Disclaimer: I own nothing.
AN: Yup, your eyes are not deceiving you. I am updating. I'm on a roll, kinda. School's out for three weeks so I am going to take advantage of my newfound (temporary) freedom and update my fics. It has been months since I wrote anything on this one and for that I am profoundly sorry. But here it is now, hope you guys enjoy reading. Also many thanks to the reviews and the PMs, sorry if I couldn't deliver earlier, my reasons are at the second AN. So please read it, kinda important. Now, on with the story...
Chapter 19
Better than
The Green Arrow was lurking in the shadows.
He felt a mild irritation course through him. Bart contacted him a couple of minute ago and he immediately donned his costume and headed for their rendezvous point.
The team had painstakingly come up with a way to confuse anyone who was inclined to follow them. That was precisely why he was hanging around the rooftop of a random building, more than twenty miles away from his building.
He surveyed the landscape, taking note of any area that would serve as a blind spot for them. He pretty much covered every weak point and he just had to wait until- Finally, Bart made his appearance.
"Hey! Are we gonna do this?" Bart uttered in mock whisper. "Or are you gonna lurk in the shadows all night?"
Oliver rolled his eyes as he aimed his arrow at the opposite direction. He felt his annoyance multiply as he descended from a cable and landed in front of Bart. "Just being careful." He murmured in an authoritative voice.
Bart rolled his eyes.
Oliver inclined his head slightly. "After all, I'm not as fast as you."
"There you go, boss man." Impulse handed him the flash drive.
He took it and immediately moved to secure their intel. "Meet you back at the base." He turned around, all set to go.
"I'll be a while, crocodile." Bart said cheerfully.
Oliver faced his comrade and gave him a questioning look.
"I got friends to see and a woman to worship as my goddess." Bart replied with a wide grin.
Oliver's brows furrowed as he eyed Bart. He wondered who exactly the woman he was talking about. Usually the younger man was pretty fickle when it came to women. Perhaps, the one he was talking about was different. He shook his head in mild exasperation. "Just don't forget the mission." He reminded quietly.
Bart saluted him. "Won't dream of it, boss." And before Oliver could even blink, he was gone.
Chloe took a sip of her water. She glanced at her watch and knew that her companion wasn't late. Yet.
She frowned as she remembered the night before. Oliver, he was frustrating the hell out of her. But she couldn't feel the urge to lash out at him. He was putting himself out there, in danger's way. She was proud of him, incredibly so. But there were moments when it felt like she was getting in the way of his mission.
"Chloe." Her name was whispered quietly, breaking her out of her reverie.
She looked up at her friend, who hadn't felt like her friend for the past few weeks. "Lana." She said the name as diplomatically as she could.
Lana took the seat across from her.
A long silence reigned over them.
Chloe wondered what Lana wanted to say to her, after finally breaking the silent treatment. When the brunette called her the night before, she thought that they could finally get past their last conversation. She had to admit that she said some pretty callous things. She could have phrased them better but she didn't regret saying what she had said.
"I'm sorry." Lana uttered softly, as she finally was able to meet her gaze.
She remained quiet.
"I guess… I never realized that I was putting you in the middle." Lana looked at her beseechingly.
Chloe sighed before picking up her glass of water; she was wishing she got a cup of coffee. Not as though it was too late, she was at the Talon and she could easily get up and place her order.
Lana placed a hand over hers. "Chloe, I am sorry." She said with no hint of pleading, just pure sincerity.
She took a deep breath as she turned her hand over and gave Lana's a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay." She murmured quietly.
Lana shook her head. "No. It wasn't fair, what I said and did. I really am sorry, Chloe."
A weak smile appeared on Chloe's face. "I forgive you."
Lana responded with a teary smile. "Thank you."
A long quiet ensued once again, but this time there were no adversarial undertones.
"So? How about you tell me what's going on?" Chloe asked Lana, she knew there was something that her friend wanted to tell her.
A hesitant look crossed Lana's features. "I accepted Lex' proposal."
Chloe's brow rose at the statement.
"I know what you're thinking." Lana began, unable to look her in the eye. "But I do love Lex. I…have been obsessing over Clark and that was wrong of me. Lex and I, we're going to have a family and that…that's all there is to it." She was wearing her resolve quite courageously, finally able to meet Chloe's gaze.
Her brows furrowed as she tried to gauge the sincerity in Lana's eyes. "Are you sure?"
Lana nodded.
"I guess I have to offer Lex my congratulations and my best wishes to you." Chloe said with a smile. Her friend finally made a definitive decision; Lana was probably making a huge mistake but she was going to be there for her, every step of the way.
Lana flashed her a grateful smile.
Chloe smiled back. Nothing was completely resolved and yet…she felt like she finally found her friend again. "So tell." She looked at Lana expectantly.
Her friend seemed to blossom prettily upon her question. "Things have been busy. Lex and I have been…" Lana looked around surreptitiously, probably to check if anyone was within hearing distance. "Preparing." She gave Chloe a meaningful look.
She nodded in turn. Lana was talking about more than the wedding.
"And the planning for the wedding. You won't believe the list that Lex gave me. I'm supposed to create an invitation list from…basically the entire Luthercorp address book." Lana shook her head smilingly.
"How many?" Chloe leaned forward as she asked the question.
"I'm supposed to narrow it down to three hundred. Good thing Lex hired an army of wedding planners who, according to him, must bow down to my every command." She blushed prettily.
Chloe laughed quietly at the comment. "He does know that you wouldn't let anyone actually bow to you, right?"
Lana shook her head. "He knows. He just wanted to make things easier on me. And I could use all the help I can get. A couple of days ago I got calls from several caterers, it got to the point that I had to make the wedding planner take the calls." She murmured in mild exasperation.
"Seems like you're learning already." Chloe said as she leaned back on her chair.
Her friend looked at her curiously.
"Learning how to fit in Lex' world, the world of the rich and famous." Chloe clarified.
Lana's brow rose at her pronouncement. "Funny, aren't you part of that world as well? You also have your own…version."
She wrinkled her nose. The truth, she and Ollie were basically isolated from the realities of tabloid coupledom. And they didn't really indulge the usual billionaire act. Sometimes, they went to fancy restaurants but they already had a plan to thwart the paparazzi. So really, Lana was only half right, she was not part of the world of the privileged but she did have Oliver, well the part he was willing to share with her.
"Hey, are you okay?" Lana placed a warm hand over hers.
Chloe shook her head; she was unaware of what just happened. "Huh?"
"It's just that, you looked so sad, just now." Lana shot her a worried look.
She waved her hand in dismissal. "It's nothing."
Lana frowned. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me, right?"
She took a deep breath. There were a lot of things she couldn't tell Lana, but her relationship problems were not one of them. The basic premise of having a girlfriend was so she could have someone to confide in, someone she could rant about her ever stubborn boyfriend. "Ollie and I…we're just having some issues."
"Issues?" Lana pressed on.
"It's just…it's like I never see him as much as I used to." Chloe murmured quietly. "And…I don't know how to explain it…it's like he's distancing himself from me." She added weakly. It was as if she finally gave voice to her primary worry. Oliver was becoming more and more distant lately. And she was feeling more and more invested in their relationship.
Lana remained quiet. She squeezed Chloe's hand reassuringly. "Lex gets that way sometimes too. When he's working on a project."
Chloe attempted to smile. She wanted to insist that Lex was nothing like Oliver. But she already thought as much, that Oliver was working on a project alright, just nothing related to Queen Industries.
"You know what would do you good?" Lana began cheerfully.
She had to blink in order to catch up with her friend. "What?"
"Shopping." Lana declared with such determination.
"Shopping?" Chloe choked out, slightly amused.
"Yup. Come with me." Lana said excitedly. "Come with me and Aunt Nell."
Her brows furrowed. "Let me catch up. Where? And your Aunt Nell?"
Lana nodded. "I'm going shopping for a wedding dress. And Nell, well she wants to come along too." She shrugged helplessly. "Besides, we might as well start shopping for your dress too."
"My dress?" Chloe looked at her friend searchingly.
Lana nodded again. "My maid of honor should have nothing but the best." She uttered with a glowing smile.
An utter silence followed.
"Chloe, in case you were wondering, I just asked you to be my maid of honor." Lana looked at her shyly.
"Of course, I'd be honored to." She replied sincerely.
"So shopping?" Lana asked again.
"Sure, I might as well go to the Planet too, if we're going to Metropolis." Chloe mused.
"We're not going to Metropolis." Lana began. "Paris. Nell wanted to go to Paris." She answered at her inquiring look.
"Lana-"
"It's Paris, Chloe." She stated plainly.
"Ordinarily, I wouldn't say no to Paris." Chloe started. "But I have the Planet. And Oliver's finally back."
Lana looked disappointed. "Fine, as long as you promise me you and Oliver are going to make up."
She sighed in amused exasperation. "I will."
"If you care for him, truly care, you won't let him go without a fight." Lana spoke softly, as though remembering her own mistakes.
Chloe watched her friend. And she knew, as much as she loved Lana, she didn't want to ever be in the position that she was in. She was not going to let the secrets that Oliver is keeping break them. Or vice versa, she added to herself as an afterthought.
"You know what you need?" Lois burst into the Talon apartment, clearly buzzing in excitement.
Chloe looked up from the book she was reading and gave her cousin a quizzical smile. "What do I need?" She asked gamely.
"A vacation!" Lois declared emphatically as she raised the shopping bag that she was holding.
She shook her head in confusion. "Lo, in case you haven't noticed, I have been on vacation, school's been out for a while now. Hopefully, it'll start back up again this spring." Chloe added almost to herself. She truly wanted to go back to Met U and get her degree already.
Lois rolled her eyes. "I don't mean school Chlo. You and Ollie, now I know you haven't mentioned anything," Lois gave her a meaningful look. "But it looks like you two can use some time away, from here." She gestured around the place.
Her brows furrowed. So Lois noticed that something was off. Still, their problems wouldn't just magically disappear if they went away together. Life was not a fairy tale; no they definitely needed to address their issues not run away from them.
"Come on, you're always complaining that he's always going from one place to another. At least when you guys go on a trip, well your Prince Charming won't be pulling a disappearing act every five minutes." Her cousin looked at her pointedly as she placed the shopping bag on the table. "Besides, I know of a way that you can keep his full attention." Lois smirked at her mischievously as she reached into the bag.
Chloe stood up from her perch on the couch and looked at Lois with interest.
Lois pulled out a very skimpy piece of lingerie and held it out to her. "I don't think he'll be rushing out once he sees you in this." She declared enthusiastically.
The green lingerie that Lois was handing her made her blush in its utter lack of material.
She took the clothing, if it could be called that, and held it up to herself. "Where did you get this?" She looked at Lois.
"Victoria's Secret." Lois gave her an exasperated look. "I also have one in black for you." She took out the said black one.
"Green, definitely his color." Chloe murmured absently as she wondered what she would look like wearing the lingerie.
"Hey Chloe!" Clark barged into the apartment without so much as a knock.
Lois glared at the intruder, or what she perceived to be an intruder in a particularly girly moment. "God, Smallville. Learn how to knock. What if Chloe had been naked?" She huffed in righteous indignation.
Chloe almost crumpled the undergarment in her hands at the sight of Clark. She was a little mortified at what Lois said; she did have a point, though. Her best friend had a tendency of just barging into her place.
Clark, who turned a bright shade of red, winced at her words. "Sorry-"
"Whatever. So Chlo, you keep the green one and I'll trade this one for something my size." Lois placed the black lingerie back in the bag. "And remember what I said." Lois singsonged as she headed for the door.
Chloe shook her head in mild amusement as she headed for the closet to hide the underwear. "So what's up, Clark?" She asked once popped out of the closet.
Clark was frowning at nothing in particular. "I…you know I trust you, right?" Clark was looking at him, seemingly troubled by something.
She nodded. "I know, Clark."
"And that thing with Oliver, you understand why I couldn't tell you." Clark looked at her searchingly.
She nodded again. "Is something wrong, Clark?" Chloe was beginning to worry.
"I don't know yet. The guy who saved you at the Planet, he didn't exactly get away." Clark took a deep breath. "It was Bart."
A dawn of understanding settled on her expression. She blinked a couple of times. It explained the tulip incident. "So Bart can superspeed too?" She asked, slightly amazed.
Her best friend looked relieved at her reply. "He's actually a lot faster than I am. That's the truth. I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He looked at her apologetically.
Chloe waved off his apology. "It's fine, Clark. You were protecting him. If anyone gets it, it's me." Chloe gave him a small smile. She seemed to be constantly learning of other super individuals and their secret identities. Her brows furrowed. "Why are you outing him now?"
"I think he's headed for trouble. I need to find him." He declared with such determination. "Can you GPS his cell?"
She walked towards the table and booted up her laptop. "I can try. Do you have his number?" She looked up at Clark, who joined her at the table and gave her the number.
"He broke into a Luthorcorp plant in Mexico. Now I think Lex is onto him. If he breaks into another facility…" He trailed off worriedly.
Chloe shook her head at the result that she got. "No good, his phone must be off."
Clark frowned. "What about call history? Can you pull up a record?" He looked at her with hope in his eyes.
"Legally, absolutely not." She said as she started to do just as he said. She grinned when she managed to pull up the records.
"There are over a dozen calls to this Metropolis number, just in the last twenty four hours." Clark gave her a curious look.
Her eyes narrowed. "Let's see who on the other end." She did a reverse phone look up and came up with a business name. "Artemis Global Consortium."
"Doesn't ring any bells, do you know anything about it?" Clark asked as he looked over her shoulder.
Chloe focused on discovering more on the company. "It is a subsidiary of J.L. International, which is a satellite company currently orbiting…" She frowned as she read the name.
"Queen Industries." Clark said the name in a hard tone. "It's Oliver, He's using Bart to attack Luthorcorp."
Chloe stopped her search at Clark's statement. She felt a little…it was still undefined, but knowing that her boyfriend…she was not happy with the turn of events.
Clark stood up to his full height. "Chloe-"
"Go, Clark. Talk to him. I know you're dying to." She interjected somewhat bitterly.
"I guess you had no idea-"
"Of course not!" She looked at him in agitation. "Do you think I would keep something like this from you?" Chloe shot him a reproachful look.
"It's not that. It's…it's Oliver." Clark started quietly.
"Oliver may be my boyfriend but I don't tell him everything, especially nothing about you, Clark." She uttered in exasperation. It was one of the reasons that she and Oliver were currently at odds. For all the things they knew about each other, they were still missing a few key secrets.
"I think, intellectually I knew that. But I guess, there's no reason why you shouldn't tell him Chloe. I trust you and I trust him. But using Bart..." Clark shook his head in disapproval.
She gave Clark a small smile. Her best friend just essentially gave her permission to grant Oliver full disclosure, not that he deserved it. "Clark, some things that I know, those things are for you to tell." She patted his arm companionably. "Now, go and find out what's really going on."
"You're not coming?" Clark gave her a confused gaze.
"Right now, I'm feeling less than nice towards Oliver. It's better if you go on your own. Ollie and I…we're having some issues right now." Chloe ran a hand through her hair in slight agitation.
'Chlo, I didn't know." Clark hugged her, in an attempt to comfort her.
"Let's lament later, right now there are more important things." Chloe pulled back from the hug and reminded him.
Clark looked at her, as though trying to gauge her statement. He nodded eventually. "We'll talk later, okay?" He pulled back and tried to meet her gaze.
Chloe smiled at him, not her usual megawatt smile but a smile nonetheless. "Less worrying about me and more worrying about Bart." She chided him before he finally sped away. Things on the Oliver front were not peachy keen, but her friendships, they seem to be in top condition. She thought happily as she closed her computer with every intention of heading for the Planet.
The elevator dinged to a stop and Oliver stopped what he was doing. So far there had not been any distractions in their current endeavor but a part of him was hoping. That Chloe would show up and they could sort through their problems. But another part was rather focused on the operation. So far Bart hadn't been back from his mission and things were not looking good.
"Oliver." Clark Kent stepped out of the elevator, looking particularly furious.
He had no time for Clark and whatever his issue was for the day. "Look Clark, whatever has your tighty whities in a twist, now is not the time." He said in dismissal of the younger man.
"Where's Bart?" Clark asked accusingly. "I know he's working for you."
A mild irritation coursed through him at Clark's words. "Not for me, with me. There's a difference." He corrected his friend.
"It's not gonna matter when he ends up in jail or worse." Clark retorted angrily.
Of course Oliver noticed the righteous tone in his voice despite the anger that colored it entirely. But he knew Bart, the two of them had worked together long enough for him to get to know the younger man. Clark had no idea what he was talking about. "Yeah, you don't know what you are talking about." He gave voice to exactly what he was thinking.
"Oliver, I know how much you hate Lex. Is that why you recruited Bart, to help with your little vendetta?" Clark looked at him questioningly.
There were times that Oliver just wanted to tell Clark off. To tell him that he did not answer to him. He shook his head in exasperation. "No." He answered firmly. "We're trying to stop 33.1."
It was almost comical the way that Clark's eyes widened at his declaration.
"You know about 33.1? Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" Clark demanded in his typical fashion.
'Because I don't answer to you.' Oliver mentally replied as he breathed a quiet sigh. He suspected that Clark knew about 33.1, Chloe probably did as well. He was a little disturbed at the Clark's lack of action at the knowledge that a facility housed people with meteor abilities and the fact that they were being kept against their will. He rolled his eyes. "Clark, do you check in with me every time you run off to save the world?" He posed the question with a frown on his face.
Clark remained quiet.
Boiling point, he had officially reached his. "Oh, that's right. For a second there I forgot." He acted like he made such a brilliant discovery. "You like to wait for trouble to show up on your doorstep." Oliver glared at the younger man.
"That's not true." He protested quietly.
"Then why haven't you done anything about 33.1?" He folded his arms across his chest and eyed Clark critically.
"I was busy with another problem." Clark shot back without hesitation.
He couldn't help but recall the satellite images that he gave Chloe. Clark's problem could very well have something to do with that. Still, someone had to mind what Lex Luthor was up to. "Fair enough." He said conciliatorily. "But this problem, Lex trying to build an army of super soldiers someone has to keep an eye on him." He added.
Clark nodded jerkily. "What have you found out?"
Oliver frowned. "Not much. Last night Bart infiltrated a place that was supposed to house the mainframe for 33.1. That was the last time I heard from him. So I reconned the target this morning." His frown deepened as he thought about what he found when he got there. "The place had been stripped clean. Everything was gone. The whole thing was a setup." Oliver ran a hand through his hair as he thought about what might have happened to Bart. They should have known. They should have planned on more contingency plans. But Bart was…he was Impulse. There were reasons he was dubbed so.
"Lex has Bart. We have to find him." Clark declared passionately.
Oliver grinded his teeth at the pronouncement, maybe it didn't occur to him that they were already working on it. He had no intention of leaving a member of his team behind. "My team's already on it." He managed to reply as emotionlessly as he could.
Clark's brows furrowed at his words. "Your team?"
Oliver motioned behind him and right on cue the two other individuals in the penthouse made their presence known. Arthur Curry and Victor Stone both stepped out and greeted Clark.
"Not everyone flies solo, Kent." Victor said pointedly.
Oliver smiled tightly at the three's reunion. They had better things to do but Clark needed some answers. So he figured they could multitask. He started rummaging through his desk. "AC, check the Luthorcorp manifests." He told the blonde man as he kept looking. He grumbled quietly when he couldn't find the blueprints for a number of buildings that Luthorcorp owned. The three men were busy talking so he didn't bother to excuse himself and headed for the next room.
A minute to himself and he wondered about the last thing he should be thinking about. Chloe. She was probably mad now. Through the course of their relationship, all she ever did was be understanding. And all he seemed to do was mess everything up, first with the Green Arrow secret, then there was the entire drug thing. Maybe he did not deserve to be with her, it felt like all he ever gave her was grief.
He promised himself that he would talk to her. Once Bart was safe and sound, they could iron out their, his issues. Maybe he could finally tell her how much he loved her.
TBC
AN2: So as I said earlier, this note is a little important. I am gonna try to finish this fic before the year is out. And yes, I am planning to end this fic. The next chapter will be the last chapter, for two reasons actually: I read somewhere that some people are getting sick of all the chlollie fics, so I kinda lost some energy in writing for the ship. But then I owe you guys an actual ending so I am going to do just that. The second reason, well when I look at this story and I see how many chapters it has been, it scares me a little. So this is a headsup, I will be concluding this fic in the next update. I would like to thank everyone who read and reviewed this story, I am immensely grateful for your feedback and for all the kind words. And in response to those who wanted this to extend longer than the episode 'Justice', I am going to do just that. With one chapter per episode, instead of three like this one. So don't think of it as losing 'When Ollie Met Chloe', think of it as gaining 'Defining Moments' which is the working title (I might change it to 'Moments that Define Us') for the kinda sequel but not really of this one. Thanks for reading.