A/N: A BIG thank you to everyone who sent in their positive reviews - KlynneL, Kitana4, countryLexLuv, D. Taina, CindyB, fightindog, Shannon K, and mamaXunicorn. You guys made my day--my week, even! So as not to have such a long Author's Notes before the chapter even begins, I won't be posting a reply to your comments here. Do know that I keep in mind and take into consideration the reviews/comments you've sent. Negative reviews are welcome as well (not that I'm egging you on to tell me something mean or evil), but if you do have something negative to say, please say 'em nicely. ;)

Random quote for the day: "I've got candy and I'm not afraid to use it!" - Jason Lane, hiding from the school dentist

Chapter 2: What A Child Can See

"Daddy?" Richard heard a little voice whisper close to his ear. He felt a pair of small hands shaking his shoulders.

"Daddy?" There it was again. Richard groaned, he was too tired to move and he wanted nothing more than to sleep.

"DADDY!!"

The high-pitched scream was enough to make Richard jump up and fall to the floor with a loud thud! He realized he was sleeping on the couch, and suddenly, the events of last night came rushing back to his mind—Superman's visit, the revelation of Jason's paternity. His thoughts were broken by the sound of a little boy's laughter. He turned to look at Jason, rolling on the floor, laughing.

"You…look…funny, Daddy," Jason said in-between fits of laughter. He was still wearing his pajamas, the one with airplane prints on them.

Richard looked at himself. His wrinkled clothes and his tousled hair, not to mention the surprised look on his face, probably did make him look funny. He began to laugh along with his son. "You think I look funny, huh? We'll see who looks funny now!" he exclaimed as he ran after Jason around the living room. He finally caught up with him and tickled the boy, making Jason shriek and giggle endlessly.

"What in the world—?" Lois had gone down to find her fiancé and son running and rolling around the house in their sleeping wear. She had to admit it was quite an amusing scene, but she bit her lip back to stop herself from smiling. Someone had to be the responsible adult around the house.

"Richard," she called out, "he'll have an asthma attack if you keep tickling him."

That seemed to make Richard stop playing with his son.

"But Mommy," whined Jason, "I don't use my inhaler much 'nymore! 'S okay."

Richard and Lois looked at each other. Richard just shrugged at her and dove back into Jason, pinning him on the carpeted floor and tickling him again. The sound of Jason's laughter had never sounded so sweet to Richard.

After an hour of playing on the floor, Richard and Jason, along with Lois, were all set to go to the Daily Planet building.

"Remember, sweetie, don't go wandering around the office," Lois reminded Jason as they made their way through the usual Metropolis traffic. "You have to—"

"—stay in Daddy's office," Jason finished. "I know, Mommy. You told me a gazillion times!"

Richard just laughed as Lois let out an exasperated sigh. She knew her son got that smart-ass personality from her. Although Lois seemed worried that her son would wander off around the office, Richard was secretly thankful that Jason didn't have school until tomorrow. After what he learned last night, he was determined to spend time with Jason as often as he could.

The trio made their way up to the Daily Planet office, with Jason leading the way. He was often in the bullpen with his parents that people were used to seeing him around. He greeted a few of his parents' co-workers as he made his way to his Daddy's office. He was just two feet away from the door marked "Richard White – Assistant Editor" when he paused and ran the opposite direction.

"Jason!" Lois called out, but before she could say anything else, she found her son throwing himself at her co-worker—a certain mild-mannered colleague by the name of Clark Kent.

"Mr. Clark!" Jason exclaimed as he jumped into Clark's leg, almost knocking him off-balance.

"Whoa, there, kiddo," Clark said, kneeling down to Jason's level and pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "You're pretty excited this morning."

Lois and Richard went towards him. Lois immediately apologized. "Sorry about that, Clark. My munchkin seems more active than he usually is. He had been running around the house and playing with Richard the whole morning."

Clark gave her a goofy grin. "It's fine, Lois. Don't, uh, worry about it."

Richard scooped up Jason. "Hey, Tiger, how about you and me get settled in my office first, okay? Let Mommy and Mr. Clark get their work done before you cause them trouble, alright?"

"Okay, Daddy!" replied Jason cheerfully. "Bye, Mr. Clark!"

Richard smiled at Clark and gave Lois a kiss on the cheek before walking over to his office with Jason. Clark watched as Richard pulled out a few blank sheets of paper and laid a box of crayons on the table for Jason. He wondered if he'd be able to do that sort of things for his son one day.

"...later, okay, Clark?" Clark had only caught the last few words Lois said. "Clark?"

"Huh? Sorry, Lois. Um, what?" he said shyly, mentally giving himself a kick for not focusing his attention on Lois.

Lois sighed. "I said I'll talk to you later about that article Perry assigned us to do together, the one about the city's reconstruction efforts. I still have to finish this bank robbery article."

"Yeah, o-of course. Sure, Lois."

Lois seemed to find Clark's lack of attentiveness unusual, but decided not to pay any heed to it. He was just Clark, anyway. His attention didn't matter much to her.

The day wore on at a slow pace. There were very few newsworthy events that day, and everyone had been simply relaxing. Even Perry wasn't yelling as much. There was nothing to yell about.

As the journalists chatted and shared gossip in the break room, Clark was busy writing another set of articles for tomorrow's edition. He was almost finished when he heard a tiny set of footsteps heading in his direction. He smiled when he felt Jason tugging on his sleeve. He loved every minute he could spend with his boy.

"Mr. Clark?"

"Mm hmm?" he replied without looking at Jason. Clark had just finished his work and was going over it as he grabbed his cup of coffee.

"Since you're Superman, can you take me flying to the stars?"

Clark sputtered the coffee he had just drank and spilled the contents of the cup onto his pants. A few colleagues saw him and laughed, shaking their heads and muttering something along the lines of, "That guy's such a klutz."

Jason, though, wasn't laughing. He just looked intently at Clark and smiled his sweet, innocent smile. "So can you take me flying?"

Clark dabbed at his pants with some paper towels and looked at Jason. "What do you mean, Jason? I think you should ask your...um, Daddy. He has a seaplane, he can take you flying."

"But you don't need an airplane to go flying!"

Clark looked around to see if any of his co-workers were nearby. Thankfully, most of them were at the break room or down at the nearest pub. Clark looked seriously at Jason. "I really don't know what you're talking about, Jason."

"But...but you're Superman. You and him look alike—I saw it when you were standing here and he was on TV," the boy said matter-of-factly. "You're the same, except your hair is messy and his hair is neat. And you wear your undies under your clothes and he wears his undies out."

Clark looked at his son. He would have laughed at his son's comparison of him and Superman, if the situation didn't call for seriousness. He did not want to lie, but he was not sure if telling the truth to a five-year-old was a good idea either. After silently debating with himself, he decided to stick with the truth—it would be nice to have a secret only he and his son shared. He picked up Jason and sat him in his lap. "Yes, Jason, I am Superman. But you can't tell anybody that, okay?"

Jason seemed to think about this for a while, furrowing his brows and reminding Clark of the look on Lois face when she was concentrating on an article.

"Why?" Jason finally asked.

Clark replied, "Because then, bad men might come after the people I love and they can get hurt."

"Why?"

"Because bad men would want nothing more than to hurt me, and by hurting the ones I love, they hurt me, too."

"Why?"

"Because..." Clark let out a soft sigh of frustration. He had no idea how else to explain to a five-year-old the complicated life of Superman. "It's just like that Jason."

Jason looked at him, seemingly evaluating the honesty in Clark's words. "Okay, Mr. Clark. It's gonna be our secret." After a moment, he asked, "Can't I tell Mommy?"

Clark smiled at the boy sitting in his lap. "Sorry, Jason, but not even Mommy can know." Especially not Mommy can know, he thought to himself.

"Why?"

"Because she'd be in danger if she knew."

"How about Daddy?"

"You can't tell him either."

"Why?"

"Because the less people know, the better."

"Why?"

"Because...You know, you're really a lot like Lois. You ask a lot of questions."

"Is that bad?"

"No, of course not. Not really." Clark grinned at his son, and Jason returned the same goofy grin at him.

"Jason, there you are!" Lois called out from her cubicle. "Time to go home, honey."

Clark let Jason down on the floor and ruffled his hair. Jason had started to walk away, but stopped short after two steps. He looked back at Clark and whispered, "So will you take me flying?"

Clark raised an eyebrow. Weren't they over this? "No, Jason. I can't, sorry."

The little boy pouted, very much like the way his mom did. "Why?" He began walking towards Lois' cubicle.

Clark shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He sighed. Did his son really have to be so darn adorable?

BTW, the random quote doesn't appear anywhere on this chapter, or any other upcoming chapters. It's just something that I overheard little Jason say. ;)

And now, a teaser for the next chapter:

A scene from Chapter 3: Of Heartaches and Longing

As soon as they were in the air, Lois opened her eyes and found Superman smiling at her. He said, "Tell me, how many times did you play the lead character in your school plays?"

Lois laughed. "I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the interview, you know."

"Of course," the Man of Steel replied. They flew off in the direction of the Daily Planet building. In less than a minute, they landed on the rooftop.

This is it,Superman thought. Time to talk.

I can do this, Lois thought. How hard can it be to talk to the father of my child?