A Day Late (Chapter One)

Some of the themes and discussion in this fic might end up similar to How We Got Here, but with a different take on things. It's just hard to not end up discussing the great Chlark disconnect of season 9 and part of season 8. But I'll try to keep things as fresh as possible.

Prologue

Chloe carefully slipped out from under his arm, relieved when he groaned and rolled over, saying something that sounded like her name. 

She hoped it wasn’t. She hoped it was her cousin’s name, maybe. Because that would be right. This -- this morning that had her gathering her clothes and hoping she didn’t hit Watchtower's one especially creaky floor-board and wake him up -- this was wrong. It was wrong on so many levels, she could hardly contemplate it before her first cup of coffee. 

She just wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened. And that would be easy to do. Just a shower, a nice breakfast, a cup of coffee, maybe five, and the man that was practically her husband smiling at her. 

Hell, he was her husband, for all intents and purposes. The law might not recognize it, but she had up till now. She should. In fact, she would, faithfully, from here on out. 

Because this never happened. She would never speak of it again and he… Well, she couldn’t think of any reason he would. He’d just…

“Chloe?”

She stilled as he lifted his head, securing the sheet around her. “Hey! I was wondering when you’d wake up. Some night we had.”

He took a deep breath and sat up. “I think we need to…”

“Hey, we don't need to do anything more. We did it, you and me. Now we just sit and wait for something incriminating.”

He nodded. “I know. But we…” 

“We got into the feed,” she supplied helpfully. “It was really tiring. We fell asleep.”

Clark frowned at her. “That’s not…”

“It’s a real shame, too,” she went on quickly. “If we weren’t so tired, then we could have dug in there. Maybe tonight, Clark. Maybe when we aren’t so tired, we can talk about… the feed.”

He sighed, then nodded. “Okay. Tonight. We can…”

“We’re not talking about it,” she said in a rush. “There’s nothing to talk about!” She laughed again. “I mean, there was nothing worth talking about. Nothing happened that we need to talk about ever… with anyone.” She stared at him hard. “Nothing happened. Please. Please say it back to me.”

He just stared back.

"Please, Clark," she breathed. 

He nodded. “Nothing happened,” he finally said.

“I know.” She laughed and backed toward the bathroom. “What a waste of a night, right? So it’s… it’s better it never happened,” she said loudly just before she closed the door. “It’s better,” she breathed against the door. “It has to be.”

Because this… this was wrong. Even thinking it, she knew there was a teenaged girl inside her that once wanted just this. Had she been crazy? She was not that girl anymore. He was not that guy. This was all too wrong and too late and not at all what she wanted. 

So why did it happen?

Chapter One
One Week earlier…

There was quite the crowd at baggage claim. Chloe supposed that should be expected close to the holidays, but she couldn’t even find Lois among them, though she’d sworn she’d be there.

“Probably late,” she called back to Oliver behind her as they watched the carousel. “You know how she is, always ten minutes behind.”

“Babe? I think I left my ipad on the plane. You think I could bribe Bart to make a quick…”

“I have it with mine,” she said with a sigh. “Would you stop panicking? It’s commercial flight. I know it’s not what you’re used to, but people do it all the time.” And Oliver Queen had to start availing himself of it. Oliver had been using the Queen Industries jets for far too long. As he liked to point out, no one had a problem with it.

But Chloe was a journalist and she couldn’t help but think of how things looked. She knew Oliver’s carbon footprint was, for the most part, immaculate, but he espoused green ideals, more emphatically since coming out of the Green Arrow closet. Oliver Queen shouldn’t be seen flying a private jet and abusing fossil fuels. 

Of course, Oliver liked to point out that he also shouldn’t be seen flying around with some hot blonde. But almost every media outlet thought Chloe was his personal assistant, including the one she worked for. Chloe didn’t much feel like correcting any of them right now -- for the sake of keeping some things private.

Yes, almost a year ago they basically said “I do” in cheesy costumes in a chapel inside Metropolis’ premiere illegal gambling casino. Was it a marriage? Not according to the state of Kansas. Not according to the feds, either. Apparently, there were licenses and waiting periods that had to be observed, but it was a marriage according to them and that was what mattered. And she’d rather it was between them alone and not between them and the world he’d let in when he’d decided to announce he was Green Arrow on national television.

As if to remind her of that, a photographer shoved her out of the way and caught Oliver in the act… of pulling her suitcase from the carousel.

“Mister Queen… Sorry… Green Arrow! What brings you to Metropolis?”

Oliver grunted and pulled his own bag off. “I’m just here visiting some…”

“Does it have anything to do with models? The Lacey’s Winter Fashion Show features several of your former conquests and…”

“You know what?” He pulled Chloe from the sudden swarm of paparazzi. “We can just stop all this right now and…”

“Mr. Queen is here on business,” Chloe said loudly, putting up a hand. “I’m going to have to ask you all to allow him his privacy or he might skip the Winter Fashion Show entirely.”

Oliver leaned in to her. “I wasn’t even going to…”

“They don’t need to know that,” she hissed back. She was rather used to being mistaken for his assistant by now and liked to think she’d developed quite a rapport with the paps in any given town. She leaned in to one. “Leave him alone today and I promise you a photo-op tomorrow.” She handed him a card with a single phone number on it. The Star City paparazzi might know that it went to a brick mason in Seattle (get it? Brick wall? Well, Chloe thought it was hilarious), but these paps didn’t know yet.

Another one stepped up to Chloe, brandishing his recorder. “But is there anything to the rumor that he’s in Metropolis to meet with Superman? I hear the two of them are in some sort of alliance.”

“Excuse me?” a rather strident voice broke in, the familiar dark ponytail came with it, pushing through the throng. “I think you’ll find me the expert on all things relating to Superman and the rumors that he and Green Arrow are in some sort of alliance are…” Lois stilled when she reached Chloe. “Are…”

Chloe shook her head slowly. It wasn’t a “not ever” shake, just a “not now” shake.

“…completely unfounded,” Lois finished, turning to the others. “And I would know.” She pulled Chloe through the little crowd. “Seriously? You guys are going for superhero secrecy?” she hissed. “After all this time, you’d think…”

“Do you want the paparazzi hounding Superman, too?” Chloe hissed back, gripping at Oliver behind her. “Bags?”

“Got ‘em,” he sighed.

“You guys,” Lois huffed when they were finally in her SUV. “I get the need for privacy. I seriously do. But every hero in the nation is about to be seen around town. I personally think the League would make a great story. Let people know the heroes are organized.”

“We still have the meeting to get under way,” Chloe pointed out next to her.

“Yeah,” Oliie chimed in from the back. “I think everyone’s going to want to have some say in how to handle the press and all the fallout in case... That’s a stop sign,” Oliver said frantically. “Stop sign, stop…”

“This is why you don’t get to sit up front. I basically stopped,” Lois groaned. “Anyway, as the press and the official hero reporter in these parts and… Oh! Not that there isn’t room for more at The Daily Planet.”

“Once again, Lois, I am here for The Sentinel. We have a parent company in common these days.” She gestured to Oliver. “But that doesn’t mean I’m setting up some kind of permanent desk.”

“Don’t tease me. We could be desk mates again,” Lois sighed.

“What about Clark?”

“He can take the desk in the corner,” Lois muttered. “Where he belongs, anyway.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Are you two fighting again?”

“We’re not fighting. We’re strongly disagreeing. He seems to think the public should be kept in the dark about everything and treated like idiots and I disagree,” Lois finished. 

Chloe didn’t weigh in as she suspected that wasn’t all there was to it. Granted, she only heard Lois’ side. She supposed she’d hear Clark’s at some point this week. It wasn’t that they didn’t talk anymore, just not as often as there just didn’t seem to be a reason to. Clark was in Metropolis, where Courtney ran Watchtower, and Chloe tended to assist only on Star City and west coast city business. 

The days of nightly talks over cocoa had been long gone even before that. It was bound to happen, once they paired off with their respective others. He was her cousin’s fiancé and she was his friend’s girl and they just weren’t each other’s go-to these days. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just an evolution.

“… and just look at Ollie,” Lois was saying. “Isn’t he just fine?”

“Except for how he’s fearing for his life right now,” Ollie grunted, “but sure. He’s fine.”

“Oh, shut it. I mean you took that flying leap out of the superhero closet and everything’s great!”

Chloe wasn’t sure she’d go that far. She and Ollie had a few heated discussions about that very thing. They made it work, but Chloe felt she was constantly scrambling to keep what privacy they could have. Working at The Sentinel sometimes helped. As they all thought her time with Queen was spent moonlighting as his press advisor, she always had first shot at damage control, not that her editor didn’t sometimes resent that as she refused to do stories on Green Arrow. Imagine if it came out that Clark was Superman and involved with Lois Lane. It might put the limelight on her. “Lois, you can’t seriously think Clark should reveal himself?”

“You sound like Clark,” Lois sighed. “I’m not saying he should do it this second. Not without careful planning. At the least, he could stop balking at me documenting the super-saves. He still wants to hide away like The Blur. He doesn’t want to give an interview, not even one tiny little quote!”

“Well, you know Clark. He doesn’t like the attention,” Oliver pointed out. “Not that I love it, but I’ve been dealing with it most of my life, even before this and… Lois! That was a red light!”

“It was yellow when I crossed the line. It doesn’t count,” she said dismissively. “Come on, Chloe! I thought you’d be on my side in this.”

“This isn’t about sides. You and Clark are on the same team. You just have to discuss things and decide what’s best between you, make concessions where possible and…”

Oliver snickered from behind them.

Chloe turned to him. “Something to say?”

“No. It’s just I don’t remember a lot of concessions on your part. In fact, I think our discussion started with 'Okay, Oliver. this is how it’s going to be.’”

“And? Everything’s been pretty smooth.”

“I’m not saying it hasn’t, but we’re due for another discussion at some point. And this time you can’t be naked.”

Lois let out a loud laugh. 

Chloe just watched the road, sighing. She knew what Oliver wanted to discuss. She also knew she couldn’t put it off much longer. It was just that she felt what they had right now was enough. She loved him and he loved her and they didn’t need a piece of paper and an announcement to the world. In fact, they already had a piece of paper. Maybe it wasn’t legal, but she kept it close to her heart, metaphorically. Her ring, she literally kept close to it. She toyed with the chain, pulled it out of her blouse.

The idea of getting married in some splashy ceremony and being under public scrutiny right along with him made her queasy. What light might that shine on everyone that knows them? It wasn’t just about them. The more the press dug into them, the more they might dig into everyone. And that included Clark.

********************

Clark paced Watchtower’s floor. “I mean you agree with me, right? Look what happened to The Justice Society? Do you want that to happen to The Justice League?”

“I know I want you to stop pacing,” Courtney said, rubbing her temples. “I can’t wait till Chloe gets here. I’m always having trouble with Comp three. It’s giving me the damned blue screen again. I know she has some shortcuts.”

“A team like this needs secrecy to operate. Otherwise, we have agencies banging down our door demanding to be let in, then exposing us when we refuse, then we’re all locked up and…”

“Clark, calm down. It’s not like we’re all about to fall into ruin. Nothing’s actually happened. If Lois thinks you should come out, then that’s what she thinks. It doesn’t mean you have to do it.”

“But it’s not just about that. Last week, she wrote up my save, saying she got it from a source. But the source was me. I didn’t tell her about it for her to splash it all over the paper.”

“Wasn’t it on page three? It was only a blurb.” Courtney shrugged. “If you ask me, the public is getting less curious about Superman, not more.”

“That’s how I want it. I just don’t feel comfortable being put out there.” He sighed. “And now every hero we know is coming for the meeting in three weeks. How are we going to keep this under wraps?”

“Leave it to you to make that into a bummer.” Courtney pulled out her purse. “I’m looking forward to it. I don’t think Al’s seen me since I was a high schooler.” She pulled out a mirror and fluffed her hair. “Well, I’m a grown-up now.”

“Yes, nice Hello Kitty purse,” Clark grunted.

“Thanks. It’s new,” she chirped, oblivious to his meaning as she put on lipgloss.

He rolled his eyes and moved away. He didn’t much worry about her inappropriate crush on Al Rothstein, aka Atom Smasher, as Al tended to see her as more of a little sister. Besides, he was too busy worrying about every other damned thing. There was Lois’ insistence he be more available, there was this meeting establishing by-laws and a maybe even a new meeting place. And there was Lex.

It seemed like there was always Lex and he was the only one worried about it.

Everyone he knew seemed to think the fact that Lex had almost no memory of the last ten years meant they were all in the clear. But he knew differently. Maybe Lex hadn’t said anything publicly. Maybe he hadn’t interfered since he’d been back at the helm at Luthorcorp, now Lexcorp. There was something in Lex that made him always curious, always questioning, and always controlling. The fact that Lexcorp just got a government contract, the details of which were sparse, worried him. Sure, it was the government and he’d like to feel reassured by them involving themselves with Lex, as if maybe Lex was on the right side of the law. But what was he doing for them, with them, or maybe even without their knowledge?

Lois thought he was paranoid, especially because the division he was working with was directly under General Sam Lane. He knew Lois loved her father and believed in him, even seemed to think him working with Lex said something good about this new Lex, but this wasn’t the first time Lane had been involved with organizations in direct opposition to him. 

“How do you know it’s against you?” she’d said. “Clark, not everything in this world has to do with you!”

It had turned into a fight… again. He’d always thought that the way she challenged him was a sign that their relationship would never get boring, at least. But did she have to challenge him on everything?

As if on cue, Watchtower’s doors opened and there she was. Lois gave him a tight and very false smile before it turned into a real one as she winked at Courtney and stepped to the side. “And now what you’ve all been waiting for…”

Courtney laughed. “All two of us?”

“Hailing from the foggy city of Star City, this not-so-reclusive billionaire, modeling an annoyed scowl…”

“Because this is stupid,” Clark heard Oliver say.

“And a face as green as his costume…”

“Because of your driving.”

“You know what?” Lois crossed her arms. “You don’t deserve an introduction. Here’s what’s-his-name!”

Courtney clapped loudly as Oliver shuffled in. “I loved it, Lois! You totally have to do one for me when the others get here.”

Oliver clapped Clark on the shoulder. “Boy scout?”

Clark frowned. “You know, I do have another code name now.”

Oliver grinned. “Not to me.”

“Ah, but it’s not over,” Lois called out. “Exiled from the superior city of Metropolis, this poor soul, who hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in a half-a-year…”

“That’s not true,” Oliver put in. “Our coffee is just…”

“Exiled from her most beloved family…”

“Meaning you?” Clark heard Chloe laugh from the hall.

“Could you guys stop ruining my vamp here?” Lois threw her hands up.

Clark smiled, reluctantly. He might be mad at Lois, but she could be an awful lot of fun when she wanted to be. Besides, he was looking forward to seeing Chloe. They’d barely talked since she left.

“This reporter and sidekick, who needs no introduction.”

“Then stop,” Oliver called out.

“Some called her Watchtower,” Lois went on, ignoring him. “I simply called her Chloe, mostly because she kept me out of the secret for many years, even when me knowing would have really come in handy and, if you think about it…”

“Okay. Here I am,” Chloe said, coming through the door. “Ta-dah and all that.”

“You guys are no fun,” Lois sighed, pulling her in. 

Chloe laughed and hugged her back. “Well, like you said, it’s been half a year since I had a decent cup of coffee. Do I have to wait any longer?”

“Oh, have at it.” Lois pushed her toward the kitchenette.

“I can’t with this guy in the way.” Chloe grinned up at Clark. “How’s everything, big guy?”

“I’ll have to tell you later.” Clark pulled her in. He didn’t want to go into his laundry list of fears. Besides, it felt nice hugging her again. There was always a certain way Chloe fit, just small enough to rest his chin on the top of her head. He’d kind of missed it.

“Lois told me some of it,” Chloe said, patting his back before pulling away.

“Lois told you her side,” he muttered. “Once you hear mine…”

“I will, I will.” She moved to the counter and searched through the cups in the drain board. “Just let me have that coffee first. Lois was right about that,” she whispered. “Don’t tell Ollie, but the coffee in Star City has never compared. Must be the water here. Everything on the west coast comes out of a treatment plant. Hey, where’s the ‘go crows’ mug?”

Clark laughed and opened the cabinet. “In a safe place. I figured you’d want that one. I was surprised you didn’t take it with you.”

“I meant to. I almost flew back for it when I was unpacking. Then I thought it should stay at Watchtower like a reminder.” She held up the red and gold mug. “It all started in Smallville. This mug’s seen a lot of action.”

He laughed and shook his head. “Is that the same one you’ve had since the Torch? I thought you just bought more.”

“No. This is the one. I even had it on my desk at The Planet. Both times I got fired.” She sighed and added cream. “It’s going to be strange, working there again. I mean, not that I’m working there… I don’t know.”

“Really? I thought you’d be excited. I mean, now that Perry White’s taken over.”

“And erased that Black Mark Lex left me with,” she said, taking a sip. “I can work on the east coast again. Thank God for him.”

“Speaking of Lex…” Clark stopped. “No. You just got here.”

“No. What about him?”

“I don’t know if I want to go into it. Everyone else thinks I’m being paranoid. Besides…” He smiled. “Courtney’s been talking nonstop about Comp Three and this blue screen…”

“Oh, God!” Chloe set her mug down. “That one’s storage only. You can’t use it for anything else. I really should have left a manual.” She started away, to where Lois and Courtney were laughing with Oliver, then stopped and turned back. “But I do want to talk later, especially about Lex. I mean, if you’re feeling paranoid, you must have a reason.”

“Not according to Lois.”

Chloe shook her head. “I don’t want to get in the middle of a fight. But… Well, if you’re feeling worried, the least we can do is prove there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe we can work out a time to look a little closer at what he’s up to.”

He took a deep breath and gripped her shoulders. “Thank God for you.”

She laughed and shook him off. “I should move away more often. I could get used to all this appreciation.”

He smiled as Chloe moved to Oliver, then dropped it when he caught Lois’ eyes, which moved quickly away. She was still mad about this morning. So was he. He glanced at Chloe and Oliver, arms around each other. He wondered if they fought. If they did, they hid it well. According to everyone that worked with them in Star City and West Coast operations, they seemed to handle even their arguments with humor. 

He glanced at Lois again, as she said something Chloe must have found hilarious. She was funny. She was fun. Maybe they could try it, using humor to diffuse the tension. They had to try something. Using cold silences and avoidance wasn’t working out for them. 

He was beginning to fear they just plain weren’t working out. But he wasn’t giving up that easily.

His eyes moved to Chloe again. Maybe it would smooth things over, having her in town. Maybe she'd be on his side in this. Some rough patches aside, his life had always been smoother when she was on his side.

CHAPTER TWO