The Bottom of the Glass--11/13

[bluesuedeshoes]

Author:  BlueSuede
Title:  The Bottom of the Glass
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst/Romance/Drama
Pairings:  Chloe/Oliver
Summary: Chloe's meteor powers return with reinforcements. Instead of talking to anyone about it, even Oliver, she finds a different refuge.
Warnings: mild OOC on Chloe's part


Chapter 1

Previous (Chapter 10)
Next (Chapter 12)

-11-

"Chloe, please call me back. We need to talk." Oliver hung up his phone for the third time since leaving Emil's. He was getting extremely close to resorting to tracking her again, but he was starting to feel guilty about taking advantage of that so often. Showing up when she was avoiding him wasn't exactly the reason they'd set up those lo-jacks, and he knew Chloe would start resenting it if he abused it too much.

Still, if she didn't call back soon, at least this time it was a matter of safety.

---

"What are we doing here?" Tess asked. "I told you this place is bugged," she muttered under her breath.

"Wow," Chloe said, rolling her eyes, "you even sound condescending when you whisper. That's impressive."

"And you're even sarcastic when you're being an idiot. That's annoying."

Chloe smirked. "I need to see-Emil! Hi."

Emil looked up from his clipboard and blinked at the two women, clearly not expecting to see the anyone at all when he walked back into his lab. He registered that Tess was there, and looked ready to set off an alarm before Chloe stopped him.

"She's with me, Emil."

"She had this entire place wired. Do you know how long it took me to get rid of all the taps?" he demanded of Tess, clearly irritated.

"It wasn't her," Chloe interrupted before Tess could say anything to irk him further. "It was Checkmate."

"Who told you that?"

"She did," Chloe admitted.

"And you believe her?"

Chloe looked at the redhead a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Although it's killing my pride, quite frankly."

Tess rolled her eyes.

"Have you spoken to Oliver?" Emil asked Chloe.

Chloe shook her head.

"You should. He was here this morning when you were supposed to be-" Chloe's eyes darted away guiltily "-and he's looking for you."

"I'll talk to him later. Right now what I need to know is whether or not you've got a cure for me. The sooner I'm rid of this, the sooner we're both off Checkmate's radar."

Tess looked confused. "First, you," she looked at Chloe, "will probably never be off Checkmate's radar until you die. Second, what the hell are you talking about? Cure for what? What's wrong with you?"

Emil looked to Chloe, indicating that he personally wasn't going to tell Tess anything. It was her choice.

"I'm meteor infected."

"What?"

"You know, I get so tired of telling people this. Nobody ever just smiles and says 'That's nice,' " she huffed.

"Rewind, princess. What can you do?"

Chloe opened her mouth, about to answer, but then stopped herself. "It's not important what I can do. What's important is that Emil here is going to give me a cure. And you are going to 'accidentally' leak to Checkmate that I've lost my power."

Tess looked at the ceiling for help. "That's your brilliant plan?"

"You got anything better?" Chloe narrowed her eyes. Truthfully, there was more to her plan than that, but there was only so much she was going to tell Tess Mercer.

Tess shook her head. "I'm sure I could think of about half a dozen plans that are better than that, but it would help to know what your power is first and then why you're so eager to be rid of it." She arched her brow expectantly.

"Uh uh. Need to know basis." She was purposefully keeping Tess out of that loop for one reason: If Checkmate knew what it was, Tess would undoubtedly find out from them. If they didn't, than neither of them would know, and that was just the way Chloe preferred it. She was hoping that by getting Tess to leak them a little information, she might eventually be able to get Tess to do the same for the JL. Having a fly on the wall at Checkmate's headquarters was an asset they couldn't pass up.

Emil chose this moment to voice a rather imminent concern. "Chloe, the cure isn't exactly up to par yet."

---

"Have you seen Chloe today?"

Oliver fought down an impulse to roll his eyes. "No, why?"

"Lois hasn't heard from her all day, and she said the last time that happened, Chloe was running around hiding-and I quote-'the world's juiciest secret' from her. I'm a little worried myself. Chloe hasn't been herself the last couple of days."

"That's for sure," Oliver grumbled. Just as he was wondering how to explain to Clark-who kid snap Oliver's spinal cord like a pretzel if he so chose-that he had successfully scared Chloe off in her time of need, his phone rang.

Relief washed over him when he saw Chloe's name on the screen. He showed it to Clark before answering. "Chloe? Hey, listen-"

"Not the time. We can talk later. Right now I want you to get someone over here to look after Emil."

"What? Why?"

"Checkmate's been having him watched, and I'm concerned that they might try to abduct him or something."

"I thought Tess Mercer was having him watched."

"Tess is here with me." Chloe's voice sounded exasperated.

"Beg pardon?" Oliver asked flatly.

"She's with me. I'll talk to you about that later. For right now, could you pleas just-" she stopped, and Oliver heard some sort of alarm going off in the background, followed by the voice of the one and only Tess Mercer:

"Please someone tell me that just means the smoke detector is on the fritz."

Followed by Dr. Hamilton:

"I really don't think so."

"Chloe?" Oliver asked anxiously. "What's going on?"

"I'm not-" her voice cut off.

"Chloe?" Nothing. "Chloe!" Dial tone.

He looked up to Clark, whose face went from worry to grim determination in a matter of seconds. "Where are they?"

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