Clark sat at his desk, his pencil resting on his lips, staring into space, thinking about the time he spent with Lois the day before. They sat and talked for hours, about who he was, what he was doing as the Blur, what it meant for their relationship, what their relationship was... everything. Despite Lois being freezing cold, she was inquisitive and intelligent with her questions, and he responded in a similar manner. It felt like breathing in fresh air after inhaling the stuffy lies he'd been telling her for years; they were finally honest with each other, and it excited Clark as to what that meant now. He dropped her off at her apartment in the small hours of the morning, kissed her goodnight and left. Clark arguably had the best night of sleep he'd ever had last night, and as Lois descended the stairway that morning, it was clear why.

He grinned at her as she approached him, as she hid a blush behind a smile and delved into her papers, supposedly uninterested. "Good morning Smallville."

"Good morning Lois." He tried to keep as straight a face as possible. After everything they'd been through together in the last 24 hours, those words seemed insignificant. However, they had agreed that they should keep it 'professional' at work so as not to compromise their jobs; Lois had provided such a logical reason, but Clark knew that Lois put so much work into her steely professional exterior she didn't want what would look like an office romance to damage it, no matter who it was with. Clark liked that about her: despite exactly who he was and his powers, Lois still wanted to keep their relationship private from the rest of the world, something that was only theirs.

Lois took a seat at her desk, directly opposite Clark, and he felt unable to resist staring at her; the glint in her eye, the curve of her lips, the crease in her forehead when she frowned. Lois' gaze flickered for a moment to his face and saw him smiling at her and she couldn't help but let a small satisfied smile escape from her lips. "Stare like that and you'll burn a hole through my head."

Clark bared a smile at her inside joke. "Something tells me that wouldn't stop you anyway."

"You know it." She grinned. "As any good reporter would." Lois looked about the room for a second when her gaze fell on Rick, who immediately saw her and beckoned her over with an urgency that instantly made her panic. She nodded at him seriously, watched him scuttle into the copy room and then turned to Clark. "This is bad." She stood, grabbed Clark's arm and yanked him into the supply closet before he could even protest.

As the door closed, he put his arms around her and said, "I thought we were keeping it professional at work, Lois."

Lois' worried expression made him realise that she wasn't joking around. "Clark – Rick!"

It took him a moment to make a sentence out of two names, when his mouth dropped in exasperation. "He said he saw me somewhere, that's how you knew."

"I'm so sorry Clark. I thought I saw you in a photo of the quake this week and I gave it to him to clear up. I got the call, then it was you... I just forgot. I'm so sorry." Lois explained.

Clark brought her in for a reassuring hug, "It's ok Lois," He brought her out, holding onto her arms as he looked at her. "I've almost been caught before – people believe what they want to believe. I'll just have to come up with an alibi..." He looked deeply for a second and Lois could see that he was slightly frustrated to be put in this position, but she knew him well enough to know that he would never let her feel guilty.

"No Clark, it was my fault, I'll fix it." Lois took a deep breath and walked out of the room before he could stop her.

She walked over to the copy room where she found Rick pacing and looking incredibly flustered. "Rick, what's –"

"Lois." He grabbed hold of her almost desperately before realising himself and dropped her. "It was definitely Clark Kent in the photo, look!" He shoved the digitally enhanced photo into her face, and she saw that it was Clark. The photo was faded and still slightly fuzzy, but anyone who knew him could see it was him.

"What? This looks nothing like Clark." Lois lied as best she could. "Rick, this could be anyone. It kinda looks like Bill from accounting though..." She stared at it from a different angle before Rick grabbed it and tried looking at it in the same angle, seeming unconvinced and shooting her a look that told her so.

"What? No, Lois, it's Clark. I cross-referenced the time when the image was taken and the time here – Lois, he wasn't seen in the building by anyone at that time!" He seemed really excited by his discovery; she could see why, to his mind he had just uncovered the Blur.

"That's ridiculous Rick. He was with me that day – the day of the fire?" She jogged his memory, hoping to trick him into remembering something that his logical reasoning would implant in his brain. He looked pensive for a moment, processing what she said. "There's no way it could be him. We're seeing something that isn't possible." She shrugged, the final note in her performance, hoping that was enough.

He shook his head, seemingly unconvinced. "No, Lois, look," He pointed to the picture again. "It's him. And before you say anything," He continued as she opened her mouth, "It is possible. Lois," He smiled knowingly, and said the thing Lois so dreaded hearing: "What if Clark is the Blur?"

They both turned to look at him through the window as he sat at his desk. As if almost on cue, Clark spilled the coffee he was drinking down his shirt and jumped up out of his chair making a mess. "That Clark?" Lois asked incredulously.

Rick frowned. "Yeah, it doesn't seem likely that the Blur would be so... clumsy, and well, dorky, does it?"

"Hey!" Lois jumped round. "Clark Kent is not dorky." Then Lois realised that by defending Clark, she wasn't going to help him keep his secret. "Today. He's not dorky today." She scoffed, "I mean, today's been a mild day compared to what he's usually like. You should count your blessings that clumsy clod over there isn't your partner."

Rick looked confused. "But I thought you guys were friends..."

"Oh we are." Lois nodded. "But let's face it, he's not exactly hunk material." She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes, "Look, Rick, if you're telling me that Clark has some connection to the Blur, then I want to hear it, but unless you've actually got proof," (which she knew he hadn't) "Then don't waste my time with ridiculous accusations."

Rick backed down like she hoped he would and handed her the picture in defeat before leaving the room like the loser he felt like. Lois took a deep breath of relief and looked over to Clark with his coffee stained shirt; he winked at her and smiled. She looked at the picture one more time, ripped it up and threw it away. She'd have to erase it from Rick's computer as soon as she could, but it seemed like the threat was gone for now.

Lois walked back out onto the main floor and sat at her desk while Clark went to wash up. There was a post-it on her desk reading:

Lois,

How about dinner tonight?

I'll pick you up at 8.

X

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Lois spent the better part of two hours getting dressed with Chloe's assistance. Chloe had been home from the hospital, leaving Jimmy there one more night. Lois figured she was getting increasingly neurotic about bringing him home in case anything should happen.

"Ok, I'm thinking the black." Lois looked at her three final choices laying out on her bed. "You can't go wrong with black."

"That's true." Chloe nodded.

"Then again, the red looks particularly good with these heels. And black could be interpreted as depressing." Lois mumbled.

"That's true too." Chloe suppressed a giggle as Lois looked over to her.

"You are enjoying this way too much." Lois narrowed her eyes.

"I'm sorry Lo, it's just I've never seen you spend more than half an hour getting dressed for a guy you've only met once, and you've seen Clark almost every day for the last whatever years. He knows what you look like." Chloe smiled. "The casual observer would think that you're nervous."

Lois was about to protest before deciding against it and collapsed on top of all her dresses on the bed. "Maybe I am." She sat up to face Chloe. "Chloe, this isn't anyone. It's Clark, it's the Blur, it's both of them." Lois had decided to tell Chloe that Clark told her the big secret earlier on, and for about three hours it was all they could talk about. Once it got to six-thirty, Lois' wardrobe meltdown had occurred and Chloe had been enjoying it since then. "Chloe... how could I be... good enough?"

"Hey!" Chloe shoved her, smiling. "Don't even think that." Lois lay back down on the bed staring at the ceiling, as Chloe lay back with her. "No man has ever been good enough for you Lois, and now you're scared because someone might actually be able to live up to the incredibly high standards you set to protect yourself." Lois turned to look at her. "Clark is that someone Lois. I just know it. The way he looks at you... well, he never looked at Lana like that."

"Really?" She asked seriously, searching her eyes for any hint of irony.

"Really. You two have been meant for each other from the beginning, everyone saw it. Everyone but the two of you." She smiled. "For a superhero, Clark can be quite dense sometimes."

Lois laughed, and then they lay in silence for a moment holding hands. "I think the red. The red seems right for Clark."

"I couldn't agree with you more." Chloe squeezed her hand. "Come on, we've gotta get you ready."