The Fall 7/?

[calie15]

Title: The Fall 7/?
Fandom: Smallville
Rating: NC17
Summary: Sometimes  even a hero needs to be saved.
Notes: This is a pretty long chapter. A lot more going on.The plot is developing more, Oliver starting to let things go, and a little change in the relationship for Chloe and Oliver.


Clark had gone to Oliver with the fate of Ernesto Vasquez. Not even the thought that there could have been someone else behind his kidnapping had bothered Oliver. She’d had no choice but to take up the investigation herself.

After reviewing the Havana police department’s report on the murder she found herself knowing as much as she did when she started. He was shot in his sleep, at close range, to the head. There was no evidence. Either the killer had been that good or the police just hadn’t cared. She was inclined to believe both. Ernesto Vasquez had armed protection; it had to have taken someone with talent to get in there while he slept. On the other hand Chloe had a feeling that the police department, which she knew Vasquez had under his thumb, were probably so relieved to be rid of him that they didn’t care who killed him. In fact, they were probably grateful. It was good thing she had begun her satellite downloads before pouring herself into the police reports.

After leaving Havana, Chloe hadn’t been satisfied that their troubles with Vasquez were over. She’d decided to use Queen satellites to monitor Vasquez. Aerials and audio. Every conversation that Vasquez had over the past two weeks, whether it was in person or by phone, was recorded. It would be a needle in a haystack, but she was determined to find something.

It was days later when she finally hit upon one conversation. It had taken place three days after Oliver’s rescue.

You lost him.

You my friend neglected to tell me who he was. Didn’t you think I would want to know I had billionaire Oliver Queen in my custody? He was worth much more to me alive then dead and I think much more then you had offered.

You got greedy and you screwed up.

We had an agreement. Besides, I already have a plan to take care of him. When I have him in my custody again you’ll be the first to know.

Somehow I doubt that. I’ll be watching.

Vasquez’s voice was easy to pick out, the other one wasn’t. Whoever it was used a voice distorter. It would take time, but she should be able to pull something from it. At best she could compare it to other voice recordings that she had saved and find a match. At worst she at least knew that there was another player out there that was gunning for Oliver. Chloe had just been a pawn.

It had been hours later of reviewing more audio and running comparisons to the unknown voice before the computer popped up with a match. She clicked on the numbered file and waited with abated breath as the picture loaded. “Oh shit.”

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“It’s three in the morning. Where the hell do you think I am?” Oliver sat up in bed and rubbed his face. There was something different about the background noise on the other end of the phone. “Chloe, where are you?”

“In my car heading to your place. I’ll be there in five.”

“Chloe, what-.” But all he heard was an audible click signaling that she had disconnected. He looked at the phone and debated on calling her back, demanding to know what was so important. If she hadn’t told him on the phone though he was pretty sure she wouldn’t when he called back. Instead he stood up and headed to his dresser to pull out a shirt. He’d barely had time to go to the bathroom and grab a bottle of water before he heard the elevator moving. When she exited the gate he had to admit he was a little surprised at her appearance. Her hair had grown somewhat over the past year, enough that she could pull it up into a rather messy ponytail with shorter strands hanging around her face. Her face was clean of all make-up, making the dark circles under her eyes and the paleness of her face more prominent. She was wearing a pair of shorts, a t-shirt that appeared to be slightly too big for her small frame, and a yellow pair of flip flops. Whenever he’d called her with an emergency she’d never shown up at his place looking so frazzled. He could only imagine what brought her out looking like that. “What the hell is going on?”

“I’ve been going over some recordings of Vasquez’s conversation that I lifted from your satellites.” Chloe placed her laptop on the kitchen counter. “I started after we got you out of Havana. Anyway, I picked up on one.” Chloe opened her laptop, anxious to get to the main point, but knowing he would need proof. Hitting play on the audio she let him listen to the conversation she had first heard hours ago. His eyes narrowed slightly, but that was the only change I his demeanor. “So I started running the voice against other recordings that we had in the database. Just to find anything that might match. I had a hit”. Chloe double clicked on another file, pulling up the picture and two sets of recorded audio, the sample that had been in their database and the recorded one from Vasquez. They matched. “He’s not dead Oliver. And I think he’s trying to kill you.”

For a moment he stood there in shock. Because he couldn’t believe it. There was no way. Then just as suddenly as he felt the shock it went away. “I don’t care.”

She watched in shock as he turned away from her. “What do you mean you don’t care!? I just told you Lex is out there, with an obvious vendetta against you and you don’t care.”

“Thanks for the info Chloe, but feel free to let yourself out.” He continued walking to his bedroom, giving her no option but to leave.

“No.” Bounding forward she grabbed his arm and forced him back around. “You know up to this point I’ve been pretty tolerant with this stupid behavior. You getting yourself almost killed in Havana was a mistake, a stupid, foolish mistake, but a mistake. This, letting Lex come after you is suicide. I’m not going to let you sit there as a target.”

“When are you going to stop wasting your time Chloe?”

“I’m not wasting it! If you were going to let him kill you then why didn’t you let him last year?”

“Things were different then.” Back then he actually felt like he had a purpose, like he was doing something good.

“So what if they are different! Things change all the time. Deal with it!” He shrugged off her hand and turned again. This time she moved to stand in front of him, blocking his entrance to the hall. “They’re dead Oliver!” She shoved his chest. “Jimmy, Davis, Doomsday. And you, you want to run away and hide. You think you can forget about it, but you can’t.”

“I’m not talking about this with you.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. Before he knew what was going on she pushed him back, a blue glow emanating from her hands forcing him to stumble back a few feet. “Don’t use that stuff on me.” He stepped forward and another blue shield flared to life, blocking him. “Fine. You asked for it.” She dropped the shield and he grabbed her arm, yanking her back to the living room. Once there he turned to face her. “What do you want? You want to know that ever since I planted that bomb on Lex I feel like I’m losing my sanity. First my parents, then Lex, then Davis and Jimmy!”

“I separated them; I let that monster out of Davis to save his life!” Chloe screamed at him and shoved him back angrily. “I mean what would make this better? To know you were right? That when you confronted me about Davis and I thought I had it under control I was wrong. You’re mad at me, I know that. I know you partially blame me. I can see it. So don’t sit there and let yourself get killed because you feel like you deserve it. If that’s the case than place the blame where it belongs.”

“It isn’t like that…” But even as he said it he knew that wasn’t totally true. He didn’t hate her, but something in him did still blame her. It had been Doomsday that ultimately set him off, even though a lot of things contributed to it. Chloe just happened to be the scapegoat for everything that happened with Davis. It was easy for him to resent her.

“I killed him! You know that! You know it was my actions that let Davis live. I stood there on my rooftop, pouring my heart out to Jimmy and Davis stood up and killed him. And even then Jimmy didn’t hate me. I didn’t deserve that kind of person! I didn’t deserve the kind of person that would forgive me no matter what I did, no matter how many times I left him to save the world. And even knowing he was dying he saved my life! Jimmy didn’t deserve to die! I did!” Her throat hurt from screaming and her voice was scratchy. But it didn’t matter as the pain came to the surface and tears streamed down her face. It didn’t matter that it was Oliver standing before her seeing her cry. “You, you killed Lex and you think you deserve to die? I killed Jimmy, a good person, what do I deserve?”

The thought that she was actually considering her death as a retribution for Jimmy’s shook him to the core. “Chloe…” She tore her eyes from him, looking away. Even with her face hidden in the shadows he could see her shoulders shaking and hear her shaky breath. Not knowing what else to do he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. It wasn’t long before she was clinging to him, breath coming in strangled gasps as she sobbed into his chest. “Don’t say that.”

“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for until she said it. His hands rubbed slow circles over her back and it made it even worse. “I thought I knew what I was doing. I’m sorry you feel like this. I know I did it. I hid him and I let this happen. All of it.”

Oliver couldn’t say if things would have turned out different if she had been more forthcoming. In the end Clark still might have separated Davis and Doomsday. Davis still could have killed Jimmy, and if not Jimmy he would have killed someone. It hadn’t gone that way though.

“Just blame me and that’s fine, but don’t stand there and tell me you don’t care if Lex kills you. Enough people have died. I can’t watch you die.” She said into his chest. He didn’t say anything, but continued to hold her and as long as he was willing to do that she wasn’t going to let go.

There was something about her emotional display that broke through the walls he’d put up. He’d done his damndest to stay away from everyone, avoid his other life, and drown himself in more material things. But she was desperate and it wasn’t to save her own life. He suspected that healing him was a way to heal herself. She obviously blamed herself for his downward spiral. But he didn’t think that meant she should be flying to Havana, risking her life to save his, and getting herself kidnapped. It left him with a bad feeling. She wasn’t suicidal, but it struck him suddenly that to make up for her wrongs she would easily put her life on the line, because in her mind she deserved it. “I’m not going to blame you.” She breathed deeply, shuddering as she released the breath. Her body seemed to relax against him and her crying cease except for a small whimper here and there.

His hand rested against her hair and as his fingers gently combed through it she sighed and relaxed. “What about Lex?” She asked fearfully, worried that his response would still be the same.

“Who else knows?” She pulled away and he felt obligated to drop his arms, and for some reason missing the physical contact. He refused to even try to figure that one out.

“No one.” Chloe wiped her face, and fought to get back to business. Considering that she’d just spent the last five minutes crying in the arms of a man that had been unreachable for almost a year she found it a little hard to focus again. “I came straight over here.”

She’d been worried, he could see that. The problem was her life was in danger too. “You do realize that if Vasquez knows of your ability, and Lex was working with him there is a good chance he knows what you can do.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Which was the reason Oliver was in charge. He always thought of everything, planned ahead for everything. “I still hadn’t finished reviewing everything I downloaded from the satellites. It will probably take a while It took me two days just to get that conversation. And that was from almost two weeks ago.”

“Get Victor to plug in to it. You’re useless to me like this.” She should have been offended by his words, but instead she smiled softly. “Don’t get big ideas into your head Sullivan. I’m only doing this so Lex doesn’t have us all drawn and quartered. Once we deal with this then I’m out again.” She bit her lip; he could tell she was trying to hold back a smile. As much as he hated to get back into his alter ego lifestyle again there was something about that teary eyed hopeful smile on her face that warmed him inside. “I’m serious.”

Chloe nodded, fighting the feeling of hope at his words. He’d been so insistent at leaving everything behind just fifteen minutes ago and now he was back. He only claimed for a little while, but the way she looked at it she’d won one battle. There would be more, he wouldn’t come back over so easily. She would have to win the war, but he was one step closer. “Okay, I believe you.”

She didn’t, but at least she had enough sense not to push it. “Okay, go home and get some sleep.” She opened her mouth to argue but he held a hand up. “Don’t argue with me. You’re lucky I came over so easily. At least let me get some sleep, and you look like hell.” She nodded and headed to her laptop, closing it. He suddenly realized she hadn’t even brought it in its bag. She literally had run out the door. “I’m serious. No more investigating. If I show up at your place in the morning and you look worse I’ll walk right out.”

“Okay, got it boss.” Chloe tucked her laptop under her arm and grabbed her purse. “Ten?”

“Yea, I’ll round them up.” She smiled again, obviously pleased. “Stop it.”

“Sorry.” Turning around she headed to the elevator. Just before she opened it she turned around to find him still standing there watching her. “Thanks Ollie.”

He just swallowed and nodded. “Don’t get used to it.” She just nodded, and he knew she didn’t believe him. “I’m serious Chloe.”

“I know.” She turned around and stepped into the elevator.

The way she said that, like she was appeasing a child. Nothing he would say would convince her otherwise.

“So, what’s the plan boss? I mean if Lex really is back he must be hidden pretty good for him to get by this long.”

Oliver turned to Bart and then looked over the rest of the men looking to him for their orders. He didn’t like them looking at him like that again. They’d gone out as a team to save Chloe, but that had been different, he hadn’t thought about what being with them had meant. Now that they all sat there, Bart, AC, Victor, Chloe, looking to him for guidance, he just wanted to turn and run. “Victor and Chloe are going to finish going through everything she downloaded from the satellite. I’ve sent for Dinah and Clark and Lois are checking into anything that might look like Lex.”

“Lois?” AC questioned. “You told Lois.”

Chloe shrugged. “She’ll help us if she knows Oliver is in danger. Plus if anyone is good at pulling up the dirt it’s her. Besides, I promised her the story when we locate him. Lex Luthor found alive, it would be great headline. We might even be able to use it in our favor. If we can out him before he wants to….just a thought.”

Oliver nodded. “We’re also looking into Queen Industries. If it is Lex I have a feelings he’d run after my company to. Plus, I want to get a lists of any property Lex owns, anywhere he might be living right now. It would be safe to say it would be out of the country. Then there’s Tess. Victor, I want to get you into Luthor Corp and her house, tap all her phone lines. Lex can’t get funds with his name right now, he’s presumed dead. He would need Tess to do that.”

“Maybe.” Chloe added. “But I would assume Lex had money to the side for a rainy day. He probably figured he’d have to get out of town eventually. I’m sure he even considered faking his death at some point.” There was a sound of a door opening and Chloe turned to the balcony. “Can’t you use a door!”

“This is much more convenient.” Clark said and straitened his jacket. “You leave it unlocked, which must mean you expect me to use it.”

“Lock it.” Oliver snapped at her. “You know better than that.” She opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off. “Give Clark a key if it’s that important. I didn’t pay to have you apartment decked out with security for you just to leave your door unlocked and get kidnapped again.”

“It wasn’t her fault.” Clark said evenly, a hint of warning in his tone.

Chloe could see the fight brewing between the two men. “Hey.” She turned to Oliver. “You’re right, so calm down.” Turning to Clark. “I’ll get you a key and the pass codes. I don’t need you breaking down my door. What’s up?”

“Lois found an article from a paper in France. That toy maker.” Clark nodded to Oliver. “The one who tried to kill you. He was picked up in France two weeks back. But somehow escaped from jail. There was no site of him afterward.”

“Where?” Chloe asked, her voice holding the foreboding she felt. Clark handed a piece of paper to her and she immediately began to tap away at her laptop. They discussed possibilities while she searched, but Oliver’s voice wasn’t among them. She felt movement at her back and turned around to find him standing over her. His face was impassive, but she could see the tenseness in his jaw. She wanted to tell him it would be okay, somehow thinking that her words would soothe him when she knew they wouldn’t. Instead she turned back to her laptop, doing the only thing she could do. It only took her minutes to pull it up and translate from French to English. “Clark’s right. He was picked up, held for two nights while the French authorities tried to make contact over here. Then one night he was gone, no trace of his escape.” Chloe turned in her chair and looked at Oliver. They all knew Oliver’s part in Lex’s death, but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to speak her fears in front of them. “I need to talk to you.” He nodded and followed her. They went into her bedroom and she shut the door behind her. “You know he’s going to have it out for you too? He’s going to have more reason to come after you now.”

“And Lex is going to use that in his favor.” He should have killed both of them. Next time they wouldn’t be so lucky. “Look for anything Lex might own close to France. He’d want to get the toymaker far enough away from the heat, but I don’t think he’d want to risk a long transport.” She nodded, but didn’t make a move. “What?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head and turned away, not wanting him to see her worry. His hand grabbed her arm, holding it.

“What?”

“I just…” She turned back to face him, scrunching her brow with worry. “I don’t like this. I feel like we’re sitting ducks. Like you could walk out that door and that would be it, and we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“Lex’s plans never work out Chloe. When has he ever succeeded?” She frowned. “There isn’t anything we can do about it right now. Just do what it is you do and we’ll find him.”

“Yea, okay.” She nodded, pulling her shoulders back, determined once again. “Let’s go.”

She headed out of her room, and he trailed behind her. Just like that she was back on track, and he began to wonder what it was that held him back. After Doomsday she’d bounced back, not perfectly, but in much better condition than he had. When it came down to it Oliver had to admit she was probably a better person than he. She made her mistakes, but she pulled herself right back up and learned from them, tried to right the wrong things in the world. Somewhere within the past two days he’d gone from resenting her to admiring her, and that wasn’t good.

Later that night Oliver sat in front of his laptop, reviewing recent business mergers with Queen Industries, trying to find anything that might wave a flag, screaming Lex. When the phone rang he was almost revealed. “Queen.”

“Hey, Oliver. I found something.”

Victor, and it didn’t sound good. “What’ve you got?”

“A conversation that took place right after Chloe was kidnapped. I’m going to send it to you.”

Victor ended their conversation and minutes later Oliver received a new e-mail with an audio attachment. Double-clicking on it Oliver waited.

“Señor Vasquez. It’s him.”

“Leave me…We no longer have business with one another.”

“We had a deal. You were supposed kill Oliver Queen, you didn’t.”

“I returned your money when he escaped. You never told me who it was I would be killing. It would have been more beneficial to me financially to ransom his life. You also didn’t mention there was a chance of him being rescued.”

“He wouldn’t have escaped if you’d done your job in the first place.”

“Our business is done.”

“I don’t believe so. You have Chloe Sullivan. I’m aware that she has some power. I want her and I want Oliver Queen dead. I can offer you a lot more then Oliver Queen will.”

“I would imagine this girl’s life is much more valuable to him then turning her over to you and killing him. But I will think on it. I’ll be in touch.”

Olive played it back four more times before settling back in his chair. There were a couple of things Oliver knew now. Lex knew Chloe was involved and he knew about the change in her meteor ability. What Oliver wasn’t sure of is whether he had only wanted Chloe because Vasquez had already had her in his hands or if he still wanted her. It was likely that she had only been an afterthought for Lex. But still…Picking up his phone he called Chloe.

She sat at Oliver’s desk in silence, taking in the audio Oliver had just played for her.

“I think he may have been considering it. After Vasquez called me I hadn’t heard from him again about a time and pick up point. But Victor wasn’t able to find anymore conversations to confirm they made a deal.” She only nodded and played back the audio again, just as he had an hour ago. When it ended another thought him. “How did you get your ability back?”

She sighed and stood up. She was surprised he hadn’t asked her long before that. The only thing she could assume is he didn’t want to know. “There was a girl that came through ISIS a while back. Maybe seven months ago. She had this ability to boost people’s abilities. Ever since Brainiac I tried to heal, but it was never there. So I convinced her to try and boost mine. It worked.”

“Why?” He asked, but even he knew that was a stupid question. If he had the opportunity he would have taken it also. But that was him; her reasons may have been different.

“A couple of reasons. I still felt guilty about not being able to help Jimmy and then for the few months where everyone was gone I felt a little useless. So I figured I needed to try and use every resource I had. But the weird thing was this.” Chloe held up her hand and slowly allowed the blue ball to grow on her hand. Closing her hand she successfully snuffed it out. “That was new.” Looking back up at him she continued. “When Braniac attacked me I was able to put up some kind of shield. But that was the last time. It wasn’t like this. I mean this, I don’t even know what I can do. I mean what I did in Havana surprised even me.”

It hadn’t been a good idea, and who knows what could have happened. But Oliver wasn’t exactly in a position to tell her so. After Doomsday everyone had disappeared for their own reasons. The entire Justice League, Clark, Lois. Everyone. Chloe was the only one that remained behind. “I want you to go check with Dr. Emil.” She opened her mouth to respond and knowing that she was going to argue with him he cut her off. “Just do it. You still work for me, and considering your status as meteor infected has changed I just want to make sure everything checks out.”

“I’ve been fine for five months. You didn’t say anything two weeks ago.” Chloe pointed out.

“Well things are different.” He expected her to argue, but she only stared up at him, a look of confusion on her face.

“Okay.” She wanted to ask him what was different. Over the past couple of days he’d been almost a different person. Still rather cold towards everyone, but he’d been involved. She wanted to think maybe he actually cared, but she wasn’t ready to believe that yet. “I’ll call him tomorrow. I guess I better get going.” She had more research to do and there was no point in hanging around. After collecting her belongings in silence she headed back towards the elevator.

“Chloe.” She stopped and turned to him. “Be careful.” She nodded.

“I will.”

He watched her go, and couldn’t help but be a little anxious at her exit. The audio that Victor had discovered and her new powers made him worry. If Lex got a hold of her Oliver knew it would be the final nail in his coffin. There would be no coming back.