Anything But Ordinary
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
“What’s with Olsen’s ambulance chasing?”
Chloe let out a small laugh in response, as she tipped her head slightly to peer at herself over her shoulder in the full-length, three-paneled mirror. Her mother’s wedding dress needed some adjustments, and the seamstress was busy pinning here and tucking there. Chloe had always loved the dress, recalling how beautiful her mother looked in old wedding photographs. It was a Demitrios Ilissa, long sleeved, off the shoulder, rose-patterned ivory brocade gown, with a snug bodice that accentuated her breasts and the curve of her waistline, then flowed into full, floor-length skirt and modest train. She felt like a princess just wearing it. Chloe lifted her eyes to glance up at Lois seated behind her though the mirror image. “Well, he’s figured that the EMTs would be first on the scene of any of the recent murders, so… Davis is letting him tag along.”
“Hmm. One good way to get photographs, I suppose. I may have to get in on the action too and write an accompanying article.”
When the seamstress finished pinning, Chloe grasped the full skirt of the gown and pirouetted to face Lois, then smoothed the ivory fabric down with her hands. “Well? What do you think?”
“I think you are absolutely stunningly beautiful, and too young and too broke to be getting married.”
Chloe’s smile didn’t waver. “Come on, Lois. Our parents weren’t much older or richer than us when they got married.”
“Times were different then,” she shrugged.
The seamstress told Chloe she could remove the dress, and that it should be ready in a week, then asked Chloe to bring the dress to the front when she was through. Gathering up her tools of the trade, she left the fitting room.
Lois rose from her seat, and reached for Chloe’s hands, clasping them gently. “Are you happy?” she asked softly, probing Chloe’s eyes with her own. “I mean, really, truly, as in - ‘I’m so happy I’m going to be spending the rest of my life with this guy’ - kind of happy?”
Chloe blinked. “Jimmy loves me.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Of… of course I’m happy.”
Lois studied her for a time. She knew her cousin well, and something prickled in the back of her mind, but Lois thought to let it go for now. Finally she offered Chloe a small smile. “Good,” she said. “As long as you know in your gut, he’s the one.” She squeezed Chloe’s hands. “I just want you to be happy, you know that, right?”
Chloe returned her smile. “I know.”
The two women embraced warmly, and held onto one another for long moments.
“Now, I’m starving and you promised me lunch at that new little café up the street.”
Chloe laughed, pulling away from her cousin and turning so that Lois could undo the numerous pearl buttons that started from the middle of her back and ran down her spine. “Help me out of this dress first, or we’re not going anywhere.”
Afterward, they strolled down the Metropolis street, peeking inside storefront windows as they went, and pointing out things of interest, laughing, ogling, or frowning in disgust as the case required. Chloe couldn’t remember the last time she was simply able to enjoy some quality, carefree girl time with her cousin.
“And Clark has been driving me nuts!” Lois went on, continuing their conversation. “I swear, you’d think he never worked at the high school paper.”
“Awww, Clark’s not so bad, Lois.”
“No, he’s not, but, well, whenever something big happens, he’s nowhere to be found, and then shows up when it’s all over, leaving me to do all the dirty work.”
Chloe simply smiled knowingly. “He’ll get better at it, I’m sure.”
“He’d better. Oh… look at that blouse! I must have that blouse.”
Chloe dragged her by the elbow, away from the shop window, laughing. “Come on, the blouse will be there after lunch.”
“Hello Ms. Lane. Shopping for a new maid outfit?”
Both Chloe and Lois turned to see Tess Mercer standing nearby, dressed smartly in a dark business suit, on a Saturday afternoon. Lois gazed sheepishly at her boss. “Huh. Well, actually, no. My cousin and I were just about to grab some lunch. I … uh, gave up the maid business.”
Chloe looked from one woman to the other, not comprehending the maid outfit comment at all. Lois would have to explain that one later.
Tess eyed Chloe, scrutinizing her. “Ah. You must be Jimmy, that photographer’s fiancée.” She shook her head sympathetically. “You must surely be a saint to still want to marry him after what he’s done.”
Chloe’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“Oh, I must have misspoke,” Tess smirked. “Evidently you aren’t aware of the deal he made with Lex. Forgive me.”
“What deal?” Chloe demanded.
“I’m sorry,” Tess responded coldly. “I should say no more. But I suggest you do speak to your fiancé. After all, communication is key in any relationship, wouldn’t you agree?” Tess smiled sardonically at both women. “Enjoy the rest of your day ladies, and I’ll see you Monday morning, Ms. Lane.”
They watched Tess saunter away. “Bitch,” Lois muttered under her breath. “She’s worse than baldy.”
Chloe had finally met Tess Mercer. She silently recalled Oliver’s story of his time spent on the island. Tess was as he’d described her. Cunning and ruthless were definitely words that came to mind. “Lois, what was she talking about?”
Lois continued to stare after the retreating Tess. “I have no idea. Don’t listen to her.”
“What was the whole maid thing about?”
“Oh, I tried to sneak into Luthor mansion looking for clues when you were missing.” Lois shrugged, slightly embarrassed. “I sort of… dressed up like a maid.”
Chloe smiled. “Did it work?”
“No.”
Oliver had said that Tess was good at deception and would use any means to get what she wanted. “Be careful around her, Lois. Please.”
“I’m not afraid of her.”
“I know, but… just be careful, okay?”
Lois turned to her cousin, offering her a reassuring smile. “No worries, cuz. Come on. Let’s go eat.”
* * * * *
“I swear to God, Chloe. I didn’t know they’d take you away. If I did, I never would have reneged on my deal with Lex.”
“You knew what Lex was capable of, Jimmy. You had no right to go to him in the first place.”
“The DDS would have locked you up for hacking into their systems. They would have charged you for terrorist activities!”
She couldn’t tell Jimmy that she’d hacked the government systems for Clark, so that they could find his cousin, Kara. “They did anyway. And it was not the DDS. Do you know what they did to me in there?” She paced the small living room area of the Talon apartment purposefully, her fists clenched at her sides. “Strapped to tables, experimented on like some lab rat!” She turned to him, her face burning furiously. “Why did you lie about it?” she demanded.
“I… I was trying to protect you!”
“By going to Lex Luthor? Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? You don’t go to your enemy for protection, Jimmy!”
“He said he could pull strings, said he could erase all the information they had on you.”
“And you believed him? Did he erase anything?”
Jimmy hung his head. “No.”
“I can’t believe you lied about this. I can’t believe you went to Lex Luthor of all people for help. You should have told me about this before doing anything.”
“I’m sorry Chloe, I just couldn’t keep lying to Lois the way he wanted me to.”
“But you could lie to me?” Chloe folded her arms across her chest and wiped angrily away at a tear that had slipped down her cheek. “I know you were trying to help, or you thought you were, but going to Lex Luthor was the wrong thing to do, and you knew it was wrong, because you lied about it.” She turned to him once more. “And your help was no help at all, since I still ended up in some facility, poked and prodded and tortured like some science experiment.”
“What about you? I still don’t know why you hacked into government systems. I’m not the only one keeping secrets here, Chloe! God knows what else you’ve kept from me. It’s like you’re living some double life. You’ve never let me in. Not completely.”
What could she say? That Clark, her Kryptonian best friend’s cousin Kara had been abducted by a machine called Braniac? No. She could never tell him any of it, and with great sadness, she began to realize that there would always be secrets between them, always lies, whether purposeful, or by omission, there could never be complete truth between them, and it would become a wedge that would only grow in time. She was different now. Her healing ability set her apart, her friendship with Clark, her involvement in the League, and her work with the meteor infected at ISIS would always set her apart from him. Yes, he was her rock, and her sense of normalcy, but her life would never be normal, and she could never truly share it with him. He was right. It was as though she lived two separate lives, and he could only ever be part of one of them. It would never work, no matter how hard she tried to pretend that it would, no matter how hard she tried to reconcile the two halves of her life, it would never work between them. New tears began to fall at this revelation, and she covered her face with her hand, her shoulders shook lightly as she wept.
Jimmy approached her slowly, his voice soft. He placed a comforting hand on her back. “And you never told me that before, about the experiments. I didn’t know what they’d done to you. I’m sorry Chloe. I… I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
Chloe turned her head away from him, sniffling. “I’m sorry too, Jimmy.” With her back to him, she gazed down at the ring on her finger. She should let him go. She hurt him every time she lied to him, every time she kept something of herself hidden from him. You shouldn’t be with someone if you have to hide yourself from them. That’s what Oliver had said, and she’d told him the same, yet here she was, thinking she could marry a man she had to hide from. Chloe removed the little ring from her finger, and held it up next to her shoulder, her arm bent at the elbow. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.
“Chloe…”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered hoarsely. “It’s just not going to work for us, Jimmy.”
“Chloe, don’t do this…”
“Don’t you see? It will always be this way with us,” she sobbed. “Our lives are just too different. We’re too different.” She still held the ring aloft, and finally felt his fingers reaching for it, taking it from her.
“Is this what you really want?” he asked quietly.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s the way it has to be. You deserve to be with someone… normal.”
“You can’t live your life always defining yourself simply by your ability, you can’t use your ability as an excuse, Chloe.”
“It’s more than that, Jimmy. There are things you will never understand. Things I can never share with you, and it will only make us grow farther apart as time goes on. That’s not the kind of wife you deserve.”
He was quiet for a long time. “So that’s it then?” he asked, resignation in his voice.
Finally she turned to him, her eyes red rimmed from tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, as new tears threatened to spill down her cheeks.
Jimmy glanced down at the ring in his hand. He simply nodded, swallowing hard. Maybe she was right. They’d been so up and down over the past year, and he’d done what he could to keep her, but somehow he knew there was always something missing. He thought maybe it was him, maybe he wasn’t enough for her, but that wasn’t it. He’d always felt left out, as though there were some part of her she kept in reserve, some part of her he could never know. He realized that asking her to marry him was probably a last ditch effort to keep her out of desperation, or a hope that he could affect a breach of the walls she’d put up, but things hadn’t changed. He’d never know her the way a husband should know his wife. “I’m sorry too, Chloe,” he whispered.
Chloe dropped down, sitting heavily onto the futon, elbows on her knees, covering her face with her hands. He said no more, and Chloe didn’t lift her head until she heard the door of the Talon apartment close quietly behind him as he left. After a few moments, she stood up in the middle of the living room, not knowing what to do with herself. It was over. It was really over this time. Part of her was deeply saddened over the loss of him, the finality of it all, but another part of her was relieved. She wouldn’t have to lie to him anymore, cover up the secrets of people she knew, or the things she did in her other life, the life she led apart from him. Maybe now she could reconcile those two separate lives, and even if she couldn’t, at least she wouldn’t hurt him anymore.
Chloe slipped on a jean jacket, grabbed up her keys from the table and headed for her car. It was late but she needed to get out of the house, go for a drive, do something. She found herself driving to Metropolis; the long drive took some of the edge off of her pain, but tears still welled in her eyes as she drove. She made her way to ISIS, and went inside, heading toward the back room, toward the stairs that led to the roof. She would often come up here for solitude, to think, or to write, or simply stare out over the Metropolis skyline.
Once above the city streets, she sat along the nearby ledge of the roof, hugging her knees to her chest, gazing out at the lights of the city, the passing cars below, the few people who were out. In the distance she heard a siren, and then the sounds of the city seemed to mingle and fade away. Chloe lowered her head onto her forearms, and wept. She’d never be normal, she’d never have a normal life and she’d probably never find anyone to share her life with, someone who would understand the way she lived. Never had she felt more alone. It was a hard thing to accept, but accept it she must. She’d not allow herself to fall into the trap of self-pity. She’d sit here, have herself a damn good cry and then try to move past it as best as she could.
He watched her from a nearby rooftop. Surprised to see her there, he wondered what had happened, why she sat alone on the roof of the ISIS building, weeping uncontrollably. A fierce urge to protect her from anymore hurt washed over him. He wanted to go to her, every part of his soul screaming for him to pull her into his arms, hold her, comfort her, find out what was wrong, but he dared not make his presence known. As it was he couldn’t help but feel as though he were invading her privacy.
He hadn’t told her that he’d begun his patrols again this past week; trying to remain vigilant for any sign of whatever killing creature was on the loose. So far he’d found nothing. It was quiet tonight, and the Green Arrow kept watch over her until she had no more tears left to cry. She pulled a tissue from her pocket, wiped her eyes and then stood up. Her shoulders squared as she gazed out over the darkened city, the soft breeze lifting her golden hair from the collar of her jacket. She took a deep lung filling breath and released it slowly, the expression on her face one of determination and resolve. He knew whatever it was troubling her, that her instincts would be to confront and overcome. In that way she was stronger than he’d been, and he had to admire her for it. She wiped away the last remnants of tears, and then turned back toward the door. Oliver moved along the rooftop ledge making sure she made it to her car safely, and continued to watch as she drove away until her car grew smaller in the distance.
The Green Arrow reached for his crossbow and fired an arrow toward the adjoining building, deciding to head home for the night, thoughts of Chloe filling his mind. He never saw the red, glowing pair of eyes that followed his movement from below, nor heard the low unearthly growl at his departure.
End Chapter 5
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