If Memories Didn't Last So Long (1/1)
I know that it's no longer spawnfic_tues, but Chloe and Katie and MJ suddenly started talking to me.
If Memories Didn't Last So Long (1/1)
Author: Pen37
Beta: Strangevisitor7
Summary: Chloe, Katie and MJ. Chloe gets a birthday present. Kind of Bittersweet, a little funny.
Rating: PG
“Aunt Chloe?” MJ walked through the front door of ‘Angel Investigations,’ the umbrella corporation for whatever trouble struck her adopted aunt’s fancy. She wandered into the control center, and frowned when she didn’t see Aunt Chloe sitting in front of the high powered computers.
MJ was pretty sure that Uncle Dean wasn’t around to distract Chloe. She hadn’t seen the Impala sitting in its customary spot in the parking garage downstairs. She hoped Clark wasn’t here. Chloe was usually in a reflective, kind of sad mood after Clark came to visit. MJ wondered if Uncle Duncan or Uncle Methos had someone who reminded them of friends long departed, or if they all managed to outlive those type of people.
MJ put her school books down with a frown, and wandered over to the stairs that led up to the apartment. “Aunt Chloe?” She called up.
“In the kitchen,” Aunt Chloe’s voice called down to her.
MJ smiled at that. Chloe would have a pot of coffee made. MJ wasn’t allowed to drink coffee yet at home because Dad thought it made her too hyper. JD wouldn’t let her have any when she went to see him, either. He claimed that it would stunt her growth. After all, he said, Aunt Chloe practically lived on the stuff and she was almost a midget.
MJ figured that there couldn’t be any more truth to the caffeine equals short theory than there was to the one that you could go blind if you thought about porn too much because JD wasn’t blind yet.
MJ was surprised to see her mom sitting with Chloe in the kitchen, a box of old photos spread out before them. Both seemed to be wearing nostalgic smiles. MJ frowned. “What are you two doing?” Then she looked at the box on the table. “I thought all of our pictures were digital.”
“These are mine,” Chloe said. “They’re a birthday gift.”
“We thought about scrapbooking, or something . . . girly,” Katie made a face. MJ nodded in understanding. Neither the two Winchester women, nor the honorary Winchester had any idea how to go about things like scrapbooking.
MJ frowned. No one had told her that Aunt Chloe had a birthday coming up. Shouldn’t Uncle Dean know that kind of thing? Shouldn't she? “Why didn’t you tell me you had a birthday coming up?”
Chloe’s response was a rueful smile. “I haven’t really celebrated my birthday in a while. I’ve had a couple of bad ones. There was that time with the witch and then the other time with the other witch and . . . well, you get the idea.”
MJ nodded. She might not get to hunt (yet) but she was building a journal for the day she could start (despite JD’s meddling). And she’d heard plenty about witches from Uncle Dean and Uncle Richie. “What are those pictures of?”
In response, Chloe pushed the topmost one across the kitchen table to MJ. She squinted at it. The color photo was milky with age and worn at the edges, but MJ could see a pretty brunette woman with Aunt Chloe’s eyes.
“That’s my mother,” Aunt Chloe said with a sad, lopsided smile. “I’m forty years older today than she was in this picture.”
MJ looked from the photo to Aunt Chloe and back. “Is she gone, now?”
“Long before you were born.” Chloe’s eyes had that far away look that told MJ that she was mentally in the past. “Long before she died.”
MJ looked to her mother for some idea of what to say. Katie shrugged, and gave her an encouraging nod. “I’m sorry,” MJ said softly.
Automatically, Chloe’s eyes snapped back to the present. Her smile turned affectionate. She gathered the photos back up and swept them into the box. “I got a call from your Uncle Dean today. Would you like to help me research a hunt for him?”
MJ grinned at her Aunt Chloe. “Only if I can use your mainframe.”
The two of them looked to MJ’s mom to see if she wanted to join in the fun, but Katie shook her head. “You two go ahead. I’ve got to get home, anyway.”
“I’ll see you out,” Chloe said. She turned to look at MJ. “Don’t start without me.”
As the three walked down the stairs, the box lay forgotten on the kitchen table.
#
A/N: This story is primarily inspired by The Very Last Country Song by the group Sugarland. I suppose it's loosely songfic in that way. The lyrics reminded me both of Chloe, and of all Katie's kids.
Today is my birthday
And all that I want
Is to dig through this big box of pictures
In my kitchen 'til the daylight's gone
This one here's my momma with the long brown hair
I'm forty years older today than she was in that picture there
But if life stayed the way it was
And lovers never fell out of love
If memories didn't last so long
If nobody did nobody wrong
If we knew what we had before it was gone
If every road led back home
This would be the very last country song
These are all my babies
Lord knows how we survived
The first one was hard and the last wasn't planned, what a big surprise.
But if life stayed the way it was
And lovers never fell out of love
If memories didn't last so long
If nobody did nobody wrong
If we knew what we had before it was gone
If every road led back home
This would be the very last country song