Clark carried Lois down a long corridor that ran the length of the building to another elevator. Marin walked ahead of him, trying not to look nervous. She pressed a button on the wall and stepped inside the car, waiting for Clark to follow. "This is how Dr. Swann comes and goes," she said quietly.

"Okay," Clark answered with a bemused nod.

"Just trying to make conversation," Marin shrugged and punched the button for the ground floor with less gentleness than her tone implied.

Clark drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly. "You know, I'm not really feeling very chatty."

Marin fell silent until the doors opened on a small garage. "Should we take her in the car?"

Clark shook his head. "She lives less than a block away, it's easier if I just carry her."

"Okay." Marin thrust her hands into the pockets of her jacket and followed Clark down the sidewalk. She concentrated on the rhythm of his steps in hopes of slowing her heartbeat, but being near Clark Kent did little to make her girlish fantasies subside. Were he anyone other than Clark Kent, the rapid thump in her chest would have remained her secret, but she knew that on this almost silent street at this hour, with little distraction, the pumping of her blood betrayed her.

Clark turned his head and looked back at her for a moment, either puzzled or intrigued, then he stopped in front of pair of thick glass doors. "This is it."

Marin pulled the handle. "It's locked. Is there a key on her?"

"I - uh, I don't know, I didn't check."

"Nevermind, there's a doorman."

A twenty-something with a limp and a comic book came to the door. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, please," Marin spoke up. "Our friend lives here - she had a little too much fun at a back-to-school party, and we're the designated - uh - carriers. "

Clark allowed Lois' head to loll back enough to show her face, and the doorman grinned in recognition, a little too carnally for Clark's taste.

"Oh yeah, Lois. She was at a party? Thought she was out of town." He tossed his comic on a nearby bench and unlocked the door. "She's a tough one to keep an eye on."

Clark suspected the doorman frequently had an eye on Lois. He laid her gently on the bench, only slightly deliberate about resting her feet on the doorman's comic book.

"Listen, can we trust you to get her to her apartment?" Marin asked the doorman as she grabbed Clark's arm and backed toward the door.

"Yeah, no problem!" He nodded emphatically and waved them on. "Don’t worry, I've got it from here."

"I can take her - " Clark offered, bending to lift Lois again when he felt a tug on his arm.

"We really have to get back to the party, Kal. They're waiting for us. She'll be fine."

Caught between obligation and prudence, Clark hesitated for a moment. Marin, presumably under the guise of moving in to kiss his neck, wrapped her arms around Clark and whispered into his ear. "I know you want to see her safely home, but we don't know who else may be there and we can't risk someone else seeing you and telling her you were there."

Clark threw a forlorn glance in Lois' direction. "Yeah, um - we do have to go." He began walking backward to the door. "We'll come back to check on her," he added as a pseudo-warning.

Only a few steps outside the door, Marin stopped and challenged Clark. "We'll be back to check on her?"

"He doesn't know we won't," Clark explained. "Keep walking." He took a few long steps until he was out of view of the doorway, and turned to focus his vision on the interior of the building. The doorman had resourcefully placed Lois in a rolling office chair and was wheeling her toward an elevator.

"We need to get back, Clark."

"Just a minute." He had to refocus his eyesight and lost them momentarily, but found them again on the second floor, where the doorman was knocking on what must be Lois' apartment. Receiving no answer, he opened it with a master key. Clark was uncomfortable with this eerie doorman having access to Lois' apartment, especially when she was vulnerable, but he had to hope that his admonition that he'd be back would serve as something of a deterrent.

"You'd make some boy scout, Clark."

Clark turned back to Marin and started walking again, concern evident on his face. "I'm just not comfortable leaving her unconscious, especially around that guy - I got a creepy feeling from him."

Marin smiled wryly. "You're very protective of the women in your life."

"I tend to get that way when someone injects them with experimental sedatives," Clark quipped coldly.

Marin stopped again and took an authoritative stance. "Look, I'm not going to keep circling this issue with you. She followed you, she eavesdropped, found out pretty much everything, and somebody had to think fast. Thinking fast is part of my job, and like it or not I made the right decision. Now, if for whatever reason you decide you'd rather believe that I'm some crazy needle-wielding maniac, that's fine," she paused to survey the scene around them and dropped her voice. "But it's my job to help keep your secret under wraps, and that's what I did. I've been on this project for months, I'm well acquainted with the risks, and she, as far as I'm concerned, was a risk. I'm not about to risk the integrity of the project because your girlfriend couldn't mind her own business."