don't own

"Master Bruce, I believe the man you speak of is named Green Arrow. He is a crime fighter, his true identity is unknown, of course," Alfred was looking at Bruce's bandage. The bullet had only grazed him and was now mostly healed.

"Green Arrow?" Bruce rolled his eyes. "I thought he was haunting Metropolis. Why the sudden move to Gotham?" Bruce thought out loud. "I think the bandage for one more night. Chloe is waiting for me and she saw it before I left. There will be fewer questions if I just leave it on." Alfred nodded and bandaged his arm again.

Bruce sighed deeply as he entered his bedroom. Chloe lay on the bed asleep. He silently lay down next to her. The moonlight gently caressed her face. She was so beautiful. He thought that he could sit here and stare at her for hours. She was the perfect blend of intelligence and beauty. And she had a fire in her soul. That was obvious to Bruce because she did everything with passion. He wanted her to love him with that same passion. He hated this feeling of weakness. He wanted Chloe to know his secrets, wanted to come home to her like this all the time. He sighed again deeply. He didn't know what to do.

"What?" Chloe said the word with such disgust; you would have thought it was something toxic.

"The Green Arrow was here in Gotham last night." Alli nodded with excitement.

"What?" Chloe said again dumbly. Oliver? She thought.

"Yeah. Ok, Chloe," Alli smirked. "And guess who is going on a stakeout tonight to look for him?"

"You?" Chloe said.

"Yes. It'll be fun. You wanna come??" Alli offered like it was going to be something innocuous, like a camp out, instead of the dangerous situation it was.

"Not so much," Chloe told her honestly. "I wonder how Batman is going to feel about all this." She mused out loud.

"Whatever, he should be happy! Seriously, two heroes are better than one."

"I'm not so sure about that. They can get a little territorial." Chloe said, thinking back on her own experiences.

"Oh, because you've known so many of them, I'm sure." Alli joked. "So are you coming or not? I'll buy you a whole thermos of coffee."

"Ahh…Bribery. How I love it." Chloe smiled. "We'll see. I have my own story to chase."

"Ok." Alli sounded a little deflated. "By the way, why are you in such a good mood today? It's weirding me out."

"Me? I'm not in a good mood. I'm just pretending." Chloe grinned.

"Wow, Queen, and here I was thinking you were an ally." Bruce growled at the man sitting across from his desk.

"I am," Oliver told him. "I'm here to help you, Bruce."

Bruce smirked. "Of course. First, you come to me with a proposition of working together. That was something I appreciated. But you will lose all my support if you choose to bring a Luthor into the endeavor."

"Be reasonable." Oliver hated Lex as much as anyone. He wasn't really going to bring Lex in on the deal, he was just trying to test Bruce.

"Reasonable." Bruce clenched his jaw. "I've worked my whole life to rid Gotham of any ill influence. I'm not going to invite that same evil back with open arms. The Luthor's will never have any stake in Gotham."

"Fair enough." Oliver smiled a little at his passion. He felt that same hatred toward Lex. He was destroying his world one factory at a time. "If you feel that strongly about it, then no Luthors."

"I'm glad we can agree on that at least." Bruce's phone buzzed. His secretary came on the phone.

"Ms. Sullivan is here."

"Thank you. You can send her in." Bruce said. Chloe came into the room and stopped short at the sight of the them; the two men that were currently tormenting her mind, her heart, and her hormones, were standing in the same room together. She smiled at Bruce and walked over to him and kissed his cheek.

Oliver clenched his hands at his side, but plastered a smile on his face.

Chloe looked at him and gave him a confused look. "Oliver, what a surprise to see you here."

"I was discussing some business with Bruce." Oliver moved to stand closer to Chloe and Bruce.

"Of course." She looked up at Bruce. "I can come back if you two need to talk more."

Bruce smiled a little and shook his head, "We're done. Oliver was just trying to convince me to let Lex Luthor in on the vaccine deal." Chloe turned to Oliver with a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"What? Oliver, why would you do that?" Chloe couldn't believe that.

Oliver shrugged, "It seemed like a good idea."

Chloe shook her head. "Maybe I don't know you as well as I thought. The Oliver I know wouldn't be caught dead doing business with the Luthor's after all they've done to you and your friends." Chloe moved to Oliver.

Oliver looked at her and grinned. This was Chloe. She knew him too well. He'd missed that.

"History. It's in the past," Oliver was lying, trying to get more fire out of Chloe.

"Excuse me? You're not serious are you? I remember you making it your mission in life to rid the world of the plague that is the Luthors." She shook her head. "What happened to you, Oliver?"

"You're right, Chloe." He leaned toward her a little. "I do hate the Luthor's. But sometimes you have to test an ally to make sure they aren't lying to you."

"You mean Bruce?" She turned to look at him. Bruce was watching this exchange with a guarded expression.

"Yes. And he passed with flying colors."

"Of course he did. Bruce is the most honorable man I know." Chloe automatically defended Bruce. It just came out she didn't even think about it. She was in trouble and she knew it. That meant she was definitely in love with him.

Chloe saw the hurt flash in Oliver's eyes, but he quickly covered it.

"He does seem to be a good guy." Oliver reached past Chloe to shake Bruce's hand. In the process he brushed against her. He'd done it on purpose. He would use any excuse to touch her. "It's been a pleasure, Bruce." He looked toward Chloe. "We have to get a cup of coffee soon and catch up. I've missed a lot with you and I don't intend on missing much more."

Chloe just looked at him for a moment. "Yes, a cup of coffee would be good." She reached up and pulled him into a hug. He gave her a squeeze before releasing her.

"Enjoy your lunch." Oliver smiled at them as he left the room.

"Are we going to talk about this morning or not?" Chloe finally brought up the question that had been plaguing her mind all day. They were sitting in his office and finally had some privacy.

"What about this morning?" Bruce said with an innocent smile, but Chloe knew he was teasing her.

"Fine, you're right. Nothing happened this morning." Chloe said easily. Bruce looked at her and reached over and put his hand on her hip. He pulled her gently toward him and she readily straddled his lap. His hands rested on her hips and he began rubbing circles gently.

"This morning when I accidentally walked in on you in the shower, you mean." There was a twinkle in his eye when he said this.

"Yeah. When you 'accidentally' walked in on me." Chloe stressed the word.

"It really was an accident. I'm not used to having people in my house, so it's not normally something I have to worry about."

"Not that it matters anyway, I would have gladly shown you the whole package if you'd only asked." She joked, but his statement had revealed a lot about him. He couldn't have had that many serious lovers if he wasn't use to having people in his house. It meant a lot that he'd trusted her that much. It was a start at least.

"I'll remember that. I'd love to see it now, but I'm not sure that would be entirely appropriate."

"No. We'd probably scare Ms. Mathers and give her a heart attack," Chloe joked and kissed a trail down his cheek to land on his lips.

"The press would have a field day." Bruce said it before even thinking about it. But he could feel Chloe hesitate in her actions. He wanted to apologize, but couldn't. He was concerned about her status as a reporter interfering with their relationship.

"Hmm…maybe. But that's not my scene anyway." Chloe sidestepped the unspoken question.

"Yes, you're covering Batman these days, aren't you?"

"So, you read my work?" Chloe was delighted and her face showed it. She moved to look at Bruce. "I'm a little surprised you haven't gone all macho, stay out of danger on me yet, like most men in my life do."

"Should I?' Bruce smirked a little. "You seem like a responsible woman to me. Besides I have a feeling that batman would seek to protect you."

"Do you know him?" Chloe asked, her curiosity suddenly coming on strong. Bruce just gave her a funny disbelieving look.

"You're one of the only reporters that hasn't turned on him."

"He hasn't given me any reason to. Besides, I've seen enough superheroes to know a villain when I see one. From what I can tell, he's no villain." Chloe had been thinking about Batman a lot lately. Considering, he was who she did all her stories on, it wasn't surprising.

"I think he does a lot for the city." Bruce said quickly.

"You know who I think does a lot for the city?" Chloe ran her hand through his hair. It looked so perfectly styled, she wanted to mess it up. He looked more like the man she knew when he wasn't so perfectly made up.

"Who?" Bruce smiled.

"You." She half grinned at him, to make the moment not quite so serious, but Bruce ignored that. He looked at her seriously.

"Thank you, Chloe." He pulled her into a long slow kiss. "I have work to do tonight, so I can't see you."

"Me too actually, so it works out well." Chloe thought about her the upcoming stakeout with Alli that she'd reluctantly agreed to.

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Finally, an update. I know and I'm sorry it's been so long, but I really have been having some serious personal issues. So, please review and continue to read. I finally figured out that I want Chloe with Bruce and then your reviews say Oliver!! What am I to do about that? I don't know, rewrite the next chappie, maybe? We shall see. I'll update in a week and that is a promise!!