The workday was going smoothly so far for Clark, he had gotten Perry off his case over the outburst from yesterday, and there had again been no emergencies. However there was something different about Lois. She wasn't acknowledging what happened yesterday with her broken heel and self doubts, but he could tell there was something still lingering. She was still in her funk, and always the hero, Clark wanted to get her out of it. If only he knew how.

Diana was probably still taping her television interview, he had sent her a message earlier, but she had not responded yet. He couldn't get her out of his mind. Even though they've only been together a short time, it was obvious this was the strongest relationship he'd ever been in. With Lana there had been apprehension on her part, and that led to her ending it, with everyone else there was the web of lies that hung over everything. Keeping Superman a secret doomed any chance he had with anyone, but telling the truth would expose them to danger. Not to mention a physical relationship would be nearly impossible. He could depower himself, which he did with Lana, but it still didn't work. Using red solar energy lowered his strength, but it also lowered all of his senses. He could feel her better at full strength, but had to be so careful not to hurt her that it was easier not to bother. He always told her it didn't matter, but she was right, it did. With Diana that wasn't a problem, he felt everything she did on a level he didn't understand until he met her. He felt a hug from his mother, or a handshake from his father and spent life assuming it was normal to barely register their touch. For most of his life the only thing he truly felt was pain dished out by a super powered villain. Until Diana, she was the first person to touch him tenderly. The first time they shook hands he suddenly knew what it felt like to touch another person, to finally feel what everyone else took for granted. She was amazing, and somehow he knew it from the beginning, even after being lassoed and beat up he knew she was special. It was why he forgave her in the first place. He wasn't counting on her becoming his girlfriend in those days, but he didn't want her to be his enemy.

"Hey Clark, do you have any idea what's going on with Lois?" Jimmy asked, walking up behind him.

"She broke her heel yesterday. On some fancy shoes. Maybe she's still mad about that?"

"I don't know, those would have to be some pretty expensive shoes for her to be acting like this."

"700 dollars."

"Damn! Who buys shoes for that? I don't pay more than sixty."

"I don't go much over a hundred." Clark added.

"I know Lois makes more money than us, but that's got to be almost a whole paycheck."

"Close to it."

Clark checked his email, there was a new message with the subject line 'Smallville Reunion Pics' that he assumed were taken this weekend. He opened the message and went through about 40 pictures. There were a few with Kirk, and some of the other football players, and a few with Diana, both on the dance floor and standing together for the camera.

"Who's that?" Jimmy asked, indicating a picture on the screen of he and Kirk.

"Kirk Alyn, a high school football buddy. He protected my blindside, back in Smallville."

"Wait, I thought you played receiver?"

"That was in college. I played quarterback in high school. He and I were team captains, along with another guy named Dean. But he wasn't there."

"High school reunion?"

"Yep. I went back home last weekend for it."

"Oh, cool." Jimmy said. "Woah, who's the pretty lady?" Clark had scrolled down to more pictures.

"That is my girlfriend Diana. She went with me, we had a pretty good time."

"I didn't know you were dating anyone."

"Really? She came to the office not too long ago. I figured you would have heard about it."

"Not a word. Does she have a sister?"

Instead of answering Clark just laughed. Instead of lying, he'd let Jimmy come to his own conclusions.

"That's what I figured."

"Olsen, what are you standing around for? Get to it!" Perry yelled from his doorway after seeing Jimmy talking to Clark for too long.

"Right Chief I'm on it. Later C.K." Jimmy then hurried away.

Clark briefly wondered what Jimmy was supposed to be doing, then he scrolled down to another picture of he and Diana dancing and he completely forgot about Jimmy. She had just completed a spin, and was moving back to be closer to him, she had the happiest smile on her face. He missed that smile.

Diana was so glad for the television shoot to be over. After finishing, she flew back to her apartment in Metropolis. Filming went well, she felt it would be a great venue to get her message out, but the hostess was annoying. Diana refused to talk about Superman, which meant the hostess took it upon herself to talk about him. She went on and on about his dashing good looks, and how much she wanted to see what was under the red and blue tights. She even asked Diana if she would set up a date with Superman for her, 'in the name of sisterhood.' Diana had to struggle to keep her cool, her first thought was to toss the woman out the nearest window, but that would have been a terrible mistake. She couldn't get bent out of shape over a man, much less Superman. It would be a dead giveaway that they were together, and that was something neither of them wanted the public to know.

Clark was still at work, and would be for a while. As Diana sat on her sofa she couldn't help but think about their relationship and how it was progressing. She had learned so much in their short time together, that her views on life were changing. Maybe her message of sisterhood and solidarity was shortsighted. In the beginning of her time in man's world she thought that men were unnecessary. That no woman ever needed a man, which she still felt was true, but didn't tell the whole story. She didn't need Clark in her life, she wanted him, and there was a drastic difference between the two. Women can work hard and make it in this world, more or less on their own, but having a partner made life better. Martha had taught her that, neither she or Jonathan could take care of the farm on their own, they did it together. Each doing tasks that the other couldn't do or didn't want to. Everything they did was made stronger because of their bond to each other. It was the first time she'd seen a relationship first hand. Julia talked about how much she loved her husband, and how great he was, but he passed away before Diana could meet him. She heard stories of strong relationships, but the Kents were the first she'd seen in practice. At first Diana didn't understand how two people could be together so long and still have disagreements. They were arguing when she first met them, over something silly, but two minutes later it was is if it never happened. They also teased each other, airing grievances about the others habits, mostly in fun, but they did it several times during her stay. Mostly it was Jonathan, complaining about the quirky things Martha did. Such as refusing to put her purse on the floor out of fear she'll lose money. Jonathan hated that because the purse sometimes ended up in the space he wanted to sit, he complained about it several times. Much of it, Martha simply ignored, and Jonathan reacted as if he expected her to. Diana began to realize that Clark was the same way. He did it at the breakfast table during their argument about catching the plane. He wasn't trying to make her angry, he was just trying to be funny. There was no malicious intent, he just wanted her to react to it. If she brushed him off, he might not do it. Also she had plenty of ways to get a reaction out of him too.

She had been right about some things about relationship though, their strong friendship was a good thing. She wanted to be with Clark in the first place because he was her friend. She was certainly glad she made that decision, the dynamic of their relationship didn't change drastically. They simply shared more than before, spending more time together, and sharing more personal things about themselves. And of course there was the physical part, they were free to touch each other now, which Diana found very exciting, it's probably why she liked dancing so much. His hands on her felt good, he'd never done anything inappropriate, she felt totally comfortable with what he's done so far. She didn't think she was ready yet, but the thought of one day doing more was thrilling, and when the time came, she would welcome it. Unfortunately right now, Clark wasn't around and she was hungry. Clark was good at finding a quality meal, weather he made it himself or not. She was going to venture out to find something by herself.

Diana was standing in line at a sandwich shop, she was last in line, with several people ahead of her. The club sandwich looked pretty good, she decided she would order that.

"Oh, my god that dress looks fantastic!" said a woman who walked in and got in line behind Diana.

"Thank you." Diana said politely. She turned to get a look at the woman complementing her. She had light brown hair, was just under six feet tall, with body as curvy as Diana's, one thing that struck Diana was that the woman had different colored eyes, her left eye was brown and her right eye was green.

Diana was wearing a somewhat modest lavender sundress that reached just below her knees. The other woman was wearing a much more revealing sundress that was yellow, and clearly too short, which she remedied by wearing skintight black yoga pants underneath. She also wore a pair of silver Wonder Woman bracelets.

"It fits you beautifully... you know I try to find things like this, but it's just so hard. I hope you don't mind me asking, where did you get it?"

"Um, I made it." Diana responded.

"Wow, that's awesome. You look gorgeous in it. I'm Shannon." She said holding out her hand.

"Diana." She returned the handshake.

Diana and Shannon spent the next half hour eating lunch and talking. Shannon had an excitable personality that just clicked with Diana. She wasn't intimidated, or in awe of her. They talked mostly about fashion, men, and other current events. They also shared their support for Wonder Woman and her cause, of course Diana was Wonder Woman, but Shannon didn't know that. Since she'd adopted the Diana Prince identity, she had very little personal contact with anyone. She only dealt with people who were working, cashiers, clerks and such. Of course there had been Lana, but with Shannon it was different, she could let her guard down a little bit and just be a woman. She wasn't planning on revealing her identity, but she would enjoy something she's never really had since coming to Man's World: a friend.

Clark was bored out of his mind. Diana hadn't responded to his message yet, he had no idea what she was doing at this point. He had his notebook for short stories out, and a baseball game on the tv, but he wasn't paying much attention to either. He tried to think of what he did with his free time before Diana became a fixture in his life, and for the life of him he couldn't think of it. He berated himself, it appeared he was becoming 'that guy.' The guy who's a mope when the lady in his life is not around. Clark however was determined not to do go there, so instead he got John Stewart to switch off of Batman's backup tonight, which he was happy to do.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked, when he saw Alfred leading Clark down into the batcave.

"I didn't have anything else to do so I'm your backup tonight."

"Ok. The everything here works just like the watchtower, my suit has a tracking beacon..."

"Hold on, hold on. I'm not going to just sit here all night, I could do that at home. I'm hitting the streets."

Bruce wanted to protest, but knew it would be a losing battle. When Clark was determined, there was little anyone could do to stop him. "Stay in the shadows." Bruce demanded.

"I can do that."

Bruce finished the function checks on all of his equipment, and put it all on, the armor, belt, cape and cowl. There was a calm to him as he did it, a calm that Clark wished he wasn't seeing. Clark himself was a man of many faces, but the more time passed he suspected that the Batman was the true face, and Bruce Wayne was the mask. Batman then silently strolled towards the Batmobile, Clark quickly changed into his Superman uniform and followed.

As Batman maneuvered the vehicle down the road away from the cave towards the city, Clark couldn't help but marvel. "This path is pretty well hidden, you'd have to get drunk and lost to find this place."

"That's the idea."

"So are there any leads on who the big drug kingpin is?"

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" Batman said, not answering the question that was asked.

"She's not around. Busy all week. Are you not going to answer my question?"

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Of course."

Clark turned to watch the road, getting the Batman to talk was a chore sometimes, he suddenly wondered if he didn't talk much because speaking in a gravelly voice was difficult to sustain. However Clark's silly thoughts were put to an end when he thought about where he was, this was Batman's territory, and he needed to be mindful of his methods, and making jokes was definitely not the Batman's method.

Clark respected the hell out of Bruce, he had not choice but to do so. He was a regular human who held his own in a room full of superpowered aliens and metahumans. He also had the habit of figuring out everything five minutes before everyone else did.

"People have been getting sick in the subways." Batman was finally giving out details. "Some are getting flu like symptoms, some are worse, six people have ended up in the emergency room, and two have landed in the psych ward."

"Toxic fumes?" Clark asked.

"Maybe."

"Assuming this is deliberate and not some crazy fluke, who would do this? Joker? Scarecrow?"

"More likely Scarecrow. Joker would plaster his name across everything, so I'd know that it was him."

"So I take it we're going to the subway station?"

Batman didn't answer. Clark didn't have to wait very long for his answer though, as they pulled into a dark alley near a subway entrance and exited the vehicle.

"Trains are shut down." Clark observed aloud. He couldn't hear any movement on the rails, or see any people inside the station. It was just after midnight, he figured there would be many people coming or going from late shift jobs. There was no security, but there were blocks at the entrances of the subways which they cleared easily.

Once inside, Batman walked the tunnels searching for anything out of the ordinary that could be causing problems for subway riders. Superman followed not far behind, not looking very hard, 'staying in the shadows' as he'd been requested to do. "So how are things with Diana?" Batman suddenly asked.

"Good?" Clark was caught completely off guard, he did not expect to be asked anything about Diana, and definitely not here. "But I assume you already knew that."

"I knew what was happening when she asked for the ID, I was just waiting for you to say something."

"Didn't know what to say. Do you have a problem with it?"

"No... Not yet anyway."

"Yet?"

"Until you lose objectivity, I have no problems with either of you. Things have been quiet lately, but we both know it won't stay that way. You two are far and away the strongest of all of us, if one of you runs off to save the other, the rest of us get hung out to dry."

"That won't happen."

"That's what you say now." Batman then stepped away without another word. Clark was left hanging, figuring there was more to be said.

"And?"

"I found something." There was a passageway, that led down underneath the subways. Batman went through, followed by Superman.

"Underground tunnels." Clark said matter of factly. "Like the Seattle Underground."

"This isn't on any of the city schematics. I didn't know this was here."

"Really? I saw them a long time ago. Are you sure aren't in the records?" Clark didn't need to ask, he knew the answer. Bruce Wayne could get access to just about any city record he wanted to, enough money could get a person just about anywhere in Gotham. There must have been a reason these tunnels were kept secret.

"There's definitely something going on down here. Looks like a drug lab." Clark observed.

"Looks like they cleared out fairly recently too." There were tables everywhere, large cooking pots and hot plates. Batman removed a scanner from his belt to examine the remnants of what was left in one of the pots.

"Drugs?"

"No. Something else, it's a chemical combination I've never seen before. I'll need to study it."

He scanned several more pots, finding that all of them had the same chemical remnants. He would need different equipment to find out what exactly they were mixing, but the data he gathered would be enough to do so at a later time. So Superman and Batman proceeded to destroy what was left of the remaining materials, just in case whoever was there decided to return. They left the tunnels to monitor what was going on at street level. A few drug deals, several B&E's, nothing Batman couldn't handle on his own. Clark stayed in the shadows as requested.

It was just after 4AM when Clark returned to his apartment, he could get a few hours of sleep before going to work, not that he needed it. Before laying down, he checked his phone for any message from Diana, still nothing.

"I'm definitely 'that guy." Clark said to himself.

Clark woke up two hours later to a ringing phone. Looking at the caller ID he saw it was Diana. He immediately woke up to answer. "Hello."

"Hey you. Were you sleeping?"

"Yeah but it's fine. I was going to get up soon anyway. How did the shoot go?"

"It went ok, the hostess kept talking about you, despite the fact that I asked her not to. I guess that's part of the price to get my message out."

"I guess, so what's on the agenda for today?"

"A photo shoot in New York, and then a charity dinner in France."

"Oh, that's pretty much all day. What about tomorrow?"

"I'm speaking with Girl Scouts in Dallas, then I'm meeting my friend for dinner in Metropolis, after that I have monitor duty."

"Your friend?" Clark asked, he wasn't aware she knew anyone in Metropolis that well.

"Yes, Shannon, I met her the other day."

"Oh ok that's cool. Making new friends is always good."

"I'm sorry we haven't had any time together, but I promise Friday is just for us."

"Good, because I have big plans."

"Like what?"

"Something new and exciting. That's all you need know."

"Oh, it's a surprise, I'm looking forward to it. But in the meantime, I need to go, I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

"Bye."

The next two days flew by for Clark, he and Diana started off each morning with a brief phone conversation that helped him power through the day. His latest article assignment had a very uplifting subject, about two young siblings who were displaying high levels of intelligence, which Clark thought may be at a metahuman level. Superman put out a small fire at a museum, which an elementary school class just happened to be at. The admiration from the children was nice. He didn't get warm receptions from everyone.

However at the forefront of his mind was the reception he'd get from Diana when she returned. He couldn't wait for their date, he had something special planned and hoped she would enjoy it.