Before anything more could be said Tom arrived with a man with a vaguely military bearing who was carrying a doctor's bag. As he watched the two men enter the room, he did his best to hide his nervousness over the upcoming eye exam and what it might reveal. He'd never had his eyes examined very closely before, and now he would be seeing exactly how close they were to those of a human despite his abilities. As he did his best to hide his anxiety, the doctor who was clearly an Optometrist started bringing out the tools of his trade.

The eye exam started off normally enough with him reciting an entire eye chart right down to the bottom line for the doctor, and then came the next bit...He did his best not to flinch back as the man came in for a close examination of the interior structure of his eye in order to check for cataracts and the like. As he watched the face that was hovering directly in front of his over the course of several seconds, the doctor's expression went from clinical to downright fearful.

Not as close to human as he'd previously thought then...

"What are you?!" the doctor asked. "I know what the inside of a human eye is supposed to look like, and that sure as hell wasn't it!"

This caused the two agents to jerk to attention, their hands reaching for their weapons. He understood why though. People could accept him being different dressed as Superman. Superman's outfit marked him as something else, something other. Dressed as a normal member of society, he suddenly became an infiltrator. Considering what would happen if they tried to shoot him, and the fact that he wouldn't lie about what happened, things could get very messy very quickly.

"Can I trust you to be discreet?" he asked, knowing that he had little choice in the matter at the moment, and it was entirely possible that he couldn't trust them. Those with power over others tended to be more easily corrupted than those who didn't, and this was a very valuable secret.

All three men eyed him with wariness and suspicion. Neither agent took their hands from where their weapons were holstered.

Sighing, he loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt enough to reveal the blue of his Superman outfit underneath. All three men began to relax at this. Superman was familiar to them, safe in a way any other non-human wandering around their society wouldn't be. Everyone knew that Superman was there to help.

"Why a newspaper reporter?" Tom asked with an openly curious expression, being the first to break the silence.

"Aside from local law enforcement and the government, newspaper reporters are generally the first to hear things and often hear things well before the law does. That, and lives wouldn't be at risk if I abandon my work in order to go rescue somebody who's in trouble elsewhere." he replied, giving several honest reasons for why, and leaving out all the personal reasons for why he'd pursued the profession.

"If you'll excuse me Superman, I need to go and make some calls." the agent who wasn't Tom said as he left the room, leaving him sitting there with Tom and the doctor who was apparently either a military doctor, or ex-military.

None of them seemed to know what to say, and the doctor who'd probably received the shock of his life that day ended up excusing himself after a few minutes, presumably in order to request that he be allowed to leave. Sitting there in the room with Superman after you've accidentally outed him had to be uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable enough for him that people he didn't really know or trust knew he was both Clark Kent and Superman.

After about another hour and a half of uncomfortable silence that was mostly spent staring at Tom who stared back at him, someone who was apparently top brass and taken charge of the situation appeared. He vaguely recognized the man from a report that Lois had done. By all accounts, the man had a reputation for being as much of a straight shooter as a military officer could be.

Introductions were made, and soon they began hammering out what Superman would be doing for the war effort, seeing as it was unthinkable that Superman wouldn't be doing anything. Both Tom and Not Tom had remained in the room for some reason despite the fact that they would normally have been told on no uncertain terms to leave by the military, and both were providing surprisingly sound suggestions.

"There's one problem with all of this." he said as the man was debating over whether he'd be more useful in the Pacific theater where he'd previously sabotaged Japanese shipyards while on assignment in Asia with Lois or on the European Front. "Clark Kent can't just disappear, especially not now, considering... It would be completely suspicious, and probably start a panic about there being Axis infiltrators in our nation's news offices. Good reporters would be falsely accused during the ensuing witch hunt, and people won't trust any of the news they see or hear. And, if you can't trust the news, who can you trust? I can always talk Perry into sending me 'on assignment' to where I need to go. He got me into Japan after all."

Sure, he had selfish motivations for keeping Clark Kent around, ones that he wouldn't state here, but there was also a practical element in keeping Clark Kent alive. An element that he hadn't even considered until the moment he'd been faced with the ending of Clark Kent and he stopped to think about what that would mean to him and everyone around him.

The other men in the room all gaped at him. Apparently, the thought of what would happen if Clark Kent disappeared, especially after last being seen with federal agents, hadn't even crossed their minds. An uncomfortable look crossed the face of the agent who wasn't Tom as he began imagining the consequences.

"There's still that exam that has to be explained away." Tom piped up after several moments of tense silence.

"Colorblind?" the agent who wasn't Tom suggested. "You said you weren't colorblind, but there was a but there, and colorblindness would be an automatic 4-F."

"There's still that rumor that loose-lipped doctor sent winging around the city. That rumor that even people who are close to Kent and deal with him everyday are starting to believe due to some really odd habits he has." Tom said.

"How about legally blind like my mother was?" the General piped up. "When most people hear 'blind' they think 'can't see anything whatsoever'. With Legally blind, you'd need glasses to see the E at the top of the chart, but you'd be able to perceive light and dark somewhat and if there's an object very, very close to you. It would explain away any slipups regarding habits he has that blind people don't, and when he responds to things and people as if he could actually see them."

"Legally blind and colorblind, perfect." the agent who wasn't Tom said. "I'll just go and fabricate my report on Mr. Kent, so if a certain someone with the initials L.L. goes digging, she won't find a big file marked Top Secret and cause an even bigger headache, like the one she caused when she uncovered that corruption scandal we weren't even aware of."

Well, wasn't this going to be a real clusterfu-

"The country thanks you for your service Superman." the General said, sounding honestly sincere. "You've already done a great deal for us behind enemy lines, on the front lines, on the home front, and in the newsroom without asking anything in return."