Eveything Changes but Some Things Don't

Chapter 25

Six months later an 18 month old Brian was walking slowly to his Mommy where she stood at her mirror. He didn’t quite know what it was but it made two Mommies and he liked that. When he reached her he pulled a bit on her leg and motioned to her to pick him up speaking baby jargon to go along with the motions when she looked down at him with a smile.

When he was up in her arms he patted her face and spoke to her and she commented back, “Thank you honey. Are you going to be good while you’re at Daddy’s? Of course you are, you’re a good boy aren’t you baby?”

Just then a knock came at her door and she called out that whoever it was could come in. The door opened slightly to let in Oliver’s head to which Brian laughed and yelled, “Daddy!”

“Hey there, Buddy.” Oliver stepped into the room with a huge smile on his face with something behind his back.

“What do you have now, Ollie?” Chloe laughed as she stood holding Brian in her arms having him sit on her hip.

“Oh, nothing much…just…” but he didn’t finish what he was going to say because as he pulled it out from behind his back Chloe said as she came closer, “Oh, Oliver it’s so cute.”

There in Oliver Queen’s hands was a big teddy bear that looked like it was wearing a cloak and was hold a bow and arrow. He held it up to Brian’s outreaching and eager hands as the boy squealed. Once the boy had the teddy bear in his arms he hugged it tightly to him and laughed.

As the two watched ‘their’ son laughing they smiled at his happiness and then Oliver touched Chloe’s shoulder softly and said, “Don’t think I forgot to get something for you. Here,” he said taking Brian with his new bear into his arms as he passed Chloe a rectangle shaped velvet box.

Chloe began to say he didn’t have to but he cut her off saying, “Open it. It’s to give you luck on your interview at the Daily Planet. Now that it’s owned by someone who isn’t tied to Luthor Corp.”

Chloe looked at Oliver’s sincere face and slowly opened the box to find a beautiful necklace of white gold, diamonds and emeralds. The diamonds and emeralds formed the Celtic Trinity Knot or better known as the triquetra which lay over a four leaf clover.

“Oh, Oliver! It’s beautiful but you didn’t have to.”

“I know I didn’t. I wanted to. You given so much up Chloe I thought it only right that you have something to represent your past, present, and future, your strength, intelligence, love or whatever you want it to stand for. Plus you have some added luck,” he said placing Brian on the bed for a moment.

“Thank you Ollie,” Chloe said softly as she hugged her friend and ‘the father of her child’.

“Gahh, she would never get used to think of Oliver that way, but they had to make it seem that way,” she thought.

“Now go knock the socks off that editor and chief and get your dream job back…Lois,” Oliver said pulling back with a mischievous grin and went on saying, “Me and Bri will be fine. Won’t we, Buddy?” Oliver went back Brian and picked him up and swinging him around so he would laugh loudly.

“Okay, okay. I get it. His stuff is all packed and in his room. He just ate a little while okay so he should be fine until tonight. Remember Dr. Hamilton has him on those vitamins to help with his low iron,” Chloe said stepping up to Oliver and Brian and hugging and kissing Brian goodbye.

“You be good for Daddy, honey. Okay.”

“Kay,” Brian said to his mother with a smile and then went right back to talking jargon to his daddy who was listening intently. He liked that about his daddy.

With that Chloe left the room and the apartment. She went down to the garage and got in her car to drive to the Daily Planet with her portfolio in the side seat for her interview in half an hour. About ten minutes after she left Oliver left with Brian and his stuff to get into his limo and ride back to his loft across town.

The Daily Planet’s Editor and Chief’s office…

~The first few verses and choruses of She Didn’t Have Time by Terri Clark with the baby girl being a baby boy, stopping when the song mentions the guy who gets tire fixed~

As Chloe entered the Daily Planet it what seemed forever she took a deep breath soaking in all the craziness of journalism as it should be. She was back to her dream, as her cousin yes, but back. Now she just had to get the Editor and Chief whoever it was to hire her into her world. She was a journalist no matter what she told the world when Lex fired and had security carry her out of the Daily Planet after she learned he killed his own father.

She shook herself from her reverie and stepped up to the secretary. The secretary took her name and told her to seat down for a moment as she left her desk and went into the office. Apparently the intercom wasn’t working right and they had an electrician coming in to fix it. In what seemed seconds the secretary was coming back to lead Chloe…no Lois now, she had to remember that when she talked this person, to the office. The secretary wished her luck and let her in. When she stepped into the office it was to find the back of a big, dark brown leather chair facing her with its owner looking out on Metropolis as they sat.

The voice of whoever sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it as it said, “Please sit,”

“Okay, Sir.” She replied as she sat in the chair in front of the desk.

When the occupant of the chair turned around to face her she was so surprised she sat straight up in her chair and gasped, “Mr. White!”

“Hello, Chlo—Lois. It’s good to see you again. Oliver explained your situation and what’s been going on with you and Lex Luthor. When he turned over The Daily Planet to me to run I have to admit I was surprised and overjoyed. Now the world can get a paper with real stories in it. Don’t worry I won’t be hiring you because your ‘Lois Lane’ or because we once met. I’ll hire you, if I hire you because of your skill. Now let’s see that portfolio of yours,” he said with a serious look in his eye as he held out his hand to the surprised “Lois” and took the silently offered portfolio from her hand.

As he looked over the articles that were her ‘Chloe Sullivan articles’ and articles about her as ‘the real Lois Lane’ having to switch names and lives with her cousin he was mostly quiet, every once in awhile making a grunting noise or a small mumble she couldn’t hear. He seemed more focused and serious than the last time she had seen him, like she imagined he had been when he was a journalist and had the nickname “Perry the Bulldog”.

She had told Oliver if she was going to work and be a journalist again be it at the Daily Planet or somewhere else it was going to be on her articles not Lois’. He agreed seeing she was determined and serious about this but swore her to take the articles explaining ‘her situation’ as well if she was going to do that.

After a few minutes Mr. White looked but at Chloe and said seriously, “This is good stuff. It needs some refining but its good. This is much better than your cousin’s stuff when she was playing you. You can definitely tell who was meant to be a journalist between you two looking at this stuff…When can you start, Ms. Lane?” he ended his little speech with a smirk.

“Are you serious?!”

“Deadly.”

“Um, uh…anytime but I have a little boy. So do a lot of the women who work here. I believe if I remember right he’s 18 months, too young to be put in the daycare still. Could you get a baby sitter possibly and start next week, Monday?”

“Yes, I could. Thank you Mr. White. I’ll do my best and improve as much as you believe I need to.”

“Don’t tell me, Ms. Lane. Show me,” he replied standing up to shake her hand.

“Yes, Sir,” she said standing to shake his hand, grabbing her stuff and began walking out the door but before she got too far he called out, “Be here by 6 or 7 AM Ms. Lane news doesn’t wait…and good luck.”

“Yes, Mr. White. Thank you,” she said as she left the office and walked out of the Daily Planet to call and tell Oliver the news. They talked a bit about hiring a babysitter or something as she drove home to get supper ready for herself and take a bath.

~Song ends~

Brian was two and staying with his daddy for the weekend. He loved staying with daddy. He got to play with all of the toys he had in his room there. He had his own bed and was beginning to learn to go potty in the potty. Mommy and Daddy seemed happy when he got it right. Daddy was fun he would always play with Brian and talk to him like he was big boy. Brian liked that.

Even if the phone rang Daddy would let someone else get it and if it was big people wanting to talk to Daddy about big people things he said it could wait until Brian was napping, in bed or tomorrow sometime. Brian liked that his Daddy ignored the big people for him.

Brian was a smart little boy Mommy and Daddy always said so. He knew Daddy wasn’t his ‘real’ Daddy but didn’t know why and as long as he acted like a Daddy Brian didn’t mind. He didn’t know why he had two houses but he did and he liked it.Though he liked staying with Daddy and Mommy in two houses he liked when they went out and he got to play in one of the parks.

Though he didn’t like the big people who came and tried to take his picture until the big men in black who worked for Daddy made them go away.

“Like on his birthday a week ago. He, Mommy and Daddy had just finished eating his cake and hot dogs and were outside playing with his new toy, a toy truck when suddenly flashes of light surprised him and made him drop the truck on the ground. It had rolled away from him and he began to cry out of fear because of the big people and their flashing lights. Mommy had picked him up and held him, holding him close to her heart. As Daddy picked his truck up and handed it to Mommy he said, “Let me deal with this. Take Brian inside, Lois.”

“O—kay. Come on honey, let’s go play with your new toys inside. Mommy will get you some juice, would you like that?” Mommy asked as she shut the door and left Daddy outside with the scary people.

“Okay, Mommy. Mommy, Daddy ok?”

“Yes, honey Daddy’s fine. He’s just gonna tell those people out there its not nice to scare little boys on their birthday,” Mommy said as she placed him on the floor to play

“Oh, okay,” Brian said feeling better as he began to play with his toys on the floor. Completely forgetting the scary people outside.”

~Just the Two of Us by Will Smith plays in background~

That night as Brian slept Oliver watched over him. Even though Gallagher now Brian wasn’t his biologically, he loved the boy as if he was his own. And by the world’s point of view he was. As Oliver watched ‘his son’ sleep he remembered how Chloe had fought tooth and nail before she agreed to play this out. To say Brian was his not in just words but actions. When the doctors and put his name on the both Gallagher’s and then Brian’s birth certificates when they changed his and Chloe’s names Oliver felt a joy he never thought was possible for a single, rich, young, womanizing player with a hero alter ego like him. He thought he would be happy to live his life like he had been for the past few years but since Chloe and the League had found out about her pregnancy. Something in Oliver had changed. He was finally growing up. He was father!

“He was a father! This thought always shocked him and led to thoughts of was he raising Brian right, was he instilling the right values, should he have asked Chloe to marry him to play out the happy married life…no that wouldn’t work. They were best friends, not lovers. But as he looked at his son as he slept he did want to find someone to share his life with and maybe…later on have a child of his own for real with that person. As he watched his son he thought he had to do all in his power to make the dangerous world around them safe for his boy. He wanted to give everything to his son that he wanted but knew he couldn’t. He knew sooner or later his son would come to him with questions that he couldn’t answer, with questions he would have to sit down with Chloe and Brian and try and explain them in a way he could understand. The boy was smart, really smart. He and Chlo—Lois had to sit down some time and discuss what kind of schooling they wanted for Brian and where…”

After a bit longer he went back into the room and kicked Brian’s forehead and then said softly, “I love you son,” and left the doorway, keeping it open a bit so the nightlight in the hallway could shine in and walked down the hall to his bedroom. Where he lay in his big king sized bed alone watching the ceiling until he fell to sleep.

~Song ends~