The Fall 6/?
Title: The Fall 6/?
Fandom: Smallville
Rating: M
Summary: Somestimes even a hero needs to be saved.
Notes: Here is the next chapter. Not much going on exept for a little turn in the plot and more Oliver/Chloe tension. I've hit a roadblock of sorts. So bring on the reviews. Maybe they'll help.
Clark opened Chloe’s refrigerator and bent over, searching for at least something to hold him over until he got to work. Nothing. “Don’t you eat Chloe!?”
“Where do you think I was going when I was kidnapped?”
Clark frowned and stood up. Glancing down at his watch his frowned deepened. “Where the hell is he?” He mumbled to himself.
“Who?”
Clark spun around to find Chloe in the doorway still clad in her pajamas. “I thought you were getting dressed?”
“I am. Who’s coming over?”
As if on cue there was a knock on the door.
“Your next shift of babysitter.” Ignoring the way her mouth fell open, he passed her in the doorway and headed to the door. “Look, just to keep an eye out. At least for today. But I really think you should have someone with you when you go out.”
“Clark, I don’t need a baby sitter.” She trailed behind him, determined to send away whoever was behind the door.
“Yes, you do.” Clark opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief. “Talk about last minute. Take her to breakfast; she doesn’t have anything to eat. And she needs to go grocery shopping.”
“Who-.” Clark stepped away and was already heading to the balcony.
“If you don’t mind. I’m going out the window.”
To Chloe hearing Clark say he was leaving out the window wasn’t as strange as seeing Oliver standing in her doorway. Clark was gone before she could protest and she was left face to face with Oliver.
“Can I come in?”
“Oh, yea, sorry.” Stepping out of the way she watched him enter her apartment. For a moment she just stood there in mild shock watching Oliver look around her living room. Eventually she shook it off and closed her door. When she turned back to him he was facing her. “Are you really here to baby sit me?” For some reason she really couldn’t see him getting talked into it.
“Just for a couple of hours. I’ve got a meeting at ten.” The shock on her face that he was trying his best to ignore was still evident. Oliver understood it, in fact he was a little uncomfortable himself standing there. As much as he didn’t want to be there for his obligated two hours he knew he had to. Even when he pulled her out of that building the other night he still didn’t feel like his debt had been repaid. After all, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped if she hadn’t come and rescued him. In his opinion his rescue of her the previous night didn’t even count when it came back to paying her back. “Are we going to eat breakfast?”
She looked at him in his dress pants and tie and then down to her own boxers and t-shirt. She could only imagine how her hair looked. It was one thing seeing Clark when she rolled out of bed in the morning; it was another thing seeing CEO billionaire Oliver Queen. “We don’t have to. I mean I’m sure I could-.”
“Just go get dress. I don’t do grocery shopping though. Maybe AC can take you.”
“AC?” She sighed and felt her shoulders slump then turned from him to head to her bedroom. “This is ridiculous. I’m not a child.”
Thinking it wise not to respond Oliver took a seat on the sofa and waited.
Chloe had opted for a café only a few blocks from her house. That way it would cut down on the uncomfortable car ride. He held the door open for her as they entered and she couldn’t help but glance back at him in confusion as she made her way to a table. The waitress met them as soon as they sat down, but Chloe assumed that had more to do with Oliver considering the eyes the woman was making at him. “If I brought you along more often I might get quicker service.”
Tearing his eyes from the large window Oliver turned back to Chloe. “What?” She only sighed and shook her head.
“Nothing. So uh AC is taking the next shift?”
Oliver turned back to the window, watching each person that passed in front of it and walked in the door. “No, Bart it coming over on his lunch hour. AC will pass by for a couple of hours and Victor will show up after.”
“That sounds like a wasted day.” She was hoping to start investigating some of her theories that she mentioned to Clark the previous night, but she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to share them with everyone else. For a moment she thought of broaching the subject with Oliver, after all, he was the one speaking with the man the previous night, but he’d been so unapproachable lately…she didn’t want to talk about anything with him she didn’t have to. At least not until she had something more concrete. As Clark had mentioned, she didn’t need to be starting more trouble if it wasn’t necessary. They continued to sit in silence when the waitress arrived a few with her coffee and water for Oliver. She wanted to try to talk to him, but constantly being rebuffed by him and receiving the cold shoulder made it speaking with him a lot harder than it used to be. Instead she opted for studying the other patrons in the café and sipping her coffee.
“Chloe.”
She turned at his voice and found him staring at her. “Yes?”
“Look,” he sighed and leaned back in his chair, slouching down slightly, “I don’t want to turn this into a big conversation, but we can’t sit here for two hours in silence. So let’s just cut the crap.” She raised her eyebrows at his blunt statement, but he just continued. “Back in Havana, I screwed up. I know that. Besides that you and everyone else continue to wait for me to come back to my senses. That’s not going to happen.” She continued to look at him patiently, not even batting an eyelash at his abrupt tone.
“You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. I mean I know you aren’t coming back and I already know that you don’t’ want to talk about Havana.” He pursed his lips, seeming to become aggravated at either her words or the calm tone of her voice. Nothing she said or how it was said would please him. The waitress stopped at the table and set down there food. Chloe started spreading the cream cheese over her bagel in silence, the whole time wondering the best way to approach Oliver. “You know I can’t agree with what you are doing, no one can. You know, what you did last night, you do well; there aren’t many people that could. You want to pretend that isn’t you, that your life up to this point was a mistake. But I don’t believe it, and one day you’re going to have to realize that to.”
“Well don’t hold your breath.” He stabbed a piece of food on his plate, refusing to look at her.
“When you found out about me, what did you do? You didn’t run to Clark and send him, or hand it over to the guys, or even go to the police. When was the last time you put it on Oliver?” His eyes turned up, meeting hers. They weren’t necessarily cold, but there was a hardness there and she had a feeling he didn’t want her to realize that he hadn’t been the Green Arrow since before Davis and Jimmy. “You did what was natural.”
“I owed you. That’s all it was.” Oliver lied. “I was just returning the favor. The last thing I want is you saving my life hanging over my head.” But that wasn’t true; Oliver didn’t even know how he was going to pay her back.
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him, slightly affronted by his choice of words. “I don’t need you to pay me back. Next time you do something out of obligation then save yourself the trouble. Leave it to someone who actually cares.” She snapped. Then with a more controlled tone of voice she continued. “I didn’t run to Havana to save your life because I owed you anything. I came because I’m your friend and I wasn’t going to leave you there to die.”
Everything in his body was screaming at him to apologize, to tell her that he didn’t mean it, that he didn’t save her life because he owed her. But as usual he kept his cold stance.
Chloe sighed and buried her forehead in her hand. His resistance was infuriating and no matter how she tried to smooth things over with him they always wound up fighting. “Look I don’t want to fight.” Lifting her head back up she found him looking out the window again, face impassive. “You know I’d like you to come around, but I can’t force you. But that’s beside the point. Just like I can see the tension between you and Clark, I can see it between you and me. I mean this inability for us to talk without it turning into a fight was before Havana. And if you want to ignore what the real problem is that’s fine. Maybe you don’t even want to resolve it with me. But until we talk about what happened almost a year ago this,” she gestured between them, “isn’t going to change.” He looked at her again and she couldn’t determine if anything she said had reached him or even if there was something he wanted to say. The rest of breakfast went like that. It came as a relief when Bart showed up for his shift.
Chloe walked back around the isle and stopped in her tracks. There stood AC, leaning on a grocery basked. It was kind of ridiculous to see Aquaman standing there hunched over. Two teenage girls passed him, and giggled. She could have swore he blushed. “I’m sure you get that all the time.”
“They’re like ten.” He said and brushed it off.
“More like sixteen. Old enough to recognize someone that is attractive. I should take a picture of this.” She gestured to the grocery baskt. “You pushing my groceries. I don’t think it will happen again.”’
“Unless you get kidnapped by a mob boss again and get held for ransom.” He started pushing as she walked down the aisle.
“Ransom?” Her curiosity peeked. “How much?”
“Ten mill. They Fed Exed a phone to Oliver and sent him a picture of you sedated.”
“I think they overestimated my value to Oliver.” She said, the humor from earlier gone from her voice at the mention of Oliver.
“I don’t know Chloe.” AC shook his head. “I think if it wasn’t for that girl Kristen then Oliver was going to pay it. He was really gung ho about it. Got everybody together, he led it the entire way.” He glanced over to her and noted the frown. “You don’t believe me?”
“Not really. I think to Oliver it is more a case of I saved his life in Havana and now he thinks he owes me.” With a dark cloud hanging over her head she didn’t even feel bad for grabbing a pack of chocolate cookies and tossing them into a basket.
“I like those.” AC commented and grabbed another pack. “I mean I’m sure he does feel like that. But he would have done it anyway. I know you have more faith in him then that.”
“I do, but you all don’t exactly receive the treatment that I get from him. You know I’ve tried to apologize and make up for it, but nothing works.”
“It’s just him.” AC shrugged. “He always did take things harder than most people. For as fearless as he is he gets his feelings hurt very easily. But don’t tell him I said that.”
“You mean that you just called him a woman?” She grinned at him. He opened his mouth to respond but the sound of her phone ringing cut their conversation short. “Hey.” She turned to AC and whispered. “It’s Clark.” He nodded.
“Hey, listen to this. Shortly after I got to work I heard through the grapevine that Ernesto Vasquez was dead. Shot in his sleep.”
Chloe stopped in her tracks. “What?”
“Yea, that’s what I thought. You might be right about another player in this.”
“Alright, I’m going to try to do some researching. Maybe hack into the police database. I’ll let you know what I find.” They hung up and she turned to AC who was looking curiously at her. “Ernesto Vasquez was shot in his bed last night. You remember how that lackey last night said something about us all being dead and Oliver asked him who wanted us dead, but never responded? Well I don’t think it was the boss. Or at least not just the boss. I think there is another player in this.”
“And that maybe since Ernesto screwed up two times this other player took him out?”
“Exactly. Let’s check out.”