There Is Only One Chloe Sullivan, Part 2
Title: There Is Only One Chloe Sullivan, Part 2
Author: latetothepartyhp
Rating: PG
Genre: future-fic drama
Spoilers: through Pandora; also one little spoiler for the Warrior stills
Warnings: some language
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and am not making any money off this story.
Summary for Part 2: Chlollie discuss Clark's article and Chloe makes a proposal.
Read Part 1 here.
Read Clark's article here.
She was on the phone when he walked in, a situation that was always a little awkward. The open floor plan made privacy impossible and he could never be sure if she was ordering toner cartridges or having it out with Clark again. They could remodel, he supposed, which would be a huge pain in the ass, not mention a security compromise. Or he could start working from his office again, but that presented other security concerns. It was far safer to run the company remotely from the Watchtower than it was to plan ops where Tess could pop in at any moment. It was just that some days hiding top-secret plans from Tess seemed a helluva lot less distracting than sharing workspace with Chloe.
"Well, the Planet has been pursuing that type of story pretty aggressively lately, maybe he thought they'd take him more seriously there," she was saying, then paused. "I would love to. Maybe I could write a column asking for an interview." Pause. "Yes, I realize that. And you'd be right to do it." Pause. "You know I will." End call. Roll eyes.
"Who was that?"
"The editor at the Journal. He wanted to know why the Planet has all the goods on The Blur when I'm the one with the scoop on his latest save."
"Yeah, I noticed our mutual friend is making a name for himself."
"That's one way to put it. Although I don't know if it's in journalism. He didn't do much 'back-ground checking', did he?"
"Wasn't that the point, though? If he's the man with 'access', he gets to funnel whatever information he wants out there. Besides, what do you back-ground check? It's not as if there's a birth certificate and a bunch of report cards out there with the name 'The Blur' on them."
"I suppose," she said with a small frown.
"There aren't any report cards out there with the name 'The Blur' on them, are there?"
She gave him her best don't-be-silly look. "Of course not. And - it makes sense he wouldn't want to get too in-depth, in a for-the-greater-good kind of way. What I don't get is what's Tess' angle? She has to know the towers will figure into the story of The Blur somehow. People are going to follow up on this, and somebody's going to follow that particular thread."
He shrugged. He actually thought it was a pretty gutsy move. Control the board now so you can move freely across it later. That's how Tess had always liked to play.
"It keeps attention off Luthorcorp," he said. "Make sure the towers story doesn't sell any copy. No copies sold, towers story gets buried, people don't read it, nobody cares. Nobody cares, regulators don't investigate, police don't question, she gets away with it. Plus, why would she throw a spotlight on the hero if she had anything to hide? Nah, Tess is easy."
"Is that what you would do?"
"Maybe. It's risky, but if she pulls it off it'll be like it never happened."
She was staring him now in a way that made him wonder if she didn't have x-ray vision. She'd given him that stare before, many times when they were planning the towers op. As if she was trying to look into his soul and decide whether he was truly committed. It usually left him wanting a drink he'd knew he'd hate himself for taking.
"You seem pretty far inside Tess' head," she said.
"I've known her for a long time."
"Is that all there is to it?"
"Yes." No, but he would never tell her that. She would never trust him again. "And you're asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is what's Boyscout's angle on this. Why step out of the E.T. closet now all of the sudden? This isn't some new wacked-out move in his little ancestral feud, is it?"
"No. I think Clark thinks he's protecting me. Protecting us. And Lois. He's convinced her obsession with The Blur is going to get her hurt."
"Oh, God. I forgot about -- how's she taking this?"
"The usual. An hour on the phone trying to talk her down from driving over to the farm and turning his ass into grass, and then three hours at the apartment seducing her with Mr. Ben, Mr. Jerry, and Mr. Jack Daniels so she didn't crawl out a DP window and threaten to jump."
"She's not -- "
"No! It would take a lot more than this to grind Lois down, but it's the kind of thing she thinks will draw The Blur's attention."
"Which, it would."
"Yes, well, there are better ways of getting a story than perching on a ledge and hoping the wind doesn't knock you off before your interview subject shows up."
"Oh. Yeah. Like planting high-powered explosives around Luthorcorp signal towers and hoping the alien militia doesn't show up and blast you to pieces before you blast the towers."
"That had to be done. Perching doesn't. Unless you're a bird, in which case it's just what you do. But she's fine now. Mostly. I think she's planning a stake-out at that parking garage."
He had to laugh. Only Lois would think a blatant decoy address would be a lead.
"Don't!" Chloe admonished him. "She needs some support right now. She was really banking on that interview."
"I am supporting her. 'Never give up, never surrender!' How can anyone not admire that attitude?"
She gave him a suspicious stare, but contented herself with shaking her head.
"I think the bigger question is how are you doing? Boyscout seems to have stolen some of your thunder here." Because that was the kind of class act Clark was, Ollie thought.
"Which was his plan, obviously. Talk about easy. I should have seen this coming. He told me I should let him publish the story under his name, as if Tess would ever allow that. So he found something else for her to print."
"Well, like you said, there's bound to be some follow-up connecting The Blur to the towers, right?"
She was silent, chewing her lip. Lip chewing was never good. It was almost as bad as her staring. Last time she'd chewed her lip like that he'd ended up working 36 hours straight custom-designing a cross-bow for her.
"You know, The Blur wasn't the only hero involved in taking down the towers," she said finally.
"You gonna interview yourself too?"
"What? No!" Her face was suddenly pink and flustered. He didn't think he'd ever seen her embarrassed like that before. It was kinda cute.
"No, really, I can see the headline now," he continued. "'New Heroine Emerges In Metropolis, Says Blur Is Full Of Shit.'"
She giggled, her face the color of that dumb shawl-thing she'd started wearing because "it's so drafty in here". Which was really cute. The giggle, not the shawl.
"We could get a real feud going here. Papers'll fly off the newsstands."
She rolled her eyes. "No thank you, Mr. Hearst. What I meant was, the Green Arrow was involved in the towers demolition too."
It was his turn to roll eyes.
"Chloe -- "
"Oh come on. You really want to let The Blur hog the spotlight?"
"Yeah, I do. The more focus on the guy no one can see, the less focus on the guy who can't super-speed away from the authorities."
"And the less focus there will be on Luthorcorp. You said it yourself. Tess wants this story buried. What then? If the Green Arrow gives an interview and talks a lot about his most recent mission, maybe shows off his mad skillz in the process, it might put Luthorcorp on the spot again."
"You remember that I own part of Luthorcorp, right?"
"Which is why no one will ever suspect you're the big green archery machine."
This was so not a good idea. He needed to distract her. "How about you do an exclusive with the CEO of Queen Industries?"
"About what? Your prescient decision not to buy Countrywide when you had the chance? You know that 'Oliver Queen' is not going to do anything more than issue a statement through his P.R. department saying Queen Industries takes any allegations of criminal or unethical activity very seriously and the company is cooperating fully with the authorities. Which shouldn't be too difficult, since the authorities are doing nothing right now to investigate either Queen Industries or Luthorcorp."
Now she was staring and chewing. Shit.
"Unless you're no longer interested in putting Luthorcorp crimes under the microscope?" she continued.
How did she do this every frickin' time? Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. He sighed.
"If there's a camera involved, I say when it gets turned on and when it gets turned off."
She thought for a moment. "That's fair. We need to limit the identifying evidence."
"I want to see a list of questions before-hand."
"No way."
"Chloe -- "
"This'll be good. It'll be honest." She was up now and moving. Oliver swore she must have ADD or something like it; once she got excited about something she always began running around like a kindergartner. "The public is not as dumb as you think; they can spot that kind of pre-prepped p.r. b.s. a mile away." The running around was cute, too. Ollie couldn't remember the last time he'd been as excited about anything.
He really hoped he wasn't going to regret this.
Author: latetothepartyhp
Rating: PG
Genre: future-fic drama
Spoilers: through Pandora; also one little spoiler for the Warrior stills
Warnings: some language
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and am not making any money off this story.
Summary for Part 2: Chlollie discuss Clark's article and Chloe makes a proposal.
Read Part 1 here.
Read Clark's article here.
She was on the phone when he walked in, a situation that was always a little awkward. The open floor plan made privacy impossible and he could never be sure if she was ordering toner cartridges or having it out with Clark again. They could remodel, he supposed, which would be a huge pain in the ass, not mention a security compromise. Or he could start working from his office again, but that presented other security concerns. It was far safer to run the company remotely from the Watchtower than it was to plan ops where Tess could pop in at any moment. It was just that some days hiding top-secret plans from Tess seemed a helluva lot less distracting than sharing workspace with Chloe.
"Well, the Planet has been pursuing that type of story pretty aggressively lately, maybe he thought they'd take him more seriously there," she was saying, then paused. "I would love to. Maybe I could write a column asking for an interview." Pause. "Yes, I realize that. And you'd be right to do it." Pause. "You know I will." End call. Roll eyes.
"Who was that?"
"The editor at the Journal. He wanted to know why the Planet has all the goods on The Blur when I'm the one with the scoop on his latest save."
"Yeah, I noticed our mutual friend is making a name for himself."
"That's one way to put it. Although I don't know if it's in journalism. He didn't do much 'back-ground checking', did he?"
"Wasn't that the point, though? If he's the man with 'access', he gets to funnel whatever information he wants out there. Besides, what do you back-ground check? It's not as if there's a birth certificate and a bunch of report cards out there with the name 'The Blur' on them."
"I suppose," she said with a small frown.
"There aren't any report cards out there with the name 'The Blur' on them, are there?"
She gave him her best don't-be-silly look. "Of course not. And - it makes sense he wouldn't want to get too in-depth, in a for-the-greater-good kind of way. What I don't get is what's Tess' angle? She has to know the towers will figure into the story of The Blur somehow. People are going to follow up on this, and somebody's going to follow that particular thread."
He shrugged. He actually thought it was a pretty gutsy move. Control the board now so you can move freely across it later. That's how Tess had always liked to play.
"It keeps attention off Luthorcorp," he said. "Make sure the towers story doesn't sell any copy. No copies sold, towers story gets buried, people don't read it, nobody cares. Nobody cares, regulators don't investigate, police don't question, she gets away with it. Plus, why would she throw a spotlight on the hero if she had anything to hide? Nah, Tess is easy."
"Is that what you would do?"
"Maybe. It's risky, but if she pulls it off it'll be like it never happened."
She was staring him now in a way that made him wonder if she didn't have x-ray vision. She'd given him that stare before, many times when they were planning the towers op. As if she was trying to look into his soul and decide whether he was truly committed. It usually left him wanting a drink he'd knew he'd hate himself for taking.
"You seem pretty far inside Tess' head," she said.
"I've known her for a long time."
"Is that all there is to it?"
"Yes." No, but he would never tell her that. She would never trust him again. "And you're asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is what's Boyscout's angle on this. Why step out of the E.T. closet now all of the sudden? This isn't some new wacked-out move in his little ancestral feud, is it?"
"No. I think Clark thinks he's protecting me. Protecting us. And Lois. He's convinced her obsession with The Blur is going to get her hurt."
"Oh, God. I forgot about -- how's she taking this?"
"The usual. An hour on the phone trying to talk her down from driving over to the farm and turning his ass into grass, and then three hours at the apartment seducing her with Mr. Ben, Mr. Jerry, and Mr. Jack Daniels so she didn't crawl out a DP window and threaten to jump."
"She's not -- "
"No! It would take a lot more than this to grind Lois down, but it's the kind of thing she thinks will draw The Blur's attention."
"Which, it would."
"Yes, well, there are better ways of getting a story than perching on a ledge and hoping the wind doesn't knock you off before your interview subject shows up."
"Oh. Yeah. Like planting high-powered explosives around Luthorcorp signal towers and hoping the alien militia doesn't show up and blast you to pieces before you blast the towers."
"That had to be done. Perching doesn't. Unless you're a bird, in which case it's just what you do. But she's fine now. Mostly. I think she's planning a stake-out at that parking garage."
He had to laugh. Only Lois would think a blatant decoy address would be a lead.
"Don't!" Chloe admonished him. "She needs some support right now. She was really banking on that interview."
"I am supporting her. 'Never give up, never surrender!' How can anyone not admire that attitude?"
She gave him a suspicious stare, but contented herself with shaking her head.
"I think the bigger question is how are you doing? Boyscout seems to have stolen some of your thunder here." Because that was the kind of class act Clark was, Ollie thought.
"Which was his plan, obviously. Talk about easy. I should have seen this coming. He told me I should let him publish the story under his name, as if Tess would ever allow that. So he found something else for her to print."
"Well, like you said, there's bound to be some follow-up connecting The Blur to the towers, right?"
She was silent, chewing her lip. Lip chewing was never good. It was almost as bad as her staring. Last time she'd chewed her lip like that he'd ended up working 36 hours straight custom-designing a cross-bow for her.
"You know, The Blur wasn't the only hero involved in taking down the towers," she said finally.
"You gonna interview yourself too?"
"What? No!" Her face was suddenly pink and flustered. He didn't think he'd ever seen her embarrassed like that before. It was kinda cute.
"No, really, I can see the headline now," he continued. "'New Heroine Emerges In Metropolis, Says Blur Is Full Of Shit.'"
She giggled, her face the color of that dumb shawl-thing she'd started wearing because "it's so drafty in here". Which was really cute. The giggle, not the shawl.
"We could get a real feud going here. Papers'll fly off the newsstands."
She rolled her eyes. "No thank you, Mr. Hearst. What I meant was, the Green Arrow was involved in the towers demolition too."
It was his turn to roll eyes.
"Chloe -- "
"Oh come on. You really want to let The Blur hog the spotlight?"
"Yeah, I do. The more focus on the guy no one can see, the less focus on the guy who can't super-speed away from the authorities."
"And the less focus there will be on Luthorcorp. You said it yourself. Tess wants this story buried. What then? If the Green Arrow gives an interview and talks a lot about his most recent mission, maybe shows off his mad skillz in the process, it might put Luthorcorp on the spot again."
"You remember that I own part of Luthorcorp, right?"
"Which is why no one will ever suspect you're the big green archery machine."
This was so not a good idea. He needed to distract her. "How about you do an exclusive with the CEO of Queen Industries?"
"About what? Your prescient decision not to buy Countrywide when you had the chance? You know that 'Oliver Queen' is not going to do anything more than issue a statement through his P.R. department saying Queen Industries takes any allegations of criminal or unethical activity very seriously and the company is cooperating fully with the authorities. Which shouldn't be too difficult, since the authorities are doing nothing right now to investigate either Queen Industries or Luthorcorp."
Now she was staring and chewing. Shit.
"Unless you're no longer interested in putting Luthorcorp crimes under the microscope?" she continued.
How did she do this every frickin' time? Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. He sighed.
"If there's a camera involved, I say when it gets turned on and when it gets turned off."
She thought for a moment. "That's fair. We need to limit the identifying evidence."
"I want to see a list of questions before-hand."
"No way."
"Chloe -- "
"This'll be good. It'll be honest." She was up now and moving. Oliver swore she must have ADD or something like it; once she got excited about something she always began running around like a kindergartner. "The public is not as dumb as you think; they can spot that kind of pre-prepped p.r. b.s. a mile away." The running around was cute, too. Ollie couldn't remember the last time he'd been as excited about anything.
He really hoped he wasn't going to regret this.