Chapter Six

You fall away from your past but it's following you.

Clark looked warily towards the rusty 30 foot fire escape attached to the Luthorcorp facility.

"Forget it! We're not going up there!"

Lois batted his hand away as he attempted to help her and she groaned as she lifted herself over the fence, landing clumsily on the ground beside him.

"You're not my minder Clark, just my partner! If you don't want to come then fine I'll go alone!" Lois huffed grabbing her bag from him.

"Lois!" He whined as she made her way towards the fire escape at a brisk pace. "This is crazy!"

She turned on her heel giving him a forceful glare, "Will ya keep it down boy scout! Look all we have to do is climb the ladder make it too the roof and then go through the roof door. Because as I've reminded you about oh I don't know a BILLION times it's the only door not protected by security guards in this whole place!" She exclaimed waving wildly in the direction of the building.

"Once were in we just need to avoid the security guards, get the damning evidence against Luthor and then get out. Not that complicated farm boy!"

Clark suddenly had the urge to kiss the annoyed look right off her face.

A few days earlier

"What are we doing?" He instantly wished he could take back the words as they spilled from his mouth. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Lois away by making her face feelings she obviously didn't want too face. For whatever reason things remained unsaid between them for so long he was afraid that if he tried to push her any further she may pull away completely.

After a moment her frown disappeared and she sent him a knowing smile which surprised him, "Oh you mean this?" she leant forward and wrapped her hand around his out stretched arm pulling his body towards her own, kissing him slowly. "It's called making out."

Clark nodded as he had never herd of the concept, "We should do that more often."

"Easy Tiger," Lois giggled after another moment of intense kissing in which Clark had eased Lois back onto the love seat and was practically covering her body with his own much larger one. A look of seriousness found its way on her face, "You're my best friend Clark Kent and I don't want anything to ruin that so let's just take this slow and see where it goes… okay?"

He held her gaze hoping to convey to her that he understood she needed some time to adjust to this new development in their relationship while trying to reassure her that she wouldn't regret this.

"Okay."

They sat in silence for a moment smiling goofily when they caught each others eye; finally Clark broke the silence "so would it be going too fast if we continued this making out session a little while longer?" Lois shook her head and bit her bottom lip, "Shut up and kiss me already Smallville."

"Hello? Are you coming?" She called back to him as she climbed the first few steps. Snapping out of his daze Clark reluctantly followed her lead climbing up behind her and he tried not to stare at the creamy expanse of skin between her jacket and jeans that had become exposed.

"Run!" Lois screamed as she guard closed in on them, everything had been going smoothly they made their way up the escape and into the building in no time but unfortunately they weren't as stealth as they imagined themselves to be. On the way out of the facility office they had tripped some alarm system and were now making their way up the stairs approaching the roof.

Lois felt her heart thumping against her chest as she tried to rip open the heavy metal roof door with no avail "Clark it's stuck!" She said breathing heavily, "Clark?!" she turned around and found him nowhere to be seen. She began to feel a new rush of panic; he had been right behind her a second ago. Suddenly the metal door in front of her was pulled from its hinges and a figure cloaked in darkness stood before her.

She stepped towards the figure but it moved away from her, "Who are you?!" she queried trying to keep her voice steady.

"A friend" The figure replied before taking something from his belt and launching from the building.

"What the hell?!" Lois gasped as she craned her neck over the edge of the building, "Did that guy just fly?" she muttered to herself and promptly fainted.

"Metropolis's new Superhero: The Dark Angel" reported by Lois Lane

Clark had re-read the article at least ten times, "A mysterious figure has been spotted saving lives across the Metropolis area; this figure cloaked in darkness, appears only at night and seems to posses some super human abilities."

He frowned lost in thought as Kara entered the kitchen holding her iPod and shimming to Avril Lavinge's 'Hot'.

"Hey loser!" She nodded casually in Clark's direction rolling her eyes when his frown line increase, "watcha brooding about now?" Clark tried to cover his face with an indignant look, "I was not brooding." Kara's eye flicked towards the paper, "Oh I see" she said sending Clark a knowing look.

"You see what?" Clark replied his attention back on the blurry images Jimmy had managed to get of the "Dark Angel".

Kara place a condoling hand on Clark's back, "she doesn't know it was you does she?"

"That's because it wasn't me."

Clark watched as his cousins face scrunched up in confusion, "Well if it wasn't you and it certainly wasn't me?" She pointed a finger at herself, "Then who the heck was it?"

Clark sighed skimming the rest of the front page, "Gossip Alert! Gotham playboy Bruce Wayne causes a stir at the official opening of the Metropolis Museum sponsored by Luthorcorp."

"Power outage causes mass chaos in downtown Metropolis."

"Luthor announces plans to expand water testing facility."

He tossed the paper down in annoyance, "I have no idea."

"Kara! What are you doing here?" Lois smiled widely and hugged the girl in front of her.

"Hey Lo! Oh I have no school because it's marking day so Clark said I could tag along with him to work and go shopping in Metropolis." She sent her a smug smile as if secretly saying, 'I have him wrapped around my little finger.'

"Oh well that was very nice of him, wasn't it?" Lois sent the person in question a dazzlingly seductive smile that made him weak at the knees.

Clark blushed profusely looking down and busying himself with his briefcase and laptop, "Well that's as along as she behaves herself and doesn't shop us into debt." He sent Kara a glare and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

Ever since their make out session on his porch Lois had taken to unconsciously flirting with Clark in front of others, on some level Clark was certain she was enjoying the fact that it embarrassed him. He had taken to reacting and blushing at every innuendo she made intentional or unintentional, stuttering and sputtering a response.

Rolling her eyes Kara laughed at the two, "Right, well not that I don't appreciate this flirtatious banter..." she sent the two a playful smirk, "but I told Olsen I'd meet him in the café downstairs."

Before Clark could comment Kara had practically super sped away with only a wipe of blonde hair in her wake.

"Jimmy?" He questioned to no one in particular.

Lois sent him a secretive smile, "For a reporter you don't pick up on things to quickly... She's crazy about him."

Clark furrowed his brow, "When did they even meet?"

"Around the time I started working here."

"Oh" Clark sat down at his desk and attempted to sort out the mess Lois had left there earlier for him to organize.

A buzz began to circulate the office and the energy around them seemed electric, reporters and assistants were scurrying around and others were crowding around the televisions in the front of the building, Lois sent Clark a curious glance, "what's all the fuss about?" Clark shrugged but before he could use his super hearing a high pitched voice came screeching from the other side of the bull pen, "Lane! Kent! Breaking story chief wants you in his office pronto!"

"On it Marcy!" Lois called as she pounced from her desk and pulled Clark up from his own chair, "This must be serious if the Chief is sending us out on location." The excitement in her voice was contagious and soon Clark found himself unable to focus when he cause sight of Perry White smoking his finest cigars, the ones he saved for special occasions.

"What's the 411 Chief?" Lois huffed, the door swung widely in her wake narrowly missing Clark's forehead.

Perry sent her a dubious look, "It's your favorite superhero, apparently his tried to off Luthor."

"Tried?" Clark repeated swallowing the lump in his throat, afraid that they're may have been a disappointed tone in his voice. Perry motioned to the TV monitor on the side wall, turning up the volume.

"An hour ago witnesses claim to have seen the figure dubbed "The Dark Angel of Metropolis" throw Alexander Luthor, owner of Luthorcorp, from the ten storey Reeve hotel. The mysterious angel has now been identified as the infamous "Batman", a suspicious figure civilian and police have spotted various times in neighboring city Gotham. It's believed Mr. Luthor was staying in the hotel at the time as a guest, after Mrs. Luthor petitioned for divorce earlier this week."

Lois tried to subtlety survey Clark, not only had he just found out his former best friend had almost been murdered but he also discovered that Lana Lang was no longer to be Lana Luthor. She had herd that bit of office gossip a few days ago and wondered if it had gotten around to Clark, but she figured he never mentioned it so the gossip tree hadn't reached his desk yet. Chewing her nail she looked again towards the television,

"It's still unclear what kind of condition Mr. Luthor is in or what the circumstances behind this vicious attack entail. But one can conclude that things have only begun to unravel in this mysterious case."

"If you want I can go in alone…" Lois said softly placing her hand on Clark's arm.

Clark tried to send her a smile but found it rather forced, "No, its fine. I'm fine."

She sent him a dubious look, "You just found out your former best friend was almost murdered and your former first love is about to be divorced. I wouldn't be fine if I was you."

Clark sent her another smile; this one came more easily, "Lois if you were me I wouldn't even need to ask."

She nodded and tried not too blush at his veiled complement, "After you" she held the door open to Lex's hospital room.

"Just the person I wanted to see." Lex spat eyeing Clark with disdain.

Lois couldn't hide her surprise "Lex... Your?"

"Alive?" He supplied smugly.

"Well don't blame me for being a little pessimistic, after a ten storey drop I expected you to be a lot more… vegetative."

Lex chuckled, "Ahh Miss Lane your wit and charm exceeds you. Now do you mind popping down to the hospital cafeteria and getting me blueberry muffin, they are after all, your specialty if I remember correctly." She rolled her eyes at this attempted to bait her instead looking in Clark's direction. He nodded silently as if answering her question, "Apple and cinnamon it is." She said as she walked out of the door, closing it behind her.

Clark sighed and Lex waited until Lois was out of sigh to speak, "Couldn't resist finding out the reason behind Lana and my separation? I assure you, it wasn't because of the Kansas farm boy."

"That's not why I'm here Lex. I haven't talked to Lana, and she hasn't spoken to me. And even if she did, there would be nothing left to say. Perry remembered I knew you and thought you might be willing to give us an interview for the Planet, but I can see that's not going to happen." Clark turned towards the door and placed a hand on the knob but the vulnerability of Lex's voice stopped his motions, "I'll give you your interview Clark."

"I can't believe he gave you an interview!"

Lois was hot on his heels as they made their way towards the car, "And I can't believe you didn't come and get me!" Clark shrugged, "He didn't want to talk to you and I can't really blame him... you have tried to get him arrested." He opened the door for her and Lois hoped into the car no bothering to wait for him to get to his own side before continuing, "So! That's my job! It's not like he knows we broke into the experiment facility… or does he?" She raised her eyebrows in accusation and Clark put his arms up in defense, "I didn't say a word okay he already knew. And apparently we weren't the only people trying to get information on his new water plant. He has bigger concerns than two reporters."

Lois turned the motor, "Don't tell me the government has finally woken up to Lex's criminal side…" He laughed at that, "Not likely… it's Batman. Lex said his guards saw him in the facility around the same time we were in their. I actually think Lex might be threatened by him, he wouldn't tell me if his had an face to face contact with Batman but he certainly was happy to incriminate him in the breaking and entering he definitely wants us to print a story that paints Batman in a bad light."

Lois silently absorbed this information, "I don't know. I'm not so sure Batman's such a criminal, I mean yes his means are sort of violent," Clark shook his head, "Violent? He kills criminals and tortures them. He uses scare tactics and intimidation to keep people obeying his rules. That's taking the law into your hands and abusing it."

"I know I know." She sighed in defeat, "I just mean… maybe having a hero around here isn't such a bad thing, he has cleaned up the streets of Gotham..."

Although he could never condone Batman's methods Clark did have to admit that he certainly was getting the job done.

"Oh hey I can't believe I forgot to mention this but how did Lex survive that fall?!" Clark visibly tensed knowing that witnesses would identify her sooner or later he decided to come clean, "He says he was saved by a girl who could... fly."

"What?!" Lois sputtered "A girl who could…?" she trailed off staring into skyline.

"Fly." He supplied, thinking about ways in which Kara would be punished when they got back to the farm… extra chores? Grounding? It all seemed rather lame when she had the ability to literally fly away. Know he knew what his parents felt when he did courageous things that ultimately threatened his security. He did have to give Kara credit though; she must have used some sort of disguise because Lex didn't recognize her, luckily.

Lois let out a long breath, "Whoa, so you're telling me that we have this mysterious and freakishly suave Batman tried to kill Lex and then some kind of Supergirl who can fly, and god knows what else try to save him? Well we have one hell of a story to write when we get back to the office!" Clark nodding in agreement to lost in though to speak.

"Oh by the way I was thinking we could have dinner tonight? At my place around seven?" He let out a groan, "Your cooking?"

"No!" She whacked him across the chest while trying to maintain control of the car, "I'll order Chinese and we can watch some movies and you know... Whatever." The 'whatever' made butterflies ignite in his stomach he tried to muster enough confidence to tease her in return, "Why Miss Lane are you trying to seduce me?"

She smirked as they reached the Planet car park, "Am I that transparent?"

He sent her a dazzling smile, "Only to me." She laughed and couldn't help but agree, sobering up a bit she looked at him with seriousness edging into her features, "It's really nice to have you Clark, especially when things are so crazy right now. It's been really comforting to know that I have you to turn to. I feel like we can talk about anything. I really trustyou, you know?" She smiled shyly now and leant over the console to kiss him and pulled back slowly, her eyelashes fluttering girlishly.

Clark nodded the weight of the words bearing down on him.

Sitting at his desk Clark watched Kara as she interacted with Jimmy, she was confident yet shy at the same time and it reminded him a lot of his own teenage years.

"You're pretty crazy about him aren't you?" Clark asked echoing what Lois had said earlier.

Kara sat down in a spare seat near his desk watching longingly at Jimmy's retreating figure she feigned innocence, "What? No way! I've only met him a few times Clark!"

Clark let out a chuckle, "So you can have feelings for someone after meeting them a few times, I never said you loved him."

Furrowing her brow she replied uneasily, "I suppose I have feelings for him, lust and desire."

Clark almost spat out the coffee he had just had a sip of, "Gross Kar."

She let out a small giggle, "Oh I don't know! I'm not good with human…" she looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping in on their conversation and continued when she was satisfied that they weren't, "emotions." She said the last word as if it let a sour taste in her mouth.

Clark sent her an empathetic smile, "You'll get the hang of it."

She shrugged and replied, "I don't know... I don't think we exactly had what humans call 'love' on Krypton."

"You didn't have love?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise and found it hard to imagine any world where people didn't feel love.

She considered his question for a moment, "What would you as a "human" define as love?"

"I guess it's when you know someone, completely, and embrace everything about them. Regardless if it seems good or bad you just have to trust that feeling of certainty you have about that person." He replied thinking about the sort of relationship he had with Lois.

"Well we had companionship and passion but they didn't necessarily go hand in hand. It's hard to explain, but we did love each other I suppose it's just, we were more reserved about it. Humans tend to express love excessively," She crinkled her nose recalling the displays she'd seen during the small number of high school parties Clark had let her attend, "I guess what I mean is how do you know when you're in love? What's that feel like?"

Clark sighed struggling to put the feeling into words.

"Well sometimes when I look at Lois, I can't remember what it felt like not to know her. I can't remember a time when I wasn't worried about her safety or happy because of her simply being in my life. I think that's what love is. Love's how I know she gets this hitch in her breath when she's delighted by something or how I know when she's quiet because she's just quiet, or when she's quiet because she's thinking or because she's worried."

Kara silently encouraged him smiling as he described things he felt with Lois that she already felt when it came to Jimmy.

"And she knows me, too. And likes what she knows about me. I think. But she doesn't know all of it, does she?" He began to frown as he considered this, "That's the part that bothers me. I'm hidingsomething from her. From everyone, but especially from her. And I feel like I'm lying to her. It used to be okay. It used to be fine...", his frown deepened as he finished his train of thought.

Kara sent him a sad smile, "But it's not okay anymore. Is it Clark? Not with her. You know her so well there's no doubt in my mind you love her. And I think she knows -- I think she knew it before you did. But you haven't said it to her. You can't. I know you; you'd be asking her to say it back. And she doesn't really know you, does she? She just thinks she does. And you haven't really lied to her. But you haven't told her the truth, either, have you? I understand that you want too protect her, trust me, I feel the same way but have you ever thought that maybe knowing the truth is a risk she'd be willing to take? Have you ever thought that maybe it's not your choice to decide, that it's up to her."

"No I guess I haven't." Clark shook his head dejectedly realizing just how much keeping the truth from Lois was not only affecting his own life but also affecting everyone else around him.

"I mean you'd be keeping this whole other part of yourself a secret from her and sooner or later she's going to figure something out and ask you about it and you'd have to lie her and faster than you'll realize you'd both end up resenting each other for it. I know this is a sore subject but Lana's a prime example, even though I'll be the first person to admit Lana Lang is no Lois Lane it's about trusting someone. Eventually you have to do it Clark and I think we both know that Lois is the only one you could ever be truly honest with. Maybe you should think about telling her before she finds out another way, she deserves to hear the truth from you, especially now before things get even more complicated."

She cast her eye towards the newspaper thrown haphazardly by Lois on Clark's desk.

"Batman vs. Super girl; the fight for Justice in Metropolis."

Written by Lois Lane and Clark Kent.

"Oh crap." She whispered.

Clark sent her a parental guilt stare, "Didn't think I'd hear about that did you?" Kara tried to muster a naïve smile, "I wore a brown wig! And I had on a long red coat... He didn't even realize it was me…" Clark let out a long sigh, "I know, you've just got to be careful Kar, there are people out there who would love to get their hands on you and experiment on you and lock you up." He cast an eye over Lex's photo on the bottom of the page.

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly "I won't I'm invincible remember..." She tried to joke but it fell flat when she saw Clark's expression, "What is it?" she turned around too see Bruce Wayne, the playboy billionaire handing a flustered Lois a bunch of red roses.

"You're not as invincible as you'd like to think." Clark said an unreadable expression passing over his features, "Neither of us is."

You made up your mind to leave it all behind,
Now you're forced to fight it out.
You fall away from your past,
But it's following you.