Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
Author's Notes: Thank you everyone that has reviewed and all those who are reading. I greatly appreciate the kind words and encouragement. Some of you know me and some of you don't, but I do write a lot of Lois and Clark related stories that take place in Smallville (and all throughout). If you have any plot suggestions to use, feel free to e-mail and perhaps, you'll see me attempting it in the future.

Chapter 3: Alarm

Next Day, Daily Planet

Clark Kent went about the day the best he could. He hadn't heard from Lois since the day before, and he's gotten his first earful from his Editor Perry White about the lack of progress in any story.

Jimmy Olsen had been a savior, showing him around the building and telling Clark who was who and how to find who in what floor. It got pretty easier as the day ended, but it still left him exhausted.

Adjusting his glasses, he looked at his new friend Jimmy questioningly. "Jimmy, have you heard from Lois lately?"

The kid shook his head, and Clark frowned. "Sorry, C.K. but she hasn't called in"

Clark exhaled and wondered deeply why he was so disheartened by it. It wasn't like Lois was his; she's not even a friend. They haven't been friends for a long time.

"You like her, don't you." Jimmy states.

Clark attempts to disregard his statement. "No, of course not," he says in denial. "I don't see her like that," he added to further back his argument.

Jimmy was unimpressed by his unconvincing disinterest.

"Everyone here has a crush on her, but they hide it better than you." Jimmy pats his shoulder like they've been buddies for years. "Give it time"

"I don't have a crush on Lois Lane!" Clark says, more sternly. After a moment. "Why, does she have a boyfriend?" He just had to ask.

Jimmy didn't give him an immediate answer, and it worried Clark that perhaps she was already taken. If she was, is she happy? Who's the guy? Could she be with him right now?

"Rumor has it that Lois does have a boyfriend." Jimmy remembered when he first started at the Daily Planet that Lois had been with someone before working for Perry.

Clark was overly curious. "Any idea who?"

Jimmy shrugs. "She never said and no one has the guts to ask." A pause, a memory sneaking up at him. "There was an incident a couple months back in Gotham City. The Gotham Gazette got word that Lois argued on behalf of Bruce Wayne when his company publicly announced that he was dead"

Clark raised his eyebrows at the new and somewhat troubling information. Clark knew little of Wayne Industries except that they were just as powerful a corporation as the newly renamed LexCorp.

"So Lois could be dating a Wayne?" Clark suddenly felt like hitting a wall.

Jimmy shook his head knowingly. "Not a Wayne, the Wayne. As in Bruce Wayne, the only living heir to Gotham City's first family"

"How do you know all this? And how can you be so sure?" Clark couldn't believe it, he felt like one of those high schooler's in the back of the gym going over gossip someone possibly heard in the hallways.

"Because a woman like that doesn't fall for guys like us"

Clark is a bit offended but he didn't show it. Lois may be a lot of things, but he knew without a window of a doubt that she isn't shallow, nor does she judge a person by the size of their wallet. He knows because at one time, he knew her.

Wayne Manor, Outside of Gotham City

"So tell me…" Lois pressed, as she, Bruce and Alfred walked into Wayne Manor's spacious living room. "How are you going to fight the criminals and the corrupt without getting yourself killed?" Alfred disappears into the kitchen leaving her and Bruce alone.

"I'm still working out the specifics"

"And that would be…"

Just then, Alfred returns with a tray of refreshments when a bat suddenly makes itself known flying directionless up the corner ceiling.

"Whoa!" Lois moved back. Bats. Not her thing.

Bruce saw her momentary fear and an idea popped into his head.

"Bat's sir," Alfred observed. "They nest somewhere along the grounds"

"Hmm… my symbol," Bruce simply answered, getting a curious glance from Lois as well as from Alfred.

A moment later, Bruce walks out into his gardens with a rope and harness. Lois and Alfred trailed behind.

"Where are you going?" Lois asked.

"You'll see"

The Cave beneath Wayne Manor

"Pardon my language, but Holy $!t!" Lois raised her flashlight after descending the well. As soon as Bruce gave the go ahead, Lois jumped at the chance to check out his find, and what she saw put her in a state of silent awe.

Alfred briefly explained the history of the Wayne's to Lois and Bruce. While Lois remained in rapt attention, Bruce began mentally making notes on the changes that he will be making.

After a few hours of discovering the cave, back in the surface, Lois showered and readied herself to leave.

"Do you have to go so soon?" Bruce says, offering his glass of bourbon to her.

Lois smiled but shook her head. "A lot of…" She pauses before continuing. "Interesting things are happening back in Metropolis"

Bruce is intrigued. "Care to share?"

"Someone I use to know is now my – and I shudder to even think the word let alone say it – Partner"

Bruce nearly chokes on his drink when he heard her last word. Partner? "You've got a partner?" He wanted to laugh, and he did a little. "Poor guy"

Lois grabs one of the couch pillows and aimed it at Bruce. "Very funny. My ego and pride are hurt enough as it is. I need a little support"

"I'm sure you'll give him hell," he smirked.

"Actually…" her voice slowed, almost to a whisper. Lois takes a seat in a chair. "I was totally unprepared to see him there. One minute, he wasn't even an afterthought in my mind and next… 'Poof!' there he was and now he's…" she motioned all over the place with her hands trying to express what she was thinking or feeling.

Bruce tilted his head, his mind going over her words. He has never seen her open up to him like this before.

"Is he a former lover?" Bruce couldn't help but wonder.

"NO!" she answered a little too quickly. Bruce smiled. "Boyfriend?" Lois shook her head to say no again. "Okay, then what was he?"

"He was a kinda sorta friend"

Bruce's jaw was slightly open. "I'm not even going to try to understand that." He grabs himself a seat and places it in front of where Lois sat. "What was he to you exactly?"

Lois eyed him wearily. "I don't understand the question," she replies evasively.

Bruce took all the will power he's learned the past five to six years to keep the amusement from expressing all over his face. "How do you feel about him?" he tried again.

Lois finds herself bordering on denial. "Could you rephrase the question?"

Bruce sighed, not believing that Lois was being this stubborn. Bruce has so got to meet this guy that got Lois Lane all bunched up, defensive and confused.

"Lois, where does your relationship with him stand?" he asks flatly.

She wished she never brought the subject up.

"I don't know!" She shrugged. "I just saw him again yesterday, and as far as I'm concerned, we never had a relationship."

"So you were never friends?"

"More or less," she quickly waved.

"You're normally not this complicated to talk to." Bruce stopped while he was ahead because one look from a growing angry Lois Lane was enough to keep him from speaking further on the matter. "You sure you want to leave?" he asked her one more time.

Lois sighs. "Wish me luck?"

"Like you need it," he scoffs,

Apartment Building, Metropolis (Later that day)

Lois arrived to Metropolis just past eight o'clock. In the hallway, she was searching for her house keys; she was so engrossed in trying to find them that she wasn't even looking where she was going. "Oomph!" She tripped and fell right over.

"Ow!"

Lois stares at what caused her to collide with the floor. Black-haired. Muscular. And is he wearing plaid? Oh great. "Smallville!" she yelled, angry and confused. "What the hell are you doing imitating my doormat?"

"I'm sorry I…" Clark picked himself up, reaching down as he did so to help Lois, but she slapped his hand away.

"I'm fine," she says stubbornly, picking up one broken stiletto.

Clark feels incredibly bad.

"I'm… sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Lois rolls her eyes then shoves the key into her doorknob. She barges into her apartment leaving Clark outside, whose feelings just keep going from bad to worst. Just when he was going to give up and leave… "ARE YOU COMING INSIDE OR NOT?" he heard her say loud and clear.

Clark bounced clumsily back but not without…

"DON'T THINK OF WALKING IN HERE WITHOUT THAT PIE!"

He couldn't wipe the big grin off his face. Thank God for his mom's apple pie. He made sure to keep a mental note to send his mom flowers in the morning. Clark will win her friendship back, even if it meant doing it one pie at a time.

Lois's Apartment (Continued)

Clark stood nervously in Lois's living room. The years have treated her well because she isn't as messy as she was back then. Even the mess on the coffee table and throughout her dining table looked organized. Still, his efforts not to examine her apartment was futile, it was as if his mind was inadvertently cataloging each space.

Like a snapshot to store into his mind so he could go back to it later and remember.

Remember just how much they've both changed.

Clark's barely been around her for two days and already he feels the need to get to know her again. To think, once upon a time he couldn't stand her. Now he just can't get enough of her and he's still trying to fathom why.

"Kent, heads up," Lois blurted out, tossing a soda can to him.

With quick reflexes, Clark's head turns to her direction and catches it just in time.

Lois is mildly impressed, casting a smirk in his direction.

"So what brings you lying about in this neck of the city?" Lois asked now that her mind is a little more at ease and a little less annoyed at the detour between herself and her apartment. The very last thing she expected to see was Clark Kent on her doorstep.

"I…" Clark always stumbled with a response. "I…"

"Out with it, Smallville," urged Lois impatiently.

Clark sighs. "I was hoping we could talk," he answered briskly.

"There!" Lois says satisfied. "Now was that so hard?" Now she was growing a bit tired, and it isn't even her guest's fault.

"You're making me nervous," he admits.

She laughs at that. "I made you nervous." Lois points to her door. "You were camping outside my door," she reminded him.

"I was waiting," he defended.

"Sleeping was more like it"

Temporarily forgetting why he was there. "I was waiting and I momentarily rested my eyes," he further explained his actions.

"That's sounds as ridiculous as being caught sleeping." She stops to point at him. "And you were sleeping"

Clark rolled his eyes, and he takes a little too long for a retort.

"I rest my case," she finished.

Clark breathed. "Can we just talk?" he says, getting back to what he originally had in mind to do, but failed miserably in accomplishing. For all the things that changed, arguing with Lois seemed to have survived the years because the familiarity of the moment was like falling back into time and ending up where they first started.

"Clark, it's been a long day. I'm tired and sleepy, can't we do this in the morning?" she complained, and she really was tired.

"No," he refused. They were going to settle this tonight, if he didn't, his mind would explode. Maybe not that overly dramatic, but still…

"Argh!" she reacted. "I'm gonna get a drink"

"No!" he says again, even beating her to the kitchen. Clark puts himself between her and the fridge.

The nerve of him. "Oh, that's not right," she says not liking what's happening one bit. "You sleep in my doorway, force me to converse and not only are you invading my 'personal' space but you've totally blockaded my trip to Wonderland"

"We're going to talk and you're going to remain sober"

"Might I remind you Smallville that you're a guest here?"

Clark crossed his arms and stood his ground. "Consider us even," he says strongly, almost making Lois do a double take. She raised both her eyebrows, silently stunned.

"I can't believe this," she turned, too tired to further argue with him. She is still recovering from jet lag. "I'm going to bed." Before she could even blink, about halfway to her room, Clark was already there.

"What the…" she turned around to face her kitchen, then back at her bedroom door. She sighed deeply, not even trying to figure out how he just did that. "What now? You're gonna stand between me and my bed?"

Clark hadn't really thought about it like that, but the idea sounded appealing. Wait… no…

"You're missing my point, Lois"

"Ah… is that a spark I see in your eyes," she uttered confidently with a hint of allure.

Clark gulped; he absolutely hated it when she did that, even back when they were teenagers. "Don't tempt me." Why did he say that?

"Fine!" she put her hands up and headed back to her living room. She sinks in her lazy boy, reclining it backwards. "All right, talk," she finally agreed.

Clark smiled victoriously.

"Okay" and he inhaled deeply before continuing. "Lois, I'm sorry, about everything. I'm an idiot, I'm…"

"Whoa there, Kent… What the hell are you talking about?" Lois was wide-eyed with incredulity. Where were all these confessing words coming from? Once she thought about it, she looked at him even odder. He can't have been that guilty.

"Lois, I said some things I shouldn't have," Clark just refused to listen to her stop.

"Clark"

But he just kept on going. "And I know that I don't deserve it…"

"Clark"

"But I want you to know that I'll…" SPLASH!

Lois was getting a little too weirded out by his Real World Confessional moment that she stops him from speaking any further by throwing a glass of water to his face.

Clark looks at himself dripping all wet before picking his head up to look at her. His breathing calmed yet his jaw clenched together.

"That was wholly unnecessary," he says through gritted teeth.

The second time tonight, she rolled her eyes. That's a record. And is what's happening really happening? Have she and Smallville been bantering the last few minutes? Why now?

"Look, I have no idea what meds your on or what assignment Chief has you doing, but I've been up all day. I'm tired and I'm cranky. And you really don't want to see me when I'm badly cranky, so could we please just put this 'whatever' conversation on hold till morning?" she pleaded with all her tired heart.

For the first time since he saw her tonight, he began to realize that she was truly deeply exhausted. He mentally berated himself for pushing so hard, and for putting her in such a compromising position yet again.

Clark's face immediately softens as he watched her eyes drift to sleep. Physiology won this time. He sat there for a moment just watching her sleep peacefully. And then he did another thing he should've fought against. He lifted Lois in his arms and brought her into her room, and laid her gently down on the bed.

He's never seen anything more beautiful.

After she left his life all those years ago, he never imagined himself thinking about her often, or at all, and for a while, he gravely wondered why he did. But then, he'd remember specifics moments. Moments where she showed more than she let on.

Then another truth made its way to his conscious, Lois saw Clark as her friend. With all the bickering and the teasing – Lois – when it mattered, was there for him. She was his friend but he treated her unlike one.

Out of everything he wanted to say tonight, there were only two words he wishes he didn't stumble saying. And now, this moment was as pure a time as any, and he hoped one day, she'll forgive him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered softly by her cheek before moving up and placing a kiss on her forehead.

Clark stayed for at least an hour until he knew she was absolutely safe before leaving. Opening her balcony door, tonight, he didn't feel like walking.

To be continued…