Chapter Three

Just after midnight, a small yacht cuts through the water of the Atlantic Ocean at a reasonable speed toward Gotham. Comfortably seated in a large armchair in a luxurious cabin, a man types on his laptop as a soft light illuminates his bald head.

Another man with broad features and tattoos-covered arms enters the cabin and says to the bald man, "We're approaching, Sir."

"Fine. I was beginning to lose patience. Let's send the message to our… new friend."

The tattoo-covered man nods and disappears behind the door. Luthor smiles and pats a small black bag at his side.

At the Metropolis Heaven Motel, in room fourteen, Clark stands in the shower, his hands on the tiled wall. He leans there for a few moments with his head lowered and his eyes closed. Hot water streams down his back and over his shoulders, relaxing away the dull aches brought on by another sleepless night.

Sleep, he thinks. Hmph. This is better than sleep. At least the nightmares won't come now. He chuckles softly, thinking that his Ma would kill him if she knew he didn't listen to her advice. Instead of sleeping, he spent most of another night rescuing people all around the world. Surprisingly, no one seemed to notice his growing tiredness through out the night.

Standing a little longer under the cascading water, he lets his thoughts drift.

Suddenly he feels a hand on his left shoulder. Startled, he wants to turn but a feminine voice whispers in his hear, "Don't turn around. Stay like this…"

His heart is beating fast. It's Lois's voice. What is she doing here? Embarrassed, he tries to protest, "Lois… I…"

"Shh…" Her hand slowly moves down from his shoulder to his left side and settles on his hip. He gasps as his breath begins to quicken. She then slowly draws a line with her fingernail to the small of his back. He arches at the sting and moans then suddenly the sting becomes a piercing pain when the nail scratches his scar. He turns around to see with absolute horror that Luthor stands by Lois's side. She doesn't seem to be afraid at all and looks at Clark with disgust. In an instinctive move, he presses his back against the far wall of the shower, terrified and ashamed to be looked at in such a way.

"Look at him. He's an alien!" Lex says with a mocking glare.

"He's not one of us," adds Lois, disgusted. "How could I fall in love with this…thing?"

Her words give even more pain to Clark than his wound itself. He feels his legs giving away and slumps down on the cold wet floor. He feels coldness again… People are now coming up behind Lois and Lex. He can't clearly see their faces but he can hear them say, "You're not human… you're a freak! Get off of our planet…Parasite…"

Clark, unable to move, paralyzed by fear, starts to whimper softly. "No… please…"

"Parasite! You must be destroyed!"

He puts his arms over his face in defense and finally screams, "Noooo!"

Clark wakes up with a start. He's huddled in a corner of the shower, water still streaming down over him; he's shivering.

Clark extracts himself from a cab in front of the Daily Planet building at eight am. He looks up and contemplates the building for a moment, thinking. Should he continue to work there? Shouldn't he just stick to his Superman persona? Everything would finally be so simple... No more lies, no more regrets...

This place used to be his, but now he feels totally out of place, tired of playing this clumsy and stupid character. He stands there, in the middle of the sidewalk, considering whether he should enter the building or not.

Who would care anyway? Jimmy would... good kid. Clark smiles at the thought of Jimmy always trying his best to be kind to him.

Suddenly he is hit from behind. Turning backward, he realizes that a woman has just bumped into him and fallen backward onto the pavement. She curses under her breath but he can clearly hear it and it makes him smile. "Oh, I'm sorry," he says politely and offers his hand to her. But she doesn't take it, and instead hauls herself up alone, still mumbling.

"I was the one who bumped into you. I should be the one to apologize," she says curtly. With that, she straightens herself and heads to the entrance of the building. Clark just gazes at her soft red hair illuminated by the morning sunlight. Sun... Just now he realizes that today is a bright sunny day. He didn't notice before.

His mood is a little lightened; sun's good. He heads to the entrance and takes the revolving door, still gazing up at the blue sky. The doors are designed to let one or two people use them at a time, but Clark's size doesn't really fit and he finds himself trapped with the same red haired woman. Completely embarrassed, he tries his best not to crush her into the door frame as she pushes to get free. She mumbles again, more loudly this time.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying attention..." he says.

"I noticed that," she snaps back.

They're now free. Clark fights a little longer to free his briefcase without vaporizing the doors, then turns to apologize again but the woman is already out of sight. He doesn't know why but he feels suddenly empty and lost again. A weird sensation of claustrophobia grabs him as people pass by him and head for their busy lives, completely oblivious of his presence although he almost blocks the path from the doors.

Fighting the urge to run away, he composes himself and heads for the elevators.

Entering the bullpen, he goes directly to his desk, head low.

"Hey! Mister Kent!" Jimmy is now waving cheerfully at him. Clark waves back, trying his best to look cheerful in return.

"Err, Mister Kent..."

"Jimmy, please, why don't you call me Clark at last?"

The young photographer hesitates. "Yes... Mister Clark... I..."

Clark glares at him.

"Well, Clark…can you give me five minutes of your time to help me grab something from the closet…"

Clark just stares at him, blinking. Jimmy adds, "Well, The Chief wants me to find an old file which is supposed to be in his personal archives here, but…" In a much lower voice, he says, "It's a little too high for me…"

He looks at his feet. Clark hides a laugh and says, "Oh… of course. I'll get it for you, no problem."

Following Jimmy, he has to walk past Lois's desk. She's there, beautiful as always, busy typing on her laptop. "Hi, Lois…" he says shyly with his eternally goofy smile.

She doesn't bother to reply, too absorbed by her article. Clark's smile disappears in an instant and he joins Jimmy in the closet, his face low again.

He has no problem retrieving the boxes and proceeds to put them on the floor in the bullpen so Jimmy can search for his file more easily.

Suddenly a loud noise comes from just outside the closet. Clark walks out just in time to see the same red haired woman falling over the boxes. Just before she hits the ground, he rushes and scoops her up with one powerful arm.

"Got you, Miss."

Jimmy's jaw drops. "How did you do that!"

Clark realizes that he acted maybe a little too fast to appear 'normal'. He tries to find a good answer, not realizing that he's still holding the lady.

"YOU! AGAIN! Are you trying to kill me! Did I do something bad to you that you want to make me hurt myself or is this some kind of stupid test!" she screams out of anger, freeing herself roughly from his arms. Clark is blushing hard as everyone in the bullpen looks up at the scene.

He stammers, "I…I'm sorry…"

She doesn't stop yelling at him though Jimmy tries to calm her. Clark feels unusual anger rising in him and says sharply, "Well, maybe you wouldn't hurt yourself if you just looked where you're going when you walk!"

Jimmy looks at him, as horrified as the other people working nearby. The woman freezes suddenly, then snaps back in a low and deadly voice, "I would love to… if only I wasn't blind!"

Clark immediately feels the blood draining from his face as everything becomes clear. She never looked at him in the eyes; her look is unfocused. How could he have missed that! Although she isn't wearing sunglasses or using a cane, he should have noticed her careful walk, her hands discreetly registering her surroundings.

She bites her lips, fighting the tears coming and leaves him there without another word.

Jimmy, still shocked, looks at his friend, who is now leaning against the closet door, white as a sheet. "Err… Clark? Are you ok? Well, I'm sure Aileen won't be mad at you more than few hours…days…"

Clark turns slowly to face Jimmy and says, almost in a whisper, "Aileen?"

"Yes, Aileen Rogers. She used to work on the thirty-second floor, for the Braille version of the Planet, but was promoted last week and came up here. She has a column on her own, and it's pretty good because she gives something fresh and insightful to her articles. She's fantastic! I'm not surprised that you didn't see that she was blind at first. Some of us think that she has some kind of radar in her head because she rarely bumps into things… well until today… or when she talks to you, you almost think that she looks you in the eye. She has a very good ear. She's also…"

Clark looks at her during Jimmy's extensive speech. She's returned her desk and is now working on her computer. She's mumbling. He can very clearly hear what she says and it's not very kind. But her voice is so soft and rich. Her medium length red hair spreads over her head like the rays of a red sun. Her vivid green eyes are clear like precious stones. She's so tiny that she was like a feather in his arms. He can still smell her sent of fresh rose on his sleeve.

What the hell are you doing! he thinks to himself, shrugging the romantic thoughts off of his mind.

"I have to apologize to her."

"Err, Clark… I don't think it's a good idea…you know… she's a little like Miss Lane and…"

At the mention of that name, Clark feels even worse. He walks by Lois's desk. She hasn't missed a thing. She pats him on the back, "Good job, farm boy! I don't think you could ever do something worse to court a lady. No wonder you're still a Momma's boy…"

He just stares at her with wide eyes. Her words hit him right in his already battered heart. He just clenches his fists and goes to Aileen's desk.

She seems to have heard him come but doesn't react. Gathering his courage, he tries to speak but words come out erratically and for once he doesn't fake it. "I…err… sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you… I…"

"You're Kent, right? Listen… you may be one of the best reporters for the Daily Planet but to me you're just a…"

A sudden light-headiness catches him off guard and he has to lean onto Aileen's desk not to fall, his surroundings turning dangerously around him. His hand hits her coffee mug and the hot liquid spreads all over her papers. Angrily, she says, "Great! Look who's blind, now!"

She tries to search for her mug as her hands wander over her desk, but as she touches Clark's hand, she immediately notices that something is not right with her clumsy-MisterImaRealJerk-colleague. She holds his arm and asks in a much softer voice, all anger gone, "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine… Just need some air…" he mutters, then starts to walk slowly to the elevators.

The fresh breeze feels so good on his face. When he arrived on the rooftop, Clark immediately felt better. Now he stands on the ledge, looking out over the city, bathing in the welcomed sun light. He could fly away high in the sky now, but simply being here on the roof is enough to soothe his mind.

Closing his eyes, he opens his arms slightly to embrace the cool air.

"Oh my God! Don't!"

He jerks around, startled out of his peaceful reverie, and looks behind him. Jimmy, holding Aileen by the hand, has burst through the roof door and is running toward him.

"Please, Mister Kent... I mean… Clark! Don't jump! Everything is going to be ok!"

Clark just stares at them, bewildered. "Jimmy, what…" he starts.

Aileen says, "Look… I'm not that mad at you… you know. You've been an absolute jerk so far but…"
Jimmy gives her a look and squeezes her hand. Ok, that's probably not the cleverest thing to say right now, she thinks.

A long moment of silence passes, then suddenly Clark bursts out laughing. A big, true laugh; one of those laughs that he doesn't remember having had for a long time.

Aileen tilts her head to the side, and Jimmy just stares at Clark, both of them stunned.