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Thanks to Hellzz-on-Earth for the pre-read, any mistakes are all mine though.


Chapter 8: Shake it Out

But I like to keep some things to myself, I like to keep my issues drawn,

It's always darkest before the dawn, Shake it Out, Shake it, Out Shake it Out, And its hard to dance with the devil on your back, So shake him off, oh woah- Florence and the Machine

Ashram India, 7th November, 2008

He paced in front of the piece of wood mounted in front of him, his inner turmoil in vast contrast to the serene surrounds and calm faces that greeted him.

This place in the mountains had been a refuge for him years before when he was beginning his journey as the Green Arrow, and he had left a more sure and focused man.

His former instructor had taken one look at him when he arrived and assigned him a string of the most physically exhaustive tasks, which had helped take the edge of his anger a little. But he still had more in common with a caged wild animal that had been tormented, than a person who had reached any level of enlightenment in the past.

He didn't want Chloe or the boys to see him like this as he tried to come to terms with Lionel's revelation about his parents. Or see the look of anguish in Chloe's eyes as he gave into his desires to drown himself in every kind of debauchery he could. Which is why he had left Star City.

He had told Chloe months ago that he accepted he couldn't change the past, only affect the future. But the reality that he could affect anything had taken a beating in the last five months. Not to mention his immediate future had him in the role of husband courtesy of a man he loathed.

Husband. That situation was so messed up he didn't even know where to start. He hated that anything and everything to do with them from now on would have Lionel's shadow hovering in the background

He looked back at the piece of wood and shook his head. Not today, he wasn't focused enough and he needed his hand.

-xxXxx-

Star City, 8th November 2008

Bart had been more than a little shocked at Oliver's sudden disappearance after Vegas. He had been planning on sole occupancy of the Penthouse for at least a week before he moved out while the newly weds holed up on some isolated beach in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes he just didn't understand grown ups.

"How do you like your new apartment?" Chloe asked, quietly grateful he had stopped by.

"It's okay" he shrugged "it will take awhile for it to feel like home, you know."

Yeah she could relate. She was now by herself in the large penthouse apartment, living the lie that was 'Mrs Queen.' It no longer felt like home either, especially since her housemates had all gone.

But since she didn't feel it was her place to fill the others in on what had really happened in Vegas until she and Oliver had had a chance to work out what was going on, she hadn't been able to ask them to stay. She missed them all but especially Ollie.

Obviously either of them leaving wasn't something Lionel hadn't factored into his plan, otherwise she was sure that he would have put a caveat on that course of action as well.

"So when will bossman be home?"

"When he's wrapped business up, which hopefully will be soon" she said a little longingly. It wasn't a lie, but she hated that it was less than the truth.

"Ah, don't worry beautiful, I'm sure he can't say away from you to long."

"It feels like a long time already," she murmured under her breath. While she knew he was doing what he felt he needed to do she couldn't help but be a little anxious.

What if Oliver couldn't deal with his Lionel issues and he chose to stay away? Not that she would blame him. And while she knew he would never do anything to deliberately hurt her that didn't mean he was always going to make choices she was happy with.

She hadn't really had time to make her peace with Lionel's actions herself yet. Not only for the surprise wedding but also for making her his heiress. It implied that they had a close familiar bond, which couldn't be further from the truth. Still whatever anger she had paled in comparison to Oliver.

Lionel had been directly responsible for the death of his parents, and that loss had robbed him of so many experiences especially having someone be there for him during his formidable years.

No matter how badly things had gone for her while growing up she had always had someone. Her Dad, Clark, Mrs Kent, Pete, Lois. While she acknowledged she didn't always want them or need them they had been there for her. From what Oliver had shared with her he never felt he had anyone who wanted to be there for him during his teenage years.

Which was another reason she was peeved with a capital P with Lionel. If Oliver came back, he was likely to think she was still with him because she felt a strange sense of chivalry rather than wanting to be with him.

"I could you know, take you to Ollie." Bart's voice breaking her out of her thoughts.

She shook her head. "That's sweet Bart and while I do miss him, I don't want to distract him from something that is important to the future."

Bart put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She gave him a small smile, "thanks Bart, you're a good friend."

She needed to do better at keeping it together.

-xxXxx-

Ashram India, 10th November 2008

Heading out of the compound he stopped in front of th that had taunted him a few days earlier. He stood in front of it and summarized his current thoughts.

His life - more hiccups in the last 5 months than he had had in the last 5 years.

Lionel - the man responsible for ruthlessly altering the trajectory of his life on more than one occasion.

Chloe – an amazing woman who had become such an important part of his life. His saving grace. The person who grounded him and made him want to be better.

Choice– He could stay and block out the world or he could return to Star City and face the music. He was leaning towards the later.

As he began focus his thoughts on the things that had made him happy; helping people, working with the team, Chloe's smile and the way he felt when she was near, he felt a greater sense of purpose and calm that hadn't been available to him when he had first arrived.

He commenced the breathing and movement patterns he had been taught years ago culminating in powering through the board sending splinters in all directions. He wasn't whole, but he wasn't broken anymore either.

-xxXxx-

She'd been getting phone calls all day wishing her 'Happy Birthday' and her work colleagues had given her a large bunch of flowers. No doubt they were imagining she would be having a swank dinner party with friends and family.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone was either out of town or working the late shift. To make matters worse she hadn't heard from Ollie and the dull ache in her abdomen refused to leave her.

She put the flowers on the bench and noticed a large rectangular box had arrived. It was marked to her attention but she couldn't remember ordering anything so large. Ripping the packaging away a gasp caught in the back of her throat. It was a framed wedding picture of them kissing in the Venus Garden at dusk. They looked so happy and she wondered if that would ever be them in reality.

Curse Lionel seven ways to Sunday. It wasn't fair that she was alone tonight. If Vegas had gone the way they had planned no doubt Ollie would be with her and she'd be having one of her best birthday celebrations ever.

The ringing of her phone bought her out of her thoughts. She didn't recognize the number but picked up anyway.

"Hello," she said in her best fake happy voice. There was a brief silence at the other end.

"Hi."

Her breath caught momentarily in the back of her throat. "Ollie…how are you, are you alright?"

"Just wanted to hear your voice and ask how your birthday was?"

"It just got better. You don't know how much it means to me that you called," she said genuinely.

"Least I could do. So are you going to tell me how your day was?"

"Lot of fire, not much cake."

"Don't tell me the boys tried to bake?" He chuckled a little.

She sniffed. "Not that kind of fire, just a lot of people who seem to be fascinated with my change in status and want to kiss my ass repeatedly amongst other things."

The line was silent and Chloe berated herself for bringing up the elephant that hung between them.

"I'm sorry Chloe," his voice quiet with a hint of guilt.

"It's not your fault, I'm sorry I bought it up."

"Don't be, I've always appreciated that you said what's on your mind." There were so many things they should talk about but today was about her.

"I have a present for you, I wanted to give it to you in person….but…"

"Oh." She hadn't been expecting anything else from him. The weekend in Vegas, sans anything to do with Lionel had been pretty amazing. "You didn't have to."

"I know, but I wanted to spoil" my girlfriend was what he was going to say, but he caught himself "you." Nice save Queen. "It's in a green box in the bottom draw of my office."

She padded down the hallway. She hadn't been in his office since they had discussed Sam's birthday invite. That had been weeks ago…how things had changed.

She opened the draw and took the box out. On the front was a card with a beautiful watercolor of a floral garden – Happy Birthday Chloe.

"The card is beautiful."

"Kind of serendipitous don't you think, that 'Chloe' means, lush, blooming and Green." He had found that little tidbit fascinating personally.

"Don't think my parents knew when they gave me the name I was going to be head cheerleader for Jolly Green. Good thing I like the color too," she replied, that unsettled feeling in her abdomen slowly dissipating the more they talked.

"Good. I have a much better chance of you liking what's inside the box then."

She lifted the lid off the box and pulled away the layer of tissue paper catching the sight of green leather. Was he serious? She pulled the garment out of the box somewhat relieved it was a jacket. Her fingers caressing the leather noting how soft and supple it felt. It was the perfect shade of green for her.

"What's the verdict?"

She put the jacket on not surprised that it fit perfectly and looked in the mirror.

"I love it. Thank you Ollie." Her hands wrapped around herself imaging that Ollie was giving her one of his signature hugs.

"Happy Birthday, I'm sorry I couldn't celebrate with you."

"It's okay….really I understand why your not. I might have done same thing."

"Look after you okay….I need to go my cell's about to cut out…. I…"

"Ollie?" Silence. She hit the end call button, his cell must of cut out. It didn't matter, she had something now that she hadn't had an hour ago. Hope. Hope that they were going to be able to shake Lionel off and move forward with their lives.

Snuggling into the jacket she relished its warmth and the fact that it smelt faintly of him. She realized it had turned out to be a pretty good birthday after all.

Oliver ran his fingers through his hair and hurled the cell as far as he could throw it. Sometimes technology just cut out in the most inopportune times. Still at least now he knew that they had a chance.

-xxXxx-

Star City, 13th November 2008

"Morning sweetheart, how are you feeling?" asked Mary as she watched her daughter emerge from her guest room.

"Little queasy actually."

Mary stopped and really looked at her daughter. Chloe hadn't been sleeping much and Mary knew that she was hell bent on appearing to be fine and putting on a front that all was well with being Mrs Queen, which it wasn't.

She put her hand on Chloe's forehead and for a brief moment it reminded Chloe of when she was younger causing her to smile a little.

"You don't have to do that mom I'm a big girl now."

"You may fight against corrupt businessman and aliens from out of space but I will always be your mother and you will always be my little girl," she said as she put a plate of pancakes in front of her. "I think you should have Emil do some blood work."

"Over react much."

"It's probably nothing more than stress, but it's been awhile since your last exam."

'You're hot n you're cold, you're yes and you're no' Chloe pulled away from her mom and went looking for her phone.

"Hey Lo, how'd your date with Richard go?" she asked expecting to get the details from her cousin.

"Cuz, good but I'm not calling about that….Martha just got a call from the Metropolis PD. Lionel's dead."

"What! How?"

"My sources at the PD department haven't been able to confirm if he was pushed or not but he fell fifty stories from his office at LuthorCorp in the early hours of this morning."

A dozen feelings and thoughts hit her at once, ranging between relieved that he could no longer interfere with their lives and outrage that he had the audacity to leave this world before she had given him a piece of her mind.

"Cuz?"

"Still here. How's Mrs K?"

"Upset you know… I mean Mr K only died like 3 years ago and I while I think Lionel was beneath her, he was good to her." Chloe couldn't argue with that.

"Any news on Lex?"

"He's currently being questioned by the detectives. Anyways Martha has been put in charge of his affairs so we're headed to Metropolis for a memorial service. Being that the two of you were so close Martha was hoping you could come out too.

She hid her sharp intake of breath. Even her cousin believed that she and Lionel were tight. Seizing the opportunity for what it was she accepted. "Yeah I'll be there."

"See you tomorrow then, and maybe we'll have a chance for some girl talk and you can tell me about married life."

Chloe groaned inwardly at the details Lois would be expecting. "See you then."

Mary sighed. One of the biggest challenges she had was not to use her powers on Chloe. She desperately wanted to tell her daughter to relax, get some sleep, eat a proper meal and then deal with the challenges thrown at her. But one thing Mary had noticed was that Chloe had perfected the 'I'm fine' brush off.

She raised an eyebrow at her daughter and Chloe gave an explanation. "That was Lois, Lionel fell fifty storey's early this morning and died. Mrs K would like me in Metropolis."

"You don't have to go. Especially after everything that family has done to you."

"I'm not going for him. I'm going for Mrs K. I'd be the first to say that Lionel was a bastard, but he entrusted me with his library of all things otherworldly. Which keeps Clark's secret from being discovered by someone outside the circle. So while he might have had it coming, I'm grateful he showed some kind of loyalty to Clark." It didn't mean he was a good person but it was somewhat comforting that he had been prepared to make sure that he took Clark's secret to the grave.

Mary gave her daughter's hand a little squeeze. "You're right, but Chloe be careful you could be easily targeted because of your perceived relationship with him."

"You're such mom, mom." Her mother was looking at her with skepticism in her eyes. "I'll be fine. I should make the necessary arrangements and let some people know where I'm headed."

"Don't think I've forgotten about our earlier conversation either. I would feel better if you let Emil examine you before you go."

"Too busy. But if I still feel off when I get back I'll talk to him okay."

"Okay sweetheart, I'll see you when you get back." She kissed her on the cheek and watched her leave somewhat resigned that sometimes children had to learn things the hard way.

-xxXxx-

Metropolis, 14th November 2008

Chloe looked out the window over Metropolis allowing a moment of nostalgia as she spied the Daily Planet's orbiting globe.

It seemed like a lifetime ago that she had been a cub reporter in the basement looking for leads to bust open corruption and human rights violations. Now she was traveling via corporate jet, an heiress, respected journalist and wife to one Oliver Queen. On paper it looked like a fairytale. The real life story was a bit more twisted than that.

As the plane landed and came to a halt she prepared her mental battle armor. Stepping onto the stairs leading down to the tarmac once the door was open, the press and photographers started.

"Mrs Queen, over here." Being called that was so foreign to her.

"Mrs Queen, care to comment on how you are taking the death of your mentor and benefactor?"

"Mrs Queen what do you make of the accusations that Lex Luthor may have been responsible for his father's death?"

"Mrs Queen is it true that you were involved in a relationship with Mr Luthor as a teenager which is why he won the appeal to overturn his sentence on the murder charge for his parents?"

She stopped at that jibe, forcing herself to focus rather than bite that reporters head off.

"This is a difficult time for me. Please respect my privacy." She was grateful to the large dark sunglasses that hide her eyes and even more grateful when she got into her waiting car.

On arriving at LuthorCorp, Lois walked towards her giving her a big hug. "Cuz, who'd believe that a year ago we would be welcomed through those doors with open arms after all the times we tried to find dirt on the owners huh."

Chloe gave a smirk as Lois continued, "Oh see that guy over there, he sits on the board and he's banging that board member's husband."

"Lois!" I might have to attend those meetings. How am I supposed to pay attention to business if I have my head full gossip."

"Fine, I was just trying to lighten the mood," she maneuvered her cousin towards the corner of the room where Mrs Kent approached them.

"Chloe I'm so grateful that you came."

"Anything for you Mrs Kent," she said pulling the older woman into an embrace. Chloe frowned a little bit as she felt the depth of the sadness the other woman was feeling. Martha had genuinely cared for the older Luthor. "It's okay, we're here, and you are not alone."

Martha looked at the young woman with appreciation for several moments. "Thank you Chloe, you have no idea how much it means to me that you came. You and Lois are the only family I have now that Clark is doing what he is doing and Lionel is gone."

"I'm happy to be here for you."

"I appreciate it. Now are you okay, Chloe. You look a little pale."

"I'm fine Mrs Kent, really" – looking behind the senator she noticed that someone wanted to speak with her- "The mayor seems to want your attention. I'm fine I promise." She squeezed the other woman's arm and smiled as Martha walked away and felt a little dizzy grabbing Lois's arm.

"I need to sit down Lo."

"Sure thing. You know you really do look pale." They made their way to the chairs that had been put out for the service.

"I'll be fine." Chloe focused on her breathing. She felt a little drained, not unlike what she had felt when healing someone of a physical injury. She quietly cursed. She should've listened to her mother and gone to see Emil before she left.

After the service she made her way to the room had been set up for people to pay their respects. She looked at the portrait that had previously hung in the foyer of LuthorCorp. While not the same as a coffin with a dead body, it was good enough for her purposes. She hesitated momentarily before lighting a candle.

"You lived a very complicated life Lionel Luthor and I won't lie and say that we were in a good place when you left it." She said almost in a whisper.

"You got skillful at pretending you were a good man and I think you started to believe it yourself. But the truth is you've been playing puppet master with my life long before Vegas. My first job at the planet, getting my dad fired, trying to kill me, I could go on." She took a deep breath before continuing.

"As for Ollie and Vegas. I am not entirely sure how you thought that little exploit would end for us considering what happened after your last attempt at manipulating a marriage. I am still really angry with you for that, hadn't you done enough to the both of us already? It's going to be along time until I can forgive you, if I do at all. However I think deep down you knew that your death was a possibility so you wanted to square things away. I am grateful that you took our secrets to the grave and entrusted me with your library. I may loathe you right now, but I won't fail the people we were protecting. You have my word on that. So long Lionel."

Satisfied she had said everything she needed to she left the room looking for Lois and Mrs K.

A chill ran down her spine and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as a voice she hadn't heard in months was directed at her.

"Mrs Queen."

"Lex. You didn't need to sneak up behind me to say hello."

"If anyone is the sneaky one it's you Chloe. I knew my father and Mrs Kent were close but imagine my surprise to find out that he not only attended your wedding but gave you an obscenely large gift that now deprives his heirs of any significant inheritance."

She couldn't help it, her skin was crawling but she was determined not to let it show.

"You're hardly on the poverty line Lex and last I checked you had bought Lucas off for a tidy sum of ten million dollars."

"You know for all the snooping you done into my family I'm surprised that you haven't found my two other siblings…. I'd love to introduce you to my sister sometime. Perhaps you and your husband could join us for dinner one evening."

He had moved in close and his hand was on the small of her back and yet Chloe didn't seem to be able to move.

"Tess and Oliver have a history and I know she would love to get in some face time with him. And well until I can convince you sell up, the Queens are practically in bed with Luthor Corp now."

"We will never be in bed with you Lex."

"Damn straight."

She must be hearing things because there was no way that Oliver was here. Was there? Her head turned and he gave her a quick smile.

"Now just because you couldn't hold on to any of your wives Lex, does not mean you should hold onto mine." He was here inches away from her. It was such a cliché, but he really was a sight for her sore eyes.

Lex released her immediately as Oliver pulled her to him and kissed her temple. "Sorry I couldn't be with you sooner." He turned his attention to his former schoolmate. "You know how it is Lex, business meetings, traffic congestion and corporate espionage."

"I wouldn't know anything about the latter Oliver. I must say I am surprised that you would set foot in this building," the bald man replied coldly.

"Well, you hardly have the monopoly on surprises, do you Lex. Now if you don't mind." He put his arm gently around Chloe guiding her away trying to gauge her reaction to him being back.

"Hey," he said gently. She bought her hand up caress his cheek welcoming the feel of his skin under her fingers.

"You came back."

"I told you I would."

"Are you staying awhile?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She took in his expression. Concern. Affection. Hope. Resolve. Her lips seeking his almost desperately wanting to show him how much his absence had affected her.

His arms of their own accord, wrapped around her as they stood getting reacquainted with one another. When they finally broke apart and her smile made his heart warm. The optimist in him told him they were going to be okay.

To be Continued