Author's Note: I had this chappy written in January I have no idea why I didn't post it. Anyway. There's a lot of flicking between past and present. I hadn't really planned the structure out. I was just writing. I know where this story is going. Just getting there is the hard part. Enjoy!

- Have also changed pen name. was perSEFIni (I think) am now jamie's girl (an allusion to my favourite singer Jamie Cullum)

CHAPTER THREE

Lois could feel herself falling faster and faster into the light. She tried to grab onto Clark but he was too far away. She could feel herself drifting and drifting. As the light grew bigger she had to shield her eyes with her arms. And then there was black. When Lois opened her eyes again she was no longer in the caves. In fact she had no idea where she was. Then she remembered. "Clark." She sat herself up to find that she was in a bedroom that she didn't feel like home. She tried to remember what had happened. She vaguely remembered a light. And Clark. Sadness and pain. The more she tried to remember the less she could remember. She opened the drawer of the bedside table next to her and found a pen. "Clark," she made herself say. She brought the pen to the back of her hand and began to write his name before she forgot. She had a sickening feeling that she would forget. She barely even made it to the C when the bedroom door opened.

"Lois, you're awake."

She looked up and stared into the face of someone she knew.

"Bruce."

Lois promptly dropped the pen. Forgetting about the misshapen, half formed C on the back of her hand.

---

Lois sat at the breakfast table stirring the cereal in front of her, stifling a yawn with her free hand. Bruce looked across the table at her. She was deep in thought. He could tell. She had been stirring the cereal ever since Alfred had brought it to the table. The cereal had turned into considerable mush. He turned the page of his newspaper and would glance from the newspaper to her. She was wrinkling her nose. A sure sign that she was in deep concentration. He continued to stare at her and she could feel his eyes on her. For one who didn't like uncomfortable silences she was being very good at being silent, Lois's eyes caught Bruce's.

"What?'

"You seem … distracted," he put delicately.

She frowned. Lois felt … empty? She shook her head. That wasn't the right word.

"I just don't remember quite how I got here," she said just as delicately.

Bruce folded the newspaper and placed it on the table. Lois knew this was a sure sign that he was going into serious territory.

"I found you passed out on my doorstep late last night," he said.

Lois raised an eyebrow. "You or Alfred?"

He waved it off. "That's beside the point."

"Well, I don't remember getting drunk. The last thing I do remember is…" she pondered hard, "Smallville."

"What were you doing in Smallville? I know for a fact that you weren't visiting Chloe, since she's in Metropolis. And if you had been in Smallville how did you get here without a car."

She sighed and continued to stir her cereal. She hated not knowing. She had turned up at Bruce's doorstep numerous times without any memory of how she got there but this was different. She didn't know why but she could feel it.

"I suppose we'll never know," Bruce said.

Which wasn't comforting to either one of them.

Bruce tried to change the subject. "So, what do you have planned for today?"

Lois shrugged. "Nothing. I suppose I might go to Metropolis to visit Chloe. Maybe beg Perry for a job."

"Anymore thoughts about Met U?"

She shook her head. "Formal education isn't for me. I need real life experience."

Bruce stood up and grabbed the bowl with mush inside it and placed a new bowl in front of her and watched as she filled it with milk and cereal.

"How about you, Brucey. Anymore thoughts about a partner?"

He stared at Lois. Ever since he revealed that he was Batman she was gagging for a spot on the team. But he would have none of it. It was one thing to put himself in danger, it was another to put Lois Lane in the same position. But she never tired of asking. She felt herself capable of being a sidekick, if not the superhero.

"I could be Batgirl. Tight leather jumpsuit and stiletto black boots. Criminals would get distracted by me and then you can whoop their ass," she said, finally taking a bite of her breakfast.

"Batgirl? So, you're going to be riding my coattails?"

She shrugged. "That would be one way to get an education."

"But not even Batman can guarantee your safety," he countered and then paused before continuing. "I was worried about you last night or this morning or whenever it was you arrived."

He sat back down in front of her. Trying to catch her gaze as she purposely gazed into her bowl. Making a decided effort not to notice this. He saw that and sighed. Lois Lane remained silent. It was fun to play house with Bruce. Turn up and live together. Innocently. Take a jab at him, tease him, getting into his Batman lair. But anything beyond friendship was hard to imagine at this point. She didn't know why. But this caped crusader just didn't spark with her. He was not the steel to her flint. She had once had a conversation with her cousin Chloe about Bruce. And they listed the 'good'. He was rich, handsome, kind, generous and not to mention a superhero (which she didn't tell Chloe but added to the list). The 'bad' list was empty. But there was just something about Bruce that didn't get her heart racing. And she couldn't, for the life of her, think of anybody who did that. All she wanted was her heart to race with her man of steel.

---

Clark had woken in the caves. He was lying still on his back, his eyes searching the roof of the cave. He didn't know how he got there. He was sure that the blame lied solely on Jor-El. Most cave related problems were because of Jor-El. He lifted himself off the ground and brushed the dirt from his clothes, and from his gold and red plaid shirt. A smile formed on his lips as he brushed the dirt off his shirt. He liked this shirt, it was his favourite. His mother kept on telling him that if he kept on wearing it, it would fall to pieces in the washing machine. But he insisted that nothing was going to happen to the shirt. Brushing his thoughts away his mind wandered back to the cave. Annoyed that he had no memory of what had occurred. This was becoming far more frequent than he would have liked, this amnesia thing. He remembered vaguely about his return to Earth in a bolt of lightning, at the beginning of his senior year, and then again when he was trying to stop thief robbing the contents of the Talon's cash register. After giving the cave a once over, to see if he could spot any clue to this latest blank in his mind, he sighed and left. He was sure he was missing something but for the life of him he couldn't think of what it was.

METROPOLIS 2010

Clark Kent never imagined he'd be in Metropolis of all places. He had spent the past 4 years struggling to fill the emptiness that was inside of him. Even though the void was smaller than it had been before he still felt as if he was missing someone. His abrupt departure from Smallville was fuelled by this emptiness, this gap, this hole inside himself. He had become restless and frustrated and decided to seek answers, taking Central Kansas University correspondence courses as he travelled the globe. His parents had made him do that at least. But in his travels, helping people, learning about different cultures, he still didn't feel whole. By some weird intuition he had decided that his journey had ended and flew back home to Smallville and looked up someone who owed him a favour. Perry White, the current editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. The world's most famous newspaper. Home to the world's greatest investigative reporter, Lois Lane. He had read her articles around the world. Hers was a famous name the world over. Lois Lane. It had a nice ring to it, he had decided. It was a name that rolled right off the tongue.