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The new day dawned brightly for Penny. She had slept beautifully. Her dreams of her idealized first encounter with Superman had been too hot for words.

In her dream, they had met, he had taken her into his arms, called her the love of his life . . . and the vision just kept getting better!

Now that she was awake, she was filled with a burning desire to formulate a concrete plant to meet her idol. Obviously, once they met, everything would fall perfectly into place.

But then there was another weird element to her dream. Superman had been wearing regular street clothes. How absurd! Like Superman could ever downgrade himself to wearing a regular business suit!

She was sure he would look exceptionally hot in a dark black suit. Superman would look good whatever he wore, but it was an oddly unsettling picture. In the street clothes, she hadn't immediately recognized Superman.

How could *anyone* not know Superman instantly, no matter what he wore. His face was universally recognizable!

His strong chin, beautiful nose, pink, rosy, kissable lips, thick, dark hair, blue eyes . . .

Wait, blue eyes? Were they really blue?

Yeah, they were blue.

Or were they brown?

Oh no! She was slipping. Shouldn't she know every detail about her dream man, her future husband?

In the grand scheme of things, eye color didn't matter. If they were blue, they were surely as clear as the sky, and if they were brown, they weres surely as brown as her favorite dark chocolate bar!

Regardless, Superman had the type of beautiful face that anyone would recognize anywhere he went. Even if he did happen to wear street clothes, he wouldn't be able to blend in with the masses of nonSuper people!

How could she think of him in street clothes?

Like Superman would really even try to blend in with the common man.

But maybe he would.

Everyone would know him instantly.

Or would they?

What if it was just the bright blue spandex suit that set him apart from the masses?

She had to admit that she rarely looked at his face because she was *blinded* by the sheer beauty of that suit.

What if everyone else in the world did the same thing?

Maybe he could blend in with the rest of the world if he tried. It seemed improbable, but it *was* possible.

She was going crazy. How could one figment of her dream cause her to have such crazy thoughts about Superman?

Or were those thoughts so crazy at all?

What did she really know about Superman? Well, other than the fact that he was the most incredible man that ever lived. That was just a given.

Considering it again, she realized that she really knew nothing about Superman, the man. Maybe he *did* dress up in street clothes and try to blend in with the rest of the world.

After all, she wasn't sure how he could be Superman all day.

Did he sleep? Did he need to sleep?

Where did he live? Did he just fly around all day looking for people to save? Did he do laps around the world?

If he did, then why was he always in Metropolis? It seemed like Metropolis was his home. And he hadn't been there forever. When had a first appeared? Four years ago? Five years ago? No, definitely four years ago.

It was so weird! Superman had only been in Metropolis for four years. It seemed like he'd been a fixture in their lives forever. She almost couldn't remember life before Superman.

He looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties. He couldn't have just been born four years ago! What if he had arrived on a space ship from a distant galaxy just four years ago?

If she stuck with her theory that Superman was a real man, she had to believe that he had flown in on his space ship. But that would be so weird -- he seemed quite acclimated with their culture, spoke English fluently, and seemed completely comfortable ever since the first time he had appeared on television.

Then she was struck by a strange idea. What if Superman had grown up on Earth?

No, it wasn't possible. Someone would have noticed him. How could he have lived for more than twenty years without saving anyone's life? That seemed to be against everything she believed about her hero.

But could he be Superman all day? If he seemed to spend most of his time in Metropolis rather than circling the world, it must get pretty boring. Even in a busy city like Metropolis, he couldn't have a rescue every minute of the day. He probably did *something* in between rescues. But what on earth was that something?

Maybe he led a normal life in the middle of his Superman jobs. But how would he ever do that? Even if no one would recognize him in street clothes, which she highly doubted, how would he get around in the world? He couldn't just introduce himself, "Hi, I'm Mr. Superman, give me a job."

No, it was impossible. The ideas were getting more absurd the deeper she thought.

Was it really impossible, though?

If she looked at the facts, they seemed more feasible. Maybe he *did* have another life during his down time between rescues. And that would strengthen her assumption that Superman was a real man with human thoughts and desires. If he masqueraded as a real man in his free time, then he would have the time for a girlfriend, a lover, a wife . . . and Penny was more than willing to fill each of those roles for her dream man!

How would he have this other life? Wouldn't people know him?

What if he had a secret identity? Yes! A secret identity! Superman had a secret identity. It was the only way!

And she would find out his secret identity. It would only take a little digging. Maybe she could use the computer to search more in depth.

Good thing she worked at a large computer company that developed the most cutting edge software on the market. And they had just announced that they would be giving their employees access to a new program that allowed the user to search for people based on several criterion.

Now if she could just make a list of Superman's character traits, she'd be able to use the new software to narrow down her choices. And then, she could look at the people with the closest affiliation with Superman in the past. And if that didn't work, she would stage an accident.

She left her apartment and headed towards the subway station, a woman on a mission. She would discover Superman's secret identity and *that* would be her way of meeting the man of her dreams.

**********

Absolute silence. Uncomfortable, almost painful.

He slowly turned his eyes to look at her, but when he noticed her eyes looking at him, he quickly averted his eyes.

Silence. They couldn't talk, couldn't look at each other, and couldn't share the simplest touch.

The air was thick, stifling. It was a sense of separation they'd never experienced with each other. They were uncomfortable, unsure of what to say.

As Lois tried to navigate her Jeep through the Metropolis rush hour traffic, she realized this was the first time she and Clark had ridden together since they were married that neither had spoken. Even when they'd had disagreements, they had at least pretended to be cordial . . .or screamed at each other . . . on the ride to work. But now it was different.

Lois was tempted to turn on the radio, but she was almost afraid to break the silence. While uncomfortable, it seemed a necessary accent to their respective moods. The air was thick and Lois was afraid the slightest movement would spark an explosion.

She turned towards him, wondering how he was feeling. He looked so pained, so sad, maybe even on the verge of tears. Poor Clark!

Poor Clark? What about poor Lois?

Maybe she had been a little too hard on him, too unfair to him. He hadn't meant to hurt her so badly last night. And if she knew Clark, and she did, the poor guy was probably beating himself up over everything that had happened.

She couldn't make Clark think that she hated him completely. Even though he had hurt her profoundly last night, and she had hurt him this morning, they couldn't play a game of who could hurt whom more. They needed to talk about their problems -- after all, this wasn't an insurmountable obstacle.

Talking. Yes, that was something they could do. Yes, talking.

Yeah, that had worked out so well this morning.

They both needed to cool down. Okay, Clark wasn't hot headed; Lois needed time to cool down. She was sure of one thing -- she was going to forgive him. She couldn't stand making him suffer.

Even though he had made her suffer.

No, she couldn't think like that. It was so petty. She couldn't adopt a system where she'd take an eye for an eye.

Clark wasn't exactly wrong. He certainly hadn't meant to hurt her.

He needed to prioritize his Superman engagements.

She realized no obstacle was insurmountable. Their love was far stronger than any obstacle in their way. They couldn't let Superman come between them again.

To show Clark she wasn't as mad as she appeared, Lois tentatively reached out and softly placed her hand on his upper thigh and patted it several times before letting her fingers rest just above his knee.

It wasn't fair to either of them to spend the short time they had together fighting. When she looked at him and saw his pained repentant eyes, she realized that although she had every right to be mad at him, it was counter productive. She loved him and wanted to show him how much she needed him.

Clark felt her hand on his thigh. A shiver coursed through his body as he thought about what this could possibly mean.

Was it a gesture of peace?

"I love you," Lois said. She squeezed his thigh, hoping to reassure him.

Clark smiled weakly and said, "I love you, too."

Peace. A treaty. The end to a war.

Maybe Lois had forgiven him.

They lapsed back into silence, but it wasn't the same painful silence. Both were lost in their thoughts, but they were no longer thoughts of anger and pain.

It was going to be okay. Their love would survive.

**********

Superman couldn't hide from her much longer.

Penny was going to find him.

On the subway, on the way to work, Penny pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her purse and began a list of Superman's physical traits, and some rough character traits as well, so she would be able to utilize Diticom's new search program.

What did she know about her hero?

Enough to know he was the man of her dreams.

Maybe she should start with the physical traits.

Eye color. Blue, definitely blue. He had piercing, beautiful blue eyes.

Hair color. Black. Or maybe really dark brown. Most likely, it was black, though. That was an easy one! He had short, straight, black hair.

Age: Young. But he had been in Metropolis for four years, so he couldn't be *that* young. Maybe in his twenties. But not early twenties. Maybe late twenties. There could be a *remote* possibility that he was thirty. No, he couldn't be thirty! Superman wasn't that old. God, thirty was totally ancient! So he could be between twenty-five and thirty. Maybe twenty-four.

Height. Tall. Really tall. He towered over everyone in the city. So he had to be tall. Maybe seven feet tall. No, that seemed too tall. He was definitely over six feet. Maybe six-five. That seemed pretty accurate. Somewhere between six-five and seven feet tall.

Build. Muscular. Very muscular. His physique was legendary. He was the Man of Steel, which meant he was probably the most muscular man in the world.

That seemed like all the physical traits the program would need to know. What else did she know about him?

Obviously, he was single. And of course he was straight. She didn't have any proof for either of those facts, but they were very important to her. Superman couldn't have a significant other. If he did, it would have been plastered all over the tabloids. And if he were gay, again, the tabloids would have been all over it. So she felt justified in keeping to her assumptions.

What about a job? He had to have some sort of job if he lived in Metropolis. It had to be something where he would be in touch with emergencies -- and something he would be able to leave at a moment's notice. What about a policeman? But if he was a policeman, why would he have to be Superman? True, he would hear about all the crimes quickly, so that would be an advantage, but would he be able to leave for long periods of time? What about a fireman? But why would Superman show up at fires? If he was a fireman, wouldn't they notice if he wasn't with them?

What if he was something completely different not associated with emergency services? Who else would be associated with reports of crimes and disasters as they happened? The news! Who else was associated with news as it happened? Maybe he worked for the Daily Planet or the Star or LNN. Now that was interesting. A news organization seemed almost likely for him.

So he might be a police officer, a fireman, a news anchor, or a reporter. Or else he was none of the above. She had no idea. There were just so many possibilities!

When the subway train arrived at her stop, Penny was very satisfied with her work so far. She was ready to start entering criteria into the program. By tonight, she would know Superman's secret identity!

It was the best feeling in the world. Soon, she would finally meet the man of her dreams!

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

To be contined!


Laura "The Yellow Dart" U. (Alicia U. on the archive)

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." -- Christopher Reeve