(2/14)

Clark watched the woman in front of him stab at her salad like she was trying to kill a wild animal.

"Is there something wrong, Lois?" Somehow he was concerned and amused at the same time.

Lois stopped abruptly, and looked up at him. "No," she shrugged. "I've just had sort of a rough morning."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"'Fraid not," she replied as her shoulders sagged.

He studied her as she picked at her food more calmly now. He never would have thought he would meet Chloe's cousin, much less be working with her, in a city the size of Metropolis. That old cliché about it being a small world was starting to ring true.

He wasn't sure whether he was disturbed or comforted by the resemblance. On one hand it was troubling to be looking at someone who was almost the mirror image of the best friend he had lost, and on the other it was good to see that face again, regardless of the weird circumstances.

Not that weirdness was new in his life.

Their conversation had gone from stalled to a dead stop and he was just about ready to throw in the towel and pay the bill. It was quite clear that Lois didn't like him, for whatever reason. He thought he would try, for the connection to Chloe, if nothing else, but it wasn't working.

Maybe she didn't want the connection; didn't want to remember anymore than he did.

"Um, are you ready to go?" he asked when he couldn't stand anymore tension.

"Sure," she said, letting her fork clink down on the plate, and reaching for her purse. "Just let me know what my half is."

"Don't worry about it, I'm paying," he told her.

She opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand to stop her.

"Where I come from, when a man asks a lady to share a meal with him, he pays."

She looked too stressed to argue. He was sure she was perfectly capable of argument, but she simply said, "Good old small-town chivalry", and let him pay the bill.

He held the door open for her as they left and she didn't bother to act surprised.

They walked along in silence toward the Planet building.

"Are you single, Kent?" She suddenly spoke.

He was taken aback briefly, before nodding. "Yeah. Why?"

Lois shrugged. "With that routine, I figured some poor sap would've snapped you up already," she answered with the first smile he had seen from her.

Her smile was definitely different. It was more reserved, where Chloe's had always been so wide, so open.

I have to stop comparing them...

"Are you gay?"

"No!" he responded quickly.

A small laugh escaped her. "Just checking."

"How about you?" he asked back.

"Gay? No. Single? Happily."

"So there's such a thing as happily single?"

"As if there's such a thing as happily married?" she asked sarcastically.

"You might have a point there, but stranger things have happened."

Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Kent, she thought darkly. What hurt her the most was that she had seen Jonathan's obituary, and couldn't say anything to Clark about it.

"Guess you've seen it happen then," she said a little too brightly.

"Yeah," was his only reply.

She looked at her watch. "Oh man, we better walk a little faster, our break's almost over."

He merely nodded as they picked up the pace, and she berated herself for broaching a subject she should have known would be touchy.

But that was just it. She wasn't supposed to know. Clark wouldn't blame her because he was a stranger, and she didn't know anything about him.

Or so he thought. It was getting too confusing to keep straight in her head.

They parted ways once they got to the office since they only had an hour to prepare for the staff meeting.

Lois couldn't concentrate to save her life. She still didn't know why she agreed to go to lunch with him. She couldn't afford to get too close. Not again, and for a million different reasons than before. Being with him made her want to tell him; made her want to break out her old Chloe smile and say, "Hey, Clark, it's me! Not the dead cousin whose identity I assumed, me."

She couldn't do that. Not now, and probably not ever. As long as Lex Luthor was alive and carrying his father's vendetta, she had to hide. Even then, if his research was thorough enough, she was afraid he might still find her.

That was a chance she was willing to take, considering she felt she covered her tracks well enough. Taking her life into her own hands was one thing, but she wouldn't endanger Clark. She saw the lengths he would go to for her, and she wasn't about to intrude on the life he was obviously trying to rebuild. He had his own problems.

So she would go on playing a stranger and hope he would stay out of her way and keep things strictly business.

Then again, she knew Clark Kent - or at least she used to - and staying out of people's way was not his strong suit.

"I am so screwed," she muttered, dropping her head in her hands.

TBC