Two Faces of Clark
By Gerry Anklewicz <gankle@rogers.com> 
Rated: GP13
Submitted: August, 2002

No copyright infringement is intended. I recognize that the 
characters are not mine. I am just borrowing them for a 
little fun and not for any profit. My special thanks to the 
writers of "All Shook Up" since I use the basic concept of 
that episode for my story. I also use wording and ideas 
from a lot of other episodes, sometime having the sentences 
or ideas used in context and sometimes having them used out 
of context. The portions taken from the series include, but 
are not limited to, using actual words, paraphrasing, 
twisting sentences around to change the meaning and simply 
alluding to the idea. I sometimes have the same characters 
say or think a particular line, idea and/or segment and 
sometimes I give those lines, ideas and/or segments to 
someone else.

Furthermore, I recognize that putting the above disclaimer 
on this story does not justify the breach of copyright 
and/or the breaches of trademark contained herein. I rely 
on two things to keep me from being sued. First, the mercy 
of WB and any and all other holders of rights to the 
series, the individual episodes and/or the characters. 
Second, I rely on the fact that I am not deriving any 
profit from either the writing or the posting of this 
story.

I'd like to thank ML Thompson for allowing me to use the 
above disclaimer. I'd also like to thank ML for holding my 
hand, baby-sitting and encouraging me to finish this story. 
Her sense of storytelling is outstanding, and she's passed 
on some of her wisdom to me. I hope that I have done that 
wisdom justice. I want to thank Jude Williams as well for 
her insightful comments and her strong sense of grammar and 
sentence structure. Her nit-picking has made me a better 
writer. Thanks also to Carol Malo who read and commented on 
this story. Her advice was very helpful. I can't forget all 
the folc on Zoom's msb who stuck with my story and let me 
know if I was on the right track. Thank you. Thank you to 
Jeanne Pare, my GE who had to put up with too many typos.
You've got a great eye.

Two Faces of Clark By Gerry Anklewicz

Lois sat looking outside her living room window. It was a 
cloudless night: the stars twinkling more brightly than 
usual, the crescent moon shining its warm light on the city 
which was more quiet than it had been during the day when 
people were scrambling around. She didn't hear the usual 
rumble of traffic, the honking of horns or the wailing of 
sirens. Like Lois, the majority of Metropolis's residents 
must have been sitting home reflecting, worrying, perhaps 
unlike Lois, clinging onto their families.

The fate of their future days and nights rested on the 
shoulders of one man, not an ordinary man, but a man 
nonetheless. She had confidence that he could smash into 
the Nightfall Asteroid and change its course; however, she 
was still scared. What if he couldn't? Should she have 
taken Lex Luthor up on his offer? He had a place for her in 
his bunker beneath the city. An apartment resembling her 
own waited for her to pack a few bags and move in. It would 
have been so easy for her to accept his generous and 
flattering offer. He wanted her to survive whatever might 
happen so that he could have her as a companion. He cared 
about her and wanted to be with her. She'd never had such a 
selfless offer before. And yet, as tempting and as charming 
as it was, Lois couldn't accept. She had to be above 
ground, observing and recording the changes that were 
occurring in Metropolis, in the world. So she had turned 
Lex down and returned to her real home, The Daily Planet, 
where she finished writing the story based on the 
information the observatory gave at the news conference. 
She and Clark had finished the story, and each had gone 
home for the night. Tomorrow morning, Superman would go 
into space with only a tank of oxygen to protect him. He 
was their hope; he was their future.

Now, she sat looking out the window at the sky looking for 
evidence that this Nightfall Asteroid was really out there. 
She didn't see it. She only felt an awe for the peaceful 
night sky that blanketed the anxious city.

She felt a change in the wind before she actually saw 
Superman glide down toward her window. Smiling, she opened 
the picture window up so that the superhero could have 
easier access to her living room. Once more she was 
flattered that he would come to see her, perhaps to give 
her an interview about how he was going to approach 
breaking up the asteroid, perhaps to tell her how it felt 
to have the fate of the world in his hands. She stepped 
back from the window as he floated in. He looked impressive 
as he entered her room, arms crossed against his chest, 
shoulders back, that familiar stern look on his face.

"Sorry to disturb you, Lois," he said.

"No. No. You're not disturbing me. Actually, I was thinking 
about you," she said a little flustered. Every time she saw 
him she could hear her heart beat loudly in her chest and 
feel it tremble.

"Me?" he asked, some of the severity leaving his face.

"I was thinking about tomorrow. I was wondering how you 
were managing."

"I'm fine," he said, staring into her eyes. He needed to 
keep the conversation going, but he wasn't sure what to 
say. "How are you?"

"Worried. It's pretty scary what you have to do. A lot of 
people are depending on you." She stared at the superhero 
who was more agitated than normal. She wondered why he had 
come to visit her of all people. "Is there anything that I 
can do for you, Superman?" she asked hoping for something 
practical to do so that they could keep talking.

"No. Not really." He paused and looked for something to 
prolong his visit. "I would like a cup of coffee, if you 
don't mind." He himself wasn't sure why he had decided to 
come to Lois's apartment as Superman. He could have come 
more comfortably as Clark. He could have brought take-out, 
a video. He could have turned on the ballgame, if there was 
even one on. But he knew that he came because, before 
leaving to destroy Nightfall, Superman needed human 
contact. Staying at home alone would not have been enough. 
Flying to Smallville to be with his parents would not have 
met his needs. He wanted to talk about what lay ahead of 
him, and he needed to be with Lois.

He followed her into the kitchen watching her prepare the 
coffee. He knew that he made coffee better than she did, 
but he couldn't let her see that he was familiar with her 
kitchen.

"I haven't got too much to eat with the coffee," she said, 
"but I did stock up on cupcakes and Twinkies for Clark. I 
can replenish my supply tomorrow..." Her voice trailed off 
as she thought about what tomorrow might look like.

Superman interrupted her musing. "I had a long talk with 
Professor Daitch this evening. We talked about trajectory, 
point of impact, speed. I have a good sense of what I have 
to do." He paused, looking for words to reassure her. 
"There will be a tomorrow."

"So you're pretty confident about your success."

"I know what I have to do."

"I'm sure you do, but how do you feel about the whole idea 
of going into space?"

"I've been in space before, Lois. I boosted the Messenger 
and guided it to the space station."

"Yes, I remember very well." Lois carried the coffee tray 
into the living room, conscious of the formality between 
them. "Superman, is this an interview?"

"I suppose it could be. I guess that people want to know my 
reaction to the Nightfall Asteroid and how I plan to deal 
with it."

She placed the tray on the coffee table. "Just a minute 
then, I'll get a pen and paper." Disappointed that Superman 
hadn't come for more personal reasons, yet happy that she 
had the opportunity for this exclusive interview, she 
brought back her notepad and began jotting down what 
Superman had already told her.

"Other than the Messenger, have you done any other 
superfeats in space?"

"Not really. I've thrown some balls into space, and I've 
just flown around seeing how far I could go, how long I 
could hold my breath."

"So, this is pretty new to you?"

"Yes."

"Then why did you agree to do it in the first place? I'm 
sure that the army and other science facilities like Star 
Labs have alternatives."

"The best alternative is a nuclear one. Professor Daitch 
said that he wasn't sure how the fallout would affect 
earth. I'm the safest choice at the moment."

"But you're a man, not a weapon."

"Yes, but I can do this."

"Why?"

"Because I can and because I'm here to help."

"You don't have to do this. It's dangerous." She paused. 
"I'm scared for you."

"I don't really have another choice. I have all these 
powers and abilities that other people don't have. I can't 
turn away from a request for help just because it's a 
bigger challenge than I've ever faced before. I have to use 
my powers for a good purpose. Saving Earth from a possible 
ice age seems like a good purpose to me."

"Yes, to me, too." She put down her pen and looked into his 
eyes, partially afraid to ask her next question, but 
knowing that it had to be asked. "Aren't you scared?"

Shifting positions, Superman pulled his eyes away from 
Lois's. Following his gaze, she saw him stare at her 
notebook.

"Oh," she said, understanding his discomfort. She closed 
her notebook. "This isn't for the interview. I won't write 
it."

Superman got up from the couch and walked over to her fish 
tank, staring blankly at the movement inside. Even 
Superman, Lois thought, has trouble expressing his 
feelings. She knew she needed to help him, so she walked 
over to him and put her hand on his arm. "It's okay to be 
scared."

He turned, once more looking in her eyes. "I've never done 
anything like this before."

"Do you think you can do it?"

"Technically, it's very possible. I've been in space before 
and I'm just as strong there as I am here. "

"So what bothers you?"

"It's pretty big and it's very important. I feel humbled 
that the future of this planet is in my hands."

"What worries you the most?"

"Not succeeding and not coming back to earth."

Lois touched his chest, wanting to reassure him as well as 
herself. "You'll succeed and you'll come back. You have to. 
We need you...I..." she hesitated, "need you."

"Thank you, Lois, I need...needed to hear that," he said as 
he took her hand, then lifted it to his lips.

"This is the most difficult task I've ever done, and it 
frightens me in a way that nothing has ever frightened me, 
not even Kryptonite."

Lois looked at him in surprise. She hadn't known that 
Kryptonite actually existed. In Smallville, she and Clark 
thought that Trask was crazy because he believed the magic 
rock existed. Superman was confirming its existence to her. 
She began telling him the story of her experiences with 
Trask. Superman then told her about the tests that Lex 
Luthor put him through when he first came to Metropolis. 
Lois was surprised at how duplicitous the man was. On one 
hand, he offered her sanctuary; on the other hand, he 
wanted to quash any hope for the city. Incensed, Lois vowed 
to look into Luthor's background and finances. As one story 
led to another, they filled the next few hours with 
personal, but unimportant, talk. They drank several cups of 
coffee and finished off the cupcakes and Twinkies.

Finally, Superman got up. "It's one thirty in the morning. 
I guess I better go and get some sleep. I have to leave 
fairly early tomorrow."

"Thank you for coming over."

"No, thank you, Lois, for doing whatever you do that makes 
me feel so good about you."

"Good luck tomorrow."

"When I come back," he said, sliding his hand under her 
chin and running his thumb over her cheek, "we'll go 
flying." He placed a kiss on her forehead.

Lois closed her eyes. When she opened them a second later, 
Superman was walking toward her window. She ran up to him 
and turned him around. She meant to kiss him on his cheek, 
to wish him luck, but cupping his face in her hands, she 
let her lips go to his. He didn't pull back. He didn't push 
her away. Instead, she felt his lips press hers and his 
arms wrap around her shoulders. Her hands slid behind his 
neck caressing the skin and pulling him closer to her, 
savoring the moment.

Lois stepped back, looking up at his eyes. He was staring 
at her, questioning. And yet it was her question that 
needed to be answered.

"Why did you come here, tonight?"

This was a time for honesty. He had no desire to lie to 
her.

"I wanted...no...I needed to be with you before I undertook 
this mission." He leaned down and let his lips glide over 
hers again. He knew that kissing Lois was wrong. He had 
allowed his alter ego to take over from him because he 
realized that Clark Kent would not stand a chance with Lois 
Lane. Her heart would be with the superhero, not the 
ordinary man. And yet, he couldn't stop himself. He had 
needed to talk to her, to share his apprehensions, to be 
with her before he faced the unforgiving rock. He knew he 
needed to tell her the truth-but Clark would have to wait.

She reached her hands behind his neck and wove her fingers 
through his hair, pulling him closer once again. It was a 
moment she never dreamed of experiencing, words she never 
expected to hear from this private and aloof man.

His arms, encircling her, pulled her closer to him, his 
hand cradling the back of her head. His inner voice told 
him to stop, to leap out the window and go back home. Lois 
would never forgive him for his duplicity, but it felt so 
good to hold her, to kiss her. Just this moment.

She felt his mouth open slightly, his tongue touching 
lightly on her lips. She opened her mouth, letting her 
tongue meet his. She felt the texture of his lips and 
tongue against hers, and she inhaled his scent and his 
taste. She heard herself groan as his tongue continued to 
probe hers, as his hands began to slowly move up and down 
her arms.

They stood there, at her window, in a tight embrace, 
Superman's hands running up and down Lois's back, Lois's 
hands kneading his muscular shoulders.

"Do you have to go?" she asked. His lips began to trail 
kisses along her cheek to her neck. She shivered and pulled 
him closer to her.

"Not really." He began to nibble gently. "Except that I 
have this asteroid I have to destroy." He kissed her again.

She opened her lips to his probing tongue, allowing it to 
wash over her teeth and the roof of her mouth. His taste 
was intoxicating. She pulled him tighter and sent her 
tongue on a search for his, feeling its sleek underside. He 
moaned and she wanted her ears to fill with his sound, her 
mouth to fill with his taste.

"Stay here," she breathed.

"I want to," he stopped nibbling at her throat and held her 
in his embrace. He rested his cheek on her forehead. "But 
I'm not sure that I'd be here under honest pretences."

"I want you to stay the night."

"Lois," he said letting his fingers play with her hair, 
"there are things you don't know about me. Things that I 
can't tell you, but that might change your mind about 
having me stay."

"I know enough about you, the kind of man you are."

"Lois," he groaned.

But before he could get another word in, she interrupted. 
"I know it's just for tonight, and I know that we're both 
worried about what will happen tomorrow, if there'll be a 
tomorrow, but maybe this is the time when we do need 
companionship, another human being to connect with. And 
Superman, I've always felt connected to you, more than to 
anyone else I've known."

"Lois, I believe in that connection you feel because I feel 
it, too." He held her tighter. If he succeeded in 
destroying the asteroid and he returned to Lois, he 
couldn't let her regret anything that might happen between 
them, even though he wanted to stay with her. He wanted to 
comfort her and for her to comfort him. But he was 
concerned about her because he loved her and he hadn't told 
her that he was really Clark. "We have to treat this as if 
there will be a tomorrow, because there will be, I'm sure. 
Then how would you feel?"

"How would you feel?"

"I think I'd feel as if I'd taken unfair advantage of you."

"But this is my idea. Neither of us is being taken 
advantage of."

"Lois--"

Knowing that he shouldn't, Superman took Lois's hand, 
raised it to his lips again, and led her to the couch. 
"We'll just be together for a while, and then I'll go," he 
said hoping that he would be able to leave her. He put his 
arm around her, allowing her head to rest against his 
chest. They sat in silence, Superman's conscience nagging 
at him. He had said and done more than he had planned. All 
he had wanted was to be with Lois for a few minutes, but 
once he was with her, he couldn't leave. He had confidence 
in what he could accomplish in the morning, but, as with 
everything unknown, there were risks. He had known, and he 
was right, that Lois would offer him comfort and he would 
gain strength from her. She was like the sun for him-- 
always managing to say the right thing, to touch him in the 
right way, to revitalize him. But, he also knew that he was 
not being fair to her. She didn't know that the man who was 
holding her at this moment was Clark Kent. And before 
anything more intimate could happen between them, she would 
have to know. He sifted his fingers through her hair and 
leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

"Mmmm," she murmured. "Are you feeling better?"

"I feel calmer."

"So do I," she said snuggling closer to him. "You'll be 
fine tomorrow: I know you will." He pulled his arms tighter 
around her and placed more kisses on her hand. She shifted 
positions and stretched her neck to look into his eyes. 
They gazed back at her, and he read the same desire that he 
felt. He looked down at her moist lips, open and inviting. 
He couldn't refuse the invitation. Their kiss was soft and 
gentle, and then, when he deepened the kiss, she became 
more demanding, pulling him in, making him feel as if she 
wanted to become part of him. He returned the passion, 
tasting her sweetness. And then, his hands, of their own 
accord, began tracing her body, her neck, her shoulders, 
desiring to feel her warm, silky skin. And as he touched 
her, she followed her own path, rubbing her hands up and 
down his back.

"Does the suit come off?" she asked, breathlessly.

"Is this what you want?" He was still concerned that 
omitting to tell her that he was Clark Kent was unfair to 
her. He couldn't go ahead with loving her without telling 
her the truth. But if he did, would she reject him, tonight 
of all nights? And he needed her.

"Yes, I want you, this moment in time. This isn't a 
frivolous decision, Superman. I've wanted to be with you 
this way for a long time."

"And I've wanted you," he said as he unfastened the cape 
from his shoulders and pulled the zipper down. Lois moved 
her hands to the suit's collar, sliding the stretchy 
material off so she could place kisses on his shoulder.

"Lois, are you sure you want this because I'm not sure I'm 
going to want to stop later on," he said, knowing full well 
that if she asked him to stop he would because he would do 
whatever she asked.

"Yes, Superman, this is what I want, but not here." This 
time it was her turn to take his hand. She led him into her 
bedroom. At the side of her bed, she removed the top of his 
suit while he slowly undid the buttons of her blouse and 
trailed kisses from her collar bone to her breasts. With 
her blouse open, he placed his hand on her lace covered 
breast and continued tantalizing her with his kisses.

"Oh, this feels so good," she said as she put her arms 
around him and pressed her body against his.

"You're so beautiful," he said as he lifted them both in 
the air over the bed.

"I guess I have to hold on tight," she said as she wrapped 
her arms and legs around him.

"The tighter, the better," he said, once again nuzzling her 
neck. He floated them down, lying side by side.

"I think we need to talk..."

"No, this isn't the time," she said placing her mouth on 
his.

He let the kiss encompass him. No, he thought, it wasn't 
the time to talk. He continued kissing her. They would talk 
later, when he came back. Whatever would happen they would 
have tonight. And he let thoughts of Clark Kent drift from 
his mind as he focused in on Lois.

***************

She woke up feeling his finger drawing small circles on her 
shoulder and his lips filling them in with kisses. She 
realized, almost simultaneously, that she wasn't alone, 
that she had made love to Superman, that he had told her 
that he loved her, and now he was placing soft kisses on 
her shoulder.

"Mmmm." She spooned deeper into him. "Is it morning 
already?" She pulled his hand around her shoulder so he 
could hold her more tightly.

"Yes, I hear the lark."

"No, it's the nightingale." She didn't want him to leave so 
soon. She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed his 
fingers. Actually," she said in between kisses, "I don't 
like the Romeo and Juliet reference." She turned around to 
face him. He looked scruffy, his hair mussed. He looked 
relaxed. He looked adorable. "I don't like the way they 
ended up."

"I didn't think of it that way." He placed a kiss on her 
nose. "We're not like them. I'm coming back," he promised.

"I'm waiting."

"I'm sorry that I woke you up, but I didn't want to leave 
without saying good-bye."

"I have to get up, too," Lois said, realizing that she had 
his take-off to observe and a story to write.

He held her tightly, placing more soft kisses in her hair 
and forehead, not willing to let go, but they both knew 
that his time was limited. Her lips and tongue played havoc 
with his need to get up and leave. But Nightfall waited for 
him.

When he finally was able to release her to get up and get 
dressed in his suit, she began to gather fresh clothing. 
"Please, Lois, stay here. I don't think I could treat you 
as just another reporter at the space centre this morning."

"But I have a job to do. I have to report your take-off."

"You've got the interview. You can write it up and LAN it 
to Perry from here. Someone else can write up the take-off. 
Please, Lois."

"All right," she said grudgingly. "I think I understand." 
She surprised herself. Her normal need to go, especially 
when she was asked not to, hadn't kicked in. Even though 
every fiber of her body told her that her job was to report 
Superman's take off, she also knew that she couldn't keep a 
professional distance. Not this morning. She was afraid 
that the bittersweet joy she felt at that moment would be 
evident to everyone around her, especially Clark. It was 
nobody's business where Superman spent the night. Or that 
she spent the night with anyone.

He held her again, kissing her again. "I love you, Lois. 
I've loved you for a long time." And as the words came out 
of his mouth, he realized that he had just ruined any 
future that he, as Clark Kent, could have with Lois Lane, 
because the man who said those words to her couldn't offer 
her anything.

"I've dreamed of hearing that from you. I love you, too."

"When I come back, I need to tell you something important, 
and then we'll talk. I hope I haven't ruined anything." He 
kissed her one more time, and then he flew out her window.

**************

When Superman was out of sight, Lois set up her laptop and 
turned on the TV. She then placed a call into Perry 
explaining that she wasn't going to be at EPRAD for 
Superman's take-off, but she had managed to get an 
interview with him that she would LAN as soon as she had 
written it up. Then, as she kept one eye on the TV watching 
Superman's speedy ascent into the heavens, she wrote her 
article. Yesterday, she would have been impressed to get 
such a personal interview from the Man of Steel; this 
morning, she was more concerned with keeping the private 
man, who had revealed himself last night, to herself while 
only revealing his public persona in her article.

Spending the evening talking to him was incredible. The 
more she got to know the man inside the suit, the more he 
amazed her. She realized that he was so much more than the 
seductive good looks and the astonishing powers. They 
laughed when he had described the incredulous look on her 
face when she first saw him on the Messenger. They laughed 
harder when he told her how hard he had tried to hold back 
from burping after he had swallowed the bomb. They talked 
about some of the stories that they had in common. Superman 
explained the science behind making invisible light 
visible, so that he could uncover Barnes' gang after they 
robbed the gold repository, and he told her how he had 
talked about how it feels to be different when he convinced 
the metamide kids to release Lex Luthor and to return to 
the orphanage.

Mostly, she learned that although he was the most powerful 
man in the world, he was such a gentle, considerate lover. 
His kisses intensified her passion. His touch drove her to 
heights she had never dreamed of. And when they had 
finished making love, he held her closely and whispered 
endearments to her, telling her the depth of his own 
feelings for her. She had once believed that loving 
Superman was safe and so she indulged her fantasies. Now, 
knowing the man, she found that loving him was filled with 
risks-risks that she was willing to take.

By the time Lois sent her article to Perry, showered and 
dressed, EPRAD Centre reported that Superman had smashed 
the Nightfall Asteroid and diverted the larger pieces away 
from the Earth's orbit. He had returned to Earth and was 
briefing EPRAD staff. The press was expecting a statement 
from him within the hour.

He would be coming back to her soon.

************

"Nice interview, Lois," Perry pronounced. "It'll go nicely 
with this picture Jimmy took."

"Thanks, Chief," she said, taking her coffee back to her 
desk. "What do you want me to do next?"

"Well, Jones is writing up the scientific aspect of 
Nightfall, Kent is out getting the ordinary person's 
perspective...see if you can find Superman and get a 
follow-up."

"Easier said than done, Chief. He usually finds me. And I 
don't feel like jumping off a building or even yelling, 
'Help Superman!'" she said.

Lois turned as she heard the elevator's arrival. She looked 
over to see Clark walking past the coffee pot, down the 
ramp to his desk. He was rubbing his forehead and looking a 
bit perplexed.

"What's up with you, Clark? Rough night?"

"I'm not sure. My head hurts."

"Let me look." She removed his hand from his forehead and 
saw a big bump that had turned black and blue. "How did you 
get this?"

"What?"

"This bump?"

"I don't know. I just woke up and it was there."

"Did you hit yourself on the head with something? Did 
someone hit you?"

"I don't know, Lois. It was just there when I woke up."

"Well, put a cold compress on it and the swelling will go 
down. And take some aspirins for the headache." She watched 
Clark sit down and start up his computer. Reaching into her 
desk drawer, she pulled out a bottle of aspirin and handed 
it to him.

"Did you get good interviews this morning?"

"Interviews? Oh, yeah, on the asteroid. No, not yet. I 
better go out and get some quotes," he said as he got up.

"Clark, wait," Lois called to him. He looked confused. She 
wanted to make sure he was all right. "Let me go along with 
you, and we'll work on this together."

******************

The rest of the day went well. Lois and Clark spoke to a 
cross-section of the people in Metropolis who gave their 
opinions about Superman destroying Nightfall. Some were 
awed by the hero's abilities, others felt that it was 
nothing special since he did have the powers, he was 
obligated to help, while others argued that he was 
dangerous. But they were glad that he had saved the Earth. 
Then there were those who thought that the Nightfall scare 
was a government conspiracy to put more power into the 
hands of the President.

After getting their street interviews, Lois and Clark 
returned to the newsroom where Clark wrote up the story.

"How's your head?" Lois asked.

"Fine, it doesn't hurt anymore. I guess the aspirin 
worked."

Lois leaned over and checked Clark's head. "I'm surprised 
that it didn't leave you with a bigger bruise. It looked 
pretty bad this morning."

Clark just shrugged his shoulders, not understanding Lois's 
concern. He looked at his watch. "Wanna go out for some 
dinner?" he asked, realizing that it had gotten late and 
they hadn't managed to eat lunch.

Dinner with Clark would be nice, thought Lois, but she 
wanted to be home just in case Superman dropped by early. 
Keeping busy during the day had kept her mind off his visit 
the previous night, but now she was eager to see him again. 
He had said that he wanted to talk to her about something 
important. Knowing that he had told her that he loved her, 
she was now curious about what else he had to tell her. She 
had so much more to learn about her lover.

"No thanks, Clark. Not tonight. I'm going to finish up 
here, and then I've got some things I have to do at home."

*************** The somber mood of the previous night had 
drastically changed in the last few hours. People had left 
their homes and flooded the streets. Colorful flags and 
red, yellow and blue banners flew from windows, storefronts 
and cars. Children carried balloons in the same colours 
while teen-agers drove their cars down the streets, honking 
their horns as their buddies stuck their heads out of 
windows and sun roofs cheering at passers-by who waved at 
the enthusiastic teens. People of all ages passed each 
other and smiled, whooped and hugged each other, even 
kissed each other. There was dancing in the streets to 
music blaring from buildings. The mood was jubilant. They 
had something to live for. The world wasn't ending. It 
reminded the man leaning against a lamppost of the time the 
Metropolis Sky Hawks won the World Series.

Unlike the celebrants around him, he didn't feel as if 
Superman had given him a second chance. In fact, Superman 
had already destroyed everything that had any significance 
for him. He'd lost the only work that he had loved and that 
he performed successfully, and in a flick of a finger, he 
had been humiliated in front of his peers. At least, with 
the destruction of the world, people would have been so 
busy rebuilding their lives, they would have forgotten 
about his ignominy. He had actually welcomed the end of the 
world, but once again Superman had intervened and ruined 
everything.

And that Lois Lane, and her partner Clark Kent, made 
everything worse by disclosing his, and others', secrets to 
the rest of Metropolis and the country. As a result, he 
went from a somebody to a nobody in a second. Now, he would 
bide his time and wait for the right moment to take his 
revenge on Superman, if that were ever possible, but 
definitely on Lois Lane, her father, and Clark Kent.

*************** Lois rummaged through her closet, trying to 
decide what to wear for Superman. She pulled out her 
favourite black cocktail dress, but immediately put it back 
when she decided it was too fussy. After all, she was 
staying at home. She then looked at a satin negligee that 
she had once bought on a whim, but also returned it to the 
hanger. Too provocative, not the image or the mood she 
wanted to project. She went to her favourite: a comfortable 
pair of slacks and a matching sweater.

Once changed, she set the table for the dinner. She hoped 
he would like the penne primavera and salad she had picked 
up at Santo's. Not wanting him to get the idea that she 
could actually cook, she left the container on the counter. 
She opened a bottle of Merlot and poured a glass, making 
herself busy while waiting for Superman to arrive.

Once the apartment was more than presentable, she sat down 
with her glass of wine. She was sure that he would arrive 
soon. He had something to tell her, and then they would 
talk. She wondered what he was going to say. It had to be 
something personal, something private that he hadn't told 
people before. Perhaps about himself, where he came from, 
how he lived when he wasn't out saving someone. She had 
often speculated on who this very special man was. Perhaps 
he would tell her about his life on Krypton, tell her about 
his parents. Did he have parents? Did he want her to meet 
them?

She got up from her seat on the sofa and walked to the 
window where she stared into the star-filled sky. It was a 
quiet night with no sign of Superman. After a few minutes, 
she moved over to the television, hoping that, if Superman 
was out on some rescue, LNN would have some news, but there 
was nothing. Everything seemed peaceful. No sign of 
Superman. No need for Superman. Lois flipped to a sitcom, 
but found it hard to concentrate. She tried to watch a 
movie, but the cliched plot irritated her. She flipped back 
to LNN where she caught the tail end of a story about 
Councilors Velinski and Tremonte fighting once again about 
the landfill dispute. Anna Velinski was pushing for 
Earthtek to build a new landfill site just five miles east 
of the source of the Hobbs River. Bill Tremonte was 
promoting the environmental lobby which was looking for 
another site where the water table wasn't so close to the 
river. She moved into the kitchen, wrapped the penne in 
foil and, along with the salad, placed it back in the 
fridge. She put the cork back in the wine bottle.

This was probably what it was like to have a relationship 
with Superman. Cold dinner. Wilted lettuce. Melted down 
candles. She wouldn't be able to make plans or depend on 
him. Not that he didn't want to, she assured herself. He 
just had responsibilities. She wondered if he would ever 
wait for her if she had to run late on a story or go out on 
a stake out.

She picked up the phone and called Clark. She might as well 
see how he was doing. She worried about the bump on his 
head.

"Hello?" his groggy voice answered.

"Clark, did I wake you up?"

"Lois? Is that you? Is anything the matter?" He sounded 
worried.

"No. I just wanted to make sure that your head was all 
right." Now that she was saying the words, it seemed rather 
silly to wake him up.

"Of course it is." He laughed.

"I just wanted to make sure that you didn't have a 
concussion or you weren't in a coma."

"If I was in a coma, I wouldn't be answering the phone."

"That's true. It sounds silly, but I was worried."

"Thanks!"

"For what?"

"For worrying."

"Anytime." She paused. She really didn't have anything to 
say now that she knew he was okay. "Good night, Clark."

"Good night, Lois. I'll see you in the morning."

She listened for him to put the receiver down before she 
put hers down. She stared at the phone for a few minutes 
and then glanced at her watch. It was one o'clock. She had 
to go to work in the morning. She put the dishes back in 
the cupboard, scraped the wax off the tablecloth, and 
changed into her pajamas. She opened the window slightly, 
just in case...

***************

Clark was already at his desk when Lois came in late. For 
once, he didn't go over to the coffee machine and bring her 
a cup of coffee. He was engrossed in his work. Lois was 
curious about what he was up to, so instead of settling at 
her own desk, she dropped her purse and headed over to 
Clark where she leaned over his shoulder to see what he was 
working on. The screen was blank.

"Why are you so glued to a blank screen, Clark?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, keeping his eyes on the screen, 
but she could see that his ears were turning red.

"What's going on?" she probed.

"Nothing!"

"Yup! That's what it looks like to me, too. Nothing. So why 
are you looking at a blank screen?"

"I just finished doing some research on the net, and I was 
thinking about it." He still wasn't looking at her.

"What kind of research?"

"You can be persistent, can't you?"

"Yes, I can. So tell or I'll bug you all day."

"So, my choice is to tell you now or to let you annoy me 
all day until I can't stand it any more," he observed.

"That's about right."

"Fine. I was researching dreams."

"Do you have some kind of story related to dreams?"

"No. I've just been having some weird dreams lately, and I 
don't know what to make of them."

"There's nothing deep in dreams, Clark. They just happen 
and then you forget them," she said as she playfully 
slapped his shoulder and went back to her desk.

"When I was little, I used to tell my dreams to my mom and 
she'd make up all these positive reasons why I was having 
them. I used to dream of being on the road trying to get 
from one place to another. She told me that I'd be a world 
traveler when I grew up."

"She was just feeding your imagination, Clark."

"Probably, but I did do a lot of travelling," he answered 
wistfully.

"You had a pretty idyllic childhood, didn't you?"

"No. It had its ups and downs. I was a teenager like most 
kids, so life wasn't all that easy. But my folks were 
great."

"Lucky you."

They spent the rest of the morning at the regular story 
meeting, and then they went off to City Hall for a press 
conference related to the landfill debate.

By the time the meeting was over, Lois's stomach was 
pleading for a pastrami on rye with a big dill pickle on 
the side. Grabbing Clark's arm, she led him across the road 
to Moe's Deli. That would give them time to digest the 
information that the Mayor's spokesperson had given them 
about the advantages of opening up a new landfill site 
beside the Hobb's River.

While they ordered their sandwiches, Lois noticed 
Councilors Velinski and Tremonte enter the restaurant.

"Clark...over there...no, don't be so obvious," she 
whispered. "It's Councilors Velinski and Tremonte."

Clark acknowledged Lois's observation.

"I wonder why they're having lunch together. They're always 
on opposite sides of most issues."

"They could be friends and be apart politically," Clark 
speculated.

"I doubt it. Politically, they're like day and night. And 
wouldn't we know about their friendship since we cover City 
Hall often?" She stared intently at the two councilors. "I 
bet there's some kind of underhanded deal-making going on 
between them. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was on 
the take. Oh I wish that we could listen in on their 
conversation." She surveyed the restaurant. "There aren't 
any seats around them that we could move to...Clark, are 
you listening to me?"

He stared at the two councilors intently for a few minutes 
and didn't respond to her query.

"Tremonte's son and Velinski's daughter have just gotten 
engaged," he finally stated looking back at Lois, "and 
Velinski is telling Tremonte about her plans for the 
engagement party. It will be at Oliver's, which holds sixty 
people comfortably, on the thirtieth. She'd like to keep it 
to family and very close friends."

"You're putting me on, right?"

"Nope."

"How?...Do you read lips or something?"

Clark paused for a second thinking about it and answered in 
the affirmative, if "or something" is considered the 
affirmative.

Their sandwiches arrived, and seeing that there was no 
story in the engagement party, Lois dug into her lunch.

*************

Not quite understanding how the argument had escalated to 
this level, the two youths stood facing each other 
menacingly, each pointing a gun at the other. Sweat poured 
down their faces as each wrapped a finger around the 
trigger, the other hand supporting the weapon. Each looked 
for the facial twitch that would declare the next move. 
Around them, their allies moved back, step by step, in 
order to get away quickly in case one or the other opened 
fire.

They heard the police sirens approaching, but neither 
trusted the other enough to put his gun away and take off. 
So when the police arrived, they stood in the same 
positions, their friends using the opportunity to move 
behind the police barricades.

Superman swooped down from above and settled behind the 
police lines staring at the two combatants, their friends 
off to the side, the officers and then at the flashing 
light above the police car. One of the officers approached 
the superhero and explained the situation.

"I'm glad you're here, Superman," the officer said.

Superman standing firmly with his legs apart and his arms 
crossed in front of his chest, said, "No problem, Officer. 
I'll have them both...both..." He shook himself, shivered 
and looked around in confusion.

Superman's words were interrupted when one of the boys in 
the crowd yelled to his buddy with the gun. And then all 
hell broke loose. The two boys started shooting, first at 
each other and then at those around them. The boys in the 
background, and the officers, along with Superman, ducked 
behind the squad cars that were lined up parallel to the 
shooters.

The officers squatting beside Superman hollered, "Aren't 
you going to do something?"

Superman kept his eyes on the shooters for several seconds 
before he turned to the officer beside him and asked, "Me?" 
Superman gasped. "What do you expect me to do? Isn't that 
your job?"

The officer in charge, realizing that for some reason, they 
couldn't count on Superman, and realizing the danger to the 
lives of those around, raised himself onto his knees and 
carefully aimed his gun at one of the shooters. He signaled 
a second officer to do the same. He slowly nodded to his 
partner. On the third, almost imperceptible nod, both 
opened fire at once taking out the two shooters.

As the shots rang out, the other police began shouting at 
the boys who had moved away from the shooters. Aiming their 
guns at them, they hollered out to the boys to raise their 
hands and walk over to the squad car. Following a well-
known routine, the boys raised their hands and leaned their 
hands onto the roofs. While two officers kept their guns on 
the two wounded shooters who were lying on the ground 
moaning, another two ran over to kick the guns away and to 
ascertain the condition of the perpetrators.

Superman slowly began to lift himself up, his eyes settling 
on one of the boys standing near the entrance of the alley. 
When the boy saw the superhero coming toward him, he took 
off in a run. Superman began to follow him at a normal 
running pace, down to the other end of the alley and into 
dark labyrinth where one alley fed into another one. 
Superman looked around but didn't see anyone. Dejected, he 
leaned against the wall and ran his fingers through his 
hair.

The man in the shadows who had been watching the superhero 
thought that Superman didn't look very much like a 
superhero at this point. He wasn't behaving the way the 
superhero had behaved in the past. He believed that his 
opportunity had arrived. He wasn't quite sure why he 
thought this or what it actually meant, but no one had ever 
accused him of being a coward. He knew an opportunity when 
he saw one. He moved himself out of the shadows and blocked 
Superman's path. The man saw fear and confusion, and then 
recognition, in Superman's eyes. The man brought his fist 
up and, using all his might, plowed it into Superman's 
face. Superman stepped backwards, his hand moving 
instinctively to his cheek where he had been hit. The man 
took two steps toward his victim and put all his weight 
into punching him in the stomach. Superman clutched his 
stomach and shielded his face with his hands. And then the 
man threw one more punch, just because he could. "Yes!" he 
cheered himself on.

A light from a flashlight shone on Superman and a voice 
called out, identifying himself as the police. The 
assailant watched Superman as he shook himself off, stood 
up, and ran down the alley away from the police officer.

"Sorry, officer. I heard someone in here, so I followed 
him. I didn't realize that it was Superman," said the man 
who had just bested Superman in a fist fight.

"That's okay, sir," said the officer. "Just checking."

Tommy Garrison walked out of the alley. "Yes!" he muttered 
to himself. "Yes!" he said more loudly, and "Yes!" he 
finally whooped. He had stared Superman in the face and he 
had won. He, Tommy Garrison, was the strongest man in the 
world. He had proven himself. He had wondered what made 
Superman so special, so different than other men, so 
different from him. But now that he had punched Superman 
twice and knocked him out, the Man of Steel was weaker than 
he was. If he could take on Superman, he could do anything. 
He raised his arms over his head in a victory salute to an 
imaginary crowd. "Tommy Garrison is the strongest man in 
the world! Tommy Garrison won the ultimate street fight!"

Garrison now knew that having bested Superman, taking 
revenge on Sam Lane and then Lane and Kent was very 
possible. For the first time since the Menken's boxing 
scandal had been blown wide open, Garrison felt that he had 
a future to look forward to.

*******************

Later that evening, Lois sat in her apartment, pleased with 
the story she and Clark had written about the landfill 
debate. Thanks to thorough research, they had obtained some 
irrefutable scientific data on the detrimental effects the 
landfill would have on the river, and hence on the city-
information which City Hall failed to share with them.

Lois felt good about the way the day went. It was her 
evening that she was not sure if she was anticipating. Last 
night had been a disappointment. She wondered if tonight 
would be the same. She stared at the penne, salad and wine 
that were still in the fridge and decided that she would 
warm up enough penne for her own dinner.

She remembered as a teen-ager having dinner with her 
friend, Tina Constantine, whose mother always used to 
lecture them: "Remember, girls, you can't put all your 
hopes for future happiness on a man. You can only depend on 
yourself. Men are nice to have around, but you can't count 
on them. You have to make yourselves capable and 
independent. Get an education. Get a career. Like yourself. 
Only you can make yourself happy." Lois smiled. Mrs. 
Constantino's lectures paid off. Whenever she needed to 
hear them, they popped into her head. So, she warmed up her 
dinner and sat down at her table with a copy of Dr. 
Peterson's article on the dangers of landfill to the 
environment.

As she was finishing her notes on the article, she heard a 
familiar whoosh. Superman was hovering outside her window.

"Do you mind if I come in?" he asked.

When she indicated that he should enter, he floated in. All 
of a sudden she felt shy, unsure of what today was supposed 
to bring.

Superman, on the other hand, knew exactly where they had 
left off because he walked towards her, scooped her in his 
arms and kissed her. She laughed when he put her down and 
she stood back from him.

"Mmmm, that was nice," she said.

"I missed you," he explained, then held her closely again 
and repeated the kiss.

"Welcome home, but I thought you would come last night."

"Last night?" he asked looking at her quizzically. "I was 
here last night."

"No, you weren't. You were here two nights ago," she 
stressed the difference in time. "I waited for you last 
night, but you didn't come."

"Sorry."

"Where were you? I didn't see anything on the news."

Once again he looked at her quizzically. He shrugged his 
shoulders. "I don't remember." He shook his head.

Lois put her hand to his forehead and then combed her 
fingers through his hair. "Superman, are you all right?"

"Fine. I feel fine. I just don't remember last night." He 
stared back into her eyes and put his arms around her 
narrow waist. "I do remember being with you though. Now 
let's see." He pulled her closer. "We were doing something 
like..." He lowered his head to hers and captured her lips. 
"...this."

"I think so," she murmured huskily. Although she was still 
worried about Superman, she didn't want to break the moment 
with too many questions. She let him consume her with his 
passion and she, in turn, received sustenance from him.

Several hours later, she lay, sated, in his arms. He was 
playing with a lock of her hair.

"I thought of you while I was in space. It was so quiet, so 
peaceful for a time. The stars shine so much brighter, and 
the blues and greens of the Earth look so inviting. I 
wanted a camera to show you how beautiful it looked. I 
wanted to come back down to Earth and carry you up with me, 
but I knew it was impossible."

She sighed and pressed herself closer into her lover's 
body. "Was it difficult shattering Nightfall?"

"No, not difficult. I knew exactly where to hit it and my 
velocity and direction were right on. I just didn't expect 
the flash of light that I sparked when I hit the asteroid. 
But, after that I just turned around and came back home. 
Re-entry wasn't a problem. I've done that before."

"Can I write about what it was like in space?"

"Sure. Just don't mention what I was wearing when I told 
you," he said lifting the cover to check his and Lois's 
lack of clothing.

Once again, Lois cuddled closer. "Will you stay the night 
with me?"

He brought his lips to hers, pushed her hair away from her 
face, and treated her to another deep kiss. "Of course. 
Where else would I go?" He kissed her lightly on the lips 
and then traced the curve of her neck with tiny kisses. 
"But I'm not quite ready to go to sleep yet," he said as he 
continued nibbling.

***************** Lois stared at her computer screen 
forcing herself to stop reliving every moment of the 
previous night. She needed to finish writing Superman's 
account of his confrontation with Nightfall. But her mind 
kept wandering. As she wrote the details of the flight into 
space, she thought about the way his fingers traced the 
outline of her body while he told her, or the way his 
kisses forged a path between her breasts and her navel, or 
the softness of his lips on hers as he punctuated his 
description of the smashing of the asteroid. That had to be 
the most erotic interview she'd ever participated in. She 
typed a little more trying to visualize what it must have 
been like out there in outer space. That's what she had to 
get across for her readers. She could indulge in her own 
memories later on.

And yet as wonderful as the night had been, Superman had 
seemed different. As well as forgetting about the previous 
evening, he had never mentioned what he wanted to talk to 
her about. They had talked, but nothing seemed to be 
important enough to warrant the promise he had made to her 
that first evening. Not only that, but he had seemed 
different. Not in any tangible way. She didn't know him 
that well, but some secret ingredient was missing from 
their second liaison. Nonetheless, he had still been 
attentive, considerate, loving and incredibly sexy. 
Perhaps, it was just her imagination.

She focused on the article she was writing, rereading it 
from beginning to end. Yes, it had the right touch. She 
pressed some keys and LANned it to Perry. Looking into his 
office window, she saw that he received the LAN and was 
beginning to read it. She walked over to the coffee machine 
and poured herself a fresh cup. She returned to her desk to 
begin working on the landfill notes that she and Clark had 
collected the day before. You're only as good as your next 
story, she thought.

Her work was interrupted when Perry came out of his office 
waving a piece of paper in his hands.

"Lois, darlin', you've outdone yourself again. This is why 
you're a Kerth winner three times over," he said as he 
patted her on the shoulder. Then he turned to the rest of 
the news room, "Boys and girls, this afternoon, in the 
Daily Planet, you will read the definitive interview with 
Superman, by our very own Lois Lane."

Only Perry, she thought, could make her feel this good 
about her work. As usual, he had given her a gold star.

"But, darlin'," he said quietly so only Lois could hear, 
"I've marked a few, just a few mind you, places where you 
need to touch this up. And get rid of those misplaced 
modifiers."

"I thought that was what you were for, Chief?"

Perry guffawed as he left the article on Lois's desk and 
walked back to his office.

"So, Lois Lane wrote another great page one article?" Clark 
asked as he approached her desk.

"Read it and weep, Kent," she said as she handed it to him 
along with a pencil. She liked the way Clark edited her 
copy, as long as he didn't make any major changes. Curious 
to see Clark's reaction to such a great interview, Lois 
watched him carefully. He began reading the article and 
then stopped. He closed his eyes and swayed as if he was 
dizzy. Before she could get up to stand beside him, he 
walked over to his desk and sat down. He picked up the 
article again and continued to read it. In the time he 
could only have read a few words, he stopped reading and 
pinched the bridge of his nose. Then he spread thumb and 
forefinger under his eyes and rubbed. Shaking his head, he 
looked at the page again and seemed to finish reading it. 
Without picking up the editing pencil, he came back to 
Lois's desk.

"Good interview, Lois," he said listlessly. "You've 
described it so well, I thought I was there myself." He 
handed her the unmarked article.

"Thanks, Clark."

"But, Lois, I'd be worried if I were you," he said walking 
back to his desk.

"Why?"

"If you write too many articles like this about Superman, 
people will assume that you have the inside track on him, 
and you could be in danger."

"Don't be silly, Clark."

"Tell him to spread his interviews around."

"Clark Kent, I can't believe that you're jealous because 
I've managed to get my share of Superman interviews."

"Not jealous, Lois. Just concerned. Remember Jason Trask."

"So? You were there with me," Lois countered. "And you're 
the one who knows how to contact Superman, not me. You be 
careful."

"How do I contact Superman?" he asked.

"Clark, stop playing games. Your sense of humour is 
annoying." She sat down at her desk a little angry that 
Clark was playing the overprotective mother hen again. She 
could take care of herself and decide when she should stop 
getting Superman interviews. He was the one who came to her 
after all; she didn't approach him. He wanted to be with 
her...except she couldn't tell Clark that, or anyone else 
for that matter.

She looked back at her unmarked interview. "Aren't you 
going to fix my misplaced modifiers and my dangling 
participles?" she asked, wanting him to treat her copy the 
way he usually did.

"Not today, Lois. I don't think I can concentrate on it."

"I thought you got a kick out of taking me down a couple of 
notches with your blue pen."

"You can do it on your own," he said pulling out a file of 
his own.

"Well, then I'll leave this with Perry and we'll 
concentrate on this landfill story. We can go over to City 
Hall to get a few good quotes from our favourite councilors 
and then write up the story."

***************** Considering the sunshine and cool breeze, 
Lois suggested that they walk to City Hall and enjoy the 
good weather before it turned cold. They had the time since 
the council meeting would not end for another hour. Walking 
with Clark was pleasant. He had apparently gotten over the 
strange mood that had distracted him in the office, and 
their conversation about their story and about the 
aftereffects of Nightfall kept them occupied.

She liked talking to Clark. He made her feel as if she was 
the centre of his universe. She hadn't met many men who did 
that. She was surprised then when she found that she had 
lost Clark's attention. Following his gaze, she realized 
that he was looking up at a window on the fourth floor that 
had smoke coming out of it. As they watched, they heard an 
explosion and saw glass burst from the window. A woman 
rushed frantically to the window yelling. Lois grabbed her 
cell phone from her purse and dialed 911. Clark stood 
beside her for a second before he darted into the building.

"Wait," she called after him. "It's too dangerous." But he 
never heard her last words. He was moving very quickly, and 
he was already in the building. Now, Lois realized that she 
had two people to worry about. As she waited, she watched 
other residents who were running out the front door, turn 
and look up at the burning apartment. Many of the tenants 
were crying uncontrollably. Lois kept her eyes on the front 
door. After what seemed like hours, she saw Clark cradling 
a child in one arm while his other arm encircled the woman 
who had come to the window. Once they had crossed the road, 
the young woman took the child from Clark. Rocking her 
child, she tearfully thanked Clark for his help.

Lois watched the people milling around the front of the 
burning building. She was thankful that it was during the 
workday and most people weren't home.

One young mother held her baby and looked around 
frantically. "Where's Mrs. Thomas? Have you seen Mrs. 
Thomas?" she asked the other tenants. When she approached 
the woman whom Clark had saved, she asked her about Mrs. 
Thomas as well.

"Who's Mrs. Thomas?" asked Clark.

"She's an elderly woman who lives on the third floor. She's 
in a wheelchair."

"What apartment?" Clark asked.

"305," answered the woman.

Clark started to run across the road.

"No, Clark. Please. I can hear the fire engine sirens. It's 
dangerous," Lois pleaded. But once more her partner ran 
into the burning building ignoring her entreaties. She 
found herself clenching her fists as she waited for him to 
exit. She cringed when she heard another explosion. What 
had gotten into him? For the first time since she'd known 
Clark, he had rushed into danger without even thinking of 
the consequences. How could he be so heedless? She didn't 
want to lose him. She bit her lip and said a silent prayer.

The fire fighters arrived and began setting up their 
equipment. Lois ran to one of them.

"My partner...went up...third floor...Mrs. Thomas," she 
mumbled wanting the words to make sense, but coherent 
thought wasn't happening for her.

"Lady, calm down. Breathe," said one of the fire fighters 
in soothing tones. "Tell me what happened."

"My partner went in there," she pointed at the front door 
where Clark was exiting with Mrs. Thomas in his arms. 
"Clark. Omygod, Clark. He's all right and he's got Mrs. 
Thomas."

Fire fighters rushed around Clark, taking Mrs. Thomas, who 
seemed to be enjoying the role of damsel in distress, from 
his arms and placing her on a gurney. Lois ran towards 
Clark, but a fire fighter held her back. "Clark! Clark!" 
she called. He must have heard her because he looked up and 
smiled. He signaled to the fire fighter that he was all 
right and went across the road to encompass Lois in a deep 
hug.

"Oh, thank goodness you're not hurt," she said, returning 
the hug. "I was so worried."

"It's fine, Lois. I'm fine," he said as he pulled her in 
closer to him.

"Then why did you do such a stupid thing?" she asked, 
stepping back from him and slapping him on the chest. 
"You're not a professional. You could've been hurt." Her 
relief turned to anger at his stupidity and selfishness.

"All I could think of was that I had to help. Somehow, I 
knew I could do it," he said calmly. "Come on now. We've 
got two stories to write up for tomorrow's paper."

*****************

Several hours later, after they had called in the story 
about the fire and managed to get to City Hall in time to 
get some interviews and quotes for their land fill story, 
the two reporters were each writing up their stories. Lois 
looked over at Clark to clarify something Councilor 
Tremonte said when she saw him tilt his head and pause. She 
wondered where he had to go this time, but surprisingly, 
Clark shook his head and looked back at his screen.

"What happened there?" she asked.

"Where?"

"Just now. You looked as if you remembered you needed to 
drop off a video or something."

"I thought I heard something, but it must have been a 
ringing in my ear."

"Are you okay?" she asked beginning to be really concerned 
about his behaviour. "You've been acting strangely over the 
last day or so."

"No. I'm fine. Sometimes I think I hear things."

"Maybe you have a concussion from whatever hit you on the 
head the other day. Or maybe you hurt yourself at the fire 
this morning."

"No, I don't think so. I feel fine. Really."

"Cla-ark?"

"Let it go, Lois. I'm fine."

She watched her partner as he got back down to work. Maybe 
he was fine and she was just misreading him. He seemed 
unhurt after saving Mrs. Thomas and the other woman. Once 
other reporters had arrived on the scene, they made a big 
deal about Clark, one of their own, saving the child and 
the two women. They were calling him a hero. Clark seemed 
uncomfortable with that role. He kept saying that he did 
what anyone else would have done in that kind of situation. 
His impulse was simply to help these people who needed 
help. He wasn't doing anything extraordinary. That, of 
course, didn't stop the other reporters from using Clark's 
heroism as their leads. She didn't know him that well, 
although at times she felt as if she had always known him 
and could read him like a book, but she could see that he 
didn't want the media to play up his role in the fire.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Jimmy dropped an 
afternoon edition of the Daily Planet. The front page 
carried her interview with Superman next to a full length 
photo of him. She had to get a copy of that photograph from 
Jimmy to frame.

****************** That evening Lois returned to her dark 
apartment after her Tae-Kwon-Do class. The exercising had 
felt good. Now all she needed was a hot shower and 
something to eat. She looked into her empty fridge. She and 
Superman had finished all the leftovers the previous 
evening. When she offered him the leftover penne, at first 
he looked at her as if she came from another planet. "I 
don't need to eat," he had told her. But then when he had 
seen her disappointment, he had taken the penne and wolfed 
it down. No, it was more like he had vacuumed it in.

She needed to do some serious shopping if she was going to 
be eating at home more. Meanwhile, she phoned her favourite 
pizza store and decided to place an order that would feed 
two. She had enough time to take a quick shower before her 
order arrived.

She decided that she'd keep the pizza warming in the oven 
for an hour. If Superman did not arrive by that time, she'd 
eat. In the meantime, she cut out her interview with 
Superman and pasted it in the scrapbook she had started to 
keep when the Man of Steel first arrived in Metropolis.

Once again she turned the TV onto LNN to see if she could 
find the whereabouts of Superman. He was on the interstate 
helping clean up another oil spill. She counted the number 
of oil spills that had occurred on New Troy highways since 
the superhero had arrived in Metropolis. She wondered if 
having Superman in Metropolis meant that companies took 
fewer precautions with big equipment like oil carriers. 
That might be an interesting story that she and Clark could 
look into.

She put two slices of pizza on a plate and poured a glass 
of diet cola. She started up her laptop and began writing 
the follow-up of the landfill story. She was unaware of the 
passing time until she heard a longed for tap on her 
window. She glanced at the time on her laptop surprised 
that she'd been working for an hour and a half. She had 
managed to finish one piece of pizza, but the second lay 
cold on her plate.

She got up to let Superman in. He moved toward her in two 
quick steps and just before he enfolded her in his arms, he 
stepped back.

"I don't think I'm presentable here," he said looking at 
his grimy suit. He pulled his cape to his nose and sniffed, 
"I smell like a gas station."

"Do you want a shower?"

"That would be nice. Would I be able to throw my suit in 
your washing machine?"

"Sure, no problem," she said.

"Wait. That's not a good idea. What would I wear?"

Lois raised her eyebrows. She had a good idea what she'd 
like to see him wearing, but her practical side took over. 
"Clark did his laundry here a few days ago because his 
washer broke down. He hasn't picked up his clothes yet. I'm 
sure you could find something that fits." She led Superman 
into the spare room where she had placed Clark's folded 
laundry. Superman took out some clothes and headed into the 
shower.

Lois went back to her laptop. She smiled as she thought how 
domestic the situation was, and then she continued working 
on her story. Once again she lost track of time until she 
felt Superman's arms around her, his lips running kisses up 
her neck to her ear. He smelled soapy and fresh.

"This is better," she said, turning around to face him. Her 
lips sought his, letting him know how much she missed him.

"I've just got a bit more to do. Why don't you turn on the 
television or something."

She turned around to finish up her story. She scrolled to 
the top and reread her lead. "Yesterday, Councilor Bill 
Tremonte confirmed that deputy Mayor Bristol, known for his 
pro-business, anti-environment stance, was accepting cash 
pay-offs to stall plans on naming the new Metropolis 
landfill sight which should be announced early next week."

"Your lead is too inflammatory, Lois," said Superman 
standing over her shoulder, reading her copy. "You might 
want to consider..."

"You may be Superman..." Lois pounced on him. "And you may 
be my lover, but you may not edit my lead." She glared at 
him. No one, she thought, had the right to comment on her 
lead except for Perry...or Clark. She reread the lead, 
because she had planned to, and began typing in changes 
until she liked what she saw.

"Then, I won't mention that you spelled 'site' wrong."

Lois quickly looked at her lead. He was right. 'Site' was 
misspelled. She quickly corrected the error, checked that 
she didn't make the mistake again, and e-mailed the article 
to Perry.

Superman, looking rather pleased with himself, moved to the 
couch and waited for Lois to join him. It didn't take long 
for her to join him. Now she had a chance to look at him. 
Wearing Clark's clothes, he looked less formal and less 
forbidding. She snuggled closer to him.

"You look good in Clark's clothes," she said.

"They feel comfortable."

"I'm worried about Clark, by the way. He's been acting 
strangely. Have you noticed?"

"Noticed Clark? Should I have?"

"He's your friend, isn't he?"

Superman thought for a moment. "Do we really want to talk 
about your partner?" He leaned down and kissed her, pulling 
her in closer. "I've waited all day to do this."

"What did you do all day?"

"Some rescues. Helped with an oil spill on the interstate. 
Pulled some people out of a fire. Nothing more than usual."

"Are you getting bored with the rescues?" she asked, 
surprised by his off-hand tone.

"No. I like to help. It's just that right now, I'd rather 
be doing something else."

"Would I happen to have a role in what you want to do?" she 
asked coyly.

"Absolutely."

Superman kissed her again. Lois was surprised that she 
wasn't drowning in his kisses the way she had the other 
night. It wasn't that his kisses weren't wonderful, it was 
just that they didn't stop rational thought. What baffled 
Lois the most was the number of questions that kept 
invading her consciousness while she was supposed to be 
enjoying the feel of his lips. She tried to shake off the 
questions, but focusing on the pressure of his lips on 
hers, his taste, the beating of his heart, all she could 
think of was who was this man kissing her.

She let him withdraw from the kiss and she repositioned 
herself to face him, eye to eye.

"Superman, what's your real name?"

"Superman," he answered without skipping a beat.

"No. I named you that after you rescued the Messenger. You 
must have another name."

She could see him thinking, and then a puzzled looked came 
across his face. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't think I have any other name. I'm Superman."

"Where do you come from?" she asked trying another tack.

"Krypton," he answered, again without skipping a beat.

"When did you come to Earth?" she asked.

"Just before I rescued the Messenger. I remember flying 
across the US until I landed in Metropolis, at the 
Messenger. And then I saw you."

"And before that?"

"Before I met you? I don't remember. It's like I was born 
the day I met you."

Lois would have taken what Superman just said as a 
compliment, but she was beginning to worry. This didn't 
make sense. The Superman she knew before was different. He 
was secretive about his past, evasive even, but he wasn't 
ignorant of it. Something had happened to him that she 
couldn't understand.

He kissed her forehead and then traced a line to her lips. 
She responded half-heartedly.

"Is anything the matter?" he asked.

"I'm worried?"

"About?"

"You. You don't seem like yourself." She cuddled closer to 
him hoping that their closeness would help her understand. 
"You've changed since you left to destroy Nightfall. You 
came back and you don't seem as grounded. You've been 
forgetful and, not evasive, but...I'm not sure how to 
describe it. It's as if you don't remember anything before 
coming to Metropolis." She did know how to describe it. 
'Empty' was the word that came to mind, but she didn't want 
to tell him, not yet.

"I'm sure I have a past. Maybe I was in hibernation or 
something before I got here. Krypton must be pretty far 
from Earth."

"Do you remember Krypton?"

"No. Not really."

"See."

"Lois, this is silly. I'm me. I'm in love with you. Nothing 
else matters. It's as if our lives are starting right now."

"That's nice and romantic, Superman, but this is real life 
and we all have pasts, whether we like them or not. And 
you're too human. You're not one of my father's cyborgs." 
She thought for a minute about Tommy Garrison and the other 
prize fighters her father had created. They were fighting 
machines. No, Superman was much more human than any of 
them.

She admitted to herself that she didn't know Superman all 
that well. She might be jumping to conclusions. The first 
night she was with him may have been an aberration. Flying 
into space in order to destroy an asteroid larger than 
Metropolis had weighed heavily on his mind. He might have 
come to her out of a primal need to be with someone, 
without any real emotion. However, she was sure that on 
that night she had seen Superman stripped bare of the 
facade he wore in front of the world, and she'd seen that 
facade lowered other times in the past when he looked at 
her. No. This change occurred after Nightfall. Something 
happened to him out in space.

"Superman," she probed, "tell me again what happened when 
you were in space."

He gathered her in his arms and began to speak, "It was 
very peaceful once I left the Earth's atmosphere. Quiet. 
Soothing. I concentrated on what Professor Daitch and the 
others had told me, but every so often I would think of you 
and our night together. I really felt that talking to you 
that night had made me stronger. I kept my eye on Nightfall 
and watched it grow larger and larger as I approached it. 
Eventually, I closed my mind off to everything but the 
asteroid. I measured and zeroed in on the spot where I 
would have the greatest impact, and I flew right into it, 
centering all my strength into my fists.

"I felt my skin make contact with the rock, and then I 
think I heard the crunch as my fist went through it. All of 
a sudden, I was surrounded by millions of rocks of all 
different sizes hurtling around me, some coming at me and 
hitting me. There was an explosion of light, but I'm not 
sure if I actually saw it or I imagined it. Maybe it was 
just a bright light that I saw, or maybe I looked into the 
sun. Then everything was black for, maybe, a few minutes. I 
think I might have been knocked out, I'm not sure.

"When I could see again, I floated around, avoiding the 
drifting rocks, looking for Earth. I heard myself promise 
you that I'd take you flying, so I knew I had to get back 
home. It didn't take me long to find Earth and then I just 
propelled myself back until I landed. As soon as I could 
get away from Daitch, the military, and the press, I came 
back to you."

"I'm glad you came back to me," she told him, cupping his 
face in her hands and kissing him once more. She let this 
incredible man draw her into a deep kiss. Her hands laced 
through his hair and when she couldn't get enough of him, 
she drew his shoulders closer to her. Her hands slid down 
his back and under the t-shirt he was wearing. The feel of 
his skin made her moan with pleasure and longing.

"Let's go to bed, Lois," he said huskily. "I want to make 
love to you."

He scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom.

****************** Lois glanced at the man sleeping beside 
her. There was a small smile on his lips. Lois bent forward 
and lightly placed her lips on his, then quietly slipped 
out of bed. She couldn't sleep. Rather than making her 
tired, the love-making woke her up. She went into the 
kitchen. A cup of hot chocolate would hit the spot.

Superman had deftly managed to deflect the issue of his 
strange behaviour by making love to her. She didn't even 
feel that he had done it deliberately. He just didn't see a 
problem. But she did. Although she did not know this man 
very well, she did know that something was wrong.

She tried to clarify what was itching at the back of her 
mind. It wasn't that they had become lovers. She didn't 
have this nagging feeling three nights ago. It started the 
next time she saw him. He had no knowledge of what he had 
done once he returned to Earth. How could he not remember 
what happened over a twenty-four hour period? And he didn't 
seem to know where he went or where he lived when he wasn't 
with her or rescuing someone. He was just around. Something 
must have happened.

She thought his description of his encounter with Nightfall 
was interesting. He hadn't mentioned being hit by the rocks 
the first time he told the story. She wondered if something 
happened out there that made him forgetful. But it wasn't 
amnesia, was it? She decided to find out. She started up 
her laptop and searched for amnesia.

Superman didn't quite fit into any of the possibilities 
suggested. His memory of the traumatic event, she assumed 
that he was hit on the head by a piece of the asteroid, was 
very clear according to his story. Most amnesia victims 
didn't remember the trauma causing event or events leading 
up to it or after it. Superman's recall was excellent 
except for the short period that he may have blacked out. 
Amnesia victims did black out. There were several kinds of 
amnesia, her research told her. In one sense, he had 
antegrade amnesia because he had problems remembering day-
to-day events where he couldn't recall how he spent the 
day. Yet, he remembered parts of it. It might be infantile 
amnesia because he didn't remember his childhood, but he 
did know that he came from Krypton. There was a fugue 
amnesia where the memory was blocked and then came back all 
at once. Hadn't she read a story about that somewhere? The 
character in that story had no idea who he was. Anyway, the 
good news was that most amnesia was temporary.

She'd have to do some more checking and perhaps find a 
psychologist or psychiatrist to talk to. But, that would be 
hard because she didn't want to let anyone know that 
something might be wrong with Superman, and because he was 
Superman, there might be some significant difference.

Just as she shut down her computer, she heard her alarm go 
off. Was it six already?

"Lois?" he hesitantly called from the bedroom.

"I'm at my desk," she answered as she got up and walked 
back to him.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked.

"I dozed off a bit, but I was doing some work and lost 
track of time. I'll be okay."

She dressed for work while Superman made coffee and toast 
for the two of them.

"What are you going to do today," she asked, again curious 
about how he spent his time.

"I'll go out and fly around, I guess, and be around when 
someone needs me."

"Is that what you always do?" she asked.

"What else would I do?"

She shrugged her shoulders and took a bite of her toast. 
She looked at the man sitting across from her. The itch 
hadn't gone away; as a matter of fact, it had become more 
bothersome. He looked relaxed, enjoying being with her, she 
hoped. He looked up and saw her watching. He smiled, and 
then turned his head as if he was listening to something.

"What is it?" she asked, knowing that he was going to 
leave.

"An oil tanker developed a leak off the coast of Los 
Angeles. I've got to go," he said getting up.

"How did you know?" she asked, curious about how Superman 
always knew where there was an emergency.

"I heard your neighbour's radio. They just announced it." 
He came over and kissed her. "I'll see you later." He went 
to the window and took off.

Very domestic, she thought as she began cleaning up the few 
dishes she had used. She was surprised that she knew as 
soon as she saw him tilt his head to listen to...nothing... 
that he was going to leave, that someone needed Superman. 
It was the same way Clark looked before he went off on some 
asinine errand...

The itch was becoming unbearable. It stopped bouncing 
through her mind and settled in one place, and she began to 
scratch at it.

She pictured Clark yesterday when he also tilted his head. 
She was so sure that he was going to come up with an excuse 
to leave. She was actually taken aback when he didn't. 
Superman tilted his head to listen in the same way, and he 
did take off because he heard about an earthquake.

No, she thought. No. It wasn't possible. Clark couldn't 
be... Superman couldn't be... It was just coincidence. They 
had some of the same mannerisms, that's all. The man who'd 
spent three of the past four nights in her bed definitely 
wasn't... In fact, she'd prove it.

She picked up the phone and called Clark. There was no 
answer. She phoned the office, punching in Clark's 
extension. He wasn't at his desk. She knew that didn't 
prove anything, but the itch was localized now. She knew 
where she had to scratch.

She took a deep breath, trying to control her rapidly 
pounding heart. She needed to think, to put this all 
together, but she didn't want to do it at the office where 
she would be interrupted. Not wanting to go into great 
detail, she left a message on Perry's machine, telling him 
that she was working on something and that she would come 
in later than usual.

She knew that it wasn't worth her while to wonder why she 
hadn't made the connection between Clark and Superman 
before. So she filed that for later consideration. First, 
she had to be sure that her hypothesis was correct. Was 
Superman Clark?

There was nothing about Superman that would tell her he was 
Clark except that he fit perfectly into his clothes. And 
Clark was a well-built man. She remembered seeing him in 
only a towel when they had first begun working together. 
Secondly, Superman had wanted to tell her something before 
he left, but once he returned from the asteroid, he hadn't 
remembered that part of their conversation. Could he have 
wanted to tell her that he was Clark? She was really 
reaching here. But, he had hesitated, not wanting to make 
love because it would be under false pretences. He had told 
her that there were things that she didn't know about him. 
That made sense now. She would have been making love to 
Clark Kent. How would she have felt when she found that 
out? Angry? Betrayed? She couldn't think of any other 
reasons to believe that Superman was Clark except that he 
was right when he commented on her lead. It was too wordy. 
But all the signs were circumstantial. She needed something 
concrete that she could link Superman to Clark.

For one thing, Clark was behaving as oddly as Superman. She 
remembered that he had come into the Planet offices the day 
Superman returned complaining of a bump on his head and a 
head-ache. She had even worried about a concussion. He'd 
acted strangely as a result, but she sloughed it off as 
part of the bump on the head. But, that was ridiculous. 
Superman didn't get a bump on his head like Clark would. On 
the other hand, the bump cleared up very quickly leaving no 
black or blue marks on Clark. Who knew what could have 
happened to Superman in space? Maybe his powers changed 
when he was further away from the earth's gravitational 
pull. That might have an effect on his powers.

She wasn't thinking logically. She had to slow down.

Her thoughts traveled back over the last two days and to 
Clark's behaviour. When he tilted his head and seemed to 
want to go off to wherever he went, he had said that he 
thought he had heard something. What if he had, but he 
hadn't understood what he heard? Then, he had been able to 
repeat back everything that Councilors Velinski and 
Tremonte had said to each other in the restaurant. She 
believed him when he said that he could read lips. Maybe he 
only thought he was lip-reading; maybe he actually heard it 
like reading subtitles at a movie and believing that you 
actually heard the words. Was he lying to her or did he 
actually believe he could lip read? And then Clark ran into 
the burning building, twice, and saved the women...and 
Superman mentioned that he had rescued people from a fire. 
Clark came out unhurt just as Superman would have. Could 
Clark be Superman and not know it?

Possibly. He had run into the burning building without 
giving it a second thought. He could save those people not 
because he was brave, but because he knew he was 
invulnerable. No wonder he had been so uncomfortable when 
he had been interviewed by the press. But why hadn't he 
disappeared to return as Superman? She was sure that was 
what he had always done before when he told Lois that he 
was going for help or going to call the police. This time, 
he had stayed as himself and had rescued the people. That 
didn't make sense, unless he didn't know he was Superman.

No. That was ridiculous.

Yet, what she had brushed off as Clark's teasing, that he 
didn't know how to contact Superman, could have serious 
repercussions now, if he really didn't know that he was the 
superhero.

Lois turned on LNN. Superman had finished cleaning up an 
oil spill off the coast of Los Angeles. She picked up the 
phone and dialed Clark's number. He still wasn't at home. 
She didn't know where he would go when he came back from 
California, but she would be waiting for him at his 
place...assuming, of course, that her hypothesis was 
correct and she wasn't having some break with reality 
herself.

*****************

Garrison sat in O'Shaunassey's Bar nursing a beer while 
watching the Metropolis Shamrocks play the Orlando Magics. 
The game ended in a victory for the Shamrocks, and 
Garrison, who was in a magnanimous mood, called for a round 
of beer for his friends. His buddies from Menken's gym 
crowded around him, slapping him on the back for his 
generosity as well as acknowledging the Shamrock win. It 
was a good day all around.

Ben, the bartender, flipped the channel to LNN to pick up 
the latest news. Garrison caught mention of Superman and 
turned to watch the coverage of the oil spill focusing on 
the praise that the newscaster was heaping on the 
superhero. If only he knew, thought Garrison. He watched 
for a short while as the camera followed Superman who 
siphoned the water out of the ocean and into the cargo hold 
of the large tanker. The camera, probably on a helicopter, 
then zoomed in as Superman closed the opening of hull and 
welded it together.

He heard the voices of the men in the bar cheering 
Superman's accomplishment as if he had scored a basket for 
the Shamrocks.

"Look what that guy can do," said Little Eddy.

"He ain't that great, Eddy," Garrison objected, knowing 
that Little Eddy had been intimidated when Superman just 
stared him down.

"Sure, he is Tommy. He done things we can't, no matter how 
strong we are."

"Yeah, that's what you think," Garrison bragged.

"Just because he knocked you out with a flick of the 
finger..." said Docker, another one of Menken's prot,g,s, 
"doesn't mean you can put him down."

"He ain't that great," Garrison said adamantly. He looked 
around at the disbelieving faces of his gym buddies. Little 
Eddy even waved him off and started walking away.

"You don't think I can beat him up, Little Eddy?"

"Maybe a sucker punch like ya did last time," Docker said.

"Sucker punch? Hell, no. I got in a few good punches. He 
was covering his face and holding onto his stomach. I got 
him good."

"Yeah, right. Quit yer dreamin', man," Eddy said.

"I ain't dreamin'. This happened yesterday. I found him in 
an alley and I went up to him and slugged him in the face, 
then I plowed him in the gut. He was bent over double."

"Come on, man. Someone take Garrison home. He's had too 
much to drink."

Docker put his arm around Garrison, aiming him to the front 
door of the pub, but the former fighter shook off his 
friend and turned to the rest of the men at the bar.

"I'm tellin' ya the truth. Believe it or not, I downed 
Superman, and I ain't drunk."

He stood up taller, pushed his shoulders back and headed 
out of the bar. In the street, a cold wind blew on his 
face. He wasn't drunk. He knew what happened, and it was 
time that others knew that he could take care of Superman. 
There was no way that he would let his buddies think that 
what they heard from him was drunken rambling. He'd get 
proof that he could beat up Superman. He'd go after the Man 
of Steel in a more public setting, but first he would get 
rid of Lane and Kent.

*****************

When Lois knocked at Clark's door, there was no answer. He 
wasn't home. She took out her lock picking equipment and 
set to work. Being an easy job, it didn't take long for her 
to get into his apartment. It was empty and quiet. She 
tiptoed into his bedroom. He was curled up in his bed, 
hugging his pillow, sound asleep. She moved closer. Lying 
there shirtless and without his glasses, she knew without a 
doubt he was the same man who had gotten out of her bed 
hours earlier. Any lingering doubts that Clark was Superman 
were all gone. She was tempted to lean down and kiss him, 
but she wasn't sure about what Clark's reaction would be. 
She looked around for signs of his dual identity, but his 
apartment, as it had always been, was simply Clark. She 
looked in his washing machine and his hamper for the suit, 
but it wasn't there. Nor was it in either of his closets. 
She'd have to ask him where he kept them.

She returned to his bedroom and this time she cleared her 
throat. "Clark. Clark. Wake up."

Her partner sat upright in bed, saw Lois and grabbed his 
glasses.

"Lois? What are you doing here?"

"I came to get you."

"Oh, I'm late for work again! I've been sleeping in lately; 
I don't know why." As he got up, he grabbed the sheet, 
wrapping it around himself, and headed for the washroom. 
"I'll be out in a minute and we'll go to work."

"Take your time." She went into the living room and flipped 
through a magazine lying on the end table, but she couldn't 
concentrate. She thought about Superman, no Clark, in the 
shower. Clark Kent was Superman. She had no doubts; as a 
matter of fact, it all made a great deal of sense. Clark's 
behaviour for the last six months made sense, now that she 
knew he was Superman. And she had made love to Clark! How 
did she feel about that? Well, she wasn't repulsed by him. 
He was her friend. But she did have a rule about sleeping 
with men she worked with...and Clark knew that...He also 
knew that she had broken that rule once before. She wasn't 
as angry or as upset as she would have expected to 
be...except that he took advantage of her that first time 
by not telling her he was Clark. But that wasn't totally 
fair to Clark, and she knew it. In fact, she had 
practically seduced him. She had asked him to stay, and she 
had led him to the bedroom. He had told her that he didn't 
want her to have any regrets about what happened when he 
came back from space. He knew that she would be angry when 
she found out the truth. So probably, that was what he was 
going to tell her. And she would've been angry, but 
now...it was more important to find out why Clark continued 
to his Superman identity even after he had made love to 
her. For some reason, either Clark didn't want her to know 
that he was Superman, and if that was true, then she was 
very angry, or, and this was what really worried her, Clark 
did not know he was Superman.

She went into his kitchen to perc some coffee. When Clark 
came out, she would have to confront him. This time, she 
thought, she'd try the slower approach. Lois turned around 
when she heard Clark enter. She liked to look at him, to 
smell him, when he had that newly showered dampness around 
him. She wanted to throw herself in his arms and just 
inhale him, but she knew that this wasn't the right time.

"Coffee, Clark?" Her casual tone surprised her.

"Thanks," he said, taking the cup she poured for him and 
adding cream and sugar. "Mmmm, this is good. Glad to see 
your coffee making skills are improving."

She poured herself a cup, signaling Clark to sit on the 
couch. "We have to talk. I've been worried about you."

"Why?"

"You've been acting oddly and I wonder if the bump on the 
head is more serious than either of us thinks."

"No, I'm fine," he said, his eyes drifting away from 
Lois's.

"No, you're not. Why aren't you looking at me? There is 
something wrong. I can tell."

"Lois. It's nothing."

"Nothing? What do you mean?"

"I haven't been sleeping well lately."

"Insomnia? What have you been doing?"

"Not insomnia. I think I've been sleeping, but not well."

"This doesn't make sense to me, Clark."

"I've been having...dreams."

"So?"

"They've been disturbing, so I don't feel that I've been 
sleeping well."

"What kind of dreams?"

Lois was watching Clark carefully. She could see that he 
was uncomfortable talking about what was happening, and 
that he wasn't telling her the complete truth. To make 
matters worse, he was having a hard time maintaining eye 
contact with her. And now, he was blushing. Why on earth 
would Clark blush? What kind of dreams was he having?

"What kind of dreams?" she asked again, sensing that he was 
trying to avoid the question.

"Just dreams that seem so life-like that I really believe 
that I'm living the dream."

Lois opened her mouth to ask another question, but Clark 
cut her off. "That's all I'm going to say about it, Lois."

"Where were you this morning?"

"Here, in bed."

"Did you sleep here last night?" she challenged him.

"Of course, I did. Where else would I sleep?"

"Do you actually remember sleeping here?"

"Yes. I...I remember lying here in bed waking up after my 
dream..."

Lois didn't know what to say anymore. She wasn't getting 
anywhere with Clark. She knew, without a doubt, that he was 
Superman, but her friend was not ready to admit that he was 
her lover. The itch nagged at her again reminding her of 
her suspicions that he didn't know who he was.

"Clark, can you get Superman for me? I need to talk to 
him," she asked.

"How would I do that?"

"Don't you have some way to contact him?"

"Same as you."

"And that is?" Clark shrugged his shoulders, something he'd 
been doing a lot lately.

Lois saw that her ploy wasn't working. "I'll figure 
something out." She got up and put her cup in the sink. 
Picking up her purse, she said, "I've got to go. I'll meet 
you at the office later."

*****************

Lois never got to the office that day. When she was ready 
to leave, Superman knocked on her window.

"I was surprised when I saw you were home," he said when he 
came into her apartment.

"I was going to the office, but since you're here, I think 
I'll stay. If you're not in a hurry, I'd like to talk to 
you."

"Sure. I don't have anything planned. I thought I'd just 
hang out here until I was needed." Superman looked around 
the apartment, apparently not sure what he was supposed to 
do. Finally, he sat down on the couch and turned on the TV 
to LNN.

Why hadn't Clark gone back to the office? But, then she had 
asked him to contact Superman and here he was. It was a 
good time for them to talk. She joined Superman on the 
couch and taking the remote from him, turned off the TV. 
Lois realized that he took her move as an invitation to be 
more intimate as he sidled beside her, taking her in his 
arms.

"Yes, this is better than TV," he murmured in her ear and 
trailed kisses to her lips. She let him kiss her deeply. 
She couldn't stop herself from responding, but she also 
couldn't stop herself from thinking about what was 
happening to this man who made her heart beat wildly.

"This is so good, Superman, but I'd really like to talk a 
bit," she said after the initial passion had mellowed.

"Talk is over-rated, Lois," he answered, returning his lips 
to hers.

She enjoyed the sweetness of his lips for a few more 
minutes before she began again.

"I want to know more about you," she said. "Where you were 
before you came to Metropolis."

He paused, pushing her hair away from her face.

"I've always been in Metropolis," he answered.

She wondered if he looked puzzled because he was surprised 
by the question or if he didn't know the answer. She tried 
again, "How long have you been here...on Earth?"

"As long as I've been in Metropolis. Remember, I met you on 
the Messenger. I swallowed the bomb and you said, 'What are 
you?' Remember?"

Lois remembered that day very well, but she knew that he'd 
met her a few days before when he began to work for the 
Daily Planet. She also knew that he had a life before as 
Clark Kent. She had seen his pictures of his mother and 
father in what looked very much like Kansas. "Did you 
always have your super powers?" she asked, trying to see if 
he remembered his childhood.

"Lois, honey, do we have to talk about this?" He lowered 
his lips onto hers, once again. "You're so beautiful. I 
can't get enough of you. Even when I was away, I couldn't 
stop thinking about being with you." His hands began to 
caress her shoulders and then her back.

"Superman..." She couldn't say anymore because he pulled 
her close to him and deepened the kiss. She moaned with 
pleasure. He was quickly learning where and how to touch to 
get her aroused. But she couldn't let him distract her. 
There was something wrong with him and she had to help him.

"Tell me about your parents."

He stopped moving his hands for a moment and looked past 
her. "My parents? I don't want to think about them right 
now. I just want to think about you." He moved his hands 
lower on her back, untucking her shirt.

She tried to keep his hands still. "What were you like as a 
little boy?"

He stopped and sat up. "Lois," he said moving away from 
her, "If you don't want to do this right now, please just 
tell me. I'm getting a little confused. I want to make love 
to you, not talk."

"It's just that I was talking to Clark today, and we were 
talking about our childhoods, and I wondered about yours," 
she said hoping that might get him interested. He just 
raised his eyebrows as if to question in which direction 
her thoughts were coming from or going. "Have you ever 
talked to Clark about your childhood?"

"Clark?" he repeated. "I've heard of him, but have I ever 
met him?"

"You know, my partner, Clark Kent. He's your friend."

"Lois," he said, "I don't want to talk about other men, 
just you and me. I just want to love you." Once again he 
moved in and captured her lips. "You give me such joy."

Lois let herself be drawn in by him. She really wanted to 
talk, but she realized that, as persistent as she was, she 
was getting nowhere. Superman was closing the doors to all 
of her questions. It was not that he actually said that he 
didn't have the answers, he just avoided them, using the 
lovemaking as an excuse not to allow her to probe. She was 
persistent, but she could see that he wasn't going to 
answer her questions. She'd never thought of Superman as 
being stubborn before.

*************** Lois sat at her laptop waiting for her 
internet server to load. Superman had left when he heard a 
cry for help. He wouldn't be back for a while since he said 
that he would patrol the city before he returned to her. 
That gave her some time to do some research and some 
thinking.

Clark Kent was Superman. Neither Clark Kent nor Superman 
knew that. She did. She wondered if anyone else knew. She 
was almost certain that neither Perry nor Jimmy knew. This 
was not something that Clark would announce freely, and, 
although he was friends with others, she was his best 
friend at the office.

She noticed that her screen had the internet home page 
open. She searched amnesia again and noted that there was a 
link on one of the pages to neuropsychological disorders. 
What the heck, she thought. She might as well follow the 
cybertrail and see if it led her anywhere.

After an hour, Lois shut down her computer. Dissociative 
Identity Disorder. DID. It made sense to a certain extent. 
Basically, Clark had divided himself into two distinct 
personalities-Clark and Superman. He carried on as both 
independent of each other. That was what she was seeing. 
What she didn't understand was why it happened. Trauma it 
said. What kind of trauma did he undergo? In space? But DID 
was mainly associated with adults who had been abused as 
children. In her talks with Clark in the past, he had told 
her wonderful stories of his childhood. What other kind of 
trauma could there have been?

She also realized that Superman, being Kryptonian, meant 
that he might not react to stimuli in the same way as a 
human being. Perhaps, the trauma was different.

She wondered about his childhood and his parents. If they 
were abusive, then they most definitely wouldn't admit it. 
But, they might have clues to his problem. His parents must 
know. She remembered that Clark said that he had been 
adopted. Perhaps the trauma occurred before he reached the 
Kents. After finding the Kent phone number, she placed the 
call.

Martha Kent answered the phone. When Lois identified 
herself, the woman's polite tone turned eager.

"Yes, Lois. How are you? What can I do for you, dear?"

"Well," Lois said, hesitantly. She wasn't quite sure how to 
broach her plan to this woman whom she'd only met once. 
"I'd like to come to Smallville to talk to you."

"To me? Well, of course, you're very welcome to come. May I 
ask why?"

"Mrs. Kent..."

"Martha. Call me Martha."

"Martha, I'm worried about Clark. There's something wrong 
with him."

"Something wrong with my Clark? Whatever could be wrong 
with him? He's a healthy boy."

"No. It's just...Look I don't want to worry you, and I 
promise I'll get to you within a few hours. Superman will 
fly me there as soon as he gets back."

"Superman?" There was an imperceptible change in Martha's 
tone. If Lois hadn't known about her partner's dual 
identity, she probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Yes. Superman." Lois didn't want to get into the whole 
issue over the phone, but she had started it. "Martha," she 
paused, "I don't want to talk about this on the phone, and 
I don't want to worry you. Please. No questions right now. 
We'll be there as soon as we can."

"All right, dear."

"Thank you," Lois said. "And, uh...can you tell me how to 
get to your farm?"

"Superman's been here before. He won't have any trouble 
finding it."

"He might. He seems to be forgetting important pieces of 
information."

"Oh!" Martha whispered. She gave Lois directions to the 
farm and hung up the phone.

When Jonathan came into the farmhouse for lunch, he found 
his wife sitting on the living room couch shredding tissue 
and staring into space. He came to her side and knelt 
beside her.

"Martha, Martha," he called. When she didn't answer, he 
placed his hands on her cheeks, turning her gently to face 
him. "Martha, what's the matter? Are you ill?"

Aware of her husband, she shook her head slightly. "No. I'm 
fine. I just got a strange phone call from Lois Lane." She 
explained to Jonathan the cryptic message she had received 
from Lois. "She's right, you know. There must be something 
wrong, but she doesn't seem to know what it is. She won't 
talk about it, and then Superman..." Not being able to 
complete her thought. "Something's happened to our Clark," 
she whispered.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, Martha. I'm sure 
there's a reasonable explanation for this. All we can do is 
wait until they get here," he tried to reassure her.

Martha slid down from the couch and knelt in front of her 
husband, reaching to bring him closer to her. She put her 
head on his shoulder and let him enfold her in his 
protective arms.

"Sometimes we just have to wait," he whispered into her 
hair.

They helped each other get up.

"I think I'll go into the kitchen and bake those chocolate 
chip cookies that Clark always likes," Martha suggested.

"I'll go back to plowing the field after I grab a 
sandwich," he said. "Call me when they get here. I'll take 
the cell phone."

********************

Several hours later, Martha heard the familiar swoosh that 
announced Clark's arrival. She waited for her son to enter 
through the kitchen door but was surprised when she heard a 
knock coming from the front of the house. She moved quickly 
to answer it.

Lois stood in front of Superman on the other side of the 
door. Martha opened the door widely welcoming the two 
visitors in. She kept her eyes on Superman, looking for 
some kind of recognition, but he just stared at her, nodded 
politely and then glanced around the room. He didn't appear 
to show any signs that he was familiar with her or with the 
room. Martha looked at Lois. Could Clark be hiding any 
knowledge of the Kents from Lois? That was a possibility, 
but she realized that what was also missing was the warmth 
that came from Clark. Superman seemed like a statue-cold 
and impersonal.

Martha couldn't forget her manners. "Please come in. Sit 
down. Let me just phone Jonathan to let him know that 
you're here."

Lois took a seat on the couch beside Superman, quietly 
taking his hand while Martha phoned her husband.

"Superman, how do you like the Kent farmhouse?" Lois asked 
getting up and wandering around the living room. She saw a 
series of family pictures lined up on the mantelpiece, each 
capturing a stage in Clark's young life. It looked like he 
started wearing his glasses when he was around eleven years 
old.

"Nice," he said. "What I would imagine a farmhouse living 
room to look like."

"Mmm, yes. Look at these pictures of Clark," she said 
trying to see if anything spurred his memory.

"Nice family."

"Does anything look familiar here?"

"No. Should it?"

Martha came back into the living room and watched Superman 
look at the family photos while Lois stared at him, her 
lips drawn tight in worry.

"Lois, could we talk about what's on your mind, please?" 
Martha asked.

"Just let me talk to Superman for a minute. I need some 
things from Metropolis."

Martha looked on as Lois took her son's hands and spoke to 
him quietly, appearing to give him instructions. Lois's 
hand stroked Superman's face. He gently caught her hand in 
his and brought it to his lips. Smiling, he whispered 
something to her, then he bent his head and kissed Lois. 
Martha knew that what she was seeing was wrong. Clark 
should have been standing there with Lois, not Superman.

After saying a few words to Lois, he turned to the older 
woman. "Mrs. Kent, I'm just going to fly a patrol back in 
Metropolis and pick up some items for Lois." With that he 
walked out of the door and flew off.

A moment later, Jonathan walked in the house. "Why did 
Cl...Superman take off? I was hoping to see him."

Martha was just about to speak when Lois interrupted. "I 
sent Clark back to Metropolis because I needed to speak to 
the two of you without his hearing. I'm really worried 
about him." Martha and Jonathan's eyes opened widely. They 
exchanged a frightened look between each other and then 
nodded at Lois.

"Let me begin by saying that I know that Clark is 
Superman."

"Lois," Martha interjected, "whatever gave you that idea?"

"Martha, please. I know that you're trying to protect him, 
but there's no use denying it. And if you don't believe 
that I know the truth, then everything I have to say, and 
everything that's happened to Clark, won't make sense."

"Come, let's sit down. We really need to talk," Martha 
ushered the other two to the couch in the living room.

"Martha, Jonathan," Lois began, not wanting to delay, "I 
think that when Superman went to stop the Nightfall 
Asteroid, something happened to him that separated Clark 
from Superman."

"What?" Jonathan asked. Martha put her hand on his arm, 
signaling him to let Lois continue.

"I think when Superman left me the morning that he smashed 
the asteroid, he was both Clark and Superman. He promised 
me that when he returned that he had something important to 
tell me. I believe with all my heart that he wanted to tell 
me that he was Clark Kent. When he came back, I saw Clark. 
He had a bump on his head that he complained about, but he 
had no knowledge of how he received the bump or of 
Superman. It took me a few days to figure out; otherwise, I 
would have been here sooner. Neither Superman nor Clark 
know that they are one man."

Martha tightened her hold on Jonathan's hands. "What makes 
you say this?" Martha asked, not willing to admit that her 
son had a problem.

Lois recounted the preceding days that she had spent with 
Superman and Clark, including the relevant parts of their 
first night together. She outlined the evidence of the dual 
identity and the clues that had led her to this point. "I 
came here," she ended, "because I didn't know what to do, 
and I believe that you are the only people who can help me, 
who can help Clark."

"Oh my boy!" muttered Jonathan, not sure what he could do 
to help his son. "Martha?"

"Are you sure that he doesn't know who he is? He could just 
be withholding his identity from you?" Martha suggested. 
She knew that if she didn't take charge, the knowledge that 
her son had lost his sense of self would tear her up 
inside.

"He didn't recognize you, did he?" Lois asked. "He could 
have pretended, as you suggested, that he was here before." 
Lois stared at Martha demanding honesty. "Did you feel he 
knew you?"

Martha bit her lip. "No."

"Who else knows that Clark is Superman?" Lois asked.

"No one else," Martha said, acknowledging that both 
identities were housed in her son's body. "He'd decided 
when he was very young that he would keep it a secret. He 
didn't want to be different from his friends." Martha said, 
remembering the day Clark realized how different he was and 
the talk he had with his parents.

"Lois," Jonathan interrupted his wife's thoughts, "do you 
have any idea what this could be?"

"Well, I've done some research, but because he's Kryptonian 
and not human, I'm not sure how any of this fits. I don't 
think it's amnesia because each of them remembers something 
in the past, although Superman has a very limited memory. 
Each time I probed into his past he deftly distracted me 
from my questions."

"And how did he do that?" Jonathan asked.

Lois lowered her eyes focusing on her hands on her lap. "He 
got very amorous." She felt the blood rush to her face.

Martha chuckled. "Yes, I can imagine how distracting that 
could be."

"I'm not surprised that he didn't have answers for you," 
Jonathan said, recognizing Martha's humour as a mechanism 
she often used to deal with difficult matters. "Superman 
doesn't have the same history as Clark. Our son created 
Superman about six months ago so that he could help people 
without attracting attention to himself. His first outing 
was saving the Messenger."

"Yes, that's true," Martha added. "He told me that you once 
mentioned something about bringing a change of clothing to 
the office and that triggered the idea to design a suit."

"He had said that 'his mother made it'. That was you! " 
Lois stared at Martha for a moment. "Are you Kryptonian as 
well?"

"No, dear," Martha laughed. "We found Clark when he was a 
baby. We adopted him and raised him." She told Lois the 
story of how they saw a flash of light streaking through 
the sky, how they followed the light to Shuster's Field and 
found a space ship with a beautiful baby in it. No one had 
claimed the baby, so they had kept him, coming up with a 
story about a cousin's son whom they later adopted. People 
had believed it. Over the years, Clark had grown, healthy 
and strong, but it hadn't been until he was a preteen that 
they had begun to notice the changes that made him super.

"Did he have any traumas as a child?" Lois questioned.

Martha raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Like physical 
traumas?"

"Yes."

"Not that I can remember. He was a happy baby. As a 
toddler, he was curious and mischievous, but nothing 
happened to him. As a youngster, he managed to fall out of 
a tree or get hit playing ball, but they seemed to be the 
normal things that happen to boys."

"And," Jonathan added, "none of those injuries seemed to 
bother him. Nothing seems to be able to hurt him, 
except..."

"Kryptonite," Lois added when Jonathan paused. She 
understood that he didn't want to give anything away. "He 
told me about it. I saw how it affected him when we were 
here during the Corn Festival."

"Do you have any ideas what this could be, Lois?" Jonathan 
asked.

"Well, I did some research on the internet and found 
something called Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID. It's 
multiple personalities."

"Like that movie, The Three Faces of Eve, with Joanne 
Woodward?" asked Martha. Seeing Lois's questioning look, 
Martha described the film. "Eve is a housewife who is very 
unhappy. Her psychiatrist finds another two personalities 
residing in her body."

"Well, it's something like that. From what I can see, Clark 
and Superman are two distinct personalities who don't know 
anything personal about each other. It's as if they really 
are two separate people. Clark has human memories; while 
Superman has memories only of the times he is in the suit. 
He doesn't know where he came from. He just seems to have 
appeared." 

"So, what can we do about it?"

"Well, that's the hard part. Most of the research I've 
found points to psychotherapy and perhaps medication to 
help."

"Medication? No, I don't think so," Martha stated 
emphatically. "Drugs have no effect on Clark at all."

"Psychotherapy means that we need to find a competent 
therapist or psychiatrist whom we can trust because he'll 
have to know Clark's secret," Jonathan said.

"There's another problem that I think we may have. I...I 
don't know how to say this, and I...I don't want to say the 
wrong thing, but..." Lois paused, trying to say this to the 
people in front of her who seemed so warm and loving, 
"but...the material I've read says that DID is a result of 
trauma... in early childhood, usually physical or sexual 
abuse. The child recedes into himself to avoid confronting 
the situation and creates a personality to deal with it."

The Kents looked at each other, understanding why Lois was 
acting so nervous. Moving over to Lois, Martha took her 
hand. "You have to believe and trust us here, Lois. We've 
never hurt Clark. By the time he had come to us, we had 
given up hope that we would ever have a child."

"Clark was our miracle," Jonathan added. "He gave our lives 
new meaning."

"We would never have done anything to hurt him."

"I'm sorry," Lois uttered, "I just needed you to know what 
the research said. I didn't want to accuse you of anything. 
But..."

"We understand." Martha patted Lois on the hand. "But, as 
you said earlier, Clark isn't human. We don't know what 
happened to him before he got to Earth or while he was on 
Krypton. We don't know if it was even a trauma that 
triggered the DID in him." She stood up. "We have a lot to 
think about now. Come, let me make some dinner. Maybe Clark 
will be back soon."

***************** Garrison lingered at the elevator doors 
as he looked around the newsroom of the Daily Planet. He 
had no idea where he was supposed to go. A young man rushed 
passed him, as did other people who moved around with 
purpose. He spied a gorgeous woman on the telephone. He 
walked over to her with his letter in his hand.

"Lois Lane?" he asked, knowing very well that this wasn't 
her.

"Cat Grant," the woman said pointing at the nameplate on 
her desk. She hung up the phone and gave her attention to 
the man beside her.

"I got a delivery for Lois Lane," he said.

"Her desk's over there." She pointed in the general 
direction of a grouping of desks.

"Is she here? I was told to deliver this to her 
personally."

"No, she's not."

"Is..." he looked at the notepad in his hand, "um...Clark 
Kent here? He could sign for it too."

"No, he's not."

"I guess I'll wait around for a while until one of them 
gets here," he said.

Cat pointed to the some chairs a few feet away.

Garrison shrugged his shoulders and sat down in the seats. 
He continued to watch the bustle in the newsroom. The young 
man who passed him earlier brought a stack of photographs 
to the Cat woman and placed it on her desk. Now that 
Superman was no longer a problem, he could go after Lane 
and Kent. They were the ones who had ruined his life when 
they let the boxing commission know that he was the six 
million dollar man. Sam Lane had done a good job fixing him 
up, but Lane and Kent undid all that when their 
investigation into the Ultimate Street Fight blew up in his 
face. What good was it to be the strongest man in the world 
when he couldn't do anything with it?

Garrison looked around the bustling room, waiting for Lane 
or Kent to arrive. It didn't matter if they recognized him. 
The letter said who he was and where he wanted to meet her 
if she wanted to see her father again. She wouldn't know 
that he didn't have her father. And once he got her to the 
abandoned tenement, he'd just shoot her anyway, so what did 
it matter? He'd get Sam Lane eventually, too. He looked at 
the clock on the wall. He had been waiting for twenty 
minutes already. Maybe it was time to just leave the letter 
on her desk. Well, maybe he'd stay around and watch the 
gorgeous redhead for a little longer. Definitely eye candy.

"Have you seen Clark or Lois around, Jimmy?" she asked as a 
young man dropped something on her desk and was moving on.

"Nope. They haven't been in all day," he answered placing a 
file folder on another desk.

"What's up? Lane never takes a day off," Cat said to his 
retreating back.

"She went to Smallville with Clark," an older man said, 
coming around from the other side. "Family emergency or 
something," he added placing some copy on her desk. "This 
needs some more attribution, Cat. Don't you have some good 
quotations from Cecilia Jarvis about the influence of pop 
culture on debut parties? I know the woman has some great 
one-liners.

Tommy grasped the letter and moved off to the elevator. 
He'd have to find Smallville on a map, and then go there to 
get Lane and Kent. Actually, he thought, it had its 
benefits since Superman was in Metropolis so, even if he 
got back to normal, they would be too far away to help. 
Thinking about it, his plan to get Lane and Kent wasn't 
that good, anyway. What he needed now was a smarter plan.

*****************

After dinner, Lois stood on the porch amazed by the 
blackness of the night and the brightness of the half-moon. 
Yet, she couldn't sit back and enjoy the serenity of the 
setting. Instead, she paced back and forth, hoping that she 
would hear the whoosh of wind announcing Superman's 
arrival. She had phoned Clark at his apartment, but when 
the recorded message from the answering machine spoke to 
her, she handed the phone to Jonathan who asked Clark to 
call home as soon as he returned.

Dinner had been a pleasant distraction with the Kents. 
Their fluid movements in the kitchen reminded her of a 
well-choreographed and well-rehearsed ballet that had been 
perfected over the years. Constantly in motion, they worked 
together, never interfering with each other. It surprised 
her that two people could work so closely and not trip over 
each other's feet. If her parents had had to work together 
in such close proximity, World War III would have erupted 
and ended in a nuclear disaster. Watching the kind, loving 
couple, she appreciated who Clark was and she realized that 
while living in the Kent household, Clark could never have 
experienced any abuse.

She hoped that someday she could have a relationship with 
someone the way the Kents had. She tried to imagine what it 
would be like sharing a routine task with a 
husband...dusting, vacuuming, making dinner. Clark 
immediately sprang to mind. She surprised herself when it 
dawned on her that she already knew what it would be like. 
She and Clark, like Martha and Jonathan, worked very well 
together. They gathered information, investigated, 
interviewed people and wrote stories. They were working out 
the choreography, but they weren't bumping into each other 
as much as they used to. They were almost like the 
ballet...well, more like Punch and Judy considering all 
their bickering. She chuckled out loud.

"What's so funny, Lois?"

She turned to see Jonathan standing at the door.

"Just thinking about all the squabbling that Clark and I 
do, and yet we still get the job done."

Jonathan grinned thinking about the bickering that he and 
Martha did. It was all part of getting to know each other.

"Jonathan, I'm worried about him. I want all of him back. 
Superman, without Clark, has no sense of purpose, no sense 
of humour. He's a shell." She thought about the image of a 
shell and added, "Clark is the stuffing that makes him 
human. Right now, he's had a fall. I believe that he's 
bruised and hurt, but we can put him back together."

"I don't know what the solution is, Lois, but we'll find 
it. Remember, Clark is strong. Not just physically strong, 
but mentally and emotionally as well. He'll get better."

"This new Clark is still a complete person, one who has a 
past and a future. He may not be whole right now, but he 
can be filled out. I can deal with Clark if we can't put 
him back together again, but this Superman without 
Clark..."

"We live the impossible, Lois. We'll get through this." 
Jonathan put his arm around Lois and pulled her in close to 
him. His warmth reminded her of Clark. Acknowledging that 
she wasn't carrying the problem by herself anymore, she 
gave in to the tears that had been threatening all day. 
Jonathan drew her closer to him.

"He'll be fine, Lois. Don't worry. He'll be fine," he 
murmured, wanting to believe his own words.

****************

The following morning, the Kents and Lois sat around the 
kitchen table playing with the breakfast Martha had 
prepared. Their minds were not on breakfast but on Clark 
who hadn't returned during the night.

"He didn't come back last night, did he?" Martha asked.

"No. He didn't," Lois answered.

"What does that mean? Where is he? "Jonathan questioned.

"He could be doing Superman rescues," Lois proposed, "or he 
could be Clark."

"If he's Superman and not on a rescue, where would he be?"

"The last few days, he came to my apartment. He said that 
he had nowhere else to go."

"But you're here now. Will he remember that he brought you 
here?" Martha asked.

"I hope so-if not, my window in my apartment is open so he 
can get in there."

"If he's Clark, he should return the message I left on his 
machine, and we'll tell him to come home," Jonathan 
offered.

Once again, the three looked at the scrambled eggs that 
they had moved around on their plates. When Martha realized 
that none of them had an appetite, she took their plates 
and cleaned up.

"I spent some time on the internet last night after I came 
in," Lois offered when they were standing in the kitchen. 
DID can be cured..."

"That's a relief," interrupted Jonathan.

"Yes, but the literature says that it's a slow process 
dependent on creating a comfortable setting and atmosphere 
of trust. According to a Dr. Maxwell Dieter, who seems to 
be quite an authority in this, the best way to treat a 
patient with DID is to allow him to unravel his 
personalities by himself. You can't just go and tell him 
that he's got DID."

"Do you think that we should contact this Dr. Dieter?" 
Martha asked.

"He's had a lot of success with his patients. He's got it 
pretty well documented..."

"Can he publish on the internet? Is that ethical?" Martha 
worried.

"He makes up names and changes some information to keep the 
identity of the patient hidden, but I don't think we should 
go to him, just yet."

"The fewer people who know Clark is Superman, the better," 
Jonathan warned, then excused himself to take care of 
necessary chores, leaving the two women in the house 
together.

"Martha, I've been looking at your artwork here, and it's 
given me an idea," Lois said as she placed the milk and 
butter into the fridge. "Art therapy is supposed to help 
people with problems, to help them express whatever is 
bothering them. You've got all the equipment here for 
painting..."

"Yes, I like that idea. All we need is for Clark to come 
home."

******************

Jonathan returned the tractor to the shed beside the barn. 
He was thankful that he had his work to do. It meant that 
he could concentrate on something other than Clark, but as 
soon as he started heading to the shed, his thoughts 
returned to the dilemma that they were facing. Knowing that 
he wasn't a psychologist or a psychiatrist, he was worried 
that Martha and Lois wanted to take matters into their own 
hands. He had gone over the same argument in his mind while 
he tossed and turned in bed. He still believed that if 
people found out about Clark's origins they would take him 
to a lab and perform all kinds of tests on him. He told 
himself that it was ridiculous since no one had put 
Superman into a lab yet, but then they hadn't had an 
opportunity until now. However, he believed that he, along 
with Lois and Martha, did not have the expertise to deal 
with a psychological problem that might be a lot more 
complex than they assumed. They couldn't allow their son to 
go on much longer without having him understand who he 
really was. He knew that neither he nor Martha had abused 
Clark so he could not understand why he would be suffering 
from an illness that had its roots in childhood abuse. It 
didn't make sense. He didn't believe that the abuse 
occurred on Krypton because Clark was so young when he had 
come to them. Lois's theory just didn't make sense. But if 
Clark had been abused as a baby, then they needed some 
professional help. He walked into the barn to put away the 
equipment he had taken out to the fields with him. He spied 
some movement to the left of him that he attributed to 
Nelly, the barn cat, but he realized that whatever it had 
been was bigger than Nelly.

"Hello," he called out.

No answer. He moved to his left and called out again. 
"Hello. Is anyone there?"

This time he heard a groan.

"Dad?" the voice questioned.

"Clark? Is that you?" Jonathan moved faster toward his 
son's voice. Clark was getting up. He appeared to be waking 
up. "What are you doing asleep in the barn?"

Clark looked around as if he were confirming his father's 
statement.

"I don't know. What am I doing here in the barn?" he asked 
himself more than Jonathan. He brushed off the straw, then 
he rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. "I think I'm kind of 
groggy, Dad. I can't remember getting here or why I came." 
He looked down at himself wearing a shirt and tie. "Not 
exactly sleeping in barn kind of clothes."

"Come into the house, son. Mom and Lois are waiting for 
you."

"Lois?" Clark ran his fingers through his hair while 
following his father out of the barn. "What's she doing 
here?"

When the two women saw Clark enter the house, they both 
quickly came to his side.

"Clark, honey, how are you? Are you feeling all right?"

"Of course, I am, Mom. Why are you asking something like 
that?" He looked at Lois on the other side of him.

"Lois, what are you doing here? Perry said you'd taken a 
few personal days, but I never expected to find you here."

"I needed to talk to your parents."

"How did you get here so fast?"

"Superman flew me out yesterday."

"Superman again," he spat. "You really have something going 
with him, don't you?"

Lois stroked his face. "Yes, I do."

Clark brushed her hand away. "If that's true, maybe you 
should stop flirting with me," he said angrily.

"Clark..." Martha interrupted.

"No, Martha, that's all right...he doesn't understand. 
Anyway," she said quickly changing the subject so that he 
wouldn't see how affected she was by his behaviour, "the 
important thing is that you're here and I bet you need some 
coffee and something to eat. Let me get you something."

Lois poured him some coffee and popped some bread in the 
toaster. She kept her back to the table for a few more 
minutes than necessary, trying to control the hurt and the 
anger.

As Clark sat drinking his coffee and eating his toast, 
Martha approached the subject that they were all avoiding.

"Clark," she asked, staring at his eyes, "how did you get 
to the farm this time?"

"The way I usually get here," he said, shrugging his 
shoulders.

"And how is that?" Martha continued to probe.

Clark paused looking at his mother, then turning to Lois. 
"Mom, what is the point of all of this?" he finally asked.

"Do you remember how you got here?" she stressed.

"No," he said staring into his coffee.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Lois took her turn 
asking.

Clark turned his head to the side in thought. A few moments 
passed before he shrugged his shoulders. "I was in the 
office typing up some notes on our story."

"Are you saying that you don't remember what happened 
between the time you were in the office until you woke up 
in the barn?"

Clark nodded. "That's right. I know it sounds bizarre, 
but..."

"Do you have long periods of time during the day that are 
unaccounted for?" Lois interrupted.

"Sort of. But I've been sleeping, so I guess that the time 
has been accounted for, although sometimes I'm very tired." 
Clark took another sip of coffee. "I've answered your 
questions. Can any of you explain what's going on here?"

Martha looked at Lois, signaling her to speak.

Lois walked over to the kitchen counter and poured herself 
a cup of coffee. She was nervous because she wasn't sure 
how much she should tell Clark, but he had to know. How 
else could they bring him back? She poured milk in her 
coffee and returned to the table. The women had decided 
that they would follow Maxwell Dieter's advice and not tell 
Clark exactly what was happening, but Lois realized that he 
would have to know something.

"We