*still, with the not owning*. This chapter is a little all over the place(and it took forever to write, stupid writer's block, and life), but it's supposed to set up the next few chapters. Enjoy.

Victor was her pet project.

They'd always had that connection-that technological intuition bonded them together in a way that few others could understand.

And when his girlfriend had unceremoniously dumped him, she had been there.

Chloe wanted him to be happy. She wanted all of her friends to be happy and in love, but especially Victor.

The problem was, she couldn't quite seem to find the right girl for him. Not that it mattered, because she had many others to marry off. Upon thinking that she had frozen for a moment, and wondered briefly when she'd become a matchmaking mama. It was as if she'd become one of those old matriarchs in a Regency romance novel. Not that she, um, would know.

But it didn't matter, these people were her family, and she was going to do everything in her power to help them find happiness.

"They're both psychotic." Kara suggested as an explanation for the insanity that seemed to have possessed Chloe and Lois.

"What? No way! They're just trying to help out, you know. Chloe's nesting, and Lois . . . is Lois. They just want us to be happy," Mia defended her matchmaking friends.

"You're only saying that because you're not on their radar yet." Bart, on the other hand, was. Chloe had been badgering him for days about giving the new coffee girl a chance. He said no, every time.

"Hey, as a proud recipient of their matchmaking help, I'm going to suggest you just sit back and enjoy the ride," Dinah smiled at her newly significant other, who smiled back and took her hand.

"So you're saying that you're glad they meddled?" Victor asked in disbelief.

"Sometimes you need a little push. And there's a part of me that wonders if I'd ever have gotten the courage to tell this one," AC teasingly referred to Dinah, "that I love her."

There was a moment of silence/sappiness.

"Um, just because things worked out for you, doesn't mean things will for the rest of us. Some of us aren't meant for happily ever after." A shadow of pain crossed Victor's face as he interrupted the moment with what he thought was merely a reflection of reality.

"So cynical, and at such a young age."

"Chloe. Hi." Victor, among others, looked guiltily at their Watchtower.

Everyone else echoed his hello, and suddenly found things they had to do elsewhere. Now.

When they were alone, Chloe decided it was time for an intervention.

"Victor-" she stopped him from leaving.

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course, 'Tower." His face said otherwise, but his body went back down onto the couch he'd been sitting on.

"Is it really that unbelievable? That there's someone out there for you, who will love you as much as you deserve?" She asked, with a concerned expression on her face.

"Katherine-"

"Katherine wasn't good enough for you. She left you because she realized that."

"She left me because she didn't love me. Not even because of what I'd become," he looked down at himself. "You may not be able to see it, but you know that it's there. It changes things, Chloe."

"Katherine was a bitch."

Victor tried not to smile, but he couldn't help but meet Chloe's smile with one of his own. "I wouldn't go that far."

"Victor, not only did she leave you because she thought you were a 'freak' but then she decided to string you along, all the while knowing that she'd never be okay with who you are."

"It's not an easy thing to accept." He thought he should at least try to defend her.

"Victor . . . it's not easy living this life we've chosen-that's chosen us. Things are even harder for those of you with 'gifts' but one day, you'll find someone who will accept you, and everything that you are. And she'll love you."

"It's nice for you to say that, but you know it's not necessarily true."

"Victor," she said sternly, taking his hands and meeting his eyes, "You have me. There's no way it's not true."

She seemed so sure of herself that he couldn't help but want to believe her despite himself, "Thanks, Chlo, but can you lay off the matchmaking, for me? Just for a while. I need some time to myself."

"Of course, dearheart. Just not too much time, 'kay?

"Okay."

"But let's just keep this little deal between you and me."

"Of course," he'd let them all think she had focused her attentions on him and then . . . ah.

"Did I seriously just call you 'dearheart?' The hormones are really getting to me, aren't they?"

He merely smiled and refrained from answering.

He wouldn't be safe forever. But at least he'd bought himself a little time.

"I think Victor's it right now. She just had a little 'talk' with him." Kara seemed a little put out by that idea.

Bart-assuming it was because she'd kind of wanted to be next- answered, "At least it's not me. Chloeliscious can try and play matchmaker all she wants, but not with me."

"Aren't you ever lonely?" Mia questioned.

"No, of course not."

"Well, some people aren't like you, Bart. Some of us want more out of life than an unlimited supply of food," Kara bit out.

"Wow, that's not what I meant, dude." He struggled to find the right words, which was unusual to the extreme, because he usually just said anything that popped into his head. But this was an important moment.

"You guys are my family. I'm not lonely, because I have all of you. Before . . . all of this," he waved his hand around at Watchtower, "I didn't have much of anything. And I may not be 16 anymore, but I'm still young enough that I'm just trying to enjoy that-having a family. I don't need to fall in love, or find my 'soulmate,' because I'm happy with the way things are. I have all of you, and that makes me happy."

Chloe noticed more than a little tearyness as she watched from the doorway as Bart opened his heart for everyone to see.

"That was sweet," Oliver whispered into her ear. She turned her head to him and leaned into him.

"Yeah, yeah it was."

She saw something unexpected on the face of more than one of present league members, and wondered. Hmm, something to think about.

"And we love you too," Chloe said as she entered the room, Oliver following close behind her.

"Chloe, I meant what I said. I really love you guys, and I don't need to be set up. I don't need to find my soulmate."

No, no he didn't, she thought. He already had. He was just being male and foolish, but that was best left for another day. He was right, after all, he was young. He needed some time.

Chloe gave Bart a quick hug, then took charge. "Anyway, you guys need to get back on track. I know we've been a little lax since we found out I'm pregnant," she put her hand on her increasingly large belly. "But there's still a world to save. Some of the others are going to be hanging around more, now that Emil set limits on how many hours I'm allowed to work a day." She was still really upset about that, but she'd let it go. She did, after all, have a baby on the way, and many love-starved friends.

Zatanna didn't normally spend a lot of time with the Justice-driven superhero types if she could manage it.

Sure, they were sexy, and useful at times-but they were often so stuck in their black and white little worlds-full of justice, right and wrong, and they never had any fun, it seemed. That was why she liked Chloe and Oliver, and their brand of hero. They were fun, and not so stuck in the heroism that they'd forgotten how to be human. Some wouldn't want to work with someone like Zatanna just because of who she was, and what she did. They weren't like that, which was why she tolerated them, helped them occasionally with missions, and was always invited to team dinners: she was part of their family, but more like the crazy aunt than the immediate sibling.

It suited her just fine.

She liked being alone, most of the time.

Which is why she didn't know about Lois and Chloe's mission to matchmake everyone in the league. She'd missed the "Dinah and AC" episode of that show. So when Chloe had called her, asking her to go on a mission to Cairo, she hadn't given it a second thought. She'd said yes. She needed a bit of a vacation anyway.

"This feels like less fun than what we did with Dinah and AC." Lois whined to her cousin.

"It kinda does. But that's partially because it's taking place halfway around the world, and all we get to do is listen to them over the comms. No video feed inside pyramids, apparently."

"Plus, it's not like they're in love. We just think they'd be cute together."

Chloe sighed, leaned back carefully into the couch upon which her cousin was also situated, and said "True. It's kind of like we're just doing it to keep our matchmaking skills in shape. Maybe we should have waited until after I, um, get back to 100%, as opposed to 200%."

"Oh, Chlo. You're not that big. And you're all glowy. You're beautiful." Lois wrapped her cousin in her arms, in an affectionate hug.

"Thanks, Lo. I don't believe you, because I am eight-and-a-half months pregnant. But still, this kind of feels like filler."

"Doesn't mean it can't be true love too."

Witches. He didn't like them. Now, he was paired with one, because apparently there was some

"I'm not a witch, exactly."

"You play with magic, does it really matter whether you're a witch, an enchantress, or a fairy godmother?" He asked dismissively.

She briefly considered some sort of magical castration . . . then realized it would be more trouble than it was worth. "I prefer Zatanna. Can we just get back to the business at hand?"

"Of course. Lead the way," he waved his arms in a mockingly gallant way that made her want to punch him. And she wasn't the physically violent type.

Cairo during mid-summer with some old bird with a chip on his shoulders? No, this was not a vacation. This was Hell.

Zatanna was annoyed with Chloe, and was beginning to consider ways to get even with her. Starting with giving her child fins, or something. Oliver would probably kill her, but she could easily undo it before the kid started high school. Or maybe after. Then again, it wasn't the kid's fault that its mother was psychotic. Sending her off to Egypt with some gruff, pre-menstrual man . . . what was she thinking?

Zatanna supposed she hadn't done it on purpose. After all, it was a magical artifact, the kind of thing that Zatanna did best. And she supposed there was a valid reason why Carter Hall was her partner-in-crime, semi-literally, for this mission . . . but she didn't really care. When she'd met him at the airport, she'd been amused. Kind of attracted, until he opened his mouth.

Plus, the weather was horrendous. Ugh.

"I don't think they like each other much, Chlo." Lois seemed uncertain.

They'd been listening to them bicker the entire time they'd been making their way through the pyramid's maze of tunnels.

"Really, Lo? You think that's bad? You should hear Ollie and me on a good day."

"But that's all in good fun, you know you love each other at the end of the day," Lois disagreed.

"It wasn't always that way. You know that better than I." There was a bit of an awkward silence at that.

They heard a crash over the comm-link.

"I think you broke it."

"Really? Do you? Shocking."

"Watchtower, we have a problem."

"Yeah, yeah you do." Chloe stared at the energy signature that was building over their location. "What did you do?"

Zatanna bristled, "He broke it. He broke the artifact, which in turn trapped us in some random room, and now we can't get out."

"You could always try a little hocus-pocus," Carter suggested.

"I already did. I think the traps in this place are linked within a magical network. Which means, of course, that I need to fix what you broke." Imbecile.

Chloe sighed, "I don't think arguing is going to help."

Lois raised an eyebrow. "It could, you know, release some of that-" Chloe placed her hand over Lois' mouth, gave her a warning glance. "-Anger. And frustration."

"I don't think I can do anything from our end, but I'll send Clark and see if he can muscle his way in."

"Don't, I think there's a magical field that could be pretty damaging if he were to aggravate it." Zatanna sighed.

Worst. Day. Ever.

They'd been trapped for four hours. Four long, annoying hours.

And she'd gotten nowhere. She couldn't quite figure out how to repower the artifact.

"Should have just left well-enough alone." Carter finally spoke.

"Yes, yes you should have."

"I didn't exactly do it on purpose. I meant us. We should have just left it here."

"We couldn't. It's been causing disturbances for weeks now in the magnetic field. What we needed to do was depower it, so that it would be trapped in its own little museum. Since, of course, you screwed up, I think you should just be quiet and let me work."

"Because me being quiet and letting you work has worked so well for the past four hours," he lifted a brow.

"As opposed to you spending half of that time trying to smash your way out of here with your overgrown big boy toys? I think I'll stick with my plan."

Carter sighed, "I'm sorry."

Zatanna blinked. "You are?"

"Yes, I've been inappropriately sarcastic and, quite frankly, rude. It's just not a good day."

Now she was curious, "Why is that, exactly?"

"I've lived many, many lives. Today is the anniversary of the first death of my wife and I."

Zatanna was nearly speechless, "I'm . . . so sorry."

"So am I."

"It must be hard, without her."

"It is."

"Loss and grief can destroy you. It's . . . admirable that you haven't let it consume you, that even though it's a never-ending cycle, you're still helping people, in your own way."

Carter considered her words. "Maybe. I wonder if I haven't let it change me, irreparably."

"That's the thing about love, Tweety bird, it always changes you."

"Is that something you know from experience?"

"My father died. And I spent my time trying to bring him back to life. I was going to sacrifice someone else's life, just so that I could have him back. Because I was too cowardly to accept that I had to live my life for me, finally."

"But you did, eventually."

"Yes, I did. It's not the same, of course. But it's my pain."

"You carry it well."

"Thank you," she smiled.

"Have you ever had a connection like that? An all-consuming love?"

"No, I can't say that I have," her smile saddened.

"I hope you do, someday. Because it's worth all the pain in a lifetime, just to be with her for a little while."

A thought suddenly occurred to Zatanna. "Have you ever, you know, been in love with a woman other than your wife?"

"Yes, I have. Once. But it's not the same. I loved her, she died, and eventually I was reunited with Shiera. She's fallen for others, too. When I've been the one to die first."

"Is that love . . . less?"

Carter considered her question carefully.

"It's different. It's harder in some ways, because I know I'll always be reunited with Shiera, but it's also . . . empowering to love someone else. When I was with the other woman, I loved her in a way that was more . . . human. Losing her, in many ways, was just as difficult and painful as every time I lose Shiera. In some ways more, because I'll never find her again, in any other life."

"I think I understand, at least as much as I can. Anyway, I think I've found a way out of here." She flicked a wrist and said an incantation. The artifact glowed, the doorway cleared.

"That was easy."

"It wasn't easy figuring it out, that's for sure. We need to depower this thing the right way now."

Carter made a move towards her, "No, I don't trust you not to break it again, silly." She winked at him.

Afterward, on Oliver's jet, on the way back to the US, Zatanna turned to him. "If you ever need someone to talk to . . . a friend. Just call." She handed him a business card.

"Do I tap my ruby slippers together three times, and you magically appear?"

Zatanna sighed. "It's just a business card. I don't know where you all get those ridiculous ideas from."

He turned over the card. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh.'" She laughed.

"That was . . . okay." Lois had wanted more, but she supposed she could settle for friendship and obvious sexual chemistry.

Chloe groaned. "No, not really. I think my water just broke."

Hehe. Random :)