On the other hand.
A/N: Superman doesn't belong to me (although I wish he did!) and I didn't make any money from this story. Set post Superman Returns. Implied slash Richard/Superman.
Also, this is modified, so that Superman isn't giving Richard a mobile number.
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Richard White held on to the heavy marble that surrounded the bathroom sink. He felt sick, like the world had dropped out from underneath him and his stomach was roiling from the swiftness of it.
He reached down to the running faucet and took another palm full of water.
"Jason isn't your son..."
The whispered confession that Lois had made still whipped around him, chastising him for ever believing that what they had shared was special. Five years and it was all a lie!
He choked back a sob, raising blood-shot eyes to the mirror and looked at the wretch standing there. Unshaved, unkempt, his face tracked with tears, Richard White had spent the last two hours falling apart.
Lois had taken the easy way out; she'd gathered up her son... HER son, not his. Then had left, God only knew where.
The blue eyes of the boy he'd believed to be his own son would haunt him forever. He gazed at the dark brown of his own eyes and cursed himself for a fool. "Richard White, first class idiot." he said through clenched teeth. With a snarl full of rage, he hurled his fist at the mirror and then choked on another sob as he watched the pink of his own blood swirl with the clear, cool water in the sink.
All he wanted to do was curl up and die. His whole world was gone and all he had were the superficial trappings of money and no happiness.
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The wind whipped around him, chilling Richard through the white shirt he wore. A white shirt with a red cuff. He looked down at the make-shift bandage he'd made out of towels and sighed softly.
How does one call Superman? There's no phone number. No e-mail address or post office box. He could put an advert in the messages column of the Planet, but there's no guarantee that Superman would have the time to read such dross.
Richard gingerly clenched his blooded fingers, the pain reminding him that he was alive. He shifted his position on the ledge and slowly, carefully sat down. A small crowd had started to form below him, dull voices trying to reach him from ten storeys down. But they wouldn't make him change his mind.
He stared down at the seething streets below the Planet and contemplated his next move. Would he jump? Well, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. But now, even in his grief, Richard knew that wasn't why he was here.
How do you contact Superman? You make him come to save you.
A flash of red and blue caught his attention and Richard turned dispassionately towards the figure that floated about two feet away. "I wondered how long it would take you to get here." he mumbled disconsolately.
"Mr White." Superman's face softened "Richard, there's no need for you to be..."
"No need for me to be what!" he snapped, standing up and snarling. "Jealous? Angry? Suicidal?" For emphasis, he took a little step further off the edge, only half his feet now on solid ground. "You stole the heart of my fiancée, again. You fathered a child on her and then you LEFT! And now, when you come back, she goes running to YOU!" Richard jabbed a finger at the chest of the Man of Steel with each statement, but the vehement punctuations pushed him just that little off balance and before he knew it, Superman was flying upwards with him held gently in those arms.
Richard raised his gaze to the azure eyes of the man that held him and for a moment, just a brief moment; he could understand why Lois ran to him. The man was perfection embodied and wrapped with a red, blue and gold sheath.
Richard hardly realised that his feet were now on the solid ground of the roof of the Planet, until Superman turned and started to walk away. "Wait" he said, half pleading and hating himself for the tone of his voice. "I... should apologise."
"It's alright, Mr White. You had quite a lot to drink." came the mellow timbre of Superman's voice from across the roof. Richard watched for a moment, thinking how like a statue the other man looked. Standing near the edge, silhouetted by the Metropolis skyline, as his cloak fluttered in the breeze. Superman's eyes held such a look of pity, but the anger that Richard had felt had burned itself to a small ember.
"I... know you're a busy man." He took a deep breath, unsure if Superman knew what had happened this evening. "I wonder if we could... meet, we need to..." he hesitated, chewing the inside of his cheek "we need to talk about your son."
There. He'd said it. Now the ball was in Superman's court, so to speak.
Kal-el stepped down from the edge and approached Richard, sad that the man had discovered the secret that Lois had only shared with him until now. He hesitated, for once struck dumb and unable to find the right words. The wind played around the sharp planes of his face, stirring the kiss-curl that rested on his forehead before he moved his eyes to Richard's. Ears alert for sounds of disaster, there was nothing stopping these men from speaking openly and honestly. "I never wanted you to find out."
"Why?" Richard questioned, taking a step closer.
"Because I can never give Lois what she needs from a man. Not as Superman." There were tears struggling to emerge from his throat, but Kal-el refused to let his emotions change his voice.
"Can you be so cold, when you know that she loves you?"
Superman turned and looked up at the occluded stars in the sky, his voice taking on a wistful tone. "I love her, too." he whispered "But I am not human, which means that I cannot be for her all that she needs. It is why I tried to encourage her to be with you."
"You must be close enough to Human, Superman, or you couldn't have given her a baby."
"I gave up all of this, Richard; to be with her." finally, the Man of Steel turned and looked at Richard "I used the science of my people to become Human, for Lois." Richard frowned, seeing tears on those chiselled cheeks, but listened as he continued. "I had one night with her, one night in which to show her how much she means to me. But fate intervened and I had to reverse the procedure. I... can't do it again, I wouldn't survive it."
Richard gasped softly at the revelation, but when he realised how much Superman had given up for one night, a sudden moment of pride warmed him. He'd had nearly five years with the woman they loved.
"Richard, I may have been raised Human, but now there is no way I can become Human again." Superman sighed, his shoulders slumping in an attitude that the reporter never thought he'd see; defeated, all Richard wanted to do was comfort this bulwark before him. "I needed to know Lois was safe, which is why I never came between you two."
"But it's all a lie, Superman. Knowing that she's in love with you, I can't compete with that."
"Yes, you can. You give her a family. And while Jason may be my son, biologically, you're more of a father to him than I can ever be."
"She left me, Superman. Because I can't live up to the same perfection she sees in you."
Superman shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "She needs time to cool off. You know how Lois can be."
Richard couldn't help but give a small laugh. "I suppose so. Do you really think I can get her back?"
"You have to, my friend. For her sanity. For me. You need to be all to her that I can never be."
Richard flexed his fingers, wincing at the pain where he'd hit the mirror. He saw Superman's eyes fixed to the make-shift bandage "You should get that sewn up at the hospital. Do you want a lift?"
To be held in those arms again? Richard hesitated, and then shook his head. "No, it wouldn't be fair. My car's downstairs, I can get there myself."
"If you need me," Superman held out a small man's bracelet, the gem gleaming blue under the subdued lights of the city. "When you need me, just press into the gem, I'll hear you. I want to be sure there's no bad-blood between us, Richard, it's important to me."
Richard sighed, looking down at the bracelet. By the time he looked up with a good answer on his lips, Superman had flown away.