Ghostly Encounters
storiesofdarknses
Summary: When Chloe Sullivan is in Smallville High Library for a late night study, she winds up facing off with an unexpected vengeful ghost-only to be saved by none other than Jo Harvelle.
Crossover: Smallville/Supernatural
Rated: G
Disclaimers: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural. This fic was written purely for my own amusement.
Notes: Idea sparked at the thought of wanting to read a fic where Chloe and Jo meet because both of them are fairly young in their field of work-Chloe's a really young reporter, and Jo's kind of a young hunter (huntress?), and I didn't have much luck finding one. So, I decided to write one. Questions/Comments? Please feel free to ask away. Thank you for reading.
It was dark and quiet in the library as rain pattered against the windows outside, and Chloe was beginning to quietly freak herself out. Generally, she didn't mind the dark quiet libraries-save for a light or two on so that she could read the book titles, or something-but it was slowly getting steadily colder. Cold that goosebumps were rising on her arms and neck, and she couldn't help but feel that…something was dreadfully wrong.
She swallowed hard, and was glancing around to see if anyone else was still in the library with her. A young blond woman was sitting near the door, with a dufflebag at her feet, and a laptop on her lap, her brow furrowed as she was evidentally having trouble with researching or didn't understand what she was reading-which wasn't a rare thing in the library as one might believe, Chloe thought with an inner chuckle remembering how often she'd been the one sitting like that.
A sound from the back empty part of the library drew her attention, and she jerked her head towards it-not noticing that the only other company near her did the same. Instead, she stared into the dark area of the library, feeling spooked, and had her phone on hand to call Clark if things got hairy.
"Do you mind if I sit next to you? Whoa, sorry, didn't mean to startle you!" The girl who'd Chloe had noticed earlier held her hands up, showing she meant no harm. Chloe's heart slowed down, but she still felt rather shakey.
"Sorry. Usually deadly quiet libraries don't spook me like this. I guess it's because it's close to Halloween." She joked. "Sure, you can sit next to me-in fact, I'd welcome the company right about now. I'm Chloe Sullivan,"
"Jo Harvelle," The woman responded, smiling at her. "What'cha working on?" She asked, curiosity plainly visible.
"A report for Smallville High's newspaper. I'm trying to find something interesting to write for the front page, but I'm not having much luck at all." Chloe said, sighing as she plunked back down into her chair. Jo pulled out a chair next to her, and began reading.
"Talented Artist Gets His Talent from Aliens?" Jo asked, raising an eyebrow. Chloe blushed.
"Well, I've always found that there are quite a few weird things in Smallville that are linked with meterocks and stuff, so…yeah. I, uh…I've been writing around those, and I was trying to aim for something a bit different, but not too different," She admitted, biting her lip.
Jo laughed.
"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing because it's awesome," Jo reassured her, seeing Chloe's hurt gaze. Chloe blinked, not expecting that.
"You don't think it's weird?"
"Hell, I think it's weird as fuck…er, sorry. I picked up some terrible swearing habits from my older best friend. He swears all the time," Jo said, sheepishly. "Mom's been trying to break my habit-and his-but it's not going all that well."
Chloe giggled-but then gasped when the light flickered.
Jo eyed it, and said,
"Ya know, I think maybe you should try for something other than aliens and shiny green rocks," Jo seemed to mull it over for a moment, and then brightened. "How about haunted libraries? Write anything about them?"
Chloe blinked.
"Haunted libraries?" She asked, doubtfully. "I'm not much one for ghosts, really…it's all…a bit out there, don't you think?"
"Well, yeah. But there are quite a lot of people who think ghost stories are interesting, and just the right side of creepy," Jo pointed out, stuffing a pencil behind her ear as she was flipping through some of Chloe's notes. "You've already got the setting and location-what more do you need?" Jo added.
Chloe thought for a moment-she did have a point. Haunted places were always interesting, and it would be a bit off the beaten track for her-instead of the usual aliens and green rocks, it'd be ghosts. She'd not done any ghost stories just yet, and every reporter did at least one of those in their career. She began to smile.
"You know, that's a good idea."
"However, I don't think we should work on it tonight," Jo continued, sounding solemn. "Right now, I hear coffee calling my name. How about we go to that local coffee place-it's only eight thirty, it should still be open, right?"
"Doesn't close until ten thirty," Chloe agreed, gathering her notebooks and laptop. "Yeah, coffee sounds actually fantastic right now. You want a cup with me? I'll pay, since you just helped me with my next front page header and all."
Jo grinned.
"I'm not gonna turn down a free cup of coffee," She said, smirking at her. Chloe smiled, and finished gathering her things. She didn't notice as they left that Jo had left her dufflebag beneath the table, or that Jo had also flipped off the lights and was locking the door behind her, or that she was purposefully being hearded out of the library so that Jo could kill the ghost later that was causing quite a few scares to many of the students there.
Chloe only noticed that four nights later, when she returned to the library to work late, that there was a pile of ashes discovered by one student, and a card left for her at the librarian's desk that read 'thanks for the coffee'.
Needless to say, her ghost article was one of the biggest hits that year-she'd gotten a slew of mail from fans, and even Clark had admitted to liking the article.
She only wished that she could share the good news with her unexpected late night partner, who seemed to have vanished from the town without a trace.
End