To people who didn't know Chloe and Oliver as well as the guys did, nothing was different when they got back. To the outside observer they seemed like the same two people they did before they went on Christmas holiday. They still had lunch whenever possible, still talked on the phone two or three times a day at work, still went out to dinner and shows, charity functions and parties. But if you knew them, if you observed them closely you would see the little changes.
You would see that the touches lingered a little longer, the smiles were more intimate. You would notice that their public displays of affection were more frequent and tender. To their friends the differences were like night and day and yet at the same time, there was no difference at all. Chloe and Oliver had always been close, had always hung out together. On Saturday nights they snuggled together on the couch and watched movies like they always did. On Sundays they walked four blocks to a small diner and shared a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes like they always did. And the rest of the week they spent hanging out with the group, like they always did.
There was only one major difference in their everyday lives now, knocking. Between the three apartments, Oliver's, Chloe's, and the guys there used to be an open door policy, come and go as you please, everyone was welcome at any time. But after the first two or three times someone walked in on something they'd rather not have witnessed, knocking or calling ahead became the norm.
"I said I was sorry like fifteen times." Chloe explained to Victor. "Take these back to Sarah and ask her to forward them to Tony after she makes the changes." Chloe handed an envelope to Elizabeth who nodded and walked away.
Victor waited until Elizabeth was out of the room to speak. "Well another fifteen wouldn't hurt." He shuddered a little. "The kitchen is a sacred place you know."
"Oh get over it, we weren't even completely undressed." Chloe scoffed and then held up a finger. She picked up the phone and pushed a button. "Eric, could you make sure that Accounting knows I need those figures by the end of the day tomorrow, thanks."
"I think we should make a new rule." Victor said. "All relevant articles of clothing should be worn at all times in the kitchen, and no sex on the countertop."
"You want to make that a rule for my kitchen?" She asked flipping through another folder.
"I want to make that a rule for every single kitchen in the world but I think it'd be hard to get everyone else to listen to me." Victor pointed out.
"Ok I want to stop talking about this now." Chloe smiled up at him. "You ready for lunch?"
"I was ready for lunch when I got here thirty minutes ago." Victor smiled at her.
"I know, I'm sorry." Chloe grabbed her jacket and they walked to the door. On their way to the elevator they were stopped no less than five times and Victor couldn't really contain his amazement. "What?" Chloe asked. "What's that face for?"
"Nothing, I guess." He pushed the button for the elevator. "I just never really realized what you do." This was his first visit to her office surprisingly enough. "You're the boss of everyone here." He looked around the room, watched all the people scurrying around, doing Chloe's bidding. "I mean I'm used to you being my boss." Victor shrugged. "But this is almost surreal."
"Wait a minute I'm not your boss." Chloe said confused.
"Of course you're my boss." Victor scoffed at the look on Chloe's face. "You're all the guys boss, I mean you don't do it alone, you and Oliver sort of Co-Boss if that makes any sense."
Chloe shook her head as if poor Victor was just confused. "No, Oliver's the boss, I'm just a part of the team."
"Please." He smiled. "Like you could ever be just a part of the team. It's not a bad thing. You're a really good boss." He stopped someone walking by and smiled. "Isn't she a really good boss?"
"Yes, of course." The woman whose name, Chloe was ashamed to admit, she didn't remember smiled. "She's the best."
"Thank You." Chloe smiled at her and turned red faced back to the elevator.
"See you're a good boss." Victor said.
"Like she was hardly going to say otherwise with me standing here." Chloe pointed out as they got in the elevator. "How exactly is it you figure I'm your boss?"
"Well." Victor thought for a second. "You pay half my paycheck." He had a point there, as soon as Chloe started to take on more responsibility with in the JLA, she insisted to Oliver that the same responsibility be appliedfiscally also and so she set up JL Industries which she and Oliver split 50/50, to take care of anything related to the Justice League. It's what paid for the guy's apartment, for all the equipment, for Oliver's Arrows, and the guy's paychecks. "Plus ,you tell us what to do and we do it."
"Do I boss you guys around?" Chloe asked worried.
"No." Victor laughed. "You just have a very commanding way of asking for things. I can see why, the way you work around here, it just comes natural."
"Ok, fine." Chloe had to give in to him. "But don't call me Boss, or ma'am or anything like that, ever, all right?"
"No problem." Victor said. "So you're in charge of all of this?"
"Yep." She smiled. "I'm in charge of all of this."
"So you could fire anyone one of these people."
Chloe laughed. "Yes I could."
"How about him?" Victor pointed to a man at the reception desk.
"Uh, that's the UPS delivery guy, he doesn't actually work for me so I'm gonna go with no." Chloe said.
Victor was taken back as a woman slammed into his shoulder, to busy reading a folder to even bother to say "excuse me" or "sorry". "Could you fire her?" Victor watched her walk
"Yes actually." Chloe said glaring at the woman, she recognized her, Stephanie from the Marketing Department, Chloe never liked her that much. "In fact I'll go fire her right now."
Victor grabbed her elbow and Chloe laughed. "I didn't mean you should fire her." He said a little worried. "I just wondered if you could. Just leave her alone."
"Fine." Chloe smiled. "But she's on my list now. I'll be watching her."
"Could you fire that guy?" Victor pointed to a security guard stationed at the front of the building.
"Yes." She nodded. "But I wouldn't." She said. "That's Frank. He has four kids, the first of which is going off to college after she graduates, and she's pretty damn smart so it's not gonna be a state school. Plus he runs outside to catch me a cab when it's raining so I don't get wet, he's pretty much employed for life."
That surprised him and Victor looked around the ground floor, people were walking in and out of the building, security guards, secretaries, even maintenance workers, everyone here was reliant on Chloe for a paycheck, to support their families, to make sure they could feed their kids. He suddenly realized how stressful and important her job was. "Hey Frank." Chloe smiled and walked up to the guard. "How's it going?"
"Can't complain Ms. Sullivan, can't complain."
"Oh I'm sure you could, but you never do." Chloe smiled at him. "Listen. I talked to Bradley up in HR and he said that Tara signed up for our internship program."
"That's right; she's still on the waiting list." He nodded.
"No she's not." Chloe smiled. "I bumped her up. She gets out of school at one right?" Frank nodded with a huge smile on his face. "Tell her to be at my office by one forty five on Monday and she can get started."
"You're office?" Frank asked confused.
"Yeah I'm gonna have her shadow Elizabeth. With the new merger we're working on, as cliché as it sounds, my assistant needs and assistant, and she'll learn far more about running a business hanging around in my office than she would in the mail room where they wanted to put her."
"You don't have to do this Ms. Sullivan." Frank told her.
"Tara is too smart to waste on the mail room. And if she does good I can get her a job at one of our Boston office's when she finally makes it to Harvard." Chloe turned to Victor. "Tara's dream is Harvard business school. Someday soon she's going to own one of the largest companies in the world and I'll be able to say I gave her her first break, taught her everything I knew."
"This is all very kind of you." Frank said a little upset. "But it doesn't look like she's gonna make it to Harvard."
"What?" Chloe asked.
"We make too much money to qualify for financial aid, and by the time you convinced her to apply, all the scholarships were given to other people." He said. "But she really appreciates the letter of recommendation you wrote for her. Maybe you could write another one for Star City University."
"No." Chloe said. "She's going to Harvard." The conviction in her voice was so fierce even Victor looked a little surprised. "She didn't miss out on all the scholarships. Landing an internship here makes her eligible for our scholarship program."
"You have a scholarship program?" Frank asked confused.
"Yes, but she's going to have to work hard, just cause she's in the boss' office isn't a guarantee." Chloe said.
"Yes ma'am, I'll let her know." Frank smiled and grabbed her hand. "Thank you."
"It's my pleasure." Chloe assured him. "I'll see you later; I promised him lunch an hour ago." As if on cue Victor's stomach growled loud.
"Of course." He smiled.
They walked out the doors and onto the streets and Chloe grabbed her phone. "Elizabeth, hey I need you to set up a meeting with someone from Accounting later today and myself and figure out what we need to do to set up a scholarship fund. Thanks."
"You don't have a scholarship program." Victor smiled.
"No." Chloe said sheepishly. "You don't understand, this girl is off the charts smart. I met her five years ago and even in Junior high it was ridiculous. She's going to Harvard if I have to pay for all four years myself. But if I had just handed him a check for her first years tuition, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have taken it. He's a very proud man and he feels ashamed enough already that I'm bumping her up in the internship. So this way both he and Tara will know that she had to earn this."
"How do you know she'll win?"
"Cause she'll want it bad enough." Chloe smiled. "Plus since it's so very new, she'll be one of the only ones who even know about it."
"I didn't realize you were so sneaky."
Chloe turned to him confused. "I covertly break into secret labs and hack into government websites and you didn't know I was sneaky?"
"Well, you got a point there." Victor said. "So what's for lunch?"
After Victor mentioned the boss thing, Chloe started to notice it. Little things like Bart and AC asking her permission to do things, her advice on subjects. The way they referred to her when Oliver wasn't around and sometimes when he was. She was technically the boss of over millions of employees worldwide but this was a little unsettling to her for some reason. Maybe because it was more personal, maybe because her decision to switch to recycled paper in all the copies machines at the office didn't have as big an impact as allowing Bart to go on solo reconnaissance missions to secret labs where he could be captured and experimented on, thus putting the rest of the Justice League in danger trying to rescue him. Not that that's happened in years but now it weighed heavily on her mind.
"You've been real quiet tonight." Oliver said. "You ok?"
"Yeah, just something Victor said the other day." She grabbed his plate and walked to the kitchen. "Am I a good boss?"
"What do you mean?" Oliver followed her to the kitchen.
"It's just that he pointed out to me that I was kind of the guys boss you know and I want to make sure I'm a good one." She set the dishes on the sink and then pulled herself up on the counter. "It's a little different demanding someone create a Quarterly sales projection and making someone blow up a building."
"What exactly is the problem here?" He asked.
"Well it's just I know what I'm doing at the office. I've been doing it for ten years now and I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself. But I just want to make sure I'm making good decisions here. There's a little more at stake than money you know."
"Of course you make good decisions." He smiled at her. "No one's dead yet are they?" Oliver moved in front of her and settled in between her legs.
"Not funny." Chloe pouted.
"You have been doing this job for ten years now too, more than ten years, I wouldn't have recruited you if I didn't think you'd be good at it and if I do say so myself, I trained you pretty good." He leaned down and kissed her softly. "I really have to get back to the office." Oliver told Chloe. He'd been working on something big and she hadn't really seen a lot of him in the past few weeks. Chloe had persuaded him to come home for dinner and she was working on keeping him there for dessert.
"Right this second?" Chloe asked slipping her hands under his shirt and running them lightly up and down his back. He closed his eyes in pleasure and leaned his forehead against her shoulder.
"Brian's going to call me in five minutes." Oliver told her.
"It only takes you two to get to the office." She reminded him, kissing slowly down his neck.
"Yeah, well there's no way you're going to get me to admit that I can be done in three minutes." He smiled at her.
Chloe pulled away from his neck. "There's no way I'd let you be done in three minutes." Oliver laughed.
"Then what…" He was cut off when she kissed him.
"All I have to do is get the ball rolling and when five minutes come around and that phone rings, you'll be too busy to worry about Brian."
"Chloe." Oliver pulled her hands out of his shirt. "I don't want to go back to the office. You have absolutely no idea how much I don't want to go to the office right now. But, the sooner I go the sooner I can get back and longer I can stay."
"Hmm." Chloe leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you trying to negotiate with me?" She asked smiling.
"We're both businessmen." Chloe coughed. "Businesswoman." She smiled. "I think we can work out some sort of agreement."
"I'm listening." Chloe said putting her hands back under his shirt. "What are your terms?"
"Well if you can give me two hours, two measly little hours to go back to the office, finish up what I need to, I can guarantee you'll have eight hours of me, all to yourself."
"Hmm." Chloe said allowing her hands to slip into the top of his pants and rest on his hips as she pulled him closer. "That sounds like a good deal." She smiled. "A little too good." Chloe said. "Eight hours seems like a lot but you aren't specifying what would happen in those eight hours. You could be asleep for six of them and then where would that leave me?"
Oliver smiled at her. "You're a tough negotiator."
"You should see me in the boardroom." Chloe said.
"Oh we'll do that one night, don't you worry." Oliver said to her. "Let's see I'll give you five hours of sleep, and three hours to do whatever you see fit to do to me."
"Whatever I see fit?" Chloe asked bringing her hands around from his back to caress over his chest. "Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind, or on top of."
"Chloe." Oliver warned her as she lightly raked her nails down his chest. "Stay focused, we're bartering a deal here."
"Right." Chloe said. "Two hours of work for three hours of whatever I want to do. I think I'd have to give back that businessman of the year award if I don't take that."
"You know a good thing when it comes along." Oliver agreed.
"What's say we seal the deal with a kiss?" Chloe leaned forward until her lips were just hovering over his. "Unless you're one of those old fashioned types, prefer a hand shake?"
"Hmm." Oliver rubbed his nose against hers. "I think I'll take the kiss." He smiled and Chloe captures his lips. He pulled her closer and she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist. He moved his lips to her neck and Chloe tossed her head back in pleasure.
"Is that how you close all your deals?" She laughed. "Because if that's the case, I'm gonna have to start worrying about this new client and the amount time your spending with him."
"This is reserved only for our VIP clients." He told her as his hands made their way under her shirt.
"How many of those do you have?" She asked.
"Just the one." He said smiling. He pulled back and gave her a look, a look that Chloe knew all too well.
"Oh no." Chloe said pulling his hands out of her shirt. "Brian's going to call you in like thirty seconds. You should have left a minute and a half ago."
"You distracted me." He smiled at her. "Screw Brian."
"I'd rather not." Chloe smirked at him. "We made a deal. You go to the office for two hours, I get you for three. I don't go back on my deals. Besides, Victor made a rule about not having sex in the kitchen after last time."
"Come on." Oliver said grabbing her around the waist and lifting her up. She squealed and tightened her legs around his waist. "Real quick." He said carrying her to the living room. "Three minutes." He smiled.
"Ha." Chloe laughed and tried to pull away from him. The only thing that accomplished was pulling Oliver off balance and sending them both falling into the couch. They laughed as they fell onto each other and Oliver smiled pushing the hair out of Chloe's face.
"Ok, not three minutes, Twenty minutes, an hour, two hours." He kissed her softly.
"What about work?" Chloe whispered.
"What work?" Oliver said. "I don't have to work?"
"No?" Chloe ran her fingers through his hair and smiled as she rubbed her thumb on his neck. "So then you don't care if schools that teach underprivileged children in Africa have access to affordable computers?"
"That was low." Oliver frowned and kissed her again.
"Two hours isn't that long." She assured him. "As soon as you get back to work, the time will fly and then you'll be back and then maybe we can do that boardroom thing."
"Really?" Oliver smiled. "Will you put on a business suit?" Chloe nodded. "And those black heals with the little holes at the toe?" Chloe chuckled but nodded. "Will you wear your hair up all sever and threatening like?" She smiled. "Fishnets or thigh highs?" He asked.
"Oh a girls got to keep something secret." Chloe kissed him and his phone rang.
"Hold that thought." He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, sure enough it was Brian.
Then Chloe's phone rang. She looked over at the coffee table and just managed to reach it, Victor was calling. "Hello." She said as Oliver pretended to listen to Brian, muttering the occasional ok as he kissed his way down her stomach.
"We're coming up." Victor said before hanging up the phone. Chloe looked at it confused before hanging up at the same time as Oliver.
"The guys are coming over." Chloe said.
"Brian's having a meltdown." Oliver sighed.
"Two hours?" Chloe asked.
"Two hours." He promised, kissing her one last time for good measure as the elevator opened.
"Keep it in your pants, there are children in the room." Victor said throwing a hand over Bart's eyes.
"Hey." Bart slapped it away and Oliver pulled himself up to a standing position then helped Chloe off the couch.
"I'll be back." He said. "Two hours."
"Yeah." Chloe said blushing slightly as she turned to the guys. "Have you eaten? We got some leftovers from dinner."
"Oh." Bart went straight to the table and Chloe looked expectantly at AC and Victor.
"Do you guys do it on the sofa?" AC said suddenly. "Because I nap on that sofa, I watch television on that sofa." He looked at her appalled. "I eat on that sofa."
"You eat in my living room?" Chloe said raising her eyebrows. Chloe was fanatic about food not being anywhere but the kitchen or the patio.
"What?" AC back tracked. "Of course I don't, who would eat in the living room. Victor do you eat in the living room."
"Just never mind." Chloe brushed him off. "What do you got?"
"I'm still waiting for an answer on the sofa question." AC pointed out and Chloe glared at him.
"We got a letter from Susan today. She says that Cassandra or rather Janet seems strange, I guess stranger than usual. She passed on another code."
Chloe took the paper from Victor and walked to the computer to input the letters in the program. It was longer than usual and they all stood around waiting anxiously. Chloe pulled the printout from the computer and stared at it for a minute. "What does it say?"
"It hurts now." Chloe said slowly. "I don't like the needles, I can't close my eyes. Help." She looked up at Victor who was now joined by AC and Bart, all of them looking intent and focused. "I don't know where I am anymore, I don't know how to get out. Subject 45 knows."
"Who?" AC asked.
"Why does that sound familiar?" Victor asked.
"Subject 45?" Chloe said to herself. "Subject 45." She'd seen that name somewhere, in something but where.
"You mean Jackson?" Bart asked.
"Jackson?" Chloe turned to him.
"One of the guys we saved from the frozen tube things." Bart said. "They called him Subject 45."
Chloe looked at Victor and then got quickly on the computer. Sure enough, Subject 45, Jackson Kane. "How would he know where Cassandra is?"
"I don't know." Bart shrugged. "I did my part."
"Where is he?" Victor leaned over Chloe's shoulder.
"We placed him somewhere didn't we?" Chloe said looking through files. "Here." He pulled up a document. "We got him a job working construction in Chicago." She stood up and grabbed her jacket. "I can be there in a few hours."
"Should we call Oliver?" AC asked.
"No, yes, call him and fill him in and tell him I'm on it." Chloe said walking to the elevator. "And make sure to put what you don't eat in the fridge." Bart nodded. "Oh and if you could just start soaking the sauce pot, that would be great." She smiled and pushed the button for the ground floor.
By the time she got to Chicago, it was too late to go see Jackson. As anxious as she was, she needed this guys help and showing up at his apartment at one in the morning was not the way to go about getting it. She checked herself into a hotel and called Oliver. "I thought you didn't back out of deals." He joked with her.
"We never specified when I got those three hours." Chloe said and Oliver groaned. "God is in the details."
"Don't I know it." He said. "You could have waited for me, I would have gone with you."
"I know." Chloe said. "I just got caught up. This is Cassandra Oliver, the girls been risking her life to help us for years and now she finally wants our help, I just couldn't wait."
"I understand." Oliver told her. "Don't worry about it. Have you talked to him yet?"
"No, I figure it's better not to ask a guy for a favor at one in the morning." Chloe said. "I'm gonna get some sleep and talk to him tomorrow."
"Call me."
"I will." Chloe smiled.
"I love you." Oliver told her.
"Me too." She said before hanging up the phone. Suddenly Chloe wasn't so sure about her rash decision. When she hung up the phone she realized that this was the first night that they'd spent apart. Her fingers hovered over the keypad on her phone when there was a knock on her door.
"Room service." A voice said and she got up confused. She'd only been in the room for ten minutes; she hadn't had time to order anything. She opened the door to see Oliver standing there with a bag over his shoulder and his tie undone.
"What are you doing here?" Chloe asked smiling as she stood on tip toe to kiss him.
"Vic said you ran out so fast you forgot to pack any clothes." He handed her the duffle bag and she smiled.
"My hero." Chloe let him in the room. "You flew all the way out here to bring me clothes, there's a boutique in the hotel."
"Well, that and it would have been the first night we've been apart and frankly I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet." He gathered her in his arms.
"Why Oliver Queen, you're just a big softy aren't you?"
"I packed your business suit." He raised his eyebrows and Chloe laughed. "And the shoes open at the toe."
"Fishnets or thigh highs?" Chloe dropped the bag on the ground.
"Oh, a guys gotta have some secrets." He smiled and pulled her down on the bed.
The next morning Oliver had to take a conference call to go over the stuff that he'd missed when he ran out of the office the night before so Chloe was going solo to see Jackson. Secretly she thought that was a better plan because whether people recognized him or not, Oliver could come off as intimidating, either in his Green Leather or an Armani suit. She was happy to note that besides the business suit Oliver packed her tasteful clothes and she debated between Jeans and a sweater and her black pants and blouse. She decided on the professional look of the black pants and blouse but she regretted the choice the moment she stepped out of the cab onto the construction site and into a world of sawdust and mud. "So much for the professional look." Chloe sighed trying unsuccessfully to wipe some of the grime off of her pants.
"Can I help you with something?" A very imposingly large man in a hard hat looked down at her.
"I'm looking for Jackson Kane." Chloe smiled her brightest, I'm nothing to be worried about, just a dumb blonde smile and he grunted and pointed her towards an area off to the side. She walked around the construction zone and found a man unloading large bags of cement from a truck to a pile, and since he was the only one there, she assumed this was her guy. "Jackson Kane?"
He looked up at her, then he looked her up and down and smiled. "Yeah?" He couldn't have been any older than Chloe herself.
"I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?" She stepped forward and he slammed a bag down loudly.
"Whatever you're selling, I'm not buying." He told her.
"I'm not selling anything." She said walking up to stand beside the truck. "I actually need something from you."
He paused in his work and looked at her. "What would that be?"
"Information."
"You should talk to the foreman." He told her going back to unloading his truck.
"Not about construction." She said. "About Lex Luther." That got his attention he froze with the bag halfway to the pile and fell to the ground hard, splitting open.
"Kane, pay attention, you gotta be more careful with that stuff."
"Sorry boss." Jackson said turning to glare at Chloe.
"I don't know anything about Lex Luther." He said.
"No?" Chloe asked a little annoyed. "So then he didn't kidnap you and freeze your body in an overgrown test tube?"
"Lady." Jackson chuckled. "You got one crazy imagination. You got the wrong guy."
"Oh I got the wrong guy. Sorry." Chloe held up her hands. "Yeah I probably do, I was looking for Subject 45." He dropped another bag and the foreman gave him an annoyed look.
"I got work to do here so if your want to take you crazy little story and go somewhere else I'd be really happy."
"I got the right guy." Chloe said. "You know how I know? Cause I was watching, when they pulled your body out of the tubes. I know that some very nice people got you the medical attention you needed. Relocated you to Chicago, got you this job. I'm one of the good guys." Chloe told him.
He looked up at her. "You work with the people who saved me?" He asked.
Chloe nodded. "And I need your help."
"Look, before they relocated me; they asked me to join them, to help them." He shook his head. "I told them I don't want any part of this. I don't want this stupid power; I don't want to take down Lex Luther. I want to do my job and I want to be left alone."
"There's a woman." Chloe told him as he turned back to the truck. "She can see the future. Lex's has her hostage for years now, and he's hurting her. She asked for my help but I don't know where he's got her. She said you did."
"I don't know anything." He told her again.
"This woman." Chloe said. "Cassandra, she's the reason we found you. She led us to that place, to your lab, she saved your life, why don't you help me save hers?"
"I told you."
"You don't know anything." Chloe sighed. "Yeah I heard it the first time." She pulled a card out of her purse and flipped it over to write something on the other side. "I'll be in the city for a few more days. I'm staying at the Peninsula, Room 1502."
He looked at the card as if it was going to bite him then took it and shoved it in his pocket. "Kane, I'm paying you to work, not socialize."
"I'll be seeing you." Chloe said before walking away.
It took two days before she heard the knock on her door. She smiled at Oliver smugly. He'd been saying over and over that Jackson wouldn't help them. Oliver was the one that offered him the position with the team and Jackson wasn't particularly pleased with having powers at all, he wanted nothing to do with them, he almost hated them. But Chloe was sure that she'd gotten through to him, was sure that he'd help. "Took you long enough." Chloe said leading him into the room. "I told you I got to him."
"Yeah well." Jackson sat down on the couch. "You didn't really play fair with the "she saved your life" card."
"It worked." Chloe countered and he snorted. She sat there quietly, sometimes it was better to let them come to the information on their own than to pull it out of them. The first thing she'd learned as a reporter, people hate long silences, but she was good at them, she could outlast anybody she just had to wait for him to get uncomfortable.
"I have a good memory." Jackson finally said. Chloe looked at him confused. "Like a really good memory. Like a way above normal good memory." He said to her and she got it, that was his power. "The outfit you had on yesterday, black pants, white blouse, Dolce and Gabbana, I'm not gay I just saw the tag, seven buttons, each button sewn on parallel not criss cross five times each, except the one on the bottom, a thread is coming loose so it's only four times on one side, you might want to check that before it falls off." Chloe got up and walked to the bedroom and retrieved the shirt. Sure enough it was Dolce and the buttons were sewn on parallel with five strings except the bottom button. She looked up at him amazed. "I have a good memory."
"Ok." Chloe sat down. "I believe you." She said smiling.
"I heard that name, Cassandra." Jackson said. "A lot actually. They never bothered to sedate us, they never thought we'd get out alive I guess, didn't care. The thing is my memory is auditory as well as visual."
Oliver looked confused for a second. "Auditory?"
"He remembers everything he hears too." Chloe said.
"Oh." Oliver nodded. "Oh, so you know…"
"Everything." Jackson said. "Like I told you they didn't bother to sensor themselves around us."
"So then you know where she is?" Chloe asked happily.
"No, maybe, I don't know." Jackson sighed. "Just because I remember everything doesn't mean I understand it all. I could sit in on four years worth of college lectures about quantum physics but that doesn't mean I can time travel."
"Ok, so what do we do?" Oliver turned to Chloe.
"Write it down." Chloe passed him a pad of hotel stationary.
"How will that help?"
"Let's just say we know everything about quantum physics." Chloe said. "You write, we'll figure it out."
"I was there for a year and a half." Jackson said. "This isn't gonna do it."
"I'm on it." Chloe stood. "Just get started with this and order some room service." She kissed Oliver's cheek and grabbed her bag. "I want six pages at least when I get back."
"She's…" Jackson watched the door closed and turned to Oliver.
"Yeah." Oliver ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm gonna order the food. You get writing."
"What will she do if I don't have six pages?" Jackson asked.
Oliver held his hand over the phone and smiled. "You don't want to find out."
Jackson picked up the pen and started writing.
An hour and a half later Chloe walked back in the room carrying two boxes and an armful of bags. "Oh God." Oliver said putting down his fork. "I didn't know there was an Apple store here." He groaned and got up, relieving Chloe from her burden.
"It's just easier this way." Chloe opened one of the boxes and pulled out a new laptop and handed it to Jackson.
"I said I didn't have enough paper and you went out and bought me a computer?" Jackson laughed.
"No I went and bought me a computer, and I'm letting you use it." Chloe took a bite of Oliver's dinner. "I've been meaning to try out the new MacBook Air." Chloe said.
"And this one?" Oliver held up the other box.
"Well it's hardly fair if I get one and Victor doesn't." Chloe explained taking another bite of Oliver's plate. "This is really good, who's the chef here?"
"I forgot to ask." Oliver rolled his eyes at her.
"Pages." Chloe said snapping her fingers at Jackson and he passed over the pad. She went to eat another bite of Oliver's food.
"Would you like me to order you something?" Oliver asked and she paused with the fork halfway to her mouth.
"Yes, please. Whatever this is." Chloe smiled. "And maybe a slice of…"
"Cake?" Oliver asked. "You got it."
Chloe was on the fourth page by the time her food got there and Jackson had been typing the whole time. "What the hell does this mean?" She asked with her mouth full.
Jackson looked over at her. "I thought you said you knew all about quantum physics."
"I dmhn." Chloe said muffled and Oliver glared at her. She swallowed. "I do." She repeated. "I'm just not sure what plane tree, pull top department is supposed to mean."
Jackson looked at her confused and grabbed the paper. "It says, phase three, full troop deployment." He looked up at her. "Do you understand that?"
"Yes unfortunately. You're penmanship is horrible." Chloe said. "Project Ares." She said to Oliver.
"You think he started it again?" Oliver asked.
"If it helps I heard that when I first got there, my fourth day actually so that would have been…."
"Six years ago." Chloe said. "So he was probably talking about Bendis." Chloe sighed with relief. "You remember when you heard things?"
"What part of good memory are you having trouble understanding?" Jackson smiled. Chloe glared at him. "You want me to write dates by everything."
Chloe opened her mouth and Oliver put a hand on her shoulder to keep her quiet. "Yes please, that would be nice."
"Got it." Jackson said going back to his work.
"What is this supposed to be?" Chloe asked. "Tests show fragmented polypeptide sequences in an ultra excited state?"
"It supposed to be, tests show fragmented polypeptide sequences in an ultra excited state." Jackson told her. "Trust me, I know everything."
"Yeah?" Chloe asked. "A few days ago you kept saying you didn't know anything."
"Yeah, I lied." Jackson smiled.
"You made that up." Chloe said. "Polypeptide is so not a word."
"A polypeptide is a peptide that consists of two or more amino acids." Oliver said from the other room on the bed where he was watching television. Jackson and Chloe turned to Oliver confused. "I know things." Oliver said defensively. "I may not know auditory but I know things."
Jackson chuckled. "Keep typing." Chloe said to Jackson. She got up and went into the bedroom, closed the door and laid down next to Oliver. "I know you know stuff." Chloe told him and he looked away from her back at the television. She grabbed the remote and turned the television off. "Hey." She pulled his face to her. "You're the one who comes up with all those arrows." She told him, he smiled slightly. "Those are really cool arrows." She told him. "You're the head of a multi billion dollar technological empire."
"I inherited that." He pointed out.
"Yeah and your profits doubled in the first six months after you took over." She smiled at him. "You have to know something to be able to do that."
"I guess." He said smiling down at her.
"You know your more than just the muscle right?" Chloe asked him.
"Who said that?" Oliver asked. "You think I'm only the muscle?"
Chloe looked up at him and was about to defend herself, defend him when she saw the smirk on his face. "You bastard." Chloe slapped him. "You were playing me."
"It's nice to hear some good things about yourself every once and a while." Oliver scoffed. "You never tell me I'm pretty anymore." Chloe grabbed a pillow and slapped him across the face with it. "You never tell me I look nice when we go to parties." She started to smack him again and he grabbed her arms and rolled over until he was on top of her. "You didn't notice when I cut my hair." He told her.
"You cut your hair ever other Tuesday. I'm supposed to say something every time." Chloe told him.
"How do you know I cut my hair every other Tuesday?" Oliver asked seriously.
"I notice things." Chloe said smiling softly.
"Yeah?" Oliver said. "What else do you notice?"
"Well I can always tell what kind of day you had at work by what you drink at night." She told him. "Like a good day is a beer, a bad day is scotch, and a really bad day is a double. I notice that when I touch this spot," she ran her hand up from his knee to his thigh, "You always open your mouth in surprise." Sure enough his mouth opened involuntarily. Oliver looked down at her and kissed her softly. "What was that for?"
"Noticing." He said to her. "Where was that spot again?" He asked kissing her.
"Hey, are you guys in there doing it while I'm out here working?" Jackson screamed through the door. Chloe pulled away and chuckled. "Cause I'm not down with that."
"I swear. People think all we do is have sex." Chloe pulled herself off the bed.
"We should prove them right." Oliver waggled his eyebrows.
"Come on, let's go exercise that brain of yours." Chloe grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room.
It took another two days for Jackson to finish writing what he'd over heard or what he'd happened to see. "Thanks Jackson." Chloe yawned as he got up to leave. "You have no idea how much this is going to help us."
"Well I've told you everything I know."
"And we appreciate it." Chloe assured him. "Is there anything we can do for you? Anything you need, want?"
"Yeah." Jackson said. "No offense, you guys seem really cool and all but I want to never see you again."
"You'd be surprised how often we get that." Chloe smiled at him.
"No, I don't think I would." Jackson said walking out of the hotel room.
Chloe looked at the computer, the 100 page document that Jackson just finished, and then through the door and at the bed, where Oliver was passed out. There was no contest. She kicked off her shoes and climbed in the bed next to him, not even bothering to change her clothes. "Did he finish?" Oliver mumbled tossing his arm around her waist.
"Yeah." Chloe yawned and closed her eyes.
"Did we find her?"
"I don't know yet." Chloe said. "I'm so tired my eyes are crossing. I just need a little rest before I start going through it all."
"You can sleep Chloe." Oliver told her. "It is allowed."
"Just a minute." She said.
Chloe and Oliver got back to Star City late the next day. They walked into her apartment and were surprised to find all the guys sitting around the table with little stacks of paper all over the place. "This one goes in the Medical stack." AC said handing a sheet over to Bart who laid it down next to him in a pile without even looking.
"What's going on?" Chloe took off her coat and walked over.
They all looked up surprised. They had been so engrossed in the work they didn't even hear Chloe and Oliver come in. "Oh, hey." Victor said getting up and going to the kitchen. "We're sorting through the rest of the stuff now. We printed each thing on a separate piece of paper and we're organizing them by subject, so it'll be easier to cross reference later." He poured himself a cup of coffee.
Chloe smiled. She'd trained her guys well. When she first started working with them, Bart constantly reminded her that he was there for speed and not brains. He left all the research and investigation to Chloe. AC never bothered with it either and Victor usually got the info for her and then left her to sort through it all on her own. But here they were, all of them, going through the pages, working through the problem, figuring it all out. "Is this Medical or Subject?" Bart asked showing AC his page.
"Subject." AC said after reading it over and Bart put the paper down in another pile.
"Let me change my clothes and then I'll jump in." Chloe said.
"I'd love to help but I've been out of the office for four days now." Oliver sighed. "I'll get back as soon as I can."
"No worries boss." Bart smiled. "We got it covered."
It took a week to get through everything. Another two weeks to cross reference it all with their files and do a little more research. And a full three months before Chloe finally managed to put it all together and get the big picture. Everyone sat around Chloe's kitchen table, exhausted, mentally drained and completely and utterly speechless as she explained what she'd found to them. Bart opened his mouth and then closed it. AC scratched his head, looked at Chloe, looked up at the monitor she'd been using, glanced around the table and then scratched his head again. Victor just stared ahead intently, a look of satisfaction on his face and Oliver stood up from his chair to pace for a minute before sitting back down, unsure of what to do with himself. "Could you repeat that please?" Bart finally asked.
"This is it." Chloe said motioning to the map. "Every single one of Lex's 33.1 labs, all that's left."
They all looked up at the map again, it was a basic map of the world, nothing special about it, all the continents were there, the oceans. It even had the mountain range elevations and faint longitude and latitude lines. But what made it beautiful, what made it to single most wonderful thing that any of the guys had ever laid eyes on were the six small red dots scattered around. "All of them?" Victor asked.
"Every last one." Chloe said smiling.
"That can't be right can it?" AC asked the table at large. "Six? Really? That's it?"
"There's got to be a mistake." Oliver shook his head.
"No, no mistake." Chloe laughed. "Trust me I didn't believe it a first either. I figured this out a week ago and it's taken me this long to believe it myself."
"Those six." Bart said. "So you're saying, we take out those six little red dots and Luther's done?"
"For a while yeah." Chloe smiled. "We'd take out everything he had, all his facilities, all his research, years and years of test results, not to mention test subjects. He'd be dead in the water."
"Until he started up again." Oliver pointed out.
"I'm not saying this will end everything." Chloe said. "I'm not naive. But it'll hurt him, worse than anything we've done before."
"Could we really do this?" Victor whispered.
"I think we can." Chloe smiled and turned to Oliver. Victor, AC and Bart all followed suit. He was still staring up at the map, a slow smile coming to his face.
"We can do this." He looked at all of them. "Let's start working on a battle plan."
"Battle plan?" Chloe asked. "You make it sound like we're going to war."
"Yeah." He said. "Once Lex's figures out what we're doing that's exactly what it's going to be."
They put together their strategy pretty quickly. Based on locations, what they suspected Lex was doing in the lab, and how easily they figured they could get in an out, they planned their route. It would take two months to get it done, going to one lab, clearing them out, getting whatever information they could and making sure the subjects that Lex had were safe, blowing the place to smithereens and then moving on to do it all over again at the next one.
It was a strange feeling Chloe realized, standing next to Oliver in the bathroom after everyone had gone home and brushing her teeth as he did the same. They'd just planned the thing that they'd been working toward for over ten years now. It would be done, Lex would be finished and for some reason all she could think about was whether or not she should switch to the toothpaste with baking soda. She pulled her hair back and spit in the sink and then looked at Oliver in the mirror. "How am I supposed to be feeling right now?" She asked.
He looked at her confused for a second and then leaned over the sink and spit too. "What do you mean?"
She rinsed her mouth and set her toothbrush in the holder before turning to face him as he flossed. "I mean, I know now that everything I've ever done in my life has been to lead me up to this moment, preparing me for what we're going to do." She leaned against the counter. "And in a month it will be finished."
"It'll never be finished." Oliver said tossing the floss in the trash can.
"No, I know." Chloe shook her head. "But Lex will, he'll be severely set back at least. I guess what I'm trying to say its…then what?"
"We go on to the next guy." Oliver said but Chloe didn't look convinced. "What aren't you asking me?"
"Then what about us?" She looked away from him, suddenly she was that insecure tenth grader asking Clark Kent to prom.
Strong fingers gently gripped her chin and turned her head and she saw herself staring into the impossibly blue, completely serious eyes of Oliver. "Then we live happily ever after." He told her.
"What if the only thing holding us together, holding all of us together, is Lex? If I'm perfectly honest with myself that's why I started this. I didn't accept your offer for noble reasons of Truth and Justice, I did it to take down Lex."
"Well that's why Victor joined, and AC, Bart's not to fond of him either." Oliver smiled. "When I found those guys, I knew how to bring them in, promise them revenge on the man who tortured them, tried to ruin their lives. But that's not why they stayed. That's not all they want now." He looked down at her. "That might be what got you here, but is that why you stayed? Is that why you did everything you did, your training, all of it? Is that why your still here?"
"Of course not." She said to him.
"Good." Oliver smiled. "Because that's not why I'm still here and that's not why I'm gonna be here. Why I'm gonna stay?"
"Why are you gonna stay?" Chloe asked her voice barely above a whisper.
"I thought that was fairly obvious." Oliver smiled at her. "For the cake."
"A man can't live on cake alone?" Chloe said, willing herself not to go weak at the knees.
"This one can." He assured her. "If I have nothing in my life until my dying day but cake, I'd be the happiest man alive."
"And the fattest." Chloe joked, the situation suddenly far more serious than she wanted it to become.
"But I'd be happy." He told her.
"Are we really gonna do this?" Chloe smiled.
"Yeah." Oliver said. "We are."
Two and a half weeks later, three labs down, and the excitement, the enormity of the situation still hadn't fully hit home yet. It wouldn't until they attempted to take down the fourth of their targets, when it would become obvious Lex had caught on to their plan.
"Three labs?" Lex screamed into the phone. "Three labs gone in Two weeks. What exactly is it that I'm paying you such a large sum of money for?"
"Sir." A woman said on the other line. "There was no way to anticipate such a full scale attack."
"No way to anticipate?" Lex laughed humorlessly. "I've spent more than a hundred million dollars over the last ten years on the research and cultivation of a woman who can see into the future and you had no way of anticipating this?"
"With all due respect sir." The woman said. "When you accelerated the Cassandra program, there were unforeseen side effects."
"Yes, it made her more powerful." Lex pointed out.
"But it also caused some neurological problems that we weren't prepared for."
"I've read the report Doctor Rao." Lex said. "Figure out a way to work around that. They aren't going to stop at three, if they found those, they'll find the others."
"What should we do?" Doctor Rao asked.
"Burn it all." Lex said.
"Excuse me sir?" Doctor Rao asked confused.
"Destroy the evidence before they can get to it." Lex clarified.
"Everything?" She asked confused.
"Wipe the system, set fire to the hard copies, get rid of the samples, everything."
"And the subjects?" She asked in a whisper.
"We don't need them anymore. Pull the plug." Lex told her before hanging up the phone.
Chloe couldn't take her eyes off the scene in front of her. The rain poured down fat and hot, drenching her to the bone and still she stared across the street. It was hard to distinguish between the tears running down her cheek and the rain drops but it didn't matter. She practically felt him come up before she heard him, an umbrella was placed over her head and she wanted to push it away, wanted the rain to cover her, to cleanse her. "Who told on me?" She asked when a cup of coffee was passed to her.
"Bart." Oliver said. He didn't look down at her; his eyes were transfixed across the street just like hers were. "He was afraid you'd catch a cold."
"Why didn't he come get me?" Chloe sipped the coffee, exactly how she liked it.
"Because when AC did that yesterday you broke his nose." Oliver reminded her. Chloe tried to pull up some sort of proper feeling for that remark, shame, sorrow, humor, anger, but nothing came, she was empty. "Are you going to break my nose?"
"Are you going to try and drag me away?" Chloe asked.
"I'm not stupid." Oliver shook his head.
"Then you're nose is safe." She assured him.
"You gonna have this pity party for much longer?" Oliver sighed. This got her attention and she turned her head sharply to face him. "Someone had to say it Chloe. It's over. We won."
"This is your definition of winning?" Chloe asked.
"This is a definition of winning." Oliver shrugged.
"This isn't winning." She said sadly. "This was murder."
The three remaining complexes, the last of Lex's 33.1 labs were gone, but not by their hands, not according to their plans. Lex did it. One after the other he destroyed his own facilities before they could. "There were subjects still in them." Chloe reminded him. "You've seen the surveillance footage; he didn't evacuate a single building. He just let them burn with everything else. Got rid of the evidence. He killed fifteen people just so we couldn't get to them first." The tears came out harder now and Oliver wanted to put his hand over her shoulder, wanted to hold her close and let her cry but he couldn't do that. "Cassandra was in one of those labs, did you realize that? She wasn't in the first three, and we've been watching all the others, she had to be in there. She asked us for help and we got her killed."
"But we got rid of the labs." Oliver reminded her.
"How can you be so callus, all of you?" She screamed. "Bart and AC were celebrating yesterday, drinking champagne."
"Because we won." Oliver said again.
Chloe glared at him and turned to storm away. Oliver grabbed her elbow and she spun around, into him and slammed her elbow into his stomach. He let go of her arm as he stumbled back a few steps and dropped the umbrella so he could shoot his hands out just in time to grab onto her ankle and stop her foot from coming into contact with the side of his head. "Is something wrong honey?" Oliver asked pulling her ankle towards him which caused her to lose her footing and fall to the ground. She pulled herself up threw her right hand out, Oliver blocked the punch. "I hate it when we fight like this."
"Are you trying to piss me off?" Chloe asked panting in the rain as swung at him again, and again he blocked it.
"Yes." Oliver said grabbing her wrist and twisting it behind her back. She shot her foot out and connected with his shins forcing him to release her. "Is it working?"
"Yes." She practically growled at him as they started to circle each other.
"Good."
"What are you talking about?" She asked him.
"I can't have you sad right now, blaming yourself for what happened." Oliver explained.
"Why not?" Chloe pushed the wet hair out of her face.
"Because the last time you felt like this you left me for three years." He reminded her. "I need you angry, I need you so mad that you can't see straight and I need that anger directed at Lex, where it belongs."
"I don't understand." Chloe said, deflating a little.
"We're not done yet." Oliver told her. She stopped walking and just stared at Oliver.
"What do you mean we're not done yet?" Chloe asked.
"There's another lab." Oliver told her. "One that no one knew about, one that you never would have found on your own, and he didn't blow this one up."
"Another lab?" Chloe asked confused.
"Oh yeah, and this one's a real dozy." Oliver held out his hand. "You want to hear more?"
Chloe looked behind Oliver's shoulder at ruble and then back at Oliver's hand. "You know it." She smiled and he pulled her down the street, back to their hotel room.
"I thought you said my nose was safe." Oliver rubbed his stomach.
"Did I hit your nose?" Chloe asked him.
Chloe dried off and changed her clothes, profusely apologized to AC for breaking his nose and promised to make him his favorite foods for a week when they got back home. Oliver gathered them all around the table at the hotel room. "I got a call from Jackson today." Oliver said. "There was something he remembered, something he forgot to tell us."
"That Lex was a psycho?" AC asked.
"You didn't know that already?" Victor joked.
"There's another compound." Oliver said and they turned their attention back to him.
"I thought that there were only six." Bart said.
"We were wrong." Oliver tilted his head to Chloe. "Through no fault of the wonderful and talented Watchtower of course. None of us could have seen this one coming. "
"Enough with the suspense already. Let's see it, work out a plan, get down to business." Bart said.
"You want to see it?" Oliver smiled. He pushed a button and an image came up on the screen so ridiculous, so unbelievable that it took five minutes for all of them to wrap their heads around it.
"How the hell are we supposed to get in there?" Bart asked.
"That is the million dollar question." Oliver said to them. "So find me the answer." They looked back at the picture on the screen and then at Oliver again. Bart raised his hand and Oliver nodded at him.
"If we figure it out, do we get the million dollars?" Bart asked so seriously that Oliver was tempted to say yes.
Chloe really hated having to do it but she had to admit, Lex was pretty ingenious actually. He managed to find the worst and the best place to have a super secret compound. After spending three days staring at a picture and coming up with nothing, Oliver brought them out to India.
They were standing in the middle of a bridge that spanned and enormous canyon. The bridge went on for a mile in either direction and it was a mile and a half down to the raging river at the bottom. The facility itself was inside the canyon. Chloe was staring at it through a set of very high powered binoculars. There were five very large concrete and steel posts that went far into the ground and about five hundred feet up. The foundation was built on top of the posts and spread out almost the whole width of the canyon. There was a ten foot ledge around the building with a twenty foot tall fence all around.
There were no steps, no ladder, no bridges, no slides. There was absolutely no way to get to the lab unless you flew into the helicopter pad, which didn't matter because there was no way to get out. "Let me look for a minute." Bart whined. Chloe passed him the binoculars and grabbed a piece of licorice from the bag Victor was holding. She took a big bite and leaned on the railing of the bridge.
"Wow, it looks even more impossible up close doesn't it?" Chloe pouted.
"Maybe we could scale down the side of the canyon, and…" AC pushed out with his hands. "You know jump." He looked at them. "To the roof."
Victor, Oliver, and Chloe turned to look at him with the most incredulous look on their faces. He raised his eyebrows asking for a reason why not. Chloe snatched the binoculars from Bart without looking. "Hey!" He cried and Victor passed him a piece of licorice.
Chloe turned to the facility and flicked a switch on the binoculars. "There is a minimum of 600 feet between the wall of the canyon and the roof. When was the last time you managed a cold 600 foot, horizontal jump?"
"Right, new plan." AC sighed and Bart snatched the binoculars back.
"Could we…" Oliver started.
"No." Chloe shook her head.
Oliver got up from standing next to Bart and walked to stand next to AC. "What about…"
"Wouldn't work." Chloe said.
Victor and AC looked between the two of them and shook their heads. "You guys are freaky."
Chloe stood up straighter. "What if we…"
"No." Oliver shook his head. Oliver shook his head. "Even if we could get an elephant, we don't have the time to train it."
"Please tell me you weren't actually thinking about using an elephant?" Victor asked Chloe.
"Elephants are versatile and intelligent creatures Victor. You have no idea what they're capable of." Chloe grabbed another licorice stick and bit into it.
"Hannibal crossed the Alps on an Elephants." Oliver added.
"Guys." Bart said, practically jumping up and down with excitement. "Better get out your check book boss man, I think I found our way in." They all waited on pins and needles for him to continue.
"Do you plan on sharing with the rest of the class?" Oliver asked.
"Not yet." Bart said. "I need to do a little more research."
Chloe choked on her candy and Victor smacked her on the back. "Sorry you're going to do a little what now?"
"Hey, this is for the big bucks. I want to have everything worked out, all my ducks in a row. It's my idea. I want to see it through." He said.
"Ok." Oliver clapped his hands. "Let's get back home then."
"Can we stop somewhere first and get a video camera?" Chloe asked. "I really want to have this documented."
"Hey I've done research before." Bart said.
Chloe slung her arm over his shoulder and tousled his hair. "My little boys growing up so fast?"
"Do you have to mess with the hair?" Bart speeded out from under her arm.
Oliver walked out of his bedroom into the hall and stopped dead in his tracks. Chloe, Victor, and AC were sitting on the ground, their feet dangling through the bars of the railing and had their heads pressed up as close as they could, like kids spying on their parents.
"Did you know he could type?" Chloe asked. "I didn't know he could type." She stuffed another handful of popcorn in her mouth.
"He's doing it right to." Victor pointed. "He's got the hand placement down. He's not doing the hunt and peck, like some people." Victor cut his eyes to AC.
"He hasn't even gone to Wikipedia once." AC pointed out. "That's real research dedication."
"He's writing something, can you see what he's writing?" Chloe stretched up to get a better view of the living area down stairs.
Oliver walked up behind them and looked down to see Bart working furiously at the table. He had papers and pads all over the place. "No, he changed angles the last time we tried to read over his shoulder." AC frowned.
"I can make him move." Chloe said. "Give me some popcorn." Victor passed her the bowl and she grabbed a handful and tossed it over the railing. It landed in his hair but he didn't move. She frowned and tossed another one, it hit him in the neck and rolled down his shirt.
He jumped up and slapped his hand against his neck and then bent down to pick up the piece of popcorn that fell out of his shirt and the one in his hair fell out too. He turned around confused and then looked up at them. "You guys are so juvenile you know that?" He gathered everything up and walked further away and the three of them started laughing.
"What are you guys doing?" Oliver asked and they all jumped in surprise and turned around, putting their heads down in shame because they know they got just got caught. He looked at AC and Victor and sighed. "Go do something productive." Victor took off in one direction while AC ran in the other. Chloe stood there, shuffling her feet and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. "You know better."
"We're just having some fun." Chloe said. "Blowing off some steam, keeping ourselves from going crazy."
"I know." Oliver said smiling. "I just didn't want them to see me do this." He walked to the landing. "Hand me the popcorn."
Chloe smiled and grabbed the bowl handing it to Oliver.
Two days later Bart walked into the living room and smiled nervously. "I've got it, and it's gonna work."
"Lay it out for us." Oliver said.
The more of his plan that Bart explained the wearier and wearier they all became. "It'll work." He said as they all stood speechless. "Well I'm pretty sure it'll work, there are a few things we need to test on sight. But I can do this."
"A few?" Oliver asked running his fingers through his hair.
"Come on, anyone else come up with anything?" Bart looked around. "Besides scaling the wall and jumping?" Chloe opened her mouth. "Or Elephants?" She closed her mouth sheepishly. "I can do this guys."
"Ok." Chloe said. "It's the best plan we've got." She told Oliver.
He looked back at all the information Bart presented to him and sighed. "Fine, we'll start surveillance tomorrow."
"Yes." Bart smiled and jumped up.