Title: Unmasked

Author: Nadia Mack

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I Own Nothing

Summary: Post Superman Returns. Behind the hero is a man longing to be free.

Author's Notes: Thank you all for the wonderful feedback. Whenever I update as fast as I do, I don't use a beta, and I normally end up correcting my mistakes once I post it. Also, I'm sorry for some of the grammatical errors, it seems that whenever I edit here, it sometimes connects two words together and all that. One other thing, Bruce is a single parent and that's all I'm going to say about that. lol

Chapter 7: News Story

As Lois and Richard tried to run for cover, another meteor headed their way. Before they knew what hit them, another force pushed them away before the meteor came down. They felt themselves flying – and then noticed a single arm wrapped around both their waists. It was Superman.

"Are you two all right?" he asked, flying them off to safety.

Richard tried to relax, and for a moment, he was able to forget about the last couple of hours by focusing on something more important… like surviving. Lois on the other hand couldn't believe her luck. The way her past and present collided didn't bode well for her mentality.

"I think so," Richard finally replied.

"Lois?"

"I'm fine," she managed to say aloud, and then the thought of her son flashed through her mind as Superman set them down, far away enough that the meteors wouldn't harm them. "Jason!" she exclaimed. "He's still back there."

"Don't worry," Superman said. "He's fine."

Lois opened her mouth to speak but Richard beat her to it. "Wait, where is he?"

"Clark took him to a friend of his out of town. They're safe, but right now, I need you two away from the city."

With so much going on, Lois and Richard didn't even stop to think about where exactly Clark had taken their son, and were just relieved that he was okay.

"Where are you going?"

"To stop as many as I can."

"Those meteors have kryptonite in them, you could get yourself killed."

"If I had never left, Luthor would still be in jail. The crystals would never have been used to create that thing and…" his words trailed to a halt, and neither Lois nor Richard misunderstood where it was going.

"Be careful."

Superman nodded and flew off.

The city was filled with a sea of cops and ambulances. Two major incidents in a matter of days wouldn't have boded well upon the city's morale if Superman had never returned. Thankfully, the people of Metropolis were in high spirits which helped bring back the city's sense of wonder.

"Lane! Kent! Richard!" Editor-in-Chief Perry White screamed across the newsroom. "Get in my office NOW!"

The three cringed at the sound of his voice. Clark stood up awkwardly and made his way to the boss' office first, while Richard and Lois took a little while to follow suit. Since the meteor shower the previous night, the three reporters had been writing non-stop from the time the meteors had stopped falling until now.

Lois had called Clark about Jason, and by then, Clark, as Superman, had already picked him up from Wayne Manor and brought him back to the Daily Planet. It took a while before anyone at the office had the guts to pry the kid from his mother's arms. Clark just stood quietly by, letting the warmth of Lois's love for their son fill the void in his heart.

"What's going on, Chief?" Lois asked, just to ask.

Perry White sat down and prepared to give them their next assignment. "It looks like Metropolis wasn't the only place that was hit. Central City had a couple fall, so I had Troupe fly out first thing this morning to check it out." Perry pointed to Lois and Clark. "I want you two on the next plane out to Kansas." A pause. "Smallville."

Clark raised his eyebrows in surprise as he and Lois repeated his word simultaneously.

"Smallville?"

Richard and Perry looked at the two oddly before shrugging the mere coincidence off. Lois looked between the three, her face aghast at the idea.

"Chief, come on, you've got to be kidding. I'm needed here, not some town out in Nowheresville!" she argued vehemently. "That's Kent's town. He should be far more experienced there than I am."

Clark stared at her with a mixture of offense and inevitable amusement. Lois Lane was a city girl to a fault.

"Gee, Mr. White. Lois has a point. I'll be fine on my own." Inwardly, he worried about the effects the kryptonite would have on him if he went there.

"No, no." Perry ignored Clark as usual. "Richard's going to stay here and cover Metropolis, I want the two of you in Smallville, and that's final."

"What about Jason?" Lois asked, clearly upset.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind tagging along," Richard said, encouraging his uncle, which only further upset Lois.

"I'm not bringing my son anywhere near those rocks," Lois protested out loud, much to the confusion of their boss.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Perry inquired.

Clark was caught off guard with the way she mentioned the meteor rocks so openly, and just as Lois was about to open her mouth to cover up, Richard beat her to it. "I'm sure as long as he doesn't wander off, Jason will be fine," he said followed by a reassuring smile.

Clark then realized that Richard knew about Jason, and that meant that Lois had told him everything. That also meant that he knew Superman and Lois were once involved. Clark didn't know whether to be happy that it was finally out in the open or sad because there are still so many secrets between them.

"Look, I know this is a lot to ask, but I don't want some rookie reporter making all kinds of mistakes out there." Perry eyed Lois and Clark severely. "You're my senior reporters, and regardless of how long you've been gone Kent, you two were the best damn team I've ever seen work together."

Richard's head snapped up as his uncle's words sank in. He looked carefully at Clark for the very first time, and then at Lois, and then Clark again, and wondered why Lois had never mentioned their working relationship before. Jimmy was always talking about him, and every time he did, Richard always thought the photographer was over-exaggerating, embellishing his stories to sound a lot more than they were. Apparently, his uncle shared the same opinion, and that sudden knowledge caught him off-balance. Richard always thought he knew Lois, but now he was beginning to question just how well he knew his fiancée.

Unfortunately, Lois didn't seem to be aware of the internal struggle her fiancé was experiencing, if he could even call himself her fiancé still.

"Fine!" Lois said, breaking Richard out of his thoughts. "But don't think I'm going to make this easy." She rushed out of the office with a huff.

Clark sighed, pained that he couldn't tell Lois the truth, yet but at least grateful that his mother had taken that trip to Montana with Ben Hubbard when the meteors fell. He made a mental note to give her a call as soon as he could.

Richard suddenly appeared beside him and patted his back. "It'll be all right, Kent," he said. "As long as you don't get in her way while you're over there, you'll remain relatively unscathed."

"Yeah," Clark replied dryly. "I'm sure I will."

Once Clark got back to his desk, he let out a deep breath as he recalled not just this morning's events, but yesterday's. He was utterly exhausted, spending most of the night helping people, animals and collapsed buildings. Pieces of kryptonite were littered throughout the city, which made helping a lot more difficult.

His body was still recovering. The clouds had been thick this morning and the rays of the sun barely protruded. He would have flown up there but he was just too tired to make the trip. It was best to take it easy before something worse happened.

Now, he was going to have to go back to Smallville. It was the last place he ever expected to be harmed by the land mass he sent into space. He hoped everyone was okay, and wondered to himself if he would be able to manage keeping his identities separate. The farm was the one place he could be both Kal-El and Clark Kent at the same time.

"You ready, Smallville? I don't have all day," Lois said, her arms crossed and her demeanor anything but happy. She had one foot tapping on the floor for emphasis. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave."

Clark pushed his glasses up his nose. "Of course."

"Good." Lois grabbed Jason's hand. "Come on, sweetie, we have a plane and a bus to catch."

"Okay, mommy." Just as they were about to leave, Jason spun around and reached for Clark's hand as well.

"Uh… um… thanks," Clark replied, surprised by the gesture.

The mild-mannered reporter wasn't the only one surprised by Jason's action. Lois, too, was beyond shocked by her son's sudden attachment toward Clark Kent. Jason had always been welcoming by nature, but even with Richard, he was always a bit reserved. All of a sudden, her thoughts drifted to Superman, and she wondered if he was all right.

According to all the news reports she had been restlessly staring at all night and morning, he was everywhere in the city, helping the best he could. It wasn't until past midnight that Superman's presence had started to decrease, and she fully understood why.

The kryptonite was draining his strength, and she couldn't help but be amazed at how willingly he would put his own life in danger to help.

He and Richard were the same in so many ways. She had often cursed herself for ever falling in love with a man that reminded her so much of the other man she thought she had lost forever. Looking back on it, she felt ashamed of herself.

"Mommy, where are we going?" Jason asked.

Lois brushed her hand through his recently cut hair. "We're going to Smallville, sweetie," she answered in a low motherly voice.

Clark smiled as he watched the two from the corner of his eye.

"Where's Smallville?" Jason continued to ask.

"In Kansas!" Clark replied cheerfully.

Lois rolled her eyes at the overexcitement in her co-worker's expression. If he was like this in Metropolis, she could only imagine what he was like in his hometown. She sighed dreadfully. It was going to be a long weekend.

To be continued…