Disclaimer: I own nothing…

Summary: "Clark," she looked up at him, "is there any reason why I shouldn't marry Ollie tomorrow?"… "No," he said.

(--)

It was nearly six when Clark arrived at the church. He had found that the Clock Tower was empty; apparently Oliver was off at a meeting. His mother had called and asked that he come for support, even though he wasn't going to be in the ceremony. When she'd called she said Lois needed all of her friends and as Clark was a pretty important one, he ought to be there. And if he didn't show, Martha was going to make him sleep in the barn for a week.

Fearing the wrath of his mother more than anything, Clark had consented to attending the rehearsal, despite his desire to be away from the daunting ache in his heart. Still, as he entered the chapel, he couldn't help but feel slightly cheered by the flowers and decorations.

Everyone else was already there and getting ready for their practice run, so Clark went around the back and found a seat near the front of the church. He watched as the wedding planner directed Bart and Victor to their positions beside Oliver. Ollie gave Clark a nod, to which he replied with a grin.

The wedding planner scurried to the back and started humming the wedding march loudly as Martha strode down the aisle. She was acting as the mother of the bride, and she was soaking it up. Clark smiled when he saw his mother beaming. He knew that she had always wanted a daughter of her own, and Lois was pretty much the closest thing she'd ever had.

Next Lucy and Chloe walked down the aisle, holding invisible bouquets in their hands. Once they reached they alter, Lucy sat down and Chloe took her place opposite Oliver. They all turned toward the back of the church, and Clark felt his breath hitch. Lois and the General began their slow walk down the aisle.

As they approached, Clark stood up and caught Lois' eye. She seemed to freeze for a moment. After blinking quickly, she looked away and continued to Oliver's side. Clark let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

Lois and Oliver turned as the wedding planner ran up to the alter and stood in front of them. She began conducting the ceremony as if she was the priest. Martha sat beside Lucy and couldn't help but toss a few glances at her son. She felt something bad fizzling in the air around this wedding. She knew the look on her son's face, and while she didn't have super powers like him, she could still see the periodic glances Lois was throwing at him from her spot.

After the wedding planner announced that Lois and Oliver had been married, she instructed them to kiss. Martha held her breath as Lois and Oliver leaned together. She released it when they connected and slumped back into her chair. Lucy glanced over at her, eyebrow raised.

Clark stared at Lois, their eyes met as she kissed Oliver. Clark blinked once, breaking the connection before turning away, looking at his feet, crammed slightly uncomfortably into the pew. The wedding planner instructed everyone in the room to clap as Lois and Oliver broke apart and turned to face the audience.

Chloe's brilliant smile faltered when she glanced at Lois' face. The brunette had a smile on her face, but Chloe saw traces of unrest in her cousin's eyes. The blonde grabbed Lois' hand and squeezed it. Lois turned her head to her cousin, Chloe's smile was encouraging and Lois' frown softened.

The wedding planner pushed Oliver and Lois down off the alter. Lois glared back at her, but the woman was smiling widely and Lois could only roll her eyes. The wedding planner had been Lucy's idea anyway, Lois hadn't thought she needed a wedding planner, they were only having like eight people at the wedding; yeah right, Lois thought, that was the plan. She had only wanted ten people at the wedding: her and Ollie, Lucy and the General, the Kents, Chloe and Jimmy, Victor and Bart.

That was what she had wanted; unfortunately, now there were nearly a hundred people coming, most of whom she didn't know. They were all Ollie's business partners, his investors and their wives and their bratty children. Lois cringed, even as she was walking down the aisle of the church, even as she glanced back toward Clark, who had remained in the front pew, while the others had followed her and Ollie.

"Alright everyone!" Martha announced after they had congregated at the door of the church, "Dinner is just about ready, so everybody better head back there now!" She smiled as they group began their exodus from the church.

As he saw the blonde man walk by, Clark had a sudden surge of courage. He grabbed Oliver's arm and pulled him to the corner of the church. Oliver shrugged at Lois who was frowning after them. She was torn from spying by Chloe who pressed a palm to her arm. She smiled at her cousin and the pair exited the church.

"Ah, hey, Clark, okay!" Oliver rubbed the slight pain from his arm when Clark removed his hand.

"You have to tell her," Clark said forcefully.

"I assume you're talking about telling Lois my secret," Oliver inferred.

"Yes, Oliver, you can't marry her without telling her who you are."

"Since when did you feel so strongly about me telling her? You helped me throw her off, remember?" Oliver pointed out. Clark looked away; Oliver was right. But that didn't make it okay not to tell Lois about it now.

"She deserves to know what she's getting herself into," Clark answered, "You owe her that much, Oliver."

"Look, Clark, I love Lois, I'm not going to jeopardize my wedding tomorrow by freaking her out."

"Oliver, you cannot seriously be able to stand there, knowing that she had no clue who you really are, and be okay with that, can you?"

Oliver frowned slightly, looking at the floor beside Clark's shoe. When his gaze connected once more with Clark's, Oliver seemed to have resolved his inner turmoil about Lois, a small smile graced his mouth.

"No, you're right, Clark, I'll tell her tonight," Oliver said, "now, if you'll allow it, I'd like to head over to your house and sample some of your mom's famous cooking before Bart eats your entire fridge."

Clark nodded and plastered a smile on his face, but inside he had a bad feeling about the situation. He knew Lois wouldn't take Oliver's confession lying down. She was a fighter and Clark knew this better than anyone. Tonight would be the test of her devotion to Oliver, he was sure of it.

Taking off, Clark ran towards the farm, one thing on his mind: being there for Lois.

(--)

Martha made sure there was enough food for everyone, unfortunately with Bart and Clark at the table, there was barely enough for everyone else. Still, the woman sitting at the head of the table watched her extended family with proud eyes. She smiled as she gazed at Chloe and Jimmy, the blonde giggling quietly between them, as her boyfriend said something presumably witty.

It was nice to see the General and Lucy actually engaged in a conversation that didn't include the words: 'failure', 'irresponsible' or 'disappointment'. Martha's eyes traveled across the table to three boys in deep debate about the benefits of Mrs. K's cooking versus Victor's cooking. She laughed as the former football star attempted to defend himself against the onslaught of his friends.

The only two people who seemed to be having a tapered amount of fun were Lois and Clark. Lois was concentrating on her plate, periodically shifting her eyes toward Clark, who was staring pointedly at her. Martha whispered her son's name so quiet that she knew only he could hear. As she had predicted, Clark heard her even over the ruckus and looked at his mother. She silently told him to back off. He looked away but he concentrated on his plate instead of Lois.

After dinner, Martha stood in the kitchen, wiping dishes with Lois, when Oliver walked in carrying plates. The young blonde man was staring at Lois, who was smiling falsely at her soon-to-be husband. Martha got the 'non-verbals', as Lois would call them, and excused herself from the room. She was tempted to ask Clark to add his ears to the conversation, with the intention of making sure Lois was all right, but she thought better of it.

"Hey," Oliver said.

"Hi," Lois replied placing a clean plate on the drying rack.

"We need to talk about something, Lo," Oliver began.

"Yeah, I think so to," Lois agreed.

"Oh, okay, you first."

"No, no, you came here, you go," Lois urged. Oliver walked around her and leaned on the side of the marble counter.

"A couple of months ago, you and Jimmy had a lead on something pretty big," Oliver explained. Lois nodded.

"The Green Arrow."

"Yeah, and you were convinced that it was me."

"Yeah, but I was wrong."

"Maybe not entirely…" Oliver hesitated with the rest. Lois looked up, her eyebrows raised. "See, the night in the alley, that wasn't me; but the other times, it was…"

"What?!" Lois exclaimed.

"I'm the Green Arrow," Oliver finished.

"Uh, yeah, got that," Lois snapped, "and when were going to tell me?"

"Well, I just did," Oliver looked genuinely hurt by her callous tone. Lois couldn't control herself though. She started out of the kitchen, but Oliver grabbed her arm. Shrugging him off, Lois walked out of the room, leaving Ollie slightly unsure of himself for only the second time in his life.

(--)

Lois walked up the wooden stairs that she'd grown used to climbing everyday. She secretly missed those lazy days when she was partially attending Smallville High and digging up mysteries with Clark and Chloe; when Lois was permanent fixture in the Kent household, despite Clark; when Mr. Kent was still alive.

An ache in her heart stopped Lois on the stairs. She glanced at the framed picture of Clark, Martha and Jonathon that was visible on a table on the landing. They looked so happy; Clark was still young, and short. He was standing in front of his two proud parents, with the familiar barn in the background. Part of Lois wished that she'd been in the picture as well. The Kents were, after all, her surrogate family.

She missed the days when her life was easy, when Ollie hadn't just dropped a bomb on her that felt like the world was crashing around her. She'd convinced herself earlier that day--when she'd had her rare, yet violent, breakdown--that Oliver wanted nothing more than for her to be happy. That he was completely honest with her, and then he happened to mention that he was the Green Arrow…but not the one she'd made out with in the alley. No, that was someone different. And Lois thought Clark was the one with the hero-complex!

She completed her ascent of the Kent stairs and paused briefly, she didn't really know where she was going. They weren't staying at the Kents, well, she, Lucy and Chloe weren't. Martha and the guys were taking up residence there and in the barn. So, really, she had no reason for being upstairs, she didn't live there anymore…but…she still felt like a little bit of that house belonged to her.

It wasn't like she was snooping; she'd spent almost two years in that room. She would just be using it as some place to get away. She would keep to herself, stay on the bed. Setting her resolve, she turned the knob on the door, and let herself into Clark's bedroom.

Even though over a year had passed since Lois had set foot in the room, nothing had changed. She smiled faintly at the constant that was the world of Clark Kent. Normally, she would have seen it as evidence that Clark was just a hick with a predestined life of agriculture, but at the moment, Lois found it as a comfort.

Sighing, she sat down on the edge of Clark's messy bed. She placed a palm on the rumpled sheets. Closing her eyes, Lois pictured her days romping around Smallville with Clark. She smiled again, this time with more resolve, as she recalled embarrassing Clark after their 'separate showers' incident. A quiet knock at the door broke Lois from her reverie. She looked up as Oliver stepped inside.

"Hi," he said.

"I don't really want to talk right now, Ollie," Lois replied, looking away. He didn't take the hint.

"Lois--."

She cut him off, standing, "Now Ollie? You tell me now, the night before our wedding?"

Ollie tensed, getting irritated, damn Clark, he thought miserably, "Look, Lois, I didn't even want to tell you!"

"What?! Wait, you weren't going to tell me? You were going to let me marry you without knowing that you were the Green Arrow," Lois inquired.

"Lois, I love you, I didn't think it would matter who I was," Oliver said.

Lois stopped. She'd been so busy ranting, angry at Oliver and missing her old life, that she'd forgotten that Oliver was getting married tomorrow too. It was his life that was being drastically altered as well. Suddenly, the world felt heavy again. She wanted to cry. She couldn't remember a time when she'd felt like crying as often as she had that day.

"I love you too, Ollie, but I can't--you know what, I just need some time," Lois said, turning her back on him.

She felt Oliver's eyes boring through the back of her skull. She took deep breaths and heard the creak of the floor boards as he stepped toward her. She didn't pull away when he put his hand on her arm, instead she looked down at it, but her eyes saw through it. She felt empty.

"Tomorrow?" he asked cautiously.

"Tomorrow is a new day," Lois replied cryptically. Oliver nodded although she didn't see it. Without another word, Oliver left the room, closing the door behind him. Suddenly exhausted, Lois returned to her position on Clark's bed. She flipped her legs over the edge and stretched them out along the sheets. She laid her head against the pillow and let her eyelids slide closed.

A soft knock at the door didn't surprise her, but she did open her eyes. She didn't roll over but she knew who was standing at the door.

"Lois?" Clark whispered, "I heard yelling, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Smallville," Lois said, harsher than she had planned. It occurred to her that she was definitely invading his private space. She no longer lived in this room. It was his once more.

"Sorry," he replied and began out of the room. Lois shook her head, sitting up and swinging her legs back over the side, she glanced at Clark.

"No, I should go. I just needed to get away for a minute," Lois explained, standing.

"I understand," Clark replied, smiling softly.

"I think I'm gonna go home, can you tell your Mom for me?" Lois asked stepping past him into the hallway. Clark stood in the doorway of his room, facing the woman he'd been so obsessed with for the past few months, and he realized, watching her, seeing the signs of tears in her eyes, that whether he loved her or not, it didn't matter. What mattered was that he was the person she cried in front of. And that meant so much more to him than her ever reciprocating his feelings.

"Yeah, sure," Clark said. His heart broke to see her like that; "Tell me you're all right, Lois," he demanded. Lois was taken aback by his tone. She'd never heard him speak to her like that. She stepped back, frowning at him.

"I'm fine," she lied. She looked at the floor briefly before walking off down the stairs, leaving Clark alone by his room, breathing heavily.