The Trouble with Love Chapter 13 2/2
Standard disclaimers apply.
The Trouble with Love 13 2/2
That night, Emil frowned as he got redirected to Oliver’s voicemail. He couldn’t contact
Oliver on any phone the man owned. Victor dropped Connor earlier that day and was supposed
to be picked up by Oliver an hour ago.
He was already worried about Chloe’s phone call, and now he was unreachable.
“Dr. Emil, where’s my dad?”
“I don’t know, Connor. I’ll try to call him again. Would you like to take a nap for a little while?”
Connor nodded and Emil guided him to the spare room and watched as Connor went to bed. Three
years ago, he watched as the sullen boy refused to leave his tepee until his father came for him. Oliver
was stuck in Europe trying to dismantle a 33.1 lab and the team was a day behind schedule.
“Connor, please come out.”
“No.”
Emil sighed as he knelt outside the tepee tried to find a way to coax the boy out.
“Emil? I’m sorry I’m late...” Chloe stopped as she saw Emil holding a happy meal and smiled.
“Hungry?”
"No... This is for Connor.” He replied and watched as a flash of hurt crossed Chloe’s face. It
was so brief; he would’ve missed it if he didn’t know what happened between the two.
“Oliver is running late from a business trip.”
“I can come back later if it’s convenient?”
“No... I’ll grab those files for you.”Emil replied as he placed down the happy meal on the ground.
“Connor, I’ll just be outside for a little while. I’ll come back soon, okay?”
“I don’t care!”
Chloe’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the response she heard.
“I just want my dad!”
The two of them stood in silence as they heard small muffled sobs coming from the tepee.
Emil watched as Chloe slowly approached the tepee and knelt down. “Hello, Connor.”
There was a sniff, but there was no reply.
“My name is Chloe Sullivan. I’m a friend of Dr. Emil.”
Connor didn’t reply and Chloe continued to talk. “Are you alright, Connor?”
“I want to go home!”
“You’re going to go home soon, I’m sure your dad wants to go home with you...”
“He’s always working. He’s always leaving me behind.”
“He always comes back to you, right?”
“Yeah...” Connor replied reluctantly.
“Well, your dad just needs to finish his work, and then he’ll come back to you. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t
want to leave you behind. Maybe when you’re a little bit older, he can start taking you to work.”
“Is that what your dad did?”
“Yes, though sometimes I wish I stayed at home. It got boring.”
“What did he do? Did he run a company?”
“No, he worked in an office here in Metropolis before working as a plant manager in Smallville.”
“Did he go away a lot?”
“He did, but he always made sure he left me with his friends who would look after me, just like
your dad is doing now.”
“What about your mom?”
Emil cringed, but Chloe just answered Connor. “My mom left when I was young.”
He heard movement inside the tepee and watched as Connor peeked from the flaps.
“My mom left when I was a baby too.”
“Well, that’s two things we have in common.”
“Are you one of my dad’s friends?”
“No, I work with him sometimes.”
Connor didn’t move from his spot and Chloe grabbed the happy meal and held it in front of her.
“Would you like to eat now, Connor?”
Connor nodded and reached for the food from the small opening. “Thank you, Miss Sullivan.”
Chloe’s face broke out into a wide smile and Connor just looked at Chloe as if he was star-struck.
“You can call me Chloe.”
“Okay.” The boy replied shyly, and Emil watched in amazement as Connor opened up the tepee.
“You can come in if you like.”
He was shaken from his reverie when his phone rang. He quickly walked away, not wanting to wake
Connor up. “Oliver?”
“Sorry, Emil. I’ll be there shortly.”
Emil didn’t have a chance to reply as Oliver hanged up. Knowing that he couldn’t do anything else but wait,
he prepared the previous two reports and the equipment needed to give Oliver a check-up.
_*_*
“Finally, we can catch up.” Lois said as she sat on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in her hands.
“Where were you this morning anyway? I’ve been trying to call you.”
Chloe took a deep breath before she answered. “I went to see Oliver.”
“What for?”
“I wanted to talk to him about Connor.”
Lois opened her mouth and Chloe held up her hands to halt Lois before she launched into a tirade.
“First of all, I love Connor. It doesn’t matter who his parents are, I love him. I love spending time with him,
and he’s a smart, sweet, gorgeous boy who’s too young for your sarcasm and wit.”
“Okay, I admit that I was pretty harsh on him that day, and it was never my intention to hurt him. My problem
with you hanging out with Connor is because of Oliver. You can’t be around Connor and not be around Oliver...”
Before Chloe could protest, Lois held her hands.
“Connor really is a gorgeous boy, Chloe. I’m not saying this out of spite for him or Oliver, but because
I love you. You need to let Connor go.”
When Chloe didn’t say anything, Lois continued to speak.
“Chloe, there’s this completely hot, normal, and intelligent man who’s knocking on your door. Let him in!
Give him a chance!”
“He’s a really good guy, Lois. But it won’t work. I can’t have a relationship with anyone who doesn’t know
who I am and what I do. I can’t tell him my secret without the possibility of jeopardizing Clark.”
They were always rehashing the same argument, and even if Lois let this one slip away, there’s always
tomorrow and the next to argue about the same things over and over again.
Lois just took a sip of her beer before she spoke. “Fine. So, why did you need to speak to Oliver about Connor?”
“Off the record. Okay?”
“I’m not working that story anyway... Perry assigned us to the missing hikers... but yeah, off the record.”
Chloe was about to tell Lois what she knew as she reached out for more popcorn when Lois hands suddenly
grabbed her arm. “What the hell?”
“What is this?”
Chloe blinked before she looked down and gasped when she saw the light bruise on her wrist.
“Who did this?”
“Lois! Calm down, it was an accident!”
“Really? Someone grabs you in the wrists so tightly it was an accident?”
“I will tell you what happened, but you have to promise not to interrupt me, Okay?”
Lois just nodded and Chloe sighed. It was going to be a long night.
_*_*
And that’s where I’ll end this one. Not quite happy with this. I’ve looked over this quite a few times; I don’t know what else I can do. Hope you guys enjoyed this!
And why there's 2 parts? LJ refused to cooperate with me. It kept making the format wonky, no matter what I do.
I'm five seconds away from scrapping this chapter, so I thought, I'll just post it in two parts.