The false sunlight streamed through the window. Kal-El reached out to feel for Lois and felt only the rumpled sheets where she had slept. He sat up straight with a panicked expression on his face. She wasn't in bed. He jumped up and ran to the closet. Her Earth clothes and her pocketbook were gone. Only her Kryptonian robes and nightgown remained.

He pulled his robe over his head as he ran. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which wasn't fast enough, to where the ship had been docked. It was as he had feared; the ship was already gone. He searched the skies for a trace of her. He thought he saw a small moving speck, but it could have just been space debris. Lois was gone.

He swallowed thickly. He would have gone to Earth with her. He realized he had never actually told her that he loved her, but didn't she know? Hadn't last night been proof of that? He had been so certain that she loved him too.

He made up his mind. He didn't how but he was going to Earth with her. Even if it meant spending the rest of his life on Earth with her as a simple friend, it was better than being here in Argo City without her. He looked at his wedding bracelet. It had come to mean more and more to him over time, but even at the time of his wedding, he hadn't taken his vows lightly. He couldn't live with just a memory of her, especially not when there was still a small chance that he wouldn't have to.

sss

Lois was huddled in the shadows of the ship away from the window. It had been easier than she thought to escape. She had expected to find locks, or at the very least, somebody guarding the ship. It had almost been too easy. The ship had lifted up, the dome had opened, and there were no alarms sounding or ships following her.

The butterflies in her stomach were still there even after Argo City was far behind her. Something about the trip just didn't feel right. She should be overjoyed about leaving or at least mildly pleased, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had left something important behind. Maybe it was the thought of what might happen to the agreement between Earth and Argo City if the Kryptonians found out she was gone and what the people of Earth would do if they found out she was the reason Earth didn't have a clean environmental slate. She was sure that Kal-El could cover though; she wouldn't have left if she thought he couldn't handle the situation.

Every time she thought of Kal-El, feelings and memories welled up inside her. Last night had been wonderful, better than wonderful, but it didn't mean anything, she tried to tell her pounding heart. She was trying to lie to herself, and she knew it. It meant a lot. It had been far from casual, or even a friends with benefits arrangement. She knew she could never be with anybody else now because nobody else would ever compare, but she had still been too afraid to stay. She was afraid to give up her life on Earth and she was afraid that their relationship wouldn't work out. Her relationships usually went sour after this stage. She wouldn't be able to take it if their relationship fizzled out. No, it was better to end things on a sweet note.

Her eyes fell on her wedding bracelet, and she gently touched it. She hadn't been able to leave the bracelet behind. She didn't know why. She hadn't planned on leaving with anything that she didn't come with.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a shrill yip. A white puppy came scampering out, and Lois let out a small groan. Now there were two things she had brought back with her from Argo City. She had no idea how that dog had managed to follow her to the ship and hide as a stowaway without giving himself away. Kal-El had told her that people and animals from Krypton had superpowers when they were on Earth. It looked like she was about to find out firsthand.

"How much trouble could you really get into?" she asked the puppy. She had a feeling she didn't want to find out. "Kal-El's going to miss you," she said as she ruffled his ears. "Kal-El is going to miss me," she added softly, knowing instantly that it was true as soon as it came out of her mouth. "And I'm going to miss Kal-El."

That was what she had left in Argo City she realized for the first time, her heart.