Coda Part 6

6.

Oliver Queen had exquisite taste, but Chloe didn’t care for the ultra modern, futuristic look. She examined the room—everything was computerized, state-of-the-art, impersonal, and sterile. But she didn’t live here, she didn’t plan to stay for very long.

It was after midnight, and Star City twinkled beneath her, while behind her, Oliver bustled about at the bar, mixing a drink. He brought one over to her, bourbon, straight. She took it, but didn’t drink.

“Wanna tell me what you’re doing with Lex Luthor?”

“You’re a big boy, Oliver, you know what I was doing.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said shortly. “How could you, Chloe? Revenge against Clark for falling for Lana?”

Chloe turned her gaze on Oliver, and he leaned away from her. It enraged her when people spoke of things they didn’t understand like they were experts on the subject.

“You know nothing about me.”

“Before tonight, I would have disagreed. Now? I totally agree. I never would have believed you capable of going to Lex.”

Chloe sat the drink down on the nearest table and started for the door. It wouldn’t open.

“You’re staying here,” Oliver said.

“You can’t hold me captive, Oliver. You don’t have to right to keep me here against my will.”

Oliver shrugged. “I may not have the right, but that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”

If looks could kill, Oliver realized he’d be a corpse on the floor. Chloe went to a computer console and began tapping keys.

“I had your pass code disabled,” Oliver said.

“Of course you did,” said Chloe, a Luthor-like smirk on her lips. “I’m not using mine. I’m using yours.”

“I changed mine too.”

“You’d be a fool if you didn’t,” Chloe said. Oliver watched her tapping away, unconcerned, sipping his drink. He almost choked when the door slid open a few seconds later. Chloe looked at him.

“I’m not Watchtower for nothing.”

Oliver rushed over, hit a button on the wall, and a red light flashed, but Chloe only laughed as the doors closed shut. She waved at him before she disappeared from sight.

“What a woman,” Oliver said, shaking his head. He had to admire her style, even if it annoyed him. He attempted to get back into the system, but Chloe had locked him out. Now he had one option left. Rushing across the room, he grabbed a small crossbow, and then entered a second emergency elevator, but it refused to budge.

“Damn.” He quickly pulled off a panel and did some quick rewiring, and soon the elevator was dropping—a little too quickly for Oliver’s comfort—to the lobby. He rushed out and onto the street to see Chloe climbing into a taxi. She smirked as it drove by, but he lifted the arrow and shot out the rear two tires before slipping the bow into his back pocket.

The taxi stopped, and the driver jumped out to find out what had gone wrong with his car. Oliver hurried to the door and yanked it open, pulling Chloe out.

“I’m not the Green Arrow for nothing,” he said, just loud enough for Chloe to hear, and hauled her back toward the lobby. The taxi driver eyed them, wondering if Chloe was in danger or not, and thankfully she didn’t ask the taxi driver for help, like Oliver expected her to, but maybe she did want help, at least on some level, and as long as there was a chance she did, Oliver would give it to her.

Back upstairs, Oliver let go of Chloe’s arm. “Do I need to put padlocks on all the doors?”

Chloe shrugged. “Wouldn’t do you any good. Lois taught me how to pick locks when I was ten.”

“Fine. I’ll call for guards, but you’re staying here. And you’re giving me a blood sample.”

“Like hell.”

“I’m testing your blood,” Oliver said, “whether you like it or not, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

“Where do you get off, butting into my life like this?”

“That’s what friends do, in case you didn’t notice.”

Chloe paced the floor, feeling caged and claustrophobic. “I don’t want your help, Oliver. I didn’t ask for it, and I don’t need it. I know you think Lex has been drugging me. That’s why you took the champagne, so you can test it, but I’m not drugged. I’m finally waking up.”

Oliver sat down, weighing his next words.

“Chloe, its one thing to get angry, and to use that anger to change your life for the better, but it’s another to do what you’re doing. Sleeping with your worst enemy just to piss Clark off? That’s not like you. Something is wrong here, and I—”

“You wanna know why I slept with Lex the first time?” Chloe interrupted, going to stand in front of him. “I was horny.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“It’s true. I was horny, and he was there, and that’s the long and short of it.”

“If you wanted a man, you could have found anybody but him.”

“Yeah, but Lex was convenient.”

“You’re lying.”

Chloe laughed. “If that’s what you need to believe to make this easier for you, fine.”

“Okay,” Oliver said after awhile. “If the first time was just physical, why keep it up?”

“Lex is the best I’d ever had…and I knew it would really piss Clark off.”

Oliver looked disappointed. “I thought better of you, Chloe.”

“Well, I guess I’ve let you down. Now you know the truth, call me a cab, and this time don’t shoot out the tires.”

“So you’ll just go back to Metropolis, back to your job, back to Lex?”

“Yep.”

“Nope,” Oliver countered. “Not until I’m sure you’re not being drugged, or forced into anything. Now let’s get that blood sample.”

“I’m not giving you any blood.”

“Fine, then I guess I’ll have to take it.”

Chloe was rocked back as Oliver’s fist collided with her mouth, hard enough to make her lip bleed, but not hard enough to do serious damage. She tasted blood, and he roughly put a napkin to it to absorb it.

“That oughtta do it,” said Oliver. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who wanted to do this the hard way.”

“You hit me! You son of a bitch!” Chloe shouted, hauling off and hitting Oliver as hard as she could.

He took the hit well and wiped blood from his own mouth. He started to leave, but Chloe was so enraged, she didn’t stop at one hit. She kept hitting, kicking, and before she knew it, she was a sobbing mess on the floor, with Oliver’s arms around her. She clung to him, because he felt strong and stable, while her emotions were a whirlwind that threatened to tear her apart.

“Feel better?” he asked, when she’d begun to calm.

“No.”

“You will,” Oliver promised. “In time.”

****

Chloe curled up on Oliver’s bed. Her lip healed within seconds, but Oliver had a busted lip and a black eye forming. Her head was throbbing, and she felt drained. Her emotions had been raw and on the surface for weeks, and she felt as though she were going crazy. Oliver called for his personal physician, who gave her a shot of something that helped her pain, and helped her drift off to sleep.

It was nine in the morning when she awoke the next day. She showered, put on some clothes Oliver had ordered for her that fit her perfectly, and went into the main sitting room. Oliver had breakfast on the table, but the thought of eating made her stomach churn. She settled for orange juice instead.

“You were being drugged,” Oliver said, slapping a sheet of paper onto the table. “Toxicology report. You’ve got a psychotropic drug in your system, mixed with red meteor rock. It was made to lower your inhibitions and leave you open to suggestion.”

Chloe stared at the report, numb.

“It heightens your emotional state, which explains your erratic feelings and heightened sexual desire.”

“Lex didn’t make suggestions,” she said, but then she remembered little comments he’d made about how Clark had wronged her, and how it would be good to get revenge.

“I see from the look on your face that maybe he did. Feel sick?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“The doc left these for you. They’ll help with the nausea and the headaches while you withdraw.”

Oliver put a brown prescription bottle on the table. Chloe swallowed one and put her head down.

“I’ll call Clark. He’ll be glad to—”

“No,” Chloe said. “I don’t want you to call Clark.”

“Why not?”

Chloe looked up at Oliver. Despite her physical discomfort, she’d never felt so calm, and focused, and liberated. “I owe Lex a debt of gratitude.”

Oliver looked as though Chloe had hit him again. “Come again?”

“I know he was using me to get at Clark, but it was because of what he did that I made some really positive changes in my life. I finally let go of every hurt I’d ever held inside. I finally stood up for myself. I started putting my career first, instead of Clark, and I finally got to see what life without his constant demands could be like. Lex’s motives were selfish, but he liberated me, Oliver. I’m doing better at work, and I’m no longer carrying around all the pain Clark’s made me feel over the years. If this hadn’t happened, I’d still be in the basement of the Daily Planet, still hoping that one day Clark would break up with Lana, and fall for me instead of some other girl. I’d still be hoping that he’d finally appreciate me. I’d still be dropping everything in my life to solve his problems as soon as he breezed into the room, even if that meant making my own work suffer. I’m a better person because of all this. I’m a better person…without Clark.”

Oliver sat back, looking at her with a strange expression of confusion mixed with surprise. “So...you never want to reconnect with Clark?”

Chloe shook her head. “Someday, but not right now. I need space from Clark, before I end up falling back into the same old routine. You could help me with that.”

“How?”

“Let me stay here, in Star City. I can act as a journalist abroad. I know Perry would let me submit my work via e-mail. I’d still have my job at the Planet, I’d be able to do more work for you as Watchtower, and I’d have the space I need from Clark.”

Oliver sipped his juice and thought it over. “Wouldn’t I be replacing Clark, in a lot of ways?”

“Hmm…” she said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Stay here, as long as you want,” Oliver said. He reached out and took her hand. “Concentrate on your job, and don’t worry about me, but only on one condition. You never have anything to do with Lex Luthor again.”

Chloe smiled. “Deal.”

Feeling warmth spread from his hand, where Chloe held it, through his arm and up to his face, Oliver reached up and probed his lip and eye.

They were completely healed.

Epilogue