Irene began to anxiously tug on the hem of her t-shirt as she scratched the surface of what happened in the last week. She did the best she could to sit still as her niece applied some cheap children's makeup on her, knowing that she was going to be lectured by her older brother once she was done talking.

She had successfully been able to avoid speaking to him for the last two days, which now she found that avoiding her older brother was extremely childish of her. Especially when she realized that avoiding her sometimes overly protective brother caused him to drive to the heart of Metropolis to check on her.

"Stand still." Mia muttered clearly frustrated with Irene's inability to sit still. Hearing her eight year old niece scold her, stunned Irene as she stopped her anxious movements.

"Sorry Mia." Irene apologized with a sigh as she relaxed against the couch doing her best to avoid Angel's critical eyes.

In some way she felt that she was the eight year old and not Mia who always acted much older than she actually was. Mia's maturity came undoubtedly from Angel who was always grounded, when Irene always had her head in the clouds.

"So you're telling me you blew all of your money to go on a wild goose chase to learn more about an alien, and ended up learning and getting nothing from said alien?" He questioned after Irene had finished telling him about her conversation with Perry. She had hoped that he would be more interested about her alien encounter than her work troubles which clearly was not the case.

It really wasn't until she had finally voiced it out loud and watched her brother's expression go from worried to irritated, that Irene realized how badly everything had played itself out. She had been telling herself that the situation wasn't as terrible as she actually was but now she knew that her leave was a lesson that Perry was teaching her. To make her realize that she had gotten too close to a story, that this was much more than her ambition. That she still had a lot to learn before he would allow her the liberty she wanted.

"That's exactly what I'm saying and I don't need you making it sound worse than it really is."

Her brother leaned forward looking her directly in the eye and it took every fiber of her being to not flinch away. "Nene, you're not going to be working for three weeks."

"It's going to be okay." She said quickly not wanting to take this conversation farther than it needed to. Sure, money was going to be tight for the next couple of weeks and her situation at work was going to go back to Perry not trusting her for larger stories anymore, but Irene would continue to work as hard as she always did. Gaining Perry's respect back, it wasn't going to be easy. But it wasn't impossible, meeting Clark Kent really did prove that nothing was impossible.  "Really I'll be fine."

Angel sighed as he looked down at the mug in his hands, it's contents probably already gone cold as Irene realized that he hadn't taken one sip of the coffee she had made him over half an hour ago. "I worry for you."

"I know and you don't have too." Irene attempted to assure her brother although she knew it was a completely pointless task. He would always worry.

That was simply who her brother was. He was undeniably a caretaker whether that came from having to take care of Irene at a young age or the fact that he was a single father was hard to determine. And the last thing Irene wanted was to add to his troubles.

Irene never thought that she would ever step a foot in the Ace o' Clubs Pub again as she wasn't one to frequent bars very much. But to her surprise she felt oddly comforted coming back to the place she came before her world seemed to be turned upside down.

Everyone in the room was grouped in corners and along the walls so it wasn't difficult to find Lois' bright red hair, she sitting on a stool at the bar. She seemed deeply invested in sending a lengthy email to someone and Irene found it amusing how she continued to work even on a night to herself. Though as Irene thought about it more she realized she wasn't very different from Lois at all.

"Hey." Irene greeted as she removed her coat taking a seat at a stool next to Lois. Considering it was the middle of the week the bar wasn't as crowded as it would normally be, but the energy around us was the same. The sounds of the T.V mixed with chatter and laughter were surprisingly what Irene needed. She needed to feel the sense of normalcy that had been absent in her pursuit of an alien. "Why did you want to meet here?"

Lois smiled brightly as she took a sip of her own cocktail. "I thought you might need a drink."

"You're right about that."

Bibbo Bibbowski who had been attending customers on the other side of the bar approached them and immediately smiled kindly when he undoubtedly recognized Irene. "Miss Miranda I stick to what I said. You look like a bourbon kind of gal."

Irene returned his smile and nodded, she generally wasn't very picky and at the moment after a couple of bad days and terribly missing her job she really needed a drink. What kind of drink that was didn't really matter at the moment.  "That sounds great, thank you."

It wasn't long before both Irene and Lois were on their second drink as they discussed what had occurred at the Planet for the last couple of days, which unsurprisingly wasn't much.

"Okay so you got too close to the story." Lois stated dismissively as if this happened regularly, and in many ways it did but never to this scale. Sure there were times where Irene had been overly passionate about a story, but this was different. She had gotten emotionally invested in a way that a reporter should never get with their story.  "Happens to everyone. Will probably happen again."

"I know but," She began not completely sure how to put what she felt into words, which frustrated Irene to no end. She was good with words, with putting her thoughts on page but recently she had been having difficulty doing exactly that.  "it's more than getting too close to a story."

"Then what is it about?"

Looking down at her drink Irene really thought about what was troubling her so much. Of course she knew what it was, but she didn't want to talk about it with her brother, not wanting him to worry about her. The last thing she wanted was her brother to worry that she was having some kind of early midlife crisis. "It's me having a near death experience and realizing I have done absolutely nothing meaningful."

Lois was silent for a moment as she seemed to need time to process Irene's words, causing her to suddenly regret voicing them at all. "Not everyone can do something meaningful."

"I meant something meaningful to me." Irene specified, because this wasn't about doing something that would change the world. Or becoming someone that would be remembered for generations. None of that mattered and seemed incredibly small now. "I've completely dedicated myself to the Planet, to being where I want to be professionally, but never gave my personal life the same priority. I don't have any passions or hobbies outside of writing, I've been blinded by my ambition."

"Trust me that's something I've thought a lot about too."

Irene felt surprised by Lois' confession, because after years of looking up to Lois she had never stopped to consider what her personal life could be. All she ever saw were her professional accomplishments which clearly didn't even scratch the surface of who Lois Lane really was. "You have?"

Lois laughed as she set her drink down on the bar counter. "I'm turning 40 next month and I have no personal life. All my friends are already married with children, and I've spent my whole life dedicated to my career. My career...that's all I have."

"You have a Pulitzer." Irene reminded her, because there was a time where Irene believed that all she needed to feel accomplished and happy was a Pulitzer of her own. Now she realized happiness wasn't as simple as getting a reward.

"That is nice. But a Pulitzer isn't very good company."

"It's weird isn't it?" Irene questioned although she didn't expect an answer as her finger traced the rim of the glass in front of her. Maybe it was the alcohol or the fact that she had so much bottled up, that now all she wanted to do was spill all her thoughts to someone who clearly understood exactly what she was feeling. "That we're raised thinking love is everything, and pretty early on I decided I would completely dedicate myself to my career. To writing. And I've always been content  following my ambitions. But there are days where I realize that I do feel lonely."

Lois started picking at the discarded peanut shells that now lay messly in front of them, and Irene realized that she didn't even notice when Mr. Bibbowski had placed it in front of them. Much less when she had begun to unconsciously eat them. Lois seemed to have had the same thought as she looked down at the shells amused. "How does Cat do it? Be amazing at her job and still have time to date?"

The alcohol was slowly beginning to take effect as Irene found herself laughing when nothing really funny was said. "Never thought I'd feel the need to ask Cat for advice, but here we are."

"Well, enough of this emotional bullshit, tell me more about the mystery alien." Lois asked eagerly, a conversation that Irene should have known would be inevitable. After all Irene would also be eager to know about someone with superhuman abilities who happened to not be from this planet.

Irene finished her drink enjoying how the bitter liquid burned its way down her throat. The truth was that having been locked up in her apartment for the last couple of days she was tired of thinking about Clark Kent, and she definitely didn't want to talk about him. "There really isn't much. In fact I really didn't learn anything."

"But you talked to him, there has to be something interesting." The older reporter practically pleaded not satisfied with what she was hearing. Lois was expecting some otherworldly adventure that never happened, not that Irene could blame her. When she first started her investigation she also expected something incredible to happen.

"Trust me the only thing that gives away that he isn't human is how selfless and kind he is."

Lois sighed as she took another long sip from her glass, the last couple of days had been incredibly slow in terms of new. There was no doubt that Lois was wanting to hear at least one good story after multiple days of the Planet printing solely fluff pieces. "At least we know that there's one man on Earth that isn't complete garbage."

"My brother is pretty great. Practically raised me on his own when he was still a teenager." Irene found herself voicing out loud, again feeling the need to tell someone about how amazing her older brother was. The truth being that Irene could spend the rest of her life trying to give back to her brother everything he gave to her and it still wouldn't be enough.

"I always wanted a brother."  Lois said almost deep in thought as she brought the martini glass to her lips. There wasn't much that I knew about Lois' private life but one thing I was sure of was that although Lois Lane seemed perfect there were clearly more things that were troubling her than she would ever voice out loud. After years of reporting one thing that Irene had learned was you never really could know or understand a person unless you were in their shoes. "Don't get me wrong I love Lucy, but she drives me crazy sometimes."

Irene nodded, remembering Lois' younger sister from the couple of times that she had visited her sister at the Daily Planet. All she really knew about Lucy Lane was that she was an airline stewardess and was constantly traveling. "She's dating Ron right?"

"Yeah, she actually had a crush on Jimmy first." Lois admitted, which was something that Irene already knew. It's not like Lucy hadn't made it completely obvious, as she always found herself at Jimmy's desk more often than her own sister's. But as obvious as Lucy was Jimmy was equally as oblivious.  "Don't tell Ron though."

In the end it seemed that things turned out for the best as Lucy Lane and Ronald Troupe had been surprisingly dating for about three years now. Surprising only because they were complete opposites of each other, and that they had found a way to make a long distance relationship work.

"Jimmy is too in love with his camera to pick up on that sort of thing." Irene replied with a small smile touching her lips as she thought about her best friend.

Nodding in agreement Lois smiled again seeming a lot more relaxed then she ever had in all the years Irene had known her. Though she clearly didn't know Lois Lane as well as she thought. "We've worked together for years and never talked like this. It's nice."

"It's definitely nice talking with someone who isn't Jimmy." Irene admitted because although she deeply loved Jimmy and enjoyed his company there were simply some things that she couldn't talk to him about. Not only because he wouldn't understand but because the truth was he was just as lonely as she was.

Jimmy came from a relatively wealthy family that didn't agree with their son becoming a photographer for a newspaper, when he could have had any career of his choice with the expensive education they offered him. That was something that Irene could never really understand about him, just like he couldn't understand what it was like for her to be raised by her older brother after their mother had been deported back to Mexico.

It was odd how meeting one person could completely change someone's perspective on life, and Clark Kent had done exactly that for Irene. Even though he didn't intend to. But Irene didn't want to spend any more time thinking about change, it was time for her to make that change happen.

A/N: One more chapter before we get to the large action set piece that I am terrified of, but is going to be so much fun. Hope you are all enjoying so far!