Title: Dark
Author: Danielle
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Summary: FIC SPOILER. After Hours sequel. Lois and Clark go to Gotham City. Batman Begins crossover.
Dedication: To MadDogLane for beta reading this fanfiction and helping me with my English!
Author's Notes: I don't have much to say for now. People who read the previous fic know that a continuation was inevitable. I hope you like it!

CHAPTER 1

" Lois Lane!" a tall, dark haired man said as he approached a particular plane which had landed a few minutes before. "That's a name I didn't think I'd hear again anytime soon!"

"I bet you were surprised when I said I'd come" Lois said as she carefully descended the stairs.

"Not that much" the young man said with a little smile on his lips, taking off his dark sunglasses to see her better. "I didn't think you'd stay so far away from me for so long" he continued, kissing her affectionately on the cheek, when he saw someone coming down the steps behind her. "I see you didn't come alone--"

"Oh yeah!" she said, pretending to have forgotten, just to annoy her companion, who didn't seem very comfortable with the entire situation. "Bruce, this is Clark Kent. Clark, this is Bruce Wayne"

Clark and Bruce exchanged a strong handshake and Lois smiled as she observed them.

"Didn't you bring any luggage this time, Miss Lane?" a tall, silver haired man asked.

He was standing next to the limousine a few meters away from them.

Neither Lois nor Clark had noticed him there until that moment.

Surprised, Clark looked at Lois. This time? he thought.

"Alfred Pennyworth!" Lois said with a big smile, while trying to ignore Clark's reaction. "Good to see you!" and she approched him to give a discreet kiss on his wrinkled cheek.

"Good to see you too, Miss Lane" he replied, giving her back a gentle smile.

Clark and Bruce remained very far apart. The tension between the two was tenuous. There was just something about the young Wayne that bothered Clark.

"Don't you have any plans to stay here in town?" Bruce asked still smiling to Lois.

"Oh no, Bruce. It's just a brief visit for a few hours" she answered, looking from Bruce to Alfred.

"It's a pity" Bruce said calmly, looking at Lois and then to Clark. "But we're going to make these few hours count, aren't we?" he added, with a little smile, gesturing for them to enter the limo.

Lois smiled back as she entered the car followed by a distrustful Clark, who looked at Bruce and Alfred, imagining that he was in the biggest trouble of his life.

And all because Lois. How could she do this to him? he thought.

"Tell me, Clark... is this your first time in Gotham?" Bruce asked, looking him in the eye, while Alfred drove them to Wayne's mansion.

"Actually, yes" he answered uncomfortably, while Lois kept her eyes on Bruce, whom she hadn't seen in years.

"Take the way that goes through town, Alfred" Bruce instructed the elderly man, looking at him in the mirror. "We can't deprive our visitor of a fast tour through the heart of the city that never stops, can we?" he explained, smiling to Clark and then to Lois, who was seated at his side.

Clark just smiled, indifferent. Then, he realized that Lois hadn't made any ironic or sarcastic commentary since they landed at Gotham Airport. Something still bothered him. Maybe there was more between her and Bruce than he thought.

"What about Princeton?" she asked.

"I decided to take a vacation" he answered, not wanting to talk about it.

"Really?" she asked, smiling.

"Do you study at Princeton?" Clark asked, curious and surprised.

Bruce nodded. "Um. I used to" he said, looking at a concerned Alfred's reflection in the mirror.

"I thought you liked college. The last time we talked you seemed very enthusiastic about all those courses of criminology and applied sciences you were taking" Lois commented.

"And I was... But, you know, I changed my mind" he said, with a small smile, noticing

Alfred's look of censorship in the mirror.

"What are you gonna do now?" Lois asked, trying to change the Princeton subject, which seemed to bother Bruce a lot.

"I don't know" he answered with an enigmatic smile.

"I think I'd better change the subject" she said, understanding that he wasn't interested in talking about himself.

"That's a good idea" he agreed smiling.

It was pretty clear to Clark that Bruce was just another rich young man who didn't know what to do and just wanted to call some attention to himself. Unfortunately, at that moment, he had all of Lois' attention.

Lois smiled back at Bruce.

Clark also smiled when the two looked at him, but he felt totally dislocated. It was pretty obvious that Bruce and Lois had been more than friends. There was much privacy between both of them. And this was bothering him a lot. Clark just didn't know why he was so uncomfortable with that.

"Well, let's talk about you, Lois" Bruce suggested.

She nodded in disagreement. "Oh no... that is definitely a bad idea" she said, smiling at him again.

Clark rolled his eyes. How could she do that? Clark though. They were there to investigate something very serious and Lois was flirting with him! It was just shameless!

"I don't have much to say" she said.

"Oh... I heard you were banished from Met-U. Is that true?"

"I thought we had agreed to change the subject!" she protested.

Bruce wrinkled his forehead, not satisfied.

"Okay, let's say I'm still checking my options" she answered.

"That doesn't seem to be like you" Bruce implied, and turning to look at Clark, he continued: "You know, Clark, Lois is the kind of person who really knows what she wants. If she let herself be banished, it's because she has something in mind"

Clark smiled without any enthusiasm and glanced back to Lois, who smiled at both of them. He still didn't know what he was doing there and how Chloe convinced him to go on this journey with Lois. If someone was trying to kill Bruce Wayne, what the hell did Lois think she could do to prevent it? he wondered.

But there was more to it than that. Clark couldn't stand how Lois was so gentle and sweet with that young and presumptuous billionaire, who sometimes seemed to be like a Lex Luthor of some years earlier.

"Now that I'm sure of." he agreed with Bruce.

Clark took a deep breath and turned toward the window to look at the view. They crossed the Sprang Bridge and he could see the high buildings of Gotham and an elevated train which cut through the city. The buildings were as high as the ones in Metropolis, but they took on a whole different level. Gotham was too dark. It was like there was a dense and dark shadow above the whole city. Clark at first imagined it was because of pollution, but then he realized that it was more. He couldn't stop thinking about the news reports he heard about this city which had one of the highest levels of crime and poverty. It didn't seem a nice place to live in.

To be continued...