Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, though it'd be nice if I did.

Title: Breakable Thread

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Angst, Romance

Verse: Smallville, Pre-Smallville

Summary: Just a simple flash to how Tess and Oliver's relationship ended…and how in my mind, Lex and Tess met a short time later.

Spoilers: Season 8 of Smallville, mostly. More specifically Toxic, Committed, ummm, Bulletproof, Power, Requiem…

XxX

Oliver loved her. That was the reason.

XxX

The plane had waited for five hours and then the weather forced the pilot to call off the flight, completely depleting Tess. She'd been waiting three months for this event, hoping to speak in New York about marine ecology. Calling Oliver on all of his lines, she wasn't surprised when he didn't pick up. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the backseat on the drive home.

She unlocked the front door, exhausted. She loosened her hands and her luggage fell to the ground. She peeled her jacket off carelessly and it landed where she stood. Heading towards the bedroom to collapse for the night, she turned the handle and two people briskly pulled satin covers to their chests.

Tess's tired eyes widened briefly, then concentrated on what was in front of her.

"Oliver?" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Tess, what are you doing here?"

"That's really the first thing you say when we're in this position?"

He looked guiltily at his partner and she took the hint, gathering her pile of clothes on the floor, dashing so quickly past Tess that Tess's hair swayed. Oliver, pausing, his face splashed with remorse, got out of bed and gathered his pants.

"So I go out of town for three days and you have an affair?" she asks.

"Let me explain-"

"Who was that? The woman from the restaurant two nights ago?"

"Tess!"

"WHAT? What could you possibly say to me? What button did I push that freaked you out so bad after your declaration of 'I love you', Oliver? Couldn't you at least have not brought her back here? To the bed we sleep in?"

She put her hands up, tears gathering in her eyes. "I can't," she cried, turning to leave.

Oliver was after her in a heartbeat.

"Wait!" he said, grabbing her arm.

"Don't!" she snapped. "Don't touch me. You have single-handedly destroyed everything we had together. Take it back, take everything back," she sobbed, pulling off his mother's ring and placing it into his hand.

"Don't do this," he whispered. "You are the only woman that has ever mattered to me and I screwed up, but I need you to stay."

She looked at him like he was crazy.

"Why?"

Shirtless, cheating, and caught, he touched her face. She gasped at the contact.

"Because I need you. Look, I made a mistake. The worst mistake. Don't take it all back, don't erase everything."

She stepped back so his hand had to drop.

"I had this image in my head, even before you gave me the ring that…that you would never, ever hurt me." She shook her head quickly as if trying to rid herself of the grotesque image. "I don't know. I need to get out of here. I need to think."

"Mercy!" he called after her.

She turned back slowly, her eyes as cold as he'd ever seen them. "I'm not Mercy," she slithered.

XxX

She came back the next morning, hung over and a complete mess, but she was ready to talk to him. She could at least give him that. She opened the door once again, disgusted that it was now uneasy to do so.

"Oliver!"

She looked around the apartment for him. Perhaps he'd done some drinking and was passed out somewhere too. Before having to do an in-depth search, she saw a note on the foyer table.

Mercy,

I'm sorry, please forgive me.

-Oliver

In an instant she knew that he was gone, and as she crumpled the note in her hands, she realized that forgiveness was the one thing she couldn't give him.

XxX

"What happened to you, Tess?"

"I grew up. And you left…right when things started to get interesting."

XxX

Sometime Later

She sat at the bar drinking whiskey, swishing the liquid around the glass while listening to the somber music. She didn't know how long she'd been there. She'd been working for eleven hours straight and she needed her day off. A drink was the very beginning. Her thoughts never strayed very far from him, no matter how much she felt herself evolve from the girl she'd been with him.

"How long are you going to stare at your drink?"

She nearly spilled it when the man sitting next to her asked her that. She smiled just a little, trying not to feel awkward.

"It's my third. I'm really not doing that badly."

"Third, really?" he replied smoothly. "How long have you been here?"

She didn't make eye contact with him. She just continued looking at her drink. "Um, I'm not sure exactly. A while."

"Broken heart?"

She barely heard him.

"Excuse me?"

He scooted down towards her. She really wasn't paying much attention to him.

"Looks like you've been trying to move on for awhile. I can identify. What happened with you?"

She finally made eye contact with him. He wasn't really attractive, but he was intriguing. Like…well, she didn't know exactly.

"I have much bigger goals now than trying to drown my sorrows with a new man," she said, taking a swift drink of her whiskey. "But yes, once there was someone."

He turned and faced straight ahead like she was doing, taking a sip of his scotch.

"You know how long it's been since I've been to a bar?" he said to her. "She was too young to go to a bar for a long time."

Tess exhaled a laugh. "In love with a high school girl, were you? And what happened?"

"She left me, more or less for her first love."

She couldn't believe a man that she could tell by the looks of him was rich and powerful would tell her that. He even looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on who he was.

"You?" he asked her.

She looked straight ahead again.

"Cheated on me with a waitress."

He nodded. "Charming," he replied.

"Last time I bother with something as childish as romance with someone rich and powerful, no offense."

"Oh, none taken," he replied gallantly.

"I have way more important things to do with my life, far more important life goals. I want to do something with my life, something that makes a difference. Love and romance, I had that and I've seen what happens."

Lex Luthor looked at this woman and was instantly amused by her determination, and yet her remaining innocence. He wanted to know more.

"You must know about that, saving the world," she commented.

"I do what I can."

"Well," she sighed, taking one more sip. "Oliver Queen may consume my thoughts now and then but I'm a better person now that I know what I want. And I want to do things that are real. But I didn't mean to drag you into the mess of my relentless musings and droning."

A smile emerged on Lex's face and it took him a moment before he could speak again.

"No no, you're not droning on at all. Please, tell me…" he trailed off in search of her name.

"Tess," she said. "Tess Mercer."

"Ms. Mercer, what is it you specialize in?"

She smiled.

"Originally Marine Biology and now I've been working in different branches of business, why?"

"Because if you sit here long enough, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

~~~~The End~~~~

Notes: This was originally a more filled out story of how Tess & Oliver got to the breaking up point, but my characterization of before the breakup…sucked. Still, after re-reading the ending, I liked that part and thought I should post it without subjecting you to the bad characterization of the first chapter. While we all know that Oliver fell in love for the first time and destroyed the relationship out of fear, and it was really interesting to me to write an interpretation of Tess meeting Lex and how they would've helped each other (in a really screwed up way) before the glory of the sibling storyline was born in Season 10.

I will never fully buy that storyline, and I think it's much more interesting had they never been related. Not that they would've slept together, but it would've been…interesting. (Apparently I need a thesaurus.) Because honestly, you can do more things with the opposite sex besides sleep together or be siblings. I promise!

So, this may be my only depressing Tollie story as I fully love them and attest to them being soulmates, but here's one look at a rougher part of their relationship.