I was actually in the midst of posting this story over to my site when I found this... it's pretty put together although could do with some editing/revising BUT... I figured better this than nothing at all so...

Chapter Eight

While Oliver was alive, barely, he could be taken care of at the closest fully staffed medical facility, which Clark had literally run him to. However, Chloe wasn't so fortunate. According to every standardized medical exam, she was dead – a medical staff anywhere would declare her so and send her to the morgue.

When the rest of the team met near the Batplane after the facility had been completely evacuated, personnel fleeing down the road that led up to the buildings, Victor hit the detonation switch and everyone still in the area watched the destruction of another 33.1 lab.

As debris began to rain back down to the ground, the team began boarding. AC, with Bart following closely behind, was holding the body of Chloe close to him, wrapped tightly in an emergency blanket. Just as Batman and Cyborg moved to enter the plane, a woman in a dirty lab coat ran up to them.

Her hair in disarray, obviously having been caught closer to the blast than anyone should have, as petite as their Watchtower and clearly anxious about being seen with them, she shoved a flash drive into Batman's hands and got straight to the point.

"Mr. Luthor will want her back; he won't let her go, no matter how many times she gets away from him. You must make sure that Ms. Sullivan is never found again."

"She's dead, Lex can't very well need her now." Cyborg responded while Batman assessed her.

"If you know anything about her ability, you know that she probably isn't dead." The scientist said quietly, looking behind her and then back to the costumed pair. "Mr. Luthor knows a lot about her ability, he knows she can die and come back to life, he won't give up on her so easily. If she's truly dead, you'll need to cremate her and then get rid of her ashes, somewhere he'll never be able to get hold of them." The woman turned, obviously getting ready to run after her colleagues.

"Why are you so concerned about the disposition of Ms. Sullivan?" Batman growled, making the woman turn around but causing her to step backwards.

"Several of us aren't here because we want to be, Batman. Mr. Luthor has been blackmailing some and coercing others." Looking back over her shoulder, her anxiety showing clearly. "Mr. Luthor kidnapped my mother, my husband and my son. As long as I did what he told me to do, they were safe; I saw them via CCTV every morning and every evening. With the destruction of the lab and…." She trailed off dispiritedly.

"All the information that Mr. Luthor had us gather on Ms. Sullivan, in and out of the lab, is on that drive." The woman nodded to the gloved hand of Batman and then turned away from them once more.

"Do you have any idea where your family is being held?" Cyborg called to the retreating form.

The woman stopped, turning around she shook her head sadly before running off once more.

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Dropping AC and Bart off near the hospital Clark had run Oliver to, Victor and Bruce set off with the body of Chloe Sullivan. Reaching Wayne Manor in a short amount of time, the two set Chloe's form on a cot in the medical bay. Not understanding exactly how Chloe's power worked, Alfred and Victor opted to set up all the needed medical equipment in one of the bedrooms in the manor itself, to deal with the injuries they knew about as Bruce went through the information downloaded from the lab's mainframe as well as the flash drive.

When all was ready, Bruce carried Chloe's body up to the chosen bedroom and laid her out on the bed. Beginning to unwrap the emergency blanket from her naked and wounded body, the three men were shocked to find a great deal of blood pooled between the woman's legs.

"She must have…." Victor started but couldn't finish, his mind having flashed on the video they'd all seen of Lex's rape of Watchtower.

"Spontaneous abortion." Bruce said in as neutral a voice as he could while he and Alfred continued to unwrap and then begin to clean the body.

Within minutes, Chloe was hooked up to all the machines that were or would be needed to gauge if she was alive and then to maintain her life if she … if she came back to life after the partial healing of Oliver and was unable to heal herself. As the machine that was set to read her brain activity was turned on, the three men found themselves holding their breaths.

A moment later, the switch was turned on and a monitor flickered to life, giving them a read out of extraordinary activity in a brain that, by all current medical standards, was in a dead body.
.

As the days passed, the only thing that gave them any hope of Chloe's coming back from the darkness she lived in after a healing was the continued brain activity. Having contacted Lois and Senator Kent to let them know they'd found and rescued both Oliver and Chloe, Bruce found himself hosting the petite blonde's cousin. While he wasn't too happy with having the woman around, he was grateful for her willingness to sit vigil at Chloe's side so that Alfred, Bruce and Batman could attend to their own duties.

AC had returned with Clark to Metropolis in order to continue their tours as the Green Arrow while Bart and Victor maintained surveillance on Lex. All four of them tried to rotate guard duty shifts on Oliver Queen, who'd been transported to Star City as soon as he was stable enough for travel via a Queen Industries jet.

The day Oliver emerged from his medically induced coma, Bruce Wayne had actually been in a face-to-face meeting with several other people, including Lex Luthor. It was quite a coincidence that the other four members of the Justice League had been in the hospital at the time.

After Oliver was sedated, they all realized that what had been said to the blonde billionaire could have been phrased significantly better. However, what Clark had said was, essentially, if not technically, true. Chloe was still dead, and if they hadn't known about the brain activity that Lex and his scientists had discovered, she'd probably have been placed in a morgue by this point in time.

The time that Oliver awoke and was clear headed enough to carry on a true conversation, although still addled from pain medication and his body's need to sleep, Bruce was with him. However, as he began to fill the blonde billionaire in on things, Alfred called with news.

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Lois was sitting at the desk near the bed containing the 'dead' body of her cousin, reading a magazine, when the machine monitoring the extraordinary brain activity that was happening inside Chloe, sounded an alarm.

Before Lois could actually get to it, a bright light, emanating from Chloe, pulsed so intensely that she had to shield her eyes. It only seemed to flare for a few seconds before disappearing and Lois heard Alfred's abrupt entrance into the room.

Blinking several times to clear her eyes, Lois stood and leaned over Chloe's bedside. Alfred was already there, looking down with, what was to him, shock – all her uncovered bruises, scratches and open injuries seemed to be healed.

Alfred cautiously lifted the bandage from a shoulder that had, moments ago, been a non-healing bullet hole and found it completely healed, as if no wound had ever been there. The two checked the rest of Chloe's body and found no sign of the traumas that she had suffered.

Glancing back to the machine monitoring her brain activity, they found it significantly reduced, but Chloe still seemed comatose.

After a moment of consideration, Alfred was the one to break the silence of the room.

"I must call Master Bruce. I'll bring you your afternoon tea once I've done so, Miss Lane."

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