Chapter 26

A few days passed. Harry had recovered and had been cleared a full bill of health. But, naturally, it was not himself he worried about. Chloe had been transferred to a medical facility owned and funded by Lena, the same one which treated Marie, so Chloe could keep a close eye on her.

No doubt Lex might find out about Chloe's return, from worse than dead, so perhaps it would be a good idea to keep a very close watch on her. Harry, accompanied by Karen, made his way up. They had met Lana, Lois, and Claire halfway, who had also shown up.

Lois rushed over to Harry and wrapped her arms around him, with a very warm and very tight hug. Harry smiled, and Lois had been very grateful at Chloe's return. So much she actually dropped one of the biggest stories she had been working over, about potential human trafficking coming out of Markovia to rush home.

"I know I thanked you before, but I would like to really thank you for making sure she's safely home," Lois said. "I never thought….I wonder what might have happened if…."

Lois tried to discourage Chloe from following up on that lead. When Lois thought something was dangerous, one assumed it might be a good indication there was going to be a lot going on which would be bad. Given how fearless Lois happened to be, it really said something when she tried to be the voice of reason.

"It's no use blaming yourself," Claire said.

"So says the woman who blamed herself for the better part of two years, when she wasn't busy being dead," Lois said.

Claire closed her eyes. Leave to Lois to hammer the point home.

"Well, point well taken,' Claire muttered.

Lois just smiled, knowing the right way to get her point. Karen and Lana just looked at each other before Karen spoke up.

"There's only one person to blame for this," Karen said.

"I can't believe I was friends with him at one point," Claire said. "Maybe he changed."

Oh, Lana did not want to say anything, but there had always been something burning deep within Lex. An obsession. An obsession to stand atop of the world, shaping it's destiny for the future. Which is why he joined the Light, with other like-minded people. Although a part of Lana wondered how tense that particular relationship was. At the core, Lex always wanted to be the one who was the center of attention in the room.

"Hello, I'm Lois Lane…."

"Yes, of course Ms. Lane, Ms. Kent, Mr. Kent, Ms. Lang, and Ms. Starr," the nurse said with a nod. "Ms. Sullivan is awake and she'll be happy to see you."

They moved into the room. Chloe sat up, eating a bowl of Jello.

"Jello's not too bad, although I wouldn't want to make it a regular part of my diet," Chloe said. "And yes Claire, you were right, I shouldn't have followed that lead."

"You look good," Claire said. "You look different."

"Yeah, I know, I'm not quite sure...but I now have that Veronica Mars thing going on with my looks," Chloe commented with a smile. "I don't know, kind of like it. The other look was cute…sure...but...guess it's time to move on from looking like that. That's the old me, the tainted me."

Chloe took another bite of jello and moved over to address the room.

"Hey, Lois, did you and Claire get married yet?" Chloe asked. "I really hope that you didn't put it off on my account."

"Well, we did because Claire died," Lois said. "And had some issues...and a lot happened after that as well."

"Right, and Lana, Karen, and….." Chloe said before her eyes fell on Harry. "Mmm, where did you find this one?"

Much like every woman, Chloe was not immune to giving Harry a good looking over.

"That's my son, Harry," Claire said.

"Well, you all aged pretty gracefully if you were old enough to have a teenage son, although putting off your marriage that long was a bit much," Chloe said and she stopped before laughing. "Oh, seriously, the look on all of your faces. Lena explained everything to me! Nice seeing you Harry, hope you take more after Lena than you did Claire. Ten years worth of angst before she embraced the cape, bit too much."

Claire gave Chloe a mock look of agitation and Chloe responded by blowing Claire a little kiss much to Karen, Lana, an Lois's amusement. Chloe reached in and touched her hand lightly against Harry's.

"So, you're the one who risked your life to save mine," Chloe said. "Some might say it's not worth the trade."

"Hey, it was worth it to see you safe and in good spirits," Harry said.

"I could use with some good spirits, but hospital regulations," Chloe said with a whistful sigh. "I'm going to be sick on Jello, but Lena wants me to have a clean bill of health ...did you know that Constantine is now a woman? Pretty hot, I'm sure she was hitting on me, although that might have been the Morphine playing tricks with my mind."

Chloe shifted on the bed and groaned in agony. Still sore and not in a good way either.

"Okay, I'm mostly fine, and I would like to say thank you," Chloe said. "Granted, I would like to do more than say, but doctor's orders are strict about no strenuous activity, and I'm sure sex qualifies."

"Okay, Chloe, just how much Morphine did they give you?" Claire asked.

"Just enough to cope, but at least I'm no longer at death's door," Chloe said. "Thanks you Harry...thank you by the way...you have your mother's eyes by the way. Always thought they were so pretty."

Lois wondered how much of it was the drugs, and how much of it was Chloe just being Chloe.

"Nice to see you're in a good mood," Lois said.

"Lucy was by just a bit ago, left about twenty minutes before you did," Chloe said. "Uncle Sam...my Uncle Sam, your father, not the Uncle Sam, who might be after me for two years of back taxes, sent his love as well. Shame you weren't here when Lucy was here, that would be fun."

And Chloe figure if Lucy got a look at Harry, she would throw him down on the first available service and grinding up against him to get a rise out of Lois.

"Do you remember what happened?" Karen asked.

"Well, all I remember is the Dollmaker, and his men, and that creepy little doll talking about how I'll do," Chloe said. "And that's the last thing I remembered before I woke up to Lena furiously apologizing for me even though she made me promise that I wouldn't follow that lead with Lex."

"Lena never mentioned that to me," Claire said.

"Well, Lena blamed herself for not physically tying me down, and I'm sure she's very good at doing that," Chloe said.

"She is, isn't she, Mom?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, Smallville, she really is," Lois agreed.

Making Claire a bit uncomfortable made Chloe's day a little bit. Still, she had one question which bugged her and now she grew serious.

"What happened to the Dollmaker?" Chloe asked.

"Crushed to death," Harry said.

"Mmm, not sorry about that one," Chloe said. "I'm sure Dinah's father will be happy about that one."

"He passed shortly after you left," Lois somberly said.

Oh, Chloe must have missed a lot over the past two years and really hoped someone would help fill in the blanks for her.

"So how long can you stick around?" Chloe asked.

"For another hour or so for Lana, Harry, and me," Karen said. "We have a business meeting."

"Providing Perry doesn't call us in on anything, we have the entire afternoon free," Lois said. "Of course, I'm sure anything can wait. I never thought I would see you again."

Nora Darhk read the Timmy Hunter spin off and scoffed. Really, the author really whored herself out on this one. Currently locked in in an L-Corp holding cell/hospital room. Nora recovered, although the League wanted to talk to her.

Giving her this particular book as her only source of entertainment, well Nora was pretty sure it qualified as cruel and unusual punishment.

"Time travel?" Nora asked in disgust. "And the main villain has a secret daughter who there was not even a hint of in the original books? Lame."

"Well, the author has lost their mind and retconned a bunch of things after the main series. Some people think she should just shut up and let the fans enjoy the fandom."

Nora put down the book, done hate-reading it for now. Harry approached her with as mile.

"The League wants me to stick around," Nora said. "But, for how long?"

"I want to ask you a couple of questions, and you can go," Harry said. "Or you can refuse to answer, and I can show you the play of that book?"

"There's a play?" Nora asked.

She wondered how bad that could be.

"They changed the race of the main hero," Harry said.

"Mmm," Nora said, not trusting herself to say much more about how she felt about that revelation. "So, what do you want?"

"This girl, do you know who she is?"

Harry flashed a three-dimensional image of the girl who attacked Marie on New Year's Eve almost nine months ago.

"No, I can't say I have," Nora said. "This is about Marie Logan's attack isn't it?"

"Cain was behind it," Harry said. "And Cain was working for Marina...and she's...not made herself exactly available."

"I...swear she didn't do it," Nora said. "But, there's...rumblings in both Quarac and Biayala and Cain's alway been known to work for the highest bidder. And if someone wanted to discredit Queen Bee, they would hire Cain, although this girl being involved is very odd...she does resemble a younger version of…."

"Of who?" Harry asked.

"Lady Shiva," Nora said. "She's a deadly assassin, but she has a strict code of ethics. Which we both know Cain lacks."

Outside of the wall, Megan took in a deep breath, scanning Nora's mind for any deception. She got nothing, so she was telling the truth.

"You might want to take a closer look at the so called Progressive President of Quarac," Nora said. "His daughter might have freedom, but other women are suffering in that country."

Harry nodded, Nora had no idea for sure, and was just grasping at straws. Harry pressed his hand to the panel and activated the release of the cell.

"You have ten minutes before the security kicks in," Harry said.

"Right, nice," Nora said. "I'd stick around to thank you properly, but….no time for that."

Nora leaned in and gave Harry a light kiss on the lips before slipping down the hallway. Best to get back home, before Queen Bee considers it a declaration of war. Now she's healed up.

From the end of the hallway, Harry faced Batman.

"You think I made a mistake?" Harry asked him coolly.

"No," Batman said. "You did what you felt you had to do. And thanks to you, we have everything we need from her."

Harry did not really need the League getting involved with this, and Megan frowned as well. This entire Marie investigation was their thing. And given how secretive the League was acting regarding their own internal investigation, Harry thought they should just stay in their own lane.

"I've got it handled," Harry said.

"Let us know if it changes."

The most galling thing about this to Lena was she allowed this to happen and allowed Lex to play her. And what was worse, she got Chloe involved into this. And Lena had just been a pawn in another one of Lex's revenge games against Claire. Oh, he would pay for this.

"So, how are you holding up??"

Harry stepped into the office behind Lena. Lena moved over to the couch and sat down. Harry went behind Lena and massaged her shoulders from behind.

"It's been a hell of a day," Lena said underneath her breath. "And I'm glad Chloe's back home. She'll be back on her feet in a couple of weeks...and how are you? You were the one who saved her, at great risk to yourself."

"Some things are worth the risk," Harry said.

"And you might have handled it differently if Claire or I had been more upfront about what happened," Lena said. "I risked you…..and oh, you should know Nora Darhk left her holding cell just this morning."

"Mmm, I wonder how that could have happened?" Harry asked. 'Isn't the security foolproof?"

"Yes, I have no idea how Nora or whoever helped her escape could guess the failsafe code was Agent Carter's birthday," Lena said with a knowing smile. "So, did you talk to her?"

"She doesn't know anymore," Harry said. "She believes that someone might have hired Cain to go after Marie to discredit Marina?"

"Do you believe that?" Lena asked. "Or do you want to believe that?"

"Without actual evidence, there's nothing I can believe right now," Harry said.

"Smart, because she's...well she might like you, but Marie did take something away from her, that she wanted," Lena said. "She wanted that land, for the riches Marie sat on top of, unknowingly."

Again, Harry did not want his judgment to be clouded. But Nora did make a lot of sense, and little news traveled out of Biayala and Quarac. It seemed like neither government wanted anyone to know how tense the situation had been.

"Pyg's back in Arkham, and he's screaming his head off, begging for the torment to stop," Lena said. "Doctor Sharp put in the order to have Pyg lobotomized."

Ah yes, Doctor Quincy Sharp, the hardass warden of Arkham Asylum, who also had aspirations of running for Mayor of Gotham, to clean up the crime and corruption in the city.

"And good riddance to the Dollmaker," Lena said.

Harry had no tears to shed to the Dollmaker. Lena put away all of the files regarding Lex, a dead end to end all dead ends. She poured a glass of wine and a glass of wine for Harry.

"Don't tell Claire," Lena whispered. "Even though you can't get drunk."

Yes, even the Star Labs alcohol, engineered to give speedsters a buzz, did not even phase Harry. Lena and Harry relaxed on the couch.

"I believe I've made a break through with our project," Lena said. "I think we might be able to safely access the firewall and breach it without cracking the scarab."

Harry was all ears to what Lena wanted to hear. Lena draped her legs over Harry's lap and caressed his hair while talking about her latest theories.

Felicity had been very happy to hear the news about Chloe, good and alive, and healthy, well as healthy as someone who nearly died by having her body destroyed by demonic possession had been.

Now, Felicity could get back to her hobby. Tracking down Lex, hoping he would lead her straight to Thea. He disappeared for days at a time and returned back to Metropolis. Lex claimed to the world that it had been diplomatic missions, to extend the reach of LexCorp's business from around the world.

Oh, Felicity thought she saw Lex's nose grow a couple of inches everything she heard him say.

"So, still at it?"

Felicity moved around and smiled.

"I nearly got you killed," Felicity said.

"People keep taking credit for that," Harry said. "I'm insulted on how much they downplay what I'm capable of….any luck?"

"No more than the last time we talked," Felicity said. "And ...oh Queen Industries hit rock bottom. And now Lex is making moves, offering to buy out the main shareholders...imagine if ...oh that would be the ultimate slap in the face. Ten years of my life, working there, only to have Lex Fucking Luthor run the place!"

Felicity did not mean to snap, but these days, any talk of how Lex Luthor was changing the world made her practically foam at the mouth. Capturing a teenage girl, holding her captive, and then cloning her, oh, Felicity stopped watching television because she could not stand seeing Lex's chrome dome. And now he set up Chloe to be possessed by a demon, just to get one over on Superwoman.

Straight from the moment Felicity got her internship, rising up the ranks, she dedicated a lot of time and passion to working at Queen Industries. Harry put his hands on her shoulders, and rubbed Felicity's shoulders relaxing her.

"Lex won't buy them out," Harry said.

"How do you…."

"Trust me, Felicity," Harry said.

Harry rubbing her shoulders, slipping his fingers down underneath Felicity's shirt ever so slightly.

"Mmm, keep doing that?" Felicity asked barely letting out a moan. "Do you think...you can stick around for a little bit? It's just. I need someone to vent to...and maybe hang out with….while I try and piece together Lex's movements from his latest trip...that area of Russia is just endless wilderness, no signs of human habitation, it doesn't even make any sense?"

"Of course," Harry said. "I'll fix us a cup of coffee ...do you think you can show me where Lex is heading of?"

"I don't know what you expect to find," Felicity said. "Even Google Earth doesn't bring it up….see, image cannot be displayed."

Harry had been very intrigued. What was Lex doing? He wanted to know.

Harry returned to Starrwave, only for Jesse to pop around the corner.

"Helena told me what happened," Jesse said. "You're up and about very nicely."

"Well, no one can keep me down for long," Harry said. "Sara and Barbara in particular made sure I stayed up nice and alert most of the time, and Megan too and….."

Jesse just smiled and leaned closer to Harry.

"You know something, the Team would be disappointed if you weren't able to perform to your best," Jesse said. "You know, out on the field."

Harry leaned in and Jesse moved down the hallway, grabbing Harry by the hand. The moment they appeared in the room, Harry had been stripped down to his boxer shorts, and Jesse stood before him, wearing a lab coat and lingerie underneath it, eye popping which showed off a good deal of her sexy frame. The glasses she wore had been a nice touch to her.

"How about it, Harry?" Jesse asked. "How about I give you a nice….long….physical….make sure your muscles aren't too tense...make sure your reflexes are on point, and make sure...you are nice and alert...with your stamina as it should be."

Harry's hand reached instinctively to Jesse's ass. The speedster moved in, hungry for Harry and Harry hungry for her. The two of them kissed very aggressively with each other, tongues tangling back and forth, loud and wet.

Time for Jesse to get to business and have some fun with Harry. She could not wait to ride the hell out of him.