One Shot Fic: Lost and Found
Title: Lost and Found
Author: Squeeka Cuomo
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Chloe/Davis, Chloe/Jimmy
Notes: This fic was written for vagrantdream. While it doesn’t take place in her Start. Stop. Reset. universe, I used a section of that as my prompt. (Prompt: “#10 - Learn- She learns more than she could have in a secret scoop from what he says and doesn’t say, that night.”)
Warning: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: But there was a name and number on her cell phone that she didn’t recognize. And whoever it was had called and left her multiple voicemail messages in the hours before her wedding.
Lost and Found
Chloe was ecstatic to finally be Mrs. Jimmy Olsen.
For the first time in a long time, she felt as if things were going right in her life, as if her proverbial ducks were finally getting themselves in a nice, neat row. The past year, years really, had been so difficult, to say the least. After losing her mind, being possessed by Brainiac, and so many other things, she’d begun to wonder if the sun would ever shine on her corner of the universe again.
But then, she’d said, “I do,” and everything felt right.
Or like it would be very soon.
She was still a little fuzzy about what happened after she and Jimmy cut the cake and up till the point where Clark and his friends performed a supercharged exorcism on her. And truth be told, Chloe didn’t really remember much from the wedding itself or the hours leading up to it. And if she were to be honest with herself, there were other memories that seemed fuzzy as well. Like how she had gotten her memories back the first time or who had helped her on different occasions.
Chloe was able to brush off the lack of memories due to pre-wedding jitters and wedding day euphoria. After all, it had been a very busy and exciting day. But then there was also the trauma of having her reception crashed by… whatever it was. And that alone was enough to make her forget her day.
But there was a name and number on her cell phone that she didn’t recognize. And whoever it was had called and left her multiple voicemail messages in the hours before her wedding.
And even though she must have programmed the digits into the phone herself, she couldn’t remember why or who the person was even. So she’d deleted the contact and all of the messages without listening to them. Chloe was curious, but she just couldn’t see a point in listening to them. She wanted nothing more than to put the past few weeks behind her.
She felt a little bad about it, but they were a few weeks old. Even if they’d been urgent at the time, they were pointless now. As her thumb pressed ‘delete,’ Chloe felt as if she were losing something, though she couldn’t quite figure out what.
In a way, it reminded her of when she’d been losing her memories. But then, she’d known it was happening. She’d seen flashes of her life in her mind before they’d disappeared. She’d been able to run through her memories, almost as if she were in a living movie. The way she felt now wasn’t the same. There was no quick replay of her life before it was gone. There was just a strange feeling that she couldn’t put her finger on.
She thought about asking Clark who the mystery caller was. But to do that, Chloe would have to admit that she couldn’t remember. And that wasn’t an option. Her best friend meant well, but his first reaction, was always an overreaction. And if she were to even hint about not remembering something, he’d whisk her off to the Fortress faster than a speeding bullet.
And so… Chloe kept it to herself.
But even though she tried to forget about it, it was always there, tugging at the back of her mind. She tried to ignore it, tried to forget about the sense of loss she felt when her cell screen read, ‘Successfully Deleted.” But no matter how hard she tried, Chloe couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing from her life.
As much as that bothered her, Chloe refused indulge it. She was married. She had a husband. Her life was finally starting to make sense, so she wasn’t about to go in search of some mystery man. A few years ago, when working at The Planet, she would have gone in pursuit of the answer and not stopped until she found it.
But she wasn’t that girl anymore.
She wasn’t even Chloe Sullivan. Now she was Chloe Olsen, and her investigative reporter days were long behind her. And surprisingly enough, that didn’t bother her. Growing up, Chloe had thought there was nothing more important than being a hard-hitting reporter and Clark Kent.
She’d been wrong about both.
Now she was running Isis as a support center for the meteor infected and was a newly wed. All in all, she was pretty pleased with the direction her life was taking. She knew she should be more upset about Jimmy being in the hospital, but he was alive and doing well. He’d even asked for his camera on her visit earlier that day before he’d drifted off to sleep. He might have been doing better, but he still needed a lot of rest.
Chloe had left the hospital after Jimmy had fallen asleep around four. Instead of going all the way back to Smallville, she’d gone to Isis. Chloe could check her email from there, and she kept a spare change of clothes and a few toiletries in the closet in case of emergencies. This certainly wasn’t an emergency, but she felt the small bottle of face wash calling her name just the same.
In the hour she’d been at the Isis headquarters, Chloe had eaten the stale sandwich she’d picked up in the hospital cafeteria and downed two cups of freshly brewed coffee. After the grumbling of her stomach had settled, she’d grabbed the emergency bag of toiletries. Finally able to clean up a bit, she’d taken extra care when she’d washed her face and brushed her hair. Feeling refreshed, she’d watered the one drooping plant that was still alive in her building.
Before making her way over to the computers, Chloe stopped and turned on the large light hanging over the table in the center of Isis. As it flickered to life, casting the room in a warm glow unlike the smaller lamps, she once again felt the same strange feeling of loss she’d felt when deleting the mystery number.
Though she didn’t want to indulge the feelings, Chloe couldn’t stop herself from staring up at the chandelier. It was burning brighter than normal, as if the wattage of the bulb was higher than normal or the bulb was new. As the feeling intensified, the blonde remembered changing the bulb recently. She hadn’t been able to reach, even wearing super high heels so someone had helped her. She decided that it must have been Clark. After all, he was good at that type of thing.
But… she just wasn’t sure.
Tearing her eyes away from the fixture, Chloe shook her head, her blonde locks swaying back and forth as she did so. When she’d stopped, her green eyes flickered to the wedding ring on her left hand. She still couldn’t believe how different it felt to wear a wedding ring instead of an engagement ring. As she watched the stone sparkle in the glow of the chandelier, she whispered to herself, “Get a grip. Clark changed the bulb. Like always. You just don’t remember, because you’ve been so busy.”
Chloe wasn’t totally convinced, but she almost believed herself.
But the blonde was drawn from her thoughts the moment her inbox appeared on the screen. And the list of emails made her laugh. There were at least fifteen emails from Lois. Some were silly forwards about friendship, while a few were more important, such as the one about thank you notes. She knew that proper etiquette demanded she get them done soon, but the masters of manners hadn’t written a pamphlet on what to do when your wedding was crashed by a giant… something.
Then there was a message that caused her face to split into a wide smile. It was from the wedding photographer, and the title was, “A sample of your proofs.” She didn’t even bother reading the actual message, scrolling quickly down to the bottom where there were a few pictures displayed.
Of the three, two were random group shots that had been taken after the ceremony, but the third was of her and Jimmy and their first kiss as man and wife. They both had their eyes closed, and there were tiny smiles tugging at the corners of their lips. The image, for lack of a better word, was perfect. Overcome with happiness at her marriage once again, she quickly clicked print. Chloe doubted that even Jimmy would be able to find anything wrong with this particular picture.
The blonde took one last look at the picture before deciding to read the actual email. But before she had a chance to scroll back up, a deep voice startled her out of her reverie.
“Chloe.” The man sounded relieved but also sad.
The blonde knew she should run, grab a weapon to protect herself from the stranger. But she couldn’t move. Because even though the voice was unfamiliar, there was something about it that soothed the strange, empty feeling she’d been trying to ignore.
Whoever was standing behind her had moved farther into the room, his footsteps echoing through Chloe’s head. But even though he’d moved closer, she still wasn’t able to bring herself to turn around.
“I… I’m glad you’re alright.” His voice was so sincere, and now, Chloe had to face him.
There was nothing familiar about the man’s handsome face, but she still felt as if she should know him. There was a kindness in his soft brown eyes that spoke of a shared past, of some sort of relationship or other.
“Who are you?” At first, Chloe had thought she’d only asked the question in her mind, but when her visitor smiled sadly, she realized it had been out loud.
“You don’t remember me.” He nodded, almost as if he’d expected as much.
“We know each other?” Chloe longed to walk forward so that she could get a better look at his face, almost as if the secrets to her fuzzy memory would be there.
“Yeah.” He took a step forward, but just one. “We’re… We used to be friends.”
Chloe’s brow furrowed in concentration as she desperately tried to remember the man before her. Memories seemed to lie on the edge of her consciousness, just beyond her reach. And no matter how hard she tried, they just wouldn’t come any nearer.
He didn’t move closer, but his eyes reached out to her. “I’m Davis-”
“Bloom.” The name slipped out of her mouth as a breathless whisper.
All at once, everything came crashing back. His was the number she’d deleted from her phone. He was the blurry spot in so many of her more recent memories. The new light bulb. The voicemail messages. The only one she’d been able to remember when her memories were disappearing from her mind like files from a hard drive.
It was all Davis Bloom.
Chloe’s green eyes searched Davis’ face again. But this time, she knew who he was, and her gaze was greedy. “I remember you.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, the corners of Davis’s lips turned up in a slight smile. It was a grin that Chloe felt like she hadn’t seen in a hundred years, and it reached all the way to the bottom of her soul.
For the first time since she’d turned away from the computer, Chloe remembered the picture of her and Jimmy sharing their first kiss. But now, instead of it reminding her of one of the happiest moments of her life, it made her feel trapped, helpless.
For the first time since she’d said, “I do,” Chloe didn’t know how she felt about being Mrs. Jimmy Olsen.
Squeeka Cuomo’s Notes
- This fic was written for vagrantdream. While it doesn’t take place in her Start. Stop. Reset.universe, I used a section of that as my prompt. (Prompt: “#10 - Learn- She learns more than she could have in a secret scoop from what he says and doesn’t say, that night.”)
- vagrantdream: I didn’t mean to write you a post-exorcism meeting, it just happened. I hope you like it! Thanks for letting me play with your story. :D
- Quack: Thank you so much for you help with this. If it hadn’t been for your support and encouragement, it probably wouldn’t have been posted.
- Reviews are love.
Author: Squeeka Cuomo
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Chloe/Davis, Chloe/Jimmy
Notes: This fic was written for vagrantdream. While it doesn’t take place in her Start. Stop. Reset. universe, I used a section of that as my prompt. (Prompt: “#10 - Learn- She learns more than she could have in a secret scoop from what he says and doesn’t say, that night.”)
Warning: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: But there was a name and number on her cell phone that she didn’t recognize. And whoever it was had called and left her multiple voicemail messages in the hours before her wedding.
Lost and Found
Chloe was ecstatic to finally be Mrs. Jimmy Olsen.
For the first time in a long time, she felt as if things were going right in her life, as if her proverbial ducks were finally getting themselves in a nice, neat row. The past year, years really, had been so difficult, to say the least. After losing her mind, being possessed by Brainiac, and so many other things, she’d begun to wonder if the sun would ever shine on her corner of the universe again.
But then, she’d said, “I do,” and everything felt right.
Or like it would be very soon.
She was still a little fuzzy about what happened after she and Jimmy cut the cake and up till the point where Clark and his friends performed a supercharged exorcism on her. And truth be told, Chloe didn’t really remember much from the wedding itself or the hours leading up to it. And if she were to be honest with herself, there were other memories that seemed fuzzy as well. Like how she had gotten her memories back the first time or who had helped her on different occasions.
Chloe was able to brush off the lack of memories due to pre-wedding jitters and wedding day euphoria. After all, it had been a very busy and exciting day. But then there was also the trauma of having her reception crashed by… whatever it was. And that alone was enough to make her forget her day.
But there was a name and number on her cell phone that she didn’t recognize. And whoever it was had called and left her multiple voicemail messages in the hours before her wedding.
And even though she must have programmed the digits into the phone herself, she couldn’t remember why or who the person was even. So she’d deleted the contact and all of the messages without listening to them. Chloe was curious, but she just couldn’t see a point in listening to them. She wanted nothing more than to put the past few weeks behind her.
She felt a little bad about it, but they were a few weeks old. Even if they’d been urgent at the time, they were pointless now. As her thumb pressed ‘delete,’ Chloe felt as if she were losing something, though she couldn’t quite figure out what.
In a way, it reminded her of when she’d been losing her memories. But then, she’d known it was happening. She’d seen flashes of her life in her mind before they’d disappeared. She’d been able to run through her memories, almost as if she were in a living movie. The way she felt now wasn’t the same. There was no quick replay of her life before it was gone. There was just a strange feeling that she couldn’t put her finger on.
She thought about asking Clark who the mystery caller was. But to do that, Chloe would have to admit that she couldn’t remember. And that wasn’t an option. Her best friend meant well, but his first reaction, was always an overreaction. And if she were to even hint about not remembering something, he’d whisk her off to the Fortress faster than a speeding bullet.
And so… Chloe kept it to herself.
But even though she tried to forget about it, it was always there, tugging at the back of her mind. She tried to ignore it, tried to forget about the sense of loss she felt when her cell screen read, ‘Successfully Deleted.” But no matter how hard she tried, Chloe couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing from her life.
As much as that bothered her, Chloe refused indulge it. She was married. She had a husband. Her life was finally starting to make sense, so she wasn’t about to go in search of some mystery man. A few years ago, when working at The Planet, she would have gone in pursuit of the answer and not stopped until she found it.
But she wasn’t that girl anymore.
She wasn’t even Chloe Sullivan. Now she was Chloe Olsen, and her investigative reporter days were long behind her. And surprisingly enough, that didn’t bother her. Growing up, Chloe had thought there was nothing more important than being a hard-hitting reporter and Clark Kent.
She’d been wrong about both.
Now she was running Isis as a support center for the meteor infected and was a newly wed. All in all, she was pretty pleased with the direction her life was taking. She knew she should be more upset about Jimmy being in the hospital, but he was alive and doing well. He’d even asked for his camera on her visit earlier that day before he’d drifted off to sleep. He might have been doing better, but he still needed a lot of rest.
Chloe had left the hospital after Jimmy had fallen asleep around four. Instead of going all the way back to Smallville, she’d gone to Isis. Chloe could check her email from there, and she kept a spare change of clothes and a few toiletries in the closet in case of emergencies. This certainly wasn’t an emergency, but she felt the small bottle of face wash calling her name just the same.
In the hour she’d been at the Isis headquarters, Chloe had eaten the stale sandwich she’d picked up in the hospital cafeteria and downed two cups of freshly brewed coffee. After the grumbling of her stomach had settled, she’d grabbed the emergency bag of toiletries. Finally able to clean up a bit, she’d taken extra care when she’d washed her face and brushed her hair. Feeling refreshed, she’d watered the one drooping plant that was still alive in her building.
Before making her way over to the computers, Chloe stopped and turned on the large light hanging over the table in the center of Isis. As it flickered to life, casting the room in a warm glow unlike the smaller lamps, she once again felt the same strange feeling of loss she’d felt when deleting the mystery number.
Though she didn’t want to indulge the feelings, Chloe couldn’t stop herself from staring up at the chandelier. It was burning brighter than normal, as if the wattage of the bulb was higher than normal or the bulb was new. As the feeling intensified, the blonde remembered changing the bulb recently. She hadn’t been able to reach, even wearing super high heels so someone had helped her. She decided that it must have been Clark. After all, he was good at that type of thing.
But… she just wasn’t sure.
Tearing her eyes away from the fixture, Chloe shook her head, her blonde locks swaying back and forth as she did so. When she’d stopped, her green eyes flickered to the wedding ring on her left hand. She still couldn’t believe how different it felt to wear a wedding ring instead of an engagement ring. As she watched the stone sparkle in the glow of the chandelier, she whispered to herself, “Get a grip. Clark changed the bulb. Like always. You just don’t remember, because you’ve been so busy.”
Chloe wasn’t totally convinced, but she almost believed herself.
But the blonde was drawn from her thoughts the moment her inbox appeared on the screen. And the list of emails made her laugh. There were at least fifteen emails from Lois. Some were silly forwards about friendship, while a few were more important, such as the one about thank you notes. She knew that proper etiquette demanded she get them done soon, but the masters of manners hadn’t written a pamphlet on what to do when your wedding was crashed by a giant… something.
Then there was a message that caused her face to split into a wide smile. It was from the wedding photographer, and the title was, “A sample of your proofs.” She didn’t even bother reading the actual message, scrolling quickly down to the bottom where there were a few pictures displayed.
Of the three, two were random group shots that had been taken after the ceremony, but the third was of her and Jimmy and their first kiss as man and wife. They both had their eyes closed, and there were tiny smiles tugging at the corners of their lips. The image, for lack of a better word, was perfect. Overcome with happiness at her marriage once again, she quickly clicked print. Chloe doubted that even Jimmy would be able to find anything wrong with this particular picture.
The blonde took one last look at the picture before deciding to read the actual email. But before she had a chance to scroll back up, a deep voice startled her out of her reverie.
“Chloe.” The man sounded relieved but also sad.
The blonde knew she should run, grab a weapon to protect herself from the stranger. But she couldn’t move. Because even though the voice was unfamiliar, there was something about it that soothed the strange, empty feeling she’d been trying to ignore.
Whoever was standing behind her had moved farther into the room, his footsteps echoing through Chloe’s head. But even though he’d moved closer, she still wasn’t able to bring herself to turn around.
“I… I’m glad you’re alright.” His voice was so sincere, and now, Chloe had to face him.
There was nothing familiar about the man’s handsome face, but she still felt as if she should know him. There was a kindness in his soft brown eyes that spoke of a shared past, of some sort of relationship or other.
“Who are you?” At first, Chloe had thought she’d only asked the question in her mind, but when her visitor smiled sadly, she realized it had been out loud.
“You don’t remember me.” He nodded, almost as if he’d expected as much.
“We know each other?” Chloe longed to walk forward so that she could get a better look at his face, almost as if the secrets to her fuzzy memory would be there.
“Yeah.” He took a step forward, but just one. “We’re… We used to be friends.”
Chloe’s brow furrowed in concentration as she desperately tried to remember the man before her. Memories seemed to lie on the edge of her consciousness, just beyond her reach. And no matter how hard she tried, they just wouldn’t come any nearer.
He didn’t move closer, but his eyes reached out to her. “I’m Davis-”
“Bloom.” The name slipped out of her mouth as a breathless whisper.
All at once, everything came crashing back. His was the number she’d deleted from her phone. He was the blurry spot in so many of her more recent memories. The new light bulb. The voicemail messages. The only one she’d been able to remember when her memories were disappearing from her mind like files from a hard drive.
It was all Davis Bloom.
Chloe’s green eyes searched Davis’ face again. But this time, she knew who he was, and her gaze was greedy. “I remember you.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, the corners of Davis’s lips turned up in a slight smile. It was a grin that Chloe felt like she hadn’t seen in a hundred years, and it reached all the way to the bottom of her soul.
For the first time since she’d turned away from the computer, Chloe remembered the picture of her and Jimmy sharing their first kiss. But now, instead of it reminding her of one of the happiest moments of her life, it made her feel trapped, helpless.
For the first time since she’d said, “I do,” Chloe didn’t know how she felt about being Mrs. Jimmy Olsen.
Squeeka Cuomo’s Notes
- This fic was written for vagrantdream. While it doesn’t take place in her Start. Stop. Reset.universe, I used a section of that as my prompt. (Prompt: “#10 - Learn- She learns more than she could have in a secret scoop from what he says and doesn’t say, that night.”)
- vagrantdream: I didn’t mean to write you a post-exorcism meeting, it just happened. I hope you like it! Thanks for letting me play with your story. :D
- Quack: Thank you so much for you help with this. If it hadn’t been for your support and encouragement, it probably wouldn’t have been posted.
- Reviews are love.