Thursday, February 25, 2010

the mayhem of misguided romance

Reccing Notes: I journeyed to the pit again, and I found this. Shining Friendship writes some multi-character fic and in this the character voices are quite spot on. I like it when Lois's relationship with Chloe isn't ignored. In Committed she was quite opinionated about Chloe's relationship with Jimmy and wants to make sure she's with the right guy... hence, the grilling.

Chloe and Davis's relationship is dealt with through dialogue between Lois and Davis right at the time of Hex. Why was Davis staying away from Chloe anyway?

by shining friendship at fanfiction.net
2362 words, pg, hex

Lois Lane was walking through the crowded halls of Metropolis General Hospital, doing her best not to bump into the busy nurses and sick patients, and get back to her car before the vein in her forehead popped. Today had not been not her day. After arriving to the Daily Planet late, getting chewed out by her editor for her third tardy that month, and forgetting about her lunch plans with Jimmy, the day would, of course, only get worse when she cut her hand open after falling down on the sidewalk, losing her lunch in the process.

Thankfully, her editor let her have the rest of the day off when he heard about her spill and told her "to get it together" before she came back to work on Monday. She had almost reached the automatic entrance/exit door of the hospital when she spotted Davis going the same direction. The broodingly handsome and charming paramedic was dressed in his usual dark-and-light blue uniform, a red-orange bag full of medical equipment and supplies slung over his shoulder. Lois wasn't all that surprised to find her cousin's friend—or whatever the guy was to Chloe nowadays—working, but she was, however, surprised that he didn't come to Chloe's birthday party at the Ace of Clubs the week before.

"Hey, Dimples!" Lois called out to him, hoping he'd hear her over all the hospital busyness going on.

Davis, as well as several other people, looked around and stared at the Daily Planet reporter, making Lois feel slightly self-conscious and stupid for yelling at the paramedic to get his attention, instead of chasing him down. Once the small crowd staring at her figured out the brunette was talking to Davis, they continued on with what they were doing before and he walked up to her, confused and quite surprised to see her at Met General.

"Hey, Lois. What are you doing here?"

"I'm working on a story that should shut this crackpot hospital down for good."

"What?" Davis gaped at her. "Why would you—?"

Lois laughed. "Relax. It was a joke. I just came to get my hand sutured after I slipped and fell on the sidewalk earlier."

She showed her left hand to the paramedic, who quickly examined it and then he looked back up at her again.

"Looks like the doc who fixed you up did a good job. Did he tell you to keep them clean and dry and to go see your doctor to have them removed in about one week?"

"Don't worry, Dimples, I got the whole ER information download. Plus, one of the nurses gave me this lame instruction guide to follow in case something happens to it."

"Read it anyway," he instructed her, knowing she'd probably throw it in the trash as soon as she gets home.

"Missed you at Chloe's birthday party last week."

Like he had been put on ice, Lois immediately noticed Davis' body stiffen up and face grow pale—paler than usual—at the mention of Chloe's name. As the "other man" in her cousin's life, the brunette was a little surprised to see the EMT react that way, especially when Chloe and Jimmy, who were currently not on speaking terms, had been broken up for a couple of weeks now. Lois thought that with Jimmy removing himself from the equation, she figured Davis would be tossing his ring into the mix the second he heard her cousin was technically a free agent again.

"I wanted to give her some space," he finally opened up, barely looking at her as he said the words. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to show up after everything Chloe's been through with Jimmy these past few weeks."

"Look, I don't know what the current deal is between you and Chloe, but I do know that she can use all the support she can get from her friends right now."

"I couldn't go, Lois," Davis put his foot down, then quickly realized his answer sounded a tad bit rude and forceful, so he quickly calmed back down. "I didn't think it was right for me to go after Jimmy blew up at Chloe for taking my side over his when he accused me of being a serial killer and left her. They clearly have a lot of things they need to work out, and me standing there in the corner isn't going to make things any easier on them."

"Is that because you still have feelings for her?"

The paramedic was thrown into utter shock upon hearing Lois say she knew about his feelings for Chloe, but he maintained his cool on the surface and tried to act nonchalant. "Where did you get the idea that I—?"

"Chloe told me about your little run-in the week before her wedding," she smiled smugly at him. "I gotta admit you never struck me as the kind of guy who would resort to soap opera theatrics to win a girl's heart, but I guess that just means there's more to Davis Bloome than meets the eye, huh?"

"She told you about the kiss?"

"We're cousins, Davis. We do talk to each other from time to time."

"What—What else did she say about me?"

Lois couldn't help but smirk at the handsome paramedic. She would never admit it to him, but she immensely enjoyed seeing this vulnerable, shy side of him. "Why don't we continue this charade over a cup of coffee? When does your shift end?"

"I'm actually on my lunch break right now, but don't you have to get back to work?"

She rolled her eyes at him before replying, "I got the rest of the day off after my editor heard about my runway incident."

"All right, then let's go to the cafeteria and get some coffee."

"Lead the way."

"I'm a little disappointed in myself for not picking up on your strategy sooner," Lois said to Davis while stirring the cream and three packets of sugar into her coffee.

"What strategy?" he eyed her, having no idea what she was talking about.

"To win Chloe over, of course. By staying away and keeping distance between you, what you're really doing is hoping she'll eventually come seeking your open arms and forget all about Jimmy. It's a subtle but very effective strategy, if you ask me."

"Lois, I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but that's not what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything."

"So even though Jimmy's dead set against getting back together with Chloe and they'll probably end up getting divorced, you're just gonna throw in the towel and forget all about her?"

"Hey, that's not what I—"

"Then it's true," she smiled at him in triumph. "You do love her."

"Of course I do," he sighed, being straight with the bossy Daily Planet reporter. "You've obviously known that for weeks."

"Yes, I have," she replied before taking a sip of her weak coffee.

"So why aren't you more upset with me? I thought since Jimmy is your cousin's husband, you'd be using your combative skills to convince him to work things out with Chloe."

"I probably would've been the go-between and played matchmaker if this sort of thing had happened a year ago, but I can't do that now."

"Why not?" Davis eyed her suspiciously.

"Because Jimmy wasn't the man my cousin kept thinking about on her wedding day."

Mouth partially open, he looked over at Lois and waited for her to say more and clarify what she was trying to tell him.

"You were."

"What do you mean, I was the guy she kept thinking about that day? Are you talking about all the phone calls I made to her before the wedding?"

"I think the statement speaks for itself, don't you?"

Davis looked away from the noisy reporter with an eye roll in annoyance, leaned back into his chair and said nothing.

"Hey, before you go and tune me out, maybe you should listen to what I have to say, Dimples."

"And what would that be?" he asked, looking at her from across the small, circular table again.

"Just try and remember that it doesn't matter what our blushing bride told me, it's how she was acting that's important."


--
"My God," Lois sighed happily, as she finished climbing up the stairs to Clark's loft and saw Chloe staring at herself in her beautiful white wedding gown. The bride turned around and grinned at her cousin while they walked towards one another. "I have too much to do to start crying, but you look breathtaking."

"If it wasn't for you," the blonde said, taking her hand, "I'd look more like the bride of Frankenstein than Cinderella. What you did to this barn is absolutely amazing, Lois."

The brunette wrapped her arms around her and the sisterly cousins hugged, until the sound of a ringing bell went off from Chloe's cell phone and they pulled away from each other. She frowned as her phone continued to ring and didn't move an inch from where she was standing.

"Gonna answer that?"

Brushing past her, Chloe walked over to where her cell was at, which was on top of a pile of Clark's old schoolbooks, picked up the phone and pressed the 'Ignore' button as soon as she saw that she was getting another call from Davis.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she lied without putting on her poker face and Lois stared at her harder, waiting for her to tell the truth. "It's Davis Bloome. He has been calling all day. You know, deep down I know he's a really great guy. I just think he's a little confused."

The brunette couldn't help but give her cousin a perplexed, what-do-you-mean look by her serious lack of details over what Davis was so "confused" about.

"Last week he kissed me, and he told me he wasn't going to let me marry the wrong guy."

Slightly surprised to hear this, Lois finally understood why Chloe had been on pins and needles ever since she got to the Kent Farm; it made perfect sense. "Are you starting to have feelings for tall, dark and scary?"

The blonde gave her older cousin a weak smile, exhaling through her nose and said softly, "All I want is to walk down that aisle and marry the man I love."

--


"The look on her face was evidence enough she was scared out of her mind that you were going to show up right in the middle of the 'I Dos' and ruin the whole wedding."

"I wanted to," Davis admitted for the first time out loud in a bitter tone, gripping onto his white Styrofoam cup of coffee tighter. "I told Chloe I wasn't ready to let her go after we kissed, and I wanted to stop the wedding because I knew it was a mistake for her to marry Jimmy, but... I couldn't. I knew if I had done that, she would've hated me for it."

"Well, not to point out the obvious here, but whatever closed door there was between you two before, it doesn't have to be closed anymore. Jimmy walked out on their holy state of matrimony, so you're free as a bird to tell Chloe how you really feel about her now."

"That doesn't mean their marriage is over, Lois. We both know they could still work things out and get back together."

"You're actually going to use every lame excuse in the book not to tell Chloe you love her, aren't you?" she shot at him, fuming over the fact that he was keeping a secret this big away from her cousin.

"First of all, I still don't understand why you're pressing me to tell her when Jimmy's your friend and you've known him a lot longer than you've known me. And second of all, do you really think now would be the best time for me to say something like that when Chloe's in so much pain over losing him?"

"I see your point," she settled down. "But that doesn't mean you can't spend time with Chloe and be her friend while she's trying to get over Jimmy."

"I don't know if I can do just yet," he spoke quietly, his eyes averting from hers.

"Why not? Why can't you be a shoulder for her to lean on?"

"Because I don't want to be just her friend," Davis almost yelled out, staring into her eyes. "Because every time I'm around Chloe now, I feel like I'm lying to her."

"That's because you are lying to her," she said without flinching.

"So what do I do? Just keep avoiding her? Pretend like nothing ever happened between us, hope she'll eventually feel the same way about me, and then maybe we'll live happily ever after together someday?"

"Only you can answer those questions, Davis," Lois said, as she was preparing to leave by getting up from their table with her large, brown leather purse slung over her right shoulder. "Besides, you already know how I feel about the situation. But as someone who's gotten their heart broken from the mayhem of misguided romance more than once, can I give you a few words of wisdom?"

Saying nothing in return, he wordlessly told her with his eyes to give him the advice.

"Don't wait too long to tell Chloe how you feel about her. She may need you to be just her friend right now, but sooner or later this whole 'Divorce Court' drama with Jimmy will settle down and you'll have to tell her how you feel, or you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life."

"Thanks, Lois," Davis said in appreciation with a half-smile. "You're a good friend."

"Yeah, well, what can I say? It's a curse."

"Right," he scoffed.

"I'll see you around," she nodded and turn her heels to leave the hospital cafeteria.

The paramedic watched her go, his brown eyes pinned on her until she made her way to the door. Then they traveled up to the square-shaped clock hanging above the entrance and saw that he had fifteen more minutes before he had to punch back in. Davis opened up the front right pocket of his EMT jacket and pulled out his silver cell phone. He pressed one of the numbers on his speed dial, pressed the green 'Talk' button, and held the phone to his ear. He waited for a couple seconds, listening to the call go through and almost smiled when he heard the word "Hello" from the person he was trying to get ahold of.

"Hey, Chloe, it's me."

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