When Lois left the office, Clark didn't follow her again. She didn't expect him to. What she had just said to him had little to no possible rebuttal. She wished she could regret it, but much as she tried to quench it, there was a burning anger towards him that she had never felt before. She wasn't sure she would ever let go of it.

Clark Kent was Superman. She wished she could feel shocked, but it made too much sense for that. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it sooner. She wanted so badly to rewind the night, to go back to thinking of him as just Clark Kent, her gentle boy scout of a partner.

Even now she could still see it in her mind. Dillinger would point the gun at her, and Clark would dive in front, falling to the ground, dead. Except he wasn't and he didn't see fit to tell her that. She hadn't been lying when she told him she understood the enormity of what he had done for her. She was angry, but she wasn't heartless. He had given up everything that mattered to him. And he had taken away the only thing that mattered to her.

How could she ever trust him again? How could she look him in the eye, knowing all the times she had praised Superman and put him down in the process. It was bad enough she had ignored the wonderful man he was for so long, but to know that she had been quietly tearing him apart by worshipping the superhero….how could she face him again? And she knew she had hurt him deeply. He may not have said it, but when she thought back to all those times she had gushed over Superman she could see the hurt in Clark's eyes.

She could see the raw pain in his eyes when she had told Superman she would love him even if he had no powers at all. How could she have done that to him? No wonder he had taken back his declaration of love. Maybe he had secretly wanted to get away from her and Clark Kent's death was the best way to do it. No, it wasn't that. Lois knew that for sure. He had managed to come back and to make it plausible. She wanted so badly to go back there, to wrap her arms around his neck and tell him that it was OK, that she forgave him, but anger and her pride prevented it.

She hated herself for feeling sympathy towards him. She deserved her anger, she needed her anger. In the past it had kept her strong, kept her from getting knocked down. He had slipped past her defences though and she was helpless to fight it. Somehow he had gotten past all the barriers and straight to her heart, far deeper than Claude or anyone else had ever gotten.

Looking around at the darkened department store, Lois felt a numb emptiness engulf her. She had thought there was one person in the world she could trust. And he turned out to be the biggest fraud of all. She just wanted to go home and curl up on the sofa with some ice cream with more chocolate in it than the human body could handle and sob. She wanted to burn all his pictures and curse his name. She wanted to run to him and have him hold her the way he had earlier, and she didn't know which urge was most prominent.

But she did need to get out of here and only Clark could accomplish that. Drawing a deep breath, she headed back to the office she had left Clark in and opened the door.

She found him sitting at the desk in the room, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. She wondered briefly if he was looking through it or just staring at it. His head snapped up to look at her, but he said nothing.

"I take it asking Superman to help get us out of here is no longer out of the question?" She spoke softly and calmly, hoping that her voice did not betray the swirl of emotions raging through her. Clark stood up.

"You want to go home Lois?"

"There's no reason for us to stay here until morning." She said matter-of-factly. "That excuse is gone. Can you just open the doors please?"

"We'll have to leave money here for the things we've used." Clark reminded her. Lois glared at him.

"I've already done that Clark." She said tonelessly. "Can we go?"

Clark nodded and looked up at the security cameras, zapping them all as they left the department store for good measure.

Lois knew that the employees of the store would find it quite the mystery that things were missing from the store, taken in the night and yet paid for with no evidence to suggest who had been in there. She felt somewhat relieved for not having to explain themselves, and yet at the same time vaguely guilty for they would surely wonder what had happened. She shrugged off the feeling and followed Clark as he opened the doors, careful not to damage them in the process.

She got into her car without even offering to give him a ride. She knew now that he didn't need it, and didn't feel like spending any more time with him than was necessary.

"Lois…" Clark was attempting to speak to her again as she put the car into drive.

"No Clark," she stopped him with her hand. "I just can't talk to you right now. I'm still too upset. Maybe later, but not now." Clark nodded soundlessly and watched her drive away.