Title: Denial
Fandom: Days of Our Lives
Pairing: Brady/Chloe
Rating: PG
Summary: Chloe moves on. (Except the part where she totally doesn't.)
Notes: So I got sick and had to be home alone on the couch for a week, and entertained myself by pulling out all of my old Broe tapes and rediscovering my love for my first One True Pairing. I've been following Days spoilers and summaries and have a lot of mixed (mostly negative) emotions about the Brady recast, but I decided to write a little Broe reunion piece all the same. Pick the Brady of your choice. (Mine will always be Kyle.)
She doesn't miss him.
She doesn't miss him when she starts her new life. She doesn't miss him when she's in another man's arms. She doesn't miss him when she sings, when she sleeps, when she cries.
(She hasn't laughed since she had him.)
She doesn't miss him, because she doesn't think about him. At all. Ever. In the moments when his face come to mind, she recalls the last few months, the fighting, the cruel words, breaking glass and breaking hearts.
(She remembers when she was scarred and scared and tried to push him away, and he wouldn't let go.)
She is doing just fine without him, thank you very much. She has a good life, a semblance of a family, a man who is kind to her.
(She had a man once who held up her head when she was too weak to lift it herself.)
She isn't happy to see him when he returns, clean, healthy and ready to make amends.
(She should have stayed to help him get there.)
"It's one of my steps, apparently," he says with a self-deprecating smile that does nothing (everything) to her heart. "I'm supposed to apologize to everyone I hurt. It's me, so that's a pretty long list. But no one as much as you, and you…you were the last person in the world I ever wanted to hurt. I'm so sorry, Chloe. God, I'm sorry. I can't even ask you to forgive me, because I'll never forgive myself."
(She let him think she was dead, and he forgave her before she even asked.)
"I'm seeing someone," she says. She has no need for closure; she got that a long time ago.
(They will never be closed.)
The pain that flickers across his face doesn't hurt her. "That's…that's good. You deserve to be happy."
(Happiness was fighting over the last chocolate donut.)
"I am."
(She's not.)
His eyes search her face. She feels the need to hide. The corner of his mouth turns up; a bitter, knowing half-smile. "Yeah. Right."
(He gets his mouth and his words from his father. She doesn't know where he got the ability to see her soul.)
Her fists clench, nails cutting into her skin. She hates him. She truly hates him. "Whether I am or not is not your concern anymore, Brady. I don't need or want you in my life ever again!"
(He is all she has ever needed.)
His hands seek out the pockets of his jeans. His ability to remain calm in the face of her rage further infuriates her. "I don't have to be in your life anymore, Chloe. But we are going to see each other. I'm staying; my dad needs me. I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry, I'm clean, and I'll be around." He walks away.
(Her heart goes with him.)
She doesn't think about him when she goes home.
(It isn't home. It's a building where she keeps her stuff.)
She doesn't think about him when she kisses her boyfriend.
(His kisses gave her hope.)
She spends months not thinking about him. She doesn't think about him every time his eyes lock onto hers, every time their skin brushes, every time he shows her some truth about herself no one else could see.
(She's done this before, the first time she felt herself falling.)
She keeps her heart bound and gagged and safe from the kind of hurt only he can cause.
(He's the only one who matters enough.)
He kisses her. The walls fall down.
(She missed him every moment, every day.)