The first thing she could feel was cold air pumping into her lungs, then the light came and a dark shadow directly in front of her. Lois' eyes slowly opened to see Clark's face smiling down on her. Moving the oxygen mask out of her face, she whispered, "Clark?"

"Lois." Clark smiled, relief flooded through him, he couldn't bear to see her looking so pale. Lois looked around, she was lying in an ambulance with Clark crouched beside her. He took her hand in his and scooted a little closer to her. "How are you feeling?"

Lois put her free hand to her aching head as she slowly sat up. "Umm... how long was I out?"

"About 20 minutes." Clark replied, smiling. He should have known that a collapsing building on fire wouldn't keep Lois Lane down for too long.

"And the little boy?" She asked, her head still fuzzy.

"He's just fine thanks to you." Clark said, "Another ambulance took him to the hospital to be with his family."

Lois lay back down, relieved, and took a second to remind herself not to get weirded out that her hand was in Clark's, that they shared a closeness they otherwise would have ignored; it made Lois smile and squeeze his hand. "Wow, that was pretty close..." Lois reflected. "I don't even know... how did we get out of there?"

"The fire-fighters were breaking through when they saw you go in and got you and the boy, they said you'd both passed out." Clark lied as smoothly as he could, he thought he was pretty believable considering he'd had years of practise at lying to those he loved. "What were you thinking, Lois? You could have been killed."

Lois shrugged at the accusation, her eyes closed as she relaxed into the hard bed. "The boy needed help."

"And a trained professional couldn't have done that?" Clark asked, his anger just barely visible. Lois smiled, she couldn't help enjoying the new Clark who would admit how he was feeling, it was a nice reprieve. "Lois you can't just go running into trouble."

"Hey! I resent that, I do not go looking for trouble. It has a habit of finding me." Lois quipped. She looked at him in, what Clark viewed as, a strange angle. "You were in the building."

Clark forced a look of surprise, "What?" He laughed uncomfortably; she had passed out, she couldn't have seen him.

"Yeah..." Lois searched her memory. "Just as I passed out, I saw you looking down at me, and then I felt your arms around me... and then... I don't remember, I must have blacked out."

"That's one imagination you've got, Lois, you should write novels not articles." Clark kept smiling, he had to convince her that she was hallucinating or something. "Or children's books." Lois glared at him defiantly. Clark decided to try a different tact. "So, you could say I was your white knight, your hero perhaps, who would launch himself into a burning building to save the damsel in distress?"

Lois thought about this for a moment. "You're right, it's crazy." Clark inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. "Besides, I am not a damsel." Lois swung her legs off the bed, taking the mask off from around her neck. "Anyway, let's get outta here."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Clark asked, standing up and trying his hardest not to manhandle her; he knew that even if they were more-than-friends she didn't appreciate being made to feel helpless.

"No, but I'm doing it anyway." Lois replied.

"Yeah, and that attitude almost got you killed in a fire." Clark said under his breath, but just so Lois could still hear him.

She fiddled with the wires surrounding the medical bed, and added, "Don't mutter Smallville, it's not attractive on you." She smiled in the arrogant manner she always did when she got the best of him; just because they were together did not mean that that was going to change. "Besides, I've got a story to write." She walked past him and jumped out of the van, thanking the doctor and began to walk off with Clark close behind. The fire had been contained and all that remained of it was the ash floating on the air, and the last specks of smoke in her lungs.

"Uh Lois, you're going back to the Planet to write this story? Doesn't it hit a little close to home?" Clark asked. How this woman had the afternoon she had and still have the motivation to put it in tomorrow's edition he would never know; that was part of Lois' charm, her never-failing ambition to get every story and divulge every last detail from it.

"Of course Smallville, a good reporter really gets into her stories... I just happened to get a little too involved in this one, but it's still the story Tess wanted me to write, so I'm writing it." Lois replied, smiling at herself.

Clark nodded, he knew by now that it was best not to question Lois, only correct/ annoy her when he could. Clark looked around at the people on the street, sitting out having coffees. "Lois, did you have lunch?"

"Nope." Lois answered, continuing on her walk and not picking up the hint.

"Would you like some?" Clark spelled out, smiling at her inability to focus on anything other than the headline for her breaking story.

"Oh...er," Lois stopped and checked her watch, it was late afternoon and she probably wouldn't get a chance for dinner with the deadline. "Sure, but you're paying."

"Of course." Clark smiled as gratefully as he could in a jokeful way. "There's a place just up here."

Lois and Clark continued to walk down the street, seemingly out of topics of conversation, until a thought struck Lois which made her tilt her head to the side. "Close to home..." Lois repeated Clark's words to herself, and then turned to him, "Clark, you said you were in Smallville."

"I was." Clark smiled, confused by her almost urgent realisation. "I was actually born there." He joked.

Lois shook her head. "No, I mean, you went home."

"And?" Clark nodded his head at her, hoping for more of a hint of what she was asking him.

"And it would've taken you hours to get to Metropolis, let alone figure out where I was and get there." Lois pieced together. "I got there around 2.30, and woke up with you beside me at 3.15." She checked her watch to confirm the time.

Clark panicked, he needed an excuse fast. Somehow he didn't think that convincing her that he super-sped his way from Smallville because Chloe called to tell him about the fire, and then could hear her shouting for help from 12 blocks away, to not be burnt by the flames would be taken all that well. As well as lying to her about it all. Not a great way to start a relationship. He shifted uncomfortably, and Lois could see he was struggling with something to say. "Well, you know there wasn't much traffic coming in..."

"Even so, it would still take like 2 hours to get here." Lois countered. "What did you fly in?" She joked.

"Not exactly," Clark winced. Usually Clark would save the day and then disappear to avoid raising suspicion, but he couldn't leave Lois unconscious and badly breathing. On the other hand, he would have to deal with her overly inquisitive nature until she either had the truth or a lie she could believe. "Oh look, here we are." Clark pointed to the cafe he was talking about. They sat by an outside table, Clark pulling Lois' chair out for her. For a misguided second, he hoped the lure of food would make her forget about her interrogation.

"So what then, Clark? Did you stay in Metropolis?" Lois enquired, leaning in over the table. She was confused on why he lied; she concluded that he was either lying now, or he was before, she had just always thought Clark was the type never to lie. He wasn't exactly a closed book, she doubted whether there was anything about Clark Kent she didn't know.

"You're not going to drop this are you?" Clark smiled, and sighed. Her resolve answered that question for him. "Ok, I did stay in Metropolis. Chloe needed me to help her at the Isis Foundation, she called me as I was leaving for Smallville."

Lois pulled a confused face. "So... why didn't you just say that? Jeez, you had me thinking you had robbed a bank or something, Smallville." She joked and turned to her menu, but couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he was hiding something from her, but tried to ignore it.

"I like to see you squirm." Clark teased, and laughed when she gave him an evil stare.

"Well that would be difficult without eyes." She threatened. Clark relaxed his shoulders, he was in the clear again, Lois was off his track. Something told him though that he would have to be extra careful in the future, as Lois was likely to be much more inquisitive than Lana ever was.

Lois looked at him, her body shifted uncomfortably. There was something Lois had been meaning to discuss with him, something she didn't really want to tell him and worried about where it might leave them. "Look, Clark, there's something I need to tell you. I –"

Clark had been listening intently, too intently, as his ears twitched and he had to turn from her to hear what was happening outside their conversation more closely. Although his hearing was super-human, it usually had its limitations; but right then, it honed into a catastrophe on the other side on the country. Hundreds of people were crying out for help, the land was shifting in some way; buildings were falling and people were in trouble... He zoned back into his conversation with Lois.

"And so, I know it might be – " Lois had continued, but he didn't have an idea what she'd said; he could only think about the disaster in San Francisco.

Interrupting her, he stood up abruptly, "Uh, Lois, I'm really sorry I forgot I have... a dentist appointment, and they charge you if you don't give 24 hours notice." He rambled and ran off before she could answer, though he heard her yelling after him, he didn't have time. This was the man he was, with a higher responsibility than she could ever know, and Lois would have to understand that.

Lois sat there for a few minutes, dumbstruck at what just happened. Clark Kent blew her off. She couldn't believe it, she had to keep repeating it to herself. Smallville blew me off. She watched him disappear down the street and turn a corner, and then she was alone. She had been trying to tell him something serious, something about their relationship, and he just completely bailed, out of nowhere. Maybe he wasn't as comfortable with her as she thought he was. Lois was past the point of self-pity though, she was just angry; no, more than that she was pissed off. He maybe could have stuck around to listen to the last of what she had to say after almost burning to death in a building, but no. She gathered her coat and bag and headed back to the Daily Planet, fuming at the prospect of seeing him again today. She actually didn't know what she would do. It was between killing him and... no, that was pretty much the only option.

As Lois walked past a stereo store, a crowd had gathered outside the window. Lois' intuitive nose made her peer through the crowd to see that they were watching a live news feed of an earthquake in San Francisco. The presenter was saying that it appeared out of nowhere, there were cracks in the roads causing major road accidents, particularly along the Golden Gate Bridge where it was most dangerous. Lois realised that to truly assess what was going on she would have to get back to the Planet and fast; this would be the kind of front page news that the Planet would be issuing tomorrow, and she couldn't miss it. Just as she left the store, she was swept back into looking at the screen when what she could only call a freak gust of wind blew a school bus balancing on the edge of the bridge back onto the road. At this, Lois ran even faster back to the Planet.

Intrigued? Liking the plot twists? Getting the parallels with Dean Cain's series? Teehee, I couldn't resist. Tell me what you think, and feel free to throw in your own suggestions, I'm here to please.

Feral xxx