Dinner had been nauseating. At least from Kal-El's point of view. And he rarely became nauseous.

Lois was full of good cheer and her and Chloe talked non-stop. Ella and even Jor-El joined in to their nonsensical conversations, until finally, Chloe had to leave. Kal-El walked her out.

"What's wrong? Lois said she would pay for your car? Have you seen it yet?" Chloe asked. Kal-El slid and arm around her waist and walked her towards her car.

"No. Not yet. I believe Lois will make restitution. I just wonder why? She hated me hours before and now she's different." Kal-El noted.

"You know, maybe things are going well with Bruce Wayne. Lois has had this monster crush on him ever since she met him at Wayne Enterprises." Chloe noted.

"I don't think so. She left to meet someone. For some reason I do not think it was him. I have to get back. I will send you the information you need for your article. Good luck." he said, planting a quick kiss on her mouth, before opening her driver's side door. Chloe eyed him. Did he really think Lois had ulterior motives, just because she took responsibility for a mistake?

But she also knew it did no good to question Kal-El about what he was REALLY thinking about anything. Chloe got into her car, waved at Kal-El and drove off. Kal-El stared after her car for a bit, before turning back towards the mansion. He walked back inside, closed the door and found his father alone in the study. Kal-El closed the doors.

"Where is Ella?" he asked.

"Turning in for the night. I was just about to join her." Jor-El said.

Kal-El walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink, before facing his father.

"We need to find out who Lois met with when she damaged my car, Father."

Jor-El frowned.

"Kal-El, she said she would make restitution. I believe her."

"Oh I do too. But the car is not the problem. She KNOWS something. I can feel it."

"What do you mean?" Jor-El asked.

"I don't know. I think we'll know more once we find out who she met with."

"I am assuming that she met with someone that had to do with her internship at that newspaper. You know how Earth journalists are. They do not reveal things like that."

"Father, as long as you have been married to Ella Lane, her daughters have been in my charge. I KNOW Lois. She is being a little too...I don't know. I just know her."

Jor-El sighed.

"Alright, son. Let us say she does know something. Part of my marrying her mother was to study earth women and their emotions. And they can easily be distracted, especially when it comes to matters of love."

Kal-El raised a brow.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Find out if there is anything to your suspicions. And if you bring me proof that there is, we should find a way to push Lois towards Bruce Wayne." Jor-El said.

Kal-El stared at his father for a long moment, then burst out laughing!

"Father, don't be ridiculous!"

"I don't see anything ridiculous about it. It might settle Lois down and turn her attentions elsewhere-meaning out of our business." Jor-El informed him.

"Father, Bruce Wayne is...well...I just don't see him being able to handle Lois. Lucy or Chloe, maybe. But not her. And there is that other thing. I have my problems with Lois, but pushing her towards a man with the emotional problems he has..."

"Bruce does not have emotional problems. He is seeking justice based on a sense of loss he experienced at an early age."

"Father, he will be a problem once we take over."

"He'll keep the lower, criminal element in line. He has no power over us."

"Really?" Kal-El asked wryly. "Did you find out what was being worked on at his company? For all we know this 'serum' that we heard about could be very real."

Jor-El clenched his jaw before answering.

"Let me say this: I have discovered another scientist on the payroll. Someone that has a lab that my key card cannot access. There could be something to that. BUT...this person is in all probability, working on something without Bruce's express permission. It's important to find out if Lucius Fox has this unnamed scientist working on something that Bruce knows nothing about..."

"Or Bruce could very well know everything about it, and is just pretending to be obtuse." Kal-El reminded him.

"All I know, is that I can only see skeletal figures through the door when I try and investigate. And I cannot take the chance of lingering, or security will become suspicious." Jor-El said.

Frankly, Kal-El did not believe his father was trying too hard. He would never dare voice that opinion out loud, but he found it increasingly hard to believe, that Jor-El could not ascertain whether their suspicions were correct. And he suspected that his father did not want to believe that Bruce would plot against their kind.

"If Bruce is aware of something that could hurt Kryptonians, pushing him towards Lois could be to our detriment. I don't think it is a good idea." Kal-El said. "But I do have a thought."

"What is it?" Jor-El asked.

"Have you seen her articles on Bruce Wayne's 'nightly persona'? They are very negative. Maybe we should steer her in his direction-as being the man behind the mask. Pursuing an investigation like that, might deter her from looking into anything about us." Kal-El suggested.

"Kal-El," Jor-El said in a warning tone, "what did we not just discuss? When we take over, Bruce's 'nightly persona' can be used to our advantage. I don't want this disturbed."

"You don't want 'it' disturbed? Or you don't want Bruce Wayne humiliated?" Kal-El dared to say.

"Good night, Kal-El. I will find out what we need to know by tomorrow." Jor-El said, meaning it. Zod and Kal-El were beginning to question his dedication and faith in his own people. He would find out tomorrow if there was indeed a serum that could be of any danger to Kryptonians.

And then he would deal with it. And Bruce Wayne.


Lois changed into a pair of pink pajamas with bears on them, as she eyed the homework that she was behind on. She just couldn't make herself get started on it. Her conversation with Lionel Luthor was re-playing in her mind.

Her cellphone rang and Lois reached over on her nightstand to look at it.

It was Bruce.

Lois thought about ignoring it. Then she decided not to.

"Bruce. How are you?" Lois asked.

Bruce was now in his Metropolis penthouse, alone. He was dressed in a black robe and staring out into the night sky.

"I called actually to ask you that same question."

"Kal-El got me out of jail." Lois answered.

"Oh. I know you are not that fond of him..."

"It doesn't matter. He bailed me out and now it's over. I should go. I'm behind on homework."

"Why do I feel as if I lost some ground here?" Bruce asked.

"You didn't lose any ground, Bruce. I mean we were never anything to one another but casual acquaintances."

"Casual acquaintances? Really, Lois? Is this because I didn't let you know I was in town? Because there is a reason for that. One that you will find out about tomorrow."

"I have the feeling that congratulations is probably in order then. Congrats, Bruce. Good night." Lois said, hanging up on him. Meanwhile, outside of her door, Kal-El had used his special hearing to listen in on both sides of the conversation. Yes, Bruce had lost more than ground there! And Kal-El could only take that to mean that Lois had found something far more interesting to obsess over, than a playboy billionaire.

And it worried him.

Meanwhile, Bruce set down his phone and walked towards his bed. Women did not hang up on him. Not usually. And he could not help but get the strange feeling that Lois's distance, was not really about the jail snafu. Something else was occupying her mind now. Something that he suspected could be used against the Kryptonians. If he was ever going to find out what that was, he would have to reverse the damage that was caused today, when he did not bail Lois out.


Lois awoke feeling more positive than she had in years. She didn't know how she was going to reunite her family, she just knew it was possible. There was no way her mother would stay married to a man that had a wife on another planet!

Lois gathered her books and Daily Planet files and left her room. She was wearing a gray skirt suit, since she would be heading over to the paper after she finished her first two classes. When she reached the dining room table, she could see that her mother, Jor-El and Kal-El seemed to be discussing something that was in the paper.

"What's going on?" Lois asked, dropping into her usual chair.

Kal-El, who sat across from her, slid the paper towards her.

"It seems your 'boyfriend' now owns the Daily Planet." he said quietly. The article said that this move had been in the works for awhile. Kal-El now suspected that any attention Bruce was paying Lois, was to find out more about himself and Jor-El in some way. And by purchasing the newspaper Lois was interning at, Bruce would have access to whatever she found out.

Kal-El suspected Wayne may have over stepped. That conversation between the two of them last night had not been promising. it didn't sound as if Lois would be interested in sharing anything with Bruce.

"Lois," Jor-El asked, "did Bruce tell you he was buying the Daily Planet?"

Lois stared at the article, wondering what this could mean? She set down the paper and shook her head.

"No. He didn't. We're not that close anyway."

Ella now frowned. She liked Bruce and secretly, saw him as good husband material for ONE of her daughters. Maybe he would be better suited for Lucy.

"Since when?" Jor-El asked, refraining from looking at Kal-El.

"I just realized that it wasn't going to go anywhere. Bruce seems more like he's prefer a society type or someone like that. Well, we'll see if I still have an internship today." Lois said and stood up.

"Honey, you haven't eaten anything!" Ella admonished.

"Mom, I'll catch something on the way to school."

Kal-El stood up.

"Your car is not here. I will borrow another vehicle from the garage and drive you to yours." Kal-El told her. Lois nodded with resignation. She didn't exactly want to start off her day being in the same car as Kal-El but beggars could not be choosers.

Once they left the dining room, Ella focused on her husband.

"You know Bruce pretty well, don't you, honey?"

Jor-El reached for his wife's hand.

"Not well enough to ask him something unrelated to what I do for him, dear."

"I was not talking about his purchasing the Daily Planet. I don't think you'd be out of line asking what his intentions are towards Lois."

"Ella, my dear, you heard her. She has said that Bruce has no intentions towards her. It sounds as if she is dealing with that and moving on."

"I guess I would like to know if Lois was hasty in anyway? Has Bruce told her this? That there can never be anything important between them? Lois can be very rash at times. She does not give situations or people, a real chance. It concerns me that this could affect her chances for a position at the paper." Ella said worriedly.

"Darling, there IS always LuthorCorp. She could work in Public Relations. Now I must get going myself." Jor-El said, giving his wife a quick kiss on the mouth, before getting up and walking out of the dining room.

Jor-El could not help but think, how stressful being an 'Earth Husband' could be. Ella had all but asked him to find out from Bruce if he cared anything for Lois! Lois could ask him that herself!

And then there was Kal-El. He sensed, no, he knew, that his son thought he was stalling on finding out about this mysterious serum that could do Kryptonians harm. He could not allow for anyone to think that. He would use his abilities to find out what was going on in that regard.

Meanwhile, in the secret lab that Jor-El was having trouble accessing at Wayne Enterprises, there was indeed a new scientist working there. He called himself 'Davis Bloom' but his real name was Lor-Zod and his father was Vice-President of the United States on Earth.

'Dr. Bloom' and the team he had been assigned, watched the mice they experimented on, anxiously. As they slowly began to appear to vanish, Davis smiled, as did the people under him. The serum worked! It finally worked! If Davis was correct and his people were planning on ruling and pillaging this wonderful planet, then the Earthlings that lived here would be able to make themselves invisible while they planned a counter attack.

And these people here, on this planet, were very important to Davis now. Especially one woman in particular. His new wife, a woman named Cat Grant...