4:59:58 a.m. (08:00:02 until Wedding Starts)
Chloe looked at the clock and watched as it changed from 4:59 to 5:00 and sighed loudly. She'd been up since 4:40 but couldn't justify getting out of bed that early. In the past twenty minutes though, she had come to the realization that she probably wasn't going to get anymore sleep. She rolled over to face the other direction and froze. "Oh God." She closed her eyes and then opened them again but it didn't help. She was sitting there eye to eye with something that was completely impossible. "So this is great." Chloe whispered. "I'm hallucinating now?" Chloe asked it. "Of course, I am, I mean that just seems to fit, what with everything else that's happened in my life." It didn't say anything. "Right, not very talkative. I supposed it's time to get up then." She got out of the bed and pulled on her robe. "You coming?" She turned around to look back at the bed. "I'm gonna make some coffee, see if I can keep anything down." It got off the bed and followed her to the door.
5:13:29 a.m. (07:46:31 until Wedding Starts)
"You want some coffee?" Chloe asked it. "No, hallucinations don't drink, so you're probably not hungry right?" She stared where it was sitting on the bar stool and shook her head. "I think I'm taking this pretty well don't you?" She asked. "I do." She took a sip of coffee and sighed. "Let's go sit outside on the balcony. It's a pretty day, no rain, that's good right? Although I've heard rain on your wedding day is good luck so…" Chloe pushed herself off the counter and headed to the balcony, it followed right behind her.
6:27:43 a.m. (06:32:27 until Wedding Starts)
All the guys sat around Oliver's penthouse waking up and getting ready for the day. "I need you three to do one last security sweep at the church before anyone gets there ok?" Oliver asked.
"Sure." Victor said checking his watch. "We can leave in about 15 minutes and still be back in time to get ready."
"Oh, and could you drop these off to Chloe on the way?" Oliver tossed Bart two black velvet boxes. "It's her necklace and earrings for the wedding; I picked them up yesterday but didn't get a change to give them to her."
"No problem." Bart slipped them in his pocket and nodded.
7:13:21 (05:46:39 until Wedding Starts)
AC, Bart, and Victor knocked on the door to the hotel room and Abby opened it looking at them confused. "What are you guys doing here? Something wrong?"
"No." Victor said confused. "We've got Chloe's jewelry."
"Oh, she's not here, she went back home last night. But I'll give it to her, we're supposed me over there in about an hour."
"Home?" AC said suddenly very anxious. "What? Why? Why would she do that? She was supposed to stay here with you guys."
"She couldn't sleep; she thought she'd be more relaxed in her own bed." Abby explained.
"Oh, no, this is bad." AC ran his fingers through his hair. "We've got to get over there now."
"We're supposed to go to the church." Bart pointed out. "We can't just…"
"No, we have to get to Chloe's." AC turned away from Abby without a goodbye and the guys followed completely confused.
7:14: 57 (05:45:03 until Wedding Starts)
"You're a good listener you know?" Chloe smiled. "I guess that's because you can't talk back. But I do appreciate it anyway. I just needed to work through some of my problems. I do want to marry Oliver, I really do, and I'm excited about this wedding, I just don't want to get to excited you know?" It didn't say anything, it just stared at her. "I know, it's my big day and I shouldn't worry but that's what I do." She sighed. "I better jump in the shower. You just stay here." She turned on the television. "Keep yourself occupied, I'll be out in a few minutes."
7:18:12 (05:41:48 until Wedding Starts)
"I don't understand." Victor said as AC sped through the streets.
"Remember that protest that I went to yesterday?" AC asked. "Well a few of us got to talking and when the rally was over…."
7:19:46 a.m. (05:40:14 until Wedding Starts)
Lois grabbed her garment bag and hoisted it up a little further on her hip. She knew she wasn't supposed to be here for another hour but if she knew her cousin, she was probably in full freak out mode right now. The elevator stopped and Lois walked out, set the garment bag on the kitchen table and then froze. "Oh my God." Lois said. "Chloe." She called out. "Chloe!" She screamed. "Chloe!"
"What?" Chloe walked out of the bedroom in a robe toweling her hair.
"There is a…there's a…." She pointed at the couch. Chloe looked over. "There is a monkey on your couch, watching television."
"Chimpanzee." Chloe corrected her. "And I know."
7:20:52 a.m. (05:39:08 until Wedding Starts)
"Let me get this straight." Victor said calmly. "On the day before Chloe's wedding, you went to a rally protesting animal testing, which is fine, animal testing is horrible. But that wasn't enough for you, so you and some of your animal rights buddies decided to break into the lab and set the animals free." AC nodded. "And you were put in charge of the monkey."
"Chimpanzee." AC said.
"Right, sorry, Chimpanzee. So you thought to yourself why don't I put it in Chloe's apartment?" Victor screamed.
"She wasn't supposed to be there. She was supposed to stay at the hotel, have the wedding and the reception and she wasn't coming back until after her honeymoon, I thought it was the perfect place for him."
"We are all screwed." Bart shook his head.
7:21:35 a.m. (05:38:25 until Wedding Starts)
"You know? How on earth, how are you so calm about this?" Lois said walking a little closer and the chimp turned around and smiled at Lois as it changed the channels.
"Well I feel a little bit better now that I know I'm not hallucinating it." She dropped the towel to the counter top.
"You're not freaking out? You're not throwing things, going crazy?" Lois asked.
The chimp got down off the couch and walked over to Chloe grabbing her fingers and yanking. Chloe reached down and pulled it up, setting in on her hip as it wrapped its arms around her neck. "What good is that going to do?" Chloe asked. "So there's a chimp in my apartment." She walked over to the coffee pot and poured another cup. "I don't know how it got here; I don't know where it came from but really. Waking up to a chimp, what else could happen today that's worse than this?"
The chimp reached forward toward the fruit bowl. "Oh I'm sorry, you're probably hungry. I guess since I know now you're not a hallucination you should probably eat something." She grabbed a banana and pealed it before giving it to the chimp.
Lois took a deep breath. "So you're ok with this?"
"It's kind of cute." Chloe said. "And it's a good listener." The chimp squeaked and looked at Chloe. "I'm ok with this."
"Of course." Lois mumbled. "Have a total meltdown about the silverware but be perfectly fine with a mysterious chimpanzee showing up unannounced in your apartment on your wedding day."
"Will you look after him?" Chloe paused. "Is it a him?" She looked. "It's a him; will you just look after him while I get dressed?" Chloe pulled his arms off her neck and set him down on the counter.
"What do I have to do?" Lois asked eyeing it like it was something disgusting stuck to her shoe.
"Just make sure he doesn't get into anything." Chloe said.
7:25:09 a.m. (05:34:51 until Wedding Starts)
The guys barely stopped in front of the building, tossed the keys to the valet and ran for the elevator. The ride up seemed to take forever and they basically fell out into Chloe's apartment. "Hello." Lois said confused from the kitchen table where she was sipping her coffee.
They all stopped. There wasn't any screaming, there wasn't any yelling or freaking out so maybe they weren't totally screwed yet. "Look around, find him." AC whispered. "Hey." He smiled at Lois. "Just thought we'd drop in." He walked over to the kitchen and started opening cabinets. "Make sure everything was ok." He looked under the sink.
Lois turned and saw Bart and Victor looking behind furniture and in closets. "Really?" She smiled. "We'll we're all good here."
"Really?" AC asked walking into the hall bathroom and then coming out. "That's great, that's really…" He opened up the guest bedroom and looked around. "Great." He turned and smiled at Lois. "Oh we've got Chloe's jewelry, Oliver forgot to give it to her yesterday." AC nodded at Bart and he took the jewelry boxes out of his pocket and tossed them to Lois as he lifted the window seat and looked inside.
"He's in Chloe's room." Lois smiled.
"He's what? Who he?" AC asked, feigning confusion.
"Lois." Chloe called out. "I thought I asked you to watch him." She walked out of her bedroom holding the chimp on her hip. "Oh hey guys."
"I tried, but he pitched a fit, he wanted you." Lois got up to refill her coffee.
"You did?" Chloe asked the chimp. "That's so sweet."
The chimp grabbed Chloe's neck and pulled her closer then gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Chloe." AC held up his hands. "I can explain."
"Explain?" Chloe asked confused. "Oh, is he yours?"
"Not exactly. We liberated him from a research facility. You weren't supposed to be here, I was going to figure out what to do with him after the wedding."
"No worries." Chloe said smiling at him. "What's his name?"
"Huh?" AC asked confused.
"His name?" Chloe asked setting him on the counter and grabbing her coffee. "I can't just call him Chimp all day."
"His name…he didn't have one, he was a test subject." AC said.
"Oh." Chloe turned to the chimp. "That's kind of sad. How about I give you a name?" The chimp jumped up and squealed. "I think I'm gonna call you Rex."
"So you're not mad?" Victor asked.
"No." Chloe said. "Why would I be mad?"
The guys turned to Lois who held her hands up in surrender. "Don't look at me. I'm just as confused as you."
"Well I'll just get him out of your hair." AC walked forward. "I can bring him to one of the other guys for now." He picked up Rex who started crying and throw himself around and Chloe frowned.
"Oh sweetie, you don't want to go with him do you?" Chloe asked taking him back from AC. "You probably remind him of the lab, he still a little scared. You want to stay with me huh?" Rex nodded happily. "It's fine." Chloe said. "He can stay."
"He can…stay?" Bart asked.
"You do know you're getting married today?" Victor pointed out. "You really don't have time to look after a chimp…"
"Rex stays." Chloe screamed and they all jumped. Chloe smiled sheepishly. "Look, as crazy as this sounds, he is the only thing keeping me from freaking out ok, so he stays, you go." They all stared at her. "Go to the church and make sure everything is ok."
AC, Victor, and Bart looked at each other and shrugged. They backed out of the apartment slowly as if any second she could change her mind. But she was holding onto Rex and smiling as he pulled at her hair. "This is going to be a long day." AC mumbled under his breath.
7:32:52 a.m. (05:27:08 until Wedding Starts)
AC walked into Oliver's apartment trying to figure out what to do. "Should we tell him? I don't think we should tell him."
"Tell him what?" Oliver asked staring at them with his arms over his chest. "Where have you been?" They all looked at each other and Oliver shook his head. "Never mind, while you were off doing whatever it is you did, Bruce did a final security sweep of the church."
"Oh yeah." Bart winced. "Sorry."
"He found these." Oliver dropped three very small cameras on the table and the guys looked at each other ashamed.
"What's going on?" Victor picked one up to study it closer.
"We don't know yet." Oliver sighed. "He found twenty total at the church, and we found another ten here."
"In your apartment?" AC asked concerned.
"Yeah." Oliver said, glad they were seeing the seriousness of the situation now. "I called Kara, she said she'd check Chloe's place for me."
"So what are we going to do?" Bart asked.
"Bruce is tracing the signal while Clark keeps an eye on the church. We're going to find out who's doing this, figure out why, and stop them before 1:00."
"What's 1:00?" Bart asked absentmindedly.
Oliver stared at him dumbfounded. "My wedding."
"Oh right." Bart nodded. "Sure, no problem, easy as pie."
"Alright guys, gear up." Oliver turned to walk away then stopped. "Oh, and it shouldn't really needed to be pointed out, but if Chloe find out about any of this, we're all dead."
"Noted." Victor nodded as he grabbed the guys and hauled them off to change.
8:10:26 a.m. (04:49:34 until Wedding Starts)
"Ok, we're here." Abby got off the elevator. "Who's ready to get mahhh." She jumped about two feet into the air and then turned, shoving everyone back into the elevator. "Monkey, monkey, monkey." She was repeating over and over as Lily, Rose, and Kara tried to look over her shoulder. "Monkey!" She screamed.
"Chimpanzee." Lois said walking into the room. "And you don't have to yell."
"What…how…why?" Abby asked, still refusing to get out of the elevator, or let the others out.
"His name is Rex." Lois said grudgingly smiling down at him. "And it's a long story. He doesn't bite." Lois motioned for them to come on in and they did, slowly, hugging the walls and keeping all eyes on Rex. He made a motion with his hands at Lois who sighed. "You're still hungry." She grabbed in the fruit bowl and tossed him an apple. He screeched his thanks and bit into it.
"I'm sorry." Abby said, cautiously stepping forward. "But it's Chloe's wedding day, is it really the time to have a monkey in the house?"
"Chimpanzee." Chloe said walking out of her bedroom with a stuffed animal bear in her hands. "I found it." She crouched down and held the bear out to Rex. "Here you go." Chloe said as he examined the stuffed animal. "This was mine when I was little." Rex cautiously took the bear from Chloe and started to sniff it. She stepped back and smiled at the girls. "There, maybe now he won't need me to hold him all the time."
"Hold him?" Lily asked.
"AC broke him out of a testing lab and he's been a little clingy." Chloe said. "So what's the plan?" She smiled.
Chloe was acting as if the Chimpanzee in her living room, on her wedding day, eating an apple and snuggling with a stuffed bear was no big deal so Abby decided to do the same. "Facials." She looked at Lily who tore her gaze away from Rex and smiled.
"Yeah, mud masks, and eye treatments." Lily said grabbing the bag she'd carried in with her.
"Sounds good." Chloe said. "Let's get started." Rex pulled on her pants and she looked down. He held out the apple rind to Chloe and she was about to take it when Lois stopped her.
"I taught him something, watch this." Lois said. "Rex, throw it in the trash."
Rex looked at Lois then walked over to the sink and opened the cabinet. He turned and smiled at Chloe then tossed the apple rind into the trash can. "Good job." Lois held up her hand and Rex gave her a high five.
"That's my little guy." Chloe said happily and Rex smiled bigger.
"This is going to be a weird day." Abby sighed.
"Going to be?" Rose looked at her.
8:45:03 a.m. (04:14:57 until Wedding Starts)
"A garage?" Victor asked confused. They stood in an alleyway between two rows of houses confused.
"This is suburbia." Bart added as if it made no sense at all.
"This is where Bruce says the feed is going so…" He looked at the garage himself. "Can you open the door?"
"Yeah." Victor studied it. "If I can find the right frequency but…"
"What?" Oliver looked over at him.
"Well it's just, that's gonna be a little…lame huh?" Victor asked. "We're gonna stand out here and wait for the garage door to slowly open?" Oliver pictured it in his head. It wasn't very menacing.
"Ok, look for a side door." Bart and AC nodded and both moved around on opposite sides until Bart called out. They met him on the left side of the house and stared at the door.
"One, two, three." He nodded at Victor who lifted up his foot and kicked the door straight off its hinges. They all piled into the small space and looked around. There was a table full of electronics makeshift command center, multiple monitors held different pictures. A few were of Chloe's apartment and a few were of the tents at the church, Bruce must not have found all the cameras. The problem was they didn't see a mastermind.
"Please." A voice said and Oliver leaned forward to see a man cowering behind the desk chair, his hands over his heads. This whole thing was becoming less and less typical. First the garage, now the cowering. "Don't hurt me."
"I'm not going to hurt you." Green Arrow said pulling the man up and sitting him back in the chair. "What do you want with us?"
He looked at them all confused. "What? Nothing." He said.
"Don't lie, we found you're camera's at St. Michaels." Oliver took a menacing step forward. "Why are you spying on us?"
"I'm not spying on you guys, I swear." He held up his hands again. "I swear." He looked around and swallowed hard.
"Then what's with the cameras?" Victor asked.
"I'm spying on Oliver Queen." The guy turned around. "See." He zoomed in on a room in Chloe's house and Oliver saw Lois walk from the bedroom to the front, passing in front of the camera.
"Why?" Oliver asked. This guy wasn't after the JLA or Meta's. He was after Oliver. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to ruin his wedding." The guys smiled. Oliver, Victor, AC, and Bart looked at each other confused and then turned back to their "criminal mastermind".
8:54:17 a.m. (04:03:43 until Wedding Starts)
Kara lifted the cucumber from her eye and saw that everyone was basically blind. "So." She looked around the room with her x-ray vision and zoomed through the apartment picking up hidden cameras left and right. She was back in her seat before anyone even noticed and she spared a look at Rex who was sleeping on the couch, curled up next to Chloe. "Are apes a traditional wedding present for your people?" She asked.
"Ha." Lois said. "Uh, that would be a no."
"He's not a present." Chloe said. "Actually I guess you could consider him a present."
Lois lifted one of her cucumbers and glared at Chloe. "You don't actually think you're keeping him?"
"Well…" Chloe said.
"There is no way Oliver lets you keep him." Lois said. "Wait who am I kidding, Oliver lets you do anything."
"You know it." Chloe smiled.
"But still, like what you really need in your life right now is a clingy Chimpanzee." Lois pointed out.
"He's not clingy, he's just scared still. Come on, tell me he hasn't grown on you." Chloe smiled.
Lois looked over at Rex and sighed, he did get cuter by the minute and the fact that it only took him three times to get the garbage can thing down meant he was probably pretty smart. "That's what I thought." Chloe said when Lois remained silent. "You know, I can't believe I'm actually going to say this."
"Then don't." Lois told her.
"But I really think…"
"Chloe." Lois warned her.
"Today's gonna be a good day." Chloe finished.
"Great." Lois stood up and took the cucumbers off her eyes.
"What is she doing?" Abby asked peaking from under hers and pretty soon everyone was sitting up and watching Lois. She stormed into the kitchen and grabbed the salt shaker. Then she walked back over to Chloe and held it out.
"You just had to say it." Lois reminded her. Chloe grabbed the salt shaker and sighed.
She tossed salt over her left shoulder. Lois glared. Chloe held up her hand crossed her fingers and then made the sign of the cross, "Head, heart, wallet, watch." Chloe mumbled, making sure to get it right. She smiled at Lois who shook her head. "For heaven's sake." Chloe sighed and knocked on the coffee table before spinning around three times and then spitting.
"What was that?" Abby laughed.
"It's all the things Lois said will ward off bad luck." Chloe glared at her cousin.
"You're the one who had to jinx everything." Lois said. "Now I have to call around for a chimney sweep." She turned to Chloe. "You, turn your clothes inside out."
"What?" Lily asked.
"Meeting a chimney sweep on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck." Chloe said. "And turning your clothes inside out will break bad luck." Chloe didn't think she really believed any of that but she still took of her shirt and put it back on inside out.
9:21:48 a.m. (03:38:12 until Wedding Starts)
"We aren't going to hurt you." Green Arrow sighed looking at the pathetic excuse for a villain who raised his hands up to cover his face every time one of them moved.
"Dennis, you need to come eat you're breakfast, it's getting cold." A woman screamed from the house.
"Just a minute mom." Dennis, they had a name now, called to her. He lived with his mom, this was getting stranger and stranger. "Look, I didn't know you guys hung out at St. Michaels, I'm not after you guys honest, I just want to get back at Oliver Queen."
"Just start at the beginning." Cyborg said. "Why are you trying to ruin his wedding day?"
"Because he ruined mine." Dennis said.
"Oh, he did?" Green Arrow asked. "How did he do that?"
"I used to work for Queen Industries." Dennis explained. "In research and development, we mainly worked in security and surveillance, it's actually pretty cool, it's like…"
"We don't care." Aquaman held up a hand. " Back to the story."
"Right, so the day before my wedding I get fired right. Then my fiancé leaves me at the altar."
"How could you possibly make a connection between those two things?" Green Arrow asked. "It's not your fault if you got laid off, and you'd only been un employed for a day, I'm sure you're fiancé didn't think…"
"You don't understand, I wasn't laid off, I was fired, by Mr. Queen himself. You get fired by Mr. Queen, you're pretty much black booked from any good tech industry jobs, she knew that, she knew I wasn't going to be able to find work. So did he."
That was true, if someone was fired from a Queen Industries R&D team, the rest of the community pretty much knew there was a reason behind it, and that person was put on a don't hire list. "It's not like you're innocent in all this." Green Arrow said.
"What do you mean?" Dennis asked.
"Well Oliver Queen doesn't go around firing people for no reason." Impulse pointed out.
"It wasn't anything bad." Dennis defended himself.
Oliver suddenly recognized him. "You were the guy who got caught stealing." The only problem was he couldn't remember what Dennis had been caught stealing.
"How did you know that?" Dennis asked.
"Hey." Cyborg had picked up a stack of paper and was going threw them. "He's the one that's been screwing everything up. He changed the cake order, sent the dress to Paris, closed down the reception halls."
"None of that stuff has anything to do with Oliver." Green Arrow told him. "That's all hurting Chloe."
"Well yeah." Dennis said. "She's a little high strung you know. I figured if I messed up enough stuff, she'd get frustrated and cancel the wedding, make him feel like I felt." Green Arrow reached for his bow and Aquaman put a hand on his arm.
"I'm not hurting anyone." Dennis said.
"You burned down a building." Cyborg pointed out. "There were people caught in that fire."
"That was an accident. I just messed with wires; I didn't mean to start a fire." Dennis said.
"Well accident or not, you did." Green Arrow took a deep breath. "And that'll be enough for the police."
"No." Dennis cried. "I'm not done…there's more..."
"You're done." Cyborg said. "You aren't going to stop this wedding."
Green Arrow pulled out his phone and called a contact at the police station. They tied Dennis up to his chair and started to leave before the police showed up to arrest him. "You can't stop me." He smiled at them. "Not now, my plan's already in motion."
Oliver looked over at Victor who nodded. "What do you mean?"
"This wedding isn't going to happen." Dennis smiled. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Stay here; after the police are gone see if you can figure out what he's talking about?" Oliver whispered to Victor. "We've got to get to the church."
Victor nodded and went to hide on the other side of the house. The police came, arrested Dennis and Victor snuck back in and starting going through the computer. He had a bad feeling Dennis was right.
11:05:21 a.m. (01:54:39 until Wedding Starts)
Oliver, Bart, and AC got out of the car, they'd gone back home and put on their regular clothes. They were running late but they'd have enough time to change and get in their positions as long as nothing else went wrong. Oliver breathed a sigh of relief, the flower beds were immaculate. The front of the church looked better than he'd ever seen it. He went around back and walked into the tents, where people were still working in a flurry of action and took a deep breath, no mildew. "Let's get to the room." Oliver said and looked at his watch. "Why hasn't Victor called in yet?" He looked up and paused, staring in the other tent confused.
"What?" Bart asked.
"I could have sworn…" He shook his head. "No, I'm starting to go crazy." He turned around. "I thought I just saw a monkey."
AC opened his mouth to correct him. "Chiaanihaah." Was all that came out because Bart slapped a hand over his mouth.
"Huh?" Oliver turned around.
"Nothing." Bart smiled. "Let's go get ready.
11:15:50 a.m. (01:44:10 until Wedding Starts)
"Rex." Lois said weaving through tables on her hands and knees. "Rex, this isn't funny, get back here before someone sees you." She caught up to him and grabbed his hand. "We have to stay in the bridal suite." Lois said dragging him back into the church. "You can't just go running off whenever you want." Lois groaned. She was running around a church, chasing after a chimp in her bridesmaid gown and heels, this was not how she pictured spending Chloe's wedding day.
Rex screeched and Lois rolled her eyes. They got back into the bridal suite and Chloe smiled. "There he is, don't run off like that again?" Rex nodded, grabbed the stuffed bear and climbed up on the couch as Abby and Kara buttoned Chloe into her gown. "Who was on the phone?" Chloe asked Lily.
"No one." Lily said quickly putting the phone down. "No big deal."
"What?" Chloe asked suddenly, her smile fading.
"Well, it's just…" Lily looked at Rose who shook her head, which made Chloe even more curious. "The photographer."
"What about him?" Chloe asked.
"He had his camera equipment confiscated at the airport yesterday. He didn't want to call and freak you out because they said he could have it back today but they aren't releasing it."
"So I have no Photographer?" Chloe asked.
"Not right now. He's going to keep trying to convince them…"
"Call him back, tell him to go out and buy whatever he needs and put it on my bill, I don't care how much it costs, tell him to get his ass down here as soon as he can." Chloe said.
"Sure." Lily grabbed the phone and walked out of the room.
11:27:34 a.m. (01:32:26 until Wedding Starts)
Lily walked back in the room and closed the phone. "He's on his way now to pick up the equipment, he'll be here soon."
"Good." Chloe sighed in relief. They'd finished putting the dress on her and she was starting to get anxious.
"Hey." Bruce stuck his head in the door. "I need to see Abby for a second." Abby looked up confused and then turned to Chloe who nodded. "Wow." Bruce said standing up straight. "You look."
"Nervous?" Chloe joked.
"Beautiful." He corrected her. "Wow."
"Bruce?" Abby asked and he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hall. "What's up?" Abby asked.
"Yeah, remember last night, we were leaving the restaurant, you said you were cold, I gave you my jacket?" Abby nodded. "Do you still have it?"
"It's at the hotel." Abby said. "Why?"
"The rings, the wedding rings, the rings that symbolize Chloe and Oliver's eternal unwavering commitment to each other, were in the pocket."
"Oh no." Abby gasped.
"Just give me your room key." Bruce said. "Hurry before she figures out something's wrong." Abby nodded and ducked back in the room. She came back out and handed over the key. "I'll be back." Bruce said. "Just don't tell her what's happening."
"Are you kidding?" Abby said. "You want her to kill both of us? Hurry."
"Hey." Bruce said. "What's up with the monkey?"
"Chimpanzee." Abby said. "Don't worry about that, worry about the rings."
12:00:00 p.m. (01:00:00 until Wedding Starts)
Abby kept looking out the window, waiting for Bruce's car to pull back up when her phone rang. "Hello?" She said cautiously. Chloe wasn't paying attention to her, the hairdresser was there and they were arguing over what would be best to do. "Did you find them?"
"No." Bruce said. "This place looks like a tornado went through here, there are clothes everywhere."
"Well just look, I'm sure there's only one men's size dinner jacket there." Abby pointed out.
"I'm looking, I don't see it, are you sure it's here?" Bruce asked.
"Yes I'm sure." Abby said. "I was cold, you gave me your jacket and then we got in the car and…" Abby trailed off.
"And what?" Bruce said.
"And Lily turned on the heater, so I took the jacket off." Abby said.
"It's in your car?" Bruce asked. "I drove across town and it's in your car in the parking lot."
"Don't yell at me." Abby said, her voice raising. "I'm not the one who lost the rings."
Everything froze, it was like time was standing still. Abby turned around and saw Chloe with her mouth open wide, the hair dresser even looked shocked and Rose was just shaking her head sadly. "He lost the rings?" Chloe said jumping out of the chair and yanking the phone away from Abby. "You had one job and one job only as best man and that was the rings." Chloe screamed at him. "If you don't find them…"
"I know exactly where they are." Abby interrupted. "I'll go right now." She started to back out of the room. "They're in our car. I'll be back in like five minutes."
She opened the door with her butt and saw Lois, Lily, and Kara jump up. "Abby!" They all screamed.
"It's ok, really." Abby said, right as she backed into Isabel, who didn't see Abby because she was carrying an eight layer cake.
Chloe didn't have time to process what was happening, it was like it was in slow motion. She dropped the phone to the ground as the top tier fell forward and landed on Abby's head. Suddenly Kara was there, next to Abby, grabbing the other end of the cake and holding it up. Time seemed to snap back and they all stood dumbfounded as Abby pulled cake out of her eyes.
"Oh God." Lois said quietly.
Rex was screeching and jumping on the couch. Abby walked in the room slowly, not believing what just happened and sat down next to him. He reached over and grabbed a chunk of cake out of her hair and ate it. He was about to reach for more when she turned to him and glared. Rex put his hand down and moved a little further down the couch.
"I got it." Kara assured Isabel. "It's ok, it was just the top one." She examined the cake. "No other damage."
Chloe let out a sigh of relief and nodded slowly. "I can deal with seven layers." Chloe said. "Please, help her get that outside to the tents." Kara nodded and together she and Isabel slowly made their way out of the church.
"Let's get you cleaned up." Rose said grabbing Abby's hand and pulling her to the bathroom.
"Lily." Chloe said softly. "Please go get the rings and call Bruce back."
Lily nodded and walked off as Chloe turned to Lois. "I should have let you call the chimney sweep." The hair dresser lowered her back into the chair and continued working.
12:18:48 p.m. (0:41:12 until Wedding Starts)
"I just checked on the tents, everything fine." Lily said walking back in the room. "I've got the rings." She held up the box. "The cake looks great, no one can tell there were supposed to be eight layers, and the flowers just got here." She held out a bucket with everyone's flowers and saw Chloe's face light up as she took in the simple bouquets of white tulips.
"At least something's gone right." Chloe sighed in relief. "Just set them on the table." Lily nodded and put the bucket down. "How's Abby doing?"
"Well, we got it out of my hair." Abby walked in the room wearing nothing but her slip, her hair was soaking wet. "Rose is looking for something to clean the dress; can I borrow that hair dryer?" The hair dresser nodded and Abby smiled in relief as she plugged it in. Rose came in a few minutes later with the dress and a bottle of club soda and they all grabbed a rag and started scrubbing out icing stains. After about fifteen minutes they were finally done and Abby turned the hair dryer on the dress to get rid of all the wet spots.
Lois turned around to check on Rex and her eyes opened wide. He was perched on the edge of the table, his hand in the bucket with the flowers, or what used to be flowers. Now it was just a lot of green stems. He had had a white petal hanging out of his mouth and as Lois watched he finished chewing and swallowed, looking back to search for more. She looked over her shoulder, Chloe hadn't see anything yet. "Bad boy." She whispered to him. "You can't eat the flowers." She said as forcefully as she could in a whisper. She picked up the bucket and dripped it behind the couch.
"Lois." Chloe called.
"Huh?" Lois turned around so quickly she made herself dizzy. "Sorry, what?"
"Can you take Rex to the bathroom?" Chloe asked. "He hasn't gone since this morning."
"Fine." Lois smiled. "But we're going to learn to use the toilet like a big boy." She held out her hand and Rex was hesitant to take it after she scolded him but he did and they walked out of the room.
"So." The hairdresser started packing up her things. "When did you get the monkey?"
"Chimpanzee." They all corrected her in unison and then just smiled.
12:30:23 p.m. (0:29:37 until Wedding Starts)
"What are you doing?" Bart asked Oliver. He was looking out the window in the door to their room.
"I swear, I just saw the monkey again." He tilted his head from side to side. "Coming out of the bathroom."
"Oh yeah." Bruce said. "That's…" He trailed off as Bart bounced a balled up sock off of his head.
"Ixnay on the Onkeymay." Bart whispered and Bruce nodded.
"Huh." AC said. "Weird." He looked at Bart who shrugged so he tried to change the subject. "Maybe you should call Victor again."
"That's a good idea."
Lois got back from the bathroom and sat Rex on the couch. "The General's late but he swears he'll be here, I can't believe you asked him to give you away. I passed Martha on the way in too, she was already crying. She was a little confused by Rex though. He did pretty good for a first timer." Lois said almost proudly. "I think with a little practice…" she looked up and noticed that everyone was crowded around the mirror. "What's going on?"
Lily and Abby both took a step back and Lois gasped. Chloe's hair looked like a cross between a bad 80's prom do and some futuristic afro. "Oh my God."
"We were so busy, worrying about the cake and the rings, we didn't pay attention to what she was doing." Chloe said a little strangely. "I can't get married like this, I can't take pictures like this."
"I can fix this." Lily assured her. "Just give me a squirt bottle, a curling iron and a blow dryer, trust me." Chloe nodded numbly and sat back down as Abby went in search of those items.
"We've got a problem." Oliver said. "He's got people here."
"What do you mean?" AC asked.
"Victor says, he's got people stationed all over the place here, I don't know what they're doing, or what they're planning to do but…"
"It's probably not to wish the bride a happy wedding day." Bart finished.
"No." Oliver said. "Victor's got them all on a tracking system at Dennis' house, he says there's one pacing back and forth in front of the church, like he's waiting for something."
"Let's go see." Bruce smiled.
"Ok, but quietly." Oliver said. "I don't want Chloe to know…"
"It's cool." Bart said. "We do this for a living. We can be as suave as the rest of them."
"The rest of who?" AC asked as they walked out of the room.
12:40:28 p.m. (0:19:23 until Wedding Starts)
"See it looks better already." Lily smiled at Chloe. "And I'm just getting started."
"Thank you so much." Chloe smiled at her in the mirror. "All of you guys, I wouldn't have been able to get through the day without…" Her sentence was cut off by the sound of shattering glass. They all stared, frozen in horror as Bart flew through the stained glass window and landed in a heap on the floor.
Chloe stood up as Bart pulled himself from the floor. "Man, that guy can throw a punch." He said to himself, then he looked around and realized where he was. "Ladies." He smiled. "Chloe…wow, I mean that, you look…hot."
"What…" she asked looking past him out the window where Oliver was being held on a tree, two feet off the ground by a guy in a waiters uniform. Bruce ran at him from the side to take him out and the waiter swatted him away like he was nothing. Bruce flew through the air and landed on top of the limousine with such force that he shattered the back window. Clark ran towards him but the waiter didn't even budge. He shot out his free hand, grabbed Clark around the neck and threw him away, as if he was a crumpled up piece of paper.
"Oh no." Chloe said lifting up the bottom of her skirt. "Not on my wedding day. " She stomped to the door of the room and threw it open. Most of the guests had already arrived and were seated so no one knew about what was going on out front. The pianist saw her and started the wedding march, everyone stood up and turned to look but Chloe turned in the other direction and headed toward the doors that lead outside. She paused, looked at the wall and saw an old coat of arms. She reached up and pulled the sword from it before storming through the doors into the front lawn. "Not after everything I've been through to get here." She said holding the sword in one hand and her dress in the other. Kara had run out after her and was passing her up when AC screamed.
"Chloe, get out of here." AC yelled as he approached the waiter and jumped on his back. He released Oliver and turned, tossing AC halfway across the lawn, AC slammed into Kara, taking the both of them down at the same time.
"I don't think so." She screamed and Oliver coughed on the ground. Everyone was watching from the window of the Bridal suite entranced, as the waiter turned back to Oliver and Chloe approached. "Seven dresses, three reception halls, two cakes, I've got no photographer and my hair looks like I just stepped out of a bad 80's music video." She said as she reached him, he paid no attention to her. "And I'll be damned if I let a waiter stop me from getting married." She steadied herself, lifted the sword and brought it down in an arch at his neck.
"Chloe!" Oliver screamed as the sword made contact and sliced clean through. The waiters head fell to the ground and rolled a little before stopping. Everyone froze.
12:58:45 p.m. (00:01:15 until Wedding Starts)
They all stood staring in disbelief. In front of them was the now headless body of the waiter, standing straight up, it didn't collapse to the ground. The head was a few yards away, staring up at them; there was no blood, nothing. Chloe stepped forward and looked at the top of the neck and frowned. "Huh." She dropped the sword and Oliver pulled himself up to look.
"A robot?" He said confused. There were no muscles or arteries or bones, just wires and circuitry. Suddenly realization dawned on him. He pulled out his phone and called Victor. "Victor." Oliver screamed into the phone. "They're robots."
"Robots?" Victor asked confused.
"I remember now, what he was caught stealing, prototypes for our new Robotic security division, a project for the government that was scrapped a few years ago."
"The guy steals twenty some robots from you and you don't remember?" Victor asked.
"It was like seven years ago, that's not the issue, the issue is why we shut down the project, because we couldn't work out the right programming." Oliver sighed. "We couldn't get a set fix on mission parameters; they did whatever it took to get the job done." He looked around. "Whatever it took."
"So if their job was to stop you from getting married…" Victor said.
"They'd do it however they could." Oliver responded.
"This is not good." Chloe said as screams emanated from the church.
1:05:23 p.m. (-00:05:23 since Wedding should have started)
Lois heard the people in the chapel screaming and ran out see what was going on. "Stay here." She told everyone else. She stopped dead in her tracks, there were about fifteen waiters standing around the room with guns pointed in the air.
"There will not be a wedding today, please vacate the premises." They all said in unison.
"Creepy." She whispered to herself. When no one moved they all shot their guns into the air.
"That was your only warning." They all droned. "There will be no wedding today, please vacate the premises." The crowd didn't have to be asked twice. Lois barely had time to move out of the way as a swarm of people ran en mass from the church.
It took less than five minutes for them all to leave and Lois was left standing there with fifteen guns pointed at her. "You have been warned." They all said and moved forward. Lois ran to the nearest one and kicked him as hard as she could, but she crumpled to the floor, her ankle throbbing in pain.
"What the hell are you made of?" She asked from the ground as they advanced on her. The guns were all cocked in unison and she braced herself for the inevitable when she heard the familiar screeching of Rex. She turned to see him standing in the doorway. "Rex get out of here." She called to him and he smiled at her before waving his hand in the air. All fifteen soldiers were lifted off the ground and tossed against the wall. "Holy monkey." Lois said staring at him as he clapped and jumped up and down the walked over to her, and climbed in her lap.
Chloe ran back to the church with the guys hot on her heels as soon as they heard the gun shots. Abby, Lily and Rose were the last ones out. "Are you guys ok?"
"Yeah." Rose said as Bart led her to a safe place to sit down. "We heard gun shots and we ran." She was holding her stomach protectively.
"Get them to safety." She said to Kara who nodded.
"Lois went in there." Abby called out. "When she heard the screams. She hasn't come out yet."
Chloe lifted her skirt again and ran to the building, Oliver right behind her and the others not too far behind. When they got in the chapel, Lois was huddled against the back wall. The waiter robots had gotten back up and were again advancing on her. Clark took down the two closest with his head vision and they turned their attention to him. "Get her out of here." Clark said, using the bulk of his strength now that he knew they weren't people, they were robots and he wasn't going to hurt them.
"Victor says he thinks he can shut them down from Dennis' computer." Oliver screamed as he picked up a chair and smashed it into an approaching robot.
"Well tell him to hurry." Clark said as three jumped on him, dragging him to the ground.
1:12:38 p.m. (-00:12:38 since Wedding should have started)
Chloe and Oliver sat on the steps of the church, side by side. Clark was examining Lois for the twentieth time, making sure she was ok, while everyone else just lounged around. All the guests were gone, hightailed it out of there during the fight and Abby and Lily had taken Rose back to the hotel where she'd be safer. There were twenty or so non functioning robots lying around the ground and inside of the chapel. Victor had managed to remotely shut them down and he was just now walking up to the chapel. "Man do you guys know how to party or what?" He smiled sadly.
"I told you this wedding was cursed." Chloe said leaning her head into Oliver's shoulder.
"I can't believe some guy went to all this trouble to stop you from getting married." Bart said shaking his head. "That's a little crazy right?" They all turned to him confused. "I mean if I were gonna try and stop the wedding I'd just…I don't know fake an illness or something, then Chloe would be so worried about me, she wouldn't possibly be able to go through with the ceremony until she knew I was ok."
"Put some thought into that did you?" Oliver smirked and Bart blushed.
"Well, it wasn't all him, I mean some of the things that happened today, he had no control over, maybe we really are just cursed." Chloe shrugged.
"What things?" Oliver asked.
"Oh, the cake almost got destroyed, Bruce lost the rings," Oliver turned to Bruce.
"I found them." He protested.
"My hair." Chloe pointed to it.
"I wasn't going to say anything." Oliver smiled at her.
"Did I miss anything?" Chloe asked.
"Melanie Parker's little girl flushed all the rice down the toilet and clogged up all the plumbing because her brother told her that if birds eat rice they explode." Kara sighed.
"Clark totaled you're car with a robot." AC smiled.
"Accidently." Clark said wincing as he and Lois walked up.
"Is that it?" Chloe joked.
"Rex ate all the bouquets." Lois said sitting on the steps next to Chloe.
"Who's Rex?" Oliver asked confused.
"He was right…" Lois turned around. "Come on, the bad guys are gone, you're safe."
Oliver looked at Lois as a small Chimpanzee walked around, saw Chloe, split out in a grin and ran over to climb in her lap. "It's ok little man." Chloe said hugging him as he latched onto her arm with one hand, his other squeezing the stuffed bear.
"Is that a…I knew I saw a…did you always have a monkey?" Oliver asked confused.
"Chimpanzee." Everyone corrected him and he seemed taken back for a second.
"No, he was a wedding present." Chloe said. "From AC."
Oliver looked at AC. "Wait a minute; I didn't get him for her." He held up his hands. "I liberated him from a testing lab, she wasn't even supposed to know about him."
"But I do." Chloe smiled. "And I want to keep him." She tried to use her best sad voice but Oliver shook his head.
"You can't just keep a stolen Chimp." Oliver said. "No way."
"But, they experimented on him, it's not like we can give him back." Chloe pointed out.
"I'm not saying that, I'm saying we find another place for him, a better place."
"I don't really think that's gonna be possible." Lois sighed. "I was the first one trying to tell her earlier that she couldn't keep him, but new information has come to light."
"What does that mean?" Oliver asked confused.
Lois got up and walked over to Rex. "Can I see the bear?" Rex wouldn't let go of the bear so Lois yanked it away from him. "Just watch." She walked a few feet and then wiggled the bear in the air. "You want him back?" Lois asked. "Better take him."
Chloe watched confused as Rex held out his hand then made a quick waving motion and the bear flew from Lois to Rex. He smiled and settled it back into his arms as he looked up at Chloe. "Did he just…" Oliver asked.
"You sure they were testing cosmetics at that place?" Bart asked.
"I thought that's all they were testing." AC said.
"We can check it out later." Oliver sighed, too tired to think about it, too tired to argue. "I guess we have to keep him now don't we? We can't exactly send a monkey with meteor powers to the Star City Zoo."
"Oh thank you." Chloe hugged him. "I promise I'll take care of him."
"So." Oliver looked down. "You got a name kid?"
Rex screeched and Oliver winced. "Rex." Chloe said.
"Rex huh?" Oliver sighed. "Welcome to the family." Rex screeched again and jumped out of Chloe's lap and into Oliver's. "What is he doing?" Oliver asked a little scared.
"He's just saying thank you." Chloe laughed as Rex climbed up Oliver's chest and planted a big wet sloppy kiss on his cheek.
"Boy, you better make one hell of a wife." Oliver said as he wiped the slobber from his face.
Everyone sobered up for a second, the reminder that Chloe had not gotten married like she woke up that morning to do suddenly crashed back down on them. "When do you think…" Lois let it hang in the air.
"I don't want to think about that right now." Chloe groaned. "I'm a little weddinged out." She sighed.
"It's ok, no rush." Oliver said kissing her forehead. "Besides, I think we've got enough on our plate right now." He looked down at Rex and then back up at Chloe.
"Can we go away for a while?" She asked. "Maybe to England? To Edwards. A few weeks of just nothing but hanging out?"
"I think that can be arranged." Oliver assured her. "You want to go to England?" He asked Rex who nodded and jumped up and down excitedly. "Do you think he has any idea what I'm talking about?"
"Probably not." AC smiled.
"Can we go home now?" Chloe asked yawning.
"Yeah we can go home now." Oliver said moving Rex so he was on one side of his hip and pulled Chloe up off the steps and leaning her against the other side. "Sorry you didn't get your dream wedding." He whispered in her ear.
"Sorry you didn't get any wedding." Chloe smiled sadly up at him.
"It's ok, it'll happen." Oliver assured her.
A/N: Ok, I'm evil, I promised you a wedding this chapter and I have every intention of doing that but then the storytook on a life of it's own and I promise there will be a wedding, I swear, next chapter. Don't give up on me now, we've come so far.