"Dad!" Chloe exclaimed, bursting in through the doors of her father's home in Smallville to find him standing in wait for her. She flung her arms around his neck and for a moment felt ten years old again. She saw so little of her father, and she had missed him terribly. It was a good fifteen seconds before she suddenly realized that the embrace was rather one-sided. "Dad?" she asked sweetly, pulling away slightly.

Gabe Sullivan closed his eyes and held up a tabloid magazine for Chloe's eyes. "Please, please tell me you have an evil twin."

Chloe swallowed tightly. On the cover of the magazine was a rather compromising photograph of her and one, Oliver Queen. Ironically enough, while Chloe and Oliver certainly got up to their fair share of...mischeif, the photo that was taken had been of an entirely tame moment. Chloe, ever graceful, had broken a heel and tripped. Breaking her rather wild fall had been Oliver's body, and Oliver, taken completely by surprise, had been caught on film with his hands in some rather inappropriate places and Chloe very much on top of him.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Chloe was aware of the injustice. She had come home for the weekend for the explicit purpose of escaping the media craze that had ensued in Metropolis following the publishing of that photograph. She was tired of being asked for a quote on things ranging from how long she and Oliver had been secretly dating to whether or not they were exclusive...or, still worse, some of them had been asking her to comment on what Oliver was like in bed. He might be used to this sort of thing, but Chloe was used to interviewing, not being interviewed. She sighed.

"Why on earth are you reading that trash?" she asked her father.

"I'm not," he glared. "Three different people I work with were."

Chloe groaned, moving past him and grabbing her suitcase to drag to her old room and unpack.

Her father gave chase, however, not about to let her get off the hook that easily.

"Isn't this your boss, Chloe? That's hardly appropriate for a work relationship," he scolded as he followed behind her in the stairwell.

Chloe groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Chloe, I raised you better than this! Do you know the article on the inside is calling you his 'flavor of the month?' Why kind of guy is this you work for?"

"I thought you weren't reading it?" Chloe growled angrily, reaching the top of the landing.

"I have to admit, the cover made me a little curious. Not to mention the caption: 'Chloe Sullivan: Gold Digger or Future Queen?' You can't deny it'll draw the reader in."

"ARRGGGH!" Chloe yelled her frustration, having finally reached her room. She turned and slammed the door in her father's face.

"We're talking about this later!" he said to her through the door.

"No," she yelled back, furiously ripping open her suitcase, "we're not! I came home to get away from that circus, Dad. Not to give you an exclusive!"

"That's what you think!" he returned, walking back down the stairs. He'd give her time to unpack.

Chloe was too angry to unpack. She'd already opened a drawer so furiously that she accidentally yanked it straight out of the dresser, sending clothes flying across the room, and bruising her foot painfully when it landed on her toes.

She yelled again in frustration and flopped down on the floor.

Her phone started buzzing in her pocket and she jerked it angrily out.

"What?" she demanded, her voice still livid.

"Whoah! Hold your fire! I surrender!" came Oliver's voice on the other end. "Is everything all right? I called to make sure you got home all right."

Chloe simply expelled a long, vocal sigh in response.

Oliver chuckled. "Less than perfect welcome I take it?"

"I feel like I'm reliving the most angsty part of high school all over again."

Oliver whistled. "That bad, huh?"

"You owe me. You owe me so big. You owe me -"

"Does it help that I'm giving an interview in which I explain what really happened and that you are no more than a friend to me? All for the sake of clearing your name, of course."

Chloe's stomach sank. That should help. That should be exactly what she wanted.

"Chloe?" Oliver asked, surprised that she didn't make some relieved comment when he told her he was caving in to the stupid society columnists. Normally he didn't bother with these things, just let people believe what they wanted, but he felt bad for Chloe's tarnished reputation.

Chloe sighed, blowing the hair out of her face...all of which flopped right back down in front of her eyes again anyway.

"Do you...not want me to talk to the magazines?"

Chloe opened her mouth and then closed it again to stop herself. It didn't prevent the tracherous, "Mm-mm," that came out, though.

Oliver stilled. "You want them to go on thinking we're dating?"

"It's what we're doing, isn't it?" Chloe sighed defeatedly.

Oliver had already formed an entire statement about how he knew that was what they were doing, and it had been Chloe's idea to keep it all secret, but he abruptly swallowed it back down again. He wasn't that stupid. "Well okay then."

A faint smile tugged at Chloe's mouth. "I do have a favor to ask, though."

"Anything you want."

"Pack a bag, you're coming to Smallville to meet my Dad," she smirked, hanging up the phone before he could protest.

After all, he said 'anything.'

Standing up, Chloe went back to her suitcase to find something appropriate to wear for introducing her father to her playboy billionaire boyfriend.

Author's Comment: Thanks for reading! Please do me the favor of visiting my homepage to take a look at what I'm working on and to give me feedback of what you'd like to see.
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