Déjà vu
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
He had Bart slip into the Luthor mansion after Clark hadn’t found her there. Bart was able to copy some files from Lex’s computer, as well as from Chloe’s. He’d also handed Oliver a prescription bottle, with disgust. “The bastard’s been drugging her.”
Oliver was just as disgusted, and clenched the bottle in his hand, noting the name of the prescribing doctor, then tossed it into the garbage. He accessed her computer files. It shouldn’t have surprised him that she’d been doing research on the Green Arrow. He was certain that soon she’d put the pieces together and for the second time, she’d discover on her own who he really was. Lex was using her. What if once she’d figured him out, she revealed what she’d found? Oliver couldn’t let that happen, and the reasons for getting her back, increased exponentially. The files from Lex’s computer were helpful, and Oliver thought he’d found where Lex had been taking her for treatments. It was the small wing of the Met U hospital, they’d already known about. The same wing Dr. Benson worked from. He’d tried to have Victor access the patient data, but there was no indication that anyone by the name of Chloe Sullivan had ever been admitted.
He decided it was worth a shot anyway to stake out the building alone, if she wasn’t at the mansion, in all likelihood, she was there. It was too much of a coincidence that since Chloe’s disappearance, two new doctors aside from Dr. Benson had been hired onto the staff, with payments made directly from Luthorcorp funds, as well as increased monetary donations to the wing in the last month.
The Green Arrow waited on a nearby rooftop watching for any sign of her entering or exiting the Met U wing. He wasn’t disappointed. Around midnight, he saw a familiar black sedan pull up to the rear entrance. He maneuvered around the rooftop stakeout for a better view. Soon he saw her being escorted from the building, and ushered into the car.
Oliver used his crossbow to rappel down into the alley, and then ran ahead, hoping to somehow block their exit. As the car traveled slowly toward him, he heaved an empty garbage can onto the hood of the car, causing the driver to stop abruptly.
“What the hell was that?”
“I dunno,” the other suit on the passenger side, answered. “Stay here, I’ll check it out.” He pulled out his weapon, and exited the vehicle.
Chloe was in the backseat, and tried to peer through the closed windows. She looked behind her. There was nothing.
They waited several moments. Finally, impatient, the driver turned to her. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
Chloe simply nodded, though she was worried.
The Green Arrow dispatched the second man as quickly has he done the first, knocking him out and setting him alongside his partner against the brick wall of a building. He waited. If he knew Chloe, she’d be stepping out in moments. Her curiosity wouldn’t allow her to sit for long.
Chloe exited the car, her eyes searching the darkness for her two bodyguards. They were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly a gloved hand covered her mouth and a strong arm snaked around her waist, pulling her back against a hard body behind her.
“Don’t make a sound. Do you have your tazer gun?” a deep metallic sounding voice spoke in her ear. The smell of leather wafted to her nostrils.
Tazer gun? How would he know she owned one? She shook her head, her eyes wide, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. He dragged her away, and only then did she try to struggle against him. Whoever he was, he was much taller and stronger than she was, and she knew that without her tazer gun it was a futile attempt, but she had to try.
“Be still, I won’t hurt you,” he then grunted as her elbow connected somewhere. Good. But he maintained his hold, and still continued to drag her, or rather carry her now, since her feet were barely touching the ground, through the alley to some unknown location further away from the hospital. No amount of kicking or flailing about seemed to have any effect on him.
It was hard to breath, she struggled for air, and tried to utter a string of curses under his gloved hand that only sounded like muffled noises to her own ears.
“Such language, Ms. Sullivan. I’m shocked.”
Ms. Sullivan? He knew her name?
He’d finally stopped blocks away from the hospital, and backed into a doorway, pushing the door open with his shoulder.
Typical, she thought. A warehouse. Where else would the villain take his victims? Her eyes darted around the dimly lit expanse of space, noting boxes and stacks of crates along the walls and in far corners of the room. She searched out the exits frantically; trying to decide which one she should run toward. Finally he stopped, setting her on her feet.
Oliver could feel her heart pounding wildly beneath his hands. Her fear making her tremble. He didn’t want to frighten her. He wanted her to know that he wouldn’t harm her, but he needed her to stay put. He spoke again calmly through his voice modulator. “There’s no one here but the two of us. You can scream if you’d like, but no one will hear you. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to let go of you now, but we need to talk. I don’t want to have to tie you up, but if you try to run away, I will. Understood?”
Chloe nodded, and he slowly removed his hand from her mouth, grasping her wrist and turning her around to face him, keeping an arm around her waist.
“You!” she shouted, gasping for breath.
“You were expecting someone else?” he smirked.
Chloe raised her fist to strike him, but he caught her wrist before she could connect and pinned her arm behind her back. The action brought their bodies together, pressed up closely. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Chloe.” She was a fighter, and feisty, and God he loved her.
“What do you want?” she panted, her breasts heaving against him, her green eyes defiant “You have the wrong person.”
Arrow didn’t want to waste any time, getting right to the point. “You’ve lost your memory, am I right? And Lex is helping you, under the pretense of friendship to regain it, I imagine. He’s letting you stay at the mansion, allowing you to believe he’s simply a very good friend who has your best interests at heart.”
How could the Green Arrow know this? Why would he know this? “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go.” She struggled against him, but it only caused him to grip her more intimately close to his body.
“I’ll wager he’s asking you to use your skills to hunt me down?”
“Again. What do you want?”
“I want you to remember. Remember that we’re partners. We work together, against men like Lex Luthor. I need you to remember me, Sidekick.”
She stopped struggling for a moment, and he watched as her gaze upon him turned from defiant to curious, to utterly blank.
Flashes, lasting split seconds entered her mind.
*
“We trust each other. Clark tells me everything -- well, almost everything. I did have to figure out about your green-leather fetish on my lonesome. Don't worry. I didn't say anything to Lois. Although, you might want to consider…”
“Hey, let's just stick to the main plot, there, Sidekick,” he said, grinning down at her, hoping to avoid any rant against him regarding her cousin. “ So, what’ve you got?”
*
“Green Arrow to Watchtower, I’m in position.”
She examined the large screen in front of her. “Okay, there should be a security access panel near the east door. According to this schematic, you need to very carefully rewire the system…”
*
Lightening continued to flash in her brain, like watching various unrelated scenes from a movie played on fast-forward.
*
“Good morning, Sidekick,” he whispered, soft lips against her throat.
“Ever think that maybe you’re my Sidekick?”
He kissed the curve of her neck. “Yes, but I’d never admit it to anyone.” He smiled, getting up from the bed and making his way toward the bathroom completely naked.
She admired the amazing view. “I thought so.” She rolled her eyes. “Men.”
“You know you love me anyway.” He paused for effect. “Sidekick.” He ducked in time as the flying pillow aimed at him, just missed his head.
She squealed with laughter as he dove back onto the mattress, reaching for her, pulling her across the sheets toward him, pinning her hands down on either side of her head as he moved over her, soft curves against his hard body, skin pressing deliciously against skin.
“You are so going to pay for that,” he murmured seductively in her ear. Kissing her everywhere until her laughter subsided, turning into soft moans and cries for him.
*
She stood over him, one hand on her hip, the other clutching his crossbow. “Uh huh, and who's the Sidekick now?”
He grinned up at her sheepishly, and then stood to his full height, brushing dirt from his leather pants. He towered over her, ruffling her golden hair. He then wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, and pressing a kiss to her temple. “What would I do without you?”
“Well for starters, you’d have been food for whatever that brown hairy blob phantom-zone reject thing was that I just shot,” she said, gesturing toward the dead beast a few feet away, an arrow protruding from its back.
“My hero,” he crooned, and then picked her up, kissing her thoroughly.
*
And just as lightening flashes, brilliant and frightening, beautiful and elusive, it was quickly gone in a matter of seconds, and no matter how hard she tried to chase the visions, they’d vanished.
The Green Arrow felt her body tense once again, struggling against him.
“I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. You’ve got the wrong woman.”
“I’ve got the right woman. Please remember me.”
“If I were your ‘Sidekick’, then where were you? Why was Lex the one to find me, and not you?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t find you; I searched for you for a month. We all did. So many people care about you, Chloe. Lex is the one who kidnapped you, hid you away. I can’t prove that part, but I can prove the rest. How would I know you’ve lost your memory if I didn’t know you at all, Chloe?”
Chloe diverted her eyes. “I-I don’t know.”
Arrow shook her in his arms lightly, bringing her eyes back to him. “Admit it, things don’t add up, do they? Where did he find you?”
She hesitated.
“Answer me.”
“I was… I was already in a hospital.”
“Yes, one funded by Luthorcorp. And let me guess, you’re getting treatment for your memory loss, but it’s not helping is it?”
“No, it’s not,” she whispered.
“And everything you’ve learned about yourself is from Lex.”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve probably done searches on the name Chloe Sullivan, and all have come up empty.”
“Yes.”
“He has you watched, and guarded, never letting anyone speak to you.”
“Yes.”
Oliver felt her body practically go limp in defeat against his, and thought she looked on the verge of tears. It broke his heart, but if it meant bringing her back to him, he’d more than make up for whatever tears he’d caused her to shed. He released her arm from behind her back slowly, surprised to find that she remained flush against him for support. Her head fell forward against his chest.
“It’s okay,” he said, cupping her head, gloved hand stroking her hair.
“Please let me go,” she wept.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I love you, Chloe.”
“I don’t remember you. I don’t know who you are.”
Suddenly the various doors around the warehouse were flung open, and six armed men stormed inside, weapons pointing toward the couple.
Lex Luthor strode in casually seconds later. “Let her go, Arrow.”
Oliver didn’t release her.
“If you thought you could get to me by kidnapping a good family friend, then you are mistaken. Now, let her go.”
Chloe whispered against his chest. “Please do as he says. He’ll have you killed if you don’t.”
“No.”
“If what you say is true, I’ll meet you again,” she said quietly so that only he could hear.
Lex took a step closer.
Oliver knew that after this, there might not be a next time. Lex would watch her more closely, or he’d have her under more treatment to cause her to forget.
“Please,” she whispered again. “I don’t want you to die. If it’s true that you love me, let me go.”
Slowly, reluctantly his arms began to fall away from her.
“Come here, Chloe. You’re safe now,” Lex called to her.
She left the Green Arrow’s arms, his gloved hand trailing after her, grazing her palm, and walked toward Lex numbly, casting a glance back at the man in green leather, as she was escorted through the door by one of Lex’s guards.
Lex waited until she was out of earshot. He remained motionless, simply staring at the Green Arrow for a few moments, a slow smile curving his lips. “Kill him,” he ordered, and left the building.
Arrow reached behind him, grasping his crossbow and firing toward the rafters as shots rang out around him. He was lifted, swung and kicked his way through a window, crashing through, but not before a bullet grazed his shoulder and another his leg. He landed outside, stumbling briefly, and fired his bow again, this time skyward.
Chloe heard the sounds of gunfire from the warehouse as she entered the limo, and panicked. “What are they doing? What’s happening?” The driver shoved her inside, closing the door.
Lex approached the window where she sat. “He’s our enemy Chloe. He tried to kidnap you, and he attacked the men back there!”
“He didn’t hurt me!”
“What did he say to you, Chloe?”
“I don’t know. He made no sense,” she wept uncontrollably now.
Lex wondered whom her tears were for. He didn’t believe that nothing had happened, and wondered why the Green Arrow had taken such an interest in her. There had to be more to it than getting back at him. Did he know Chloe? They way that he’d found them together, the way Arrow was holding her, would suggest some deeper connection. If he did know her, evidently Chloe didn’t remember him, but Lex didn’t want to take chances.
He left her window, stepping away toward the driver. “Take her back to the facility. Tell Dr. Benson, she needs more treatment, he’ll understand.” The driver nodded, and turned down the alley back toward the hospital.
“Mr. Luthor.”
Lex turned at the sound of his name.
“He got away, sir.”
When the Green Arrow had reached a nearby rooftop, he checked his wounds quickly, picking broken glass from his costume, and some small pieces embedded in his skin. Luckily the gunshot grazes were mere scratches. Finding his injuries to be minor, he watched as Lex and his men left the scene, and then headed home. He’d get to her again. He had to.
End Chapter 6
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