Notes: You may feel free to poke me because there is no Davis in these next *two* chapters. But he will be in the next two updates as he and Chloe deal. Did I get your attention yet? :p
Follow the cut for Chloe, a wedding dress and dumping some old baggage.
She smoothes the strap sleeves of her wedding dress. She tries to recall how many times she's thought of standing at the altar- happy, convinced, her future somewhere beyond a carpet of scattered petals.
She thinks it didn't matter who the groom's face was (Clark's or Jimmy's), just that he would be there and she would love him.
It's been six days leading up to this. Subconsciously, she supposes, she didn't want to let it go.
But she didn't exactly want to keep it either.
It would be wrong to show up on her wedding day. So she shows up a day before the wedding, dressed like she's going to the Planet.
He's having lunch with a few buddies that quickly go off, raising eyebrows.
"Chloe! ach." Jimmy makes a big show out of not looking at her. He's enjoying this-having a fiancée, his almost bride come and visit him.
She feels bad, and knows what she's going to say.
"I'm not wearing a wedding dress. Geesh."
"Right."
"I love it that you're here. So, what's up?"
"Not too much. Just a …tough…question."
"I'm all about tough questions. Zen master, remember?"
"…Do you really love me, Jimmy?"
"Of course! I've always loved you."
"Why?"
It's an honest question. She doesn't want romanticism.
"You're the first girl I wanted to take out to a movie just to stare at …you were my first sweetheart and only real girlfriend... You're the only girl I've ever proposed to or wanted to marry.
I think you like me. Right?"
The side of his mouth tilts into a confused smile.
"Is this a case of bride fear? I'm not going to run off. I'm sorry about…what happened before. I was much more immature and I had a crush… temporary side…thing..."
Oh yes, there was this girl called Kara, once. Clark's 'cousin'. Beautiful in that same overwhelming way.
She had vanished to him in front of the other blond. (Why did that always happen?) And maybe he never said so, but before she left, she thought Kara was to him what Clark was to her.
Maybe they were both the same, holding onto each other because they were so very afraid of getting hurt.
It would be so easy if Jimmy did not want to love her so much.
"You can count on me, now. I'm not in love with anyone else. I'll stand with you through bride jitters and freaky green rocks and…"
"It's not any of that, Jimmy. My problem is a little different."
She doesn't need the questions to interrupt with her search now. She could tell him about the powers, but she doesn't need him to tell Clark. They've gotten close.
"I'm not-- the girl you asked to marry you, anymore."
"Of course you are. You're Chloe. You love coffee, you…Wait. This isn't one of these weird existentialist crises, right? Because…"
His nostrils flare the way they do when he's confused or scared.
"Nothing like that. When I was with… Lois, out there in Metropolis, I rediscovered the weird out there. I found out some things about me.
Like the fact that I want to do crazy research problems, and follow my stories across the globe. I ruined Lois's week by not partying too hard because I was at work. If we got married, you'd barely see me.
It would be unfair to you to settle down now."
"We could make it work."
"We'd know each other through e-mails, and drives across the country. Can you imagine yourself being married without a wife? Would you really wait so long to see me once a month, once a week?"
He doesn't look at her for a second.
"You wanted a home and 2.5 kids and the white picket fence..."
"None of it would matter if we loved each other. I could bag lunches and you could come visit at the Planet some days. We could go out to dinner together. We could make it work."
She doesn't think she could imagine it, even barring present circumstances. She doesn't want to be wined and dined into romance. She wants to be whole.
"That would be like dating. Which is another reason why we don't need to think about running into the chapel tomorrow. While I'm gone, you could meet a nice girl, one that's not all crazy for the weird and scary.
I'm setting you free."
"Just like that? The wedding's tomorrow and you're going to walk away…"
"I'm not the same, anymore, Jimmy."
She presses the plastic ring into his hand and kisses him on the cheek. She feels lighter and heavier at the same time.
"I'll miss you. I don't want you to do this." He says.
She knows he's already thinking of just how he's going to tell his mother, and how they'll handle the minister.
"But I need to. You'll see. You're going to flirt, and go out on your own and rediscover a whole new way of living."
"Wait a minute, Chloe. This…whole thing…"
He looks embarrassed for just a minute, instead of resigned.
"It's about you. It isn't about Clark right?"
"I promise you, it is not about Clark."
And for the first time, it's completely true.
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