Okay, so I was in a pretty terrible mood when I posted the last chapter. So I decided to Zen-out, and then I wrote this chapter. Fastest update I've ever done, I'd have to say. I can't update tomorrow, so I thought I might as well do so twice today. I have the time.

The beeping noise changed everything.

Oliver was her One.

She was Oliver's One.

Oh, crap.

This should have made things less complicated.

It didn't.

She didn't understand-if Oliver was going to get a timer-why had he told her that he loved her?

Was he planning on using her, until he was absolutely sure he wanted his One?

What was Oliver doing? Because right now, it just seemed like he was trying to hurt her.

Sure, they'd shared an absolutely amazing kiss. And yes, she'd opened up to him in surprising ways, and she admired him as a person, and as a hero. But right now, she didn't much like him at all.

After all, he hadn't shared much of anything with her. She didn't understand his insecurities, or his motivations. She didn't know him. And even if he were her One-and apparently that was indeed the case-she didn't much want to talk to him right now.

"I don't understand."

"We're . . . meant for each other-you've felt that connection we have, haven't you? This is just proof."

"Why did you get a timer?"

"To prove it to myself. That I wasn't just going crazy. Because when I first met you, my heart knew you."

"Are you claiming love at first sight? Because if you are, I will do more than just slap you." In fact, she could really go for slow, unmedicated castration, personally.

"What, you don't believe that heart recognizes heart?"

Chloe snorted. She sat up from her position, so that she wasn't at such a height disadvantage. "What did you do, steal that line from a Nora Roberts novel?"

Well, technically, yes. "Possibly." He'd been in a waiting room. And the book had just been there. But that was irrelevant.

"Leave me alone, Oliver."

"What? But you just said . . . And we're meant for each other. The timer is 100% accurate. This isn't some sort of mistake."

"I didn't say it was. But you know what? I can't do this."

"You're letting fear rule your life again."

Chloe stood up, "No, no I'm not. Don't you dare assume that you know anything about me. Because you really don't."

"I think I know the important things."

"Really, because I don't know anything about you, not really. And I don't want to." She stalked out of the room.

She was furious with herself. What had she been thinking? Getting a timer . . . Obviously she'd been overtaken by some foolish desire not to be alone.

Now, Oliver believed that he was meant to be with her. As if he didn't have a choice.

And she didn't want to live her life that way. That realization made her heart ache, but there was nothing she could do about that.

She didn't want to be the person that someone had to end up with.

She wanted more.

She deserved more.

"You missed our date."

"I'm sorry." He had been trapped with kryptonite in one of Lex's warehouses . . . But it wasn't as if he were going to tell her that.

"You should. Smallville, I know you're always late to things, but did you really have to miss it altogether?"

"I'm sorry, Lois. It was an emergency."

"Are there going to be a lot of emergencies when we're together?"

Clark knew this was a moment of choices. "Yes," he was honest-or else she'd just end up hating him anyway.

"Are you every going to just tell me the truth? About what exactly you're always doing?" Lois needed to know.

She didn't even need him to get a timer, because she loved Clark. What she needed was for him to be honest with her.

"Lois, I-" He was about to give an excuse, she could see it on his face, in his body language. He was about to lie to her, again.

"Don't finish that sentence, please. I get it, but I won't give my heart to someone who doesn't trust me. Who won't be honest with me."

She already had, and she was taking back mere pieces of what it had been, but it didn't matter.

Ice cream.

She was eating ice cream.

And for the first time, it wasn't making her feel better.

Lois walked in. She saw what Chloe was doing, and then she smiled weakly as she lifted up her brand new container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and the chocolate syrup sauce she'd bought to go with it. "Great minds."

Chloe attempted to smile back. Her attempt failed. She felt a tear fall-she wiped it away.

"Why are you about to bury yourself in ice cream?" Didn't she have a new boyfriend to snuggle with or something?

At that thought, Chloe got even more depressed and lifted the spoon back up to her mouth and shoved the ice cream into her mouth.

Lois, at that moment, noticed her timer. "When did you get that?"

"Oh, this?" She held her timer up. Lois nodded. "Decided I was tired of waiting."

"Well, it's blank, so you've got more of that to do anyway."

"Oh no, look closer."

Lois grabbed her cousin's arm. "Oh my God."

"Exactly."

"It's not blank, you've clocked out. Damn, when did you get this?"

"Yesterday."

"Wow."

"Yup."

"I guess it wasn't exactly a life-altering sort of meeting then, was it?"

"Oh no, it was that."

Lois waited for Chloe to open up and keep talking. "Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?"

"Who is it?"

"Oliver."

"My Oliver?" Lois seemed kind of shocked, but then she got a rather pensive look.

No, Chloe nearly bit out, my Oliver, apparently.

"Oh, I mean, your Oliver. Wow. That's crazy. I'd never thought you or him would ever get timers, let alone be each other's Ones. Though, recently I've been thinking about it. You two would be a great couple, now that I think about it."

Chloe just kept eating her ice cream. She watched as Lois poured chocolate syrup all over her ice cream.

"But that doesn't explain why you're here on a date with ice cream instead of with him, playing footsie. What went wrong?"

"You. Me. Him. Everything."

"Chloe, so long as you weren't dating him behind my back, I honestly don't care. I want you to be happy, both of you. Unless, of course, you were dating him behind my back, in which case I'd have to kill you both."

"Don't worry, Lo. I'd never do that to you. Though, when he kissed me and I thought you two were still together-and you weren't-I did pull away and slap him."

Lois just blinked at her. "You slapped him? Why would you slap Ollie?" She practically yelled her question.

Chloe sighed. "Because I thought he was still dating you."

"Oh, yeah. But I broke up with him-Oh." Understanding dawned. Complicated timing.

"Yup."

"So what happened when your timers went off?"

"I told him I never wanted to see him again."

Lois stared at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"He got a timer, but then he told me he was falling for me. Can you believe the nerve of that guy?" She was about to run out of ice cream. "Lois, hand me that ice cream."

"No, not until you explain to me how you lost your mind. Why, Chloe, why?"

"Hand me the ice cream, Lois. Please."

Lois noticed the tears in her eyes, about to spill. She moved closer, bringing the ice cream with her. She sat down next to her.

"Chloe, please don't cry."

"I can't help it." She hiccuped.

"Maybe he got the timer to prove to you that he was meant to be with you or something-that he wasn't meant to be with me."

"That seems . . . possible. But improbable."

"Chloe, I may be incredibly dense sometimes. But I've noticed how much he seems to care about you. He was worried about you after what happened with Jimmy. He seems to admire you, and he . . . he's your One." Simply, that was it.

"It's weird, because before I realized he had a timer, and that he was my One, I probably would have given him a chance."

"It's not too late, Chloe."

"Yeah, it is."

"Chloe Sullivan, you are no cousin of mine if you're just going to mope on this couch and let life pass you by. You like him, I see it all over your face."

"Lois-"

"Don't 'Lois' me. Give him a chance to open up to you."

"Okay. But right now I'm just going to mope some more and imbibe deadly amounts of ice cream." She reached for the chocolate syrup.

"Really?"

Chloe thought for a moment. "Maybe. Like, half a chance. I'll give him a chance to explain himself, but only because you're blocking my way to the chocolate syrup."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Lois handed her the syrup.

"Good."

Chloe realized that Lois had been upset too-or else she'd given up on staying healthy, which was highly unlikely. "What happened with Clark?"

Lois sighed. "I don't know. He just, he just won't be honest with me. I feel like he's keeping something from me. And I know, we've only been 'seeing each other' for a few days . . . but I don't want to start this relationship off with lies."

"I understand." She did. She also suddenly had an idea. "Ever had a chocolate syrup shot?"

"No. I haven't. Does it involve alcohol?"

"Just pure liquid chocolate." Which was worse in some ways, and better in others.

"So we're going to have a sugar hangover tomorrow?"

"If we do it, we'll be in a complete sugar coma."

"What do you mean 'if'-let's do this."

Lois grabbed two shot glasses. "Perfect."

"Ready?"

"Yup."

The next morning Chloe felt like she was about to die. If she started sweating, she'd probably sweat out pure sugar instead of salt.

"I hate you." Lois mumbled.

"It was your idea to pull out the vodka after we ran out of chocolate." Evil bitch and her stupid ideas.

"You didn't say no."

No, she hadn't.

They were both lying on the couch in extremely uncomfortable positions. It was still dark outside. Chloe looked at a clock. Five-thirty in the morning.. Lois had come home around one, and they'd fallen asleep within an hour of bitching and moaning.

They heard a noise at the door. "Do you hear something?"

"Yes, Lois, I do. Now please stop being so loud. Did you lock the door on your way in?" Chloe whispered.

"I think so."

They heard a loud noise behind them. Suddenly, the door burst open, and hands grabbed them from behind, covering their mouths with some sort of cloth.

Apparently Lois had indeed not locked the door. Not that it would have mattered anyway. Because the windows had been locked. And these people had just broken their way in.

That was the last coherent thought Chloe had, because the next thing she knew she felt darkness.

Chloroform.

"Lex." Chloe felt like she was going to be sick-and not just because of the alcohol, the ice cream and the chocolate. This was a terrible day. A terrible week, altogether, really. Maybe a terrible month. Actually, Chloe decided, it was just a pretty horrendous year.

"Who else would it have been? Really, you'd think Clark would have learned by now not to leave the women in his life unattended."

Oh, lovely. It was about Clark, of course.

"Especially since you, Miss Sullivan, have such an interesting relationships with all of the heroes-" he spat at that. "-in the neighborhood."

Lois vaguely understood that there was some sort of undeclared war going on between Clark and Lex. But she didn't understand what she and Chloe had to do with this. "What's going on?"

"This is the last stand, Miss Lane. I'm tired of waiting. So I thought I'd take something from Clark, and wait and see until he and his superhero friends decide to show up. And meet, of course, with a trap."

"Oh, Lex. Gloating really doesn't look good on you. Have you never seen any of those movies with those crazy villains who for some stupid reason decide to disclose their master plan to those they hold captive? Well, this is one of those really, really dumb moments."

Lex walked close and stared down at Chloe. "If I were you, I'd keep those snarky little comments to yourself." At that he reached down and smacked her across the face. Hard.

"You'll regret that, Luthor," Lois promised him.

"I don't think I'll regret much of anything. I hope you enjoy your accommodations."

He left Lois and Chloe in the dark, smelly, dungeon-looking room.

"You know, Chlo, I'm surprised no one has ever just . . . killed him before."

"They've tried."

Lois had questions for her cousin, now that they were alone. "Chloe. What is this about Clark? And how does he know all of those superhero friends of yours?" Apparently her baby cousin was keeping a lot more secrets than she'd given her credit for.

"Lois, this really, really isn't the time."

Lois looked around. "I think we have nothing but time."

Warning: Chocolate syrup shots are not nearly as much fun as they might sound. I know this from experience. Though, if necessary, don't use the fudgy chocolate, the liquidy stuff works better. Anyways, I promise lots of Ollie in the next chapter. Hehe.