Hearts. She was surrounded by hearts. Heats and chubby babies with wings and bow and arrows and she was not enjoying herself. Why did Clark drag her here? He knew how much she loathed Valentine's Day yet he insisted on them going out to celebrate as a couple – the last thing she wanted – and then he took off. She understood why he took off, he was the Blur. Saving people was what he did, but did he need to drag her out? She hadn't wanted to go anywhere. She had been perfectly content sitting at home, snuggled up on the couch watching a shark movie but now she was left sitting alone at a table in the Ace of Clubs looking like some poor, pathetic girl who couldn't get a date on Valentine's Day. This was ridiculous and exactly why she hated this holiday. The only thing that could make this any worse was –

"Lois?" Oliver's voice asked.

She just had to think it didn't she? Of course someone she knew would show up here. "Where are you, Smallville?" She whispered to herself before she spun around with a smile. "Oliver, Chloe."

"Woah, dial down the fake smile, Lo'," Chloe said.

"Where's Clark?" Oliver asked as he grabbed two chairs and pulled them over for him and Chloe.

"Oh, chasing a thief... or a murderer... I don't know," she said trying to hide the concern in her voice. Clark was taking longer than usual and it was starting to make her nervous.

"I'm sure he's fine," Chloe said trying to reassure her cousin.

"He's Clark," Oliver offered.

He stood staring through the flames at the all too familiar figure passed out on the floor. It was impossible – or at least, it should be impossible. Then again, if anyone knew that anything was possible – even the most unlikely scenario – it was Clark Kent, but this... He kept trying to figure out how he had survived. All this time... where had he been?

The buildings structure was starting to give out. Clark had to save him. As tempting as it was to leave him there Clark couldn't. It wasn't in him. He sped through the flames and picked up the limp body. He threw the man over his shoulder and sped out of the building, dropping him roughly on the ground as he sped away into the shadows.

The man started to cough as he opened his eyes and looked around. He rolled over and pushed himself up as he looked at the building in confusion.

Clark stared in disbelief as he heard the far off sirens getting closer and closer until finally the fire trucks and ambulances arrived. He watched as the firefighters and paramedics sprung out of the vehicles and rushed into action. Normally Clark would put the fire out but he was too distracted.

"Do you need help? Are you alright?" A paramedic asked as he kneeled beside the man.

"I'm fine."

"Were you in the building? What's your name?" The paramedic continued to ask questions.

"I'm–."

"Lex Luthor," the other paramedic said as he walked around the back of the ambulance.

Clark looked back to the building to see that the flames were almost under control. He swallowed the lump in his throat as his mind raced. How much did Lex remember? Did he know his secret? Clark was suddenly drawn from his thoughts as his cell phone started ringing. Clark pulled the phone out and read the ID. Lois Lane. Valentine's Day. He had almost forgotten. He looked back to Lex once more before speeding off back to the farm and answering the phone.

"Hello?" Clark said as he stopped at the farm and grabbed the suit he had set out for the night.

"Smallville, where are you?" Lois demanded.

"I'm on my way."

"Oh really? Because, I know you and if you were on your way you'd be here by now."

"Lois, I got held up."

"You know how much I hate Valentine's Day. Why couldn't we have just stayed back at the farm? I was perfectly content to snuggle up with you on the couch and watch a movie."

"Lois, I wanted to take you out."

"Yeah, except, I'm out and you're not."

"I'm just leaving the farm," Clark said as he finished changing his clothes and sped off.

"Well, you'd better be doing your super speedy thing and 'Whooshing' over here like right now because these sappy couples are making me sick."

"I'll be right there."

"Oh yeah? You'd better be. If I have to watch the happy couple, aka Chloe and Ollie, make out one more time and say I love you I'm going to throw up," Lois said as she looked at Chloe and Oliver at the table inside the Ace of Clubs through the window of the balcony. "Clark, you'd better get here soon. This is exactly why I hate Valentine's Day."

"Well, I was hoping I could change that for you," Clark said as Lois turned with a smile to see him standing behind her, holding a single white rose.

"Smooth, Smallville," Lois said as she wiped some soot from Clark's cheek. "What took you so long?"

"There was an explosion at one of the LuthorCorp facilities on the east side of town and I ran into Lex."

"Lex?" Lois asked. "I thought he was –"

"Dead?" Clark asked. "So did I, but I saw him. I pulled him out of that building, Lois. I'd know his face anywhere."

"And? Does he remember anything? Does he know about you?"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter? Clark, how can you be so calm about this?"

"Because right now I don't know what he knows about me and I don't want to think about Lex. Lois, tonight was supposed to be about you and me."

"Clark, this is the scoop of the century and we could be the ones to break it to the world. 'Lex Luthor comes back from the dead'. Don't tell me that headline wouldn't take us out of the basement bullpen and to the top floor of 'The Daily Planet'."

"It would, but Lois, if Lex knows about me and I go after him what's to keep him from telling the world about me?"

"Clark, you can't hide from him. You have become a symbol of hope for this city. You're finally stepping out into the light. You can't let Lex push you back into the shadows."

"And I won't. But, Lois, for tonight, can we not talk about Lex? At least not until we know how much he knows about me," Clark said as Lois gave a little nod. "Besides, like I said, I want tonight to be just about us," Clark ran his hand through Lois' hair and smiled at her. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself," Lois said as she fixed the collar of Clark's shirt and wrapped her arms around Clark who wrapped his arms around her in return.

"There you two are," Oliver said as he and Chloe came out onto the balcony. "Bout time you showed up man. Lois has been watching the door all night. Where have you been?"

"He ran into –"

"A fire in midtown," Clark interrupted as Lois looked at him but never questioned his reason for hiding Lex's return from Oliver and Chloe.

"It doesn't matter, he's here now," Lois said taking Clark's hand and smiling up at him as he smiled down at her.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Oliver asked.

"If you guys don't mind," Clark said looking to Oliver and Chloe, "I'd like to take my fiancé out for dinner, just the two of us."

Lois turned to Clark with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah... Sure man. Yeah, we get it. It's Valentine's Day, you want to be together, alone. Go ahead. Don't worry about us."

"I'm sure we'll find something to do," Chloe said.

"Good," Clark smiled turning to Lois. "You and I have dinner reservations."

"We do?"

"Yeah and if we go now we can still make them," Clark said as he swooped Lois up into his arms.

"Maybe Valentine's Day isn't so bad after all," Lois smiled as she looked at Clark in awe.

"Just wait until we go back to the farm. I'll give you Clark Kent's tour of the Galaxy."

"Smallville," Lois laughed as she shook her head before Clark sped off with her.

"I can't believe you did this," Lois said as the waiter walked away from the table. "When did you have time to make reservations?"

"It doesn't matter."

"I'm a reporter, Smallville, you know I won't take that as an answer."

"A while ago."

"How long?"

"Two months," Clark smiled.

"Smallville," Lois smiled in return. "You're amazing."

"Mr. Kent and Ms. Lane?" A waiter interrupted.

"Yes?" Clark asked.

"I was asked to deliver this to your table," the waiter said as he held out a bottle of champagne and a card.

"Did you?" Lois asked looking to Clark as he took the champagne and card.

"No," Clark shook his head as he looked at the envelop.

"Maybe Oliver?"

"Oliver didn't know I was taking you here."

"Well, don't just sit there. Read it," Lois grabbed the card and pulled it out of the envelop. "Maybe it's from a fan of our work," Lois commented as she opened the card.

"You mean a fan of your work," Clark commented as he held up the silver bracelet that fell out of the card.

"Oh my gosh," Lois said.

"What?"

"It's from Lex," Lois said passing Clark the card.

Clark took it and began to read it aloud, "By now you know I'm alive. I read about your engagement and I've included a little something as a congratulations gift for Lois. We need to talk. Lex."

"What do you think that means?"

"I don't know.

"Do you think it's really from him or someone else? I mean it wouldn't be the first time someone wrote to one of us claiming to be someone else just to get our attention so we'd write a story for them.

"This is different, Lois. I don't know what Lex knows about me, but I can't risk ignoring this."

"So what should we do?"

"I'm not sure, but he just crossed a line by bringing you into this," Clark said throwing some money down on the table and jumping up.

"Smallville?" Lois called as she followed him to the counter where he grabbed their waiter by the arm and pulled him to the side.

"Where did you get this?" Clark demanded, holding up the card to the waiter.

"It was dropped off earlier. I was told to give it to you at 8:00 P.M."

"By who?"

"I'm not sure."

"You're not sure? Well what did he look like?"

"Bald man, dressed in a suit."

"Lex," Clark stated as he turned and walked toward the door.

"Clark, what are you doing?"

"Come on, Lois, we're leaving."

"Honey?" Lois called as she ran after Clark. "Baby? What's going on? Baby," Lois said grabbing Clark's arm and spinning him around as she caught up to him in the street.

"I think Lex is trying to send me some kind of message."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to be here if he shows up. He obviously knows what I have planned for us for tonight so I think we should just head back to the farm."

"Of course, Sweetie, whatever you think is best."

"I'm sorry about this."

"Clark, it's fine."

"I'm not going to let Lex ruin our Valentine's Day. We can't do what I had planned for us but we can still be together and for now, until we know more about what Lex is up to, let's just try to enjoy the rest of our evening. We'll go to Watchtower first thing in the morning and I'll deal with all of this then with the help of the team."

"Are you sure? We can go to Watchtower now if you want."

"No. Lex is not going to ruin our evening. He can wait until the morning."

"Well let's just go back to the farm and we can watch a movie or whatever. We just need to get your mind off of this. I can tell this has got you a little uptight."

"I'm not uptight," Clark said defensively as Lois raised her eyebrows. "Maybe a little," Clark shrugged.

"Come on," Lois said taking Clark's arm and walking down the street with him. "You'll feel better once we're back at the farm."

Clark opened the car door and held his hand out for Lois who accepted the offered hand and suddenly stopped in surprise as she looked at the ground leading into the Kent farmhouse then to Clark.

"Clark," Lois smiled as she looked back to the rose pedals that led from the car, up the porch stairs and into the house. "What's this?"

"I did this before I left. It's my attempt to make this the best Valentine's Day you've ever had. Last year didn't go so well so I wanted to make sure this one went better."

"Smallville, just being with you has made this the best Valentine's Day I've ever had."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that, but I know how much you don't like this particular holiday so I thought I'd –"

"Pull out everything you had in your arsenal?" Lois laughed.

"Pretty much."

"You didn't have to do all this for me."

"You deserve to know how much you're loved."

"Clark, you have showed how much you love me every day."

"And I will continue to show you every day because you are the most important thing in my life," Clark said as Lois smiled up at him.

"You really are an old fashioned romantic, aren't you?"

"Don't tell anyone," Clark smiled.

"Well, thank you," Lois said standing on her toes and kissing Clark who reciprocated by deepening the kisses as he started to lead her toward the house.

Clark and Lois continued to kiss as they entered the Kent farmhouse. Clark pushed the door shut with his right had as he pulled Lois closer with his left then spun her back around pinning her to the door. Lois pulled back from Clark for a second and smiled at him suggestively.

"You know the porch swing is outside, right."

"Yeah, but the kitchen counter is in here," Clark smiled at Lois as he grabbed her wrist and pinned her arm to the door.

"Clark Kent and Lois Lane," a familiar voice said from the living room as Clark and Lois turned to see the person. "I have to admit, I was a little surprised when I read the engagement announcement, but as I live and breath here the two of you are."

"Lex," Clark said stepping in front of Lois and pushing her behind himself protectively.

"I don't get a warm 'welcome back', 'nice to see you're alive'?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to visit an old friend."

"You aren't welcome here."

"That's a shame."

"How did you get in?" Lois asked.

"The spare key," Lex said holding up the key for Lois and Clark to see. "You know, I thought after your father dies and your mother left, you'd have moved the spare key, Clark, but no. It was still hidden in the same place."

"Get out of my house, Lex."

"Your house? Last I checked this place was still in your mom's name."

"Leave."

"Fine," Lex said standing up and walking toward the pair. "But this thing with you and me, Clark, it isn't over," Lex said tossing the key at Clark. "Enjoy your Valentine's Day. I hope you enjoyed the little gift I left for you at the restaurant," Lex smiled at the pair then left the house.

"Clark?" Lois asked as Clark fell silent and walked to the kitchen counter. He placed both hands on the countertop as he took several deep breaths and Lois came to his side, taking his hand.

"What do I do?"

"Only you can decide that, but I promise you, whatever you decide, I will stand by you."

"I know you will," Clark smiled weakly at Lois as he took her other hand and pulled her into his arms. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For giving me strength. I'm stronger when I'm with you."

"Clark, that's what I'm here for. We will deal with this together, I promise."