Chapter Five
Calling the other three core League members, they all met at the headquarters in Star City, where Bart gave them the story he'd already told Oliver.
"The place was bombed; there wasn't anything left in there. The entire third floor apartment is gone, guys."
The police had been called when Chloe's neighbors had complained of excessive noise, sounds of fighting and a 'bunch of men in black' storming the apartment. Before they'd gotten there however, the entire apartment had apparently been the product of an explosion. The fire department had shown up just minutes after the police but the fire was too hot and involved to do anything but save the neighboring apartments and making sure the roof didn't collapse on the building.
Canvassing the area had gotten the League very little actual useful information. Victor hacked into the police department database and found that the apartment fire had been ruled arson as it appeared that it had been wired to completely obliterate anything and anyone in the place. The investigating officers and firefighters had been overheard as jokingly saying it looked like some type of auto-destruct setup like you'd find in some super spy movie and that whomever had done it, did it with surgical like precision.
Five days later, as all but Bruce were in the penthouse back in Metropolis, they were gathered around Oliver's desk going through a bunch of data that Victor had put together for them when something started beeping. Clark's hearing zoomed in on the source before anyone had a chance to look around and he led them to a black USB storage stick that sat on the shelf next to the picture of a young Oliver with his parents in front of their yacht.
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Oliver picked up the storage device knowing that it had to be from Watchtower and quickly went over to the computer station and plugged it in.
Whatever information it contained would have to be looked at later as there was a video that immediately began to play.
Chloe, dressed as Watchtower, complete with wrap around shades, filled the screen.
"If you boys are watching this, then something has happened to me. Whether it was death, kidnapping or my having to go underground, I don't know and I want all of you to know that I don't blame any of you for anything.
"This USB holds the location of two backup storage facilities for everything that was in my apartment. If I was able, that apartment is no longer as I spent a lot of money and time making sure that, if something happened to me, the information there would be destroyed. If that isn't so, the computers are completely secured and you'll need the passwords that I've provided. By secured I mean that if they are not accessed correctly, and aren't accessed within the next three days, the data in them will be destroyed – they are also wired for self-destruction.
"My apartment has a few security cameras within it as well as a couple that records what happens outside the building. If whatever happened, happened at the apartment, the two storage facilities would have some type of record of the incident up until the apartment was destroyed, of course.
"If I had to go underground, for whatever reason, I will attempt to contact HQ, but it won't be soon. As Green Arrow noted at our first meeting, I'm a bit on the paranoid side." She smirked at that.
For the first time, Watchtower seemed uncertain as she hesitated for a moment and then continued, in a much more intimate tone. "Guys, don't let my disappearance, in whatever form or shape it took, stop you from doing what you've been doing. You've accomplished so much in the short time you've all been together. My life has been spent in the pursuit of truth and I have no regrets in doing that. The sacrifices I have made have been more than worth it and I truly wouldn't change anything if it meant that what I've accomplished would be lessened.
"Don't let this defeat you. Truth and justice must come first; there are too many people out there who need it, who are counting on you to help them."
With that, Watchtower ended the video.
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Silence reined for several moments after the video as each of them appeared stuck in their own thoughts. Oliver fought to keep all of the emotions he was feeling, shoved deep inside himself; swallowing almost convulsively to hold in the primal scream of frustration, anger and loss from ripping itself out of his throat.
His voice, when it finally broke the quiet of the room, was clipped and hard. "Alright, let's find out where the storage facilities are and then see if there's any video we can use to find out what happened." When the others glanced at him, Oliver's eyes were intense and hard, his jaw clenched.
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One facility was in Seattle and the second was in Washington, DC. As they had been in Metropolis, Oliver opted to take them to the one in DC. The storage area was just a tiny, closet type space, in a rented facility. Not bothering with any of the hard copy information for the moment, Victor went straight for the computer and once passed Watchtower's security measures, he immediately downloaded everything. It would be easier to go through the information on the plane and at the clock tower.
Back on the plane, Victor located the security files and brought them up on the screen. Spending several minutes syncing the cameras with Chloe's communicator, he then rewound everything and started at the beginning for the others to view.
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Chloe had been going through the latest results of her information gathering programs when a buzzing sound interrupted her. Throwing her head up to look at the security monitor, she saw a small force of men dressed in black uniforms, gathering on the rooftop of her apartment building.
Quickly keying in the auto-destruct sequence for the apartment on her computer, Chloe grabbed her communicator knowing that it would start recording whatever it could capture, she then moved to the weapons rack that was against the nearest wall and put on a belt bristling with throwing knives. Securing a harness around her torso that carried a set of nunchaku's, a taser and some throwing stars, she then threw herself into action as the men breached her apartment – her objective, to kill or disable as many of her attackers as possible and to escape.
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Back on the plane, the League watched as Watchtower went into action, now focusing a lot more on the audio they were hearing rather than the poor video quality of the captured hard fighting.
Men were calling out to each other as Chloe made sounds that came from hard fighting. Sounds of struggle and then yelps of pain from male throats came over the speakers. A couple of oaths from Watchtower, sounds of gunfire, knives being thrown, painful indrawn breaths signaling that Chloe wasn't free from being wounded. More sounds of a struggle, men cursing, Chloe's indrawn breath on a silenced yelp of pain and then static.
A moment of silence and then Victor was typing out commands on the keyboard. "I'm going to try and clean up the audio, lighten the video, see if we can pick up any details."
For the next forty minutes, nothing was said among them, only the sounds of Watchtower and her assailants.
"Ok, let's try this."
Once again, the video was started and they watched Chloe, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, her long blonde hair braided and laying against her back, get ready for battle and then the men breach her apartment. They watched as she sent knives off camera, hearing the groans of the men they had come in contact with. As her assailants charged her, the League saw her become the woman they saw sparring with Oliver that first time, except this time she was deadly, not caring about the people she faced or the damage or death she caused.
While she was fighting with one in front, they saw another at her back but before he could do anything, she thrust a knife in to the throat of the man in front of her and turned to the one behind, catching his knife arm in a kick that sent the weapon flying off camera to the right. Gunfire sounded and Chloe grimaced, breath hitching on a strangled cry of pain, as blood blossomed on her left shoulder; when she turned to retaliate, they saw it was a through and through because there was blood on her back as well. The knife she had thrown off camera appeared to find its target, a male groan and a thunk as a body hit the floor almost simultaneously from elsewhere in the apartment.
Something happened off camera because one of Chloe's assailants appeared to collapse for no reason while Watchtower hurried off camera in the other direction.
They could see sparks coming from one of the computers and just off camera, there was a fire starting where the banks of her filing cabinets were. When the camera went offline, all they had was their imaginations to put together images with the sounds that were still playing over the speakers.
Another hitched breath from Chloe told them she'd either been wounded again or the bullet wound she had gotten earlier had been disturbed and then the sounds of a struggle and cursing. Watchtower's breath seemed to stutter on a barely silenced cry of pain and then the static of the end of the communication as the computers went offline.
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Another moment of silence was broken when Clark told them to play it again. The others looked over to him, understanding that they had to go through it again, it being their only clue as to who had kidnapped Chloe, but not wanting to watch their comrade go through her fight for survival once again.
While each of them had been in such battles, watching it, watching someone else doing it, for real – not something out of a movie – was difficult. When it was them, they were there in the moment, doing what needed to be done. They weren't bystanders of their own fight, they were active participants. It gave them a completely new appreciation for what Watchtower must go through whenever she was watching over them, whether it was the footage of Green Arrow's or Batman's eyewear sending the images, or just all of their communicators sending audio, back to her when things got dicey.
When they came to the point in the playback where the assailant had seemed to just collapse on his own, Clark called for a halt in the playback. "There's something there but I'm having a hard time filtering it out with all the sounds. Any way to clean it up a bit?"
Cyborg worked on the audio again for several minutes before replaying it.
While none of them could make out what had grabbed Clark's attention, whatever Victor had done was obviously enough for Clark's own abilities to decipher the rest, for Clark's expression grew stormy, jaw clenching.
His eyes flashing, he looked at the rest of them.
"Lex."
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The man who'd shot Chloe had been killed immediately. Clark said he thought the man probably wouldn't have been if the leader of the kidnappers hadn't been reporting to Lex via his cell at the time – it happened when Lex shouted at the man that he thought he had paid for professionals and since 'the woman' was now damaged, the price for the job had just been dropped, significantly.
"She was bleeding badly from that shoulder wound; we could try and trace her through that." Victor reminded them. "Unless…"
The others immediately thought of Watchtower's healing of AC but struggled with the possibility of her having bled to death.
Oliver nodded at the comment and added his own thought, "And since we know that Lex is the one who had her kidnapped, if we can keep him under surveillance, he should lead us right to her."
Before any of them could comment further, Clark interrupted. "I don't think they were successful."
The other men turned to look at him, Oliver looking impatient.
"Victor, rewind the last couple of minutes please."
Cyborg complied and all of them listened to what they thought was Watchtower's capture, but after Clark's comment, they weren't sure.
"Can you clean that up and enhance it more, Vic?" Oliver questioned the computer expert.
"I'll do what I can."
After another half an hour, where the others grabbed some drinks and food from the small airplane kitchen, Bart taking some to Victor, Cyborg called them over.
The last few minutes of the audio were a revelation actually. It appeared that Chloe had been able to get passed her pursuers outside the apartment building; the silenced cry of pain, probably from her jostling the bullet wound, was followed by the revving of a single motorcycle and then complete static as the apartment exploded, taking out the communication's connection to her earwig.
They all sat back, figuratively, some literally, for a few moments.
Bart was the one to break the silence. "So, Chloelicious is alive, probably gone underground. And probably being hunted."
Oliver nodded, agreeing to Bart's assessment. "That's why we're under surveillance, Lex is hoping she'll contact one of us. But Watchtower's too smart for that." Oliver thought for several moments while the others popped in with their own comments.
"What I don't understand is why he tried to kidnap her, I don't think we've been under surveillance that long. What made him want to grab her so quickly instead of just watching her, finding out who she was in contact with."
"I think I know the answer to that." Victor's voice stopped Oliver from continuing on with his own thought process. "I've been going through the information that Watchtower was looking at that evening. I got further than she did."
Victor pulled up what he'd found, putting it on the monitors.
It was a succession of stills from a security camera at one of the LuthorCorp buildings. Watchtower holding her side, clearly in pain and moving down a hallway; Watchtower crouched down low in a dark corner, blood seeping from a wound in her side; her hand covering the wound; the hand beginning to glow; the glow intensifying; the glow dying; and then Watchtower, moving much more easily, escaping.
Oliver closed his eyes, hand going to the bridge of his nose, as Victor stated the obvious.
"Lex knows about Watchtower's healing ability."
"How did he find out Watchtower was Chloe and what does that mean for us?" Oliver stated.
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Green Arrow gave the job of first shift of watching Lex, to Bart, letting him know that he'd be relieved by someone in a few hours and the teenager took off with a blur of colors and burst of wind, knowing that the sooner he got to watching Lex, the sooner they might find Watchtower or be able to take baldy down.
Once back at the clock tower in Metropolis, the others discussed a schedule for spying on Lex and continued to go over all the new data Watchtower had been going through that night, inputting everything into the database she had created for them and then continuing with their other duties. It didn't matter to the rest of the world what had happened to Chloe and no matter what the Justice League was going through, they still had other things to concern them.
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Lionel strode into his son's office at LuthorCorp, bristling with frustration.
"I've just been informed that you're supposedly trying to kidnap a woman who you believe to be Chloe Sullivan."
Lex looked up to his father without changing expression. "That's right, Father." Looking back to his paperwork on the desk, he smirked before looking back up. "You know, there's no statute of limitations for murder."
Lionel's expression grew hard. "If you think you can pull some woman off the street to pose as Ms. Sullivan to testify against me, I'd say you have another think coming, son. I have been acquitted of those charges, because of Miss Sullivan's demise. I can't be tried for that crime, a crime I am completely innocent of, again; it's against the law."
"And we all know what an upstanding citizen you are, don't we, Dad?" Lionel had come to stand near the floor to ceiling windows, looking out at the Metropolis skyline and turned to face his son at this last.
"Lex, son, I don't know why you are trying to do this, opening old wounds and involving an innocent woman in this dispute between us but – "
"This isn't a dispute, Father, and the woman isn't innocent nor is she someone just off the street. It's Chloe and she's been going by the name 'Caly Scott' and is the infamous 'Watchtower,' that's been causing me and you nothing but problems, for the last several years." Lex had opened his top desk drawer and pulled out several pictures, standing up and tossing them on his desk.
Lionel looked to the photos. His curiosity getting the better of him, he came closer to the desk and picked them up. Flipping through them, he found some stills of a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman at some type of event, flanked by Oliver Queen and Clark Kent, then another of the same woman entering an apartment; the next was of an older Chloe Sullivan with long braided hair exiting the same apartment building; the last was of a woman, all in black, striding down a LuthorCorp hallway, evidently leaving after some breaking and entering.
His mind working quickly, Lionel kept his reactions to himself. "What makes you think this 'Watchtower' is this 'Caly Scott?'"
"I've been having Chloe watched. At the same time, I've been trying to track down Watchtower." Lex moved to his mini bar, pouring himself some scotch while offering his father some. Lex knew Lionel wouldn't accept any because he didn't want to take the chance that Lex would poison him as he had his own son those years ago.
"I find it interesting that Watchtower was sighted not far from Chloe's apartment building. And when my security force tried to apprehend Chloe, she showed considerable skill at killing several of them." Lex glanced to his father, meaningly.
Lionel looked to his son, "I take it, your 'Caly Scott' got away then?" He did so enjoy tormenting Lex.
Lex, however, didn't rise to the goad. "She was shot. We'll find her; it's only a matter of time." He didn't say anything about Watchtower's apparent healing ability and, if that was true and Caly was Watchtower/Chloe, Lex was certain that she'd healed herself of whatever damage she had sustained during the failed abduction.
"And what do you plan on doing with her when you find her? If this is Ms. Sullivan and she is this 'Watchtower,' do you think that she'll be content with stopping at just trying to put me away for murder – something we already know I'm innocent of?"
Lex smirked at his father once again. "Father, you aren't innocent of anything." He walked back to his desk from the mini bar after pouring himself a bit more of his favored alcohol. "I have my own plans for Chloe."
Lionel looked at his son but couldn't read anything from his expression, his mind continuing to go over everything. Knowing that he wouldn't get anything further from his son on the subject, he decided to pull his own security into the equation of getting ahold of Ms. Sullivan. If Lex apprehended her first, he would probably use her against him.
His mind thus preoccupied with the problem, Lionel left his son's office.
Lex smiled with dark humor, looking at Lionel's back as he exited the office.
"Goodbye, Father
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After some time in his own office, putting things into play with shadowing his son's actions regarding Chloe Sullivan, Lionel requested his car to be readied.
The senior Luthor made his way down to the parking garage, one of his body guards meeting him near the elevator, and they headed to the sleek, black limo together. The driver was already at the wheel, leaving the body guard to open the door for Lionel, closing it behind him after the older man was safely inside. As the guard made to get into the passenger side of the cab, the driver pulled a large gun with a silencer affixed to the end of the barrel from his coat and put two bullets into the man.
Before Lionel could react to the muffled gunshots, the driver turned towards the cargo area of the vehicle and fired four bullets into the elder Luthor.
The body of Lionel's personal security was found in the parking garage ten minutes later. By the time the alert was put out, the limo had been left in an abandoned lot and Lionel was very dead.
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While the murder of Lionel Luthor was incredibly shocking news to the business community and the world at large, it was little more that the proverbial blip on the radar screen for the Justice League.
Over the next three weeks, they passed all the information they'd found to Batman, keeping him in the loop with their search for Watchtower; continued to keep Lex under surveillance, obviously much better then he was able to do with them; ran down every lead they could find in regards to any of Chloe's personas and watched Oliver with growing concern.
While the disappearance of Watchtower weighed heavily on all of them, Oliver seemed to be taking it significantly harder. He spent every waking moment going over every single bit of data that any of them had pulled together; showing up at all hours to relieve whomever from, or to check on, surveillance of Lex and was flying between Star City and Metropolis at least three times a week so that he could patrol his home city in the hopes of finding a lead on Chloe.
Queen Industries' business had basically been delegated to his associates, something that was entirely unheard of, with specific instructions not to bother him unless it was of dire importance. If it wasn't for his team, Oliver wouldn't have 'wasted' time with any of the necessities of life such as sleeping, eating or shaving. As it was, he was doing very little of the first two; the only reason he was doing the third at all was because Green Arrow suddenly appearing with the makings of a beard would have been noted.
Queen's playboy persona was as established as Bruce Wayne's; always arriving at any function with a statuesque woman on his arm, sometimes two. He was always in the society pages and in several tabloids every week. However, unlike Wayne, Queen had actually been rumored to be 'in love' a time or two. The playboy he had been in his younger days wasn't who he really was since becoming the Green Arrow, of course, but he always played it.
It was this last, when the press started to speculate on Oliver's lack of companions over the last few months, that the League, until then hadn't thought anything about, started cluing in on their leader's overall behavior.
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If it hadn't been for Clark, Oliver Queen would have been outed as the Green Arrow that night. As it was, it was a very near thing. It also forced the others to pin Oliver down on what was going on with him.
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Clark and the rest of the League had made a habit of checking in with Oliver every morning before they started their duties. However, Bart had decided to run by the Clock Tower one evening, very late, before heading back to his own city. Not finding Oliver in the penthouse, he assumed that Green Arrow was out on patrol. However, their leader's gear room was wide open, something that none of them had ever known him to do when he wasn't right there, and Green Arrow paraphernalia was spilled all over inside it on the floor.
Concerned, Bart checked out the rest of the penthouse and noticed that Oliver's bedroom didn't look like it had been cleaned since Watchtower's disappearance, clothes overflowing the laundry hamper, dresser drawers pulled askew, closet doors opened with clothes on the floor and hangers thrown haphazardly around.
Blinking at the mess, Bart ran out of the Clock Tower and did a speedy round of Metropolis. Not finding Green Arrow on patrol, Impulse decided to call in the rest of the guys.
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While Bart called the rest of the team, Clark ran around the city, using his x-ray vision to check inside buildings and his super hearing to listen for any signs of wrong doings that Green Arrow might be trying to stop. A half an hour later, Clark came upon the restrained and unconscious form of the green leather clad hero in an alley near Suicide Slums.
Using his abilities, Clark checked Oliver over for broken bones and internal injuries but interrupted himself when his hearing picked up sounds coming their way. Breaking the bindings at Oliver's wrists and ankles, Clark eased his friend's body into his arms and supersped them back to the Clock Tower just before the gang members came into view.
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After speaking with Bruce over the secure line and Clark's assertion that Oliver appeared fine except for some contusions and lacerations, the rest of the team were heartened about their friend and leader's health. However, they decided to stay the night in the penthouse regardless. Bruce surmised that the reason Oliver was still unconscious, given that Clark didn't find anything serious and Bart's report of the condition of the penthouse, was that he was completely and utterly exhausted.
While Clark said that he would remain at Oliver's bedside to monitor his condition throughout the night, the others argued about how to proceed if he was still unconscious in the morning. At this point, Bruce suggested they wait to decide what, if any, action was to take place. With that agreed, AC sacked out in one of the guest rooms while Clark stationed himself near Oliver and Bart ran out to relieve Victor from his shift of surveillance of Lex.
Throughout the night, Clark checked Oliver's vitals and x-rayed him several times, keeping track of and looking for any and all changes that pointed to something more serious than what they were aware of.
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As morning sun drifted into the penthouse and the other two league members came out to the living room, Clark continued to make breakfast. AC made himself useful by setting the table while Victor checked through the computer programs that ran constantly. Clark brought everything to the table and AC filled up a plate for himself, grabbed a few bottles of water and then headed to the elevator.
Half an hour later, as Clark and Victor were cleaning up from their own breakfast, Bart came speeding into the kitchen. Loading up a plate with a large stack of pancakes, bacon, sausage and hash browns, he moved to the table. Having been relieved by AC, Bart gave his report of Lex's movements while he inhaled his meal, getting up for seconds and thirds before he was finished – and there wasn't much to tell.
Since Oliver was still asleep, the three decided to give Bruce a call, bringing AC in via his communicator link. However, before they could get too far into the discussion, Clark tipped his head towards the master bedroom.
"He's awake."
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Oliver was aware that he was running on fumes but he refused to stop; he was obsessed with finding Watchtower. The longer they went without some type of communication from her, the greater he worried about the woman who had so unraveled him. Oliver couldn't help thinking that it also meant a bigger chance of her being found by Lex and his goons, without he and the team to watch her back in some way.
Granted, Clark's and his combined interest of Caly Scott had definitely put her in the path of Lex's curiosity. Oliver wasn't only frustrated with the entire situation but angry at Clark and only slightly less so with himself. He had spent hours over the last weeks going over everything that he had done, telling himself that he should have done this or that instead.
Oliver was so focused on the situation that he wasn't concerned with anything else. The state of his personal areas spoke loudly of that as well as last night's patrol.
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He came awake very slowly, like a diver coming up from the pressured black depths of the sea. When he finally opened his eyes, Oliver felt as it there were weights attached to them, it was so hard to open them; eyelids fluttering, his blurry vision clearing and focusing seemed to take an excessively long time. Taking in his surroundings, Oliver realized that he was in his own room at the penthouse and his fuzzy mind came to the slow conclusion that either he made it home on auto-pilot last night or that one of the guys must have brought him back.
Moving, he let out a groan and grabbed at his midsection. Looking down at himself, Oliver found several bruises on various places of his body and, for the life of him, he couldn't remember how he got them. Taking several minutes to get out of bed, he began making his way to the bathroom to look at what the damage was.
Before he could get there however, there was a knock at his bedroom door which almost immediately opened without a word from him. Looking around, Oliver found Clark looking at him.
"Clark."
"Morning, Oliver. How are you feeling?"
Oliver blinked at him before sighing, "Like I went a couple of rounds with something. Are the guys here?"
"Understandable, considering the shape I found you in last night. Bruce is on the plasma with Bart and Victor in the living room. AC's covering Lex, so he's on the communications link."
Oliver attempted to hide a wince at the implication of the teleconference regarding his welfare. Sighing, he moved to his dresser, finding a pair of sweats, he pulled them on with another groan; Oliver didn't want to bother with a shirt but he didn't want to showcase the damage of what Clark had retrieved him from last night… whatever that was… and he was also aware that he'd lost a significant amount of weight as well.
Grabbing a wrinkled button down shirt, he slowly made his way out to the living room. Best get this over with as quickly as possible.
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While Clark was with Oliver, Bruce posed his thoughts to the rest of the team.
"Granted, I don't spend as much time with Oliver as the rest of you, but I think Watchtower's disappearance is having a greater impact on him than the rest of us." The other three League members made sounds of agreement but it was Victor who stated it.
"You don't have to go around the topic, Bruce. Oliver's been off a bit over the last few months, however, it's gotten significantly worse since she's been gone."
"Let's face it dudes, Oliver's in love with Chl… err… Watchtower." Bart summed it up.
AC's snort came over the line completely intact.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes." Victor commented.
"The question is, are any of you uncomfortable with that? Should there be any reasons for this to be a concern, other than the obvious?" Bruce questioned.
"I think if he just came out and told us, it would relieve a lot of the tension that's been building, in him and within the team. If we could get him to admit that Watchtower's disappearance is –"
"It's making me crazy." Oliver interrupted AC.
Clark had been listening to the others' conversation. Deciding that his friend needed to hear it, he had purposely allowed Oliver to walk first into the living room. They had been able to get within easy conversation range of the others in the living room without being noticed and his friend had heard Bart's comment and the replies that went after.
Since Oliver was the subject of the discussion and now understood that the team had guessed, correctly, what was causing his behavior, Oliver thought he might as well admit to it so they could get back to business.
Deciding to take the bull by the horns, the leader of the Justice League laid it out for his friends, hoping they'd let it go without too much discussion or trouble.
"Look… …" Actually, laying it out for them was a lot harder when they were all looking at him then it was when he was telling them in his mind.
"You love her." Bart said, definitely a statement and not a question.
Oliver sighed, closed his eyes and then nodded his head, looking back to those in front of him.
"That's fine with us, but you gotta pull your shit together, Dude." Bart continued.
"You're endangering yourself and the team, Oliver. You need to pull yourself together if we're going to find Watchtower and if you're strung out with exhaustion and your head isn't in the right place for this, you aren't going to be any use to us or her." Victor put in.
Queen nodded with understanding. He sighed and then put his hand up to the bridge of his nose. "Listen, I… I owe you guys an apology and an explanation but I just don't know what to say."
"Given the rumors that are floating around, about your lack of 'companions,' I suppose we should ask if this is actually real." AC asked over the comm.
Oliver nodded but said the answer out loud for AC's benefit since he didn't have access to video.
"This isn't just a long term fuck buddy thing is it? You're a playboy, Boss, and we don't want that affecting Watchtower, personally or team wise." Bart, as ever, was blunt.
Oliver's jaw clenched but he understood the need for what Bart was saying as well as implying. Swallowing and taking a deep breath, he looked at the youngest team member. "It's real, Bart." Taking a deep breath, he continued. "After the sparring session, we spent the entire afternoon together. Both of us were pretty shaken by … it. Neither of us were looking for this; it's a complication… a situation that we weren't prepared to be involved in.
"In fact, we didn't really talk about it… but we couldn't…" Oliver shook his head. "It's complicated and even though we parted with a lot unresolved and didn't talk about it, we both felt the same."
His shirt wasn't buttoned and when he threw his head back and moved the shirt to put his hands on his hips, the others saw what Clark was already aware of. Obviously, Oliver's state of mind was also showing on his body as it appeared that, over the time Chloe was missing, Oliver had lost at least fifteen pounds. Given that Oliver was in great shape, he didn't have the body fat to lose.
"You've lost weight, Oliver." Bruce stated the obvious.
The man in question raised his head back up and looked at himself, nodding his head. Looking back to his friends, he let his emotional state reflect in his eyes. "We need to get her back."
"We will, Oliver. We will." Clark put a hand on Oliver's shoulder, the others sharing the sentiment.
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