DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters you might recognize in this fic. DC Comics, Warner Brothers, the CW, and a lot more people than I can possibly name here do and I am making no gains from this. I'm just borrowing them and I'll put them back when I'm finished, maybe a little the worse for wear, but I'll give them back. Please don't sue me.

Author's Note: This bunny bit me while I was watching Season 8 when Oliver started his downward spiral. It's obviously set in an AU, since none of this happened in canon. If AU stories offend you, then give this one a pass, okay?

Author's Note #2: My beloved AJ was helping me to RP this out, and helped me a great deal before her passing in March 2010. She was the driving force behind the bunny and my sounding board, my research partner, and so much more. This fic is therefore dedicated to her memory. I will always love you and miss you. Rest in peace, my darling.

Beta thanks go to Rick Berko, River, and Ithil-Valon. You guys have been terrific, and believe me, if there are any mistakes left, they're all totally mine. I take full credit for them.

And Lastly: HUGE thanks go to Rick and company for helping me research the best kind of liquor to use for this story. It was fun, wasn't it? *gryns* Thujone is the ingredient found in European blends of absinthe. To my knowledge, it's still illegal to include thujone in American absinthe. The stuff is so powerful that "one shot of this stuff will have you seeing green faeries in seconds," according to Rick's BF (a bartender). Unless you're a hardened alcoholic, of course. Then it takes minutes. *LOL*

Part Four

Clark Kent sat at his desk and poked at his computer, trying to keep from literally tearing his hair out.

He had been searching for weeks. Oliver Queen had disappeared, seemingly without a trace, and Clark was fairly desperate to find him. Oliver had been on a downward slide for some time, and it was possible that he'd done something to harm himself. Clark didn't want to think so, but it was a possibility that couldn't be ignored.

Neither Lois or Chloe had turned up so much as a hint of his whereabouts, either, and that was pretty troubling in itself. Oliver didn't have the computer knowledge necessary to hide his tracks from Chloe; no one did. And hiding from Lois when she wanted to find you was pretty pointless. She was a bulldog and never let go once she got her teeth in something. The fact that no one had found any traces, well, it was disturbing.

He answered his phone absently when it rang and was a little surprised to hear Chloe. "Tell me you found him."

"Unfortunately, Clark, wishing doesn't make this any easier," Chloe responded as she kept scanning the data flashing across her screens. "I've got no sign of our runaway playboy, but I did find something else interesting. Seems a seven year old boy got lost last night and wandered into the Barrens. Happens all the time, right, and they're never seen again. Only this kid, he walked out under his own power and he's babbling about some woman who fixed his broken leg so he could go home."

Clark closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "I was hoping it was something about Oliver, Chloe, that's all," he said finally. "I need to talk to this boy. Whoever healed him might need help, if she did it in the Barrens. Those gangs down there don't like losing prey easily."

"No, they don't." Chloe was still sifting data, her eyes taking on a silvery sheen as the speed increased. "Something else for the Wall of Weird. Witnesses report hearing a big cat screaming down there about the same time the kid got out. Nobody's talking about anything else, though. Barrens residents don't talk much to outsiders." Her voice took on a softer tone as she relented a bit. "We'll find him, Clark. He can't hide forever."

"I hope not." Clark was gathering his things. "Listen, tell me where to find this kid so I can talk to him. Then I'll get back to trying to find Oliver." He got the information from her and headed out, hoping to be gone before Lois caught up to him. He'd do this quicker and with much less fuss without her along. She was so Blur-obsessed that she'd probably find some way to pin it on him.

It was a fairly quick zip from the Planet to the home of one Michael Aarons. It was late enough in the day that he should be home from school, if he had gone at all, and Clark went to the door to knock politely. If the parents would let him speak to the boy, he might be able to track this mystery woman and see if she needed help.

He was admitted into the home easily and waited at the kitchen table while Mrs. Aarons went to fetch Mike. "He'll be down in a moment, Mr. Kent," she said simply as she came back and went to the counter. "Would you like some coffee? I'll be giving him his snack when he comes down, and he doesn't like to eat in front of people."

Clark accepted the drink without further question and passed a few moments in pleasant conversation before Mike came down. And when he saw the boy, he understood why she was so protective of him.

Pale, wan, and clearly underweight. The boy didn't seem the type to have run away in the first place. Nonetheless Clark smiled and introduced himself. "Mind telling me what happened last night, Mike?" he asked easily.

Mike looked to his mother, who nodded her head, and then sat down to the table and grabbed his sandwich. Between bites, he explained. "I'm home schooled because I'm too delicate. I can't stand sunlight, cuz it hurts, even with sunblock. I'm allergic to just about everything, but in here's okay because we've got all sorts of hospital type filters, Mum says." He shrugged a bit and took another bite, then maneuvered the food to the side of his mouth and kept talking. "I just wanted to see what was out there in the world, is all, and then I fell down in the bad place. I broke my leg and couldn't climb up. I thought I was gonna die, okay?" Remembered fear flashed over his face and he put down his food, suddenly not hungry. "It hurt really bad. Then this lady drops outta nowhere, right? She touched me. That's all. She said she was gonna help me and she touched me and – and it felt weird because it kinda burned but then it didn't and I could walk again and I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared at all. I just did what she said and let her friend lift me up and ran home. I don't ever want to go back there. It was a scary place. There were mean guys all over, I was running from some of them when I fell."

"This woman, Mike, can you describe her to me?" Clark knew it was a long shot but he'd need to find her soon. She was obviously more than human, if she could heal a broken leg with just a touch. Of course, he didn't know that the leg had been broken, but Mike seemed certain it had been.

"Sure." The boy sounded confident, so Clark paid special attention. "She was little, but she was still a grownup, right? Bigger'n me, but not a lot. Her hair was light colored, maybe blonde, I think. Skinny, like me, real skinny. Couldn't see much else, it was really dark."

"You said she had a friend with her?" Clark was digging, but he had little hope that it had been Oliver. He knew the dangers down there and avoided the Barrens like the rest of the world did. He'd have been a tempting mark to them, with the wealth and power he had.

"Yeah. Quiet guy. Didn't say much, but his voice was awful when he did. Scratchy. Couldn't see his face, really. Just a ratty trenchcoat and a mask over his face. You know, like the cowboys wear." Mike looked over to his mother. "Do I really have to take all the pills now, Mum?" he pleaded. "I'm tired of taking them, it's all I ever do."

"Take them anyway, please," Mrs. Aarons replied as she handed him a cup and a small amount of medicine. "Then you can go play for a while."

"Thanks for talking to me, Mike," Clark said politely as he held his hand out for the boy to shake. "You've helped a lot." He caught the look from Mrs. Aarons and stayed seated. She obviously wanted a word with him out of the boy's hearing.

"And thank you for being so kind to him," she said as she sat down opposite him with her own coffee. "He doesn't see many people because of his condition and it makes him a little nervous when strangers visit. You handled him well, thank you."

"He's a great kid," Clark replied noncommittally. "You're treating him for what condition? I've never seen someone so pale." He was truly concerned for the kid, but that wasn't at the heart of the question. It might explain more about why he'd decided to run away. It sounded like something serious, too, serious enough to keep him out of the outside world permanently.

"The doctors haven't really identified it yet," she replied with a sad smile. "The medicine he takes keep him alive, but only as long as he takes them religiously. If he misses a dose, he gets very ill and has trouble breathing." She took a deep breath. "They say that whatever it is, it's attacking all of his systems at once. The medicine slows the process, but it doesn't stop it. It's one reason I'm so concerned about this little... adventure seems such a tame word." She gave a wan smile. "He's always wanted to be like other children, to be able to play outside, and I guess it just got too much for him last night."

Clark cradled his coffee cup in his hands as he listened to her. There was something niggling at the back of his mind, but it eluded every attempt to analyze it, so he pushed it aside. "He seems well adjusted, really." He gave her a winning smile. "I've got everything I need, thank you. I'll let you know if we're going to run the story." He stood up and offered her his hand. "You've been very helpful." He was itching with the need to find this girl in the Barrens, but he needed to talk to Chloe first. She might be able to find something about this mystery illness.

Yes, Watchtower would be his first stop.