Breakable

Chapter Four

Summary: Chloe and Oliver are friends. When certain unforeseen events unravel in both their lives, the two make a pact that can either prove that theirs is a friendship that could break and remain broken or break into something more. Chlollie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, Superman or Batman

Author's Note: I know I have "Written Out" still left to finish but I got so inspired by the Dark Knight that it's general tone absolutely begged for the last few chapters to be re-written. Thanks for all those who have posted their reviews and favorited my stories. Rest assured that I will be finishing "Written Out". It's just that this plot bunny has been wreaking havoc in my brain and wouldn't stop until I've committed at least part of it to paper.


Chloe woke up feeling like her head was being cleaved into two. Regretting her decision to find the answer at the bottom of a beer bottle, she was even more in awareness of this regret trying to figure out where she was. She looked down at the expensive cotton pajama top she had on and was scared to look underneath the sheets as to what she would find there. Closing her eyes and sliding her hands down, she was grateful to know that the pajama top came with a pajama bottom. She let out a sigh of relief only for that fact, still not sure where she was but settled back onto the soft king-sized bed. With her eyes still closed, she was trying to recall the prior night and the incident with Clark and Lois springs fresh and unbidden when Oliver appears at the door in a matching pajama set with a breakfast tray. "Sleep well last night?"

Chloe sits bolt upright at this and immediately regretted the sudden movement. She jumps out of the bed and goes into the adjoining bathroom where she went worshipping at the shrine of the porcelain god. Reaching for a fluffy towel embroidered with the Queen's crest, Chloe tries to push down the panic at not remembering anything from the time they left the Daily Planet up until the point where she wakes up in Oliver Queen's bed. Even more embarrassing was that as she sat on the bathroom floor, dry-heaving, Oliver was holding back her hair away from her face and making soothing circles at her back. Ollie helps her up and hands her a concoction that he urges her to drink. Not knowing where to start, Chloe condescends to drink the proffered brew that tasted suspiciously like sewage water.

Oliver guides her back toward the bed and pushes her gently to sit, asks her with the utmost concern, "How are you feeling?" Settling beside her on his bed.

"Like crap." Suddenly, aware of where she was and uncomfortable at how he was acting, Chloe stands up as if electrified, "Uh Ollie, we did not…. We were not…"

Amused at how flustered she was, Oliver was half-debating on whether to end Chloe's agony and tell her nothing happened or have some fun. In the end, she tried to settle on a compromise of both. "No. Nothing happened Chlo. Mrs. Annesley dressed you."

"You let some strange woman undress and dress me?! What were you thinking?"

Raising his eyebrow at this, Ollie shot back, "And you'd rather that I did it?"

"Good point. Thanks!" Relieved, Chloe sits back in Ollie's bed beside him and reaches for the cup of coffee that Oliver brought in with the breakfast tray. Munching on a piece of toast, Chloe takes a long and luxuriant sip of the coffee.

Oliver reaches out to take Chloe's hand in his, seriously deadpans, "And if you think that I make a habit of taking advantage of plastered young women, whatever the tabloids may say, you don't really know me that well. I figured that you should at least try to get to know me more than that seeing that I'm going to be your husband soon."

At this Chloe chokes and squeaks, "Husband? I never agreed to do any such thing? If this is one of your hare-brained idea to get Lois jealous, Oliver I'm not signing up for it."

"If you're not then how come you're wearing my ring around your neck." Ollie retorts cheekily, not wanting to waste an opportunity to tease Chloe. "Why don't you go about Star City for today and get used to the idea Chlo. Why wait until you're 40 and I'm 43?" Having fun at Chloe's expense during this point in both of their lives seemed cruel but Oliver couldn't resist. With that, he stands up and kisses Chloe on the forehead before heading out.


Oliver was in a foul mood after his 10:30 a.m. appointment. Clark dropped by and they exchanged heated words. It all started with a newspaper article which Clark threw at him when he just barged into his office, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Oliver deadpans, "It's uncanny how we think alike. I was going to ask the same of you when you were snogging MY girlfriend senseless whom I was planning on making MY fiancée."

"Is this some sort of revenge? Because if it is, leave Chloe out of it."

"Okay let's ignore the real issue totally and fixate on this one particular tabloid story."

"So are you telling me that it isn't true? That you didn't ask her to marry you and that she did not accept this preposterous arrangement?"

"I don't see why I have to explain myself to you but," glancing quickly at the newspaper headline that Clark was confronting him, "this story is 100 pecent true."

"How could you use her like that?!"

"Consider the source. It's like the pot calling the kettle black." This conversation bringing up a memory of a past argument about the intrepid blonde reporter and an internet intercept mission gone awry. "At least, I had the decency to give her a choice in the matter. Whereas, your brazen abuse of Chloe's kindness is nothing short of stealing candy from a baby. Please don't insult my intelligence by saying that you care for her. So as you have no prior appointment, I trust that you know where the door is and how to make use of it. Or may be you don't want to deprive me the pleasure of throwing you out." Standing up and dismissing his unwanted guest, leaving Clark no choice but to storm out.

Mulling over the last 48 hours, he couldn't fathom how his life could have unraveled so quickly. Lois Lane was the woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with and his entire being was certain of this but what he couldn't understand and surprised him was the anger he felt in behalf of Chloe. Picking up that day's edition of the Daily Planet, Oliver read through the article which recounted in almost painful and exact detail, his conversation with Chloe that night. Worse still was the screaming headline, "Desperate Affair: The Billionaire and his Spare". As he gazed the picture of him and Chloe at the bar which was obviously taken just that morning, he was incensed at the lack of privacy and barked for the number of his public relations people who were obviously not doing a very good job.

Stepping out of his office after this explosive exchange, Ms. Younge an intern that was hired approached him with much trepidation and handed a note from the aforementioned Chloe Sullivan.

"Dear Ollie,

Meet me at the park right outside your apartment after coming off work. Around 6 p.m. if that's okay? There are things to be said.

Chloe"


Sensing further confrontation, Oliver was by turns irritable and despondent until the appointed time. At promptly 6 p.m., he makes his way to the park and having arrived there, finds Chloe sitting on the park bench with a copy of the Daily Planet, resting ignored on her lap. He approaches her quietly and clears his throat to announce his arrival. "You okay Chlo?"

Chloe turns around and smiles up at him, "Hey Ollie, why don't you sit down beside me." Patting the empty space beside her. "You okay Ollie?"

"If I recall, I asked first."

"I'm…" pausing as to whether she could get away without the truth, Chloe sighs in resignation, "I'm not okay but I will be."

Noticing a wheeled trolley near her, "Do you have travel plans that I don't know about or is that really a very big day bag Watchtower?"

"I'm going away for a while Ollie. I had a friend of mine from the DP come to pack my stuff and bring it here. I'll be flying off from Star City in 5 hours."

"To where?"

Staring fixedly at a distance, Chloe tries to piece together an appropriate response. "Can't tell you. Don't really have a clue."

"Are you in trouble Chlo?"

"No more than I normally am. I'm fine. Mob bosses are not chasing me. Even, Lex is not after me for once. I'm going away for me and not because of a story"

"So I take it that you're breaking off our engagement and this is your way of leaving me at the altar when you're 40."

Chloe laughs at this, she nods towards the old married couple taking a stroll in the park hand in hand. "Look at them Ollie. They seem so happy."

"Well yeah. Just you wait until we're married Chlo. A couple of old coots married to each other just like that." Oliver sneaks a sidelong glance at Chloe who was enthralled by the tableau before her and has not once looked at him since he came.

Just then the old married couple faces each other and kisses, "Just like that Ollie?" Chloe teases.

"Well if you're not against it…"

"Don't be silly Ollie. Will you be serious for a while," swatting his arm in frustration. "What I'm trying to say is that I want you to have that. So I'm giving this back." Chloe hands him back the ring.

"Why?" Fingering the ring that Chloe has pressed into his open palm.

"Because I don't want to be girl you settle for when you can't have the one you want to settle down with. Because marriage is an important enough decision and difficult enough to be saddled with low expectations. Because I want to have someone kiss me as if I were breakable like that. Because I'm not going to let myself be the girl who will lull you into complacency and stop you from trusting someone else with your heart again so that you could have that kind of love in your life. I love you Ollie but I think we have to mean more to each other than being friends and shared broken hearts because if there's even just an iota of a chance that either of us could have what that couple had, then we should never give up hope. So that's why I'm giving you the ring back because that ring is meant for the girl who will hold your heart and know how to treat it properly."

"How did you get to be so wise Watchtower?"

"Well it happened this one night when I found my best friend slash the love of my life making out with my cousin. Then, I was crazy enough to let me get myself drunk and agree to marry someone who I was friends with which could have ruined the friendship. The truth of the matter is, I don't want to come in 2nd anymore. I was 2nd when it came to my Dad's job. 2nd in Clark's life to whatever or whoever it was that he was currently chasing. I think I deserve to be 1st choice and not the optional go-to girl. I don't think I'd survive if I were once again relegated to being someone's spare."

Oliver nods in understanding. "Chloe at least let me take you to where you're going. Make sure you're safe."

"I am." A companionable silence settling between them. When it seems like they could both stay that way forever, Chloe broaches the topic, "Lois called me today. She read the article."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing of consequence." The sadness in her eyes attesting to a truth that was left unsaid.

"I see. Clark came by the office today. We exchanged a few words."

"Oh Ollie! I hope you minded your manners and did not fight." Her voice both soft and chastising at the same time.

"Well. We fought. That's what boys do."

Finally averting her eyes from the old married couple, Chloe looks askance at Oliver's profile, "That was a stupid comment anyhow, considering that you're still alive if you did fight. What did he say?"

Shifting his body so that he could face her, he leans in, "I take offense in your poor opinion of me. I think I'm able to hold up in a fight with Boy Scout but thanks for your concern. As for what we talked about, none of your bees wax. At any rate, if I were up to disclosing, does it matter? "

"No."

"I hate it that this feels like good-bye. My publicist can fight this stupid article if that's what had you running. Write to me Chloe. Every day."

"I will. But promise that you won't track me down. It's not your fault but I just want to get away from everything associated with that night. I hope that you understand."

"In some way I do." Leaving the thought unfinished, Oliver wants to make a clean break from all the pain, "It's just too bad. If we've gotten married I can guarantee that we'd have hot make out sessions every night that is guaranteed to make you forget your name." Smiling his crooked grin at her.

She laughs with him. A funny little chortle escaping from her making them both laugh even harder and for that one moment they were just two friends talking about everything and nothing all at the same time, "Ew…and I suppose I have to take someone's authority on your claim Mr. Queen. And which girl is this ringing endorsement coming from?"

Oliver suddenly turning serious, "Lois actually." And just like that the moment has passed and their laughter died down to nothing as the howling wind seems to carry it into the oblivion of silence.