Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, they are the property of Smallville and DC Comics.

A/N: This is based on the characters as they appear on the show, not in the comics.

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity --Henry Van Dyke

Chapter 1

Oliver Queen was not a patient man. He was a man of action used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it. Maybe that was what was so appealing about being the Green Arrow. It was a live without rules in which he could take and give at his discretion. As a superhero he was only bound by one thing: his mortality. And as his other identity, billionaire playboy, he was bound by nothing. He could have what he wanted when he wanted it. Only one thing had ever been denied to him. And that one thing was her.

The first time he saw her she had been unconscious, her body draped over her chair in the Daily Planet with his silver ring in her hand. He had reached over, taking the ring from her outstretched palm and even through his glove he had felt a jolt. From behind the darkness of his glasses he could not easily discern her looks, but he had been intrigued. But had needed to leave, though he wished he could stay.

The first time he had met her he had been struck by her beauty and easy smile. A shock of electricity had gone straight to his gut as quickly as regret had filled him. Regret because he hadn't met her first, before her cousin. While Oliver might always have been able to attain what he wanted, she was not something that could be acquired. She was not another yacht or flashy car; hell, she wasn't even one in his endless string of women. She was an untouchable angel who just happened to be the cousin of the girl he was dating.

And he was not a patient man.

He had begun dating Lois to while away the time while he was in Metropolis. He knew their relationship was never going to progress but that had not bothered him at the time. Because at the time he had not met Chloe.

He began dating Lois not only for company but also for the excellent cover that she provided. An attached man was rarely inflicted with the amount of scrutiny that an unattached one was. And if there was one thing that Oliver could not afford it was scrutiny. He had made a promise to himself to right the wrongs of the world, and he could not do that if he was exposed.

And if he dumped Lois for her cousin, he was sure that he would be exposed. Lois was already on the tail the Green Arrow and he could not afford for her to re-question all the coincidences that she had overlooked until now. It would not be long before it all came together for her, not long before he was hounded as a vigilante and a thief. And Ollie just could not take that risk.

So he denied himself the one woman who had ever made his heart race.

When Chloe had come to his penthouse and casually told him that she knew his secret he thought his world had just crashed around him, but she did not seem put off by it at all. He should have known that she would understand. He wanted to take her in his arms at that moment, but she had been too focused on rescuing Clark and Bart. Always worried about Clark.

Later, he tried to ignore the way his heart had clenched when she had told Bart she had a boyfriend. And he tried to keep his jealousy intact when she defended Clark for the millionth time. He would give anything to be in Clark's position. To be the man that she loved, if only from a distance, to have the history and the closeness, to be the hero that she called out for when she was in trouble. He would give anything for that, but it would never be.

When her mother needed to escape Lex, Ollie had jumped at the opportunity to help Chloe out in any small way. In his heart he hoped she appreciated what he had done, and he had smiled when he received the glowing email of thanks that she had sent him. She had written of him "going above and beyond the call of a hero", her words glowing her thanks. Little did she know that he would do anything for her. Do anything to be her hero, but that position was already filled.

Clark was her hero, and Oliver was the man that broke her cousin's heart and occasionally sent work her way.

Ollie had never meant for it to happen originally. When he and Lois broke up he breathed a sigh of relief, though he could not show it, and thought he was leaving Metropolis behind him. But one time when Victor was on a mission he had called her. Her voice had been warm on the phone and he was glad that he had not lost her good favor when he ended things with her cousin. He offered to pay her for a little research and hacking, and before she knew it she was freelancing for the Justice League.

She probably thought of it as a way to pay her bills, but to Oliver it was so much more than that. It was his way to stay in her life, however brief any contact with her might be. She was all business, but he was just happy to hear the sound of her voice.

And when she picks up the phone and says, "Sullivan," in a clipped professional tone, he smiles into the receiver.

"Hey Watchtower," Ollie says with a smile. "Feeling lucky tonight?"

Chloe smiles, though he cannot see. "I thought you'd never call."

It was enough. Enough for him, for now. Oliver was not a patient man, but he would wait.

Had someone told her a year ago that she would yearn for the hours she spent outside of the Daily Planet, Chloe Sullivan would have laughed in their face. The Planet was the one thing she had always dreamed of, and she could not have even begun to imagine the day when that might change. It had happened slowly, over time. And it had started simply enough. Her new smirking editor had told her that her stories lost their heart while trumpeting the drivel filled articles that her cousin wrote for a gossip rag. Then before she knew it, Lois was sharing space with her in the basement of the Daily Planet.

She had never thought of herself as the jealous type, but she found herself seething over the praise Grant, her editor, laid at Lois's feet. It soothed her pride somewhat when she found out that Lois and Grant were having an extra-curricular relationship, but very little. No, by then the Planet had begun to lose its charms. Soon after Lex Luthor bought the paper and Chloe began to dread coming to work. She was determined not to quit, she wouldn't give Lex that kind of satisfaction, but she also did not feel the same way about her job anymore. It was no longer her sole desire, and now that she and Jimmy were over she found herself at a loss to fill the free time.

Then along came Oliver Queen.

He had started using her freelance skills nine months before, but the projects she worked for him were usually done over the phone with very limited contact involved. Tonight was the first time that she had been unable to help on her own computer. She needed to be with the mainframe in order to fix whatever he needed. Which is how she found herself in the elevator at Queen Towers being lifted to the penthouse apartment. When she arrived on the top floor, she waited patiently for the safety gate to move and then she stepped into the expansive apartment.

"Oliver?" She called out as she moved further into the room. She hated that her voice sounded tentative, but she couldn't help but feel nervous about being alone with Oliver. The last time she had been alone with him was then Dinah Lance came to town and Oliver had to rescue her from the roof.

"I'll be right there," Oliver's voice called out, soothing Chloe's nerves.

She smiled to herself, and took off the bag that was on her shoulder along with her coat and scarf. The coat was a deep hunter green, matching the silk blouse that she wore. Chloe often wore green when she knew she was going to see Oliver, though never consciously.

"You're here," Oliver's voice said from behind her.

"As promised," Chloe said. Chloe turned and smiled at him, her heart automatically beginning to beat faster. He looked so handsome in his black shirt and jeans. Chloe could remember the first moment she had met him. She had struggled to keep her mouth closed. He had looked every bit as good then as he did now, but she had not truly appreciated his muscled frame. At the time she had thought his muscles came from appointments with a personal trainer. She now knew that every ripple and every outline on his body was earned on the streets with a bow in his hand.

Oliver allowed himself only a brief moment to savor her company before getting down to business. "Great, well, let's get started. Bart and AC are targeting an oil refinery which is acting as a front for one of Luthor's labs. I normally could have gotten Victor to work on this, but he is in South America and time is of the essence."

"He couldn't just log into the system?" Chloe asked perplexed.

Oliver coughed, turning his face away. When he looked back at her his cheeks were slightly pink. "Uh, no. He is off the grid for the moment."
Chloe nodded, accepting his words at face value. She sat down at Oliver's desk and soon lost herself in the encrypted files that were before her. As she worked, Ollie brought her coffee which she accepted with a murmur of thanks. Her involvement in the programs gave him an opportunity to study her which he tried to do without alerting her. She had been right to question why Victor couldn't accomplish this task, it would be simple for him to hack into the files and pull up what they needed. But for some reason, Ollie had just needed to see Chloe. They hadn't crossed paths physically since there run in with Dinah as Ollie had been giving her work over the phone. But when he had the opportunity to come back to Metropolis to take care of some Queen Industries business, he had jumped at the chance.

He had been so lonely over the past three months. The Justice League had been as active as ever, with one new additional member. Dinah, aka The Black Canary, was settling into the team just fine. She had made a few overtures towards him, and in another life he might have accepted them, but she couldn't be Chloe. Her hair was too short, the color too brassy. Her eyes were the wrong color, like dark clouds instead of green meadows. She was too sarcastic bordering on cruel instead of snarky, and she seemed to care for nothing but the mission. Oliver knew that she only wanted a physical relationship with him, no emotions involved. In the past he would have accepted without hesitation, but things were different now. After his relationship with Lois ended, he realized that he couldn't be with anyone in place of Chloe. It just wasn't fair to the other woman, and it wasn't fair to Chloe, though she knew nothing of his feelings, but mostly it wasn't fair to himself. He didn't want to accept a pale imitation anymore. He wanted the real blonde reporter who sat before him biting her lip in fierce concentration.

"Well, I think I have the bulk of it now," Chloe said an hour later. "This last file needs to decrypt, but that might take some time." Chloe looked over to where Ollie sat on the sofa, reading the printouts of what she had already decrypted for him.

Ollie looked up, pretending to have been engrossed in his reading, and said, "How much longer do you expect it to take?"

"An hour maybe. Could be two," Chloe said as she stretched her aching muscles, her arms reaching over her head.

Oliver felt his jaw drop as he watched the small amount of skin that was exposed as she lifted her shirt. She was so beautiful, and he was transfixed by that little glimpse of pale skin. Before he knew what he was saying, he blurted out, "Would you like some dinner?"

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, you must be hungry," Ollie said. He gave her a disarming smile and spoke quickly. "I can call for Chinese and it will be here before you know it. They have me on permanent rush order," he said with a grin.

"Sure," Chloe said with a shrug. "I could use a break."

So could I, Oliver thought with frustration. He wished, more than anything else, that Chloe would take off her blinders and see him as a man, and not just her occasional boss. But as she sat there with that sweet and uncomplicated smile, Oliver knew that she wasn't going to see him that way any time soon.

A/N: So what do you think? Click the button to the left and let me know.