthor was holding a tray of coffee.

"Is that for me?" she asked him with such a bright smile.

Lex raised a brow at her question. "No. I'm afraid this is for the ones who kept bedside vigil while you were out of commission." He answered as he handed Clark and Oliver a cup of coffee.

"You would think that a bullet to the shoulder would get more sympathy." She said grumpily as she glared at Lex.

Clark and Oliver kept their hold on her hand as they accepted the drink from Lex. Lex helped himself to a cup as well and placed the remaining coffee on the table. He walked at the foot of her bed and gave her a disapproving look.

"You've been out for two whole days. And you are far too drugged up to be ingesting caffeine." He remarked offhandedly. Lex was mildly amused at the sight of the two men holding onto Chloe.

"Aren't you supposed to be on your honeymoon?" She asked him impatiently.

"And I would have been, if it hadn't been for a certain blonde reporter who has a penchant for getting in trouble." He countered easily. "I just wanted to make sure that you're still alive."

"Well as you can see I'll live. Now go home to your wife." She told him point blank. Her past and present were in the same room together. It didn't particularly sit well with her.

"As you wish. You would think providing the information that saved you would get a more grateful response." Lex made a move as though he was leaving.

Chloe's eyes narrowed at his statement. "Didn't get the memo for that one."

Lex faced her fully and smirked.

"Well to be fair you just woke up." Oliver interjected.

"Lex told us about Goran. That's how we knew how to find you." Clark muttered quietly.

"I just wanted to be the one to tell you that the FBI has apprehended Goran. And he would never be a threat to you again."

"You didn't put a hit on him did you?" She looked at him slyly.

Lex shook his head in denial, "No. So are you going to be okay?"

Chloe almost shrugged but then she remembered that her shoulder was sore. "I'll be fine. Go home." She said as forcefully as she could.

Lex looked at Oliver and Clark, "Would you two mind giving us a minute?"

"It's up to Chloe." Oliver looked at her expectantly.

"Okay." Clark said at the same time that Oliver spoke up. He placed a kiss on Chloe's temple before letting go of her hand. He muttered his thanks to Lex just as he walked out of the room.

Oliver looked at Clark's retreating back and wondered why he accepted Luthor's request so easily. He looked at Chloe, waiting for her answer. She simply nodded her head. He kissed the back of her hand and placed it gently back on the bed. Oliver simply looked at Lex and then proceeded to walk out.

"Quite a predicament you're in." Lex murmured as he took Clark's place.

Chloe's brow furrowed at his statement. "Maybe it's the drugs but I have no idea what you're talking about."

Lex smiled. So she had no idea that the two men who just walked out were competing for her affections.

It was simply irresistible; to be the one to tell her that she finally managed to secure the heart of her first love. It was also tempting to tell her that her current flame knew very well that her best friend was in love with her. But he said nothing. Because she was Chloe and he was Lex. Any discussion about the romance in their lives would only end up in caustic words that neither of them meant.

"I'm glad you're okay." He reached for her hand. The contact was permitted. It was platonic. It belied their past.

Chloe looked at their hands and then at him. "Don't worry about me so much. Now go home to your wife and have fun on your honeymoon."

Lex smiled at her. A real smile as he gallantly kissed her hand. She smiled warmly in return. They shared a quiet moment before Lex announced that he was going. He was half-way out of the room when he turned around, "Be alive when I get back." He said authoritatively.

"Okay." She replied quietly. Lex had always been the enigma, even through the course of their relationship. She was still unsure about his marriage with Lana. But she wanted him to be happy. He deserved to be happy.

Lex nodded and left. Chloe sighed. She felt restless, at the same time she felt tired. She finally succumbed to the latter and drifted off to sleep.

It was dark.

She opened her eyes, this time she managed to do it with little difficulty. She felt a little bad for dozing off. Lex said that Clark and Oliver held a vigil while she was out. But she figured she would be forgiven, after all she did get shot.

Her gaze drifted to a figure leaning against the wall, looking out the window. She knew who it was. She was a little surprised to see that he was still there. Visiting hours was over, if the clock on the wall was to be believed.

"Hey hero." She broke the silence groggily.

Oliver turned around and faced her. He smiled slightly and walked over to her bed.

"You look worried." She commented as she finally saw his expression. He remained standing by her bed, as if he was unsure of what he was supposed to do.

"Can you blame me? The last forty-eight hours have been the longest two days of my life." He replied as his hand inched towards hers.

"Yeah well, all things beyond my control." She countered as she pat the bed, inviting him to lie down beside her.

He stood there quietly and finally settled for holding her hand. "I'm in love with you, you know that right?" He allowed their hands to intertwine but refrained from looking at her as he said the words.

"You have a funny way of showing it." Chloe said quietly, she did not have the energy to sound as bitter as she'd like. She kept replaying their last morning together in her head, trying to figure out what she could have done wrong that he felt compelled to leave her.

Oliver finally raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "Would you believe if I told you that I was insecure?" He smiled halfheartedly.

"I told you Lex and I, we're history." She insisted softly.

"It's not you and Lex. It's you and Clark." The words were blurted out without that much consideration.

"What?!" She looked completely bewildered. Oliver was not making any sense. She could vividly remember that he picked a fight with her over her past relationship with Lex.

"When people tell you something often enough you end up believing it yourself." Oliver gently took his hand away from her.

"Oliver you're not making any sense." Chloe reached for his hand and refused to let go.

"Clark. I'm talking about Clark. He loves you. And you love him." He couldn't seem to meet her gaze.

"Of course I love him." Chloe declared resolutely.

Oliver visibly recoiled at her words.

"I love him. He's my best friend." She reasoned quietly. She still didn't know what the hell was going on.

"But you don't love him just because he is your best friend." Oliver murmured calmly.

"Am I the only one who's not stuck in Chloe-loves-Clark time zone? Because seriously I'm not, Clark and I, we're just friends now. And that's all we'll ever be." This time Chloe was the one who took her hand from his grip.

"Can you honestly tell me that if Clark told you he was in love with you, you wouldn't want to be with him?" Oliver said carefully.

"Oliver…" Her voice held a warning.

"Because if you're with me by default, then I shouldn't really be here at all." Oliver ran a hand through his hair.

"Maybe you should go then." Chloe said emotionlessly.

"I can't." Oliver replied quietly. "I can't just leave. Not when you have my heart." He took her hand in his again. "I love you Chloe and I want to be with you."

"As I said, you have a funny way of showing it." She repeated, with the same detached tone.

"Chloe-"

"I can't be with someone who will constantly second-guess my feelings Oliver. I gave you a part of me, a part of me that I always hold back. But what you did after…it hurt that you used my past against me. Because that's what you essentially did. And you did not even have the courage to tell me the real issue." Chloe refused to look at him as she said the words.

"I'm sorry." He kept his hold on her but she remained completely impassive.

"I don't think I can deal with this right now." She extricated her hand from his.

"Chloe-"

"I'm not saying that I don't ever want to see you again. Whether I like it or not you have my heart too." She laughed humorlessly. "But you couldn't have possibly thought that it was going to be easy. We can't just go back to what we were before."

"All I'm asking for is a second chance." Oliver looked at their hands, inches away from each other, but not quite touching.

"And you'll have it." Chloe looked up the ceiling, trying to keep herself from tearing up. "You'll have it. But right now…how could you? Don't you know I love you?" She looked at him tearfully.

"I have no excuse." Oliver bowed his head, shamefully.

"Damn right you don't! Sure I didn't actually say the words but damn it! I showed it to you in every other way! But it wasn't enough. You are just like everyone else. You thought I was still in Clark land. You thought I was in love with my best friend." She finished quietly; her resentment was finally out in the open.

"I made a mess of things Chloe." He sat on her bed, dying to initiate contact between them.

"You did." Her hand moved further from his.

"Let me make it up to you." Oliver looked at her earnestly.

Chloe didn't say anything.

"You have to let me make it up to you." His tone became pleading.

"I don't know if I can."

'Someone has to shut those blinds.' Chloe thought to herself as she woke up to a bright morning. Once again the sun made its presence known, by shining on her.

She opened an eye tentatively. When she was certain that she wouldn't go blind she opened the other one. The room was still the same. The flowers were still a sight to behold. She eyed the offending window and once again found someone leaning against it, staring out the view that her private room afforded her.

She stared at him in wonder.

He was brooding. She could tell by the droop on his shoulder. He looked tense, as if he was on the precipice of another bad situation. And knowing him, he probably was. Trouble seemed to find Clark Kent wherever he went.

It was gratifying to know that around her he was able to act like his age, like he was not carrying the weight of the world, moments when they weren't preoccupied with chasing down the freak of the week and confronting life threatening situations. They were becoming few and far between, those moments. But she vowed to enjoy them while they lasted. There may come a time that their paths would diverge completely.

Chloe always looked to the future. She always knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it. The internship at the Planet did not come easy. But she was there, a step closer to her dream. Then there was Clark. She wanted him since the first time she saw him. But she tried as much as she could to get him, only he always belonged to Lana. Once she admitted that fact to herself she settled back on her safe role as the best friend, trusty sidekick.

The truth was she finally let go of the possibility of her and Clark. A person could only take so much, and that truth had been pretty much pounded into her consciousness. During the chaos that was Dark Thursday she fell into old patterns and kissed him. And as she navigated through the dangerous streets of Metropolis she realized that she made a monumental mistake. She didn't want to deal with the awkwardness between them, not when they finally found their rhythm. And that rhythm did not involve passionate kisses.

So she jumped headlong to the idea of her and Jimmy. And Clark seemed comfortable with the state of their relationship. And so was she. She was becoming fully convinced that she and Clark were only meant to be the best of friends. And she was okay with it. She would always love him. He was her first love and they do have a saying about first loves never dying, she couldn't help but believe it. Plus he was her best friends and it was written in best friend code that you have to love your best friend.

Her relationship with Jimmy ended, unsurprisingly. She was worried that being alone again would make her long for Clark, in a way that was no longer appropriate. They were friends and only friends.

And then she met Oliver Queen. He broke Lois' heart and mended her own. Being with him, it was like she was being assaulted by a million and one emotions all at once. It felt good. The way he looked at her, she often felt that she would melt. The way he held her, she felt that she would always be safe. The way he touched her, she felt like she was the most precious gem in the world.

But then he had to act like a complete and total jerk. He felt threatened he told her. He felt like he was merely a substitute, that she was just waiting for Clark to wake up and realize that she was the one for him.

She couldn't blame him, no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't blame him. She spent majority of her teenage life wanting Clark. And everybody knew it. She wore her heart on her sleeve; that was how she lived her life. But nobody could deny that she had changed. Her heart was safely tucked inside of her. She no longer wanted to give anyone the power to hurt her. She guarded her heart with vigilance, no longer giving it freely to farm boys who did not want her affections.

She decided after she ended things with Jimmy that the next one would have to earn her love. The next one would have to work on breaking down the wall that she put up for her own protection. And Oliver managed to do just that. He broke through her carefully laid defenses and made her fall.

He also, in the process of his own insecurity, managed to break her all over again.

He asked for a second chance. She knew she would give it to him. Not only because he deserved it, but because she deserved it.

She sent him away the night before with no definite answer. She was by no means trying to be cruel, but she was hurt. And as much as she loved him she was not beyond harboring any resentment. At the same time she was not going to allow her anger to get in the way of being with him.

Oliver said he was going to keep trying. He said he was going to fight for her. She had every plan of telling him later today to get his butt back to the hospital so they could get their second chance.

But for now, she had to deal with the source of Oliver's security. Her best friend.

"Hey." She said quietly.

Clark turned around and gave her a small smile, "Hey."

"Come sit with me." She patted her bed invitingly.

Clark walked over to her bed and stared at her.

His gaze made her so self-conscious. It felt like he was looking right through her. As though her every thought was going through his head. "Do I have something in my face?" She asked him wryly.

"No. You're perfect." Clark declared with such conviction.

Chloe tried to keep the surprise from her expression. Clark had taken to complimenting her as much as he could. She did not pay much attention to them, but lately it was happening more often that they were harder to ignore.

He sat at the edge of her bed and took her hand in his. He played idly with her fingers but she could tell he was dying to say something.

"Clark, say what it is you have to say." Chloe smiled at him encouragingly.

"I was so afraid." Clark refused to look her in the eye.

"Of what?" She looked at him searchingly. This was not the Clark she knew and loved. This was not the bumbling farm boy she grew up with. This was a man who looked completely torn up. And she had no idea why.

"Of losing you Chloe! Life…means nothing, if you're not here." Clark gazed at her with such intensity.

"I'm right here Clark." She squeezed his hand, hoping to snap him out of whatever was causing him to act so strange.

"But I almost lost you." He muttered quietly.

She sat up slowly, ignoring the mild pain of her shoulder. "I know how much it sucks that I'm not invincible but you'll never lose me. Live or die, I'll always be here." She placed her free hand over his heart. "Face it Kent, I've made an impression."

Clark placed his hand over hers and clutched it tightly against his chest. "I don't want you to die. Ever."

"Well then, I'll be sure to start on working on becoming immortal." She grinned at him, trying to infuse some humor in their exchange.

"Not funny Chlo." He glared at her in return.

Chloe rolled her eyes at him and tugged at his hand. She motioned for him to lay on the bed with her. She could feel his need to hold her; it was coming off in waves.

"I know, but you have to remember that you're the super powered one in our beautiful duo." She smiled at him once they were both settled on the bed. She was lying on her uninjured shoulder, so they could look at each other properly. He settled his hand on her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"I'd give up all my powers Chloe, if I knew it would keep you safe." He said with such intensity.

"Now that would be a mistake. If you gave up your powers then you wouldn't be able to save little ole me." She said pointedly.

He held her closer to him. "Chloe…"

"Yes Clark." She looked at him and found herself breathless at the intensity of his gaze.

"You do know that you're important to me, right?" Clark lowered his eyes, as if he was trying to control his own emotions.

"Of course I do. I'm your best friend, and personal search engine to boot." She poked his chest jokingly.

Clark closed his eyes in what appeared to be exasperation. "You're more than that Chloe."

"I know Clark." She smiled wanly, not entirely sure where Clark was going with their conversation.

"No you don't. Not really." He shook his head understandingly. "I never showed you how much more you mean to me Chloe." He raised his hand to caress her cheek.

Chloe remained still at his touch, her eyes wide at his action.

"You mean the world to me." He propped her chin with his forefinger and looked at her with such passion.

"Clark-"

He placed his finger on her lips, "I have to say this Chlo. I know that I may be saying this at the worst possible time, but I can't hold it in anymore."

She closed her eyes, trying to control her urge to weep. Oliver never said the words but he was hinting at something. And it had something to do with Clark. Only he never said the words, he never said that his fear was not entirely unfounded.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Didn't they already set the boundaries of their friendship? Didn't they have a silent agreement never to revisit their past mistakes? Didn't she just promise herself that she was going to be with Oliver from now on?

"Chloe, please look at me." Clark pleaded.

She shook her head. He was not doing this to her. Not now. Her eyes fluttered open when she felt his lips against hers. A gentle kiss. A kiss that promised complete devotion.

"Clark." She choked out brokenly as she tried to avert her hazel eyes from his startling blue orbs.

"I was willing to wait forever Chloe. I was willing to wait. But almost losing you..." Clark whispered ever so softly. "I couldn't live with myself if I never told you-"

Chloe placed her hand on his chest to stop him, "Please Clark. Don't."

He grabbed the hand on his chest and held it tight. "I'm in love with you Chloe."

She let her head fall against his chest.

"I'm in love with you Chloe Sullivan." He proclaimed tenderly.

Chloe let the tears fall at his confession.

TBC

AN2: Triangle back on. As you can see I am completely confused. My muse insisted that I end it here. I had an entirely different ending to this chapter. I believe I just landed on the side of the undecided. If I find my way back (be it in Chlollie land or Chlark land) I would be able to post something sometime next week. For now thanks for reading.