A/N. Back again. Somehow Ollies bit doesn't seem quite right so sorry about that!

Chapter 15

Chloe

Being back home was a blessing and a curse, like what she had seen or not she missed Lois and Clark, her best friends. Knowing she would have to confront the situation, or at least acknowledge that something had happened made her focus on the problem at hand. At the end of the day who was she to stand in the way of true love, if that was what it was. What she didn't want was to see either of them hurt by the other, that would be way too much drama. Besides which she really had been through far too much with the both of them to lose them over this.

Arriving back at the apartment she shared with Lois she knocked instead of letting herself in, not quite prepared to see something else she was not ready for. A moments thought while she waited for Lo to answer told her it wasn't true, she didn't want to disturb what might be an intimate moment between two people she cared for deeply. It was as if a switch had flipped at some point showing her something different.

Grumbling from the otherside of the door made her smile before she heard Lois say her name in a loud voice, "Chloe?" The door was open and the taller woman had flung her arms around her in an unexpected display of affection, "why are you knocking?" She watched as Lois's face broke into a familiar grin, "you do live here." She moved inside, "I didn't know if you had company." Turning Chloe looked at her, her eyes were sparkling and the look on her face was teasing. "About that Cuz," Lois began before Chloe cut her off, "forget it."

"Chloe, it was an accident," the other woman persisted, "won't happen again." There was determination in Lois's voice that made Chloe smile softly, "sure it won't." And that was the end of the conversation with her cousin. Lois had turned a brilliant shade of pink before grabbing the bag the blonde woman had taken with her, "wow, feels heavy." And with that Chloe knew that the interrogation would begin.

The night had brought a feeling a aloneness that she had not expected, no depression in the mattress next to her, no clicking of the remote to flick the tv from channel to channel, no breathing except her own. The smell was still with her although less strongly than it had been over the past few nights, she was wearing the shirt she had borrowed from him. Lying on the side of the bed that had been her own for the past few nights she felt the bunched pillows wishing that they could change to him, so she could have his warm breath tickling the hairs on the back of her neck. Sullivan! A mental castigation of herself forced her back to reality, come the morning she would have something else to focus on, dealing with Clark and writing an article.

Clark was already waiting for her when she walked out of her room, "Chloe?" There was contrition in his voice, the pleading for forgiveness that he didn't think he needed to express. "Morning Clark," she said in answer taking the offered coffee a smile on her face as she looked at him. The minutes, hours and days they had spent together meant that he didn't need to ask the question and she didn't need to vocalise the answer. Really no crime had been committed and no forgiveness was needed but the warm smile she gave him and the peck on the cheek was her way of letting him know without saying anything.

They sat together in the living room while she told him what had happened and he drip fed her coffee. She saw his brow furrow when she mentioned her night time foray into the dark, dank streets of Gotham. "It's worse than anything you can imagine Clark," she said trying to verbalise how depressing, oppressing it had felt. "It just felt like there was no hope." Her mind focused on the dark suited Batman, a city that needed a hero. "I'm fine," she added almost as an after thought, "besides I knew I just had to call."

Clark was on the verge of saying something when Lois appeared, "Smallville?!!?" her cousin just about squeaked out. Chloe smirked as she watched the looks that passed between the two, panic, fear, lust? Hiding her smirk behind a slurp of her coffee she enjoyed the flavour until an uncomfortable looking Clark stood, "I better go, chores, farm..." the sentence wasn't finished before he had already made for the door, "I'm glad you're back Chloe." There was no time for an answer before he was gone.

Looking over at Lois she noticed that she hadn't quite gathered herself together which gave Chloe pause for thought, had she been right? "I gotta go to work, I have an article to write and an editor to please." Rolling her eyes she rose, picked up her stuff and with a wave was gone from the apartment herself. She guessed things were back to normal, or at least as much as they could be, for now.

Oliver

He had slept fitfully on the flight to Russia. The seats on the jet converted to beds but it wasn't as comfortable as his own beds, the one at Queen Mansion and the one at the Watchtower both of which had been custom made. Nor indeed the bed he had shared with Chloe at the hotel in Gotham. What little sleep he did get was plagued by the nightmares he had shed for one solitary night.

Eventually he gave up and stared out of the window into the pitch black of night waiting for night to turn into day. The expression on his face gave nothing away. It was one long practised, designed to betray nothing. At least to no one who was on this flight with him, which consisted of a single flight attendant and the pilots. The flight attendant was sound asleep, Oliver could hear her snoring lightly. They stopped to refuel once, not that he paid much attention. All he wanted was for this flight to be over so he could get back to work.

That particular wish was granted as soon as his plane touched down on the tarmac, Bart there to greet him with a limo behind him. "Figured you'd need some wheels." He could tell Bart was itching to get moving, staying still had never been one of the younger man's greatest qualities. "Get in Bart," he said with a half smile, "once we get to our facility we can get to work." Sitting in the car he listened to Bart prattle on about nothing, only really noting the occasional mention of Chloe's name.

It had taken him longer than he had thought to reach the small hut that the boys had been working from the past week or so. It wasn't much, at least from the outside. Inside it was clearly a Queen Industries construct and once they were done some of the local employees would remove anything that might identify who had been there. A.C. greeted him with a half smile although it didn't really matter what the situation was he always managed to look as if he was just back from the beach. Victor was straight down to business as soon as the door was shut, describing what they had found. He listened and took in everything that was being said forming a plan but before they went in he wanted to eat.

How he got through the mission he couldn't say, it seemed to pass by in an incredible blur of running, shouting and other noises he couldn't quite grasp. Even though he had been distracted when he shouldn't have been somehow they had done it. It was like being on automatic pilot now. Sometimes it seemed Lex had no desire to make it difficult to destroy the 33.1 facilities, like it wasn't as important as they thought it was. That worried him. Perhaps the ones they were finding were meant to throw them off track, keep them from finding the true meaning of what Lex was really up to. That there was more, something else, to see to find Oliver had no doubt he just needed to find it. And that meant focus, drive, determination and .... He wasn't sure. Maybe shutting whatever was left out of his life, if he wanted to rid the world of Lex and his minions then he could do that, would do that. Couldn't he?

They were heading stateside or at least he and Victor were. A.C. had decided to swim back, taking time to get back to his aquatic roots, he needed rest and recovery time. Bart said he had too much nervous energy and after gorging himself was running back to Star City, in fact he was probably already there, eating again. He gave Bart a hard time on occasion but it didn't mean he didn't care, he did and he was happy to keep the younger man in as much food as he needed for he was a valuable asset as well as a friend.

Unable to rest Oliver took a sip of the champagne offered by the attendant, just one glass, he told himself, one glass and maybe he could have a dreamless sleep. Several glasses later Ollie finally drifted off into a deep slumber, but one not as peaceful as he hoped.

It was her, with her cropped blonde locks, megawatt smile, her keen mind and her ability to make him smile. Only she wasn't smiling, her body was limp, her eyes were closed and her skin was pale, tinged with blue. In his sleep he mumbled her name, twitched as in his dream he cradled her in his arms. He was calling her name, begging her not to die, not to leave him. And then as if by magic her body shuddered as she drew in breath opening her eyes to look up at him and with that Oliver settled into a deep dreamless sleep.