Batcave, Wayne Manor

"I'm always in a state of awe every time I come down here"

Bruce turned to see Rachel Dawes descend the stairs he built as another entrance if an emergency prevented him from using the other, more sophisticated way of travel.

"You could always use the elevator," he mused.

Rachel gives him a sly grin and points at the thing. "You call that an elevator?"

"What's wrong with it?" he playfully defended.

"It's a shaft, Bruce, not an elevator"

He chuckled but then turned serious. "Somehow, I don't think you came down here to talk to me about my interior construction"

"You're not wrong," she nodded, putting her purse on the table and removing a disk. "And you were right, she did find something"

Bruce smiled victoriously, but not in a crude demented way. "What'd she find?" He already knew that they were talking about Lois Lane.

She handed him the disk, and he took it, placing it into his disk drive. The content immediately appears on the screen. Bruce is impressed.

Staring at the information, "Cross-referenced and in order. You sure she's not a professional, Rach?"

"Positive." She directs him to an important link. "See that, if I could make a decent argument, it'll be more than enough to get a search warrant."

"Maybe I should take this one"

"No, Bruce. You're our last resort, remember?"

"I feel used," he reacted with a fake laugh. "Okay, fine." Bruce moves to a drawer and pulls out a pin. "Here, put this on, it's a tracking device… just press and hold to activate, and I should be able to track and hear you," he explained.

Rachel's eyes quirked up in surprise. "Seriously?" The whole spy game was really getting to be an interesting part of her job, even if it was unofficially.

Bruce simply nodded and smiled.

"You always did get all the cool toys," Rachel finished before leaving Bruce to his strategies.

Bruce pulled out his cell and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Lucius, good evening, this is Bruce"

"What can I do for you, Mr. Wayne?"

"I was hoping you could do me a favor?"

"I'll see what I can do. What do you need?"

"An invitation," he answered coolly.

"And where might this invitation be?" Lucius' light tone indicated to Bruce where he was going with this.

"To… your home. For dinner"

Lucius was not surprised. "Hmm mm… "

"Is that a yes?"

There was a pause. "Come by at 7… sharp"

"Thanks, Lucius." Bruce hung up and momentarily wondered if her mail companion from earlier today would be there. If so, his visit would prove to be a lot more interesting.

Robinson Park

It was getting dark despite the fact that it was only 5:30 in the afternoon. Lois and Clark walked through the city's main park. After their trip to the café, they relaxed into easy conversation as opposed to their more awkward one prior.

"I can see why you like it here, it's nice," Clark tells her.

"I'm not living here," she says to him softly. She didn't want to confuse him more than he apparently was.

Clark's head shot up. "Oh… I thought…"

He deserved an explanation, so Lois jumped in and gave him one. "My uncle lives out here, I asked him to help me locate my sister. When it turned out that she was seen here, it was easy for me to make the choice"

Clark now understood one of the reason's she left. "You could've asked me," he says a little hurtful. "I would've helped. I still can"

"I know," she replied sincerely.

"Then why are you…"

"Running away from you"

"I was going to say 'ignore' but that's one other way of putting it," he says grumpily, garnering a smile off of Lois. "It's not funny," he weakly defended when she smiled at him. It was a smile so addictive, he couldn't help but succumb to it.

"I'm sorry," she smiled. "It's just… you're always such an easy target"

"I can't seem to grow out of it, especially when I'm with you"

"Putting my surprise and stubbornness aside, I am glad that you're here now," she admitted without a trace of hesitancy. Her voice was soft and genuine. Contrary to what Clark may think; Lois is happy to see him.

Clark couldn't help but brush his hand against hers, then claiming it for his own. He was thrilled and relieved that she didn't pull away as they continued to walk along the park's path.

"So you finally admit you're stubborn," Clark says playfully, easily getting back into the rhythm of how they were before she unexpectedly left.

She gave out a low chuckle. "Consider it a moment of weakness. Try not to tell the world, I've got a reputation to uphold"

Clark laughed. "Consider it done"

Then, her cell rings, and for a moment, he was honestly tempted to break it because it always goes off at the most important moments.

"Hi, Uncle Luke," she answered, keeping her hands intertwined with his. He was so thankful she wasn't right-handed. "Uh huh…" she continued to speak with him. "Seven it is," and then she shut her phone off, putting it back into her purse the hung on her left shoulder.

She looked at Clark a little nervously.

"That was my uncle." She let go of his hand, much to Clark's dismay, but he didn't show it. She continued. "He's making dinner tonight"

"I should probably let you go"

"We have room," she recommended, getting a surprised look off of Clark. "What?" she shrugged. "Come on, Smallville, it's not like we've never stayed in the same place before."

Her words brought back memories of them when she lived in Smallville that one year, then college, and before either really knew it, Spring Break.

"I…" he didn't know what to say. "You're uncle?"

"I could possibly maybe coerce him into letting you stay a night"

He gives her a suspicious look. "You're not going to make me recite your hobo story, are you?" He'd earned his keep if he had to, but anything but that.

She chuckled and shook her head. "No, that was a Lois Lane original." She looks at him in the eye. "What do you say?"

That about did it. Clark was a goner.

To be continued…