Passion Leaves a Trace: Weightless
Author: 
serafina19
Title: Passion Leaves a Trace: Weightless
Series Summary: It started as a simple arrangement, but with their knowledge and understanding of each other, it left a trace of something more to come, something to build beyond what they expected.
Segment Summary: The aftermath of Clark and Lois' bachelor party cause some changes in Chloe and Oliver's relationship.
Series Rating: PG-13 Segment Rating: PG
Series Timeline: Conspiracy-Fortune Segment Timeline: Fortune
Thanks to: My banner supplier
aradira, who I can’t thank enough for her beautiful work.
Prologue
This Night
Ghost in Your Mind
A Day Alone
The Real You
Gone
Mine Again
Weightless
Your secret smile, betrayed again
Secret island in your mind
Lost forever, lost before your time
He always thought that the worst was over, that they would start figuring out everything together. But she was a creature of habit, and this was no exception.
She had a new mission, that was clear from the phone call he had just received. From the Star City Register, no less. The hint couldn't have come across bigger than that. He thought about why she hadn't told him about the interview, but at the same time, this was pure Chloe.
Still, Oliver put away his phone without confirming his suspicions. Tonight was about the party, confirming some of the blanks that they had filled during the day. This could wait until morning, because if she thought she was leaving without him, she had another thing coming.
~0~
Who is to say who is to know the truth?
Who is there left when nothing they said can save you?
Walking to her car, Chloe felt a bittersweet smile cross her lips as she looked over her shoulder to see the barn for what might be the last time. At least it really felt like things were okay between her and Clark. Looking back towards the sunset in front of her, she felt rejuvenated, like her journey was right in front of her. Clark had offered her a lift to Watchtower, but she refused, knowing that she needed the time to find the words to tell another hero about her new path.
She didn't want to leave him, as for months, he was all she could think of. Lately, being with him almost felt like a dream, because even with the Desaad incident, things felt weirdly normal with Ollie. But reality had hit, and all she had told him was that she was sticking around for awhile.
Oliver likely would fight for her and the irony was not lost on Chloe, but he had to do what he needed to do. He was a hero, one in the spotlight without revealing his alter ego, and she wasn't sure she could keep up with it.
The miles flew by, her mind racing as she drove back to Watchtower. It was supposed to be easy to walk away from him. It was supposed to be no strings. But that was a phrase that had been lost a long time ago. Instead, they had everything Chloe wanted in a relationship, yet the moment she got it, she was still afraid.
It wasn’t Clark that was the problem this time. It wasn’t the words he told her before he was taken. She had changed, the old Chloe was gone. He had changed too, his circumstances dramatically different. That meant their comfort zone, the bubble they had accustomed to, it was also gone. And while it looked like they could just pick things up and start over before, Chloe knew it wasn’t that simple.
But she was determined to get through tonight first, so she went up to Watchtower with a smile, not surprised to see Tess and Oliver already there. They were figuring out the video on the camera, hoping that it would provide some answers to what happened last night. She was halfway to the console when Tess greeted her. She was about to say hello back when she met Oliver’s eyes. All she could hope for in that moment that she didn’t give herself away.
~0~
A second chance for a simple kiss
I waited for you at the edge
Could you take such a risk?
He watched her carefully, trying a smile, but the weak grin she returned, the whispered Hello told Oliver everything he needed to know. Heck, even Tess knew it, as she gave him a knowing look, but she was far from knowing what was going on. But now wasn’t the time to get into details, especially since the rest of their group arrived not long after.
It didn’t take long for Lois to open the champagne, pass the glasses around. Tess prepared the video, while they all grouped around the couch. Oliver was the last to join, standing next Chloe, trying to gauge her reaction. Initially, their focus was on the video, the various details of the night they forgot. Everyone started laughing as Clark stumbled to name the lemur on the tape, but what Oliver almost missed in that moment was that she was looking at him.
A simple grin, her eyes relaxed, a rare expression for Chloe Sullivan. He became still, taking the moment to enjoy it while maintaining his smile. However, once he moved his gaze back to the screen, he noticed her expression fall and soon after, she had left the room.
Always the hero, he thought. She’d never call herself one, but when it came to self-sacrifice, no one had done more than Chloe. Oliver wanted to believe that she was coming back, but he knew that wasn’t the case.
For a minute, he forgot about it upon seeing the ending to Tess and Emil’s night, a well-needed laugh to negate the frustration he felt inside. Tess’ scramble for the remote brought a chuckle out of him, a few unconscious wise-cracks, but the moment the screen went black, the reflection brought a necessary reminder that Chloe wasn’t there. And he wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Where did Chloe go?” Lois asked.
“She just went to answer a call,” Oliver said, not entirely sure why he was lying for her. “I’ll go get her.”
What he didn’t expect after he reached the main floor was to see her still in the building, standing at the doorway. He watched from just outside of the elevator as she continued to look at her phone, debating a call from the looks of things. Hoping she would finish it, and that it was his number, Oliver clutched his phone in his pocket, but just as quickly, she put hers away and opened the door.
In that moment, he knew that he couldn’t stand back anymore. Moving his hand inside his pocket, Oliver felt for the piece of paper next to his phone. That, combined with the call from the Register was something that he had hoped to discuss when they met up later, but first, he had to ensure that there was a later.
~0~
The moment she heard his voice call out, Chloe knew that she was in trouble. She meant what she had told Oliver in Watchtower when she said the reason she hadn’t reached out was because she didn’t trust what she would have done if she had heard his voice. That hadn’t changed now, if anything it was worse. Then again, it didn’t help that before she could start telling him why she had left tonight, she could tell he knew the truth.
Once that realization came, she couldn’t even get the right words out. Instead, he did that for her, making the decision even harder. Then he reached back to pull out something from his pocket and everything became clear.
These are $20 rings out of a vending machine. She deserves better than ... better than that.
Even when he was out of it, he still thought the best of her. Take away her inhibitions and she stayed with him. She married him. So she relented, knowing that fighting it would only bring them back to this place with more pain. Life had clearly been trying to tell her that all along, and she was tired of the hard days, especially after hearing the proud way Oliver called himself her husband.
That sounded better to her than she ever could imagine, so she kissed him, let him see her smile before they walked down the street together. His arm was wrapped around her, and Chloe felt weights leave her shoulder as they approached the clocktower. It was unlike she had ever felt before, so of course it didn’t last forever. The silence in the elevator allowed her mind to start working again, which was a bad habit of hers, but a habit nonetheless.
After Oliver opened the gate, Chloe walked past him, only to stop cold. She had been here so many times, Oliver had always told her to make herself feel at home. Especially with the Talon gone, and her lack of desire to re-live her Watchtower days, this was the one of the few places she could come to. Now, on paper… this was also her home.
"So,” she said, turning around to see Oliver staring intently at her. “We're married."
He sighed, hoping that she would let herself be happy for more than a couple of minutes. "Looks that way. It also makes it harder for you to leave me behind."
Okay, she deserved that, "Ollie, I'm sorry, but -"
"I get it, I really do. I just thought you trusted me enough to talk when you needed me." Seeing her open her mouth, Oliver flashed back to her first night back at Watchtower. "And if you say that you couldn't trust yourself again, then that should have been your answer all along."
It was funny because this was what she wanted, but also what she feared. She didn’t want to overlook the reality of their situation, but it also complicated where she saw her life going. Swallowing hard, she opened and closed her mouth a few times. He was clearly more confident than she was, as he gave her the distance she needed, while showing his knowing smirk that he had a point.
"I thought that... that maybe things were too different now,” she said. It was still true, as they both felt like different people, but while most of what he had done was in the public eye, that wasn’t the same case for her. There were things that she had done that she regretted, that she never got the courage to tell him. “That maybe now you were more than I deserved."
He shook his head, letting a chuckle out. Her eyes moved to him, so Oliver shrugged. "It's funny,” he said, taking a step towards her. “Because for that exact reason, I fought for you. Chipping away at those walls with a piddly spoon."
"And it worked, didn't it?" He didn’t know this, but the spoon was one of the few things that she salvaged from the Talon before trading herself for him. It wasn’t much of a reminder, but she couldn’t leave it behind. Not then, not now.
"You tell me." He wanted to think that she was happier before, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Only that last step was too close, so Chloe turned around and took a few steps of her own. "Oliver, this is a big commitment and it isn't something we should be taking lightly. We have to talk about this or else..."
"Marrying you was the worst mistake of my life."
She squeezed her eyes shut at the memory. There were good days with Jimmy, there were worse memories of their marriage, but that was something Chloe was never going to forget. The cold tone in his voice, the utter loneliness she felt when he walked away.
"Or else you end up with an annulment followed up by you recoiling into virtual reality again?" Oliver asked, as he knew exactly where her mind had gone. "Something like that?"
Chloe tried not to roll her eyes as she opened them again. "Is that so crazy?" Sure, she was committed to staying away from Watchtower now, but there was nothing to say that she couldn’t slip back into that pattern.
Oliver knew better than to lie to her. “No,” he said, “but clearly when you found your half... you didn't think my name was on the other ha-"
"Clark was wearing a ring,” Chloe interjected as she faced him again. “What was I supposed to think?"
Again, he smirked at her and Chloe knew that she was in trouble. "What I was going to say was that I had a whole day with the idea that we're married. I asked you not to leave without your husband, Chloe," She watched his face relax, the love in his eyes that she had ignored since getting up here. "If you wanted my answer to whether I wanted this... that was it."
It may have happened sooner than he expected, but Oliver was fine with that. Although he didn’t want to see her living in her own head for too long. This was one of the rare cases where Chloe Sullivan became speechless, but more than anything, he needed her to speak. Screwing the space barrier that seemed to exist between them for the last few minutes, he closed the distance and leaned his forehead against hers.
"Let yourself be happy, please?" It seemed silly that was their biggest obstacle in their relationship, but the way she had been fighting this didn’t imply regret, just fear. "It just so happens that our happiness is connected and I'd like it to last at least a year this time." He smiled as he lifted his hand to play in her hair. "Maybe then you'll say it’s our wedding anniversary instead of 'whatever we've been doing.'"
To his relief, Chloe laughed. "It... fit then."
He was quick to point out that, "Then was less than a month ago.”
"Oliver,” she said, backing up, hating herself for doing it, but this was something she needed him to hear. “Up until two minutes ago, I was confused, even with the marriage certificate. I'm not sure how, but I managed to underestimate your stubbornness and my tendency to walk away from the good things in my life."
He did like getting what he wanted. It was something that came with his family name, his position, but when it came to what he needed, those things faded. Especially with Chloe. With her, he had been just Ollie, but that changed last night. That was something he would absolutely fight to protect. “Are you telling me that you're not confused anymore?"
She could have told him a simple yes, but Oliver knew her too well. She had to make this right. “When I thought it was Clark, the first thing I thought… besides the nearest profanity I could think of, was that I had finally found someone that got me and I screwed it up.” Stretching out her hand, Chloe pursed her lips, as she knew this morning wasn’t the source of the problem. “You could argue that technically, I was right.”
“Only if you walk out of here,” he said, holding his position behind her. “Which won’t be easy.”
Chloe nodded, biting her lip to hold back a laugh. He always did know what to say around her. “You know, I forgot about applying for the Register. I figured I had no shot because I had been out of journalism for so long.” It felt like a lifetime ago, a few versions of Chloe ago, but she meant what she told Clark. “Then I got the call and before I knew what I was doing, I gave them your number.”
He wanted to believe what that implied, but he was having trouble reading her. Some of her walls had come down, but until he heard otherwise, Oliver assumed the worst. “So you were really planning on leaving without me?”
“I wish I could tell you otherwise,” she said after a sigh. “But that doesn’t matter, because I could have given them someone else’s name. Instead, I thought that Star City was still a good place for a fresh start and maybe one day, I could end the operetta and let myself settle down.”
She sighed again, a chuckle laced within the exhale before she smiled. It was crazy to think how far they had come since that birthday party. Taking a minute to look around, to let herself settle, she added, “I didn’t think that day would be today.”
Oliver waited for a few seconds for her to look at him again, but she continued to take in details of her surroundings. It was then that Oliver understood. “Does that mean what I hope it does?”
This time, she did give him the simple answer though a nod. “It was never my preference to walk away from you,” she said, suddenly feeling like she was back to that night in Watchtower, waiting for him to say something.
Sure enough, he chose the same word. “Good.” It was enough for her smile to return, to walk right up to him and kiss him. Chloe felt him return the kiss, but more importantly, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight, as if he never wanted to let go. That brought her earlier feeling back, the weightless feeling in her chest.
Because when it’s right, it feels effortless, it works no matter what. No matter the stupid things she said, or how many times she would attempt to leave, he would always love her. And she loved him back, no matter how many things had changed, no matter how much limelight she would experience now. It didn’t matter where life took them next because they had each other and the support that came with their relationship.
They both smiled as their lips pulled away, but Oliver was quick to fill the silence. “I just realized that we’re missing one important part of making a marriage official.”
Chloe’s eyebrows raised at that comment. “Really? You just realized that?”
His head tilted slightly. “Don’t tell me that you have reservations about that too,” he teased.
She pretended to think about it, but Chloe had a feeling that she had used them all up. After shaking her head, she placed her hand on his cheek. “I love you Ollie.”
“Love you too.” His smile widened before leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Mrs. Queen.”
“You just couldn’t resist couldn’t you?”
“I’ve been resisting all day, Mrs. Queen,” he said, pulling her even closer. “You better get used to it.”
She loved that his voice remained confident, that he wanted nothing more than for her to stay, for her to be his wife. No compromises, no lies, just two people coming to be on the same page. As twisted as it sounded, as many thing they had gone through, this was the healthiest relationship she had ever been in. Chloe felt relieved that she didn’t have to throw it away.
As she tugged her hands against his jacket, Chloe let those feelings stay. “Then you better get it right.” Her eyes flickered up before adding, “Mrs. Sullivan-Queen.”
To him, that was the most beautiful thing that Chloe could have said in that moment. When Oliver kissed her again, he had a feeling that, finally, she was here to stay. That what started as a way to blow off steam had built to the best thing in his life and it wasn’t going to end.
~End~
Sera’s Scribbles: Stupid writer’s block kept this from getting finished. Sorry for the delay. This is the last segment of the series, so I hope you enjoyed it.
.
serafina19
Title: Passion Leaves a Trace: Weightless
Series Summary: It started as a simple arrangement, but with their knowledge and understanding of each other, it left a trace of something more to come, something to build beyond what they expected.
Segment Summary: The aftermath of Clark and Lois' bachelor party cause some changes in Chloe and Oliver's relationship.
Series Rating: PG-13 Segment Rating: PG
Series Timeline: Conspiracy-Fortune Segment Timeline: Fortune
Thanks to: My banner supplier
aradira, who I can’t thank enough for her beautiful work.
Prologue
This Night
Ghost in Your Mind
A Day Alone
The Real You
Gone
Mine Again
Weightless
Your secret smile, betrayed again
Secret island in your mind
Lost forever, lost before your time
He always thought that the worst was over, that they would start figuring out everything together. But she was a creature of habit, and this was no exception.
She had a new mission, that was clear from the phone call he had just received. From the Star City Register, no less. The hint couldn't have come across bigger than that. He thought about why she hadn't told him about the interview, but at the same time, this was pure Chloe.
Still, Oliver put away his phone without confirming his suspicions. Tonight was about the party, confirming some of the blanks that they had filled during the day. This could wait until morning, because if she thought she was leaving without him, she had another thing coming.
~0~
Who is to say who is to know the truth?
Who is there left when nothing they said can save you?
Walking to her car, Chloe felt a bittersweet smile cross her lips as she looked over her shoulder to see the barn for what might be the last time. At least it really felt like things were okay between her and Clark. Looking back towards the sunset in front of her, she felt rejuvenated, like her journey was right in front of her. Clark had offered her a lift to Watchtower, but she refused, knowing that she needed the time to find the words to tell another hero about her new path.
She didn't want to leave him, as for months, he was all she could think of. Lately, being with him almost felt like a dream, because even with the Desaad incident, things felt weirdly normal with Ollie. But reality had hit, and all she had told him was that she was sticking around for awhile.
Oliver likely would fight for her and the irony was not lost on Chloe, but he had to do what he needed to do. He was a hero, one in the spotlight without revealing his alter ego, and she wasn't sure she could keep up with it.
The miles flew by, her mind racing as she drove back to Watchtower. It was supposed to be easy to walk away from him. It was supposed to be no strings. But that was a phrase that had been lost a long time ago. Instead, they had everything Chloe wanted in a relationship, yet the moment she got it, she was still afraid.
It wasn’t Clark that was the problem this time. It wasn’t the words he told her before he was taken. She had changed, the old Chloe was gone. He had changed too, his circumstances dramatically different. That meant their comfort zone, the bubble they had accustomed to, it was also gone. And while it looked like they could just pick things up and start over before, Chloe knew it wasn’t that simple.
But she was determined to get through tonight first, so she went up to Watchtower with a smile, not surprised to see Tess and Oliver already there. They were figuring out the video on the camera, hoping that it would provide some answers to what happened last night. She was halfway to the console when Tess greeted her. She was about to say hello back when she met Oliver’s eyes. All she could hope for in that moment that she didn’t give herself away.
~0~
A second chance for a simple kiss
I waited for you at the edge
Could you take such a risk?
He watched her carefully, trying a smile, but the weak grin she returned, the whispered Hello told Oliver everything he needed to know. Heck, even Tess knew it, as she gave him a knowing look, but she was far from knowing what was going on. But now wasn’t the time to get into details, especially since the rest of their group arrived not long after.
It didn’t take long for Lois to open the champagne, pass the glasses around. Tess prepared the video, while they all grouped around the couch. Oliver was the last to join, standing next Chloe, trying to gauge her reaction. Initially, their focus was on the video, the various details of the night they forgot. Everyone started laughing as Clark stumbled to name the lemur on the tape, but what Oliver almost missed in that moment was that she was looking at him.
A simple grin, her eyes relaxed, a rare expression for Chloe Sullivan. He became still, taking the moment to enjoy it while maintaining his smile. However, once he moved his gaze back to the screen, he noticed her expression fall and soon after, she had left the room.
Always the hero, he thought. She’d never call herself one, but when it came to self-sacrifice, no one had done more than Chloe. Oliver wanted to believe that she was coming back, but he knew that wasn’t the case.
For a minute, he forgot about it upon seeing the ending to Tess and Emil’s night, a well-needed laugh to negate the frustration he felt inside. Tess’ scramble for the remote brought a chuckle out of him, a few unconscious wise-cracks, but the moment the screen went black, the reflection brought a necessary reminder that Chloe wasn’t there. And he wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Where did Chloe go?” Lois asked.
“She just went to answer a call,” Oliver said, not entirely sure why he was lying for her. “I’ll go get her.”
What he didn’t expect after he reached the main floor was to see her still in the building, standing at the doorway. He watched from just outside of the elevator as she continued to look at her phone, debating a call from the looks of things. Hoping she would finish it, and that it was his number, Oliver clutched his phone in his pocket, but just as quickly, she put hers away and opened the door.
In that moment, he knew that he couldn’t stand back anymore. Moving his hand inside his pocket, Oliver felt for the piece of paper next to his phone. That, combined with the call from the Register was something that he had hoped to discuss when they met up later, but first, he had to ensure that there was a later.
~0~
The moment she heard his voice call out, Chloe knew that she was in trouble. She meant what she had told Oliver in Watchtower when she said the reason she hadn’t reached out was because she didn’t trust what she would have done if she had heard his voice. That hadn’t changed now, if anything it was worse. Then again, it didn’t help that before she could start telling him why she had left tonight, she could tell he knew the truth.
Once that realization came, she couldn’t even get the right words out. Instead, he did that for her, making the decision even harder. Then he reached back to pull out something from his pocket and everything became clear.
These are $20 rings out of a vending machine. She deserves better than ... better than that.
Even when he was out of it, he still thought the best of her. Take away her inhibitions and she stayed with him. She married him. So she relented, knowing that fighting it would only bring them back to this place with more pain. Life had clearly been trying to tell her that all along, and she was tired of the hard days, especially after hearing the proud way Oliver called himself her husband.
That sounded better to her than she ever could imagine, so she kissed him, let him see her smile before they walked down the street together. His arm was wrapped around her, and Chloe felt weights leave her shoulder as they approached the clocktower. It was unlike she had ever felt before, so of course it didn’t last forever. The silence in the elevator allowed her mind to start working again, which was a bad habit of hers, but a habit nonetheless.
After Oliver opened the gate, Chloe walked past him, only to stop cold. She had been here so many times, Oliver had always told her to make herself feel at home. Especially with the Talon gone, and her lack of desire to re-live her Watchtower days, this was the one of the few places she could come to. Now, on paper… this was also her home.
"So,” she said, turning around to see Oliver staring intently at her. “We're married."
He sighed, hoping that she would let herself be happy for more than a couple of minutes. "Looks that way. It also makes it harder for you to leave me behind."
Okay, she deserved that, "Ollie, I'm sorry, but -"
"I get it, I really do. I just thought you trusted me enough to talk when you needed me." Seeing her open her mouth, Oliver flashed back to her first night back at Watchtower. "And if you say that you couldn't trust yourself again, then that should have been your answer all along."
It was funny because this was what she wanted, but also what she feared. She didn’t want to overlook the reality of their situation, but it also complicated where she saw her life going. Swallowing hard, she opened and closed her mouth a few times. He was clearly more confident than she was, as he gave her the distance she needed, while showing his knowing smirk that he had a point.
"I thought that... that maybe things were too different now,” she said. It was still true, as they both felt like different people, but while most of what he had done was in the public eye, that wasn’t the same case for her. There were things that she had done that she regretted, that she never got the courage to tell him. “That maybe now you were more than I deserved."
He shook his head, letting a chuckle out. Her eyes moved to him, so Oliver shrugged. "It's funny,” he said, taking a step towards her. “Because for that exact reason, I fought for you. Chipping away at those walls with a piddly spoon."
"And it worked, didn't it?" He didn’t know this, but the spoon was one of the few things that she salvaged from the Talon before trading herself for him. It wasn’t much of a reminder, but she couldn’t leave it behind. Not then, not now.
"You tell me." He wanted to think that she was happier before, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Only that last step was too close, so Chloe turned around and took a few steps of her own. "Oliver, this is a big commitment and it isn't something we should be taking lightly. We have to talk about this or else..."
"Marrying you was the worst mistake of my life."
She squeezed her eyes shut at the memory. There were good days with Jimmy, there were worse memories of their marriage, but that was something Chloe was never going to forget. The cold tone in his voice, the utter loneliness she felt when he walked away.
"Or else you end up with an annulment followed up by you recoiling into virtual reality again?" Oliver asked, as he knew exactly where her mind had gone. "Something like that?"
Chloe tried not to roll her eyes as she opened them again. "Is that so crazy?" Sure, she was committed to staying away from Watchtower now, but there was nothing to say that she couldn’t slip back into that pattern.
Oliver knew better than to lie to her. “No,” he said, “but clearly when you found your half... you didn't think my name was on the other ha-"
"Clark was wearing a ring,” Chloe interjected as she faced him again. “What was I supposed to think?"
Again, he smirked at her and Chloe knew that she was in trouble. "What I was going to say was that I had a whole day with the idea that we're married. I asked you not to leave without your husband, Chloe," She watched his face relax, the love in his eyes that she had ignored since getting up here. "If you wanted my answer to whether I wanted this... that was it."
It may have happened sooner than he expected, but Oliver was fine with that. Although he didn’t want to see her living in her own head for too long. This was one of the rare cases where Chloe Sullivan became speechless, but more than anything, he needed her to speak. Screwing the space barrier that seemed to exist between them for the last few minutes, he closed the distance and leaned his forehead against hers.
"Let yourself be happy, please?" It seemed silly that was their biggest obstacle in their relationship, but the way she had been fighting this didn’t imply regret, just fear. "It just so happens that our happiness is connected and I'd like it to last at least a year this time." He smiled as he lifted his hand to play in her hair. "Maybe then you'll say it’s our wedding anniversary instead of 'whatever we've been doing.'"
To his relief, Chloe laughed. "It... fit then."
He was quick to point out that, "Then was less than a month ago.”
"Oliver,” she said, backing up, hating herself for doing it, but this was something she needed him to hear. “Up until two minutes ago, I was confused, even with the marriage certificate. I'm not sure how, but I managed to underestimate your stubbornness and my tendency to walk away from the good things in my life."
He did like getting what he wanted. It was something that came with his family name, his position, but when it came to what he needed, those things faded. Especially with Chloe. With her, he had been just Ollie, but that changed last night. That was something he would absolutely fight to protect. “Are you telling me that you're not confused anymore?"
She could have told him a simple yes, but Oliver knew her too well. She had to make this right. “When I thought it was Clark, the first thing I thought… besides the nearest profanity I could think of, was that I had finally found someone that got me and I screwed it up.” Stretching out her hand, Chloe pursed her lips, as she knew this morning wasn’t the source of the problem. “You could argue that technically, I was right.”
“Only if you walk out of here,” he said, holding his position behind her. “Which won’t be easy.”
Chloe nodded, biting her lip to hold back a laugh. He always did know what to say around her. “You know, I forgot about applying for the Register. I figured I had no shot because I had been out of journalism for so long.” It felt like a lifetime ago, a few versions of Chloe ago, but she meant what she told Clark. “Then I got the call and before I knew what I was doing, I gave them your number.”
He wanted to believe what that implied, but he was having trouble reading her. Some of her walls had come down, but until he heard otherwise, Oliver assumed the worst. “So you were really planning on leaving without me?”
“I wish I could tell you otherwise,” she said after a sigh. “But that doesn’t matter, because I could have given them someone else’s name. Instead, I thought that Star City was still a good place for a fresh start and maybe one day, I could end the operetta and let myself settle down.”
She sighed again, a chuckle laced within the exhale before she smiled. It was crazy to think how far they had come since that birthday party. Taking a minute to look around, to let herself settle, she added, “I didn’t think that day would be today.”
Oliver waited for a few seconds for her to look at him again, but she continued to take in details of her surroundings. It was then that Oliver understood. “Does that mean what I hope it does?”
This time, she did give him the simple answer though a nod. “It was never my preference to walk away from you,” she said, suddenly feeling like she was back to that night in Watchtower, waiting for him to say something.
Sure enough, he chose the same word. “Good.” It was enough for her smile to return, to walk right up to him and kiss him. Chloe felt him return the kiss, but more importantly, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight, as if he never wanted to let go. That brought her earlier feeling back, the weightless feeling in her chest.
Because when it’s right, it feels effortless, it works no matter what. No matter the stupid things she said, or how many times she would attempt to leave, he would always love her. And she loved him back, no matter how many things had changed, no matter how much limelight she would experience now. It didn’t matter where life took them next because they had each other and the support that came with their relationship.
They both smiled as their lips pulled away, but Oliver was quick to fill the silence. “I just realized that we’re missing one important part of making a marriage official.”
Chloe’s eyebrows raised at that comment. “Really? You just realized that?”
His head tilted slightly. “Don’t tell me that you have reservations about that too,” he teased.
She pretended to think about it, but Chloe had a feeling that she had used them all up. After shaking her head, she placed her hand on his cheek. “I love you Ollie.”
“Love you too.” His smile widened before leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Mrs. Queen.”
“You just couldn’t resist couldn’t you?”
“I’ve been resisting all day, Mrs. Queen,” he said, pulling her even closer. “You better get used to it.”
She loved that his voice remained confident, that he wanted nothing more than for her to stay, for her to be his wife. No compromises, no lies, just two people coming to be on the same page. As twisted as it sounded, as many thing they had gone through, this was the healthiest relationship she had ever been in. Chloe felt relieved that she didn’t have to throw it away.
As she tugged her hands against his jacket, Chloe let those feelings stay. “Then you better get it right.” Her eyes flickered up before adding, “Mrs. Sullivan-Queen.”
To him, that was the most beautiful thing that Chloe could have said in that moment. When Oliver kissed her again, he had a feeling that, finally, she was here to stay. That what started as a way to blow off steam had built to the best thing in his life and it wasn’t going to end.
~End~
Sera’s Scribbles: Stupid writer’s block kept this from getting finished. Sorry for the delay. This is the last segment of the series, so I hope you enjoyed it.
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