While You Were Gone - NC17 - Part 4/5
Title: While You Were Gone
Category: Smallville
Rating: NC17
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver
Warning(s): Sexual Content
Word Count: 3,278
Summary: With Clark and Lois gone Chloe is left to her own devices, but there’s someone else willing to help pick up the pieces and in the process, heal himself along the way.
Previous: Part I, Part II, Part III,
sarcastic_fina
IV.
Chloe woke up to a steaming cup of almond mocha with extra whip. She grinned, reaching for it happily and wrapping both hands around the mug, bringing it up to inhale deeply. The shower could be heard shutting off just as she leaned back against the headboard and took in her first long sip of coffee heaven. When the bathroom door opened, a cloud of steam exited followed by a dripping wet, towel-wearing Oliver Queen. He half-grinned as he saw her wide-awake and staring in his direction with interested eyes.
Licking her lips, she wondered, “Do I want to know what time it is?”
“Partial to staying in bed?” he asked, smirking.
She lifted a shoulder. “Depends if you’re joining me.”
With an easy flick of his hand his towel fell to the floor. He crossed to the bed and had her in his arms just as she placed her mug of coffee safely on the bedside table. She laughed as he peeled the sheet away and drew her on top of him. Running her fingers through his dripping wet hair, she smiled. “You’re gonna have to shower again…”
“Worth it,” he replied, capturing her lips.
“Mmm….”
She melted, subservient to desire.
…
The majority of the day was spent in his penthouse. Sex was followed by breakfast (or lunch, given the hour) in bed with a pointless shower serving only as a good place to test out the size of his shower stall. Wearing one of his long t-shirts, they cuddled on the couch, ignoring the phone in favor of a few Pay-Per-View movies that were also ignored in favor of making out like teenagers. It wasn’t until nightfall that reality came knocking; he had to go out patrolling and much as she’d like to stay behind at his penthouse she wanted to at least get a change of clothes. Not to mention, the League was meeting up again the next day and she felt like the words, “I just had amazing sex with the boss,” were stamped to her forehead.
So while he geared up and got ready to scout the city for the big bad guys she drove to the apartment Jimmy had bought for their happily ever after, once upon a time. Though now it served more as the place where her new life had begun, where she and Oliver had destiny come knocking. Not in the nicest of ways, admittedly, but… What happened was the past and what came out of it was the future; one she looked forward to exploring.
Walking inside her apartment she left the lights off and kicked her shoes to the side before silently padding toward her bedroom. While her bed wasn’t nearly as large or as comfortable as Oliver’s had been it was calling her now and she was not to disappoint. He’d more than likely appear in a few hours, crawl in next to her and drift off himself and with that thought she smiled, feeling happier than she had in too long.
It was as she turned on her bedroom light that she noticed something was off. Instincts told her to find her tazer, to attack without question, but something else had her turning, brows furrowed, curiosity getting the best of her. There was a foot hanging over the edge of her couch, a heel that was entirely too expensive and too high for any respectable hit-woman to be sporting. She stepped closer, careful and suspicious. But as her eyes focused and the face attached to those feet became clear, she wasn’t sure what to do. For a moment, she wondered if she was hallucinating. But when the person currently sprawled on her couch shifted, mumbled something about Whitesnake and then let out a very loud, very telling snore, she nearly cried.
“Lo?” It came out a whisper and so she repeated herself, louder now. “Lois?”
Sleeping Beauty moved, stirred, lifting her head and blinking sleepily. “Chloe?”
She laughed, a once cheerful sound shattering on a sob. “Lois!” she exclaimed, launching herself over the couch and landing heavily on her cousin, hugging her tight while caught somewhere between sheer happiness and a cloud of sadness at missing her so much.
Hugging her back, Lois patted her back. “See… This was what I was expecting… Two days and no sign of you, I was beginning to wonder…”
“Two days?” Chloe drew back, wiping at her face. “You’ve been…” Her brow furrowed. “I… I think I saw you… Just outside La Perla… I… I thought it was you but when I got outside you were gone and… and I swore you were with Clark, but that’s… impossible. Or… I thought it was, but… Here you are!” She laughed brokenly, her expression scrunching up. “You are here, right? I’m not having a really great dream only to wake up and be disappointed?”
Lois smiled. “Totally real. And I even have Smallville here to prove it.” She tossed a thumb behind her and Chloe focused in on the other figure currently inhabiting the whole of her armchair. She wasn’t sure how to respond to that…
Waking up, much more subdued than the two women in the room, Clark Kent took in the reunion with a stiff expression that even Chloe couldn’t quite read.
“Clark,” she said, her voice hesitant.
“Chloe,” he greeted back stoically.
“Uh, am I missing something?” Lois wondered bluntly.
Shaking her head, Chloe turned back to her. “I know I’ve been missing a certain favorite cousin,” she replied, eyes widening for emphasis. “Where have you been?”
Lois sighed, rolling her eyes. “Long story… One I am going to tell you in full, glorious detail. However, I’ve got a question that needs answering and don’t even think of skimping on details… You and Oliver…” She grinned mischievously. “Spill.”
Chloe’s heart skipped a beat, her expression going from complete joy to shock. “H-How…? What…?”
Knowingly, Lois swung her legs over the side of the couch and sat up proudly. “Let’s just say I had a first-hand experience. Now… I want the full story and I’ve got a lot of time to hear it.”
Her brows rose. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting at all. Still surprised, her eyes slid toward the prone figure of Clark sitting with a confused expression permeating his face. “Uh, how about we hear your side of things first…” she suggested rather uncomfortably.
Frowning, Lois shrugged. “Fine. Leave me in the dark a little longer. But know that you can’t talk yourself around this one!” she said meaningfully. “While future-you wasn’t exactly accommodating, I’m not a number-one investigative reporter for nothing. If the wedding pictures weren’t proof enough, the Queen spawn gave you away…”
“W-Wedding…” Her eyes flew wide, jaw hanging loose. “Did you say spawn?”
Grinning, Lois’ always-mischievous eyes flashed excitably. “Cutest nephew to ever live, I’m telling you!”
In need of a very deep breath, Chloe fell back against the couch in astonishment. “I think you need to start from the beginning,” she murmured.
Lois was only too happy to accommodate.
…
Dazed and a little shaken, Chloe made her way into the kitchen with a million and three thoughts all vying for her attention. She barely heard the telling footsteps following her. With Lois camped on her couch and Chloe agreeing to make her something to eat more out of surprise than anything else, she looked absently through her fridge. Clark’s imposing figure hovered behind the fridge door, expecting her to turn to him.
Annoyed, she looked up at him. “Hungry too, Clark? I hear time-travel takes a lot of energy…”
He frowned, lips pursing in what appeared to be chastisement.
She sighed, feeling tired already.
“Is what she said true?” he asked, arms crossing heavily over his chest, like a father scolding his daughter for misbehaving.
Her spine straightened with indignation. “You’re the one who rescued her from the future, Clark. Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
His jaw twitched, eyes turning away for a split-second. “I don’t think you know what you’re getting into,” he finally said.
Hands falling to her hips, she tipped her head. “I’m sorry… Did you want to plan out my life for me? One which you willingly left, I’ll remind you!”
“I did what I had to,” he said simply. “Lois is back now and I know what’s coming next.”
“Congratulations. I’m so glad your escape from humanity brought clarity,” she snapped.
He sighed, head falling slightly. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Shaking her head, she expelled a tired breath and turned around to get Lois’ sandwich started. “Yeah, well, you never really try… but it has a way of always happening,” she muttered rather bitterly.
“Chloe…” She knew that tone, it meant he was about to lecture her for what he deemed intolerable behavior. “Oliver isn’t the same guy we first met… He killed Lex… That’s not something I can overlook. And… Everything to do with Jimmy and Davis… He played a part. Maybe if it wasn’t for him, Jimmy would still be here.”
Whirling around, she glared viciously at him. “You have no right…”
Frowning, he lifted his chin righteously. “He crossed a line. Murder isn’t forgivable.”
She winced, her expression stricken. Shaking her head, she licked her lips. “You don’t know him like I do, Clark… You have no idea who he is or… Or what we have.”
His eyes hardened. “I know he killed Lex… and his hands aren’t entirely clean when it comes to Jimmy either.”
Darkly, she inhaled, ready to fight back. “And I know that you have no right to walk into my life, a year later, and try and tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing. Who I choose to love is up to me and you have no say…”
“Love?” His eyes widened. “Chloe…” He sighed as if she’d just said something completely inane, as if he knew better than her and would talk her out of whatever she thought she was feeling.
Throwing her hands up, she felt stress envelop her but couldn’t see any logical avenue to let it out through. “You just… You don’t get it, do you?” She stared up at him with huge green eyes, the burn of tears lodged far in the back as she refused to let them spill here, now, when she so wanted to be angry with him. “You weren’t there! You don’t get to do this! You can’t just…”
Covering her face with her palms she inhaled deeply before letting her arms fall loosely at her sides. “For an entire year you did what you were sure you had to and Oliver… He was broken and confused and…” Her brow furrowed. “And so was I. But, you know what? Neither of us ran away… Neither of us just gave up or disappeared or abandoned those who cared about us, who we were supposed to care about back!” She shook her head as her throat tightened, pent up anger overriding her hurt. “He stayed and he… He held me and listened to me and he talked to me like I was the person he could confide in without regret.”
Her hand lifted, fingers pressing against the pained knot of her brow. “You don’t know what it’s like to wake up and think you’re all alone and then… then realize that you’re not. Because he’s there and he won’t ever leave you…” She swallowed thickly. “Because he loves you and he’s seen the same things you have, he’s been hurt and kicked when he was down and he knows what it’s like to think the entire world should or has turned its back on you… And still, through everything, all that you shared, that you admitted -your faults and weaknesses- he’s willing to tell you that it’ll be okay, that you’ll be all right. And…” She looked up at him, tears finally thickening over her lids and escaping down her cheeks. “And I believe him! Because whatever happens, he’ll never lie to me… never leave me…” She shook her head, biting down hard on her lower lip as she tried to regain control.
He stared at her, his expression one of complete incomprehension, as if he absorbed her words but hadn’t yet been able to understand the meaning.
Shaken, she sighed. “I think you should go.”
“Chloe--”
“No! Clark!” she exclaimed, frustrated. “Just… Just butt out, please!”
His face went from uncertain to entirely masked before he nodded, backed out of the kitchen and left once more, without looking back.
Upset, Chloe turned around quickly and worked to make a sandwich with more precision than it really needed. With a glass of milk and food in hand, she returned to the kitchen to give Lois her very late dinner. Tired, her cousin rubbed her face and gave a long, not-so-feminine yawn. “Thanks,” she said, digging in.
Nodding silently, Chloe sat down next to her. “So…” For the first time in her entire life, she wasn’t sure what to say to her own cousin.
“You wanna tell me what’s been going on here in the present?” Lois asked through a mouthful.
Smiling more for Lois’ benefit than anything else, she nodded. “It’s not pretty.”
“Never is.”
Taking a deep breath, she prepared to explain it all, leaving no detail to the imagination.
…
Oliver arrived a few hours later, crawling through her window like he always did. However, he took one look at the occupied bed and blinked. As if somehow knowing he was there, Chloe stirred, yawning tiredly up at him. She smiled slightly.
“I’ll admit this was a dream of mine once,” he said, motioning to the other woman in the bed. “But I didn’t think you’d be game.”
Chuckling under her breath, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Cute.”
“I have my moments,” he said absently, narrowing his eyes at the figure currently hogging the blankets. “Do I want to know what happened here or should I feel replaced? Moving on so quickly, Sidekick?” He smirked. “And I thought I left an impression.”
Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. “That ego gets any bigger and you won’t even fit in my bed anymore.”
“I dunno. It fit fine before the other woman appeared…”
“Shuddup!” Lois whined sleepily. “Can’t a time-traveler get any rest around here?”
Oliver’s expression sobered quickly. “Is that… who I think it is?”
“Future cousin-in-law, trying to catch up on sleep here… Take it somewhere else, Lovebirds, this bed is full!” Sprawling out, she nearly knocked Chloe off the end of the bed as she made to take over the entire bed.
“Did she just…” Brows furrowed, Oliver shook his head. “I’m really out of the loop right now, aren’t I?”
Standing up, Chloe took his hand. “I’ll explain everything.”
Glancing over his shoulder at his snoring ex-girlfriend, he laughed lightly. “You know what I said about having that dream once?” His brows rose. “It was recurring… And long before you and I ever happened.”
She snorted. “Keep dreaming, ‘cause it’ll never happen.”
Pouting comically, he took a seat on the couch next to her and settled in for what was sure to be a long story.
…
“All right… So Lois went to the future, wreaked a little havoc, met all of us and put the pieces together all on her own… Then Clark swooped in to save the day, a year later, and now she’s back for good with seemingly no repercussions…?” Oliver blinked, his shoulders feeling heavy. “Wow… When she does something, it’s never half-assed.”
Chloe snorted. “Yeah, that’s Lois for you.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. “So we’re… married?”
Sliding her eyes toward him, she chewed her lip, nodding.
His lips quirked slightly. “And we have a son?”
“Cutest nephew to ever live,” she quoted.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Not so surprising, given his genes.”
She laughed. “That’s all you have to say?”
He lifted his shoulders. “It’s weird… Really weird. But… I can’t say I’ve never thought about it.”
Turning in her seat, she rested her arm over the back of the couch, holding her head in the palm of her hand. “With me?”
Mirroring her position, he stared at her adoringly. “Nobody else better suited.”
She smiled. “That mean you took applications?”
His expression became mockingly serious. “Full resumes, background checks, I had to be sure… You understand?”
“Of course.”
“But… In the end…” He reached forward, taking a lock of her bedraggled hair between his fingers. “You outdid every other possible candidate.”
Her smile grew and for a second she felt that clichéd skipped heartbeat. “Gold star for me.”
Grinning, he drew her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. “Anything else we should know about the future that might throw a wrench in things?”
“Be prepared for Clois…” she warned, amused. “While Clark and I are definitely not on speaking terms, from what I gathered… He and Lois eventually get their crap together…” She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know who I should be more worried for… Us or them…”
“We’ll be fine,” he assured.
“Oh I know that…” She absently played with the zipper of his vest. “But we have to bare witness to Lois and Clark… Denial is equally their middle names. And knowing the future or not, I have a feeling Lois won’t make it easy.”
He sighed. “She never does.”
“On the bright side… any worries about this,” she motioned between them, “blowing up in our respective faces has entirely faded.”
“You needed psychic-Lois to tell you that?” He squeezed her waist. “I could’ve saved you the time.”
“I wonder if your arrogance ever fades,” she teased.
“I think you’re stuck with it.”
Chuckling, she nodded. “Gladly.”
After a few long moments of silence, Oliver moved to lay them down on the couch. Since Lois was hogging the bed and going back to his penthouse wasn’t an option, he’d take what he could get. Snuggled up to him sleepily, she closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat against her ear.
“Sidekick?”
“Mm?”
“This stuff with Clark…”
He frowned, not sure how to expand on it.
Clark, her best friend, someone she’d been mourning the loss of the last two years, was straight out saying that she shouldn’t waste her time with Oliver; that he was no hero; that he had made too big a mistake to come back from. Could she really hear someone she trusted so much say such things and not be swayed in the least?
“Clark’s opinion is his own,” she murmured. “I know you. And what you did, what I did, we’ve accepted it and moved on. We can’t live our lives in regret and he… I don’t know. Maybe, hopefully, he’ll understand that one day.”
“You’ve already spent a year without him…” he trailed off, doubt and worry battling in his mind.
“Yeah and while I missed him I just so happened to find someone else on the way… Someone I love and trust and who I know won’t make the same mistake he did.” Tilting her head back, she looked up at him. “I missed him, I still do, but… I’m not going to let that get in the way of this… of us.”
He wanted to ask if she was sure, but the honesty of her statement was written on her face. Stroking her cheek, he leaned forward to kiss her. “His loss.”
Smiling, she cuddled up and sighed against him once more. “Your gain.”
He couldn’t regret that, not in the least.
[Next: Part V.]