Irene didn't attend many of the Justice League meeting, Clark always came home and told her everything that happened and she never felt that her presence was really needed. But when Clark had woken her up at 4am saying there was an emergency meeting and that Bruce all but ordered her to be there Irene couldn't help but feel nervous.

The uneasiness seemed to be shared by everyone as they all took their usual seats at the long table in the meeting room. The only member who was missing was Barry, but he had a tendency of being late.

It was still a little surreal being surrounded by some of the most powerful people in the world. Over the last two months they had started working together almost perfectly, the whole world now knew who the Justice League was and they were all loved. It was incredible to see people who had once considered themselves outsiders come together and change the world.

"Is there a reason you called an emergency meeting this early in the morning Bruce?" Irene questioned not entirely happy with having to cut her sleep short though she knew that if Bruce had called them in such short notice it had to be bad.

Bruce simply looked over at Arthur who had been silently brooding in his seat, though it wasn't much different to how he normally tended to act. Since becoming King of Atlantis he held himself more regally, though Irene sensed that he wasn't very happy about his new role.

Arthur stood up with a sigh as pressed one of the buttons in the console in front of him. A hologram of a figure dressed in all black with beaming red eyes appeared at the center of the table. The image seemed to make Arthur more angry if that was even possible. "This morning Black Manta escaped our prison at Atlantis."

Suddenly Arthur's anger made sense. One of his prisoner had escaped within the wall of his own city. Irene didn't know exactly what Black Manta had been imprisoned for, Arthur normally kept Atlantis politics a secret, which meant that this worried him enough that he felt the need to share it with the rest of the League.

"This must be Lex Luther again." Diana stated after a long moment of silence. She was a warrior and had voiced her worries about a war for the last couple of weeks. Of course they all knew that Lex was planning something but they had yet to find any leads on where he and the escaped Arkham prisoners were hiding.

"He's forming his own team." Clark said taking Irene's hand undoubtedly sensing her worry. Lex was obsessed with killing Clark and this all had to mean that he was coming up with some plan to finish what he had started. The threat with Lex overlapping with the upcoming threat from Darkseid was spreading them thin.

"That's unsettling." Kara said softly as she adjusted in her seat uncomfortably.

Before they could continue The Flash suddenly appeared at the end of the table. Removing his cowl Barry looked around with an awkward smile.

"Barry you're late... again." Bruce said making no attempt to hide him annoyance though Barry being late was expected.

"Well, this time I actually have a good excuse." Barry declared as he took a seat, realizing that they were all waiting for his explanation. He normally had a very long excuse that didn't make much sense as he tended to talk at a ridiculously fast speed. "Oh.... Captain Cold escaped Iron Heights like 10 minutes ago I ran all over Central City looking for him. He couldn't have possibly gotten out of the city that fast."

"It all has to be connected." Arthur said growing more stressed knowing that whatever group Lex was putting together was quickly growing in numbers. "He's forming his own team."

But Lex wasn't just forming any team. He was selecting people carefully making sure that each person he selected had some kind of history with the Justice League.

"Wait so what did I miss?" Barry questioned as he looked around eagerly.

"Black Manta, a prisoner from Atlantis just escaped." Victor stated seeing as Arthur had no intention of repeating himself. "As Arthur said these can't be coincidences.

"Irene how far are you and Victor and finding new members?" Bruce asked, it had been a couple of days since he had asked for an update and suddebkqy she realized why she was here.

She had spent the last couple of days working with Victor on finding new members for the team, it wasn't easy considering that any other meta humans they had discovered were currently in high security prisons. Apparently it was rare that those with special abilities would choose to use their powers for good. But she and Victor had been able to narrow it down two three individuals. But they wouldn't know for sure until they met them in person.

"We have three individuals that we planned on approaching. Two of them seem to be meta-humans but we don't know for sure." Irene replied knowing that they needed a little more time which they clearly didn't have to make a well informed decision. Bringing in three strangers that they didn't know much about was unsettling and would change the team dynamic.

"I'm sending you everything we have on them now." Victor stated late followed by everyones devices ringing as they all received the updated files.

"Victor and I can go to Star City tomorrow."

"I think that it should just be you Irene." Victor replied quietly.

"Victor..."

"You're the best person for the job Irene." He instead and Irene knew better than to argue with him. Although Victor had accepted who he was he still felt as if he would unsettle others around him if he were to go out in public. He preferred to only go out on team missions and nothing more, something that Irene had unsuccessfully been trying to help him with.

They had been working on it all together and it didn't feel right for Victor to no longer be involved but she knew that there was no changing his mind. She would have to go to Star City on her own which didn't worry her but from Clark's silence was clearly worrying him.

Irene had spent most of her day at work booking plane tickets and accommodations for Star City and Coast City. She had never been to Washington or California which made it all a little exciting. The whole trip would take about four days, luckily Perry didn't argue much about her absence when she told him that she was scouting potential new members for the Justice League.

Ever since Perry admitted to knowing Clark's secret work had been surprisingly easier. Perry no longer questioned Clark disappearances, but that didn't save Clark from getting scolded at if he missed a deadline.

"Brought you lunch." Clark said as he placed a bag of take-out on her desk. Irene looked up to meet his expectant eyes as he held out his hand. "Come on."

Irene was still working on securing an interview for tomorrow and she wanted to continue to work until it was confirmed but she knew Clark wouldn't allow it. It was already past her normal lunch time and truthfully she was hungry and she couldn't object. Especially not with the smell of her favorite Chinese restaurant from across the city.

"Are you sure you're not tired?" Clark questioned as they walked into the break room. The room was empty as everyone else had already gone on lunch.

"I'm fine." Irene assured him knowing that he was worried about her lack of sleep, but she was too focused on her trip to Star City to even think about her exhaustion. But when she took a seat again she could feel the exhaustion and hunger weighing on her.

Clark remained silent for a moment which made Irene look up at him knowing that he was preparing to tell her something that he believed would upset her. "Do you want me to go with you tomorrow?"

Irene knew that this conversation was coming, she just didn't expect for it to happen at work. Irene looked around the empty break room before moving her chair closer to his. "You don't think I can go by myself?"

"It's not that..."

"Clark I am not spending the rest of this pregnancy sitting on a couch getting fatter while you go out every day. That's just not who I am, I need to work." She replied before he could continue, knowing exactly what he was going to say. He was going to tell her that going to an unknown city to meet with a stranger was dangerous, and Irene couldn't deny that there was some kind of risk involved. But for her stepping out of the apartment was a risk. She was human and realistically there were somethings that were even out of Clark's control.

"I'll worry."

"I know." Irene said as she took his hand doing her best to try to reassure him. Clark always had a tendency to worry about her, but his worry had increased now that she was pregnant. "If only you had super hearing and could hear if I'm in trouble anywhere in the world. Or that you could fly at an incredible speed. Or..."

Clark smiled as he shook his head knowing that she would keep going if he didn't stop her. "Okay I get it."

"I may not have super speed or strength, but I am a good journalist. And I'm going to Star City as a journalist and not some undercover spy."

"No you're good at inspiring people. That's why you're the best person for the job." Clark replied and although Irene didn't really believe it she knew that he did. Even when he was the symbol of hope that the entire world looked up to, but he would always to be humble to admit it.

Irene smiled knowing that he finally accepted that everything was going to be okay. Of course that wasn't going to stop him using his powers to check in on her in case she did find herself in danger. "If that's true then you have nothing to worry about."

"Well, let me worry about the fact that you haven't eaten since this morning." He stated as he began to unpack the take out setting it in front of her.

"I love you." Irene couldn't help but say remembering the three months that she had to love without him. There were some nights when she still woke up terrified that he gone. She didn't even want to think about how different things could have been if Bruce hadn't insisted on bringing him back.

Maybe she was too reliant on him, but she really didn't believe that she would be able to do it all without him. Even if it was just him reminding her that she needed to eat or properly take care of herself. And although everything around them seemed to be falling apart at least they had each other to rely on. Whatever it was that Lex Luther was planning they would figure it all out and everything would fall into place again.

A/N: Been getting a lot of request for this story which helped inspire me to write for it a bit. Our girl is going to Star City next chapter which is going to be a fun one (if you know, you know).