Now that's a definate cause for rejoicing!Originally Posted by vardaquareien
I liked it. Not a big hook for me besides the excitement I already had at the prospect of three very cool Gotham dudes showing up. Hmmm...I wonder if my anticipation had something to do with the reaction not being extreme as I expected.
A lot of backround info and set up conversation but still a little hint of the future enjoyment... and the guards were great!
Lark
I really liked this line.To an outsider, it would have seemed creepy but of course, outsiders didn’t see it.
Seriously. I don't think I'd let David Boreanaz have some of my fries, much less some little accountant guy.“You’re…” Chloe consulted the thin gold watch in her wrist, “twenty-three minutes late and you’re eating my fries. Give me a reason not to kill you.”
I hope one of those promises wasn't to move to a safer town, 'cause, uh... Gotham was not the right choice!She looked a Danny for beat, wondering what he would think if she ever told him how much Chloe Jeanine Sullivan, CJ to her current coworkers and friends, had lived before moving to Gotham. How close she had come to dying. And the promises she had made to herself.
Good start! I love your dialogue, it's very natural and informative without sounding canned. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this!
WORD! It's way more dangerous than Smallville, Suicide Slum, or just about anywhere in the DC universe!
Lark
Great premise, I can't wait to see how Chloe tangoes with Lex and Bruce when the investigation starts.
Interesting start. I'm looking forward to finding out how Chloe came to be an insurance investigator in Gotham. That's just too intriguing.
Bama,
What about Michael Rosenbaum? Cuz, I'd share a lot with him.Seriously. I don't think I'd let David Boreanaz have some of my fries, much less some little accountant guy.
Julie
A/N: Here’s the next installment. Thanks a billion to all of you who left FB. I had forgotten what a great FB high felt like so it was great to feel one again…and this one was spread out over several days. Please see the end of this post for answers to some of the questions raised in FB.
Chapter One
Three weeks later …Allied Insurance Company…Gotham Headquarters…
“...really unbelievable, CJ. How did you figure this out?” asked Ted Dandridge, Chloe’s boss and VP of Investigations at Allied.
Ted was in his early fifties, tall and lanky, with dark hair that was shot with a great deal of gray and silver, and kind, dark brown eyes. He was a veteran investigator who had actually been a cop for ten years before joining the insurance company. He called it his “previous life.” They were in his office and Chloe was briefing him on the resolution of her latest case.
“Well, the uniformity on the claim applications was my first clue. Then when I visited the site, I heard rumblings about the management company making upgrades to take the building co-op in a few months.”
“Hmm, that’s good luck for the tenants, particularly in that neighborhood. A real windfall. If they could afford to buy their apartments outright, that is.”
“Exactly, I had Pena from FA look over the financials and as of the last quarter, the management company was covering its expenses pretty well. Nothing fishy but it didn’t have nearly the assets it needed to take the building co-op…” continued Chloe as she paced the floor in front of Dandridge’s desk. It was always difficult for her to sit still when talking about a case, particularly one she had just cracked.
“…of course, when the building next door collapsed, it really was a windfall to them. The management decided to put the funds we paid them to good use making the necessary upgrades. I checked out the management company’s claims and they’re all legit. They really did just get lucky on this one. The tenants, on other the hand, are a different story. Turns out, the superintendent got wind of the co-op plan and he convinced some of the tenants that the easiest way for them raise the cash they needed to buy their apartments was to file exaggerated damage claims. He was experienced, so the claims got by the first inspector we sent out. It took a second look with an architect to find the exaggerations.”
“These people make good money; you’re telling me that their super convinced them to commit large scale insurance fraud?”
“Well, apparently this guy was more than just a super to these people. He was like family. He has worked there for 25 years and most of the tenants have lived there at least ten. He knew everything about them. They told him when they were going on vacation or away on business. He handled everything from deliveries to leaky faucets. They trusted him. It’s funny, Ted, I interviewed the guy after we figured it out and, he still doesn’t see this as a crime. He’s a single guy in his late fifties and this building is actually all he has. The way he sees it, this was just a way for him to keep his family together. The reason the claim applications all sounded alike was because he prepared them. When I talked to the tenants, they said they he made it sound like it was the only way they could afford to stay in their apartments once the building changed over.”
“With $10 million of our money?” said Ted, incredulously.
“With $10 million of our money.” Chloe sank into a chair opposite Ted. “This job never ceases to amaze me, Ted. Before I started here, I would have said that the reason that people commit insurance fraud is simple: greed.”
“And now? What would you say, CJ?”
“Greed’s a big one for sure. But take this superintendent. He wasn’t going to see a dime of that $10 million yet he orchestrated the whole thing. That’s not greed. He did it because he didn’t want to be lonely.”
“And what does that tell you?” probed Ted, sounding more like a psychologist than a boss.
Chloe grinned. “Well, for one thing it tells me that you can never presume too much in this job. There’s always a story, and often there’s more than one; if you dig deep enough, you’ll find it.”
“You’re sounding a little like the reporter I used to know,” joked Ted.
“What can I say, the skills overlap,” Chloe quipped back.
Her boss was one of the few people at Allied who knew what Chloe’s first dream had been having done a deep background check on her as soon as she began working for him. He understood why she was there. After what she had experienced in Smallville, Chloe couldn’t see herself living the life of a full-time reporter but investigating was in her blood. In doing this job, she could use her extensive skills, but stay out of the spotlight.
So what if her case summaries sometimes read like news stories? That was just who she was.
“Speaking of which…” began Ted as he reached for a pile of folders on his desk, “I have the files for your next case right here, if you want to go over them.”
“Jeez, slave driver, much? I just cleared this one.”
“And I know these ten minutes of downtime have been killing you!”
Chloe couldn’t argue with that. Inactivity did not suit her. Stakeouts were murder on her.
“OK, lay it on me.”
“Before I give this to you, let me say that I am aware how this may look to outsiders, but I trust your judgment. Regardless of what other people might say, you’re the one I want on this case, Chloe.”
It was the “Chloe” that caught her attention, people at Allied rarely called her that. She was ‘CJ’ there. ‘Chloe’ and especially ‘Chlo’ were from another life.
“OK, now I’m concerned. What exactly is going on here?”
“It’s just…a case of this magnitude, I can’t afford to have another investigator botch it up. The paper pushers upstairs are still dragging their feet on this one but we can’t afford that kind of delay. There’s too much money involved here. This is my division and it’s my call, I’ll square it with them later… In the meantime…” Ted seemed to realize that he was rambling and he shrugged. “Here, see for yourself.”
Chloe took the pile warily and flipped open the top folder.
She scanned the page and her eyes went wide. “You’re kidding, right?”
Ted shook his head. “I know there’s history there, but I trust you to stay focused; you can probably make it work for you if you put your mind to it. It’s your case.”
“You want me to investigate Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne?”
“I want you to investigate the explosion. If that leads you to Wayne and Luthor, then so be it.”
“I can’t take this case, Ted. You know I can’t take this case,” insisted Chloe, placing the folder back on the desk between them.
“It’s my call, CJ, and I say it’s your case.”
“Ted! You know the history; you read my background check. My father worked for Lex Luthor. I testified against his father in federal court, for God’s sake. There’s no way that anyone will believe that I’m impartial.”
“Listen to me, I am aware of how this might look to other people but the bottom line is, if I have to choose between with the possible questions that might arise from you being on this case and it not being solved at all, I’m going to go with the former, every time. The fact is I don’t like the stench of this case. Call it a gut feeling, paranoia, whatever but something’s happening here, something big. There’s no one else that I can count on to go in there and figure out what that is. No one but you.”
“Just what do you think is happening here?” asked Chloe, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“That’s for you to find out,” replied Ted shoving the folder towards her again.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this; it could really blow up in our faces.”
“No pun intended,” smirked the older man.
Chloe shook her head. “Be serious for a minute, please.”
“OK, seriously? Seriously, you said that people commit these time of crimes for a lot of different reasons. Well, there are also a lot of reasons that people succeed as investigators. Luck, tenacity, low expectations of human behavior, abundance of cynicism, whatever. You and I succeed for the same reason. We cannot rest until we find out the truth, no matter where it takes us. That’s the reason I need you on this case. If I send anyone else in there, they might be intimidated by the power, star-struck, blinded by glare. You, on the other hand, have experience dealing these kind of people. You won’t let those things happen. I can feel it.”
Chloe bit her lower lip for a second, and then reached for the folder without a word.
“I’m authorizing use of several assistants on this, due to scope, and to mitigate any concerns anyone might have about your influence, however, as I said, it’s your case. Bring it home for me.”
“It’s my case.” Chloe repeated, still not sure who she was trying to convince.
*****
Smallville…10 years earlier…
Chloe heaved the last bag into the trunk of her car and slammed it shut. It made a very satisfying sound in the quiet spring air. It was early, far too early than Chloe normally woke up but the fact was she really hadn’t gone to sleep the night before. Between packing and the series of futile arguments with he father, she had been too wound up to sleep.
He said it was too soon, that she should stay and finish her senior year with her friends. Enjoy her youth now and not rush things.
She said she was ready to leave now. There was no reason academically to stay longer, she had more than enough credits. She had always been far beyond what the provincial town’s school system could provide anyway. There was no use in waiting until June. Her so-called friends would understand. She could get to college a semester early. Get started sooner.
Why Gotham, he asked. Her acceptance at Met U was secure. Why move halfway across the country? Away from everyone and everything she knew?
There’s your answer, she had said.
Gabe had been hurt at that and it had taken some backtracking for her to explain that she hadn’t meant him. Everything but him.
Now he was looking down at her from the bedroom window as she packed her car. They had their tearful goodbye indoors so there was nothing left for Chloe to do except wave and mimic holding her phone with her hand.
The motion caused to her to freeze for a moment as she remembered something. She waited until the bedroom curtain fell closed and her father’s eyes were no longer on her before digging into her purse for a small cell phone. It wasn’t her regular device, but rather a sleek black model programmed to reach only one other number.
Lex had given it to her on her second day of hiding that past summer. It had been her only link to him and the outside world for long, agonizing months.
He told her to use it anytime, day or night, and eventually she had. Anytime she felt lonely or scared. He answered attentively each time. They talked about stupid things: B-movie plots, their favorite foods, and music until they felt strong enough to talk about scary things like love, friendship, and death. Neither presumed to know more than the other about such things, they simply traded experiences. They made cynical observations, pointed out the colossal ironies in their respective lives, and joked about chucking it all and becoming idealists.
Contrary to what some of Smallville’s old matrons thought, Chloe and Lex did not have a passionate sexual relationship that summer. Lex had never even hugged her for more than a few seconds and even then, only if Chloe initiated it.
What they had was a passionate friendship…which is why it hurt so much when it ended. And the fact that it didn’t so much end, as just fade away made it so much harder to take.
Upon her return from the dead, Chloe had held onto the phone, calling Lex occasionally to talk about her adjustment, about his father’s illness, and the fact that Smallville never seemed to really change. At first, he answered regularly, and their long conversations continued. Soon though, when Chloe called, the rings went unanswered. He didn’t call back. In their fleeting in-person meetings, he gave no explanation, he would briefly acknowledge her presence and move on.
For another couple of months, her rings continued to go unanswered and the blue blandness reflected in his eyes when she passed him in the Talon told Chloe all she needed to know.
Their friendship, as it was, had run its course. She stopped calling.
Now she held the phone in her hand and wondered briefly if she should keep it as some kind of morbid souvenir.
The fact that it was trash day on the Sullivans’ street decided the matter for her. Twirling it once in her hand, Chloe stepped quickly to the can on the curb and dropped the phone in, slamming the lid down with her other hand. It made a satisfying sound.
Slipping on her sunglasses, Chloe got into her car, threw it into gear and proceeded to drive herself out of Smallville.
Five months early, alone, and heading in the opposite direction of Metropolis.
*****
Wayne Enterprises Headquarters…two days later…
Chloe scowled at her reflection in the polished panels of the elevator doors as it carried her to the top from of the Wayne Enterprises Building. She was alone in the elevator so she used the time to double check her appearance. She was irked with herself for having taken so much extra care with choosing her suit. Outraged that she had tried on three blouses before settling on the emerald green silk shell. Downright furious with herself that she had allowed the thought of how the color might bring out her eyes to even cross her mind.
Chloe’s hands literally itched to fuss with her hair just once more be she stubbornly resisted the urge. She wasn’t there to ogle the two men or be ogled; she was there to do her job. That job was to find out if someone had deliberately blown up the Wayne Manufacturing Plant three weeks before. She was not there to see how Lex Luthor would react to seeing her again after 10 years. And she certainly wasn’t there to see if his presence in a room still raised the temperature by at least 20 degrees. Nope, not at all.
The elevator chimed and Chloe’s breath caught in her throat. She had worked with Interpol for God’s sake. She had put international criminals in prison. She could do this.
Chloe stepped off the elevator and as her heels clicked loudly on the marble floor, she silently wished that she had worn flatter shoes.
She stepped up to the receptionist and handed the young women the security pass she had been given in the building’s lobby.
“CJ Sullivan from Allied Insurance. The guard downstairs should have called to say I was on my way up.”
“Yes, Miss Sullivan, you’re here to see Mr. Fox?”
“To start with.”
The receptionist looked blankly at her for beat before picking up the telephone. She spoke quietly into the phone for reasons Chloe could not fathom given that she was standing right there and could hear everything the woman said anyway.
Bored, Chloe used the time to take a look around the reception area. It was the executive area of a Fortune 500 company, alright. Marble floors. Fresh cut flowers on the expensive mahogany tables. Beautiful framed artwork on the walls, huge plate glass windows to show off the fact that they were 40+ stories above the streets of Gotham. Speaking of which, even Gotham looked good from this height. Go figure.
Behind the receptionist, the words “WAYNE ENTERPRISES” beamed from the wall in polished gold letters.
The typeface and words were certainly familiar. Having lived in Gotham for the better part of ten years now, Chloe was used to seeing Bruce Wayne’s name, or rather, the company name, on office buildings, manufacturing plants, and signs all over town. Not unlike how one got used to seeing the Luthor name all over Metropolis.
“Mr. Fox’s assistant says you don’t have an appointment,” said the receptionist loftily, interrupting Chloe’s thoughts.
‘No shit, you think I would have warned them that I was coming?’
“Mr. Fox doesn’t see anyone without an appointment. He’s a very busy man.”
“I am very happy for him. You can tell ‘Mr. Fox’s’ assistant to tell ‘Mr. Fox’ that I’m here about their recent claim to Allied Insurance. The claim involving that big building of yours that blew sky-high a few weeks ago? The claim that won’t be paid until I talk to him, ‘Mr. Wayne’ and ‘Mr. Luthor.’”
The young receptionist blinked at her.
“I can write that down for you if you want,” added Chloe.
The receptionist scowled at her almost imperceptibly and went back to whispering into the telephone.
She raised her head again, “Mr. Fox will be out in a moment.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Super.” God, she hated receptionists who thought they were the Gestapo.
Within minutes, one of the mahogany doors burst open and a slim, dark-skinned man in his late forties can rushing out, still straightening his tie.
“Miss…Sullivan was it? Lucius Fox, Senior Vice President of Wayne Enterprises. Sorry about the confusion.” He extended his hand and Chloe shook it firmly. “Had we known you were coming...”
“Kind of the defeats the purpose of the ‘surprise visit.’ C.J. Sullivan, Senior Investigator for Allied.”
Lucius laughed nervously at the quip. “Of course, why don’t we talk in my office?”
She followed him through several sets of doors to his office and accepted his silent invitation to sit down across from his large desk.
“What can I do for you today, Miss Sullivan? I hope there wasn’t anything wrong with the claim forms. I worked on those personally, with assistance from our in-house counsel. We made sure to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.”
“The forms were fine, Mr. Fox, but surely you realize that someone from Allied would be here even if your claim had been engraved on stone tablets. We’re not in the habit of handing over $200 million payouts without doing a little investigating first.”
Lucius looked perplexed for a moment before answering. “Of course, um, what can I help you with?”
“Everything.”
“Pardon?”
“Pursuant to the terms of the agreement you signed when you bought the policy, if you want to collect your claim, you have to give us, more precisely, me, access to the records of all of your operations so we can be sure that there were no illegal activities that directly or indirectly led to the loss.”
“And by ‘access to our records’ you mean…?”
“Paper files, computer files, whatever was salvaged from the accident site…. sorry ‘alleged’ accident site. Access to computer networks including archived files, emails, any financial records relating to the joint venture plus financial records for the two companies for the past three years…” Chloe realized that Lucius was just staring at her. “Do you need to write any of this down?”
“I think I need to get our attorneys up here.”
“That works too,” Chloe answered cheerily. She loved this part.
*****
Wayne Enterprises Headquarters…Bruce Wayne’s office…
“Bruce, for the last time, you cannot blow off this meeting!” spat Lex, the muscles in his jaw twitching madly.
“Watch me.” Bruce replied, slipping back into his suit coat. The phone on his desk began to buzz but he ignored it.
“Goddammit, Bruce. This is damage control and we have to do it! This PR consultant has a plan that both of our companies need to put in play if we’re going to survive this.”
“You can go play spin doctor with your consultant all you want. I have a company to run.”
Lex tossed the copies of the PR plan that he had been holding onto Bruce’s expansive desk.
“Really? It seems to me that if you and your people had been doing that properly in the first place, we wouldn’t be here...”
A knock on the door interrupted their ‘discussion’ which by now had gotten quite loud.
“Not now!” shouted Bruce. He turned his attention back to Lex. “No way, you aren’t going to try to blame this mess on me again. We both know how we got here. If you had stayed focused on getting this done instead of acting like you were trying to get elected…”
“Stop being ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? I was there, Lex! The only things missing were the American flags and a campaign bus. You want to run for office, you do it on your own dime, not on mine. Between that and your secret deals…”
“You are the last person on earth allowed to talk to me about secrets, Bruce…”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
The knocking at the door grew more insistent and Bruce placed his palm against his forehead as he yelled at the door again. “Still not now!”
“Mr. Wayne, Mr. Fox is here to see you and he says it’s urgent!” came the frazzled voice of Bruce’s executive assistant.
Bruce exhaled. “Fine, send him in.”
Lucius opened the door, looking somewhat guilty for interrupting. Lex eyed the man and decided that he had probably heard every word of their ‘discussion.’
“What is it, Lucius?”
“Sorry to interrupt but something’s come up. There’s an investigator from Allied Insurance here about…the claim. They say they have a right to see all records of our operations before they’ll approve payment. And they do mean everything, Bruce.”
“That’s ridiculous. There must be some mistake. Did you run it by…”
“I ran it by legal, sir. It’s in the policy we signed. They have a right to see it all, including all Luthor Corp. records relating to the joint venture,” replied Lucius, shooting a look at Lex.
“You’re joking, right?”
“Look for yourself,” Lucius handed Lex a thick document, “circled area, page five.”
Lex’s eyes flew over the page. “What the hell…?” His face went pale and his eyes flew to Bruce’s. “This can’t be right. This has to be a mistake.”
Bruce grabbed the documents from Lex and scanned them himself. “It doesn’t look like it.”
“This doesn’t make any sense…this investigator, where did you say he was?” demanded Lex.
“She. She’s in my office. What should I do?”
Bruce looked stone-faced for a moment and Lex ran his hand over his head.
“Sir?” pressed Lucius. “She’s been in my office for over thirty minutes now…”
“I don’t know. Just get back there and…”
“Get back there and what?” asked a clear female voice from the doorway. “Stall her? I think the ship has sailed on that option, gentlemen.”
All three men turned to see Chloe standing in the doorway, one hand on the door frame.
Lex froze and time seemed to stand still for him. “Chloe?” The word came out like a whisper but not so low that Bruce didn’t catch it.
She had a sort of half-smile on her face. She was dressed in a very elegant-looking suit, and a green blouse, not at all the way he remembered her. In his memories she was always wearing jeans and some kind of funky patterned shirt. Her hair was longer than he remembered. Her eyes looked very wide and green as they swept over him to Bruce and back to him again.
Then it seemed like everything happened at once.
“Miss Sullivan! I thought…I thought you were waiting in my office!” said Lucius, crossing the room in three long strides to stand between Chloe and the two other men.
At the same time, Lucius’ assistant, a gray-haired women who looked like the very definition of a school marm, came running up behind Chloe.
“Oh, there you are, Miss! Mr. Fox, I am so very sorry, she said she was looking for the ladies room. Then she got away from me.” She shot Chloe a reproving glance.
Chloe shrugged at Lucius. “Must have took a wrong turn.”
Lucius looked back at his boss and realized that there was no way around introductions at this point, at least not with looking like they were trying to hide something. Or even more like they were trying to hide something. “It’s OK, Nora. I’ll handle it.” The woman hurried away.
“Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, this is the investigator from Allied Insurance that I mentioned. Miss Sullivan. As I said, Miss Sullivan is here to investigate the explosion at the plant so that Allied can authorize payment,” said Lucius. “A formality, I’m sure,” he added optimistically, as if saying the words made it so.
“I do this for living, Mr. Fox, and I’m very good at it. I’d prefer you not characterize it as ‘a formality,’” Chloe responded, as she stepped forward and extended her hand to Bruce first. “Nice to meet with you, Mr. Wayne.” Bruce only nodded as he shook her hand; he was still irked that this woman had all but barged into his office and overheard what he had said about ‘stalling her.’ Plus, he was more than a little curious as to why Lex had acted like he had seen a ghost for a few seconds there.
He watched intently as Chloe relinquished his hand and extended her hand to Lex. Lex visibly hesitated for a second before taking it.
“Mr. Luthor.”
“Miss Sullivan.”
Bruce observed that they both held the contact a bit longer than necessary, almost as if they were daring the other to let go first. Lucius’ voice interrupting them made it a draw, however.
“Well, Miss Sullivan, why don’t we go back to my office…”
“No, not quite yet. I need to say something first,” Chloe said looking each man in the eye. “And, what I have to say is for all of you to hear. I realize that the thought of my company going through your operations records is a bit…distasteful right now but it’s going to happen. Allied Insurance needs to know what happened to your plant. If it truly was an accident, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. ” She placed her hands on her hips. “However, if it wasn’t an accident, we will find the parties responsible. And just so there’s no confusion, our definition of ‘the parties responsible’ generally includes those whose names are on the dotted line at the bottom of the policy. In this case, that would be…” She reached for the policy in Bruce’s hand and read the last page “… Bruce T. Wayne and Alexander J. Luthor. Imagine that.”
Chloe looked up, smiling brightly. “So it looks like you guys are stuck with me for the foreseeable future. Cooperate and this will be pretty painless. I will warn you, though, ‘stalling’ me just makes me irritable and then nobody has any fun.”
“What if we just decide to withdraw the claim?” asked Bruce. At Chloe’s raised eyebrows, he continued, “You’re asking for access to the operations records of two very large corporations, Miss Sullivan. There might be sensitive…competitive data that we may not want to share. All legal, of course, just proprietary. Surely you understand.”
“Mr. Wayne, I’m here to find out if someone’s trying to cheat my company out of $200 million. I don’t give a rat’s ass who you buy your widgets from and what you resell them for…unless it has something to do with why that building blew up.”
“Of course,” she continued, “if you want to withdraw your claim, that’s your choice but then two things will happen. One, you’ll both have the eat the costs for the manufacturing plant, which you insured for $200 million but we all know was much more valuable in terms of research and development, future values, etc. And two, in doing so, your actions will be considered, according to the terms of our policy, a Questionable Circumstances Violation of said policy and you will owe us a Questionable Circumstances Termination Fee equal to no less than 10% of the claim amount.”
“What?” exclaimed Bruce.
“That’s $20 million!” said Lex.
“You did that all in your head? I’m impressed,” Chloe replied dryly and smiled faintly when Lex glared at her.
Lucius shook his head. “That’s impossible, you cannot make us pay you $20 million just to get out of an insurance policy.”
“Your lawyers didn’t circle that entire paragraph, did they? That QCT fee is our way of making sure people understand that once they’re in on something illegal, they’re in all the way. When it comes to insurance fraud, we don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘just a little bit guilty.’ If you don’t like the fee, I suggest you take it up with your senator. QCT fees were made legal by the legislature eight years ago. Oh, and one more thing, all QCTs become matters of public record. Your business partners, clients, customers, and the press will all find out about it. And draw their own conclusions as to why you would pay it.”
Bruce, Lex and Lucius exchanged looks. “I can’t believe this,” muttered Bruce.
“And I can’t believe how many people still don’t read the fine print,” said Chloe, leaning against Bruce’s desk. All three men frowned at her. “The devil is in the details, after all. So…” she looked around the enormous office. “Mr. Wayne? Care to show me where I’ll be working for the next few weeks?”
End chapter.
A/N: Some (but not all) answers to your questions and comments…
Emnorth20002: The story won’t be exactly the same because I’ve got two billionaires and not just one but I hope you catch the parallels.
June: The CJ/Danny thing is part accident, part design. I wanted Chloe to have a slightly different name to go with her new life, so to speak and the initials worked, especially since they are gender neutral and I see her as someone who would be conscious of the role gender plays in her line of work. I had given the Danny character another name at first but my muses kept saying that he should be named Danny for complicated denotation reasons that I won’t go into right now (have I mentioned that my muses are insane?). Anyway, after I switched it, I realized the TWW reference and then I totally had to keep it that way. No Joshes or Donnas will show up, though. Sorry.
‘Bama and Lark: Gotham may not be safe but there’s always something going on and you know our Chloe always needs to be near the action.
Dreamerjules: Hope this chapter answered some questions, I'll get to a more detailed explanation soon, please be patient.
Everyone else: If I missed a specific question, please remind me and I’ll try to catch you in the next round, as long as it doesn’t give the whole thing away.
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Great chapter I loved how snarky Chloe was with bot Lex and Bruce. I hope they won't make her work to difficult and that she can spent a LOT of time with both of them
more?
Ok, I did love this but, I really can't ever see Bruce saying fuck. Maybe that's just me but it seems so out of character, even if he is pissed of.
And I really loved the election joke.
Question, is this all going to be buisness or perhaps will other characters make an apperience? Maybe even just a random 'this cop Grayson stoped me' coming from Chloe, hmm hmm. ok enough badgering
I just Chloe's spririt, she's there to do her job and if they don't like it that's their problem. Lex and Bruce seem a little too worried for my taste, I'm thinking that not everything's as cut and dried as it should be. I can't wait to see what Chloe finds out and how her and Lex's working "relationship" progresses! Great update!!
Steph*
Loving Chloe... you go girl!!!!!
Amazing chapter... really love it!!! I'm so intrigued...
Whats the Brue and Luther hidding? Can't wait for more clues as to whats going on... oh joy this is gonna be fun
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