An Origin Story: 19/23
Author: BlueSuede
Title: An Origin Story
Rating: R/M
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: Chloe/Oliver
Summary: AU in which Oliver's parents never died
Warnings: minor spoilers for most early seasons
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Prologue
Previous (Chapter 18)
Next (Chapter 20)
Chapter 19
Introducing the Amiable Friar Tuck
Clark ran. Trying not to think too hard about what he had to do, he allowed the wind to carry him, already feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation.
He couldn't pretend the weight of the world hadn't rested on his shoulders before. It had. Countless lives had hung in the balance of his decisions, his actions any number of times in his past. It had been a question of the grand scheme; it had been a personal matter.
And yes, it had involved heights. Several times now.
The trouble of the matter was that in spite of Chloe's seemingly infinite confidence in him - He'd never figure out what inspired that. - he hadn't exactly had a successful test flight.
According to Jor-El, of course, it was all psychological, but telling himself that it was all in his head didn't make unraveling years of acrophobia any easier.
But he knew he had to try. Any second now, the Queens could be hurtling for the ocean, which, if it didn't shatter their entire bodies on contact, would ultimately become their watery grave either way. Chloe was right. He was the only one who could save them. Bart might be able to get there quickly enough, but he couldn't haul two bodies across an ocean and still have the stamina to run on top of the water.
Somewhere in his head, he knew that what he was about to do was insane. Some small voice knew that all logic, every ounce of human science, told him that he was about to break the rules and fail miserably at it.
And yet, as Clark Kent's feet hit the very lest grain of sand on the east coast, suddenly, there was nothing beneath him but air, and once and for all, he silenced that voice.
Back at Chloe and Oliver's hotel room, Chloe was frantically dashing back and forth across the lavish suite, tending the cut on AC's black eye here, recharging Victor's batteries there, attempting to get Oliver to hold ice to his cut lip over there, and trying to get Bart to sit still...well, everywhere.
Mostly they were behaving themselves, other than Bart's inability to stay in one place and Oliver's stubborn inability to take care of himself for a few seconds, and Chloe was able to fix them all up pretty well. Oliver, ever observant of all things Chloe, noticed that she was avoiding eye-contact with Victor for some reason. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why. As it provided ample distraction from the fact that his parents were in a plane hurtling for the Atlantic ocean, and he was sitting around letting Chloe fuss over a swollen lip, though, he honed all his energy in it. Victor was shooting Chloe questioning looks every five seconds, and Chloe was carefully looking anywhere but at Vic.
MInutes later Chloe finally received the long-awaited phone call informing all of them that Oliver's parents were safe. It was Oliver's mother, rather than Clark, but she said that Clark had asked her to call Chloe first. Oliver spoke with her, and his parents explained that they had had made it to their airport in Europe. With imminent danger out of the way, they were continuing their trip to Seoul. With Clark's secret officially in the open to them, they also took a moment to thank Chloe personally, recognizing that she had been behind the orchestration of their rescue. Oliver listened with amusement as they stepped carefully around revealing anything to him. It was their guess that Chloe was involved. They had no idea of Oliver's hand in their rescue, which was fine with him. For the moment, he didn't think his parents really needed to know about his alternate identity.
The moment they hung up with Laura and Robert Queen, though, Victor appeared to quit restraining himself. No sooner had Chloe moved to slip her cell phone back in her pocket than he rose from his seat and grabbed Chloe's arm. Only because he was close enough did Oliver hear Victor say in a lowered voice, "We need to talk."
Chloe bit her lip, nervously eyeing the others. Finally she nodded in resignation. "Not in front of the others," she said back in equally hushed tones. She pulled Victor out of the sitting room and into her bedroom. Oliver watched them go dubiously. He wasn't jealous of Victor. But at the same time, he had a certain presentiment that Chloe should be dragging him into her bedroom.
Inside her bedroom, Chloe sat down wearily on the hotel bed and looked at Victor. "I know," she sighed.
Victor was pacing back and forth. "Chloe, we have to do something. Did you see those people?"
Chloe buried her face in her hands. Oh yes, she had seen them. She had seen the video feeds of almost every room in that facility, just as Victor had, and she had seen the experiments going on there.
Experiments on people.
Chloe could only guess how long they had been there and what had been done to them. Further research had revealed to her that Lex Luthor, not his father, owned that plant. It raised questions as to how Clark had ended up there, and whether or not it really had been Lionel to put him there. Perhaps Oliver's parents being in jeopardy and Clark's own peril had been unrelated events.
It was enough to make her head hurt, just trying to understand it. Would she ever understand the Luthor mind? There were times she wasn't sure she wanted to.
"Chloe?" Victor said, pulling her back into the room with him.
"I know, Vic. I know. But what can we do?"
"The same thing we did today, Chloe. Throw in Clark's help..." he trailed off, his voice sounding hopeful.
Chloe looked at him. There was determination in his face. Victor Stone had once been a football star, she knew. He had always been a team-player, and from what she had learned about him over the years, he maintained a "no man left behind" motto, something he took very, very seriously.
Convincing Victor to team up with the others was one thing. He could fight alongside others easily. AC and Bart, they had agreed to this because they both owed Clark, and they both loved and respected her. It had been a favor, but she doubted as to whether they would willingly repeat the performance. As for Oliver and Clark, the two of them were very much loners. Accepting her help was one thing, but she doubted they would be interested in having a whole group "tagging along."
Oliver had said it himself. He didn't do teams.
Victor could almost read her thoughts. "Chloe, if anyone can convince them, you can. The guys in that room would do just about anything for you, including set aside their pride for a minute or two to save what looked to be nearly a hundred lives."
She smiled, rising to give him a hug. "Thanks, Vic. But I think you seriously overestimate my influence. I'm a sidekick," she said, thinking of how Oliver liked to call her that, "not a leader."
"I could argue with that pretty easily," he said, giving her a friendly squeeze in return, "but I know I won't convince you. So if leadership is what you're worried about, you ever notice the Jolly Green Giant in there ain't too shabby at it?"
He raised an eyebrow at her, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Chloe chuckled. He had a point. Oliver might hate teams, but he was pretty darn good at leading one.
For a moment she found herself staring out the window of her room. The hotel suite had an incredible view of the entire Metropolis skyline. She hugged her chest for a moment, rubbing her hands over her arms as she felt a sudden chill. She wasn't sure what could be done, but she also knew that she couldn't turn her back on those people. Finally she turned back to look at Victor and nodded. "Even if it's just you and me, Vic. I promise we'll do something about it."
He nodded back, meeting her faint, weary smile with a more encouraging grin. "That's all I ask."
Taking heart in his confidence, she added cautiously, "But I don't think now is the time to talk about it. We've had a time of it today. I want them to enjoy the taste of victory and success if only for a few hours."
"No problem," he said understandingly before moving to hold the door open for her. He paused for a second and let it shut in order to give her another hug and a brief, friendly kiss on the cheek. "You were amazing today, Chloe. None of us could have pulled that off without you. Clark is lucky to have you."
Chloe almost choked up for a moment. Who said saving the world was a thankless task? She didn't respond for fear her voice would betray her, but simply fled through the door when he held it open again to make good her escape.
Outside Oliver quickly intercepted her. "You wanna tell me what that was about?" he asked as they watched Bart and AC release energy by fighting over the remote.
"Later," was her only reply.
"Hmmm, but I had so many other plans for later," he said, grinning as he slipped his arm around her waist and hauled her up against his chest.
"Do tell," she said, feeling her worries melt away for the moment.
"Well, I was think about making you feel very," he kissed her, "very," he kissed her again, "appreciated." He planted a more intense kiss on her lips and Chloe's hands slid to his face, closing her eyes. He pulled away to look at her. "Do you have any idea how eternally grateful I am to you for what you did here today?" he asked her seriously.
Chloe smiled softly. "Hey, they're practically my family, too. But yeah," she added, "I've got a pretty good idea." She reached up on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips. Then she gently pulled out of his arms and turned to the chaos that was the men-folk. "Anyone for take-out?" she asked, thinking the least she could do for these boys was feed them.
"Dr. Hamilton," Chloe gushed, taking the man's offered hand and shaking it, feeling not unlike she was meeting a celebrity.
Oliver raised an eyebrow at her. "Careful. I might get jealous."
Emil merely looked confused. "Please, call me Emil," he said, looking between the two of them and staring around him. "Erm...may I ask what why we're...here?" The amiable doctor was not really behaving oddly, all things considered. He had some right to be confused, considering he had expected to meet Mr. Robert Queen in an office, not his son and his son's girlfriend in a hotel room.
"I'm sorry," Oliver said, dragging Chloe back to the sofa to force her to sit, "but I have some things of a very discreet nature to discuss with you, and I had to make sure there was no chance of being overheard.
Emil looked between the two of them, sitting down in the armchair across from them, and quirked his eyebrow. "Do you always discuss things of a discreet nature in front of your reporter girlfriend and a complete stranger?"
Oliver chuckled. "No," he admitted, grinning slightly, "this would be a new practice for me."
Emil sighed and reached for the bottle of scotch sitting on the coffee table between them and poured himself a drink. "Enlighten me."
"First of all, congratulations. You're being awarded a grant for your research."
Emil choked on the scotch. He looked at Oliver like he must have lost his mind. "You haven't even talked to me yet."
Oliver's grin broadened. "I don't have to. Miss Sullivan here, aside from being a reporter and my girlfriend, is also my primary tech adviser-"
It was Chloe's turn to choke on her drink. His what?
"-and she's assured me that funding your programs would be a worthwhile endeavor." He looked at Chloe to back him up.
Catching on, Chloe rose to the occasion. "Absolutely," she nodded. "I've read all your work."
"And you understood it?" Emil asked in disbelieve.
"It was fascinating," she grinned. "I was particularly interested in your studies of unique astronomical events and anomalies. The research you've done on-"
"Chloe." Oliver interrupted her and Chloe's mouth closed abruptly.
"Sorry," she said, blushing. "I get carried away."
But Emil was clearly flattered. "I'm very impressed, Miss Sullivan. Are you a scientist yourself?"
Chloe shook her head. "No. Just a very big nerd."
"She's modest," Oliver said, to which Chloe shot him a furtive look of confusion but said nothing.
"So, Mr. Queen," Emil said, leaning forward and pressing his fingertips together, "what is this discreet matter you wished to discuss with me?"
"I'm glad you asked," Oliver said, and Chloe saw the smirk on his face that meant he knew things were going his way. "I want you to help with a top-secret program I have."
This was it, Chloe thought. She was finally going to hear his decision. She had spoken to Oliver late last night about what she and Victor had talked about, and he had been silent. He hadn't said anything to her all morning, but had remained deep in thought, the only exception being when she asked her to call Emil and have him relocate their meeting place. She knew then, that whatever he was thinking about, now included Doctor Hamilton.
"And by 'program' you mean..."
"I'm putting together a team of specialist for the purpose of tearing down certain unnecessary projects and protecting important resources. I want you to be in charge of research and development particularly regarding astronomical data, as well as aiding us in technological design. In return, you will be granted funding for all of your research projects and provided with all the equipment and resources you need."
Emil stared at him for several seconds. Finally he leaned forward and looked Oliver squarely in the eyes. "Say that in laymen's terms."
Oliver hesitated a second but then chuckled. "It means I'm forming a team of vigilantes in order to beat up bad guys and protect innocent civilians, and I want you to help us with alien stuff and weapons. In return, you get money."
Emil looked at him blankly. He blinked once, then twice. Then his mouth fell open slightly. "Are you having some sort of mid-life crisis? Is he having some sort of mid-life crisis?" he repeated, turning to Chloe.
Chloe, however was looking at Oliver, practically with tears in her eyes, and shook her head. "I don't think so," she managed to choke out, admiration clear in her voice.
Emil looked back and forth between the two of them. He looked up at the ceiling, and both Oliver and Chloe would have given a fair amount to know what went through his head at that moment, because when he looked back down to Oliver, he extended his hand. "Okay. I'm in."
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Next (Chapter 20)