Impossible was not a word in Oliver Queen's vocabulary. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he'd even used it. Improbable yes, unlikely, absolutely but with all the things he'd seen, all the things he'd done, he'd long since learned that nothing was impossible. How could it be? He was the leader of a multi dimensional, interplanetary group of superheroes. His best friends were either aliens from another planet or super powered warriors, or you know Lois Lane. His wife regularly healed life threatening wounds, brought people back from the dead, died and came back to life herself. So impossible just wasn't a word he threw around all willy nilly.
The problem was it was the only word he could even think of as he stared at the scene in front of him when he emerged from the woods behind his house. There just wasn't another word in the English language, well in any language for that matter the would come close to describing what he was seeing. He slunk back into the trees and pulled out his phone. Maybe he was hallucinating, that would make more sense. He dialed a number without looking and hoped that Chloe would answer quickly.
"Hello?" He heard after three rings. She was a little out of breath and Oliver paused.
"You ok?" He asked.
"Fine." Chloe said. "Just had to run from the other room to get the phone." She took a deep breath. "What's up? Boston get lonely?"
"Yes." Oliver smiled, just hearing her voice made him feel better. "But I'm not in Boston anymore. I cut my trip short to surprise you."
"Oh baby, that's so sweet." Chloe said. "Hold on." He heard her moving around, muffled noses and then she was back. "But I'm not home, I had to stay overnight in the city. Election results are still coming in and we have to have them ready for the morning edition."
Oliver sighed. He knew, even before they got married, as much as she loved her new life, loved her job and her company that something was still missing, something that she would never admit to. Chloe Sullivan was and forever would be a reporter. She loved newspapers, she loved investigating, she loved writing, and she loved rushing things to the printer to meet deadlines. There were times when he was sure she'd never be as happy as she was those few months she spent working at the Gazette. So for their first anniversary Oliver decided to rectify that problem.
"Oliver, the blindfold is a little kinky I'll give you that." Chloe said as she held onto his arm for dear life. "But I've had it on for like thirty minutes now and I have no clue where I am."
"That's the whole point." He smiled positioning her where he wanted her. "Ok, you can take it off now." Chloe slowly untied the black scarf and looked around the room confused.
"Why are we at the Star City Daily News?" Chloe asked slowly.
"Happy Anniversary." He smiled, his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah." Chloe looked around. "Still confused."
Oliver put his hands on either side of her shoulders and spun her around. She was now staring at a door and slowly things started to come together. The golden letters etched on the glass of the door helped a little, Editor, Chloe Sullivan. She turned back to Oliver. "You bought me the paper?" He just nodded as she turned back to the office. "I don't…"
"Well that's the traditional first anniversary gift right? Paper?" He asked.
"Yes, but traditionally, people give books or gift certificates, or even plane tickets, but you took it a little too literally." She pointed out.
"I can afford to take things literally." Oliver shrugged.
"You do know I own hundreds of newspapers already?" She pointed out to him.
"No." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. "Your company owns hundreds of newspapers." He said. "This one is yours, all yours."
"Oliver, this is…great, the sweetest most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me but…how am I going to run a paper? With everything else I have to do?" She asked a little upset.
"I've thought of that too." He smiled. "Let Elizabeth run it." Chloe tilted her head at him in confusion. "Come on, think about it. You said yourself, she loved working at the Gazette and she's far over qualified to still be your assistant, you just haven't found a job you think she'd like better yet."
"But…" Chloe tried to protest.
"No buts." Oliver shook his head. "Let her run the day to day and you just do whatever you have time to do. This is who you are Chloe and I asked you to give up a lot for me, I just want to give something back."
"How did I get so lucky?" She asked, giving in, because honestly in the end, where Oliver was concerne,d that was really the only thing she could do.
"I don't know." Oliver shrugged. "Must have racked up some good karma in a past life."
Eighteen years later and the Star City Daily News was ranked up with the New York Times not only in circulation but also credibility. Elizabeth ran a tight ship, years of learning under the best in the business, but Chloe still helped out from time to time, not that Elizabeth needed her to, but that Chloe needed to. Other rich women went to the spa or even Greece to unwind and relax, Chloe went to the paper.
"Oh I was afraid you'd say you weren't home." Oliver groaned.
"Why? What's wrong?" Chloe asked, her voice suddenly serious.
"Oh, nothing much, just the fact that I came home to surprise my wife and when I get through the woods and into the backyard…"
"Why did you sneak through the back?" Chloe asked interrupting him.
"I was trying to surprise you ok." Oliver cringed. He hated lying to Chloe; in fact he rarely lied to Chloe, until the past couple of months that is.
He looked down and realized he was still in his Green Arrow gear. The original plan that evening had been to sneak into the garage and grab a change of clothes he had hidden in the tool shed and then surprise Chloe. A few months earlier after Chloe had to heal a particularly painful knife wound, which would have killed Oliver, but only put Chloe out of commission for a day or two, they'd had the talk. They agreed that they weren't as young as they used to be and for the sake of the kids they would refrain from super hero work unless absolutely necessary and only when the team was there to back them up.
For the first few weeks, it was great, refreshing even. Oliver drove into town and did his job, ate lunch with his wife, checked in with the team and as long as he didn't have any major deals going, or an alien race wasn't threatening to destroy the planet, he drove back home, ate dinner with his family and then fell into a peaceful and comfortable sleep with his beautiful wife.
Then it got…he didn't want to say boring, life with Chloe was far from boring, but he'd been that guy for 26 years, that guy that ran into danger to help, no matter what and it was hard to give it up. He hadn't meant to do it the first time. It was habit. He was staying over night in the city, he'd stayed so late at work it was hardly worth it to drive home. He was in the penthouse, relaxing on the balcony when he heard a scream and before he even realized what had happened he was out on the street in his Green Arrow gear stopping a mugger. And he loved it.
He didn't do it all the time, only if he was in the city. He wasn't sneaking out of the house at all hours and sneaking back in but he was still lying to Chloe and he was getting a little tired of it all. "Look." He shook his head, getting back to the situation at hand. "That's not the point. The point is what I found."
"What?" Chloe asked.
"The deck…it's destroyed. The yard is beyond repair and the house, oh god, I haven't worked up the courage to look inside yet, I'm afraid of what I'll find."
"Oh God, were we attacked?" Chloe gasped. "Are the kids ok?"
"It's nothing like that." Oliver tried to sooth her. "It's worse – much worse." He looked back up at the destruction and shuddered.
The fist connected with Chloe's mouth, she was too distracted by the ringing of her phone. She held out her hands to keep her from face planting on the sidewalk and pulled herself up. "Just a second." She said to her attacker as she kicked him in the stomach. "I've got a call." She pulled her phone out of one of the many, many pockets Oliver had put into her Watchtower uniform and answered. "Hello?"
"You ok?" Oliver asked.
"Fine." Chloe realized she was breathing heavily. "Just had to run from the other room to get the phone." She took a deep breath. "What's up? Boston get lonely?"
"Yes." Oliver said. "But I'm not in Boston anymore. I cut my trip short to surprise you."
"Oh baby, that's so sweet." Chloe said as she noticed the attacker getting back up. "Hold on." She put the phone in her pocket, grabbed a broken board that was sticking out of the dumpster and smacked him in the head with it. "Just stay there for a minute – regroup." She advised him before dropping the board and pulling her phone back out and turning her attention back to Oliver. "But I'm not home, I had to stay overnight in the city. Election results are still coming in and we have to have them ready for the morning edition."
"Oh I was afraid you'd say you weren't home." Oliver groaned.
"Why? What's wrong?" Chloe straightened up.
"Oh, nothing much, just the fact that I came home to surprise my wife and when I get through the woods and into the backyard…"
"Why did you sneak through the back?" Chloe asked interrupting him.
"I was trying to surprise you ok." Oliver said in a voice that Chloe had come to learn was his, "I'm not lying but I'm not telling you the whole truth voice"
"Look." He said before Chloe could question him further. "That's not the point. The point is what I found."
"What?" Chloe asked.
"The deck…it's destroyed. The yard is beyond repair and the house, oh god, I haven't worked up the courage to look inside yet, I'm afraid of what I'll find."
"Oh God, were we attacked?" Chloe gasped. "Are the kids ok?"
"It's nothing like that." Oliver tried to sooth her. "It's worse – much worse."
"Worse." Chloe said leaning against the side of the building as her voice rose in octaves. "What could be worse?"
"They…there's a….I can't even say it." Oliver sighed.
"You're a grown man honey." Chloe said trying to be calm. "Just spit it out."
"The kids are having a party." He finally spit out.
Chloe stood up straight and froze. The words Oliver had said weren't fully processing in her mind. That was impossible, her kids didn't do stuff like that. They didn't throw unauthorized parties when their parents were out of town. Her kids were respectful, they followed the rules, and they listened to their parents. She was so absorbed in her personal thoughts she didn't see her attacker run at her from behind. She fell to the ground but recovered quick enough to flip him over her and jump up. "Chloe?" Oliver asked.
"Sorry." She said bringing herself back to the present. "That's impossible."
"I know, right?" Oliver practically squealed.
She dodged a punch and sighed. "Honey, just let me finish this up and I'll be there in five minutes." She hung up the phone and grabbed a rope out of the dumpster. "Ok, I've got somewhere I need to be." She punched him. "So we'll have to cut this short." She tied him to the fire escape ladder before giving an anonymous call to the Star City PD.
She wasn't going to come out tonight. She'd promised Oliver but she'd been in town, the election results were trickling in slower than molasses and she was getting restless so she went to the penthouse, geared up and headed out to the streets. She heard the sirens and grabbed the communicator on her wrist, the same one Oliver had give her all those years ago, only with many many improvements, some Oliver didn't even know about. She guessed now was a good a time as any to show him. She typed in something rapidly and took a deep breath.
The man tied to the fire escape nearly wet himself as Chloe slowly disappeared into thin air.
"Five minutes?" Oliver was pacing back and forth in the shadow of the woods. "It takes thirty minutes to get from the city to the house, how can she be here in…"
"Holy Shit." Chloe's voice said from behind him and he turned around to see her materializing slowly right before his eyes.
"How did you…" He asked as she solidified then they both froze, staring at each other.
"What are you wearing?" They asked in unison.
"Never mind that." Oliver shook his head. "How did you get here?"
"Little upgrade from the lab." Chloe wiggled the communicator on her wrist.
"You made a personal teleportation system." Oliver asked. "And didn't tell me?"
"It's still in the testing stages." Chloe shrugged.
"You used an untested personal teleportation system without telling me?" His voice was rising and Chloe sighed.
"Yell at me later, explain now." She pointed to the house.
The music was so loud, if they'd had any neighbors close enough the cops surely would have been called. The deck was littered with trash and mud and…"Are those beer cans?" Chloe asked astonished as she reached blindly to Oliver's Green Arrow suit and pulled out a pair of binoculars from his belt. "Those are." She said looking closer. "Those are beer cans." She put the binoculars down. "Beer Oliver."
"I know, I saw them." He took a deep breath.
"I've been praying." Chloe sighed. "Praying that she would grow out of this. That these minor rebellions were just a phase she was going through." Chloe started pacing.
"Wait." Oliver shook his head. "You can't think this was Dee's idea?"
"Oh of course not." Chloe said practically hyperventilating. "Delilah can't do anything wrong." Chloe threw up her hands. "Daddy's little girl, she has you wrapped around her little finger. So I suppose you think it's all Jason's doing?"
"This is his MO." Oliver pointed out.
"His MO?" Chloe laughed. "He's not a criminal Mastermind."
"Wait." Oliver sighed. "We aren't mad at each other." Chloe took a deep breath and relaxed. "We're mad at them."
Chloe looked back up at the house and nodded. They needed to be united in their anger, not divided. She stared at the scene that she'd been dreading ever since the stick turned blue seventeen years ago.
"Oh God." Chloe said her hand shaking so badly the pregnancy test fell in the toilet. "Oh God." She said reaching her hand in the bowl and pulling it out. "Oh God." She said again.
"Hey." Oliver called out from the front door. "We're back."
"Oh God." Chloe took a deep breath and stuffed the test in between two of the folded towels on the bathroom counter before washing her hands. "Just a second." She called out in relief. Her voice didn't sound nearly as panicked as she thought it would. She dried her hand and headed to the door before turning around, digging the test out to look again, still blue. "Oh God." She said stuffing it in her pocket and taking a deep breath before walking into the living room.
"Hey." She put on a smile that she knew was too big but she couldn't help it. "How'd it go?" She asked Oliver as the guys started to stuff themselves on the buffet she'd spent all day making, basically to take her mind off of the fifteen other pregnancy tests that were in the dumpster down stairs, all of which were blue.
"Fine." Oliver smiled. "No problem."
"Good." Chloe said moving away from him before he asked why she looked like a deranged clown.
"You should have been there Chlo." Bart said his mouth full of food. "It was awesome. AC ended up fighting this dude…"
"We don't have to tell this story." AC said. "Chloe doesn't want to hear it."
"You mean you don't want Chloe to repeat it to Kara." Victor pointed out.
"Shut up." AC punched him in the arm and then drew back, shaking his fist, he'd hit the metal one.
"Anyway. So he's losing bad, I mean getting the complete and total shit beat out of him."
"Are you ok?" Chloe gasped walking over to see his split lip and bruised eyes.
"Geez mom I'm fine." AC pulled away and Chloe froze. How did he know, no, he couldn't know, he was just teasing her?
"Sorry." Chloe said turning to the kitchen to do something to keep her hands busy. A pie, she'd make a pie, she hadn't yet perfected Martha's apple pie recipe, a sacred wedding gift from the senator that Lois hasn't even gotten yet because she was still being too stubborn to marry Clark. Hell Chloe would have married Clark for the recipe. She'd been working on it for a year and a half but it still didn't come out right. "Oh God." She mumbled under her breath and she pulled out the flour and the shortening. How was she going to be a good mom, she couldn't even bake an apple pie.
"So anyway." Bart said again. "Trying to regain some sort of pride, AC lures the guy to the lake outside the property…."
Chloe tuned Bart out, she couldn't think about that right now, she had to get this pie right. She continued mixing ingredients together and suddenly Bart, Victor, and Oliver were laughing. "I'm talking totally naked."
Chloe forced a laugh out, but no one noticed. The guys told more stories, stuffed themselves full and slowly drifted to their own homes. "I'm exhausted." Oliver said as Chloe stared at the oven. "I'm gonna shower and then go to bed, you coming."
"I've got the pie in the oven." She smiled. "I'll be there in a little while."
"Ok." He kissed her softly and then went into the bedroom. She waited impatiently for the pie to bake, waited even more impatiently for it to cool and then cut a slice and took a deep breath before trying it. It was good, but it wasn't great. She could feel the tears threatening to fall but stopped herself. She grabbed her purse and headed for the elevator. The store down the street was still open and she had a pie to bake.
Oliver woke up the next morning and Chloe's side of the bed was still empty not slept in. He got up slowly and walked out to the kitchen and froze. She was standing at the counter top, covered in flour and God knows what else surrounded by pies. "Chloe?" He asked cautiously.
"I think I've got it." She looked up smiling at him. "The nutmeg, how could I be so stupid, it has to be grated fresh, I know it's only a quarter teaspoon but fresh makes all the difference. The farmers market didn't have any but Whole Foods should be open by now…"
"Chloe what's going on?" Oliver stepped cautiously in the room.
"It's ok, I've almost got it." She ignored him and went back to her pie crust. He snuck out of the room and called the guys, something was seriously wrong.
By the time Bart and the other's got there she'd taken another pie out of the oven and declared it inedible and dumped it in the trash. "I've died and gone to heaven." Bart said staring at the countertop and table full of pies.
"Bart." Chloe's face brightened into a smile. "Thank God. I need more apples and fresh nutmeg, not the stuff in the spice isle, that's not fresh, in the produce section, go hurry."
Bart looked at Oliver confused. "Chloe, ok, this is a little crazy here, what's going on?"
"I have to get the pie right, I think it's the nutmeg, it has to be the nutmeg." She said desperately to Oliver.
"Ok, why is it so important that you get this pie right, now?" He walked over to her.
"How can I expect to be a good mother if I can't even bake a pie?" Her voice was wavering now.
"A good mother?" Oliver froze in his tracks.
She dug in her pocket and pulled out what looked like a white stick. "It's blue. They're all blue. I don't think it's a false positive, I mean I've checked the odds and 17 test all being wrong just doesn't compute, I took another one this morning. I just need more time…a few more months to get this pie right and it'll all be ok." Chloe smiled. She'd come to the conclusion at about four in the morning that her success as a mother depended on her apple pie skills.
"You're…pregnant?" Oliver said in a whisper.
"Yeah." Chloe brushed him off. "But it takes nine months right, some books even say it's really ten so I think that's enough time to get the recipe."
"Pregnant?" Bart asked dropping the spoon he'd dug into one of the pies. "You?"
"I…" Chloe looked around at the faces. Confused, excited, happy. She turned to Oliver who was portraying such a range of emotion on his face she couldn't get a read on him. "Oh God." She sighed. "That's not how you tell someone you're pregnant. I ruined everything, I can't make the stupid pie, I can't even tell someone I'm pregnant."
"You're sure?" Oliver's face broke out into a grin.
"Seventeen tests can't be wrong." She laughed uneasily. "Can they?"
"No." Oliver smiled and reached her in two steps, scooping her up in his arms. "I'm gonna be a father, I'm going to…" He stopped. "Oh God." He let Chloe down and started to hyperventilate. "I'm going to be a father…" He said. "Oh God."
"Is that normal?" Victor asked.
"I did that yesterday." Chloe smiled.
"Nine months?" He looked around. "Nine months isn't nearly enough time."
"They say it's really ten months." Chloe added.
"Still, we have to baby proof, I have a room full of arrows for God's sake." He jumped up. "We need a crib and changing table and diapers…how the hell do you change a diaper."
"Ok." Chloe said, wondering when she became the voice of reason, seeing as two seconds ago she was a little off her rocker mumbling about pies. "Calm down." She sat him in a chair. "Breathe." He nodded and took deep breaths. "We can do this." She told him. "We fight evil meteor enhanced villains, we've taken down Lex Luther, we managed to get married, we can do this."
"We can?" Oliver asked.
"Of course we can." Chloe scoffed. "Besides, they say it takes a village right?" She looked at the guys who still seemed to be in shock. "I think we've got that part covered."
"We can do this." Oliver nodded.
"Together." Chloe told him.
"Right." He looked at her and then pulled her closer, his face level with her stomach that had yet to show signs of her pregnancy. "Hey there." He said putting his hand on it. "We're going to try really hard not to screw you up ok." Chloe laughed and slapped him in the head. He kissed her stomach then pulled her into his lap. "Oh God, we're gonna be parents."
Bart resumed eating his pie and Chloe slapped his hand. "Get a plate." She told him.
"Yeah." Victor finally spoke up. "Like that's going to be any different than what you do now. Between Rex and Bart, I think you're going to make a great mom. You've had more than enough practice."
Chloe smiled and Oliver laughed as Bart grabbed a plate from the counter sulking.
"Ok." Chloe said. "This is impossible. My apple pie is freaking awesome."
Oliver shook his head in confusion. "What?" She started to explain. "Never mind, what are we going to do?"
"It's just a party right?" Chloe said calming down a little. "I mean they're teenagers, teenagers sneak around they throw parties, they…drink." She swallowed. "We can't over react, they've never done anything like this before, we just have to…" Chloe flinched when she heard something shattering and looked up to see colored glass fall to the deck, followed by a football. "Was that the antique stained glass window?" She gasped.
"Yes." Oliver said in astonishment.
"The one with your family crest on it? The one that I found when we remodeled. The one that took forever to clean up and fix and install?"
"Yes." Oliver nodded.
"They are so worse than grounded." Chloe was fuming now. "They are like grounded to the tenth power. This is military school territory."
"You just said to be calm." Oliver looked at her confused.
"I need you to back me up here." Chloe told him. "I'm talking we go in with full names blazing." Chloe was pacing again.
"Just wait." Oliver held up his hands.
"No, don't do this, don't wuss out again and make me the bad guy." Chloe pleaded with him.
"That was one time." Oliver groaned. "Are you ever going to let me live that down? I don't want to let them off the hook. I was just thinking we'd go about this a little differently." He looked down at his Green Arrow clothes and then at Chloe in her Watchtower clothes.
"I'm listening." Chloe said smiling as she turned back to look at the pile of glass on the porch. She loved that window.
"Chloe!" Oliver called out to her taking the steps two at a time. "You up here?"
"In the attic." Chloe shouted and heard the door open behind her.
"Daddy." Delilah screamed with glee from her playpen.
"Hey pumpkin." Oliver said bending down to pick up her up. "What are my two favorite girls doing up here?" He kissed Chloe on the cheek. Rex screeched from the corner where he was climbing up the beams. "And Rex." Oliver rolled his eyes.
"Just going through this stuff." She smiled at him. "When was the last time you looked at any of these?"
Oliver dropped himself to the ground and looked into the chest Chloe had open. "I don't know." He said. "I packed all this stuff up after my parents died. I hadn't even set foot in here until a few weeks ago." He grabbed a folder from the top and opened it up. "Huh." He smiled. "My papers from elementary school." He said flipping through them. "I can't believe they kept this stuff."
"They kept a lot of stuff." Chloe groaned standing up and moving over to another chest.
"Hey." Oliver said as she struggled to sit down. He set Delilah on the ground and rushed to help Chloe.
"I can do it." She tried to wave him off.
"You're eight months pregnant; you shouldn't even be up here, all this dust." He scolded her.
"Look if we want the house to be ready for when the baby comes, we've got a lot to do. I found some of the original molding earlier, the contractor said it would be enough to finish the kitchen and the baby's room." She smiled. "I'm just digging for more buried treasure."
Oliver turned his head to see Delilah trying to climb into the chest Chloe had opened and was about to grab her when Rex dropped down and pulled her away. "Not everything has to be ready for the baby."
"Look, I love this house." Chloe told him. "I really do, I think it's a great idea, but there are things that I want to get done and if we don't do them now, after the baby gets here, and then having two kids…it'll never get done." She told him.
Oliver sighed. It had seemed like the perfect plan, Chloe was going crazy cooped up in the penthouse the past couple of months of the pregnancy and they were running out of room anyway, with Delilah, Rex and the new baby on the way there was no way they could live there much longer, and Chloe started talking about schools, and even though she was a city girl at heart, she wasn't sure if she wanted to raise her kids in a penthouse.
Then he remembered his childhood home. It was on the outskirts of Star City, not the suburbs, but not the city either. They lot was pretty private, the closest neighbors a mile and half away and he loved growing up in that house. It had been sitting there vacant since his parents died. So he set everything up. The house was in pretty bad shape and he kicked himself for not keeping better care of it. But he managed to at least get the dust cleared away and the furniture uncovered before showing it to Chloe. He remembered being nervous as she took a walk around the place without saying a word, twice before lowering herself to the sofa and smiling at Oliver.
"I love it." She said beaming. "The kitchen has got to go and there are a few minor repairs here and there, and the outside could use a fresh coat of paint, probably a new roof but…" She looked around. "When can we move?"
Oliver breathed a sigh of relief then but he was kicking himself now. Minor repairs turned into major renovations, floor joist had rotted, the electrical was shot and it was taking Chloe forever to choose anything in the kitchen, the least of which being the layout she wanted. She may have gone crazy with Delilah, baking so many apple pies that Oliver had outlawed them a year ago until such time he could look at an apple without the urge to puke, but with this baby, she was going crazy over the house. She wanted everything to be perfect not only for the baby but for Oliver too. She was trying to make sure that everything was as authentic and original as she could make it, except the kitchen which would be the most high-tech room in the house and the secret room behind the library that would house all of their JLA stuff.
"Oh God." Chloe said and Oliver tore his gaze from Delilah and Rex, Delilah was trying to teach Rex to play patty cake.
"What?" Oliver rushed to Chloe's side She'd gotten up and was looking through a bunch of old frames that were stacked up against the wall. "Was it a contraction? Did you're water break?"
"Relax." She laughed and pulled away a few pieces of art before revealing her discovery. It was octagonal in shape, about three feet tall and three feet wide and it was beautiful.
"I remember this." Oliver said running his hands along the top edge of the frame. "Mom had this made for dad." He stared down at the delicately hand crafted stained glass window with his family crest on it. There were a few panes that were cracked and some that were missing but it was still amazing.
Chloe tried to pull it out and Oliver grabbed it from her. "I want to put this up." Chloe said looking over it. "We can get it repaired, cleaned up." She looked at him.
"Sure." Oliver said. "We can hang it in the study…"
"No." Chloe shook her head. "It's a window." She told him. "I want it to be a window."
He smiled at her and nodded. It took a while to clean it up and then it took even longer for Chloe to figure out where she wanted it, but she finally decided to put it high in the back wall of the living room. "No one can see it there." Oliver told her after it had been put up. "It's at the back of the house."
"Watch." Chloe told him. They were standing in the finished house, no more repairs, no more renovations, they were moved in and everything was ready for the baby. Oliver was standing in the living room behind Chloe, his hand on her stomach as they watched the sunset through the bay windows. "Wait for it." She whispered.
Suddenly Oliver couldn't see, there was a blinding light and then he was fine. "Look." Chloe turned him around and he saw. The way the sun was hitting the widow cast a rainbow of colors over the entire room and shown a perfect replica of the window design right at the threshold of the front door.
"Prefect." Oliver smiled at her.
Chloe couldn't believe she'd let Oliver talk her into this. She was climbing up the side of her own house, Oliver a few feet under her, as she made her way to the attic window. "This is ridiculous." She said to him.
"You liked the plan ten minutes ago." Oliver pointed out.
"That was before I realized how long it had been since I scaled a wall." She shouted in a whisper at him.
"Please, you're in better shape than when I met you." Oliver called out to her.
She rolled her eyes and continued on her climb. She got to the window and pulled it open just enough to slip through and then once she got her footing, she opened it more and let Oliver in. They heard another crash from the living room and Chloe cringed as Oliver pulled his hood up and slipped his sunglasses on. He turned on the voice distorter and smiled at her. "Let's do it."
Chloe pulled her hood up and smiled back, she had to admit, this was fun. "Right behind you."
They made their way to the landing of the stairs with no one noticing them and Oliver reached behind him quietly pulling an arrow out. "Don't hit the armoire." She cringed. "Or any other furniture, or the molding." He turned to her and glared. "Which Arrow is that?"
"Siren." Oliver said. Chloe nodded and went to plug her ears. "Can I hit the wall?" He asked. Chloe considered for a minute and nodded, drywall she could patch. Oliver pulled back and released the arrow, it soared down the steps and through the living room, not hitting any party goers before landing in the wall. He still had the touch. He quickly brought his hands up to plug his ears as the Arrow released a high intense burst of sound effectively stopping the party in its tracks.
They saw Delilah and Jason run into the room, look at the arrow in the wall and then follow its path up to the top of the stairs. "I'm pretty sure this isn't what you're parent's expected up to find when they asked us to check in on you." Oliver said.
"Holy shit, it's Green Arrow and Watchtower." Someone said stating the obvious. It was common knowledge that the Queens had some sort of relationship with Green Arrow and Watchtower, Chloe was the only newspaper reporter in the world ever to get an exclusive interview with either of them, not that the other papers never tried. So it was no surprise that they would have been asked to check in on the Queen children.
"Do you guys have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Chloe asked her hand on her hips. She stopped and stared at Delilah. "What are you wearing young lady?"
Delilah tried to pull at her skirt to lower it a little as Jason seemed to be digesting just how much trouble they were really in. "Oh crap." He said.
"Yeah." Oliver nodded. "I'm going to give everyone thirty seconds to get out of here." He pulled another Arrow from behind his back and loaded it in the bow. "One, two,…" People started heading for the doors en mass as Chloe made her way down the stairs.
"Delilah Laura Queen." She was saying. "Do you have any idea…where is Rex? Where is Isabel?"
"Chill, they're fine." Delilah said. "They're in the kitchen."
Chloe turned around and froze and then stormed into the kitchen. There were five high school aged guys sitting around Chloe's kitchen table, a few girls standing behind them but everyone's attention was on the ten year old girl sitting next to the Chimp. "What do you say?" Isabel was asking. There were two playing cards on the table in front of her and a stack of poker chips. The guy across the table looked back down at his cards and then back up at her, determination and…was that fear in his eyes.
"All in." He said.
Chloe could have sworn she saw her daughter smile but if she did it was gone in an instant and she shrugged as the guy pushed all his chips into the middle of the table. "I'll call." Isabel said calmly counting out her chips and setting them in the pot. "What you got?"
He flipped his cards over and smiled, high fiving his buddies, he had two Jacks. "Full house." He said. "Aces and Jacks." Chloe looked at the five cards lying face up on the table and sighed. Two aces, a Jack, a Ten of Spades, and a seven of Harts.
"Well." Isabel sighed. "I only had two pair." She flipped her cards over and then cracked a smile. "Of Aces." She said as she high fived Rex and then reached for the pot as the guy groaned.
"Dude, you got schooled by a ten year old and her pet monkey."
"He's a chimpanzee." Chloe and Isabel said at the same time.
"Oh crap." Isabel turned around slowly and tried to portray cute and innocent with her smile.
"I'm gonna need to see some ID's boys." Chloe put her hands on her hips and looked at the beers in their hands. "Or we can forget this whole unfortunate incident and you can run along with your other friends." They looked into the living room and saw people scrambling to get out of the house.
"Dude." One of the guys said and slapped his friend. "Let's go."
"But my money." He reached for the pile of money sitting on the edge of the table.
Chloe was by his side in an instant. She grabbed his hand and pulled it behind his back. "The girl beat you fair and square, don't be a douche bag." She released him and shoved him toward the door as Isabel smiled. "You, living room." Isabel's smile faded and she hopped down from her chair and hung her head. "You too." Chloe signed to Rex. "Living room." Rex hopped down from his chair and grabbed Isabel's hand as they shuffled into the living room with their heads down in shame.
When the three of them made it in there Oliver already had Delilah and Jason on the couch looking ashamed. Isabel pulled herself up and Delilah grabbed Rex, who couldn't climb as well as he used to, and put him in between her and Isabel. "What were they doing in the kitchen?" Oliver asked confused.
"Gambling." Chloe said. "And possibly hustling." She looked at her youngest child.
"She wasn't hustling anyone. She was just counting cards." Delilah said speaking up. "Way to over react mom."
Chloe froze and turned to Delilah. "Honestly dad, do you have any idea what my friends are going to say tomorrow at school?"
Oliver turned to Chloe who seemed just as shocked. They'd never told their kids about their double life as Watchtower and Green Arrow. "You guys know…"
"Who you really are?" Delilah asked and rolled her eyes. "Duh."
"I thought you guys promised each other you weren't going to do that anymore." Jason pointed to their outfits.
"Yeah after dad got stabbed that last time." Isabel said jumping in the conversation.
"How do you guys know all this stuff?" Chloe asked astonished.
"There is an acoustical anomaly inherent in the architecture of the house, the sound waves…" Isabel tried to explain.
"If you stand on the dryer in the basement, you can hear everything from you guys bedroom through the vents." Delilah interrupted sending Isabel a look and shaking her head.
"Oh." Chloe looked at Oliver.
"Besides, we were raised by one of the best investigative reporters in history." Jason pointed out.
Chloe smiled out of habit and Oliver glared at her. "Be strong, don't let him flatter you."
"Right." Chloe said. "Who were are is not important. You guys had a party, you wrecked the yard, you wrecked the house, you're little sister should have been in bed hours ago, and you were drinking."
"I'm not a baby." Isabel said pouting.
"No you're not but you're not a grown up." Chloe said. "You need to get to bed, we'll talk about the gambling in the morning. Take Rex with you." Isabel climbed off the couch and grabbed Rex's hand.
"How come she's not getting in trouble." Delilah screamed.
"Because she's ten, and she'll get her punishment, trust me." Chloe said as Isabel walked up the stairs.
"For the record, we weren't drinking." Jason said and Delilah nodded.
Chloe stared at them and decided they were telling the truth, they didn't look or sound drunk at any rate. "That's not the point." Oliver said. "There was drinking here, and if the cops had shown up who would have gotten in trouble for the underage drinking?"
"You guys." Delilah sighed in defeat.
"You're going to clean all this up." Chloe said. "You're going to fix the deck, and the yard and you're going to get an after school job cleaning out gutters if you have to but somehow you're going to pay to have that window replaced." She pointed to the big hole in the wall where her stained glass window used to be.
"Oh mom." Delilah rolled her eyes and stood up. "Do you have any idea how many times I've broken that window?" She walked over to the wall and Jason followed her. She held out her hand and Jason grabbed it, helping her to step up on top of the piano.
"What are you…" Chloe asked confused.
"Just watch mom." Jason smiled as Delilah put her hands in front of the hole and closed her eyes. Suddenly the hole was filled with colors, different colored glass, it was spinning and swirling around until it started to fill in the hole and a minute later the window was back, it looked exactly like it did before the football was thrown through it, possibly a little cleaner actually.
Jason helped her down and she wiped her hands on her skirt. "What did you…" Chloe asked.
"It's sort of like the undo button on a computer." Delilah tried to explain. "I can reverse the last action of any object, but only the last one, I can't go any further back than that."
"But how?" Oliver asked confused.
"Genetics dad." Jason smiled.
"Do you?" Chloe asked turning to her son.
"Mine's not cool like Dee's." He blushed.
"Show them." Delilah smiled. "Do mom."
"Do mom?" Oliver asked confused.
Jason coughed and then put his hands on his hips for good measure. "Do you guys have any idea how much trouble you're in? What are you wearing young lady?" Chloe and Oliver were dumb struck, it wasn't just an impersonation, the words coming out of his mouth were not his voice, it was Chloe's voice, exactly, almost like he was lip-syncing with a recording.
"You're a mimic?" Oliver asked astonished.
Jason shrugged and blushed again and Chloe just shook her head. "Why didn't you guys say anything?" Chloe asked. "Tell us?"
"Well you're always so busy, I mean you run two companies, and a newspaper, and then there's the JLA." Delilah said.
"Oh god, I'm a horrible mother." Chloe sat down. "I didn't even notice that my children had super powers."
"You're not a horrible mother." Jason sighed.
"Does Isabel have a power; let me guess she can fly? My own daughter can fly and I didn't even see it." Chloe told Oliver on the verge of tears. "I bet my apple pie isn't even that good and you've just been lying to me."
"Isabel can't fly." Delilah laughed. "I think her super power is her freaky brain."
"And you're apple pie is awesome mom." Jason assured her. "We just didn't want to worry you guys, you know."
"The fact that you didn't think you could come to us with something like this." Oliver shook his head. "Ok, there have been far too many secrets in this house." He looked at the kids and then at Chloe who nodded. "And that's going to stop now. Come on." Oliver motioned everyone to follow him into the kitchen where he put on a pot of coffee and then cleaned off the table.
"Wow, Izzy cashed in tonight." Delilah said grabbing the money off the side of the table and Chloe grabbed it away from her.
"Yeah, you're going to use this for any repairs that need to be done to the house." She said folding up the cash and slipping it in a pocket.
"So what? You want to have a heart to heart?" Jason plopped down in his chair. "Open up, tell the truth?"
"Yeah if you're going to tell us about Uncle Clark, or Uncle Bart, or well, any of our Uncles really, we already know." Delilah said.
Oliver and Chloe paused and shook their heads. "Well we weren't but, I guess that's one less secret." He passed Chloe a cup of coffee and sat down.
"Can't I have some?" Delilah asked.
"One cup." Chloe said.
"She's her mother's daughter." Oliver smiled as Delilah filled her cup to the rim and slowly walked back to the table.
"Look guys." Oliver said once she sat down. "We admit, we've been a little busy lately."
"Like since we were born." Jason pointed out.
"That's not fair." Chloe said. "Did we ever miss a school play or a game?" The kids shook their heads no. "Do we run off for months at a time on vacations without you guys?" They shook their heads again.
"We work, and we probably work more than most parents but we're home almost every night for dinner and we've never neglected you or forgotten about you so I don't understand why you didn't think you could come to us with this." Oliver asked.
"The same reason you didn't think you could tell us." Delilah shrugged. "Because as much as things have changed since you guys were younger, it still isn't totally cool to have these powers."
"Dee." Chloe reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "I've been healing your scrapes and bruises since you were two." Chloe smiled. "Did you think I'd have a problem with it?" She turned to Jason.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "I mean you told us about your powers but you don't let Bart use his around us, or Clark, or AC."
"Ok, that was my fault, I didn't think you guys would be able to handle it, clearly I was wrong." Chloe said. "But I want you guys to be able to come to us with this stuff."
"Well we know that now." Jason shrugged. "What about you guys?" He looked between the two of them. "You guys obviously haven't been honest with each other, or us."
"We didn't want you to worry, the work we do with the JLA is dangerous at times."
"So why did you keep doing it?" Delilah asked. "After you had us?"
"Because, it's a part of who we are." Oliver explained. "We couldn't just stop, not help when we knew we had the power to." His explanation was just as much for Chloe as it was for the kids and she nodded in understanding.
"Then why lie about it?" Jason asked.
"Well because we know what we can handle, I mean you see the Fantastic Four fighting Doctor Doom on TV and it looks scary and dangerous and as sure as we are that we can handle things like that, we aren't sure you guys would know that we could." Chloe said.
"You've been hurt before, bad." Delilah said.
"You're mom's healing abilities are a little stronger than just scrapped knees and paper cuts." Oliver told them. "Don't worry about us."
"You can't die can you?" Jason asked. Chloe looked startled. "I mean you die and you come back."
"Well…how did you…"
"I heard stories, about Watchtower. Claims that she's died like a hundred times but no one can kill her." Jason looked at Delilah. "We're not little kids anymore."
"Not a hundred." Chloe shook her head. "But yeah, I die, sometimes, if the wound is serious enough, but I come back, and it took your dad a really long time to get used to that and the last thing we wanted was for you to see your moms dead body. He knows I'm going to come back but that first time…"
"It doesn't matter that you know." He told them. "I doesn't matter that you know in a day or two she'll be up and running around and cooking and laughing, all you focus on is that in the here and now, she's dead, and by the way, I've never gotten used to that." He told her. "Since we're being honest."
"Ok, so I get why you didn't tell us about the dying thing." Delilah said. "But Jason's right, we aren't little kids anymore, if you want us to trust you guys, you have to trust us."
"That is a valid point." Chloe managed to say, even though it was really hard for her.
Jason yawned. "Well I'm beat. I'm glad we had this talk, I think it did everyone good, I've got school in the morning so…" He tried to get out of his chair but Oliver reached over and pushed him back down.
"Not so fast." Oliver said. "The party."
"Oh." Delilah sighed. "We were hoping you would forget about that."
"Fat chance." Chloe snorted. "You know we may be old, but we're pretty quick on the uptake." Chloe looked at him. "So you've fixed that window a bunch of times huh?" Delilah blushed, realizing her mistake. "Just how many parties have there been that we don't know about."
"Like hundreds." Jason smiled.
"Not hundreds. Mom…" Delilah tried to explain.
"And that voice thing." Oliver turned to Jason. "Last week when I called you're principle and I said he was acting a little strange…"
"That was totally Jace." Delilah laughed. "You'd be surprised how many of his teachers you've actually talked to over the years. And he calls them and pretends to be you guys too you know."
"Are you finished ratting each other out?" Chloe smiled and they nodded.
"So we're grounded?" Jason asked.
"Oh yeah." Oliver said.
"How long?" Delilah asked.
"Until summer vacation starts." Chloe said.
"But that's like three months, we'll miss all the end of the year parties." Delilah told her.
"You really want to talk about parties with me right now?" Chloe asked and Delilah blushed.
"What about Uncle Clark's party?" Jason asked. "That's next weekend."
Chloe and Oliver looked at each other. "We'll discuss it and let you know." Oliver said. "You guys need to get to bed, you're going to school tomorrow and then you're coming straight home and you're cleaning this house and we are going to sit down and have a talk about the ethical way to use you're powers."
Jason hung his head and nudged Delilah in her shoulder. "Thanks a lot." He sighed.
"Please, you weren't going to be able to get away with it for much longer anyway." Delilah smiled and tossed her arm over his shoulder as they trudged up the stairs.
"How did we get to this point?" Chloe looked around the living room.
"It's not all bad." Oliver nodded to the stairs. "When was the last time you saw Jace and Dee get along like that?"
Chloe smiled as Jason teased Dee about her skirt and she laughed and shoved him playfully. "God." Chloe sighed. "Since before Isabel was born."
Chloe and Oliver sat on the couch with their hands in their laps trying to hide their smiles as Jason set up a poster board on the chair and Delilah coughed to get their attention. "We've called this meeting because there is something very serious we have to discuss."
Seven year old Delilah and six year old Jason were both dressed in their Sunday best, a dress and a suit respectively, hair washed and brushed and they looked so professional. "We're all ears." Oliver smiled.
"We've come to the conclusion that this family does not need another baby." Jason announced. Chloe looked down at her stomach which was barely starting to show and laid a hand on it. "As you can see by my chart." He flipped the poster board over and there was a pie chart drawn with magic marker and Chloe had to stop herself from laughing again. "This represents the amount of time in one day." He pointed to the circle. "The blue is the time you spend sleeping, the green the time you spend at work and the red the time you spend at home, with us."
"What's the purple?" Chloe asked.
"That's the time you spend like cooking or doing laundry or stuff." Delilah said.
"As you can see, the red time, if split between Delilah and myself equally would drastically decrease with the new baby." Jason said.
"Yeah you'll be totally busy, changing diapers and feeding it and stuff." Delilah smiled.
"And even after its potty trained and eating on its own and stuff and things start to get back to normal. You'll still have to split up the red time into thirds and not in half and that's just not fair to the two of us. We've grown accustomed to a certain amount of attention."
"Have you?" Oliver smiled.
"Yeah, plus, do you have any idea how much a baby costs?" Delilah asked. "Cause it needs all new stuff. Clothes, and diapers and furniture, toys, and where is that money going to come from?" She raised an eyebrow. "Not my allowance."
"I think we're set on money." Chloe laughed.
"This is serious." Jason said. "Where is it going to sleep?"
"In the nursery." Oliver said.
"That's Rex's room now." Delilah said. "Where will he stay?"
"In the attic." Chloe said.
"And when it grows up?" Jason asked.
"Yeah the nursery is tiny." Delilah said. "And I'm not sharing my room."
"There's always the Game room." Chloe offered.
"And who gets that?" Delilah asked. "It's two times bigger than my room and Jason's room. Do I get it because I'm the oldest? Or does Jason get it because he's a boy? Or does the new kid get it because they're the youngest? How are any of those options fair."
"Not to mention you're taking away our Game room." Jason pointed out. "That's not fair, we aren't asking you to give up your office, or the library."
"That's true." Oliver said before Chloe could say anything. "Honey, they made a bunch of excellent points."
"Thanks dad." Jason smiled.
"So what's your solution?" Chloe asked, playing along.
"Well." Delilah said smiling. "Tommy Pimona from school, really wants a little brother or sister, he's an only child but his mom said she doesn't ever want to be pregnant again."
"Oh really?" Oliver smiled, as if he was going along with this.
"Yeah so we figure, you give the baby to Tommy's mom, then she has another kid, she didn't have to get pregnant, and Tommy has a brother or sister."
"Well what do we get out of this deal?" Chloe asked. "They get a new baby, what do we get?"
"Tommy is willing to give up his dirt bike." Jason said as if it was a steal. "And his Jet Ski."
"Wow." Chloe said looking at Oliver. "A dirt bike and Jet Ski, for the baby."
"I know." Jason shrugged. "Guy doesn't know what he's doing."
"Ok." Oliver said. "You guys come here." Jason walked over and climbed in Chloe's lap as Delilah climbed in Jason's. "You're mom and I are going to have this baby, and we're going to keep it."
"Man." Jason said.
"We'll work all that other stuff out somehow, I promise, things aren't going to change that much, it'll be hard at first with a new baby but I think you'll probably learn to love your new little sister."
"It's a girl?" Delilah and Jason said at the same time, but not with the same inflection. Where Delilah seemed excited, Jason seemed annoyed.
"We found out today." Oliver said.
"Another girl?" Jason whined.
"This is so cool." Delilah said. "I'm going to have a little sister. I can dress her up and put make up on her. I'm going to call Stephanie and tell her, she wishes she had a little sister." Delilah jumped down and ran to her room.
"What's wrong?" Oliver asked Jason.
"Dad, can't you do something? We don't need another girl in the house." He looked up at Chloe. "No offense mom." She smiled. "But they smell like flowers and they're always telling you pick up your stuff and we have to watch the girly movies and buy pink stuff."
"Ok." Oliver took Jason from Chloe who smiled and walked away. "What would you say if I promised that we started to do more guy stuff, just you and me?"
"Like what?" Jason asked.
"Like, what if I teach you how to shoot the bow and arrow."
"Really?" His face lit up.
"I think you're old enough now." Oliver nodded. "And we'll go fishing more, and maybe even camping every now and then."
"Awesome." Jason said. "Can we get a dirt bike?"
"I think your mom wants you to get a little older before the dirt bike." Oliver said. "But she doesn't have to know what you do over at Tommy Pimona's."
"Ok." Jason gave in.
"So, who helped you with the chart?" Oliver nodded to the poster board.
"Uncle Bart." Jason said. "He said he thought it would help our case if we had visual aids." Oliver just shook his head and laughed.
"You know the minute they found out that Isabel was a girl, they stopped playing together." Chloe pointed out.
"I am exhausted." Oliver said. "Can we please go to bed?"
"God yes." Chloe practically fell against him. "Hey, are we ok?" Chloe asked. "With the whole…" She pointed to the suits.
"Yeah." Oliver assured her. "It's obvious we weren't going to be able to stop cold turkey."
"You know that's right." Chloe nodded.
"And maybe we should find more time to talk, get together." Oliver said. "We could reinstate date night."
"Are you kidding?" Chloe laughed. "We just came home to find our kids throwing a wild party while we were out, you think I'm ever leaving them alone again?"
"Hey, don't punish me for their mistakes." Oliver joked as they walked up the stairs.
Chloe watched as Isabel and Rex ran around the yard with Lois and Clark's twins, Jonathan and Sarah. Delilah and Jason were sitting with their legs dangling in the pool talking about how unfair it was they were grounded to Victor and Tiffany's son Matt while Kara and AC were in the pool trying to teach Emily, their two year old how to swim. "So how long have they known?" Clark asked Oliver as he manned the grill.
"A while now apparently." Chloe shrugged.
"And they have powers?" Lois looked over at them trying to see if it was visible, wondering how she missed it.
"Well not like Jonathan and Sarah." Oliver looked over and saw Jonathan super speed in front of the girls who stopped running abruptly and pouted.
"No fair, you can't use powers." Isabel whined.
"Just because you don't have any." Jonathan taunted her.
"Hey." Clark called out. "You guys play nice, and no powers during tag, it's not fair." It was Jonathan's turn to pout now as he apologized to Isabel and Sarah.
"I will say, it's much easier to have these things now that everyone isn't worried anymore about who sees them do what." Victor pointed out.
"There is that." Chloe said. It had actually been a relief to all parties involved when Chloe told them that her kids were smarter than she gave them credit for and had figured out everyone's identities, not only that but that they had powers themselves. Confessions were then made all around that everyone else's kids either had powers or knew about powers and finally they could all stop pretending around each other.
"So what do you think?" Bart nodded to the pool where Emily was swimming circles around AC and Kara. "JLA, the next generation?"
"God I hope not." Oliver said. "I thought we did all this so they wouldn't have to."
"But if they want to…" Chloe shrugged. "I guess we'd be pretty hypocritical if we told them they couldn't."
"You gotta train them young you know." Bart smiled. "You guys barely got to me in time, another few years and…"
"We're not training them." Oliver shook his head.
"Come on." Bruce said walking up to them with Rachel and his kids as Tommy ran off toward Jason and Matt.
"You gotta see this new game code I wrote." He said opening his lap top on the picnic table as Jason and Matt abandoned Delilah at the edge of the pool.
"That's all he talks about." Jessica shook her head and walked over to sit next to Delilah and they immediately started gossiping about something or other.
"You don't think you're kids could handle Bruce Wayne's training academy." He joked. "I think Dee could surpass even you…she's got a lot of spunk."
"Like you've got your kids down in the cave hanging from barbed wire and doing pushups until their knuckles bleed?" Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"No." Rachel said as Bruce turned to her expectantly.
"That's what I thought." Chloe laughed. "I'm going for another beer, anyone want one?" Chloe asked.
"I'll take one." Bruce said.
"Me too." Rachel smiled.
"Two more here." Oliver said nodded at Clark.
"Lois?" Chloe asked. "You're already one behind the rest of us."
"No." She shook her head. "Actually, I need to tell you guys something." She looked up at Clark. "I'm pregnant."
"Oh my god." Chloe jumped up and hugged her cousin hard.
"Really?" Oliver smiled. "Congrats dad." He clapped Clark on the back.
"Oh god." Lois smiled. "I've been keeping that secret for two months now but you know how they say you shouldn't tell anyone right away."
"You must have been dying." Chloe smiled at her. "As much as we talk on the phone, you didn't even let it slip to me."
"It was killing me." Lois said.
"Don't be so dramatic." Clark rolled his eyes.
"Hey." Lois slapped him. "I'm pregnant; I'll be however damn dramatic I want to be."
"Language." Bart scolded her. "The baby's probably got his dad's super hearing; you don't want to start him off with a bad vocabulary in the womb."
"I'll bad vocabulary you." Lois glared at him.
"Why don't I help you with those beers Chlo." Bart grabbed her arm and slipped away from Lois as soon as possible.
She came back outside and passed out the beers and sat back and watched the kids. Delilah and Jennifer had been roped into playing with Isabel and Sarah, which prompted Jonathan to drag the guys away from the computer to be on his team and the annual girl's vs boys football game had begun. Chloe sat down and watched smiling. "Hey." Oliver sat next to her. "What's your wager this year?"
"I just forbid Isabel from gambling until she was twenty one, wouldn't that be a little wrong of me to bet on the game?"
"Afraid the girls are gonna loose?" Oliver asked.
"What suddenly after a five years the boys are gonna pull it out?" Chloe snorted. "Not a chance, two on the girls."
"Foul." Jason called as Jennifer tripped him and he went down hard.
"Be a man." Sarah called out to him. "Walk it off."
Oliver laughed. "You've been a little quiet since Lois made her announcement." He smiled at Chloe. "She didn't maybe get you thinking about having another baby you're self did she?"
"God no." Chloe laughed. "I've obviously got my hands full with the ones we've got. I'm just happy I guess." She looked around. "When I walked into my old apartment above the Talon thirty years ago and you looked at me with that cocky smile, so sure of yourself that I would take you up on your offer."
"And you did." Oliver reminded her.
"Did you ever think it would turn out like this?" She asked.
"Ok, you can't have Rex on your team, one he's a chimp." Matt complained. "Two he's a guy Chimp."
"Yeah but he doesn't like you." Isabel pointed out.
"But he throws the numbers off." Tommy said.
"You afraid you can't beat four girls and Chimp?" Delilah smiled. "You think he's giving us some sort of advantage? He's a primate, if he gets the ball, I've got a fifty fifty chance he'll run it to the end zone or sit on it and start playing with the grass."
"Fine." Matt said. "Keep the Chimp."
Delilah smiled and turned to Rex signing something. He looked at her and nodded moving over to his position. "So I got fifty on the girls team, Clark's got twenty on the boys." Lois sat down. "What's your bet?"
"Two Grand." Oliver said. "Come on Matt, she's eleven." Oliver screamed as Rose knocked him to the ground.
"She has super powers." Matt called back pulling himself off the ground and dusting himself off.
"Too rich for my blood." Lois whistled. "Hey Dee, it's not cheating if no one see's you do it." Lois could tell that the girl was looking at the ball, contemplating using her powers to move it back some.
"Mom." Jonathan called out exasperated.
Chloe just laughed. "This is just sad." Chloe closed her eyes. "Where did they learn how to play football?"
"I can't watch this." Rachel cringed. "Tell me when it's over."
"Come on." Oliver grabbed her arm. "Let's go show the young ones how it's done." Oliver said pulling Chloe up. "Green team, assemble." Oliver called out and AC and Kara climbed out of the pool and handed Lois Emily. "Son, the ball." Jason tossed the football to Oliver and collapsed on the ground. And just like every year the annual girls vs boys football game turned into the annual Red vs Green football game.
"Come on Red team." Victor said clapping Bart on the back. "Let's do this."
"What about Lois?" Clark asked handing over the barbeque reigns to Matt. "She can't play in her condition."
"You've got Bruce and Rachel to choose from." Oliver said.
"Not me." Rachel held up her hands. "I'm not a big football fan."
"Me either." Tiffany, Victor's wife said patting her shoulder. "Don't worry."
"I guess that mean's I'm up." Bruce said running over to join the red team.
The two teams met in the middle of the field. "What are the stakes?" Chloe asked, hands on her hips as she cricked her neck.
Victor looked her up and down and scoffed. "Same as every year. Looser has clean up duty."
"And winner?" Oliver asked.
"Free babysitting." Clark said.
Chloe and Oliver turned around and conferred with their team as Clark and Victor did the same. They both turned back to each other. Oliver tossed Clark the ball. "You're on."
"Free babysitting." Bart whined. "And what am I supposed to do with that?" He asked getting into his position.
"Fine." Chloe said. "In the unlikely event that you guys win, I'll personally bake you a pie, in lieu of babysitting."
"Pumpkin?" Bart asked.
"Apple." Chloe said.
"Pumpkin." The Red team demanded.
"Apple." Green team responded.
"Ok." Lois stood up. "I want a clean game." She looked at both teams and handed Emily off to Rachel. "No powers." She glared at Bart. "College rules, not NFL."
"We know the drill." AC said.
"Fine." Lois threw up her hands. "Go for it." She turned around and sat back down. "So what are the new wagers?" She looked around. Isabel stepped up and slapped a five on the table.
"Green team." She said defiantly.
"Short stuff's got five on green." Lois smiled at her.
"I'm gonna have to go with Red." Jason shook his head.
"Please, you're really going to bet against mom and Dad." Delilah said slapping a twenty on the table. "That's suicide."
"Yeah, AC and Kara have a two year old. How much sleep you think they've been getting?" Jason countered.
"Ten on Red." Matt came up and tossed Lois a bill.
"Gotta go with Green." Tommy shook his head. "Their record speaks for its self. "
A/N: I wasn't going to write this chapter actually. I've never been a fan of the famliy fics but I thought that for sticking with me through 23 chapters you guys deserved something so initially it was going to be one scene a few paragraphs of happily ever after and a few turned into more and then suddenly I had 17 pages, so I hope you've enjoyed my story because I enjoyed writing it.