Chapter 9
Won’t you tell him please to put on some speed...
“Noooooo!” Chloe’s screams continued to echo in the dilapidated cell. Struggling against Garrett, she shoved at him, breaking his hold, practically knocking him down when her adrenaline-fueled strength caught him off guard. He let her go, waiting to see what transpired next. She ran, sliding to her knees where Oliver lay. Blood. Oh God, there was so much blood. His body convulsed, and he struggled for breath as his lungs filled with it. He coughed weakly. His eyes rolled back under fluttering lids, but then he focused, and seemed to see her.
“Don’t,” he gasped.
“I didn’t… listen to you last time,” she wept openly over him, barely getting the words out. “Do you think… I’ll listen to you now?”
“Chloe,” was all Oliver could form his lips to say. No sound seemed to emerge, but from somewhere the thought came to him that the last word he’d say before he died, would be her name. Suddenly, she threw herself over him, her entire body pressed atop his, wrapping her arms around him as much as she could. She lowered her head, and crushed her mouth to his, kissing his bloodied lips with anguished fervor.
Garrett watched the entire exchange between them with interest. It had been wise to target the Green Arrow to lure her into giving him a demonstration of her ability. And he waited to see what would happen next. He didn’t have to wait long. The dank cell was suddenly filled with a light so bright and colorful, that Garrett had to shield his eyes from it.
The same sensations Oliver felt when she’d healed him the last time returned, this time filling his entire body. It was indescribable. His body felt as though it were vibrating on high-energy electricity, but not. He could swear that a part of her entered him, seeping through his very being, permeating him throughout. There was no pain, only the soothing comfort she brought him.
When the light had faded, Chloe lay limp on top of him, her head lolled to one side in the curve of his shoulder, strands of her golden hair covered his face. Slowly Oliver’s arms rose to embrace her, his hands moving over her back tentatively. He moved her off of him slightly so that he could sit up and turn her over, cradling her in his arms. Blood. His blood soaked the entire front of her cream colored blouse. Crimson stained her hands. He brushed the hair from her cheek. Her eyes were closed. There was blood on her lips, smeared on her cheek, and her face was tear-streaked and ashen. The sight of her made his heart wrench painfully in his chest, hurting him more than having been shot multiple times by Garrett.
Oliver lowered his head, lifting her in the crook of his arm, brushing his cheek against hers. He pressed his lips to her temple. “Must you always contradict me?” he whispered hoarsely, in her ear. ‘If it means you’ll keep touching me, then I’ll always contradict you.’ Her passionately whispered words came back to him, echoing in his mind. “Then I’ll never stop touching you,” his voice broke as he murmured quietly, not wanting Garrett to hear him, but unable to hold his raw emotion in check.
“Amazing! Absolutely, unbelievable!” Garrett finally regained his voice after having witnessed such a sight. “But, as much as I’m enjoying this little Shakespearian-like display, Romeo, tell me how her ability works, and why she now appears to be dead.” Garrett strode toward them, wanting to get a better look at what seemed to be a fully recovered Mr. Queen, but a quite dead Ms. Sullivan. This would not do. “Tell me!”
Oliver raised his head at Garrett’s approach, his eyes glistening with emotion, then turning hard. “Come near her, and I’ll kill you.”
* * * * *
By 11:30 am, the members of the Justice League had figured out that Chloe had given them all the slip. Victor sat at Oliver’s computer, looking under the browser history and recent documents, in the hope of discovering what Chloe was up to, and possibly where she’d gone.
“She was compiling information on Garrett, but nothing here that indicates where she may have gone. Garrett must have contacted her,” Victor said.
Bart leaned over Victor’s shoulder, peering at the computer screen anxiously. “No way, we were here with her the whole time, and she didn’t get one phone call.”
“How long has she been gone?” Clark asked, his brows knit. He wouldn’t put it past Chloe to go off on her own and try to get Oliver back.
“I dunno, about an hour now? She said she had to run to the drugstore to buy something feminine related, so I figured it was that time of the month or something, and man, I did not even want to go there, so I didn’t ask any more questions.” Bart scrunched his face and shivered, not wanting to consider women’s monthly issues.
Clark paced the living room. “Why didn’t you go with her, in case Garrett called?”
“The drugstore is down on the lower level of the next building, she didn’t want anyone to go with her, and we thought she’d be back in five minutes. Besides if Garrett did call her, she would have told us. Garrett doesn’t know she’s staying here, so we figured it was okay.” Victor defended. “She told me to man the computer and to continue researching while she was gone. Said she was waiting for some important information to come through about Garrett. An email she was waiting for.”
“Well, you don’t know Chloe like I do.”
“You think she found Oliver?” A.C. asked.
“I don’t know, maybe, but I don’t think we should be sitting around here doing nothing. Have you tried her phone?”
“Yep. Voicemail, every time.”
Clark sighed inwardly. “Where are you, Chloe?”
* * * * *
“Did you forget Mr. Queen? I’m the one with the gun. I can shoot you again, and your Ms. Sullivan there will be unable to save you if she’s incapacitated. Now, I want to know how her ability works, and why she looks to be dead.”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you’d like. I don’t know.
“This is not what I’d planned for. No, this will not do. I need her alive!” Garrett raised his gun once again, pointing it at Oliver. He noticed that the man’s hand trembled. “Perhaps I should simply kill you both now, since this appears to have been a fruitless endeavor.” But suddenly with a jerky arm motion, he lowered the gun to his side. “You know something, Queen. She kissed you, touched you. That’s how her healing ability works, isn’t it?” Garrett began to pace the cell room nervously. “But now she looks dead, that makes no sense,” he went on, talking more to himself than to anyone else.
Oliver realized that Garrett was clearly starting to lose it, and that meant that he’d be even more unpredictable. He’s running out of time, Oliver thought. “Does Lex know that you have Ms. Sullivan and myself in your possession?”
Garrett stopped pacing and glared at Oliver. “What? No. Of course not.”
“So you’re double-crossing him?”
“Lex Luthor has nothing to do with this.”
“Doesn’t he? I saw the video of Chloe. That information was intercepted through a Project 33.1 underground. You’ve been stalking her. You’ve said yourself she’s your goldmine. You never intended to give her to Lex, did you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Garrett began to pace again, becoming more agitated by the second.
Oliver knew he was treading on thin ice but still, he pressed on. “If you kill her, or me for that matter, you’ll have nothing. Not your bounty payment from Lex, nor whatever money you’d make using her ability. Either way, Lex will discover your attempt to cross him, and when he finds out, it won’t be pretty.”
“No! You’re wrong, and I won’t listen to this!” Garrett covered his ears, and then walked swiftly out of the room.
Oliver gazed down at Chloe in his arms, his lips turning up in a sad smile. “I thought he’d never leave.” He stroked her hair, and caressed her cheek tenderly with bloodstained fingertips, his eyes drifting over her sweet face. She looked as though she were sleeping peacefully. “Come back to me, angel. I need you.”
* * * * *
At 12:01 Oliver Queen received an email from Chloe Sullivan. It was marked ‘URGENT’. But no one was at the computer in that moment. Each of the team members, too anxious to sit in the penthouse, had gone out in search of Chloe, looking for her in the list of the places that Garrett frequented.
End Chapter 9
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