Author's Note: There's nothing worse than the end of the year.

Imzadi- Yep. Lindsey might just so happen to be in this chapter actually. Who knows? I'm an angst lover, so of course I can't leave Lindsey out of the loop. Especially since… :clamps mouth shut: Oops. :looks away from the computer screen: Ooo! My Chemical Romance is on MTV!

Princess Lollipop- lol. I needed a good, funny review I especially loved your Smallville High Graduation speech. God, these kids are going to be so messed up when they finally DO get out of Smallville. I mean, just look at them now!

Tehzo- I love angst. It's probably close to the only type of fan fiction/fiction I read. (Well, not really. But angst is 90 of my novel collection.)

Susire- Chloe just so happens to be one of my favorite characters. (As you probably already knew.) I'm happy to know that I'm drawing people into the show… one soul at a time. Lol.

BeerGamesHideout- Thanks! It's always comforting to know that your story is kick ass! Awesome!

Euley- Thanks, you rock!

I own nothing... only the plot idea.

Takes place around season two of Angel.

Thoughts and sometimes titles are in italics.

Chapter 13

Well, it was nice meeting you all." Lana said, looking carefully at the four new people in her friend's room. "Uh we didn't know that you had company, Chloe."

Chloe attemped to smile cheefully, which after some effort ended up a half-hearted smirk of some sort. She nodded dolefully. "Yeah."

"We should be…" Lana trailed off looking to the door.

"Oh please." Cordelia waved a hand, abruptly dismissing the girl's statement. "Don't leave on our account."

Chloe instantly dropped her head again, her eyes widening at Cordelia's unexpected invite.

Frowing at Chloe's suspicious behavior, Cordelia continued twirling a rose stem between her fingers. "Unless you WANT to leave, then I won't stop you."

Laughingly Lana scrunched her nose up in amusement. She shook her head once again indicating that her mind was aleady made up. Besides, it wasn't as if Chloe wanted to speak to any of them anyway. Even when the little trio of friends had entered the cramped hospital room earlier that morning, Chloe had either been visting with other people, asleep, or out of her room for more tests.

When they had finally managed to speak to her sometime during the mayhem of the hospital day she seemed… insincere. Her side of the conversation was full of ephemeral answers and phrases. Lana could only wonder what had caused the unwelcomed change.

"We'll just talk to you later Chlo." Turning on her heel to leave Lana walked out of the door with Pete and Clark following close behind her.

"Yeah, later…" Chloe said a bit distractedly, as she watched Lana, Pete, and Clark leaving her multicolored room.

"Wow." Cordelia's was the first voice to break the uncomfortable silence once Chloe's friends had left. What was that anyway? They walk into the room and act like acquaintances, people who barely know each other than old friends. "Intense."

Chloe mutely smiled before commenting how tired she was. In actualitly she didn't want to talk about what had happened between her and her "friends".

"Well, guess that's our cue." Gathering the empty styrofoam packaging, Cordelia enveloped the bed riddened girl in a hug one last time before leaving. Wesley, Gunn, and Angel followed her example.

"You're getting soft in your old age." Chloe chuckled, commenting jokingly once Angel wrapped her in a hug.

Angel smirked warmly before pulling away, a little nervoulsy. "If you need anything…"

Rolling her eyes, Chloe smiled slightly at the anxious vampire. "Don't worry dad." She said with an edge of five year old assurance. "It's only a sleepover."

To which she acquired a 'look'.

"Okay. Okay." Holding the palms of her hands outward, she quickly waved off another irritated 'look'. "Sorry."

Angel reached to embrace her once more before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

Chloe couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief now that everyone had gone. She had been almost elated that Angel, Gunn, Wesley, and Cordelia had dropped by to visit. But when Lana, Clark, and Pete popped in, she was afraid that the nurse would practically fly in the room because her heart rate had sped up so quickly.

Resting her head against the blindingly white complimentary hospital pillow, Chloe wiped a hand over weary eyes.

What had driven her to this point?

To dread every glimpse of her Smallvillian friends?

Sure, they had mistrusted her, treated her like she was some kind of steadfast journalist who cared more about writing an exposé on her friends than keeping their secrets. But was that the extend of it, or could the dilema have something to do with Clark and Lana's budding relationship behind her back?

She hated hurting them. Despite how she felt, she truly regretted hurting her former friends. Her heart had been stomped on, wounded, and crushed enough times to know what true pain felt like. Wishing that kind of torment on someone wouldn't solve or prove anything.

Sighing, Chloe shut her eyes, refusing to let the painful memories spring white hot tears from her already tearing eyes. Maybe they once had that effect on her, but not now.

No.

Not now.

At least that's what she told herself as she let the dreary medicine lull her softly to sleep.

Chloe awoke an hour later to a loud, throaty, rasping cough.

Ms. Johnson was back.

The stout, wrinkled woman was suffering from a punctured lung, and a few broken ribs, apparently acquired during a horseback ride a few weeks ago. The friendly yet verbose woman had told Chloe that she had been on her daily hike through the wilds of her property with her Palomino mare, Daisy, when a large, ugly tan bear jumped out of the woods and attacked them.

Ms. Johnson had been utterly upset by the bear attack, or, at least at what she thought had been a bear attack. But Kansas generally didn't have any bears other than the ones in the state zoo. It wasn't like Grizzlies were part of the day to day wildlife population along with the squirrels and coyotes, and after the elderly woman had tried to recollect the creature's appearance, Chloe concluded that it hadn't been a bear at all.

Ms. Johnson's bear sounded more like their newly acquainted monkey friend more than anything else.

What he had been doing in the woods, Chloe could only guess.

Despite the circumstances, Ms. Johnson had turned out to be a wonderful roommate, always lending her advice and input to anyone who would listen.

"Ms. Johnson?" Guardedly and very cautiously, Chloe inched somewhat painfully out of her hospital bed. "Did you need anything? Water maybe?"

The old woman grinned after blotting her mouth with a nearby Kleenex on the nightstand. "Gracious. Not you too."

Ms. Johnson continued to wipe at her mouth desperately, though there was nothing visible.

"I heard you coughing…" Chloe supplemented, gazing at the woman worriedly.

"I'm fine dear." The Kleenex was placed almost tenderly in a nearby trashcan. "But what about you?"

Chloe merely looked baffled at Ms. Johnson's accusation. How had she…? Were her feelings sprawled on her face that clearly?

You look like you just lost your best friend or your beloved puppy."

"I-" Chloe briefly closed her eyes then reopened them suddenly, focusing on the crème tiled floor. "It's that obvious?"

Looking at her roommate sullenly, the old woman nodded.

"I… guess. I've… just been a little preoccupied lately." Chloe said, avoiding Ms. Johnson's scrutinizing gaze. The old woman had an almost clairvoyant way of reading other people's emotions. Just the other day she had been able to tell that Lily, on of the nurses on staff that was currently assigned to their floor, was leaving Smallville for Granville solely based on light conversation.

"This wouldn't have to do with your friend that was here earlier, would it?" Ms. Johnson smiled at the young woman knowingly. "He reminds me of someone I used to know, way back when."

Chloe rose an eyebrow skeptically. She wasn't doubting her optimistic roommate. Angel was a vampire, a very old vampire. He very well might have been whomever it was that he reminded Ms. Johnson of, but if was better if she didn't know that.

"Well, not really know, per say. More like… met once."

Chloe nodded slowly. Sometimes the woman would unexpectedly break a conversation with a story. They normally consisted of events that occurred during her past, when she was at the 'peak of her prime' and certainly more of a 'wild card' than she was now.

Not that Chloe particularly minded the waylaid, reminiscent tales. In fact she loved listening to the stories about the 'good ol' days', when admission to the movie theater was only a nickel and hamburgers were only a dime.

She didn't even mind it when Angel would occasionally break out into a story. She acted like it pained her to sit there and listen to little snippets about his past life, which he barely talked about anyway, but she secretly loved hearing about the vampire's happy-go-lucky, vagabond life in 18th century.

By the end of the story she was either sore from laughing too hard (something that her current doctor had said she shouldn't do too much of), or near tears of empathy.

"It was on one of those nights 'out on the town'. John and I- I think that was his name. I wasn't really paying attention to him that much. John was always a bit of a stickler for rules, and little boring around the edges."

This earned a small chuckle from her audience as Ms. Johnson continued.

"He was a nice man, don't get me wrong. He just didn't know how to have fun. Always about his job and his money. The man was a workaholic with no common sense, and he had the nerve to ask why I wanted to stop seeing him after a month rolled by."

Pausing to take a sip of water, Ms. Johnson hastily began retelling her tale.

"Anyway, John and I were out on the town, going to see a film and I don't know what possessed me to, but I brought Prissy, my Pomeranian, God bless her little soul.

I turned my back for a moment, and Prissy had run into the street and in the path of a speeding car. Luckily a man, I never did get his name, grabbed Prissy out of harm's way. I tried thanking him, but he was exceptionally rude." She said with a huff, and a sigh. "Men! You'd think he'd at least want some thanks or compensation after than… the insolence of that man! But I couldn't be too upset with him, not after he had rescued Prissy."

Silent, a pensive expression just barely visible on her face, Chloe thought about just how similar Ms. Johnson's story seemed to a "good ol' days" story Angel had told her during a conversation one night where she was working overtime on a case that should have belonged on her high school Wall of Weird.

"Oh. Listen to me, jabbering on." Ms. Johnson took another sip of water from the gloss by her bedside before setting it down. "Now what was the problem?"

"Ms. Johnson," Chloe negated, smiling to emphasis her point. "I'm fine… really."

"You wouldn't need a psychologist to tell you that there's something unsettling you."

Sighing, Chloe slumped back even further into the stiff straight-backed chair. She shifted almost uncomfortably in the hospital's mediocre excuse for "quality" comfort.

"You know, you'll feel a lot better once you tell him how you feel."

Green eyes widened enough to be the size of dinner plates, not only was she utterly baffled as to who her normally reserved roomie referred to, but to the fact that she had even suggested what she had, and so… tactlessly?

"I… I-I." Chloe stammered, her mouth forming an 'o' as she babbled like a fish gasping desperately for oxygen. "You mean… Angel?"

"So. That was his name…" The elderly woman must have really thought herself sneaky, a wide, noticeable grin spreading across her aged, and weather features. She appeared to be in thought, but it was her telltale smirk that gave her away.

"We're just friends…" The younger woman's words were hurried, her eyes roaming the other woman's face suspiciously.

What is she getting at?

"So is that what you kids are calling it these days?" Ms. Johnson smiled at her younger companion, relishing in her roommate's nervous fidgeting. Kids today. They were so occult-like in following their favorite teen dramas that they always complicated matters of the heart when they need not be. It was as plain as the nose on Rudolph's face. She could clearly see that the younger man was hopelessly in love with the girl, and it was painfully obvious that Chloe felt the same way for him.

"Mrs. Johnson, there's nothing-. Like I said before, we're just friends." Rising slowly from the chair, Chloe half hobbled, half walked back to the unseemly lumpy bed, flopping down on it exhaustedly. "Just friends."

She wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure Mrs. Johnson or herself with her repeated statement. She couldn't deny the fact that she did often find herself thinking about the spiky haired vampire more than she should at times. When Angel had left L.A. a while back to visit Buffy in Sunnydale, she found herself missing the smell of hair gel that had become a habitual practice in the mornings, the ominous and pain ridden look in his beautiful brown eyes when something really upset him, the familiar beep of the microwave when she walked into the office that morning, his characteristic wit and humor, and spontaneous nature. She just missed… him.

Was Buffy blind? Stupid? Angel's alter ego was a vengeance seeking, sadist, that rampaged the hellish little town of Sunnydale, almost killed of the blond slayer's, Buffy, friends, and almost sucked the world into hell, but Chloe still didn't understand why the whole subject of Buffy and Angel was 'past tense', as Cordelia often referred to the couple's once budding romance, Angel hadn't really done any of those things.

Chloe sighed, leaning back against the metal headboard. She closed her eyes tightly, her mind a jumbled mix of emotions as she succumbed to a dream filled and blissless sleep.

The heavy door creaked open disturbing the quiet slumber of the inhabitants behind it.

Turning over in her sleep, Chloe's eyelids fluttered open at a conversation Ms. Johnson was having with someone else in their room.

"Aren't you just a sweet young man?"

Who is she talking to? Sitting up higher on the bed, Chloe listened intensively for a few moments.

Whoever it is either has a problem keeping track of time or is just painfully inconsiderate. Yawning profoundly then stretching, Chloe glanced at the clock on her nightstand. The red letters on the LCD screen flashed 9:45.

Throwing her legs over the edge of the bed, Chloe stood up slowly and carefully, trying to avoid doing further damage to her already aching neck.

A short, amused laughed shattered the silence that followed Ms. Johnson's compliment.

Wait. That voice sounds… oddly… familiar?

Sauntering over to the face bowl and turning on the hot and cold faucets, Chloe splashed the lukewarm water over her face, an excuse to see who the visitor was without appearing nosy.

"So, you are awake?" Ms. Johnson shifted in her bed, attempting the impossible, trying to retain comfort in a hospital bed. "You have a visitor."

Chloe's eyes drifted from the elderly woman sitting helplessly on the bed and the brunette with his back to her.

Somehow, the man looked strangely familiar to her for some reason, but it wasn't until he turned around that she recognized his face.

"Lindsey?"

"Ms. Sullivan."

She knew this trip wouldn't turn out to be just a relaxing vacation when she had left Los Angeles, she only wished she had figured that important little observation out before now. Maybe she wouldn't even have been in a hospital room watching Lindsey McDonald present her with a bouquet of flowers.