A/N: Here it is, the chapter you guys have been waiting somewhat patiently for. Chloe and Oliver finally get together, and personally one of my favorites. I debated putting this chapter up because I don't have the ones that come after this completely finished yet so it might take a few days for another update so enjoy it and savor it and don't kill me if I don't have something posted by tomorrow.

Christmas time in Smallville always held particularly fond memories for Chloe. She remembered her and her dad celebrating by themselves, bundled up in the house as it snowed outside. Then there were the years after her dad passed and she would go to the Kent's. Martha always made Chloe feel like she was at home, making sure to let her know she wasn't intruding. She remembered bundling herself up in fifteen layers of clothing to take the hayride tour of lights through town and then walking frozen into the Talon with Clark and Lois begging for hot chocolate so their fingers didn't fall off. Smallville at Christmas was white and clean with garland on street lamps and wreaths on shop doors, there were makeshift snowmen on the sidewalk and groups of people walking huddled together to keep warm. What she was looking at now, climbing out of the car Oliver rented was not Christmas in Smallville.

"It's like eighty degrees out here." AC said taking off his jacket and stowing it in the car.

"Where is my snow?" Chloe asked. "Where's my cold breeze?" She looked around. People were walking down the street, chatting happily in short sleeves, no jackets. There were still wreaths on doorways and garland on street lamps put they seemed strange and out of place in this hot city.

"What's the opposite of winter wonderland?" Victor asked looking around.

"Yeah it's a Christmas Heat wave." Lois said as she walked forward to greet them. "Clark's been complaining about it all week."

"It's a week before Christmas, I don't like this." Chloe said cautiously.

"Well join the club. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all, they aren't even serving hot chocolate at the Talon." Lois frowned. "And they might have to cancel the hay ride because not enough people put up lights this year."

"This sucks." Chloe said. "I can't believe it."

"Don't get your panties all up in a bunch." Lois said. "We're still doing all those Christmas type things we used to do; I'm determined to make this a happy holiday if it kills me."

"Good." Chloe said. "I'm right there with you." She smiled and even though she wasn't looking she could tell that the guys all made faces. "Let's get to the Farm. Clark has something he wants to talk to Oliver about and I haven't seen Ms. Kent in ages." Lois agreed and Chloe rode with her as the boys followed in Oliver's car.

"So, real family Christmas in Smallville." Lois said. "It's been a while."

"I know." Chloe sighed. "When Oliver told Lex we were coming, I knew it was just to get a rise out of him, and I wasn't sure I even wanted a Christmas in Smallville, but now that we're here, I'm really excited."

"Well I'm glad you're here." Lois said. "I know we caught up a little when you got back but it's not the same as just hanging out."

"We'll be doing a lot of that." Chloe smiled. "I have a feeling I'm going to be the lone crusader for Christmas back at the loft. We need a tree and decorations and stockings and presents."

"Hey, shopping is one of the things that I do best." Lois smiled as they pulled into the Farm. Chloe jumped out of Lois car and ran up the steps to the house, it didn't matter that it was almost ninety degrees; Ms. Kent wasn't going to let that stop Christmas. She had her lights up and her garland and her decorations and the inside was just a Christmassy.

"No this is Christmas." Chloe said inhaling the scent of cinnamon and apples.

"Chloe?" Martha said walking into the room. "I can't believe you're here." She gave the girl a hug, one of those hugs only a mom can give and Chloe just sunk into it.

"I'm so happy to be here to." Chloe assured her.

"Come in." Martha ushered them into the kitchen and Chloe followed her. "I'm just putting together my shopping list for Christmas dinner, I guess I need to double it."

"Bart's here." Chloe said.

"Quadruple it." Martha laughed.

"Ms. Kent…" Chloe said hesitantly. "Would you mind if I…I mean tell me if I'm stepping on your toes or something. But would you mind if I cooked Christmas dinner?"

Martha looked at Chloe for a minute, surprise, hesitancy, relief on her face. "She's an awesome cook Ms. K." Lois said.

"Why would you want to do that? You'd end up spending all day cooking." She said confused.

"I know, which does not sound like a bad thing to me, trust me. But I've never done it before and I'd really like to." Chloe said. Ms. Kent still looked unsure. "Plus, I dropped like five more people on you at the last minute, eight if you count how much Bart eats, including one with a highly sensitive peanut allergy which I'm used to cooking for already."

"I didn't think about that." Martha said. "If you're sure you don't mind."

"It would be my pleasure." Chloe assured her. "If you'll still make desert."

"Of course." Martha smiled. Kara came down and the girls caught up in the kitchen while the men had their little pow wow in the barn.

A few hours later Oliver knocked on the door to the kitchen and interrupted what sounded like a very amusing story. "Hello ladies." He smiled and they all started laughing again. "We're you talking about me?"

"No." Chloe stood up and walked over to him. "Of course we weren't."

He looked at all their faces confused. "You were." He said. "You didn't tell them…" He leaned down and whispered. "The Lone Ranger story did you?"

"Why would I do that?" Chloe asked, a smirk on her face.

"Hey cowboy." Lois called out. "Where's Tonto."

"You told them?" Oliver practically squeaked.

"Calm down cowboy." Lois said.

Oliver opened his mouth and Chloe turned him around to face the living room. "Did you need something?" He looked back in the kitchen and Lois made the gun sign with her hands and mimed shooting him. Chloe turned and glared at Lois so she sat down. "Oliver?"

"Yeah, we need to head back."

"It's early still." Chloe said confused.

"We've got some business we need to do and Martha is having a diner party tonight. She didn't need us in her way."

"Business?" Chloe asked. "Why are you being so secretive?" She asked. "Everyone here knows."

"Plausible deniability." Oliver told her. "You taught me that."

Chloe just nodded and said her goodbyes. "Shopping later?" Chloe asked.

"I'll meet you at the Talon?" Lois said. "Eight o'clock."

"Got it." Chloe said.

The ride back to the city was long and quiet and Chloe couldn't' figure out what was so secretive that he couldn't just tell her on the farm. They got in the penthouse and she set her bags down. "What's going on?" Chloe asked. "What's the big deal?" She asked getting a sort of bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Oliver motioned for everyone to sit down.

"I don't get it." Victor said. "You aren't normally the stealthy break in and steal something kind of thief." Victor sat down with his sandwich and smiled at Oliver.

"Yeah." AC laughed. "You're more the showy, out in the open steal something kind of thief."

"Could we quit calling me a thief?" Oliver asked. "I know that this isn't our normal every day sort of deal, with the stealing and the crime." He pointed out. "But it's important; it's a favor, for Clark."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Bart asked. "I'll go grab it now."

"No." Oliver shook his head. "This is a little more delicate than what you used to do." He looked around the table. "We can't let Lex know it's been taken."

"Won't it kind of be obvious when the display case is empty?" AC asked.

"We're replacing it with a fake." Oliver said. "A really good, very expensive fake."

"This is very Indiana Jones." Bart rubbed his hands together.

"More Ocean's Eleven." Victor said motioning to the security manifest, blueprints, and even surveillance photos thanks to Clark that surrounded the walls of the meeting room.

"Regardless of what movie this reminds you of, it's very real, and very serious." Oliver said. "According to Clark, bad things will happen if Lex figures out how to open it."

Chloe looked up and saw the picture of their target. It was a small silver box with etchings on it, definitely Kryptonian; she wondered how in the world Clark had let Lex get his hands on it in the first place. "What's the plan?" She asked. They turned to her startled. It was the first time she'd spoken since they started.

"Clark is extending an Oliver Branch, well the illusion of an Oliver Branch. Lionel, Clark, Martha, Lex, and Lana will all be having a Christmas dinner together, tonight. That's when we'll go in." Oliver said. "We're going to have to be very stealthy about this, so Impulse and I will be on lookout while you and Chloe take care of the rest."

"You want me to take care of the security system?" Victor asked.

"The security system and the vault." Oliver pulled up a schematic of some kind. "After Clark ruined the one that he had, Lex put in a new state of the art, completely electronic vault in the basement. Do you think you can get it open?"

"No problem." Victor said looking over the plans.

"What about me?" AC asked.

"You're going to stake out the Kent's." Oliver said. "Alert us in case Lex decides to leave early."

"No problem." AC said.

"Chloe, I want you with Victor, two computer genius' are better than one as far as I'm concerned."

"Sounds like a plan." Chloe said a little unenthusiastically.

AC and Bart started to go over the plans to Lex's house as Victor studied the vault system. Oliver followed Chloe out of the room frowning. "Hey." He called after her. "You ok?"

"This is why you wanted to have Christmas in Smallville? You had to have known about this long before tonight, maybe at Bruce's party, to have the fake ready." Chloe asked and when Oliver didn't say anything she took that as a yes. "Ok." She turned and started to walk away but was stopped by Oliver's hand on her arm.

"Hey." He turned her around. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." She sighed. "I just thought, well I thought you really wanted a family Christmas. I actually got a little excited when Lana was talking about the hay ride and the tour of lights. It's silly."

"No it's not silly." Oliver said. "I'm sorry. Christmas wasn't really a big thing for me. I mean we had a lot of money so there was no doubt I would get presents, my parents were always away and then when they died. I forget that it's more than just a day to other people."

"I didn't realize." Chloe blushed.

"No it's my fault." He coughed uneasily. "Look, we can still do that, have our own family Christmas. We'll do this one thing, and then it'll be Christmas trees and eggnog and wrapping presents and mistletoe."

"Really?" Chloe seemed to brighten at this.

"Really." Oliver said.

They decided they'd be much less conspicuous in civilian clothes so they didn't gear up for this particular mission, which admittedly felt a little strange at first. The only security they had to worry about were two out front, and they by passed those easily enough. Lex was still too arrogant to have the kind of security he really should. As soon as Victor disabled the security system Bart was off, finding the inside guards and giving their location to Oliver as Chloe and Victor made their way to the basement.

Chloe stood by impatiently, the list of things she had yet to get done for Christmas weighing more heavily on her mind than the breaking and entering currently going on. "I'm in." Victor said and started unlocking the vault. They stood back when he finished the door opening. "This is like in Die Hard, the first one, when the vault opens slowly and the bad guys stand there waiting, too bad we don't have Christmas music playing in the background." Victor said.

"Or the third, when the girls coming out of the vault from the other side." Chloe smiled. "I love Die Hard, how bad ass is Bruce Willis?"

Victor grinned as the doors finished and they stared into the vault, the smiles fading from their face. "Shit, this is so not like Die Hard."

"We've got a problem." Victor said through his com system.

"What kind of problem?" Oliver asked.

"A late edition to security." Victor answered.

"What?"

"You need to see it." Victor shook his head. "Bring Impulse, we might need him."

"We're on our way." Oliver said.

Oliver and Bart stared into the vault and then looked at Victor. "This wasn't on the schematics? The security manifest?"

"No." Victor said. "It must be new."

Oliver turned back into the vault and stared at the hundred thin criss crossing lasers that covered every conceivable space in no apparent pattern. Chloe was just standing there staring, she hadn't said a word. "You can't hack it?"

"It's an isolated system, probably activated by remote control." Victor nodded to the box that was three quarters of the way up the wall. "The only way to do it without the remote is from inside the room."

"Can Bart do it?" Oliver asked. "He's faster than the laser sensors right?"

"Maybe." Victor said. "I looked up the schematic to the system, to disable it you need to stand there and disconnect a wire for exactly three minutes to reset everything."

"I'll call AC have him check Luther's stuff for the remote." Oliver pulled out his phone. "Chloe?" He paused. "What do you think?"

"I can do this." Chloe turned around and took off her jacket, handing it to Victor.

"Do what?" He asked.

"Get to the box." Chloe said quickly braiding her hair down her back and tucking it into her shirt.

"Through those?" Oliver asked nodding to the lasers.

"I found a path." Chloe said as she leaned forward and grabbed the ground, stretching.

They all turned to look through the vault opening where Chloe had, they couldn't see a path, they could just see lasers.

"A path?" Oliver asked turning back to Chloe.

She stood up and stretched her arms and then leaned back until her hands touched the ground and she arched her back. She flipped herself over and stood up to stretch her legs out. "Trust me. I've done this before, well something like it." She smiled at him and he looked at Victor who shrugged. She took off her shoes and set them on the ground before walking to the door and taking a deep breath.

"You sure you can do this?" Oliver asked one last time and Chloe nodded, breathing deeply, centering herself, calming her nerves, she hated that Bruce was always right.

"How is this supposed to help me again?" Chloe asked.


"Problem solving, thinking on your feet, you have to be prepared for anything and everything." Bruce replied. "Trust me, everything I teach you here, you'll use somehow."


"That's what my algebra teachers used to say and as of yet, I've never once needed to find the use any of it." Chloe said tucking her hair into her shirt and pulling off her shoes.

"Get the bottle." Bruce said pointing a glass bottle balanced precariously on a small ledge in the stone wall. "Without ringing a bell or breaking the bottle."

Chloe looked in the cave and sighed. The whole room was filled with intersecting strings it looked like a game of Cat's Cradle gone horribly wrong. On every string however there were at least ten small bells attached. "Hell." Chloe said rolling her shoulders. Bruce sat in a chair and opened a book.

"Go." He said.

Chloe made it two feet before tangling herself up hopelessly and ringing every single bell. "Again." Bruce said as Alfred helped her out. Five hours later Bruce came in holding a plate with a sandwich on it and stopped watching as Chloe wove her hand underneath a string, flattened herself against the floor then pulling herself up some, she was still only about two feet into the maze. She pulled her lower hand out and up carefully and weaved through three more strings and a shoulder grazed a string tinkling a bell.

Bruce picked up the sandwich and took a bite. "Again." He said settling into his chair and picking up his book as Chloe made her way out of the tangle, not bothering to avoid the strings or bells.

She didn't get the bottle the first day, or the second day, partly because Bruce had changed around all the strings "Again" was all he would say to her. She had gotten used to the tangle, started to work out which way to go, which way not to go, that's why he changed it he said. Two weeks later she had made it to the wall but could not start to climb without setting a bell off.

"It's impossible." She said staring at the mess and Bruce jumped out of the chair he was sitting in and stared at the strings. Forty five minutes later without a sound Bruce stood in front of Chloe with the bottle smiling. "Show off." She said as he turned around and climbed through the ropes to put it back up in its cove.

He sat back down in his chair and picked up his book. "Again."

By month number two Chloe was getting closer to the bottle. She'd almost had it five times by now and she was sure this time she'd get it. Her fingers were mere inches away and she grabbed it, letting out a triumphant cry. "You've got to get down." Bruce reminded her and two minutes later he heard a bell tinkle in the distance. "Again."

It took another two weeks before Chloe managed to proudly produce the bottle to Bruce, a satisfied smile on his face. He nodded behind her and she turned to find another bottle, higher up, on a different cave wall. "Again."

Oliver was standing beside her. "I trust you, I do, but there are no second chances here, you mess up that's it." He reminded her. "People practice for months, sometimes years to get through these things."

"Like Catherine Zeta Jones." Bart said. "In that movie with the old guy."

Chloe turned him glaring. "That old guy." She said through clenched teeth. "Was Sean Connery, only the greatest James Bond ever." She turned to Oliver. "Can we get him some movies made before 1995 please?"

"Chloe focus." Oliver said. "He's right, in the movie, by the time they got to the place she could do it blindfold."

"You want me to do it blindfolded? I can do it blindfolded." She joked and he sighed. "I'll be fine." She assured him. She looked in the vault and mentally went over her path one more time.

When she was sure she'd mastered the retrieve-the-bottle-through-the-maze drill Bruce switched it up. He stood her in front of the strings, showed her the location of the bottle and smiled. "You have one try." He told her. "Then I switch up the strings, twenty minutes to find a path and go." He said.

"One try?" Chloe turned to him.

"One." Bruce said as Chloe stared at the maze and sighed, looking for a way to the bottle. Her first try was a disaster; bells went off within ten minutes. Bruce pulled wires down and changed it all up. "Again." He said sitting back down. It took her three more months but finally she managed it, somehow, staring at the strings, getting constantly tangled up in them allowed her to find the holes, know where she would hit dead ends, where she would find openings.

She stepped forward, cautiously and started the route she'd found for herself. She tried to calm herself, using the exercised the monks taught her, block out all noise and distractions but it was difficult with the peanut gallery behind her. "She's gonna hit the one of the left." Bart said.

"No she won't." Victor scoffed.

"Who needs Catherine Zeta Jones?" Bart smiled excitedly.

"Please tell me you're recording this." Victor turned to Oliver and nodded at his Green Arrow sunglasses. "AC is not going to believe it." They all turned their necks to the side to watch Chloe bend at a very odd angle, missing the one of the left by inches.

"Been recording since she went in." Oliver said. "Does she look really close that that one there?" He pointed looking worried and Chloe froze, bent at a strange angle. "Did you hit one?" Oliver asked.

"No." Chloe said. "But I'm finding it hard to concentrate with the running commentary."

"Sorry." They all said sheepishly and Chloe resumed her path to the box. Thirty minutes later she was balanced precariously on one foot, hanging off of a small table, her hand hovering over the control box. She slowly pulled the cover off and was greeted with a jumble of wires. "Which wire?" She asked.

"The red one." Victor said. "Exactly three minutes, any more, any less, the alarm goes off."

"Time it." Chloe said. "One two three." She pulled the wire out and stood there.

"Can you stand like that for three minutes?" Oliver asked concerned.

Bruce pressed on with the strings, Chloe was getting bored of them now, they were too easy, but that was the point, they were supposed to become easy, supposed to become habitual. Until one day Bruce screwed with that too. "Freeze." He said and Chloe stopped all movement, her hand outstretched above her head, her foot a little bit off the ground.

"I didn't ring a bell. " She protested.

"I know." He smiled.

Chloe didn't move, didn't continue forward, she stood there frozen until her foot gave out and it feel to the ground. "Again." Bruce said. And so another part of the training started. Chloe never knew when he would say freeze or when he would let her unfreeze and it was the first time since she'd gotten back that she resumed her nightly ice baths. Her muscles killing her. The freezes went on longer and longer, Bruce going back up to the house for lunch at times and coming back to find Chloe in the exact same spot.

When he was sure she'd managed to master all she could involving the strings he let her go, said she was done, that she'd never have to see a string with a bell on it again.

"I'm never going to use this in my life." Chloe said marveling at the loss of six months of training. It wasn't a total loss, she had to admit that she was much more nimble and bendy now; she could probably squeeze herself under a door way if the need ever arose.

"A hundred bucks says you do." He smirked at her.

"I'll be fine." Chloe said letting out a breath. "Oh Victor, I sort of volunteered us to do Christmas dinner." Chloe smiled sheepishly. "It's still gonna be at the farm but Ms. Kent doesn't need to spend all day cooking and I've never got to do a full Christmas meal before."

"Sounds good to me." Victor smiled. "You know I could spend all day cooking."

"And I could spend all day eating." Bart smiled. "Why isn't that an option?"

"How many people?" Victor asked ignoring Bart.

"Lois, Clark, Ms. Kent, Kara, You, Me, Bart, AC, Oliver."

"Not too bad." Victor said. "We can go over the menu tonight and then shop tomorrow. I have a few things I've been wanting to try out."

"Not that I don't love it when you guys create all those fancy dishes, I love it, I never ate so well before in my life. But there will be Turkey right? What's Christmas without Turkey?"

"Of course we'll do Turkey." Chloe said. "What do you take us for?"

"Honestly." Victor shook his head at Oliver and he smiled. "And five, four, three, two, one." Chloe slipped the wire back in and the lasers flickered then went out.

"Sounds like someone's getting in the spirit." Chloe said. "Turkey and eggnog, oh…" She turned to Victor and looked as if she was contemplating something. "Nah." She shook her head as Victor set to work on disabling the system around the display case.

"I have to admit, having the tree up and the lights, I'm getting a little excited." Oliver said.

"Go." Victor nodded and Oliver lifted the glass surrounding the pedestal and Bart pulled the fake box from his back pocket, very quickly removing the real one and replacing it with the fake, they all froze, waiting for an alarm and Chloe had to admit she did feel very Indiana Jones and couldn't help looking behind her for a large boulder. Oliver sighed and lowered the glass as Victor reset the security panel. "Good job." He smiled at them all.

Victor somehow managed to reconfigure the laser system so he could turn it on from the outside and they locked up, leaving everything the way they found it. They walked down the street Bart tossing the box from hand to hand before Chloe snatched it out of mid-air and glared at him. "The dinner should be over by now." Oliver checked his watch as they walked down the street. "It's still not cold."

"Stupid freaky heat wave." Chloe shrugged. "Normally we'd be covered in snow."

"I'm not complaining." Bart smiled.

"Where have you been?" Lois' voice caught them of guard. "You said to meet at the Talon at eight." She jogged down the street toward the group. "I've been here for thirty minutes, I'm not the one that has last minute shopping, you are remember? If you want to get anything done we've got to start now."

"I totally forgot." Chloe sighed. "I'm so sorry. I'll catch up with you guys later." Chloe said.

"No problem." Oliver smiled as Lois dragged her off. She passed a recycle bin and stopped.

"Wait." Chloe said to Lois. "Just a second." She picked up a root beer bottle and made sure it was dry. "Do you have a hundred on you?"

"Yeah sure, I'm not the multi billionaire." Lois pointed out.

She jogged up to Oliver. "You got a hundred?"

He nodded pulling it out of his pocket and handed it to her. She stuffed it in the bottle. "Can you do me a favor Bart?"

"Anything." He stood up straighter.

"Run this to Bruce Wayne for me; tell him a bet is a bet." Chloe sighed.

"Sure thing." He winked and then was gone. Oliver just smiled as she ran back to Lois.

"How does he get away with that in public?" Lois wondered out loud.

"Because he's Bart." Chloe shrugged.

"So let me guess." Lois wove her arm in Chloe's. "You were late because you were out saving the world from certain disaster."

"That's more Superman's gig isn't it?" Chloe smiled. "Actually we were doing a little breaking and entering, at Lex's." Chloe pulled the box out of her pocket. "Can you give that to Clark for me?"

"You got it?" Lois said looking at the box and smiling. "He's been freaking out over this thing."

"Call it a Christmas gift." Chloe said.

"That is so not fair, while I'm having to force my way through dinner with the devil and his creepy drone of a wife, you were out breaking into vaults and being all Mission Impossible." Lois pouted.

"We'd let you tag alone you know but we'd read about it in the planet the next day." Chloe said. "Don't even try to deny it."

"I wasn't going to." Lois smiled.

"Lois Lane." Chloe said. "Never found a story she wouldn't print."

"Hey." Lois bristled. "I happen to be sitting on six of the biggest stories in the world, have been for more three years now."

"I know." Chloe said. "Enough shop talk. Let's go spend lots of money."

"Yeah." Lois headed into a shop and Chloe followed suit.

"Ok." Lois stole a glance at Chloe out of the corner of her eye, she was texting something to Oliver, and Lois wasn't sure what she could be telling him, they'd been texting back and forth since they left each other. Now they were on the way to the Clock Tower and Lois was getting a little annoyed with it. "Could you stop texting Oliver for like five seconds? This is important."

"Sorry." Chloe typed something quickly, hit send and then put the phone back in her pocket. "Ok, full attention."

"There is something that I have to tell you. Now that I have you alone, in a car where you can't run away or try to kill me, you know unless you grab the wheel and crash us into a tree, which would kill you too so I don't find that very likely." Chloe looked over at Lois confused and slightly amused. "And I'm really hoping you don't try to kill me, or disown me, or both."

"Lois." Chloe laughed. "You're family, there's nothing you could do to get me to kill you, or disown you." Chloe assured her. "Unless you're about to publish an expose on the secret identities of America's superheroes." Lois still didn't say anything. "You didn't did you?" Chloe asked seriously.

"No." Lois said. "God, what do you take me for? Is that really how you see me? You think I would do that to you, to Oliver, to all of them?"

"What am I supposed to think?" Chloe said astonished at the venom in Lois' voice. "You're talking about killing and disowning and something you did that was bad…"

"Well it's not that." Lois said. "I would never do that."

"Well then what the hell are you talking about?" Chloe screamed.

"I'm in love with Clark." Lois screamed back. Chloe froze with her mouth open. "We're sort of in love with each other." Chloe closed her mouth but her eyes got wider. "We've been dating for two and half years now." Chloe just stared at her. "Say something."

"Two and half years?" Chloe shook her head trying to wrap her brain around this information. "I saw you six months ago. You didn't say anything to me."

"Yeah well you just got back from where ever the hell you went that you won't tell me about and I was still mad at you." Lois defended herself.

"Everyone knows about this right?" Chloe said. "I mean I am the last one to know aren't I?"

"Yeah." Lois said.

"That bastard." Chloe mumbled under her breath. "I knew it, I knew there was something he wasn't telling me." She pulled out her phone. "I told him I could tell when he was keeping something from me." She typed something rapidly into her phone. "He is such a liar. He didn't have to tell me what it was; he just needed to admit that he was in fact keeping a secret from me."

"Hold on, wait a minute." Lois grabbed the phone from Chloe's hand and turned to glance at her. "I just told you that I was in love with Clark Kent, that I have been dating Clark Kent for almost three years and didn't tell you, and you're mad at Oliver?"

"Please, like I'm gonna be mad at you?" Chloe said. "For one thing, I got over Clark more than ten years ago. For another thing I knew five years ago that you two were gonna get together eventually when you both stop being dumb asses."

"So you're not mad at me?" Lois asked.

"Well, are you happy?" Lois nodded. "Is Clark happy?"

"I like to think so." Lois said.

"Then no I'm not mad at you." Chloe said. "Now if you two had gotten married and you didn't tell me, then I'd be pissed."

"Please, like I can even think of planning a wedding with Mr. Zooms-away-at-the-drop-of-a-dime-to-go-save-the-world." Lois scoffed and Chloe froze for a second. "Oh yeah, I know about Superman, what you think there was any way I was gonna date another person without figuring out if they had super powers or not."

Chloe reached for her phone but Lois pulled it away. "You really want to text him don't you?"

"He lied to me." Chloe said reaching for the phone again.

"Uh huh." Lois smiled. "That's why?"

"Why else?" Chloe asked confused.

"Because it's been two minutes since the last time." Lois offered smiling smugly.

"That's not it." Chloe groaned.

"Oh, looks like he couldn't wait either." Lois laughed as the phone signaled a new message. "What's it say? Let's see."

"You're driving." Chloe said. "You shouldn't read while you're driving. Give it back." Chloe reached again but Lois pulled the phone away. The phone beeped again. "Man he's impatient." It beeped again and then again. "Can the two of you function apart?" She laughed.

"Ok, he wants to know when you're coming back." Lois read the first one. "He says that he can't deal with the kids on his own. AC and Bart won't stop fighting; Clark and Victor are just egging them on." Lois chuckled. "And the last one says Call me. It's in all capital letters with quite a few exclamation points." Lois showed Chloe the text and Chloe grabbed the phone.

She glared at Lois while she dialed a number. "What's going on?" Chloe asked as Lois tried to hold back her smile. "No, tell Bart he can't open any presents until tomorrow night." Lois laughed again. "He is not Jewish." Lois just shook her head. "Tell him if he doesn't stop it he won't get anything but coal in his stocking." Chloe warned Oliver. "We're on our way back now." Chloe sighed. "Aspirin? It's in the cabinet by the sink, on the right." She waited while Oliver looked for whatever he was looking for. "No I put it there yesterday, I'm positive. Yesterday I went to the store and I put it in that cabinet. No I'm not stopping for more, it's in there…I'll be there in five minutes, can you wait that long?" Chloe asked. "Ok, no I literally see the building, I'm hanging up now. Bye." Chloe hung up the phone but she didn't look annoyed, she was smiling slightly. "I swear he can't do anything without me."

"Ok." Lois said turning to corner and parking in front of the Clock Tower. "So you know you're in love with him right?"

"I'm what?" Chloe asked gathering her bags. "How much did you drink at dinner?"

"I'm serious here." Lois smiled. "You can barely go ten minutes without talking to him in one form or another." She pointed out. "You smile every time you bring his name up, even if it's to complain about something."

"Lois, he's my best friend and we work together and it's just…"

"That you're in love with him." Lois said. "Come on, this is me your talking to, I've already told you I think you guys are the perfect couple, I've already given you my blessing, it's not like I'm still pinning after him or anything, and if this was any other guy you would have told me months ago." She pointed out.

"I don't know." Chloe said finally and Lois gave her a look. "I really don't Lois." She sighed. "I mean, the work that we do is intense and time consuming, and he's my best friend so we hang out together a lot, not to mention the fact that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, we've been dating for five years now which means we have to do the fake couple thing in public so I don't know."

Lois nodded slowly. "I get it. You don't know what you're feeling or if it's real?"

"Exactly." Chloe smiled. "It's like, we go out on dates and I know that's all for show but it's also not all for show. We have fun, we laugh, we enjoy diner and shows and we aren't fake the whole time. And then when we get back from our fake dates, we generally just hang out, watch a movie or some television, relax with each other, and that's not fake, but is it good friends or is it method acting?"

"Ok, no, I really get it now." Lois said smiling. "You are in love with him, and you know you're in love with him. What you don't know is whether he feels the same."

Chloe thought for a minute and then frowned. "Maybe." She said quietly. "Maybe that's it. I know how I feel. I love Oliver, I don't know when I went from loving him to being in love with him but it happened and that's ok. I know how I feel when we go out to eat, when we veg on the couch and watch movies, but I don't know what's going on in his head. There is a difference between public Oliver and Chloe and private Oliver and Chloe but it's so subtle that…why did you have to point this out to me?" Chloe turned on Lois. "I was completely fine going through life oblivious to all of this."

"No you weren't." Lois waved her off. "You might think you were but you weren't. Trust me." Lois sighed. "Can I just make an observation? When you left him, went away and did your thing, he called me to see if you were with me. He sounded so completely and utterly lost, it was, I'd never in my wildest dreams think that Oliver Queen could sound like that. I was worried and I went to see him and it wasn't good Chloe. I mean I worried about you, I missed you, I was upset you were gone but to Oliver, it was like he lost you. It wasn't just about the fact that you left, it was about the fact that you left him. He didn't know what he'd done wrong and he didn't know how to fix it and he knew that there was nothing he could do to bring you back and it killed him."

"I know he missed me." Chloe said.

"No." Lois looked at her seriously. "You don't Chloe. You weren't there. You guys may be fine now, worked through all of your issues but when you were gone he was miserable. Ask the guys if you don't believe me. He didn't miss you because you were his best friend, or his partner in crime, he missed you because he loved you and you left him."

Chloe just sat in the seat and swallowed. She didn't know that she'd done that to him. "I'm not telling you this to upset you or make you think you have to do something, to make it up to him. I'm telling you this so you'll understand. The Oliver I found a week after you left and the Oliver I saw a week after you'd come back were two completely different people and the only difference in his life was you. He loves you Chloe, he may not realize it yet, or maybe he's not sure he wants to admit it because he doesn't think you feel the same but the man can't live without you."

Chloe smiled weakly and her phone rang. She looked at it and the caller ID said Oliver. "Hey." She said.

"What are you doing sitting outside the building. Are you coming up?" He asked.

Chloe looked up through the sun roof and saw him on the balcony leaning over and looking at the car. "Yeah I'm coming up." Chloe said. "Send down someone, not Bart, to help me with the bags."

"I'm on my way." He said. "Anything to get out of this place for a few minutes."

Chloe smiled and put the phone in her bag as Lois just gave her a knowing smirk. "Are you coming up or do you want us to send Clark down?"

"I'm pretty beat, I think I'll head back to Smallville." Lois said as Oliver walked out of the building and over to the car. She rolled her window down so she could observe them.

"Did you have fun shopping?" He asked as she loaded bags into his waiting arms.

"Yeah I did." Chloe smiled.

"Did you get anything for me?" He tried to peek in one of the bags.

"Maybe." She slapped his hand and he smiled at her.

"Is it a pony?" He asked as Chloe closed Lois' trunk.

"Yes Oliver I got you a pony." Chloe said then turned to Lois. "We'll send Clark down, see you tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah." Lois smiled.

"By Lois." Oliver said distractedly as he tried to look into Chloe's bags.

"Stop." She slapped his hand again. "Hey, I can give you nothing but coal if you're not good you know."

"You wouldn't." Oliver said as they walked in the building.

"I would too and you know it." Chloe told him.

Chloe couldn't concentrate she was supposed to be helping Victor with the menu for Christmas dinner but her mind wasn't in it. What Lois told her was weighing heavily on her mind. She knew, obviously that everything wasn't sunshine and roses when she left but she had no idea, what Lois described, it sounded far worse than she thought.

"You with me Chloe?" Victor waved a hand in front of her face.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." He turned to her.

"When I left…" She sighed, not sure how to ask this. "When I left, how messed up was Oliver?"

"Where is this coming from?"

"Lois and I had a talk today and she said she came to visit him and it wasn't…good." Chloe said. "So tell me really."

"You want to know?" Victor asked. "Really?"

"Yeah." Chloe said. "I think I need to."

"We thought he was fine at first." Victor said. "He was upset, he was anxious to find you but he seemed ok you know. But then he started to get worse, we didn't even notice at first, not until Lois showed up really."

It wasn't hard to find him, she'd only been walking for twenty minutes when she heard the screaming, the pleading. She'd shown up at Chloe's apartment demanding to see Oliver. She'd gotten a call from AC telling her that Chloe was gone, she'd left and Oliver was going a little crazy. Victor told her he was out patrolling, that when he wasn't searching for Chloe that was basically all he did these days. She jogged to make it to the alley she'd heard the screams come from and saw Oliver, decked out in his Green Arrow gear, holding a man basically hostage with an arrow. "You can't just shoot me, that's illegal." The guy had said.

"Funny." Oliver said tightening the bow. "Coming from the guy who I watched steal five wallets in the past hour."

"So I stole some wallets and you're gonna shoot me?" He said.

"If I just walk away, how will you learn." Oliver said letting the arrow fly and Lois closed her eyes as it embedded itself in the guys shoulder. The scream was almost unbearable. She forced herself to open her eyes and watched Oliver stalk toward him. He reached in the guys jacket and pulled out a handful of wallets. "I'll just return these for you." Then he grabbed the arrow and yanked it out. "These things are pretty expensive." He turned and walked away, the guys screams not even fazing him.

When he got to the end of the alley Lois stepped out of the shadows. "A little harsh punishment for a pickpocket." She said. "I didn't realize we lived in the Middle East now."

"Lois." He said almost exasperated. "What are you doing here?"

"Right now I'm wondering where exactly it is you left your brain." She jogged to catch up with him. "You could have killed that guy."

Oliver scoffed. "He'll live." He said climbing onto his bike. "He won't even bleed that much."

"Wow." Lois said. "That makes me feel so much better."


"Can I help you with something?" He turned to her.

"Yeah you can give me some answers." She said. He sighed and handed her the spare helmet. She stared at him for a second before taking it and climbing on the bike.

When they got to his apartment she followed him up but he didn't say a word to her. He walked in the apartment and saw the guys standing around a table with a large map on it. "Bart, what you got?"

"Nothing." He sighed.

"Ok." Oliver looked at the map and pointed. "I want you there tomorrow." Oliver said. "She talked about how she always wanted to visit Spain."

"I need another day Oliver." Bart said. "I just got back from India."

"And I need you there tomorrow." Oliver snapped.

"Hey." Victor put a hand on his arm. "Give him a day." Oliver really looked like he wanted to say no but just nodded. "Go fuel and rest up, Wednesday morning you're leaving."

"Yes sir." Bart said and they all left the room, giving Lois unconvincing smiles as they got in the elevator.


"Lois." Oliver said rolling up the map. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here?" She snapped tossing her bag on the table. "You call me and tell me that Chloe left, you don't know where she is or if she's even ok and you expect me to just say ok and go about my business."

"We're on it." Oliver said.

"Oh you're on it." Lois nodded. "Ok, that's fine, I'll just go then." She glared at him. "What do you mean you're on it? You've got Bart running around the globe that's your definition of being on it?"

"It's not just Bart." Oliver said. "I've got other people looking. In Gotham and New York." He brushed past her, hoping she would take the hint that he didn't want her there.

"Right, sure." She sat down and stared at him and he knew that Lois, the one that wasn't going to go anywhere until she got answers. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Oliver said. "She just left."


"That's not Chloe's style and you know it." Lois said. "What happened?"


"It was my fault." Oliver turned to her. "Is that what you wanted to hear? She left because of me."

"That's no Chloe's style either." Lois said. "Try again."

"I let her come on a mission. She wanted to come but ultimately it was my call. She wasn't ready and I should have known that, but she was in such a bad place after Edward died, I think she needed something to boost her spirits. So I let her come and it all went wrong." He sighed. "AC was shot and Bart broke his leg, and an arm and she blamed herself."

"That sounds like Chloe." Lois nodded. "You've been searching for two months and you haven't found anything?"

"Bart just healed." Oliver said. "And we thought she was in Buenos Aires for a while but that's just a cover." Lois sighed, she'd seen the article about Chloe being in Argentina and she was hoping that was the real story, no such luck.

"What is she doing?" Lois asked. "I mean she didn't run away to join the circus or a Mariachi band."

"She says she's training, learning how to become Watchtower. I personally thought she already knew that, seeing as how she's been doing it for six years now." Oliver sat down.

"You talked to her." Lois asked relieved.

"Yeah, when I went to check out the beach house in Argentina. The housekeeper called her." Oliver ran his fingers through his hair.

"She said she was ok?"

"Yeah." Oliver nodded. "She said she'd come back when she was ready, she swore it."

Lois took a deep breath. "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's to trust Chloe. I don't always agree with her but I trust her. I think you just need to relax, let her do what she needs to do and trust that she'll come back to you."

"I'll relax when I bring her home." Oliver said.

"How's that gonna work?" Lois asked. "Say you find her. You drag her back here and lock her up in her apartment? That'll go over well."

"What am I supposed to do?" Oliver asked. "And don't say trust her. I did trust her and she left me, how does that fit into your plan?"

"Oh I see." Lois said. "She left you." Lois nodded. "That's what this is about. Oliver Queen spoiled little billionaire can't stand it if things don't go his way."

"That's not what this is about." Oliver said.

"Oh that's what this is about." Lois said.

"No." Oliver screamed.

"Then tell me." Lois pleaded with him.


"I have to find her, I have to bring her back because I don't…" He turned away. "I don't know else to do. Without Chloe, I just don't know…"

"You survived twenty five years without Chloe." Lois reminded him.

"Yeah?" Oliver laughed. "I don't' remember that."

Lois stood up and walked over to sit next to him. "I'll give you this, you're probably a better person for knowing her. But you can exist without her. It'll be hard but I believe in you."


"So what am I supposed to do?" Oliver asked.


"You go to work, you do you're thing with the guys, you can even stop muggers, just don't shoot them unless you have to."

"She wouldn't have put up with that." Oliver said. "What I did tonight, with the pickpocket. She would have torn me a new one."

"She would have done more than that." Lois smiled.

"Should I stop looking?" Oliver asked.

"No, of course not." Lois said. "But maybe if you find her, try talking to her before you kidnap her." Oliver just nodded. "And if you find her, tell her to call me, cause I'm gonna tear her a new one."

"Lois set him straight." Victor said. "He calmed down after that, he gave Bart a break, he tried to just, accept it."

"I didn't think…" Chloe said. "I mean I hoped you guys would miss me you know but not like that."

"The guy's crazy in love with you Chloe." Victor laughed. "How did you think he was gonna take it?" Chloe turned her head sharply to Victor who was just smiling. "Come on, everyone knows but you guys."

"I can't have this conversation again." Chloe said. "And not with you."

"Fine." Victor turned away. "Let's get this menu done and then watch a movie, I was thinking Die Hard."

"A man after my own heart." Chloe smiled.

Oliver was true to his word, after checking the paper and making sure there wasn't a headline that read "Luther Home Burgled Three Days Before Christmas", the week was nothing but Christmas, they picked out a tree, they decorated it and the apartment and Chloe just kept piling present after present underneath it. They weren't entirely sure where all the presents were coming from, it was as if she was pulling them out of Mary Poppins' endless carpet bag.

Before she realized it, Christmas Eve was there. She woke up to yet again to fighting in the kitchen. Chloe crept down the hallway careful not to make any noise, not that they'd be able to hear her over the noise they were making. "You're gonna wake her up." Oliver said.

"We are?" Victor asked. "We're not the one's banging things around. I can't believe you don't know where anything is in your own kitchen."

"You've known me for how long?" Oliver asked. "Have you ever seen me cook?"

"Just get out of the way and let us work." AC offered and Chloe covered her laughter as Oliver skulked away from the kitchen.

"Psst." She said waving him over. He looked at her and shook his head as he walked over. "What's going on?"

"They are trying, yet again unsuccessfully to make you breakfast in bed." Oliver said.

"I should go help." Chloe started to walk to the kitchen and Oliver grabbed her arms.

"Will you just once let them do this for you?" He asked. "Please, go back to your room and act surprised."

"But they don't know how to work this kitchen." Chloe said as he dragged her to her room. "The front burners run hot and the oven doesn't cook evenly."

"They'll figure that out." Oliver said.

"I know Bart likes his eggs spicy but AC can't really handle hot things." Chloe protested. "And Victor gets a little heavy handed with the cream and I know that messes with your stomach." Oliver raised his eyebrows at her. "You can't handle all that heavy cream so early in the morning." She told him.

"Yes, I was aware of that, I just didn't realize other people were too." Oliver said his face getting a little hot with embarrassment. "Please, just once, let them do this for you?"

"Is that smoke?" Chloe asked. "Is something burning."

"They have everything under control." Oliver shoved her in her room.

"I'm just supposed to go in my room and do nothing while they mess up my kitchen?" Chloe asked whining.

"You're kitchen?" Oliver said amused. "I was under the impression this was my house."

"Yes." Chloe sat on the edge of her bed defiantly. "My kitchen. The secret room behind the clock with all the weapons is yours. The kitchen is mine."

"Well I can't argue with that." Oliver smiled.

"I guess if I have to sit here I can at least be productive." She opened up the closet and Oliver saw bag after bag after bag full of presents, none of them wrapped.

"Holy crap." He said his eyes wide.

"I still have a bit of wrapping to do." Oliver opened up the bedroom door and looked down the hall at the Christmas tree they'd set up a few nights ago and the mountain of presents all ready under it, then he looked at the stuff still in her closet.

"Don't you think you went a little overboard?" He asked closing the door again.

"No." She said defiantly. "This is the first Christmas that we've all spent together and I just wanted it to be special." She sighed. "Besides, most of this stuff is for Clark and Lois and Kara, only a little of it's for the boys."

"You spoil them you know that?" Oliver pointed out as she pulled a large box from under her bed full of wrapping paper and ribbons.

"Well yeah." Chloe smiled sitting down and starting to wrap. "But I can't help it can I? Not when they're out there right now trying to make me breakfast in bed."

"I guess not." Oliver smiled.

"Don't just stand there." Chloe handed him a role of red and green wrapping paper. "Make yourself useful."

Oliver sighed and sat on the floor pulling a bag toward him and started wrapping presents. An hour later they were finally finished with the wrapping when there was a knock on the door. "I told you she'd be awake." AC said.

"Get in bed." Bart scolded her. "It can't be breakfast in bed if you're not in bed."

Chloe obeyed and climbed onto the bed as Victor set the tray he was holding down in front of her. Her eyes got huge and she looked up at them. "I'm not eating this by myself am I?" She looked at the spread. There was eggs Benedict, waffles, bacon, sausage, fruit, and tons of other things.

"Thought you'd never ask." Bart said jumping on the bed and pulling forks out of his back pocket. Everyone climbed up on the bed and picked off of Chloe's tray. When breakfast was done they all got dressed and packed up the car with all the presents.

"So what was the point of doing all this work if we were going to spend Christmas at the Kent Farm?" Oliver asked taking the twelfth load of presents down to the car.

"Because it's Christmas and doing all that work is part of the season." Chloe said. When they got to the Kent farm the guys unloaded everything and Victor and Chloe went to get the groceries for Christmas diner before Lois' severely planned out Christmas Eve itinerary.

There was the Christmas Pageant in the town square, which was a little strange because everyone was in shorts and sandals but Chloe tried to make the most of it. Lana ran over as soon as she saw Chloe and latched onto her. Apparently Lex wasn't one for the quaint small town Christmas stuff and was thankfully not there. When it got dark enough they all took the hay ride through town to see the few houses that bothered to put up lights and Lois finished the day by pitching and unholy fit in the middle of the Talon and managed to get a round of hot chocolate, although it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been if it were thirty degrees cooler.

Chloe woke up on Christmas morning , confused at first but once she remembered where she was, she smiled. It was peaceful, it was relaxing, for about two minutes. "It's Christmas." Lois said jumping on Chloe's bed and hopping up and down. "Wake up, wake up, wake up."

"Lois." Chloe laughed. "Your Twenty Eight years old."

"So." Lois said confused. "It's Christmas." She jumped off the bed and pulled the covers off of Chloe and ran out of the room. Chloe heard her burst into the room next door and start her spiel all over.

Chloe pulled herself out of bed and trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen. She was happy to see Martha sitting at the kitchen table, because that meant coffee was already made. "You know where the mugs are." Martha smiled.

"Thanks." Chloe said and pulled two mugs down. She filled them both with coffee and leaned against the counter to take her first sip.

"You sleep that bad?" Martha asked. Chloe looked at her confused. "One cup at a time isn't enough anymore?"

"Oh." Chloe smiled. "Oliver slept in the same room as AC last night, so he probably didn't sleep very well." Martha raised an eyebrow. "AC snores, loudly."

"That's what I heard last night." She smiled.

Oliver walked into the kitchen and ignored both of the women. Chloe held the coffee cup out to him and he grunted his thanks before sitting down at the bar and taking his first sip. Slowly other people made their way to the kitchen and tried to wake up. Oliver started to become more human and by his second cup was actually being personable. "Who's up for breakfast?" Chloe asked pulling things out of the fridge. "That was a rhetorical question for you Bart."

"I knew that." He said lowering his hand.

"You don't have to make breakfast." Martha said. "You're all ready making dinner."

"She loves to cook." Oliver said. "If she could just sit home and feed people all day I think she would."

"Chop these." She put an onion in front of Oliver along with a knife and a cutting board.

"Yes ma'am." He said doing as he was told.

"She's been cooking a lot more than usual lately though." Oliver said chopping the onion up. "Which probably means there was a Top Chef Marathon on this week."

"Last week." Chloe said looking at Oliver's cutting board. "You're knife skills are atrocious."

Oliver raised an eyebrow and Martha just smiled. Chloe just smiled sheepishly and Martha laughed. Victor and AC came down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Hey come take over the onions." Chloe called to Victor.

He nodded at her and grabbed the cutting board. "You're knife skills suck." Victor said in passing and Chloe smiled. Her and Victor got into their rhythm and soon breakfast was up and running.

"I love watching them cook." Oliver said. "It's like a dance." He pointed out to Martha as Chloe moved to the other side of Victor, carrying the skillet over his head. He ducked automatically, without even looking up. He passed her a bottle of olive oil and she handed him the eggs.

"They do this a lot then?" Martha asked.

"All the time. It's sort of how they bonded. The first time Chloe cooked a meal for all of us, Victor just couldn't get over it and asked Chloe to teach him. They've been keeping me fed ever since."

"I didn't know you like to cook so much." Martha said as Chloe started putting eggs down on plates.

"I took a few cooking classes in high school. Dad wasn't the greatest chef and with mom gone I just sort of had to." Chloe smiled. "And then I blame the rest on Oliver." She smiled. "Edward started taking me out to such great restaurants and I developed a taste for gourmet food and then Edwards's chef took in an apprentice and he let me sit in on their lessons and the rest as they say is history."

"Then Chloe taught me everything she knows. " Victor said placing a plate in front of Martha. "Enjoy."

"I'm supposed to eat this?" She asked Oliver who just nodded digging into his own plate. "But it's too….pretty."

"I'll eat it." Bart offered.

Chloe laughed and passed out the rest of the plates before eating her own. AC and Bart were going to play rock paper scissors over clean up but Bart realized that faster it got done the sooner they could open presents. So while he did a speedy clean up Chloe and Victor got the Turkey ready and in the oven.

Unwrapping the presents took about forty five minutes and everyone had a good time. AC and Bart managed to fight only once and Martha managed to stop it in about five seconds with the "mom glare". "I've got to learn that." Chloe said astonished.

"Hey don't sell yourself short." Bart said. "You can give very scary looks when you want to."

"Thanks I think." Chloe laughed. Piles and piles of wrapping paper were bagged up and brought outside.

"It's a little cold out there." Bart said running back into the house and slamming the door on AC who walked in behind him glaring.

"Cold." Chloe said opening the door, surprised to feel a little chill. "The weather man said it was gonna be in the high eighties." She turned around and looked at Clark who was trying his hardest not to look guilty which just made him look even more guilty.

"Lois said she wanted a white Christmas." Clark said. "So I sort of just…" He blew on his glass of water and they watched as it turned to ice. "Cooled things down."

"He gives me snow for Christmas." Lois smiled. "How can I not love him?"

Chloe just shook her head.

"This is nice." Lois walked out onto the porch and leaned next to Oliver on the railing, handing him a beer. "This whole family Christmas thing." He nodded at her. "I was a little worried you know. About Chloe, about me and Clark."

Oliver suddenly cheered. "Go Green." Lois turned her attention to the small football game on the front lawn as Chloe broke away and headed for the end zone with the ball. Suddenly Bart took after, at super speed and AC started screaming. "No powers foul." But Chloe knew Bart and she watched out of the corner of her eye and then, at the right moment she froze in place and he zoomed right on past her as she started running again and made it to the end zone. She spiked the ball and did a little dance.

"That's what you get for cheating." She stuck her tongue out at Bart and he sighed. It was AC, Chloe, and Kara, the green team, versus Clark, Bart, and Victor, the red team.

"Come on Red." Lois screamed. "You're killing me here."

They started playing again, Red team losing four yards for using powers.

"Why were you worried?" Oliver asked Lois, returning to their conversation. "Chloe's happy for you."

"I know that now, but it was like, I took her first love." Lois said then shrugged. "But to be fair, she took mine. "

Oliver turned to her. "Chloe took your first love? What was this fifth grade?"

"No." Lois said annoyed. "It was you dumbass." She slapped the back of his head.

"Me?" Oliver said glancing at the game. "She didn't take me."

"Oh she took you like five years ago." Lois scoffed then screamed suddenly. "Go Red, Go Red." Oliver turned to see Chloe pulling herself up from the ground as Victor ran into the end zone.

"Five years ago?" Oliver said turning to Lois. "What are you talking about?"

"Al right, this is me you're talking to here Queen." Lois turned to face him, a serious look on her face. "There isn't going to be any of this pretending to not understand what I'm saying, acting like it's not true. I know all right and if I say it's true, it's true ok. You're totally in love with my cousin."

Oliver opened his mouth and Lois raised an eyebrow at him. He started to form a sentence and she crossed her arms over her chest. He held up a finger to make a point and her foot started to tap rapidly on the ground. "Forget about winning an argument, how does Clark even have arguments with you?" He laughed.

"He wouldn't dare." Lois smiled.

They both turned back to the game and Oliver sighed. "So I'm in love with her huh?"

"Oh yeah." Lois said. "Of course you're in love with here. Who isn't in love with Chloe?"

"No one." Oliver chuckled.

"Exactly." She took a sip of her beer.

"So miss know it all, when did this happen?" Oliver asked, a little curious.

"I don't know, what? I'm a mind reader now?" She scoffed.

"You been hanging around a lot of meteor rock?" Oliver smiled.

Lois glared and sighed. "Fine. When I first found out about you guys, when you came back to Metropolis for Grant's funeral. It was starting then, I could tell. And so could you on some level. Think about it, that lame ass attempt at getting back together with me."

"Hey." Oliver turned to her. "I was sincere."

"You were." Lois conceded. "You were very sincere, but you weren't talking to me."

"I could have sworn I was, I was looking straight at you." He joked.

"You were looking at a girl, who you found physically attractive and who knew your deepest darkest secret and didn't run screaming."

"But it wasn't you?" Oliver asked confused.

"No, well yes, but it was also Chloe."

"You have a point there." Oliver nodded, not denying the fact that he found her physically attractive, he wasn't blind.

"And then it just, grew." Lois shrugged. "You guys had two years where you practically lived together, you worked together, you fought together. You know each other better than any two people know anyone else on this planet." Lois said.

"And that's love?" Oliver asked.

"That's not all it is." Lois sighed. "It's a feeling in the pit of your stomach, a sort of queasy sort of excited felling." Oliver smiled thinking about, Chloe did give him that. "It's an automatic smile when you hear their voice or their name even." Another check on the things Chloe did to Oliver list. "It's this little twitch you get in your lips when you're with them, the ache to kiss them." Lois smiled and Oliver coughed and looked out on the field, damn, he had that to. "And the knowledge that there is no possible way, no way in any reality that you could think of living one day without that person in your life."

Oliver swallowed a lump in his throat, thinking about how absolutely miserable he was when Chloe was away. Then he looked up and saw her, she was smiling and laughing, despite the fact that Victor and Bart each had a grip on one of her legs as she tried her hardest to drag them down the field with the ball in her hands. "You'll never make it." Victor said. "Just give it up."

"Never." Chloe screamed laughing before they managed to pull her to the ground with them.

"Chloe!" Martha walked out of the house. "Your timer went off."

"Time." Chloe said jumping to her feet. "I gotta go cook." She said dusting her pants off. She walked up to the porch and looked at Lois and Oliver. "Make yourself useful, fill in for me while we finish dinner?"

"You're a mess." He brushed the leaves out of her hair and smiled down at her cold flushed cheeks and red nose.

"I know." She smiled back. "Victor, come on, that risotto isn't going to make itself."

"Coming." He called to her.

"Ok." Chloe tossed Oliver the ball. "Bart cheats, what else is new huh but Clark plays so close to the rules, that you can use that against him." Victor ran up the steps and charged at Chloe throwing her over his shoulder. "Wait." She said and he brought her back to Oliver, still draped over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "We're down by six but Kara's got a great arm and AC can catch like no one's business so if you get him in the end zone we can still win this thing…"

"Chloe." Oliver laughed. "It's just a front yard pickup game."

Everyone went silent as if he'd just insulted the Queen in the middle of Buckingham Palace. "This is not just a game Oliver, this is a battle of wills, an all out war, a winner take all, fight to the finish." She informed him.

"Oh." He smiled as if it all made sense now. "What are the stakes?"

"Tell him what we're fighting for Green!" Chloe screamed and AC and Kara jumped up.

"Apple Pie." They screamed.

"Pumpkin Pie." Clark, Bart, and Victor screamed back.

"Apple." Green team screamed.

"Pumpkin." Red screamed back.

Lois smiled and took pity on Oliver. "Ms. Kent said she only had time to make one pie and we sort of had a disagreement over which one." Lois said.

"You have to play." Chloe said. "For the sake of the pie."

"But I hate football." Oliver groaned.

Chloe looked at him so seriously that it took him by surprise and she grabbed his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "Fight and you may die. Run and you will live, at least a while. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for one chance to come back here as young men, and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they will never take our pie!" Chloe screamed the last word and AC and Kara started a chorus of "Apple! Apple!"

Oliver looked at Chloe as if she was crazy and Victor turned around. "We sort of had a movie marathon the other night, we watched Braveheart." He turned to go back in the house and Chloe screamed.

"Go green, go green. Yippie Kay Yay Mother…" Victor slapped a hand over her mouth quickly and turned around.

"And maybe all four Die Hard's." He smiled sheepishly.

"How awesome is Bruce Willis seriously?" Chloe asked.

"Awesome." Victor agreed as they walked in the house.

Oliver set his beer down and sighed. "Go Green." He pulled his jacket off and Lois smiled.

"Now that's love." She said.

"Lois." Clark called. "Come take Victor's place."

"What?" She looked at Clark as if he was crazy. "No."

"Pumpkin Pie." He said and she stomped her foot on the ground heading out to the "field".

"That's love." Oliver laughed.

"A love of pie." She told him. "It's just for the pie."

"For the pie." Oliver said tossing AC the ball and getting in position.

Chloe and Victor periodically looked out the kitchen window to gauge the game but they had no way of knowing the score. When it started raining, it was cold but still not cold enough for snow, Martha went out to order them back in the house they ignored her, getting wet, and muddy as they helped the rain turn the front into one giant puddle. Four hours later they all trudged back in the house, tired, weary, dirty and Chloe dropped her spatula and walked to the door of the kitchen. "What's the verdict?" She asked as Martha and Victor walked up behind her.

"Go Green!" Oliver smiled brightly and Chloe jumped up, running to hug him as he picked her up and spun her around, setting her on his shoulder. AC did the same to Kara and they had a victory lap around the kitchen chanting "Apple! Apple!"

Clark and the Red team looked down in shame and Martha smiled. "Come on." She said. "It's Christmas, do you really think I was only gonna bake one pie?" She walked over to the hot box and pulled two pies out, setting them on the counter.

"That's gotta break the rules." AC said, letting Kara slide down back to the floor.

"I got dirty for that pie." Oliver said sliding Chloe down to the ground. "I played football for that pie."

"And it will taste all that much sweeter." Martha told him.

"You're dripping mud all over the kitchen floor." Chloe said. "Go, go, go." She shoved them out of her kitchen.

By the time all the guys got cleaned up diner was ready and as they all gathered round the table and talked and laughed and just had a good time, Oliver finally realized what the big fuss about a family Christmas was. "I'm glad we did this." He told Chloe.

"Me too." She smiled at him as Bart and AC got in a fight over the last dinner roll. "Want to do it again next year?"

"Maybe a nice quiet Christmas at home wouldn't be so bad." Oliver sighed but Chloe could tell that he was loving it and she knew that they had most likely just started a new tradition.

The temperature dropped steadily outside until Lois finally got her wish. They were all lounged in various states of a turkey coma when Lois launched herself off the couch and ran to the window. "Snow!" That was all she had to say to get everyone up and out the door. The snow kept falling harder and harder as they had snowball fights and built snowmen until it was coming down so hard they had to go back inside because they couldn't see in front of their faces.

"Roads are closed." Martha said. "Apparently a bizarre blizzard has swept through town." She said glaring at her son. "Six inches in the last two hours and counting."

"I guess I blew a little too hard." Clark said sheepishly.

The football game on top of the turkey combined with the snow knocked almost everyone out by ten o'clock. The snow finally slowed down enough and Lois insisted that Clark walk her into town to get her hot chocolate. That left Oliver and Chloe as the only ones left awake in the house.

They'd been relaxing in front of the fire waiting for Clark and Lois to return when Chloe got a phone call. She went to the kitchen to talk and Oliver felt himself start to fall asleep when Chloe returned to the room.

"Who was that?" Oliver asked as Chloe sat back down on the couch and laid her head back down in his lap. He brought his hand up to her hair and started stroke it again.

"Abby." Chloe yawned. "She wanted to see if I got an engagement ring from Santa."

"Was she disappointed?" Oliver asked.

"Only because she had Christmas in the betting pool. " Chloe shrugged. "Then she spent an hour trying to cheer me up. Insisting that it didn't mean anything, that you so obviously loved me, that you would propose when you were ready."

"Really?" Oliver asked amused.

"Oh yeah she went on and on." Chloe smiled and turned her head so she was looking at Oliver. "She should write romance novels she actually said, "You're it for him Chloe, the end of the line." Are there really people that cheesy out there?"

"What does that mean?" Oliver asked quietly.

"Something about the way you looked at me the first night we "met" at Bruce's Birthday. Do you even remember that?" Chloe asked.

"That was the first time I saw you, Chloe Sullivan in action. You were up there at the front of the crowd." Oliver said. "With Bruce." The way his said Bruce's name made Chloe elbow him but he just chuckled. "You were so beautiful, you were smiling and laughing and whatever you were saying the crowd just ate it up, and I just knew in that moment that I'd picked the right person for the job."

"Really?" Chloe smiled.

"Oh yeah." Oliver assured her.

"That's so sweet." Chloe started to turn back to the television and Oliver shifted position.

"Chloe I need to talk to you about something." He said before he could stop himself, before he lost the courage that her smile had just given him.

She sat up and faced him. "This sounds serious."

"It is." He said to her. "When we started this whole thing almost ten years ago, the farthest thing from my mind, obviously was…I never in a million years expected to…and then Lois of all people pointed something out to me and…" He caught the amused expression on her face. "God, I'm screwing this up."

"Oliver?" Chloe looked at him half serious, half smiling. "Are you about to profess your undying love for me?" She tilted her head to the side, the ghost of a smirk on her lips.

"Yes." Oliver said so completely serious that Chloe actually leaned back a little. She looked at his face, really looked at it. He wasn't joking with her, the sincerity in his eyes, the hope on his face. She saw his smile start to fade with every second that she sat there and said nothing.

"Well." Chloe coughed, her voice having momentarily left her. "Spit it out already." She managed a weak smile when she saw his face light up again.

He opened his mouth and nothing came out, no words, no sounds. His mind was a complete blank, no thoughts that he could eve grasp onto and try and articulate. "Screw it." He said and grabbed her face, coming in for a kiss when Chloe suddenly pulled away from him and rolled onto the floor. He sat there stunned for a minute as she stared at him, her eyes huge, her hands over her mouth.

"We almost…" She said a little shakily.

"I thought you wanted me to." Oliver asked confused.

"I do." Chloe sighed. "Oh God I do."

He walked over to her and grabbed her into a hug. "What is it then?" He lifted her face and leaned down. "Is it about Lois because I really think she'll be ok with this?" Chloe managed to avoid the kiss again by burying her head in his sweater before he could reach her. She mumbled something he couldn't understand. "What?"

She lifted her head up, just slightly. "I said we can't." Chloe tried to get away but Oliver wouldn't let her so she just buried her head again.

"We can't?" He asked confused. "We're grown consenting adults. Neither of us is seeing someone else, in fact for all intents and purposes we're seeing each other." Chloe mumbled something again and he pulled her face up out of his sweater. "What?"

"I said." She bit her lip. "I had peanut brittle tonight."

Oliver froze, took a step back and looked at her as if she'd just admitted to killing puppies. "Why?" He whispered. "Why would you do that?"

"Because, Martha makes the best peanut brittle and its' been almost ten years since I had a peanut ever since I met you, just to be on the safe side, I just forgot why I didn't eat them, plus I was hardly expecting my very allergic best friend to profess his undying love for me now was I?" She yelled at him.

"Ten years." Oliver said. "Ten years you've known me, you have never eaten peanuts and now, tonight? Why?"

"Yeah, well you had ten years to tell me how you felt." Chloe pointed out. "Don't place all this blame on me."

They stood there, two feet apart, no distance at all really and they wanted nothing more than close that distance and have their first kiss, their first real kiss. But they were foiled. Two of the most badass, recognizable superheroes in the world, whose names strike fear into the hearts of criminals, were halted in their tracks by a small peanut. "I have an epi pen." Oliver said, a small smile grazing his lips. Chloe glared at him. "Right, just an option, thought I'd throw it out there."

"That would be the worst first kiss in the history of ever." Chloe pointed out. "I'd kill you."

"But you could heal me." Oliver smiled even bigger.

"And then I'd be dead for God knows how long." She was slowly starting to smile, get the humor in the whole thing.

"What's the protocol on this?" Oliver asked. "How long until…"

"Five hours." Chloe said. "To be safest." Oliver raised an eyebrow. "I checked on it for Lois, when you two were dating." Her tone was daring him to say something about it.

"And when did you eat it?" Oliver asked.

"Ten minutes ago." Chloe stifled another chuckle. "When I was on the phone with Abby."

"So we can't kiss until…" He glanced at the clock above the mantel. "Four in the morning?"

"Yep." Chloe said. "To be safe."

"Right." Suddenly they both couldn't take it anymore and the laughter spilled out. Chloe clutched the side of the couch so she didn't fall over and Oliver was having trouble keeping the tears from falling.

"What's the joke?" Lois asked walking in the room.

"Chloe ate peanut brittle." Oliver said through his laughter.

"Mom made peanut brittle?" Clark said excitedly then stopped. "What's so funny about Chloe eating peanut brittle?"

"Because." Chloe tried to take a deep breath and control her laughter. "Oliver just professed his undying love for me." She looked at Oliver and they both started laughing again.

"What?" Clark said, confused at what one had to do with the other and more confused about Oliver being in love with Chloe. "What's going on here?" He turned to Lois who was looking at Chloe and trying her hardest not to laugh. But the look of confusion on Clark's face was just too much for her and she let it out. Soon Clark felt as if he was the only sane person in the room. "I am so lost." He said shaking his head.

"I'm deathly allergic to peanuts." Oliver said.

"One little kiss and I could kill him." Chloe added her laughter slowing down a little.

"Close up my throat in two seconds flat." He said smiling at her, his laughter gone.

"This is funny how?" Clark asked as the laughter died down.

"Pay attention Smallville, peanut allergies are very sensitive, so most likely Chloe has had peanuts or peanut butter or peanut candy or even peanut oil for ten years am I right?" Lois asked and Chloe nodded. "Just to be on the safe side, to make sure she didn't infect Oliver by accident."

"Ok." Clark said following along better.

"And tonight, on the very night that Oliver decides to come clean about his feelings for her, she goes and munches on some tasty peanut brittle." Lois said. "You follow?"

"Not really?" Clark shook his head.

"What's the one thing you wanted to do more than anything after you told me you loved me?" Lois asked putting her arms around his neck.

"Kiss you." Clark smiled and then he looked at Chloe and then at Oliver and it was as if a light flicked on his head.

"There it goes." Lois smiled and turned away from him. "So five hours right?" Lois sighed. "To be safe?"

"Five hours?" Clark looked astonished. "That long?"

"Yeah, pretty much sucks to be you." Lois said. "I mean come on, it's Christmas, you've got the fire going, you're snowed in, it's a beautiful night, and you're in love."

"I'm serious Chloe." Oliver said turning to her and tuning Lois out. "I've got that epi pen in my pocket; I'll show it to you."

"You waited ten years to kiss me Oliver; you can wait five more hours." Chloe told him.

"I'm glad you have so much faith in me because I'm not so sure." He smiled at her.

"Yeah maybe it would be best if we went to bed." Lois said threading her arm in Chloe's. "Oliver isn't one known for his self restraint.

"Thank you for that Lois." Oliver smiled as she dragged Chloe up the stairs. When they hit the landing Clark turned on Oliver.

"Since when are you in love with Chloe?" Clark asked him.

Oliver sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands. It was going to be a long night.

Chloe couldn't sleep. She felt like a kid anxiously waiting for Santa Clause. But the excitement of Christmas Eve couldn't even compare to what she was feeling at the moment. Oliver Queen was in love with her, with Chloe Sullivan. Ten years ago she would have said that was the most ridiculous thing in the world. Granted Fifteen years ago she would have called anyone crazy if they told her that her best friend would turn out to be an alien from another planet. She looked over at the clock. 3:52. She sighed in frustration and threw off her covers. Careful not to wake Lois she tip toed out of the room and down the stairs. Maybe some warm milk would help. She dug around in the fridge and pulled out the milk and searched around for a clean pot.

She froze when she heard a noise and set the milk on the counter. She walked slowly out to the living room and saw Oliver at the bottom of the stairs. So he couldn't sleep either, she smiled at him a little. He walked down the last few steps and stood there staring at her. Almost at the same time they both turned to the clock on the mantel. 3:58. They looked back at each other and smiled.

Chloe's feet seemed to propel her forward before she even realized she was walking. Oliver met her half way until they were standing only inches apart. He reached up and brushed some hair behind her ear and his fingertips on her cheek sent a chill down her spine. His face seemed to be coming closer and closer and as she closed her eyes and leaned her face up, she heard the clock chime the hour. "Thank God." Oliver whispered before his lips met hers.

This was it, she was finally kissing Oliver, and it was so much better than she ever could have imagined it to be. Sure they'd kissed before, they'd kissed a lot, it was a part of their cover, but this time it was different. Neither of them were holding back their feelings anymore. And it wasn't like a first kiss with a guy she'd been on a few dates with, she knew Oliver, there was no hesitation here, there was no shyness, no uncertainty, she loved him, she knew him, and he knew her and my God did he know what to do with his tongue. Chloe moaned a little and relaxed her body into his, his hand falling to the small of her back like it fit there, because it did, it was made to go there.

This was definitely not going down as the worst kiss in the history of ever, it was going down as the best kiss in the history of ever. Chloe could even hear music. She'd always thought that was a exaggeration, a metaphor, something abstract, but the music was real, it was familiar, a song she knew, and it was in stereo, wait that wasn't right. She very reluctantly pulled away from Oliver slightly; he rested his forehead against hers and smiled. Chloe tilted her head. "Please tell me you hear that too." She whispered to him.

He cocked his head to the side and saw the stereo had been turned on. They both listened for a minute; the music was a slow jazzy tune that Chloe was sure she'd heard before. Suddenly from the speakers a velvety woman's voice erupted. "At Last," Chloe laughed and buried her head in his chest. "My love has come along, my lonely days are over and life is like a song."

"Did you?" Chloe asked him.

"No." Oliver shook his head and then looked around the room for a remote. He found something else instead. He tilted Chloe's head to look at the stairs, lined up in a row, like the Von Trapp Children, Lois, Cara, Victor, Clark, Bart, and AC were all standing there smiling at them. Bart held up a remote and pushed a button turning the music off.

"It's about time." He smiled at them.

Oliver chuckled and Chloe blushed and buried her face in his chest. "Ok, guys, this was fun but I'm freaking tired." Lois said corralling the guys up the stairs and taking the remote from Bart, tossing it to Oliver who caught it easily. "Night." She smiled at them and he nodded to her.

"Are they gone?" Chloe mumbled.

"Yes." Oliver laughed kissing her on the forehead. She looked up at him and smiled. He turned to the radio and pushed a button, the song started up again and he lowered the volume. "Dance with me?" He asked her.

She just nodded as he started to move with the music. "Bart I'm serious." Lois screamed and Chloe and Oliver turned their heads to see him peeking through the very top of the stairwell at them. He jumped up when Lois yelled and ran to his room. Oliver just pulled Chloe tighter as they danced in the living room.

Song Oliver and Chloe finally kiss to is At Last by Etta James, a personal favorite of mine and little homage to all the fans who've been waiting since chapter two for this to happen.