It was oddly familiar, but completely different when Lois began spending time at the farm again.

Lana was gone, Kara was missing and Clark had no idea what Brainiac had done with her, or to her. The Fortress no longer existed, so that avenue of talking to Jor-El was out and repeated trips to the Kawatche caves hadn't yielded anything either. His father was silent and Kara has simply vanished.

Clark couldn't help but worry that Brainiac had left her on Krypton to die when it exploded, in spite of his dubious assurances that she was still alive. And to top it all off was the fact that Chloe was now residing at the Kansas State Penitentiary.

As Jimmy had so eloquently put it, 'her habitual hacking had caught Uncle Sam's eye' and agents of the DDS had arrested her. She was currently awaiting trial and her court appointed lawyer didn't hold out much hope that she would be found innocent; there was just too much evidence stacked against her.

To say that he was frustrated couldn't begin to cover what it was he felt, but having Lois back with him on the farm helped to ease it.

Did he just say with him?

They weren't a them, so how could he be feeling as though Lois was half of a pair? Never mind that she didn't see him that way.

So why in the heck was he even remotely considering her in that way?

She'd made it pretty clear how she felt about anything approaching a relationship after she'd let Oliver go. 'I can't face another heartbreak down the road', she told him and he knew she meant it. Oliver Queen had been someone special to her and that was why it bothered Clark so much that he hadn't been honest with her about who he really was.

If it hadn't been for Black Canary shattering the glass in his penthouse, revealing Green Arrow's hardware, Lois would have remained in the dark about Oliver's alter ego.

Clark had thought a lot about that when he heard Oliver had returned to Metropolis with the intention of buying the Daily Planet. He was still playing games with Lex, even though Lionel Luthor's son was nowhere to be found.

It was still pretty fuzzy in his own mind how he'd ended up in the caves after the Fortress was destroyed. And the only thing he could figure was that it had to be Jor-El, but how?

In the end it didn't really matter because that was where Lois found him.

It was too eerily similar to the time she'd found him naked in the cornfield on Route 31. But at least when she found him again, he didn't suffer the embarrassing indignity of her seeing him in that state for a second time.

She'd taken him back to the farm and assumed his absence had been because he'd gone after Lana.

"Smallville, it's time to move on." Lois scolded him gently when she'd brought her car to a stop next to the farmhouse. "She asked you not to go after her and that's exactly what you did. You can't find someone who doesn't want to be found."

But to her credit, after she'd admonished him, she never brought it up again.

She'd even swallowed his clunker about Kara returning to Minnesota because she missed her family.

Not long after she'd brought him back, Lois made what he thought was a passing comment about his rattling around his parent's house alone until she started to show up in the evenings when she was finished at the Planet for the day.

She would invariably threaten to cook something for him, which would get him into the kitchen and he would make dinner for them both. She would then help him do the dishes when they were through and he would reward her with coffee. If it wasn't too late, they might watch a movie and then she would get in her car and drive back to the Talon.

Clark didn't know exactly when she started staying overnight, it just happened gradually when she began to fall asleep during the movie. All he could figure was that she was hard at work on a story, or maybe intensifying her investigation into Lex's activities before he disappeared; she never got specific with him.

He would try and wake her up, but all that succeeded in doing was getting her to burrow further into her end of the couch. He couldn't leave her to sleep there, actually he could, but innately knew that his mother would disapprove.

So he would pick her up and take her upstairs. He'd carried her in his arms before when she'd been unconscious and never given it a second thought. But the feel of her trying to burrow herself against him as she slept started to feel all too familiar, as was the tripping of his heart.

He'd take her into his mother's room, knowing Mom wouldn't have it any other way and get her under the comforter. She never stirred as he put her down on the bed and covered her before she would sigh and roll over.

In an odd way, it felt strange for her to be sleeping in his mother's bed and not his. But it was nice to have her back, no matter where she slept.

It was during one such evening after he'd put Lois to bed, he was on his way downstairs when he heard a knock at the front door. He glanced at his watch as he headed toward the door and opened it.

Why was he not surprised to see Oliver Queen.

"Hello Clark. How are things on the Kent homestead?" He presented a veneer of civility, but Clark could see that something was bothering him, a lot.

He looked reflexively over his shoulder toward the stairs; not realizing it was an action that Oliver misread.

"I didn't catch you at an awkward moment, did I?" The veneer was slipping, as he seemed to make an assumption about Clark's disheveled look.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, but it was obvious to him that Oliver had come to see Lois.

"I see that you're still living in domestic bliss." Oliver's remark was a pointed reference to Lana. "But it appears to be a different woman this time."

"What do you want Oliver?" Clark folded his arms across his chest and blocked the door.

"I'd like to talk to Lois." He smiled softly as he said her name. "There are some things we need to discuss. You mind if I come in?"

"You can't." Clark stood his ground.

"I can't come in or I can't talk to Lois?"

"Take your pick. This is my house and I'm saying you can't." He wouldn't budge. "She's sleeping and I'm not about to wake her up."

"This has to do with my acquisition of the Daily Planet. And since Lois is one of my reporters, I have the right to talk to her." He was being too cocky by half and Clark really disliked him at that moment.

"There is something called office hours." He said somewhat sarcastically. "And when Lois shows up at the Planet tomorrow, during office hours, you can talk to her. But right now, you can't."

"You seem to be taking my being here a little personally." Oliver smiled humorlessly. "What's the matter Clark, afraid of a little competition?"

"Competition?" What was he talking about?

"You've had Lois to yourself all of this time," He elaborated. "And the idea of my being back in the picture is making you nervous, isn't it?"

"You're not going to hurt her again." Clark frowned, not quite sure what Oliver was trying to say. "I stood by and watched you break her heart when you left her behind to take care of 33.1. I wasn't the friend to her I should have been then, but I didn't make that mistake again.

"She deserves more than being an afterthought or someone you fit into your schedule when you have time. She deserves someone who will put her first."

"It sounds to me like you're applying for the job." The CEO of Queen Industries seemed to be studying his reaction. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to leave." Wrong answer, Clark. He told himself as Oliver's humorless smile appeared again and he shook his head.

"That's what I thought."

"What's that?" He wasn't sure he liked where Oliver was going with the conversation.

"It seems that the road for some always leads back here." He said cryptically. "And others leave the porch light on for them."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that one coming.

"I wonder if she can see the reason why she comes here." Oliver continued. "I wonder if she sees you."

"Me?" He definitely didn't like it. "All she sees is 'Smallville' and never lets me forget it."

"It's quaint really, when you think about it." He sighed. "From the day she met you, she's called you that and somehow in the years since, it's become something of an endearment."

"What?"

"Endearment, pet name; it's all the same." He observed. "You're the only one she's given that honor to and you don't even see it."

"She did it to irritate me." Where in the heck was he going with this?

"Does it irritate you any more?" His humorless smile was turning insufferably smug as though he knew something and it made Clark uncomfortable.

"No." He hesitated in saying it because he couldn't shake the feeling that a trap had been baited for him and he was slowly being lured in. "It's just something she calls me."

"And if she stopped calling you 'Smallville' it wouldn't bother you in the least?"

It would bother him; it would bother him a lot.

And the idea that it would bothered him even more.

"Well Clark, I'd love to stand her and shoot the breeze with you all night but I need to get back to Metropolis." And for the first time, Oliver really smiled. "I just thought I'd take a chance."

"You lost your chance." And Clark had the sneaking suspicion that the trap had just closed on him.

"Which leaves the door open for someone else to take it, don't you think?" He laughed softly. "Please tell Lois that I'd like to see her when she gets in tomorrow." He requested before he turned and walked away.

"You didn't have to do that." Clark started as he closed the door and turned around. Lois was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking rumpled and sleepy. "I could have talked to him."

"Lois." He waited for her to berate him for playing the overprotective brother and frowned when it didn't come.

"I've never had any one stand up for me like that before. Thanks Smallville."

"You're my friend." He stated simply and had to curb the urge to back up as she slowly approached him.

"Then I think you deserve a thank you." She said as she came to a stop in front of him and seemed to consider something.

He swallowed nervously when he realized what she'd decided as she boosted herself up on her toes and rest her hands on his shoulders.

"My hero." Her tone was light and Clark sensed that she didn't mean anything by it, just a simple thank you, as she'd said. She pressed her lips to his and before he had the chance to kiss her back, she was already headed for the stairs.

The two previous opportunities he'd had to kiss her were in disguise and under the influence of Red Kryptonite and as nice as they were, it wasn't them. He swallowed again because without realizing it, Lois had given them the opportunity to see what it could be like between Clark Kent and Lois Lane. And he wanted to find out.

"Lois?" He reached for her wrist and felt her freeze, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she turned around and it surprised him to see that her face was flushed because she knew what it was he wanted.

She smiled then and that made him smile back as he let go of her wrist and took her hand. He got hold of her other hand and held them gently in his as he leaned over and kissed her. He felt the soft pressure of her lips as she kissed him back and now he finally knew how it felt.

She stood back and looked at him, her hands still in his. A mixture of surprise, wonder, happiness and fear reflected in her eyes and Clark knew that their friendship had just shifted into something a little deeper.

But wasn't that what it had been doing all along?

She surprised him when she leaned up and kissed him again, but slipped out of his grasp before he could respond and started up the stairs. "Goodnight Clark."

"Goodnight Lois, sleep well." And he felt his face warm when she laughed.

"I will, you too."

He watched her go up the stairs and smiled to himself.

It was nice to have her back.