Knowing they'd be in for a long night, they ordered room service and got comfortable on the couch. Clark hid their equipment while Lois tried to find something on the TV that wasn't romantic or mind-numbingly stupid. Once dinner was delivered, they set the equipment back up and enjoyed their meal while listening for any evidence of life in the neighboring building.

It was getting late, and no one had shown up at the office across the way. "Are you sure they're coming back tonight?" Clark asked.

"If the calendar they kept gesturing to the other night is any indication, they'll be there, we just have to be patient." Lois shrugged as she continued to fiddle with the dials on the receiver that now sat on the coffee table in front of them.

Clark nodded and continued to shuffle the pack of cards he held in his hands. "Want to play some cards while we wait?"

"You do realize we are working, right?" Lois arched an eyebrow at him, "I don't think sitting up here playing games is a good use of our time, do you?"

The sound of a couple arguing came over the speakers causing Lois to roll her eyes, "Some people just shouldn't be in relationships."

Clark reached over and turned the dial to another frequency, "I don't think either one of us is in a good position to make that judgement, Lois. Besides, you do realize that people are entitled to at least a modicum of privacy."

"Clark, you do realize the main purpose of our job is to expose the truth, right?" Lois challenged. "Or are you afraid that if you let the secrets of others come to light that karma may come around and do the same?"

Clark gave her a puzzled look, "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Right," Lois rolled her eyes as she stood, "It's late, I'm going to go to bed, could you set the recorder to voice activation so we don't miss them?"

"Wait a minute, hold up," Clark swung around on the couch and held out his hand, stopping her in her tracks, "Don't you think we should discuss the sleeping arrangements?"

Lois gave him a skeptical look, "What do you mean?"

"Well, there's only one bed and two of us," Clark pointed out, "We should flip for the bed?"

"How about you be the gentleman you claim to be and let me have the bed, I promise to lend to a pillow," Lois countered.

"I was thinking we could alternate nights," Clark suggested, "Keep it fair."

"I don't think so," Lois shook her head.

"Well, it's a pretty big bed, we could share," Clark smirked, "That is, if you can keep your hands to yourself."

"Alternating nights sounds good," Lois huffed, "But I get the bed first."

"Whatever you say, Dear," Clark teased, earning him an eye roll from Lois who promptly turned and headed toward the bedroom. A moment later, she returned, petulantly throwing the pillow in his face and blanket over the back of the couch, before stomping away again, causing her partner to chuckle at her childish behavior.

Once behind the door, Lois didn't hesitate to strip off her oversized sweatshirt and boxers and slide between the silken sheets of the bed and fall asleep. A few hours later, she was awoken by a sudden noise. Slipping on a robe, she quietly slipped out of the bedroom, just in time to see Clark, who had evidently rolled off the couch in his sleep hover up from the floor and back up onto the couch. As if she needed any other evidence of who he was, he rolled over onto his back, revealing his face without his glasses obscuring his features. Lois huffed as she once more was struck by how a simple pair of glasses and a series of baggy suits with garish ties had distracted her enough from his true identity. Turning on her heel, she retreated to the bedroom, resolving to have a discussion with her partner about keeping secrets.

She was awoken once more by Clark gently shaking her bare shoulder and whispering to her that their targets had just arrived across the way. She sleepily nodded her understanding and waited for him to exit the room before sliding her boxers and sweatshirt back on. The pair made their way over to the window where their camera had been set up, Lois with binoculars in her hand to get a closer look. They kept the lights in their room turned out so as to not attract the attention of the men who were clandestinely meeting. Clark turned up the receiver's volume at Lois' request as they watched and listened as the men argued over the time frame of whatever plan they'd made. Every sentence causing as sense of foreboding curl in Lois' gut.

When the men finally parted ways, Lois turned to her partner and voiced her concern, feeling somewhat justified in her feelings when he affirmed that he was of the same mind. Since they both needed to report to the Planet in the morning, they quietly shuffled off to their respective sleeping areas. Lois had just settled in her bed when she heard Clark's voice calling through the door, bidding her good night. He repeated the sentiment a few times before she rolled her eyes in faux annoyance and echoed the statement before turning over and going back to sleep.


The next morning, Lois awoke and shuffled out of the bedroom to find Clark on the floor by the coffee table doing pushups. She couldn't help but appreciate the way his muscles stretched and contracted with the measured movement. She must have made a noise, because Clark suddenly looked over and rolled over to rest on his hip, a small smile playing on his lips as he took in her appearance.

"What?" She asked slightly self-consciously, not sure what was causing the look he was giving her.

"No... nothing," Clark stuttered before shaking his head, "It's just... you don't look half-bad first thing in the morning."

Lois couldn't help the slight blush that rose to her cheeks at his compliment, "Oh, thanks, you don't look too bad yourself," She gave him a soft smile before a knock sounded on the main door of the suite.

"Oh, I ordered coffee, I hope that's okay," Clark offered, rising to his feet and going to open the door.

"Coffee, yeah, good," She nodded, watching as the same man who was their bellman the night before, making Lois wonder how many different jobs the man held in the hotel, pushing a trolley with a large carafe of coffee, a couple cups, cereal, milk, and an assortment of fruit and pastries. Lois saw the man do a double take at the couch, which she now noticed was littered with feathers that must have come from the now emaciated-looking pillow that rested on one side of the couch opposite of the blanket that was bunched up on the other end.

Lois sent Clark a curious look as she saw him sign the bill and shuffle the man out of the suite again. He gave her a sheepish shrug as he struggled to pour himself a cup of coffee, realizing a moment later he'd forgotten to press the button to open the spout, "I had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night."

Lois arched an eyebrow but said nothing as Clark doctored the cup of coffee in his hand to the way she liked it and handed it to her before pouring a cup that he added half-and-half and way too much sugar. Clark at least had the sense to fold up the blanket and brush the feathers off the sofa to make room for Lois to sit. They enjoyed their first cup of coffee in relative silence before each getting a second cup and indulging in some of the breakfast food that had been brought up. Once they'd eaten their fill, they took turns getting ready for the day. When they'd called Perry to update him on what they'd witnessed the night before, he called a briefing so that they could get Jimmy and Cat, who had volunteered to join their investigation, up to speed.

Luckily, Perry had already gotten Jimmy to start researching Thaddeus Rourke, the man that Congressman Harrington had met with, unfortunately, he was unable to find anything about the man. Cat theorized that whatever Harrington had been paid off for, it had to be big, postulating that men of his position never sold out for anything other than big. Perry entered the room, spouting off information on Rourke, causing the four younger reporters to look at him in shock, questioning how he was able to find what they hadn't been able to.

Perry smirked at the foursome he thought had the most potential in his newsroom, even if his actions didn't always give them that impression. "Sources are a beautiful thing, boys and girls," He advised as Cat reached out and picked up the picture that had been on the top of the file he'd put down on the table, "They're the foundation of good journalism."

Cat took in Rourke's appearance, locking it away in her mind so that she'd be able to recognize him of she came across him over the course of the investigation. Flipping over the picture she saw the proprietary water mark and gave Perry a skeptical look, "Time magazine?"

"Give me that," Perry snatched the photo from her hand and slid it back into the folder as the group began to speculate on how Rourke and Congressman Harrington could have any mutual ventures. As it turned out Harrington had just been appointed chairman of the House Defense Committee, and they now knew that Rourke was an arms dealer and weapons smuggler, it didn't take a genius to figure out that whatever it was the two of them were up to, they had to shut it down fast, or else there would be dire consequences.

"I should warn you, this treads into the realm of national security," Perry advised, "We need to be careful how we go about this, especially since we will need to get the feds involved."

Lois voiced her concern, her face matching the sentiment. She could almost see her story being ripped away from her when the authorities stepped in.

"I'm not saying we loop them in just yet," Perry hedged, "We don't have enough information yet, but before this is all said and done, we will need to contact them to put a stop to this whole mess. Don't worry, I've been in this business a long time, I know how to get them involved without losing out on our scoop." He listened while Lois, Clark, and Jimmy speculated about what all was going on, coming up with the theory that the Defense Committee was working on some kind of weapons project that Rourke wants to be a part of, although what kind of weapon was unclear. "Jimmy and Cat, I'm gonna need you to do some of the heavy lifting for a bit. Jimmy, I need you to do that grey area stuff you're so good at that I don't want to know about."

"Find Rourke and what he's doing, where he's going, you got it, Chief," Jimmy nodded and headed out of the conference room, the implied instruction to go home and get working on the dark web and back channels, to do a less than legal deep dive on the bad guy.

"Cat, you're going to be focused on Harrington, do you think you can get to him?" Perry inquired. "Play with him a little, see if you can get him to slip up and tell you what he's working on?"

Cat got a feral grin on her lips, "Of course."

"Get to it then," Perry dismissed her before turning to his rising star reporters, "You two doing okay? I know you're in a bit of an awkward situation, if either of you need a break, you let me know. Last thing I need is for the two of you to kill each other the moment you get behind closed doors."

"I'm managing," Lois assured him.

"We can make it work," Clark agreed.

"Good, we only have a few days left, use it wisely," Perry reminded them. The pair shared a look and headed back to the Lexor to resume their surveillance of Rourke and Harrington's operation.


Since there was nothing officially on the office's calendar, Lois and Clark were playing a waiting game. They knew watching something on the room's TV would mess with the parabolic microphone they were using to listen in on the office, same with listening to the radio. So, Lois gave in to Clark's suggestions of playing games to pass the time. It didn't take long for Lois' competitive streak to make an appearance, whether it was arguing that the dictionary that came with their scrabble board was incomplete, to claiming to have the answer to a trivial pursuit question on the tip of her tongue when her time was up. Clark couldn't help but tease Lois for her competitive nature.

"Oh, like you don't play to win?" Lois challenged, "Mister college football star? Yeah, that's right, I know about your jock days back at Smallville U."

"University of Kansas," Clark corrected, knowing full well she was trying to get a rise out of him.

"Ah hah!" Lois cried triumphantly, "You see, competitive."

"Correcting you when you m ake up the name of a college I allegedly attended is not being competitive," Clark pointed out. "Besides, I'm not denying I enjoyed playing a little football in school."

"You were four-time All-American," Lois arched an eyebrow at him, "In high school and again in college, you don't earn that without being competitive."

"I just enjoy the game Lois," Clark shrugged, "It was fun, so I played. UK offered me a scholarship to play for them, which covered most, if not all of my college expenses. My folks couldn't have afforded to send me, and the scholarships I got for making All-American and playing kept me from going too much into debt with student loans."

"Whatever," Lois rolled her eyes and walked off to the bedroom to start assembling some of the equipment. Clark had been leaning against the door frame watching her assemble the telescope incorrectly for a few minutes before stepping in and reassembling it the correct way. "One more thing, mister high and mighty, the whole point of playing is to win."

"No, the point of playing is to have fun," Clark countered, "It really doesn't matter if I win or lose, so long as I have fun and enjoy the company of the people I'm playing with."

"So, now you're playing with me?" Lois huffed, hands on her hips, a challenging look on her face.

"I feel there is no way to answer that without getting you more upset with me," He stated, then paused, hearing something in the hall. Without another word, he threw the telescope, tripod and all, on the bed, quickly flipping the covers over it and tossing Lois onto the bed before following her.

"Clark, what are you doing?!" Her protests were cut off by his lips meeting hers, gentle at first then growing with passion once she joined in, enjoying the feeling of butterflies in her stomach as her partner kissed her with toe-curling passion. She was vaguely aware of the maid apologizing for walking in on them as her brain and heart were warring within her. Her heart wanted nothing more than to ride the kiss out to its inevitable conclusion, preferably one that left them wearing only the bedsheet. Her brain on the other hand, kept reminding her that Clark was still lying to her about his other identity.

As soon as the door to the suite closed again, Clark quickly got off the bed and his partner, apologizing, and excusing himself to the bathroom. Lois just watched him rush through the door, a look of shock on her face. Who knew the farm boy could kiss like that? She knew without a doubt that, had he not laid her down, he would have wound up holding her upright when her knees went weak from the passion in his kiss. She could have sworn she heard the bathroom window open followed by a soft sonic boom in the distance as she got up and collected the telescope to take into the living room area of the suite. Another soft sonic boom was heard a few minutes later followed by Clark exiting the bedroom, Lois couldn't help but smirk noticing that he hadn't quite gotten all of the snow out of his hair from wherever he went, clearly she wasn't the only one affected by their kiss. He gave her a sheepish smile and went to finish setting up the telescope by the window.


The pair had not spoken more than a few awkward comments to each other pertaining to their assignment or the dinner they'd just consumed. Clark was seated on the couch fiddling with the receiver for the parabolic microphone while Lois stared out the window, her right hand nervously playing with the rings on her left. After several minutes of contemplation, she turned around and meandered over to the couch to take a seat next to Clark.

"Have you ever done this before, or what we are pretending to do?" Lois asked hesitantly, "You know living together, sharing space with someone you're romantically involved with?"

"No," Clark gave a brief shrug, "I mean, sure I've dated, had a serious girl friend for a while, but we never really got to that step. I mean that's a pretty big step, one that usually leads to or coincides with a forever kind of commitment. You know, engagement, marriage… kids."

"Yeah," Lois nodded, "What do you think it would be like if this was real… erm, I mean not with me, but if you were doing this for real with someone you cared for in that committed forever kind of a way?"

"I don't really know," Clark sighed, "All I have to go by is how my parents act around and toward each other, but they've been together for longer than I've been around, and I never thought to ask what it was like when Mom moved onto the farm with Dad."

"Your parents are amazing," Lois smiled softly, recalling the time they'd spent in Smallville during their investigation and the corn festival. They're what I always imagined a 'normal' couple would be like. They work so well together, they're so in synch with each other."

"Not always," He chuckled, "They're not perfect by any means, I've heard them have some knock out drag down fights over the years, but they always found a way to work it out or put whatever the problem was behind them and move on. They've been together since high school, Dad was a senior and Mom was a sophomore when they got together. Dad proposed to Mom something like five times before she finally accepted and they got married a few months after Mom graduated high school, which was pretty common back then in that area. They've been married nearly 35 years now, I would love to have what they have, but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to."

"I don't see why you wouldn't be able to have what they do," Lois assured him, "I mean, you're a great guy, sure a little annoying sometimes, but a great guy." She smirked, "Some day some girl is going to realize what a catch you are."

"I hope so," Clark looked over meeting her eyes, "I really hope so."

Suddenly, movement across the way caught his attention. Clark stood and made his way over to the window, Lois hot on his heels.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I thought I saw movement over there," He answered softly, letting her step in front of him with a pair of binoculars while he lowered his glasses to get a closer look. They saw Rourke's henchman doing something with the filing cabinet before locking it and slipping the key into the pocket of a jacket that was hanging on the coat tree. A moment later, Rourke and Harrington entered, discussing an upcoming test, which had been greenlit to commence testing in two days' time. A test that they wanted to have fail.

Whatever the two were up to, it seemed Rourke was eager to get it done. He didn't like it when Harrington informed him that they had to follow proper procedure, including evaluations of the test, modification proposals, among other things before they could move forward. Rourke countered by informing the congressman that the test would fail so spectacularly that no modifications or evaluations would be done, producing a tape he claimed included a computer-based demo of what was to happen when the test was administered to get whatever was being tested to be rejected outright.

Rourke gave the signal to his crony to close the blinds so that the men could view the film. Lois cursed under her breath at the bad luck and could have sworn she heard Clark mumble something about lead lining. When she challenged him, he acted as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

Lois huffed and turned back toward the window, hoping to get a glimpse of whatever was going on behind the blinds. A few minutes later, the blinds were opened to reveal a shell-shocked Harrington who was vehemently protesting the impact to what he claimed was 'millions of people.' Rourke simply gave him a smarmy grin and reminded him that he was already in too deep before guiding him from the office.

Just as the trio of men exited the office, Lois and Clark heard the beep indicating an incoming email. Clark walked over to the computer and pulled up the email from Jimmy containing the most recent items that were voted on by Harrington's committee. While Clark was distracted reading over the recent votes to see what Rourke was trying to sabotage that he barely acknowledged Lois when she informed him she was going to head down to the sundry shop to pick up a few things.

On swift feet, Lois quickly made her way out of the Lexor and over to the building housing Apocalypse Consulting. It didn't take long to locate a file that looked promising in the cabinet, and Lois carried it to a nearby desk to start scanning it. She was able to get a few pages done before she heard Rourke and his thug returning, she quickly replaced the file, turned off the lap she'd been using and hid in a nearby closet. She heard a clattering sound followed by a dull thump, then the sprinkler system went off, she slowly opened the closet door and discovered that the two men had already vacated the office. She quickly creapt out of the office and returned to the hotel, however she was unaware that during her snooping around, her credit card had fallen out of her bag and now lay on the floor of the office.

She was drenched by the time she got back to the room, "Please tell me you got all that," She pleaded to her partner as she crossed toward the camera, only to find that the tape had been removed, but not replaced, "You didn't reload the tape?!" She demanded.

"I didn't?" Clark gave her a sheepish look, "Sorry."

Lois groaned, "That's it, I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."

She was halfway to the room when Clark pointed out it was actually his turn in the bedroom. She gave him an icy glare and continued to storm off to the room. She barely heard Clark bid her good night before she slammed the door.