A/N: I'm liking this, so I'm sticking with it. :D

Disclaimer: Don't own. Never will.

Lois hated Perry White. Hated. Him. With a passion. Why would he give her a piece like this? Mindless crap. . . He knew very well that she liked to be out there, looking danger in the eye, and kicking it in the balls. It made her feel better about herself, even when she had to resort to plan b, which in her case almost always included one of two people: Clark Kent or Superman. Strange how she never thought of Richard in that way. But the more she had realized that she hadn't loved him, the more she realized a lot of things that she had deluded herself into thinking about the man she had nearly married. Jason wasn't his son- something she had known before, but had shut down within her. She didn't love him. And the biggest lie to herself: she had convinced herself that she had even needed him.

What bull crap.

What she had been noticing most now was what she had gone without for five years. It was like for five years she was dead inside, or sleepwalking through her life. Now, she had just woken up from a rather uneventful dream to find she had her old life back, for the most part. She hadn't realized how much she missed it.

She had missed waking up in the morning wondering where her day might take her. With Richard, she had always known that she would end up back home, in bed next to him.

She missed the thrill of watching Superman fly through the sky- and on occasion, being upu there with him. To see such a powerful man, to be able to know that no matter what exploits she might go on, he would be there for her. Now more than ever.

And the revelation she had found most surprising: she had missed Clark Kent. Yes, bumbling, stuttering, mild-mannered hack from Smallville, Kansas. A boy-scout, a good ol' American citizen, who couldn't be caught doing anything wrong or suspicious, ever. Much as he had gotten on her nerves before, he was her friend. Her best friend, even. She had missed the days when it had just been her, Clark and Jimmy, sitting at their desks in the Planet past midnight, conspiring about how they were going to bring in the next story. Before she had broken up with RIchard, she had gotten a brief reminder of what it felt like to work with Clark- and it had felt good. But Richard's being there threw things off a little. She knew Clark wasn't naturally outgoing- being the shy farmboy he was, he hadn't made fast friends with Richard. Friendly, yes, but not friends.

Not like he had been with her.

Finding herself drifting off again, Lois squinted and frowned back at her computer screen. This was the stupidest story she had ever had to write. Mindless fluff that was undeserving of Lois Lane's byline atop it- it could hardly be called news. She had seriously considered calling over one of the interns and having one of them write it up for her- but that idea was even less pleasing. There was no way she was going to let one of those new ditzy bimbos write some crap up under her name- it would make her look bad. Glancing over at the said subjects of her wrath, she found the three recent Planet additions giggling and talking. Then she did a double-take.

Talking with. . . Clark?

Clark tripped, and the blonde bimbo helped him up. He smiled at her- he really did have an amazing smile, Lois thought to herself. She saw the one brunette girl flip her hair over her shoulder as she said something- whose name was Hannah, she remembered.

Were they. . . flirting with him? She would have never believed what she saw next unless she had seen it with her own two eyes- and even now she was doubting what happened. Clark smiled- no, grinned- and waggled his eyebrows playfully back at the girls as he said something in reply.

Her jaw dropped, and she promptly turned back to face the computer screen, pounding angrily at the keyboard. Oh my god, she thought to herself. Who would have thought that would happen? Suddenly it hit her, as she rewatched the scene in her head, what had truly happened. She had gotten it wrong. While the girls were eyeing him beforehand, surveying him with the eye of a typical woman, it was not they who made the first move.

Clark was flirting with them.

She groaned as she realized what he had done. Smooth, Kent. He had purposely, and in hindsight, rather gracefully tripped into their way, then allowed the blonde bimbo to help him up by the elbow. She rolled her eyes, practically seeing the checklist running through his head. "Get girls to notice me? Check. Establish physical contact? Check." She sighed. Men were so predictable.

He seemed to be enjoying himself, speaking and smiling genuinely with the giddy girls.

So much for Clark not making friends easily. He seemed to be doing just fine.

Then another girl, Lindsey, got a little too close to him, and Clark turned about a billion different shades of red. Uh-oh. More than he asked for, she thought? For a moment, while the girls were talking amongst themselves, Lois thought she saw his face go fearful. But who knows what that could have meant.

They were ganging up on him, and Clark was beginning to look like he was gonna run and jump out a window or something. She sighed. As much fun as it was watching him squirm, she supposed she should go rescue him.

He visibly relaxed at the sound of her voice, and fell back into routine with her, only asking a few pesky questions before heartily consenting to go with her on this only slightly-imaginary interview.

When they got in her car, Lois sighed audibly, shaking her head. "Oh, Clark, what am I supposed to do with you? And here I was thinking how much different you were from other men, and then you go and pull a stunt like that," her tone was frustrated but the smile on her face gave her away.

Clark's eyes widened. "What? Oh, you mean you think I was. . . oh. No, Lois. I know what it may have looked like, but I wasn't flirting with them." He continued at the quzzical arch of her eyebrow. "Although I'm not going to lie, I did enjoy the attention." She swatted him lightly on the arm and he grinned, before his features returned to normal. "Anyways, I was actually snooping for information, if you must know."

"Oh, really? And did that information happen to be printed across Josie's shirt? Cause you sure seemed to be looking there a lot," Clark's face contorted into a look mixed with equal parts horror and guilt. She could practically see the thoughts running through his mind: she saw me do that? I only looked twice! "Clark, it's no big deal. You're a man, it's to be expected. Although I must admit, it was a little bit unexpected, coming from you- normally you're so gentlemanly-"

"I had to flirt to get any information out of them. I am an investigative reporter you know, Lois. I know how to act well enough to get my sources to speak. These girls just happened to respond to flattery more than reason. And after that big faux pas of mine this morning-"

"I still can't believe you said that to Teri's boyfriend. The look on his face when you told him "gee, I've heard a lot of good things about you, Jake," and he turned around and told you his name was Phillip- and then you still insisted that you thought his name was Jake and you thought you'd seen him just the other day around the office, and by the way, you don't really look like him." She cast him a scathing look.

Clark seemed to sink into his seat. "I'm not big into gossip," he retorted bitterly.

"Why not? Like you said before, you're a reporter. All we do is report news, and before it's news someone has to hear about it from somewhere. So in a way, we just reaffirm the effects of said gossip." He still looked uncomfortable with the idea. "Lemme guess, small town Kansas kid got picked on and rumors were spread about him a bit too much for his tastes?"

He looked utterly horrified, then dejected. "Yes," he mumbled. She practically laughed.

"Clark, I don't know what you think people would be gossipping about you for. No offense, but you're not exactly the most interesting person to gossip about."

"And that's the way I like it," he spoke quietly.

There was a pause before Lois finally realized he hadn't told her what he had gone over there to talk about in the first place. "So. . . what did prompt you to go mingle all of the sudden?"

"Well, number one, I was trying to save face, get back in on the game."

"Clark, you were never really "in" that game. What else? What information?"

"Well, I heard them mention your name, and I wanted to make sure they weren't saying anything bad about you. You're my friend Lois, I was trying to stick up for you, find out what they knew- I mean, what they were spreading around."

Suddenly Lois's eyes narrowed. "What did they say?"

"Nothing, really. It was just kind of awkward. They were mainly commenting on Richard and you, and your split," he trailed off at the very still form of Lois next to him. "Lois?"

She breathed in deeply, reminding herself to count to ten before lashing out at Clark. If what he said was true- which she had no doubt it was, after all she had been the subject of many office rumors over the years- then she should be nice to him, for standing up for her. But she could repress all of her rage. "Those stupid, lying, little b-" she honked the horn repeatedly at the car in front of her out of frustration, although they were going the speed limit. She pretended not to notice Clark gripping the armrests to the chair tighter. "Why do they think it's any of their business? What else did they say, Clark?"

"Um, Lois, I think you-"

"What did they say, Clark?"

"L-loi-"

"TELL ME!"

He leaned away from her. "They were just asking if I knew why you dumped Richard, and how they'd have never done that. That's all."

"What else?"

"Lois, there was nothing else-"

"BS. There was something else, and I know it. I can see it in your eyes, you idiot. What else?"

"Then they asked if I knew him well from the years before I left and I may have accidentally let it slip that no one besides Perry had ever seen him before I left, and therefore I didn't even know him until recently. Then they started asking about how that was possible since Jason was five years old and I was only gone for five years and how did it feel to know you kept something that important from me, you b-best f-friend." He stopped at the iciness he felt radiating from the woman next to him.

Lois's eyes widened quickly. She knew exactly what conclusion they were jumping to long before Clark had even mentioned the not-telling-him thing. She knew it would only be a matter of time before they would all be asking questions and throwing things out there- some of which would be true. The majority of which, in all probability. She glanced at the clock on her car dashboard and promptly made her decision. "Clark, I'm hungry. I say we go to lunch, go get Jason, and then just head back to the Planet."

"What about that interview?"

"Oh, come on, Clark. There was never any real interview. I was planning on going out and chasing down a lead, but I'm not in the mood for it anymore, alright? So just save the questions."

He quieted down. "Alright Lois. Whatever you say."

They spoke very little on their way down to the new chinese take out place on twelfth street, and even on their way to pick up Jason it was eerily quiet, something the boy picked up on the instant he got in the car. Clark thought that silence was bad.

But it was nothing to compare with the silence that met them when the three of them stepped out of the elevator and into the bullpen. Together.