You Don't Have to Make a Sound 1/1

Dec 07, 2011 08:47






banner by: geek_or_unique
Title: You Don't Have to Make a Sound (Prequel Series #3)
Chapter: 1/1
Characters: Chloe Sullivan and Oliver Queen
Rating: PG-13
Fictable Prompt: #34 Not Enough for
liselle2010
Word Count: 4,137
Summary: Chloe feels like she should be doing more and gets comfort from the last person she expected.
Previous Stories: | Don't You Know Who You Are | Got Love for the People That Have Warned You |


You Don't Have to Make a Sound

Chloe groaned when she heard the telltale beep from the computer indicating that she’d received a new email. She started typing faster, finished the email she was in the middle of, hit send and switched to her inbox only to see that there were actually three new emails and all of them were marked with the highest priority. She clicked on the one that had come in seconds before the other two and she’d barely had time to read the opening paragraph before the phone on her desk let out a shrill ring. Sighing, Chloe reached for it, immediately tucking the phone between her ear and her shoulder so she could type.

“This is Chloe Sullivan,” she answered, her attention focused on the screen as she read through the email. She hit reply, frowning when she heard the voice on the other end of the phone. “I’m sorry Mr. Queen is not available at the moment.” Her eyes briefly fluttered away from the screen toward Oliver’s dark office. “Is there something I can help you with?” Her fingers flew over the keys and she hit send and opened the next email.

The caller was starting to get belligerent and Chloe took a deep breath, counted to ten in her head and reminded herself that he was an important client and it wasn’t her place to tell him to shut up, no matter how much she wanted to. “Mr. Broderick, I understand your dilemma but Mr. Queen is a busy man. I’m sure he will get back to you about your proposals as soon as he can,” she assured him even though she had no idea if that was true considering she hadn’t seen nor heard from her boss in over a month.

Chloe continued typing as she listened to Mr. Broderick rant and rave for nearly ten minutes, finally taking a breath after he’d threatened to take his business to Luthor Corp. Chloe had already pulled up his account file and she did what she could to soothe his concerns, including remind him that Queen Industries had beaten Luthor Corp. in all corners of the market for the past year. Five minutes later, he seemed pacified and told her that if she ever got tired of Oliver, she was more than welcome to work for him.

She laughed politely, gave her usual comment about what a great boss Oliver was and then finally hung up the phone. Rolling her eyes, Chloe turned her attention back to the emails and she was nearly finished with the last one when the door to the outer office was opened and Bart Allen strolled in, headphones in his ears as he pushed his mail cart. His eyes automatically darted to Oliver’s door and when he saw the light off; he grinned at Chloe and pushed the pause button on his iPod.

“Hey Mamacita,” he greeted her as he sorted through his cart. “Bossman still off to parts unknown?” Bart asked as he stacked a pile of envelopes on the side of Chloe’s desk.

Chloe nodded and started to give him the same speech she gave everyone else about Oliver’s trips, but she cut herself off when she noticed the scrapes and bruises on his hands. “What happened?” she asked.

Bart’s smile slipped for a moment but then he smirked at her. “No need to worry about me, Gorgeous. You should see the other guy. But hey, if it would make you feel better, I’d be happy to take you to dinner tonight and then you can check me out all up close and personal to make sure I’m okay.”

“Or you could deliver this to Victor for me without me having to remind you again that we can only ever be friends,” Chloe replied. She handed Bart a manila envelope and tried not to roll her eyes at the pouty look on his face. They had this conversation at least three times a week, usually more when Oliver wasn’t around to point out that mail would get delivered a lot faster if Bart socialized less.

“I’m going to wear you down one of these days,” Bart said confidently. He placed the envelope on the top of his mail cart. “I’ll go hunt down Computer Brain for you now. Sometimes I think you’re trying to make me jealous with all the stuff you have me deliver to him,” he joked as he pushed the mail cart back toward the door.

Chloe just shook her head as she watched him walk out of the office and less than a second later, she heard the elevator doors closing at the far end of the hallway. She sighed and made a mental note to include something in his next task file to remind him that he couldn’t use his super speed at the office. She knew he was faster than the cameras could pick up, but it was still a risk that someone might see him. It was times like this that she wished she could tell him that she was the one who’d been helping him and then maybe she’d have a better chance that he would listen to her advice.

But she couldn’t do that. From everything Chloe knew about Bart, she didn’t think he would react well to find out that she’d been the one helping him ever since she’d witnessed his speed on the street when she’d been on her way to work one morning. That had been nearly a year earlier and it had taken her another month to find out his name and convince him that he should get a real job instead of stealing from innocent people. Again, it might have been easier if she’d just approached him but she hadn’t wanted to scare him off so she’d sent him the messages from the Eye in the Sky just like she had been doing with the others.

The problem was that Chloe wasn’t sure it was enough.
***

Later that night, Chloe stood in front of the computer terminal in the loft she had rented, going over the security footage from the past few nights as she tried to figure out when Bart had gotten injured. She hadn’t given him any specific tasks so she assumed he’d been doing one of his nightly patrols. The problem was that he was too fast for the cameras to catch and he easily could have gotten hurt in another state or another country for that matter. She knew he loved to run to Mexico for food. She was about to give up when she finally caught a glimpse of him near the waterfront. He had surprised a drug dealer and the dealer had had backup. Bart was fast but he was also a young guy who was too stubborn to walk away from a fight.

There wasn’t much she could do in a situation like that, Chloe thought with a sigh. Ideally, Bart would have had backup too, but since he didn’t know about the others and they didn’t know about him that just wasn’t possible. She downloaded the footage and added it to Bart’s files and then checked the police scanner. The night had been quiet and she was grateful for that. AC was still recovering from a long mission and she knew he was spending as much time as he could in the water. That was one good thing about Oliver’s latest disappearance; he didn’t need a bodyguard if he wasn’t around so AC had time to recharge.

She glanced at the clock, noting that it was after midnight and she needed to wrap up so she could go home and sleep for a few hours before she needed to be back at work. Chloe opened the file on the project she was working on with Victor. He was just as busy as she was at the office and she felt like it was taking them forever to find proof that one of the city councilmen was involved in a money laundering scheme. She’d sent Bart on a few recon missions but it still wasn’t enough.

Chloe frowned as she looked around the small loft. She had rented it about six months after she’d started working for Oliver. She had plenty of extra money thanks to the outrageous salary he was paying her even though she felt like she’d been earning every penny of it the past few weeks that he’d been gone. She had spent as much money as she could justify on computer equipment, scanners and several other essentials. The couch, overstuffed chair and coffee table had been Lois’s idea so the place didn’t feel like a technology storage room but Chloe had insisted on buying them at secondhand shops since they were an afterthought.

It wasn’t like anyone else spent time there. Lois stopped by occasionally, usually to drag Chloe home if she’d been working too long. The guys had no idea the command center existed any more than they knew that the CEO’s executive assistant, who had been responsible for them getting their jobs, was the same Eye in the Sky who gave them various assignments and missions on a semi-regular basis.

She didn’t want the credit. Chloe wasn’t doing this for the fame or whatever the right word was. She wanted to make the world a better place and this was the only way she knew how to make that happen. She just wished there was more that she could to help Bart, Victor and AC reach their full potential.
***

The roof of the Queen Industries’ building had become one of Chloe’s favorite places over the past year. She had made her way up there one afternoon when all she’d wanted to do was scream and bash her head against the wall and she’d figured fresh air was a better option. The view had taken her breath away and made her forget everything that had been frustrating her to the point of violence. The building was one of the tallest in the city and she could see the sprawling downtown area as well as the ocean gleaming in the background. It was hard to be mad when faced with such a spectacular sight.

When darkness fell over the city, the view was even better. She could see all the lights and she loved to watch the ocean waves lapping against the shore beneath the moonlight. That particular night was fairly warm for autumn, even by California standards, and Chloe was grateful since she hadn’t bothered to grab her coat before she’d hurried up the stairs and out the door. It had been a grueling day and all she wanted was a few minutes to herself without a phone or a computer or the constant reminders that no matter how hard she worked, it never seemed to be enough.

Some anniversary this was turning out to be, Chloe thought bitterly as the wind suddenly picked up, making her shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself. She had officially worked at Queen Industries for one year but that wasn’t the job that was upsetting her at the moment. It was stressful as hell, especially lately, but she was more concerned with the job that tended to keep her awake well into the night with concern for the people who didn’t even know they were working with her while she watched helplessly from the sidelines as they put themselves in danger.

Maybe she’d been crazy to think she could handle something so huge in the first place. Maybe she was just a wide-eyed girl from Kansas who dreamed of saving the world but wasn’t really meant to do it. Chloe had been so determined and she’d thought her job at Queen Industries was the ticket to achieving what she wanted. She’d imagined all the equipment she could buy and all the resources she would have at her disposal. Now, she had all of those things in place but she didn’t feel like she was actually making a difference.

Chloe hated feeling sorry for herself. It was useless and weak and all the other bad qualities that she never wanted to waste her time on. She knew she should focus on all the things she had accomplished and all the things she could still do in the future. It was already late and she knew she needed make her way home before Lois called and yelled at her again for not getting any sleep. It was a bad sign when her workaholic cousin, who kept round the clock hours as she chased stories, thought she was working too much.

She turned to walk back to the door and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Oliver standing there. Chloe’s hand flew to her chest, attempting to calm her pounding heart as she glared at him. “If you were trying to scare the hell out of me, you succeeded,” she told him warily. “What are you doing up here?”

Oliver gave her a tight smile as he moved closer to join her at the railing. “I was looking for you. Everything was still on in the office but you weren’t there so I thought I’d try up here. You weren’t thinking about jumping were you?” he asked.

Chloe rolled her eyes. “You would be really screwed if I was,” she told him as she crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare at him. “Where the hell have you been?” He hadn’t said a word to her about going on any kind of trip and then he’d stopped answering his phone and emails so if it hadn’t been for the occasional tabloid reports from various hotspots around the globe, she would have assumed he’d died or been kidnapped.

She studied his face, noting that he looked a little tired but he didn’t appear to be drunk. His eyes weren’t bloodshot so she assumed he wasn’t hung over either. Chloe tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for him to explain why he thought it was okay to leave her in charge of the company for a month and then drop back in out of nowhere and scare her half to death.

“I had a few things to take care of,” Oliver replied. He gave her another forced smile and she could practically see him trying to think of a way to diffuse her anger. “If it makes you feel better, you did a great job. More than one person left me a message threatening to steal you away.”

“That doesn’t excuse what you did, Oliver,” Chloe replied, refusing to be pacified by his flattery. She wasn’t one of the bimbos who loved to be his arm candy even if it was only for one night. Chloe had known what she was getting into when she’d accepted the job from him and she’d made it clear from day one that she was not going to fall for any of his bullshit. The flimsy excuse he was attempting to give her definitely fell into that category.

His smile faded and he nodded. “My absence couldn’t be helped but I can assure you that it was not all parties and fun,” Oliver said, smirking. “It’s too soon for me to tell you all the details but if everything goes according to plan, the deal with the satellite company is going to be old news before you know it.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow at that, trying to see if he was being serious. The satellite project had been huge for Queen Industries and even she had to admit that she’d been impressed with the way Oliver had handled the entire deal. He’d earned all the credit he’d received for it and the thought that he was already planning something to top it was more than a little intriguing. “If you’re just telling me this so I’ll stop being angry…” Her voice trailed off, but the warning in her tone was crystal clear.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I get it, Chloe. As soon as the pieces come together, you will be the first to know,” Oliver assured her. He noticed that she was shivering and motioned toward the door. “Let’s go back inside before you freeze to death. I have something for you,” he added.

“If it’s more work, you can keep it. I’ve been doing plenty while you were gone. There are a lot of things we need to go over,” Chloe said as she made her way toward the stairs, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Oliver was following her. “Do you have some time now?” She figured she might as well stay and fill him in on the most pressing matters since she really wasn’t in any hurry to get home. Lois was probably working late anyway.

Oliver shook his head. “All of that can wait until tomorrow,” he said. Once they were inside the building, his long stride easily let him pass her and he turned, walking backward as he flashed his famous grin. “We’re not going to spend the anniversary of your first year with the company working,” he told her matter-of-factly.

Chloe was more than a little surprised that he’d actually remembered, but she kept her expression blank. “I already received your gift,” she replied cheekily, referring to the standard paperweight that each employee received on their first anniversary with the company along with a card from Oliver thanking him or her for their service. Chloe had stamped his signature on her card herself along with all the other employees who’d had an anniversary while he’d been gone.

“I think you’ll like this one better,” Oliver replied as he held the door to the office open for her. He gestured to the box that was sitting on her desk. “It’s one of a kind,” he told her when Chloe gave him a skeptical look.

She was curious and more touched than she should be that Oliver had actually thought of someone other than himself for a change. Chloe could see that he was anxious for her to open it and that only made her want to take her time. She tried not to smirk as she carefully untied the bow and slid the lid off the box. But when she saw what was inside, Chloe forgot all pretenses, dropping the top of the box on the desk and pulling out the phone inside. “Is this…?”

Oliver grinned. “It is,” he confirmed. “It’s the prototype for the new satellite phone that won’t be ready for public use for several months. Do you like it?” he asked.

Chloe was in awe. She’d been monitoring the development of the phone ever since they’d made the deal with the satellite company. It was exactly what she needed to keep better tabs on everything that was going on in the city. She’d be able to access the GPS trackers she’d installed on the guys’ phones with the press of a button and she’d have the ability to connect with her secure database from anywhere.

She could feel Oliver’s eyes on her and she knew he was waiting for an answer but the truth was she didn’t know what to say. The phone was ideal for her but she knew he had no way of knowing just how perfect the gift was which made her question why he’d thought to give it to her in the first place. Chloe bit the corner of her lip as she set the phone back in the box and turned to face him.

“Oliver, this is very generous of you,” Chloe said carefully, not wanting to offend him after he’d done something nice for her. “But why are you giving me this?” she asked curiously.

He simply raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by her reaction. “You still don’t trust me anymore than you did that first night in the club, do you?” Oliver asked. He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he continued. “I know you think I don’t appreciate everything you do here, Chloe, but I do. This is my way of saying thank you. I saw the way you read every spec that came through on the phone so I thought you’d want to be the first one to use it,” he explained.

Once again, Chloe was touched. She knew Oliver was good at being charming and she could see through him from a mile away, but he still managed to surprise her with sincerity from time to time. She gave him a genuine, grateful smile. “Thank you, Oliver.”

“You’re welcome,” Oliver replied. He leaned back against the desk, watching her for a moment. “Do you want to talk about whatever had you running to the roof?” he asked.

She shook her head as she picked up the phone again, already anxious to start programming it. She wondered if she’d be able to scramble the signal so she could send messages to the guys directly from it. Chloe knew Victor could probably find a way to do that in less than five minutes. Too bad she couldn’t ask him to do it. She could feel Oliver’s eyes on her again and she shifted, mirroring his pose and leaning back against the desk.

“It’s just been a long few days,” Chloe said. She bit the corner of her lips again as she debated saying more. She doubted Oliver actually cared about her problems but maybe that made him the ideal person to talk to about them. She kept her eyes on the phone in her hand as she spoke. “Sometimes it feels like no matter what I do, it’s not enough and that I’m letting people down. But can you let someone down if that person doesn’t know you’re helping them?” she asked.

Chloe regretted the question the second it was out of her mouth. “Just ignore me,” she said quickly. “I’m tired and I need to go home. We’ll talk tomorrow about all the things you’ve missed. Thanks again for this.” She started to move away, but Oliver’s hand closed over her wrist, keeping her in place.

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself, Chloe,” Oliver said. He paused and she reluctantly lifted her head to meet his gaze. “I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about and I doubt you’re going to tell me.” He raised an eyebrow and she couldn’t help smiling at that, even as she shook her head.

“That’s what I thought.” He let out a dramatic sigh and Chloe rolled her eyes, making him laugh. “As I was saying, you’re being too hard on yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all those other clichés are there for a reason,” he pointed out. “We’ve known each other for a year now and you, Chloe Sullivan, are without a doubt, the most determined person I’ve ever met. So whatever it is that you’re doing that you don’t think it’s enough, you’re wrong,” Oliver told her confidently. “You only know how to give things your all and you’d never do anything less than that.”

Chloe was momentarily too stunned to respond. She was pretty sure that was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her and the fact that it had come from Oliver of all people was almost too much for her to comprehend. She didn’t know what to say. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“I’m not as bad as you think I am,” Oliver replied. He let go of her arm and moved away from the desk, bypassing his own office as he walked toward the door. “Tomorrow is another day, Chloe,” he said pointedly as he tapped his watch.

She rolled her eyes but there was a smile on her face as she moved to the other side of her desk to gather her things. “Are you going to walk me to my car too? I’m not sure I can handle this much chivalry from you, Oliver.” Chloe gathered her things, locked her computer and kept the new phone in her hand as she took one more look around the office before walking to the doorway where Oliver was waiting for her. “We do have a lot to go over tomorrow,” she said.

He nodded as they made their way down the hall to the elevator. “I’ll be here bright and early,” Oliver said as he waited for her to step inside first.

Chloe gave him a doubtful look. She could count the number of times Oliver had beaten her to the office on one hand and she wouldn’t need all of her fingers. “Maybe you should just quit while you’re ahead for the night,” she suggested.

Oliver laughed. “Noted,” he said.

title: you don't have to make a sound, pairing: chloe and oliver, smallville, series: elm universe, fanfiction, prompt

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