A/N: This is set after season 10. Lois and Clark are already married. He has already become Superman. Since Smallville hasn't ended yet, i can't be sure that they'll defeat Darkseid or not.. but for the purposes of my story, Clark has to leave Earth to defeat Darkseid. Anyway.. on to the first chapter.
P.S - I do not own any Smallville/Superman characters. I wish i did though. Especially Ollie and Clark.
It had been months since Lois had felt any sense of humanity left in her, any sense of emotion, any sense of feeling. She was an empty shell. Going through the motions but not really living. She had lost everything.
Sitting at her desk in the Daily Planet, she sipped her coffee and stared at the empty desk in front of her. She knew that it was pointless, keeping up the ruse, but she couldn't bear to admit to anyone that he probably wasn't coming back. Everyone at the Planet thought that Clark had gone to visit family in Italy. She had fabricated the story when she thought that he would be back in a few weeks.
It had been almost half a year and there hadn't been a word. The strangest thing was that no one even noticed that it had been that long. Clark had become so good at playing the quiet, bumbling, mild-mannered reporter, that no one really noticed him even when he was here, much less when he was gone. Not to mention that without Superman around, things were a lot more hectic at the Daily Planet. Crime rates had gone up, people were losing hope and reporters had story after story to publish.
The worst part was that Lois didn't know what happened to him. Clark promised he'd be back in a few days… maybe even a few weeks. No one wanted him to go alone, but he never gave them a choice. Chloe thought that he was probably dead, though she'd never say as much. Lois couldn't stand to let herself think that. She needed to believe that he was alive somewhere. Even if they weren't together, she needed him to be alive.
Looking at the empty chair in front of her always formed a lump in her throat. She knew better than to look at the chair but sometimes she couldn't help it. The week after he left, she decided that she would not let anyone see how much his absence had affected her. She needed to be the strong one. Not just for her friends, but for the world.
Just then, her assistant dropped a stack of papers on her desk, snapping her out of her reverie. Startled, she looked up at him before getting a chance to collect herself. Her emotions were written plainly on her face. There was pity in his eyes. He might not have known why she was sad, but he clearly saw that she was upset. He probably could have guessed that it was because she missed Clark. She hated that. It bugged her to no end when people gave her that look. The only person who never looked at her like that was Ollie. He knew what it was like, so he treated her the same as always. She liked that.
"I'm done for the day so I'll look at those papers tomorrow," she said as she got up. He just nodded and walked away.
She took her cell phone out of her drawer and saw a text from Ollie telling her to meet him in Watch Tower. "Duty calls" she whispered under her breath. "Thank god" she thought.