Chlollie Fanfic: Beauty in the Breakdown IV - Falling In, Part 12/12
At last - final chapter, people! It only ended up being 4 times as long as it was supposed to be. ;-)
Thanks to everyone for the lovely, encouraging comments. I’ve enjoyed this section of the series immensely, and I hope I can continue to entertain y’all long after the show goes off the air.
This is my way of putting the thorn in my side that is Henry James Olsen to rest. For EVER. I hope it works for you all, too.
Enjoy! :-)
Title: Beauty in the Breakdown IV - Falling In
Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlollie
Rating: NC-17 (this chapter PG-13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Season 9; an expansion of Chlollie post-Warrior
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Series Summary: With Oliver by her side, Chloe learns to let go, find peace, and fall in love.
Story Summary: The bond between Oliver and Chloe continues to deepen.
Feedback: …makes my day. And week. And month. And year... J
Written for sxymami0909, based on my favourite song on the Chlollie playlist she sent me. It's not over yet, babes! :-D
Awesome banner by ellashy. You totally ROCK. :-)
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Beauty in the Breakdown IV
Falling In
Every time I see your face
My heart takes off on a high-speed chase, now
Don’t be scared, it’s only love
Baby, that we’re falling in…
- Falling In, by Lifehouse
Part 12
Oliver paled, her softly spoken statement echoing in his brain.
Dear God. Is that what she’d been carrying around all this time?
Silently he led her back to the park and sat her down on a bench, then knelt in front of her.
“Chloe, you did not kill Jimmy Olsen,” he answered vehemently. “That was Davis Bloome-”
“Jimmy died because of me!” she cried, as the tears began to fall fast. “Because he was trying to protect me!”
“Now, you listen to me,” Oliver said sternly, gripping her shoulders. “Look at me, Chloe. Look at me.”
Reluctantly she lifted her head, her sad eyes staring into his determined ones.
“You did not kill Jimmy Olsen,” he said, emphatically enunciating each word. “Y’hear me? You are not responsible for that.”
She shook her head. “If you truly believed that, then why did you leave?” she whispered tearfully. “Why did you all leave?”
Oliver grimaced and closed his eyes as he remembered how he, Clark, Dinah and the rest of the League had all deserted Chloe before Jimmy’s casket had even been lowered into the ground. He could see why she would feel as if the blame and responsibility for Jimmy’s death had been dumped on her doorstep, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“Chloe, we left because we felt guilty,” he finally admitted. “We all felt responsible for what happened to Jimmy, and didn’t know how to handle it.”
“But why?” she sniffed. “It was my fault, because I ran away with Doomsday. If I hadn’t, then-”
“…then Clark would be dead,” Oliver finished. “And so would Jimmy, and the rest of us, and possibly the entire Mid-West by now. And then the world would really have gone to shit.”
Her eyes widened a little as she considered his words, but she was still unconvinced.
“Maybe if I’d just been honest with Jimmy after the wedding,” she said lamely. “If I’d told him that I hadn’t been myself, that I’d never really married him…”
“Chloe, could you honestly have done that to him after he’d just gotten his chest ripped out?” he reasoned.
She bowed her head, and he knew he was right. No way could she have issued divorce proceedings against Jimmy when he was on his sickbed. So she’d done the honourable thing instead and stayed with him, tried to make things work.
Unfortunately, none of them had counted on an immortal serial killing machine shattering whatever chance of happiness they might have had.
“You made so many sacrifices, sacrifices that we never even knew about,” he said gently. “You did everything you could to make everyone else happy, even though you were dying inside. And none of us had a clue.”
“But if I’d-”
“Oh, enough with the ‘if’s, for God’s sake!” he raged. “If you hadn’t run away with Doomsday…if you hadn’t stayed married to Jimmy…if, if, if…how far back are you gonna go with the ‘if’s before you finally accept that it wasn’t your fault, huh? ‘If I’d never been born, maybe he’d still be alive?’ ”
She shrank back, startled. “Oliver -”
“No, you listen to me, Chloe,” he interrupted sternly. “I’m not trying to brush everything under the carpet here, or make you feel better just for the heck of it; I’m telling you the truth, and you need to hear it. Now, will you listen?”
She gulped and nodded.
“Good,” he said, his voice softening. “Davis put you between a rock and a hard place by threatening Clark, and you had to make a difficult decision…but you made the best decision you could under the circumstances. Chloe, I know how much Clark means to you, and I know what he’s destined to be to mankind. And I understand that you had to protect him, protect his destiny, the only way you knew how. You weren’t trying to get anyone killed. Quite the opposite, in fact; you were trying to save as many lives as you could.”
He took a deep breath and continued. “The thing is, we all had the same agenda, and we didn’t want you sacrificing yourself to get it done. Tess destroyed the Phantom Zone crystal because she wanted Clark to battle Doomsday, believing Clark would win and that would cement his as the hero he was meant to be. Clark thought separating Davis from the monster would solve the problem. And me, well…I wasn’t quite so noble. I just wanted to kill the motherfucker, get you back, and I didn’t care who got in my way.” He paused. “Including Clark.”
“Including Clark?” she echoed in surprise.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “When Clark expressed doubts about going ahead with my plan, I…I shot him in the back with a kryptonite arrow.”
Chloe’s jaw dropped and she stared at him in disbelief. “Oliver, you didn’t,” she whispered.
He gave a resigned sigh. “I did. It was Jimmy that found him and pulled the arrow out,” he replied quietly. “That’s how he got involved, Chloe; he figured out that Clark was the Blur, and wanted to help in any way he could. If it hadn’t been for my dick-headed move in shooting Clark in the first place-”
“No. You can’t blame yourself, Oliver,” she interrupted quickly. “None of us could have predicted that Davis would turn out to be irredeemable.”
“Exactly,” he pointed out quietly. “Can you see what I’m saying now, Chloe?”
She stared back at him, comprehension dawning in her eyes.
He went on. “We all did the best we could to defeat Doomsday. We were trying to save as many lives as possible, but complications from all angles led to casualties, and we lost Jimmy.”
“But I put him in harm’s way…” she argued, but Oliver shook his head.
“I spoke to Clark, Chloe. It was him that asked Jimmy to take you and Davis to the Watchtower. Jimmy understood what he was getting himself into, and was willing to risk his life if it meant saving someone else’s. Could we have all done things differently? Sure. But we have no idea whether those different choices would have made things better, or worse.”
He took her face in his hands and stared into her teary eyes. “You deserve to be happy, Chloe. You deserve every bit of happiness that comes your way and more; and you should never hesitate to take it.”
He paused and allowed his words to sink in, studying her expression uncertain. A tear rolled down her cheek and he quickly brushed it away with his thumb.
God, he hated seeing her cry. The knowledge that he had ever hurt her ate away at him, and he felt ashamed for having contributed to her unhappiness.
“Besides, Jimmy wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy for the rest of that life he worked so hard to save, would he?” he continued. “In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t haunted your sorry ass for being such a miserable sap!”
***
A burst of laughter bubbled up in Chloe’s throat at the mental image of a translucent Jimmy floating through her walls, ever-present camera slung around his neck. She smiled through her tears, and for the first time since his untimely demise, she felt at peace about him. It was as if he were here beside her, validating Oliver’s very sound argument.
Jimmy was in a better place now. She could appreciate and accept his great sacrifice without guilt, and finally begin to live a life free of the pain that had plagued her ever since. The invisible anchor that had kept her moored had been lifted, and she was free.
Completely free.
She took Oliver’s hand in hers and raised it to her lips, kissing his fingers.
“Thank you, Ollie. I feel so much better…in here.” She pressed his hand to her heart. “I didn’t realise there was still so much pain I was holding on to.”
He squeezed her fingers affectionately. “Have you let it all go now?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Positive?”
“Yes!” she insisted with a laugh. “What, do you want it etched in stone?”
He grinned. “Nah, I believe ya,” he replied, tugging her to her feet. “Come on - it’ll be dark soon, and we still have one more stop to make before I take you back to the Clocktower.”
“Okay.” She cuddled him close as they resumed their walk down the road.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt content and happy. Unconditionally so. She smiled up at Oliver and he beamed back down at her, making her heart sing.
So focused was she on her lover’s smile that she failed to notice that he’d led them into the local locksmiths.
She frowned and glanced around. “Er…what are we doing here?”
He shrugged. “Just ticking a few boxes.” He extricated his keys from his pocket and handed them over to the man behind the counter. “Full set, please.”
“Oh, you’re getting duplicates?” she queried as the locksmith worked swiftly.
Oliver shook his head. “No; just an extra set.”
“But isn’t that the same thing?” she countered.
“Nope.”
Her brow furrowed in a slight frown. “I fail to understand your logic, Oliver queen. An extra set of keys is by default, a duplicate of the original keys.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. “A duplicate set of keys remains in my possession, Chloe. An extra set does not.”
She folded her arms and scowled as he collected both original and new sets of keys from the locksmith. “Semantics. You’re saying the difference between a duplicate set and an extra set is geographical location?”
“Pretty much.” Without warning, he pressed the extra set of keys into her hands. “There you go: all yours. Ready to roll?”
***
Chloe stared at the keys in her hands as though they might come to life and chomp on her wrist.
“You gave me your keys,” she finally managed to say.
“Mmm-hmm.”
“There’s even the keys to the Ferrari on here,” she said unsteadily, still staring at them as if they were going to bite her.
He nodded. “Yup. And…?”
She took a deep breath. “And I keep waiting for my inevitable freak-out moment, but… it isn’t coming,” she finished, her mouth widening in a surprised smile.
Oliver followed suit with a huge grin. “See? You’re not as neurotic as you think you are.”
“Hey!” she said indignantly, swatting at him as he laughed and pulled her into his arms.
“Just kidding. You’re the strongest person I know,” he said warmly. “My keys couldn’t be in better hands.”
“Oliver…wow,” she breathed, rendered almost speechless. “I’m so…this is…are you sure?”
He rolled his eyes. “Never been surer. And don’t worry about reciprocating; since you live with Lois, it would be inappropriate for me to have unfettered access to the Talon. And I already have the keys to Watchtower.”
She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Ollie - so much.”
He squeezed her arm affectionately. “Pleasure.”
“You’ve given me so much pleasure already, amongst other things,” she said shyly. “I really wish I could give you something back.”
“You already did, Chloe,” he said softly. “You gave me you.”
Her eyes shone as tears gathered behind her eyelids - happy tears. She stood on tip-toe and kissed him with all her heart, feeling all the guilt and pain that had anchored her down for years just melt away in Ollie’s arms.
Eventually he lifted his head from hers, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
“Though if you insist on treating me, the occasional sexual favour wouldn’t go amiss…” he teased, and she giggled hysterically.
“That works for me,” she drawled. “Especially since you always insist on returning the favour. Twice.”
Oliver laughed and ruffled her hair. “Then it’s settled. C’mon…let’s go home.”
Home. Chloe smiled and linked her arm in Oliver’s as they strolled in the direction of the Clocktower, clutching her keys tight.
She was going home with her man. It didn’t get any better than that.
***
The End.
I would never do you wrong
Or let you down, or lead you on
Don’t look down, it’s only love
Baby, that we’re falling in…
***
Read the sequel, Beauty in the Breakdown V: Feeling Good
***