Evening was coming on swiftly, and Lois was still stuck at her desk pondering what happened earlier. Lois may have been a bit impulsive with telling Clark she was definitely going to Iraq – if she was honest with herself, she didn't want to leave, but the General always told her it was character building to leave your comfort zones every once and a while. She knew it would be a massive career development and a chance to see other parts of the world. On the other hand, it would mean giving up Clark, everyone she loved and most of all, the Blur. He hadn't been that forthcoming with her anyway – she laughed, something Clark and the Blur had in common. Suddenly her mind whirred back to the earthquake spectator image she had been looking at, in what seemed like weeks ago. She did find it strange that the resemblance was uncanny, and had even asked Rick to try and tidy it up for her as best he could, although apparently it was a lost cause.

The Blur had promised her... actually she wasn't sure what he promised her, she just knew that it was 'soon'. Great Lane, you're holding onto the promise of 'soon' from a man you've never seen, smart move, Lois scolded herself. And Clark... She wanted so much for something to happen, but if he couldn't see that she was worth fighting for, there was no point sticking around looking at his face all day. She didn't think she could take it – sure, for a while it'd all be back to normal, but it would gnaw at her. It all seemed to come down to Clark. He had his chance to say something, she hoped he might say something, but for whatever reason, he held back from her. It was crushing, but she knew she had survived worse. No hope goes undashed for Lois Lane, that was just a reality she had to live with.

Springing her out of her thoughts, the phone rang. "Lois Lane of the Daily Planet."

"Lois." She rose from her chair, immediately noticing the distorted voice to be his.

"You." She replied, and suddenly wondered why she always went to mush at the sound of his voice.

"I heard you might be going out of town." He stated flatly, with a tone of curiosity in his voice.

"Wow, news travels fast on rooftops." Lois quipped.

"Let's just say I keep my ear to the ground." He replied.

Lois smiled to herself, entertaining the thought, "Have you been checking up on me?"

"I watch after everyone, Lois." He smiled to himself.

Lois shook her head, "Of course you do. So what can I do for you tonight?"

"I made you a promise Lois, and I intend to keep it." His voice sounded far off.

Lois held her breath. "You mean... I get to meet you – I mean face to face?" He paused for a second. "Please don't back out now."

"Lois, I want to be honest with you. Will you meet me?"

"Where?" She replied immediately.

"I'm on the roof." He replied.

She looked at the ceiling, smiling. "I'll be there in 5." And she hung up the phone.

Grabbing her purse and coat, she headed for the elevator when Rick blindsided her. "Lois!"

"Not now Rick." Lois said forcefully, concentrating on the elevator behind him.

"But I'm really close to clearing up the image! It worked, I implemented this new software and – " Rick began excitedly. Lois sidestepped him and walked inside the lift.

"I'm sure it can wait, Rick. I'll be not, I've got my cell." Lois smiled excitedly as the elevator ascended through the floors, she watched nervously as the floors ticked away. She had been waiting for this since the arrival of the Red-Blue Blur, since she had published her first story about him. All the images she'd had of what he looked like started floating around in her head again: tall, dark, handsome, blue eyes... I guess she had that in Clark. She had a lot of things in Clark: friendship, banter, comfort, intimacy, love at times, hate at others... She began smiling to herself thinking of herself with Clark. What it would be like to hold his hand, see a movie, kiss him anytime she wanted, just be with him. Then a startling realisation hit her like a ball she had never seen coming. Oh this is worse than I thought... She frowned to herself. Could it be...have I fallen for Smallville? She immediately pulled the emergency stop: she just needed a moment to breathe, to stand still, to make sense. She knew she liked Clark, found him attractive, kind, caring etc etc, but it never really occurred to her that she might... love him. Even after today and his disappearing acts, she couldn't help it. And now she was on her way to de-mask the man she had been obsessed with for months and months... What do I do? Lois began pacing the very tiny elevator. Go down. Something in her gut told her to go back down. Suddenly, she didn't want to know who the Blur was, she didn't need to. She pressed the basement level once, pushed in the stop button and waited: nothing. Once more, still nothing. And then frantically several more times and still nothing, until a lurching sound came from outside her.

"Oh that can't be good." Lois muttered. The lurch grew louder until she became aware that it was metal stretching itself, bending. Something is seriously wrong with this elevator. She flipped out her phone, no signal. Great. Typical. Lois thought. "Help!" Lois began banging on the door, hoping she was close enough to Floor 12 still so that they could hear her. "Help!"

The lurching grew louder until there was a thud beneath her and the elevator jumped. Lois felt what was coming next. "Help!" Her voice grew quiet, afraid that any tiny sound would send her plummeting to the ground.

She was right. She felt a light body sensation and she was all too aware that she was hurtling towards the ground, probably to her death, unable to stop from screaming. The end was coming soon, she felt that too, suddenly wondered what death would be like, sad she never got to tell Clark how she felt, hoped Chloe and Jimmy would be happy together before...

Before...

Everything had stopped. She was on the floor, but she hadn't died. Her eyes were still closed from terror, her limbs daren't move. She heard the overhead compartment being ripped from its shingles, and she knew she had just been saved by the Blur, and that if she opened her eyes that second she would see his face.

Her eyes remained shut. "Um, thank you!" She said, aware she probably looked like a lunatic.

"Lois, are you ok?" His voice was different from the phone, but still distorted, it just sounded deeper, but on some level familiar.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, you can go now." She covered her eyes with a hand, unable to trust herself. She couldn't look at him because the mystery was needed, for some unfathomable reason she had chosen Clark and that was all she needed to know.

A loud plonk made Lois conclude that he had landed in the elevator with her, and was in fact standing right in front of her, closer than they'd ever been. "Why...?"

"The hand? It covers the eyes." She took a breath. "Ok, the thing is, I thought I wanted to know who you were, I was positive that when I saw you, well... The thing is, I realised in this elevator that I don't need to know who you are because I fell for Clark, and well, you're more a symbol than a potential boyfriend, not that's what I thought when I was coming up, it's just..." She took a deep breath. "I just realised that I have someone in my life who makes me feel like you used to, like I matter, like I'm the only one in the world... well anyway," She smiled, embarrassed at how much she divulged. She could hear his slow steady breaths, and his hand lightly caress her cheek, so familiar...

Her phone rang, and she laughed, "Now it works. Sorry, but seriously feel free to go. You've done your damsel saving for the day." And turning her attention to the phone, "Rick? Oh great, but probably still not the time... What? You're sure?... The image was positively identified as... through the computer?" Lois let everything process through her brain. The dentist, the disappearing act, the physical similarities. "Clark?" She muttered more to herself.

He whispered to her. "You are not a damsel, you made that perfectly clear the other day." The Blur's voice, it was his normal voice, no distortions. She knew that voice without a shadow of a doubt, but stood unmoved unable to take her hand away from her eyes, afraid of who she might see, or worse, who she wouldn't see.

His hand lay atop of hers, and he gently guided her hands away from her eyes. They flickered open, uncertainly, and at first she could only make out his shape before his face came into focus. In front of her stood Clark Kent; in every fibre of her being she knew it to be true and still she thought this a trick.

"You're the Blur." It was more a statement than a question, she was still processing.

"I'm the Blur." He confirmed, her hand still in his.

"And you're Clark." She knew everything to come out of her mouth right then was going to be nothing but gibberish, but that didn't matter.

"Yes. Lois, I know this is a lot to handle, and I'm sorry. But I wanted you to know, you had to know." Clark said to her in an intimate way, he always had a way of making things personal.

"I'm really not the fainting kind, but I think I could use a sit down." Lois said, vaguely aware that there was absolutely no way both of them could stay trapped in a broken elevator until this got resolved.

"I know a place." Clark smiled. "Just hold on to me." He held her close and felt her arms wrap around his neck, her eyes fixated on him.

Gathering momentum, Clark leaped from inside the elevator, up through the roof and into the brisk night sky, where stars began to peak out and the sun was finishing it's daily cycle. Lois noticed that the higher they got – the higher Clark took her – the more the sun and stars existed together. The landscape below was breathtaking, she couldn't keep it all in. Her eyes fixed back onto Clark's face; in it, she saw courage, determination, strength, confidence. This was a side to Clark he only rarely let out, and now she could see why. He was more than Clark Kent, he was a superhero in every sense of the word. Metropolis began to fade away and she rested on his chest, closing her eyes for only moments before letting everything fall away.

Hey!

I don't know about anyone else, but writing how lois finds out is one of the most difficult things ever. The sheer pressure and like 6 smallville years of the build-up was like phoar! So what did u think? I'm pretty happy how it turned out - I didn't want to go down the he told her or she found out way, I wanted it simultaneous - don't we all ladies? Lol, but seriously, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Your loyal shipping servant,

Feral X