Chlollie Fanfic: Misdirection, Chapter 9
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Yes, I'm a day late, but better late than never. And I come bearing gifts - shiny, new update for you all!
And the real reason I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday was because a nice, smutty Chlollie oneshot took shape in my mind after seeing that one Chlollie scene in Warrior. I'm tidying that up now, and hope to get it posted today, or maybe tomorrow if real life gets in the way.
Anyway, here's the next chapter of Misdirection. Enjoy. And feedback is still like crack to me. ;-)
Awesome banner by the lovely kc_2009, who is a rare diamond and a creative genius. Thanks, hun! :-)
Title: Misdirection
Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlollie
Rating: R (this chapter PG13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Season 7 (Siren) with references to Season 6’s Justice
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: Sparks begin to fly between our high-achieving couple. Sequel to Trajectory.
Feedback: …is sweet like chocolate. J
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 9
Ow. His head was throbbing, pulsing as if he had a toothache in his brain.
Groggily, Oliver lifted his eyelids and stared into the semi-darkness. As soon as his vision steadied, he was able to surmise that he was still in his apartment. He lifted his head higher, wincing as a fierce ache pinched the back of his neck. He must have been in this position for quite some time.
Warm blood dripped from the left side of his forehead, narrowly missing his eye. His shoulders also ached from being pulled back, and he realised he was tied to a chair. Weakly he wiggled his fingers and was surprised to come into contact with slim digits that were not his own.
Dimly he remembered what had happened; Lady Fishnet had crashed his apartment - literally. He’d urged Lois to get down, and…
“Lois?” he queried into the darkness, hoping to God she was alright.
“Oh, don’t even think of looking at me right now!” she hissed from directly behind him.
Oliver sighed. Couldn’t Lady Fishnet have gagged her before tying her up, or something? Something in his gut told him he was about to get a right earful.
As usual, his instincts were spot on.
“So…” she drawled dramatically, “…in all those nights together, somewhere between brushing teeth and spooning between the sheets, you didn’t think that it might be a good idea to mention that you prowl the streets in green leather and carry a compound bow?”
Oliver closed his eyes, hoping it would ease the ache in his head and the screech in his ears. “I don’t usually bring the compound bow,” he said lamely.
“Oh, so now he’s a funny hero!” she laughed without mirth. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were the Green Arrow!”
“Hard to imagine why,” he murmured sarcastically.
“So why archery?” she barrelled on. “Did Little Ollie get bored with dodgeball and PE and decide to play William Tell instead?”
He didn’t bother dignifying her query with an answer. His head was hurting enough as it was. And he could hear his cellphone buzzing, and was sure it was Chloe on the other end of the line. His insides knotted with worry. If Chloe walked in here, she might likely fall foul of Lady Fishnet’s favour once again - and also wonder what the hell he was doing tied up with her cousin.
“Whoa…wait a second!” Lois said suddenly, jerking him back to the present. “I kissed Green Arrow last year when you were standing with me in the alley!”
Oops. Oliver opened his mouth to speak, but found himself unable to rack up a decent defence.
He felt her shake her head behind him. “I can’t believe you!” she exclaimed shrilly. “You, who were supposedly my boyfriend, arranged for me to be lip-locked with some wannabe hero!”
Lois’s rising voice was exacerbating his already throbbing headache, and he wished to God that she would just shut up.
And apparently he wasn’t the only person she was irritating. He heard a growl and a thud, and Lois’s head lolled to the side. Lady Fishnet must have punched her lights clean out.
“Ugh,” he heard her say in disgust as she strolled into his line of vision. “How the hell do you put up with that?”
Oliver glared at the masked woman who’d managed to get the better of him for the second time in as many days. “I don’t know what it is you want from me,” he grated, “but I’m hoping we just got off on the wrong foot here.”
“You can save your charm for your squawking parrot over there,” she said dryly, fishing out a cellphone and dialling a number.
“Whatever someone’s paying you, I can beat it,” he said desperately.
She smiled at him condescendingly. “You know, this is about more than money, pretty boy. This is about something that you and your merry band of thieves might not understand: Justice.”
He snorted. “Lady Justice must be blinder than I thought she was if she’s got you on her side,” he spat derisively.
“Just tell me this,” she went on, ignoring him. “What goes through the mind of a terrorist when he’s about to set off a bomb in a factory?”
He stared at her, slack-jawed. “A terrorist? Me?!”
She shrugged. “I call it like I see it, dude.”
He shook his head furiously. “You really have it backwards. No-one’s ever been hurt, and Lex’s factories aren’t exactly producing Christmas toys for little girls and boys. I’m the good guy here!”
Her fingers stilled on her phone for a moment, as if considering her words.
“Isn’t everybody?” she finally quipped.
Oliver sagged in his chair as she finished dialling her number and held the phone up to her ear.
“”When I say I’m gonna do something, I always deliver,” she said sharply to whoever was on the other side of the line, probably Lex. “Now it’s your turn. You want your boy over here? Start the wire transfer.”
As soon as her back was turned, Oliver twisted his wrist and managed to slip the tiny switchblade he always stashed in his shirt cuff. With stealthy determination, he quietly started cutting through the bonds at his wrists.
***
“Oliver Queen here. Please leave a message at the tone.”
“Hey Ollie, it’s Chloe,” she said as she walked briskly through the bullpen. “I’m running a little late at the Planet, but I should be at yours in another half hour, maybe less. Oh, and I ran into Lois earlier; said she wanted to drop by the Clocktower apartment, but I convinced her not to; at least, I think I did.
“Anyway, just giving you a heads-up on that, and I, er…look forward to seeing you later. Bye.”
Chloe hung up the phone and retrieved her document from the file room printer. As she straightened, she saw Clark coming through the door, a wry expression on his face.
“In case you can’t see it, the white flag is flying,” she quickly said, putting her hands up in the air in mock surrender, “so don’t even think about going off on me again, Clark.”
Clark sighed and buried his hands in his pockets. When he spoke, his voice was controlled and even.
“I’m sorry for being so hard on you about the Oliver thing,” he said quietly, not quite meeting her eyes. “I just…don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Chloe relaxed, touched by his heartfelt concern. “Well, we could all breathe easier if we could find a lead on Blonde Ambition, but right now, I’ve got zero.”
As she stepped out of the file room and brushed past him, Clark murmured, “Lana might.”
She stopped and frowned. “That’s a twist. Okay…?”
“She doesn’t have any footage linking Lex to the attacker,” he said, “but she was able to keep track of his projects by piggybacking on the server from the Luthor Mansion.”
Chloe Sullivan, you effing idiot. She closed her eyes and exhaled roughly at her own stupidity.
“Of course,” she groaned, her shoulders slumping as she realised her schoolboy error. “Right in front of my face! Our silent siren knew I was making the interception because she was on the DP server!”
“Can you access who logged on last night?” Clark queried.
“Sure,” she said, still feeling like a thickhead. “I can’t believe I didn’t see that.”
“I know,” Clark observed. “It’s not like you.”
Chloe hung her head and turned away from him, wishing her hair were longer to cover her shame as she blushed scarlet. She knew why she’d missed the obvious; Oliver Queen and the orgasm he’d given her had skewered her reasoning and scattered her intelligence, providing an interesting distraction from the investigating she did everyday.
“The negligent ‘go-to’ girl strikes again,” she said glumly as she sat down. “Chalk another one up for the ‘new-and-improved’ model.”
“Well, Lana may have come through this time,” he said, coming to stand behind her chair and bending towards her. “But I’m not about to let Oliver poach the best sidekick in town.”
Chloe’s cheeks warmed at his genuine praise, and she gave him a brief smile before turning to her screen and scouring the Daily Planet’s user database for the previous evening’s logins. She was genuinely pleased with Clark’s new-found appreciation for her skills, but she didn’t for one second think that it meant anything more than that. He was too attached to Lana for him to see her as anything more than a workmate and a friend.
And for the first time in her life, she could think that out loud without her heart constricting painfully in her chest.
She blinked in surprise, and her fingers stilled on the keyboard. Wow…Oliver Queen had cured her from her Clark lust. He really was a hero.
Her computer pinged, and she clicked on the link of the previous night’s users. To her surprise, only one name popped up.
“Dinah Lance was the only woman logged on last night,” Clark murmured, frowning as he studied the face of the brunette on the screen. “That doesn’t help us much.”
Clark was deliciously naïve. “Why, because she’s not blonde?” she said incredulously. “Please, Clark. The new bad girl in town could be as blonde as I really am.”
Clark did a double-take and glanced wide-eyed at her hair, and she couldn’t help but giggle at the expression on his face. He looked like he was wondering if the carpet matched the drapes.
“Here we go,” she said as she recalibrated the hair colour of the woman in the picture on her screen. “Raven black…” She punched a few more buttons and pressed Enter. The long, dark locks on the screen disappeared and were replaced with a short, spiky blonde look.
“Canary yellow!” she said triumphantly. “Maybe we should call her the Yellow Raven.”
Clark frowned and studied the image. “I think ‘Black Canary’ has a better ring to it,” he suggested.
“This makes so much sense!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Dinah’s slogan is ‘The Word of Justice.’ Add in the fact that she comes from a family of cops, has a hard-line view crime and corruption…”
She trailed off and typed furiously, a plan hatching in her mind.
“What are you doing?” Clark asked as she went silent.
“Earning back my stripes,” she replied smugly. “I just hacked into Dinah’s computer, and it looks like there is a transfer in occurrence to her bank account right now.”
“Oliver said that the file you intercepted last night was from Lex,” he said as they watched the progress bar on the Bank of Metropolis transaction inching slowly towards completion. “I would assume this is coming from his account. Can you block the transfer?”
“Can I list at least twelve different types of coffee?” she replied artily as she punched a few more buttons. The progress bar froze just before it got to the end, effectively cutting off the transfer.
“Got it. We’ve cut off the air supply, so now she’ll have to surface.”
“Great work, Chloe,” he said warmly. “We make a great team, don’t we?”
“Always did,” she replied with a smile as she powered down her computer and rose.
“You off home, then?” he asked as she slung her back onto her shoulder. “I can give you a ride on the Kent Express.”
“Er…actually, I need to stop by Ollie’s first,” she hedged. “You go on home.”
“Naw. I’ll come along with you, and take you home afterward,” he said.
“No! I mean…no need,” she corrected with a wide smile. “I might be there a while, he needs to…debrief me. We didn’t get a chance to…do it…after the last mission.” God, that sounded so dirty in her head.
Clark shrugged. “No problem, I’m happy to wait.”
Shit. He really wasn’t getting it.
“Won’t Lana be expecting you?” she tried desperately.
“I told her Lex was up to something, and that I might be out most of the night trying to figure it out and stop him, so it’s really no problem,” he insisted. “Besides, after what happened to you last night, I’m not ready to let you out of my sight just yet.”
Damn it.
She smiled brightly at him. “Okay, let’s roll,” she said, cursing inwardly as her quiet romantic evening with Oliver went up in smoke.
***
As soon as the elevator car stopped on the top floor, Chloe knew something was wrong. The entire apartment was in darkness, and the air was eerily still. The hairs on the back of her neck felt prickly and she couldn’t wait to see Oliver, make sure he was okay.
Clark opened the grate for her, and she stepped out into the room - and heard the distinctive crunch of broken glass beneath her feet.
Her heart thumped with fear within her chest as she crouched to the floor. “Oh, my God. Clark - every very window in this place has been shattered -”
“Chloe? Is that you?” an unmistakeable voice yelled into the darkness.
Oh, no. “Lois!” she gasped.
***
Chapter 10…