Chapter 4
A knock sounded on the guest room door. Clark stepped over and opened it. “We’ve got a bit of news,” Victor said. “Or rather, Oliver is the news. Seems it’s being reported that he’s missing from the hospital.”
“Great,” Oliver sighed.
Clark turned to Oliver, “We can’t very well have news reporters, cops or hospital officials here trying to investigate your disappearance.”
“Looks like I might just have to disappear for awhile anyway. How would I explain being in perfect health right now? Any doctor who saw me at the hospital when I was brought in, would want to examine me and there’d be too many questions. Not to mention the small detail of having a dead woman in my bed.”
“What should we do?” Victor asked.
“I don’t know, lay low for awhile.”
“I can take her back to Smallville.”
“We’ve already gone through this, Clark. I’m not leaving her. She stays.”
“Why don’t you think about what’s best for her?” Clark snapped.
“Look at her, Clark! What’s best for her?”
“Guys,” Victor interrupted. “We’ll figure out something, see what we can come up with.” He stepped from the doorway, and closed it. Leaving Clark and Oliver alone again.
“Why did you bring her here?”
Clark shrugged. “You know Chloe. When she heard you were injured she asked… no, demanded that I bring her to you.”
Oliver looked at her lifeless face, and touched her cheek. He chastised her softly. “Stubborn woman.”
* * * * * * * *
“Chloe, thought you’d like to know that we’ve finally disposed of all the meteor rock we found at the construction site, and we followed your recommendations. It’s surrounded by lead walls, buried in an undisclosed, uninhabited location.”
“That’s great, Ollie,” she answered, thinking he sounded tired.
“Just a slight problem, however.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you remember that doctor in L.A. I had you check out over a month ago?”
“Dr. Reynolds? His patients’ lists? What about him?”
“Apparently, a large quantity of meteor rock that was supposed to be delivered to the construction site never made it there.”
“And… let me guess, somehow Dr. Reynolds is in possession of it?”
“Exactly.”
“I’m going to dig a bit deeper into our mysterious Dr. Reynolds.”
He smiled. “I knew you’d say that, which is part of the reason why I’m taking a late flight into Metropolis tonight. I have some files for you.”
She hadn’t seen him in a week. Only spoken with him via phone. Chloe’s stomach fluttered, she ignored it. “Can’t you just fax or email them to me? Wouldn’t that be easier?”
“I need to be in Metropolis anyway for regular Queen Industries business.”
“Oh.”
“Can you meet me at the penthouse around midnight?”
“I’ll try, I don’t know how I’ll explain my absence to Lois.”
He knew she sacrificed a lot of her own time to help him. And that in doing so, she multiplied her secret keeping count exponentially. It couldn’t have been easy on her to keep everyone’s secrets, and make up her own excuses to cover herself. “I’m sorry Chloe, I know this is all a bit much at times.”
“No, Ollie. Listen, I agreed to do this over two months ago, and I’m in. We’ll find out what Dr. Reynolds is up to. I’ll be there.”
“Thanks, Sidekick.”
He greeted her with a mug of coffee and that Oliver Queen smile. Chloe ignored her stomach dropping and her pulse quickening at the sight of him, and got down to business.
She couldn’t however, not smile at him. “Thanks, Oliver.” She grabbed up the mug, looking up at him and noting how tired he looked. “What have we found so far?”
He stepped over to his desk, and she followed. “Here’s the file you made of Dr. Reynolds’ patients. I was hoping we could cross-reference these lists, possibly find some connection between these patients, and any others, particularly from places such as Belle Reve, or Arkham.”
She swallowed the sip of coffee she’d just taken. “Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll just input the data and run a macro.”
They moved over to the couch and Chloe pulled her laptop out of her bag, setting it on the coffee table. Oliver sat next to her and opened the files that contained patient names and other information.
“Nice laptop,” he quipped.
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“I really like the color.”
After they sat pouring through information for about an hour, Oliver rubbed his eyes, stood up and stretched. Chloe diverted her eyes as she got a glimpse of his hard, lean belly when his t-shirt lifted briefly with the movement.
“Ollie, I can do this at home tomorrow, you should get some sleep.”
He sat down beside her once again, but this time leaning back on the sofa, and tipping his head back to rest. “I’m okay, Sidekick.” Without looking directly, his hand searched for hers, and when he’d found it, he tugged her toward him. Without thinking, Chloe followed. He pulled her closer until they were nestled up snugly side-by-side. And then as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to do, Chloe settled her head on his shoulder. He raised his head up from the back of the sofa to look down, studying their hands, fingers entwined. He was quiet for a moment. “Have you ever wondered whether or not the work that we do is making a difference?” he asked, his voice low.
“It makes some difference. Yes. I’m not sure exactly how much. We’ve helped a lot of people. It has to mean something,” she said softly. “ Why?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe I am just tired. Or… or maybe I just needed to hear you say it.” He played with her fingers for a moment, then squeezed her hand gently.
“Fighting the good fight is never easy, Oliver, but I believe it’s always worth it.”
He turned his head toward her, and with his free hand lifted her chin. His eyes drifted over her face as his head descended. His lips were a whisper away from hers, hovering, suspended, waiting. His eyes searched hers, and before she knew what she was doing, Chloe had threaded the fingers of her free hand in his hair. It was the encouragement he wanted, waited for. His mouth brushed against hers soft as down, and then he tenderly covered and parted her lips with his. His kiss was slow, thoughtful as if he wanted to learn her, savor her. His mouth left hers to explore a path down her jaw line to the curve of her neck, causing her lids to flutter closed. Chloe felt his arms envelop her, pulling her closer, and soon she was being settled on his lap, her thighs straddling him. “Oliver,” she whispered.
Upon hearing his name, he lifted his mouth from the pulse of her throat to gaze up at her, taking her face in his hands, and stroking her cheeks with gentle thumbs, his eyes alight with the wonder of some new unnamed discovery. Chloe’s breath hitched as she felt his hardness press between her legs with a slight upward push of his hips, and she was compelled to answer him, pressing herself down onto him in return. This time, Chloe took the initiative, and she parted her lips and lowered herself to meet his kiss. His mouth recaptured hers, more demanding and heated this time.
Oliver finally broke the kiss and lowered his head, wrapping his arms more securely around her and resting his forehead on the curve of her shoulder. “God, Chloe,” he breathed.
She pressed soft kisses to his cheek and held him, and stroked his hair, running soothing fingers down the base of his neck and over his broad shoulders. They sat this way for an interminable time, simply holding each other, until finally, Oliver turned and moved to recline on his back, taking her with to lay on top of him. He cradled her head, her cheek against his chest, while he absently stroked her hair. Within minutes, they had both fallen asleep, wrapped in each other’s comfort.
* * * * *
Clark didn’t think it was prudent to involve an outsider, but Oliver insisted. He watched as Oliver paced, cell phone to his ear waiting for someone to answer.
“Hello, doctor? Yes, I know it’s late. This is Oliver Queen, I need you to do something for me.” Oliver continued his conversation with the doctor while Clark once again used his super hearing to listen for any sound of Chloe’s heartbeat. There was none.
Oliver snapped his cell phone shut. “That was Dr. Reynolds, he’s going to take care of a press release about my disappearance by posing as my personal physician.” When Clark gave him a questioning look, Oliver simply answered. “He owes me one.”
End Chapter 4
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