After returning from the hospital, Chloe hadn't spoken a word to Oliver. Instead, she had shut herself away in her room, and polished her finished article. Working helped to divert her attention from the hurt she was feeling.

Everything had been going so well, but the lack of denial from Oliver had her convinced that she had been right in her assumptions. He was hiding something from her - so much for basing their relationship on honesty.

She had really wanted to believe that they had the real thing, that they could make things work. The last thing she had wanted was for Clark to look right.

Chloe glanced at the clock on her computer. It was still early in the morning, and the silence of the mansion reflected that. None of the boys would be up before five-thirty at the earliest.

She needed to know that she was paranoid, and that Oliver had been honest from the beginning. For once in her life, she wished to be proved wrong, and there was only one way she could achieve that in a house full of heroes.

Getting up from her desk, she quietly left her bedroom and headed down towards the hidden meeting room. She would happily confess and beg their forgiveness afterwards, but she was an investigative reporter, and that meant using all resources available to you to find out the truth. It wasn't as if she hadn't warned him already. She just didn't want to be made a fool of again.

After letting herself into the room, she headed towards Victor's small equipment library. Thanks to his near anal obsession with cataloguing, finding the bugging devices was easy. Their simplicity made hiding them easy too. Queen Industries was set to make millions once these babies went into mass production.

Chloe had decided to position the listening devices in this room only. If Oliver knew something about Merlyn, there was a good chance that the guys knew to. They were helping to protect her; there is no way that Oliver would compromise their safety by withholding the facts.

If she didn't hear anything over the next two days, she would pack up the equipment and make her apologies.

With the last one in place, and the connection up and running, Chloe slowly made her way to the kitchen. One positive that seemed to remain from the previous day was that she wasn't in as much pain as before. Walking still hurt, but she didn't feel the need to grab every available surface nearby to take the pressure off.

Another reminder that she was the first person moving around was very clear. She had to prepare the coffee machine for the first brew of the morning, something she normally didn't have to do. One of the guys normally had the freshly ground beans waiting for her; just needing her to hit the magic button to produce her one weakness. She had become accustomed to being spoiled by her friends. It would be something she would miss when she finally returned home.

"Good morning."

He watched as she avoided eye contact with him as she returned the greeting.

She got down from her stool, looking like she was going to walk from the room. He reached out towards her and gently grasped her free hand.

"Please, Chloe, just…listen to what I have to say."

She made no attempt to leave; instead she stood there looking up at him with a mildly surprised look on her face. "Okay."

"I want to apologise for what I said last night. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that, and I should have known that you needed to see your mum. I was scared of losing you," he gripped her hand a little tighter, hoping that she understood. "I took my fear out on you, and it was wrong. I'm sorry."

"Ollie…I'm not angry about that. You know that I understand, and that in hindsight, my actions were rash. I would have felt the same way. I just can't shake the feeling that you are hiding something from me, and my instincts have never let me down yet."

"I'm not hiding anything from you." The lie was bitter on his tongue, and the regret at being unable to tell her the truth was hurting him more each day.

He regretted not telling her before, but he knew that given the chance again, he would make the same decisions. The truth was that he could find a way to survive the dissolution of their relationship, but there would be no recovering from her death.

Merlyn had posted that note on his door for a reason. He knew that his identity was still intact; otherwise his enemy would have exploited it by now.

The real intention had been to invoke a sense of distrust in Chloe, between her and the Green Arrow. That note would have confirmed any suspicion she had had over the existence of his secret. Merlyn wouldn't have known just how deep the consequences would have run for him personally.

His fears were the only thing preventing him from telling her the truth now. Two parts of him continued their struggle. Oliver wanted to be honest with his girlfriend, just as he promised he always would. Green Arrow wanted to do whatever it took to keep her safe and away from Merlyn.

One thing was certain; he was too close to the situation to make an impartial decision. With Chloe, there was no way he could keep his heart separate from his head. He couldn't be trusted to make the decision to tell her the whole truth on his own. He needed to hear what the team felt was the right thing to do before trying to come clean.

"Ollie?"

"Huh?"

"You were off in your own little world there for a while."

"I'm sorry. I didn't sleep much last night." At least that much was the truth.

"I just said that I was going to call the hospital before heading back to bed. I didn't sleep that well, either. Sounds like we could both do with a post-sleep nap."

He smirked, "Yeah, sounds good."

She reached up and kissed him softly on the cheek. "I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"Okay."

As he watched her walk away, he swore to himself that he was going to make it up to her.

After ending the call, Chloe lay back on her bed and looked up at the ceiling, trying to organise her thoughts.

She had called the hospital and spoke to the new consultant in charge of her mother's wing. Her mom's responsive state remained as Chloe found her the previous night. She was no longer catatonic and was able to move her fingers. As of yet, there were no other signs of improvement, but the doctor had assured her that they were investigating the cause of the sudden improvement.

Chloe had a theory of her own. Moira's condition had been stable until her own move to Star City. Maybe it was possible that Chloe's own ability was slowly pulling her mother from her coma. Every time Chloe thought she had seen or felt something, it was directly after touching her.

Once she was no longer feeling that target on her back, she would go back to the hospital, and try actively healing her mother. It sounded so simple; she wondered why she had never thought of it before.

Images of fully healing her mother floated through her mind as she drifted to sleep.

It was a few hours later that a continuous beeping woke her.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she noticed that her computer was alerting her to movement on the surveillance equipment. Sliding from the bed, she made her way to the desk and put in her ear piece.

"I tagged the guy about half a mile from the house. He didn't even know I was there," Bart boasted as he opened a bag of chips.

AC walked past him as he paced the floor. "Why would he stick that note to the door? Everything this guy does is for a purpose. If he was calling an end to your bet, why would he bother telling you? He would lose his advantage."

"Yesterday was day twelve. He's become desperate. Two more days and he would have had to admit defeat, so he tried to find something to void the deal. The note was for Chloe's benefit, not ours. He wants her scared and unsure. People make mistakes when emotions are running high – just look what happened with her mom."

Victor sat nursing his coffee before looking at Ollie. "I'm can't believe he has found something to legitimately void it. We've all been so careful."

Oliver was standing by the window, watching the fading light of the day. He turned back to his team.

"It wouldn't take much; a conversation twisted to his benefit, an article of clothing that looked like a costume. He wants Chloe dead, but more than that he wants to preserve his deadly reputation. She's more than just a loose end for him now; she's a chink in his ego."

Bart threw his empty packet onto the chair next to him. "If you were that sure he'd find a way out of it, why didn't you just tell Chloe from the start?"

"I couldn't take the chance." He ran his hand over his face, remembering the night he had spent with her. "I did try to tell her once, but she fell asleep and didn't hear a word of it. I took it as a sign to keep quiet for the moment."

"It's a sign alright," Bart chipped in "It's a sign that Chloe scares you."

AC threw a pillow at his teammate's head. "Cut it out."

Bart held his arms out in defence. "Dude, I'm serious. He's got a reason to fear her. If she ever finds out about this, he's a dead man."

"That's why I'd rather tell her before she finds out. I know it's not going to go down well, but she deserves my honesty."

"After Merlyn's little love note, she needs to know sooner rather than later," AC said, finally stopping his pacing.

Oliver raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So you guys are happy with me telling her outright?"

Victor turned his full attention to him. Oliver could see the seriousness in his friends face. "She should have known from the beginning."

He couldn't reply. Victor was right.

He had broken the rules from the start by involving the team. There had been no real excuse for keeping her in the dark, aside from his own selfish reasons. Keeping the secret from Chloe had only prevented her from getting actively involved and trying to save the day on her own.

Anyone else, and he may have done things differently. It wasn't about not trusting her; it was about him having no control over the situation.

"I can't go back now. I can only let her know now and just hope she forgives me."

"So what do we do about Merlyn now? We have his location thanks to Bart." AC asked.

"You guys head out to the location and scout it out. If you have an opportunity to take him down, do it. I'm going to stay here and keep watch over Chloe."

"Sounds good to me," Bart said jumping up "The guy won't know what hit him."

She had called for a cab five minutes ago.

"I couldn't take the chance."

The final words she had heard replayed through her mind. She had heard more than enough to confirm her suspicions and the earpiece was now lying discarded on the bed.

Chloe fought back the tears as she looked around the room that had begun to feel like her own. The place that had been specifically decorated with her in mind seemed cold and empty. All of her belongings and personal touches now lay within her packed bags.

She felt like a fool for believing Oliver. She had honestly believed that they had something honest, and based on mutual respect. Now after hearing his conversation with the guys, it was easy to realise that he had only showed her so much interest to keep her close.

He had found the perfect way of keeping her near; using her vulnerabilities to his advantage. It worked. He had kept her close enough to keep an eye on both her and Merlyn's movements.

All to win a challenge.

Her life had already felt like one big competition; she was more than tired of games.

As her thoughts spiralled the ache in her chest grew. Chloe put a hand there, hoping to push the pain away, but the pain only lingered. The betrayal she felt made her realise just how deeply she had fallen in love with Oliver.

She felt ashamed of loving so easily. She was making the same mistakes over and over again, regardless of the city she lived in. With Oliver she had felt hope, and had really felt like there would be a future together.

It was now that she had to make her stand, to learn from her past mistakes. Once Merlyn was out of the picture, she would revert back to her original plan, and stay far away from the 'heroes' of the world. It would be hard to isolate herself again, but it would be the cleanest break. Her heart would never recover from this, but she needed Oliver out of her life before the bitterness swallowed her whole.

Her laptop was the final thing to be packed, safely alongside the surveillance equipment she was 'borrowing'. She intended on using the tracking system Victor had developed to locate Merlyn herself, and make a deal of her own.

It was time that she played a part in getting herself out of the trouble she was in. She had made this mess, so it was down to her to clean it up.

Chloe had come to realise over the years that the only person she could ever really rely on was herself.

It was with that final thought that she finally broke down and sobbed into her hands. There was never going to be a happy ending for her.