Thank you sooooooooo much to Phoebemoon!!!!!!

I had no idea the 7th chapter was even missing!!!

Thank you so much!!!!

Ok, so here's the seventh chapter, I hope this helps out!

^_^

~AM

"How about this one? Two bedroom, full bath, kitchen, new water heater, attached garage on 1.2 acres," Lex suggested.

Abby took the paper out of his hand, carefully studying the picture. "It's worth looking into. I'll put it in the 'yes' pile."

The 'no' pile greatly outweighed the 'yes' pile, and the 'maybe' was getting there.

"This one?"

"It's pink Lex!"

"Obviously, how about this one?"
"To run down looking, I think we've covered most of them." The two were sitting in Lex's office, Lex sat on the couch while Abby sat on the floor, the coffee table serving as their workspace.

"It's still early, we can go look at some of them. Smallville isn't that big, we could probably see most of them today."

Abby agreed and the two were on their way. It had only taken an hour before they had seen most of the houses. She had narrowed down her choices, but remembered that she still needed to look inside as well. They pulled up to the last house, Abby was out of the car before Lex could nearly stop it.

It was perfect.

It was the one Lex had suggested, the last of her 'yes' pile. The house was two floors, as well as a basement and an attic. Sky blue blended perfectly with the white shutters and simple fence that ran around the property. The two car garage was attached, and, to Abby's thankfulness, the driveway was paved.

Lex watched her as she approached the house. The residents had already moved out, so she knew there was no getting inside then. She'd have to wait, but settled for peaking into the windows.  "I take it you approve?"

"Of course, it's beautiful. It's perfect, let's get back to the house so I can call the realtor!" she cheerfully ordered as she jumped back in the car.

"It'll be perfect. There's plenty of property so I can get a swingset later on and maybe even have a pool put in, with a fence of course. It's spacious enough for animals too, maybe a dog or cat or something. And the porch will need new railings, those are broken and splintered, they're not real safe and I'll probably need to put a gate up there too so the baby won't fall down the steps. I saw a nice fireplace too, which will be great in the wintertime. Don't you think so?"

Lex just laughed at her carrying on about the house. "You haven't got it yet. Don't get too excited."

"Oh I'm getting that house, just you wait and see."

On their way home, Lex made a detour. "I'm going to run these down to the post office, I figured you wouldn't mind waiting at the Talon."

Abby headed into the Talon, spotting Lana sitting behind the counter. "Slow day?"

"Abby! How long have you been back?"

"Just a couple days. Things have been kinda crazy, sorry I didn't get here sooner. But guess what?"

"What?"
 "I'm moving to Smallville! I just found the most perfect house. I'm on my way back to Lex's to call and see about getting an appointment with the realtor to go inside."

"That's great, so if I offer you a job here does that mean you'll take it?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course, I'd love to. It'd only be until the baby arrives though."

"Of course, but one of the girls just quit so I needed to hire someone and you already knew what you were doing," she joked.

Lex approached the two girls, "So I take it from your happy expression Lana, that Abby has already told you about the house."

"Yes and of course I'm happy. Oh and have I something to tell you!" she said dragging Abby away from Lex, "Clark asked me out," she whispered happily. "It's about time!" she said giving the girl a hug. Lex watched the two knowing what was going on. Clark had called him earlier telling him his good news.

He checked his watch, seeing that it was time to go he let Abby know. "Here Lana, since I figured I would see you I knew there was no sense in mailing it."


Lana looked over the cream envelope before opening it up. "An invitation," she smiled as she read it over. "For my New Year's party. It's mainly with my business partners, employees, but some of my friends are invited as well. I'm sure we'll see you and Clark there," he joked before leading Abby out. "You knew and you didn't tell me," she said shocked.

"I was certain Lana would tell you in time," he said. She sat down in a huff, "Well…"

"Well what?"

"Well am I invited to this little shindig of yours?"

"Of course, you're my date after all."

"And when were you going to tell me this?"

"I just did."

She shook her head at him lightly, "You're a trip, you know that."

He gave a small smile before turning back towards the road.

As soon as she was back at the house, Abby called up the realtor and got an appointment. "I can see it tomorrow," she happily announced. "She even gave me a price, it's so cheap, well compared to Metropolis anything is cheap. But still it's a great offer, and I have my furniture and things in storage so I can have it sent over as soon as possible. Thankfully that stuff was all out before the fire."

"Why did you have it all moved out?"

"I was planning on getting an apartment in Metropolis, so I had my things moved out and I was almost finished purchasing the apartment when the fire happened. I had figured my parents weren't going to be too happy about the baby and kick me out anyway, so I figured I'd get a head start. Besides, I'm 21, it was time I got my own place," she explained. Lex nodded in understanding. "The only things I really lost were clothes and some personal things. I'm going to have to go back to Metropolis and get some shopping done for the house. I guess I'm also going to have to find a dress for this shindig of yours."

"It's not a shindig, it's a formal gathering."

"Same thing."

There was a few minutes of silence, "So what are you going to do for Christmas?" Lex asked.

"Mrs. Kent invited me over for dinner, I'm not sure though. I feel bad intruding. What about you?"

"I have to go into Metropolis and spend time with my father. You're more than welcome to come," he said.

"Thanks Lex, but I already infringe on all your free time, there's no need for me to take away family time too."

Abby's cell phone rang and Lex went back to his work.

He really did wish that she would come with him for Christmas; he knew he wouldn't be spending all that much time with his father and company was always greatly appreciated. He hated the thought of her being alone.

"I'm going to go shopping with Lana, I'll see you later."

Lana picked Abby up a short time later and the two girls drove to the mall. It was quite small, at least by Metropolis standard, but it was a mall nonetheless.

"I have to figure out what to give Clark. What are you going to get Lex?" she asked.

I thought about that, "I hadn't really thought about buying Christmas presents. I guess I forgot about it."

Lana's face fell, "Well you got to get him something. You two are practically a couple by anyone's standards."

"What do you mean?"

"You live with him, you go out to dinner together, you guys spend all your time together and you're his date for the party."

"Where did you find out, wait, let me guess, Lex told Clark."

She nodded sheepishly, the two stopped outside of a store, "Come on, let's go look in here."

By the end of the shopping trip Abby had accrued about five bags. She got presents for the Kents, for Lex, one for Chloe as a thank-you for her help, and she even managed to get one for Lana without her noticing. She also picked up some things for herself in order to restock her wardrobe.

Lana had just as much luck and had managed to get all of her shopping done as well.

They stopped off at the Talon so Lana could check up on things and got some drinks for them as well.

"So what made Clark finally come around?" Abby asked.

Lana blushed, "Who knows, it sure took a while though. He was really sweet about it too. So how did Lex ask you?"

"I'm just his date for his party, it's nothing more than that stop assuming things. Besides, he didn't even ask me. It was more of a 'You're my date for the party' thing."

Lana laughed, "But you didn't fight back, you just accepted it. So that means you liked the idea of being his date."

It was Abby's turn to blush and Lana laughed at her embarrassment. "Hi Chloe!" Lana called out as the blonde approached. "What no hi for me?" Pete asked appearing behind her. "Hi Pete," she replied. "So what have you two been up to? Abby are you still at Lex's?" Chloe asked.

"We went and bought out the mall," Lana said.

"Um, yea, I'm still at Lex's," Abby replied quietly. Pete's eyebrow rose at the comment, "Lex's?"

"I won't be there for long, I'm looking at a house tomorrow. I decided to move out here," she explained. She figured Pete was clueless on the situation unless someone had mentioned something.

"That's cool," Chloe commented.

"Well, we'll be seeing you guys, we just came for one of Chloe' coffee breaks before we head back over to the Talon," Pete explained.

"It's awful late isn't it?" Abby asked.

"Ah the life of a journalist," Chloe joked. Her and Pete said their goodbye's before taking off.

"Well, come on, I'll take you home. I got to do some wrapping and I'm sure you and Lex want to spend some 'quality time' together."

Abby rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

"Buy enough?"

Lex took a few bags from Abby and helped her take them up the stairs. "Hope you didn't forget anything," he commented. He opened the bag and peeked in. "Victoria Secret, very nice."

"Hey! Who said you could look!" she scolded grabbing the bag from him. "Get me anything," he joked.

"Maybe," she teased.

He smiled, "I'll be in my office most of the night if you need me," he excused himself and went back to his work.

Abby put away her things and decided to take a shower.

Lex sat in his office idly staring at his computer screen. All of his thoughts turned to Abby. He chickened out up there; he had wanted to ask her to come with him for Christmas. Lex was confused, never had he ever been this nervous asking a girl to do, well do about anything. However, there was a little more of a conflict where Abby was concerned. She's pregnant and has a murderous ex-boyfriend after her; if that wasn't a problem he didn't know what was.

A thought came to him and he picked up the phone, "Hello…Marcus, I need you to get some things for me."

Abby grabbed an apple out of the kitchen and went to Lex's office. He watched her skim through the books along the shelves. She was wearing a pair of loose gray pants and a black tank top that stopped a little short revealing the small bulge of her stomach.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked.

"Just looking, felt like reading something," she pulled a book off of the shelf, "Geisha, A Life. Not exactly something I would expect you to have."

"I'm very well rounded," he said.

"I'm sure."

There was silence for a little while before Abby decided to break it. "So, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Just some work, packing up to go to Metropolis. My father should be coming in tomorrow too."

"Getting a personal escort back in, huh?"

"You could call it that. Why did you want to know anyways?"

"I thought maybe you could come look at the house with me. I'm not that great a businesswoman, I admit. So I kinda thought maybe you could come and help me strike a deal," she suggested.

He smiled, "Of course, I'm happy to do anything that gets me away from work."

Book in hand she moved behind him and leaned over his shoulder looking at his work.

"What'cha doing?"

"For a 21 year old you don't act much like one."

"And you act twice your age, you already got the speedy little sports car, that's chalking it up with mid-life crisis."

He gave a small laugh, "Yes, but when most men buy their car it's not because they can afford it, it's to compensate for what's going on in their lives. I buy them because I can afford them, quite easily at that."

"You didn't answer me."

"I'm working on the budget for the plant, I need to cut some costs without risking jobs."

"Uh-huh. Business isn't exactly my thing. I do what I can at the company but it's kinda like sports. I own the business but the coach runs the team and any big concerns come to me. But I still get help."

"That's right, you have your art. I've seen some of your pieces. They're very good."

"I haven't painted much in a while. It comes and goes," her face saddened, "Most of my works were destroyed, I was going to leave them with my parents."

Lex didn't really know what to say, "Well, you'll have to paint some new ones for your house."

The talk of her house turned her right around, "Yea, well I'm going to go to bed. We're seeing the house at nine so I got to get some sleep."

"Goodnight."