Fic: Watch Over (Chloe, Oliver, hints of Chlark)
Title: Watch Over (1/1)
Author: Vega
Spoilers: Season six, with spoilers up to "Justice"
Summary: Oliver offers Chloe a job. Takes place a little after "Justice."
Rate/pairing: Gen, but if I were hard-pressed to pick, it's leaning on Chlark than anything else. The damn OTP wouldn't die despite the repeated disappointments.
Oliver Queen wasn't a fan of Metropolis, especially of nights in Metropolis. He was familiar with its darknest nights, of course. He knew the city's every corner as intimately as he knew of his own house, and yet it never failed to deliver the message that this was not his home - just another place that needed saving and he was not up to the task, no matter how hard he tried to get a handle on this elusive purpose of his that he had been striving towards all his adult life.
And yet, he was back in this city, not long after he had left it, because of Chloe Sullivan.
Anyone who had ever met Chloe Sullivan knew where to find her on any given weeknight. Before, all he had known about Chloe Sullivan were bits and pieces glimpsed from Lois, and occasionally Clark: Lois's closest cousin, sharp as a whip, the first to be bitten by the reporter bug in the Sullivan-Lane family, Clark Kent's best friend.
"Chloe and Smallville? Don't even ask," Lois had told him once, rolling her eyes quite expressively. "Best friends ever since high school - she thinks the sun rises and sets with that dweeb."
Knowing what Oliver knew now, that no longer seemed like an undue credit. And, of course, now he did know a lot about Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan, right down to the word count of their first byline for the Torch. So, while Oliver had access to much better and fancier (and admittedly more expensive) intels, provided by various GPS and his own personal satellite tracking systems, there was no need to make use of them to find where she was at this moment - he found her exactly where he expected her to be.
Behind the glass door, she was diligently typing away at her desk in the middle of the empty basement office. It was midnight, and one would probably expect more journalists running around at this hour, but then his previous record of breaking in as Green Arrow told him that expectation didn't exactly hold true with the Daily Planet.
He pushed open the door and made a grand entrance, but disappointingly enough, she kept on typing without even glancing up once. Instead, with her eyes entirely glued to her computer screen, she reached for a folder on her desk with one hand and pushed it towards his general direction as she said, "The names and the addresses are all in here. And I'm two hours behind on this report all because I put in three hours for your research - you do know that you're a dead man if you didn't bring my caramel macchiato, right?"
It wasn't hard to tell who was supposed to be on the receiving end of her monologue, so he stopped at her desk and offered mildly, "Then I suppose it's a good thing that Clark Kent isn't the easiest person there is to kill."
Her head snapped up in surprise, but she recognized him quickly and the started look on her face turned into the one of curiosity. "Oliver Queen?"
"That I am. Who, by the way, I am glad to be at this point, especially since I'm not bearing any macchiato. Do I even want to know where Clark can get to Starbucks at this hour?"
"Seattle has one that's open till 2 a.m. which of course I take full advantage of." Chloe smiled and stood up as if to greet him, but then held back at the last second. There was a hint of a frown on her face as she tried to read the situation, to read him. "What are you doing here? How did you even get in?"
He shrugged as innocently as possible. "I just walked right in. This building definitely needs a better security."
She tilted her head slightly, an amused smile on her face. "Speaking from your own experience? Thanks for the last time, by the way. I endured a day-long headache because of that sleeping gas of yours."
"Really? Huh. It was supposed to bring back rosy complexion for everyone who's been affected once they wake up. I should really see to that."
Obviously his attempt to look distressed and scandalized failed because she just brushed it off. "I thought you'd be in San Paolo by now, disabling the third 33.1 base. At least that's what Clark said you and your league were up to the last time he talked to you." Then she sharply turned towards him. "Wait, is everyone all right? Has something happened?"
He put his hands up slightly in a placating gesture. "The mission was definitely a success. I'm not here to deliver any bad news, Chloe. I was in town, thought we were overdue for a talk."
His casual words and guileless expression didn't exactly promptly the expected reaction, because she only said, "A talk, huh?" There wasn't a slightest hint of surprise on her face, as if she had already expected him to drop by unannounced in the middle of the night at one point. "All right," she said, sitting down again and leaning against her chair. "Go ahead. Ask me."
He almost smiled - she was quick, he had to give her that. He crossed his arms. "And what exactly do you think I'd be asking?"
"Why you should trust me to keep your secret. Isn't that why you're here?"
Oliver Queen was rarely beaten to the punch, but he supposed he should have seen this coming. "You're absolutely right," he conceded. "That's exactly why."
She frowned a little, like she had hoped to be wrong about the purpose of his little visit and was disappointed by his confirmation. "If you need assurance that I wouldn't reveal your secret, you should know that it's already given--"
"--just because you can keep Clark's secret?" he shook his head. "Not good enough."
"It's not? Ah, of course." Chloe huffed, looking thoroughly annoyed. "And of course the fact that I've kept my silence and haven't said a word to anyone all along doesn't count for anything, does it? You would think that's good enough. You would think that the fact that I helped you and your team would count for something."
"Oh, don't misunderstand me - it absolutely does, and believe me, I absolutely trust you to be one of the good guys."
She looked wary. "However?"
"Let's just say that Clark and I are in different positions when it comes to the receiving end of your trust. Clark is, as I understand it, your best friend, and I am, on the other hand--"
"--a millionaire playboy who broke my cousin's heart," she finished his sentence. She really was quick, because she already looked like she understood where he was coming from.
"Well, yes," he admitted, "though I would have to insist that it isn't exactly a correct description."
"Which part, exactly? The playboy part or breaking Lois's heart part?"
"The millionaire part." She gave him a pointed look, and he smirked right back. "You're a journalist - get your numbers straight. I assure you, there're a few more zeroes in my asset portfolio."
"I stand corrected - a billionaire jackass of a boyfriend who repeatedly stomped on my only cousin's heart and threw it away like a rag doll."
"Exactly," Oliver continued, undaunted. "You see, therein lies my problem. You have every reason to keep quiet about Clark, and every reason to bite my head off, not so different from what you're doing right now."
She looked almost amused by his admission. "True enough," she agreed, her grin fazing into a somber expression, "but we both know you have your leverage. You know about Clark, which you could reveal if your identity is threatened. We all know it isn't something I would let happen, or something you'd let happen either."
She gave him a sharp look that indicated that if he did anything suggesting otherwise, she would rip him into shreds right where he was standing.
"I give you my word," he said simply.
She stared back at him for a moment before nodding and accepting his word. "So, I say it again, if you're here to hear an assurance that your secret is safe with me, consider it given and know that it's not just because of Clark. I understand the need for keeping secret identities, and you're doing it for a cause that I'm personally backing myself. But then again, if I find out that you start robbing people for kicks, that'd be another story." He stared, and she gave him a brilliant, all-knowing smile that would have any lesser man fidget uneasily on the spot. "But you won't, so there's no problem. Just think of me as your friendly whistleblower, and all will be just fine."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's why you're staying with Clark - to be his whistleblower?"
Chloe looked surprised at that. "Clark? Why would he need one?"
"Of course he doesn't," Oliver said mildly. "Because he's a goddamn boy scout, forever oblivious to temptations."
She stared at him incredulously, like that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard. Oliver bet that she gave that look to a lot of people, and probably had every right to. "No one is oblivious to temptations, not even Clark."
All right, sharp and not so naïve either, then. Oliver leaned closer. "Then what? It doesn't seem to me like a blind trust in his humane goodness that you have in him that makes you think he would never be led astray."
She considered him for a moment, apparently in hesitation. Once decided, she looked straight into his eyes. "You and Lex, both of you think you can change the world, that you can and therefore you should. For Clark, changing it never comes into the equation because the power he has is a burden for him. For him, it's guilt. He doesn't need a whistleblower - he needs someone to occasionally slap him upside down to snap him out of his brooding."
"While I think you're right on the mark on Clark, uh, did you just compare me to Lex Luthor?"
"Yes, I did."
She stared right back at him, a la And what are you going to do about it? This was as good an opening as any, and Oliver decided to go headfirst into the subject he had been angling for ever since he'd stepped into the office. "I suppose you would know," he said, entirely knowing this would come out quite accusatory. "You know a lot about Lex Luthor."
Her eyes narrowed at the unspoken implication. "I do," she conceded easily - and pointedly. "Then again, you already knew that. So I have to ask - where do you get off asking me about my past mistakes which I have worked pretty hard to pay for, and trying to make me justify myself to you when I have no reason to do so?"
He took in the quiet, simmering anger in Chloe's eyes, which testified for her strength even more than the numerous profiles of her he had read. Lionel Luthor had almost ruined her life, as he had many other lives, and Chloe Sullivan was one of the very few had survived with her dignity and pride intact.
Chloe Sullivan, sharp as a whip, the first to be bitten by the reporter bug in the Sullivan-Lane family, Clark Kent's best friend after all these years. Apparently Clark Kent wasn't too dumb when it came to choosing who to trust. And despite himself, Oliver had already trusted her the moment she had stepped off the elevator into his clock tower and announced that she knew where Bart was being held.
And that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it?
Now that he knew, Oliver was free to offer casually, "Because Star City has a great newspaper."
She tilted her head and paused, cautiously taking in his apparent non-sequitur. "And?"
"It really is a great newspaper, which I'm sure you know, with three Pulitzers just last decade. They can also definitely use you. I hear they have an opening in the city and crime section - which, I understand, is your specialty?"
Chloe stared at him for a long moment, measuring him up and figuring him like a puzzle to which she already knew the answer. Then she broke into a smile. "Not bad."
Her smile suggested she had seen through him way too fast, way faster than he liked, and he was left with no options but to play very very dumb. "What is?"
"Your calculation." She smiled broadly, then ticked off her fingers as she said, line by line, "Get me to Star City, which would mean it'd be unavoidable that I might occasionally assist your league and your mission objective, which would lead to Clark's inevitable involvement. You really think once I'm in, Clark will merrily follow along?"
"He will." Which was true, that much was clear. Oliver would've come up with this approach a lot sooner if he knew that Clark and Chloe came in a nice package deal of one for two.
She didn't deny it. "You might've missed the part where Clark is not very happy with your little plan."
"Nope. I inserted a little side equation where Clark wants to beat me down to a pulp for putting you in danger, and your coming to my rescue and convincing him that you decided to use your brainpower for the greater good and that it'd be for the better if he decides to do the same."
She raised her eyebrow, her grin still tugging at her lips. "Tempting offer, really, to play the bait, but I already have a job I really like, so no thanks. I do appreciate your long-winded efforts, though."
"Ah, you misunderstand me - the job offer isn't really with the newspaper as much as a place in our team."
"The team," she repeated, half a question and half an incredulous statement.
"The team, as our full-fledged 5th member. I don't deny that you come with a nice fringe benefit, but the main benefit? You're the expert on 33.1, the go-to girl for finding out all the evildoings of Luthorcorp. It'd make things so much easier to have you. Plus, we already have your codename picked out, and Bart seriously wouldn't shut up about you, so we figure this could shut him up in joy and bring some peace of mind to all of us."
For the first time tonight, she actually looked taken aback by what he had to say, which he considered a bit of success. "You're serious," she said, carefully. "And this is why you came tonight."
"Absolutely. And I'm only half joking about Bart."
"Wow," she said finally. "I don’t quite know what to say. I didn't even know plain muggle-borns can join the superleague."
"Ah, but as one of the said muggles myself, I can bend some rules. Also, I was told you have the super-sleuthing skills - was I misinformed?"
He grinned, and by some miracle, she actually grinned back. "I'm flattered. I really am."
"But? I'm hearing a but."
She grinned, this time apologetically. "I don't think it's really me."
Ah, of course. At least he had seen this one coming and come prepared. "Come on, Chloe. You can do better than that. It is already you. What would working as one of us be different from what you're already doing?"
"The Daily Planet-"
"-Working for Star City isn't a step down from the Daily Planet, and when you gain more experience at Star City, the DP would welcome you right back. Got any other reasons to say no?"
She hadn't come out and said it, but they both knew what was unsaid. He placed his hands on her desk surface, shaking away an irrational level of frustration trying to slipping into his voice, "Clark can handle himself, Chloe. I think he's proven that quite excessively."
"On the contrary, he gets into one too many trouble by himself." Her eyes were sprinkled with humor, but they also betrayed a real concern behind her tight grin.
"But you?" he pressed right along, "What do you want? Don't you want this?"
She met his eyes, uncertainty passing between her eyes. Then she grinned again, shaking head at herself. "No one is oblivious to temptations, was it? It really is true. Maybe I do. Maybe I do want something bigger than myself," she paused, studying her hands. When she looked up, her eyes were plagued by taut determination. "Oliver, when Clark said he can't join you right now, it was for a good reason. When it's over, when all of this is over, he'll be ready to join you. He will find his way. Until then.."
"Until then?"
"Until then, you'd have to wait." For both of us, she didn't say, but it was clearly there.
"And I suppose he's worth the wait."
"Most definitely."
It hadn't been unexpected, but then again, it was still disappointing. Also, worrying. "I understand, but I also need to make sure you are aware what's at stake here. That you know how dangerous for you to be fighting here alone."
She shook her head. "I'm not alone, Oliver."
"But you are, Chloe." She knew, of course, what he was really talking about, but she apparently chose to above addressing that issue. Well, too bad, because he was going to. "Clark doesn't really know, does he? Because he's oddly naïve that way. But you do. You've dealt with these people. You know what's at stake. You're at an impasse right now - your father's hidden away, and you figure Lionel and Lex wouldn't touch you, knowing that they'll only implicate themselves trying to get rid of the crucial witness who put Lionel behind the bar, but that can easily change if you keep on digging like you have, and even Clark and you can't protect yourselves from what can happen just between two of you. You know this." Unlike Clark, who didn't seem to realize, even after all this, how ugly things could get - how easily he could lose his only friend, how hard she was trying behind the scene to keep it all together for him.
She knew this, of course, yet for Clark's sake, she kept it silenced, and this fact merited some frustration on Oliver's part. But she didn't look away from him. Her chin was up, almost challenging. "And you suppose you can offer protection?"
"No one can, but Star City is my domain. Metrolpolis is his. I can't protect you and Clark effectively here, but I have some influence in Star City."
"Some?" she asked lightly, forcing to inject at least some trace of humor into their conversation. "Don't sell yourself short, Oliver."
He shook his head. "Chloe."
"Thank you," she said suddenly, and he looked up in surprise. "Thank you for the concern, for thinking, worrying about us. And believe me, it's well appreciated and dully noted. It's just that..." she paused, choosing her words carefully, "there really is something that needs to be taken care of that's not about Lex, and I need to be here with Clark. Once it's over, then things could change. Once it's over, you'll be first to know."
He could offer his help, but he already knew the answer - whatever that something was, Clark wasn't telling. "Can Clark take care of this problem himself?" He didn't bother to ask whether she knew the nature of Clark's "problem" that currently seemed to occupy him. For all his talk about keeping secrets, Clark Kent apparently didn't keep his mouth shut in front of this girl.
And she knew exactly what - and why - he was asking. She paused only for a second before she answered carefully, "He usually does."
He didn't miss what was behind her choice of words. "So, if the situation ever becomes unusual - "
"Then I trust I can give you a call?"
"Any time."
Almost imperceptibly she sat back, relieved. "Thanks."
And there was a bigger question, which he knew that probably only Chloe Sullivan could answer. "Chloe."
She frowned at his expression. "What is it?"
"Will he ever ask for help?" Would he ever be a team player? Would he ever let them in?
The question was sudden and abrupt, but she seemingly understood even the unspoken questions. "He's learning, Oliver," she said gently, "thanks to you and your league of amazing friends."
"No."
That surprised her. "No?"
"Nope. All thanks to you. I love receiving credit just like everyone else, but let's give the credit to whom it's due, shall we?"
She hid her blush pretty well. She shook it away quickly and mustered up a nonchalant grin. "Again with selling yourself short. You're going to make a habit of that."
"Oh sure, now it's completely stuck. I'm also still trying to recover from being compared to Lex Luthor."
She waved him off. "You'll get over it. And, speaking of Lex." She shuffled and pulled one folder off from the mountains of piles on her desk and handled over to him. "Some intel on the possible fifth 33.1 in Ecuador. Might come in handy."
He took the file and flipped through it. He almost goggled at the detail. "And exactly how did come by this information?"
"A journalist doesn't give off her sources, you should know. I've got my connections - just one of many benefits of Metropolis and Smallville being my turf."
He shouldn't be surprised - if she wasn't good, why would he be here to recruit her to begin with? This was a waste, really, and the things they could do with her in the team... "Chloe--" he stopped himself. Her mind was already made up, he knew; even when she was worried for Clark, even when she might think she could want something else, she was sticking by Clark. Oliver almost shook his head - Clark Kent had better be worth all this pain. "There's no way to persuade you otherwise, is there?" he asked, almost to himself.
"Nope," she said, all sunny smile. "Hey, think of the bright side. I can keep an eye on Lex in Smallville, so you've got yourself a pretty good informant right here."
"Anytime," he emphasized. "Remember that anytime you want to be in, you are in."
"Thank you," she said softly, and he knew she meant it. "This, however, does not mean you're in any way out of the penalty box for stomping on Lois's heart."
And just when he was thinking he might get away with it. He coughed. "Of course not. I wouldn't dream of it."
She smiled brightly at him, and Oliver swallowed an odd sense of jealousy. To have someone who knew him, to have an equal who cared for him - Oliver had never been able to cross that boundary with anyone and Clark...Clark Kent was one lucky bastard. He wondered if Clark even knew it.
"Now that everything's cleared up," Chloe started, her smile unfazed, "I need to kick you out. I am seriously behind on this report on the fascinating disappearance of neighborhood cats in the last few weeks."
"Take care of him, Chloe," he said, because there really was no persuading her otherwise, and he wasn't sure where this odd bitterness originated from - at the failure to recruit her, or at the failure to have a Chloe Sullivan in his life.
"You, too," she said, just as softly.
He turned away, only to stop at the glass door. "Almost forgot. Impulse says hello."
He turned back just in time to catch her face breaking into a warm smile at the mention of Bart. "Tell him to come by and say himself the next chance he gets."
"Seriously? The last time I checked, you still have-"
"A boyfriend, yes, and no, not to me - Clark. He misses you guys. Doesn't say it, but it's obvious."
God, Oliver Queen mused, Clark Kent was really one lucky bastard. "I'll be sure to let him know."
He turned away, with the sound of her typing away as his only company.
The night was silent, never once betraying the real dark happening all corners of this city, but that silence also gave away hope -- Oliver was in his car reaching for the gear when a blur of red that he came to associate with Bart, but now with someone else entirely, went by with a familiar whoosh. The blur materialized at the door of the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, looking dismayed as he tried to hold onto two Starbucks cups - he was failing miserably.
Despite himself, Oliver smiled.
And that smile became even wilder when he picked up his cell.
"What, falling back to the moonlighting habits again? Exactly where did you go off to without letting us know? What the hell, man?" Bart's voice screamed at his ear. "Oh, nevermind. Get your ass over here right now, GA. Victor found some whatchamacallit from the database and wants us over there an hour ago."
Oliver glanced at the Daily Planet, where Clark had already disappeared to, and back at the darkness of this world. There was always this world to save.
And just like Clark Kent, he wasn't alone in the fight.
When he answered Bart, his smile was still there. "I'll be right there."
END
Author: Vega
Spoilers: Season six, with spoilers up to "Justice"
Summary: Oliver offers Chloe a job. Takes place a little after "Justice."
Rate/pairing: Gen, but if I were hard-pressed to pick, it's leaning on Chlark than anything else. The damn OTP wouldn't die despite the repeated disappointments.
Oliver Queen wasn't a fan of Metropolis, especially of nights in Metropolis. He was familiar with its darknest nights, of course. He knew the city's every corner as intimately as he knew of his own house, and yet it never failed to deliver the message that this was not his home - just another place that needed saving and he was not up to the task, no matter how hard he tried to get a handle on this elusive purpose of his that he had been striving towards all his adult life.
And yet, he was back in this city, not long after he had left it, because of Chloe Sullivan.
Anyone who had ever met Chloe Sullivan knew where to find her on any given weeknight. Before, all he had known about Chloe Sullivan were bits and pieces glimpsed from Lois, and occasionally Clark: Lois's closest cousin, sharp as a whip, the first to be bitten by the reporter bug in the Sullivan-Lane family, Clark Kent's best friend.
"Chloe and Smallville? Don't even ask," Lois had told him once, rolling her eyes quite expressively. "Best friends ever since high school - she thinks the sun rises and sets with that dweeb."
Knowing what Oliver knew now, that no longer seemed like an undue credit. And, of course, now he did know a lot about Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan, right down to the word count of their first byline for the Torch. So, while Oliver had access to much better and fancier (and admittedly more expensive) intels, provided by various GPS and his own personal satellite tracking systems, there was no need to make use of them to find where she was at this moment - he found her exactly where he expected her to be.
Behind the glass door, she was diligently typing away at her desk in the middle of the empty basement office. It was midnight, and one would probably expect more journalists running around at this hour, but then his previous record of breaking in as Green Arrow told him that expectation didn't exactly hold true with the Daily Planet.
He pushed open the door and made a grand entrance, but disappointingly enough, she kept on typing without even glancing up once. Instead, with her eyes entirely glued to her computer screen, she reached for a folder on her desk with one hand and pushed it towards his general direction as she said, "The names and the addresses are all in here. And I'm two hours behind on this report all because I put in three hours for your research - you do know that you're a dead man if you didn't bring my caramel macchiato, right?"
It wasn't hard to tell who was supposed to be on the receiving end of her monologue, so he stopped at her desk and offered mildly, "Then I suppose it's a good thing that Clark Kent isn't the easiest person there is to kill."
Her head snapped up in surprise, but she recognized him quickly and the started look on her face turned into the one of curiosity. "Oliver Queen?"
"That I am. Who, by the way, I am glad to be at this point, especially since I'm not bearing any macchiato. Do I even want to know where Clark can get to Starbucks at this hour?"
"Seattle has one that's open till 2 a.m. which of course I take full advantage of." Chloe smiled and stood up as if to greet him, but then held back at the last second. There was a hint of a frown on her face as she tried to read the situation, to read him. "What are you doing here? How did you even get in?"
He shrugged as innocently as possible. "I just walked right in. This building definitely needs a better security."
She tilted her head slightly, an amused smile on her face. "Speaking from your own experience? Thanks for the last time, by the way. I endured a day-long headache because of that sleeping gas of yours."
"Really? Huh. It was supposed to bring back rosy complexion for everyone who's been affected once they wake up. I should really see to that."
Obviously his attempt to look distressed and scandalized failed because she just brushed it off. "I thought you'd be in San Paolo by now, disabling the third 33.1 base. At least that's what Clark said you and your league were up to the last time he talked to you." Then she sharply turned towards him. "Wait, is everyone all right? Has something happened?"
He put his hands up slightly in a placating gesture. "The mission was definitely a success. I'm not here to deliver any bad news, Chloe. I was in town, thought we were overdue for a talk."
His casual words and guileless expression didn't exactly promptly the expected reaction, because she only said, "A talk, huh?" There wasn't a slightest hint of surprise on her face, as if she had already expected him to drop by unannounced in the middle of the night at one point. "All right," she said, sitting down again and leaning against her chair. "Go ahead. Ask me."
He almost smiled - she was quick, he had to give her that. He crossed his arms. "And what exactly do you think I'd be asking?"
"Why you should trust me to keep your secret. Isn't that why you're here?"
Oliver Queen was rarely beaten to the punch, but he supposed he should have seen this coming. "You're absolutely right," he conceded. "That's exactly why."
She frowned a little, like she had hoped to be wrong about the purpose of his little visit and was disappointed by his confirmation. "If you need assurance that I wouldn't reveal your secret, you should know that it's already given--"
"--just because you can keep Clark's secret?" he shook his head. "Not good enough."
"It's not? Ah, of course." Chloe huffed, looking thoroughly annoyed. "And of course the fact that I've kept my silence and haven't said a word to anyone all along doesn't count for anything, does it? You would think that's good enough. You would think that the fact that I helped you and your team would count for something."
"Oh, don't misunderstand me - it absolutely does, and believe me, I absolutely trust you to be one of the good guys."
She looked wary. "However?"
"Let's just say that Clark and I are in different positions when it comes to the receiving end of your trust. Clark is, as I understand it, your best friend, and I am, on the other hand--"
"--a millionaire playboy who broke my cousin's heart," she finished his sentence. She really was quick, because she already looked like she understood where he was coming from.
"Well, yes," he admitted, "though I would have to insist that it isn't exactly a correct description."
"Which part, exactly? The playboy part or breaking Lois's heart part?"
"The millionaire part." She gave him a pointed look, and he smirked right back. "You're a journalist - get your numbers straight. I assure you, there're a few more zeroes in my asset portfolio."
"I stand corrected - a billionaire jackass of a boyfriend who repeatedly stomped on my only cousin's heart and threw it away like a rag doll."
"Exactly," Oliver continued, undaunted. "You see, therein lies my problem. You have every reason to keep quiet about Clark, and every reason to bite my head off, not so different from what you're doing right now."
She looked almost amused by his admission. "True enough," she agreed, her grin fazing into a somber expression, "but we both know you have your leverage. You know about Clark, which you could reveal if your identity is threatened. We all know it isn't something I would let happen, or something you'd let happen either."
She gave him a sharp look that indicated that if he did anything suggesting otherwise, she would rip him into shreds right where he was standing.
"I give you my word," he said simply.
She stared back at him for a moment before nodding and accepting his word. "So, I say it again, if you're here to hear an assurance that your secret is safe with me, consider it given and know that it's not just because of Clark. I understand the need for keeping secret identities, and you're doing it for a cause that I'm personally backing myself. But then again, if I find out that you start robbing people for kicks, that'd be another story." He stared, and she gave him a brilliant, all-knowing smile that would have any lesser man fidget uneasily on the spot. "But you won't, so there's no problem. Just think of me as your friendly whistleblower, and all will be just fine."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's why you're staying with Clark - to be his whistleblower?"
Chloe looked surprised at that. "Clark? Why would he need one?"
"Of course he doesn't," Oliver said mildly. "Because he's a goddamn boy scout, forever oblivious to temptations."
She stared at him incredulously, like that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard. Oliver bet that she gave that look to a lot of people, and probably had every right to. "No one is oblivious to temptations, not even Clark."
All right, sharp and not so naïve either, then. Oliver leaned closer. "Then what? It doesn't seem to me like a blind trust in his humane goodness that you have in him that makes you think he would never be led astray."
She considered him for a moment, apparently in hesitation. Once decided, she looked straight into his eyes. "You and Lex, both of you think you can change the world, that you can and therefore you should. For Clark, changing it never comes into the equation because the power he has is a burden for him. For him, it's guilt. He doesn't need a whistleblower - he needs someone to occasionally slap him upside down to snap him out of his brooding."
"While I think you're right on the mark on Clark, uh, did you just compare me to Lex Luthor?"
"Yes, I did."
She stared right back at him, a la And what are you going to do about it? This was as good an opening as any, and Oliver decided to go headfirst into the subject he had been angling for ever since he'd stepped into the office. "I suppose you would know," he said, entirely knowing this would come out quite accusatory. "You know a lot about Lex Luthor."
Her eyes narrowed at the unspoken implication. "I do," she conceded easily - and pointedly. "Then again, you already knew that. So I have to ask - where do you get off asking me about my past mistakes which I have worked pretty hard to pay for, and trying to make me justify myself to you when I have no reason to do so?"
He took in the quiet, simmering anger in Chloe's eyes, which testified for her strength even more than the numerous profiles of her he had read. Lionel Luthor had almost ruined her life, as he had many other lives, and Chloe Sullivan was one of the very few had survived with her dignity and pride intact.
Chloe Sullivan, sharp as a whip, the first to be bitten by the reporter bug in the Sullivan-Lane family, Clark Kent's best friend after all these years. Apparently Clark Kent wasn't too dumb when it came to choosing who to trust. And despite himself, Oliver had already trusted her the moment she had stepped off the elevator into his clock tower and announced that she knew where Bart was being held.
And that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it?
Now that he knew, Oliver was free to offer casually, "Because Star City has a great newspaper."
She tilted her head and paused, cautiously taking in his apparent non-sequitur. "And?"
"It really is a great newspaper, which I'm sure you know, with three Pulitzers just last decade. They can also definitely use you. I hear they have an opening in the city and crime section - which, I understand, is your specialty?"
Chloe stared at him for a long moment, measuring him up and figuring him like a puzzle to which she already knew the answer. Then she broke into a smile. "Not bad."
Her smile suggested she had seen through him way too fast, way faster than he liked, and he was left with no options but to play very very dumb. "What is?"
"Your calculation." She smiled broadly, then ticked off her fingers as she said, line by line, "Get me to Star City, which would mean it'd be unavoidable that I might occasionally assist your league and your mission objective, which would lead to Clark's inevitable involvement. You really think once I'm in, Clark will merrily follow along?"
"He will." Which was true, that much was clear. Oliver would've come up with this approach a lot sooner if he knew that Clark and Chloe came in a nice package deal of one for two.
She didn't deny it. "You might've missed the part where Clark is not very happy with your little plan."
"Nope. I inserted a little side equation where Clark wants to beat me down to a pulp for putting you in danger, and your coming to my rescue and convincing him that you decided to use your brainpower for the greater good and that it'd be for the better if he decides to do the same."
She raised her eyebrow, her grin still tugging at her lips. "Tempting offer, really, to play the bait, but I already have a job I really like, so no thanks. I do appreciate your long-winded efforts, though."
"Ah, you misunderstand me - the job offer isn't really with the newspaper as much as a place in our team."
"The team," she repeated, half a question and half an incredulous statement.
"The team, as our full-fledged 5th member. I don't deny that you come with a nice fringe benefit, but the main benefit? You're the expert on 33.1, the go-to girl for finding out all the evildoings of Luthorcorp. It'd make things so much easier to have you. Plus, we already have your codename picked out, and Bart seriously wouldn't shut up about you, so we figure this could shut him up in joy and bring some peace of mind to all of us."
For the first time tonight, she actually looked taken aback by what he had to say, which he considered a bit of success. "You're serious," she said, carefully. "And this is why you came tonight."
"Absolutely. And I'm only half joking about Bart."
"Wow," she said finally. "I don’t quite know what to say. I didn't even know plain muggle-borns can join the superleague."
"Ah, but as one of the said muggles myself, I can bend some rules. Also, I was told you have the super-sleuthing skills - was I misinformed?"
He grinned, and by some miracle, she actually grinned back. "I'm flattered. I really am."
"But? I'm hearing a but."
She grinned, this time apologetically. "I don't think it's really me."
Ah, of course. At least he had seen this one coming and come prepared. "Come on, Chloe. You can do better than that. It is already you. What would working as one of us be different from what you're already doing?"
"The Daily Planet-"
"-Working for Star City isn't a step down from the Daily Planet, and when you gain more experience at Star City, the DP would welcome you right back. Got any other reasons to say no?"
She hadn't come out and said it, but they both knew what was unsaid. He placed his hands on her desk surface, shaking away an irrational level of frustration trying to slipping into his voice, "Clark can handle himself, Chloe. I think he's proven that quite excessively."
"On the contrary, he gets into one too many trouble by himself." Her eyes were sprinkled with humor, but they also betrayed a real concern behind her tight grin.
"But you?" he pressed right along, "What do you want? Don't you want this?"
She met his eyes, uncertainty passing between her eyes. Then she grinned again, shaking head at herself. "No one is oblivious to temptations, was it? It really is true. Maybe I do. Maybe I do want something bigger than myself," she paused, studying her hands. When she looked up, her eyes were plagued by taut determination. "Oliver, when Clark said he can't join you right now, it was for a good reason. When it's over, when all of this is over, he'll be ready to join you. He will find his way. Until then.."
"Until then?"
"Until then, you'd have to wait." For both of us, she didn't say, but it was clearly there.
"And I suppose he's worth the wait."
"Most definitely."
It hadn't been unexpected, but then again, it was still disappointing. Also, worrying. "I understand, but I also need to make sure you are aware what's at stake here. That you know how dangerous for you to be fighting here alone."
She shook her head. "I'm not alone, Oliver."
"But you are, Chloe." She knew, of course, what he was really talking about, but she apparently chose to above addressing that issue. Well, too bad, because he was going to. "Clark doesn't really know, does he? Because he's oddly naïve that way. But you do. You've dealt with these people. You know what's at stake. You're at an impasse right now - your father's hidden away, and you figure Lionel and Lex wouldn't touch you, knowing that they'll only implicate themselves trying to get rid of the crucial witness who put Lionel behind the bar, but that can easily change if you keep on digging like you have, and even Clark and you can't protect yourselves from what can happen just between two of you. You know this." Unlike Clark, who didn't seem to realize, even after all this, how ugly things could get - how easily he could lose his only friend, how hard she was trying behind the scene to keep it all together for him.
She knew this, of course, yet for Clark's sake, she kept it silenced, and this fact merited some frustration on Oliver's part. But she didn't look away from him. Her chin was up, almost challenging. "And you suppose you can offer protection?"
"No one can, but Star City is my domain. Metrolpolis is his. I can't protect you and Clark effectively here, but I have some influence in Star City."
"Some?" she asked lightly, forcing to inject at least some trace of humor into their conversation. "Don't sell yourself short, Oliver."
He shook his head. "Chloe."
"Thank you," she said suddenly, and he looked up in surprise. "Thank you for the concern, for thinking, worrying about us. And believe me, it's well appreciated and dully noted. It's just that..." she paused, choosing her words carefully, "there really is something that needs to be taken care of that's not about Lex, and I need to be here with Clark. Once it's over, then things could change. Once it's over, you'll be first to know."
He could offer his help, but he already knew the answer - whatever that something was, Clark wasn't telling. "Can Clark take care of this problem himself?" He didn't bother to ask whether she knew the nature of Clark's "problem" that currently seemed to occupy him. For all his talk about keeping secrets, Clark Kent apparently didn't keep his mouth shut in front of this girl.
And she knew exactly what - and why - he was asking. She paused only for a second before she answered carefully, "He usually does."
He didn't miss what was behind her choice of words. "So, if the situation ever becomes unusual - "
"Then I trust I can give you a call?"
"Any time."
Almost imperceptibly she sat back, relieved. "Thanks."
And there was a bigger question, which he knew that probably only Chloe Sullivan could answer. "Chloe."
She frowned at his expression. "What is it?"
"Will he ever ask for help?" Would he ever be a team player? Would he ever let them in?
The question was sudden and abrupt, but she seemingly understood even the unspoken questions. "He's learning, Oliver," she said gently, "thanks to you and your league of amazing friends."
"No."
That surprised her. "No?"
"Nope. All thanks to you. I love receiving credit just like everyone else, but let's give the credit to whom it's due, shall we?"
She hid her blush pretty well. She shook it away quickly and mustered up a nonchalant grin. "Again with selling yourself short. You're going to make a habit of that."
"Oh sure, now it's completely stuck. I'm also still trying to recover from being compared to Lex Luthor."
She waved him off. "You'll get over it. And, speaking of Lex." She shuffled and pulled one folder off from the mountains of piles on her desk and handled over to him. "Some intel on the possible fifth 33.1 in Ecuador. Might come in handy."
He took the file and flipped through it. He almost goggled at the detail. "And exactly how did come by this information?"
"A journalist doesn't give off her sources, you should know. I've got my connections - just one of many benefits of Metropolis and Smallville being my turf."
He shouldn't be surprised - if she wasn't good, why would he be here to recruit her to begin with? This was a waste, really, and the things they could do with her in the team... "Chloe--" he stopped himself. Her mind was already made up, he knew; even when she was worried for Clark, even when she might think she could want something else, she was sticking by Clark. Oliver almost shook his head - Clark Kent had better be worth all this pain. "There's no way to persuade you otherwise, is there?" he asked, almost to himself.
"Nope," she said, all sunny smile. "Hey, think of the bright side. I can keep an eye on Lex in Smallville, so you've got yourself a pretty good informant right here."
"Anytime," he emphasized. "Remember that anytime you want to be in, you are in."
"Thank you," she said softly, and he knew she meant it. "This, however, does not mean you're in any way out of the penalty box for stomping on Lois's heart."
And just when he was thinking he might get away with it. He coughed. "Of course not. I wouldn't dream of it."
She smiled brightly at him, and Oliver swallowed an odd sense of jealousy. To have someone who knew him, to have an equal who cared for him - Oliver had never been able to cross that boundary with anyone and Clark...Clark Kent was one lucky bastard. He wondered if Clark even knew it.
"Now that everything's cleared up," Chloe started, her smile unfazed, "I need to kick you out. I am seriously behind on this report on the fascinating disappearance of neighborhood cats in the last few weeks."
"Take care of him, Chloe," he said, because there really was no persuading her otherwise, and he wasn't sure where this odd bitterness originated from - at the failure to recruit her, or at the failure to have a Chloe Sullivan in his life.
"You, too," she said, just as softly.
He turned away, only to stop at the glass door. "Almost forgot. Impulse says hello."
He turned back just in time to catch her face breaking into a warm smile at the mention of Bart. "Tell him to come by and say himself the next chance he gets."
"Seriously? The last time I checked, you still have-"
"A boyfriend, yes, and no, not to me - Clark. He misses you guys. Doesn't say it, but it's obvious."
God, Oliver Queen mused, Clark Kent was really one lucky bastard. "I'll be sure to let him know."
He turned away, with the sound of her typing away as his only company.
The night was silent, never once betraying the real dark happening all corners of this city, but that silence also gave away hope -- Oliver was in his car reaching for the gear when a blur of red that he came to associate with Bart, but now with someone else entirely, went by with a familiar whoosh. The blur materialized at the door of the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, looking dismayed as he tried to hold onto two Starbucks cups - he was failing miserably.
Despite himself, Oliver smiled.
And that smile became even wilder when he picked up his cell.
"What, falling back to the moonlighting habits again? Exactly where did you go off to without letting us know? What the hell, man?" Bart's voice screamed at his ear. "Oh, nevermind. Get your ass over here right now, GA. Victor found some whatchamacallit from the database and wants us over there an hour ago."
Oliver glanced at the Daily Planet, where Clark had already disappeared to, and back at the darkness of this world. There was always this world to save.
And just like Clark Kent, he wasn't alone in the fight.
When he answered Bart, his smile was still there. "I'll be right there."
END