Chloe and Oliver stood across the street from Pino's. "I can't believe this." Chloe shook her head. "I can't believe, after everything we did, all the backward twisted ways we tried to save his ass and I have to poison him?" Chloe sighed in frustration. It was extremely simple in the end. Claire explained it all to Chloe who listened to the whole thing with a growing sense of disbelief.

The original killer, the waiter at Pino's, had never intended to murder Lex. The poison he slipped Lex was supposed to cause severe abdominal pain and probably diarrhea. He just wanted to hurt him, and maybe embarrass him a little. Only he'd screwed up and put the poison in his scotch which had an adverse effect and killed Lex instead. Claire explained that all Chloe had to do was allow the waiter to follow through with his original plan to poison Lex, poison him but not kill him. Lex would get taken to the hospital, probably spend a few hours huddled over a toilet, and then the rest of the day he'd spend at the police station giving a statement, and he'd be so frustrated and exhausted after all of that that he would just go straight home.

After voicing her disbelief, loudly and for quite some time Chloe calmed down and then worked out a plan. She found some clothes that matched the uniforms at Pino's, paid the bartender a thousand dollars to take a day's vacation and then waited behind the bar. When Lex got there she watched the waiter as Lex berated him and insulted him and Chloe saw it when the waiter reached that point where she could understand him wanting to teach Lex a lesson. He walked over to the bar and put in the table's drink order. "That guy seems like a real asshole." Chloe said as she fixed the scotch, putting 1 part scotch to about 9 parts water to be on the safe side.

"You have no idea." The waiter said. Chloe looked over at his name tag and smiled, Brian, all those days and she never bothered to learn his name.

She passed him the scotch and the other drinks and watched as Brian's hand slipped in his apron pocket and pulled out a small bottle. He brought it over to the scotch and undid the top. Chloe reached out quickly and put her hand over his. Brian turned to her surprised and guilty, an excuse ready on his lips. "Not in his drink." She shook her head slightly. "Most things are better not mixed with alcohol." He looked stricken suddenly; like that thought never crossed his mind.

"Oh God." He hurriedly slipped the bottle back into his apron.

"Does his entrée have a sauce on it?" Chloe asked smiling to calm Brain down. He nodded. "It would probably be better in there."

"Really?" Brian slumped in relief when he realized that Chloe wasn't going to turn him in or anything. "I don't normally do stuff like this, you know. I just really hate that guy."

"I don't know anything about anything." Chloe assured him. "I'm just filling in for the day." She winked at him and he walked to the table with the drinks. Forty minutes later Lex was being taken out in an ambulance and Brian, in a fit of guilt, confessed to everything.

"I feel kind of bad for him." Chloe said. "He seemed like a nice guy who'd just been pushed too far." Chloe turned to Oliver and frowned. "You know, I have absolutely no idea what to do now."

"I say, we party." Oliver smiled tossing his arm over Chloe's shoulder and leading her down the street.

Five hours later the music was pounding from Chloe's speaker system, her friends and family were all alive, so was Lex Luther, her toilet flushed without flooding the apartment, she could make coffee and run her computer at the same time and in one hour it was going to be Friday. "Thanks for inviting us." Julia walked over with her boyfriend Jeremy.

"Well the walls are kind of thin and I figured it would be better to get to know the neighbors by inviting them to the party instead of having them call the cops on the party." Chloe smiled.

"We really appreciate it. It's been a hard couple of months, we needed this." Julia smiled.

"We should go get some coffee sometime." Chloe said. "I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow but after that, we should get together."

"Definitely." Julia nodded and Chloe excused herself as Lois walked in the apartment confused and it seemed annoyed, with Clark trailing behind her.

"I'm so glad you could make it to my housewarming slash "I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday" party." She hugged each of them in turn. "Can I get you a drink?"

"You can tell me why you told Clark about my plans to break into LuthorCorp. Didn't let me out of his site all day and I couldn't get anything done." Lois glared. "For that matter you can tell me how you knew I was going to break into LuthorCorp."

"Jesus Clark, what part of "Don't tell her I told you" did you not understand?" Chloe gasped at him.

"You can't keep things from Lois, you know that." Clark defended himself.

"Chloe come explain to Bart that…" Oliver stopped when he saw Lois and Clark standing there. Lois."

"Oliver?" Lois asked then turned to Chloe.

"I promise that I'll explain everything when it's Friday." Chloe smiled at her.

Lois looked at her watch then at Chloe and Oliver. "Friday is in two hours. What's the difference between then and now?" She crossed her arms over her chest and Chloe sighed.

"Ok fine. I knew what you were planning on doing because you've done it for the past 158 days. I told Clark what you were planning specifically so he would stop you because for the past 158 days you've been arrested for breaking into LuthorCorp. Oliver is here because he's my new mystery boss. He's the one who saved the Isis Foundation and fixed up the apartment for me. And it's not because he just wanted to invest in some sort of charity organization, it was so I could help him, with his other job." When Lois looked over Oliver shocked Chloe went on. "Yes I know he's the Green Arrow, I knew he was the Green Arrow long before you did and I've been helping him unofficially for the past few years on and off, now I do it full time." Chloe let out a breath as Lois just stared at her astonished. "Oh, and we're dating. Me and Oliver. We're dating." Lois still didn't say anything. "Each other."

"Ok." Lois held up a hand. "First things first. I need a drink, a big one, with like fruit in it, and one of those little umbrellas, and lots and lots of rum."

"I can do that." Oliver smiled at her. He motioned Bart over and whispered something in his ear. Bart smiled and ran out of the room.

"What is…" Before Lois could even finish her sentence Bart was standing at her side with a very large pink colored drink with fruit floating in the top and a little blue umbrella. "Thank you." She took a sip and smiled. "Did you just make this?"

"No." Bart laughed. "Got it at a little resort on Ohau. Almost spilled it in New Mexico, that Armadillo came out of nowhere." He winked at Lois then walked away as she stared after him then took an even larger gulp of her drink.

"Better." Lois said when half of the cup was empty. "Start at the beginning and don't skimp on the details."

Chloe looked over at Oliver and took a deep breath. She told Lois her story, Oliver filling in parts here and there. When they were done, Lois' cup was empty and her face was surprisingly impassive. "You ok?" Chloe asked her.

"What?" Lois shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm great." She smiled. "Hey, short stuff." She screamed at Bart across the room and he ran over. "Refill please." She shoved the glass into his stomach. Bart looked over at Oliver questioningly and he nodded. "And keep them coming yeah?" Bart disappeared and returned a minute later with another drink. Lois took another long sip and smiled. "Where can I get one of him?" Lois smiled at Bart who beamed.

"Darling you can have this one." Bart said to her. "Just say the word."

"Bart!" Chloe and Oliver both snapped at him at the same time. Bart frowned and walked away. "Seriously Lois, are you ok with this?"

"I'm fine with this." Lois assured her sincerely. "All of this…" She motioned to Chloe and Oliver's intertwined hands and they both looked down as if they hadn't even realized they'd one it. "It'll take some time to get used to it, I haven't lived the past 158 days over but I'm good." Lois said. "And now I'm going to dance." She set her drink on a side table and walked away, grabbing Clark's arm as she did. "Come on Smallville."

"Is she ok?" Oliver asked worried.

They watched as Lois made her way onto the makeshift dance floor and tried to get Clark to dance with little success. "She's fine." Chloe smiled. "So I'm all packed."

"Packed?" Oliver asked her confused.

"Scotland." Chloe reminded him. "Castle."

"Yeah." Oliver frowned. "About that…."

"Chloe! Ollie!" AC pushed his way over to her, holding two glasses of champagne. "One minute until Midnight."

Chloe and Oliver took the glasses and then walked over to where the others were standing. "You're sure?" Oliver asked Sam for the hundredth time.

"I'm sure." Sam said. "The clock will strike midnight and then it will strike 12:01. I swear."

"Well here goes nothing." AC nodded at the clock on the wall. "Ten, nine, eight, seven…"

The others picked up the chant and when they got to one they all froze and looked around the room. None of the party goers disappeared, the music kept playing and the second hand moved forward on the clock. A round of cheers and laughter erupted and champagne was toasted, Oliver picked up Chloe and spun her around as they celebrated the world turning Friday.

October 17, 2008

Around three a.m. Chloe's eyes were dropping but she refused to give in. It was finally Friday and there was no way she was going to sleep through one minute of it. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea. The party goers had all gone a little after midnight. Lois stayed until one thirty when Clark dragged her away. But Chloe, Oliver, Bart, AC, Victor, Sam, and Claire were still awake, afraid if they closed their eyes they'd find it had all been a dream.

Oliver handed Chloe another cup of coffee and she sipped it slowly. "What I don't understand." Chloe said. "Are the clues. Those were ridiculous."

"What clues?" Sam looked over at Chloe confused.

"The clues, the ones that led us to you at the lab." Chloe explained. "The list that Lois stole from Lex's office, the boxes that got wet when the bathroom flooded, the stupid Haiku on the fridge."

Sam looked over at Claire who shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Honestly."

Oliver looked at Chloe. "So where did they…there were clues, we wouldn't have gotten to you without them, they were there." Chloe said. "The freaking Haiku, the stupid boxes…I don't understand."

"Maybe there were clues." Claire said. "But we didn't put them there. Maybe they were just random things and you read into them what you wanted to and that led you there. If there's anything I've learned these past five years it's that sometimes things aren't connected, sometimes the world is random, and sometimes things are just destined. I don't know what to tell you."

"You have to know. They led us to you." Chloe said. "Didn't you see that? Isn't that how you saw us finding you."

"I didn't actually." Claire told her. "I didn't ever see that." Sam turned to Claire surprised.

"What do you mean you didn't see it?" Sam asked.

"They were never supposed to find us." Claire admitted to him finally. It felt good after 158 days of lying to come clean. "I'm sorry. When Lex died and we had to start the rewind early, you were so afraid, afraid that we were going to die, so I told you that Chloe would find us. I made up a story and told you she'd save us. I lied to make you feel better. I guess to make myself feel better too. I wanted to believe it. I wanted to live longer, even if it was just the exact same day over and over again."

"So we were never supposed to find that place?" Oliver asked.

"The clues were just…." Chloe turned to Oliver laughing. "The clues were nothing. The list, the boxes, the haiku, they really were just a list, a box, and a really bad poem."

"Sometimes fate throws you a curve ball, and you just have to go with it." Claire smiled.

"So you essentially put me through all that, just so that you could make Sam feel better?" Chloe laughed harder and Oliver joined her, seeing the humor in the situation.

"Sorry." Claire shrugged. "That's why I told him to pull Oliver though with you. So you wouldn't be alone." Chloe just laughed harder, Oliver right along with her. A few seconds later, Claire joined in and then Sam.

After a few minutes they all managed to calm down and stop laughing. "You know, Aristotle himself would tell you that it shouldn't have worked." Chloe pointed out.

"Aristotle?" Oliver looked over at her smiling. "It's three in the morning. You've just re-lived the past 158 days, you were dead a little over twenty four hours ago and yet you're still aware enough to bring Aristotle into this?" He raised his eyes as if daring her to go on.

Chloe glared at him and sat up straighter. "Aristotle said that probable impossibilities are preferable to improbable possibilities." Everyone looked at her confused. "He was talking about Poetry. He was saying that it was better to write a scenario that was impossible but probable to a scenario that was possible but improbable."

"Is she still speaking English?" Bart asked.

"It's simple really." Chloe said. "What we did today was a possible outcome to the situation. We would possibly stop the loop, find Sam and Claire, and save Lex." They nodded following her. "But while it was possible, it was also improbable. Logos on boxes that got wet when the toilet overflowed leading us to an address for a company on a list that Lois just happens to steal from LuthorCorp. And a Haiku found in a recycle bin in another random LuthorCorp lab, leading us through the building like a map, with the lock combination in it. Improbable. An improbable possibility." Chloe smiled. "Aristotle would say it was crazy. He would say that a probable impossibility would have been more believable."

"You know what I think Aristotle would say?" Victor asked standing up. "You need to go to bed." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight."

"Night." Chloe smiled.

"Come on, I've got a spare room and a pull out couch." Victor offered to Sam and Claire who nodded and followed him out. Bart and AC went next and Oliver stood up holding his hand out to Chloe.

"Bed time." Oliver told her.

"Do we have to?" Chloe groaned while Oliver pulled her up.

"Think of it this way. You'll get a full night's sleep for once." Oliver offered.

Chloe paused. "You mean I'll finally get to wake up in the same bed with you?"

"On the most amazing mattress in the world." Oliver added.

"Ok, I get it. You picked out the mattress." Chloe joked with him. "Why don't you find something new to brag about?"

"Is that a subtle hint that you want me to buy you another present?" Oliver asked as they stripped down.

"One, I'm not that girl." Chloe told him. "That girl that needs presents and expensive things ok." Oliver nodded. "And two, if you think a mattress is in anyway a present…how did you ever manage to keep a girlfriend?"

"It's an amazing mattress." Oliver smiled sliding into the bed. "And I've been told that I'm pretty hot, that usually counts for quite a bit."

Chloe smiled at him and kissed him softly. "Goodnight Oliver."

October 20, 2008

Chloe stood on the steps of the Isis Foundation sipping coffee made with her brand new coffee pot, watching unfamiliar traffic drive by and unfamiliar people walk down the street. "This is by far the most beautiful day I've ever seen." Chloe took a deep breath and then ducked further under the door frame.

"It's pouring down rain." Bart looked at her confused.

"Yeah but its Monday." Lighting lit up the sky and thunder rumbled all the way down to Chloe's bones.

"I'm going inside." Bart glared at the rain. "You are crazy."

"I've heard that before." Chloe shrugged. "So you got your plane ticket?" Chloe asked Sam. He nodded. "Your mom should be waiting for you when you get off the plane with about three years worth of mom kisses to make up for. I talked to the admissions guys at UCLA this morning; you're all set to pick up where you left off."

"You guys didn't have to do that." Sam said. "The plane ticket was more than enough but paying for college."

"We can cover it." Oliver assured him.

"But after what I did…" Sam looked over at Chloe sheepishly.

"There were so many things I did on the rewind days that I'd rather forget, no damage was done, and you came through in the end, that's what matters." Chloe smiled at him. "Just make sure you finish, get a good job, have a good life."

"What about Lex?" Sam asked worried. "He'll know where I am, he'll just…"

"Let us worry about Lex ok?" Chloe smiled.

"And no more Rewinds?" Oliver asked him.

"Not sure I can promise that." Sam smiled sheepishly. "But I can promise to give you guys a heads up next time."

"I can live with that." Chloe said. Then she surprised everyone by reaching forward and hugging him. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged back.

"Thank you." He whispered in her ear, tears stinging the edges of his eyes.

"Just doing my job." Chloe shrugged.

"What about you guys?" Sam asked. "What are you going to do?"

"What we always do." Oliver told him. "Try and find some way to stop Lex and take all his 33.1 labs with him."

"You ever need a do over just give me a call." He pulled the bag that Oliver bought him the day before full of new clothes and toiletries higher up on his shoulder. A cab pulled up in front of them and Sam sighed. "That's me." He looked over at Claire and Chloe and Oliver stepped back a little to give them some time. They'd basically been the only person in the world the other could count on for three years. "You're gonna be ok without me?"

"Are you going to be ok without me?" Claire nudged his shoulder.

"Probably not." Sam admitted and then hugged her tight. He turned to Chloe. "You sure you want to stay with these guys?"

"Yeah, I didn't have any family in Chicago, after five years, my job, my apartment all of its gone now. Plus it was really cold there." Claire smiled.

"You guys are gonna take care of her, right?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"I'm almost twice your age you know." Claire reminded him and he just looked over at Chloe.

"We'll help her figure out the job and the apartment and all that stuff ok? We're a full service rescue operation." Chloe said. "Until then she can stay here. We've got the room."

"I really appreciate that." Sam told her.

The cab honked and Claire smacked him in the head. "Go." She shoved him out into the rain and he climbed into the cab and drove away.

Two months later

Special Agent John Powell pushed his way through the throng of people backstage after the play smiling brightly when he caught sight of Eva talking to someone. "Daddy!" She excused herself and ran toward him, throwing her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

"You were great. Fantastic." He handed her the dozen roses he'd been holding since the curtain went up. "Amazing." Eva blushed as Special Agent McClane walked up beside him.

"Really great." She added handing over a bouquet of flowers. "I felt like I was watching a Broadway show."

Eva blushed again and turned around. "Dad, I'd like you to meet someone, this is Oliver Queen and Chloe Sullivan."

Powell and McClane exchanged a confused look and turned to the couple in front of them. "Did you say Chloe Sullivan?" McClane asked, holding her hand out to shake the woman's.

"Yes." She smiled. "And Oliver Queen."

"As in head of Queen Industries?" Powell asked.

"Guilty as charged." He shook their hands and smiled.

"I'm sorry what are you doing here?" McClane asked confused.

"He's the one who donated the money to keep the theater open." Eva smiled.

"I'm a big supporter of the arts, especially community projects, I was just checking in on my investment." He shrugged.

"Well that's great, we really appreciate it." Powell said a little cautiously.

"I was just telling Eva that I've got some connections at Julliard and that she should give me a call when she applies." Oliver smiled.

"Isn't that amazing?" Eva was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"We really should go." Chloe said to Oliver.

"It was nice to see you again." Powell shook their hands again.

Chloe smiled at the two Special Agents. "Congratulations on the baby." Chloe nodded at McClane who looked down at her barely showing baby bump and frowned. "We're gonna be late." She said. "You were really great Eva, he meant what he said about Julliard."

"I did." Oliver smiled as they walked away.

"This is so amazing, I have to go tell Sarah Beth and Marcie." Eva smiled.

"I couldn't help but notice the absence of your boyfriend." Powell said the word boyfriend as one might say arsenic.

"Marcus?" Eva rolled her eyes. "Please, I broke up with him weeks ago, you were right dad, the guy was a player. You know he had three other girls on the line?"

"Is that so?" Powell smiled. "Well, we're gonna head home, don't stay out too late."

"Thank you so much for coming." Eva hugged each of them again. "I'm sorry Andrew couldn't make it."

"He really wanted to, but he's still trying to get all the renovations done before the baby gets here." McClane said. "I can't believe you talked me out of the other house in Antioch, it was perfect."

"I just had a bad feeling about it." Powell said shrugging. "And I was right wasn't I?"

"I still would like to know how you figured out there were termites." McClane looked at her partner critically. "Without ever having seen the property."

"Lucky guess." He grabbed McClane' arm and led her to the parking lot.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" McClane asked.

"Oliver Queen? He's only like the third richest man in the world." Powell answered.

"Not him, Chloe Sullivan. I swear I've heard that name before." McClane said getting in the car.

"It's obvious the two of them were dating, she's probably been in the papers with him." Powell said.

"I guess." McClane shrugged. "And how did she know I was pregnant, you said it wasn't obvious." She looked down at her stomach again.

"It's not." He assured her. "You've just got that pregnant glow." McClane glared at him and Powell shut up.

"Can you swing by that little Italian place before you bring me home, I've got a sudden craving for tiramisu."

"Sure thing." Powell smiled at her.

Powell locked his car and grabbed the bag of tiramisu before heading up the walk to his door. He heard a noise and paused, turning around slowly. "Hello!" He called out. A cat ran from behind the garage and he let out a sigh of relief. He turned around and stopped dead in his tracks, the Green Arrow was standing in front of his door. "Holy crap. You scared me."

"Special Agent Powell." Oliver said smiling.

"Is that tiramisu?" Another voice said coming up behind him and he relaxed when he saw Chloe. "Wow I haven't had that in forever. Hey Powell."

"Miss Sullivan." He nodded at her. "I got extra, I remembered you liked it."

"I told you he remembered." Chloe turned to the Green Arrow who pushed his hood back and took off the glasses.

"How could you be sure?" Oliver asked.

"He said nice to see you again." Chloe pointed out. "Not nice to meet you." Powell paused, he didn't realize that.

He'd gone home that night after talking to Chloe and thinking that it would make a great story but she was probably a little bit crazy. Then he woke up the next morning and it was Thursday again and later that day Lex Luther died. He was tempted to contact her but he figured she had enough on her plate and if anyone could handle the situation it was her. Sure enough after 16 Thursdays he woke up and it was Friday. He decided to keep the whole thing to himself and wait and see if she contacted him.

"How exactly did you remember?" Oliver asked as Powell opened the door and motioned them inside.

"I'm not sure." He shrugged passing Chloe the bag of take away. "I just woke up the next day, only it was still Thursday and things were happening exactly the same as they did before."

"But McClane doesn't remember?" Chloe asked.

"Nothing." He shook his head. "This came through too." He said opening a drawer on his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. Oliver took it and read it over chuckling to himself before passing it to Chloe, it was the first page of a transcript of her interview with McClane and Powell, just the first page.

"Did Sam say anything about bringing him through?" Oliver asked.

"No and I talked to him yesterday." She shook her head. "He's got a full course load and he met a girl."

"Who is Sam?" Powell asked. "And what happened? How did you stop it?"

"Make some coffee and grab some spoons." She nodded to the tiramisu. "It's a long story."

Chloe told him about everything, how he was right about the clues, and wrong since technically there were no clues. She told him about Oliver dying, about her dying, about finally getting it right, and about how she saved Lex. "I read about Brian in the papers, but Lex dropped the charges a few days later."

"Yeah that was her." Oliver grabbed the tiramisu from Chloe and took a bite. "Although she won't tell me how exactly."

"I told you, I committed at least one felony, I wanted you to have plausible deniability." Chloe reached for the tiramisu and Oliver pulled it away and glared at her. "Fine." She turned to Powell. "But I'm telling him the story, not you."

"I don't care, I can still hear it." Oliver gloated with his tiramisu.

October 20, 2008

Chloe pulled her rain coat tighter and slipped out of the door to Isis Foundation. Oliver should stay asleep until she got back and if she woke him when she got in she was confident in her ability to persuade him to go back to bed. She made her way down the street in the rain and smiled. Something occurred to her earlier when she was telling Sam goodbye. She was full of bravado and confidence when she told Sam she would take care of Lex with no idea how she was going to do it, then it hit her. She realized she had to do this one on her own because chances were Oliver wouldn't approve and she couldn't send the other guys in, it had to be her. So here she was quietly making her way through the sleeping city at three in the morning, splashing in puddles just for the fun of it, a smile on her face.

She slipped in the back of Metropolis Towers liked she done so many times before on her repeat days and up the back stairwell to the penthouse. She hacked the lock using a borrowed piece of Victor's tech and waited. Forty minutes later Lex walked in and paused at the door. "You smell like wet dog."

"Yeah I think one of the puddles I stepped in wasn't just rain water." Chloe wrinkled her nose.

Lex finished hanging up his jacket and poured himself a drink. He held the bottle of scotch up and Chloe nodded. He poured her a drink and handed it over. "So, what can I do for you today Miss Sullivan?"

"A couple things actually, you might want to write them down." Chloe offered and Lex just stared at her. "First things first, you're going to drop the charges on Brian Martin tomorrow."

"Who is Brian Martin?" Lex sat down and pushed a button. A fire roared in the fireplace and Chloe stepped closer to it to warm her up.

"The waiter from Pino's that poisoned you." Chloe reminded him.

"Why exactly would I drop the charges?" Lex chuckled.

"It sounds crazy but Brian poisoning you actually saved your life in ways that you can't even begin to imagine." Chloe smiled. "You're going to want to repay the favor."

"You're right, that sounds crazy." Lex smiled up at her. "Try again."

"Ok, how about this." Chloe sat on the chair next to him. "I didn't realize it until this afternoon but recently I've spent quite a bit of time dealing with you and I've found out some things."

"Things?" Lex looked at her confused.

"Illegal things." Chloe said. "A lot of illegal things. Some of them would probably be illegal even in Amsterdam so that makes them like double illegal here."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Lex laughed imagining the whole thing to be some joke or a bluff.

Chloe paused for a second, she wasn't sure where to start. She had intimate knowledge of multiple briberies, illegal international deals, frauds, and many more schemes of Lex's from spending 158 days trying to keep him alive. "Well, if we started off small I would say the property tax fraud scheme that you've been running for going on five years now, which leads into the bribing of a local government official, well not just the one but I can't play all my cards up front can I?"

"Do you have any proof of these allegations?" Lex set his glass down.

"Oh you're a master at leaving paper trails." Chloe smiled at him. "That's what I love about you." She pulled an envelope out of her bag and tossed it to him. "That's just a preview of what I've got. Only took me a few hours to put together too." That was actually the easy part. Knowing about all of Lex's misdeeds made it very easy to find the solid proof, with a little help from all the CCTV cameras around the city she even had some good pictorial evidence. Lex's face got angrier and angrier as flipped through the papers.

"Fine." He tossed her the envelope again. "I'll drop the charges first thing in the morning."

"Good." Chloe sat back down. "Next…"

"Really?" Lex asked her. "Next?"

"I asked you earlier if you wanted to write this stuff down." Chloe smiled at him and he growled, actually growled before sitting across from her. "Next, I hear you had an unfortunate incident a few days ago involving one of your 'warehouses'. A mysterious gas explosion if I'm not mistaken."

Lex scoffed. "It was that Green Arrow bandit."

"Yeah, so from what I understand your 'warehouse' had quite a few people in it, thank God they all got out. And they're all going to stay out." Chloe smiled at him. "Do you understand what I'm saying here?"

"I'm not sure I do." Lex challenged her.

"Sam Walter and Claire Peterson." Chloe made herself perfectly clear. "I'll be keeping a very close eye on those two, I've sort of got a vested interest in their continued freedom. You don't come near them, you don't look at them, you don't contact them in anyway and you definitely don't kidnap them and bring them to your secret labs where you run experiments on them. Any of these things happen and I'll have to pull out the folder that probably wouldn't interest the police nearly as much as it would a certain head of the Russian Mafia located right here in Metropolis. Understand now?"

"Perfectly." Lex said.

"Great." Chloe smiled and finished her scotch. "Good stuff." She pulled her still damp jacket on and walked to the door.

"That's it?" Lex asked her. "That's all you want?"

"Oh that's probably not it, it's all I want from you now." Chloe smiled at him. "I hate to break it to you but you're probably going to be my bitch for a while, and you know I'm ok with that, so you should start to get used to it." She opened the door and moved to into the hallway.

"How did you know?" Lex asked her and Chloe turned to him, holding the door open. "About Sam and Claire?"

"Isis Foundation." Chloe smiled. "Your wife, sorry, ex-wife did a good job of advertising. If they need to, they'll find me. And with all the technology at my disposal if I want to, I can find them."

"I knew I should never have let her have a hobby." Lex joked as Chloe closed the door.

Present

"Hold on, just one second." Oliver smiled. "You really told Lex he was gonna be your bitch?"

"Yeah." Chloe nodded. Oliver handed over his tiramisu bowing.

"You are so awesome. Sometimes I forget how awesome you are then you do stuff like that." Oliver leaned over and kissed her.

"I thought your first story was crazy." Powell shook his head.

"That's how we live." Chloe smiled at him.

"Better you than me." Powell smiled at her. "So did you just come here to tell me how it all turned out?"

"Actually, we were hoping you'd do us a favor." Chloe asked him.

"This can't be good." Powell shook his head and laughed. "Lay it on me."

"Claire, the girl from the facility, We've been thinking about it and we think, with her special talent of seeing connections, that she'd make a good cop." Chloe explained.

"She probably would." Powell thought for a minute and noticed Chloe and Oliver looking at him expectantly. "What?"

"Well she took the test and she scored off the charts, she's almost done with her training at the academy. But I think her talents are wasted as a beat cop. So I talked to a few friends in the department and they said that with her test scores, she could fast track up the department if she had a sponsor. Someone who would vouch for her, show her the ropes, partner with her."

Powell finally understood what they were talking about. "I already have a partner." He said.

"Who's pregnant and probably going to go on Maternity leave in a few months, which is just how long Claire needs to work the beat before she comes up for promotional consideration." Oliver pointed out.

"That is true but even so." Powell stood up. "There is a difference between getting bumped from beat cop to homicide in local precinct. But we're talking Metropolis PD to FBI in two months, it just doesn't happen."

"We thought of that too." Oliver said. "It may surprise you to know that there are quite a few people in positions of authority who are aware of people like Claire and what they can do. I know a few who would be able to get her application pulled through."

"People in positions of authority?" Powell asked.

"I can't really reveal any names." Oliver smiled.

"Of course not." Powell took a deep breath. "She's really that good? I mean this isn't just using your position to get a friend a better job."

"She's really that good." Chloe said pulling out a piece of paper. "These are her scores from the crime scene simulation tests."

Powell studied the sheet. "That can't be right." He looked over the numbers again. "She solved the cases in two minutes? All eight mock crime scenes."

"She can walk into any room and tell you what's missing, what's out of place, how many people have been through it in the past three days, who they are and where they are now." Chloe explained to him. "Given enough time she could pick up this fork and tell you the name of every person who ever touched it."

"She is that good." Powell put the paper down. "I want to meet with her first. I'm not going to sponsor someone, partner with them if I've never met them."

"How's coffee? Tomorrow?" Chloe smiled.

"I'll check my schedule." Powell smiled at her.

"Her numbers on the paper." Chloe told him.

"We gotta go." Oliver said to Chloe. "The plane leaves in two hours and you aren't packed yet."

"Going on a trip?" Powell walked them to the door.

"Finally he's living up to his promise." Chloe smiled. "He promises me a vacation and fails to mention the fact that his castle is under construction and completely unlivable at the moment. Three months later, I'm finally getting on a plane."

"Scotland." Powell remembered. "His own private island."

"You told him about that?" Oliver groaned in frustration.

"You honestly don't get what's so amazing about it? The fact that you own your own island."

"It's land, lots of people own land." Oliver argued and Chloe threw her hands up in exasperation. "It was really nice to meet you." Oliver ignored Chloe and held out his hand to Powell. "I'm sure we'll see more of each other in the future. It's always useful to have friends in law enforcement in our line of work."

"I'm sure it is." Powell laughed.

"I wasn't kidding about that Julliard thing either. Tell Eva to call me."

"I will." Powell nodded at him and walked the to the door.

"Ok." Chloe turned to Oliver as they walked down the driveway. "What would you say if I told you I wanted to buy my own private space shuttle?"

"What would you need a private space shuttle for? What does anyone need a private space shuttle for? That's ridiculous." Oliver scoffed at her.

"Exactly." Chloe nodded at him encouragingly.

"It's not the same thing." Oliver argued.

"It's exactly the same thing." Chloe groaned. "How do you not understand this?"

"Would you just let it go?" Oliver pleaded with her. "If it's such a big deal, how about this, we don't go to the island. We don't go to the castle, we'll buy a commercial plane ticket, get a room in a hotel at some resort."

"Hold on, don't be hasty, just back up there cowboy." Chloe smiled at him. "I'm not saying I don't want to go. I definitely want to go. It's a private island for god's sake. We're going. I just want you to admit that the whole idea of one person owning an island is a little superfluous."

"If I admit that, will you shut up about it?" Oliver asked her hopefully.

"Yes." Chloe nodded and waited for him to go on.

Oliver opened his mouth. "No, sorry, I can't do it, I just can't. Chloe there are some things that you're going to have to learn to live with. I'm that guy. The one who owns and island and doesn't think it's a big deal. The one who will drop everything and spend a month in Monte Carlo because I feel like it. If you think about it, that's a good thing for you. Because that guy is more likely to buy you extravagant presents for no reason, and take you on ridiculous spur of the moment adventures and keep you on your toes."

"You just like arguing with me." Chloe slid her arm through his.

"There is that." He nodded.

"I like arguing with you too." Chloe leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked down the street to the car. "As long as you admit that right or wrong, I'm always going to win."

"Of that there is no doubt." Oliver assured her.