Chloe stared with her arms full of multicolor parrot tulips. Who was the most in shock, her or the bald man in front of her was a rather loaded question. She hadn't seen Lex in four years. In all that time, they had spoken exactly once, about a year after she left for Germany. She had assured him she was well and safe, and he'd confirmed everybody but Lois had bought the story of her death. Even then, it'd been a short conversation made of cryptic questions and monosyllabic answers, which had lasted less than five minutes. Now here he was, the only man she'd trusted to keep her safe, until Oliver. His subdue smile was the same, his careful blue eyes riveted on her person as if she would disappear if he blinked.
"Chloe…" Lex cleared the catch in his throat. "I wasn't expecting to see you." He slanted a glance toward Oliver. "Someone forgot to mention you lived here."
Her own smile bloomed right here and there. Some things would never change, no matter how hard time tried to erode them: Clark's guileless, Lois' exuberance, or Lex' mordant stoicism. She'd loved word sparring with him then, almost as much as she loved bantering with Oliver now.
"The same someone who forgot to mention which one of his 'old friends' was coming to diner, I am sure."
Oliver frowned at that, visibly unhappy with the turn of their ice-breaking conversation. Chloe took a step forward, and rose on tiptoe to kiss the blond man' cheek. "Thanks for the flowers, Oliver, they're beautiful."
"You're welcome. Why don't you all go to the terrace, I'll put them in the water for you. Lex, do you want a beer?"
"I'll take something stronger, if you have it."
"Scotch it is. Hal?"
The brunette, who stared at the exchange in silence with a curious expression on his face, jumped back in. "I'll be your barman for the evening. Two scotch on the rocks, one beer, and a ginger ale for the youngling over there."
"Hey!" Chloe protested, even though she was grateful Hal used her age to explain why she wasn't drinking. She just hoped they would manage to stir away from that and some other 'touchy' subjects, since Hal's ring made it impossible to lie. She wasn't sure what Lex knew of Oliver's leathery activities, for one, or what Oliver had told the other man of their relationship. The kiss and flowers were dead giveaways they were more than roommates but still.
"I'll give you a hand, Oliver."
"It's all right, I have it."
He ducked under the archway leading to the kitchen, no doubt happy to delay explaining himself.
Hal flung an arm around her shoulders to guide her toward the bay window.
"Yes, he has it. And I don't want to explain to Junior over here why the two of you need half an hour to arrange flower stems and order pizzas."
"Hal!"
Chloe flushed scarlet. Lex looked utterly amused. The expression brought her years back to a summer afternoon spent at Crater Lake, watching Clark embarrassed himself with Lana while Lois ran the commentary. Oliver reappeared a minute later with the plate of cut vegetables she'd prepared in one hand, a bowl of dip in the other.
"You know, Hal, if you insist on making sleazy comments about my girlfriend, I can call yours, see what she has to say about that."
"Red and I have an understanding when it comes to Chloe. Besides, she's not… We're just seeing each other."
So much for the no-lie policy. Was Hal spare from the ring's power?
"And who's 'Red'?"
Chloe licked her lips and curled in her favorite chair, ready to see Hal' squirm under the combined assaults of both Oliver and Lex. The dark-hair man took a pull of his beer. Merciless, Chloe supplied the answer for him with a smirk. "Tess Mercer is a friend. She was my neighbour."
"Tess Mercer. She is a marine biologist, isn't she?"
Chloe sat a little straighter in her chair. Hal stopped chucking his beer. "Yes, she is. She works at the Star City Marine Institute. How do you know that?"
Oliver who'd remain on his feet behind Chloe leaned against the back of her seat nonchalantly. He brushed her hair on the side of her neck. She focused on the settling touch of his thumb on her skin while he repeated Hal's question. "Lex? How do you know what Tess does?"
Lex contemplated the amber liquid in his glass. "When I shot down the Black Creek project, I found some references to three projects. Gemini, Calypso and Ares."
Oliver's fingertips continued their delicate rubbing after an infinitesimal pause. "Gemini seemed to be the more advance of the three. Luthorcorp dived deep into stem cell research and cloning under my father's rule. Dr. Mercer's name was listed with the Calypso project, along with a A. Curry and some reference to a military project involving dolphins. I have no clue about Ares."
"The Goddess of the sea, and the God of War," Oliver said. "I don't like this. How old was the information in there?"
Lex shook his head. "I don't know. There had to be a failsafe of some sort on the files. When I tried to access them, the whole system corrupted." He polished the last of his scotch. "It proved to be unsalvageable."
Chloe saw Oliver's mouth open out of the corner of her eye but he closed it as soon as Lex's final comment registered. She took a note to ask him later about the look the two of them exchanged, as if Oliver was asking him something and Lex answered without even speaking. Something else bothered her, too. She took a sip of ginger ale to settle her rioting stomach.
"Lex, when did it happen? I mean, when did you find about Calypso?"
"A couple of months ago I would say. I closed Black Creek long before that, but it took a while to put my hands on everything."
Her chest tightened. Chloe forced her voice to stay calm. "So for all we know, your father kept tabs on my former neighbour all that time. So he probably knows I am alive, and where I am."
Lex bowed his head once. "It's possible."
Oliver's hand pressed between her shoulder blades. She breathed through the weight, unsure if the tension along her spine was Oliver's or hers. Chloe shifted on her seat to pull the side cushion closer and started toying with its fray. Her mind flipped back and forth between hope and resignation.
Oliver stayed firmly planted behind her and out of sight, so she let her gaze erred toward Lex, then Hal. For the first time since she'd met him, Chloe noticed a frown on his face. His handsome face returned to normal as soon as he noticed her staring, so jovial the strained expression could have been a figment of her imagination. He shrugged. "Tess didn't mention anything and she's pretty sharp. If she thought someone was looking into her work or stalking her, she would have noticed."
Chloe bobbed her head firmly in approval. "Yes, she would have. And she would have told me, or Hal. She knew who I was right from the start and she only called me on it because she thought Oliver was putting me at risk."
"Lionel will find me in the way if he even thinks about looking in your direction. And I guaranty you he won't like it one bit."
This time she turned toward Oliver to take his hand and squeezed it. His gaze searched her face. Chloe pressed his fingers again, almost taken aback by the dark undertone in his usually warm browns.
"Enough with the gloomy talk." Hal pushed to his feet. "I was promised food and I am sure Blondie over here" he pointed toward Chloe who scolded at the nickname "needs more blackmail material."
"Chloe has no reason whatsoever to resort to blackmail. And why do you say "more"? What do you tell Chlo exactly when you sneak in here while I slave in the office all day?"
She patted Oliver's leg. "You're cute. Do tell, Hal, I like having a back-up plan."
Lex smirked while Hal chocked on his beer in laughter. Oliver huffed. "You're going to listen to the man who insisted he is 'just seeing' someone when he can't finish a sentence without saying "Tess did this" or "Tess said that"?"
"Tess doesn't like labels."
Chloe hid her giggle behind her hand.
"Are you telling us that Hal 'they-can't-resist-me' Jordan is unable to get a woman to admit she's dating him?" Lex deadpanned. "I should come by Star City more often. California is much more entertaining than Kansas."
"Ah, ah, ah. Why don't you bring Ariane, next time? Surely if she agreed to marry you, she's missing some facts, Alexander the Conqueror."
Lex glowered at the nickname. Chloe couldn't mask her mirth any longer. "The Conqueror, Lex, really? How come I never knew you had that kind of rep?"
"It's not as glorious as you think."
Oliver eased his fingers away from Chloe's. "I'll go order the food."
Chloe turned her head in time to see him square his shoulders as he exited the terrace. She stood, "be right back" and followed him.
She found him leaning against the counter, phone in hand. "Oliver?"
"They should be here in about twenty minutes."
"Or less, since I am pretty sure you had already called when you joined us earlier. What's wrong?"
He tugged at her waist to bring her close and rested his chin on the top of her head. Chloe nestled in his embrace, knowing it comforted him. "I was an ass in high school. I bullied Lex through most of it. He was one year younger, smaller, already bald. The teachers loved him. The perfect target. That girl, Eva, was attending the all-girl school next to Excelsior. They often paired the two schools for social events. Anyway, Eva sought out Lex every single time, probably because he didn't act like a pompous imbecile like the rest of us. She turned around him like a fly around honey, or sang his praise to whom would listen when he was not there. I came up with the nickname to humiliate him because of it. I wanted her to believe she was going to be just another notch on his bedpost. It didn't work. She never believed the lie and it gave Lex the boost he apparently needed to ask her out. So I lied again. I showed up to tell her Lex was going to stand her up and I slept with her. I arranged it so that Lex found us on the couch when he came to pick her up for their date. It was the last straw, I think. He started fighting back after that, so I stopped torturing him so much. Bullies prefer easy victims."
His arms loosened around her, as if he was bracing for rejection. She wished she could say she was surprised but his actions matched Oliver's former self-destructive ways to a T. Chloe braced herself on his forearms to keep him from retreating. She used the granted space to catch his eyes. His normally direct gaze trudged through murky browns. "How old were you?"
"Sixteen."
"At sixteen, I struck a deal with Lionel Luthor in exchange for my own column in the Daily Planet. I gave him everything I had about the meteor rocks."
His eyes widened slightly, then filled with understanding. Oliver caressed her face, then brought her closer once more. "The way Lionel used the information you gave him is not your fault, Chloe."
"And that girl could have given Lex the benefice of the doubt or tell you no."
She pressed her nose into his collar, relishing the faint scent of his aftershave. Chloe felt his mood shift, first a shuddering breath against her breast, then his hands relaxing the hard grip he had on her hips to link into the small of her back. His mouth curved into a smile on her temple. "I have it on good authority it's very hard to tell me no. I am quite charming and very persuasive."
"That's quite a claim, Mr. Queen."
"Guess I have to demonstrate, then…"
