Hold It Against Me 2/3
Title: Hold It Against Me
Author: ihearttvsnark
Chapters: 2/3
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Chloe and Oliver Queen
Banner: geek_or_unique
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Oliver feels guilty about what happened at Lois and Clark’s wedding and despite Chloe’s repeated warnings, he decides to indebt himself to Lois.
Previous Chapters: | One |
Chapter 2
“Do you know what I could really go for right now?” Chloe’s voice broke through the quiet room and Oliver opened one tired eye and glanced over at her. “If it’s another round, you’re going to have to give me some time.”
Chloe snorted as she shifted into a sitting position, tugging the sheet up over her naked chest. “Easy, Romeo, I’m not sure I can walk after that last one.” She rolled her eyes when he smirked; even exhausted, he was arrogant. But she loved him for it and he had definitely earned that smirk, considering the three orgasms he’d given her in less than an hour.
She felt her mind drifting and something familiar stirred in her lower belly. “No,” she scolded, forcing her train of thought away from reliving the evening’s activities. “I was thinking about a chocolate chip sundae with hot fudge and cherries on top. No nuts,” she added, mindful of his allergies.
Oliver started to ask if she was serious, but the dreamy look in her eyes answered the question for him. Chloe was one month into her second trimester now and the morning sickness had thankfully disappeared and had been replaced by random food cravings. “We have mint chocolate chip in the freezer and there might be chocolate syrup that I could heat up.”
Chloe chewed on her lip, considering it. “I guess that would be okay. Is there still pasta left over from last night? That might be better. No, I want the ice cream.” She made a face at her indecisiveness.
“Coming right up,” Oliver said. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips and then got out of bed, pausing to grab his boxers from the floor and pull them on before he headed downstairs.
It didn’t take Oliver long to put the dessert together and grab two bottles of water for them. He made his way back upstairs and into the bedroom, only to find Chloe sound asleep, lying sideways with her head resting on his pillow. This wasn’t the first time the exhaustion had crept up on her. Oliver set the ice cream bowl and the water bottles on top of a magazine on the nightstand and carefully shifted Chloe back to her side of the bed.
“Good night, Sidekick,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead and moving around the bed once more to slip beneath the sheets. Oliver closed his eyes and started to drift off, only to be awoken a few minutes later by the sound of a phone vibrating.
Oliver sighed, uttering a silent prayer that the world wasn’t ending when he was too tired to deal with it. Oliver groped for the phone and pressed the ‘answer’ button, bringing it to his ear. “Lois, do you know what time it is?”
“Early?” Lois replied. She glanced down at her laptop and noticed it was almost midnight. “Early,” she repeated. “So, remember the second wedding that wasn’t?”
“What?” Oliver winced when he realized how loud he’d spoken. He shifted to sit up, wondering why Lois was bringing up the second wedding disaster.
Everything had been all set. Oliver had spent weeks going out of his mind to help Lois get all of the preparations in order and then the night before the wedding, an earthquake had struck India. The devastation had been massive and Clark had rushed over to help and had ended up staying for nearly a week. Lois had completely understood, but she’d declared there would be no wedding or even talk of weddings anytime soon.
That had been well over six weeks ago and Oliver couldn’t figure out why she felt this particular weeknight seemed like a good time to change that.
“I know, I know, wedding talk is taboo, but here’s the thing,” Lois continued. “You offered to help me with everything and I appreciated that, but it didn’t work out very well.”
“Lois, where are you going with this?” Oliver was already getting a bad feeling and he was too tired for small talk.
“Ollie, what’s going on?” Chloe mumbled. She shifted to face him and frowned when she saw the phone in his hand. “Is something wrong? Did I fall asleep before the ice cream?”
Her groggy confusion made him smile and Oliver reached out to grab the dish from the nightstand. “Lois is on the phone and I think she’s gearing up to ask me something.”
Chloe’s frown deepened as she sat up and accepted the ice cream. “Does she know how late it is?”
“You’re both getting old,” Lois commented, drawing Oliver’s attention back to her. “Ollie, I do need a favor and it’s a big one. Wedding guilt big,” she added.
“There it is,” Oliver muttered. He was suddenly wishing that he’d just ignored the phone call. Or that he’d listened to his wife and never offered himself up to Lois in the first place. “What do you need?”
Lois wasn’t the slightest bit bothered by his exasperated tone. “I’ve been working on a story; local businesses, blah, blah.” The story had started out as a puff piece and she had not been amused to be saddled with a story better suited for a cub reporter. But she was a team player and she’d given it her all and that was what had led to her discovery.
“You know Fairman’s Jewelry?” Lois asked, not bothering to let Oliver answer. “I think the woman who runs the place is selling black market jewels, but I need to prove it. That’s where you come in.”
Oliver frowned, trying to process her rushed words. “Okay, what do you need me to do? Buy jewelry?” he guessed. Even as he asked the question, Oliver knew it sounded too easy.
“No, I need you to help me break into the store after hours so I can get a look at her books. She’s old fashioned and refuses to computerize her records, which is a red flag right there.”
“Lois, I’m not going to break into a jewelry store.” Oliver glanced at Chloe and she raised an eyebrow. “Do you have any evidence or is this just a hunch?” It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her instincts, but Lois had a tendency to react first and think it through later.
“If I had hard evidence, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” It was Lois’s turn to be exasperated. “Ollie, I know I’m right about this woman. She makes a lot of overseas phone calls and I’ve seen shady characters going in and out of the store.”
Oliver sighed. “Why don’t we start with them then?” he suggested. “Chloe can run facial recognition and we’ll see if they have any black market connections before we commit a felony based on your hunch.”
“That’s a waste of time when we can go right to the source. It’ll take less than twenty minutes and I need this. It’s not like I have a wedding or honeymoon to plan anytime soon.” Lois let her voice trail off on a hint of sadness.
Oliver rolled his eyes at the way she was trying to play him, but that didn’t stop the familiar guilt from churning inside of him. Whether he liked it or not, he owed Lois. “Fine,” he agreed, not wanting to drag this out any longer. “Does tomorrow night work for you?”
Lois grinned, pleased that he’d caved so quickly. “It absolutely does. But here’s the thing, Ollie. You can’t mention any of this to Clark. You know how he gets.” It was also possible he’d already warned her that there was no story there and she needed to stop staking out the jewelry store all day.
“Rational?” Oliver muttered with a sigh. He could already picture the disapproving look on his friend’s face. “Fine, I won’t tell Clark, but if we’re doing this, you need to follow my lead. We can’t get caught.” That was the last thing he needed, considering how long it had taken Metropolis to accept his alter ego once more.
“This isn’t my first break in, Oliver. But yes, we’ll do it your way. Should we meet there around midnight or is that too late for you?”
“Good-night, Lois,” Oliver replied, hitting the button to end the call before Lois could say anything else. He tossed the phone on the nightstand and leaned back against the pillows. “Go ahead.”
Chloe shook her head. “I’m not going to say it because you’re already thinking it.” She set the empty ice cream bowl down on her nightstand and shifted closer to Oliver. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“Of course it’s not a good idea,” Oliver agreed. His mind was already coming up with countless ways this entire thing could go wrong. “Can you run a security diagnostic in the morning so I know what I’m getting into?”
“Yes and I will walk you through this tomorrow night. But it’s still a bad idea,” Chloe added. She wasn’t going to point out that Oliver had given in way too easily either since she knew he was letting his guilt make decisions for him.
“I know.” Oliver leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Let’s get some sleep and worry about it in the morning.”
***
Chloe frowned at the screen as she pulled up all the cameras from surrounding businesses that had eyes on the jewelry store. She’d done the official recon earlier and the security had been much tighter than she’d expected. Maybe there was something to Lois’ theory after all. But she still thought this was a bad idea. There were too many variables.
She pressed the small device in her ear. “Arrow, I’m going to scramble the feeds. You’ll have two minutes to get into place. On my count,” Chloe paused, waiting for him to confirm.
“I’m ready,” Oliver replied. He was standing on the roof of the building across from the jewelry story in one of the few blind spots on the street. He listened to Chloe counting down in his ear and as soon as she finished, Oliver fired an arrow across the way, watched it wrap around the flagpole and then used his zip line to get across the street.
He moved around to the back entrance and made quick work of the lock. “Watchtower, I’m going in,” Oliver whispered before slipping through the door. He reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small device that he quickly attached to the alarm panel. The numbers on the device began to scroll and a few seconds later, the alarm beeped, indicating it was off. “It’s disabled.”
“Be careful where you walk, Arrow,” Chloe warned. “Some of the displays might have trip wires.” Apparently the books weren’t the only thing the owner didn’t want to computerize. The security system was customized and only the local police had access to it. All of Chloe’s efforts to hack into it had failed.
“Copy that,” Oliver replied as he headed toward the hallway. Chloe had found a blueprint of the store in the city records. He was standing in the storage room and there was a small office beside it, a bathroom across the hall and then a door leading to the showroom. Oliver assumed if there was anything to find, it would be in the office.
He quietly moved down the hall and was surprised to see the door to the office ajar. Oliver kept his hand on his crossbow and slowly pushed it open, keeping to the shadows until he could see who was in the room. “Damnit, Lois.”
“What took you so long?” Lois replied without looking up from the accounting logs she was flipping through. “This woman is a hoarder. There’s so much stuff here.”
Oliver counted to ten in his head to avoid screaming. “What happened to letting me handle this?” After Chloe had realized they’d be going in completely blind, Oliver had told Lois that he’d handle this on his own. He should have known that she wouldn’t listen to reason.
Lois waved him off. “You should have known better,” she said, echoing his thoughts as she finally glanced up at him. “This is my story, Ollie. I can’t just sit on the sidelines.” She motioned toward a file cabinet in the corner. “Make yourself useful.”
“Watchtower, you might want to check some of the security footage and erase a few things,” Oliver muttered as he crossed the room to the file cabinet.
“Already on it,” Chloe replied. She’d pulled up the footage as soon as she’d heard Oliver say her cousin’s name. Chloe was annoyed with herself for not insisting that Lois come over and sit with her while Oliver checked the jewelry store. Rookie mistake, she thought as her hand absently went to her stomach. Chloe was starting to think ‘pregnancy brain’ was a real thing and she was not a fan.
Oliver quietly flipped through the file cabinet drawers, not really sure what he was looking for. He agreed with Lois’ assessment about the woman being a hoarder; there were flyers and advertisements for sales going back years as well as Christmas cards and thank you notes from customers. The owner was definitely well-liked by her patrons.
He moved down to the next drawer, which was filled with invoices and orders. Like the cards and flyers, they seemed to go back years. Oliver didn’t see anything odd or out of place; his limited knowledge of jewelry told him that everything seemed reasonably priced. If this woman was selling black market jewels, she wasn’t making a major profit. “Lois, there’s nothing here.”
“There has to be,” Lois replied, even though she wasn’t finding anything either. The books were lining up between purchasing the jewels and the prices she sold them for, which meant either she was innocent or these weren’t the real books. “Maybe she keeps the records out front.”
“Or maybe there are no records because this is a legitimate business and you’re bored,” Oliver countered. He closed the drawer and turned to face Lois. “Come on; you know you hate doing this kind of story. Maybe you’re just looking for something that’s not there.”
Lois glared at him. “I’m right about this. Are you going to help me search or not?” She didn’t bother waiting for him to answer before she walked out the door.
Oliver sighed. “It would be wrong for me to leave her here, right?”
“Yes,” Chloe replied, her eyes on the monitors. “Arrow, you’re going to have to find the onsite security that monitors the showroom. Since that surveillance isn’t computerized either, it’s probably in the storage room.” The storage room shared a wall with the showroom so she figured the wires probably ran through it.
“On my way,” Oliver replied. He headed back into the storage room and glanced around, finally spotting the wires for the cameras. He traced them around to the outlet and found three separate plugs, which meant three cameras he needed to disable. “Phase One complete,” he told Chloe as he headed for the showroom. “I’ll just erase the tapes manually and plug them back in before we leave.”
“That should work,” Chloe confirmed. She flipped her screen back to one of the cameras across the street and frowned when she caught a glimpse of her cousin standing behind the main counter in the center of the store. “You need to wrap this up, Arrow.” Chloe began rewinding and erasing the footage from the exterior cameras.
“Did you find anything?” Oliver asked Lois as he moved into the showroom and grabbed a chair from behind the counter before heading for the first camera. He hit the button on the side to start erasing the tape.
“No,” Lois replied, frustrated. “I really thought I was right about this.” She watched Oliver carry the chair toward the second camera. “I needed to be right about this.”
Oliver caught a hint of something in her voice. “Why, Lois?” He erased the tape and moved onto the next camera. “Why do you need this so badly?” It wasn’t like she was hurting for praise at work. Everyone knew she was an amazing reporter.
“Because Clark kept telling me to drop it and I refuse to let him be right about this,” Lois replied stubbornly. She moved out from behind the jewelry case and went to look at the display near the door to see if it had any hidden compartments.
“Seriously?” Oliver cried as he stepped off the chair and returned it to its original spot. “That’s why you dragged me here? Because you wanted to prove a point to Clark?” Oliver shook his head, “Unbelievable. We’re leaving now.” This whole experience had been a waste of time.
“Fine,” Lois muttered, knowing she was defeated. “Maybe Clark will just forget I ever mentioned it.” But she knew how unlikely that was. “We’re still never telling him about this.” She moved away from the door and her shoe got caught on something. “What the hell?”
Oliver turned a second too late, just as Lois yanked her foot back, activating the trip wire. “Look out!” he shouted, launching himself forward to grab Lois as a metal gate dropped down from the ceiling. Oliver tried to pull her out of the way, but the heavy gate slammed against his shoulder. Oliver fell back and Lois landed on the floor on the opposite side, trapped by the metal barrier.
Lois quickly pulled herself up and her eyes widened when she caught sight of Oliver on the other side. “Ollie, you’re bleeding.”
“I noticed,” Oliver muttered. He rubbed his gloved hand over his shoulder and instantly regretted it when a shooting pain went down his arm. “Watchtower, we’re going to need an extraction.” He figured they had less than five minutes before Metropolis’ finest showed up.
“How badly are you hurt?” Chloe asked, worry in her voice, as she dialed Clark’s cell phone. He answered right away and she didn’t bother with pretense. “Clark, I need you to go to Fairman’s Jewelry and rescue Lois and Ollie right now.” She ended the call and realized Oliver hadn’t answered her question. “Oliver,” she said sharply.
“I’ll be fine, Sidekick. It’s just a scratch,” Oliver assured her as a gust of wind blew through the room. “Nice timing, man.”
Still dressed in his glasses and suit, Clark glanced back and forth between Lois and Oliver. “What is going on? Did you break in here after I asked you not to?” There was a hint of disbelief in his voice as he addressed Lois.
“Yes,” she admitted. Lois gave him a sheepish smile. “I really thought I was right about this one, honey.”
“Committing a crime is not the way to prove someone else is guilty of something.” Clark glanced at Oliver. “Why would you help her with this? You should have told me what was going on, Oliver.” He sent his friend a disapproving look as he helped him to his feet.
Oliver groaned at the sharp pain in his shoulder. Maybe the wound was a little deeper than a scratch. “Can we save the lectures and apologies for later? I can hear sirens, which means they’re too close.”
Clark looked like he was considering it, but then he turned and lifted the gate, sending it back to the ceiling. Clark pulled Lois against his side. “We’ll talk about this at home.” He held out his free hand to Oliver, but the other man shook his head.
“You two get out of here. I’ll handle this,” Oliver said. Clark opened his mouth to protest, but Oliver waved him off. Clark nodded and disappeared with Lois in another gust of wind.
“Arrow, what are you doing?” Chloe asked. She could see the police cars arriving on her camera feeds.
“Improvising,” Oliver replied dryly.
***
It was nearly four in the morning by the time Oliver stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse. His shoulder was killing him and his head was spinning from the various conversations he’d had with police detectives, reporters and the store’s owner. This was the kind of night where he truly detested himself for revealing his identity. But at the same time, he was extremely grateful not to have to use rooftops to make his way home with his shoulder all jacked up.
Oliver wasn’t surprised to find the lights on when he walked out of the elevator, but he was surprised to find Chloe wide awake and reading a book on the couch. “I told you not to wait up,” he reminded her as he pushed his hood back and tossed his glasses aside.
“How was I supposed to sleep when I was worried you were bleeding to death?” Chloe countered. She set the book down and motioned for Oliver to get rid of his vest. “I want to see your shoulder and don’t tell me you’re fine.”
Oliver recognized her ‘don’t argue with me’ tone and immediately unzipped his vest. As he started to shrug it off, Oliver realized that wasn’t a good idea. He carefully removed it and then peeled his tank top off. “The bleeding stopped. I probably just need some aspirin.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” She pointed to the table and once he sat down, Chloe took a closer look at the wound. The cut was caked in dried blood and there were already large bruises forming around it. “You’re lucky it’s not a lot worse, Ollie.” She turned to grab the first aid kit she’d placed on the end table. “Did they buy your story?”
“Mostly,” Oliver replied, fighting the urge to wince when she pressed the antiseptic against his wound. Oliver knew she’d heard the whole story he’d made up before he’d turned off his com device once he’d suggested Chloe go to sleep. “The cops bought that I’d seen an intruder during my patrol, but the owner was suspicious.”
The woman was definitely old-fashioned and clearly paranoid. Even though Oliver had repeatedly insisted that he hadn’t been able to get a decent look at the person who tripped the alarm and all he’d seen was a shadow, the woman had not appeared convinced. “She asked me about eight hundred questions and still didn’t really believe me, but the police did so that was the end of it.”
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t just leave with Clark and Lois.” Chloe finished cleaning the wound and placed a bandage over it.
“The cameras were still unplugged in the back. I plugged them back in just as the police came in through the front door,” Oliver explained. He hadn’t wanted to leave any loose ends that made it seem like anything more than an interrupted break-in.
Chloe sent him a tired smile as she rested her forehead against his, “Good thinking, Mr. Queen.” The late hour was quickly starting to catch up with her and she stifled a yawn as she met his gaze. “You still shouldn’t have let Lois talk you into this in the first place.”
“I know and I’m sure Clark will be dropping by to finish that lecture he started.” Oliver wrapped his arms around Chloe and held her for a moment before he ran his hand up and down her back, trying to ease the tension he could feel there. “Maybe this will be the last favor Lois asks for; at least for a while.”
Chloe simply raised an eyebrow at her husband. “Next time she asks for something outrageous, you’re not doing it, Oliver. You need to let go of this guilt that you’re carrying around. It’s not healthy for you and it’s not necessary. Lois forgave you for what happened at the wedding about two seconds after it was over.”
Oliver nodded, not about to argue with his pregnant wife at four in the morning. “Let’s go to bed, Sidekick.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I love you.”
Her expression softened, even though she was well aware that he’d dodged agreeing with her statement. “I love you too.” Chloe decided that she would have a talk with her cousin and make sure that Lois put an end to this favor system of hers once and for all.
Three.