Finding Love 1/1
Title: Finding Love 1/1
Summary: Oliver's given a second chance at finding love, now he just needs to hold onto it.
Rating: PG
Notes: This is loosely based off of Lois' dreams from her trip to the future and the upcoming episode Pandora. But it isn't really spoilerish.
“Ollie.”
“Shhh.” He grabbed the top of her dirty blouse and ripped it open, buttons flying to the side, revealing a gaping wound in her stomach. He looked up at her eyes and felt his stomach drop. “Come on.” He slid his hands underneath her, and began to lift her.
“Oh god no!” She pushed at his chest and threw her head back, crying out as he settled her back down.
“We’ve got to move you Chloe.” He grabbed the bag at his side, pulled out her spare clothes and pressed them against the wound. She screamed and dug her nails into his arm, he didn’t even notice. “I have to Chloe.” He reached for her against but she pushed him away.
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t.” She coughed as she spoke the last word, feeling something warm in her throat almost making her gag. Again she coughed, trying to clear it out, anything to make it easier to breathe.
Blood spattered her lips as she coughed. Sliding his hand underneath her head he lifted it and sat next to her, cradling the upper half of her body in his lap. She winced as he moved her, but at least she didn’t fight him. “We’ve got to go Chloe.”
She looked down past her old bra, covered in blood, and to the wound in her stomach.
It was when she looked back up at him that he finally saw the panic. “No, no, no. We’re leaving sidekick.”
“No, Ollie, I can’t. I-.” He was already moving, scooping her up into his arms.
She asked him to stop, to set her down. Then eventually she settled for digging her nails into him and whimpering into his chest as he hurried down the empty street littered with debris. He hated himself for causing her pain, especially considering he knew how stubborn Chloe was; she wouldn’t have begged him to put her down unless she meant it. It didn’t matter. She could hate him later, but he wasn’t losing her.
Oliver eventually found an empty office building with the door hanging of the hinges, and kicked it in. Spotting an empty desk ahead he hurried forward and settled her down. “It’s going to be okay.”
His palm brushed against her cheek, forcing her to focus on him. She couldn’t find words; all she could do was nod as she tried to breathe.
Oliver grabbed the ear piece out of his pocket and put it to his ear, relaying commands for the nearest doctor to come to their location. “Hey.” He grabbed her face in his hand and turned it towards him. “Stay with me.”
“Yea, okay.” She nodded and coughed again. He was pulling her up again, easing whatever it was that made it hard for her to breathe. The desk was cold and she welcomed the warmth of his body.
“They’re on their way.” Oliver said softly, and held the clothing over her stomach. She cried out softly and he pressed a kiss to her hair. “I know, I’m sorry.”
“We never talked about this.” Chloe whispered through her gritted teeth.
“What’s that?”
“One of us dying.”
“Hey.” Oliver said a little more abruptly then he meant and looked down at her. “Look at me.” Green eyes peered up at him. “We don’t talk about it because there is no reason to.”
“Don’t be ridiculous Oliver.” She coughed, bringing her hand weakly to her mouth in response and pulled it away, finding it covered in blood. He hadn’t said a word. When she looked up into his face, she saw it there, the fear. His thumb brushed over her lips, no doubt wiping the blood away.
“Then fine, we don’t talk about it because we need each other.” He brushed her knotted blond hair from her face. “And that’s why we don’t die.”
She smiled up at him, both pleased and saddened by his response. “You don’t need me.”
He laughed, but it held no humor. “Who was it that brought me back?”
“You did that.”
“Now who is being ridiculous?” He held her closer, brushing his fingers over her cheek. She breathed in and he could hear the way she gasped, fighting for breath just to speak.
“You’re stronger than me. You don’t see me scaling buildings and fighting bad guys.” As she coughed again pain shot through her abdomen and she cried out, tensing in his arm. He brushed his fingers over her face, down her arm, and continued whispered to her that it would be okay.
“Didn’t you ever hear the saying that a man is only as strong as the woman standing behind him?” She laughed softly and he couldn’t help but smile, even if it was a little sad. Then she sighed softly and relaxed into him, turning her cheek into his chest. He watched her eyes close slowly. “Stay awake Chloe.”
“Yea.” She whispered and forced her eyes open.
For the next few moments he watched her breathe, never taking his eyes off her chest.
“I thought it was the desk.” She said weakly, and reached out for his arm.
Oliver pressed his lips against her forehead. “What?”
“Making me cold. It’s not.” She looked up into his eyes; hoping to find some strength there or an answer, but there was only pain. “Ollie, I can’t, I can’t-.” Tears clouded her vision and she cursed them because she couldn’t see his face now. He rocked her gently. “I don’t want you to be alone.”
He pulled his face away and looked down on her. “Chloe, you’re not-.” She started coughing again, harder. Oliver sat her up higher, and watched as she coughed up more blood. His stomach turned to the point where he thought he would have lost whatever he’d eaten earlier, but they’d barely had much to eat for breakfast. As she calmed down again he sat her back gently. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Ollie,” Chloe looked up and blinked away the tears in her eyes, “not this time.”
“No. Hey,” He wiped the blood from her face and cradled her cheek, forcing her to look at him, “don’t tell me that. We said we’d help each other remember? That we’d be there for each other. That one day Clark would come back and everything would be okay. Remember?”
“I’m sorry.” She whispered. Her eyes fluttered slightly as she felt consciousness leave her. She heard him talking, shaking her, forcing her back.
“No, I don’t think so sidekick. Not on my time. Not while I’m here.” He cupped her cheek and tilted her head up. “Look at me.” The hand that gripped his wrist fell away. “Look at me!” Green tired eyes looked back up at him. He saw her hand move out of the corner of his eyes, reaching up. Taking it in his hand he helped her as she raised it higher to his face. It wasn’t until he felt her fingers brush over his cheek did he realize she was brushing tears away. He hadn’t even realized he was crying. “Chloe, no.” She blinked, tears falling out of the corner of her eyes. “No, look listen. You can’t die. Think of all the things you haven’t done.”
She smiled. “I’ve done more than most.”
“Didn’t you ever want to get married again? Actually have a family? Not be stuck behind a computer the rest of your life?”
“No one would marry a mess like me.”
“Damn it Chloe! I would!” Her brow drew together in the first real response he’d seen from her in the past few minutes. “I’m sorry. I’m an idiot for thinking I had all the time in the world, hoping one day that Clark would come back and I could finally tell you. I wanted it to be the right time.” He blinked, clearing the tears from his eyes. “Do you know how hard it has been to love you and not be able to tell you?”
“Yes.” His eyes searched hers and then he lowered his head, holding her palm to his cheek, and pressed his lips gently against her own. Compared to all the other kisses she could remember it wasn’t much. It was chaste and gentle, but it was from him, and that made all the world of difference.
Pressing his forehead against her own he looked down, holding her eyes with his own. “I love you Chloe. You have to just hold on.” He could hear the tears in his own voice, but it didn’t matter anymore.
“I love you too.” She whispered, mesmerizing the feelings of his lips brushing against her own as she spoke. “I like that family idea.”
“It’s all yours. Beautiful blond children all yours.” She smiled sleepily and slowly her eyes started to close. “Chloe.” She didn’t open them. Pulling away he turned her face and sat her up. “Come on Chloe.” Her chest rose, but just barely. “No, come on. Chloe.” He ran his hand over her cheek in desperate panic. “Chloe!” Slowly her head rolled against him and he let his eyes fall to her still chest. “No.” Oliver pressed his fingers to his neck, his heart dropped. “No, no, no. Chloe.” His vision clouded with tears and he wiped his eyes angrily. Noise behind him caused him to turn his head.
“Watch out.” He stepped away, watching as the two men he had called took her from him and laid her on the desk and began chest compressions. But there was no hope. Slowly he walked backwards, watching as they helplessly worked to save her life. His back bumped into a wall and feeling all of his strength leave him he slid down and buried his face in his arms.
Lois snapped open her eyes, feeling at first her heart thumping in her chest, fighting to pump blood. It was still dark, and when she turned towards the clock and saw that it was only after three in the morning she sighed and flopped onto her back. For a while she just stared at the ceiling, the entire dream playing over in her head like a movie. Every detail coming back to her, every gory detail. It was so real, Oliver, Chloe the blood, the tears, the pain. They were all so real.
Oliver stood as Lois walked out of the elevator. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yea, well. A lot has been going on.” She said absentmindedly, still arguing with herself as to whether this was the best idea.
“You mean you and Clark or the fact that it turns out you are having crazy future visions about the end of the world.” She smirked, but he could see worry in her eyes. “What’s wrong Lois? As much as I would like to think you would come to me for comfort I know you won’t.” Her brow furrowed for a moment, only confirming that something was worrying her. “Why don’t we sit?” She followed him silently to the sofa and took a seat with him. They sat in silence for a few moments, until he couldn’t take it any longer. “Spit it out Lois. No secrets remember.”
“Yea.” She sighed and decided to just plunge in head first; it was how she usually handled things anyway. “Look those dreams…”
“Clark said he’s going to change them. Now that he knows what to avoid.”
“Yea, but that isn’t it. “
“What, am I dead or something.” She shook her head. “Come on Lois. You have something to say. So just say it.”
“Chloe dies.” She blurted out and awaited his reaction. He looked at her strangely and for a moment she thought he didn’t believe her. “In the future. I don’t know how it happened, but the you two are working together, and she gets hurt and she dies, and you were with her.” He stood up suddenly, walking away from her a few feet and then stopping and turning around to face her again.
“When?”
“I-I don’t know. I mean it isn’t too far in the future. But after the takeover. I don’t recognize the street though. I’m going to try and find it, but-.” She shook her head. “If I can find it, then you’ve got to try and save her.”
It wasn’t just the weight of Chloe’s life on his hands that made it hard to breathe, hard for him to even swallow. It was the thought that one day soon, on the path they were on, she was destined to die. It was him always putting his life on the line, why would she be the one? “Does she know?”
“No, and I don’t want her to know. At least not unless things start going south. If Clark’s right, and he can change this…But just in case.” He nodded absently, looking somewhere behind her. “Ollie, there’s one more thing.” His eyes focused on her again as she stood up and walked towards him. “I don’t know if a new timeline would change this, but just in case.” She sighed, knowing she might be making the wrong decision, and dove in. “When she’s dying you told her that you loved her. I don’t know how you feel now, but I saw it and it was real.”
“Lois, I don’t-.”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t now. Just listen to me. Just give it a chance, because by the time you told her it was too late. There were no second chances. Chloe was gone, and I know that look I saw on your face when she died. If Clark was gone I would feel the same way. And she loved you back. And I don’t know if changing things might change that, but she was with you the whole way, all the way until the end, and if that isn’t love then I don’t know what is.” She stopped and waited, for a response, but he only stared at her. “I just wanted you to know.” Slowly she turned from him and headed towards the elevator.
“Why not just leave it alone?” He asked suddenly. She stopped and turned back to face him. “It it was meant to be…”
Lois shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I’m making a mistake, trying to play god. But I care about both of you, and I haven’t met a man yet that is good enough for Chloe, someone that’s strong enough to be her equal.” She paused and waited. “And even though things are different between us now I still care for you and I want the best for you.”
Even as she walked to the door he struggled to find something to say, because as confused as he was she shouldn’t have been able to drop that bombshell on him and just walk out the door. But he was too confused to even speak.
Lois closed the gate and smiled almost sadly at him. “How many women would stick around until the very end and die trying to help you?”
Still Oliver struggled to say something, but nothing came to him and before he knew the elevator descended and she was gone.
It had been only a month ago that he had opened his heart to Lois, laying everything on the line in hopes to get her back, and only to have his hopes dashed. He’d recovered; ego bruised, and threw himself into work and his other persona. But it had been hard, and he was still trying to reconcile himself to the definite end of any possibility of a relationship with Lois.
It just baffled him as he stood there that the woman that he had tried to get back in his life had just walked up to him and practically told him that it was okay for him to fall in love with her cousin.
A hand touched his shoulder and he jumped slightly, turning his head.
“Hey.” Chloe chuckled and nodded at the computer. “How are they doing?”
“Fine.” Oliver shook his head and turned back to the computer and continued Bart and AC’s progress. “Should be out in no time.”
“Good.” Chloe yawned and took a seat next to him. “I’m beat.”
“It’s only ten. I thought you liked working at night.”
“Yea, except I put in an all nighter last night and just when I got to bed you called me.”
He had enough common sense to look guilty. “Sorry.”
“It’s part of the job right?”
He nodded absent mindedly and turned away from her, focusing on the computer again.
“You okay? I mean you seem like you’ve been kind of preoccupied lately.”
“Yea, everything’s fine.” But he wouldn’t even meet her eyes, he couldn’t, because ever since Lois put that damned idea in his head he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
She watched him, noting how tense he seemed, the way the vein in his neck seemed to almost tick with his pulse, how his jaw seemed clamped shut. “Oliver…” She reached out and rested her hand over his, but then he jumped, yanking his hand away and turning towards her. “S-sorry.”
He opened his mouth to say something, anything to ease away the slightly hurt look on her face, but AC came over comm just then. “Okay, guys, head on home.” Oliver pulled the earpiece from his ear and turned towards her, but she was gone. Standing from the desk he headed towards the swinging doors to find her heading towards the kitchen. “They’re heading home.”
“That’s good.”
She didn’t even turn around to face him. Instead she moved around her kitchen, opening the refrigerator, pulling out a variety of containers. He started to leave, because that had been what he’d wanted the whole night, just to get away from her, to forget her.
Chloe was being childish, even she would admit that. But for some reason being slightly rebuffed by him had hurt her feelings. There was no sound, and then she heard his footsteps on the tiled kitchen floor.
“I’m assuming you didn’t eat dinner.”
“That would be a safe assumption.” She said evenly, refusing to look at him.
“Let me take you to dinner.” She stopped finally and turned slowly to face him, brow raised in surprised. “I’m serious.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” Because he had nothing else to do, she had nothing else to do, and he didn’t like the thought of leaving her home alone.
“I don’t know.” He smiled down at her with that charming smile that would melt any woman’s heart. “I guess so.”
He waited as she put her food away and then followed her towards the front door. She grabbed her jacket off of its hook and he snatched it from her hands. Ignoring the look of surprise on her face, he stepped behind her.
Chloe ignored the way here heart seemed to thud in her chest as she slid her arms into the jacket. Slowly she turned back around and smiled, feelings slightly shy at his gesture. Oliver leaned forward, leaning his body into hers, bringing his face perilously close to her own. She couldn’t breathe, and almost stepped back when she heard the click of her door.
Oliver pulled the door open and stepped back. “After you.” She nodded and turned away, seeming to be slightly shaken. The ride down in the elevator was made in silence, and it wasn’t until they exited her building that one of them spoke.
“You want me to drive?”
Oliver shrugged. “We’ll take a cab.”
Chloe stopped at the curb and turned to face him. “Driving is free.”
“And I have money.” She frowned in response. “You’ve got thousands of dollars of my money in your watchtower, but you won’t let me call a cab.”
“Those aren’t for me.” She countered. The wind blew harder, causing a chill to run through her.
“No.” Oliver stepped forward and reached up for the top of her coat. Slowly he slid the first button through its adjoining hole. “But I know you like them.”
She would have denied it, but she couldn’t, not with him so close buttoning her coat.
He wouldn’t look at her, instead focusing his eyes on each button, and when he finally slipped the last one through he lifted his hands and pulled the collar closer around her.
Something wet hit her cheek and she tilted her head back, looking into to the clear night sky. “Is it raining?”
“No.” His hands rose to her face of its own accord. Gently he brushed his thumb over her cheek, nervously watching as her eyes snapped back to him. “Snow.”
It wasn’t just the feel physical gesture, but the look of tenderness on his face that shook her to the core.
Her eyes were wide and green staring up at him. As much as she had been through and as much as she had done, walking that dangerous line with him, she looked so innocent. Small and petite, golden hair framing her face, looking up at him with trusting eyes. She wasn’t trusting by nature, but he knew she trusted him. She hadn’t always, but he could see it in her face that she did now. It wasn’t any of those observations that made his stomach turn and his heart pound in his chest. It was the sudden realization that he could see what Lois had told him, he could see himself falling for Chloe. It was unfathomable for him to think he could love someone else, someone besides Lois. It was scary and exciting at the same time. And worst of all, if Lois was right, if he did fall for Chloe and Clark didn’t change the future…
His hand fell away, leaving her cheek cold again, and his brow furrowed, concern clouding his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head, pushing thoughts of the future and the possibility of her death out of his mind. “I’ll drive.”
“What about the cab?” His arm went around her waist, pulling her down the street. She looked up at him strangely, unsure about his behavior. He’d touched her more in one night then he had during the entire time she’d known him. His arm tightened around her, pulling her closer to his body. “Oliver?”
“It’s safer if I drive.” He said without thinking. He could see her looking up at him in confusion. But she didn’t argue or pull away from him, allowing him to lead him to his car. By the time they reached it some of his earlier concerns had begun to fade away, and as she slipped into the passenger seat he was finally able to relax.
Chloe watched him get into the car and start the ignition. Instead of shifting the car into drive though he sat there. “Oliver, what’s going on?”
Oliver turned to her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What you do for me, it’s dangerous.” She nodded in response; after all, it wasn’t anything she didn’t already know. “If you knew that one day it might get you killed, would you leave? Leave the league, leave me, and put all of us behind you?” She opened her mouth to respond, but he interrupted her. “You can say yes, you would be right to say so.”
“I was going to say no.” She said softly, concerned by the pained look on his face. She wanted to reach out to him, but the night had been strange enough already.
“Why?”
She was slightly shocked by the demanding tone in his voice, but she responded. “This is what we do. I’m not going to leave you to do it alone.”
The problem was he knew that, Lois had confirmed that for him. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” Even as he said it he was scared. Scared that he wouldn’t be able to keep his promise. She smiled endearingly at him and he could already feel himself losing part of his heart to her. She wouldn’t leave him; she’d be there to the very end. Lois had been right, there was no way he couldn’t love someone like that.