A/N: Based off the song Sometime Around Midnight by the band The Airborne Toxic Event, I love this song and I thought of how perfect it would be for a John/Claire story, song lyrics in italics. One-shot. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my idea for this songfic, all the credit for the wonderful characters goes to John Hughes. RIP the talented John Hughes, your movies will always be remembered as classics. The song of course belongs to The Airborne Toxic Event.

And it starts, sometime around midnight.
Or at least that's when you lose yourself
for a minute or two.

As you stand, under the bar lights.
And the band plays some song
about forgetting yourself for a while.

John grabs the drink the bartender handed him and downs it instantly, it's late and after another stressful day at work he decided to come to his favorite old bar just for a drink or two, just to take the edge off, just to relax. He glances around, the lights are low, there's some local band on stage tonight that starts in on a song. He downs a second drink, and listens to the song the band's playing.

Some melodramatic song that's never been quite his style but it's not completely disagreeable; in fact, it brings to mind someone he had been trying to forget now for years. But he knows he'll never be able to forget her, he sighs and puts his glass down on the counter and motions for another. If only things hadn't gone so wrong between them.

The bartender hands him the refilled drink and just as he takes it from the man, he turns his head to the door and who walks in but her. His hand is suspended in midair, holding the drink out at the same distance that the barman had handed it to him. He comes back to reality and downs the drink as fast as he can, his heart is racing. He notices she's with someone else, some guy he doesn't know.

It's been years, almost seven now to be exact from that fateful day they met in detention. Almost four from the horrible end to what had been the best years of his life; everything seems to be in extra sharp focus somehow now despite the drinks that he's had. He watches them sit down several tables away, she's smiling and laughing at what the guy has said but somehow she doesn't seem completely there, there's something lacking in her smile. The music, which has gone into a crescendo, only accentuates this about her he realizes.

And the piano's this melancholy soundtrack to her smile.
And that white dress she's wearing
you haven't seen her for a while.

She's still just as beautiful as she always was that dress she's wearing, just a simple white dress with the smallest of straps holding it up, it was always his favorite. He loved how it would hug every part of her but would flow out right above her knees when she spun around in it. It was probably the simplest thing she owned and she had never understood why it always floored him the way it did.

He sees her gaze land on him out of the corner of her eye and he briskly turns away but the next second, with a quick look over his shoulder he sees her attention is back on the man she came with. He motions for the bartender to fill the glass again. No one else in the bar may feel it but John can feel the tension in the air between him and Claire. He can tell by the way she's holding her drink, by the way she's smiling, just by the way she's sitting, that she feels it too.

But you know, that she's watching.
She's laughing, she's turning.
She's holding her tonic like a cross.

He shifts in his seat to make it look like he's watching the band on stage but to where he can still see her. As he does this, he can feel her eyes on him and he tries to look indifferent as possible to the fact that she's there, tries to look genuinely interested in the band. He even begins to nod his head slowly in time to the music.

With terror clenching at his heart he realizes that she's gotten up out of her chair and is making her way to him. This can't be happening, he manages to keep his cool outwardly, he had perfected that behavior even before high school, and it had served him well, throughout life so far. He was so thankful for that at the moment, so thankful that she couldn't see him choke like he wanted to, or know that for him at the moment the entire place seemed to be spinning and it had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the alcohol he had tonight. He has no idea what to say to her, the only thing running through his mind though is the quote from the movie Casablanca, "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

The room's suddenly spinning.
She walks up and asks how you are.

As she approaches, he calmly looks sideways at her and gives her one of his famous smirks, and after only a second or two that feels like hours he breaks the ice finally.

"Didn't know this was your kind of place Cherry."

"How are you John? Long time no see."

How is he? She's got to be joking; she can't see how he is right now? A million things run through his mind but none make much sense, he even has a momentary vision of climbing onto the bar and proclaiming his love for her. But he can't do that, he just can't. Draining the glass yet again, slower though, keeping with his indifferent attitude like he has all the time in the world.

"I've been alright enough. So, you and lover boy over there set a date yet or what?"

"He's just a friend John."

"Funny, I don't have any friends that look at me like that."

She sighs, "You haven't changed a bit have you? For your information, this is only the second time I've been out with him. Why can't you be nice John?"

So you can smell her perfume.
You can see her lying naked in your arms.

And so there's a change, in your emotions.
And all these memories come rushing
like feral waves to your mind.
Of the curl of your bodies,
like two perfect circles entwined.

He looks up into her eyes for the first time since she walked over to him, she's too close. She wearing that perfume that always made him crazy; memories come flooding back to him without warning. Memories that he had been trying so hard to bury, flashbacks like snapshots of them in the apartment they had bought together, them lying in bed tangled up in each other on an early Saturday morning, the day he presented her with the ring he had scrimped and saved to buy her since they had graduated high school…the day she had walked out. He stares down into his empty glass for a moment then looks up.

She's waiting for an answer, why can't he be nice? The memories are still playing in his mind like a slideshow, this isn't fair. Why in his life had he always gotten the short end of the stick? He had had paradise with her, he had lived it, known Utopia and then without warning it was all snatched away. Yet he still loves her, there will never be anyone else who matches up to her.

And you feel hopeless and homeless
and lost in the haze of the wine.

Why can't he be nice? Because it still hurts…he steadies himself mentally, glares at her and says in a low voice, "Why can't I be nice? What about you Claire? Why can't you be nice?"

She shakes her head, "You know; it was stupid of me to even come over here and talk to you. And to think, I actually was excited to see you here."

"Excited?" he says with as much acid in his voice as he can muster, "why would you even care about seeing me? You're the one who ended things between us you know, don't try to tell me for one minute that you actually were happy to see me."

"I was hurt too by what happened between us! Whether you believe me or not, maybe I would like to fix things, a second chance."

"You're a bigger idiot than I ever thought you were if you think I'm dumb enough to fall for that, you never get tired of playing the victim do you Claire? Poor little rich girl, crumbled under the pressure from Mommy and Daddy to leave the no good bum that had her shacking up with him."

"DON'T! I know I was wrong John! What do I have to do to make you forgive me?"

"Maybe if you had actually bothered to pick up a phone in the last couple of years but no, you and your family are always going to be too good for me, and you can't ever be expected to think for yourself. Oh God forbid THAT ever happen! I'm the one who hasn't changed?! Well what about you? Looks like you haven't changed a bit either."

"I didn't want to leave John, I didn't! You have to believe me,.."

He cuts her off, "Believe you? No one was twisting your arm Claire, no one held a gun to your head, you could have stayed if you really wanted to, but no, once you told dear old Dad that you planned to marry the piece of trash that you had been living with, oh that's when it all hit the fan isn't it? They weren't going to even hear of the idea of us getting married, because how horrible it would be for their daughter to actually be happy and marry someone who really loved her not just for how much money her family had. I bet your "friend" over there was a set up date by your Mommy wasn't he? Just the right kind of clean cut guy she wants to see her baby with, well what would Mommy and Daddy think if they could see him bringing their Princess into a seedy place like this?"

"I convinced him to come here because I knew you'd be here!" She had tears in her eyes now, he started to say something but she continued, "I had to move away when I left because I couldn't stand to stay here without you! When I came back Allison told me you still lived in the area and I knew I'd find you here."

"Funny, you still talk to Allison? That's hard to believe, surprised she didn't take you down a peg or two for what you did. You know Sporto still married her despite what his parents wanted. Not that you bothered to show up for the wedding though or for Brian's wedding either."

"I told you! I moved away, I tried to start a new life for myself, I cut all ties with Shermer, I wasn't ready to face you yet at their wedding. When I came back a few weeks ago I called her and she told me you were still here." She adds with a whisper, "You have no idea how much I've missed you John"

"If you were so hurt by what happened then why did you leave? You were the one who did the leaving as I recall it was me telling you to not let the door hit you on the way out, not the other way around. Don't try to pretend like you're the poor little girl who got heartbroken, I'm not buying it!"

There are several people looking at them now, thankfully though the band is still playing and most of the attention in the room is on them still. Claire looks at him through eyes brimming over with tears and suddenly turns and stalks away angrily. She grabs the hand of the guy she came with and they march out the door but not before she turns and hurls one last angry look at him. He's boiling with rage, then all the anger dissipates the moment he sees her leave, again.

Then she leaves, with someone you don't know.
But she makes sure you saw her.
She looks right at you and bolts.
As she walks out the door,
your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes.

Oh and when your friends say,
"What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Some of his buddies from work walk in as they leave and come up and clap him on the back in greeting. They talk but John doesn't hear anything they're saying, he's still staring at the door she walked out.

"John? John," the taller of his friends tries to get his attention.

Then another friend comes up to him, a couple of beers in hand, "Hey man, you alright? You look like you just saw a ghost or something, you gonna be alright?"

"Ah, he's just probably already had one too many, you did beat us here after all right Johnny?"

Then you walk, under the streetlights.
And you're too drunk to notice,
that everyone is staring at you.
You just don't care what you look like,
the world is falling around you.

John doesn't answer; he shoves past them and walks out the door purposefully but somewhat drunkenly. Not noticing, not caring that everyone near him and everyone on the sidewalk outside are staring at him as he walks past them. All he can think about is her and how he just screwed everything up, maybe if he can catch up with her, he can apologize for making her cry. He always hated to see women cry but especially Claire; he never wanted to make her cry. He just had to get to her. There's no one else but her, just her, she's all he's ever wanted, and he has to get back to her.

You just have to see her.
You just have to see her.
You just have to see her.
You just have to see her.
You just have to see her.
You know that she'll break you in two.