Work Text:
December 24th, 2015
Chloe was fuming, she was so angry at her husband that she could strangle him with her bare hands. Not that he needed any help with nearly getting himself killed. As soon as she got the confirmation that everyone was out of Lex’s newest facility and that ‘the fireworks’ were off, she disconnected from the network and tossed her ear piece on the desk before standing up.
She was supposed to be there with them, but getting a nanny had been impossible and this was too big a mission to ask one of the super-powered ones to sit out. Lois was going to watch Matthew but she got called in to work a gala in Metropolis last minute so Chloe had been stuck at the base. And then Oliver had gone rogue on her and nearly gotten himself shot. And killed.
***
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that his wife was pissed off at him, and if their situations had been reversed, he probably would have felt the same. But he’d done what he’d had to do, and he was fine. No harm, no foul. At least in his mind. He very much doubted Chloe was going to let it go that easily. Hopefully by the time he arrived back to their home, she would have cooled off some. And then he could sit her down and explain why he’d done what he’d done.
“Need a ride, Bossman?” Bart asked carefully, arching his eyebrows at him.
“No,” he said immediately, shaking his head. “No, I need to let Chloe cool down before I get home,” he told Bart.
Bart nodded a little and winced. “We can hang out for a while, if you want? I mean, we’re going back to California anyways, and we’re planning on grabbing some pizza and beer.”
He drew in a breath, nodding. “Yeah, pizza and beer sound good.”
“Good.” Bart nodded, smiling a little. “I’ll run everyone over,” he said before picking Oliver up and vanishing to California.
* * *
An hour and a half later, Ollie unlocked the door to the mansion and stepped inside. He drew in a deep breath, taking in the silence of the house and then shutting the door behind him and locking it. He armed the security systems, and made his way to the stairs, heading up them two at a time. He’d already changed out of his gear, because he’d taken a bag of spare clothes with him when they’d gone on the mission. It was slung over his right shoulder.
He walked into the bedroom, but didn’t see her there, which didn’t surprise him. He had a feeling she was probably still in the office. He made his way down the hall, checking in on Matthew, who was fast asleep, teddy bear tucked under his arm. He smiled faintly, moving over to the bed and kissing his son’s forehead lightly, and tugging the covers up around him a little more. He watched him for a moment, then drew in a breath, pulling the door shut on his way out and hesitating outside the office door that was farther down the hall. After a moment, he opened it and stepped inside silently.
Even though she had been watching as his dot moved toward the mansion at lightning speed and then at a slow crawl as he moved inside the house, she still tensed when he opened the door, but didn’t move otherwise. When she got the text from him saying he was going to pizza with the guys and not inviting her, she knew he was avoiding her. Because he knew she would be angry. And that only made her angrier. She hadn’t bothered replying, she still didn’t know what to say to him, she had sat there this whole time, trying to figure it out.
“Hi,” he greeted quietly, leaning against the door frame as he gazed at her. Her back was to him, but he could see the tension in her shoulders.
She took a deep breath and turned her head over her shoulder but didn’t turn fully to face him. “Good, you’re alive.”
“I am,” he agreed, chewing the inside of his cheek for a moment.
Nodding, she turned to face her screen again, her jaw clenching. “Of course it’s not something you seem to particularly care about.”
Oliver forced himself to take a deep breath. “Of course I care about it, Chloe. But we both know I’ve been in far more dangerous situations.”
“Sure,” she agreed as she stood up. “Although not situations that were completely unnecessary to put yourself in like this one.”
“It was necessary,” he told her, arching his eyebrows, but not moving away from the doorframe.
“No, it wasn’t,” she said firmly. “Vic and I had already agreed he was going to plant the virus and I would download the information from Lex’s system before shutting it down completely, Oliver. You knew this.”
“That’s fine for that copy. You can’t get rid of a hard copy that way, though,” he responded.
“That’s what exploding the building does, Oliver!” She said, frustrated.
“And there was no way to make absolutely sure it would be completely destroyed. I didn’t want to take a chance that even a scrap of paper had your name on it.”
“I would rather risk Lex finding his research on me than you not coming back,” she said tightly.
“And I’m not willing to take the chance of Lex finding you in his research, and leading him straight to you, or to Matthew,” he said, eyes narrowing.
“And if that guard had been seconds earlier, you wouldn’t have gotten to those files or back home, Oliver. If you wanted to include this on the mission you should have let me know instead of letting me sit here for over three minutes wondering whether or not you were alive!” She yelled, pointing toward the computer but glaring at her husband.
“But he wasn’t, and I did,” he told her, his voice calm, and quiet. “And if our situations had been reversed, you would have made the same choice, and we both know that.”
Her jaw clenched and she shook her head. “Maybe before I would have taken the risk, but right now, my priority is coming home.”
“You think that’s not my priority?” His jaw clenched ever-so-slightly at the implication.
“I have never wondered before,” she said tightly, her eyes narrowing at him. “But what you did tonight, what you did in there was so absurdly reckless and stupid, I can’t help but wonder if you have a death wish again.”
Oliver forced himself to take a deep breath. “I don’t have a death wish, and I haven’t had for a long time. You and Matthew are my life, and I’ll do anything I have to in order to keep you two safe, and there’s a pretty damn big difference between that and being reckless for the hell of it.” His words were tense, and even.
“And what happens when you do everything to keep us safe and we lose you because of it, Oliver? What do you think our lives would be like if that happened?” She demanded, her jaw tight.
“What happens if I’m out doing what I do on the streets, and you wind up losing me because of that?” he responded, shaking his head. “There’s no difference between what I did tonight and what I do every night, except tonight my family was at stake!”
“The difference is that you could have done what you did tonight under a much more controlled environment! You could have asked for help and you could have avoided getting shot at if you trusted me to help you with it!”
“There wasn’t time. The bombs had already been set, and everyone had to focus on getting the people out, Chloe,” he pointed out. “And yeah, maybe it wasn’t the greatest choice, but I’d do it again if I had to.”
If any amount of anger had dissipated from her since it happened, it had returned full force at his last sentence. “Of course you would, because you don’t realize how stupid it was.” She took a deep breath and shook her head. “And obviously there is no point trying to explain this to you, so I’m done trying,” she said tightly before starting toward the door.
“Yes, protecting my family is stupid,” he said with heavy sarcasm, shaking his head, as well, and moving out of the room and down the hall toward their bedroom.
Chloe stared as he went toward their bedroom before turning around and heading the opposite way, toward the stairs. She needed a walk, and she needed to stay far away from him.
* * *
Oliver had showered, and when he was done, he’d checked on Matthew again, and satisfied that he was still sleeping peacefully, he’d looked at the camera feed and watched his wife walking around the property. For awhile, she’d sat out on the swingset, facing the ocean, and not moving. Then she’d walked some more.
Knowing she was going to get tired of being outside eventually, he’d moved to the living room to wait for her to come back inside so they could talk, hopefully more calmly and rationally this time. He was annoyed that she didn’t understand why he’d done what he had, but he was trying to squash the negative emotion because he really didn’t want to fight with her.
She made her way back in a couple of hours later. She felt calmer, she usually did after being outside for a while, but she was emotionally and physically exhausted too. She wanted to lay down, somewhere where Oliver wasn’t, and try to sleep. But when she saw him sitting on the couch as she made her way toward the stairs, she knew she wasn’t going to manage that just yet.
“Chloe.” He let out a breath, standing up.
With a deep breath she looked over at him but forced herself to stay there rather than tell him she was going to bed.
“I’m sorry you’re upset,” he said quietly.
“Upset?” She echoed, shaking her head a little and smiling humorlessly. He still didn’t get it, apparently.
“Angry,” he corrected himself, taking a couple steps toward her.
“No.” She stared at him and tensed when he moved closer because she knew that the second he touched her, she wouldn’t be as in control of her emotions as she was now. “I was terrified, Oliver.”
He pursed his lips, nodding slightly. “Terrified,” he said quietly.
Her jaw clenched a little but she arched her eyebrows and waited.
“I didn’t do it to scare you,” he said honestly.
“I know you didn’t, Oliver,” she sighed tiredly and shook her head.
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, looking away. “I think this is one we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on, Professor.”
“No,” she said firmly and took a deep breath. “No, I need you to understand that the price of losing you is much higher than anything we would have to face otherwise.” Even as she spoke, her chest tightened.
“Which is exactly how I feel about you and Matthew,” he told her quietly, gazing back at her intently.
Chloe took a deep breath and rubbed a hand over her face. “He wouldn’t have gotten to us.”
“This is Lex. And he has before.” He pursed his lips.
“We have the upper hand on this, we know so much more than he does,” she told him. “I know Lex is a difficult subject and I know he is dangerous, even now. But we can handle him.”
He wished that he was as convinced about that as she seemed to be. He looked away again, sighing softly, knowing they weren’t going to see eye to eye on this. Maybe not ever.
Chloe stared at him for a moment then took a deep breath. “I’m going to bed,” she said quietly then started toward the stairs again.
Oliver watched her go, sighing again and looking upward for a moment. Apparently he was on the couch tonight.
She paused at the top of the stairs and looked down at him. Part of her wanted to call him to come to bed, but then she remembered how terrifying it had been, even if for just three minutes, to think he wasn’t coming home ever again. And while she knew she wasn’t going to get any decent sleep, she needed him to understand what could have happened and what it would do to them.
Wordlessly, he moved over to the sofa and laid down on it, staring up at the ceiling. Sure, he could use one of the many guest rooms the mansion had to offer, but he didn’t see what difference it would make.
He wasn’t going to be sleeping anyway.
* * *
“Daddy?” Matthew muttered as he reached for Oliver’s hand and tugged on it gently as it hung from the side of the couch.
He grunted in response, one eye popping open. “...hm?”
“Daddy!” He said more urgently. “Did you see him?”
He blinked a couple of times as he slowly opened his other eye, lifting his head up as he tried to remember where he was and wondered why every bone in his body was aching. “See who?”
“Santa!” Matthew said, his eyes wide as he pointed toward the tree. “He brought the presents!”
That made him sit up. It was Christmas already? He rubbed his hands over his face. “No, I didn’t...I didn’t see him.” He blew out a breath.
“You missed him,” Matthew said, instantly pouting. “I wanted to see him.”
“Well.” He reached out, picking his son up and sitting him on his lap. “Maybe we can find him later.”
Matthew sighed and shook his head, looking down. “He only comes one night a year, he won’t be here in forever now...”
Oliver hugged his son. “I know him,” he whispered, arching his eyebrows. “And I bet I could get him to come and see you later.”
“You could?” He asked, perking up and staring at his dad’s with wide eyes.
He nodded solemnly, and then smiled. “Why don’t you go wake your mom up and we can start opening packages?” he suggested.
Matthew wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck and nodded. “She needs to hurry up!”
Oliver hugged him back, closing his eyes as he remembered the fight he and Chloe’d had the night before. “Yeah. Go get her. I’ll go get up some juice for when you come back.”
“You won’t come help me?” Matthew asked with a frown.
“If I go with you, it’ll take too long to get the juice and everything. Don’t you want to open packages?”
Matthew considered for a moment then nodded and slid down from his dad’s lap before rushing toward the stairs.
Oliver’s chest tightened as he rose to his feet and made his way toward the kitchen. He couldn’t believe the first night they’d spent apart voluntarily had been Christmas Eve.
* * *
Moments later, Matthew pounced on his parent’s bed, shaking his mom’s shoulder lightly. “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! Wake up!”
Chloe opened her eyes slowly, squinting as she glanced over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Christmas!” he said excitedly. “Santa came!”
“Christm-- oh.” Her eyes widened a little as she sat up, a distant memory of her and Ollie setting the gifts under the tree before the mission coming back to her as her stomach clenched. “Did he?”
He nodded, eyes bright as he grinned at her. “Come on!” He grabbed her hand.
She couldn’t help but smile softly at him and nod. “Alright, let’s see what he brought us,” she whispered, leaning closer and kissing his cheek. “Is--” she hesitated. “Is your daddy up?”
Matthew nodded. “He was waiting on Santa and fell asleep!”
Her stomach tightened as she nodded and stood up. “Let’s go, then,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around her son and hugging him tightly as she picked him up from the bed.
“Daddy said he knew Santa!” he said excitedly, practically bouncing in her arms.
“He did?” Chloe arched her eyebrows. “Did you ask him if you could meet him?”
“He said he’d talk to him and see!” He grinned, hugging her around the neck.
She hugged him to her and nodded, taking a deep breath. “He’s a very busy man, you know. But hopefully he can stop by for a little bit.”
“Daddy won’t break his promises.”
Her chest tightened even more and she shook her head. “No, he won’t,” she agreed. Not unless he thought it meant saving their lives. She made her way down the stairs carefully and glanced toward the kitchen when she smelled coffee brewing then back toward the tree and the gifts.
“Presents!” Matthew called toward the kitchen even as he ran toward the tree.
“Wait for Dad,” Chloe called, glancing at the kitchen then watching her son as he walked around the tree, looking at the presents.
Oliver rubbed a hand over his face tiredly and then carried two glasses of juice and a cup of coffee into the living room. “I’m here.” He held his breath as he looked at Chloe, holding the mug out.
She held her own breath and took the mug from him, searching his eyes and nodding a little. “Thank you.”
“Welcome,” he said softly.
“It’s Christmas,” she whispered to him. It sounded like she was stating the obvious but she had sincerely forgotten all about it after the scare from the previous night.
Oliver nodded silently, holding her gaze. “I know,” he murmured, chewing the inside of his cheek and then looking down at the floor.
“I forgot,” she admitted quietly, looking down then back at him.
“Me too,” he confessed, glancing at her once more, his chest tightening. “I’m sorry.” His voice was barely a whisper.
“I’m sorry too,” she whispered, lifting a hand to his side.
Oliver held his breath, then moved, setting the juice glasses down on the table and wrapping his arms around her tightly, pressing a kiss to her temple.
Chloe set her mug down too and hugged him tightly, lifting her head and pressing her lips to his jaw. “I’m just glad you’re here,” she whispered.
He nodded against her, rubbing her back gently. “Me too,” he whispered back.
“Come on!” Matthew said impatiently.
With a deep breath, she nodded a little and reluctantly pulled away from her husband. “Presents, then we’ll talk?” She whispered.
“Yeah,” he agreed softly, kissing her cheek and turning his attention to Matthew. “All right, Buddy. Pick one out!”
* * *
After a lot of gifts, Matthew finally seemed distracted enough by his new toys. So while he was playing in the corner of the living room with a helicopter, Chloe moved to sit down next to her husband on the couch. They could still keep an eye on him but he was distracted enough that they could talk.
Oliver reached out and threaded their fingers together, lifting her hand to his mouth and kissing her palm lightly. “I love you.”
“I love you,” she whispered, squeezing his hand and keeping her eyes on him. “And I’m really sorry about last night, Ollie.”
“Me too,” he said quietly, meeting her gaze. He leaned his head against hers, closing his eyes for a moment. “I don’t think straight when it comes to the idea of you two being in any kind of danger. I didn’t mean to scare you, and I’m sorry.”
“I know you didn’t.” She took a deep breath and lifted her free hand to cup his cheek. “And you’re right, I probably would have done the same thing if the situations were reversed. I would do anything to protect the two of you.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple, leaning into her touch as he gazed at her. “I promise I’ll do my best to be more careful,” he whispered.
“Just... let me know, Ollie,” she said quietly. “Whatever you’re planning, let me help you, we will work on it together.”
Oliver drew in a breath, nodding slightly and letting go of her hand so he could wrap his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. “Deal.”
Chloe wrapped her arms around him instantly and hugged him tightly as she kept her eyes on him. “I do mean what I said last night, about us working together against everything,” she whispered. “That includes protecting our family.”
“I know. You’re right,” he murmured, holding her close. “And we will.”
“We will,” she echoed, searching his eyes and holding her breath. “And we’re not doing this whole not sleeping together thing anymore, either.”
“Definitely not.” He sighed softly, resting his head against hers once more. “I think I got twenty minutes of sleep all together.”
“Me too,” she whispered quietly and glanced at their son then back at him. “We’ll get some rest when he does.”
“In our bed,” he agreed, nodding.
She tightened her arms around him once more and nodded too. “And Santa can come by after our nap,” she whispered, smiling a little.
Oliver couldn’t help but smile at that. “Already made the call.”
“Good.” She smiled a little, brushing her nose against his. Clark had agreed to playing Santa for Matthew a while back, it was easier to have him do it so that they could both be there with him when Santa came. . “That will make him happy.”
“Yeah, I know it will.” He looked over at Matthew, who was still occupied with his toys.
Chloe took a deep breath and leaned against Ollie, her eyes on their son. “This is much better.”
“Yeah, it is,” Oliver agreed quietly. “Merry Christmas.”
She turned her face and kissed his cheek, tightening her arms around him. “Merry Christmas.”