A/N: I would like to thank my editors,SHADO and Misha...thank you so much...

Daily Planet , Friday , 18:23 PM

Eight months had passed. Eight lonely months, but as far as he knew those months were the happiest of his adult life. He had a son. Granted, a son that he saw only at nights, but still he was his. Sometimes, Lois brought him to the office after school… then he had the chance to become a friend to his child, to hear him, to play with him without drawing too much attention as Clark Invisible Kent.

Today he was invisible as well, and all he could do was to just watch. He was sitting in Lois's office, staring through the glass of his new office. Well, maybe "new" was a little bit of a stretch… it wasn't really new, it had been almost four months or so since the day that Perry had announced Richard's promotion, that had led him finally to NY. Clark remembered when Perry had told him that he was going to take Richard's chair at The Planet. The news hadn't been taken so warmly by everyone but, a year afterwards, they were pleased with Perry's choice. Oddly enough, Clark Kent had a similar character with their last assistant editor. Who could have predicted that years ago?

So, here he was, staring at some of his co-workers that had stayed after the end of the day at The Planet, singing Happy Birthday to his son inside his office. Richard had come all the way from NY to be at Jason's birthday party at The Planet. Lois had asked Clark if they could use his office and he had gladly agreed. Yet he hadn't had the courage to join them. He always had to stay in the corner…But tomorrow… tomorrow all is going to change, he thought…He was going to reveal himself to her tonight… But first he had to speak to his father….After six years since he had left for Krypton, and months afterwards of searching for the Fortress' crystals…he was going to speak again with his father…

Lois was cutting her son's birthday cake now. It was the first time that Jason could taste his own cake. For the past five years he had been allergic to almost everything, but that had changed eight months ago. She didn't want to remember that day, but every night the images and the horror were coming back. After Richard's promotion her life had changed dramatically as everything in the office, but they didn't know the whole story. No one really knew why Richard had left, why he had accepted a job away from his perfect family. A family that didn't belong to him, Lois thought bitterly as she shook her head and tried not to remember painful thoughts, especially not on her son's birthday party. All her hopes, all her expectations from the man she loved had never come true.

"It's time to unwrap the presents, kiddo," she heard Richard talking to Jason. She knew that he was in a hurry to catch the last plane tonight. It was only natural, really, after she had revealed to him that Jason's father was the man she had always loved. Richard had –understandably - preferred to keep his distance between them.

Jason was too busy with his second large piece of cake that his mother had given him to notice anything else. He seemed happier than she had ever seen him before. He still couldn't believe that he was able to eat whatever he liked and that he had stopped his medical treatments and, of course, he didn't need to use his inhaler anymore.

"Well, let's see what we have here," she said, knowing that most of her co-workers wanted to see Richard's son happy after his parents' break-up. The irony was that they were not just co-workers, but they all were Richard's friends. She had never made a friend inside the Daily Planet…except for Clark. Her Kansas boy. He was the only one that she could really call "friend" in there. And then there was Jimmy. But Clark had something that made her trust him. He had that puppy-eye look full of honesty that she had never seen before… The only exception being…HIM.

"Mommy look! Look what daddy gave me!" Jason yelled with his enthusiastic voice, filling the office as he was trying his new bike.

"Oh that's a really nice present, honey," Lois said to her son as she looked over him to meet Richard's eyes, who quickly turned his look away, effectively avoiding eye contact with her.

She should have expected that after all. The wounds are not easily healed, she reminded herself as her own wounds were still bleeding. Richard hadn't come to see her for weeks. He had been coming only for Jason when he was already asleep, but he never talked to him. He never woke him up. Never. Lost in her thoughts, she was hearing her child's laugh every time he opened a new present. There were still two left unopened, and one of them was almost hidden behind a shad paper.

The first was from Clark, and the little boy took it from her hands after she told him who the present was from. It was nothing special though, just a black pair of pajamas, that Jason quickly started to wear upon his clothes before she could make a move to stop him. Couldn't Clark find something colorful? She asked herself as she noticed that at least he had picked the right size. Suddenly, they all looked at her son, amused, and Richard's jaw dropped open a little as he looked at Jason's chest. The pajamas weren't totally black. In front of his chest, Jason was proudly showing a big silver "S" shield. Superman's shield.

"That's enough Jason, take it off right now!" she all but screamed, leaving her audience shocked.

"Your mother is right, kiddo. Take it off," Richard said as he tried to move and help the boy take off the pajamas.

Lois felt awful. It wasn't Jason's fault and she knew it well. But she was afraid. Afraid that people could see the similar blue eyes that he and his father shared. Heck, even the reason why Richard and she had taken different ways in their lives… She felt as if suddenly the hidden truths of her life had started to become like the silent moments of a clock: Too many. Unfortunately, they were a necessity to have a safe future for her son.

Jason had tears in his eyes now, and Lois tried to calm him down as she was telling the others –lying, really- about the possibility that the dust in the cloths could cause him an asthma attack, or worse, to bring his allergies back. Most of her audience bought it, she thankfully thought.

"Here's your last present, Honey, open it," said Lois, trying to make her voice as pleasant as possible.

Jason heard his mother's calm voice and his face lighted up with a smile, a weak one, but it was a smile nonetheless, she guiltily told herself as she thought of her former reaction.

Jason didn't know why his mother had been mad at him before. It was only a pair of pajamas, and Superman himself had sent them. His mommy liked Superman, not as much as when he was in the office but he liked him all right. He was so happy that his favorite superhero had given him a birthday present! Not to mention that he was visited by said superhero every night when he thought that he was sleeping.

He remembered the second night that he had come to his bedroom. He didn't recall much from the first night, only his touch and his last words. Words that didn't make sense to him, but still, he had talked to him. The best part though, was that by the second night they already had a secret, just as if they were best friends. He couldn't tell to anyone, not even to his Mommy, but still they shared a secret: Clark was Superman.

His mother's voice took him out of his thoughts as she was giving him his last present. He took it with a weak smile.

The gift that his mother had given him was a strange metallic box, which made Jason feel –and look- disappointed. But then he thought that it might hide his real present inside so he opened it without a second thought.

He heard a noise and then a small cloud of dust hit him in his face. His eyes started to burn like his lungs with the first breath he took. He started coughing, and then everything stopped. He couldn't breathe or even cough. He was choking, and the screams of his mother hurt his ears. The last thing he knew before all turned black around him was a door smashing and glasses falling to the floor.

She was screaming.

Lois was screaming and someone was coughing now, choking. Jason. Oh, no, no, that couldn't be. Without thinking anything else, he ran to his office and smashed the door as he was trying to open it. The glass was falling all around him and the faces of the scared reporters didn't affect him when he saw his son lying on the floor. He had fainted and he wasn't breathing.

He pushed Richard to the corner and took the boy from Lois's arms, which were unwilling to let him go, but he was stronger than she thought. He took him in his arms as he felt a weakness. The green dust on his son's face, his choking, and now the weakness he felt had only one answer: Kryptonite. As he saw the box that was now on the floor, he noticed there was a card with only one sentence written:

I'm back.

L.L.

He lifted the child in his arms and he moved out of the office.

"CLAAAAARK! Where are you taking him?!" he heard Lois screaming, but he just ignored her, just like Richard who made a move to take his son from his arms. He pushed him harder this time and he went through the broken glass.

Quickly, he got into the bathroom and opened the water. He washed Jason's face in a hurry, with Lois looking at him like she never had before: With fear. When he was sure that the face was cleaned up, he started giving him CPR. Every time he gave him a breath his mouth burned because of the Kryptonite dust in Jason's mouth. His agony grew more and more as the boy didn't breathe yet, until Jason started coughing in his embrace.

"Breathe with me, Jason. Breathe with me, son," he heard himself saying as his son's tears were wetting his shirt. When Jason's breathing started to come in a normal level, Lois tried to take him from his hands but he didn't give him to her.

"What are you doing? Give me my son. Give him to me!" Lois started screaming again, but he didn't give her their son.

"Jason, spit it all out. Spit it." Jason started spitting in the sink, and Clark opened the water again and washed his and Jason's mouth. Lois was still trying to take the boy from his arms, but Clark didn't let him go, nor did Jason want to let go either. He had clung to Clark with all the strength that the little boy still had left in him.

"He had to spit it out, Lois!" Clark finally yelled back at her, for the first time in his life.

She looked at him frightened. He wasn't the Clark she had known all those years. He wasn't the shy, easygoing Clark, and he definitely wasn't the mild-mannered and tolerant person that all the office had known until now. Only the sun can help him now, Clark whispered only for his own ears. "We… we… must take him to…errr.. the roof…I…I think that sunlight will make him feel better…I am sorry… about before. I am… sorry…" he said apologetically and right then the old Clark came back.

"Come here, Baby," Lois said to Jason. And so, for the first time since the whole thing had started, Clark didn't ignore her. As he was ready to give her Jason back into her arms, her boy didn't quite have the same opinion.

"Noooo! Leave me! I want Clark!" Jason said as he squeezed Clark's hand with all his remaining powers, and he started to cry on his chest.

Clark didn't make any move. He just caressed Jason's hair, telling him that everything was okay now. Richard was staring from the door of the bathroom. With his right hand he was trying to stop the bleeding from his left hand, which had been cut with the broken glass that had flown away when Clark had pushed him. In the end, they were all looking at Clark, in part not being able to believe that he had been the one who had acted to save the boy, but mostly because of the way he had done it.

Sunlight. His father takes his powers from the sun. It's the only thing that will help him right now, and Clark knows it. Lois knew that Clark wasn't a fool, but she wasn't sure if he was able to see so far as to realize Jason's true paternity. Of course not, he was too….what?… too Clark, Lois… too Clark… she told herself.

"I think that now he needs fresh air. Shall we, Clark?"

Clark nodded to Lois and he murmured a sorry to Richard who still couldn't believe how Clark had pushed him with so much strength. Neither had she ever thought that her puppy-eyed former partner was caring so much for her son that he had lost his temper for the first time –ever— to save him. And now she was realizing that if he hadn't been there, she could have lost Jason, and his father hadn't come despite of her callings. Was he really so busy that he couldn't find the time to help his own son?

She and Clark got in the elevator and for the first time she noticed Clark's eyes. It wasn't that they were blue, or light blue, or however that shade was called, that made them beautiful. No, it was what she saw reflected in his eyes, the fact that they were only looking at Jason. It was love mixed with concern and relief, but the feeling that she couldn't understand was the one that was taking over: Anger.

The sun was still up but not for long as they had only one hour before dusk. She unbuttoned Jason's shirt as he was still in Clark's arms, and she took it over, leaving him shirtless. Months ago she would have been crazy to attempt to do such a thing. It had been only when he had turned into a perfectly healthy boy when he had started to have high temperatures. His temperature had always been a little higher that usual, but now he was becoming more and more like his father. A father that she knew cared for him but that hadn't come when Jason had truly needed him the most.

"Lois," Clark asked her in a slow, low voice, "What are you thinking? You seem…eh ….a little distract…than usual… you know…"

Lois saw her bare-chest son lying in his arms and she thought that Superman should have been the one who had saved him; the one to carry him tearfully; the one with the love and affection in his eyes for his son…She just smiled, and finally took her now sleeping son into her arms. It wasn't much for what he had done, but he seemed to think that her smile was the best reward and he smiled too, differently from the clumsy, goofy Clark that she had known for so long, but still familiar.