Chlollie Fanfic: Love For Realsies, Chapter 12
Another chapter!
Er...still no Sexy Tiems *ducks flying missiles* but it will be in the next chapter, I promise you!!!
Title: Love for Realsies
Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlollie
Rating: NC-17 (This chapter PG13). Sequel to Just for Funsies.
Warnings: Checkmate Spoilers; more of a personal retelling of such
Timeline: Season 9 (Conspiracy - Checkmate)
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: Chloe finds it increasingly difficult to resist Ollie’s affections.
Feedback: gives me goosebumps - nice ones. J
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Previously: “ Chloe’s been kidnapped.”
Chapter 12
Clark’s eyes widened in shock. “Are you sure?” he asked in disbelief.
Oliver’s face darkened. “You think I would joke about something like this?” he said, his voice rising as he balled his hands into fists.
Clark frowned but spoke calmly. “Oliver, you’re not going to be any good to Chloe if you let your anger get the better of you.”
“Damn right.” Oliver turned and headed straight for Tess, who was observing them with thinly veiled interest from across the room. “Where’s Checkmate’s Headquarters?”
She folded her arms and pursed her lips. “I can’t tell you that.”
“Yes you can, and you will.” He grabbed her arms and tightened his fingers painfully around them. “Answer the question, Tess. Where’s Checkmate’s headquarters?”
“Ow! Let go of me, you prick!” she cried, struggling with him.
“Oliver, stop this!” Clark shouted as he crossed the room, prising his hands off the startled woman’s arms before he could do any lasting damage.
“Stay out of this, Clark,” he warned. “She has information I need, and by God, she’s going to give it to me, or live to regret it.”
“I can’t tell you, Ollie!” she yelled. “They’ll kill me if I do!”
“And I’ll kill you if you don’t!” he shouted back, grabbing her arms again and shaking her. “Where’s Checkmate, damn it?”
“Oliver, you’re hurting her-”
“Do you want me to choke it out of you?” he bellowed, ignoring Clark’s warning and shaking the terrified Tess until it looked like her teeth might rattle in her head.
“Oliver, that’s enough,” Clark said grimly. He grasped both Oliver and Tess, and in less than a second they were both back at the Watchtower.
Both of Clark’s unwitting travel companions stared around, disoriented, and Oliver recovered first.
“What the hell did you do that for?” he yelled, pissed.
“You would have killed her if I didn’t get you out of there,” Clark pointed out.
“Like that would have been some great loss!” Oliver snarled.
“Gee, thanks,” Tess drawled from across the room.
“Yes, it would have,” Clark said insistently, and then lowered his voice to a whisper. “Oliver, she’s the only one who can tell us where Chloe is, and I know you’re worried sick, but you need to calm down and let us fix this.”
Feeling desolate, Oliver collapsed into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t stand it, Clark,” he said raggedly. “If anything happens to her…”
“If we keep our heads and work together, she’ll be fine,” Clark replied gently. “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Nice place you got here, boys,” Tess said from across the room, trailing her fingers over one of the multiple keyboards on display. “Let me guess: Watchtower?”
Oliver tensed and started to rise, but Clark stopped him. “I’ll sort this,” he said, and walked over to a smugly smiling Tess.
“You know our secret now, Tess,” he said solemnly. “Now we need your help to save someone’s life.”
“Why should I help you rescue Chloe?” she said bluntly, making both boys blink in surprise. “Don’t look so shocked, boys. I can do the math. Who else would prefer to stare at oodles of computers all day?”
Oliver rose and strode in her direction, and she stiffened defensively.
“This is your chance to redeem yourself, Tess,” he said thickly. “Clark showed an awful lot of trust bringing you here.” He scowled and folded his arms. “Personally, I’d have just dangled you off a building till I’d gotten what I wanted.”
Tess fixed him with a frosty glare. “So if I give you Checkmate’s location, can we call this even?”
“Not by a long shot,” Oliver replied, “but it’ll go some distance in taking you off the top spot on my shit list.”
She gave him a filthy look and walked to Chloe’s primary desk. Quickly she scribbled coordinates down on a piece of paper, which she handed to Clark.
“This is where you need to be,” she said. Clark took the paper out of her hands and headed for the door.
“Clark!” Oliver called, making the other man turn around.
Oliver jogged over to where he was waiting. “I just wanted to say thanks for all you’ve done tonight, and…and please bring her back to me,” he said softly. “Preferably unharmed, but I’ll take her either way.”
Clark nodded. “I’ll find her,” he replied. “Just try not to kill Tess before we get back, okay?”
Clark’s lame attempt at light humour did nothing to ease the ache in Oliver’s chest.
“I can’t lose her, Clark,” he whispered, feeling hollow and empty. “I just can’t.”
Clark nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to her,” he promised, and zoomed out the door.
“Well,” Tess drawled, “this has been an interesting night, but if you don’t mind…” she crossed the room and headed for the door.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Oliver said, pressing a button on Chloe’s console. Automatically the security doors swirled shut, trapping Tess inside.
She whirled around and stalked towards him, furious. “I already gave you Checkmate’s location!” she seethed.
“Clark’s doing things the old-fashioned way,” he replied wryly, turning away from her to log on to the main computer. “I prefer to keep up with the digital age, myself.”
Tess frowned. “Meaning…?”
“Meaning I want access to the building’s security network, and possibly a live video feed from the security footage,” he finished.
“You’re asking a lot for someone who just admitted to wanting to kill me,” she observed. “Why are you getting your tights in such a twist over Chloe, of all people?”
“They’re not tights,” he said, irritated. “And I don’t want you dead, Tess. I just need you to do this for me.”
She shrugged. “I just think it’s a lot of trouble to go through for the tech support girl,” she quipped as she got to work on the computers.
His jaw hardened. “Chloe’s a lot more than that.”
Tess raised a brow and a knowing look crossed her face as she typed. “So I see.”
Oliver didn’t care whether or not she realised he loved Chloe; it was pretty much obvious from his reactions tonight that he did.
He just wanted her home, safe and sound. And this time, when she got back, there would be no more games, tricks, or grand plans.
He was done waiting. It was time to lay all the cards on the table.
***
Within five minutes, Chloe’s computer screens crackled to life, and Oliver was granted a fly-on-the-wall’s view of the office of the same harpy who’d spoken to him in the back of the truck.
“That’s Checkmate’s big bad, I’m guessing,” he murmured.
Tess nodded. “Amanda Waller. Otherwise known as the White Queen.”
“How ironic.” He squinted and made out a figure in the shadows. “Is that Clark by the door?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Can you get me an audio feed?”
“Working on it.”
Tess was as good as her word. Two minutes later, as Oliver saw Waller rise from her desk and stand before the man in the shadows, her voice cam through the computer’s speakers.
“If you don’t stand with us, you stand against us,” she said. “It’s time for you to pick a side.”
“That’s Clark, all right,” Oliver murmured with a short, mirthless laugh.
The shadow figure didn’t respond. Waller shrugged and picked up a remote control.
“Maybe this will help with your indecisiveness,” she suggested, and pressed a button on the control.
Both Waller and the mystery man turned to a spot in the wall that wasn’t covered by the camera Tess had hacked into.
“I can’t see what they’re looking at,” he said, stating the obvious. “Can you get us another angle?”
She shook her head. “There’s only one camera in Waller’s office, and you’re looking through it,” she replied.
“Stand by for immediate orders,” Waller barked into a communications device.
To do what? Oliver thought desperately.
“Let her go,” he heard Clark say in a threateningly low voice.
It had to be Chloe on that screen. Oliver swallowed, feeling helpless.
“My two cents,” said Tess dryly, “Chloe’s in another room staring down the barrel of a gun right now.”
“Shut up,” he growled.
“I’m not being unreasonable,” Waller said flatly. “If you step forward, out of the shadows, I will let Watchtower go.”
“Do what she says, Clark,” Oliver whispered to himself.
“Wow,” Tess said, staring at him. “You’ve got it bad.”
“Will you shut up?” he yelled.
Clark paused for half a heartbeat, and then stepped into the light.
Attaboy, Oliver thought, but he knew the danger wasn’t over yet.
“Release her now,” Clark said through gritted teeth.
Waller drank in the sight of him. “You sure are nice to look at,” she said, a predatory gleam in her eye. “But I like to have my cake and eat it, too.”
“I’ve done what you asked!” Clark replied.
“I want more,” Waller replied. “I want your loyalty to Checkmate.”
In response, Clark snarled and stepped towards her.
“Ah-” Waller held up a hand to stop him. “Anything happens to me, and bye-bye Blondie,” she warned. “I know you’re fast, but you can’t stop a bullet when you don’t know where she is.”
“Oh, God,” Oliver breathed, shaking. “Tess, how far have you gone with the security panel?”
She frowned and typed furiously. “Another sixty seconds.”
“We don’t have sixty seconds!” he screeched.
“Yeah, and that attitude isn’t helping any,” she retorted. “Now just shut up and let me help you, or I’ll leave her to eat that bullet with pleasure.”
Oliver gulped and clamped his mouth shut, keeping his eyes on the screen.
“What more do you want?” Clark asked Waller desperately.
“The location of Watchtower’s central database,” she said squarely.
“You’re after everyone who’s ever worked with Watchtower,” he realised.
“Names, faces, addresses,” she confirmed sweetly. “The Black Canary, Impulse, Aquaman, Cyborg…”
“Chloe will kill him if he reveals that, and he knows it,” Oliver whispered. “Tess, I don’t mean to rush you…”
“Then shut up,” she growled. “This isn’t my day job, you know.”
“It’s your move,” Waller said to Clark.
“It’s no use,” Tess said. “I need thirty more seconds, or else…”
Oliver ran his hands through his hair in despair. “Come on, stall her, Clark, stall her,” he urged.
By some miracle of the gods, Clark seemed to be on the same wavelength with him. “Even if I gave you Watchtower’s database, you know I’ll come after you,” Clark said.
Waller shook her head at him pityingly. “The Blur of Metropolis, who patrols the streets protecting every citizen he can, but he lets his most…valuable ally…fend for herself.”
“I did not abandon her!” Clark said heatedly.
“Didn’t you?” she challenged. “You left your greatest asset vulnerable.”
Oliver frowned as he watched several emotions cross Clark’s face all at once. It was the first time in several months that he was convinced that Clark Kent still had a heart.
Waller continued. “Now all you have to do to save her life is give me one, simple address…”
“I’ve got it!” Tess yelled triumphantly.
Oliver didn’t hesitate. He reached across her and pressed enter, and immediately the screens around them went black.
He took a deep breath and turned to Tess. “What do we do now?”
She pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest. “We wait.”
***
Chapter 13…