When you close your eyes and you go to sleep,
And it's down to the sound of a heartbeat,
I can hear the things that you're dreamin' about
When you open up your heart and the truth comes out.

You tell me that you want me.
You tell me that you need me.
And I know that I'm right
'Cause I hear it in the night.

Talking in Your Sleep
The Romantics

-1-

"Hey Sullivan, what'll it be? The usual?"

"Make it a raspberry mojito, Bobby."

"Your cousin coming?"

"Yep."

"I'll fix her cosmo, too."

"You're a gem, Bobby."

"You only say that when you've had a bad time of it. Slow news day?"

"The slowest of my life. You wouldn't believe it. I don't think flies even buzzed today."

Bobby chuckled. Then he jerked his head over to the the table in the corner of the club. "See that? That's the only news you're gonna see for weeks."

Chloe whipped her head around curiously. Then she scoffed. "All I see is some playboy surrounded by a flock of cheap trash."

Bobby grinned as he poured her drink over its bed of crushed mint leaves, raspberries, lime wedges, and ice before handing it to her. "That's not just any playboy, Sullivan. That's the playboy. One, Oliver Queen, Metropolis's newest resident. Just arrived a couple of weeks ago from Star City, and every time he so much as steps out of his apartment, the whole city stops to stare."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Come on, Bobby. What do you take me for? A gossip columnist?"

He raised his hands in defense. "Hey, would I say that? I value my life, remember," he teased, winking. "But I'm tellin' ya, headlines follow that man like dogs follow a meat truck."

Chloe laughed. "Nice visual."

He shrugged. Then he glanced in Queen's direction and Chloe saw a smirk form on his mouth. "Don't look now, Sullivan, but he's checking you out."

She felt a hot blush creep into her cheeks. "Shut up. He is not."

"Yeah, yeah he is...wait. Wait, he's definitely interested. He's trying to check with me on how full your drink is."

Chloe glared, her face burning. "Can it, barista. I'm not interested."

He chuckled. "Okay, okay. I'll give him the universal, 'she's got a big, scary boyfriend you don't wanna mess with' head shake."

Chloe stared at him as he sent a 'discreet' warning look over her shoulder, then slowly shook his head first to one side, then the other. She burst into a fit of giggles before taking a shaky sip of her drink to steady herself.

Bobby laughed with her as he set up a couple of martinis for one of the waitresses. He glanced up and rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Incoming."

Chloe looked over her shoulder with a grin. "Hey, Lo!"

"Hey, cuz!" Lois beamed, throwing an arm around Chloe's shoulder and reaching for the Cosmopolitan ready and waiting for her. She downed it in one gulp and set it on the bar. She glanced and Bobby. "And keep 'em coming."

Bobby shook his head. He shot Chloe a look. "Are you sure you're related to that?" he asked her, teasing Lois as he pulled out a clean glass for her.

Chloe laughed, leaning closer to Lois. "Aw, why? Can't you see the family resemblance?"

Bobby just snorted as he finished Lois's second drink, slid it over to her and turned to help a few more customers.

Lois sipped a little more slowly on her second drink, eying Chloe. "Well?" she asked. "Anything new?"

Chloe chuckled. "If by 'new' you mean 'newsworthy,' no, Lois. My day was just as slow as yours."

Lois deflated slightly. Then the small crowd in the corner caught her attention. "What's with that?"

Chloe shrugged, taking another sip of her drink. "Some golden child from Star City who just moved out here," she answered in a bored voice.

Lois almost choked on her drink. "That's Oliver Queen? Wait, which one?" she asked, craning her neck slightly to better examine the faces of the handful of men in the sea of females.

"The blonde, I believe," Chloe said, not looking.

"The one who's checking you out? Yum." She waved flirtatiously in his direction.

Eyes wide, Chloe grabbed Lois's hand and pulled it back down. "Don't! He'll think we want him to come over!"

Lois rolled her eyes, finishing off her drink again. "That's the idea, generally speaking.

Chloe glared. "I know you think I'm desperate, but that is not the kind of man I need in my life."

Lois smirked. "Not in your life. Maybe just in your bed for the night."

Chloe sighed. "There's no reasoning with you, is there?"

"None whatsoever," she said, cheerfully, flagging Bobby down to get them both refills.

Chloe turned to lean against the bar, glancing around the room with mild interest. She didn't look in Oliver Queen's direction, not wanting him to think she was encouraging him. Instead what caught her attention was the sight of half-a-dozen police cars barreling past the club, lights flashing.

Lois saw the spark light in Chloe's eyes and followed her gaze. She groaned. "Chlo, it's Friday night."

"Yep," Chloe said, fishing out her money to pay for her drink.

"You promised me cousin time."

"And you got it," Chloe said.

Lois scoffed. "Five minutes of it."

Chloe gave her cousin a meaningful look. "Hey, you know the drill. You want cousin time? You can claim a byline now," she tempted. She and Lois had a rule: if they wanted to share a story, they had to lay claim on it first thing. Otherwise it was strictly hands off. Chloe snapped her purse shut. "You coming?"

Lois considered it seriously, but in the end, the allure of another drink was stronger. "Nah, you can have this one. Run along. Go have your fun," she dismissed grudgingly.

"Thanks, Lo!" Chloe hugged her quickly. "I promise movies and ice cream tomorrow. No interruptions."

"I'm picking the movie!" Lois called after Chloe as she bolted toward the door.

Chloe was already outside by the time Bobby managed to make his way over to a disgruntled Lois. He looked around for her and tried not to smile. "She do it again?"

Lois grimaced. "Yep."

He shook his head in amusement. "That's our Chloe."

"Uh huh."

Bobby raised an eyebrow. "Looks like Queen noticed she left, too."

Lois looked up in surprise to see Oliver Queen shaking off his company, eyes darting to the doors Chloe had just passed through.

"Think he'll catch up with her?" he asked speculatively.

"Nah. Think she'd give him the time of day even if he did?"

They exchanged identical looks. "Nah," they said together.

Outside in the warm August air, Chloe quickly rushed to the curb and flagged a taxi. As soon as one pulled up for her, she hopped in, telling the cabby, "I'll pay you double to follow the pack of police cars that just fled by here and keep them in your sights. They were traveling east."

The driver nodded and eagerly sped after the sound of the sirens. "However you get your kicks, lady," he said by way of response.

The chase, which lasted several blocks, led to a bank, where apparently a muddled heist had led to a hostage situation, which had been going on for the last half-hour.

Chloe immediately set to work after paying the driver his promised double-fare. Within twenty minutes she'd gathered that the heist had begun just as the bank was about to close, meaning that most of the hostages were employees, and the police suspected there were about seven or eight of them, with three confirmed robbers. Apparently someone had managed to trip the alarm, successfully bringing the getaway to a standstill. At least one person had been injured trying to play hero, but no one knew how badly.

She'd accumulated most of this from listening to the police commissioner talk with one of his staff. They had all of the exits secured, but so far there was no way to proceed without endangering the hostages. Chloe held back, floating around the outskirts to learn as much as she could. She wouldn't start asking for interviews until the situation was properly in hand.

And then: something miraculous. Miraculous for the hostages, but also for Chloe, who was about to get the greatest story of her career so far.

At first, when the hostages came running from the building, there was general excitement claiming it must have been Superman. Then, slowly, a murmur spread through the crowd that this had been something else...someone else.

She spent the rest of her night tracking down names of the hostages, interviewing her usual informants on the police force, and, most importantly, getting into the bank to take a photo on her digital camera.

What she found in the bank blew her mind: three criminals lying unconscious on the ground with three green darts sticking out of them in varying places. And, although the police hadn't noticed it, yet, there was a green arrow stuck in the large, crystal chandelier.

This discovery, among all the rest, led to an all-nighter at the Planet. She hunted down phone numbers of the hostages to get statements from them about their mysterious rescue. As much as she pressed, her friend in the police department insisted that they'd never had anything like it, and they knew nothing about the alleged hero.

Even at 4:00 in the morning when she was finally polishing off her final draft, she could feel her body humming with excitement. This was news. Big news.

By the time she left the article and accompanying photos in the Editor's tray, though, she could feel the adrenaline start to fail her. She was crashing. Hard.

She glanced at her watch. It was a ten minute cab ride to her apartment in Metropolis. She had just enough time to grab a couple hours of sleep and maybe even something resembling breakfast before she had to come back in.

Her whole body was beginning to feel sluggish as she fished her cell phone out of her purse and called a cab. Normally, she wouldn't waste the money just to get home, but she was exhausted. The idea of her usual walk home was more than daunting, she decided as she drained the final cold dregs of her last cup of coffee, cringing slightly as she swallowed before tossing the cardboard cup in the trash.

When the taxi finally arrived, she sighed gratefully. She nearly fell asleep on the short ride home, but her weariness was worth it. A few more stories like this and she'd be moving into a window office.

The thought brought a small smile to her lips as she headed into her building's lift and hit the button for the top floor.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day.

It was her only coherent thought as she turned the key on the three different locks on her door and shoved it open. Turning to close it, she relocked all of them and added the chain lock as well.

She liked her apartment, and she liked having a place relatively close to her workplace, but it was still Metropolis, and a woman living alone couldn't be too careful.

She set her keys on the counter and headed straight for the coffee maker, setting the timer on it so it would start brewing before she got up in a couple of hours. Then she headed into her room and pulled her shoes off, dropping her purse on a chair in the corner. She moved into the bathroom and washed the makeup off of her face and quickly brushed her teeth, too tired even for a shower, as badly as she wanted one. Back in the bedroom, she pulled shut the curtains, throwing the room into pitch darkness until she flicked on her bedside lamp. She peeled off her clothes and pulled on her tank top and flannel pajama pants before throwing back the heavy ivory comforter and soft white sheets on her bed and climbing in, her deep sigh of relief almost echoing in the room before she reached over for the lamp, once again plunging the room into darkness.