A.N.: So it's not been as Clois filled as I intended. I'm getting sidetracked but this is a Clois story eventually

CHAPTER SIX

Jon entered the airport terminal running. And he saw her sitting by herself. Eyes searching. He came to a stop. Relieved. She was okay. He watched as she got up from her seat. Maybe she saw him. He saw her turn and run away from. Towards someone else in the crowd.

He sighed. "This is just great …"

"Isn't that Ellie?" Clark said as he reached Jon.

"Looks like her. Why is she hugging someone that isn't you?" Lois said as she continued to move towards Ellie and the stranger she had her arms wrapped around.

Bruce had a smug look on his face. A sly grin forming on his face. "I guess you and her are really just friends," Bruce snickered, as he walked past a stationary Jon, shoving him in the shoulder in the process.

Clark gave Jon a look of sympathy and followed Bruce and Lois.

"What the hell is he doing here?" he said as he made his way to her.

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"Gray! What are you doing here?" she said, as she finally released her hold on him.

She took a good look at him. A sight for sore eyes. He was tall and had dark hair. He looked good for his age and she had never been so glad to see him.

"Looking for you, isn't it obvious?" he said, a smile in his voice.

"But I was sure Jon was going to come back for me," Ellie said. "He did, didn't he?"

Gray put an arm around her as they began to walk. "I'm just back up. Just in case Jon's rescue mission didn't pan out. And by the look of things his plan didn't turn out so well."

Ellie frowned. "I'm sure he's here somewhere. He wouldn't just leave me."

"Of course not. But just to make sure," he said.

"Hey!" Lois called out.

Ellie turned around. "Well, it took you long enough."

Lois just rolled her eyes.

Ellie felt Gray stiffen next to her as Bruce Wayne made an appearance. She didn't have long to register his appearance as Jon grabbed her and embraced her. His head buried in her neck.

"Thank goodness, you're okay," he breathed into her neck.

"What took you so long," she said as they broke apart. Aware of the audience around them.

"I took a few unexpected detours," he replied gesturing to his company.

"I can tell," she said. "Hey …"

"Who's your friend?" Lois asked, breaking the silence, pointing to the dark haired man.

Ellie shifted her feet. "Him? Oh, he's just an old family friend. Just came to make sure I was okay."

"Daddy mustn't have thought lover boy here could cut it," Bruce said with a sardonic smile.

Jon ground his teeth and was about to say something in response but Ellie's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Picking a fight with Bruce Wayne is never a good thing," she whispered.

"You shouldn't listen to your friend over there. She's a smart girl," Bruce said, overhearing Ellie's warning.

Ellie couldn't help but blush.

"So, Gray. Is Bruce's assumption correct?" Clark asked, trying to get his head around this newcomer.

"Well, Ellie's father just wanted another person tracking her down. He's just being protective. I'm sure it has nothing to do with his opinion of Jon," Gray said diplomatically. Not really believing his own words.

"That's for the vote of confidence, Gray. Really," Jon snapped sarcastically. "Now tell me you have a way to go back home."

"Of course I do. Always be prepared is my motto," Gray said, the irony lost on most of his audience.

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With Bruce Wayne's power they made their way into a VIP section in the airport, usually reserved for first class passengers waiting to board their flights. Out in the table in front of them were plans for a time machine.

"The only way to get back is to build the time machine to these specifications. It took years to perfect these plans and the technology is already available it just needs tweaking and some outside guidance," Gray explained.

Bruce's eyes roamed over the plans and noticed part of the paper on which the plans were printed had been torn. It carried the makings of a logo. Bruce pulled the plans away from the table to study them further. His eyes widened as he recognised what the logo pertained to.

"These plans belong to Wayne Industries!" he said. "I would have never allowed documents for anything belonging to my company be released under any circumstances."

Gray smirked. "Well, maybe you're not in charge of Wayne Industries any more, Bruce."

Ellie rolled her eyes at the horrified look on Bruce's face. "Gray, don't tease him. He's liable to remember this and kick your butt in the future."

"It's not everyday that I can be one up on Bruce Wayne," Gray said with a smile.

Bruce didn't like the smile one bit.

Gray continued. "These weren't just any circumstances so your rules don't apply."

"What would be so important that I would release classified Wayne Industries documents?"

"Uh, hello. Wayward time travellers right here," Ellie pointed out. "I think that would qualify as important."

"Not at the moment it doesn't," he said, staring at the plans again.

He missed the shocked look on Ellie's face and missed her whisper, "I don't qualify as important?"

She brought her arms around herself and the first time since being found felt deflated. Jon didn't notice Ellie's reaction and continued to lie back on his chair and eating the food they had ordered and was currently sharing with Lois.

Clark, on the other had, heard her whisper and saw her physically withdraw from the continuing discussion over the time machine.

"What were you doing in contact with a time machine in the first place? Not only a time machine but a Wayne Industries time machine?" he asked incredulously. "There is no way I would have given a teenager – two teenagers – and who ever you are," he directed at Gray, "access to it."

Ellie spoke up, softly. "I work for the Professor sometimes that's how I had access to the time machine."

"Aren't you a little young to be working with some Professor dude on a big project like this?" Lois interrupted, as she finished chewing on a hot chip, leaving some sauce around her mouth.

"Uh, Lois," Clark said, as he made several gestures to her face. "You've got something on your face."

Lois made a 'Huh?' expression before Jon handed her a serviette and she dutifully wiped the sauce off, completely non-plussed.

"Well, we all have our connections," Ellie said with a small smile, not daring to look up at Bruce.

"How do I even know you didn't break into Wayne Industries and got the short end of the stick and ended up here? As a matter of fact, how do I even know this isn't some elaborate hoax that's going to swindle Wayne Industries out of millions of dollars?" Bruce questioned, his suspicions catching up with him. He wasn't from Smallville, so supernatural occurrences such as these were rare and far between, if non-existent.

"Getting a little paranoid aren't we Brucey," Lois joked.

Gray cracked a smile. "And paranoia isn't a good look on you."

"Look, Bruce," Clark began, using Bruce's name for the first time and finding the name alien coming out of his mouth. "You're the only one here that thinks that time travel is implausible despite the fact that your company is developing a time machine. That's a little contradictory of you, don't you think?"

Lois let a small grin escape her lips, which Jon caught and found himself smiling too.

Bruce was did not have the upper hand at all and he wasn't liking it. He found it was making him grind his teeth much too much.

"You want proof, Bruce?" Gray asked, a sinister smile on his face. "Because we all know you have some secrets in the closet."

If Bruce was threatened he hid it well. "You're bluffing."

"You don't really go spelunking," Ellie said softly. "And this whole playboy thing is a disguise for your other … interests."

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Bruce paying attention to her. "Struck a nerve, didn't I?"

He sighed and held his hands up in defeat. "Okay … for now, say I believe you. All of you. We're just going to build this time machine and send you all back to where you came from."

Gray nodded. "Then you're going to have to destroy the time machine and the plans. Don't want you getting ahead of yourselves and distorting the timeline that was meant to be."

Lois snorted. "Right, because everything so far has been on the up and up."

Clark rolled his eyes. An action that happened more when he was with Lois. "Great, so we have a plan.

"Great," Ellie said, her arms folded in front of her, looking none too pleased despite the recent developments. "The sooner I get back home, where people actually know who I am, the better."