Autumn in Metropolis was known as a very dreary time by the residents. The clouds always seemed to roll in around the late afternoon right when thousands of commuters took to the streets. People often had umbrella tucked under their arms in case of a storm, and thick coats were always worn to prevent the wind from slicing through the skin. It was these conditions that always urged the busy workers of the city to stay indoors. Working in the warm buildings was seen to be far better than braving the horrid weather.

Inside the most brooding building in the city, the Daily Planet, the bustle was not as rigorous as is usually was. The slow income of news was frustrating the hundreds of writers who graced the newspaper with their talent. They were either circling the newsroom or sitting at computers trying to squeeze news out of anything they could get their hands on.

Lois Lane's day was not only slow, but it was also progressively getting worse. She was sporting visible bags under her eyes and her hair was missing its usual shine. Her now cold cup of coffee was sitting untouched on the corner of her desk as her stomach did not want to consume it. The stories that she was working on were previously all she could think about during work. Now her thoughts were someplace very different. They were focused on her apartment. On her bedroom. On her bed. On her cousin. Crying. Hurting. Crumbling.

"Lois?"

"Huh?" she shouted automatically after being startled out of her daydreaming. She rubbed her tired eyes before lifting them to gaze on two beautiful blue irises hiding behind thick spectacles.

"How are you holding up?" Clark asked as he affectionately touched her shoulder.

"Terrible," the brunette said, resting her head on his stomach. "I feel like a cretin for leaving Chlo…uh…you-know-who alone in the apartment."

Clark put a finger to his lips to indicate he wanted the rest of the conversation to be in whispers. "She stayed up all night, so I'm pretty sure she's going to sleep all day. I've been running back to the apartment every half hour to check on her and she hasn't woken up once."

"I still feel like I should be with her."

Clark sighed to show his exhaustion before saying, "Me too."

"I just hate that I can't do any more research into where Lex was yesterday. If I do, Perry will be asking questions about why I want to know that kind of stuff. Oye, I wish we could somehow let the world know about this 'Big Brother' system that Lex installed in here. I want it gone so badly."

"I know that this new computer surveillance thing is a pain in the neck, but can't you at least make up a lie?"

Lois dug her forehead deeper into her husband's skin and moaned, "I'm too exhausted to be smart today. I'd probably say I want to write a new column for Lex stalkers or something."

"Lois," Clark said as he shook his head. He would have normally laughed at the wit that often entered the conversations with his wife, but this seemed like too serious of a situation to merit it. The man was about to rebuke his wife when a small head with bushy brown hair peeked over the wall of Lois' cubicle and used his waving hand to get their attention.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kent," the young man said in his high voice.

"Jimmy, you've known us for how many years?" Lois replied in an annoyed tone, practically forcing her head off of Clark. "You can still call us Lois and Clark, even if we are married."

"Oh, sorry guys. Um…anyway, I just wanted to let you know that Lex Luthor's doing a LexCorp press conference today…by himself. You know when that happens something big is going on."

All of a sudden, Lois' eyes went wide. Clark's followed suit as they looked at each other with nervous faces. Clark slipped his large hand over Lois' shoulder and felt her blood race through the veins of her neck nearly twice as fast as usual. The man knew from experience that repressed anger was welling up within her.

"Lois? Clark?" Jimmy asked when he noticed their demeanor.

"When is it, Jimmy?" Clark said, immediately making his feelings less conspicuous.

"Uh…in a few minutes. You better get back to your own desk so that you can listen to it, Clark."

The larger man nodded before Jimmy's head disappeared behind the wall.

"Clark," Lois growled through clenched teeth. "When he tells the world that she's missing…"

"Maybe it's not about…"

"Who are you, Mr. Rogers!" she shouted at a tone that wasn't noticeable to the rest of the busy newsroom. "You know what it's about as well as I do. This optimism during these kinds of situations is very annoying sometimes."

"It's worked so far hasn't it?" Clark sighed before he got up to go to his desk.

Lois sighed and put her face in her hands as she heard her husband trod away. She could have slapped herself for using that kind of tone. He was in as much pain as she was, but he didn't show it the same way. This was a fact that she kept forgetting. She hated herself for forgetting. She loved this man. She loved him more than life itself. She hated hurting him. He often didn't deserve it. He never hurt her back. Lois hated this whole situation. She hated what it was doing to her and Clark, but most of all, she hated what it did to Chloe. For the first time in years, she felt on the verge of screaming.

The increasing activity around her shook her out of her thoughts before she looked up at one of the TVs mounted on the ceiling that played CNN or Fox all day. A young reporter was talking on what looked like the outskirts of the LexCorp conference room in anticipation of the arrival of the billionaire. The woman took the wireless headphones from the corner of her desk and put them on so that she could hear the sound, and waited for the bald bastard himself to come out of the entryway by the podium. Even before she knew how dark Lex's soul was, she hated the look of that room. It looked far too much like the one in the White House, which probably foreshadowed Lex's future political ambitions. Lois never prayed much, but the idea of a Luthor in the presidency drove her to pray every night for a different outcome than her worst nightmare.

When Lex finally did come out, he lifted his hand to silence the clamoring press core and began his speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Some of you might know why I am speaking to you today, but many of you might not. I just wanted to inform you all that my press secretary, Chloe Sullivan, has been…missing…for the past twenty-four hours."

Lex put his head down as if to hold back a sob before he continued with his speech. Lois almost felt like she was going to hurl.

"She failed to show up for work this morning, and my sources tell me that she did not show up at her apartment last night. This is a sad day for all of us here, but I am willing to help the police in any way I can to find her and get her home safely. For now though, all we can do now is pray for her safe return. And if there is any party responsible for this disappearance, I have a message for them." The bald man aimed his green eyes directly toward the camera and froze them in a cutting stare before saying, "I plead with you, let Ms. Sullivan go. I will do whatever you want. I will pay whatever you want. Whatever it takes, I want her home. Please let her go. She is of no use to you. We need her here."

Without a single word of closing, Lex stepped off of the podium and slipped through the doorway in the back. As his image disappeared from the screen, Lois could feel her blood boiling. All she wanted to do right now was reach through the TV and strangle him. She also wanted to run over him with her car to squeeze the false act right out of him.

"It's okay honey," the woman heard from behind her. She turned her head around and gave her famous "I'm sorry" face to the disguised superhero standing there before he reached out his hands and helped her tired form out of the chair. "I went in to get a week of vacation from Perry this morning. That way I can be Superman full time."

"It's going to take more than a week to fix this, Speedy," Lois said sadly.

Almost as soon as Lois had finished her sentence, a vibration was felt at each of their sides. They each peeked at their beepers, even though they knew what it was already. It was Perry White informing all of the most important reporters that there was a meeting in the conference room.

"There it is, like clockwork," Lois said as she sighed. "I guess we won't be getting back to Chloe anytime soon."

"Well…Chloe is your cousin. Maybe Perry will let you take some time of to get your emotions together. I mean, it's not like you'd be lying. You are in pretty bad shape."

Lois ignored her husband's candid comment and said, "I don't know if that will work. I don't think Perry even knew who Chloe was before she took the job with Lex. She left for the Metropolis Times while Pauline Kahn was still in charge here."

"No, Perry knows her. He did meet her when he visited Smallville when I was in high school. He actually recognized her during her first press conference, but I guess you didn't really want to mention anything back then, huh?"

"And I still don't," Lois said as she hung her head. "He might not let me or you cover this story if he knew that. We need to get this story Clark. That's the only way we can use the computers here to help her."

"I'm not too worried about that, hon. All I'm worried about is what how we're going to get any evidence on him."

"Same here," Lois sighed.

xXxXxXx

Lois and Clark entered the conference room to find Jimmy Olsen in his usual seat and Cat Grant, the gossip columnist, in hers.

"I still don't know why they let her in on this meeting," Lois whispered into her husband's ear.

"Well, ever since she said that Bruce Wayne had returned to Gotham in her gossip column about a day after everyone knew it as fact, Perry probably thought it was best to let her in on the meetings."

Lois nodded before taking his hand and leading him through the door. The couple walked alongside the long, grey table in the room before grabbing two seats around the center.

"Hey Lois, I bet you're disappointed," Cat uttered in her seductive voice as soon as they sat down.

"Why?" Lois replied in an exhausted tone.

"Superman hasn't shown up in town all day."

Lois' face scrunched up as her tired mind failed to come with a smart response. Clark promised himself that he would remain silent as he stroked his wife's leg so that her anger would be suppressed.

"Will you just stop it?" Jimmy shouted from across the room as more reporters trickled in. "You are milking that stupid rumor too much. Can't you just act like an adult for once!"

"Jimmy, please," Lois softly said. "I really don't care about her or this stupid idea that I'm in love with Superman rather than Clark."

"Besides Cat," Clark interrupted, breaking his silence. "There are bigger things going on in the city right now. Why do you still care about Lois' personal life?"

"Hey, I'm a gossip columnist. That's what I do Besides, I don't care about that stupid press secretary. The way I see it, it's just another way to get a good raise because of better sales."

Lois angrily banged her hand down on the table and shouted, "That 'stupid press secretary' is…" Lois stopped short as she felt Clark squeezing her leg very hard. She took a deep breath before she continued. "…is…missing. Who knows what happened to her. I think that we should start putting ourselves in her position and show her some respect." Some of the reporters around them let out a laugh as Lois let her beet red face turn back to a normal color.

"What's going on in here?" grunted a voice from the front of the room. "I hope that we can stay civil during this meeting, for once."

The heads in the room all lifted to acknowledge the editor-in-chief, Perry White, walking in from the front door. His wrinkled face seemed very relieved as it nodded to acknowledge everyone who had gathered in the room. He then placed several papers down on the long table and waved his hand to indicate that the meeting had started.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that you all know why we're here, but first of all, I'd like to congratulate Jimmy Olsen on his first major interview for us."

The whole room was confused considering the circumstances, but applauded as the small man withdrew back a few inches and blushed. "It was nothing, really," he finally quipped with his high voice.

"Are you kidding? You interviewed Johnny Ewells, one of the most notorious criminals in prison today. It was the first time he talked to anybody since Superman caught him in that alleyway. I didn't get an interview like that until I was way older than you."

"Perry's right. Jimmy," Clark said. "You should be proud. What did he say to you?"

"Well," Jimmy said in a nervous stutter. "I might just want to keep it hush-hush until it gets printed."

"Well, at least answer this. The man had kryptonite in his pocket in case Superman showed up, but when they were face to face, he couldn't use it. Why was that?"

"Jeeze, Clark. Why are you so into this?" Cat asked, annoyed.

Clark gulped as he eased back into his seat and became more relaxed. He shrugged his shoulders and ushered for Jimmy to continue.

"He said he just couldn't do it," Jimmy said, surrendering.

"Why not?" Clark asked as he adjusted his glasses and furrowed his brow.

"He said something about an unwritten rule around the criminal community. Any cop was fair game when it came to murder and such, but Superman is off limits."

"That's weird," Perry grunted. "You'd think any criminal in the world would jump at the chance to kill Superman."

"Well, he said that Superman was the only truly innocent person in the world. Any criminal that would try to kill him or even hurt him would be truly evil and therefore the pariah of the criminal world. I think that it comes from the same reasoning that makes child molesters become the biggest targets in prisons. It was almost like an inert thing."

"I can understand that," Lois chimed, eliciting a smile from Jimmy, as well as Clark.

"I wonder why," Cat whispered to the spectacled woman next to her, who in turn let out a giggle. Clark, having heard the small exchange, shook his head and sighed at the childish gossip coming from the "adults" in the room.

"Can't we just get down to business," one reporter said. "This is the biggest story we've had in months and we're stuck talking about some dumb interview."

"Calm yourself, Collins. I just wanted to start out on a social note to get us out of the confrontational mood we apparently have today," Perry said as he stood up from his chair and began to circle around his underlings. "Now that we're done with that, from now until the foreseeable future, I think we should focus on Chloe Sullivan. Now, I want to keep this on top. It's a big story and Lex seemed very upset during the press conference, so I'm sure the public will be upset about it as well. I know that the paper is going to be full of stories on this. However, I only want a couple of reporters to get the inside scoop and do the really big stories. For that I would like Dumont and Collins…"

"What!" Lois and Clark shouted in unison.

"You two better not be getting riled again. I just got everyone calm."

"Perry," Clark protested. "We are the best people you have. Plus we know Lex's…"

"Okay, let me stop you right there, Kent. If I recall, it's you two who constantly submit stories that undermine Lex Luthor and call him the biggest villain in Metropolis. That kind of bias is not what we need right now. I don't like the guy either, but that's the way it is. Got it?"

"It's not bias, Perry," Lois shouted. "It's the truth!"

The conference room was silent as they hung their heads, unwilling to enter into the squabble that often erupted during these meetings.

"You two can still do smaller stories, but I don't want you doing anything else. My decision is final!" Perry hated these fights as much as the Kents did, which was why he always tried to keep them as short as possible in order not to make him give in. He very much wanted to, but any negative story about Lex Luthor might destroy the paper and he didn't want to take that chance.

The couple sat back down into their seats, knowing they were fighting a losing battle. Clark was mad at himself for ever assuming they would get the story. He should always assume that things would not go their way, especially since in this situation was not showing any signs of getting better.

xXxXxXx

Clark, clad in his Superman garb, sped into the apartment, expecting to see what he had seen each time he had been here over the course of the day. He imagined seeing Chloe curled up in the bed breathing in a steady tone, probably not dreaming about anything good. However, once he stepped through the door, he knew that something was wrong.

There were horrible sounds coming from the master bedroom. They sounded like Chloe was in the middle of a violent vomiting attack. Clark's heart raced as so many fears flashed through his mind in the seconds it took to get across the apartment.

As soon as the door flew open, the first thing Clark saw was red. The white sheets on the empty bed were covered in blood, and there was a path of blood on the carpet leading to a very pale Chloe Sullivan. She was face down on the floor holding her body only inches from the ground on shaky arms. There was blood streaking down her legs and down her chin, not to mention all over her bath robe.

"Chloe!" Clark shouted as he ran over to her and gently turned her over so she was facing up. He then took her in his arms and propped her up so that she could breathe easier.

"What happened!" he asked on the brink of tears.

"I…got sick…then I was…hurting all over…"

"Chloe, don't say anything else. I know that you didn't want to go before, but now I need to get you to a hospital!"

"No! No! STAR Labs…take me…to STAR Labs!"

Clark was taken aback by this strange request. Not only because that place wasn't even close to a hospital, but also because it wasn't known to the general public. "Chloe, why do you…?"

"JUST TAKE ME!" the woman shouted through her pain as she continued to grip her stomach and spit up blood her robe.

"Okay, I'll task you," Clark breathed in a frantic manner. He had a feeling that this was a bad idea, but something in his gut told him that it would be better to take her someplace less public. His nervous sweat soaked through his suit as he lifted her in his arms and flew out of a secret opening in a skylight over the living room.