All the Right Moves 7/10
Title: All the Right Moves
Author: ihearttvsnark
Chapter: 7/10
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Chloe Sullivan and Oliver Queen
Banners: geek_or_unique
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 7,391 (total)
Summary: This is the sequel to Everybody Loves M e. When Oliver returns from the other universe, he realizes that he wants the kind of life the other Oliver has. Chloe is determined to help him become the man she knows he’s capable of being, but it’s not an easy road for either one of them.
Previous Chapters: | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six |
Read Part 1 here
***
Chloe let out a frustrated sigh as she stared at the monitor. How was it possible that everyone’s phone was offline? She’d arrived at the command center ten minutes earlier and had gone through her evening routine of setting up the scanners and then checking everyone’s coordinates on the satellite feed to see who would be in the best position to help when and if there was trouble. But when she’d attempted to triangulate everyone’s positions, their GPS coordinates had returned with a ‘not found’ message. She knew Oliver was probably on a plane and Clark tended to forget his phone places, but where was the rest of the team?
She double checked to make sure the satellite was working by putting in her own phone and Lois’s. Dots immediately popped up on the screen, indicating the command center for her and the Register for Lois. Chloe opened another window and sent a message through Victor’s system. It was sent back immediately with a ‘request rejected’ message. Something definitely wasn’t right. Chloe pulled up the satellite grid again and ran a search for their last known locations. Once again, a ‘not found’ message appeared on the screen.
“What the hell is going on?” Chloe muttered as she opened another search window so she could attempt to track their movements through video surveillance. She pulled up the Queen Industries’ cameras, assuming they had all at least been to work that day. Before she could complete the search, the sound of the door opening behind her caught her attention and Chloe whirled around as Oliver walked through the door, grinning at her.
“Hey Gorgeous, did you miss me?” He pushed the door closed behind him and crossed the room to her, trying not to laugh at the disgruntled look on her face. “What’s going on?” he asked as he leaned down to kiss her.
Chloe placed her hand on his chest, stopping his progress as she narrowed her eyes at him. “What the hell, Oliver? I’ve been calling you all day. Why didn’t you call me back? Why did you send me all of that stuff?” she demanded. Chloe shook her head when she saw him open his mouth. “Do not answer yet, I have a bigger problem.” She turned away from him and pulled up the satellite grid again, plugging in his phone. She frowned when she saw the same results. “Why isn’t your phone on?” she asked.
“I must have forgotten to turn it back on when I got off the plane,” Oliver replied. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against his chest, smirking when he felt her struggling. “Sorry, but I’m a lot stronger than you are. Did you miss me at all?” he asked, dipping his head to kiss her neck.
“Stop it!” Chloe elbowed him in the stomach, hard enough to surprise him into loosening his grip on her. She glared at him when she saw the smug look on his face. “This isn’t a coincidence is it, Oliver?” she asked. “Tell me what’s going on.” Chloe knew he was up to something and he was obviously proud of whatever it was. “This is about more than you sending me an entire flower shop today.”
“I wanted to make sure you got the message,” Oliver replied simply. He forced a neutral expression onto his face, but he couldn’t keep the amusement out of his eyes. She was cute when she was this worked up. “I also needed to distract you so you wouldn’t realize that I came back into town late last night. I landed the account too, in case you were wondering. One kiss?” he asked hopefully as he leaned into her again.
“Absolutely not,” Chloe replied. “You have five seconds to tell me exactly what is going on, Oliver.” She crossed her arms over her chest, still glaring at him. She was more confused than ever and the only thing she felt for him at the moment was annoyance. Why wouldn’t he want her to know he was back in town? Why did he want to distract her? Why did he still look so damn smug?
There was a knock on the door before he had a chance to respond. “Hold those angry thoughts for later,” Oliver teased. He opened the door and smiled at Victor. “Hey man, good timing,” he said as he motioned for him to come inside.
“Thanks, I guess,” Victor said uncertainly. “Hey Chloe,” he added as he moved into the room.
“Victor, what are you doing here?” Chloe asked. She was more confused than ever as she glanced between the two men. She turned to Oliver just as she spotted Clark in the hallway. “Did something happen that I need to know about?” Maybe there had been an incident in Metropolis. But that wouldn’t explain why Oliver went overboard with the gifts or why he seemed happy about whatever it was that he was doing.
“Hey Clark, thanks for getting here so fast,” Oliver said. He didn’t bother shutting the door since he knew they were still expecting two more people. He caught Chloe’s eye and gave her a reassuring smile. “You’re going to have to trust me on this one.”
She didn’t know what to say. Chloe had a million questions as she tried to figure out what Oliver was doing. Victor and Clark had both sat down on the couch so she moved closer to Oliver. “What is going on? You need to tell me because none of this makes sense,” she said.
“Hopefully it’s about to,” Oliver replied as he tilted his head in the direction of the hall where Bart and AC were making their way up the stairs. “I see you two found the place all right; please come in. There’s food in the refrigerator,” he added.
“Sweet, I’m starving. Thanks, Bossman. Hey Chloelicious,” Bart said, pausing to grin at Chloe before he sped off into the kitchen, taking a seat on the counter with the food he’d gathered less than a second later.
AC rolled his eyes. “I think it was better when he couldn’t show off,” he grumbled. AC smiled at Chloe too before he made his way inside. He greeted Victor and held his hand out to Clark.
Chloe’s mouth fell open as she took in the scene around her. Bart had used his super speed and no one had batted an eye. Clark looked a little uncomfortable, but he wasn’t surprised that the room was filled with people. AC was talking about swimming around the globe and Bart broke in to the conversation to challenge him to a race. Chloe turned back to Oliver. “Is this why you came back early? To talk to everyone?” she asked.
Oliver nodded. “I know how much you wanted this, Chloe. I also know that you’d keep making excuses and sometimes you just need to rip the band aid off and dive right into the deep end.” He cupped her cheek in his hand, tilting her face toward him as he brushed his thumb under her chin. “You need to trust yourself,” he said quietly. “You started all of this and helped these guys find their footing, including me. You can do this.”
She didn’t know what to say. Chloe couldn’t believe Oliver had gone through the trouble of getting all the guys together, but more than that, she couldn’t believe he understood why she’d been so afraid to take this step. Chloe glanced away from him for a moment, trying to get a grip on her emotions before she did something embarrassing like start to cry. She could hear the guys talking about their various powers, Bart still asking AC to race him. Chloe let out a shaky breath and met Oliver’s gaze again.
“Thank you for having so much faith in me,” she said quietly. Chloe didn’t feel like it was enough, but she was at a loss for words and she didn’t want to break down in front of everyone. “How much did you tell them?”
“The basics,” Oliver replied. He’d recruited Victor to help him with the satellite feeds just in case the deliveries weren’t enough to distract Chloe from noticing that none of the guys were in the office that day. He’d met with them individually, starting off by confessing his Green Arrow secret to set them at ease before he admitted that he already knew about their powers. Both men had been shocked, to say the least, but when he’d told them that he’d been working with Chloe for awhile, it had been like a light bulb had turned on above their heads.
“I think they both felt like they should have realized it was you sooner,” Oliver said when he’d finished telling her about how he’d spent the afternoon. “Bart said he was pretty sure you knew about his speed because of a few times you warned him about cameras in the hallway and AC and Victor shared their secrets with each other awhile ago and AC said he thought you might have sent him to work with Victor for that reason.”
Chloe’s face flushed. “I guess I was more transparent than I thought I was.” Victor was the only one who had ever given her hints that he knew and she pretended she didn’t see them because she’d been trying to protect herself. She should have realized that the others had picked up on things too.
“Only because you care so much,” Oliver replied. He smiled at her as he reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “So what do you say? Should we get started before these guys start getting restless or Bart goes through all the food I bought?”
“Definitely,” Chloe agreed, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Oliver. He had done all of this for her and she was pretty sure she had actual butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She felt like she owed him a lot more than a simple ‘thank you’ but that was going to have to wait until she could get her head together.
“Let’s do it right now, Fish Face,” Bart said. He hopped off the counter and pointed at the door. “You and me to Mexico and back,” he suggested. “We can pick up some tacos while we’re there. Fish tacos,” Bart added with a smug smile.
AC glared at him. “Fish are friendly creatures who would never hurt anyone. Isn’t it bad enough that you disturb their natural habitat? Do you really need to eat them too?” he asked, appalled.
Bart shrugged. “It’s not my fault they taste delicious. I think I’ll order extra fish. Does anyone else want any tacos?” he asked.
“No one is getting tacos,” Oliver said firmly, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “We brought you here for a reason and it wasn’t so we could listen to you fight about dinner. Everyone sit down, close your mouth and listen to what Chloe has to say.” He gave them each a look that warned them that it was not optional.
Chloe might have reprimanded him for overdoing it if she wasn’t so nervous. She knew it was silly; she talked to these guys almost every day and she had walked them all through serious missions, even if they hadn’t known it was her on the other end at the time. She felt Oliver’s hand on the small of her back and glanced at him over her shoulder. He gave her another reassuring smile and she felt the butterflies in her stomach again.
“I don’t really know where to start,” Chloe admitted. “I know Oliver has already told you a little bit about what we’ve been doing here. I think we can do a lot more good in this world if we all work together as a team. I can show you the GPS tracking capabilities and some of the other things the database is setup for.” She crossed the room to the computer, pulling up the software and walking them through some of the basics.
Oliver leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched her. He could already see Chloe’s nervousness starting to fade as she explained the system and some of the things she was already doing for his patrols, as well as Victor’s. He wasn’t surprised that the guys were engaged and asking questions; they’d all seemed anxious to get started when he’d talked to them earlier.
“We have the ability to go beyond Star City,” Chloe continued after she’d answered all of their questions. “The good thing about all of us working at Queen Industries is it won’t be too hard to cover up any of your absences for extended periods of time if there’s something that needs to be handled in a different part of the world especially now that Oliver is onboard with this,” she added.
“Chloe’s right,” Oliver agreed, stepping forward as he looked around the room at their newly formed team. “Most of you can get around pretty fast thanks to your abilities so it’s time to start branching out. You can link up with Chloe from anywhere on the secure server and if you need backup, she can send someone else to help. It’s a little harder for me to slip away but I can take care of things around here.”
“Cool,” Bart said. “Does this mean I can stop pushing the mail cart around? It’s so boring,” he whined.
Oliver rolled his eyes. Bart had asked him the same question earlier. “I already told you that this is not an excuse for you to go hang out across the border until you’re needed. You still have to earn your paycheck. But AC might be able to use your help. He mentioned something earlier that he wanted to work on.”
AC made a face. “I was hoping Vic could help me. Poachers are becoming an issue off the coast of Miami. A lot of sea creatures are being killed including dolphins and I think it’s the work of a local cartel. I wanted to go there and find a way to prove it.”
“Ollie’s right,” Chloe said. “You should take Bart. His speed will come in handy and it’s not good for Vic to be in the sun all day. I’ll do some research and see what I can find,” she offered, turning back to the computer to get to work.
“Fine,” AC agreed reluctantly as he got to his feet. “But you need to stop with the fish jokes, Shorty,” he teased. “Now let’s get to the beach so we can have that race. Thanks guys and it was nice to meet you, Clark,” he added as he moved toward the door.
Bart smirked. “Be prepared to feel bad about yourself, Dolphin,” he replied. The second AC had the door open Bart sped past him, disappearing down the stairs. AC called him a cheater and rushed after him.
Oliver rolled his eyes. “Hopefully those two won’t kill each other. Vic, would you mind handling patrol again tonight?” he asked. There was still something else Oliver needed to talk to Chloe about.
“Sure, just give me a few minutes to put everything back online,” Victor agreed. He got up from the couch and walked to the computer console, pulling a cord from his jacket pocket and attaching himself to the computer.
Chloe’s eyes were wide as she watched Victor. She’d never seen him actually using his power. “That is wicked cool,” she said before she noticed Clark looking at his watch. “Clark, are you planning on sticking around?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I should head back. I have things to do at home,” Clark added. “It was nice to see you, Chloe. Bye Victor. Oliver,” he said as he moved past the other man.
“Be safe out there, Clark,” Oliver replied, knowing perfectly well from the way Clark’s face was turning red that he was probably going to find Lois. Victor finished what he was doing, promised to check in if he needed any help on patrol and told them both to have a good night. Oliver closed the door behind him and turned to Chloe. “I’d say that went pretty well,” he commented.
Chloe rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Go ahead, Oliver. This is the one time I’m giving you permission to be arrogant and full of yourself because you were right. The guys all seem really excited about us working together. Thank you,” she added. Chloe wasn’t sure she ever would have had the courage to take that final step if Oliver hadn’t pushed her into it.
“For your information, this is one time that I don’t want to gloat,” Oliver replied. He was happy that things had worked out and the smile on Chloe’s face was all the thanks he needed. “I do have one more present for you. What did you do with all those flowers?” he asked curiously as he pulled an envelope out of his pocket and held it out to her.
“I donated them to the hospital in your name. The teddy bears too. I kept the candy though,” Chloe admitted. She’d also kept the first bear he’d sent her along with the roses, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “So what is this distraction for?” she teased as she opened the envelope.
“That’s very funny,” Oliver replied as he watched her pull out the papers inside. Her brow furrowed and she looked up at him, confused. “It’s the deed to this building and the adjoining one next door. You can’t really have a superhero clubhouse in an apartment building. Security issues,” he teased.
“You bought the buildings?” Chloe asked. “What about the people who were living in them?”
“I had them all relocated to different buildings in upgraded apartments for the same price they were paying now. I own those too,” Oliver added with a shrug. “We’ll need to do some renovations, but I thought it might be a good idea to let each of the guys have one of the apartments and we can remodel the one below the loft so you have a place to stay when you’re working late nights.”
For the second time that day, Chloe was completely speechless. She couldn’t believe Oliver had done all of this just for her. “Ollie, this is amazing.” She cupped his cheek in her hand, brushing her thumb softly across his skin. “I don’t know how to begin to thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” Oliver replied. “I just want you to see that I’m here and I know you, Chloe. I know exactly who you are and that’s not going to change. You are the person I want to be with. All I need in return is for you to let me in. Please,” he added.
Chloe swallowed hard as everything suddenly made sense to her. “Ollie.” Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she realized that he was right. She wasn’t sure how or when it had happened, but Oliver understood her on a level that no one else ever had. She wasn’t even sure she’d known that this was what she needed until he’d done it. Chloe didn’t trust her voice so she cupped the back of his neck in her hand and pulled his head down so she could kiss him.
Oliver didn’t hesitate to return the kiss. He hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her against him as he teased the seam of her lips until she opened her mouth and let him deepen the kiss. He broke the kiss when air started to become an issue, resting his forehead on hers as he watched her eyes flutter open. “Let me take you out on a real date,” he said.
“Okay,” Chloe replied without hesitation.
Eight.