Title:Written in the Stars

AuthorName: luminare91

ArtistName: iamaslashaddict

Genre: AU, Romance, het

Pairing/Characters:Chlollie, Justice League

Rating:PG-13

WordCount:15,258

Warnings:Slight violence and Language with a little tiny bit of adult content at the end. This is AU. Everything is canon up to Dark Thursday and more or less canon up to season 8. Green Arrow never came to Metropolis and Chloe formed the team, so she never worked at ISIS either. This my be slightly OC because it's based on a fairytale. And the entire series is open to spoilers

Summary:Oliver Queen travels to Metropolis to set things right with Tess Mercer, the woman he once loved and hurt. But he meets Chloe Sullivan first and finds that his heart has been stolen and that things have changed. When Tess learns this, she devises a plan to drive them apart. But will she truly conquer love?

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or the characters. Nor do I own "The Ring" which is the fairytale this fic is loosely based on. If you have any questions about the fairytale, PM me and I'll try to answer you.

WrittenFor:Smallivlle Big Bang 2011

Tunnel vision: the tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited goal or point of view.

At some point in their lives, every person on earth suffers from the narrowing of vision so that only one thing remains. This phenomenon can be both good and bad. It can give a person the determination, the drive they need to see out what they crave or it can blind them to the other possibilities of life. It can be the focal point of your life or your obsession. It can make you or destroy you. And sometimes, it can lead you to your destiny.

It was raining. A lot. Oliver had barely been out on patrol for more than ten minutes and he was already soaked to the skin, despite the fact that he was wearing leather. Between the dark and the rain, he couldn't see a damn thing. The roofs were beyond treacherous. He'd already almost lost his footing more time than anyone who prided himself on his agility the way he did would ever admit. The wind was making it difficult to aim properly, which had led to several close calls. It was definitely time to head back to his penthouse before he broke his neck. He was tempted to stay out a little longer. He had been patrolling the streets long enough to know that bad weather wouldn't keep all the criminals at bay. But he was only one hero - and a completely human one at that. There was only so much he could do without killing himself.

Oliver waited for a slightly lull in the tempest before firing a zipline arrow across the city and anchoring the line securely behind him. Traveling on the ground would probably be safer, but even with the weather, there was too big a chance that he would be seen. At the touch of a button, his bow folded in on itself, becoming a sort of pulley apparatus that attached to the wire. He tested the strength of the line. There was a little more give in it than usual, but it would hold. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on the handle and launched himself off the roof.

He knew immediately that was something was wrong.

The amount of give in the line increased the moment he put his weight on the wire. The wind hit him with renewed force, sending him swinging wildly. He struggled to keep his grip on the handle as another gust of wind slammed into him. But it was futile. He lost hold as the line went limp. Oliver braced himself for impact with the ground.

There was a crashing sound and a myriad of sharp pains blossomed across his body before he slammed into something hard. He could hear something crack on impact. Every inch of his body hurt. Even breathing was painful.

Opening his eyes, which had close of their own accord when he first plummeted through the air, Oliver realized that he'd lost his glasses and that his hood had fallen back when he hit the ground. It left him feeling incredibly vulnerable. Pushing through the pain, he tried to sit up. The only truly coherent thought in his mind was that he had to get back to his penthouse before someone saw him.

He didn't hear the footsteps hurrying toward him and didn't even realize that he wasn't alone until a hand gently, but firmly, pressed him back to the ground. He looked around blearily until his gaze fell on a blonde woman with startling green eyes that were alight with concern.

"Lie still," she said. "You're hurt pretty badly."

"Have to go," He mumbled, trying to sit up again. "Have to-"

She held him down with surprising strength for her petite figure. "You're safe here. No one's going to hurt you."

Something about the woman's face soothed him. He stopped fighting her grasp and lay back. It was only a matter of time before the pain knocked him out.

"How...bad?" he rasped.

"You fell twenty feet after coming through the window," she said. "And you had to be falling for quite a ways to break through that glass. It's bad."

"No...no hos...pitals."

The woman seemed unsurprised by his request and only nodded solemnly. "No hospitals," she assured him. She chewed her lips for a moment, then pressed her hand to his chest, just over his heart. A soft glow filled the room, chasing away the dark fingers of unconsciousness that had begun clouding his vision. Warmth filled his body and the aches eased until the pain was completely gone.

The light abruptly faded away. Oliver blinked and tried once more to sit up. This time, no one stopped him. He glanced down at his body. He could see the tears in his leather costume where the glass had cut through it. He could even see the reddish stains were his blood had marked the green material. But his skin was smooth and unmarked. He couldn't even feel the bruises he'd been nursing after a fight with a meth head a few nights before.

Looking up in wary amazement, he quickly took in his surroundings. An impressive array of computers lined one corner of the room. Oliver had spent enough time familiarizing himself with ever aspect of Queen Industries and teaching himself his way around computers for his night job to be able to recognize that, while the system had obviously been cobbled together, it was top notch work.

A sofa and several comfortable looking chairs were clustered around a television in the corner opposite the computers. A large table dominated the center of the room. The wall between the sitting area and the computer was covered in papers, the most noticeable of which was a large map of Metropolis. The map was studded with pins and lines were drawn across, separating the city into sections. Looking closer, Oliver could see that the other papers were all article on various crimes.

Leaping to his feet, he backed away from the woman, who'd remained kneeling beside him while he examined the room. He put a good ten feet between them and glared at her.

"What did you do to me?" he demanded.

The woman rolled her eyes and stood. Despite the situation, Oliver could appreciate the beauty of her petite, curvy figure and vibrant green eyes.

"Seeing as you're the one that landed in the middle of my building, shouldn't I be asking the questions?" she snarked. "And I'd think that it's pretty obvious what I did. I healed you."

Oliver blinked. "You what?"

"I healed you," she repeated. "You didn't really think that you fell through the window unscathed, did you? Not even your ego is big enough to protect you from a fall like that, Mr. Queen. I have to say, I never pegged you as the leather fetish type of hero."

Tensing again, Oliver reached automatically for his crossbow only to stop himself as he realized the implications of her words. "You knew I was Green Arrow before all of this? he gestured weakly to the glass that he'd only just noticed surrounded her.

The woman nodded.

"What do you want from me?" Oliver growled, feeling as though cold water had been poured into his veins. He'd thought that he'd been careful, but he obviously hadn't if this stranger had figured out his secret. Judging from the computer set up and the crime stats, she was exactly the person he didn't want to know that Green Arrow and Oliver Queen were the same person.

The woman let out a sigh and crossed her arms, giving off the impression that she was feeling distinctly harassed. "I don't want anything. We're on the same side, Arrow. Haven't you heard rumors about the team of heroes who've been trying to clean up Metropolis?"

Oliver nodded slowly. He had heard the rumors. He just hadn't believed them. He was well aware of the fact that he wasn't the only hero out there. On occasion, some of the criminals he took down mentioned someone named Watchtower. More than one had rambled on about how Watchtower's team of metahuman heroes were the only reason that he'd been able to interfere in their plans. It hadn't been long before he'd begun hearing the name more and more, often in conjunction with the defeat of major criminals across the country. Oliver had been of the opinion that, though it would be great if metas could work together, it was unlikely and hadn't felt that it was worth getting his hopes up for nothing.

A smirk worked its way across the woman's face. "Well, I'm Watchtower. My friend and I have been fighting crime for years. We started the team when some of our super powered friends decided to help us out. I'm not going to do anything to you," she said forcefully, crossing her arms across her chest. "I've known who Green Arrow is underneath the leather for ages. I make it my business to keep tabs on other heroes in case we need to alert them about something or work alongside them. Both have happened before." She shrugged self-deprecatingly. "When you've spent as much time as I have covering for your superpowered alter-ego having friends as I have, you learn to see through pretenses. After all this time, I'm damn good at connecting the dots."

For quite possibly the first time in his life, Oliver was completely speechless. His mind struggled to catch up with everything that had happened. He'd fallen from his zipline only to land in the headquarters of a team of heroes he hadn't believed to exist. He'd met someone who knew his secret and who had no intention of using that knowledge against him. That person had not only healed him, but had turned out to be the very legend that was frightening criminals everywhere. To be perfectly honest, Oliver had absolutely no idea what to think or say.

Watchtower took advantage of his silence to walk over to the computers. She tapped out a quick stream of code and turned back to Oliver.

"Deactivating the security protocols," She explained. "My team's probably freaking out right now since Watchtower sealed itself when you came through the window."

Oliver frowned. "I thought you were Watchtower."

"I am," she replied. "One of the boys came up with the idea to call this place Watchtower since it overlooks the whole city and since this is where I do my bit as eye in the sky when they're on patrol. I didn't even have a codename for the longest time. When we finally realized that I needed one, Watchtower just stuck."

That made sense. Having sorted out that little mystery, Oliver turned to another.

"You healed me." he said. "How is that even possible?"

"It's an ability I have a result of spending too much time around alien meteor rock," Watchtower said dryly. "I'm a meta, as is the rest of my team. My power just isn't as useful in a fight as their powers are. It does come in handy afterward though."

As she spoke, she swayed slightly where she stood. Her eyes fluttered almost closed and she pressed a hand to her forehead. Oliver leapt forward, grabbing her elbow just in time to keep her from hitting the ground.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah," she nodded. "It's been a long day and healing you took a lot of energy. I just need a good night's sleep. I'll be fine."

She gently pulled her arm free and made her way to the doors Oliver hadn't even noticed before She paused just before she reached them and turned back to face him. "I know this is a lot to take in, especially considering you've just had your identity revealed. But I'm really not going to do anything to you. All I ask is that you keep in mind that my team is out there if you're going to patrol the city and not give them trouble. Their codenames are Impulse, Aquaman, and Cyborg. You should be able to tell who they are because they're actually wearing costumes and not just wreaking havoc."

She paused, glancing at the windows before going on. "Looks like the storm's finally blown over, so it should be safe for you to get home. I'm trusting you with the location of Watchtower, seeing as you should have been able to figure it out anyway if you have any knowledge of the city. Don't make me regret that," she warned, giving him a look that clearly said he would regret it if he did. Her expression abruptly softened and she gestured to a door half hidden in the shadows beside the computers.

"There are stairs that lead down to the street through there. If you run into any trouble while you're in the city, look me up. I live downstairs and we'd be more than happy to help if you need it."

With that, she slipped through the door and was gone.

It took Oliver a minute to closer his mouth and actually move. The woman he knew only as Watchtower had completely bowled him over. She was like no one he'd ever met. She hadn't taken any crap from him, no matter how defensive he'd gotten. Most impressive, to his mind at least, was the fact that she'd been far more honest with him than he'd had any right to expect. He'd never met anyone like her.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, he made his way down the stairs to the street and back to his penthouse. It was slow going, trying to stay out of sight, but without his longbow, he couldn't shoot off a zipline arrow and he had no other means of transport. His bike was still tucked away in an underground garage near his penthouse. Given the state of the weather, he hadn't bothered taking it out.

He changed out his uniform and into a pair of sweat pants and a black t-shirt. Leaning against the railing of his balcony, Oliver looked out over the city that would be his home for some time if all went well. He ran a hand through his hair. To his surprise, he found himself hoping that he would get a chance to meet Watchtower's team of heroes and work with them. If they were doing as much good as was rumored, then he wanted to be a part of it. His stay in Metropolis would be a whole lot more interesting if that happened.

The Daily Planet loomed over him the next morning. Under any other circumstances, Oliver would have avoided the paper like the plague. He hated the way society reporters dug into his private life. Sure, being views as nothing more than a playboy had it's uses. He'd become quite adept at spinning the stories so that no one would suspect him of being Green Arrow - unless they were a blonde woman who went by the codename Watchtower, that is - but that didn't mean he actually enjoyed having his personal affairs splashed all over the papers. Actually walking into the Daily Planet was like giving the reporters an invitation to hound him.

There were many reasons Oliver had chosen to come to Metropolis. Chief among them had been the state of the Kansas branch of Queen Industries. But perhaps the most important reason had been to atone for a past sin. Oliver has never really forgiven himself for the way he'd treated Tess Mercer when they'd finally made it back to civilization after being stranded on a desert island with pirates.

Getting stranded on that island had probably been the best thing that had ever happened to him. Now that he was home again, Oliver could admit that. He'd been a selfish bastard before, too caught up in living down to everyone's expectations, the billionaire orphan who'd had everything handed to him and who couldn't give a crap about anyone but himself. He'd been so used to disappointing himself and to having everything fall apart that he'd stopped caring. Living the way he had, losing himself in alcohol and women, had helped numb the pain.

Having to depend on himself had completely turned him around. It had opened his eyes to not only his own potential, but to what he really wanted from his life. He'd vowed that if he ever made it off the island, he would turn things around and actually do some good.

That had been easier said than done.

Oliver had had a lot of growing up to do when he got off the island Despite his determination to make something of his life, he'd still had a lot of demons to face. His raging insecurities, a product of a life full of loss and relationships bases solely on lust and greed, had come back full force. While he really had been in love with Tess Mercer, things had progressed too quickly once they made it back to Star City. They'd gotten too serious, especially Tess, who'd clung to him like a life raft. Afraid as he always was that things wouldn't last between them, Oliver had done the only thing he knew to do. He'd screwed things up on his won terms.

It was something he'd never forgiven himself for and something he had regretted ever since it had happened. He'd been tempted to go after Mercy and apologize the moment he'd come to his senses. If he'd explained, there may have been a chance to work things out. But, in a rare moment of clarity, he'd realized that making amends wouldn't solve anything until he'd really made the transformation he'd committed to. SO he'd let her go, for both their sakes.

Now, years later, a hero and a completely different man, Oliver was finally read to speak the apology that had been burning in his mind since the day Mercy walked out of his life. He knew that he was many years too late, but he still had to do it.

He heaved a sigh. Facing a bunch of reporters should not be so intimidating considering he leapt across the roof tops and fought bad guys with a bow and arrow every night. With that in mind, Oliver straightened his shoulders and marched into the lion's den.

Stares followed him from the moment he entered the building, but by some miracle, no one approached him for an interview and he made it to the elevators unmolested. Maybe they were used to random, well-known businessmen popping by to meet Tess since she was both editor and head of LuthorCorp.

Not wanting to risk his good fortune, Oliver hurried down the hall to Tess's office the moment the elevator doors opened.

And straight into a very familiar blonde woman.

She was coming out of the employee's lounge, several files balanced on one arm, a cup of coffee in her other hand. Only his quick reflexes, a product of hours of strenuous training, kept him from plowing into her. Oliver's mouth almost fell open in shock when he saw her face and he realized just who he'd nearly run into. She took one look at him and laughed.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mr. Queen. I take it you have an interview."

"You work here," Oliver said dumbly.

She nodded.

"You're a reporter?"

She nodded again.

"Isn't that a little contradictory to your nighty activities?" he asked in a weak voice.

"You'd be surprised how useful it can be," she said with a grin. "I'm not the only reporter who fights crime, you know."

Oliver groaned. "You do realize that I'm going to be looking at every reporter I meet to see if they're a hero, right?"

"You'll have your work cut out for you. As far as I know, there's only two of us," she teased. "I shouldn't keep you. Whoever you're meeting is probably waiting. It was nice to see you."

Before he could stop himself, or second guess his strange fascination with the woman before him, Oliver reached out and lightly grabbed her elbow, stopping her from walking away. "Do I get to know your name?" he asked. "It seems only fair since you know mine."

"That is true," she mused. "All right, then. I'm Chloe Sullivan."

"Nice to meet you," he chuckled.

Chloe rolled her eyes "Save the charm, leather boy, It won't work on me. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have work to do and you have somewhere to be. See you on the rooftops," She added with a grin before walking away.

Oliver stared after her, once more left in awe of the woman who was now walking away from him. It seemed like nothing he could do could to wrong foot Chloe. There was something about being around her that intrigued him. It was as if she was puzzle to work out, one that he had a feeling he would be more than happy to get lost in. He was so lost in his thoughts, that he almost forgot about his meeting with Tess. Only the sound of someone saying his name reminded him of why he was at the Daily Planet. Forcing himself to push aside his thoughts of Chloe Sullivan, Oliver fixed a charming half-smile on his face.

Her door was propped open, so he walked right in, pausing only slightly to tap on the door frame. He still wasn't sure what he thought about the fact that it had been so easy to convince her to agree to see him. He'd expected it to be much harder to get back into her good graces enough to get a chance to really talk to her.

Unfamiliar nervousness ran through his veins, though non of is showed on his face, as he stepped into the editor's office. Tess was bent over a folder on her desk, clearly working intently. For several moments, she ignored Oliver in favor of her work. He sighed. He knew a power play when he saw one. She was letting him know exactly who was in charge of the situation.

Another minute passed before Tess finally looked up. Her face was carefully blank. "Oliver Queen," she said cooly. "What bring's Star City's golden city to Metropolis?"

"Business," he answered, refusing to rise to the thinly veiled reference to his reputation. "I thought that as long as I was here I'd stop by and say hello. It's been too long."

Something flickered across her face, but the emotion was banished before he could identify it. "Not long enough, if you ask me," she hissed. "Still, I supposed that it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed, given the business we're in."

"True," Oliver agreed. "But this isn't a business call."

"What else could it be? We have nothing else in common."

"Besides a shared past, you mean?"

Her gaze hardened. "It's the past, Oliver. What happened is behind us. Unless you have something business related to discuss, I suggest you leave. I do have work to do."

"Mercy," he sighed, dropping all pretense. "I never meant to hurt you."

And it was true. As screwed up as he'd been, he'd really believed that he was saving them both heartache down the line. He'd regretted it the moment he'd cheated and it had only taken thirty seconds for him to realize how wrong he'd been. The only reason he hadn't apologized was because he'd known they'd end up right back there eventually. Of course, Tess didn't know that. As far as she was concerned, he'd screwed her over and hadn't cared.

"Save your charm for someone else," she sneered. "You forget how well I know you, Oliver. This pathetic scheme to get in my pants and relieve the glory days isn't going to work. Our relationship is professional and nothing else. I suggest you keep it that way."

Oliver's face hardened. "This isn't about sex, Mercy. I screwed up and I'm trying to fix it."

"You're several years too late." She glared at him, her eyes burning with icy heat. "Really, Oliver, Who do you think you're kidding."

Myself,apparently, he thought bitterly. Still, he tried to explain. "I could have apologized until I was blue in the face. But it wouldn't have changed anything. Not then. I would still have been too messed up for the relationship we were headed for. I'd have screwed up again and hurt you even worse. I didn't want that."

For a moment, he thought that he might have gotten through to her. Then, her eyes flashed and she smirked at him. "Did you practice that speech in the mirror?"

To his surprise, all of the fight had gone out of him. Oliver found that, having said his piece and finally apologizing for what he had done, a weight had lifted from his heart that he hadn't even realized was there. He'd always had the intention of trying to win Mercy back, but now he found that he no longer cared. His thoughts automatically turned to Chloe and he pushed them away. He barely knew her. Still...he found that he didn't care what Tess thought of him anymore.

"Believe me or don't," he sighed. "That's the truth, Mercy. I'm sorry I ever hurt you."

He turned and left the room before she could reply. He didn't know what exactly had changed in the two days that had passed since he'd come to Metropolis, but he felt as if something was pulling him forward. Though he'd never admitted it before, Tess was his past. He'd always been looking back to her. He had no idea what was in store for him, but he was finally ready for it.

Oliver paused on the steps to the Daily Planet and looked back. Once more his thoughts turned to Chloe and the team she had formed. There was something oddly appealing about working with a team. He'd never realized it before, but he was tired of always being alone. He never had let people get close to him. Maybe it was time to change that.

His phone buzzed. Pulling it out, he read the text message with a slight grin.

Watchtower. Midnight. Be there if you're interested in helping us.

Yep. It was definitely time.

Tess watched Oliver walk away, a grimace on her face. She'd known the moment his secretary had called, requesting a meeting as soon he got into town that he was going to come crawling back to her. It only made sense. He thought that she would be an easy lay. Reveling in the idea of sending him away with his tale between his legs, she had set up the meeting.

She had never expected his heartfelt apologies. The fact that they were heartfelt was strange enough on its own. When he'd cheated, he'd never even tried to apologize for it. Looking back, Tess could grudging realize that he had been ashamed.

The prospect of resuming her relationship with Oliver had been mildly interesting, if only for the chance to be the one to play the mind games. The fact that he had given up so easily and had shown absolutely no interest in actually getting back together had been mildly insulting.

Tapping her pen against the desk, Tess thought back on her time with Oliver. She'd thought that she had gotten over her anger towards him, but it was back, stronger than ever. He had rejected her twice now. It would only be a matter of time before he found someone new in the city. Perhaps, she could still play some mind games after all.

Tess smiled to herself and went back to work.

Oliver pulled into the alley behind Watchtower at exactly eleven fifty-seven. The first thing he saw was Chloe waiting for him by the secret door he'd used the night before. He carefully stowed his bike in the shadows before moving to join her.

"I wasn't sure you'd come," she admitted when he came to a halt in front of her.

He shrugged. "If the stories I've heard about your team are true, you do a lot of good and I'd like to be a part of that."

Nodding slightly, she led him upstairs.

The room looked much as it had the night before, save for the fact that the glass has been cleaned up. Three men stood around the table. They were all dressed in uniforms similar to his, but their faces weren't covered.

"They don't know who you are," Chloe said in an undertone. "I figured it out doing some research in case we ever ended up in Star City, but I kept it to myself. You don't have to tell them, but they kinda figured that if we're all on the same side we should trust each other."

"Make sense," Oliver chuckled, pushing his hood back and shoving his glasses into a pouch on his belt.

One of the men, the youngest of the group, dressed in red hoodie with lightning bolts on it, looked up and caught sight of Oliver and Chloe. He grinned. In a movement so fast Oliver almost didn't see it, he crossed the room in a blur to drape his arm around Chloe's shoulders.

"There you are 'liscious. I thought we were going to have to start without you."

"As if," she scoffed. "Where's Boyscout?"

"He said something about one of your cousin's harebrained schemes," one of the mens still standing beside the table answered.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Of course he did. I'll talk to him about that later. Why don't you boys introduce yourselves?"

The man with his arms draped across Chloe's shoulders immediately straightened up and grinned at Oliver. "Bart Allen, aka, Impulse," he grinned. "I can literally run around the world in less than five minutes."

"Stop showing off," Chloe admonished, smacking him lightly upside the head. "There's a reason we call him Impulse," she said to Oliver. He didn't even try to suppress his grin at Bart's theatric pout. "Anyway, that's AC, codename Aquaman, which is pretty self-explanatory. And last we have Victor, who goes by Cyborg. Boys, this is Green Arrow, aka, Oliver Queen. He's thinking about joining us."

"Cool," AC said with a grin. "We can always use an extra pair of hands."

"You got a power?" Bart asked curiously.

Oliver shook his head. "No. I'm just good with a bow."

They all shared an impressed look. Oliver guessed that it was because they all had powers of some kind.

"So how did all of this get started?" he asked. "I haven't heard of anyone else working in a team like this."

All eyes turned to Chloe.

"It probably started back in Smallville," she answered after a moment. "It was hit by a meteor shower almost twenty years ago. Some of the rocks had radioactive properties that mutated human genes, giving people super powers. I'm the only one out of us to get my powers that way. I spent far too much time stopping the freak of the week back when I was in high school. A friend and I worked together to stop the metas who went power hungry. When we moved to Metropolis, we kept it up. After Dark Thursday happened, we decided that we should be doing more than just stoping metas. He started patrolling the streets and I helped out as best I could."

"And the others?"

"I was the first to join up," Bart said proudly. "Stopped by to see stretch and 'liscious and ended up helping Boyscout with something. First time I've felt like my powers were actually a good thing, so I stuck around. Next thing I know, we're headed off to Japan to help fishboy here after a protest gone wrong."

"I'd have gotten out of it," AC protested.

"You were about to be packed in a bunch of tin cans," Bart retorted.

"I was the last one to join up," Victor cut in. "Having all this hardware in me messed me up for a while. When Chloe came to me for some help hacking a particularly well encrypted database, I was living on the streets. Helping them gave me a sense of purpose. We do a lot of good out there."

"What about you?" Bart asked curiously. "You don't have any powers, so why do you do this?"

"I've had everything handed to me," Oliver admitted with a shrug. "For a long time, I didn't care. Then I got stranded on an island and my perspective changed. I wanted to actually do something, but just throwing money at some charities didn't seem like enough. I got a taste of heroics getting off the island, so I started patrolling."

"Dude, that's awesome," AC said in appreciation.

An alarm went off on one of the computers. Chloe immediately hurried over to them and tapped several keys, her eyes darting across the monitors.

"Look's like it's time to go to work," she declared after a moment. "Oliver, care to join us tonight?"

He took in the excited grins of the other three men, and smiled as well. "Sign me up."

Smirking, Chloe tossed him a comm device.

By the time the team was called back to Watchtower, Oliver was exhausted, but he was also extremely pleased. He'd taken down more criminals than he usually did on the average patrol. Every time he'd gotten done with one scenario, he'd heard Chloe's voice in his ear, guiding him to the next bad guy who's but needed kicking. The banter between the other heroes had brought a smile to his lips more than once. He hadn't so accomplished and so welcome in a long time.

The others had gone straight back to their apartments while he had gone back to Watchtower. Chloe was leaning against the table when he walked in.

"So what did you think?" she asked.

"You guys have a pretty sweet set up," he grinned. "I got more done tonight than I usually do."

"This was a pretty average night," Chloe said. "Usually only two or three of us are on patrol. There's one more member of the team you haven't met, but he's a bit more concerning with keeping his identity secret. He's got a little more at stake than the rest of us. Anyway, the boys switch of. I usually play Watchtower, but every now and then Vic sits in for me."

"You definitely get a lot done by working together. It was impressive."

Chloe's smile broadened. "Does this mean you want to officially join the team?"

"Maybe," Oliver said. "I don't know how long I'll actually be in Metropolis."

"That's not a problem," she assured him. "You can work with us as long as you're in town and when you leave you can feel free to call us up if you need help."

He thought for a moment. Three days ago, he would have said that he wasn't a team player. He'd never really been able to trust the people who were supposed to be close to him. But something about listening to Bart, AC, and Victor bicker in his ear while Chloe told them all to behave had felt right.

"Well, in that case," he said with a grin. "I'd definitely like to join your team."

"I'm glad to hear it." Chloe was grinning so broadly it looked like her face was about to split in two. "It's late, so why don't we meet up tomorrow to talk about some of the logistics?"

"Sounds good. Why don't you come over to my place so you can see what I have as a set up? You may be able to use it."

"All right. When's a good time?"

"It's Saturday and since I just got into town, I don't have any business obligations, so you can come over time you want. Do you have a piece of paper?"

Chloe handed him a pad of paper and a pen. He jotted down his address and the code to the elevator and handed it back to her. "Just come on up whenever you get there. I'll see you then."

She nodded and pocketed the paper. "See you then."

Oliver had almost reached the door when he heard say, "Welcome to the team, Arrow."

He couldn't stop the grin that spread across this face.

That night, he dreamt of Chloe. They stood side by side, looking down on Metropolis. She looked up at him with a grin on her face. Returning her smile, he bent down and kissed her lightly

By the time noon rolled around the next day, Oliver was nervous. He was pacing anxiously up around his living room, waiting for Chloe to show up. No matter what he did, he couldn't get the dream out of his mind. It was completely ridiculous that he was freaking out. He'd never had any problem being around women before. But there was something completely different about Chloe. She was his equal. He could already see that. She was a hero, just as he was. Though they hadn't spent much time together, she hadn't thrown herself at him as any other woman would have done. She probably didn't even see him that way. She just treated him like she did one of the team. For some reason, that made him like her all the more.

He'd just sat down in an attempt to force his way through some Queen Industries paper work - there was always paperwork to do it seemed - when the elevator chimed and Chloe Sullivan stepped into his penthouse.

"Is this a good time?" she asked.

"Definitely," he assured her.

She grinned and handed him a jump drive. "The code to Watchtower is on there. You'll have to come in through the alley. The only other entrances are through our apartments. An encryption with activate in three days and you won't be able to access it anymore."

Oliver nodded and took the jump drive. She dug around in her purse and produced a comm device. Unlike the grey one he had used the night before, this comm was a deep emerald green that matched his uniform.

"It's fitted with a tracking device," Chloe explained. "It's only active when you're on patrol. It sends back a specific signal so I can tell all of you apart. If you want, there's a secondary tracking device that can be activated that never shuts off. We all have one. There was a close call with Bart a while back and we decided that it would be best if we could find each other in case something happened."

He easily recognized the wisdom of that decision, but he was also glad that Chloe had taken his opinion into account. He'd wait a little while before agreeing to let them know where he was, twenty four seven.

"Beyond that," Chloe continued, "all we need to do is work you into the patrol schedule. For right now, we figured you could just tag along until you got to know the others better and learned to work with them."

Oliver eyed her with a slight grin on his face. "You've put a lot of thought into this," he said.

"This is something I take seriously," Chloe admitted. "I've seen a lot of things the past few years that no one else should have to see. Someone has to protect the streets and if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it write."

"Is that all you do?" Oliver asked. "Patrol the streets, I mean?"

She shook her head. "No. We get into organized crime, too and rogue metas. One of our biggest fights is with people who want to experiment on any meta then can get their hands on."

Oliver frowned at that. "I've never even heard about that."

"You probably wouldn't have. I have a lot of friends who have powers and a lot of the metas around here are from where I grew up. The people who do this are good at staying under the radar."

There was a beat of silence. Then, Oliver said, his voice low, "Tell me more."

Chloe chewed her lip. "I'm not sure that I should. It's not that I don't trust you," she said quickly. "It's just that this is something that we don't have proof of beyond our own stories. This is a very personal mission. I'm not sure that I should be telling you the boys' stories."

Instead of being insulted, Oliver found himself impressed by her loyalty to her friends. "Fair enough," he said. "Is there any other business we need to deal with?"

"Not unless you have something to tell me," she said.

He grabbed a little remote off his desk and waved her toward the clock face that concealed his equipment room. The clock split in two at the touch of a button. The halves slid apart silently, revealing a green-backlit room that housed all of is equipment. Chloe nodded slightly in admiration.

Oliver hit another button on the remote and several screens lowered from the ceiling.

"When I first started out I was really attached to the whole Robin Hood thing," he explained, leading her inside the room. "Most of what I was doing was evening the score. Stealing black market and illicit goods off the rich, giving them back to the people they belonged to, and donating any money I got out of it to charity. I still do some of that, but I'm out on the streets more too. These allow to get an accurate representation of the layouts and security measures. The programs creates a 3-D image from the schematics. It helps me get a real visual of where I'm going. Lately, I've just been using it to get an idea of the layout of the city."

Chloe leaned forward to examine the program that Oliver was describing. A revolving image of a warehouse was visible on the screen. Different colored dots represented the various security protocols installed around the building.

"I can't believe I didn't think of this," she muttered. "It's got to be so much quicker that overlaying the blueprints and security schematics by hand."

"It's also more accurate," Oliver added. He grabbed a wireless keyboard out of a drawer and hit a few keys. Immediately lines and shapes depicting the reach of each camera, laser, and whatever other security device the building possess appeared on the screen, in realtime.

"Well, that's useful," Chloe breathed.

Oliver chuckled. "Yeah. The computer figures it out based on the information I can give it. This one is so complete because I was testing it on a Queen Industries facility. I've got access to every detail of the building's construction. But I've had far less on most of the places I've infiltrated."

"So have we," Chloe agreed before a teasing grin quirked her lips. "Anything else it can do?"

He just smirked and tapped a few more keys. The blueprint reset so that the only indication of the security measures were the multi-colored dots, but with a new group of orange, moving dots as well. Chloe frowned at the screen for the moment before her eyes widened in realization.

"You've got satellite imagery?" she said incredulously.

"Not entirely. I just borrow one from Queen Industries now and then. Haven't you ever hacked a satellite?"

She shook her head. "I don't have the computer power. But believe me, I've thought about it."

Oliver bit his lip to keep from speaking. It was much to early to be suggesting that he offer any kind of financial support to Chloe and her team. But it seemed that that was the only thing they were lacking, and they definitely weren't letting that hinder them.

"That's pretty much the grand tour," he said with a smile, covering up his moment of reticence. "What did you think?"

"Impressive," Chloe acknowledged with a grin, allowing him to lead her back into the penthouse. "Especially for someone who's been working alone. You've definitely covered all of your bases. How long have you been at this?" she asked curiously.

Oliver shrugged. "About five years. I couldn't keep being the billionaire playboy who didn't do a damn thing to deserve it. I wanted to do something and throwing money at the problem didn't seem like the solution."

"So you decided to don green leather and fight crime? Seems like a bit of an extreme," she teased.

"To the outside observer, maybe. But all of this happened after I got stranded on the island. I spent two years fighting for my own survival. It changed my perspective."

Chloe became serious at that. Her gaze focused on something only she could see and she sank onto the sofa, drawing her legs up beneath her. "It seems like all of us had to go through something horrible to become the heroes we are. I wonder if anyone just woke up one morning and said 'I'm going to do something about the state of things' and put on a mask and tights."

"Not likely," Oliver sighed. "You have to have some experience with what's out there to want to do something about it."

"It just seems a pity that heroes have to be emotionally scarred in order to be heroes," she said softly.

Oliver frowned. There was a story behind that. It would be a lie to say that he hadn't wondered why Chloe was in the middle of the battle against crime the way she was. Now he was more curious than ever as to what had happened to her.

Just like that, the moment ended. Chloe's eyes refocused and she stood quickly, fixing a grin on her face that was almost genuine. "I should be going," she said quickly. "I'm supposed to be meeting my cousin for a late lunch and I really don't want to be getting another Lois Lane lecture on how I don't have a social life."

"Your cousin in Lois Lane?" Oliver laughed. "Don't tell me she's the other hero you were talking about."

"Thank god, no. She gets in enough trouble without superpowers. Though she did try it for a couple of nights after beating up a mugger with her stilettos. Fortunately, it wasn't her thing. Half the time our job consists of rescuing her from whatever sticky mess she's gotten herself in this time. Are you going to patrol with us tonight?"

"If you could use the extra hand."

"We could always use the help," Chloe said dryly. "You can drop by any time until we work out a schedule."

"Then I'll be there tonight."

As they moved toward the elevator, her arm brushed his. Without even thinking about it, he wrapped a hand around her elbow, pulling her closer. Her breath caught in her throat. They stared at each other for a long minute. Unbidden, the memory of his dream leapt to the front of Oliver's mind. Before he could question what he was doing, he bent down and pressed his lips to hers.

Chloe gasped slightly then melted into the kiss. Her arms came up to wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself against him. Their lips moved in sync, as though they'd kissed a hundred times before. Oliver's hand came to rest against her waist. He caressed her skin lightly where it was bare just above her jeans. She moaned quietly and opened her mouth, allowing him to caress her tongue with his. Oliver hauled her closer and the kiss became feverish and desperate. Chloe's hand fisted in his hair. Neither of them relented.

When they succumbed to their need for oxygen and pulled apart, both of them were breathing heavily. Oliver rested his forehead against Chloe's. His hand rested against her neck, holding her in place with gentle pressure. Her eyes were wide and dark as she looked up at him.

"Where did that come from?" Chloe asked breathlessly.

"I have no idea," Oliver admitted. "It just felt right. I don't know what it is about you, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since I fell through the window."

"Really?" she teased quietly. "I didn't realize I'd left such an impression."

"You did," he whispered. "Who could forget a beautiful woman saving the world from her tower?"

She smiled gently and blushed. "Well, you left an impression, too. The boys have been teasing me about all my sappy daydreaming."

His heart warmed at her words. He bent down and kissed her gently. Somehow, it didn't feel like kissing someone he barely knew. It felt like something far more and far better.

"So what next?" she asked.

Oliver pulled back far enough to get a good look at her. It was strange to think that he had come to Metropolis with the intention of fixing things with Mercy and hopefully picking up where they had left off. It had taken meeting Chloe for him to realize that he'd been clinging to the past. He hadn't even realized his feelings for her, and she'd helped him move on from one thing that had been holding him back.

"I know I barely know you," he whispered. "But I want to try this. I don't know what it is about you, but I want to make this work. I don't know exactly what it is," he chuckled. "But I want it."

"That sounds about right," Chloe murmured.

Grinning broadly, Oliver kissed her soundly. She smiled into the kiss and was still smiling happily when he pulled back. Wrapping an arm about her waist, he pulled her to the sofa and sat down her pressed into his side.

"So tell me more about yourself," he murmured. "Who is Chloe Sullivan?"

So she told him. She told him about living in Smallville and her friends there. She told him about wanting to be a reporter and how she regretted some of the things her blind belief in truth had led her to do. She told him about learning that sometimes, the truth needed to be hidden and how she'd begun to believe in helping those with powers rather than just exposing them.

"You have to understand," she said quietly. "A lot of the metas in Smallville when crazy. I wasn't entirely in the wrong and that's what made it so hard to realize that I wasn't entirely right. It seemed like we were under attack from someone or something meteor related every week in high school. They needed to be stopped, but my blasting their problems on the front page of the school paper probably didn't make it any easier for other metas. It took meeting the boys for me to really understand the fine line between being a meta and being a monster."

Oliver pulled her tight and pressed a kiss into her hair. "It sounds to me like you were just trying to make a bunch of people too stuck in their ways see the truth. In that kind of environment, a lot of the subtleties of a situation can be lost. You did the best you could."

"Maybe," she murmured. "But I still wonder if things might have been different if I'd been more open minded from the beginning. It's not that I had any problems with the metas. But I was so sure that everyone needed to know who they were, that I know I made things harder on them."

Realizing that there was nothing else he could say, Oliver had simply pulled her a bit closer and continued to listen.

As talk moved on from her time in Smallville, he realized that she'd left out quite a lot. She'd danced around certain details. He'd only gotten a very simple account of her life. Some part of him wished that she cold tell him but, but the rest of him realized that her life was intertwined with the lives of others and that there stories weren't hers to tell. He'd probably be learning new things about her for the next ten years.

Slow down, he admonished himself. You're getting ahead of yourself. You don't even know if this is going to last more than a few days. There's no reason to get so excited.

But there is, a quiet voice in the back of his mind whispered. There is every reason to get excited.

Oliver pushed the voice aside and concentrated on Chloe, who was laughing about one of Lois' schemes.

When she was finished, Oliver began the story of his life. On the whole, it was a much sadder tale and he found himself talking about things that he had never told anyone before. She didn't interrupt, just listened quietly, leaning into him when she felt that he needed comfort.

He almost didn't tell her about Tess, but that little voice in the back of his head piped up again and pointed out that if he didn't tell her, she'd find out eventually and it would come back to bit him in the ass. So he told her, but he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye as he did.

Oliver faltered slightly when he reached the reason he'd come to Metropolis in the first place. It felt wrong somehow to admit that he'd been intending to make up with his ex and had instead ended up with Chloe.

To his surprise, she sat up on her knees and caught his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"What happening with Tess is as much her fault as it is yours. Neither of you were ready. It sounds to me like she was desperate for any kind of human contact after being kidnapped and you just happened to be the person who showed her kindness in a horrible situation. She wasn't anymore ready for a relationship than you were and so she pushed you too far. And like you said, you had done a lot of growing up on the island, but you still had some growing up to do. You can't change in a day. I can already tell that you're a completely different person than the man who got lost on that island or even the man that found his way off again. The fact that you came here to make amends is proof enough of that."

She leaned up and kissed him gently. Oliver returned the kiss for a second before pulling back and saying, "But you realize that I don't have any feelings for her. That's over."

"I know," Chloe assured him. "I don't know how I know, but I know."

They got nothing done that day. They talked about everything and nothing until it was time to head back to Watchtower for the evening's patrol. Oliver kissed her in front of the entire team before they headed out. The comms were laden with jokes and innuendo from all sides. Bart had moaned about losing is 'licious, Victor had said it was about time she found someone and AC had warned Oliver that if he ever hurt Chloe, no one would ever find the body. His response had been, "Good."

He spent the weekend with the team, learning more about them and their powers and what they were doing. There was something they were all holding back. Everyone once in a while, one of them would begin to say something, but would stop short and glance around guiltily. Chloe had taken him aside and explained that there was one project in particular that was very sensitive to all of them. They'd been working on it for years and while they knew everything they needed, they couldn't get any concrete proof. "This is the mission that haunts us," she'd said quietly. "It's the one that we can never quite finish because the person we're up against is just as good as we are. We all trust you, but we're too used to playing this one close to the chest. Just give us a little time." He just nodded and assured her that he completely understood. But once her back had turned, his forehead knitted in worry over what could possibly put all of them so on edge.

Oliver discovered that Chloe had a rapier sharp wit, that she was funny, and passionate, and intelligent. She fussed over each of them when they got back from patrol, tending to every scrape and cut. She was everything the women he dated to maintain his playboy image weren't. She was real. And where Tess had always been serious and a bit cold, Chloe was warm and shone with something that Oliver couldn't quite identify.

From her position at the top of the staircase, Tess surveyed the bullpen of the Daily Planet. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the familiar figure of Oliver. She was unsurprised to see him. It had only been a matter of time before he came back. He always had been persistent when it came to wooing someone. She was quite looking forward to the game that would soon commence.

But, to her surprise, he didn't make his way up to her office. He didn't even glance towrd the elevators. He went straight to the bullpen and wound through the desks to the back corner where Chloe Sullivan was busily working away.

The girl had been a thorn in Tess's side from the beginning. Lex had made sure to warn Tess of the many ways in which Chloe would attempt to meddle in the LuthorCorp affairs. He'd never really explained when Chloe was so interested in what he did. When Tess had asked, he just said she bore a misguided grudge against him and that had been enough for Tess.

More than once, Tess had caught her doing just as Lex had said and just as often, one of Tess's plans to find Lex had failed thanks to the metas that Lex had also warned her about. She wasn't a fool. She knew that Chloe was most likely behind it and that she was connected to the vigilantes. She just couldn't quite figure out why.

So seeing Oliver with Chloe was not something that sat well with her, especially if Chloe was as interested in corporate espionage as she seemed to be - Tess suspected it might be more, but didn't have any proof. Her hands clenched on the rail at the sight of the dopey smile that spread across both their faces. Oliver bent down and kissed Chloe softly, with a tenderness that implied that, though their relationship could't be very old, it was definitely very serious. Tess knew the difference between his "I'm dating this girl because she matches my image" look and his "I'm dating this girl because I'm actually in love with her" look. She could seen now that he was not only head over heals, but ridiculously happy.

This could not stand. Tess didn't want Oliver to be happy after what he had done to her and he certainly didn't want him involved with the woman who seemed hell bent on destroying LuthorCorp.

Oliver leaned in again to kiss Chloe lightly on the lips. Tess's blood boiled. It was a personal affront that he would show any kind of affection to someone in her building. He was doing it to get back at her, to rub it in her face that he was happy and she wasn't. She slipped back into her office and retrieved a flash drive from the safe hidden in the bookcase. With it clutched in her hand, she descended the stairs in a cloak of cold fury and met Oliver at the foot, just as he was leaving.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

He stopped short and quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't react. "Hello to you, too, Tess. I'm here to see a friend, if that's all right with you."

"Do you kiss all of your friends?"

Oliver's face hardened just slightly. "I didn't know you were into voyeurism," he retorted. "It's not any of your business what I do with my friends or how I define my friends. Was there something you wanted?"

"I thought you might like to know what you're getting into," she said emotionlessly, offering the flash drive to Oliver. He took it warily. "There's a lot about your little girlfriend that you don't know."

Tess allowed herself a small smile as she walked away.

Oliver shoved the flash drive into his pocket, glaring up at Tess as she walked away. He didn't know what her problem was, but he wasn't happy that she was interfering. He'd taken the hint and backed off when she made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. He'd have thought that she would have paid him the same courtesy just because she wouldn't want to be around him.

Once Tess was out of sight, he turned and headed back into the bullpen. He didn't know what Tess had against Chloe, but he was at least going to warn her.

Chloe was already back at work. She might have claimed that journalism didn't hold the same charm for her that it once had, but that didn't change the fact that she till got into her work. He'd been gone less than ten minutes and she was completely absorbed. Unable to hide the grin that stretched across his face at the sight of her, bent of her her computer, eyebrows furrowed slightly in concentration, Oliver leant down and kissed her cheek.

She started slightly, but looked up at him with a grin. "I thought you were leaving," she said.

"I was, but Tess caught me on the stairs. She warned me about you."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What? Why would she do that?"

Oliver felt his heart drop. Her voice had risen slightly and she'd gone pale. Whatever Tess was referring to, Chloe knew exactly what it was and she didn't want him to know.

"I thought maybe you could tell me," he said casually.

"Lex never liked me," Chloe said evasively. "There was some bad blood between us from Smallville. And I'll admit that I've hacked into LuthorCorp more than once. Lex probably told her something about me."

"If that's true, then Mercy had more reason than ever to want to get to you. I've got a feeling she said something because she's looking to get back at me," he said.

"I'll be careful," Chloe assured him. "I'm used to watching my back."

Oliver smiled weakly. "All right. I'll see you later."

Chloe squeezed his hand softly before turning back to her work. With a sinking heart, Oliver left the Daily Planet. There was something she wasn't telling him and it was obviously something big if Tess knew about it.

He'd been staring at the flash drive for hours. He knew that Tess was not the woman he'd known all those years before, but, no matter what he'd said to Chloe, he could not bring himself to believe that she would blatantly attempt to undermine his relationship with Chloe unless she had a good reason. Yet he also could not believe that Chloe would have done anything to warrant Tess' interference.

Eventually, morbid curiosity won out. Oliver slid the flash drive into the USB drive of his computer. Immediately a folder popped up on the screen. It was filled with file after file. He clicked on the first. A video clip opened in another window. Oliver watched what was clearly surveillance footage in horror. It showed Victor breaking into a LuthorCorp facility. There was only a few moments, as though the footage was just a segment that had somehow survived a when the rest of the footage had been erased. But it was enough to see that he was jacking himself into the computer and copying the files. The next file he clicked on was a report on breaches in database security, all of which has been traced back to the Daily Planet server.

For the next six hours, he sorted through the files. Very little of it could be corroborated and it was all incredibly circumstantial. But it was clear that Chloe and the others had been gathering information on Luthorcorp for years. If the files were to be believe, they were stealing business secrets.

It made no sense. Oliver knew that Lex was a bastard, but he'd never been able to find evidence of underhanded dealings. The files the team had stolen and the facilities that they had broken into weren't even the ones they would have to target if they wanted to find information that linked LuthorCorp to dirty dealing. They were all research and development files or financial reports. It made absolutely no sense.

Chloe had set up a program that allowed him to access the Watchtower databases from his penthouse. He logged on and immediately began searching for anything that refute the information that Tess had found. His stomach dropped when most of it was locked behind encryptions that required a password he did not have. Chloe had explained that these were related to the project the team wasn't ready to talk about just yet. She'd hidden the information until they had a chance to explain everything and then they'd tell him everything. He'd believed her. Now, he wasn't so sure.

He found only one relevant file. It was a report about his links to Tess Mercer.

Oliver was still staring at what was essentially an account of his life when he left the island when Chloe arrived. He'd forgotten that they had a date that night. They'd been going to get dinner and hang out at his apartment for a while before she had to go lead the boys through a mission on their own.

"Oliver?" she called.

He didn't answer.

She called his name again. A few minutes later, she walked into his office.

"What are you doing back here?" she asked, a soft smile on her face. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. When he didn't react at all, she pulled away.

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

He picked up the flash drive from the desk. "Tess gave me this," he said flatly. "Do you know what's on it?"

Chloe had gone tense. She shook her head slightly. "What is it?"

"It's files on all the times you and the others broke into the LuthorCorp. None of it can be linked back to you, but the evidence is there to link it to Watchtower. From the looks of things you were stealing trade secrets. When I tried to find out what was really going on, I found that every single file dealing with LuthorCorp was locked. This was the only thing I found." He gestured at the document still visible on the screen.

Chloe didn't even look at her. She had gone completely rigid. Her jaw was tight and her eyes were flashing.

"Do you really think that we would steal trade secrets?" she demanded. "What exactly are we going to do with them? We fight crime, Oliver, you know that. I would never do this. It's not what you think!"

"Then explain it!" he shouted, losing what little control he'd had when she'd walked in the door. "Explain to me why it seems that you've been breaking into LuthorCorp and why you've been snooping around my life behind me back!"

Her mouth opened and closed several times. Then, her shoulders drooped. "It's complicated."

"Of course it is," he sneered. "How could I possibly understand? I'm just human, after all."

Hurt flashed across Chloe's face. "This had nothing to do with whether you have powers," she snapped. "You haven't been here, Oliver. It's only been a few days and while they've been amazing, I can't tell you everything yet. I need a little time."

"Don't you think I deserve to know what exactly is going on that makes my life so important?" he demanded.

There was a beat of silence before she whispered, "I just need a little more time. You have no idea how much is involved in this."

"You don't trust me," he stated coldly. It almost broke him to say it, but he did, because it was true.

"I do," she assured him. "It's just too soon."

Oliver shook his head. "No. Save that for someone else. You should have trusted me Chloe."

For a long moment, neither of them moved. Then Chloe met his eyes with a strange look of pain and determination on her face. "If you want to know the truth about what we've been doing in regards to LuthorCorp, then stop by Watchtower around two. The boys should be done by then.

"For what it's worth," she added softly. "I do trust you."

And then she was gone.

Oliver didn't move once Chloe was gone. It felt as though someone had torn his heart out. He should have known that it was too good to be true. Nothing in his life had ever lasted the way those same things did for others.

He wasn't even aware of the passage of time until he looked up and realized that it was dark. To his surprise, it was already almost two o'clock in the morning. He was tempted not to go, but he was desperate for answers. Without even bothering to don his gear, he left his penthouse and headed for Watchtower.

The sight that met his eyes made him stop in his tracks. AC was lying on the sofa, blood covering his chest. Bart was zipping around the room, adding to a pile of first aid supplies on the table.

"It's no use," Chloe said from where she knelt by AC's side. "There's no other choice."

"Are you sure?" Victor asked in a low voice. "There's no other way?"

She shook her head. "He's losing blood too fast. We'd never get him to the hospital in time. I have too."

Victor's lips pressed into a grim line. Bart stopped short beside Oliver, a look of resigned horror on his face.

"What is she going to do?" he asked.

"She's gonna heal him," Bart whispered.

Oliver frowned. "How is that a bad thing? She healed me."

"Just watch."

The grimness in the young man's voice, which Oliver already knew to be uncharacteristic, frightened him.

Across the room, Chloe laid her hand on AC's chest. Her hand glowed for a moment then the light faded away. Without warning, she collapsed.

He was by her side in two strides, lifting her into his arms and pulling her close. She didn't have a pulse. "What happened?"

"She'll be fine," Victor said solemnly. "Healing takes her life energy. That gut wound should have killed AC. In order to heal it, Chloe has to die. But she always come back. It scares the crap out of us when she does it, so we usually try to get to a hospital so that she can do the healing afterward, but sometimes there just isn't time." He bent down and gently pulled Chloe out of his arms. "We try to keep her warm, because apparently coming back to life is not pleasant. You should probably go home. It may be a while before she comes to and you have an image to keep. I'll let you know when she wakes."

Oliver frowned, but nodded. He walked over to Chloe and gently pushed her hair off her face. Her skin was already cold and clammy. Swallowing hard, he snatched his hand back and hurried out of the room. Suddenly, it didn't seem like such a big deal that Chloe had been keeping something from him.

When he got a text from Victor telling him that Chloe was awake nearly twenty-four hours later, Oliver broke every speed barrier getting back to Watchtower. Going through his everyday life had been almost impossible when all he could think about was Chloe lying on the cold on the sofa.

Chloe didn't look up when he walked into the room. Other than being a little paler than usual, she looked fine. Her eyes were focused on the monitor in front of her. He'd never seen her look so grim. Her lips were tight and her entire body radiated tension as her fingers flew over the keys. Willing himself to remain stoic, Oliver crossed the room to stand behind her. He didn't know what to say so he looked at the monitors that were claiming her attention.

What saw almost made him sick to his stomach.

The monitor showed half a dozen men and women strapped to tables. IVs had been stuck into their arms. Many of them were screaming. The picture switched to a morgue. The bodies of the dead were laid out without any attempt at reverence. Many had been butchered beyond recognition.

Horrified, Oliver looked away. His eyes fell on another screen. It was some kind of an account of the experiments done on living people. Every one of them had had some kind of power. If he was reading the report correctly, then the experiments had been designed to determine the nature and extent of their powers.

"They're metas," Chloe said without preamble. "All of them. They're being held by LuthorCorp. The project is called 33.1."

Oliver spun around. "What?"

"Lex started it. He spent time in Smallville just as I did. He saw a lot of metas. He knew how powerful they were. For years, he's been experimenting on them in an attempt to control them, to harness their power for his own ends. The things he's done to them are absolutely sadistic."

She paused and when she went on, her voice was quieter. "On one of our missions, before Lex died, Bart was caught. It wasn't the first time the two of them had run into each other and Lex was ready. He'd built this field that wouldn't let Bart stop running. If he did, he'd be killed. We barely got him out in time.

"The only reason Victor is alive is because he was taken from the hospital and experimented on. They tried to control him. When they realized they'd lost control of him, they almost killed him. Lex almost killed AC as well, just because he wanted to know how AC's power worked. I can't count the number of metahumans he tortured in Smallville. My best friend nearly died so many times because of Lex. His experiments have endangered the world at least once a year. He's meddled with things he doesn't understand.

She paused and let out a quiet sigh. "We thought it would end when he disappeared. Some of the scientists would obviously keep up their experiments, but we thought that with Lex gone, we might finally be able to stop them. Whether she knows it or not, Tess is funding them in her desperation to find Lex. After you came crashing through the window and when I saw you at the Daily Planet, I remembered that you and she had a history. I never meant to pry. I just...we've lost so much because of all of this, I couldn't risk it. I did all that research before I ran into at the Planet, before I figured out that I was going to see you again. We've learned the hard way to be cautious where Lex is concerned. I've learned it more than most. I'm sorry I crossed a line and I know it. There's just too much at stake."

Silence fell over the Watchtower. Chloe turned her attention back to her monitors and continued working her way through the grim information. Suddenly everything she'd done was in a whole new light. It made sense. But Oliver still got the feeling she wasn't telling him something."

"What did he do to you?" he asked. "Lex had to have done something to make you so desperate to stop him."

For the first time, she turned to face him. Oliver was horrified to see that tears were running down her cheeks. But her jaw was set in determination. "Lex found a meta who'd been given the power to see others with powers. He saw my ability before it even manifested. Lex had me abducted. I don't even know what he did to me because he wiped my memory. He put a tracker in me that could have killed me. My friend had to burn it out me and we were barely in time. Months later, Lois was investigating one of his operations. He nearly destroyed the world, but more than that, Lois was badly hurt trying to get in. I went after her. She was lying in a pool of her own blood. The dam was coming down around us, but I just sat there. That was the first time my powers worked. Lois woke up to find me, dead. I came to in the morgue. It's a good thing that one of my friends was in the hospital and that his hearing is a little bit better than most people's. He came and got me out."

Oliver felt as though someone had kicked him in the gut. His worst nightmares could never begin to equal the things that Chloe had been through. It was no wonder that Chloe had been hesitant to tell him everything. "Is that why you're trying to so hard to stop him?"

Chloe shot him a venomous glare that almost had him backpedaling. "It's not the only reason. What Lex did to me is just one example of the horrible things he's done to other's like me. And he doesn't it alone. The scientists are just as guilty. I'm doing this, so that other metas have a chance against him. Lex and his obsession have dominated my life. This has become such a part of me, such a part of everything I do. But so many other are involved. I wanted to tell you. But I just couldn't. Not so soon."

Without hesitating, Oliver pulled Chloe into a tight embrace. "I am such an idiot," he whispered. "I should have known that Tess was screwing with me. But I was so determined to believe that the girl I met on the island was still in there. I should have trusted you."

"You barely know me," she murmured.

"Doesn't matter. I know you well enough. Damn it, we barely know each other, but I'm in love with you. It scared me so much when I thought you were dead."

Chloe stilled and looked up at him. "What?"

He grinned crookedly. "It's like, we were meant to be. Ever since I first met you, I just knew."

"Like it was destiny," she whispered.

"I know it sounds crazy-"

"Not as crazy as you'd think," she interrupted. "Remind me to tell you about destiny some day. It's more real than you know."

"Really?"

She nodded and caught her lip between her teeth. "I really am sorry that I didn't tell you and that I went snooping. Personal boundaries are a bit fuzzy with me. It comes from being a reporter and from being a hero. I'm always snooping into things that aren'tmy business for the greater good. Sometimes I go too far."

"That's true," Oliver agreed. "But given the fact that I'd literally fallen into Watchtower and that you didn't know what was going to happen next, you had every right to cover all the bases. I'd have probably done the same."

Leaning up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his. "You know something? I think love you, too, as crazy as it sounds."

Oliver grinned and hauled her up against him. He lifted her off her feet. Their kiss quickly became heated as the pressure of their fight, her death, and her confession came crashing down on them. Oliver had never felt so guilty and so relieved at the same time. Chloe shoved against his chest until he let her go. It nearly killed him to do so, he was so afraid that he'd completely screwed up. But once her feet were once more on the ground, she grabbed his hand and led him down to her apartment. She didn't care that they were moving too fast. It just seemed right.

They stumbled back to her bedroom. Chloe slid her fingers beneath Oliver's shirt. His hissed slightly at the skin on skin contact. Feeling bold, she slid her hands up, taking the shirt with her. He broke the kiss long enough to pull the offending fabric over his head and divest Chloe of her shirt as well. He lifted her into his arms again and gently placed her on the bed. Laying over her, he captured her lips again.

When Oliver woke the next morning, he looked down at the figure lying next to him. Chloe was fast asleep, exhausted after their passionate lovemaking the night before. He slid his fingers through her hair, pushing the tangled mass out of her face. In her sleep, all the lines of pain, anger, sorrow, and frustration that had been there the night before when he'd walked into Watchtower were gone. He didn't know how it was possible, but he was in love with her. It truly was fate.

She stirred and woke when he kissed her hair.

"Good morning," he said softly.

Grumbling incoherently under her breath, she rolled further into his side and buried her face against his chest. He chuckled. Clearly, she was not a morning person.

They lay there, entangled together, for several more minutes before Oliver broke the silence.

"I really am sorry about last night," he said softly.

Chloe placed a kiss to his jaw. "It's okay. You had every right to want to want the truth."

"Maybe, but I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." Ishouldn'thavelistenedtoTess, hung between them unspoken.

"What matters is that you gave me a chance to explain," Chloe said softly. "I should have told you the moment I realized just how complicated your history with Tess is and that things between us were going to be interesting, but we've got so much invested in taking down LuthorCorp that I was worried about telling you. I know that I shouldn't have been, but I was. But now that's all straightened up and we have nothing to worry about."

Oliver shook his head at how easily things had fallen into place for them. He was more convinced than ever that he had made the right choice being with her.

Pulling her tight, he buried his face in her hair and murmured, "I'm so glad I came back to Metropolis to apologize to Tess and met you."

"Me, too," Chloe whispered, winding her arms around his waist.

Together, they rose to face the day. Chloe fully briefed him on everything that Lex had done. Oliver kept his arm tight around her waist, sensing just how difficult it was for her to talk about it. But she plowed on, even telling him about the close calls that Lex hadn't been involved in. She wasn't keep anything back.

As they moved past her own horror stories and to what LuthorCorp had done to others, righteous anger slipped into her voice. Oliver found himself feeling the same passion as well. They had to be stopped.

"I just can't believe that Mercy is involved in any of this," he said once Chloe had finally finished going through all the data with him. "I know she's not the same person I knew, but I can't see her condoning this kind of treatment of others. She must really believe that crap the Lex was feeding her."

"That's what we think," Chloe agreed. "Everything she's done had mostly been by accident. She's really just nosey, but when you consider that we've been breaking into her facilities that makes a lot of sense."

"Well, I doubt she gave me that flash drive out of professional courtesy," Oliver bit out.

To his slight surprise, Chloe just shrugged. "Can you blame her?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, cocking his head slightly.

"Tess is the woman scorned here," she pointed out. "Think about this from her point of view. You show up to apologize and then hardly pay any attention to her. Whether she'd forgiven you or not, the fact that you took steps to make amends and then made no move to get her back had to sting. Then you start dating the one person that annoys her more than anyone else. In her shoes, I'd have been tempted to do the same thing. I'm not saying that I would have done it. But I would definitely have been tempted."

"Accusing someone of what amounts to corporate espionage is a little extreme," he retorted.

"True. But none of that can be proven. There's enough to link me to the team, but not enough to actually accuse me. All she was trying to do was plant the seed of doubt. She had no way of knowing that you knew the extent of my connection to the team." She grinned suddenly. "If anything, she's given me a reason to hack into her computer and make sure that none of this gets out to anyone else."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Do you ever really need a reason to hack into anything connected to LuthorCorp?"

"Nope. But it helps."

He laughed and followed her over to the computers.

"Did you and Victor build this?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's a bit of a work in progress, but it serves its purpose."

Oliver frowned. Though she'd never said anything directly - in fact, Chloe had always carefully danced around the subject - Oliver had gotten the distinct impression that they were having difficulties funding their operations. He knew that Chloe couldn't be making much as a reporter. He doubted that Bart, who was little more than a teenager, was making much either. AC didn't seem like the type to really have a job in the first place and Victor would have to keep his head down otherwise he risked attracting the attention of the very men who'd once experiment on him. The idea had already crossed his mind, but he'd been wary of saying anything before. Now that things were finally settled between them, he figured it was time to say something.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked tentatively.

Chloe arched an eyebrow. "Are you any good with computers?"

"No. But I have access to some of the best technology in the world."

There was a beat before Chloe answered. "You don't have to do that, Oliver."

"If I'm going to be part of this team, then I want to be able to help," he protested. "if that means helping outfit Watchtower, then so be it. I have the resources to do that and you don't. Think of it this way, if you let me do this, we can do a better job protecting people and stopping the 33.1 facilities."

She hesitated a little, obviously a little wary of accepting such an enormous offer. But Oliver saw the moment that his logic won her over.

"All right," she said. "But Victor and I get to approve anything."

He laughed and shook his head. "No problem. I wouldn't presume to mess with your set up."

"Good. Because if you even go near my computers, I cannot be held accountable for my actions."

A week later, Chloe accompanied Oliver to a Queen Industries Gala. She was a little uncomfortable with the idea of rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful considering she was all too often digging around in their private lives to ferret out their dirty little secrets, but the moment she walked into the ballroom, she charmed everyone. Dressed in a lovely emerald green dress that made her eyes sparkle, she looked like she belonged among the well-dressed, wealthy masses. But she gave off an air of realism that no one else at the gala could even begin to match. Oliver couldn't be happier.

The icing on the cake was the sight of Mercy's face when she saw the two of them together. It looked like she'd swallowed a hunk of meteor rock. She'd promptly turned round and walked to the other side of the ballroom.

For most of the evening, Oliver carefully avoided Tess, despite the fact that they were more or less expected to talk since they were business associates. He was still fuming over his ex's attempt to sabotage the first relationship he'd had in five years. The fact that he almost lost Chloe permanently afterward had not made it any easier to stomach, especially since she had played on his old feelings for her. But when it came time for them to leave so that Chloe could play eye in the sky, Oliver approached Tess. It was time he said something about what she'd done.

"Tess," he greeted coldly.

She merely nodded. He tossed her the flash drive - which had conveniently been loaded with a virus that would destroy all the information on it the moment it was plugged into a computer. She caught it easily, her eyebrow raised. She paled slightly when she realized what she was holding.

"I understand that I hurt you," he hissed. "I understand that I deserve every ounce of your anger. But accusing Chloe of corporate espionage on such insubstantial evidence is just low. She has got nothing to do with us and if you ever try something like this again, I will not hesitate to play just as dirty. Have a good evening."

Spinning on his heel, Oliver walked over to Chloe and together, they walked into the night, side by side, their destinies written in the stars above them.

Fin.

Author's Note: Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed it. This is my first attempt at this fairytale style of writing. If you want to see the art, use the link on my profile to go to my LJ and go to the master post. There's a link there. Leave iamaslashaddict some love. She did an awesome job on short notice.