Clark breezed through the Daily Planet's offices in search for Lois to hand over Lex's quote, and to check on her. Everyone seemed to be on edge with news coming out of Gotham, and Perry was on the warpath over Sarah being in town reporting on Superman.

He found her in the copy room staring at the wall while the copier spat pages out for tomorrow's paper. "You alright?" he asked tilting his head

Lois came out of her daze relieved to see Clark, "Yeah" she sighed, staring at him, "Just a long day"

"How did your meeting go with Sarah Gordon?" He leaned against the wall

Lois rubbed the back of her neck, "She's good" Lois said simply, "But she got nothing out of me" she almost sounded proud. But there was nothing to be proud about, Sarah worked like Lois did, which was why she was worried for Clark.

Clark smiled. He wasn't worried about Lois telling his secret. "How'd your interview with Lex go?" she asked

Clark had been suspicious of Lex Luther since the day he met him. He had a charm to him that made Clark uneasy, but the city loved him for his work on the rebuild.

"He invited me to come to the Museum Gala" Clark said with a raised eyebrow

Lois smiled knowing she'd never in a million years get invited to a party like Lex's. Since the day they met Lois rubbed Lex the wrong way, she knew he was intimidated by her strong will and smarts. Lois wasn't moved, but made it hard for her to get any quote from him on an article she wrote. She was grateful Clark played nice with him, and he was happy to go anytime she needed one from him.

"An event like that calls for a tux, Clark" Lois smiled at his farm boy upbringing, "You're going to have to rent one"

Clark was somewhat excited for the event despite the fact that it was held by Lex and Clark would have to be on watch the entire time, "I've never been to a black tie event before"

"You've come a long way from the farm in Kansas, Clark Kent" Lois smiled

Clark knew this was painful for Lois, seeing him every day, knowing whom he really was, and that they couldn't be together. As much as he loved her, he knew it wasn't safe. She meant too much to him to let anything happen to her because of his secret. Lois knew Clark wished it could be different for them; she looked down trying to even out her expression of adoration.

"This Batman guy" Lois changed the subject and looked around, "Did you ever happen to go see" she stopped hearing Lombard's voice down the hall

Clark shook his head, "I figured I'd leave him to his own city, I paid attention though, read what happened to the city those years ago"

Lois nodded, "They said he flew a bomb over the ocean, he had to have died but he showed up again a few months later back at it" she tried to keep her voice quiet

"It's strange to think after all those years on the job that one shooting would do him in" Clark said thinking hard about it.

"Not everyone is bullet proof Clark" Lois couldn't help but smile

Clark grinned "Guess not when you're only a man"

"There was a rumor Sarah was close to figuring it out, then dropped the story" Lois explained

Clark was interested, "Do you know why?"

"Her boyfriend left her, and I heard her father cut his ties with her" Lois said, hearing it from her source in Gotham, "Her father also happens to be Jim Gordon, he was Commissioner of Police while this Batman was around"

"And Who was her boyfriend?" Clark hadn't done his research much on Sarah, but was realizing now he should have. She was turning out to be as good of a reporter as Lois with a lot of history behind her.

Lois raised her eyebrows, "I'll give you one hint, he's all over the news right now, apparently his hobbies included dressing up in black suits and beating criminals to a pulp"

Clark stood straight, "She and Blake were an item"

"Which meant John didn't want her to find out and she kept pushing" Lois nodded, "And there go the boyfriend and the father" She worried, "I may have kept my mouth shut, but Clark she's one hell of a reporter"

Clark nodded; "Well that makes this interesting" he let out a sigh

For Metropolis being a complete construction zone it sure was busy Sarah thought. The diner was packed with patrons and Sarah was at the counter having a cup of coffee to try and gather her notes from the day. Next to her computer was a ticket to the gala the next evening. Lex insisted she come and see first hand what was being done, all for her story.

Lex didn't sit right with her still, but she decided to go anyways. The bigger question on her mind wasn't how she was going to find a dress for the event, but where Lex was funding the projects and how did he beat out hundreds of other companies and architects.

As she was taking notes the empty seats next her filled with construction workers from across the street. She smiled at her own luck and read the LexCorp crest on the workers vests.

"Hi" she smiled, "I'm writing a story on Metropolis' rebuild and wanted to know how construction on the buildings have been going"

The foreman looked at her then back at his colleagues and smiled looking at his hands. "Sweetheart, we are working round the clock to get these buildings back up for Mr. Luther. How do you think it's going? I've got men exhausted to the point where my site's not only a slave pit, but a dangerous one at that because guys can't take the work load"

The foreman realized his slip and closed his eyes regretting he'd opened his mouth.

He realized what he had said and sighed, "Why do I always have to open my trap for a pretty face" He grabbed his hard hat, "Common boys, break's over" he got up, "Do me a favor and don't print that. I need this job" he pleaded

The men walked out of the diner sullen that their break was cut short. Sarah took it as an opportunity while the foreman stood with a stern look on his face.

"Would it be possible for me to take a look around the site? I'll scratch what you just said if I could ask you a few other questions about LexCorp"

He sighed, "Fine, but as long as you keep my name out of it"

Sarah nodded, "Good thing I never asked for your name"

He nodded for her to follow him. She packed up her computer and walked out.

The site was a new office building, nothing out of the ordinary to Sarah, but she wanted to find why Lex's company is behind all the building projects.

"So LexCorp bid on all these projects and won?" Sarah asked

The foreman shrugged, "More or less. The companies that were slatted to build ended up being bought out by Luther. As soon as the attack was over Lex came into ownership of 10 different construction companies, was making friends with city planners things like that. Seemed like the right time for a business man to get into construction"

The foreman didn't think anything of it, "He really wanted to rebuild the city, and Metropolis was a little too desperate to ask questions"

Sarah nodded, "So are you owned by LexCorp? Or are there other shareholders involved?"

The foreman shrugged, "It became a little too confusing, yes and no I guess, there's other partners involved, Alberto Falcone is one name I've heard. He comes by every couple of weeks with other suits, never introduces them but they're real tough looking guys to be businessmen"

"Thanks a lot you've been really helpful" she stood up with a nod. The name almost gave her a panic attack as she walked out.

The foreman followed her unsure of her sudden shift in mood. "Remember my name is out of it" he said

Sarah waved as a sign of good faith and jogged out of the site. Alberto Falconi was a name Sarah knew. All the Falcone's were no strangers to Gotham. And Sarah's intuition was getting stronger; there was something off about Lex and his plans for Metropolis.

The night was spent piecing together the 15 construction companies Luther bought and his so-called silent partners are known criminals, some originating out of Gotham. Alberto Falcone was the son of Carmine Falcone, a man her father put away a long time ago; both were highly involved in the organized crime ring in Gotham. Sarah hadn't heard anything on Alberto; he was only a year or two older than Sarah but she had no doubt he wasn't doing business the honest way.

She sighed taking a step back to look at her work, a white board was filled with other connections she made, organized crime rings all leading to Lex Luther. Sarah was amazed no one bothered to ask any questions about Lex and how he did business.

Clark stood on the balcony outside her window and watched her work, he knew Lex was behind something bigger, but he never expected someone like Sarah to figure it out. Lois was right, he thought, Sarah was a good reporter. He watched as she sat back and took a moment covering her face with her hands.

He did his homework on her after talking to Lois, she wasn't what he expected, he could tell she was living in her own convictions, that she was now living with the consequences of her actions. He figured back then she didn't realize or care. But he could see her in pain. And even though he was in his suit, he knew it wasn't the right time to introduce himself to her yet.

"I didn't take you for a guy who lurked in the shadows spying on women" Clark heard behind him.

He turned to see the voice, and was surprised to see the Batman standing behind him. "I didn't take you for a guy who faked his own death" Clark responded

Bruce nodded thinking touche, "When I decided to become this, I set out to become not a man in a suit, but an ideal, a symbol" Bruce explained.

Bruce was sorry about John, he didn't want him to suffer like he did. He didn't want to come out of hiding either, he was happy living his life away from it all. But John's death meant Bruce had to come back to see where he was needed.

Clark understood, "There's more of you"

Bruce's expression was frozen, "Not anymore"

Clark raised an eyebrow, "I think you and I should have a conversation, somewhere that's not on a girls hotel balcony" he wanted to know more, he hoped they could be more than neighboring heroes, but Clark sensed the Batman had other things than to sit and pow-wow about crime fighting in costumes.

"I'm not here to stir anything" Bruce said, "But Gotham needs someone to protect them"

"Then why are you here?" Clark asked

Bruce stared at the window and watched Sarah for a moment.

Clark was starting to wonder if there was any truth to Sarah's story that she never published, he looked inside her room and saw her reading the story on Blake's death, "She's in pain"

Bruce nodded, "She is. But I'm not the one who can help her"

Clark sighed, "I think she's on to something about Lex Luther, this Falcone family are from Gotham" he figured he might as well let him in on what she was working on.

Bruce added, "Carmine Falcone owned Gotham at one time. His son Alberto moved to attend University while Bane was around has rarely been seen in the city. But he is still very much apart of the crime family.

"He owns one of the construction companies that's working in the city, along with half a dozen other mob bosses from other cities that are running the others" Clark said

"Maybe that's how Luther is funding this project" Bruce suggested, "His own money isn't tied to the project in case it's ever discovered that he's tied to organized criminals"

Clark nodded, he was no business expert, but the Bat had a point. "I think this could be the start of one heck of a partnership" Clark suggested, "If only I knew you're real name"

Bruce raised an eyebrow "Not all of us come from humble beginnings and are capable of such anonymity" He said turning, "I always wanted to live on a farm," he said jumping off the ledge

Clark watched in shock wondering how he could have known.