Fic: Start Over (6/17), Chloe/Oliver, PG
Fic: Start Over (6/17)
Author: me
Rating: PG
Spoilers: 5.16 and 5.17
Summary: What if Oliver had been a supporter of Senator Kent from the very beginning of his campaign?
Character/Pairing: Oliver/Chloe, Clark, Lana, Martha, Lois
Disclaimer: I’m an idiot who keeps forgetting to do this so please don’t sue me. I understand that these characters aren’t mine.
Author’s Note: I don’t have anything to say other than Enjoy! And feel free to comment.
Chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5
Scanning through his files Oliver turned them over before moving onto the next pile. It was hard work but his scientist worked harder to bring him what he need so the least he could do was shift through some boring files with jargon that went over his head.
Looking at the clock he smiled when he realised that in two hours he would be able to see Chloe, under the pretense of bringing her dinner. He wished that he was able to finally drop the pretense but he knew it wasn’t possible just yet. Chloe’s walls were breaking slowly but just a little slower than what he was use to. He knew though that whatever happened she would most certainly be worth the wait. He just knew it.
Stopping he read back over the sentence he had just read. Picking up his phone he dialled the number of the lead scientist.
“We need to talk about this biohazard. Be in my office in ten minutes.”
*******
Chloe put her books down before turning to reply to Lois’s statement, “Okay, I am the first person to concede that anything is possible in this universe but Clark Kent lip-locked with another girl? No way, not to Lana.”
“Chloe I’m telling you, it was the last tango at the Talon and I had front row seats, unfortunately.”
“Well something must have happened. He wouldn’t just do this.” Chloe argued.
“I know you hero worship the guy, and with Ollie panting after you I don’t understand why, but it’s time for you to face it. Clark is no different than any other red-blooded male. His brain is not his commanding officer.”
“Ollie is not panting after me. He doesn’t like me that way and I wish you and Lana would stop with that. As for Clark, he is different. I know he’s different. He wouldn’t do this to Lana.”
“We’ll get back to your Ollie issues later and Clark has already done this to Lana. If Lana’s out friend, we need to warn -“
Chloe cut in, “No, hold your fire. Now, before you utter one word to Lana about this, I just wan-”
“Warn Lana about what? What’s going on?” Lana asked, standing in the doorway, Oliver standing just behind her.
Chloe sighed, “Lois needs a place to stay. She needs to stay in the dorm for a couple of nights.”
After an elbow to the ribs, from Chloe, Lois said, “Right, the heater’s on the fritz.”
“I just wanted to make sure I brought it up to you first before she opened her mouth and said anything.”
Lana nodded weakly, “Okay. Lois, you are always welcome here.”
Lois nodded, “Thanks. So what brings you here Oliver?”
“I just came to bring Chloe dinner. She wasn’t at the Planet so I figured she would be here.” Oliver replied with a smile.
“Oh, thank you,” Chloe replied with a smile of her own before leading him out of the room and closing the door behind them.
“Do you see what I see when it comes to those two?” Lois asked.
“You mean the fact that he’s completely smitten and so is she but she’s refusing to acknowledge it.”
“I mean that exactly but maybe not in the cute farm girl way that you put it,” Lois replied with a smile as Chloe entered the room again, a bag of food in her hand.
Turning to Chloe, Lana said, “I thought you were pulling an all nighter.”
Chloe shrugged, “Well as much as I enjoy a good dose of sleep deprivation my deadline was pushed.”
“Nice,” Lana replied as her phone rang. Pulling it out, she answered, “Hello. Hi... Oh, is everything all right?... Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Raising an eyebrow Chloe asked, “Who was that?”
“That was Clark. He said he needs to talk to me and it seems really urgent. I’ll talk to you guys later.” Lana replied as she grabbed her bag and keys, leaving as quickly as possible.
Waving goodbye Chloe turned to Lois, “It looks like it’s just me and you for dinner.”
Lois smiled, “Great we can have some girl talk. About a blond billionaire who so likes you.”
“I’m not getting into this argument about this again. Now shut up and eat, okay,” Chloe said handing her the Chinese.
Lois sighed, “Fine but this conversation is only over for now.”
“I can live with that,” Chloe said with a smile, digging into the bag.
********
Walking down the steps to the Planet basement Oliver wiped his sweating hand on his pants. Suddenly he was very glad that he had decided to wear jeans instead of his suit because for some reason his hands wouldn’t stop sweating. There was a good reason for it but in these situations he never really reacted like this. Not even when he was with Tess.
Sighing he stopped short and smiled when he saw Chloe hunched over at her desk. Her determination was written on her face and the way her fingers flew across the keyboard he knew she was onto something good. Turning to leave he stopped himself. If he left now he’d probably never ask her and that just wasn’t possible. So as far as he was concerned he needed to man up and head over there and just ask, no matter what the answer ended up being. He was tired of this game they seemed to be playing.
Finally standing next to her he smiled when she didn’t even react when he was there. Smiling he tapped on her shoulder lightly.
Jumping in her seat Chloe turned around, pen out ready to try and defend herself, only to be met by the charming smile of Oliver. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down while her arm reached out and smacked him.
“What’d you do that for?”
“Sorry,” Oliver replied, holding up his hands in surrender, “But I didn’t want to wait all night for you to snap out of your daze and notice me.”
Chloe stood, shaking her head and grabbing her coffee mug to get a refill, “That’s ok. At least it was for a reason. Clark does it sometimes just to scare me.” Filling her mug she took a sip before saying, “So what can I do for you?”
Oliver gave a nervous chuckle before saying, “Dinner.”
“Dinner? That would have had to of taken place two hours ago.’
Oliver nodded, “I was thinking more of dinner tomorrow night. With me.”
“Sure,” Chloe replied taking her seat, “We can have take out here.”
“No!” Oliver cried. When Chloe turned back to him with a puzzled look on her face he continued, “I meant a sit down dinner, in a nice restaurant, of your choosing and not as friends. I was thinking more along the lines of a date, where I hopefully get to kiss you goodnight at the end.”
Chloe opened her mouth to speak but found it hard to form words. Seeing the stunned look on her face Oliver decided that it was best to keep talking until she felt she could answer, if only to stop his nerves from completely taking over.
“I know it probably seems sudden to you but I think this has been coming for a while and I think the amazing thing is that we could be great together. You know that. And even if we’re not at least we’ll get all this out of the way so we can have a proper friendship. Together but I’m about to run out of things to say so when I do it’s your turn to speak but you just have to know how nervous I was coming here and just asking you out like this. It’s not what I had planned at all. Now you should speak.”
“Umm...”
“Umm is not a word. You’re aware of that right. I’m going to need something more than umm.” Oliver said with a sigh.
Chloe stood from her desk and took a step so that she was directly in front of Oliver. Placing a hand gently on his arm she stood on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss to his mouth. Taking a minute to realise what was happening Oliver slowly kissed her back, unsure of what this meant.
Pulling back Chloe nodded, “Ok.”
Oliver smiled and tried to pull her lips back to his as she stepped back and out of his reach.
Sitting back down she said with a smile on her face, “That was only ’cause I don’t kiss guys on the first date and I kind of wanted to know what you kissed like.”
“Ok then. I can accept that. I’ll pick you up at seven.” Oliver replied returning her grin with one of his own.
“From the dorms ok,” she responded before taking another sip of her coffee.
“That is more than ok,” he replied as he backed out of the room.
********
Heading back to his office Oliver couldn’t shake the grin that was on his face. It seemed stupid but he was happy. Chloe had kissed him and agreed to go out with him. It made his day and settled some of his nerves about the whole thing.
Stepping off the elevator he started whistling as he headed over to his assistants to pick up his messages. He ignored his assistant as she rolled his eyes at him and just reached for the messages she handed over. Entering his office he stopped when he saw the two scientists he was expecting sitting in the guest chairs at his desk.
Sighing he stepped forward, knowing that his good mood was going to have to be put on hold for the moment. Sitting in his own chair he turned to the scientist and said, “What have you found out?”
The first scientist stood as he sat down before saying, “We haven’t been able to find the source of the biohazard, or its origin or how it’s spreading.”
Oliver scoffed, “So what do you know.”
“We know that where ever this biohazard occurs so does two other things. One Lex Luthor is there in four to eight hours afterwards and there is always a man somewhere nearby.”
“A man?”
“Yes. The funny thing about this man is that he can’t be found anywhere. There was a record of him being a part of a black ops group of the CIA but when we looked deeper it turned out to be faked.”
Oliver nodded, “Ok, keep on it.” He said with another nod, standing to shake the scientist’s hands, “Oh and one last thing before you go.”
“Yes sir.”
“What’s his name?” Oliver asked.
“Milton Fine, sir”
********
Oliver sat perched on a roof ledge looking out over the city. He knew he should keep moving but his mind wasn’t really on the task at hand at the moment. He kept finding that his mind kept drifting back to Chloe and it wasn’t helping his game. He’d almost been stabbed twice trying when his mind drifted at a crucial moment. He was about to head home when he saw that the girl that had been plaguing his thoughts. Following close behind he watched as a mugger began to follow her, swinging down to the ground just as the mugger grabbed her and pulled her into an alley.
Springing into action he fired off his first arrow, shooting it straight through his free hand. Listening as the mugger screamed in agony and let go of Chloe. Grabbing her hand he pulled Chloe free of the alley. Leaving her at the entrance he returned to the alley and cuffed a hand of the muggers to the fire escape.
“The police will have the key,” he said with a sarcastic grin on his face before turning and leaving. When he made it back to Chloe he asked, “Can I walk you back to your car?”
She nodded a little dumb founded, “Sure, but are you just going to leave him there?”
“No, when you’re safe I’ll call the cops to come and get him.”
“Do you do this a lot?”
“Are you trying to interview me?”
Chloe shrugged, “Maybe. Or maybe I just want to find out more about my hooded hero.”
Oliver laughed, “Most people do but then most people don’t possess the ability to write a story about it either.”
“So you’ve been keeping tabs on me?” She said, her eyes narrowing, “Should I be worried that you’re a stalker?”
Oliver laughed as they stopped next to her car, “Ma’am I highly doubt I could be a stalker. I just like to know who writes the news I read. Have a lovely evening.”
When she turned her back to unlock the door he zipped away before she was able to turn around, leaving her to say her goodnights to the open air.
*******
Standing in front of the counter at the Talon Martha tried not to blink as the cameras around her went off. Instead she tried to focus on her speech and the fact that the press were going to ask the question she wasn’t sure that she wanted to answer.
“...In short, this minor tax increase can make a major difference in our public schools.”
Pointing to the reporter who raised their hand she called upon them to ask her a question, “Senator, how do you feel about Clayton’s allegations that your proposal will drain money from your constituents while failing to help schools?”
Martha continued to smile before replying, “I’d be more than happy to respond to the congressman’s concerns should Congressman Clayton care to ask me in person. Thank you all for coming.”
Listening to the scattered applause that started around her Martha stepped down, taking her speech with her, while there was one person who was still slow clapping in the background. Turning she saw Oliver standing in the back, behind the reporters, clapping for her.
Stepping forward he said with a grin, “Nice strategy, Senator. When attacked, don’t hesitate and come out fighting.”
“Well you’ve taught me well Oliver. Anyway I meant every word I said. I’d love to have a public debate with Clayton but I hope it doesn’t come to that every time.”
Oliver nodded, “I’m sure it won’t and it will get easier when they understand that you’re an actual player.” Smiling he held out an envelope for her, “Anyway I brought something. To give you a bit of an edge since I heard you were going to the dinner tomorrow night at the governor’s mansion. This has everything you need to know about our dinner companions.”
Taking the envelope she smiled, “Thank you Oliver but I’ve done my homework. I know each person’s position and what their voting record is.”
Oliver laughed, “That’s great Mrs Kent but this is a different sort of research.”
Sighing Martha pulled the contents of the envelope out, “Congressman Clayton plays polo? That’s his passion? And his daughter’s a gymnast of Olympic standard.”
Oliver nodded, “I know it’s a political function but I find politics doesn’t make good small talk. So I figured I’d pass on my wisdom.”
Martha laughed, “Well thank you Oliver. I appreciate it.”
“And if you get stuck I’ll be there to help out or to help you hide.” Oliver replied, an amused glaze in his eyes.
********
Holding the restaurant door open for Chloe Oliver groaned inwardly. When he had planned this evening he’d seen it go off without a hitch but now that it had happened he had wished he hadn’t planned the perfect evening. It wasn’t that it was bad it was just a bit awkward.
He was pulled from his thoughts when Chloe took his hand.
“So on a scale of one to ten how awful was tonight?” he asked, fearing the answer.
“The restaurant was awful, defiantly a one, especially after that one waiter insulted me but the company was pretty amazing, defiantly an eight.”
“Only an eight,” Oliver said pretending to be offended.
“Well it would have been more if you hadn’t of picked that restaurant.” Chloe said with a smile, “What possessed you to pick that place.”
Oliver shrugged, “I thought you’d like it.”
“Well I would have liked it better if I could actually read the menu. Though you ordering the food in fluent French was pretty impressive.”
“I aim to please.”
Chloe smiled and twisted their fingers together, “Well maybe next time we can do burgers somewhere.”
“It’s that simple to impress you.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure? Cause I think you’re destroying my faith in females with this.”
Chloe laughed, “Well I like to think I defy standards. And no matter what you remember, I’m right and you’re wrong.”
“Well I’m big and you’re little.”
Chloe gasped, pointing a finger at him, “I’m smart and you’re dumb.”
“Dam it,” Oliver said with a snap of his fingers, “I knew there was a better one then that.”
Chloe laughed, stopping in front of his car, “Well you’ve just to got to remember, I’m smarter than you.”
“Well if you’re so much smarter than me then tell me this. If I take you to a little dinner near work will you go out with again?”
“Maybe, but you’ll have to give me an actual invitation.”
Oliver laughed, “Ok. Chloe Sullivan will you do me the pleasure of going on another date with me?”
“I’d love to.”
Chapter 7