Chapter 12 part II- Together Again

When Clark woke up the next morning and headed downstairs he stopped when he spotted an unusual package sitting on the kitchen counter, he looked around but could find anyone and walked towards it in curiosity.

"I hope you don't mind that I signed it for you." The familiar voice causes him to turn around surprised to see Lois standing in the living room, "Your mom told me about what happened to Dr. Swann, I'm sorry you didn't have enough time together to learn more about where you come from."

"I appreciate that Lois." He turns his back to her hoping she wouldn't see the look in his eyes as he started to open the box, "After what happened last time we talked, I thought you never wanted to speak to me again."

Lois just shakes her head negatively but doesn't move from her spot, "Its not that I don't want to talk to you Smallville, I just have a lot on my plate lately with school and the Daily Planet."

"What about Richard?" he asks slowly removing a blue felt bag from the package and pauses hoping her answer didn't hurt him any further, "Have you two been working together lately?"

"Richard and I have a complicated working relationship, he wants something more and I can't give him that." She rubs her hand and looks a little nervous, "I got your flowers...they were really beautiful."

Silence grows over them and Lois begins to grow anxious to hear from him, "I know that it'll never be easy for us to be friends given our history but…" she stops when she notices his body language change and walks towards him concerned, "What is it?" she looks around him and is surprised by what she sees in his hand.

The octagonal key from his ship gleamed in the sunlight and he turned it over to see the kryptonian markings were still there, "Is that what I think it is." she asks softly moving around to face him and looks down at the forgotten note.

"Kal-El, I wish I could continue this journey with you, but now you must seek out your father." Lois reads aloud and sees a look cross his face, "If I sheltered you from him for too long, forgive me. Jor-El sent you on a mission. He's the only one who can help you finish it. I am returning something that is rightfully yours. I know that it will lead you to your destiny." She folds the note and hands it to him with a sympathetic look on her face.

Clark puts the note next to the bag not knowing what to say and just continues looking at the key contemplating what to do next, before anything else could be said the screen door opened and Lois took a few steps away from him just as the Kents walked in carrying bags of groceries, "Oh, Hello Lois." Martha says with a smile and puts the bags on the counter, "If I knew you were coming over I would've brought more."

She just smiles at Martha and grabs her bag saying, "I was just leaving Mrs. K, maybe we can plan a family dinner another time."

Clark looks up and watches her walk away and was knocked out of thought by the look his parent's were giving him, "I know you want to have Lois back but maybe you should give her a break." Martha says patting his hands softly, "She'll come around soon, we always do." Martha looks at Jonathan with a loving smile.

They continued going on until Jonathan noticed the key and looked at his son with both concern and confusion.

When Lois got back to her dorm room she immediately pulled out her little lockbox full of everything she hid from the world and was her backup hiding spot next to the hidden compartment in her desk drawer at the Daily Planet.

She lifted the lid and pulled out the envelope Dr. Crosby had given her, "Okay Lane, you can do this." She ripped open the envelope and was pulled out two first class plane tickets to China as well as a folded piece of paper that when unfolded revealed a map with kryptonian writing in all five corners of its pages and immediately recognized it as the one Clark said was hidden underneath the manuscript Lex had, "This is freaky even for me." She says to herself.

The sound of someone walking towards the door caused the army brat to scramble everything together and throw it back in the box to shove under her bed just when Lori appeared in the doorway with a warm smile, "I thought you'd never take a break from the paper, they must be working you pretty hard over ther."

Lois just puts on a fake smile with her reply, "My editor thinks that I can make it as a decnt reporter if my spelling wasn't so awful." She looks down towards her feet thinking of what was hidden under her bed, "They're thinking of sending me on my first overseas assignment." Her roommate looks at her surprised, "But I don't know if I really want to go. I don't know anything about why I'm being sent there or what I'm supposed to do."

Lori sits at her friend's side and reaches into her pocket to pull out a shell with the impression of a starfish in the center, "Ever since I was a little girl the ocean has always been my home. I wanted to live in the water with the animals away from the world and one day I found this shell buried in the sand, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and since that day on the beach I've always kept this with me so no matter how far away I am on dryland, I'm still near the ocean." Lori gives the shell a rub for good luck and looks at her friend with a determined look in her eyes, "Whatever it is that they're sending you there for must be important and if you want to follow your dream, you have to go places and do things you wouldn't normally do…kind of like holding onto a seashell since you were eight years old."

Lois wraps Lori in a tight hug, "Sometimes I think you're the weirdest girl on Earth and then you go and say something like this." She pulls away and smiles unaware of the fishy little secret Lori Lemaris hid from the rest of the world.

Lori rose up and noticed something pecurliar on the floor, "What's this?" she reaches down and pulls up a gold chained necklace with a gold rectangular shaped locket hanging at the end, "Is this yours Lo?"

The young army brat looked at the necklace and was about to shake her head when she noticed the symbol engraved on the locket was a \8/, the same symbol she had scribbled countless times in her notebook and the symbol that belonged to Clark's kryptonian family, "I must've dropped it on the floor the other night." She says taking the locket from her and opening it to see that the piece holding it to the chain was a small key with another symbole engraved ontop only this time it wasn't kryptonian, it was the letter V with five stars aligned right next to it.

"I'm guessing that's from Clark." Lori walks towards her side of the room unaware of the curious/ journalistic look that crossed her friend's face, "He must be really in love with you to keep trying to fix whatever happened between you two."

Lois closes the locket and immediately rises to her feet, "Now that you mention it, I've got a lot work to do before I fly out on assignment." She goes to grab her bag and secretly slips the envelope without arousing suspicion, "Cant keep putting off the important things."

Before her roommate could say anything further Lois rushed out of the room leaving a bemused yet slightly confused Lori.

When Clark got back from the caves and got into an intense conversation with Jonathan, the young kryptonian went up to his room hoping the solitude would ease his mind on what he was supposed to do next.

Suddenly the sound of something ringing caused him to sit up and look towards his cell phone only to see that it wasn't the one ringing, he got to his feet and looked around the room until he spotted something inside one of his coat pockets.

It was a phone he had never seen before and a blocked phone number making the situation even more bizarre, "Hello?" he asks answering the call.

"Hello Clark…it's Bruce Wayne." The billionaire said on the other line while staring at the dark kryptonian stone in his hand, "I think its time we had a little chat."

TBC

*Cue Dramatic Music* What could possibily happen next? I'm sure you guys can probably tell where this might be headed but I promise that by the end of this chapter you are in for a real treat.