--5--

Chloe had seated herself to look at the newspapers left for her after clearing away the failure of a breakfast. Almost instantly she found herself fascinated. Metropolis had changed a lot since she was a kid.

She was surprised to discover that not only Lionel, but Lex Luthor was also dead. Oliver Queen, once he'd learned to stay out of trouble, seemed to be having an enormous economic influence on the area, although some sort of energy project--a solar tower of sorts--had apparently collapsed in a freak accident.

She stared at the photo of the building on fire, unable to put her finger on what seemed off about it. She wondered at the idea that the paper had so readily dismissed the idea that it might have been damaged on purpose. That seemed much more likely to her than an accident. But then, why would anyone have a problem with a project so good for the environment? she wondered.

More interesting than business, however, was the crime in the area. Or rather, the lack thereof. Sometime in the last few years, several vigilantes had started making appearances in Metropolis. Some with ridiculous names like the Red-Blue-Blur, which was eventually shortened to The Blur. She realized Lois had been the one to write the story and she felt another pang of envy for her cousin. It was the kind of story Chloe would once have killed for.

There were others, too. Almost all the stories were by Lois, she noted, although she wasn't always sure she pegged them correctly from the get--go. The Green Arrow Bandit, for instance, proved after several papers to be much more than the petty criminal Lois had originally painted him as, and his name was eventually shortened to the Green Arrow--sometimes nicknamed the Emerald Archer.

Chloe found herself staring intently at the police sketch that had appeared in the first article on Green Arrow. Something about it bothered her, as though it weren't quite accurate, but she doubted that even with full memory she would know exactly what the man looked like. What's the likelihood of that? Although...maybe he rescued me at some point? she thought vaguely. Maybe that was why she found him so intriguing.

Regardless, she noticed that ever since the appearance of these two, as well as a few others, crime in Metropolis had decreased dramatically, and the police force seemed to have straightened out quite a bit. Probably trying to cover their asses, Chloe thought doubtfully.

She was reading an article on an explosion that had destroyed some Luthorcorp building down by the river about a year ago when Bart came out of nowhere. She clutched her heart.

"You scared me!" she laughed.

"How you feelin', 'licious?" he asked her, kissing her hand gallantly and handing her a tulip, eyes twinkling. "Remember anything else?" He glanced at the newspaper article she was reading and raised an eyebrow.

She shook her head sadly. "I don't think so."

"That's okay," he said confidently. "It'll come back."

Chloe wished she shared his optimism. She looked around the room. "I thought Oliver said you were bringing others."

Bart glanced at her in amusement as he pulled an apple out of Oliver's fridge and swiftly devoured it. "I raced them upstairs. They're on their way."

"Who?" she asked him curiously.

"Some guys who work with us. AC, Victor, and Dinah. Dinah even made it in from Paris for you," he added happily.

"More coworkers?" she asked.

He grinned. "You seriously underestimate your relationship with the people you work with, beautiful. We're like family. Mostly thanks to you," he added thoughtfully.

At that moment, two men and a woman appeared in the doorway.

"Hi, Chloe!" Dinah said pleasantly. "How's the pia mater?"

Chloe shrugged.

AC stepped forward to give her a warm hug so tight in nearly knocked the air out of her. "You scared us to death, you know."

Chloe returned the embrace, surprised by how comfortable she instantly was with it. "So I keep hearing," she laughed.

"Remember me at all?" he asked her, pulling away so she could study him.

Chloe tried to, but after a moment she gave up. He didn't seem upset, though.

"It'll come. You met me your senior year of high school. I bet you remember me before the tin can over there," he joked, looking at Victor.

"Tin can?" she asked.

Victor rolled his eyes, hugging Chloe in turn. "Don't worry about it."

"So what are we doing today?" Chloe asked them, thinking it was pointless to stay in Oliver's apartment so that four people could essentially babysit her.

The boys glanced at Dinah, who rolled her eyes dramatically but grinned. "The boys want to play laser tag. You and I can find something else to do, I'm sure." She winked at Chloe, and Chloe had the impression that Dinah was a sort of fellow-conspirator. Probably because she's apparently my only girl friend, Chloe rationalized.

"Sounds like fun," Chloe said.

So she allowed herself to be kidnapped by them for the morning, and eventually found herself sitting at an outdoor cafe across the street from the laser tag building, chatting with Dinah. Chloe discovered she was constantly distracted by Dinah's long brown hair. It didn't suit her at all. She wondered vaguely what the woman would look like blonde.

"So can you tell me what exactly I do for a living?" Chloe asked eventually.

Dinah smirked. "Unfortunately, I've been forbidden to tell you anything of the sort. But trust me, you're really good at what you do. We're kind of a team, me, Oliver, and the boys, and we'd be completely lost without you." She gave Chloe a friendly smile before taking a sip of coffee.

Chloe sighed in frustration and Dinah laughed.

"I told Oliver he was going to have his hands full trying to keep it from you. But you know," she added seriously, "it isn't that none of us wants you to know. We can't tell you directly, but we'll be relieved no end when you figure it out or remember on your own."

Chloe grimaced. "If I remember."

"When," Dinah corrected. She studied Chloe for a while. "This is nice, you know."

"What?"

"You don't usually go out with us. I mean, granted, we're not always all in town at the same time. The job tends to require a lot of travel, but still. You've gotten to be relatively anti-social, Chloe."

Chloe looked surprised, and a bit worried. "Have I? Why?"

Dinah glanced across the street rather than meeting Chloe's eyes. "You've been through a lot. The last couple of years haven't exactly been good to you, Chlo. To be honest, you've developed some very well-justified trust issues, I think."

Chloe remembered what Oliver had said to her that morning: 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.

She looked at Dinah. She had the suspicion that Dinah wasn't going to beat around the bush with her. She'd either tell her the truth or say she couldn't say anything, but there would be no cryptic middle ground with her.

"Dinah?"

"Hmm?"

"Do I trust Oliver? Normally, I mean."

Dinah looked at her thoughtfully. "Yeah, you do. Of course, it took him a while to earn that trust. He went into a downward spiral a while ago--"

Chloe's mind flashed back to her internet search on Oliver.

"--but once you pulled him out of it, he started working really hard to prove himself to you."

Chloe coughed, having swallowed her coffee the wrong way. "Once I pulled him out of it?" she sputtered.

Dinah smiled knowingly. "Surprised?"

"You might say that," Chloe said in a high-pitched voice.

"The man wouldn't be able to tie his shoes without you, Chloe, which he's no doubt mentioned by now. You pretty much saved his life. He was trying to throw it away."

"Why?"

Dinah looked nervous. "He was suffering some major guilt."

"About what?"

At that she smiled ruefully.

"Let me guess," Chloe said irritably. "You can't tell me."

Dinah nodded. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Chloe said unconvincingly. "I wish I understood why my life has to be so mysterious to me. It's my life, after all!" she said, waving her hand in such frustration she accidentally sent her fork flying.

Dinah chuckled and Chloe glared. "Sorry, it's just--well, you'll understand when this is over. Promise."

After a long pause, Dinah gave Chloe a look of deep thought.

"What?" Chloe asked.

Dinah chewed on her lip. "I really want to tell you something."

"What?" she repeated eagerly.

"Don't get all excited. It's nothing that will really help you put the pieces together if I'm being honest, but I've wanted to talk to you about it for a while now."

"Oh. What?"

Dinah narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Well, let me ask you something first."

"Okay."

"You've kind of been getting to know Oliver all over again, right?"

"Yeah, basically."

"What do you think of him. First-impression-wise?"

Chloe wasn't sure. What did she think of Oliver? "I don't know."

Dinah raised an eyebrow. "I'm not going to tell him or anything. I'm just curious. Whatever comes to mind first."

Chloe sighed. "Well the first thing I thought was that he was incredibly attractive, and then I wanted to know why in the world my boss would be checking on me at the hospital."

Dinah smiled slightly, and nodded. Since she didn't tease Chloe about thinking Oliver was attractive, Chloe trudged ahead a little more comfortably.

"Right now, it really bothers me that he's insisting on keeping all these things from me, but at least he's been up front about it...unlike Clark," she added bitterly.

"What about Clark?" Dinah asked sharply.

Chloe bit her lip. "Supposedly he and I aren't as good of friends as I would have expected."

Dinah shook her head a little sadly. "You're not. But he'll come around. He cares about you. He's just...a thick headed alien sometime."

"Alien?" Chloe laughed.

Dinah rolled her eyes. "Sometimes the man acts like he's from another planet. Trust me on this one."

Chloe just giggled.

"But back to Oliver," Dinah pressed.

"Well...I guess, even though it bothers me and I'm having a hard time trusting him, I can tell he really cares about me." She thought of the way he had stayed with her during the night, how genuinely concerned he'd been. Then she looked at Dinah hopefully. Perhaps she was going to finally explain the enigma of her relationship with the man.

Dinah had that knowing smile on her face again. "Interesting."

"Why do you ask?"

"Well," she said slowly, "like I said, I've wanted to talk to you about him for a while. I've just known you wouldn't listen. I'm kind of hoping that right now you will since you're..."

"More of a blank slate?" Chloe suggested bitterly.

Dinah laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Here's the thing," she looked Chloe dead in the eye. "The two of you are driving me absolutely crazy."

"What? Why?"

"You're in love with each other."

Chloe sputtered. "What?"

"You are," Dinah insisted. "Trust me."

There's that sentence again, Chloe thought irritably.

"You're both just too stubborn and too blind to admit it to yourselves, let alone each other."

Chloe could only gaze at Dinah in shock. Slowly she recovered. "Don't be ridiculous," she said.

"I knew you'd say that," Dinah laughed, shaking her head. "It's true, believe it or not."

"Okay," Chloe said, trying to be realistic. "I could believe that I would fall for someone like him--it would be hard not to--but what could he possibly see in me?"

"You underestimate yourself."

"I know myself."

"You know your fifteen-year-old self. Don't you think you've changed since then? You're a pretty formidable woman, all things considered, and Oliver has you on a pedestal. He thinks you're amazing. He's just too busy running around trying to save the world to realize he's in love with you."

Chloe felt her whole face turning bright, tomato red.

"Really, Chloe. I'm telling you as a friend. I care about both of you a lot, and I want to see the two of you happy. I'm telling you now because I think you've forgotten a lot of things that would make you run away from this. Right now you aren't so scared of everything. I want you to hang onto that feeling as you regain your memory. Okay?"

Chloe looked at her wonderingly.

The corner of Dinah's lip twitched. "I'm not telling you to throw yourself at him or anything. Just, bear it in mind."

Finally Chloe nodded. Dinah looked relieved and glanced up in time to see the boys exiting the laser tag center. "Oh look. Bart won. What a shock." She rolled her eyes.

Chloe looked up and giggled, seeing that Bart was clearly bragging unbearably to the other two men.

"We'd better go get him before AC and Vic push him in front of a car," she said, dropping some cash for the tab before getting up.

Chloe followed in a cloud of confusion, trying to comprehend what Dinah had told her. It didn't seem possible that she was friends with someone like Oliver, let alone that he was in love with her.

But then, wasn't I the one thinking there was something else going on with us? she reminded herself. Granted, I didn't expect something like this, but...still. It fits. Sort of. In a really weird, unexpected way.

She shook her head and brought her attention to the fact that AC had Bart in a head lock and was talking casually to Dinah over the top of him.

She glanced between Dinah and AC with an amused, intrigued look. Smiling, she realized that maybe Dinah needed a little of her own medicine.