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babydee1
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go_clo
Title: Disintegration
Author: babydee1
Pairing: Chlollie
Rating: NC-17 (this chapter PG-13)
Warnings: Expansion on 8.05 (Committed)
Timeline: Season 8 episodes, from Odyssey - Doomsday
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: Chloe and Ollie’s relationship gets fractured through a series of miscommunications and interferences. Fourth Book in the Chlollie series, sequel to Slingshot, Trajectory and Misdirection.
Feedback: …in spades. :-)
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 20…
Oliver swallowed as he drove down Smallville’s Main Street and parked his car outside the Talon. He emerged from the vehicle and tried the door to the coffee shop, but it was locked. He frowned; she wasn’t at Isis, because that was the first place he’d checked; she must be out and about wedding shopping, or something.
Anytime he thought of her pending nuptials, he felt a bit sick. Her engagement party had been yesterday, and he’d deliberately stayed away. Chloe was now wearing a real engagement ring and appeared to have made her choice, but he wasn’t one to walk away from a challenge without fighting for what he wanted. And if even Clark had his doubts about Chloe’s feelings for her fiancé, or lack thereof, then it was definitely worth at least one more try to see if he could change her mind.
He got back into his car and drove off, idly scanning the faces of passers-by on the off-chance that he might see her walking past. He wondered if she’d liked his gifts, and if she might be wearing the jacket; the thought made him smile.
He’d just driven past the window of the local jewellers when some familiar profiles caught his eye. He slowed for the stop light and stared in puzzlement at the occupants of the jewellery store.
Clark…and Lois?
Curious, he waited for the lights to go green and did a U-turn back in the direction of The Talon so that he could park the Ferrari without getting a ticket, then he got back out and headed towards the jewellery stop on the corner of Main and Forth.
Those two had some splainin’ to do.
***
“I think I like this one,” Lois was crooning to Clark as she waggled a hand sporting a ring with an obscenely large diamond weighing down one finger. “What do you think, cupcake?”
Clark gave her a fixed smile. “Whatever you want, snookums.” He turned to the jeweller. “What my snookums wants, my snookums gets.”
“That’s very unlike you, Clark,” Oliver commented from behind them, staring pointedly at the ring. “You could feed a small country for a good few years with that rock.”
“Oliver!” Lois exclaimed, and gave Clark a strange look. “What are you doing here?”
“I saw you in the window, and I wanted to come and offer my congratulations,” he said smoothly. “When’s the big day?”
“Oh, um…” She looked at Clark again. “Well, we’re still deciding whether we want a Summer or a Spring wedding, but we are getting married!” she said excitedly.
Clark nodded. “Never been happier in my life,” he said, sounding even more deadpanned than usual.
“Kinda fast though, wasn’t it?” Oliver said, loving the way they both squirmed uncomfortably before the studious-looking jeweller. “You two only started dating…what, last week?”
“We just knew it was right,” Lois said quickly. “All it took was one magical night, and we knew it was meant to be.”
“That’s right,” Clark added dryly.
“In that case, my best to you both,” Oliver replied, shaking Clark’s hand and giving Lois a chase peck on the cheek before exiting the shop.
As soon as he was clear of the windows, he tapped out a quick message on his phone to Clark.
What’s going on?
A few seconds later, Clark replied.
I’ll fill you in. Alley behind the talon, two minutes.
It was another five minutes before Clark whooshed into the alley.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said immediately, his green eyes grave. “Chloe and Jimmy have disappeared.”
***
Oliver’s blood chilled.
“Disappeared?” he echoed.
“Right after their engagement party,” he replied.
Oliver scowled. “I assume they’ve swanned off to a hotel or resort do what newly engaged couples do,” he said tightly.
Clark swallowed. “Chloe and Jimmy are the fourth local couple to go missing in the last six months,” he said quietly. “Two of the other couples turned up dead in dumpsters; they were electrocuted.”
Oliver paled. “My God.”
“The coroner said they suffered a sustained, repeated attack,” Clark went on. “They were tortured.”
“But…why?” he asked, dumbfounded. “And why would they take Chloe?”
“All three couples had one thing in common: they all bought their engagement rings at the same jewellery store,” he said.
Oliver thought hard. “You said they were the fourth couple to be taken,” he said. “Two of the others are dead; what about couple number three?”
“We managed to track them down from the police report and interview them,” he replied. “They were reluctant to talk at first, but when we mentioned that another couple had gone missing they said they wanted to help.”
“What did they say?”
Clark took a deep breath. “The person who took them wore a mask, so they didn’t see his face, and he used a voice distorter,” he replied. “They remember waking up tied and hooked up to EKGs in a small room with blacked out windows; they were made to face each other.”
Oliver took a deep breath. “Go on,” he said calmly.
“The woman pleaded with the man not to shock her because she was pregnant,” Clark continued. “The man said that the reader would indicate if she was lying, and that the moment she gave an untrue answer to any of his questions, her partner would be shocked. Since she really was pregnant, he said he wouldn’t put her baby in danger, but it wouldn’t stop her partner from being shocked if she answered untruthfully to any of the questions he asked her.” He paused. “He ended up getting shocked a few times, but on the whole, the kidnapper must have been satisfied with their answers because he let them go.”
“I’m assuming they didn’t just walk outta there,” Oliver said thoughtfully.
“No; he chloroformed them, and the next thing they remember was waking up in their apartment.”
“Are they alright?”
“They’re fine now, but they moved house and are still in therapy,” he replied.
“Any clues at all who the kidnapper is?” Oliver asked.
“The jeweller is the common thread linking all four cases, so he has to be involved,” he replied. “That’s why Lois and I are posing as a couple to see what we can find out from there. If we end up on the creep’s radar and get taken, it won’t be a problem for me to take him out.”
Oliver took another deep breath and sighed.
“We need to find her, Clark,” Oliver said grimly. “Because if that maniac has taken her and asks her if she loves the man she’s about to marry, we both know she’s going to fail that test.”
***
