Okay, now if you're a fluffy light hearted reader that resembles a cute little bunny rabbit, I suggest you don't read the italics bit… it can get a little emotional in there.

Dark themes for the start, but they will clear up. Promise.

Chapter Fourteen; Tension

"Ollie. Where are you?" Chloe wandered through the apartment, only it seemed another power cut had left them blind. She couldn't even remember where she was. "Ollie. I can't see." Her left leg tingled and she froze, wafting her arms around where she felt it. There was nothing there. "Ollie?" Higher up her left leg tingled again and she swatted at it, trying to find the source. Again, nothing. Then again, and again, each time getting higher up till it reached her inner thigh. "Ollie, stop playing, stop teasing me." Teasing her, where had that come from? Like lifting a blindfold, the room came back to her, immersed in candlelight from all stable surfaces. "Ollie?" She blinked and Oliver set his hands on the bottom of her right leg starting the tingles again. His thumbs rubbed, massaging into her muscle and she moaned.

"You like?" he purred.

"Oh. I like." she agreed. His thumbs skimmed across her skin, past her knees and settled on her inner thigh again. When did she become naked? She looked at Ollie, he was still in his jeans. One hand traced patterns on her thighs, rubbing closer and closer to her core, but never touching. His other hand was holding a book.

"I found a new book." he told her, seeing her desperate eyes. "It's about you." She moaned and pushed her hips forward to try to find some real contact. She felt herself move, but Ollie didn't seem to get any closer. "It starts out where you are all alone. It's sad." He stopped speaking to drop a kiss to her stomach, his tongue dipping into her navel playfully and she writhed in bliss. Then he was suddenly gone, sitting again like nothing happened. "But, don't worry it gets better." he reassured her and his fingers slipped down to glide over her glistening sex. She gasped in relief and bucked her hips trying to get him where she really wanted him. Only, like before, it didn't seem to move him any. He ran his fingers up and down, coated in her juices as she moaned over and over, aching to feel him inside her. "See, you meet this man. He's sweet. A little cocky, but you secretly like it." He winked. "You like how he makes you feel. When he's inside you." Finally his finger plunged into her centre and she cried out his name. "No. It's not me." He laughed. "Silly girl."

"Ollie, please." Realising his finger had stopped moving he apologised and rubbed in and out of her as she ground her hips, trying to more friction, for more heat. For more.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh yes." He ducked his head down but when he came back, his entire body was covered in black, his voice dropping low and deep. "You like how I feel, when I'm deep deep inside you." She froze and tried to push backwards off his shadowy fingers polluting her from the insides. She felt herself move, felt the bedding move against her, but nothing seemed to happen. There was still his finger; writhing inside her. "You can't run from me. I'm a part of you now. I'll always be with you. But what's best; is that I know you like it. How I make you feel." Chloe screamed, over and over, her throat burning hoarse. Nobody came to her rescue. She gasped at the feeling of another finger rammed in her heat, but this was no feeling of happiness. It was violation. She slapped her hands at him, trying to force him out of her. "Ah-ah we'll have those tied back I think. Can't have you stealing my fun." he berated and her arms flung back, steel winding around them tight enough to snap her bones. Her skin pinched in the metal links, her muscles strained. Her legs kicked wildly, but just disappeared through him like he was nothing but the shadow guise he claimed. "Miss Sullivan. Did you really think I would just lay back while you carry on living? You are the first block in a large temple. Once you fall, it will be too easy to pick off the survivors."

"You bastard you will ne-"Her words stopped making volume suddenly.

"Not fond on the talking either. Women should obey, otherwise just be silent. Slaves to the men. It's called man-kind for a reason." The shadow started to seep from his fingers and she felt a harsh death pour through her system. She watched in fear, her skin blackening, swallowing her in the same shadow as he was. "I told you I'd be inside you. And you will like it" he threatened, and then her eyes widened, a blade hovering over her heart and sliced through.

Chloe scrambled from the bed, not stopping till her back hit a wall and she bit her hand, the sobs muffled around the flesh. Her entire body was shaking in cold fear. She hid her face against the wall, not wanting to see anything, or anyone. Her arms were burning in frozen relief, her fingers stroked across them, checking blindly for scars where she had been held captive.

"Chloe?" Oliver mumbled waking. She heard nothing. Felt nothing but the icy sting of sweat. He lifted his head and spotted her cuddled in the corner. "Chloe, wha-" The shaking was visible, her crying no longer a muffled dream. On guard he scanned the room. No-one was here, nothing but the darkness. "Chloe. Shhh. It's alright" he soothed and slipped from the bed. She hadn't moved an inch, not in response to his voice, nor his footsteps on the floor. He didn't quite know what to do. Should he go to her, or would that make things worse? Instead he turned on the bedside light closest to her, hoping the light would chase away the darkness, letting her see reality, that she was still safe. She screamed then flew closer to the wall. But the sobbing seemed to stop. Now she was just silently shivering, in the throws of her nightmare, huddled in a corner like a child. "Chloe?" he whispered and she froze, turning a head toward the sound. Finally, a reaction. He breathed and crossed the room with small steps as to not startle her. "Chloe, you're alright."

"O-ol-ol." she managed to mutter then the crying came back. He could take no more, he wouldn't leave her to cry. Stepping forward again he knelt and slowly reached out for her. She went wild, throwing her body around, trying to get out of a grasp she wasn't in. "Oliver!" she cried and he reached out again, if only to stop her hurting herself. She writhed against him, before finally collapsing into his arms, her face against his chest feeling as tears burned hot trails from her sodden cheeks. "No" she whimpered over and over, the sobs not settled. He wrapped her closer to his body, feeling the frozen temperature of her skin. How long had she been sitting like that? Pulling the duvet off the bed, he rocked with her, inside their cocoon till the tears quietened, just her sniffling and the batting of her eyelashes against his skin to tell him she was bolt awake, deathly afraid of what sleep would do.

"Chloe?" he tried again, whisper quiet as the sleep wore off his eyes and the cold air found him again.

"Don't." she whispered back, nothing more than the one word.

"Chloe. You were having a nightmare."

"Ollie. Please" she whimpered, her voice fragmented again. "Don't." He complied and tightened his grip of her, just letting her breath in and out and finally relax herself against him. Finally, after god knows how long, she moved against him and wrapped herself tighter in the quilt, snuggling further into him. He took the chance to escape his living nightmare. Here she was against an enemy he could not see, or touch, or fight off of her. He was unable to do anything but watch and hope. The sooner he regained control the sooner his heart would stop rattling against its cage.

"Chloe. What happened?" He smoothed her hair down and she didn't jolt backwards from his touch which was a great improvement from his first contact. She pressed herself closer and the tears came back again.

"Don't let me go back." she whimpered and clung with a death grip onto his forearm as he tried to alleviate a cramp. He had no idea how long he'd been sitting here with her, but he was pretty sure the pins and needle were protesting against continuation.

"You're safe. You're awake. Nobody going to get you." he lulled and kissed the top of her head again. If she didn't want to go back, he could assume that meant she didn't want to go back to sleep. "Coffee?" he asked, going out on a limb and perfectly ready to have it hacked off. Surprisingly, or not so due to the person he was holding, she nodded. He agreed 100%. Caffeine was good after only a 3 hour sleep. He moved his legs but she shot out her arms and locked herself to him.

"Don't leave me." she whispered against his neck and god save him he almost died then and there. How could someone crush her so much? She was the strongest woman he knew. She was feistier than Dinah and more determined than Mercy. But here she was clinging to him, begging not be left alone. Of course he wouldn't let her out of his sights. Duvet and woman wrapped together he lifted, flipping on lights as he went and settled in the kitchen. She hugged her knees, wrapped in a huge white cover, making her look like an adorable giant marshmallow, sitting in the kitchen chair watching his every move.

It seemed Chloe was right all along; coffee was the stuff of life and she quickly regained colour and attitude. Much faster than even he expected.

"Sorry I scared you." she muttered as she finished the first cup.

"Scared is a little bit of an understatement." He took her mug and re-filled it, handing it back. "What did you dream about?" he asked curiously. Whatever it was must have been one of her worst fears. She shook her head, not wanting to answer, and he let her. It was her choice to tell him. Then she seemed to change her mind and words started to tumble.

"You were reading. It was a book about my death. You changed into creepy guy and killed me." She summarised without any emotion. It did make some sense, especially to how she reacted to him when he touched her.

"I'm sorry." Finally she cracked a smile, it was short lived, but it was there.

"Don't be. It wasn't you who stabbed me. I'm more embarrassed I woke you up at half 5 to deal with me." He grinned and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'd deal with you at any hour of the day. Besides sleep is overrated."

"No. Go back. Have your eight hours. I'll be fine down here. I've got coffee, books and plenty to be doing."

"Chloe I'm not going to leave you."

"Then I'll take my coffee upstairs." He rolled his eyes.

"Com'on." He tugged on her hand dragging her into the bright living room, the sun poking up behind the buildings, its orange beams smiling down on the city life which had already began buzzing. He settled her on the sofa and threw her the book from before she hadn't started.

"Where are you going?" she asked. He chuckled and pulled a blanket from the back of the chair.

"Back to sleep. As you ordered." He shuffled in the chair.

"You're not sleeping like that. You'll get a bad back." she argued and pulled him up to join her on the sofa. After a few minutes re-arranging, and a few more arguing, she had her fingers running through his hair, his head resting on her marshmallow duvet covered thigh and was convincing him to sleep again. It almost felt natural as she traced patterns with her finger nail. He must have been completely dead walking as he quickly fell into shallower breathing and stopping wriggling. Thank god he didn't snore she thought, but she was more impressed by the fact he could still sleep after 2 cups of highly caffeinated coffee. She honestly thought she was the only one able to do that. Maybe business man acquired a tolerance to it after a while… or maybe it was just Oliver. Maybe it was a sign they were meant to be. She stopped her thoughts dead. Where had that thought come from?

He was so anchored in her head she couldn't even have nightmares properly any more. Every thought seemed to revolve around him. If she wasn't so into him she wouldn't be dreaming about him, and she wouldn't have to blink twice every time she saw him today. Well no longer, it was time for an Ollie de-tox. She made a silent pledge then and there; she would make up her mind about him by the end of the night. He would be out of her system, and hopefully a bucket load of alcohol in his place.

Ollie woke later to find his sweetly intoxicating pillow dressed and going through folders on his floor with her iPod in her ears, her lips moving along without sound. Careful not to wake her from her bubble, he turned, watching from the sofa as she put different papers in different piles. She paused on one, bit her lip and tilted her head, then in time to her silent song she wafted the paper around and dropped it in a new space creating another organised area. He smirked. His eyes scouted over the papers, they seemed to be the ones Dinah and Victor had recovered. Sure enough they were gone from his desk when he checked, instead they were being organised by super computer Chloe as she wriggled her toes and bopped her head to a beat. As she moved and reached across to place another file in another folder her top rode up, her creamy flesh shining through, begging to be touched.

"You know Ollie, this would go faster if you helped, rather than just staring at my ass." Again, caught red handed and he had no idea. Wow, he was really slipping these days. He laughed and she sat back smiling up at him.

"I'm good here." he teased with a wink. She shook her head slowly and laughed passing him a file. "What do I do with it?"

"Read and put in the right pile." She pulled the buds from her ears the iPod turned off. "This one is lab analysis, this is employee records, accounts, personal, receipts, scrap and other" Her fingers coasted over the different sectioned areas of floor. Without a doubt the information from different lab tests was the heaviest in volume, spreading under his desk.

"I didn't realise they had so much." he admitted and flipped through the file in his hand. It was details on an experiment on rats. Didn't say what they were doing but it recorded the observations made.

'Test Subject Theta responded well to the treatment. No addition growth since the last transfusion. Test Subject Delta, as predicted, was found to have died of cardiac arrest after the first introduction to the procedure. Clearly more tests are needed, Theta is responsive but functioning and adrenaline levels have severely reduced. We can only conclude at this point that the transfusion must be made between similar entities, at best two sets of meteor infected blood.'

"You're not meant to read them, just file. I'll fish out any relevant information later." Chloe spoke up when she noticed a lack of movement.

"Have you read what they've been doing?" he asked, then quoted the same passage he just read.

"Yeah. The same as the last few thousand, except that's just the start of the entries."

"You found out what they were working on?"

"As much as I can gather, they found a way of moving meteor abilities from one person to another, as long as treatment is received for the first two month and the recipient is also meteor enhanced. It works better in those with open and clear powers, it helps with control rather than letting someone with latent abilities run around going crazy till they figure out how to access them. However, I haven't found a file yet where the donor has been able to live. Which had become their more recent issue."

"How's that an issue for them, I thought they wanted to kill off as many as possible."

"Apparently, that's not the goal." She hooked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she put another folder into place. "Instead of having one super strong meta-human and a thousand dead bodies, they want to split powers or, ideally, to clone the powers and put them in others to create a master race."

"Why is he trying to kill us then?" Ollie asked, flipping the papers closed and putting them into the lab analysis pile closest to the sofa.

"He doesn't exactly keep a diary of his feelings toward us, but I'm guessing it's either a nice spree of revenge, or he doesn't think we're worth keeping around if we don't have powers. He probably wants those that are power free gone to clear the path to capture the bigger fish."

"So you're not the real target."

"I'm as real as the bulls-eye I'm wearing, and he needs me gone before he can move any further. But I'm not going be mounted on his wall as a trophy, I'm just the small fry."

"It wouldn't surprise me if I'm next then."

"Actually, he probably thinks you're infected too. He must have narrowed me out on the basis that I didn't go walkies with you during patrols." she explained.

"Speaking of, you got our address for our next walkies?"

"I've got millions, I just don't know which one's best." she admitted and rolled her neck backwards trying to alleviate the ache.

"What's up?"

"My neck's cramped up" She smiled at him "I'll be fine in a second or two." With one hand massaging her neck she passed some more papers between piles.

"Come here." She eyed him questionably. He patted his knee. She rolled her eyes but stood. "Sit." She stood still. "Sit" he repeated. He sighed and pulled her down to his lap as she squealed. "Sit still."

"Ollie, what are you- oh. Ohhh" His hands found place on her shoulder, his thumbs pushing at the back of her neck pleasurably.

"Better?" he asked laughing. Her moans were proof enough she felt better. They were sounds he would hold onto for the rest of his existence. She breathed an answer but god knows what it was meant to be, he only heard another moan and he chuckled again. He knew he was in dangerous territory and he knew she'd relax into him, forget her stone walls keeping her proper, then blush and run away as soon as reality flooded back. So yes, he knew exactly what this would lead to. Except he didn't.

"Ollie" she breathed. "Can you… harder." she moaned feeling his thumbs rough against her aching muscles. He bit his tongue trying to bring out the bikini parade again, this was no time to be getting hard. But she made it oh so difficult. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn she was doing it on purpose. "Oh, right there." She gasped as his thumbs dipped lower. Her ass ground against him, wanting the friction hard and fast. Honestly, the man just had to touch her and she wanted him pounding into her. "Oh, god Ollie. Where did you learn that?" Her nails were digging into her jeans, stopping her from doing something she might regret. Jumping Ollie, clean and sober… not so much of a good idea. She'd have to explain her action then.

"A beach in Tiki. A lovely blonde had the skills of healing she wanted to share with somebody." She knew he'd mentioned another woman, she knew he had slept with her, she knew she should be jealous. Yet all she could think was that he was here now, and with her. His fingers were riding her shoulder, his thumbs circling deep against her neck and shoulder blades. It didn't help things that she was grinding against him for friction, to be honest his rhythm didn't seem to break at all and he didn't seem to care.

When there was nothing else he could touch without dry humping her he took his hands off. Every cell in his body screamed immediately to find somewhere else, to touch her, if just for an extra second. "Better?" he asked, his voice strained. Chloe blinked, returning from the clouds of sex to the present situation…which was? Ollie was rubbing her… why? Oh, the neck! She rolled her neck, testing the new freedom.

"Perfect." she purred then realised she sounded like a hussy, her tongue lust tainted, like she'd just come up for air from a sexual marathon. Ollie chuckled.

At 6pm Chloe flew up from her chair at the desk, her ipod cable yanking her back down. She fumbled around wires, getting more tangled with every motion. Waving her arms and finally just using the table as a hold she lifted herself from the tangle and sprinted into Ollie's exercise room. He sat quietly, doing some sort of yoga…or well, he was sat quietly, till she stormed the fort and scared him half to death, causing him to strike some offense pose that looked like a deranged spider, but she really wasn't paying enough attention to laugh at him.

"I know who he is!" she exclaimed and was back out, running back to the files and sitting back in the tangled wires. Her laptop was half hanging from the desk, Ollie's computer hooked up to a million different machines, half he had no idea what they did. He followed her out, his bare feet slapping against the wooden flooring while she was slipping and sliding in the slipper boots. Yet she remained vertical with a sort of grace ice-skaters had. "Look!" She held out some paper under his nose. He took them, narrowed his eyes and moved them closer then further away, trying to adjust his eyes.

"Chloe, I can't read this."

"Exactly" she said then exchanged the papers for her un-hooked laptop with a screen up. He accepted and sat on the arm of the sofa while she bounced on her heels in front of him like a dog who had just dug up a gold mine and been given a milk bone as a reward.

"It's a death certificate." he finally spoke and she jumped with a squeal.

"It's a death certificate." she repeated with much more enthusiasm than him.

"We're looking for a dead guy? Chloe I hate to burst your bubble but he didn't really look too dead to me."

"It's a fake. Look" She shoved back the first paper with the scrambled writing and blurred lines. "The certificate is real, but it doesn't belong to him. He faked his own death and used a relatives –his great grandfather in fact- as proof. But because it's a real certificate he was classed as dead. But he wasn't because they didn't check the writing. See the fine print. It's faded, but it's there."

"Chloe this could just be any dead guy. How is he our creep?" he asked, perched on the arm of the sofa still, her giddiness and fast talking making him edgy and also feeling a little giddy himself. Wires came and went around his body as she shoved him all the different links she had made following this man's death.

"See, I looked into other bank accounts to see if he had siphoned money, because there was a lot more than what Tess had told me was taken. So I looked into all the other places that had reported missing money, or fraud, or bank scandals. The usual. Anyway, I figured he would have had to have known that these places could be blamed and have the money covered up. So I thought maybe he had worked at them all." She passed him a list of all places that had had unregistered money moved.

"He worked at all these places?" Ollie asked apprehensively.

"Yes. But only for 2 weeks-"

"Hey. Is that Queen Industries?" Chloe took the paper form him as he got distracted.

"He posed as an applicant to the firm. They all rejected him though after a two week trial period."

"He stole from me?" Ollie was still stuck on the paper his hands were missing. "How much did he take?"

"Ollie. It's gone. You're not getting it back. Concentrate." He bit his cheek but said nothing more. "Thank you." she sighed and he waved his hand for her to proceed. "I sealed of your accounts just to be sure he wouldn't be getting back in. There were a few companies which the amounts were constantly being drained, even right now. But yours is sealed. I made sure. Water tight" she assured him and he seemed to relax a little. "I checked out the other applicants that applied with him. But he was the only one who applied to all the companies who had leaking money. So I ran his background, only he didn't have one. It was a fake background and Id. I found the real man who actually is dead, and has been for the past 97 years, but I looked into family, to see if he had any relatives. Only living relative is a nephew in Idaho. He has been working in a hospital for the last few years, and was working during the nights we were attacked. So I thought our creep might have a medical background, maybe just some theory, not practical. So I checked all universities, looking for students in the last 40 years with the same family names. There were a few thousand results, but only one matched the tree of the great grandfather, so I checked his whereabouts for the last few weeks. But then I found his death certificate, only I realised it was a fake and had the same aging as the one his great grandfather had, so I figured they were the same. I tested them against each other and found they were a match. Eddie Greenburg is our creep, using the name Charles Feston to get around town. However, all tracks of him dropped off the grid a few days ago. So either he's hiding out somewhere, or he's using another identity. It wouldn't surprise me and I'm looking into other relatives or friends of the family he might use." She finally took a breath then a successful swig of coffee, waiting for the fireworks. Ollie's brain was a little slow, or maybe it was the 100 words per second she was speaking at.

"Eddie Greenburg" he tested the name on his tongue. Possibly the only thing out of all her garbled speech actually relevant to him. "And we don't know where he is, or what he's doing." he confirmed. Her face fell.

"You don't get to burst my bubble. You said you wanted something to call him. I found something. It took me a good few hours to sift through all this crap and I've explored his entire background history enough to sit an exam on his entire life. I know every inch of his experiments and expenditure for the last year. If all I can get that's of use is his name, then we celebrate that."

"Chloe. That's great. But-" he paused as she danced out of the wires and picked up her purse from the table, her jacket as well. "Where are you going?"

"To celebrate." she simply spoke and shrugged on the jacket. "You coming with, or being grumpy boring guy?"

"Chloe, he might be out there right now." he warned.

"Well. Put it this way… I'm going out to celebrate, either you're coming with me… or I'll get stolen by a big bad psycho who we do now know the name of, thanks to me" she beamed and he could not refuse her of anything.

"10 minutes. 15 tops, then we'll go out. For one drink." She bounced off her feet and wrapped her arms around him.

"I'll go change." She ran upstairs to find a dress before he could register anything. Speed was of the essence, after all, she had a billionaire to drunkenly seduce.

Bless little Chloe. She's had such a hard day and she didn't sleep very well. But now… Now, we can let the games begin.

Also, if you're confused about the evil creep psycho guy plot line I wouldn't worry yourself too much. It's meant to be slightly confusing and it will all become as clear as an un-muddied lake pretty soon. Promise.