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: Thanks again to Barbara for her extroadinary grammar-checking abilities. I'd seriously be lost without her. I'm gonna take this moment and pimp her story, Deja Vu. It's fantastic, so if you haven't read it yet, you're losing out. Also, thanks again for all the feedback. Some of them make me laugh, others encouraged me to get a beta, and every one of them makes me smile. So thank you.

Chapter 10: Change

In Metropolis, Richard went over several piles of notes he had compiled during his trek across the city the day before. He was searching for an angle to present his uncle Perry but his mind was focused elsewhere, and it refused to be directed anywhere else.

"Something bothering you, son?"

Richard looked up at his uncle and shook his head. "I'm just finishing it up here."

Perry, a keen observer, silently pulled out a chair and sat across from him. He wasn't about to give his nephew a free pass, especially not now, when he looked like hell.

"Really, Uncle Perry, I'm fine."

Perry nodded his head knowingly, giving his nephew some time to collect his thoughts until he decided to share what was bothering him. Perry had known him most of his life, and he knew for a fact that he didn't like sharing his problems with anyone else.

"Uncle Perry?"

Perry smiled – he had won this round. He answered, "Yes?"

"How well do you know Clark?"

Perry looked at him with a quizzical eyebrow raised. "Pretty damn well. He's a good kid – don't let his farm-boyish ways get to you. He's brought in some of the best work I have ever seen from a journalist." He paused when he realized what he had just said. "I trust that my words won't leave this office."

Richard forced a smile. "Sure thing, boss."

"Anyway, even though Kent has a habit of never being around when you want him, he has the uncanny ability of being there when you need him."

Richard leaned over his desk and sighed. His uncle's description of Clark wasn't making him feel any better. "See that's just it. Lois has never mentioned him, and I found out just yesterday that he used to be her partner. I can't help but wonder what he's all about."

Perry took his time answering. "I'm not one to spread office gossip, but if you want my personal opinion… I just think that he's shy. What matters though, is that when push comes to shove, the kid has backbone. With the exception of him leaving for several years, he's never let me down when it comes to a story."

"Where did he go, anyway?"

"How the hell should I know?" Perry shrugged. "I think I got a postcard from him with a llama on it." He looked at his nephew a little more carefully, noting the sadness and worry that clearly ran across his normally calm features. "But that's not what you really wanted to know, is it?"

Richard shifted uncomfortably behind his desk. It was sometimes easy to forget that his uncle had been a world-renowned reporter before becoming the Planet's editor-in-chief.

Richard treaded carefully. "You may not want to know what I want to know."

Perry challenged his statement. "Try me."

"Fine," Richard said, giving him a little more time to back out, but when he didn't, he knew he should just ask the question and get it over with. "Were Lois and Clark ever… you know…"

Perry sighed, expecting a lot of things but not that particular thing.

"Do you think she's…"

"No!" Richard assured, knowing his fiancée wasn't the cheating type. Where her feelings lay though, was a totally different matter. "It's just she never talked about him and now I'm finding out that they were this great team."

Knowing that she loved Superman was hard enough; but finding out that Lois had also once been involved with Clark Kent would be even harder. Richard knew that Clark had been a part of her past, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that there was more below the surface than either let on.

"I'll be honest with you, Richard," Perry began, his voice strong yet soothing. "There was a time when I thought those two would get together."

Richard looked at his uncle with great surprise.

"You did?"

"Of course I did," Perry said, not looking the least bit guilty about telling his nephew this. It was, in fact, all in the past. "They made a great team; it was only natural that it could have become something more if he hadn't left."

Richard swallowed the lump in his throat and wished now he hadn't asked.

"Do you think Lois loves me?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Perry replied back, clearly astonished. "Are you and Lois having problems?"

"More or less," Richard revealed vaguely.

"And you think it has something to do with Kent?"

"Not exactly," he admitted.

Richard knew he wasn't being fair. Somehow, even though it wasn't rational at all, it felt easier to be angrier at Clark Kent than it was to be angry at Superman. At least with his co-worker, they were both on an even playing field – he wasn't competing against a God who could fly… and pick up continents… and share a child with the woman he loved.

Meanwhile, back in Smallville, Lois and Clark spent most of the evening going over their notes, typing out a few drafts and sorting through all the pictures they had taken during their venture into town while Jason watched television with Shelby.

"Remind me next time we go on an out-of-state assignment to pack Jimmy into one of our bags," Lois said, flipping through her below-average photos. There was a reason why destiny had made her a reporter and other people photographers.

"They're not bad."

Lois thought otherwise. "Says you."

From the corner of her eye, she spotted another photo that didn't look the same as the others. When she picked it up, she immediately knew why. It was a photo of her and Clark, taken inside the Talon. Jason had somehow ended up with the camera and had started clicking away.

Against her wishes, she smiled at the photo thoughtfully.

"Did you find something?"

Quickly, she hid it away in one of her notepads, her mind unsure of why she had done that. "No, nothing. They're all pretty lame, and I think this should serve as a reminder that I should never use a camera ever again when we're on duty."

Clark chuckled. "You're not that bad." He picked up one photo that was slightly out of focus. "Look at it this way, they could've been worse."

Lois threw him a mock glare. "I appreciate your attempt to defend my honor, but even I'm not arrogant enough to deny that I suck."

Clark raised his eyebrows.

"What?" she responded indignantly to his stare. "I can be humble!"

"I didn't say anything."

Her eyes narrowed, accompanied by a grin. "But you were thinking it."

"Mommy, look!" Jason spoke out loud, interrupting the lighthearted moment between Lois and Clark to direct them toward the television. It was a news update about what was going on in Metropolis.

Clark gulped at the sight of a huge meteor being picked up by a crane, shards of Kryptonite all over it.

"Be careful," Lois whispered.

"Huh?"

Lois looked at Clark with worried eyes. "Noth…" she started, but decided to be honest with him. "I'm worried about him, that's all."

Even though she didn't know that Superman was standing right beside her, he was thankful for her concern.

"I'm sure he'll be all right."

"He shouldn't have had to come home to this," Lois sighed painfully. She thought of her past with Superman… and was haunted by memories of the sight of him so vulnerable in his hospital room. Before either realized it, Lois had wrapped her arms around Clark's neck, her tears flowing unexpectedly down her cheek as he instinctively wrapped his own arms around her waist.

"It's going to be okay," Clark whispered to her softly, the feel of her in his arms exposing him to the greatest threat no Kryptonite could ever match.

On the couch, Jason looked between his mother and Mister Clark and his own tears fell. His mother didn't know that Clark Kent was Superman, and he could tell that Mister Clark was having a hard time not telling her. He wondered why he didn't. It would make his mother happy if Clark would just do it.

So like a child who was missing his mother, he moved off the couch and pulled on his mother's pant leg.

Lois, feeling embarrassed about her out-of-character breakdown, reluctantly released her arms from around Clark's neck. She picked up her son, holding him lovingly as he buried his head in her hair.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's okay," Jason mumbled quietly.

Clark stood apart from the two, not wanting to intrude. Lois gave him a grateful smile over Jason's shoulder, mouthing a silent 'thank you' in the process. Clark's heart and mind filled with the sudden urge to tell her everything, knowing in his dreams this is how it ought to be, but he held back. This wasn't the time. Not when emotions were running so high.

Later that night, Lois couldn't sleep so she walked silently to check up on her son in Clark's room before quietly creeping down the stairs. In the darkness, she could see Clark's figure on the couch, his glasses resting on the side table. He lay on his stomach, his face hidden against the back cushions.

Clark was sleeping without his shirt on, and it caught her off-guard how well built his upper body looked, even with darkness shadowing most of it.

Taking one more breath, she stepped outside, closing the screen door softly as she walked from the front porch to the barn. Inside, she saw the post that was broken. Yesterday, it was splintered in half; today, it was newly fixed and she wondered when he had even had the time to do it.

Lois thought back to the moment when Jason had first exhibited his strength. She recalled being completely shocked; her son's fragile nature had always precluded any possibility that he would ever inherit his father's powerful gifts. She was thankful that it had manifested when her life had depended upon it, but she was worried about how that experience had affected her son.

So far, he had only shown a fear of touching his piano. Other than that, he remained a happy little boy and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

As soon as she stepped further inside the barn, she felt something creaking and hollow beneath her feet. When she looked down, she saw a latch and her insatiable curiosity took a hold of her, urging her to open it.

And so she did.

As she bent down, she felt the pull cord of a light above graze her cheek. She pulled it and as she adjusted her eyes to the light, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight of the massive number of Daily Planet issues scattered in numerous large piles across the room.

"Wow," she uttered.

Picking up one after another, she noticed that they were all addressed to a Martha Kent. Clark's mom. And as she searched from one tall stack to another, she noticed that the dates didn't go beyond six years ago. Practically five years worth of issues here, and Lois wondered what her use for it had been.

Then, on top of a chair nearby, she found her article, 'Why the World Doesn't Need Superman' spread open and her eyes darted away, ashamed. Even in the middle of nowhere in some dusty cellar, she couldn't escape it.

She removed the newspaper from the chair and sank down, taking a good look at the place.

There was more to Clark Kent than she had ever imagined. With one last breath, she stood up to leave when her night robe got caught on a cupboard. Bending down to release it, the door snapped open and a familiar red material fell through.

Her heart beat loudly in her chest, her mouth suddenly going dry as she realized that the fabric was also imprinted with a distinct yellow symbol. Pulling both doors to the cabinet open, her eyes fixed on the old red and blue suit she hadn't seen in almost six years.

To be continued…