A week had passed, a week without significant incident. No signs of Circe and even better no signs of Darkseid or any other high profile enemies Clark has made over the years. Even Lois began to let go of some of her anger over Superman. She and Clark had an extended talk about her 'Army Ranger ex-boyfriend' in which at least for now he convinced her that no man was worth the pain, and that if he actually cheated that she's better off without him. Which in reality he thought was true, even though he never cheated the lies in their relationship were unhealthy, because Clark couldn't be who he wanted to be with her, yet he saw her every day at work and couldn't reveal his feelings, it was brutal.

Since the ice bath worked and Lois legs worked properly again, their friendship was in a pretty good place, all awkwardness was on his side, which he blamed himself for and did his best to take in stride.

"You look like you're in a good mood there Smallville what's up?" Lois noticed as they packed up to leave for the day, he perked up in the last few minutes.

"It's Friday, it's beautiful outside, and I'm getting off early to go see my ladies. What could be better?"

"You're really into this daddy thing aren't you?"

"It is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my life. Clara has infinitely enriched my life, you know she's holding her head up now. And she's been saying 'daddy' for a good while, and... and... she smiles when I walk into the room."

"A daddy's girl huh? That won't last you know."

"Why do you have to be like that? Ruining my happy place. Yes Lois, I know it won't last forever. Yes, I am terrified at what 'twerking' will evolve into over the next 15 years, but I'm trying to leave all of that for another day."

Lois laughed hard, "Of all the things in the world you would be the guy who's most worried about twerking of all things."

"Pretty much yeah, so if you even mention the word to her you will face my wrath, I want you to know that."

"Face the wrath of Smallville, got it." Lois mocked a fearful shudder. "I promise I won't say a word, scouts honor."

"Clara is to never even know that this phenomenon exists. I'm serious Lois."

"And so am I." Lois laughed while she spoke, and shook her butt a little while she walked away. Knowing full well that Clark was giving her the stink eye as she left.

Clark strolled into the apartment without a care in the world, he saw that Clara was sleeping in her playpen in the corner of the living room and Diana had moved all the furniture to the sides to clear space to do her exercises.

"You're home early." Diana said quietly noticing Clark climbing over the sofa.

"I just couldn't wait to be home." He crossed the room and pulled her into a tight embrace, and leaned down to kiss her.

Diana expected the kiss, kisses and hugs had become routine for them, but this was different. He held her close, massaged the smooth skin on her back and ran them down to her hips. She wondered what had come over Clark, not enough to stop him, but she wondered still.

"Clark is there something wrong? You seem extra happy today?"

"No. Why would something be wrong? It's Friday, I'm off work early, who wouldn't be happy?"

"If you say so." Diana went to the sofa where her robe was and put it on, she was slowly beginning to adapt to wearing it.

"So did you do anything interesting today?"

"Not really, we just went for a walk."

"Nice day for it."

"Yes, so nice I was approached by several men."

"Is that right?"

"Yes, three of them. Two wanted to tell me things about my body that I already know, and another man asked to take me on a date."

"That's actually not surprising at all, I assume you turned him down?" He expected that Diana was approached by men anytime he wasn't with her, but this was the first time she said anything about it.

"No."

"No?"

"He was so nice I had to say yes."

Clark frowned, and Diana's face was unreadable. "I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"Of course I'm joking. But in his speech about how much better he'd treat me than you do, he made one point about us, we haven't been on a proper date."

Clark tried to think, they really hadn't. Probably the closest they'd had to a date was their trip to Smallville when they had lunch at The Nooner, but that hardly counted. "You want to go on a date with me?"

"Yes." Diana answered quickly.

"Tonight?"

"Yes."

After some debate, Clark landed on his the porch of his parents home in Smallville, Diana landed a few seconds after him. "Mom's not home. Weird."

"What about your dad?"

"He's here." Clark knocked on the door.

A minute later Jonathan opened the door excited. "Hey Clark good to see you, and you brought the whole crew come on in."

"Where's mom?"

"Uh, she's in town doing... something. She told me earlier but I don't remember." Jonathan looked to address Clara. "Well hello young lady, remember me?"

"Dada!" Clara said happily.

Jonathan stepped back half confused half excited about it. He looked at Clark who was giving a triumphant nod, then at Diana who was rolling her eyes at Clark for his silly reaction. "You know what Clara? I'll take it for now. Does she say anything else?"

"Nope, just dada. Over and over again." Diana chimed in with a hint of jealousy.

"And how are you Diana?" Jonathan always made a point to be kind to her. Martha was getting better, but it still might be a while.

"I am very well thank you."

Just then the sound of the side door opening was heard by all. "Jonathan come here and help me with this stuff!" Martha was returning for a trip to the grocery store.

Clark passed the baby over to Jonathan and went to help. "I got it mom."

"Clark!" She hugged her son warmly not expecting him to be here. "And you brought the baby. Hi sweetie!"

Martha bypassed Diana to take Clara from her husband's arms. Clara immediately cried when Martha took her. "Oh no don't do that." Martha tried to sooth her, but the crying continued.

"What happened?" Clark asked when he returned with an armful of grocery bags. "She was fine two seconds ago."

Jonathan, tired of the crying already took Clara back, and immediately she stopped crying. "Well look at that."

"Hello Mrs. Kent." Diana finally said, realizing that Martha wasn't going to initiate conversation.

"Hello Diana." She felt a little bad about ignoring her up to this point, she was trying to get over her initial mistrust. "What brings you over?"

"Date night." Clark answered, "Apparently you said you'd be willing to keep her for an extended period of time. If it's not too short notice I'd like to cash in now."

"Until when?" Jonathan asked.

"The morning?" Clark suggested, looking at Diana who didn't correct him.

"Sure!" Martha was serious about bringing Clara over anytime, she would drop any plans she had right away. "She can sleep in Clark's old crib."

"I'll send Krypto with supplies, just as before." Diana explained, backing towards the door.

"Sounds good." Jonathan said, not exactly upset to be keeping Clara but not happy that Martha just dictated his night without consulting him.

Diana had been eager to get out of Kansas, not that she disliked being there but she was excited for her date. She looked through her clothes in the closet, her eyes first went to the two piece bikini she'd recently acquired. She was sure she wouldn't be able to wear that, so she kept moving. After being asked out this afternoon, she used the ever useful internet to research what exactly people did on a date, dinner, dancing, movies, romantic walks on the beach, the possibilities were limitless.

It made her realize that she and Clark had skipped a lot of steps in their relationship. 10 minutes after meeting they made a baby, then were apart for a year. When they reconnected she immediately became his live in girlfriend. In a matter of weeks, they had gone from not even knowing each other to acting like a couple that has been married for 20 years, but still didn't know each other. She wanted to change that, she was only 22 years old, she wanted to live like it from time to time, just to be young and reckless even for just one night.

Before she could come to a decision Clark walked into the bedroom. "I got us a reservation at 'Lovely Blues' in Gotham City. We need to be there in an hour."

"What should I wear?"

"One of the dresses, any one of these will work. This isn't the most high end place, but they do have a dress code. I have to wear a suit, so just wear something nice."

Diana settled on a black halter dress with a gray swirl pattern that fell just below the knees, and after a short wait they made the flight to Gotham. Immediately upon arriving they were reminded of the stark difference between Gotham and Metropolis, what had been an empty alley for a discreet landing became a place for someone to decide to rob them.

"Give me your wallets, jewelry and phones, I'm not playin, give it up!" The man wore a cheap half mask probably bought from a costume shop. But more threatening was the 40 caliber handgun pointing in Clark's face.

Clark quickly grabbed Diana's arm and pulled her behind him and assessed the situation. He's got a Glock 23, polymer frame, 13 in the mag one in the pipe, made in Austria very reliable. Too bad this clown has no idea who he's robbing.

"I'm not giving anything up, you're going to have to shoot me." Clark said defiantly before Diana could react. Apparently the robber had little regard for life because he took a shot at Clark's chest, not realizing he was actually shooting at Superman.

Clark didn't want a bullet hole in his suit nor did he want to ruin the nice evening he had planned, so moving faster than human eyes can see he took action. He blocked the bullet with his hand, breaking it up into tiny pieces that fell to the ground, then as the empty case ejected from the gun he caught it and pushed it back into the slide before it went back into battery causing a stovepipe jam, rendering the gun unable to fire a second time.

The robber was stunned, even from a foot away he missed! And now his gun was jammed, he looked down and saw that the case hadn't fully ejected. If he had been a trained handgun shooter he would have known the proper course of action would be to tap the magazine rack the slide and fire again, but he had no time for that. Before he could even attempt to clear the gun Clark delivered a knockout punch. Carefully measured to give just the right amount of force. Next he melted the gun and threw the useless remnants into the dumpster.

"You ready to eat?" Clark asked, completely unshaken by the incident.

"I am." The whole thing happened in about 10 seconds, Diana had little time to process anything. "Did you know you're really fast?"

"Faster than a speeding bullet." Clark confirmed.

"What about him?" Diana asked as they stepped over the prone robber toward the restaurant. "Is he dead?"

"Nah, he'll wake up in a little while with a concussion, and probably no memory of what just happened. I should call the police, but in this town it'll take them 3 hours to get here. So let's just go."

After they were seated the night went smoothly, the restaurant was elegant and the people inside acted like it. There was a stark contrast between outside and in here, there was chaos and violence in the streets, but this served as a reminder that there were still civilized people in Gotham.

Clark looked up as their wine was being served and saw the national face of Gotham civilization, Bruce Wayne himself. "Wow, I'm surprised he would lower himself to come into an establishment like this."

"This seems a nice place, why would he not come here?" Diana asked.

"This is a nice place for regular folk like us but for him this is a step down."

"Clark, there's nothing regular about us." Diana reminded.

"True."

Bruce looked around, he always looked around to get a feel for who is in the room and where they are. He took note of all the exits, and the best places for cover or concealment in case he needed to be protected or simply out of sight from any sort of difficult situation. In his searching he came across two familiar faces.

"Well if it isn't Clark Kent and Diana Prince, fancy seeing you two here." Bruce acted as if he casually noticed them as he strode by, he knew Clark would know that wasn't true but did it anyway.

"It's more surprising to see you, I didn't expect you would show your face in an establishment such as this." This was a rather low end place for a billionaire to show up, located more or less in the ghetto, most of Gotham's elite wouldn't set foot in this neighborhood without a S.W.A.T team to protect them.

"I show my face in many places." Bruce retorted.

"So who's your friend?" Diana asked, noticing the woman on Bruce's arm.

"Of course how rude of me, Clark, Diana, this is Selina. Selina, Clark and Diana."

"Nice to meet both of you." Selina waved.

"You two have a nice evening, be sure to get home safe." Bruce started walking away with a slick smile on his face.

"Does he know about what happened earlier?" Diana asked about the robber Clark punched out. "Why would he say that to us?"

"You never know with him."

In Smallville, Jonathan had to be the one to put Clara down for bed. She had just been uncooperative to Martha all night, she didn't always cry like she did earlier, but she was fussy. However whenever Jonathan was around she was a perfect little angel. Martha simply didn't get it.

"Don't feel bad, it's just one of those days. Clark did it to each of us in his day." Jonathan mentioned as he and Martha climbed into bed.

"I know, but she's supposed to be my special little girl."

"She still is, just not for today. Maybe it was something you were wearing, you know kids get annoyed by little things sometimes."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Martha sulked.

Sleep came quickly after that.

Darkness had covered every window, whatever it was was trying to keep them in. The phones were dead, even the direct line to Clark didn't work anymore. Martha and Jonathan were scared of their minds because whatever was after them was not of this world. They huddled in the living room, each loading shells into their shotguns. While outside Jonathan had shot whatever was threatening them several times, hitting it squarely to no effect. It attacked back and injured his arm enough so that he could no longer work the pump action. He and Martha were forced to switch, he now used the semi-auto and her the pump.

The black cloud like being melted the front door and slowly entered the house. It was menacing, and unreal. Fear overcame Martha in a way she'd never known before. Her hands shook and she couldn't think straight. She mashed the trigger of the shotgun, not realizing Jonathan had put the safety on before he passed it to her, and was too afraid to switch it off.

There was a loud crash behind them, the walls were being smashed down and in a blur a woman with red blue and gold armor stood between them and the cloud. It was Diana!

"You will not harm my family!" She said with an unwavering conviction. She knew Diana was fierce, but it was clear she would be unrelenting in her protection of them.

Martha woke up with a startle, realizing she was covered in sweat. Looking over she saw that Jonathan was sleeping soundly next to her. She went to the bathroom to run cold water over her face.

"That was too real." She said after a deep breath.

She was in the other room so obviously she didn't notice the subtle glow of Clara's eyes.

Clark and Diana enjoyed a nice dinner and two bottles of wine. They were back at Clark's apartment where Diana had gotten into his stash of booze. She was on her third Long Island Iced Tea, and was probably planning on a fourth, Clark regretted making the first one for her.

"Are you sure you won't get drunk?" Diana asked, she was in full control of her voice and her motor functions but Clark wondered if tipsyness was on it's way.

"Positive. Believe me I tried, I once drank a handle of Everclear like it was water. Nothing." Clark was still on his first Long Island Iced Tea. "Are you sure you should be drinking anyway? Wouldn't that be bad for Clara since you're still nursing?"

"Why didn't you say that when you ordered the wine earlier?"

"I didn't even think of it."

"Do not worry, I am built to be both a warrior and a mother. My body changes as necessary, right now it as if I've never given birth. However I am able to adapt when Clara needs me, and she is protected from any harmful substance I may be exposed to, it is one of my gifts from Aphrodite."

"Hmm, that's rather convenient."

"Yes it is." Diana finished the last of her drink and set the glass down on the counter. She kicked her shoes off and headed up towards the bedroom beckoning Clark to follow.

Upstairs Diana waited by the foot of the bed, with her hands on her hips and a sexy smile on her lips.

"All alone." Clark observed, with one thing on his mind. "What to do, what to do, what to do?"

"Well, I am a lady. So I do not have sex on the first date, however since we are familiar with each other we can do 'something'. So how about we get out of these clothes?"

Clark couldn't tell if she was playing a game or not, but he decided to go along with it and began removing his clothes. Soon they stood before each other naked, eying each other from head to toe. "So what is this something we can do?" Clark asked.

Diana ran her fingers across his torso and walked a slow circle around him while she considered her options. "I think… I want a massage. Can you do that?"

"I think I can."

"And then I'll give you one… If I'm satisfied."

Clark ignored the last part of her statement and laid her down on the bed, before starting he noticed Diana reach into the drawer by her bedside and pull out a small bottle and toss it to him. It was massage oil, he wondered when she bought it, because he sure didn't. Perhaps she'd been planning this for a while.

Diana laid on her stomach and rested her head on her folded arms while Clark started at her feet, working slowly from her toes to her heels, before moving to her calves he gently kissed the soles of her feet. Despite Diana's claim that she was a lady Clark had plans to change her agenda for the evening, her legs were spread shoulder width apart, and when he tried to widen them she resisted. It appeared he would have to seduce her, something he didn't anticipate being too difficult. He'd managed to get past women's defenses before, and sometimes they even respected him in the morning.

Diana figured out what he was doing once she felt the kisses on the backs of her thighs, and she immediately recognized she had a fight on her hands. She wanted the relaxation and pleasure that went along with their intimacy but wanted to hold off on going too far until she had a better idea of her future. However Clark was making it difficult, his hands and lips were doing wonderful things. She was in for a fight.

It didn't take long to get Diana to turn over, which is where Clark planned to do his magic. He opted to tease her a little, rubbing her body in long strokes across her shoulders arms and stomach but barely brushing her sensitive areas. She squirmed every time his fingertips hinted at touching her breasts or the insides of her thighs. He could tell her resistance was falling and her frustration was growing. It would only be a matter of time before she had enough and guided his hands to where she wanted them he figured. Only that time didn't come, she kept her eyes shut tightly and struggled through his teasing, not saying a word.

Clark decided to try another tactic, he would just go for broke and just make her want him. He started at her lips delivering gentle kisses which she returned without hesitation, then he began moving lower and lower, from her neck to her breasts to her stomach to her belly button, and even further down.

Diana had gotten lost in his touch, something she hoped she wouldn't do tonight. He was now just inches away from making her lose all resistance, she remembered his lips and tongue were amazingly talented. If he went any closer she would surely give in. So she did the only thing she could think of.

Like a ninja she grabbed Clark's head and pushed it away then she hovered around him and locked him in an armbar and planted his face on the bed so that he couldn't do anything to her. Then she got close to his ear and whispered, "My turn."

Diana actually knew something about massage, she knew how to work pressure points, and work out knots in an almost scientific way. Clark was simply trying to make her feel good, and she'd stopped him before he could do his best work. He teased her, he tried to make her hot while she simply ignored stimulating any romantic desires. It was working too, because Diana's expert hands were driving him into total relaxation.

Diana was willing to bet that Clark never had a proper massage before, there weren't many who were strong enough for him to adequately feel their touch. Based on the way Clark acted, most of the people with power nearing his he had to fight against. He was beginning to fall asleep, which is exactly what she wanted.

Her line about not wanting sex because she was a 'lady' was pulled out of the air. In truth it was because she needed to know some things first, she needed absolute understanding of where their relationship was going. Having no clue how he would react to her questioning she wanted him relaxed and well rested before she went for it.

She snuggled into him and rested her forehead against his, positioning his sleeping body so that they held each other tightly and would wake up staring into each others eyes.