Clark didn't return to the restaurant. He was too busy sorting out other bits of mess to have the chance to go back. Lizzie had spent her night gulping down wine and listening to her mother's persistent talk of marriage. She wanted to do nothing more than go home, without her mother. She paid the bill and stood up, slowly moving out the Italian restaurant. She caught the sight of Superman on the TV as she passed by. She felt her blood begin to boil slightly.

She'd never have Clark to herself. She had to share him with the rest of Metropolis.

Martha walked besides Lizzie, watching the woman with interest as Ellie continued to try and make conversation. Martha felt a vibration in her pocket before noticing that Clark was calling her.

"Who is it?" Lizzie wondered as they stopped walking to give Martha a chance to grab her phone.

"Clark," she said.

"Mom," Clark spoke when she picked up. "I need you to do me a favour."

"What favour is it?"

"I need you...well...can you stay at Lizzie's apartment tonight? I need to talk to Lizzie on my own."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow," Clark promised her. "Can you do that for me? Please?"

Martha huffed and looked to Ellie. She didn't know if she could stand another moment in that woman's company. She supposed she would have to try, even if it did drive her to the brink of madness.

"You owe me, Clark Kent," Ellie assured her son. "I'll send her to your apartment."

"Thanks, mom," Clark smiled and hung up.

He spent the next ten minutes pacing through his apartment, unsure of how to handle Lizzie when he told her what he'd heard from her boss. He didn't know what she would think. Little did Clark know that she was in a foul mood as soon as she entered his apartment.

She stepped inside, allowing Clark to shut the door before she hit him around the arm with her clutch bag. Her eyes glared at him as he stepped back and she felt tears well into her eyes. She was so frustrated about everything. She always was. She just didn't know how to tell Clark. She'd thought that he could manage dinner with their parents. She had thought that he could cope with that.

"What was that for?" Clark wondered; tugging at the checker shirt he had changed into.

"I had to spend three hours on my own!" Lizzie snapped at him. "I had to spend time with our mothers whilst you ran off and left me!"

"Lizzie," Clark complained, pushing a hand through his hair as she kicked her heels from her feet. She moved into his kitchen, helping herself to the bottle of wine which he kept in the fridge for when she came over. "You know that I have to help people."

"Don't I just," she scoffed back. "It only interrupts everything that we do together! You...God...I love you, Clark."

Clark took a moment to watch her down the glass she had poured. He worried for her liver for the brief moment she was quiet.

"I love you, but I am so tired." She exasperated. "I am so tired of never being able to do things with you...I mean...whenever we go out you end up leaving me. You are never here, Clark."

"What would you have me do?" Clark snapped back. "So your mother was right? You are fed up?"

"How can I not be?" Lizzie shrugged. "I get it. I really do understand, Clark. I sound selfish at this moment in time. I mean, I have a boyfriend who loves me and who would do anything for me...I just...I have to share him with everyone else in this city."

"I'm doing my best," Clark assured her. "I'm doing all that I can to make this work, Lizzie."

"I know," Lizzie whispered, pushing a hand through her hair. She placed the wine away once she had refilled her glass to the brim. Moving slowly, she sat down on his sofa, slumping into the cushions and closing her eyes.

Clark remained stood where he was, a clear look of exasperation on his face. Lizzie closed her eyes and brought her knees up to her chin. He dared to sit beside her, looking at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to make the first move.

"And then I do wonder," Lizzie whispered. "We're both not getting any younger, Clark. I mean...we're on the right end of thirty, sure...but...we don't live together. We don't sleep together."

"Liz," Clark complained, flinging a hand over the back of the sofa. She sipped the alcohol as he ran his free hand over his forehead, doing his best to find a way to appease the situation. "I don't know what will happen, okay? I don't know if we can...if it is safe..."

"You won't even try!" Lizzie snapped back. "Clark, you've been on this planet for three decades. You've known me for years...I don't...I trust you. I love you."

"Is this what it is all about?" Clark asked her. "You're angry because we haven't been intimate together?"

"No," Lizzie said with a roll of her eyes. "It would be nice though, wouldn't it?"

"I can only imagine," Clark whispered. "But, if...if we were to have children one day...then I want us to be married, Lizzie."

She smiled at hearing that, nodding along with his request. She could understand that. She wanted that.

"I know," Lizzie whispered. "I think that's the right thing for us to do."

Clark dared to move closer to her, his arm sliding down the sofa until it was around her shoulders. Lizzie took a deep breath, knowing full well that her anger with Clark Kent would subside quicker than it had built up.

"I'm sorry," Clark whispered. "I don't want to ignore you, Lizzie...and...if..."

"No," Lizzie shook her head. "Don't say anything about it. I'm not going to leave you, and you're not going to leave me. I just get frustrated. No one said a relationship with Superman would be easy, did they?"

"They didn't," Clark agreed. "Look, there is something that I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?" she wondered, leaning forwards to place her glass down on the coffee table. She moved back, resting her legs over Clark's lap as he kept his arm around her shoulders.

"I went to one of Lex Luthor's chemical warehouses," Clark told her. "I think it is part of his science division."

"No doubt."

"He was there, Lizzie. He had been waiting for me." Clark admitted to her, running his hand up and down her back as he spoke. "He told me I needed to remember that he is the man who runs this city. There was something about him, Lizzie."

"Did he threaten to oust you?" Lizzie wondered. "This doesn't sound like Lex."

"He said that he doesn't intend to tell anyone about me. You don't know Lex well enough to know what he is like, Liz," Clark replied. "Don't pretend you do."

"I believe what you said," Lizzie promised him. "I just don't believe that he intends you any harm."

"Maybe not," Clark said. "I just don't trust him around you, Lizzie. Look...I know that telling you to quit is out of the question, but promise me that you'll be extra careful around him. Something isn't quite right."

"You've been saying that for months," Lizzie complained. "But...okay...wow...Lex...I've never seen him hurt a fly."

"We all have hidden secrets," Clark shrugged. "And I'll be keeping an eye on him from now on."

"There's no use in trying to change your mind, is there?" Lizzie wondered the rhetorical question. Clark smiled; pushed her hair from her face and kissed her briefly.

"No chance at all," he replied. "Anyway, how was my mom with your mom?"

"She's not pleased that she has to spend the rest of the night with her," admitted Lizzie. "What more can we do? I'm not running back home now."

"Not when I have you to myself," replied Clark, his other arm snaking around her waist to draw her closer to him. "Besides, you need a break from your mother."

"She'd been in Metropolis for just twelve hours."

"That's eleven hours too long," joked Clark. Lizzie slapped him around the arm as he bent down to kiss her again, unable to stop herself from smiling against his lips. He pulled back and she leant against the arm of the sofa.

"Don't be mean about my mother," Lizzie scolded him.

"I can't help it," Clark mumbled. "You know what she's like."

"I know," agreed Lizzie numbly. "Anyway...does that mean we have the place to ourselves?"

Clark knew what she was suggesting as soon as she had said it. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as she moved closer to him and ran her hands down his neck and onto his shoulders.

"Please," Lizzie begged him. "Clark, can't we try?"

Clark looked into her eyes, instantly knowing that she wasn't going to give up on the matter. He had promised her, and Clark Kent never broke his promises.

...

The sun streamed into Clark's room the following morning. He had lain awake all night, watching as Lizzie slept soundly besides him, his duvet the only thing covering her and her modesty. She awoke a few moments after he had moved into the bathroom, sitting up and pulling the duvet with her. Taking a deep breath she slowly slid down the bed, resting cross legged at the end of it as Clark brushed his teeth.

"Morning," Lizzie called out to him.

He looked back to her after rinsing his mouth, a small smirk toying on his plump lips. She ran a hand down her messed up hair as Clark leant against the frame of the door.

"How did you sleep?"

"Quite well," Lizzie admitted to him.

She tugged the sheet further up to her chin as she felt a blush come over her. Clark ran a towel over his face once he had washed it. Running a hand down his chin he felt the stubble there. He failed to care as he moved over to Lizzie and sat beside her on the bed. He bent down and kissed her again.

"I told you that there would be nothing to worry about," Lizzie teased him.

Rolling his eyes he smirked. "I still didn't want to hurt you. I'm just glad I didn't."

"I've told you before; it is ten in the morning. They will be awake."

Lizzie's eyes widened as she heard the unmistakable sound of her mother enter the apartment. Clark looked at her too, shaking his head as he heard the footsteps approach the open bedroom door.

"And I told you, Clark didn't give me a key to use when I wanted." Martha snapped back as Ellie looked back at her with distaste.

Lizzie tugged at the bed sheet as Clark shook his head, tightening the robe he wore around his body.

"Oh," Ellie gulped as she stood in the doorway, looking at the pair of them. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"Not that you would care if you did, mother," Lizzie spoke, daring to stand up. She dragged the sheet with her as Clark chuckled.

"Have you two been busy making my grandchild all night?" Ellie taunted. "I do hope you marry her before she becomes too fat to fit into her wedding dress, Clark."

"Ellie," Martha was the one to complain. "Can you leave the two of them alone? They clearly need time to get dressed."

"Oh, I can see that." Ellie nodded as Lizzie grabbed hold of the door. "Is this why I had to spend my night listening to Martha snore?"

"Goodbye, mother," Lizzie said before shutting the door in her face.

She turned back around to Clark as Martha spoke about making a cup of coffee. He shook his head, running his hand down his neck as Lizzie sat down again.

"I did tell you that your mother was annoying."

"Please," Lizzie scoffed, "I've known that all along."

...

Lex knew his time had finally come. He'd spent the first few months looking through the blood cells of the body he had confiscated. He knew that he had managed to find out why the alien was so powerful. He had made a serum in order to make someone else like him. He just knew that he needed a sample to try it on. He had the serum to stop the change in the body. Lex knew that he had to act quickly. He wasn't known for his patience, and so that was why he called his PA on Christmas Eve. He intended to use her to get to Clark Kent.

There was room for only one of them in his city.

...

A/N: So thank you to everyone for reviewing so far and to everyone who has stuck with the story! It means a lot to me, and I hope you'll keep on reading!