Disclaimer: I only own the characters not normally seen on the show, those not in the comic books, and those not from the films. (So basically the trivial characters you don't recognize)

Previously: "You miss a lot of things when you're gone for five years."

(--)

"Lois, it's been two days," Chloe chided softly to Lois as the brunette sipped her coffee sitting next to Chloe in the doctor's office. Chloe was there for her final prenatal check-up and Lois had decided to tag along as means of both spending time with her estranged cousin and proving to herself once more that having children was not in her future.

"Your point?" Lois inquired, giving her cousin an eyebrow raise.

"My point, Lois, is that Clark has been back for two days and you haven't said more than five words to him," Chloe answered. She winced a little and placed a hand on her stomach as the baby kicked.

"He seems fine about it," Lois shrugged.

"Lois," Chloe's voice held a warning tone. She gave Lois a look: since when has Clark Kent ever been okay with something like this? Lois purposely turned away from her cousin. She focused instead on a young mother sitting with her two boys across the room.

The woman looked a little flustered. One of her sons was crying softly in her arms; he was maybe a year old and she had him held tightly to her chest, cooing softly in his ear. The other boy was sitting next to her, reading a comic book and munching loudly on a package of crackers, leaving crumbs all down his front.

Lois gave them a sad smile. She missed Chloe and she couldn't help but feel--selfishly she knew--that once the new baby was born she'd see Chloe less than she did now. The thought made Lois feel incredibly lonely. She squeezed her shoulders tightly.

Chloe glanced at Lois and frowned. The brunette looked depressed. Chloe wondered if Lois was thinking about Clark again. She recalled the first year Clark had disappeared: Lois seemed to have had good days and bad ones; but now Chloe knew that they had all been bad. Either Lois was throwing herself into work, or lying in bed with the covers pulled over her head.

Chloe had done everything she could think of to help Lois through the tough times but no matter what Chloe said she never felt like she was doing anything to help her cousin. Then suddenly, Lois seemed perfectly fine; she even gave into Bruce Wayne's romantic advances. The turn of events had surprised everyone, even Martha Kent, who had been trying to get Lois to open up.

"Ms. Sullivan?" A young male doctor entered the small waiting room from a door near Chloe's side. She looked up at him as he smiled, "Hello, Chloe, how are we doing today?"

Lois rolled her eyes slightly.

"Fine, Dr. Morton, how are you?" Chloe inquired getting to her feet with a little assistance from Lois.

"Fantastic; let's have a look see, why don't we?" Dr. Morton suggested holding the door open for Chloe to head into one of the exam rooms. Clo gave her cousin one last look before disappearing into the recesses of the doctor's office.

Dr. Morton gave Lois an all-too cheery smile, "We'll only be a few minutes," he said before following after Chloe. Lois' smile faded as soon as he was out of eyesight. She rolled her eyes again and faced forward once more.

The mother and her two young sons had disappeared toward the bathroom leaving Lois alone in the small room. She scanned the walls for a magazine but found nothing but pediatric journals and Men's Health, neither which interested her. She absently checked her cell phone; No New Messages.

She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. Lois glanced up as a young man entered the room from the lobby. He was dressed in shorts and tee-shirt with a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses. Lois frowned at him until she noticed the stack of papers he was hanging onto. He dropped the large stack near a chair on the opposite side of the room, gave Lois a nod and kind smile, and left the room.

Lois gave the paper a brief glance: The Inquisitor. Lois smiled to herself. She couldn't help but admit that she'd had the most fun while working at the less than credible tabloid. The Daily Planet was a great job, but writing about the bizarre workings of the Smallville/Metropolis underworld had been worth the while.

She rolled her eyes at herself as she got up and grabbed a copy of her former employer. The cover was blazoned with a picture of Lana Luther wearing sunglasses, a baby-carrier on one arm and a small boy holding tightly to her other hand. Lois' heart went to the former cheerleader: Lana had been subjected to the public even more since she had left Lex. Not to mention she was losing the custody battle for their children.

Lois flipped through the pages, stopping on the article about Lana's latest battles against Lex. The pages were splashed with pictures of Lana and her son, Alexander, pictures of her baby girl, Lilly, pictures of Lana's late parents, even some of her as one of Smallville High School cheerleaders. Lois wasn't surprised when she read Linda Lake's name on the by-line, though she was impressed that the woman had managed to keep a hold onto her job. Lois didn't read much of the article, just a line here, a sentence there; she didn't care for gossip even if it was about someone she knew personally.

She closed the tabloid and placed it back on the top of the pile. She checked her watch again. Chloe had only been gone ten minutes but Lois was getting restless. She pulled her cell phone from her purse and stared at it, willing it to ring. She was so focused on wishing for the phone to vibrate in her hand that she jumped when it actually did.

She breathed heavily and laughed at herself as she flipped open the phone and held it to her ear, "Lois Lane."

"Lois, it's Clark." Lois winced. This was the only phone call that she didn't want to pick up. She briefly wondered if she should just close the phone and forget that Clark had called but she could hear Martha Kent's voice in her head telling her that this was a step she needed to take.

"Clark, what's up?" She tried not to sound to annoyed.

"Um, well, I wanted to…Perry wants to see you," Clark replied quickly. Lois rolled her eyes for the third time. Whether she had been angry at him or not, she had missed Clark Kent; but the man who had shown up in the Daily Planet two days before was not Clark Kent. He was a bumbling, shadow of the man he used to be: the man Lois had fallen in love with. Ironically, it made it easier for Lois to hate him now.

"What about?" Lois inquired, hoping she could get some information out of Clark before she ditched Chloe and headed back to work on a whim.

"I don't know," Clark answered.

Lois sighed loudly, then winced again. Clark was apparently as astute about her moods as he always had been. He sensed that he was annoying, made up some reason why he had to go and hung up, leaving Lois feeling a little guilty; not, however, guilty enough to even begin to forgive him.

(--)

That was a complete waste of time, Lois thought miserably as she sat at her desk four hours later. Clark had mysteriously disappeared and Jimmy was bringing Chloe home--a job Lois would have been glad to do had Clark not called her back to the office for a worthless meeting with Perry.

She cracked her fingers painfully and set to finishing her article. A sewage treatment plant in south Metropolis had been dumping into a reservoir which a local farming community used as a water supply. It had taken Lois only two weeks to gather enough information to divulge the truth and help the police catch the guilty culprits. Now she was adding a follow-up article about those convicted to her rap sheet.

She leaned back in her chair and heard the painfully annoying sound of her computer receiving an email. She shrunk the Word document that contained her article and pulled up her email. There was one new message from an unknown sender. She clicked on the box, praying that it wasn't a virus, and the text of the email sprang up on her screen.

Guardian Angel. The roof. Fifteen minutes.

Lois raised a suspicious eyebrow. No one knew that she was working on the Guardian Angel story aside from a few people. She glanced around the newsroom but everyone was busy doing their jobs, something Lois had ought to be doing lest she no longer wanted hers. Still, curiosity had always been her Achilles Heel.

Grabbing her coat, Lois got up from her chair. She began to walk to the elevator but hesitated. She hurried back to her desk and dug through the accumulation of papers finally pulling out the file on the Guardian Angel that Perry had given her the day Clark had returned. She thumbed through it as she rode the elevator to the 20th floor. She found herself in a hallway of closed office doors: this was where men like Bruce sat around all day and pretended to care about the newspaper.

Lois briefly wondered what was going on behind all those closed doors before walking through the metal door that opened to the short set of stairs which led to the roof. As she pushed the roof door open she felt the chill of the wind. At this height even late August was cold and she wrapped her coat tighter around her shoulders.

Not surprisingly, Lois seemed to find herself alone, with only the large, rotating globe for company, and yet instantly she wished she hadn't come up here at all. She was a strong believer in gut intuition--it helped her unearth some of her best stories--but she often wished that her gut would kick in before her curiosity got her into sticky situations: situations like the one she felt she had just walked right into.

For the first year they were dating, when Lois was rattling a lot of important people's cages, Bruce often worried about her, despite her extensive self-defense training, and she had to admit, there were times when she worried about herself. The first year she had been at the Planet she had been reckless and careless. She had jumped into an attack on Lex Luther and had nearly ended up in a full-body cast for the price of it.

It had been snowing that night, she remembered the details vividly; she was walking back to her car from the restaurant where she and Chloe had eaten a late-night meal. She was opening her door just as a SVU came barreling at her and her car. She barely managed to jump out of the way before the SVU slammed into her car. She'd gotten away with a broken wrist and some bruises; they had never found the SVU or its driver.

Since then she hadn't been as fearless. She had published her article on Lex and LutherCorp but she had been far more careful about herself in later years. Thinking now, atop the roof of the Daily Planet, she realized that she was doing the exact opposite of that.

Without further hesitation, Lois disregarded her curiosity and walked back toward the door to the warm building. She winced when she felt something grab hold of her coat. Her first instinct was to swing her arm around and slam her fist into the person's face. They reeled back both from the pain and force of impact. It gave Lois the time she needed to bolt out of his grasp and closer to the door.

She reached out her hand to take the handle when she felt the full weight of someone's body crash into her mid-section. She collapsed forward onto the hard concrete of the Daily Planet's roof. She kicked out with her boots, aiming for painful points of contact. She felt her heel collide solidly with his knee cap. He let out a gruff sound before finally gaining the position he needed to close his hands around her throat.

She clawed at his fingers as she felt herself slowly being deprived of oxygen. She lashed out digging her nails into his cheek but it did nothing to loosen his grip, only making it more forceful. She felt her head begin to spin and blackness creep into her vision. She willed herself not to pass out, repeating it over and over again in her head.

With her last bit of strength she shoved her knee upwards into his groin. He released her neck and rolled over in pain. Lois was able to push herself off the ground but he caught her ankle as she started to run for the door again. She felt her body collide with the pavement once more and tasted blood as her chin slammed into the unforgiving stone.

She kicked her ankle, trying to throw off his hand but she was quickly losing energy; and it seemed this made his grow infinitely stronger. He was back on his feet, dragging Lois by her ankle toward the edge of the building. She thrashed, whipping her hands and legs wildly. Finally, he stopped dragging and pulled Lois upright by her hair. She attempted to punch and kick him violently but he did not relent. Placing a hand on her throat, he forced her backwards over the edge.

A silent scream escaped her lips as she waved her hands manically, clutching at air. She saw her attacker look over the side once before disappearing into the dark sky. The wind whipped past her as she hurtled toward the street. She found herself wishing that she'd had more time in life.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable impact when her body would collide with the sidewalk and probably exploded from the force of it; but the collision never came. She opened her eyes when she felt something come under her body and in a swoop pull her away from death.

She gasped when she saw that she was being carried. She was being carried by a man in red cape. She was being carried by Clark Kent. Am I dead? She thought briefly, recalling many a dream where she was flying with a man in a red cape.

But the turn of his head, the proud smile he gave her as she sat cuddled into his arms; the feeling of him holding her; the blue of the eyes no longer interrupted by too-large frames; she suddenly realized that this was the Clark she'd been waiting for: he had finally come back.

"Don't worry, Lois, I've got you," he said. His voice was the same as it had been that afternoon and yet it was infinitely different. It held within it everything that made up the Clark Kent that Lois remembered from Smallville. And still, he was so much more than he had once been: they were flying for one thing. Lois glanced downward as the city passed beneath them, people pointing and some even clapping.

"Well, who's got you?" she inquired, giving him an uneasy smile. She felt wind rush past her once more as they rocketed upward briefly and then landed lightly in front of the Daily Planet entrance.

"You be careful now, Miss Lane," he said as he began to rise upward once more, his arm raised above his head. She stared up at him in awe as he flew off into the night, people surrounding her.

"Who was he?" a woman near Lois' side asked.

"The Guardian Angel!" another exclaimed.

Lois felt herself fade into the crowd of people watching after Clark. She finally let her gaze drop from the sky, suddenly remembering what had happened on the roof. She turned on her heel and jogged back into the Planet building. She rode the elevator back up to the newsroom and skillfully avoided several reporters as she made her way into Perry White's office.

"Lois!" Perry was surprised by her sudden entrance. She hadn't spoken to him much since he'd assigned Kent to be her partner. She seemed out of breath and a little wind-blown.

"We just got the story of the century!" she stated. Perry raised an eyebrow at her. Lois pulled her coat off her shoulders and slung it over her arm as she leaned into Perry's desk.

"I was just thrown off the roof of this building," she said it as if this was an everyday occurrence.

"My god, Lois, are you all right?!" Perry looked over the young woman: she didn't seem to be injured at all.

"I'm fine. That's the best part: I was saved by a man," Perry gave her a disbelieving look, "a flying man."

"You were saved by a flying man?" Perry inquired.

"Yes, a flying man."

Perry got to his feet as he suddenly realized the implications, "The Guardian Angel."

"Bingo baby."

"Lois, you were just saved by the Guardian Angel."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, did you get a look at him? Do you know him? What does he look like?" Perry fired off questions but Lois suddenly froze. Clark was wearing those stupid glasses for a reason: he was hiding his true identity. She thought back to Ollie and even Bruce. She definitely had some sort of unconscious attraction to men like them.

"Lois?" her boss was questioning her silence. She looked up at him, hoping he could read the lie by her eyes.

"No, I don't know who he is," she said. Perry frowned.

"Oh, well, at least we've got a first hand account. Forget the sewer review, I want an article on this Guardian Angel on my desk by morning!" Perry returned to his seat.

"Yes, sir," Lois answered as she headed for the door. Her hand was barely on the knob when Perry's voice echoed through the room again.

"And Lois," she turned to him, "come up with something better than 'the Guardian Angel'; it's too religious."

"Got it, Chief," Lois left the office with far less enthusiasm than she had entered. She knew Perry was going to let her write the article, it was the reason she'd rushed to tell him anyway, now she was afraid that her current situation with Clark would somehow impact her ability to relate the events.

They are two completely different people, Lois, she reminded herself, and yet even she had trouble believing it to be true.

(--)

Her fingers were frozen over the keyboard, a phenomenon she had never before experienced. For the life of her, Lois could not type one word on the white screen of her computer. She'd been sitting that way for almost twenty minutes and still no words poured out of her head, through her fingers and onto the page.

Bruce was sitting beside her on the couch, looking over some budget plans for Wayne Enterprises. She'd told him about the events of the evening, leaving out as she was now bound to do, that it was Clark who had been the mysterious flying man in the tights and cape, both of which she planned to mock furiously when she started talking to him again. Bruce had been instantly worried which turned to regret for not being there to save her himself.

She assured him that she felt no hard feelings about it. He mentioned he'd look into whoever it was that attacked her but Lois knew that he would find no trace of her assailant. She drawn up a bad sketch of the man's face and given it to him anyway.

Now she was sitting, her computer on her lap, Bruce slouched next to her, the faint sounds of classical music playing on the stereo in the bedroom, and for all her talent at reporting a story, could not think of a single thing to write. Bruce had suggested she give the guy a name; he offered some things that would "strike fear into the hearts of the corrupt" but Lois didn't feel like any of them really fit Clark.

Not to mention that she still had to stop referring to him as Clark in her mind. Clark wasn't a superhero; Clark was a farm boy from Smallville who wore far too much plaid and who Lois had been more than a little in love with. Clearly his sense of fashion had not improved in the past years, Lois thought jovially.

"How's it going?" Bruce asked, looking up at her from his budget reports. Lois gave him a look, "That good, huh? Maybe you should take a break," he suggested.

"I can't, Perry wants this on his desk by the morning," Lois replied. Bruce apparently didn't find that threatening; he closed Lois' laptop and pulled it from her grasp with a smile.

"Trust me, a break will help you refuel," Bruce reassured her. Lois rolled her eyes a little as he got to his feet and pulled her up by her hands. He kept one of his hands wrapped tightly around hers as he led her in the direction of her bedroom.

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the exposed palm softly. Lois smiled at him, feeling her tension start to slip away momentarily. He pushed her bedroom door open and pulled her gently inside.

She felt the rush of falling and started awake. She breathed rapidly as she looked around her bedroom. Bruce was asleep beside her, something that rarely happened anymore, the darkness filling in the corners of her room. She threw the covers off as the wisps of her dream trailed after her.

She padded across the room and through the open door. The lights were still on and her computer was still sitting on the coffee table. She glanced at the clock over the unused kitchen stove. It was nearly three in the morning and she still had nothing for her article that Perry would require to see when she walked in, only six hours later.

She sat down on the couch once more and pulled her computer onto her lap. The screen lit up instantly when she lifted the cover. The white screen of the Word Document glared harshly at her in the dim lighting. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision. She felt her self relax as she finally began to type.

Saved By…

Saved by who? She still hadn't come up with a name for Clark's alter ego. Her mind flashed through the both the events of the evening and every conversation they had had about his powers while they were together. Her mind whirled as time mixed together, focusing on one thing, the yellow 'S' blazoned across his chest. She drifted back to varsity jackets and football games when a quarterback wore a similar yellow 'S' on his front.

She shook the memory of happier times away and focused once more on the task at hand: a name. Super-hearing, super-speed…super, super, super-man…Superman. Lois stared at her computer screen. Superman? It was only slightly mocking; subtle enough that only a few people would see the appearance of Lois' personality breaking through the name.

"Saved By Superman" by Lois Lane.

She typed the words carefully. It didn't sound bad. A name, she'd given him a name. With the reassurance that he had a name, something she could call him besides Clark, something to separate the savior from the heartbreak, she found she could move through the events of the evening far more objectively. He was two different people, that's all she had to remember.

(--)

"Superman!" Perry threw Lois' article down on his desk with enthusiasm, "Lois this is genius!"

The reporter in question stood before him, her arms crossed over her desk, with a pleases smile on her face. She'd neglected to mention to Perry that she'd only finished the article half an hour ago, but it was evident he didn't mind her late-night grammar or spelling.

Beside her, Clark stood uncomfortably. Perry had suggested Lois bring him in on the meeting so he could read something of publishing caliber; something his own partner had written. Now, as Lois could understand, he was fidgeting nervously while Perry read over the article.

"Thanks Chief," Lois replied, moving her hands to her hips.

"Too bad we don't have a photo to go along with it," Perry frowned. Lois gave Clark a quick look but which he returned apprehensively.

"I think it's fine without a picture," Lois attested quickly, feeling she should offer Clark some assistance, he had after all saved her life the night before.

"Hmm, well, we'll see what Olsen can dig up," Perry decided.

The three stood in silence as Perry reread the article, then he looked up at them, a reporter's glint in his eye, "An interview!"

"A what?!" Both Lois and Clark exclaimed.

"We need an interview with him," he held up his hand and annunciated each word, "The Man Behind the Cape."

"Chief I don't know about that. I don't think he's just hanging around, you know, waiting for me to find him," Lois warned, leaning forward.

"Oh, I'll bet that bet that if Lois went back up on the roof Superman would find her," Clark suggested. Lois gave him a dangerous look.

"Great idea, Kent, Lois the roof," Perry instructed.

"But Chief, you do remember that I had a very unfortunate incident on the roof last night; I'm not really keen on going back up there."

"Oh, don't worry Lois," Clark stepped toward, "If sure Superman would make sure you were okay." Lois' glare darkened and Clark backed up a step.

"Lois, you'll be spending the rest of your shift on the roof; Kent…go do whatever it is that you do around here," Perry waved them from the office.

When the door was closed Lois turned on Clark; poking him in the chest with her finger she whispered, "You and I need to have a very special conversation."

With that she stalked over to her desk, took hold of her coat and purse and walked to the elevator. Clark watched as she stepped inside and let his x-ray vision follow her up to the roof level. He smiled faintly to himself and followed after her.

(--)

Lois cautiously opened the door to the roof. She glanced around her: she was alone, hopefully for real this time. She stepped out onto the concrete; her eyes were immediately drawn to the edge where she'd gone over. She brushed away the chill that ran up her spine.

"Hello, Miss Lane." The voice made her jump. She turned and rolled her eyes. Clark Kent dressed in his Superman garb was floating just over the side of the building. She gave him a tight smile.

"Right on time," Lois said sarcastically, pulling out her tape recorder from her purse.

"I was close by," Superman replied.

"Funny," Lois stepped closer to him; Clark floated over the edge and set down on the rooftop in front of her, "So, let's start at the beginning," Lois suggested, "Who are you?"

Clark nodded, almost imperceptibly, "My name is Kal-El; I was born on a distant planet, called Krypton; my parents sent me here just before Krypton was destroyed."

"Destroyed? By whom?" Lois inquired, frowning.

"A general, named Zod," Clark replied.

"Oh," Lois nodded for him to continue, "We know you can fly, anything else?"

"Super-speed; super-hearing; super-strength…" Clark voice seemed to trail off, though Lois knew he was still talking, all she could see in her mind's eye was a similar conversation when a handsome farm boy in borrowed clothes had explained his super-powers to a tenacious girl in a motel room. She was starting to break: in four and half years she hadn't so much as cried a tear for Clark Kent; but remembering the day when he had revealed himself to her was tearing down her carefully built wall.

"Faster than a speeding bullet?" Lois joked, her voice cracking.

"Usually," Clark replied with a soft, sad smile. Lois looked down at her feet. She clicked off the tape recorder and met his eyes once more, this time hers beginning to fill up with warmth.

"Where did you go?" she asked, her voice low, pained.

"The Fortress," Clark replied softly.

"That place in the Arctic? You've been there for five years?"

"I was training." Clark answered and he knew it was not what Lois needed to hear.

"Training?! You left me alone on the most frightening day of my life to train in the Arctic!" Lois felt her anger start to bubble, the pain was turning back into rage.

"I didn't have a choice," Clark's voice got slightly louder: he desperately wanted Lois to understand his reasons for leaving but he knew she would not; it wasn't in her nature.

"You didn't have a choice?! You chose to leave! You could have stayed!"

"No, I couldn't, Lois, I had to go! You said to go!" Clark winced when Lois' eyes lit: wrong thing to say.

"I said be back soon: soon is not five years later!" Lois snapped, "My father was in the hospital, you weren't there!"

"Lois, I needed to go--."

"I needed you. I mean, I was in that hospital for two day--two days--I didn't I know where you were, I didn't even know if you were coming back!"

"Lois…"

"You know the worst part about it, when you weren't there, part of me wasn't surprised," Lois crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a solemn look. The anger had faded but Lois' words stung them both. Clark's hands hung by his side; he couldn't look at her.

"It's not fair."

"Well, life's not fair," Lois remarked.

"I don't like this; us; where we are," Clark motioned between them with his hand.

"Did you leave for five years without telling me?"

"Yes."

"Can you change that?"

"No."

"Then, honey, we are where we are," Lois answered. She pulled her purse over her shoulder, throwing the tape recorder inside. She fidgeted slightly and Clark understood that she wanted to leave: but Lois Lane would never run away from a fight.

"I have to go," Clark stepped up on the ledge.

"Right," Lois nodded.

"I'm sorry, Lois," he added before bending his knees and taking off around the Daily Planet globe. Lois brushed a stray tear from her cheek, watching him disappear into the clouds above. She turned and walked back into the building.

Perry White happened to be out on the newsroom floor when Lois walked past. She was marching through the room, a file tucked under her arm, her coat and purse in her hands. He frowned, recalling quite well that he'd specifically ordered Lois to be on the roof waiting for Superman.

"Lois--!"

"You'll have the interview by tomorrow morning," Lois assured him as she walked past.

"You got it?! Great! Where are you going?" he called after her.

"Sick leave!" She replied as she stepped into the elevator.

Perry raised an eyebrow, frowning after his star reporter. She seemed a little more frazzled than when she'd gone up to the rooftop. He thought he might call Chloe later and ask her about it, but the idea drifted out of his when Jimmy walked up to him carrying a stack of photographs.

"Olsen, those better be of Superman!"

(--)

R&R please!

You're comments and requests for updates have really gotten me through my case of writer's block, so thank you. You might recognize some of these conversations, and actually the conversation from Gilmore Girls and my desire to use that in reference to Smallville was the thing that inspired this whole fic! Who'd a thunk it?!