Once Upon A Summer
By Misty Flores
Teaser: She met her once in Metropolis, the summer of her internship, working on a possible lead on a cult of wannabe vampires who had taken to clubbing late at night like some poor man's Blade.
Genre: Smallville/Angel crossover
Pairing: Chloe/Cordelia
Rating: PG
--
She met her once in Metropolis, the summer of her internship, working on a possible lead on a cult of wannabe vampires who had taken to clubbing late at night like some poor man's Blade.
Chloe Sullivan was irrepressible and spunky, and rushed headlong into danger, because reporting was in her blood, and because an entire summer without hearing from Clark Kent and still waiting at home for at least a phone call was bordering on pathetic.
It was a story none of the other interns wanted, and so Chloe took it, because she wanted a challenge, and it was quirky and odd, and she actually going through quirky and odd withdrawal. Chloe would never admit this to anyone, but missing Smallville was growing from a knot in her stomach to an actual ache.
So she took the stupid story about the stupid vampires, if anything, it'd be another good mention on her Wall of Weird, and a nifty note on her livejournal.
Except the story turned to be more about homicidal maniacs than wannabes, and instead of being interesting, it was damn near suicidal. And all of it was more than weird, but rather scary, and the scariest thing of all was not that vampires did in fact, seem to exist, but that an actress saved her life.
Cordelia Chase was shooting a commercial next door, that was her story anyway, when she showed up suddenly just as Chloe was screaming at the top of her lungs and struggling with a guy who was serious need of a facial.
One minute her life was flashing before her eyes, which, granted, was interesting, but definitely worth nothing if she never got a chance to live to talk about it, and the next she was gasping and out of breath, staring into the face of a beautiful woman with a pointy stick next to her heart.
"Did he bite you?" she said.
Chloe, despite having had her share of near-death experiences, was a little too flustered to answer anything but a rather intelligent, "Huh?"
"Did he bite you?" snapped the woman, narrowing her eyes as she lowered what could only be a wooden stake. "You know? Give you a hickey that won't quit? Are you okay? Or Mute?"
She blinked. "Oh, God! I'm fine. I'm... where did he go?"
The woman stared at her, brilliantly made up face glistening with sweat, dark eyes intrigued. "He ran off," she said flippantly, brushing dust off her clothing and wrinkling her nose. "What the hell are you doing in date rape central, anyway?"
Chloe could only stare, craning her neck up and down the abandoned alley, mind still swimming, even as her heart was slowly chugging to a manageable beat. "What do you mean, he ran off? He couldn't have just- That guy's my story!"
The other woman only stared, eyebrow arching. "Pardon me?"
"My story," she snapped, pulling at her suit and glaring up, and up - the woman was not only beautiful, she was tall. Bitch. "I'm a reporter for the Daily Planet, and you ran off my angle!"
"Tell me you're not serious."
"Tell me where he went," she snapped, moving around the woman, searching desperately down the alley. "If I don't find the guy - I've wasted an entire afternoon, and -"
"Okay, a little gratitude? Would be great! I saved your life, you know! And got a splitting headache to go along with it!"
That made so much nonsense she didn't even bother to ponder it. Waving a fluttering finger in her direction, Chloe just kept walking, "Thank you, very much for saving my life and running off my story. Dammit." She clucked her tongue, taking in a deep breath. "Was that a vampire?"
"Oh, God," the other girl breathed. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?"
"I'm not an idiot," she snapped. "I'm just earnest. Just tell me where he went."
She would have gotten it out of her, had her savior not chosen that moment to collapse against the brick wall, holding her palm against her head, face crinkling in pain.
"Oh - wow-" Suddenly Chloe was clutching onto the woman, struggling against her weight. "Are you okay?"
"Headache," she bit. "Major... headache-"
"Okay..." With her free hand, she flailed for her purse, scattered on the cement a few feet away. "I have some advil-"
"Won't help," she snapped. "Just... help me up, will you?"
"Cordelia Chase!" Footsteps and that yelp announced a scruffy looking guy wearing a headset, pained and sweaty. "You are in serious shit - running out on a shoot like that-"
"She was kind of saving my life," Chloe interrupted, appropriately indignant, clutching onto Cordelia's wrist.
"Harvey won't care," the AD snapped. "Get your ass back onto the set and under those lights or it's YOUR ass."
"That's all we've been shooting," Cordelia bit, edged out between ground teeth. "My ass. I need a break, Brian."
"Besides," Chloe chirped, smile widening, "She promised me an interview. She's a local hero."
The AD glared. "Who the hell are you?"
"Chloe Sullivan, Daily Planet," she chirped, flashing her credentials as quickly as she could, thumb not so accidentally blurring the 'intern' part. "And I'm so very happy to have witnessed this exchange."
At that moment, Cordelia Chase looked at her. Really looked at her. Chloe found herself looking right back. There was the smallest smile, before Cordelia Chase pulled herself to her feet, and blew out an uneasy breath.
"I don't do interviews," she said softly, "But thanks for the publicity."
"Thanks for the life," Chloe quipped, "Saving, I mean."
They both gave the AD icy glares, and then Cordelia was gone, the little slimy man trailing behind, leaving Chloe Sullivan alone in an alley with no story.
Strangely, she didn't seem to mind.
--
She met her again in Los Angeles - a weekend excursion in the middle of her personal living hell, when her life was made up of playing Lionel and trying desperately to find a way to end it with her life intact.
He had sent to meet up with this agency called Wolfram and Hart, and to be honest, the entire trip had given her the skives.
Chloe Sullivan wasn't expecting to run into the actress, hadn't thought of her in ages, really, until she sat down in a trendy little café in a place called Silverlake and looked up and found the woman staring down at her behind sunglasses, hair streaked and almost blonde.
"You look familiar."
"You look... blonde," Chloe managed, nearly choking on her coffee. "Can't say I think it's the best look for you."
Cordelia Chase' smirk shifted, like she had shared a secret, "Well, I saw what you had done, and couldn't resist. Kansas barbershop just seems IN."
Chloe smiled. "Care to sit?"
"Why not?"
And so she sat. Chloe Sullivan placed her coffee cup on her saucer and studied the stranger across from her. "Did we ever even meet formally?"
"Cordelia Chase," Cordelia said smoothly, offering her hand. "Retired actress, current do-gooder. And you are Chloe..."
"Sullivan," Chloe finished, "Intrepid reporter with a hankering for the weird."
"Nosy and curious," Cordelia added, "I read one of your stories," she added, "Back in Kansas. You're pretty good. For a high school kid."
Chloe arched an eyebrow. "I'm pretty damned good," she remarked flippantly, "The fact that I'm still in high school is merely an inconvenience."
"So I noticed," Cordelia Chase replied, motioning for the waiter with a quirk of her finger. "If you're taking high profile meetings with Lilah Morgan."
That sentence did it's work, Chloe supposed. Immediately, her carefree smile faded, and a chill shot down her spine. "Excuse me?"
Cordelia's eyes were cold. "Let's just get one thing straight, okay? I don't think you're evil. I don't. I think you're a silly kid whose gonna get herself into trouble some day if she keeps with the bad company."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Kind of out of the way for a field trip, aren't you?"
"Why I’m here is none of your business," Chloe snapped, "And unless you tell me what the hell you're doing snooping into my personal life-"
"-I have a special interest," Cordelia said smoothly, and produced a card, flipping it on the table, until it tapped against Chloe's fingers. Angel Investigations, she read.
"You're a detective."
"More of the Girl Friday," Cordelia shrugged. "I'm also the nicest of our bunch. We don't like Wolfram and Hart. I'm just here to make sure that you're not coming back."
"Why?"
"Because I like you," Cordelia said. "I had a vision of you and thanks to those damned things, I've become invested in your little life. You're not the only one that notices the weird. Sometimes we can help."
Slipping on her glasses, Cordelia smiled, shifting out of her chair. "I'd offer to pay for the coffee, but my pay is shit. Call me if you need to talk."
And just like that, she was gone again, leaving Chloe behind with the bill and that damned white card.
--
Chloe was a woman of pride, and she had already brought too many people into her stupid mistake.
She never did call Cordelia Chase.
But she kept her card in her notebook and once, she dreamed of her.
It was a fleeting crush on a beautiful older woman, and Chloe never expected to see her again, think of her again.
Until of course, she did.
--
She was officially dead, and that meant a lot of time and being bored stiff.
She did have the internet and her imagination, and Chloe Sullivan read about a study done at Northwestern about women and arousal, and it seemed that most women were borne with a bisexual bug.
Or something.
It was something to think about, when she googled Cordelia Chase' name and found out Cordelia had been a cheerleader, had been in a really badly reviewed version of 'A Doll's House', and had been an associate of Angel Investigations, a now defunct detective agency that specialized in the paranormal.
There was nothing else. It was like Cordelia had slipped off the face of the earth.
Ironically, just like her.
--
She had two recurring dreams about Cordelia Chase.
One was more of a nightmare, really - Chloe had always hated hospitals, but thanks to Smallville, they had become something of a second home, and so the fact that it always started there, was nothing new.
But she always found Cordelia Chase in a coma, and she hated that dream, because she had no idea how or why she had that stupid dream, or why she hated it so much, because this was a woman she had seen twice, for less than five minutes a piece.
She hated that she woke up in a cold sweat, and always fingered that stupid little white card that Cordelia had given her. The fact that once, she had even picked up the phone and dialed, to hear a recording telling her that the line had been disconnected.
But she hated the other dream more.
Most likely because she anticipated it.
Cordelia Chase, naked on a white fur in a pent house in Los Angeles, nearly purring like a cat, while Chloe lay beside her, fussing with the fur and complaining about the cruelty to animals.
"Oh would you give me a break?" Cordelia would snap, "It's a fucking dream. No animals were harmed in the creation of this gay fantasy, all right? Stop with the Freudian guilt."
"It's not Freudian and it's not guilt," Chloe would snap back. "It's the fact that even in this place, my damned mind won't stop running, and I can never stop THINKING."
"Thinking's what got you into trouble in the first place," Cordelia would respond, eyes closing and shifting against the fur. "Just shut up and feel."
"That's all I ever do," Chloe would mumble. "Feel. I feel sorry for myself. I feel pissed off at Clark. I feel like I’m in love with Clark. I feel guilty about Lana-"
"The girl's got enough guilt to make Angel look like a damned Santa Claus," Cordelia would interrupt. "Seriously. Your life has my eyes aching from rolling so much."
"And yours is any better?" Chloe would snap. "You're in a coma."
"Uh-uh," Cordelia would respond. "I'm in a pent house on a white fur, naked. It's lovely."
Chloe would never touch her. She felt weird about that. There was enough psychological warping in this whole thing to send her to therapy for months. Introducing the gay sex would have just made it weirder.
Instead, she looked at naked Cordelia, and smiled and talked and laughed, and at the end, Cordelia would lean forward, wink and smile.
"See if next time you try and kiss me."
She always woke up annoyed. Cordelia was good at that.
--
Life was back to normal when she was allowed to live again. She was back to being in love with Clark, who was back to pining over Lana, and Lois was always there to quip and smile.
Chloe wanted to tell Lois that she reminded her of Cordelia, that maybe that was why she liked her phantom Cordelia so much, because she had Lois' quips and snark and dark good looks.
To be honest, Chloe had always admired brunettes - the idea that blondes had more fun was pure myth.
Lex sent her and Gabe to Los Angeles for a weekend a few weeks after she was brought back to life. Kind of a 'sorry I ruined your life, but here! Disneyland!' kinda thing. Her dad was too proud to ever work for LexCorp, but he took the vacation because he said Chloe needed it, and maybe she did.
She snuck away one afternoon and found the hospital she had written down, went up to the front desk and asked for Cordelia Chase, and was told that Cordelia Chase had died two months earlier.
Her father never understood why he had found her sobbing that night.
--
Chloe Sullivan stared at her wall of Weird the day she figured out the truth about Clark.
With a deep breath in, she removed the little white card and she pressed it into the bulletin board with a tack. Stepping back, she traced the black letters of Cordelia Chase, neat and simple and pure.
"Do you believe in Guardian Angels?"
Chloe Sullivan's mother was never far from her mind. This year had been full of way too many revelations, and she had tried so hard to lock her mother's away from her, because Chloe Sullivan could never handle helplessness.
She took pride in her sharp mind, and clever quips. The idea that her own mind would betray her scared her so much, she had actually contracted an ulcer.
That was she was going crazy was the first thing she thought, when she turned around and discovered Cordelia Chase in the doorway of the Torch, leaning in with her trademark smirk.
"Oh my God," she breathed.
"Oh my Powers," Cordelia corrected, and took another step into her office. "Don't look so freaked, honey-"
"Oh, God," She breathed again, body shaking, eyes blurring with tears, "Please, just don't-"
"Relax," Cordelia said again, and kept coming. "I'm not a figment - okay I am, but this is strictly a sane-"
"I'm going to close my eyes," Chloe breathed, "And you're going to disappear. I’m not ready for this. I'm not ready for this-"
She shut her eyes against Cordelia Chase, ignored the click clack of Cordelia's boots, and willed herself to believe that she could control this-
Until a soft mouth pressed against her own, until hot breath puffed against her, and suddenly she was invaded with a moist, firm tongue. She was frozen stiff, eyes inching open to discover Cordelia Chase pulling back, staring into her face with a smile.
"I gave up on waiting for you to kiss me," she whispered, "Figured I'd make the first move."
Chloe's heart raced amazingly. "Please," she pleaded. "I'm not ready for this."
"The gay thing?" Cordelia asked, looking puzzled, until she blinked, and her mouth opened in an 'oh', "Oh, the hallunication thing! Oh, honey-"
"Don't touch me-" Chloe blurted. "Please don't-"
"You're not going crazy," Cordelia said gently, "You're not. I have it on very good authority that you will beat this-"
"How can you be sure?" she whispered. "How can you be sure?"
"Because it's why I'm here," Cordelia said, smile creasing her face. "I've got an upgrade. It's a limited time offer. You're just the second stop."
Chloe had no idea what she meant. "I'm nuts!"
Cordelia narrowed her eyes, "Honey, we're really going to have a chat, pretty soon. There's so much you don't know."
"Chloe?" Blinking back tears, Chloe looked past her figment Cordelia to see Clark standing uncertainly in the hallway. "Are you okay?"
"I’m not okay!" she squeaked. "I'm not okay! Clark!"
Cordelia rolled her eyes, stepping away.
"What's wrong?" Clark came forward. "What's wrong!"
"Clark, I need to-"
"What did you do to her?" he snapped angrily at Cordelia, and it was when he did, that Chloe's world suddenly shifted.
"You can see her?"
Clark blinked, looking back at Chloe. "What?"
"Her!" She shoved a finger in Cordelia's direction. "You can SEE her?"
"Of course he can see me, Nimrod. I'm standing right here." Cordelia looked bored, studying her nails. "And for the record? This town is seriously in the market for a decent manicurist."
"Chloe..." Clark looked genuinely worried. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I’m just..." she could breathe. "I have to sit."
"We haven't met," Cordelia said with a smile, reaching a hand over to Clark. "I'm Cordelia Jameson, the new advisor for the Torch."
Clark blinked, holding her hand and looking at Chloe in bewilderment. "We have an advisor?"
All she could offer was a weak shrug.
"I'm just here to keep an eye on things," Cordelia said, pushing out of her own chair. "The principal was a little worried about the lack of leadership."
"So they bring in the hot young model to attract jailbait," Chloe snarked, before she could help herself. It was almost a relief.
"We're still hammering out the details," Cordelia answered, glaring at Chloe.
"So... that's why you're upset?" Clark asked. "Cause of her?"
"Clark, I guarantee you, she is the sole reason I'm upset," Chloe said methodically. "Right now, I could really kick her well endowed ass."
It was snarky and witty and angry, and Clark knew better than to get in the way of the hissy fit. "Right... okay. Well, I'll leave you to work it out. Miss... Jameson?"
"Hate the last name," she said easily. "Call me Cordelia."
"Right... Umm... see you?"
"For a while," she said, twiddling her good bye before Clark gave Chloe another worried glance.
She only sighed, waving him away. If she was going crazy, she was at least taking Clark down with her. That was a small consolation.
When they were alone again, Cordelia looked so pleased with herself, Chloe could have murdered her. If she wasn't already dead. "They told me you were in a coma!"
"I was. Died and everything. This is so very mystic you have no idea." Cordelia grinned. "I got a promotion."
"To what? Now you're going to be my spiritual pain in my ass?"
"I'm here as long as you want me here, Chloe," Cordelia said. "You don't have to be alone in this. There are some powerful people upstairs who want to see you succeed."
And she kissed her. Again. With a gentle brush of her lips, and a small bit of tongue, and Chloe was again just so stunned she couldn't do much of anything but sit there.
"You're losing your touch," Cordelia murmured. "That was your fantasy, not mine."
"Oh... shut up."
"First draft on my desk by noon," Cordelia announced, heading for the doorway. "Oh, and Chloe?"
A very tired Chloe just looked up and glared.
Cordelia smiled. "I think I'm going to like Smallville."
And she left Chloe alone, yet again, with her wall of Weird, and her near heart attack.
As if she didn't have enough to deal with.
Now she had the world's most annoying Guardian Angel.
"Peachy."
--
FIN.