In the week since the earthquakes, which remained a mystery and anomaly, Claire's attention had been tuned with hyperfocus into completing the initial reports for the pharmaceutical program. Lois Lane's story on the program came out as planned with a headline that Claire had initially bristled at. Luthor Jr. and Lady Friend: The New Face of Healthcare in Metropolis.

"Lady friend," Claire repeated with a little derision, clad in leggings and a loose tanktop, her hair tied back into a messy bun as she eyed the newspaper while simultaneously eating noodles out of a Chinese to-go container. Having left the office early on this particular Friday, Claire was seated on the couch, while Lex stood leaning against the back, glancing down over her shoulder. "Wow. Wow."

"Is there a term you would prefer that's more accurate?" Lex asked with a gentle irk of his eyebrow, which Claire noted when she turned to look back at him - he was clearly half-joking, but it was a half-joke she was less than receptive to.

"I don't know," she said, partially noncommittal, but also challenging. "But I have a name, and it isn't lady friend."

"And believe me - I did what I could to emphasize the fact to Miss Lane that you are the best person to lead this project," Lex said with a shrug, coming around the couch and sitting down casually next to Claire, propping his legs up on the coffee table. "But, alas. That's the quality of American journalism nowadays. You've got to cut them some slack. Print journalism's on its deathbed and they desperately need the sales." He reached over and gently flicked the headline that seemed to cause Claire so much displeasure. "The truth is far less sensational. Perfectly qualified healthcare professional gets hired to position she's fully qualified for. Happens to look excellent in a skirt."

"Excellent in a skirt. Definitely a necessary detail to include," Claire deadpanned, not lifting her gaze from her food. "Very relevant."

"Yes, I think so."

"Mm."

Lex didn't often bother to give much thought to reading others unless there was the potential for gain on his part, but his recent closeness with Claire had given him enough exposure to her reactions and movements that he could read this one.

It genuinely bothered her that she was still publicized as his lady friend - and, he decided, perhaps rightfully so. She had worked tirelessly on the development of the project, and to be mentioned as a mere afterthought was indeed an affront. And it was an affront that he certainly did not want distracting her from her work or from him.

"How's the report coming along?" Lex asked casually. "It's due on my desk by nine o'clock sharp tomorrow."

"It's done."

Claire's expression was blank and clearly annoyed as she stared down into the small to-go Chinese box, now picking at the food instead of eating it. This was a side of Claire that Lex was only just growing accustomed to - occasionally moody and brooding and prone to the silent treatment. Lex, however, reached out for the laptop that Claire had powered off on the table and flipped it open. Claire's eyes darted over but she didn't turn her head to face him. Still brooding slightly, she reached over and typed in the login password to the computer which opened up directly to the final draft of the report.

Though Lex's posture was deceptively casual, he was indeed reading through the paper intently, surprised to find that not only had she met the decidedly short deadline he'd set as a challenge to her - she had also delivered more than he asked for. He was even more amused by the fact that from where she sat right next to him, Claire was trying to discreetly glance at him to measure his reactions to her work. Upon seeing this, Lex intentionally began reading slower to keep her in suspense as long as reasonably possible until finally, it became clear that he was milking the minutes of amusement he could get.

"Well, I'm impressed," Lex said, his eyes scanning over the report - he had admittedly already seen most of it, as he had several times taken the liberty of browsing through it when she fell asleep with her laptop still on. The finished product, however, was even better than he had expected from her. "Not a single detail left out. And with sixteen percent of your budget to spare."

"Theoretically," Claire said with a sheepish, bashful grin, her face reddening slightly - and Lex felt strangely powerful. There was power inherent in the moment because she felt good, and she felt encouraged, and he was the cause of it. "So we're good to go, then?"

"All it needs is my signature and it's off the ground," Lex affirmed, gently shutting the laptop and putting it down on the table again. "It's excellent work - and I think excellent work should be rewarded."

He made a show of reaching into his pocket for his cellphone to check the time and grinning at Claire, in his mind realizing it was the perfect opportunity to take her away from Metropolis for a short while - to refresh after crossing paths with Lois Lane, who had a way of sending things awry by her mere acquaintance. Lex, in some ways, thought a lot about Lois as well in that she was yet another thing Lex envied of Superman's what felt like a lifetime ago for the mere fact that he had her. Superman - Clark Kent - had always had his Lois. Now, however, Lex had someone as well. He could think of Lois as no more than a passing nuisance because there was nothing left to envy.

"Idle hands are the devil's playground," Lex said, getting up, then reaching for Claire's hand to pull her up off the couch, barely giving her an opportunity to put down the food in her hands without spilling it. "Get dressed - you've more than earned some time away. Pack enough for the weekend and -"

"Lex?"

"Hurry while the night is young, mademoiselle," he said with a dramatic, sweeping gesture to which Claire complied. By now, it felt foreign and remote to think that at one time, this had not been her life - that this jet-setting, hearts-desire lifestyle that Lex had all but pulled her into was not te same reality she had always known. Lex, on his end, very much wanted it this way. He knew by now that while he was far from ready to end the intricate game of strategy taking place between himself and Bruce Wayne, he was not willing to place Claire in the game at the forefront. He preferred her to be the ace up his sleeve, not a pawn on the board. In order to restrain her from action, however, he needed to keep her slightly in the dark.

So, he did not explain to her where they were going until, when they had already made their way to the airstrip and were again seated on the private LexCorp jet, she finally inquired as to their destination, and Lex looked more than pleased with himself for the answer.

"The last time we went to Central City," Lex said with a matter-of-fact jolt of his eyebrows and a small, lopsided grin, "it was predominantly for business. Now, we're going strictly for pleasure."

Claire allowed a small smile to tug at her lips as well, and she realized that this was, for Lex, something very significant. Central City was not Paris or London or Vienna. Central City was by no means a destination, but it was a place that held a place of significance and meaning for the two of them together. Now placated, Claire gently curled up in her seat and looked away, turning to look out the small airplane window. Seeing her go into this quiet, reflective place, Lex kicked his feet up and looked out the window as well.

Part of his fascination with this jetsetting lifestyle as a fascination with flying - with a fixation on the sky and heights and being above all. This was one of the things he had regarded with the most bitterness about the idea of a Superman - the ability to reach these heights without the aid of machines. But with Claire, for the first time, there was no sense of smallness or powerlessness. He had not yet deciphering precisely why.

Lex was unfamiliar with the feeling of simply being, but whatever this was with Claire Branigan, it was perhaps as close as he could come to it.

The three-hour flight from Metropolis to Central City went relatively quickly, even in silence, if only because the silence was a comfortable one. This time, however, when they disembarked from the jet, Lex had a car waiting for them and got into the driver's seat himself after helping Claire into the passenger's seat. This was not a business transaction or a public appearance, and made no pretenses of being one. Both of them were clad in jeans and sneakers, riding in an unseeming Volkswagen Golf down the streets of Central City at night.

They were two inconspicuous young adults walking into a cheesy downtown bar at ten in the evening on Eighties Night and ordering a drink, sitting at a hightop table across from one another, watching everyone bopping around to The Bangles and Depeche Mode - they were content as bystanders, because even if Claire was the more outgoing in the pair, it was still in neither of their character to participate. It was enough to sit at their table with their drinks and look on - if either had been alone, it would have alienating or lonely, but together, it was neither of those things.

A slower melody, however, started upon the ending of a Cyndi Lauper tune - and Claire's head immediately perked up slightly upon hearing it. It's gonna take a little time, a little time to think things over...

"This song," she said with a gentle gesture of her index finger before taking a sip from her cocktail, and while she did not finish her statement, Lex could tell it was an implication that Claire liked this song in particular. She laughed slightly, and Lex strained slightly to listen, but found himself unable to remain in silence for too long.

"You know, this band, Foreigner," he began before he could help himself, pausing only briefly to take a gulp of his drink to wet his slightly dry throat. "They got their name because three of them were American, and three of them were British. So, wherever they went, at least half them were bound to be Foreigners -"

"Can we just... you know... listen?" Claire interrupted, squinting slightly and tilting her head to one side. "Listen to it and not analyze it?"

It was something that Lex wasn't quite entirely comfortable with - the analytical side of his brain was, without a doubt, the dominant side and this was something he struggled with. But when he did manage to do what Claire asked - to listen to the lyrics of the song - it seemed to almost startle him.

Maybe it was the especially strong cosmopolitan she was drinking, but Claire couldn't help but look at Lex while he listened to the song, looking confused - pensive. It wasn't necessarily a common reaction to an eighties song that in all honesty was not the deepest of them all. It was simple - and yet, quite appropriately, strangely foreign to Lex as he heard the crowd of people on the dancefloor somewhat drunkenly singing along with the chorus: I wanna know what love is.

There was a strange, child-like innocence to his furrowed-brow expression as he kept listening until finally, he was snapped out of his trance by Claire reaching out and giving his hand a small squeeze, laughing. It was difficult to believe that this Lex Luthor and the Lex Luthor that he was in Metropolis were the same person.

"It's catchy," he said, breaking the silence between them and garnering an amused smile from Claire.

"Told you."

And as soon as the moment had started, it was over too - the slow dancing stopped and made way for more jovial bopping and bouncing, and once they finished a drink apiece, Lex and Claire decided to leave.

Claire quickly found however that they were in fact driving away from downtown where the hotel from their previous trip to Central City was located - out of the city and out into the outlying hills. Claire felt slightly paranoid again - being flown out of Metropolis, out into the middle of nowhere, was not the most unsuspicious of acts.

"Lex?" she asked carefully after a good twenty minutes of driving into the sparser and sparser hills outside of the city, not sure if she wanted to ask where exactly they were going at the risk of learning the answer.

"Keep an eye out," he said with a brief glance in her direction. "You'll see it."

But soon, looking out the window would be harder than it sounded as they found themselves caught in a summer downpour, the car fighting back against the wind until it came to a stop. Finally, Claire managed to make out that they had stopped in front of a long, winding staircase leading up to a large cabin at the top of the hill. This one appeared kempt and well-maintained despite the surrounding untouched wood and wilderness.

"We can wait in here for it to stop coming down so hard," Claire said, still peering out the window. "The storm came on fast, this weather is -"

"We can leave the bags here until morning and come back for them," Lex interrupted, staring out of Claire's window at the cabin as well, and in the dim light cast only by the small inside light of the car, Claire noticed that he looked a little pale, perhaps even anxious to see this cabin in particular. Her better judgment said that waiting out the storm was most prudent, but when it came to Lex, when he was this anxious for something to happen, Claire knew she would struggle to say no. Because it mattered to him, and anything that mattered to him somehow came to matter to her by extension.

"Alright, but if I drown out there, I'm suing you," she said with a small laugh before sweeping her hair over one shoulder, casting open her door, and stepping out into the rain first. In the split second before exiting his own door, Lex mused that this was one of the things that in his mind set her apart - she did not balk or hesitate. She threw herself into the fray first, took on the vulnerability and the risk in any situation.

The staircase zig-zagged three times up the steep incline of the hill, and both Lex and Claire found themselves sputtering against the wind and rain as they ascended the staircase, growing progressively slower as their sopping wet clothes grew heavier. Finally, Lex reached the door first and unlocked it, holding open the door for Claire to get inside before following behind.

"You," Claire said with a winded laugh, first wringing out her hair and picking up a blanket off of a nearby armchair, "are going to catch pneumonia like that. Come here." Claire hooked her thumb under the hem of Lex's sopping wet shirt, pulling it off of him and wrapping the blanket around his shoulders instead. Lex realized when she touched him, however, that she too was shivering slightly.

"What about you?"

"Don't worry about me," she laughed in a quivering voice, now wringing the water out of her own shirt until Lex, still wrapped in the blanket, reached out and pulled her inside of the blanket with him, all but dragging her over to the sofa so that they sat wrapped in the blanket together. Claire ducked inside of the blanket and pulled off her wet shirt, casting it aside so that it landed by the door, and when she again rested against him again under the blanket, Lex felt his body relax at the feeling of her skin against his.

It was not a sensual act - it was warmth and comfort and safety.

Finally, Claire managed to look around in the dimly lit living room of the cabin and realized that it was in fact gorgeous - mostly furnished, thought slightly dusty. Tasteful. Simple. Claire had never been the type to enjoy the woods or cabins or anything of the like, but this was not the kind of place she envisioned - it was simply homey and comfortable. Warm.

"Do you like it?" Lex asked, and from the slightly choked tone in his voice, Claire could tell that the question, though asked with the intention of being casual and offhanded, was more than just small-talk to Lex; Claire felt his gaze on her as she looked around, and she gently turned to face him with a small smile.

"It's beautiful," she said calmly, resting her head tiredly against his chest, to which he responded by running a hand over her hair. Again, she felt his body relax underneath her and his breathing become slow and steady.

"I'd hoped you'd think so," he said honestly - and as the pair of them slowly drifted to sleep under the blanket, gathering warmth from one another, Claire realized that this place, for whatever reason meant a great deal to him. And he'd brought her here.

The unseasonable, unforgiving weather was not limited to the mainland, certainly not to Central City, and off on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Bruce Wayne and his cohort were gently turned and blown as well as they made their way past.

The decision had been made to make their way to search for Doctor Stone in the Netherlands by boat rather than by plane to remain as inconspicuous as possible, and though the weather was unforgiving, the presence of Arthur Curry onboard no doubt was a contributor to their so far safe passage.

"My first cruise ever - I'd expected the route to be a little more scenic!" Barry called out over the wind - it was difficult to see anything though the wind and rain. "Maybe with some cocktails and hors d'oeuvres or something -"

Barry stopped talking, however, after a sharp glare from Arthur, who stood at the bow of the boat, staring forward in deep, almost statue-like concentration.

"Sorry," Barry muttered under his breath. He'd been charged with a turn at watching the sails and minding their direction while Arthur focused on the seas around them. Meanwhile, Bruce and Diana stood inside of the cabin, staring out and going over the documents they had brought with them in hopes of following a trail of clues to Doctor Silas Stone.

"What are your plans, Bruce?" Diana asked, crossing her arms over herself and wrapping herself in her coat a little more tightly. "Even if we find this Doctor, what then? How do we convince him or his son to join us?"

"The same way I convinced all of you -"

"You convinced no one, Bruce," Diana said with an arch of her eyebrow, respectful but firm in her correction. Diana's dedication to the cause was admittedly due in large part to a sense of obligation she felt to correct some of the disillusionment Bruce harbored - he would need to clear these clouds from his mind in order to be the leader the team and the world required. "If we had relied on your powers of persuasion, then you would not have had my assistance, and without my assistance, Arthur would have never come. Don't harbor delusions that you could have done this alone. We've had this conversation before."

Bruce's jaw clenched shut - Diana Prince had a way of driving him to silence.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" he finally managed to ask, and upon being asked this, Diana allowed a small smile to cross her face as she cocked her head to one side.

"My guess is as good as yours, Mister Wayne," she replied with an impish grin. "But at least I have your respect."

A/N

Short chapter of some transition material! I want to give a brief mention to marriedtojbiebs for sending in the idea for the bar scene - it was initially a very different scene, but I realized I liked this one a lot more.

I also wanted to mention that I forgot to thank everyone last update for getting the story past 200 reviews! You guys are awesome! Your messages and reviews have been amazing (and yes, I'm still checking them while on vacation, hah!). The next chapter will be a solely Lex/Claire chapter, and is going to be a fairly big moment, so stay tuned! I think guest reviewer Q.M. will be happy to see it. It might be a while before this update because it's a bigger part of the story, but I'll do my best! My downtime during vacations has been good for chapter editing. Until next time, cheers!