Clark stared after the girl, confused, a little angry, a little tired, and a lot sad. Who was she to tell him that she was the person who was going to "fix" him, be his companion, confidant, his everything until Lois came back? And even if that was true, even if all of what she said was right as rain, and he allowed her to patch his hurting soul, how could he just leave her when Lois showed back up? He couldn't just leave someone whom he had learned to love, even if it was nothing more than a friend. And if she grew to feel the same way about him, how could she leave him? She said that she wasn't lucky in the people department, she didn't have family or close friends, how would any of this be fair to her? Would they have to live as a trio when Lois came back? And he knew Lois, and Lois would never ever go for that. So, this all boiled down to: what was in it for Amy? What could she possibly get out of this situation that had an expiration date?

He sighed and ran a hand down his make-up weathered face and decided that he needed to clear his head. He went outside, decided that he would tend the animals, mend some fences, chop up some of that tree branch that had fallen in the last storm. He worked until the sun fell behind the corn, worked until, if he'd been human, if he'd been able to, he would have bled. But instead, there he stood, in the middle of his farm, no closer to an answer, or an understanding of the situation, and his head still full of images, of Lois, of a past that he missed so much his heart ached with the memory, and of a girl, sitting on his living room chair willing to give up her life so he could find his way back to being Superman. A hero. The hero, she said, that the world needed again.

It was almost too much, he wanted to scream, he wanted to throw things, he wanted to end this. Wanted to be free. He needed to fly. But he hadn't flown since Superman had left for Krypton over 40 years ago. He didn't even know if he could still do it. He slowly willed himself to levitate, and his feet did leave the ground, he tried for higher, and went higher, and before he knew it, he was above the corn looking down. It was liberating, it was freeing, and before he could think about it again he streaked through the night, and ended up above the clouds and into space. It was just Clark and the openness of space, the emptiness of space, the silence of space. He was free of all distractions, and just allowed himself to hover, to float, to exist in the emptiness. And the emptiness gave him permission to do what he'd wanted to do since Lois had begun to lose her mind, lose her memories, lose who she was-he screamed with everything that was in him, with all of his power, with all of his strength and most importantly with all of his anger and sadness. He was free to let his emptions go, because in space no one can hear you scream.

CKCKCKCKCKCK

He managed to call her, and she came like she said she would. She stood on the porch, waiting for him to open the screen door, and her mousy brown hair blew lightly in the wind.

He opened the door and indicated that she should follow him. They walked along the corn line and they walked silently side by side for quite some time. "You really want to do this?" He asked breaking their silence.

She shrugged. "I need you to really want to do this. I don't want you to do this just because Mike asked you to, or because you feel obligated, or because you think it is your responsibility to resurrect Superman….I want you to get something out of this."

"Me? Get something out of this?" She laughed. "I would be getting so much out of this. It is you who would be getting the shorter end of the stick."

That stopped Clark in his tracks. "What do you mean?"

She hesitated, brushed a hand over the corn leaves, and sighed. She finally turned to him, and he noted that she didn't quite meet his eyes. "I've been alone my whole life. Bounced from foster home to foster home, been hurt by more people than you can ever imagine. And someone comes to me and says that I can help Superman get his groove back and become a champion for people like me again." The wind blew her hair into her face, and she pushed it behind her ears. "I never saw you in action, you "left for Krypton" before I was born, but I read about you and Lois in school, I read about all of the things that you did to help us, to help people like me who had no one else in the entire world to help them. That's a pretty epic thing to be a part of."

Clark nodded taking in this information, "But what are you expecting of me?"

"Nothing." She said honestly. "Nothing other than friendship."

"Friendship?"

"Yes. That's all I want." They continued walking, the corn rustled in the breeze.

"I flew for the first time in 40 years last night after you left." He confided. And as soon as it left his mouth he couldn't figure out why he said it.

"Where did you go?" she asked quietly.

"I flew all over the state and then ended up in space." She nodded.

"Why?"

"I needed to clear my head."

"What were you trying to clear?"

He shook his head. "Bad stuff."

She nodded. "I can relate." And just like that the agreement was reached. Amy would be a stand in, she would be the understudy, and she would spur on this great man to even greater heights.