Chapter 4

From the corner of the bustling news room, Chloe watched her best friend sprint out of his office, oblivious to the abundance of strange looks he was receiving for displaying such uncharacteristic gracefulness.

Chloe hid a small smirk as he sent a wild look of panic to the office behind him, she could only imagine what her fiesty cousin had done to create the look of mortification on Cark's face, but knowing Lois it was probably best she didn't.

Her smirk quickly fell from her face as Lois breezed confidently through the bull pen, not bothering to spare a glance at the man staring longingly at her retreating form.

With a small sigh, Chloe's traitorous mind resumed it's conflicted musings from earlier in the day. Since the headache inducing conversation with Lois this morning, her mind had been in over drive, imagining various outcomes of Lois' ill- conceived plan, so far none of them ended pleasantly for anyone involved. After spending her entire morning debating with herself and scribbling a chart of pros and cons, Chloe was still at a loss for what she should do.

Either Clark would end up with a broken heart, and Lois with a brilliant article or Lois would be livid at her baby cousin while Clark's heart only suffered minor bruising. Neither option appealed to Chloe, but she knew she had to make a decision soon.

She just had to decide which was more important to her; Clark's heart or her ingrained sense of loyalty to her cousin. Chloe knew Lois well enough to know that she would view any information leaked to Clark as a complete betrayal. The ace reporter's pride would take a beating as would her close relationship with her cousin, but in the end Lois would forgive her, they were family and that was the most important thing to both women.

Clark's heart on the other hand would be shattered and Chloe didn't think it would ever truly be whole again. She still remembered when she had first realized he had fallen head over heels for his stubborn partner, her initial reaction had been one of dread.

The idea of going through another Lana-like crush was too much for her, she had barely survived the original crush with her sanity intact. All her pessimistic thoughts had vanished though, when she had seen something cross Clark's handsome features as he argued with an irrate Lois. It was a look she had never seen before on her best friends face- one of complete happiness at simply being close to the woman he loved. It seemed that to Clark, even fighting with Lois was a joy of itself.

No, this wasn't like his childish infatuation with Lana Lang, where the slightest problem would send him to his loft to brood for days, this was much more serious than anything he had ever felt before. This was something a man felt for the woman he was meant to spend his entire life with.

Chloe rolled her eyes, she wished her pulitzer winning cousin would use some of her great investigative skills and finally see that what she had always wanted was sitting right in front of her on a daily basis, just waiting to be seen.

Finally knowing without a doubt what her decision was, what it had probably been from the first moment she had heard of Lois' article, Chloe scrambled to her feet and followed Clark up the stairwell.

Slamming open the door to the roof, Chloe walked outside, taking a moment to enjoy the warm spring breeze on her face before she saw Clark, hands gripping the cement ledge so hard Chloe was afraid he would leave an indentation of his hands.

Chloe opened her mouth but snapped it shut quickly. She didn't have a clue on the appropriate way to start this conversation; whether she should approach this seriously or turn it into a silly incident to laugh over.

Turning to face the petite blonde who was lost in thought, Clark announced abruptly. "She's driving me crazy."

"Huh, well that was convenient." Chloe muttered, thankful he had been the one to bring her cousin into the conversation. It was now one less thing she had to debate over.

"Yeah, she's good at that. Speaking of Lois…" Chloe began, grinning nervously when Clark's undivided attention was focused on her. It was sweet how at the mere mention of her cousin's name, Clark became completely alert.

"There's something I should tell you." Chloe spoke softly, looking out at the bright blue sky. "Before I do though, you should now that it's all kinda innocent…"

Chloe paused and rolled her eyes, ameneding her previous words. "Well, not innocent per say, but at least not harmful- really it's kinda funny if you think about it. Only not funny 'haha' but more like 'oh, the irony', you know?"

Clark stared at his best friend with a confused, but he hoped supportive, smile. His confusion only grew as Chloe began to mumble something about seduction leading to a pulitzer. As Clark opened his mouth to question her, he heard a distant call for Superman in a voice he knew by heart.

With a faraway look in his eyes, Clark whispered worriedly. "Lois."

Chloe frowned, wondering how Lois could already be in trouble. She had just seen her cousin downstairs not more than ten minutes ago. One day she would have to ask the brash brunnete just how she managed to find trouble in such short periods of time. Then again, Lois was a Lane through and through, so it only stood to reason that she would inherit the same tendencies towards danger that Lucy displayed so proudly.

Still, even though the sisters both seemed prone to stumbling into nefarious schemes, the way they went about it were polar opposites. While Lucy seemed to seek out anything that was dangerous for the simple thrill of being rebellous, Lois managed to find herself in life-threatening situations in the midst of her search for justice and truth.

She honestly had no idea how her Uncle Sam dealt with having two daughters always in harms way, but she knew the three star General had been sleeping a lot easier since his oldest daughter had found herself a guardian angel, one that was faster than a speeding bullet and always saved the day.

Chloe stifled a giggle as she thought about her Uncle's reaction if he knew just how spicy Superman's thoughts of Lois really were. Somehow, she didn't think he would be happy if he ever found out what role his daughter played in the hero's fantasies.

Pulling herself from her entertaining musings, Chloe returned her attention to the matter at hand and was startled to find that instead of Clark Kent, Superman was now standing before her.

"Can this wait?"

Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Superman gave her a nod and disappeared in a blur of red and blue.

"Yeah, sure…" Chloe whispered, biting her lip worriedly as she looked into the clear, blue sky. "At least, I hope so…"