Chapter Note: The purpose of the story from here on out is to show how Oliver's knowledge of the future influenced his life and choices in the shows cannon of Seasons 9 and 10 - explaining how his relationship with Chloe evolved from his point of view - so you're going to see, in this chapter at least, that it follows the the episodes pretty religiously - and you will notice that huge chunks of dialogue are taken, word for word from the episodes. I do not claim to have written the dialogue, I am merely borrowing it to show how Oliver's future knowledge fits in with the shows cannon

Zatanna groaned and forced herself to her feet. It was obvious whoever it was that had the bad manners to pound the living hell out of her door at four in the morning wasn't going anywhere. "I'm coming!" she screamed into her darkened apartment as she stumbled her way out of the bedroom.

She tore the door open violently hoping to convey, at the very least, a small amount of the annoyance she felt to the person sanding on her front stoop. "Oliver?" The angry admonishments died in her throat when she saw the condition her friend was in. His face was a mess of shallow cuts and scrapes. His eyes were red rimmed, wide and frantic and his whole body was shaking with a nervous energy that was threatening to explode out of him at any moment.

"You have to send me back," Oliver panted, shoving his way into Zatanna's apartment ranting. "I know you said it was impossible but obviously it's not impossible, because I got there somehow and now I'm back here. But I need to go back, you have to send me back."

"Send you back where?" Zatanna asked confused, closing the door, trying to wake up enough to follow what he was saying. "Oliver, have you been drinking?"

"No, I don't do that anymore," Oliver said then paused at Zatanna's raised eyebrows. "I did before, obviously, and chances are I'm probably still drunk…I don't really remember – last night was so long ago. Look it doesn't matter. You said you wouldn't send me back because you didn't send me back but you never said you couldn't send me back. So I need to know, right now, can you do it?"

"Can I do what?" Zatanna asked, somehow even more confused now. "Oliver, it's four in the morning, just tell me what the hell's going on."

"Send me back to the future?" Oliver said suddenly, just blurting it out.

"Back to the future?" Zatanna eyes went wide.

"You said that time wasn't something you messed around with and how changing my future can change your past and I get that, I do, but Chloe needs me and I—" Oliver swallowed hard, looking more scared and vulnerable than Zatanna had ever seen him look. "I need her, you have no idea how much I need her."

Zatanna sat down on the couch and tried to warp her head around what Oliver was saying. "When did I say all that? About time being something you didn't mess around with and changing your future?"

"I went to see you, in the future," Oliver explained sitting down and taking a few deep breaths. "You said you'd been waiting for me. You knew I'd be there because you remembered me coming here, now." Zatanna frowned. "I know it can get a bit confusing."

"A bit," Zatanna said. "Look, if there's any hope at all of me understanding this I'm going to need coffee, lots of coffee. So make yourself useful and start a pot while I put on something less comfortable." Oliver frowned and looked at her, as if just now noticing she was wearing nothing more than a thin white camisole and red boy shorts. He looked away instantly and Zatanna smiled wide. "Well well well, never thought I'd see the day Oliver Queen passed up the chance to leer at a girl in her underwear. Maybe you have changed."

"Stranger things have happened," Oliver pointed out.

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"So explain this to me very slowly." Zatanna sipped the coffee Oliver handed her.

"Ten months ago I woke up in my bed, in the Clock Tower, but Chloe was there and we were married. Tess was pregnant and Lois had twins and there were all these people that I didn't know who obviously knew me…I thought it was a dream at first," Oliver explained.

"But it wasn't. You were in the future?" Zatanna asked

"Ten years from now," Oliver said. He told her as much as he could which was hard because she didn't want to know anymore than she had to. Too much forehand knowledge could be a bad thing, she reminded him.

"I can make you forget," she offered at one point. "I can make you forget everything you saw there. Knowing what you know, carrying that with you, it's not gonna be easy."

Oliver stopped and thought about it. He could see where she was coming from. Knowing what he knew would be hard sometimes. There were things that had to happen, things he couldn't stop. Like Tess' upcoming betrayal, what was going to happen to Hal, even Carter's death. He didn't even know the guy yet but he knew that from what Courtney and Chloe had told him, when the time came, it was going to be difficult for him to just sit by and let it happen. But Oliver knew that he couldn't change those things. Those things are what shaped the future that he wanted so badly to have.

Then he thought about the look on Chloe's face in the mornings. She always had this dreamy soft smile as she stood by the coffee pot waiting for her first cup of the day. He thought about Bart and the man he'd one day become. He thought about showing up at Mia's office on her first day at her new law firm to take her to lunch. How she pretended to be embarrassed but seemed to hold her head higher when he told her how proud he was of her. He thought about Tess holding Noah which made him think about Chloe holding Ellie, which made him think about Ellie.

"No," he said a bit more forcibly than he meant to, catching Zatanna off guard. "No," he repeated more softly. "Thanks but I think I'm supposed to remember this stuff." He explained about Victoria and Max and the lesson that he was supposed to learn. "Victoria said he brought me there so I could find something to make me want to live my life."

"Did you?" Zatanna asked gently, taking his story in.

"Yes," Oliver said painfully, the image of his daughter's face instantly coming to mind. "I have a daughter. Or I guess I will have a daughter. Her name is Ellie. Eleanor Laura Queen. She's beautiful, barely 48-hours old. I'd just given her a bottle, laid her down in her crib, and then crawled into bed next to my wife and went to sleep. Only when I woke up, I was alone. No wife, no baby. And now I have to wait ten years to hold either of them again." He turned to Zatanna sadly. "So you can understand why I would want to go back so badly."

"Oliver," Zatanna laid a comforting hand on his arm and frowned. "I get that you miss your daughter and you miss the Chloe you had in the future, but-isn't this better?" Zatanna asked him. "To be here, now. To live those times that you missed. To get to know this Chloe and fall in love with her and build a life with her, instead of just being dropped right in the middle of it?"

Oliver sighed because she was right. When he'd been back there with Chloe and seen the pictures and heard the stories, he'd been so jealous of the other Oliver because he'd got to live those times. But now he was getting the chance to be a part of those stories and to be in those pictures, to create those memories himself.

"Yeah, in a way, I guess it is." Oliver smiled softly.

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When he got home from Zatanna' s, the urgency Oliver felt, the need to get back to the future was just a dull ache now. The loss of a daughter he'd only known two days pulled at him in a way he'd never thought anything could. But it also gave him strength, made him want to change, to become the type of man that Chloe could love. Which only reminded him that Chloe didn't love him, not this Chloe, not yet anyway.

He showered, trying to make himself as presentable as he could. It was a bitch trying to shave around all the cuts on his face. His ribs ached and his head was pounding and now that the adrenaline had worn off all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for two days. But even more so he wanted to see Chloe. He needed to see Chloe.

He was on his way out the door, trying to get his mind back into 2009, figure out where Chloe might be this time of day, when the chessboard on the side table caught his eye. The White Queen was lying in the center on its side and Oliver felt a smile tug the corner of his lips. A memory he'd almost forgotten popped into his head from more than a year ago. Long before the Watchtower, long before Davis and Jimmy's death, long before their whole world imploded in on them.

Bart was on a routine recon mission in South America and Chloe was waiting at the Clock Tower for him to get back so she could debrief him and figure out where they went from there.

"Are you even paying attention?" Oliver asked Chloe as he stared at the chess board and she stared down at his phone. "I'm three moves away from taking your Queen."

"Bart hasn't checked in yet," Chloe said glancing at the board. "And it doesn't matter because I'm two away from taking yours."

"It's Bart," Oliver said, squinting at the pieces. "He's fine, he probably stopped off for a late night snack. What are you seeing that I'm not?"

Chloe looked down at the board and smiled secretly as Oliver touched his knight, thought better of it, hovered his hand over his one remaining bishop before grabbing his king and moving it to the left. Chloe smiled bigger and grabbed her rook moving it into position before looking up at him. "Check."

Oliver frowned even deeper and realized he'd been played, that Chloe tricked him into moving his king. "I've taught you well," he said leaning back in his seat to study the board, thinking his next move over more carefully. "You could call him, if you're that worried," Oliver said contemplating his knight again.

"And officially declare myself the Mother Hen they all accuse me of being." Chloe shook her head as Oliver captured her rook.

"They only tease you because they love you," Oliver pointed out as she frowned at the board. Her fingers hovered over her king and Oliver wrinkled his nose. She jerked her hand away then pushed her Queen forward. Oliver smiled and captured it easily, realizing too late that's what she wanted as she deftly moved her king, beaming up at him.

"Check," she said simply and Oliver chuckled under his breath, tipping the queen over on its side in surrender as a breeze blew through the room, followed by a not-so-steady-on-his-feet Bart. Chloe jumped up immediately as he dropped into one of Oliver's leather chairs and she saw gash in his arm, their game forgotten in favor of fussing over Bart.

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That had been the first time she'd beat him and the last time they'd played. One of the last times he remembered seeing her smile. Another image of the chess piece came to mind suddenly; this one from the future, of it broken into pieces. And then he thought about the look on Chloe's face when he'd put it back together for her.

"You gave it to me the morning after the Roulette thing. I was having coffee and you just set it on the table in front of me. It was your way of telling me I'd won, that you knew it was me who set you up and that there were no hard feelings. That conversation, that moment was sort of the start of everything. I always associated the white queen with that day and by extension us."

Oliver grabbed the chess piece and slipped it in his pocket and smiled as he made his way out the door. He knew exactly where to find her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Tess, I'll be in the office in fifteen minutes and then you can yell at me some more then, okay?" Oliver stopped at the crosswalk, smiling when he saw the sign for the Metro Coffeestop and a familiar head of blonde hair. He had a lot to make up for to Tess and knowing about her imminent betrayal didn't outweigh the fact that she was the only reason he still had a company. Even so, it didn't mean he wanted to listen to her shout obscenities at him over the phone so he hung up.

Oliver walked over to Chloe's table and set the chess piece down on the table in front of her."Nicely played." Chloe froze for a second, surprised to be called out and Oliver continued. "So I started asking myself who knew about Lex, about Toyman." Oliver walked around the table and sat down across from Chloe. ,"The things I'd given up, what I tried to do, and it all occurred to me. Dinah shattered the glass in the warehouse, Bart rescued me from the car, Victor faked the computers and Watchtower kept an eye on the whole thing. Right?"

Chloe swallowed. "You were living like you had a death wish, Oliver. You had to face your demons if you were ever gonna make it out alive, and I had to push you over the ledge in order to pull you back."

He winced, surprised to find that despite being gone for a little over nine months, the memory of that night still felt as if it had just been a few hours before. That probably had something to do with the broken ribs. "Did you have to push with a 3-ton truck?

"I didn't think a tricycle would be a strong enough point. You're a fighter, Oliver." He couldn't help but smile slightly, the look on Chloe's face, so familiar to him. "You fought for yourself and for a second chance."

He coughed. "Chloe, I'm not the only one you put at risk," he pointed out, because regardless of what she'd done and why she'd don't it, it was still a very risky play.

"If you're worried about our little club and Lex, don't be. I played my cards close to my chest," Chloe assured him.

"And Lois was what? She was, uh, just another ace up your sleeve?" Oliver saw Chloe wince at the mention of her cousin.

"No. I never meant for her to get involved. She was chasing after you when she accidentally ended up storming the field. That's when Victoria went off script," Chloe said sadly and Oliver resisted the urge to say, "You have no idea how much off script." But he bit his tongue.

"I could have killed her," he whispered instead, those old fears crashing back down on him. The doubt and shame about the person he'd been, much closer to the surface now in this place when everything was still so fresh than it had been in the future.

"No offense to your manhood, but I made sure that your gun was loaded with blanks just in case. I trust you, Oliver, just... not that much." Chloe sipped her coffee casually.

He smiled to cover the pain. The thought of Chloe not trusting him was twisting his gut into a knot. He knew, logically that she wasn't going to just see him and fall in love instantly in love with him, but the distrust he saw plain as day in her eyes was almost too much to take. "Did Clark know about this?" he asked, needing to change the subject.

Chloe chuckled. "You can't be serious. Clark would never in a million years risk what needed to be done."

Oliver shrugged. "Well, he's led a different life than we have, hasn't he? I can't expect him to know me like you do... the places that I had sunk to, the depths you must have had to go to bring me back." His throat tightened at that thought, hating that Chloe had seen him at his worst, and so grateful that despite all that she could still care about him enough to want to save him. "Thank you."

"You proved it to yourself. Even with your face in the gutter, you still had the hero in your heart." He remembered her future self, telling him that exact same thing and he couldn't help but reach out and grab her hand. A motion so familiar to him, but obviously foreign to her if the way her hand just sat there limply in his was any indication.

"You saved my life, Chloe. Both the myth... and the man." She smiled at that, curling her fingers around his and squeezing tightly before pulling away to pick up her paper. The loss he felt from that gutted him, and despite her kind words, the lack of recognition in her eyes was simply too much for him to handle.

"Well, I've got to get to the office. I can't even bare to think of the state things are in after my impromptu downward spiral," Oliver said setting the conversation on a more professional track to mask his hurt.

"Tess has kept a pretty good job of sheltering the company from the worst of your antics," Chloe told him and he raised an eyebrow at her defense of the woman he knew would one day be her best friend but in this time period at least was still just shy of a mortal enemy. "You think I'd let her run your company into the ground? Who would fund the Watchtower if I let that happen."

Oliver shook his head, somehow still amazed at all the little ways she managed to look out for him, and she just smiled before going back to her paper. He walked away, having to physically restrain himself from dropping a kiss to her forehead as he passed. When he got to the end of the street, he turned, reluctant to leave her completely just yet. He watched as she set down the paper and reached out, grabbing the small white queen, sliding her thumb reverently over the intricate carving before closing it in her fist. His chest felt a bit lighter after that and he took a slow, deep breath before heading over to LuthorCorp to face Tess.

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He'd spent a good hour being screamed at in his own office before Tess lost steam and just walked away. He worked straight through lunch, Tess had done a good job with the company, managing to keep everything afloat while he had done his best to ruin it all. He didn't actually have much to 'fix', mainly spent his time calling stockholders and soothing fears that he'd totally gone off the deep end.

He hung up the phone on his last call of the day and rubbed his temples before he clicked the Watchtower icon on his desktop and pulled up the security feed from the Watchtower. Chloe was walking across the room, coffee cup in one hand, tablet in the other.

The door flung open and Lois stormed into the room. "So... what was that about?" Lois asked and he looked up guiltily, like he'd just been caught watching porn.

He closed the tab quickly and looked over at her. "Uh-oh. I've seen that look before, usually right before you sock me in the jaw."

"Tempted. But if you're unconscious, you can't answer any questions like, who the hell was that dragon lady?" Lois glowered.

Oliver debated on how much to tell her. He figured admitting Victoria was a psycho who turned his life into some sort of game, acting on her own cousin's orders, before finally shoving him ten years into the future – all to learn a valuable lesson was out of the question.

"She was, um... a psycho ex-girlfriend who watched "Fatal Attraction" too many times," Oliver settled on.

"So, what am I, the bunny?" Lois raised an eyebrow and Oliver chuckled. "Oliver, you really need to take a dip in the sane-chick pool. I mean, that dress - that was a bigger red scare than cold war Russia."

He figured she wasn't going to let this go and the best way to keep Lois off the scent was to act as normally toward her as possible. "Although, I-I thought you wore it pretty well," he joked, trying to play it off but he hated that she'd gotten caught up in it all. "But, um... you never should have been dragged into this mess I made of my life, and, uh...I'm sorry." He looked away in shame, unable to keep up the façade of normalcy.

Lois just scoffed, "Was the mess so bad... that cleaning it up seemed harder than throwing it all away?" Oliver looked at her confused. "I saw the video. That's enough to send anyone on a binge." Oliver sighed, suddenly remembering how he'd felt standing on that pressure plate, thinking the only way to end the guilt, was to end it all. "Why didn't you come talk to me?" Lois asked.

He opted for the truth this time. "Pride, fear, and, um... regret. Lois, the truth is, I've been fighting my demons for so long I just...wanted this war to end."

"And you felt like there was nothing in life worth fighting for?" Lois whispered hurt.

"I never felt that way when I was with you." He was quick to reassure her and then winced when he realized how that sounded. "I m- I mean, I think what I mean is I-I lost sight of... what was good in my life," he explained. "I know things between you and me have changed, right?" Oliver clarified.

Lois smiled. "Some things haven't changed. Ollie, I will always be here for you. And if you forget that again...I will knock you out," she threatened and he laughed. "Okay. Now, I believe there's a certain birthday tradition we have to uphold."

Oliver cleared his throat and nodded as she pulled a six pack out of her bag, "Ready to get your ass kicked?"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver stood on the rooftop later that night, staring at the stained glass window of the Watchtower. If he squinted just so he could see Chloe's shadow walking around in there. The green leather of the Green Arrow suit felt strange to him, even though he'd worn it the whole time he was in the future. This body was stiff and out of practice and the leather actually chaffed a bit.

"I heard you were back," Clark said from behind him.

Oliver pulled off the hood and sunglasses and gave Clark the once over. "You do know, of course, you look absolutely ridiculous in that, right? I got a great tailor. Hook you up with a little color maybe?" He couldn't help but picture the Clark from the future, flying around Metropolis in the blue suit and red cape and he smiled.

"Nice to see you finally discovered something worth living for after all," Clark said and Oliver's gaze went immediately back in the direction of the Watchtower.

"Yeah. More like a rediscovery, actually. You've done a hell of a job keeping the world safe on your own, Clark. But I'm here to help you now," Oliver assured him.

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He'd been back almost a week now and he still had to brace himself every time he saw Chloe's name flash across the screen of his phone, make sure he didn't say too much. Like "I love you" or "I know your future."

"Hey," Oliver answered with a smile.

"Just wanted to let you know I'll be re-tasking the Watchtower's satellite for a while."

"Okay." Oliver frowned rounding the corner. "Why?"

"Just looking into something for Clark," Chloe answered vaguely, "And Oliver, we might have a lead on the Kandorians."

"Tess?" Oliver asked.

"Look I know she's your business partner and the two of you have this history, but she's up to something and if she knows anything about the Kandorians—"

"It's fine, Chloe," Oliver assured her. "Just…watch your back okay?"

"Are you worried about me?" Chloe teased.

"Like you said, Tess and I have a history, so I know exactly what she's capable of." Oliver bit his tongue to stop himself from giving too much away. He pushed open the door to the warehouse and the sound of cheering and fighting assaulted him.

"Where are you?" Chloe asked confused.

"Fight club," Oliver answered looking around at the different fights going on around him. He'd heard rumors about something starting up in the warehouse district and remembered Hal talking about how Oliver had found Mia in a underground fight club. So he'd gone to check it out, see if he could find her.

"Oliver," Chloe's tone sounded slightly disappointed and he smiled.

"Are you worried about me?" he teased as saw a familiar face in one of the crowds. "Well don't be, I'm just here as a spectator. There's a fighter everyone's talking about. Wanted to come down and check her out myself. See if maybe she'd be a good fit for the team."

"You're recruiting again?" Chloe asked softly and he smiled.

"Yeah, figured if the Kandorians really are up to something, it'd be nice to have the team in full force," Oliver said.

"Good point," Chloe said. "Hey, watch your back too."

"Always," Oliver said before hanging up. He stood off to the side watching, wincing at every hit that the guy landed on Mia. Her form was good, obviously street fighting, not regulation. She was self taught. A lifetime on the streets taking care of herself but she was still a bit raw and Oliver could work with raw.

It was hard to reconcile the scrappy fighter with the polished law school grad he knew she'd one day be, but if he looked closely he could see that in her too. Especially the way she refused to give up until she was the one standing victorious over a man three times her size.

He watched the man go into the ring when the fight was over. Watched as he grabbed her hard and pulled her away, watched as she walked right past him, offering him nothing but a vacant stare. Oliver followed them out and saw her get pulled into another warehouse a couple blocks away and had to swallow down the bile in his throat when he noticed she was shoved back out onto the street a minute later.

There was a short blonde wig hiding her own brown locks and the change of clothes left nothing to the imagination. It was obvious what she was supposed to be doing. He waited for a while as she joined the other girls and then went back to his car and rounded the corner to stop in front of her.

She gave the car a once over then walked over, leaning into the driver side window. "Nice wheels."

"Nice leather," he teased jokingly admiring her boots. They were a novelty for him, on Mia at least. He remembered asking Chloe why Mia was the only one who didn't have the whole leather cat suit thing going on. Chloe had frowned and said it was because she'd had enough of that look in her former life. Oliver understood now what she'd meant. He watched as she glanced over her shoulder at her pimp before turning back to him.

"Still, nothing compares to Aston Martin's original V8 Vantage," Mia changed the subject.

Oliver nodded. There was the Mia he knew and loved, the one who he could sit up all hours with arguing over the finer points of Aston Martin versus Ferrari. "You know your cars."

She smirked and Oliver opened the door, stepping out into the street. He looked her up and down, resisting the urge to walk over to Ray and just beat the crap out of him then and there, instead he walked over to the passenger side and tossed her the keys. "Wanna see what she can really do?"

He'd ridden with Mia in the future once, just once, much to the confusion and amusement of everyone else and vowed he'd never do it again. And as they sped down a side street, Oliver finally truly appreciated what it meant when Chloe told him that Mia had calmed down considerably.

"Whoa. Uh, why don't you take it easy, there, speedy? I'm trying to stay away from life in the fast lane." Oliver gripped at the door, scrambling for some sort of purchase.

"So, why are you cruising for company?" she asked him with a sneer.

"Well, I'm not cruising for company, actually. I was looking for you. I've seen you fight. You got speed, strength. You're talented," Oliver said, proud of himself that he'd managed to get all that out while simultaneously keeping down his lunch.

"Why do you care?" Mia asked guardedly.

"I'm just somebody trying to help you fix your life. That last guy was twice your size, kept on beating you down, and you just kept coming back after him." Oliver couldn't keep the tone of pride out of his voice.

"I don't bruise that easily," Mia pointed out.

"Well, maybe not on the outside." He thought about the Mia he knew from the future about what she'd had to overcome, the trust issues she still battled with on a daily basis because of her life on the streets. "I know what I'm talking about, Mia, because I used to fight for the same reasons that you do. It never mattered who was standing across from me, because the real battle was with myself. I can train you... to teach you how to overcome your fear, all that hate in your heart, and get you off the streets," Oliver said, suddenly nervous, despite the fact that he'd seen her future, that she might actually say no to him.

"Oh. My hero." His stomach clenched at the way she said hero. She used it all the time in the future but there was always a hint of teasing behind him, a little joke between friends. But here, now, despite the sarcastic tone she'd used, there was too much hope behind it for him to take the word lightly. She softened a bit at his expression. "So, what's this help gonna cost me...hero?"

Oliver smiled, knowing now that he had her. "Just a little time - time enough for me to prove to you that you can trust me."

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Mia had been skeptical when Oliver brought her back to the clock tower and instead of showing her to the bedroom, tossed her a pillow and a blanket and told her to make herself comfortable on the couch. He'd barely slept a wink, convinced when he got up the next morning that she'd be gone. But he didn't want to push her. He needed her to believe that he didn't want anything from her.

He was pleasantly surprised when he walked into the kitchen the next morning and found her staring at his cappuccino machine like it might bite her. "How do you work this thing?" she asked and smiled grabbing his jacket and car keys.

"I don't," he told her honestly. "Not even sure if it's plugged it. There's a cart on the corner though, pretty good French roast. You want something?"

"Yeah that sounds good." Mia nodded. "Uh black, two sugars."

"I'll be right back," Oliver nodded patting his jacket for his wallet before turning around and holding out a hand. Mia rolled her eyes and tossed him his wallet.

They ate breakfast in silence, Mia picking at the croissant he brought back for her as she studied him over his coffee cup. "This is pretty good coffee but seriously Oliver, what am I doing here?" Mia asked.

"I suppose we probably should get down to business." Oliver pushed his paper to the side. Mia sat up straight, fear in her eyes, and Oliver reached under the table and tossed something at her. "Put these on."

She looked down and her whole body relaxed when she noticed they were gloves. "Get dressed, I've got an early conference call and then you're going to show me what you've got?"

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Oliver kind of felt bad for beating the kid. Technically he had her at a disadvantage that had nothing to do with his years of practice and everything to do with the fact that he'd been sparring with her for more longer than she'd been sparring with him. In the future they trained together every day when she was in Star City and he'd gotten used to her fighting style. She was sloppy and undisciplined and a little out of shape but she had a very distinctive style.

She was getting frustrated and losing focus so he faked left, allowing her to sweep his feet, flipping him onto the mat. The look of accomplishment on her face was worth the bruise he'd have on his hip. But this was about showing her how much she didn't know so he only let her bask in her victory for a second before pulling her down and flipping her onto the mat.

"Not bad, but we've got some serious work to do." Oliver stood up and held out a hand to help her up. She took it reluctantly. "Hit the shower."

Mia grumbled as she walked away and Oliver smiled, grabbing a towel and wiping his face before picking up his phone off the side table. He dialed Chloe's number and she picked up on the second ring.

"What?" she sounded annoyed.

"How's it going?" He asked her grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and twisting the top off.

"Oh it's going great," Chloe said, the sarcasm in her voice evident. "Every time I knock through one of this guy's walls, he's got another waiting for me."

"Have you slept yet?" Oliver asked downing half the bottle of water in one long gulp.

"I'll sleep when I'm done." Chloe brushed him off.

"Chloe—"

"Look I gotta go," Chloe said hanging up before Oliver could protest. He set the phone down on the table and sighed.

"Ollie, I need your help." Lois burst through the doors and into the room.

"It's not a good time, Lois." Oliver walked over to his desk and sat down.

"You know how Clark and I have this side job hosting Good Morning Metropolis?" Oliver looked at her like she was crazy. How come no one told him about this and why weren't there videos in the future that they all sat around and watched. And mocked.

"Uh... Clark Kent's hosting morning television? I can't wait to watch him show me how to bake a cake," Oliver said, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice.

"Well, our first report does have some heat, but it's not about baking. They set us both up on blind dates," Lois complained.

The chuckled escaped before Oliver had a chance to stop it. This just kept getting better and better. "Clark's on a blind date? Talk about footage of a train wreck."

"Well, you might want to save the space on your DVR, because here's the kicker. He did great," Lois said.

Oliver finally understood. "And you want to be better." He got up and walked around the desk. He really didn't understand how he never saw it before. Lois' obvious infatuation with Clark.

"That's why I'm here. I need you to tell me my red flags," Lois asked him.

"Red flags?" Oliver asked confused.

"You know, anything about me that annoyed you while we were together. I bought a killer dress. I reserved the entire Ace of Clubs. But if I don't identify my deal-breakers, they're gonna cancel this date before it even gets to air."

"Well, call it selective memory or short attention span, but I only remember the good things... like how you used to brush your hair back when you were nervous or you used to call out football plays in your sleep," he teased and Lois smiled just as a cloud of steam came from the back room and Mia emerged in nothing but a towel.

"Thanks for the workout, Ollie, but time's up. Do you think you could pay me in smaller bills?" Mia stopped when she noticed he had company.

Lois looked at Mia and sighed in resignation as if she'd just been waiting for something like this. "Nice towel, honey." She turned to Oliver, her expression one of disappointment. "Where will she put the money?"

"Um, see - see the thing is, we - we were just sparring," Oliver tried to explain to no avail.

"Don't worry, Ollie. I'm not here to judge. I just kind of hoped you'd spend more than one week clean before you got back in the gutter. Sorry I interrupted your...sparring." Lois turned and walked away.

"I'm gonna go change," Mia said walking back into the bathroom as Oliver collapsed into the chair behind his desk. The last thing he needed was Lois running to Chloe to talk about the prostitute she'd found in Oliver's apartment. Not that he had any reason to believe that Lois and Chloe talked about him at all, he wasn't even sure that Lois knew Chloe worked for him.

Cautiously, he opened his computer and clicked on the Watchtower icon again, pulling up the security feed. He relaxed slightly when he saw that Chloe was not on the phone with Lois. She was at her computer, staring intently at the screen as she typed rapidly.

"Finally," she sighed as Access Denied popped up on the screen. "Another firewall?" Chloe groaned and Oliver zoomed in as she resumed typing, breaking through two more firewalls before yet another box with Access Denied popped up. "Okay. Now you made me angry." Chloe cricked her neck and got work.

"Oliver!" Mia called out and Oliver lifted his head up, his expression one of a deer caught in the headlights. "Are you looking at porn?" Mia smiled teasingly at him. Oliver slammed the computer closed and glared at her. "Bathroom's free," she announced impishly.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver stepped out of the shower and pulled on his shirt and pants, then reached for his watch, only to find that it was not sitting where he left it. He walked into the main room and saw Mia, one leg up on the coffee table as she zipped up her red thigh-high boots. He laid a hand on her knee, stopping her and she looked up at him in confusion.

"I thought you said no strings attached." She frowned.

"I'm not trying to sleep with you, kid, but if you think a pebble in your shoe is painful, wait till you feel what a $50,000 watch will do." He held out a hand and waved his fingers for the watch and she dug it out of the top of her boot and handed it over. "Thank you. Take a look around? Why would you want to go back out on the streets?"

"You don't get it. If I can finish paying off what I owe Rick, I'm done. I'm free," Mia said.

"Well, how much do you owe Rick? I'll cover it," Oliver said sitting on the edge of the couch.

"And then I'd owe you. I don't think so." Mia rolled her eyes.

"I'm not that kind of guy," Oliver explained.

"Don't tell me about types, okay? I know them all - Rick's type, your type, political types, twisted types - and I'm sick of all of you," Mia snapped and walked to the door. He didn't want to push her but he didn't want to lose her either.

"Well, I'm not gonna trap you here, Mia. I would just like to see you do something with your life that you can actually be proud of," Oliver told her honestly, the image of her beaming smile as she walked off that stage, diploma in hand. She stopped and turned around.

"Why would you help someone like me?" she asked, honestly confused.

"Because I know what it feels like to be stuck in a place that you feel there's no escape from. And my friends-" he swallowed hard, thinking about Chloe. "Helped me find the way out."

Mia sighed. "If I stay... it's gonna cost you."

"Way ahead of you. I went ahead and had my staff buy you some clothes." He grabbed a few bags from behind the couch. "I'm sure you'll find something in there that you like. Oh, and, hey, I hope you dress as fast as you drive, 'cause I'm gonna need you to drop me off somewhere." He tossed her the keys to the car.

Mia dug through the bag trying to find something she liked. "Does this have anything to do with a certain blonde you've been cyber stalking all day?" Mia looked at his computer. She'd taken a peek while he'd been showering. Opening it back up, she revealed the security footage from the Watchtower, showing Chloe still hard at work.

Oliver closed the screen again and glared at her. "I'm not stalking her."

"Sure," Mia said not believing him for a second. "So she knows your watching her then?"

Oliver turned away, scratching the back of his neck. "Come on, we're gonna be late."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"You want to tell me why I've been getting alerts for the past thirty minutes about some sort of cyber intrusion at the Watchtower," Oliver asked Chloe as he got out of the car in front of the Ace of Clubs.

"I'm on it," Chloe replied, the sounds of typing in the background. "This guy thinks he can get one over on me. He has no idea who he's messing with."

"You need backup?" Oliver asked and Chloe snorted.

"I think I can handle one little hacker," Chloe said. "But if I need someone to shoot arrows at the computer, I'll give you a call."

"Funny," Oliver said before hanging up the phone and walking into the building.

He watched from the door to the club as Lois lit the candles and asked the waiter for something stronger to drink. She pushed something in her ear that Oliver couldn't see and rolled her eyes. "Gee Clark, you sound like my mom on prom night."

Good, so Clark was watching this from somewhere. Lois took a deep breath and looked right into the camera. "How do I look?" she asked and Oliver couldn't hear what Clark said in response but he saw the way Lois blushed, how she looked down at her hands and fiddled nervously with her fingers, he imagined it met her approval.

"Do I detect a note of jealously from the notoriously nice Clark Kent?" Lois asked teasingly. "Careful my date doesn't hear you, he might just have to take you down."

Lois listened for a minute and then shrugged. "You know what they say? All's fair in love and war." And he hoped she meant that, because if she didn't, she was gonna kill him when she figured out what he was doing here.

"Clark, it sounds like you're asking me out on another date," Lois teased and Oliver smiled, figuring that was his cue to get this ball rolling. He walked into the room and watched amused as Lois caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye.

"Oliver?" Lois said surprised and confused. He grabbed the champagne from the waiter and walked to the table. "What are you doing here?" She looked around nervously.

"Well, you wanted this television tryst to make an impression, right, Lois?" Oliver reminded her.

"My blind date... is with you?" She slowly connected the dots.

Oliver smirked. "Well, technically, your blind date's leaving in the elevator. I paid him to go seek his 15 minutes of fame somewhere else." Lois drained the rest of the champagne in her glass and Oliver frowned, suddenly worried this wasn't going to go the way he hoped. "Wow. Uh, I always kind of took you for a beer girl."

"No, no - only the finer things in life for Lois Lane." She beamed her fake newscaster smile at him and he frowned.

"Oh, yes, right. Of course. Then a toast." Oliver raised his glass as she finished the rest of the champagne and stared him down.

"Oliver, it's bad enough that I catch you dragging yourself through the mud again, but now you're bound and determined to ruin my date," she almost hissed at him.

"Okay, that meeting that you walked in on-that was someone I was actually helping." Oliver knew he was getting off track here but he really didn't want her to think badly about Mia.

"You obviously helped her out of her clothes," Lois snorted.

"Very funny. And I'm not here to sabotage you. I just thought your audience might want a date with Metropolis' most eligible billionaire bachelor. That'd be me," he pointed out.

Lois sighed, knowing he actually made a good point. "I guess it wouldn't hurt the ratings. Okay. You got 10 minutes to explain yourself."

"Well I'm only gonna need one, because there's really only one reason why I came here." Oliver really hoped this was going to work. If there was one thing he knew about Lois Lane it was that her true colors only ever came out when she was backed up into a corner. "I never finished saying what it is that I loved about you."

"Oh. Okay." She was obviously uncomfortable which was a good thing.

"Let me just skip to the end. The thing I love about you the most, is that you're still in my life, because you're still in my heart." The look of sheer terror on her face was almost worth this whole thing even if it didn't get her and Clark together.

"Check, please." She grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the table, pulling her earpiece out. "Couldn't this heart-to-heart have waited until the cameras were off?"

"No. I'm not hiding my feelings anymore, Lois. And I kind of figured by saying all that stuff with the cameras on, I could prove that to you." He smiled and added silently, where Clark could watch the whole thing.

"I had no idea you still had such strong feelings," Lois said to him sadly.

"You know I went to a really dark place, Lois. And I think it took going there and coming back to realize-" he swallowed, wondering how far to push this. "You're the best part of my life." And in a way that was the truth. She was really the first true friend he ever had and he knew that she would always be a part of his family.

Lois put a hand on his face. "I love you, Oliver. As a dear friend. Which is why I have to be totally honest with you."

"Clark," he asked, hoping she'd finally admit it to him.

"Yes," Lois breathed out and Oliver sighed, glad that it worked.

"Well, I'm happy you know what you want. I guess it just hurts knowing it's not me," he said trying not to lay the heartbreak on too thick.

"I am so sorry." Lois frowned.

He kissed her forehead and cleared his throat. "Good night, Lois."

Oliver walked way, surprised to find he was actually a bit hurt. He loved Chloe, he really did but there was a still a part of him, a part that hadn't gotten any closure with Lois and he didn't know how much he'd really needed it until now. He pushed out into the alleyway and heard a honk from behind him. He turned around to see Mia waiting there with his car.

"Oliver." Lois walked into the alley toward him. "I said I was your friend, and I meant it. I am not going to let you wander down any more dark alleys."

Oliver sighed, maybe he had laid the heartache on a little too thick. "Thank you. But you don't have to worry about me, Lois. I'm all about embracing life right now. I'm not trying to end it," he added.

"Good." Lois smiled at him.

"You know what I mean? Trying to take the right kind of chances. And you, my friend, were definitely a chance worth taking," he said honestly. Lois reached out to hug him and noticed his car in the alleyway, Mia at wheel.

"Is towel girl your driver now? Maybe your plan B?" Lois joked.

Oliver rolled her eyes. "Very funny. Uh, her name is Mia. And come on, I'll introduce you for real this time. Mia. Hey, Mia." Oliver knocked on the window but she didn't roll it down. That's when he noticed the fear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Mia said through the glass sadly right before he felt a splitting pain erupt in the back of his head.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

He came to slowly and painfully. He was in the trunk of his own car, which wasn't exactly the ideal place to be. Especially when he could hear Lois screaming and the muffled sounds of fighting nearby (in the distance). He dragged himself up to a sitting position, his vision still blurry and his head pounding against his skull.

"I can't let you do this," Oliver heard, lifting his head up and he saw Mia holding a gun on Ray. Of course this was about Ray. He really, really hated that guy.

"Check this out. Streetwalker thinks she's a street fighter. What are you gonna do, Mia?

"Stay where you are."

"You gonna gun me down, huh? You don't have it in you. You're no hero."

Oliver climbed out of the car as quietly as he could, watching as Ray took the gun from Mia and knocked her out before turning it on Lois. He jumped into action then, slipping out of the shadows and surprising Ray and with a right hook to the jaw, freeing the gun from his hand in the process. Lois took that as her cue to turn on the two guys holding her and within seconds she was free and they were down for the count.

"Go! Go!" Oliver pushed Lois up the fire escape stairs and onto the roof. Ray was right behind them and Oliver couldn't do anything but grab Lois, shielding her with his body. The whole time he kept thinking it couldn't end this way because Lois and Clark were going to get married and have the twins. And he and Chloe-he swallowed, his thought about Chloe as Ray fired, once, twice, and then a third time.

He stared ahead in fear waiting for the bullets to hit him but they never did. Because suddenly Clark was standing in front of him holding a bullet in his fingers a mere inch from Oliver's eye as Ray's gun backfired on him, exploding with enough force to knock the man to the ground. Clark looked at Oliver, then behind him where Lois was huddled with her eyes held tightly closed. He nodded at Oliver and Oliver nodded back as Clark dropped the bullet to the ground and took off in a blur.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver insisted on driving Lois back home, which started a fight between him and Mia when the girl finally came too. She reminded Oliver that he'd given her the car so she should be the one to drive. He insisted that they'd all been traumatized enough for one day and she could have the car keys back when he was far, far away.

Lois sat in the backseat, watching the two of them bicker back and forth. Mia nagged Oliver for going slower than her grandmother. Oliver shot back that there was no way she could possibly know that considering she didn't even have a grandmother. Mia then pretended to pout for fifteen minutes, playing the poor little orphan girl card, securing Lois firmly on her side and only cracked a smile when Oliver promised to stop for ice cream.

When they got the Talon, Oliver walked her up to the apartment and Lois sighed. "So Mia—"

"I'm not sleeping with her," Oliver said defensively and Lois laughed.

"Oh I know that. The way you two bicker is more like brother and sister." Lois smiled. "She seems like a good kid."

"She is," Oliver said. "She just needs someone to show her there are other paths available to her, ones that don't lead to self destruction."

"And you're that person?" Lois asked skeptically.

"I know it's hard for you to see this, considering two days ago you watched me almost commit suicide by bomb, but I'm a different person now."

"You've changed?" Lois said. "In two days."

"No," Oliver sighed. "And technically yes. Let's just say I hit rock bottom and I was lucky enough to have a friend who was willing to come down into the mud and drag me out."

Lois narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do I get the feeling the friend you're talking about isn't me?" she whispered.

Oliver smiled at her. "It's complicated and I swear if I could explain it to you, I would but I can't. Partly because I barely understand it myself."

"Look, it doesn't matter," Lois assured him. "I'm just glad you've got someone willing to get dirty for you."

"Yeah, so am I." Oliver smiled as Mia honked the horn outside. "I gotta go. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't actually leave me here but we're still working on the trust thing."

"I'll be fine," Lois assured him, as if almost getting shot by some crazy guy on the roof of the Ace of Clubs was an everyday occurrence. Which, he supposed, for them, it kind of was. Well every week at least.

"Ice cream?" Mia asked hopefully from the driver's seat when Oliver got back to the car and he didn't have the energy to tell her to move.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver walked into the Watchtower with two cups of coffee in his hand. "Almond mocha, extra whip. I got you a double shot 'cause I figured you could use it." He stopped short in the middle of the room when he realized Chloe wasn't there. "Chloe?" He looked up at the landing on the second floor.

"She's not here," Clark called as he walked out of the backroom.

"I uh, just wanted to see how she was getting along with the hacker."

"She found him," Clark said tapping a few keys and bringing up at picture on the monitor. "His name's Stuart Campbell, she's meeting him downtown in an hour. She thinks she can turn him, give us someone on the inside at Tess'."

"And you just let her go?" Oliver asked. "By herself? We don't know anything about this guy, he could be a psycho."

Clark looked from Oliver to the picture of Stuart up on the screen, wondering if they were looking at the same guy. "He went to MIT, he's a hacker, he's hardly a criminal mastermind," Clark said. "Chloe's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

"Still," Oliver said, trying to tone down the over-protectiveness just a bit. "Never hurts to have backup you know," he mumbled.

"Oliver, can I ask you something?" Clark said suddenly.

"Sure," Oliver nodded, flipping through the file Chloe put together on Stuart Campbell.

"It's about Lois," Clark said more cautiously. Oliver ducked his head to hide his smile and motioned for Clark to continue. "Look, I heard what you said to her yesterday, at the Ace of Clubs."

"Clark—"

"No, just let me finish." Clark took a deep breath. "I know that you've been through a lot the past couple of months and, well, you're my friend and I don't want to-."

"You love her," Oliver said, desperate to cut whatever awkward speech Clark had rehearsed in his head over with before it could even begin.

"But if you want me to back off, I understand," Clark offered.

"Okay, look." Oliver sighed. "What I said to Lois yesterday, I didn't mean it. I'd had a…really bad week and I was confused and whatever I might have felt for Lois, it was a long time ago. Besides it doesn't really matter what I feel, it matters what Lois feels and the only person she feels anything for these days…is you."

"Really?" Clark asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Oliver nodded.

"So you think I should—"

"God yes, please, put us all out of our misery," Oliver begged.

Clark smiled and headed for the door. He stopped and turned back to Oliver, "There's a flower shop on 45th."

"Okay," Oliver said confused.

"That's where Chloe's meeting him. Behind the flower shop on 45th," Clark said. "It never hurts to have backup."

"Thanks," Oliver picked up the coffees and followed Clark out of the Watchtower.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver spotted Stuart ducking into the alley just as he got to the flower shop. He followed him in, hanging back a little as Chloe emerged from under the stairs and dropped and envelope on an overturned trashcan.

Stuart grabbed the envelope cautiously and pulled out the papers inside. His cocky smile faded as he flipped through the file and he looked up at Chloe, fear evident in his eyes. "How did you find all this? I buried all this."

"You're good," Chloe shrugged. "I'm better."

"What do you want?" Stuart shoved the papers back in the envelope and tossed it back to Chloe.

"I want to know what Tess is up to," Chloe said.

"I don't know," Stuart said and Chloe glared. "Seriously I don't know. She doesn't tell me anything."

"But you can find out," Chloe suggested and Stuart swallowed, looking between her and the file before nodding. "Good." Chloe held out her hand and almost reluctantly Stuart reached out and shook it. "I'll be in touch."

Chloe grabbed the file and slipped it in her bag before walking toward the street. Oliver slid out of the alley and waited at the corner for her, holding out the cup of coffee. She didn't break her stride when she saw him, simply smiled and took the proffered cup as he fell in step beside her.

"Do you trust him?" Oliver asked.

"Not further than I can throw him." Chloe shook her head and took a sip. "What are you doing here?

"Just thought I'd be around, in case you needed backup." Oliver shrugged, grabbing her elbow and steering her across the street.

"I'm a big girl, Ollie, I can take care of myself," Chloe said.

"I know," Oliver sighed, "I just you want you to know I've got your back." Her words from the day before echoed in his head. I trust you, Oliver. Just not that much.

"Oliver," Chloe said stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and grabbing his hand. "I know."

Oliver looked down at her hand and wondered how something could feel so familiar and so foreign all at the same time. He looked back up at her and could tell by the look in her eyes that she had absolutely no clue what she was doing to him.

"So where are we going?" Chloe asked dropping his hand as she started walking again.

"The Clock Tower. There's someone there I want you to meet," Oliver said as he caught up with her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Mia had been asleep on the couch when Oliver left for the Watchtower that morning, but when he got back with Chloe she was nowhere to be found. "Mia!" Oliver called out, heading to the back room to look for her.

"Oliver," Chloe called after him and he walked back into the main room to see her holding out a piece of paper, a frown on her face.

He took the paper and opened it, it read; "Oliver, I was wrong, maybe you're not like every other guy out there, and that's exactly why I've got to bail. All I could ever bring you is trouble and you don't deserve that. Thanks for everything, Speedy.

Oliver sighed and folded up the paper, slipping it in his pocket. "I don't understand, everything was fine last night, we went out for ice cream," Oliver said dumbly.

"Things always look different in the light of day," Chloe said softly.

"She couldn't even give me a chance?" Oliver looked at Chloe hopelessly.

"Kids like Mia learn at a very early age not to rely on anyone else. They're convinced eventually everyone will leave," Chloe explained.

"What am I supposed to do?" Oliver asked.

"Prove her wrong," Chloe said, picking up Oliver's jacket and holding it out to him.

Oliver found her exactly where he knew he would, a place, if he had his way, she'd never have to see again. When he pulled his car up to the curb and rolled the window down he could tell by the way she stiffened just slightly, that she was actually surprised to see him. He smiled and she pushed off the wall slowly, circling the car with caution before finally getting in.

She pulled off the blonde wig and let her hair flow free. She didn't speak the whole way to the Clock Tower. When they walked into the building, the doorman gave her a dismissive once over before sneering. The expression was instantly wiped off his face however with one look from Oliver. She looked ready to bolt the whole ride up and Oliver was half afraid she would when the grate opened and suddenly Chloe was standing there, waiting for them and smiling.

"Hi, you must be Mia," Chloe said and Mia looked between Oliver and Chloe in confusion. "I thought you might be hungry so I made breakfast."

"Thank you," Mia said cautiously.

There was a crash from the kitchen and Chloe winced as Bart's voice carried through the room. "Sorry! I'll clean that up."

"Bart's here?" Oliver asked and Mia looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Well, he called to see how you were doing and I mentioned breakfast, so he sort of invited himself over." Chloe shrugged.

"Would you just stop, you're making it worse," Victor snapped.

"And Victor," Chloe added a bit guiltily. "And Dina and AC," she finished in a rush.

"Chloe," Oliver sighed.

"What? They were all still in town after the thing and we really haven't had a chance to get together and I know they can be quite overwhelming." Chloe glanced at Mia. "But she's got to meet them sometime."

"Yeah," Oliver agreed in resignation. "But did it have to be all at once?"

"Oliver, I can't do this," Mia said backing up to the elevator. "I know these are your friends but and I saw how that woman looked at me yesterday." Oliver frowned confused. "Lois. That's how everyone's gonna look at me. They're always gonna see me as the street kid, or the charity case, or the whore."

Oliver cut her off with a glare. "Don't," he said sharply. "No one's gonna think that-no one that matters anyway."

"No matter how hard you try or how much I change, I'll never fit into your world."

"I don't want you to change," Oliver told her honestly. "I want you to be you, and if don't think you don't fit in my world, well then I'll just change my world to fit you." He shrugged.

"Maybe I should change first," she said smoothing down her hair self consciously and pulling at the edge of her skirt, willing it to grow a couple of inches.

"I wouldn't worry about it, you'll fit right in," Chloe assured her and Mia and Oliver both looked at her in confusion. "Canary was out patrolling all night. She didn't bother going home to change."

Oliver nodded in understanding but Mia still looked confused until they walked into the kitchen and she saw the blonde leaning against the counter, wearing a pair of very short black leather shorts and fishnet stockings.

"You're just making a bigger mess. You know that right?" she said teasingly to the Bart, AC, and Victor who were trying and failing to wipe up what looked like a gallon of milk off the floor.

"Just…I'll get it," Chloe said annoyed, shooing them away as she grabbed a handful of towels. "Go set the table."

They all mumbled some variation of, "Yes ma'am" and started pulling plates and silverware out of the cabinet to take over to the table.

"Guys, this is Mia," Oliver said, putting an arm over her shoulder. "Mia, this is Bart, AC, Victor, and Dinah."

Mia stood next to him, her whole body stiff as they all nodded a greeting. "Killer boots," Dinah said, completely serious, as she took a step forward to examine them more closely.

"Awesome tights," Mia countered with nod and Dinah smiled up at her.

"Oh, you can help us settle a tie," Bart announced tossing an arm over her shoulder and steering her to the table. "As a completely unbiased participant; who do you think would win in a fight? Ninjas or pirates?"

Mia looked over her shoulder at Oliver as if to ask him if he was being serious. Oliver smiled and nodded and Mia turned back to Bart. "I'm gonna have to go with ninjas, all the way." Bart and Dinah high-fived each other excitedly as AC and Victor groaned.

"No way," AC shook his head. "Pirates beat ninjas any day of the week."

"In what universe?" Mia asked, getting into the discussion. "Ninjas are badass."

"Pirates are ruthless," Victor argued.

Oliver made his way over to the table, taking the seat next to Mia. He sat back and smiled as Mia held her own against AC and Victor and unwittingly making a friend for life in Bart. Chloe arrived a few minutes later, filling the table with eggs and bacon and an enormous stack of pancakes and they all just sat and ate breakfast.

"You know," Mia said turning to Chloe. "You look so familiar, are you sure we haven't met before?"

"I'm sure," Chloe nodded.

"Oh wait," Mia turned to Oliver. "She's the girl you were—" Oliver kicked her under the table, shutting her up before she could say, She's the one you were cyber-stalking yesterday on the security feed.

"The girl you what?" Chloe turned her gaze on Oliver and he laughed nervously.

"The girl I was telling here about," Oliver said. "I must have just described you really, really, well."

Chloe looked skeptically between Mia and Oliver, not buying it for a second but dropping it in favor of preventing WWIII from erupting between Bart and Victor.

"We are so talking about this you know," Mia whispered to him and glared at her.

"Eat your bacon," Oliver said and Mia just smirked.