Chapter 22 - Cain & Able
Zoey walks out of the bathroom and looks around, searching for Oliver. It was his ten-year reunion for Excelsior Academy, the boarding school that Oliver had been sent to after her parents had died. They both hated attending these types of social events. Oliver hadn't even wanted to attend, but Zoey had reminded him that it was good for business. Over the past few months, she had taken a more active role in Queen Industries, something that Oliver was more than happy about since it allowed him more time to focus on Green Arrow.
Zoey spots a couple of familiar people and walks over to them. "Lana," she greets, smiling. "Lex. I'm surprised to see you guys here."
"Oliver's here," Lex asks.
"He's around here somewhere," Zoey answers, waving a hand. "This place eerily reminds me of the school I went to before my parents died. It was an all-girls Catholic school in Star City. My mom went to it. Uncle Max told me it had a very Lord of the Flies vibe going on. This place is exactly like that…but with all boys."
"I don't know," Oliver says, walking up to them with two other men. He places a hand on the small of Zoey's back. "We all turned out all right. Didn't we?"
"I can only speak for myself," Lex answers. He nods at the other men. "Geoffrey, Alden, how's business?"
"Not as good as you, but, hey," Alden replies, then takes a sip of his Scotch.
"All of you were friends," Zoey asks, looking around.
"Something like that," Lex supplies.
"Man, after ten years, the gang's all here," Geoffrey says.
"Except for Duncan," Alden points out.
"Who's Duncan," Lana questions.
"Know what," Oliver begins, motioning to the Scotch. "Maybe you ought to lay off, huh?"
"What," Alden argues. "Like you weren't all thinking about—"
"Alden."
"C'mon, Alden," Geoffrey says, shaking his head.
"Yeah, whatever," Alden says, turning to Lex. "Good to see you, Lex. You did all right for yourself." Alden raises his glass. "Duncan, if you were here, you'd still be a loser." Alden throws back the rest of the Scotch. He steps out of the way just as a large piece of cement falls where he was standing.
"You all right," Oliver asks.
Alden chuckles. "Just missed me. Must be my lucky day."
Suddenly, a sword from a statue on the roof falls and impales Alden in the chest. "Holy shit," Zoey exclaims.
Oliver shrugs out of his suit jacket and wraps it around Zoey's shoulders as they walk out of the morgue with Geoffrey. They had gone to talk with the investigator about Alden's death. "Seeing somebody you laughed with, shared so many good times together…seeing him laid out on the table like that…" Geoffrey trails off. His limo was parked at the back of the parking lot.
"At least he didn't suffer," Zoey softly says.
"Yeah, but I'm guessing it didn't tickle, either."
"Alden called me a month ago. He said he wanted to go out for a drink and…I told him I was busy. I said I'd catch up with him later," Oliver tells them.
"Ollie, you didn't know what was going to happen," Zoey reminds.
"All the more reason to live for today. Keep in touch with old friends," Geoffrey says.
"Why don't you guys do that? Get together and go do guy stuff or whatever. Does this Duncan guy still live here?"
"Not anymore," Oliver answers.
Geoffrey shakes his head. "I actually have to be getting back to Gotham, anyway. Zoey, you are definitely not the annoying kid that Ollie complained about." Geoffrey claps Oliver on the shoulder. "Don't screw it up."
They walk as Geoffrey walks over to his limo. Zoey turns to her husband, eyebrow raised. "So, I was annoying as a kid," she amusedly asks.
"I was fourteen," Oliver argues, pulling her against his side. They start to walk to where their own car was waiting for them. "I found everyone who wasn't a teenager annoying."
"I think you need to make it up to me."
"And how would I do that?"
Zoey shoots him a smirk. "I can think—" An explosion goes off, knocking them to the ground. They sit up and look to see that Geoffrey's limo is surrounded by flames. Zoey rests her head on Oliver's shoulder. "I think you need to tell me what the hell is going on, Ollie."
Zoey winces when she sees Lex slam the hospital door in Clark's face. She and Oliver had heard about Lana's accident. Oliver had warned her not to visit, but Zoey ignored him. She wanted to see if her friend was okay. "That was a little harsh of Lex," she says, walking up to Clark.
"It's not like he's wrong, though," Clark argues as they walk down the hallway. "I've hurt Lana more than anyone else. She wouldn't even be with Lex if it wasn't for me."
Zoey sighs. While she didn't know the full details of Clark's breakup with Lana, she had a pretty good idea that it related to Clark not telling Lana the truth. "Clark, you can't blame yourself. Lana made her own choices."
"If you didn't know the truth about Oliver, would you still be with him," Clark asks. Oliver had told her about his conversation with Clark.
"I would," Zoey softly says. "But Oliver and I tell each other almost everything, Clark. We still have our secrets, but we know not to pry about them either. Anyway, that's why I'm here. Ollie and Lex…two of their friends from Excelsior have died in accidents in the past twenty-four hours."
"And you think Lex was almost the third," Clark reasons.
Zoey nods. "Yeah. There was someone mentioned at the reunion. A guy named Duncan. But Ollie won't tell anything me about him. So, I was hoping you'd help me find this Duncan guy before I potentially become a widow."
"Is Lana gonna be okay," Oliver asks when Zoey and Clark walk into the apartment. He had been sitting at the desk, searching for the satellite access codes Clark had asked for on his last visit. He wasn't happy that Zoey ignored him, but seeing Clark with her, Oliver had felt better knowing that someone would keep her safe.
"She'll be okay," Zoey answers, setting her bag on the couch. "We doubt Lex is the one behind the other accidents."
"Unless he orchestrated this one to throw off suspicion," Oliver argues.
Zoey lets out a sigh. "If Lex was the one hurt, then, yeah, that would be the number one theory."
"No, you're right, Zo. Lex loves Lana too much to risk her life."
"So, you're going to tell us about Duncan. Because he's the only common denominator between everyone."
Oliver shakes his head. "It's not Duncan."
"Ollie—"
"It's not Duncan because Lex and I killed him ten years ago."
Oliver explains to Zoey and Clark about Duncan. He was a kid at Excelsior who was friends with Lex. Duncan and Lex had caught Oliver, Geoffrey, and Alden stealing answers to a test. Oliver had told Lex to deal with Duncan in order to not to be expelled and that they would be friends. Duncan had refused to go along with the plan. Lex had grown angry and had beaten up Duncan. Oliver nor his friends had stepped in to stop Lex. When Lex had finished, Duncan had started to walk back towards the school but was hit by a car.
"Duncan suffered massive brain injuries," Oliver finishes.
Zoey places a comforting hand on Oliver's. "Ollie, what else happened?"
"Lionel Luthor swept in with the best doctors in the world to save Duncan."
"Lionel," Clark questions.
"I thought it was an act of kindness. Now that I'm older, I realize it was just an act. Lionel was trying to cover up what happened between Lex and Duncan, trying to cover up the stink of the Luthor name."
"How did he know about all this?"
"He got the whole story from Lex. Duncan was on scholarship. His parents couldn't afford a band-aid let alone a team of neurosurgeons. So Lionel promised to take care of the whole thing."
"As long as everyone kept quiet."
"Not that it mattered. Duncan died two days later."
"Ollie, it was an accident," Zoey reminds him.
Oliver shakes his head. "No. No, I told myself that same lie for years. The truth is all of us might as well have pushed him out in front of that car. Alden, Geoffrey, Lex, me…we all killed Duncan Allenmeyer."
"What about his family? If they believe you killed him, one of them might be behind this," Clark reasons.
"I thought about that, but the only relative I could find was his mother."
"Where's she?"
"Grandville Cemetery. She passed away a month ago."
"There must be someone else, someone else you may have missed."
Oliver shrugs. "I don't know. The only one who had contact with Duncan's family was Lionel. I'm not exactly high on his buddy list, not a good chance of him talking to me."
Zoey grabs Oliver's hand. "We'll get it figured out, Ollie." A whoosh of air signals Clark's departure from their apartment. "Well, Clark will get it figured out. You can't blame yourself. It was an accident."
"You should probably head to the hotel, Zo. Stay there for a couple of days until this has been dealt with."
Zoey shakes her head. "I'm not going anywhere."
Oliver brushes back some of her hair. "Zo, if something happened to you—"
"Ollie, I'm not going anywhere. Not now. Not ever."
Zoey sighs as she sits down at the kitchen table. She reads through the recipe that Martha had given her a few weeks ago. Neither Zoey nor Oliver had heard anything from Clark since he had left. Too anxious to continue to sit around, she had disappeared into the kitchen to focus on something else.
"Whenever you feel the desire to drink, I want you to redirect that energy to something else," Dr. Specter tells her. "Over the years, we've discovered that it works great with your anxiety. So, I want you to do the same thing with the desire to drink. Redirect your energy. It's harder right now to ignore the desire since Met U is still closed and you can't focus on school. So, redirect it to something else. Something that requires you to pay careful attention to what you're doing."
Zoey bites her lip. "What about baking?"
"Baking is a great idea. The main idea is to have something to focus on. How has your relationship with Oliver been since he's moved to Metropolis?"
"It's been really great. I've been really happy. But, um…I keep waiting for it to all fall apart."
"Zoey, you're allowed to be happy. This feeling of waiting for everything to fall apart is just part of getting to the place where you are happy. You can't let it ruin what you've worked so long to achieve."
A loud crash knocks Zoey out of her thoughts. She stands up and walks down the hallway to the living room. Lex and Oliver were arguing. The glass coffee table had been smashed. "What the hell," she mutters.
"You never could take responsibility for what happened to Duncan," Oliver yells at Lex.
"Like your hands were clean," Lex counters.
"No, not even close, but since then I've been scrubbing 'em real hard. Yours just keep getting dirtier."
The glass doors leading to the balcony start to shake. Zoey ducks down the hallway. Oliver yanks Lex away from the doors. They fall to the ground and are covered in glass. Oliver finds that Lex is unconscious.
"Ollie," Zoey shouts, running over to them.
Oliver stands up. He cups her face. "Zo, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just heard everything and came out to find our living room a complete mess."
Oliver grasps her shoulders and spins her around. He pushes her towards the kitchen. "Go back to the kitchen, it's too—" He lets out a pained yell and falls to the ground.
"Ollie!" Zoey kneels next to him. An arrow was in his shoulder. "Fuck! How did that happen?"
Oliver winces as he sits up. He sees the arrow he had been working on earlier in the day lift up from the desk. "Zo, get behind me."
Zoey shakes her head. She doesn't move as she examines his injury. "We need to get you to a hospital. This is something way over my pay grade."
The arrow starts to fly towards them. Oliver wraps his uninjured arm around her waist and quickly pulls her underneath him. He wasn't going to let her get hit in the back if he could help it. He glances over his shoulder to see the electromagnetic pulse arrow stop in midair. An electric pulse emits from the arrow, then falls to the ground.
Oliver turns back to Zoey, who was staring at him in disbelief. "Good thing you don't have a pacemaker, Zo."
Zoey slaps his side. "That's for destroying our living room."
Zoey stirs when she feells the bed dip. "Hey," she sleepily greets her husband. Oliver had left hours earlier to patrol the city while she had finished going over some paperwork Max had sent her. It never matter what time he came home as she always woke up when he crawled into bed. His lips touch her neck. "Did you catch the bad guys?"
"A few," Oliver replies, his hand pushing her short nightgown up.
"You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"Of course not."
She rolls onto her back as he strips out of his Green Arrow costume. "What happened," she questions, noticing the blood on his shoulder.
"Nothing." He tugs the nightgown over her head and pushes her legs apart. She lets out a gasp when he pushes into her. "Fuck, Zo." She winces. She wasn't ready. She blinks back the tears. The last time sex had been painful was when she lost her virginity. Oliver comes with a grunt. He slides out and collapses on the bed next to her. "Fuck, Zo. Post crime saving sex rocks."
Zoey lets out a shaky breath. "Just a little warm-up next time."
Oliver looks at her and finally notices the pained look on her face. "Fuck, Zo. Why didn't you say anything?"
Zoey wipes away a tear. "It's fine, Ollie."
He leans over her and softly kisses her. "It's not fine, Zo. I never want to hurt you." He gently wipes away a tear. "I will never hurt you, Zo."
The moment Zoey steps into the loft Oliver grabs her and pushes her against the wall. The groceries she was holding fall to the floor. He quickly pushes her skirt up and rips off her panties before falling to his knees. She moans when he swirls his tongue around her clit. She buries her hands in his hair, wanting to hold him close. "Fuck," Zoey moans as he continues to work her over. She loudly moans when his fingers push into her. "Oh, fuck, Ollie." Her grip on his hair tightens when she orgasms. Zoey goes slack and Oliver stands up. He pulls her into a deep kiss; she can taste herself on him.
Oliver reaches around and tears her skirt off. He lifts her up and carries her over to the couch. Zoey watches as he unzips the booties she was wearing and drops them on the floor. He yanks off the tank top he was wearing and kicks off his sweatpants. She quickly tugs off her sweater and bra, dropping them on the floor. He covers her body with his, swiftly entering her. "Fuck, Zo, you feel so good."
Zoey lets out a moan as he thrusts. "Oh, god," she lets out.
"That's not my name, Zo." He nips at her neck. He slows his thrusts. His hand slips between and teases her clit. "I want you to say my name, Zo."
"Oliver. Oliver. Oliver, don't stop." He deeply thrusts and she lets out a loud moan when she orgasms for a second time. He alternates between fast and slow. He wanted to ensure she only remembered his name. The way that he made her feel. Oliver ensures that she comes twice more before finally allowing himself his own release.
He collapses on top of her. Zoey runs a hand down his side. "Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy that, but what's the special occasion?"
"I saw your inbox after you went to the store," Oliver answers, sitting up.
Zoey blinks, confused. "What?"
"You left your email inbox open on the computer." Oliver leans down and harshly kisses her. "You had an email from him."
"Are you talking about the email I got from Bruce," Zoey asks.
Oliver tightly grips her hip. She knew there would be bruises later. "He's the only asshole that would try to take you away from me."
Zoey shifts, pushing at him. This had gone from being a fun romantic moment to something else. And she wasn't in the mood to deal with his jealously issues. "Get off of me."
Oliver presses his weight down on her. "You said you weren't talking to him anymore, Zo."
"I'm not. I didn't even reply to Bruce's email."
"Then why is he emailing you, Zo?"
"I don't know, Oliver. Now, get off—"
Oliver kisses her. This one was softer and filled with love. He pulls back and scoops her up. "Let's take this upstairs." Zoey can only nod. She was confused about what was going on with her husband.
Zoey bites her lip as she makes her way down to the basement of the Daily Planet. She was hoping that Clark would be down here. Oliver had angrily told her about Clark's visit from earlier that day. His behavior had grown more erratic over the past couple of days. She had seen the article that had been printed in the Daily Planet about Green Arrow being shot. She remembered seeing blood on his Green Arrow outfit that night. The elevator doors open and Zoey sees Chloe quickly push Clark towards her.
"Hey, I was just looking for you," Zoey brightly says to Clark. She glances at Chloe. "Raincheck on lunch?"
"No problem," Chloe replies.
Clark frowns, looking between them. Then he spots Lana walking down the stairs. Zoey yanks Clark into the elevator, hoping to save him and Lana from an awkward encounter. "Oliver told me about your visit this morning," she tells him, hitting the button for the lobby. "Was he being…weird?"
Clark sighs. He didn't want to be one to tell her. "Zoey…I think Oliver is doing drugs. I saw him inject something. I grabbed a vial of whatever he's taking and gave it to Chloe. She knows someone who can figure out what it is. But I think you should stay away from Oliver in the meantime."
"Yeah, no, Ollie doesn't do drugs. He doesn't even drink. Hell, I can't even have wine in our house to cook with because he's worried about me drinking it. So, no, Oliver isn't doing drugs. But did he seem…like…extra aggressive when you visited?"
"Zoey, did he do something to you?" Zoey avoids his gaze as they walk out of the Dailey Planet building. Clark grabs her wrist. He doesn't miss the wince that crosses her face. He pushes up the sleeve of her sweater to reveal the deep red mark around her wrist. "You can't go back there."
"That was consensual," Zoey quickly explains, shoving her sleeve back down. She shakes her head. She wasn't going to delve into the jealously issues Oliver had. "Look, I'll figure it out on my own." Zoey takes off down the streets, leaving a worried Clark standing there.
Zoey plays with the rings on her left hand as she steps off the elevator into the apartment. She had spent a few hours looking for Oliver, trying to find him. After talking with Clark, she had gone back home only to find Oliver gone. So she had set out to check the places she knew he went to in Metropolis, which was mainly a couple of restaurants and the Rosewood. She lets out a relieved breath finding him standing at the desk. "Oliver, I have been looking all over for you," she tells him, walking over to him. She places a hand on his shoulder.
Oliver turns and shoves her away. She hits the staircase, then falls to the ground. "Shit, Zo. I - I didn't mean it."
Zoey blinks away the tears as pain erupts from her shoulder. "It's fine." Oliver pulls out a vial and syringe from his pocket. "What is that?"
"Something that will help."
"I'll take my chances at the hospital." Oliver ignores her. He shoves up her skirt. "Oliver, stop."
"Zo, I've been taking this stuff for days. I got shot the other night and I'm fine. Not scratch. Trust me." He shoves the needle into her thigh and injects her with the mysterious substance. Oliver places a quick kiss on her lips, then takes off, leaving her sitting there.
Oliver knocks on the door of the Kent house. Given that she wasn't at the apartment or the Rosewood, he hoped that Zoey was here. He didn't want to think about her paying a visit to Gotham. The door opens and he lets out a relieved breath seeing Zoey. He holds up the bouquet of flowers he had gotten and she laughs, taking the flowers. He leans down and softly kisses her.
"Zo, I'm so sorry. For everything," Oliver softly tells her.
Zoey softly smiles. "You're forgiven. But I hope there's some diamonds as part of this romantic apology. Or at least some emeralds." Oliver laughs, pulling her against his chest. She pulls him into another kiss.
"Okay, you two don't need to remind the rest of us of how single we are," Lois loudly says.
Zoey rolls her eyes and tugs Oliver into the house. She sets the flowers down by where her coat and purse were sitting. Max picks up the flowers and inspects them. "Nope. It's not a proper apology for whatever stupid fight you had if there are no diamonds," he declares.
Austin shakes his head. "You never give me diamonds when you apologize for our stupid fights."
"I give you limited edition comic books," Max argues, then presses a quick kiss to Austin's lips.
Oliver looks at Zoey with a questioning look. "Apparently, Uncle Max and Austin started dating again and didn't tell anyone," she explains. "Least of all me."
"You two eloped and didn't tell anyone," Max counters, smirking.
"Not the same thing."
"It's the same," Max and Austin say at the same time. They exchange a look and laugh.
"Dinner's ready," Martha loudly announces. Everyone, including Lionel Luthor, takes a seat around the large table that had been set up.
Clark clears his throat and stands up. "If I could have everyone's attention, please," he begins. The group falls silent. "Um, our family has a tradition that goes back way before I was even born…where everyone takes a moment to say what they're most thankful for in their lives. I would just like to say that I'm most thankful for my mom and dad…whose father in me taught me to have faith in myself. Thank you."
Everyone goes around the table and shares what they are thankful for. Zoey clears her throat when it's her turn. "I'm thankful that everyone I care about is here," she softly says. She doesn't hear the buzzing of her phone in her purse or see missed call from Bruce. She's more focused on the people in front of her.
I'm sick of chasing after things
I'd rather them chase after me
Keeping up is bound to wear me down
There's a million ways to skin a cat
I put my choices in a hat
Picked a few and threw the bad ones out
Well, I know now