Author's Note: Sorry about that change of character focus here, but as I tried to write the next story arc, I realized that following Superman around on this particular day would be infinitely more fun than hearing him tell Lois about it later. (It also spares Clark the trauma of explaining in great detail to Lois what happens when Superman reaches his limit.)

A special shout-out goes to IronRaven, who I and my collaborators in another fandom affectionately refer to as our weapons specialist. If there's any degree of believability to the espionage in this story, it's thanks to him.

Also, I've worked hard to keep the language clean in this fic, but sometimes only a swear word will do. I'm sorry, but I promise I won't make a habit of it.

Hope you enjoy!

Clark told himself he was just watching out for her. Lois was precious, his only true friend, and she'd made extraordinary sacrifices for him. The least he could do was make a flyby a couple of times a day to check in on her.

But deep down, he knew it was a lie. She was precious, but she was much more than a friend. He was indulging himself when he checked up on her, and he felt like the worst kind of hypocrite about it, too. When he'd first seen the espionage equipment, he'd been...well, upset was an understatement, but here he was spying on her, too. The fact that she hadn't objected didn't change the truth that spying was spying and if it was unacceptable for them, it was unacceptable for him.

He couldn't quite muster enough guilt about it to actually stop, though.

It was early morning, crisp and clear and perfect for flying. He was just coming off the graveyard shift at the construction site, and most of the city was either still asleep or too groggy to pay much attention to something happening a couple thousand feet up. So he'd suited up and taken to the sky to greet the sunrise and feel the life-giving light wash across his skin. Lois' apartment just happened to be on the way.

To make ends meet, he'd found an apartment with a roommate. While it was less than ideal, the roommate worked days, and working opposite shifts gave them both more privacy. It also gave him a chance to disappear for a few hours when Superman was needed, and no one would be around to question why. It was a little strange to think of himself in the third-person like that, but it was getting easier with time. He wasn't sure if he should be comforted by that fact or not.

Lois was still asleep. He'd learned early on that she was a night owl - so much so that a few times she'd been getting ready for bed when he was heading home from work. He allotted himself one minute to watch her now, on this mid-February morning, before searching yet again to see if they'd removed the bugs from her apartment. About a month ago, Lois' stalkers stopped restocking the devices that weren't hardwired once the batteries died (and there were only three of those). It had given him hope that they were giving up on the surveillance, but until those devices were actually removed from her apartment, he wasn't going to risk visiting her there.

It was only once their interest in her home was apparently waning that he had called the Daily Planet about an interview. He'd hoped that going through professional routes to contact her would prove that he didn't need to show up on her balcony. But still, even after his exclusive with Lois last night, nothing had changed.

That made no sense. The interview was a fairly significant change, so why didn't they respond? Sudden misgiving filled him. They were apparently abandoning high-tech surveillance, but that didn't necessarily mean they were giving up on her.

For the first time in weeks, he let first his super-sight and X-ray vision sweep the surrounding buildings. (Considering how angry he was about Lois' privacy being invaded, he was reluctant to scan random strangers' offices and homes.) What he found was the straw that officially broke the camel's back.

In the building opposite Lois' apartment, one floor up and two doors over, he saw a telescope pointed at her bedroom window. Three men were in the room with it, one studying a video feed that was apparently coming from the scope while the second was opening a box of donuts (presumably to share) and the third was carefully setting out coffee cups on the desk. Judging by the pile of various food containers and the disarray of the set up, he guessed it had been there for at least several days.

Both he and Lois knew that somebody was on the other end of all the devices in her apartment, but it wasn't the same as seeing an entire group of scruffy, leering men ogling his ...more-than-friend... while she slept. This was suddenly, irrevocably personal, and it would end now.

An inner voice told him it was wrong to simply swoop in and wreak personal vengeance. (After all he'd learned in the last year, he strongly suspected that voice was somehow his mother Lara's.) So he took a deep breath and mentally shifted gears. He wasn't Clark Kent engaging in a display of blatant machismo that could quite possibly earn him a chewing out from Lois. He was Superman, and he was righting a wrong.

After another two deep breaths, he decided he was as in control as he was going to be and relaxed against the updraft coming off the man-made canyons below. Slowly he drifted down until he was hovering directly in the line of sight for the telescope, and he took a moment to X-ray the wallets of the men in front of him. James Monahan was the doughnut man, Kyle Scott was the coffee man, and William Matzuka was the one at the monitor. All of them were now marked.

William had turned around to accept the questionable breakfast from his fellow spies, but when he looked back at the monitor and saw Superman's iconic shield filling it, he swore and jumped back, spilling coffee all over the keyboard and himself.

Superman didn't - wouldn't - smirk at that, but Clark was feeling incredibly smug.

They all stared owlishly at him when he floated closer to stop not ten feet away.

"Do you think he knows we're here?" William nervously asked James.

Superman nodded his head in answer. The reflective windows were solid-pane glass that didn't open, so the only way he could verbally answer was to shout, and Superman didn't need to stoop to such things.

Directing his question at Superman this time, James asked, "You can hear us?"

Again, Superman nodded.

"So...why are you here?"

Superman quirked an eyebrow at him that very clearly said, "Do you seriously think I'm stupid?" Through the imperfect window, he noticed small details, like how Kyle was sweating profusely and James' heartbeat had doubled. William was the most miserable of them all, having to stare down a superhero while smarting from a coffee-stain on his crotch.

"We have orders," James defiantly said. "You can step, um, move aside or...holy shit!" He dove behind a desk as Superman's eyes burned red. With very tightly-controlled heat vision, Superman seared through the window, pierced the scope's casing, and melted its largest refractor as well as most of the wiring. "You're done here," he firmly said, now that his words would carry through the smoldering window. "I'll personally speak with your superiors about that."

When they just stood there, frozen in terror at his still-red eyes, Superman turned his heat vision on the monitor, carving it in half, and then sliced through every other electronic device in the room. All three of them bolted for the door.

After months of feeling powerless, even Superman could admit that finally taking action was deeply satisfying. Hearing his name (or at least his pseudonym) repeated over and over on the street below, he glanced down to see that quite a crowd had gathered. For a long moment, he seriously considered the idea of simply going down there and announcing to them the names of the men who had been peeping through a woman's window, but he decided against it. They were small players, ultimately, and as they'd pointed out, they were simply following their chain of command.

That, he decided, would be the next step.

He flew around the building, looking through it until he saw three men in an elevator. James was on his cell phone, a discarded headset on the floor at his feet. Zeroing in on their conversation, he gathered that he had destroyed a communication hub and James' team was reduced to using cell phones. From the sound of it, he was talking to a headquarters of some kind. Perfect.

The three men bolted through a side-door and ran for a cargo van, but Superman was quicker. He swooped in to snatch the phone out of James' hand before he could even react. He hovered about a dozen feet off the ground and, after cutting short the call, opened the contacts list and skimmed it for names, phone numbers, and addresses. Kyle drew his sidearm and took several shots at Superman, who frowned in concern as they ricocheted into the parking lot. He wasn't Zod and wasn't going to kill or even threaten someone weaker than him. He was, however, going to make a point today. Just because he didn't choose to abuse his power didn't mean he was powerless. With an exasperated sigh, he drifted down, reached out to crimp the barrel of the gun with his hand, and then returned the phone to James, who looked more than a little stunned at the gesture.

Without a word, he leaped into the sky again, moving as quickly as he could to evade anything that might track him. He'd had enough of the games and shadows. Lois had been a sitting duck for months and, for once, he was going to prove that she wasn't a weakness. He could protect her, and she could disappear if he wanted her to.

He could hear the wail of sirens, no doubt cops responding to reports of gunfire, and ducked onto Lois' balcony. She'd uncharacteristically left it unlocked the night before, so he slid the door open and moved faster than sight into her bedroom. She was asleep despite the chaos on the street, breathing so deeply it bordered on a snore, and he whooshed around the room, systematically destroying every single device planted there. Her cell phone was charging on her nightstand, so he unplugged it and pulled out the battery. If he were here as Clark, he would have kissed her awake, but he was wearing the suit, and so he clamped his hand down over her mouth again.

Lois jumped awake, took in his attire, took in the fact that he was even there, and her serious gaze met his. Releasing her, he leaned close and softly said, "Get dressed."

Lois immediately slipped out from between her covers. She apparently wasn't embarrassed to be running around in front of him in just a pink camisole and panties, but he blushed as he turned away. (Though, admittedly, he had never been more grateful for his photographic memory.)

Forcing himself to focus on the task at hand, he moved on to her bathroom and linen closet, leaving a trail of destroyed devices in his wake.

"Dress code?" she called after him. "Marathon? Evening gown?"

In a blur, he was in her bedroom again (where she was still unabashedly standing in her underwear in front of her open closet). Whispering in her ear, he said, "Something casual and comfortable." Then he was gone again.

Faster than sight, he cleaned out her apartment of anything that shouldn't be there, then started considering those things that should. She didn't have a landline, but she did have a tablet, a Bluetooth, a web-enabled camera, a network printer, and a web-enabled TV, not to mention all the other communication bells and whistles on her laptop. He crushed the Bluetooth, pulled the batteries out of the camera, and then considered her tablet. Today was about making statements, and it wasn't enough for her to disappear. There was no way to remove the battery, and he was officially kicking them out of her apartment, even if only for a day. They needed to know they had gone too far. He flipped the laptop over and pulled the battery from it, too.

Lois came running into the kitchen as he removed the memory from the tablet (actually dressed this time, to both his relief and disappointment). Placing the SD card on the table, he held the device up. "Anything on this that's not replaceable?"

She shook her head no, and he said, "Pull up the camera. Please." She quickly did and handed it to him. Looking directly into the webcam, he sternly said, "Enough." He let the fury in his heart burn in his eyes and melted the tablet into something unrecognizable. When his gaze had cooled, he looked at Lois again. "I'll buy you a new one later, I promise." Then he unplugged the TV, router, and printer.

Lois snapped her gaping mouth shut. He grabbed her parka and held it for her to put it on, but before sliding her arms into the sleeves, she wordlessly held up a large messenger bag, a question in her eyes. He X-rayed it, and it was full of everything a person might need for 24 hours - a change of clothes, toiletries, money, a disassembled pay-by-the-minute phone, a notepad and several pens. There were several bugs sewn into it, but the batteries had all died. A flicker of a smile almost made it to his face when he realized what it didn't have - no other electronics, no credit cards, nothing traceable.

He gave her a curt nod of approval and then he was helping her into her parka. She stomped into her boots and pulled on her gloves and hat in taut, efficient silence. Gathering her into his arms, he flew out her open balcony door, moving as quickly as he dared considering the human he held. Turning mid-air so that he could create a sheltering wake for her, he shot across the sky.

"So...eventful morning?" she guessed.

"You could say that."

"End of the free world?" she tried, teasing only a little.

"You could say that."

She frowned slightly. "I'm not clear, am I."

"I've destroyed any monitoring devices, if that's what you're wondering."

"Then why kidnap me after..."

"They upped their game."

"Oh." She considered that in silence for a moment. "So you're whisking me to safety?"

He finally gave her a tiny smile, knowing he'd been caught but also reasonably sure she'd forgive him for it. "I know better than to assume you need rescuing. Today is about making a point."

"And that point would be...?"

"You aren't an acceptable target." And then, because he was still Clark to her, even like this, he added, "If you're willing to up our game, too, I want to take you off the grid for the day. Make you disappear. Show them that we're only tolerating their stupidity."

"You're going to trash another big rig, aren't you?" she asked, a smirk in her voice.

"I'm not entirely sure yet...but the day is young."

Chuckling softly, she rested her head in the crook of his neck, and Clark allowed himself to focus on her touch. It soothed away some of his anger, though what remained hardened into something stronger than steel. She didn't need his protection (she'd already proven that), but he needed to protect her. He was grateful that, this time anyway, she was willing to indulge him.

It was frustrating moving so slow, so he started looking for something that would shelter her more. A flying car would be rather obvious, though that would undoubtedly make for the safest means to transport her, and at this point, speed was his most important issue. He touched down in a large, wooded park and set her on her feet. "Wait here - I'll be right back."

"Okay," she immediately answered.

He shot heavenward, and as an afterthought, scanned the sky for drones. There were two of them potentially close enough to see their escape from Metropolis, and he sped after the nearest one. When he got close enough, he grabbed it by the tailfin and swung it around, whirling faster and faster until he discus-threw it spinning across the sky. Once again he felt the fierce satisfaction of striking back after so many months of frustration. After throwing the second drone off course, he dropped back down into the city. It took him less than a minute to find a dilapidated junkyard - one without internal security cameras - and only a second more to find the beat-up compact car he was after.

He was back by Lois in a matter of heartbeats and set it on the ground beside her.

"We're skipping town in a rusted Geo Metro?" she doubtfully ask, already climbing in.

"You're skipping town in it. I'm propulsion."

"Ah," she said.

He shrugged out of the string backpack he had hidden under his cape; it held his clothes from the construction site, since he'd taken to the air as soon as he was able. He tossed it into the back seat. "I'm not exactly sure about human tolerances for free flight like this, so if it gets to be too much, let me know."

"Okay."

"And buckle up," he said as he closed the door for her. Then he hefted the car over his head, gripped the frame, and lifted off again. He had to accelerate slowly, but he was able to get up to over three hundred miles per hour before Lois said, "I think that's my limit."

Another ten minutes passed before she asked, "So where exactly are you taking me?"

"A small-town library," he answered, raising his voice against the rushing wind. "One I'd picked out several months ago."

"Didn't catch a word of that. Sorry. Just tell me when we get to where we're going. But there better be coffee somewhere in your master plan, flyboy."

Grinning despite himself, he made a mental note to scope out the town long enough to know where she could find some. He kept an eye on her as they skimmed along just a few hundred feet above the trees, and to his bafflement, she tipped her seat back and fell asleep about half an hour later. Between growing up on a farm and requiring much less sleep than an average human, he just took it for granted that you could wake someone up at 7:30 a.m. and they'd be able to start the day.

He kept away from roads and cities as much as possible, which made their trip longer but hopefully kept them out of sight more. Two hours later, he gradually started slowing until they drifted to a stop on a broken-up two-lane road. It was lined by snow-covered pines that, in the gray light of the overcast morning, looked desolate even to him. This time, certain that they weren't being watched, he opened the door, knelt beside it, and leaned close to kiss her softly. "Wake up, sleepy head."

She groggily sat up and met his gaze with a sleepy smile. "Smooth landing. I'll fly Air Kent anytime."

All he could manage was a half-smile, and Lois seemed to finally focus on their surroundings. "So where are we and what's my cover story?" she asked as she climbed out of the car.

"We're about a quarter-mile outside a little town called Cascade Springs," he answered, pointing ahead. "It's more of a village, I guess. About 2000 people. There's a library without a surveillance system downtown. There's also a small grocery store a couple of blocks from the library, and they have a snack bar where you can get some breakfast and coffee."

"You're not coming with me?".

He shook his head, all the urgency of the morning crashing down on him again. "I have to go get Mom."

Lois nodded curtly, and he shot heavenward, able to move at full speed again.