Hey, you guys! This chapter is a really short, but that's mostly because the next chapter is going to be much longer. And you are going to get it tomorrow. :)

Chapter 6: Choices

Clark was positive he had never seen anything more confusing than this. First, there was Lois' weird behavior last night, and now, she was staring at him like she had never seen him before. Had she figured out his other identity? If so, why hadn't she said anything? It wasn't like Lois to keep things to herself.

By the time he got back to the room, she seemed to at least be more awake. He handed her the glass of juice and a dose of ibuprofen.

"Thanks," she said, swallowing the pills down with a big gulp of orange juice. She gave him a weird look again. Clark didn't know what to make of it. If she was any other woman, he would have called it tender, but this was Lois here.

The oddly tender looks continued, her eyes alternating from the glass back to Clark. He didn't know what to do with this behavior. Usually, he could guess what Lois was thinking; she was a fairly transparent person, but right now, he was drawing a blank.

SSSS

Lois didn't know what to say. Lois always knew what to say before, but not now. What do you say to your best friend when you realize that he may literally be the man of your dreams?

Instead, Lois just starred at her glass of orange juice, freshly squeezed by said man, and took glances at Clark whenever she thought he wouldn't notice. He had taken off his suit jacket, a rare occurrence, and his dress shirt allowed for a much better view.

After about a minute, Clark spoke. "I called Lucy and asked her to pick up Jason from school. She said, since today's Friday, she would be happy to take him for the weekend. I figured you wouldn't want him around all the germs."

Lois tried to hold a normal conversation. "Thanks, I don't need to get him sick too." She paused. "How's the article coming along?"

"It's great. I finished looking through all our data and evidence; we definitely have a case. I was going to start writing up something for Perry to look over. Did you want to help?"

Lois smiled. "Sure, I'll need to clean up a little first."

Clark smiled back. "I'll see you out there in a few minutes then." He turned and left the room, Lois staring at his ass on the way out the door.

Lois pulled herself on to her feet and headed into the adjacent bathroom. She looked horrible. Not that looking horrible in front of Clark had ever bothered her before, but now it did, now that she had realized she had romantic feelings for him. How long had she had these feelings? She definitely had feelings. She just didn't know what to do with them.

She went though her options.

Option #1: Do nothing. Yeah, right. Some people may have the willpower to work across from someone they care for everyday without saying anything, but Lois was not one of them.

Option #2: Seduce him. Pounce, so to speak. He'd never see it coming. Which could be a bad thing. It could end their friendship if he didn't return her feelings.

Option #3: Subtly imply that she wanted more than friendship and see if he takes the bait. If he didn't return her feelings, she would just drop the whole thing and pretend like it didn't happen.

For now, Option #3 seemed like the safest bet. She was going to try being subtle, figure out if he was even interested. Still, she should probably clean herself up; no one said looking good couldn't be a part of subtle.