"Lois?"

Both Clark Kent and Lois Lane looked up at the voice, Clark because it was definitely masculine and Lois because it was vaguely familiar.

"Mark? Mark Parker?! Is that really you!?" With a strangled sound of delight that was decidedly unLois Lane-like, Lois shot up from her desk and hurled herself into the handsome man's waiting embrace.

Clark Kent nearly dropped his doughnut and Jimmy Olsen let the file in his hand drop limply to Clark's desk. Lois Lane just didn't do mad, passionate hugs with random strangers.

"I can't believe you're here! What are you doing in Metropolis?" Lois was excitedly pulling on the tall man's arm, tugging him into the chair by her desk. The chair Clark Kent had just vacated.

Clark resisted the urge for a feral growl.

Jimmy heard the slight rumble and glanced down at his friend. Clark was staring intently at the two, and Jimmy could swear he almost saw red fire gleam in his eyes.

"—here on a book tour. We were at the Barnes and Noble down the street and I thought I'd stop by to see my lovely ex-roommate."

Clark nearly jumped out of his chair at the last bit. Just who was this Mark Parker? Under the guise of getting another reporter's notebook from the supply closet, he passed Lois' desk and casually pretended to notice the new addition to her desk.

"Oh Clark! There you are! I wanted to introduce you to Mark Parker," Lois said, beaming widely at him. Clark felt his heart tip dangerously to one side before it suddenly righted itself as she turned the smile back onto Mark. "Mark, this is my partner, Clark Kent."

The man stuck out his hand, his teeth glinting with all the shine of a freshly waxed Jetta. Or a barracuda.

Clark returned the handshake, exerting a feather light pressure that hit Mark with all the force of an iron clamp. Mark pulled back, shaking his hand slightly, his cheery grin still intact, though it no longer reached his eyes.

Lois didn't appear to notice the age old macho ritual taking place right before her eyes and for her benefit. "When I spent the summer in Ireland my junior year at Met U, Mark was another exchange student. I remember he and I and the family's son, Patrick, would stay up for hours talking…"

"…About everything and nothing." Mark finished with soft tone.

"Mark was always writing, scribbling in his journals, on scrap paper, anything he could get his hands on."

"And Lois was always asking questions, unearthing old mysteries. Remember that locked box we found? You wouldn't rest until we found that key."

Lois burst into laughter at the memory and Mark joined her a few moments later.

Clark, the odd man out of a private joke, tensed.

"Lois--," he roughly cut in. "Are you ready to go to lunch?"

Clark didn't miss the way her face fell at his reminder. She hid it masterfully, but it was there. And it felt like something inside him died.

"Oh no, you two have plans? I was hoping I could snag Lois for a lunch date. To catch up on old times. You wouldn't mind, right Clark?"

Before Clark could answer, Mark had roughly slapped him on the shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie and whisked Lois halfway across the room to the elevator.

Clark blinked. He could still smell her perfume… she had been here only two seconds before. How had this new… usurper, stolen Lois away before Superman could stop him?

With a sigh and a deep sadness, Clark made his way over to his desk to cancel the reservations at Lois' favorite steak place. It had taken some string pulling on his part, but Clark had convinced Perry to grant them both a two hour lunch break in return for the scandal they had dug up on the Chief Justice of the Metropolian Court. Permission secured, he had called the restaurant a week in advance to guarantee a table and was granted one of the last in the place. Then, it had been easy to convince her to go to lunch with him, it was nearly routine anyway. Except not this one. This one was supposed to be special.

The yellow rose he had tucked in his desk seemed to mock him as he opened his drawer in a savage search for paper. He held the drawer open for a long moment, staring at the rose. Then, his mind made up he grabbed a sheet of computer paper and his pen and began to write.

When Lois returned, sated with good food and good company, she saw her partner's desk was empty. The remains of a cheese sandwich from the Planet's vending machine was scattered on the top. Apparently he had left in a hurry. Lois felt a twinge of guilt when she saw the sandwich. Clark had been so excited when he had asked her to lunch on Tuesday. He had even finagled an extra hour for the two of them and she had left him to eat by himself. A sickening sense of shame spread uncomfortably through her as the cheese sandwich sat innocuously on her partner's desk.

Forcing the feeling down, Lois turned to her desk and saw a yellow rose.

She had a sinking feeling she knew who it was from.

Sure enough, there was a note attached to the stem, a plain sheet of computer paper folded in half. Her name was written on the outside in her partner's unmistakable script.She lifted the perfect rose and inhaled softly for a moment. That man had this remarkable knack for finding the most beautiful flowers in the city.

Recognizing that she was just stalling the inevitable, she opened the letter and began to read.

Lois—

I had to run out to run some errands, but I thought I'd give you this flower anyway. It was meant for today, but maybe we could take a rain check? I hope you had a good time at lunch with Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome.

Lois broke off from the letter with a slight grin. Even when he was upset, and she could tell that he was, he personalized the letter with his own, slightly warped brand of humor. She continued reading.

You looked really nice today, by the way. I probably couldn't get up the nerve to tell you in person, no doubt Barracuda man did, but it comes from the heart.

Lois didn't get the reference to Mark as a barracuda, but chalked it up to jealousy. For a moment as guilty feeling of happiness suffused over her. Mark was great, but he was no Clark Kent. The feeling quickly subsided as she read the rest of the letter.

I finished up your copy for you, don't worry the byline's all yours. Just LAN-ed it to Perry, actually. He said you can go when you get back from lunch. Don't ask me where this sudden bout of good will came from, I didn't question it. See you tomorrow, partner.

--Clark

Lois swiped at sudden wetness in her eyes. Must be the new contacts.

Right.

She was just gathering her things to leave when, for a reason she could never quite figure out, she tuned into the radio on Jimmy's desk.

"—Planet reporter requested this song for an unnamed woman. Must be some girl to make that man sound so dejected. That voice… mmm… it could melt chocolate."

The woman was the DJ of Metropolis' most well known soft music station, often identified for her advice and her harmless comments.

At the sound of the Daily Planet's name, Lois idly looked around, wondering who in their right mind would call in with a song. Jimmy? She choked back a laugh. Ralph? Even worse.

The strains of a country song started up and Lois listened, curious as to who would call in and for who. Maybe she could figure it out from this song.

Well her old friend, from her own end of town dropped by today,
And way down deep inside me something died
When he came 'round to see her that way.
Here it comes again, that same old chilly wind
Will blow like a cold winter squall.
And I'll begin to feel the chill of an early fall.

Lois stifled a gasp as she realized exactly who had sent out the song and to who.

Just then, the elevator doors opened with a ding and her partner was revealed, bundled up in a heavy leather jacket. Their eyes met almost instantaneously and held.

"It cold out there?" Jimmy came up behind Clark and handed a file to him. "Here's that stuff you wanted."

Clark nodded noncommitedly as both an agreement to the cold and a gesture of thanks.

Lois watched the two, the soft strains of Clark's song still playing.

She sauntered up to her dark haired, endearingly clueless parter and rested her hand lightly on his arm.

"You don't need this heavy coat, I don't think it's going to be such an early fall after all."

The song on the radio and the song that inspired this short fic itself is George Strait's "The Chill of an Early Fall"