The Right Left Lane

The Right Left Lane
Chlollie Oneshot

With an electric hum and a metal clank, the door of the prison cell opened, and Chloe was being led out of her cell by two female armed guards. Mysteriously, she was being released today. After having been charged by the Department of Homeland Security for hacking into government computer satellite systems, and having been under suspicion for terrorist activities, somehow, some way, all charges had been dropped, and her name cleared.

Given a set of nondescript blue jeans, chambray shirt and sensible shoes, Chloe was allowed to change, and then led out of the prison yard where a black limousine waited just outside the gates. Curb service, she thought.

He had helped her before. He had whisked her mother away to a safe place where she would get the best treatment from the best doctors. He had done it for her at his own expense, no questions asked. Chloe had never doubted that Moira Sullivan would be safe from the likes of Lex Luthor as long as she lived. Why would he have done such an amazing thing for her?

She had helped him before. She had been his Watchtower, his information gatherer. He trusted her implicitly. Enough to have all of his Metropolis Green Arrow gear left in her care at the ISIS foundation, enough to allow her use of one of his private jets at a moment's notice.

He knew she’d been set up. He knew it was Lex that had her arrested. He knew the reason she’d done what she did was to help Clark. He knew Jimmy's meddling and dealings with Lex had gotten her in over her head. Oliver didn’t know when or how it had happened, but she had simply become too important to him, she meant more to him than he’d let on, and he knew that there was no way in hell he’d let her rot in prison. His only hope was that she’d come with him, and though he didn’t want too get too far ahead of himself, he had to finally admit, that he wanted her to be more than his Watchtower, more than his Sidekick. Somehow along the way, he’d slowly been falling for Chloe Sullivan.

Chloe saw the back limo door open, the blonde head of her benefactor emerging as she approached. He stood in front of the opened door, his expression unreadable. He looked so out of place, so un-billionare-like in his blue jeans, t-shirt and hooded sweat jacket. He was a welcome sight. Chloe stopped in front of him tipping her head back to look up at him, and they simply stared at one another for a moment. What do you say to someone who’s just saved you from a life of imprisonment? They studied one another, and somehow both of them realized that words were not necessary. Chloe finally lowered her head looking down at her hands clasped in front of her. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Oliver put a friendly, comforting arm around her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here, Sidekick,” he said as he ushered her into the limo.

“Why are you doing this for me?” She asked finally as the limo was well on it’s way to somewhere. Oddly enough, she hadn’t thought to ask where they were going.

“Purely selfish reasons, I assure you,” he stared out the tinted limousine window. If she only knew how selfish.

Chloe tipped her head. “How so?”

“You’re valuable to my team. Besides, what’s left for you in Smallville?”

“Well, I do have the ISIS foundation I can go back to. There are lots of meteor infected people that need help,” she offered, with a slight shrug of her shoulders. She knew she certainly wouldn't go back to Jimmy.

He gave her a look, raising a brow.

“Okay, well… maybe I can’t go back.” She sighed. “I don’t know what I’m meant for.”

“You’re not meant for federal prison, Chloe.”

Once it seemed she knew exactly what she’d wanted from life. Now, she simply felt as though she were in some type of limbo. Her own private purgatory. Her lips thinned, pressed together, and she diverted her eyes away from Oliver’s intense gaze, toward the window again, not knowing what else to say. She hated this, the not knowing, the emptiness she felt.

Oliver studied her from across the seat. “Tell you what. You’d have a job here with me, or.. ,” he shrugged, “If you think you want to go back to Smallville, you can do that too.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “You have an opportunity to start over, Chloe. Do whatever you want, make a new life or go back to the old one. The choice is yours.”

Chloe looked back at him. Did he really think that he could give her some get out of jail free card, and that she’d simply accept it and have no sense of obligation to him? He came all this way to a Kansas federal prison to see to her release. There must be something he wanted. She started to voice these thoughts when he spoke again.

“I got you out because I wanted to. I know the circumstances of the charges against you.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to let you sit in a jail cell.”

“How did you get me out?”

“I don’t divulge all of my secrets, Sidekick,” he said, leaning back against the seat, stretching out his long legs, wearing a slight cocky smirk of satisfaction.

“Don’t call me that,” she said quietly, looking down, surprised to find that she was blushing.

“Sorry..”

“It’s just that I don’t know what I am anymore. ‘Sidekick’ is.. it’s a label, a name that.. I just don’t know if it defines me anymore.”

The limousine pulled over to the shoulder, stopping, and Chloe glanced out the window again to find that they were on a rural highway.

“Why are we stopping?”

“The right lane up ahead is an exit ramp that leads back to Smallville. The left lane ahead will continue on until we reach the airport where a Queen Industries Jet is waiting for me. And you, if you’ll come with me.”

For the first time since she’d seen him that day, she was able to read his expression clearly. His eyes were full of hope. It startled her, yet for the first time in months she felt hope too.

Chloe opened the door of the limo and stepped out, her sensible shoes crunching against the roadside gravel as she gazed out upon the flat, mostly treeless, and browned area of land. The sun heading westward made the landscape glow, tipped with hues of orange and pink.

She felt him beside her. “I’m scared, Ollie,” she whispered, hating herself for admitting it to him. Chloe Sullivan would never admit that to anyone.

“Change can be scary,” he said.

“It’s not just that. It’s not knowing who I am or what I’m meant to do after I thought I had it all figured out.”

“You’re the same person you’ve always been. One who fights for what she believes in. One who wants to make the world a better place. One who’s loyal, and willing to go to prison, instead of divulging all the secrets she keeps.” He paused a moment, his tone turning light and humorous. “And one with an insatiable curiosity that usually lands her in trouble, one with amazing hacking abilities and information gathering skills, one who can direct a group of ragtag heroes on missions.” he added with a wide grin.

Chloe peered up at him, squinting against the sun. His handsome face, and smile rivaled the beauty of the sunset, and her heart jolted unexpectedly.

“Besides,” he added, “The Green Arrow is in desperate need of a worthy partner.”

“I don’t know how worthy I am at this moment, Ollie,” she lowered her head.

“You are to me.”

At his words, Chloe looked up at him again, and then she saw it. Clearly written on his face. His feelings went deeper than friendship. She had the urge to run away. Instead she faced him, reaching for his hands, taking them in hers. She dropped her head slightly, nodding. A sense of purpose began to return to her, as she looked down at their hands clasped together, making her decision.

“Let’s just get one thing straight,” she said, then looked up into his eyes again with a smile, “I get to call you Sidekick too, Sidekick.”

Her sweet face, and smile rivaled the beauty of the sunset, and caused his heart to jolt not-so-unexpectedly. “It’s a deal,” he chuckled.

Chloe let go of one of his hands and tugged Oliver over to the limo driver’s window.

“Take the left lane to the airport, please,” she said to the driver. She knew somehow, it would be the right choice.

End Oneshot