Previously on Seed of Doubt...





Help!

Clark groaned and rolled to one side, burrowing his head into the pillow. He didn't want to get up. He wanted to stay in bed, Lois laying sprawled alongside of him.

She had stayed late as the two of them had begun serious discussions about the baby. Lois wasn't yet ready to announce to the bullpen, especially since she hadn't told her own parents yet. There was a lot to consider, the announcement being the least of it. Living arrangements, naming the baby, even if they wanted to run a pre-birth DNA test. Clark has his reasons for not wanting it done - namely, the slight risk of miscarriage, and the possibility that, if the baby miraculously was his, the DNA might out him as being something other than a human Earthling. He spoke only of his concern of miscarriage though. He wasn't yet ready to tell Lois his secret. Lois too was afraid of that small, but real, risk and had agreed with Clark.

Help me, please!

Again, Clark groaned, this time opening his eyes. He glanced at the clock. Four am. He forced himself to slide out of bed, careful not to wake Lois. Silently, he walked to the living room, grabbed a Superman uniform from his hidden closet, and changed at top speed into the hero. He left via the front door, to afraid to risk being seen if he flew off from the terrace. He'd have to sneak through his bedroom to do that. At least it was the dead of night. He had almost no chance of being seen exiting his front door. Only one neighbor worked early, but even he still wouldn't be up at this hour. Another neighbor was a self-confessed insomniac, but, as Clark listened carefully, her apartment was blissfully silent.

At top speed, Clark flew off, stopping only when he punched through the cloud coverage. He paused for a moment, listening intently, but the world below still slumbered on. His departure from his apartment had gone unnoticed. With a sigh of relief, he sank back down below the clouds, trying to pin point the direction of the cry for help. In the span of two heartbeats, he had it, and rocketed off through the night, heading toward the interstate.

What he found when he arrived broke his heart. Four badly smashed cars were pointing in random directions all over the five lanes of road. And one large tractor trailer had jackknifed, causing what little traffic had been on the road at that small hour to come to a complete halt. Police and ambulances were beginning to arrive on the scene, but Clark could tell, even as he started into a landing, that there was no way everyone had made it out of the accident alive. The small red Chevy was too badly destroyed, and there were no signs of life as he scanned with his powerful senses.

He landed lightly next to the Chevy and immediately pulled the door off the vehicle. Blood greeted him as he pushed the airbag away and extracted the unmoving body from within. He felt for a pulse, listened for a heartbeat, and checked for breath, only to find none. Clark handed the woman over to the first paramedic to reach his side. He went to the next car while the EMTs began to attempt to revive the woman, though Clark wasn't hopeful they could save her. Her entire body condition was extremely bad.

In all, two other people had died, both in an aging Oldsmobile, and the rest sported varying degrees of injuries. Most were minor, one was critically serious. Clark hoped the man would make it, but he wasn't overly confident about it. Only one person involved had escaped unscathed - a sleeping three month old boy, snuggled in his car seat while his parents got an early start on their cross-country drive to visit family.

The driver of the tractor trailer couldn't stop shaking and weeping. "I tried to stop," he kept repeating, as if that was the only thought circulating around in his mind. Clark wondered if perhaps it was. He clasped the man on his shoulder and assured him that he believed him when the man said that he'd tried everything to avoid colliding with the Chevy.

After about an hour and a half, Clark and the officers had gotten help for everyone involved, cleared the roadway, and pieced together what had happened. The driver of the Chevy had been flying down the middle lane going in the wrong direction, presumably after getting onto the Interstate from one of the exit ramps. The Chevy had hit the Oldsmobile first, then ricocheted off into the other vehicles before hitting the tractor trailer last. The driver had tried to switch lanes when he realized that the car was coming straight at him. He'd panicked and lost control, and the car had slammed into him anyway. He'd walked away with minor cuts to his face from hitting the windshield.

One of the officers on the scene had known the woman driving the Chevy - they'd been casual, but not close, friends in high school. She admitted to knowing that the woman had been suffering from a lot of depression and financial stress - her company had downsized and laid off more than half of their staff without warning. The driver, Lauren, had been one of those who'd lost their job. She'd been trying for eight months to land something else, but had remained unsuccessful. With mounting debts and creditors constantly calling her, she'd had to move back in with her parents at the age of thirty. But, in the last month, she'd finally gotten another job, even if it was low paying and physically demanding. The last time the officer had spoken with her, Lauren had seemed happy enough. Suicide had been the last thing the cop had ever anticipated.

When Clark finally began his slow flight home, sadness weighed heavily in his mind. He hadn't known the driver of the Chevy, nor would he ever. She'd been pronounced dead at the scene after the paramedics failed to revive her. But he couldn't imagine things being so bad that a person saw death as the only way out. And his heart broke for the family she'd left behind.

He finally arrived at his apartment. Carefully, painstakingly, he checked the area before deeming it safe to land. He slipped in through the front door without a sound, then slipped back into his sleep clothes before hiding away his suit in the secret closet behind his wine rack. He was about to tiptoe his way back into the bedroom when he heard the toilet flush. Lois emerged out into the hallway, her face the very picture of rage.



***


"Lois? Honey? What's wrong?" Clark asked, wary of the look he saw in her eyes.

"Where the hell have you been?" she said in a deadly cold voice.

"I went out for a bit," he said, shrugging.

"At four in the morning?" she asked, crossing her arms before her chest. "For two hours?"

"I, uh..." Clark stammered.

"No, Clark. I can't take another one of your stupid lies about how you suddenly needed to find a twenty-four hour drug store for allergy medication that I never see you take. Or how you suddenly remembered that you needed money from the ATM. Or...or..." She floundered, too upset to continue, from the look of things. She took a moment to draw in a deep breath, appearing fight back tears. "I know. I know. It's your place. I'm not the one who lives here. I shouldn't be dictating what you can and cannot do. But, for God's sake, Clark, this has been such a pattern with you. Every time you have me sleep over, I get up at least once in the night to find your side of the bed empty."

"Lois, I..." he tried to say.

But Lois didn't hear him, or did and chose to still steamroll right over him. "I want to raise this baby with you, but if you can't be honest with me, I don't think we can make this work. Do you know what kinds of thoughts have been in my head for the last two hours?"

"No," Clark admitted with a sigh. "I really...I thought I had enough time."

"Time for what? To visit some secret, non-pregnant girlfriend?"

The accusation punched Clark right in the gut. "What?" he stammered out, in disbelief that Lois could think such a thing about him.

"What else am I supposed to think, Clark? You left in the middle of the night! What else could be so important?"

Clark sighed and hung his head. He hated that it had to be this way. He hadn't wanted to tell Lois his secret. Not yet, at any rate. She'd only just decided that she was going to keep the baby. He didn't want to add on something so huge as the truth that Superman was nothing more than Clark Kent in a ridiculous Spandex costume. But he saw no other choice. Not when Lois was so upset with him.

"Fine," Lois said as he sat, silently finding his courage to break the news to her. "You don't want to answer me? Fine," she repeated. "I'm leaving." She stomped her way to the door, still in her pajamas.

"I have another job," Clark said in a small voice, unable to lift his eyes to look at her.

"What?" she snapped.

Clark sighed again and repeated his words. "I have another job. That's why I left, Lois."

"What do you mean?" she asked, but at least she hung her jacket back on the peg next to the door and came back into the living room.

Clark sat in his armchair and gestured for Lois to sit on the couch. She did so, commanding the entire thing by sitting directly in the center of it. Clark nodded absently to himself, racking his brain to find the best way to explain things to Lois. In all the time he'd spent thinking about this moment, he'd never once felt like he'd found the best words to make her understand.

"Clark?" she prompted him, not losing any of the anger in her voice.

"Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I have to go to this other job," he tried explaining.

"In the middle of the night?" Lois repeated. Her arms tightened over her chest, her fingertips drummed on her biceps, and her eyes narrowed into disbelieving slits. "What kind of job demands that?"

"It's uh...kind of...related to law enforcement," Clark said. "Tonight...tonight I was at a car accident. A woman got on the highway going the wrong way. She died and two others in another car did, but luckily no one else. There were several others with injuries though."

Lois glared at him. "And you felt this wasn't something you could tell me before? That you have this other job on the side?"

"Of course not, Lois. I really did want to tell you. But, I could never find the words," he said, his voice soft, not trying to defend himself. "I know I was wrong but..."

"Were you embarrassed? I mean, my God, Clark, people take second jobs all the time! Were you worried about affording things once the baby comes? Is that why you couldn't tell me?"

Clark shook his head. "It's not that at all, Lois. Actually, this job? It doesn't pay anything at all. It's something I do because I want to do it. I didn't...couldn't...tell you before now for a number of reasons. But embarrassed? That was the least of it, I assure you."

He was about to launch into those reasons but Lois put a hand up to stop him. His mouth immediately closed.

"First, I want to know exactly what it is that you've been doing. Then you can give me your reasons." Her voice still bore a razor sharp edge to it, but it wasn't quite as icy as it had been moments before.

"Okay," he agreed. "But please, Lois, try to understand how hard this is for me. This...other side of me. I've never told anyone else about it. I've never wanted anyone else to know. It's a dangerous secret, not just for me, but for anyone else who knows about it. It's something that my parents and I have protected for almost thirty years. And, although I've wanted to tell you for a long time, I could never find the words. Maybe that makes me a coward in your eyes. I don't know."

"That depends on what this secret is," she replied to his label of 'coward.'

"The thing is, Lois, I do sort of work in law enforcement. Just not in a typical way. I'm not a cop. I'm not even a meter maid," he clarified, staving off the questions that were written on her face. "I don't carry a badge or write tickets. Here, let me show you something. It might help to explain it."

He stood and went to his wine rack. Lois hesitated only for half a heartbeat, then she was on her feet, hanging back behind him, clearly awaiting some huge revelation.

I can deliver on that, at the very least, he mused darkly to himself.

He pushed the wine rack to expose his hidden stash of Superman uniforms. All hung neatly from hangers, all of the blue unitards together on one end, all the capes and briefs behind them. The floor housed several well worn and now comfortable pairs of Superman's familiar red boots. Clark swallowed hard, waiting for the inevitable explosion from Lois.

"Superman's laundry?" Lois asked, the hard edge to her tone completely restored. "Clark, what does Superman's uniforms have to do with anything?"

Clark shook his head. "Not Superman's costumes," he said in a careful, low voice. "My costumes."

Lois' burrow furrowed. "So...you're...what? A Superman impersonator? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

"No, Lois," he said, his voice taking on a little more strength than it had previously. "What I'm trying to tell you is...I'm not a Superman impersonator. I'm Superman."

"Clark, I'm not in the mood for this," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, as if to ward off a headache. "If you're not going to take this seriously..."

"Lois, I am taking this seriously. Watch."

Silently, he rose into the air and hovered there, suspended above the floor. He couldn't quite find the courage to look Lois in the eyes. He did, however, see the flash of mixed emotions that ran over her features in the span of a heartbeat. He did see when she settled back down on being angry again. He landed gently and stood before her, his heart in his throat and his stomach in knots.

It was, simply put, the scariest thing he'd ever done, letting Lois know his secret.

"I'm sorry," he immediately apologized.

"You'd better be," Lois said, her mouth settling into a hard, cold frown. "How could you lie to me, Clark...Superman...whoever you are?! When were you going to tell me? When this baby started floating out of its bassinet? How can I ever trust you again?"

Clark took a deep, shaking breath. He was well over the point of no return now.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "Please, Lois, believe me. I want to explain everything. I want to answer all of your questions. At least, I'll do my best. There's so much of my...origins, that I don't know. Please. Will you let me try?"

"I'm listening," was all she would answer in a brusque manner with a look that could have frozen Metropolis Harbor.

"I never lied to you, Lois. Not really. Yes, I led you on to believe that Clark and Superman are two separate people. I had to. I was too afraid to tell you the truth. At first, you would have seen me as just a stepping stone to your Pulitzer. At least, I thought so, at the time. Then, as we became friends, I knew you'd never do that to me, but I wanted so much to date you. To love you, and maybe even be loved by you. I couldn't do that if you knew that I also masquerade as an alien superhero. And that's all Superman is. He's not me, Lois. Superman is not Clark Kent. Clark Kent is Superman."

"What's the difference?" She was still pretty mad at him, he could tell. But the fact that she was asking even simple questions had to be a good sign, he thought.

"Everything," he replied. "Superman cannot exist without Clark. But Clark can - and did - exist without Superman all my life, up until I started working at the Planet with you. He's not real, Lois. Please, understand that. Superman isn't real. He's just a cover I use so that I can help people. I can't have Clark flying in to a burning building to save people. They'd know that there was something different about me. They might use my loved ones against me to try to control me. But Superman - he's a different case. He's not a regular guy. He has no loved ones, no family, to use as a bargaining chip against him. It's easy to let the world see his powers because he's nothing more than a cardboard cutout of a person."

"That's..." Lois began, her voice still perfectly portraying her anger with him.

"It's the truth," Clark said. "I can't stress that enough. Superman never existed until after I met you. I'd been wanting to use my abilities to help people, but without fear of exposing myself for something other than an average, unremarkable man. It wasn't until you mentioned having a change of clothes on hand that I got the idea for a costume, so that it would be whoever my new identity was that was making the rescue, not the real me. Not Clark."

"Really?" Lois asked, sounding half curious, but giving him an unconvinced look at the same time.

"Really," he said sincerely, nodding. "It was like this light bulb went off in my head when you said that. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before. Of course, once I saw what my mom had come up with, I was less than convinced it would work. But, to my surprise, it did. No one pegged the man in blue as mild mannered reporter, Clark Kent."

"Wait. Your mother made the costume? You weren't kidding about that?"

"She really did," he confirmed for her.

"It must have been a real kick for you, putting one over on your overbearing and rude partner, am I right?"

Clark winced at the harshness of her words. "No, Lois. But, I won't lie. It was a relief for me that you didn't recognize me. I thought for sure you would have made the connection. When you didn't, it was like I could breathe easier. If the smartest woman I know didn't figure it out, the rest of the world didn't stand a chance. It meant I was safe, that I could continue to be Superman."

Lois seemed to soften a minute amount. She nodded. "Go on."

"I've wanted to tell you about my dual life for so long," he continued. "I just never had the words. Or the courage. As we've gotten closer, it's been more and more important that I tell you the truth. But, at the same time, it's only gotten harder for me to take that step. I had to know, Lois. I had to know that you loved Clark, not Superman, not my powers."

"But you already know how I feel. And you still waited this long to tell me," she argued, her crossed arms tightening across her chest while disbelief played over her features.

"I know," Clark said, dipping his head in agreement with her words. "The problem was, by the time I knew that you loved me, you were pregnant. Not only that, but struggling to decide if you wanted to keep the baby or not. I couldn't throw Superman into that mix, Lois. It would have been too unfair to you."

"How do you figure that? That withholding information this important could possibly be the right choice to make?" She rolled her eyes and threw her hands into the air, exasperated.

"Because, Lois," Clark said, trying to make her understand. "I thought it would put too much pressure on you. Imagine if I'd told you then, while you were struggling to make your decision. Wouldn't it have placed more pressure on you, trying to decide whether to keep or to terminate the potential offspring of Superman?" He shook his head. "Maybe I was wrong in my thinking. If I was, I'm sorry."

Begrudgingly, Lois slowly nodded. "No, you weren't completely wrong. I guess it would have complicated my thought process."

"I wanted you to know, for yourself and yourself only, if this pregnancy was something you wanted. Not because it might be Superman's kid. Not because he or she might one day take up the cape and continue what I've started." Clark got up and started to pace, feeling the need to move, as if it could somehow make him more comfortable or get his point across any better than his words alone. "I was going to tell you about myself once you made up your mind."

"But...you didn't," Lois pointed out.

"I know," he said as he reached the bookshelf on the other side of the room. He rested his right arm on one of the shelves. "I just...I thought that you'd been through enough today. I didn't want to add on the stress of, well, this entire conversation. Not when you'd just made one of the biggest decisions of your life. It didn't seemed fair to you."

"So, then, when, exactly, did you plan on telling me?" Most of her anger was there still, but at least a small amount of warmth had infused back into her voice.

"Soon," Clark said, looking her in the eye. "I was thinking of giving you a couple of days, just to make sure that you were completely comfortable with keeping the baby. Then I was going to tell you everything. Just...don't ask me how." He smiled shyly at her. "Tonight, tomorrow, a week from now. It was still pretty terrifying for me."

"Why?" she asked, clearly still not fully understanding his fear.

"Why is it terrifying? Because, for the first time in my life, I'm truly exposed. My parents and I have guarded this secret since they found my ship crashed-landed in a field. They were always so afraid that, if word got out about me, someone might try to take me away, lock me in a lab, and dissect me like a frog." He could hear Jonathan's voice in his head as he said the words. "And, as for telling you, I was afraid of losing you, Lois. Afraid that you might decide that this is more than you want to handle and that you might walk right on out of my life. I can't...I need you in my life, Lois. More than food, more than sunlight, more than air."

Lois shook her head. "So...if you're Superman...then that means, this baby...might be half Kryptonian?"

Clark shook his head in turn, his shoulders slumping. "That's the other thing I needed to talk to you about," he said sadly.

"Clark, what is it?" she asked, losing her hard edge and sounding concerned over his change in demeanor.

Help! There's a bomb!

Clark's head snapped up of its own accord as his hearing picked up the call. He groaned. He couldn't leave Lois now, but he couldn't ignore something that serious and potentially deadly. Lois saw the change in his face and stance.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A bomb," he replied distantly, still listening. "Sounds like Centennial Park. Lois..."

"Go," she said, gesturing for him to fly off.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise. Please, don't leave," he begged. "I still have a lot to tell you."

"I'll be here," she vowed. "And you still have a lot of questions to answer."

He nodded firmly, ready to answer whatever she could possibly ask him. He grabbed one of his uniforms and spun into it. When he stopped, Lois was staring wide-eyed. He gave her a genuine smile.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that in front of you," he said as he grinned. "I'll be right back. I love you."

To his dismay, she said nothing, though he wasn't completely surprised that she didn't declare her love back to him. He took off from the terrace this time, feeling safer that no one could track his flight from there, now that the world was waking up and people were preparing to commute to their jobs. He hoped he'd have enough time to explain everything he wanted to tell Lois before they would also need to head to the Planet for the day.

He found himself racing through his rescue. It wasn't enough to cause him to make mistakes, but it was enough that he wondered if the media would comment on Superman's less-than-normally-friendly self. He honestly didn't care. All that mattered was getting the situation under control so that he could return to Lois with all speed.

When he did finally fly back home, he was relieved to find Lois still there. She'd found his stash of frozen but microwavable breakfast burritos. He was glad that she'd gotten herself something to eat. She needed fuel for the coming day and in her continuing journey of pregnancy. Clark wanted the baby to be born as healthy as possible. He noticed too that she'd changed out of her pajamas and sat now on the couch in a crisp, powder blue blouse and black pants. He guessed it must have been one of the outfits she'd been keeping at his place for those nights when she was too tired to return home to her own apartment.

"Hi," he said as he entered his home.

Lois looked up from the magazine she'd been perusing. "Hi, yourself. Everything go okay?"

"One second," Clark said. He quickly spun out of his uniform and into his work attire - a charcoal suit he'd often worn, but one which he also knew Lois liked. He hoped it would appease her. "It, unfortunately, was a real bomb threat," he said half a heartbeat later. He sat down at the edge of the couch, gambling that he could get even that close. When she said nothing, he felt comfortable enough to continue speaking. "Someone planted a pipe bomb at the Centennial Park subway station. I got there in time, but it was a close call. It went off before I could get more than fifty feet in the air. No one was hurt, thankfully."

Lois nodded. "That's good."

"I'm sorry that I had to rush off like that. If the situation hadn't been what it was..."

She put up a hand to quiet him and he obliged. "You did what you had to do. I have no right to demand that you give up your Superman duties just because I'm furious with you."

"It still...I hate that I had to leave you," he offered.

"Before you left," Lois said, changing the subject, "you said you needed to talk to me about something."

Clark nodded at the reminder, though his heart sank into his toes. "Yeah. Lois...I don't...I don't know how to say this. I'm still struggling with it myself. I wasn't sure if I could even have children. I'm not human. So...I had Dr. Klein run some tests for me. He says..." He paused for a second, working at breaking down the lump that had unexpectedly formed in his throat. "I can't have children. My biology isn't compatible for reproduction with a human woman." He couldn't help the wobble in his voice as the pain of that knowledge cut him anew.

"Is he sure?" At least she sounded compassionate, Clark mused.

He managed to nod. "He called it a trillion to one chance. If any chance at all, which he doubts."

"So this baby..."

"Is almost certainly Luthor's," he finished for her.

Lois whacked his arm, hard. "When were you going to tell me?"

"I only just found out," he said, not bothering to put any strength in his voice. He felt defeated in every way by his admission. "I was still trying to process it myself. I wanted so badly for the baby to be mine. I didn't want you to be in a position where you were carrying your attacker's child. And, selfishly, I've always dreamed about having my own, biological children."

"And the fact that this baby isn't, doesn't change your mind at all, about stepping up to raise it?" Lois asked, warily.

"Not at all," Clark assured her. "As hard as it is to have it confirmed that I'll never father a child, part of me has always known it was a possibility. I want to be there for this baby. I want to be its father, that is, if you're still willing to let me be a part of your life." He looked up, dragging his eyes from where his hands lay in his lap to peer hopefully at her. "Please?"

Lois matched his gaze, holding him there with nothing more than her piercing eyes. "I never said I don't want you in my life. However," she said, stilling him immediately when he went to respond, "that doesn't mean that I'm not furious with you for everything you've withheld from me."

Clark nodded. "I understand. Ask me anything. I swear to you, Lois, I have no secrets left. I want you to know everything."

"You can start at the beginning," Lois prompted him.

It wasn't a question, but Clark understood what she was asking. She wanted him to tell her about his life, literally from the beginning.

"Well," he began. "I guess...I guess I really should start at the beginning. Please, Lois, understand that I don't have the answers to a lot of the questions you might have about my origins. I still have scores of them that I'll never have answers to. The globe only told me so much, and what it could tell me only prompted more answerless questions."

"The globe? The one that Jack stole from your apartment?" Lois asked.

"One and the same," he confirmed. "When I took it from Bureau Thirty-Nine, I knew it belonged to me. As soon as I touched it in that warehouse, the map-face changed from Earth to some otherworldly place. I heard a voice in my mind, whispered from some deep place I never knew existed. Krypton. And I knew, right then and there, that the globe was somehow connected to me. That's why I took it and why I hid it from you. For months, it sat in a box on my shelf, until one night it started to glow with some inner light. What it showed me..." He shook his head, still in awe and sadness of what it had shown him.

"What?" Lois prompted, now only curiosity in her voice.

"A man appeared to me, calling himself Jor-El, telling me that I was Kal-El, his son. Five times, his messages came to me, even when I was apart from the globe. Anyway, he told me a brief history of why I'd been sent to Earth. Krypton was on the brink of destruction. He and Lara, my mother, selected Earth to be my new home, because I would look just like the people here. I don't know why or how they selected Kansas as my destination. But they did, bundling me into a tiny spaceship and sending me out into the darkness of the universe just before Krypton exploded."

"That couldn't have been easy for them," Lois said.

"At some point, I don't know how long it was, I finally crash-landed on Earth. My parents were driving by Schuster's Field and saw what they thought was a meteor. Curious, they decided to check things out, only to find me instead. They couldn't have children of their own, but they managed to find a way to legally adopt me, even though initial attempts to adopt had failed in the past."

"You always told me that you were left on their doorstep," Lois pointed out.

"That's the official story that everyone knows," Clark clarified. "They were so afraid that someone would find out that I was more than what I appeared to be, and that some scientists might rip me away from them only to dissect me in a lab. Fear led them to cover up any evidence that might prove me to be something other than human."

"I wish you'd stop saying that."

"Saying what?" he asked, taken aback by the unexpected comment from Lois.

"That you aren't human," she replied calmly.

Clark was thunderstruck by that simple statement. It was the last thing he'd ever expected to hear from her, especially now as they sat dealing with the aftermath of his secret being exposed.

"It's the truth though," he said, finding his voice.

Lois shook her head. "Clark, I've dealt with every kind of person on this planet, everyone from true philanthropists, to ego maniacs, to the lowest scum to ever breathe air. You are one of the most human people I've ever met."

"But, biologically, I'm not," he protested, unsure why he was making the case against himself. Perhaps he'd considered himself as an outcast for too many years, thanks to the powers that set him apart from everyone else. "I wasn't born on Earth. I'm a alien."

"In your genetics only," Lois allowed. "Listen to me, Clark. Do you laugh when things amuse you? Do you cry when you're upset? Do you care about other people? Do you love? Do you hate?"

"Yes..." he ventured, tentatively.

"Then you're a human," she finished, a sense of finality to her voice.

He felt humbled by her defense of his humanity, but could only nod his acknowledgement. After a few seconds, he squeaked out a "Thank you."

"I'm still mad at you," she warned him. "And I might be for a while."

"I understand. I guess I'd be more afraid if you just accepted it without feeling anything at all," he admitted. "I promise, I won't pressure you. I can wait for you to...digest all of this."

Lois nodded. "I know."

"You do?"

"Yes. Because that's just who you are." Clark gave her a hopeful smile, but she barely returned it. "Now, you were saying?"

"Right," he said. "Anyway, they raised me as they would have any normal kid. For all they knew, I was a normal kid, right up until I was about ten. Then I started to develop a series of weird abilities. Before I was eleven, for example, I could outrun the local train without breaking a sweat or even breathing hard. I was growing stronger all the time. I set the occasional fire with my eyes. My parents, God bless them, helped me find ways to control all of my powers. They never judged me or condemned my abilities. While I silently or very verbally freaked out as each new power made itself known, they only remained steadfast and resolute in their efforts to help me. And, in time, I mastered each ability."

He sighed. "As I got each power under control, I eventually came to look at them as a gift. I had to decide how I would use them, if ever. Helping people seemed like the only morally sound way to deal with such incredible powers, but I was always afraid of being caught. So, for many years, I used them only when I was sure not to be caught, and worked on excuses for the few times when it seemed that I might become exposed for something other than a normal man. I traveled the world, looking for an explanation of why I had such powers and how I could best use them to help. And," he admitted, "I kept moving each time it seemed like I might have been in danger of being caught."

He looked away, the pain of those lonely days spent seeing world still a sharp knife in his heart. "Finally, I found myself in Metropolis. I found a way to secure work with the Planet. I met you. In fact, you're the reason why I fought so hard for Perry to accept me as his newest hire. The rest, I've already explained. You mentioned a change of clothes and soon thereafter, Superman was born."

"I guess I'm glad to have helped," Lois said, though she didn't sound all that enthused at the moment. "I need some time," she added, "to wrap my head around all of this. Starting now. I'll meet you at work."

Not sharing the ride to work with her broke his heart, but he had to admit that it wasn't wholly unexpected. He nodded in return.

"Okay," he said. Then, haltingly, "Is there anything at all, anywhere in the world, that I can get for you?"

"No," she said, with a swift shake of her head. Whether she truly didn't want anything or if she just didn't want to deal with his super-side at the moment, he didn't know, and thought it best not to even try to figure out.

"Okay," he repeated. "See you later."

As he watched her gather her things and step out of his apartment, he couldn't help but wonder just how badly damaged their relationship was. Unfortunately, only time would tell. He just hoped it wasn't completely beyond repair.




To Be Continued...


Battle On,
Deadly Chakram

"Being with you is stronger than me alone." ~ Clark Kent

"One little spark of inspiration is at the heart of all creation." ~ Figment the Dragon