Title: Close to the Source
Author: htbthomas
Prompt: #20/Choice
Category: Smallville, season 8, through 8.14
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,730 words
Beta: fictionalknight

Summary: Clark is all alone this Valentine's Day -- and it wouldn't be so bad if Lois were back in town again. Worse yet, will she ever be coming back? Written for Valentine's Day challenge at 12 Days of Clois.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Valentine's Day at the Daily Planet and Clark Kent didn't feel like celebrating in the slightest. Heart balloons and flowers were everywhere, and some sicko had even given one of the girls on the other side of the room a green balloon. He had to turn his chair at a weird angle to keep from seeing it every time he lifted his eyes from his computer screen. Just catching sight of it was enough to make him queasy.

Only a month ago, he dreamed he would be spending this Valentine's Day with Lana -- maybe fitting in a rescue or two before having a nice dinner back at the farm. But that dream seemed so far away now. He was all alone this year. No one to even commiserate with about it...

It wasn't until ten minutes later that Clark realized he had been sitting in front of the keyboard without typing a word. He shook his head to clear it, and tried to type the next sentence -- something gripping about the city council meeting -- but so far everything just seemed like drivel. And it didn't help that his eyes kept drifting to the empty chair across from him and the nameplate beside it. Lois hadn't been in town for a couple of months, helping to take care of Jimmy, and reporting on the goings on in Star City.

When was she going to return? Chloe had finally returned to Star City, and was making regular visits to her husband's bedside. Lois shouldn't have to stay there any longer, right? Maybe she was simply being supportive of her cousin, giving her a shoulder to cry on, a person to spell her at Jimmy's side when Chloe couldn't hold her eyes open anymore...

But truthfully, Clark had no idea why she wasn't back yet. That was really the worst part. The spiritual wounds he was feeling over Lana's forced departure just seemed to hurt more with everyone away. His mother was in Washington, his best friend and her husband were in Star City with Lois, J'onn was working tonight, and Ollie was going out tonight on a date (but he wouldn't say who, even when pressed) ... who did he have now?

He was filling up more and more of his time with Red and Blue Blur rescues, and he had started casting his net beyond Metropolis. He found that if he stood on the roof of a building (not the Planet's roof, never there, not after the kryptonite bomb Lana had absorbed, he would never go there again if he could manage it) that he could direct his hearing in a far wider radius by concentrating.

At first, he was trying to help out with some of the farther-flung suburbs of Metropolis, and then the neighboring smaller cities. The first time he heard something going down in Star City, he had to go -- he almost didn't trust that he could really hear that far away, but he had raced there just in time to prevent a gas tanker explosion on the freeway.

And since he had tested it once, it only made sense to keep practicing, right? It wasn't as if he had chosen to go to Star City more often than staying in Metropolis or other places. At least, he didn't think he had. He dismissed the thought out of hand.

He did have to admit that it gave him a chance to check on everyone without annoying them with constant phone calls. Chloe was usually in the hospital, or sleeping over at Lois's temporary apartment. Lois was taking turns with Chloe at the hospital, working on stories or at home. Every once in a while, he would find Lois chatting someone up in a bar... a quick check with his super-hearing proved that she was pumping the guy for information. But did she have to do it with her hand placed seductively on his arm?

He didn't know why he was feeling so disconnected without Lois around. Wasn't it Lana who had left the hole in his heart, a hole ripped by Lex Luthor? As much as it hurt to think about Lana and what she might be doing out there, Clark was suddenly surprised to find Lois's absence hurt him just as much. Couldn't she see he needed her?

He needed her constant banter, her taking him down a peg, her glimpses of vulnerability. He needed the expressions: the smiles, the winks, the raised eyebrows, the pursed lips, the closed eyes as she leaned in to kiss him—

Whoa. Where did that come from?

He poked at the idea a little bit. He really had been about to kiss Lois that night, before Lana blew back into his life as suddenly as she left it a few weeks later. Maybe it was best that they hadn't kissed. Things with Lana were complicated enough. Or they had been. No, what was he thinking...? Lana had only been gone for a month now. Surely that wasn't enough time to start thinking about another woman already.

A small voice, which suspiciously had the tone Lois often used on him, needled him: Oh, really? Then why are you spending so much time performing rescues in Star City?

He didn't answer the voice. He didn't want to answer the voice, because he wasn't sure what he would have said.

At any rate, Lois was gone, Clark was here, and he had this thrilling write-up to finish before Ms. Mercer began breathing down his neck. He could think about all of this later. Probably when he was sitting all alone on Valentine's Day at the farm. Maybe blurring around town would cure some of this emptiness he was feeling.

The elevator opened and he fought to check who was coming out of it, since he had been doing that every time it opened in the last week. He forced his eyes to the computer screen, willing them not to X-ray through to the hallway.

Then a box plunked down on the desk across from him and he looked up in surprise. Lois! It figured that the one time he didn't look, she would actually be right there in front of him.

"Hey, Smallville, working hard? Or hardly working?"

Clark smiled, his spirit lightening for the first time in a month. "Well, someone has to fill the sidebar on page 16."

She smiled, a little sadly it seemed. "Yeah, well you'll move toward that front page sooner or later. Just have to be dedicated." She opened one of the drawers and started placing things in the box she had set down. A box whose presence he was just registering...

"What are you doing?" he asked with more than a little alarm.

"I couldn't get any of the interns to clean out my desk for me over the phone..." she joked. "Nah, actually, I really wanted to make sure I had everything I needed myself."

"For what?" He stood. "You're leaving the Planet?"

"Yes, I..." she trailed off at the genuine confusion she saw in Clark's face. "Didn't anyone tell you?"

"No." He tried not to seem frantic. "Not Chloe, not Ms. Mercer, not... anyone."

"Oh." Lois wouldn't meet his eyes. "Well, I'm moving to Star City for the time being. It was Tess's idea, actually. And for once, I totally agree with her. With all the Red and Blue Blur sightings there, it only makes sense to set up my base of operations there..." She yanked out one of the drawers and emptied it wholesale into the box.

"Sightings?"

"Yeah," she asserted, and she finally looked at him again, her eyes beginning to sparkle with excitement. "I've been tracking his, or her, movements, and in the last month the Blur has been in Star City almost twice as much as Metropolis."

"Really? Twice as much?" He could have sworn he was equally dividing his time, but...

"Gotta stay close to the source if I'm going to snag that first interview. And it doesn't hurt that Chloe could really use my help."

"I guess that does make sense..." What could he really say? If she was right, and he was spending a lot more time there, then any investigative reporter worth her salt would do the same. "Still, I'll mi—" He caught himself and gestured at the flowers and hearts around them, avoiding the sight of the green balloon as he did so. "Um, strange day to come clean out your desk. No plans?"

"Pshhht." Her lip curled up in derision. "I'll bet the Red and Blue Blur doesn't take a day off for some trumped-up 'holiday'."

She was more right than she knew. Keeping busy was the only way he was going to be able to deal with being alone tonight.

"What about you, Smallville? Do you have any--?" Lois suddenly bit her lip. "I... I'm sorry. I heard what happened." She reached across her almost-full box to touch him on the arm.

He didn't know what story Chloe had told her, but her compassion touched him anyway. "Thanks."

"Well... I should really be going. I paid a cabbie to wait out front, so I wouldn't have to flag anyone down with arms full of stuff." She hefted her box and turned toward the elevators. But before she took a step, she turned back to him. "Hey, take care, Smallville. I'll miss you."

And Clark suddenly knew he would miss her even more. He made a choice right then and there to make this separation as short as possible. "I'll miss you, too."

As soon as Lois was in the elevator, Clark was scanning the city for signs of distress. He heard the sound of gunfire across town and sped over there in a blink. He made sure to slow down enough on his way to drop off the miscreants at the police station that the blur was clearly visible to several witnesses. Not enough for anyone to capture him on film, of course, but noticeable.

He was back at his desk in the Planet within five minutes. A slow smile crossed his face as he heard Lois's voice on her cell phone blocks away. "Are you kidding? Just now? Here in Metropolis? Hey, driver, could you turn around? I guess I'm staying here in town a little longer."

End.