An Exceptional Young Woman--Epilogue
Title: An Exceptional Young Woman--Epilogue
Category: Smallville
Rating: Teen/PG13
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver
Warnings: AU, barely detectable OOC, Smallville Timeline has totally gone out the window
Summary: Chloe gets thrown out of Smallville High, landing her in boarding school, or more specifically, the sister school to Excelsior Academy. What will she think when she meets the young Oliver Queen?
banner by sarcastic_fina
WARNING: BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THE STORY (I.E. THE ALTERED AGES) THE TIME LINE OF SMALLVILLE HAS BEEN COMPLETELY THROWN OFF KILTER! EMBRACE IT. ACCEPT IT. MOVE ON. LOVE YOU.
Epilogue
"DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Chloe shrieked into the phone. "I just wrote an article titled 'Head of Queen Industries Presumed Dead' and so help me God if you don't give me a straight answer I will personally murder both of you and make it look like you never existed!"
She paused, listening to the speaker on the other end before cutting him off.
"Don't give me that bullshit! I demand the two of you tell me where he is!"
Chloe paced up and down her apartment, utterly beside herself. It had been six years since the last time she saw Oliver Queen, back at his high school graduation, and the news that he'd been lost at sea? She hadn't taken it very well.
"Mr. Williams, I don't care if there is a greater purpose to all of this, I want Oliver Queen back on the safety of dry land, and I want him there now. And I know he's alive because you swore up and down my last three years of High School that I'd see him again, and I haven't seen him again and so help me, you had better tell me what's going on right now or I'll--"
She paused again.
"THERE IS SO A NEED FOR THREATS! Do you not understand what's going on here? I'm about to lose my mind completely and you're refusing to help me!" Another pause. "Fine!" she seethed. "Sit there and don't do anything, but I swear I'll never forgive either of you for this!" She threw her phone at the wall in a fit of rage, hoping it would smash into multiple pieces. It didn't, though. Clark appeared in the room just in time to catch it. He turned it off for her and set it gently on the counter.
"I don't want to talk to you, either," Chloe said unreasonably, not looking at him.
Clark looked at her pityingly. "Chloe, I thought you were over Oliver a long time ago."
The wrong thing to say apparently. In an instant Chloe was in his face, prodding his chest angrily. "JUST BECAUSE I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM HIM DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM!" She resisted the urge to slap him for it, knowing she would only break her hand. The knowledge sent a frustrated growl from her lips before she turned away from him angrily. "And where were you? Huh, Clark? Where were you for the one time it mattered to me personally?" she demanded, turning to face him again. "You can save a thousand people we'll never know, but the one time a ship is actually sinking with someone I care about on board, you're nowhere to be found!"
"Chloe," Clark said gently, "you can't blame me for this. I had no way of--"
"What if Lois had been on that ship? Hmm, Clark? I bet you would have been out there in the blink of an eye, then, wouldn't you?" she accused.
"Chloe, that isn't fair. We both know--"
"I don't want to hear your excuses, Clark. Just leave me alone!" She stormed out of the room and slammed the door to her bedroom shut.
Clark stared at the closed door guiltily, but realized for the moment that there was nothing he could do. Chloe would forgive him in time, he knew. She was angry and upset and scared, and it was taking its toll on her. He didn't blame her. It had been a rough year for Chloe. Her job was in trouble at the Daily Planet because of this Grant Gabriel character, and Jimmy had left her for his cousin Kara...he shook his head. Finding out about Oliver had been one blow too many for Chloe.
Why did it seem like bad things only happened to good people?
He heaved a tired sigh. There was nothing he could do at the moment. Chloe didn't want to face it, but by now there was no chance Oliver Queen had survived. It wasn't fair, the things life put Chloe through. It was too much for her.
He walked over to the kitchen and set her coffee maker running. It was the only thing he could think of to do. At least now once she calmed down a bit, there would be hot coffee waiting for her. After that he left, going to warn Lois that Chloe was definitely not ready to talk, yet.
_________________________________________
Inside her bedroom Chloe started to head for the bathroom, planning to dose herself with sleeping pills, but then she stopped, thinking better of it. The last thing she needed was to be trapped in a nightmare and unable to wake up from it.
She flung herself on the bed, beating her pillow angrily.
This was so wrong.
She should have stopped it from happening, should have been there for him.
It wasn't fair.
Slowly she stopped fighting, her rage beginning to send her into exhaustion and she gave way instead to the sobs that had been threatening to take over her all day, tears spilling into her pillow and soaking it as she buried her face in it.
Six years since the last time they spoke. Since that day in her dorm when she'd told him that nothing had changed, that she still couldn't be honest with him. He'd broken the promise to write to her. She never got one e-mail from him. She didn't blame him, though. She could understand it must have been painful for him. In his place she would have wanted to move on, too, to make him a thing of her past.
So she'd never contacted him, never pressed him. Eventually she'd moved on from him. She'd met Jimmy at the Daily Planet internship all those years ago, and then they'd been reunited again. But that, too, had ended in catastrophe, just like every relationship she'd ever had in her life. Just like every relationship she ever would have.
It would always come back to the lies and deceit.
She wanted to scream, but she just didn't have the strength
________________________________________
Two and a half years later found Chloe sitting behind a computer, eyes rapidly flickering over the articles her cousin had written.
It was him. She knew it.
A year and three months ago, Oliver had been rescued from the island, and she'd practically had her bag packed to go see him before she realized that she wasn't a part of his life anymore, and there was not even a slight possibility he wanted to see her.
Her later realization that he was seeing someone named Tess Mercer only served to confirm the belief that she'd made the right choice. She couldn't even imagine what would have happened if she'd actually shown up on his doorstep. It would have been humiliating.
Of course, two months later, every tabloid in the country was publishing his breakup with "the girl from the island." Oliver had cheated on Tess, and Chloe had just sighed. She'd seen that pattern forming long before the island. She'd always made a point to keep an eye on him, to just keep tabs to make sure he was all right. She couldn't count the number of times she'd been tempted to intervene. To tell him to quit acting like a drunken manwhore who couldn't keep it in his pants and straighten up...but she'd stopped herself every time. She'd had to tell herself again and again that it was none of her business. She was a part of his past now, and whether or not he'd just purposefully thrown away his relationship with this Mercer woman...well it was not her place to say or do anything about it.
But this...this was the breaking point.
Three weeks ago, Chloe had received a phone call from Martha Kent, attempting to be casual but failing utterly when she said, "You know Oliver Queen is supposed to stop by this afternoon to discuss funding with me."
And Chloe had nearly gone into a dead faint. It wasn't so much that he thought Oliver had gone out of his way to come to Smallville, but the very fact that he had been so close. That all it would have taken was the pretense of visiting the Kent farm and she could have seen him, could have checked on whether or not he was really okay since the shipwreck. It would have been so nice just to have seen him. Sure, she'd calmed down a lot since her initial freak-out over his return, but it didn't mean she didn't still think about him. As she'd had to repeatedly explain to Clark over the years, she cared about him.
Now, she was sitting in front of a computer, trying to convince herself that she was going insane and that there was no way what she thought was going on was actually going on.
He couldn't be. More importantly, he wouldn't.
...would he?
Who was she kidding? Of course he would.
She closed her laptop and grabbed her car keys and headed straight for the door.
____________________________________
Oliver rubbed his face tiredly, finally giving up all pretense of getting his morning workout done. Meditation was impossible. All he could think about was his run-in last night.
His run-in with Clark Kent.
His mind was still reeling. Every minute of his sophomore year of high school had flooded back to him. Every thing Chloe had ever said about Clark, every time he'd ever suspected she was lying about something...the uncanny number of visits Clark was able to make to her. So many blanks had suddenly filled themselves in, and he honestly couldn't believe it. It was too...impossible.
His high school relationship with Chloe Sullivan felt like a century ago. They were such different people back then...he could only imagine. He'd been fighting the urge to go find her ever since he got in last night. Something about finally knowing the truth about everything that had happened...it made him want to go see her, to let her know he got it now, and that he didn't blame her.
He shook his head, pulling on a black T-shirt and making his way to the kitchen to get something to eat. He snatched up an apple and pulled out a knife, sinking into a chair and starting to have at it, when his elevator doors slid open, revealing the last person he'd ever expected to show up on his doorstep. He stared at her, hands holding the knife and apple now hovering in the air, forgotten bite halfway to his mouth.
She was out of breath and her face was flushed as she locked eyes with him, an angry charge behind hers. "You--" she panted, "are--such--an--idiot!"
He stood up, the apple and knife falling to the ground.
"What--on--earth--do--you--think--you're--doing?" She paused for a second and finally caught her breath as Oliver slowly moved toward her, completely entranced and not hearing a word she was saying. She continued right ahead regardless. "Parading around in green leather, playing hero? Really, Oliver? What the hell are you thinking? Have you completely lost your--Mmph."
He pulled her roughly to him and kissed her as hard as he could, but Chloe shoved him back. "Don't think I came here for that!" she warned him. "This has nothing to do with that. This is about the fact that you--" he cut her lips off with his a second time, ignoring her protests. His tongue found entrance into her mouth and Chloe was unable to prevent the moan that poured forth from her mouth into his.
They kissed each other like it was a battle, as if one of them could somehow come out on top, Oliver eventually shoving her against the grate of the elevator, his hands groping every inch of her body he could reach.
"I hate you," Chloe said fervently against his mouth, trying to ignore the heat pooling in her stomach. Oliver only bit her lower lip in reply. "I do," she insisted. "I hate you so much."
Acknowledging that she was utterly determined to ruin this by talking, Oliver's lips moved away from hers to free them up so she could say whatever it was she had to say. In the meantime he moved on to her neck, sucking and biting and licking, pleased as she tilted it to expose more of it to him, and noting each subtle gasp or moan as he explored the territory.
"I could have--" she sucked in a breath "--killed you in college," she was saying. "You made a complete--oh, God--fool of yourself, you know. Running around like an idiot who didn't have the--mmm--sense he was born with."
He moved up to her ear and sucked on the lobe, noting the shudder it sent over her body. Then he spoke against it, "I'm sorry," he told her, hoping that would satisfy her so he could get back to her lips again.
It didn't though. "And then that stupid island. I refuse to believe you had to be stranded as long as that. Couldn't you have hurried up the rescue a bit?" she asked irrationally. It wasn't her fault, he was distorting her ability to use logic. She shoved him off of her again. Looking him in the eye, she said seriously. "I had to write your obituary, damn it."
Guilt surged through him. It wasn't his fault, but he felt sorry for her, knowing the pain that must have put her through. He pulled her back into his arms and hugged her tightly. "I'm here now," he reminded her.
He swore he could actually hear her rolling her eyes, even with her face buried in his chest, he could tell she was doing it.
"Yeah," she scoffed, pulling her head back to look at him. "And once again you're doing something incredibly stupid. Running around in tights--"
"They're not tights."
"--playing cowboys and Indians--"
"Robin Hood, actually.
"--making a complete fool of yourself--"
"I'll have you know I'm quite popular with certain charities."
"--and trying to get yourself killed."
"Trying not to get myself killed, actually." She glared at him. "For once," he conceded and she just clucked her tongue.
"Ass," she accused.
"It is rather nice, isn't it?" he smirked. "The leather really sets it off."
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his shirt, pulling him to her so she could kiss him again.
He smirked arrogantly against her lips. "Thought you hated me."
"I do. Shut up." Her hands moved over his shoulders, clinging to his neck and wishing it didn't feel so good.
Oliver pressed her against the elevator grate again, unable to prevent the growing arousal he was experiencing.
God, please don't let her suddenly realize what she's doing and walk out on me, he silently prayed.
God seemed to be listening, because Chloe's hands threaded into his hair as she pressed her body needily against his.
He wrenched his lips from hers and rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed, trying to figure out what he was doing. "God, Chloe," he muttered. "Do you know how many times I've thought about you? How many dreams I've had about you?"
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her heart aching with the years they'd been apart. "It was just...nothing--"
"Had changed," he finished. "I know....I know," he added. "Everything. I ran into Clark last night."
Chloe stopped breathing.
"I figured everything out," he assured her, "and I get it. I understand. You had to--"
This time she cut off his words with a fiery kiss.
"Chloe," he panted, pulling his lips from hers for the umpteenth time, not sure just how long his willpower would hold out, "We should--we should...stop," he forced the word out with great effort. "There should be talking...and...and dates...and--" he was cut off as she pulled his shirt over his head, "and--pretentious bullshit about taking it slow," he insisted, stopping her in her tracks. She caught his eye, eyebrow quirked, clearly amused.
"I have had enough pretentious bullshit to last a life time. Right now I just want you," she kissed him fiercely, and Oliver couldn't help being convinced. She'd always been able to make a good argument.
Clothes were shed quickly and carelessly, several buttons on Chloe's blouse ending up skidding across the floor by accident, as he and Chloe seemed to be racing to see who could remove the most clothes in the shortest amount of time. And then her legs were wrapping around his waist, and he was blindly trying to carry her to the bedroom, desperate for this to happen in a bed and not on the floor. Because this was Chloe, and she deserved so much better than the floor.
And then there were lustful groans, unrelenting hands, staggered breaths, hot kisses and much, much more as he took her over and over again in every way he could think of before she finally fell asleep in his arms and he pulled the blankets over them, pulling her tighter into his body.
Oh god, was all he could think as he essentially molded her body to his, I am one lucky bastard. He kissed the top of her head and then her forehead, her nose, her lips, her jaw, and finally her ear. She didn't move, completely passed out, but when he whispered "I love you," against her ear, he saw her smile softly in her sleep.
He wondered what that smile would look like when he told her while she was awake.
He had to admit he was exhausted, too. Especially considering he hadn't slept most of the night. But he was still in awe, and a bit afraid this would turn out to not be real. In the back of his mind all these years, he'd known it was pointless--stupid, even--to still be so hung up on the girl he'd dated in high school. Sure there had been other women since Chloe. He'd cared about Mercy a lot. It wasn't as though he'd sat around and pined for her, but then again, in a way he'd done just that. There had always been a voice in the back of his mind, comparing every woman he ever met to her, pointing out the fact that they all fell short.
But that didn't mean he'd ever expected to see her again. He thought Chloe Sullivan was just a part of his past. The biggest regret he'd ever have? Absolutely. But still part of his past.
Her showing up on his door step was nothing short of a miracle. That was all it came down to. She was the most amazing woman he'd ever met in his life, and she still cared about him after all this time, in spite of all the stupid things he'd done.
It was as if life had decided they'd met too soon--that they had walked into each others' lives before they were quite ready for it. At least, she hadn't been ready for him. But now that he finally knew the whole story, or at least he was sure he would very soon, they could be together.
Finally.
Chapter One; Chapter Two; Chapter Three; Chapter Four; Chapter Five; Chapter Six; Chapter Seven; Chapter Eight; Chapter Nine; Chapter Ten; Chapter Eleven; Chapter Twelve ; Chapter Thirteen; Chapter Fourteen; Chapter Fifteen; Chapter Sixteen; Chapter Seventeen; Chapter Eighteen; Chapter Nineteen; Chapter Twenty; Chapter Twenty-One; Chapter Twenty-Two; Chapter Twenty-Three; Epilogue
All right guys, that's all there is. There isn't anymore. I know everyone's hoping for a sequel, but I'm pretty sure I'm putting this one to bed. It spiraled out of control as it is. :)
I'm glad everyone enjoyed it so much, though, and I hope you all read anything I write in the future!
BlueSuede
P.S. It's National Novel Writing Month! Write a novel!
Category: Smallville
Rating: Teen/PG13
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver
Warnings: AU, barely detectable OOC, Smallville Timeline has totally gone out the window
Summary: Chloe gets thrown out of Smallville High, landing her in boarding school, or more specifically, the sister school to Excelsior Academy. What will she think when she meets the young Oliver Queen?
banner by sarcastic_fina
WARNING: BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THE STORY (I.E. THE ALTERED AGES) THE TIME LINE OF SMALLVILLE HAS BEEN COMPLETELY THROWN OFF KILTER! EMBRACE IT. ACCEPT IT. MOVE ON. LOVE YOU.
Epilogue
"DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Chloe shrieked into the phone. "I just wrote an article titled 'Head of Queen Industries Presumed Dead' and so help me God if you don't give me a straight answer I will personally murder both of you and make it look like you never existed!"
She paused, listening to the speaker on the other end before cutting him off.
"Don't give me that bullshit! I demand the two of you tell me where he is!"
Chloe paced up and down her apartment, utterly beside herself. It had been six years since the last time she saw Oliver Queen, back at his high school graduation, and the news that he'd been lost at sea? She hadn't taken it very well.
"Mr. Williams, I don't care if there is a greater purpose to all of this, I want Oliver Queen back on the safety of dry land, and I want him there now. And I know he's alive because you swore up and down my last three years of High School that I'd see him again, and I haven't seen him again and so help me, you had better tell me what's going on right now or I'll--"
She paused again.
"THERE IS SO A NEED FOR THREATS! Do you not understand what's going on here? I'm about to lose my mind completely and you're refusing to help me!" Another pause. "Fine!" she seethed. "Sit there and don't do anything, but I swear I'll never forgive either of you for this!" She threw her phone at the wall in a fit of rage, hoping it would smash into multiple pieces. It didn't, though. Clark appeared in the room just in time to catch it. He turned it off for her and set it gently on the counter.
"I don't want to talk to you, either," Chloe said unreasonably, not looking at him.
Clark looked at her pityingly. "Chloe, I thought you were over Oliver a long time ago."
The wrong thing to say apparently. In an instant Chloe was in his face, prodding his chest angrily. "JUST BECAUSE I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM HIM DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM!" She resisted the urge to slap him for it, knowing she would only break her hand. The knowledge sent a frustrated growl from her lips before she turned away from him angrily. "And where were you? Huh, Clark? Where were you for the one time it mattered to me personally?" she demanded, turning to face him again. "You can save a thousand people we'll never know, but the one time a ship is actually sinking with someone I care about on board, you're nowhere to be found!"
"Chloe," Clark said gently, "you can't blame me for this. I had no way of--"
"What if Lois had been on that ship? Hmm, Clark? I bet you would have been out there in the blink of an eye, then, wouldn't you?" she accused.
"Chloe, that isn't fair. We both know--"
"I don't want to hear your excuses, Clark. Just leave me alone!" She stormed out of the room and slammed the door to her bedroom shut.
Clark stared at the closed door guiltily, but realized for the moment that there was nothing he could do. Chloe would forgive him in time, he knew. She was angry and upset and scared, and it was taking its toll on her. He didn't blame her. It had been a rough year for Chloe. Her job was in trouble at the Daily Planet because of this Grant Gabriel character, and Jimmy had left her for his cousin Kara...he shook his head. Finding out about Oliver had been one blow too many for Chloe.
Why did it seem like bad things only happened to good people?
He heaved a tired sigh. There was nothing he could do at the moment. Chloe didn't want to face it, but by now there was no chance Oliver Queen had survived. It wasn't fair, the things life put Chloe through. It was too much for her.
He walked over to the kitchen and set her coffee maker running. It was the only thing he could think of to do. At least now once she calmed down a bit, there would be hot coffee waiting for her. After that he left, going to warn Lois that Chloe was definitely not ready to talk, yet.
_________________________________________
Inside her bedroom Chloe started to head for the bathroom, planning to dose herself with sleeping pills, but then she stopped, thinking better of it. The last thing she needed was to be trapped in a nightmare and unable to wake up from it.
She flung herself on the bed, beating her pillow angrily.
This was so wrong.
She should have stopped it from happening, should have been there for him.
It wasn't fair.
Slowly she stopped fighting, her rage beginning to send her into exhaustion and she gave way instead to the sobs that had been threatening to take over her all day, tears spilling into her pillow and soaking it as she buried her face in it.
Six years since the last time they spoke. Since that day in her dorm when she'd told him that nothing had changed, that she still couldn't be honest with him. He'd broken the promise to write to her. She never got one e-mail from him. She didn't blame him, though. She could understand it must have been painful for him. In his place she would have wanted to move on, too, to make him a thing of her past.
So she'd never contacted him, never pressed him. Eventually she'd moved on from him. She'd met Jimmy at the Daily Planet internship all those years ago, and then they'd been reunited again. But that, too, had ended in catastrophe, just like every relationship she'd ever had in her life. Just like every relationship she ever would have.
It would always come back to the lies and deceit.
She wanted to scream, but she just didn't have the strength
________________________________________
Two and a half years later found Chloe sitting behind a computer, eyes rapidly flickering over the articles her cousin had written.
It was him. She knew it.
A year and three months ago, Oliver had been rescued from the island, and she'd practically had her bag packed to go see him before she realized that she wasn't a part of his life anymore, and there was not even a slight possibility he wanted to see her.
Her later realization that he was seeing someone named Tess Mercer only served to confirm the belief that she'd made the right choice. She couldn't even imagine what would have happened if she'd actually shown up on his doorstep. It would have been humiliating.
Of course, two months later, every tabloid in the country was publishing his breakup with "the girl from the island." Oliver had cheated on Tess, and Chloe had just sighed. She'd seen that pattern forming long before the island. She'd always made a point to keep an eye on him, to just keep tabs to make sure he was all right. She couldn't count the number of times she'd been tempted to intervene. To tell him to quit acting like a drunken manwhore who couldn't keep it in his pants and straighten up...but she'd stopped herself every time. She'd had to tell herself again and again that it was none of her business. She was a part of his past now, and whether or not he'd just purposefully thrown away his relationship with this Mercer woman...well it was not her place to say or do anything about it.
But this...this was the breaking point.
Three weeks ago, Chloe had received a phone call from Martha Kent, attempting to be casual but failing utterly when she said, "You know Oliver Queen is supposed to stop by this afternoon to discuss funding with me."
And Chloe had nearly gone into a dead faint. It wasn't so much that he thought Oliver had gone out of his way to come to Smallville, but the very fact that he had been so close. That all it would have taken was the pretense of visiting the Kent farm and she could have seen him, could have checked on whether or not he was really okay since the shipwreck. It would have been so nice just to have seen him. Sure, she'd calmed down a lot since her initial freak-out over his return, but it didn't mean she didn't still think about him. As she'd had to repeatedly explain to Clark over the years, she cared about him.
Now, she was sitting in front of a computer, trying to convince herself that she was going insane and that there was no way what she thought was going on was actually going on.
He couldn't be. More importantly, he wouldn't.
...would he?
Who was she kidding? Of course he would.
She closed her laptop and grabbed her car keys and headed straight for the door.
____________________________________
Oliver rubbed his face tiredly, finally giving up all pretense of getting his morning workout done. Meditation was impossible. All he could think about was his run-in last night.
His run-in with Clark Kent.
His mind was still reeling. Every minute of his sophomore year of high school had flooded back to him. Every thing Chloe had ever said about Clark, every time he'd ever suspected she was lying about something...the uncanny number of visits Clark was able to make to her. So many blanks had suddenly filled themselves in, and he honestly couldn't believe it. It was too...impossible.
His high school relationship with Chloe Sullivan felt like a century ago. They were such different people back then...he could only imagine. He'd been fighting the urge to go find her ever since he got in last night. Something about finally knowing the truth about everything that had happened...it made him want to go see her, to let her know he got it now, and that he didn't blame her.
He shook his head, pulling on a black T-shirt and making his way to the kitchen to get something to eat. He snatched up an apple and pulled out a knife, sinking into a chair and starting to have at it, when his elevator doors slid open, revealing the last person he'd ever expected to show up on his doorstep. He stared at her, hands holding the knife and apple now hovering in the air, forgotten bite halfway to his mouth.
She was out of breath and her face was flushed as she locked eyes with him, an angry charge behind hers. "You--" she panted, "are--such--an--idiot!"
He stood up, the apple and knife falling to the ground.
"What--on--earth--do--you--think--you're--doing?" She paused for a second and finally caught her breath as Oliver slowly moved toward her, completely entranced and not hearing a word she was saying. She continued right ahead regardless. "Parading around in green leather, playing hero? Really, Oliver? What the hell are you thinking? Have you completely lost your--Mmph."
He pulled her roughly to him and kissed her as hard as he could, but Chloe shoved him back. "Don't think I came here for that!" she warned him. "This has nothing to do with that. This is about the fact that you--" he cut her lips off with his a second time, ignoring her protests. His tongue found entrance into her mouth and Chloe was unable to prevent the moan that poured forth from her mouth into his.
They kissed each other like it was a battle, as if one of them could somehow come out on top, Oliver eventually shoving her against the grate of the elevator, his hands groping every inch of her body he could reach.
"I hate you," Chloe said fervently against his mouth, trying to ignore the heat pooling in her stomach. Oliver only bit her lower lip in reply. "I do," she insisted. "I hate you so much."
Acknowledging that she was utterly determined to ruin this by talking, Oliver's lips moved away from hers to free them up so she could say whatever it was she had to say. In the meantime he moved on to her neck, sucking and biting and licking, pleased as she tilted it to expose more of it to him, and noting each subtle gasp or moan as he explored the territory.
"I could have--" she sucked in a breath "--killed you in college," she was saying. "You made a complete--oh, God--fool of yourself, you know. Running around like an idiot who didn't have the--mmm--sense he was born with."
He moved up to her ear and sucked on the lobe, noting the shudder it sent over her body. Then he spoke against it, "I'm sorry," he told her, hoping that would satisfy her so he could get back to her lips again.
It didn't though. "And then that stupid island. I refuse to believe you had to be stranded as long as that. Couldn't you have hurried up the rescue a bit?" she asked irrationally. It wasn't her fault, he was distorting her ability to use logic. She shoved him off of her again. Looking him in the eye, she said seriously. "I had to write your obituary, damn it."
Guilt surged through him. It wasn't his fault, but he felt sorry for her, knowing the pain that must have put her through. He pulled her back into his arms and hugged her tightly. "I'm here now," he reminded her.
He swore he could actually hear her rolling her eyes, even with her face buried in his chest, he could tell she was doing it.
"Yeah," she scoffed, pulling her head back to look at him. "And once again you're doing something incredibly stupid. Running around in tights--"
"They're not tights."
"--playing cowboys and Indians--"
"Robin Hood, actually.
"--making a complete fool of yourself--"
"I'll have you know I'm quite popular with certain charities."
"--and trying to get yourself killed."
"Trying not to get myself killed, actually." She glared at him. "For once," he conceded and she just clucked her tongue.
"Ass," she accused.
"It is rather nice, isn't it?" he smirked. "The leather really sets it off."
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his shirt, pulling him to her so she could kiss him again.
He smirked arrogantly against her lips. "Thought you hated me."
"I do. Shut up." Her hands moved over his shoulders, clinging to his neck and wishing it didn't feel so good.
Oliver pressed her against the elevator grate again, unable to prevent the growing arousal he was experiencing.
God, please don't let her suddenly realize what she's doing and walk out on me, he silently prayed.
God seemed to be listening, because Chloe's hands threaded into his hair as she pressed her body needily against his.
He wrenched his lips from hers and rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed, trying to figure out what he was doing. "God, Chloe," he muttered. "Do you know how many times I've thought about you? How many dreams I've had about you?"
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her heart aching with the years they'd been apart. "It was just...nothing--"
"Had changed," he finished. "I know....I know," he added. "Everything. I ran into Clark last night."
Chloe stopped breathing.
"I figured everything out," he assured her, "and I get it. I understand. You had to--"
This time she cut off his words with a fiery kiss.
"Chloe," he panted, pulling his lips from hers for the umpteenth time, not sure just how long his willpower would hold out, "We should--we should...stop," he forced the word out with great effort. "There should be talking...and...and dates...and--" he was cut off as she pulled his shirt over his head, "and--pretentious bullshit about taking it slow," he insisted, stopping her in her tracks. She caught his eye, eyebrow quirked, clearly amused.
"I have had enough pretentious bullshit to last a life time. Right now I just want you," she kissed him fiercely, and Oliver couldn't help being convinced. She'd always been able to make a good argument.
Clothes were shed quickly and carelessly, several buttons on Chloe's blouse ending up skidding across the floor by accident, as he and Chloe seemed to be racing to see who could remove the most clothes in the shortest amount of time. And then her legs were wrapping around his waist, and he was blindly trying to carry her to the bedroom, desperate for this to happen in a bed and not on the floor. Because this was Chloe, and she deserved so much better than the floor.
And then there were lustful groans, unrelenting hands, staggered breaths, hot kisses and much, much more as he took her over and over again in every way he could think of before she finally fell asleep in his arms and he pulled the blankets over them, pulling her tighter into his body.
Oh god, was all he could think as he essentially molded her body to his, I am one lucky bastard. He kissed the top of her head and then her forehead, her nose, her lips, her jaw, and finally her ear. She didn't move, completely passed out, but when he whispered "I love you," against her ear, he saw her smile softly in her sleep.
He wondered what that smile would look like when he told her while she was awake.
He had to admit he was exhausted, too. Especially considering he hadn't slept most of the night. But he was still in awe, and a bit afraid this would turn out to not be real. In the back of his mind all these years, he'd known it was pointless--stupid, even--to still be so hung up on the girl he'd dated in high school. Sure there had been other women since Chloe. He'd cared about Mercy a lot. It wasn't as though he'd sat around and pined for her, but then again, in a way he'd done just that. There had always been a voice in the back of his mind, comparing every woman he ever met to her, pointing out the fact that they all fell short.
But that didn't mean he'd ever expected to see her again. He thought Chloe Sullivan was just a part of his past. The biggest regret he'd ever have? Absolutely. But still part of his past.
Her showing up on his door step was nothing short of a miracle. That was all it came down to. She was the most amazing woman he'd ever met in his life, and she still cared about him after all this time, in spite of all the stupid things he'd done.
It was as if life had decided they'd met too soon--that they had walked into each others' lives before they were quite ready for it. At least, she hadn't been ready for him. But now that he finally knew the whole story, or at least he was sure he would very soon, they could be together.
Finally.
Chapter One; Chapter Two; Chapter Three; Chapter Four; Chapter Five; Chapter Six; Chapter Seven; Chapter Eight; Chapter Nine; Chapter Ten; Chapter Eleven; Chapter Twelve ; Chapter Thirteen; Chapter Fourteen; Chapter Fifteen; Chapter Sixteen; Chapter Seventeen; Chapter Eighteen; Chapter Nineteen; Chapter Twenty; Chapter Twenty-One; Chapter Twenty-Two; Chapter Twenty-Three; Epilogue
All right guys, that's all there is. There isn't anymore. I know everyone's hoping for a sequel, but I'm pretty sure I'm putting this one to bed. It spiraled out of control as it is. :)
I'm glad everyone enjoyed it so much, though, and I hope you all read anything I write in the future!
BlueSuede
P.S. It's National Novel Writing Month! Write a novel!