--4--

Chloe's shrieks sent Oliver sprinting down the hall at one in the morning. His heart pounded as he envisioned any number of things attacking her. He burst into her room to find it empty other than her. Chloe was thrashing about in bed, half-asleep, crying and screaming in torment.

He rushed to her side and nearly got his nose broken as he tried to pull her away from the tangle of sheets and into his arms.

"Chloe! Chloe, wake up!"

Slowly her writhing stopped and she seemed to become conscious of the fact that whatever nightmare she had been having was no more than that, but sobs wracked her body.

Oliver shushed her quietly, squeezing her tightly. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay," he told her over and over again.

And then she managed to get the words out, barely coherent through her sobs but enough that Oliver understood.

"I was buried alive."

Shock coursed through his entire body. What a horrible thing to dream! He held her tighter and sat down on the bed, pulling her onto his lap. "It was just a dream, Sidekick. It's okay--"

But she was shaking her head.

"It happened."

His heart stopped.

"In high school," she breathed, her body slowly starting to relax but tears still streaming down her face. "Clark--he found me. I don't know h--how," her throat caught.

"Oh my god," Oliver muttered, shaking his head as he hugged her still more tightly. He knew Chloe's knack for attracting life-threatening situations had begun long before he'd ever known her, but never in his wildest dreams had he imagined her going through something so traumatizing. She'd never once spoken of it. Not that I blame her, he thought.

Chloe was still crying audibly. He'd could only imagine what it had done to her when it had been more than just a dream. He felt positively nauseous at the very idea. He stroked her hair soothingly. "It's okay, Chloe. I'm here. Nothing like that will ever happen again. I promise." He kissed the top of her head.

Chloe clung to him desperately, unable to shake the trapped feeling, the knowledge that her death was not only imminent, but would inevitably be slow and painful. She had been unable to convince herself to stay calm.

After a long time her crying ceased. She seemed to have run out of tears as Oliver rocked her slightly, stroking her hair. She laughed weakly.

"I'm sorry I woke you up."

He rolled his eyes. "One of these days, Sidekick, I'm going to put it in your job description that you're not allowed to apologize. Of all the absurd things to say--"

"I couldn't think of anything else," she stopped him. "To say, I mean."

He chuckled quietly. "Don't worry about it. I'd stay awake every night of my life if I had to for you."

Chloe found her cheeks growing hot, grateful it was too dark for Oliver to notice. What a thing for her boss to say to her, even her friend. She slowly latched onto a suspicion that there was clearly something else to her relationship with this man. The way he was holding her--clutching her to his chest while rubbing soothing circles over her back--it didn't have much of a brotherly feel to it.

"Who are you?" she wondered aloud, frustrated with her inability to work it out.

Oliver frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean who on earth are you? How on earth did you end up in my life and what kind of convoluted relationship to we have and how in the world did it get started?" she vocalized her confusion.

He laughed lightly. "When you figure that one out, let me know. I've wondered the same things a million times myself." Seeing that she was sufficiently calm, he started to release her, assuming she wanted to go back to sleep, but she clung to him more tightly still.

"Please don't," she said. She couldn't admit it out loud, but she was afraid to be alone after that dream. Oliver seemed to understand, as he reached to pull the sheet over them before wrapping his arms lightly around her again.

When Chloe woke the next morning she felt disoriented, unable to recall where she was. Images swam around in her mind but slowly the memory of the hospital and her supposedly being hit by a car came back to her.

As all of this seeped back into her memory, she slowly became aware of the fact that she was not alone.

Oliver Queen, in shirtless glory, was lying beneath her, his arms around her just as they had been the night before. Somehow, they had sunk away from their upright position so that she was now lying on his chest.

The memory of her nightmare came back to her and she fought back a shudder. In the night, she had been inexpressibly grateful to Oliver for staying with her. Now that she felt more clear-headed, however, she was embarrassed. She was uncomfortably aware of the fact that maybe he knew her, but she still knew virtually nothing about him. Waking up in his arms felt far too intimate considering that from her perspective, she'd only met him a couple of days ago. She wasn't sure how to handle the situation, so she carefully slid off of him without waking him and went to take a shower.

It was the sound of someone turning on the shower that woke Oliver. At first he wondered how he'd ended up in the guest room until he recalled Chloe and her nightmare. He banished the thought from his mind. The idea of Chloe buried alive was more than he could take. There was nothing he could do about that now, but it called forth in him some mad desire to do something, to rescue her from an incident that had happened years ago. I'm losing it, he thought wearily.

As he sat up he had to admit the situation was strange. It had been a long time since he'd spent the night with a woman, and this was not exactly the norm even for that. He glanced at the shut door of the bathroom and suddenly had to shove away the image of Chloe in the shower.

"Oh yeah," he grumbled sardonically, "I should definitely get out of here." He pushed himself off of her bed and headed for the kitchen.

In the shower, Chloe found that her brain simply would not shut off. Determinedly, it recounted everything she had remembered the previous day, categorizing things. The list of answers was short and concise. The list of questions was never-ending and absolutely impossible to sort through.

The list of suspicious circumstances and suspected secrets was ever-growing. She had a strong impression that there was something very unusual about her relationship with Oliver Queen. Besides that, he was definitely hiding something vital from her. Bart Allen working for him and being so informal with him made absolutely no sense. Something was evidently very wrong with her and Clark. Clark was definitely hiding something--not that she had the slightest inclination as to what that might be or whether or not it was the same thing Oliver was hiding. Lois was living Chloe's life for her, and Chloe had no idea how that had happened.

It went on and on. Her head hurt with the effort of trying to remember what on earth was going on with her life.

When she came out--fully dried, fully dressed, and fully dreading another day of confusion and ambiguity--she found Oliver meditating.

She was about to turn away, not wanting to interrupt what was clearly requiring a lot of focus, but he spoke before she could.

"There's breakfast on the table for you if you want it," he said without moving. How he'd even noticed she'd entered the room, she had no idea. Her tongue was still stuck to the roof of her mouth because he was still shirtless.

She glanced over to see a plate of blueberry pancakes. "Have you eaten?"

"Yep."

"Oh."

Oliver opened one eye to look at her inconspicuously. She looked uncomfortable. He couldn't blame her. She was probably a lot more embarrassed about last night than he was. To her it had been like sharing a bed with a stranger. For him it had been strange, but not something to dwell on. He stood up from the mat and walked over to join her. She looked like she wanted company, and he was still concerned about how she felt after remembering what she had.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, grabbing some orange juice and sitting down with her as she picked at the pancakes half-heartedly.

"Weird," she said honestly.

"Fair enough. Are you sure you're okay after last--"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"No problem. Did you at least sleep better after that, though?"

Chloe nodded, her cheeks hot.

"I told Bart to drop by some old newspapers for you. We figured it might help you."

Chloe's face brightened. "Yeah? When's he stopping by?"

"He's already been."

Her face fell. "Oh." Then she frowned. "When? I didn't think I was in the shower that long."

"Bart's extremely efficient. It's why I hired him," Oliver dodged.

"Why did you hire me?" she asked suddenly.

Oliver looked at her in surprise.

"Really. What do I actually do, anyway?"

Oliver looked at her for a long minute. He'd never had to explain himself for hiring Chloe before. It hadn't needed an explanation. "You're extremely skilled with computers. I have yet to ask you for information you couldn't get me. You're incredibly organized, operate exceptionally well under pressure, work really well with the others, and--quite frankly--everyone loves you."

Chloe looked astonished. "Wow." She paused. "Thanks."

He shrugged. "It's just facts. Honestly, I feel bad that I haven't been telling you that on a daily basis. I really should."

"But what do I do?" she asked again, not wanting to be sidetracked from this crucial point.

He looked wary. "I told you before."

She glared. "Don't try feeding me that personal assistant line. Even if that's essentially true, it doesn't tell me a thing."

Oliver sighed heavily. "I can try to explain it, but just be aware that this is one of those times where I can't tell you everything."

"Why not?" Chloe interrupted. "It's my job. What's so secret about that?"

"You have no idea how ironic that question is. Look, you wouldn't believe the truth if I told you. Just trust me."

Chloe felt herself losing her patience. "Why should I trust you? I don't even know you!" She regretted the words almost instantly when a tortured look flashed across his face, but she insisted to herself that it was true.

Olive rose from the table, not wanting to look at her. "No, Sidekick. You know me. Better than anyone, actually. You just don't remember me."

"It's the same thing!"

"It's not!" he rounded on her, aware somewhere in the back of his mind that he had no right to lose his temper with her.

"From where I sit it is," she fired back, matching his volume.

"Well from where I sit it's not! You do know me, Chloe. And I know you! Probably better than Lois or Clark by now!"

Chloe looked shocked.

"So do yourself a favor and have a little faith in me, would you? For once in your life, you're actually going to have to trust someone. I know how hard that is for you, but do it."

CHloe didn't know how to respond. "I--" she stammered, "I'm sorry."

A feather could have knocked Oliver down he was so surprised. The Chloe he knew never would have let him get away with that, let alone apologized to him. "Wait...what?" He looked dumbfounded.

CHloe stared at her now room-temperature pancakes miserably. "You're right. You haven't given me any reason not to trust you. And I know Lois never would have suggested I stay with you unless she trusted you implicitly. I'm just really lost. A huge chunk of my life is missing," she looked at him pleadingly.

Oliver's mouth was open. "Did you just tell me I'm right?"

She stared at him.

"You never do that."

She wasn't sure what to say.

"Wow." He paused. "I--I guess I'm sorry I went off on you. I know you're having a rough time. I"m just frustrated because--" he hesitated, "--because I miss you, I guess." He glanced at the clock. "I have to go. Bart's coming back in a while with some company. They'll look after you for the day."

When he returned later he was dressed for a business meeting carrying two ties. "What do you think?" he asked her lightly, holding them up for her and trying to forget that he just been way to harsh with her.

She accepted the lifeline readily, but didn't like either tie. "Don't you have anything green?" she asked. "I feel like that color would suit you best."

Oliver pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh. I can't wait til she remembers everything so I can make fun of her for that. He went to get his only green tie, an olive green, understated one. He tied it poorly, and Chloe laughed at him.

"You're not very good at that, are you?"

He shrugged, chuckling. "I've gotten used to you fixing it for me, I think. Wanna do the honors?" he asked, surrendering the poorly shaped knot.

"I've never tied a tie," Chloe said awkwardly.

"Oh," he said. Way to go, he thought, noticing that she seemed agitated again as he fixed it himself, paying more attention this time. He was on his way out the door when he paused, turning back to her. "You should be fine with Bart and the others, but call me if you need anything at all. Okay? I don't care what it is. Just call."

She nodded meekly.

"And--well, be careful."

Chloe looked up but he was already gone. What an odd thing to say.