o-0-o-0-o Thanks to Raya, Madlenita, GoChlollie, Carrie, morning1 and JamesTKent for reviewing the last chapter. I hope you guys don't hate me right now. One of the reasons that this is so late is that I was totally clueless about moving houses. We moved to a new house and I just had no idea how long it was really going to take us. I really underestimated how long it would take. I also got a new computer. The store did a data transfer for me of certain things from my old computer, some chapters for this story included in that, but that didn't work out. I basically had to re-write a lot. Also, it took longer than I thought it would for the people to come set up the whole internet system in our house. The more major reasons that happened after that and are the ones that have really put me behind on the updating are that I had to take care of my cousin while my aunt was in the hospital. And my sister was in a pretty big car accident and in the hospital. My mind was very focused on that, but that stuff is okay now. After that happened my boss got sidelined at work and I basically had to do her job and mine taking up more of my time, and now I'm also dealing with a broken arm lol so I've been writing with one hand and I'm sure you guys can imagine that that really slows someone's writing down. Anyway, I'm back. It's been awhile but I've missed this story. To the readers, you guys are awesome. This is the newest chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it. Leave me a review and let me know what you think o-0-o-0-o

Chloe paused when she and Clark got back to Watchtower. Clark noticed this and made no move to go any further.

He stood by Chloe silently while she appeared to be deep in thought. After a moment or two she turned to face Clark and he knew that she was about two seconds away from crying. Clark wasn't surprised. He was expecting this or outright rage at some point.

"Come here," he told her, pulling her into a hug.

As soon as she felt her best friend's arms wrap around her, she let herself cry.

"Can we just go back for a little while, Clark? Can we go back to when things were simpler? Can we go back to when we were younger, before all this craziness, to when it was just you and me, just for a little while, when there was no Lex in our lives, before I met Jimmy, or Ollie or Davis?... I'm crying like an idiot. Everything is crazy." Chloe said, barely above a whisper.

"Cry as much as you want. It's just you and me. I'm here. I've got you," he said softly, hugging her a little tighter. "You don't want to go back, though, not for more than a little while. There are a lot of things you love in the here and now. Things were still crazy even when we were all innocent and clueless, and with our luck Chloe, even if we could turn back time, some other crazy thing would have happened. I think things would have ended up mostly the same."

"I've always kinda been a magnet for trouble and craziness, haven't I?" Chloe said, laughing a little even though she was still crying.

Clark kissed her forehead and Chloe took a deep breath. "Okay," she said, blinking away her tears. "Stupid crying time is over," she said, giving Clark one last squeeze. "The Clark hug did the trick."

Clark gave her a grin.

"So," Chloe said, wiping away the last of her tears. "What do you think of all this?"

"The baby part, or everything that happened today?" he asked.

Chloe shrugged.

"I think you've had one hell of a day, and I definitely can understand you longing for a moment when times were simpler."

Chloe sighed and leaned her head back against the wall.

"That whole thing with the cameras at the baby store- I know that that's really bothered you more than you're saying."

Chloe nodded.

"And then us being kept out of things, and the whole baby thing- I think you're holding up really well," Clark told her. "I'm proud of you."

Chloe smiled. "I have a kid," Chloe said after a moment. "There is a little girl in this building that has my DNA, and it's a really big thing to wrap my head around. I've loved her from the first time I looked her, but I never predicted this. Besides Bart, I'm the youngest one in our social circle- I didn't expect to be the first one with a baby."

"I didn't predict this either. I mean I wasn't expecting anyone to be calling me Uncle Clark for at least another five years, but I guess we've got to push that up a little bit now," he said, sending Chloe a grin.

Chloe laughed.

"So how long do you intend to not be talking to Oliver for?" Clark asked.

"Why?" Chloe said, rolling her eyes.

"Just because I can almost guarantee that he'll be here in a little while. He's going to want to make everything better, and I don't think he's going to believe that giving you space is really going to do that."

Chloe just ran her fingers through her hair.

"I'm not his biggest fan at the moment, but he's completely in love with you. You know that, right?" Clark said.

"I do know that. And despite the fact that I'd love to kick his ass right now, I love him too. But I'm really pissed off right now, and I don't even have time to think about how annoyed I am with him. There are two things that I want to do right now, and none of them involve being annoyed. I just want to go upstairs and hold Rina, and I want to see my mother," Chloe said, proceeding further into Watchtower. "I want to bring Rina to see my mom. I know she's out of it and maybe it's weird, but I really want to bring Rina to her."

"I don't think it's weird at all, Chlo."

o-o-o-o-o-o

Oliver wanted to get to Watchtower right away, but he thought that he might fare a little better with Chloe if he brought some coffee with him, so he stopped by a small coffee place before heading to Watchtower.

When he got to Watchtower, he saw Chloe sitting with her dad and Clark while she held Rina. Before Chloe or the two men could notice Oliver, Tess silently motioned him over to her.

"The audio was on downstairs when Chloe and Clark got here. I'll keep this short, and I'll be sure to remind you of this favour I'm doing for you at another time."

"What favour?" Oliver asked. "I didn't ask for a favour."

"No, but I think you need it. She's mad at you and isn't really in the mood to talk to you from what I heard her say downstairs. Anyway, she wants to see her mother. The baby and her mom are the only things she's focusing on right now. Take that info and run with it. I'm sure you can use that to your advantage somehow. I'm sure you can use it to make her less angry."

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought right. On his way here to Watchtower he kept trying to think of something he could do that would make Chloe happy, or at least less angry with him. Seduction had popped into his head, but he didn't think Chloe was going to let him get her alone, so that was probably out of the question. Then he thought of Chloe's mother and that was it. That's where Chloe would want to be. Oliver imagined that now more than ever Chloe would want to see her. He called one of his guys and told him to be ready with a car if he were to call him. He sent the guy a message.

"Does her dad know about anything that went down today or that she's pissed off at me?" Oliver asked.

Tess rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. "Why, are you scared of her dad?"

"I'm just not in the mood to have to answer any questions right now," he said.

"Yeah, sure," Tess said, dismissing Oliver with a wave of her hand.

"You gonna stand over there forever, Rich Boy?" Gabe called out, looking at Oliver.

Chloe and Clark then turned around and saw Oliver, too.

"Come sit with us, Queen," Gabe said. "I don't think I've had a proper conversation with you yet."

"You know what, you're right," Chloe said to her dad. "You haven't really talked to him much. This is the perfect time for you two to get to know each other. I have some things I need to show Clark, so this is the perfect time for you and Oliver to have a one-on-one chat," Chloe said, getting up from where she was sitting. Tess bit her lip and held in her laughter. It was pretty obvious Oliver wanted to do just about anything more than have a chat with Chloe's dad.

"Trust me, I'd love to, but you and me, and the tiny one have somewhere we need to be," Oliver said.

"Really?" Chloe said stubbornly. "I don't remember us having any plans for the rest of the day."

"You've got a lot on your mind, it's understandable that you forget a few things here and there," Oliver said easily, making sure he sounded as if everything between them was perfectly fine. "Trust me, you'll want to see who we're going to see. And you'll definitely want mini-you to see her too."

Chloe looked at him for a moment and seemed to have figured out that he meant her mother.

She sent him a look that said 'Okay let's go, but you are not back in my good books.'

"Okay, just give me a minute. I want to change into something else," Chloe said.

"Sure," Oliver said. "I'll take Rina while you change."

Chloe tried to hide her surprise at Oliver's offer. She didn't think he had ever touched the baby voluntarily.

Oliver hoped to God that the baby was asleep, because if the one time Chloe had made him hold her was any sort of example, she would start crying as soon as she was put into his arms.

Chloe brought Rina to him and he was relieved to see that she was asleep.

Gabe watched his daughter and Oliver.

Oliver could see that Chloe was confused as she passed Rina to him.

"Chloe, I know that you're really mad at me right now, and I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about that crap outside the store before. I know that you don't want to be dealing with that… I love you. And now I know that Rina is yours. Half of this baby is you, and knowing that- I don't care who her father is. She's a part of you and that's really the only thing that matters now. I don't care if she's Davis' daughter anymore. That doesn't matter to me. She's yours- that iswhat matters to me. She's yours, so I'm going to love her and I'm going to be here, and I'm going to help you. Okay?" Oliver whispered, hoping that Chloe heard the sincerity in his voice. He meant it all.

Chloe looked at him closely, took a deep breath and nodded.

She walked into the other room quickly, but her dad caught her wiping her eyes. He had watched the little interaction between his daughter and Oliver closely.

Clark knew that Gabe didn't hear what Oliver said because he had been whispering, but Clark did, and what he heard made him smile. He was still annoyed with Oliver, but he was happy to hear what Oliver said to Chloe.

Chloe shook her head as she pulled a different pair of pants on. She was crying and she didn't want to be. She wanted to stay furious with Oliver for at least a little bit longer because he deserved it after going behind her back, but he had said pretty much everything she wanted and needed to hear.

Back in the other room Clark and Tess tried to keep their faces from betraying anything when Gabe spoke.

"This is the first time I've seen you hold the baby," Gabe said to Oliver, looking intently at him.

"You haven't seen me very often. I hold her plenty," Oliver said, trying to sound normal, but lying through his teeth.

"I don't mean anything bad by it," Gabe said.

"Okay," Oliver said, nodding.

Oliver was surprised when Gabe gave him a warm smile.

"You actually seem like a good man, Oliver. Let me know when you have some time. I really would like to talk to you."

Oliver was a little taken aback. Gabe had never been mean or rude with him, but he never seemed as nice as he had in the last thirty seconds. Oliver was sure he had missed something.

Gabe was looking at him with a sort of warmth.

He looked as if he finally just figured out something that had been bothering him for awhile, and it was a little unsettling.

Oliver looked to Clark to see if he had just missed something very obvious, but Clark looked a bit confused, too.

Gabe let out a little laugh at seeing the look of confusion on Oliver's face.

"Each time I've seen you, I've been watching you, Oliver. There's just something a little off about when I see you around Rina- nothing bad, just a little odd. There's the fact that I've never once seen you hold her, and the fact that you usually look as if you don't know what to do with yourself when she's around. I know that not everyone is great with babies and that not everyone wants to hold a baby, but I just figured that someone could get over that in the case of their own kid. It's obvious that you love my daughter, so it just didn't make too much sense to me to see you keep such a distance from a child that is supposed to belong to the both of you.

"I've spent a good amount of time just staring down gazing at my beautiful granddaughter and I don't see even the tiniest amount of you in her face at all. That in itself isn't so weird, some kids look completely like one of their parents and bear no resemblance to the other. I know Rina's just a baby, and that her looks will probably change, but there's no sign of you anywhere on that child. I definitely see Chloe in the baby, but there's a couple feature's that don't resemble my daughter's… Rina's not yours. That makes the other stuff make sense to me, and that makes me appreciate the effort that I do see you try to put into things. Not every man could love someone else's kid. You're a good man to make an effort."

Oliver, Clark and Tess had no clue what to say.

Oliver tried to get it off his tongue that Gabe didn't know what he was talking about, but Gabe had just completely thrown him off.

Chloe came back into the room and wondered what the hell she had missed when she saw the looks on Oliver, Clark, and Tess's faces.

"What's wrong?" Chloe asked.

"There's nothing wrong. I've just figured out something that I've been wondering about. Well maybe, there's a little something wrong," Gabe said, sighing.

"Why couldn't you just tell me the truth, Chloe?" her father asked.

"What truth?"

"That Rina's not Oliver's," he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Dad," Chloe said, panicking, but trying to sound convincing. "Maybe you should get some rest. We've got to go," Chloe said, making her way over to Oliver, nudging him to start making his way out of Watchtower.

"I've got to go too," Clark said, getting up quickly, sharing a look with Chloe. Clark knew that Gabe would attempt to get answers out of him in Chloe's absence and he wasn't prepared to deal with that. "Lois needs help with something."

"She's not Jimmy's daughter. Davis, the one you wouldn't really talk to me about, he's her father, isn't he?" Gabe asked, not letting it go. "I don't get why you wouldn't tell me. Did you think I would be ashamed of you or something?"

"I don't know what brought all this on, Dad, but just let it go, okay? As my father, the only thing you need to be concerned with is that she's mine. I'm your daughter, and she's my daughter, that's the only thing that should matter," Chloe said, realizing that nothing she was going to say was going to change her father's mind.

She'd been realizing that her father was far more perceptive and smart than she gave him credit for.

Chloe didn't need any of this. She just wanted silence. She wanted to be left alone. The run in with the media alone was more than enough, not even taking into consideration the other stuff that had happened. Chloe didn't need this with her dad.

She didn't actually like lying to him about Rina, but she didn't want to tell him the whole crazy story behind everything, especially not knowing how he would react. She had to keep in mind what he had told her about his heart being weak.

"Of course it is," her father said, seeing that Chloe was getting very annoyed and frustrated. "But-"

"You have no idea what kind of day I've had, Dad. I'm exhausted. My head is pounding. I feel like I'm going to explode. I don't want to talk. I want you to leave this alone. Please. Please," Chloe said, trying to remain calm, but feeling anything besides calm.

She couldn't get everything that had happened today out of her head, she couldn't deal with her father right now on top of it. She had cried already, she wasn't going to cry now. Now thinking about everything was just really, really pissing her off.

Running into Janelle, getting caught by the camera crew, almost getting taken away, being face to face with the guy who tried to take her away, hearing about what Lex wanted to do, and learning that because of Lex's meddling she was actually biologically Rina's mother had clearly all caught up with Chloe. Oliver could see Chloe's hands shaking.

"I have to show Chloe something before we go. Can you take her for a minute?" Oliver said, passing Rina to Clark.

Oliver took Chloe's hand, and headed out of the room quickly.

"What do you want, Oliver?" Chloe asked, rubbing her head. "I don't want to talk. What I want to do, I'm pretty sure, is smash someone's face in," Chloe said, about to start ranting, even though she said she had no desire to talk.

Oliver cut her off before she could say anything. He grabbed her and he kissed her.

Chloe forgot that she was supposed to be mad at him and pulled Oliver closer, kissing him back fiercely.

There was anger, sadness and frustration in that kiss, Oliver felt it. There was relief in it too, though.

Chloe was a bit of a mess emotionally, and even though she was still upset over him keeping things from her, she was relieved and calmed by having him there with her. And kissing him was awesome.

She finally pulled away from him and took a deep breath.

"Feel better now?" Oliver asked her with a little grin. "A little less frustrated?"

Getting Emil to run tests to see if she and Rina shared DNA behind her back wasn't okay. Catching and holding one of Lex's employees and keeping her out of the loop wasn't okay.

Chloe rolled her eyes at him and started to walk away, wanting to at least keep up the appearance of still being angry with him a little bit longer, even though the actual anger seemed to have gone, knowing that his intentions had been good.

Oliver's expression changed to a more serious one. He caught her wrist and held her gaze.

"Don't keep things from me. Don't leave me in the dark, especially when something concerns me," Chloe said, sighing.

"Okay," he told her. "Sorry, Sidekick."

"I know," she said, giving his hand a little squeeze.

"It's been quite the day, huh?" Oliver said, giving her a gentle nudge.

"Let's talk about it later," Chloe said, leaning her head against his shoulder for a minute. "Let's just get Rina and get out of here for now and go see my mom."

"The driver will be around in a few minutes."

"Thank you," Chloe said.

"For what?"

"Even though you mess up in some ways, you know me so well. Thank you for knowing what I need right now, for knowing that I need to see my mother."

Oliver just gave her a shrug and a little smile, relieved that she wasn't furious with him, and thankful himself for Chloe ever letting him get close enough to know her so well.