Home Again. With chloeas.

[olliequeen]

The Watchtower was quiet.

Even though they'd arrived home with Mia over an hour ago, they had all been pretty silent. Emil had allowed Mia to leave under the condition she get plenty of rest at least for the next twenty-four hours, so she was currently curled up asleep--or at least feigning sleep very well (with Mia it was almost impossible to tell)--in her bed. He stood in the doorway of her room, listening intently. Occasionally he heard the faint sound of Chloe's heels on the floor below, and the electronic whirring noise of all the computers.

He leaned his head against the wooden frame of the door, as if simply watching over her would keep her safe. He knew better.

Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly, folding his arms across his chest. He heard footsteps on the stairs and he resisted the urge to look over his shoulder, even when he felt the familiar touch land there a moment later. He shut his eyes for a second, then turned slowly, his expression uncertain as he met Chloe's eyes.

Comments

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

Oliver shook his head, pulling away from her. "No. Not because of me. The only reason any of us is alive right now is because of Zatanna." He rubbed the back of his neck wearily. "That whole place...it was one big trap. For everyone on the team. Because Slade wanted me. And if the others had been here--they all would have been in danger, too."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"You were the one who said we should call Zatanna, Ollie, none of us, not even Clark would have been able to fight Slade, we needed her help," she told him quietly, dropping her hands to her sides when he pulled away.

"You can't blame yourself for Slade's actions and you can't blame yourself for what happened." She took a step forward, looking at him, "we will always be each others' weaknesses, the people we love will always be the ones they will go after to try and get to us and all we can do about it is protect each other as well as we can, Oliver, but we can't stop it because it comes with the life we lead."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He closed his eyes as she fed him back the almost exact words he'd said to Mia the day before in the hospital. He ran a hand over his face and sat down slowly on the edge of his bed, exhaling slowly, his shoulders slumped. He knew on some level she was right, of course. Clark wouldn't have been able to help either. There had been Kryptonite in that warehouse.

There was a way to stop people from going after them, though. The one that his instincts screamed for him to do and he struggled against giving in because he knew cutting ties and running wasn't the answer either.

"I hate this," he admitted in a barely audible whisper.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"I know," with a worried frown, she moved to sit down by his side, bending a knee over the bed and sitting down so she was facing his profile then leaning in and cupping the back of his head before pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

"I do too, Ollie, and I wish we could do what we do without paying the price, but it doesn't work that way."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He leaned into her, kissing her temple softly and slowly winding his arms around her. "This isn't what I planned," he murmured. "I should have expected it, but it's not what I wanted."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Chloe shifted on the bed and moved closer, wrapping her arms around him too, "of course it's not what you wanted, Ollie, you would never want someone to get hurt, especially not Mia, and" she paused, pressing her forehead to his cheek, "we should have been better prepared and we should have been paying more attention but... we've learned our lesson."