Title: Daily Planet Wanderings
Author: Nadia Mack
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing. Spoilers for Season 7, Beware!
Author's Notes: This is a companion piece, or a sequel to "Assault on Kent Farm" due to requests to perhaps continue the storyline. I should probably create a single title and just label these chapters with their appropriate titles.

Clark wandered the floor of the Daily Planet with unease. This was the first time he ever really set foot on the floor where all the big stories printed happened. On the way up from the elevator, he reminded himself that Chloe called the area a bull pen, a term he didn't quite understand until he was literally in the center of it.

He had thought the basement was loud but this, this place felt like it was on the cusp of catastrophe.

Phones rang all over the place. When one employee picked it up, several more calls took its place. Monitors where everywhere, appropriately displayed in threes high enough on the pillars that lined the floor so everyone can catch a glimpse of any oncoming reports. Files and files of paper where scattered throughout desks, many even on the floor, some stacked so high, he couldn't even see who was behind it. The noise itself was almost unbearable, and if it wasn't for his ability to adjust his hearing, he would've gone deaf. How anybody else couldn't astounded him.

The place felt like a zoo of epic proportions. There didn't seem to be anything that anybody didn't do.

It finally occurred to him that this was exactly the place he could imagine Lois to be. She seemed to thrive on noises and being on the move. She could never sit still unless absolutely necessary.

Speaking of, the woman he's been looking for was nowhere to be seen. According to Chloe, Lois was hired as a junior reporter, a title he felt Chloe was having a hard time dealing with when he asked where he could find her. It seemed that the rift created by Lois's unprecedented hire was still as raw and fresh as it was when it first appeared.

He wished that Chloe wasn't hurt but the truth is, Lois rising to the top wounded both her dreams and her pride, and the blow of it hasn't subsided with time.

"Um, excuse me," Clark said, tapping the shoulder of one employee lightly in hopes to question him about a wayward reporter. He was ignored of course, which happens to be a something that occurred regularly since no one in the bull pen felt gracious enough to help him.

Was everyone in the reporting world like this? He hoped not.

"Uh, hello," he tried again but it was becoming a fruitless endeavor on his part. Disappointed, he turned around and made his way back to the lobby when he caught the familiar sight of Lois Lane from the corner of his eye.

Stopping on his tracks, he didn't even feel the pressure of another employee hitting his back when he halted. There might've been a curse or some other additional obscenity uttered but he didn't hear it. All he could see was Lois looking elegant and classy in a dark brown pant suit that showed competence and ambition.

He felt the stirrings of the "Lois Feeling" bubbling to the surface when suddenly, the image of her looking very much the adult forced him to look at his own self and what he found was seriously lacking. Dressed in his favorite bi-color outfit, red and blue, Cark had the sudden urge to super speed out of the bull pen and change. Instead, he waited by the end of the newsroom in hopes Lois could spot him outside.

Inadvertently, his super hearing picked up on her familiar voice and against his better judgment, zoomed into her conversation in spite of his mental protests not too. She was talking to a man that didn't look younger than 25 and they seem to be having a heated argument.

"No, I can't allow you to put yourself in that kind of position," the man said in a voice the spoke with authority far beyond his years. It took Clark a second to realize that this man is actually the assistant editor of the Daily Planet. "Stay away from Hobb's Bay, Lois," he warned and Clark got a sinking feeling she wasn't going to obey him, and he was usually right about these things.

When he tried to continue to listen in, she was already out of the door when she saw him.

Clark waved, and for anyone that even knew him, he came across as a little too dorky.

Lois made a beeline to her desk before walking towards him. Having known her for several years, he could tell even without his powers that she was exhausted, but she always made a great inhumanly effort not to let it show, and he had to admit, her act has passed his radar more than once.

"What brings you to the zoo, Smallville?"

"I was in the neighborhood," he answered with a smile. He watched her pass him and he followed her, avoiding the looks of various employees who felt his presence was a hindrance to their work space. "I thought I'd stop by and see how you were doing. I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks."

"Hmm…" she responded noncommittally as she perused the file in her hands. "That's nice."

Clark sighed clearly noting the distracted look in her features. It was going to take a bull dozer to get her mind off of work and he was just not witty enough at the moment to make a perfect excuse to get her mind out of it.

"Is there something you need?" she asked.

He looked up and found her staring, and for a moment he felt maybe he should really have speeded home and changed into something that didn't make him look like a high schooler.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," he began to apologize but she promptly cut him off.

"You're not," she said and it almost sounded like she meant it. "I have a lot on my mind. Works been a bit… overwhelming."

He smiled weakly towards her. "Do you need any help?" he offered. "We can bounce ideas off each other." He wished he knew what she was thinking, but he always had a hard time reading her thoughts when her mannerisms weren't involved.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm good."

He tried not to let his disappointment show but before he could wallow in self-pity she offered something else.

"I'm going upstairs, do you want to come?"

He jumped at the chance a little too enthusiastically. "Yeah, sure."

Lois tilted her head to the side intently. "You all right, Clark?" She used his name. She normally doesn't do that unless she was absolutely serious and sincere, and it caused him to immediately back track.

"No, I'm fine," he managed to say.

Up on the roof, Clark looked extremely uncomfortable. When she said upstairs, he didn't take they were literally going to end up on top of all the floors. He was beginning to wish she took him up on his offer earlier with her work.

Lois eyed him suspiciously. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Have you ever been up here?"

"No," Clark gulped. Against his will memories of Valentine's Day popped up in his mind with a vengeance and he could do little to put it aside than to avoid eye contact. He was suddenly grateful she didn't remember.

Lois nodded and turned back and faced the city. "After they hired me, I didn't think I realized what that meant until it finally sunk in. And when it did, I felt like I couldn't breathe. Then I found this place." She leaned over the railing, her face looking as peaceful as he's ever seen before. "It's a little cold but I like it. It's pretty once you get past the chill."

Clark took a few tentative steps towards the rail and looked over to see the streets of Metropolis moving at what felt like a turtle like pace. "I guess," he said unremarkably. His failure to learn how to fly from Kara still stung his ego and he couldn't bare taking in the height of where they were standing at.

"There's just something about this place that seems familiar…"

"Really?" He tried not to let her think it was more than what it was. Clearly, remnants of Valentine's Day lingered, she just didn't know it was there.

"It's like sitting in a café, or reading a book, and you feel like someone's watching you. Those feelings like you know something but you can't quite get a hold of it."

Clark knew the feeling better than anyone.

"Yeah."

"That's how I feel when I'm up here. I could get lost and not worry about falling."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She looked at him like he was mental and he sheepishly gave a look of embarrassment at his slip. It was obvious that it was exactly what she was doing now and he just had to make a fool of himself by asking a rhetorical question.

"How's Chloe?"

Clark sighed deeply due to the upcoming conversation. He was hoping to avoid this until later but he supposed it was better than their previous discussion.

"She's fine. She wanted to know if you were going to my mom's dinner party this weekend."

"I think I am. What about her?"

"She said she might, too."

"You know, if she didn't feel comfortable having me there, all she had to do was ask and I won't be."

"She said the same thing about you."

"Well tell her that–"

"Stop!" he cut her off suddenly, quieting Lois like he's never done before. If it weren't for the importance of what he was going to say, he would have reveled in it.

"What's wrong with you now?" she snapped.

"You and Chloe need to talk. In person. Eye to eye. Without me as your message boy. I'm not a personal live courier, Lois."

"Of course you're not!" she defended herself. "But could you tell her–"

"No!" he reiterated but he calmed himself down. "Look, I get where she's coming from. She feels like a failure and you becoming a reporter here just made it worse…" Lois opened her mouth but he didn't let her cut in. "It's not that she hates your or anything, she wants to be happy for you but it's hard because she's still an intern at the bottom floor."

"She's not a failure."

"But next to you, she feels like one," he argued a little too honestly. Lois looked taken aback but she had to hear it. "She's not you, Lois. She's strong and she's smart, but you're stronger–"

"She's smarter."

"You're smart," he said confidently.

"You're really stroking my ego, Smallville," she said wanting to deflect the conversation. It was a classically-Lois move that he knew too well to let her get away with it.

"And I'm putting aside my pride to do it, Lois," he said letting out his own frustrations regarding his growing feelings for her through her troubles with Chloe. "She feels lost right now, and unlike you, she doesn't want to be lost."'

"It amazes me how far you've come," she commented. "To use my own words and make me feel guilty about them… remind me next time not to have a serious conversation with you."

She started to leave and he reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Where are you going?" he asked softly.

She twisted from his grip and kept moving. "I'm taking your advice."

It took him a second to realize that it was Chloe she was referring to before he let out a confused sigh. He hoped this "Lois Feeling" would go away, because the more he was around her the more it was getting to be difficult not to succumb to the temptation of wanting something else from her.

He thought he would have learned his lesson from past experiences, but he felt this was different, yet he didn't want it to be different. He wanted it to go back to the way it was, when barbs and teases were the norm. It was their thing: fun, safe and trusting.

It was heading to a completely different direction now and he didn't think he was capable of not letting it show.

Damn her.

The End