Disclaimer in first chapter

one year after the events of Superman Returns...

Lois had told her that Jason was up on the roof with Clark Kent.

Clark Kent, the Pulitzer winning reporter was babysitting her godchild.

She'd never gotten the chance to meet him since she'd been living in Los Angeles when he started at the Planet the first time. Then he'd left for Peru or something and had been gone when she came back to Metropolis to live with Lois as the reporter had gotten bigger and bigger carrying Jason.

She'd been there for the arrival of Richard, she'd been there to watch Jason when Lois had thrown herself back at the Planet while trying to be the best mom ever.

She'd been there for the tears over the big blue idiot.

Long nights after classes at Met U had led to lots of situations her to see that Lois really missed Superman. Not just because her guardian angel was gone from the skies, but really because Lois must have loved the big dummy. Why he left, she'd never know but if she ever got to meet him, he would get a piece of her mind.

Oh sure, Superman was great, she knew that, but as far as she was concerned, he was just another cape. She'd hunted down weirdos and had done her time cataloging the various superheros who wanted any press time. She liked them, they made for good press and gods knew that she liked her career as a photo journalist a lot better when the meta's played nice for her camera.

She knew that coming back to Metropolis meant that she'd have to try and get some shots of "the Man of Steel", but she was mainly here because Lois and Richard were finally tying the knot. After she'd grilled Lois long distance about Superman's return and Lois' subsequent moods, Lois had finally said that the situation had worked out and the she'd never been happier.

As long as Jason and Lois were happy, she could try and make nice with anyone she supposed.

Marriage. Climbing the last bit of steps to the rooftop, she wondered if she'd ever meet the guy for her. She'd dated millionaire playboys and test pilots but she really wanted a man who was a bit more down to earth. He needed to be quick enough to stay up with her when she was into her fourth latte of the day, but humble enough to be the kind of guy who'd keep her grounded. She was only 25 but she felt like he was out there and she was ready to find him and keep him for the rest of her life.

She dreamt of him from time to time. She could never make out the face but she always knew it was the same man in her dreams. She would sleep and then she'd be under a faded denim sky, fields of corn stretching out endlessly in either direction. She'd move out of the sun into a barn and climb the stairs to the loft where he'd be looking out over the horizon. She'd run her hands over his firm back inside the plain white tee shirt that he was wearing and then wrap her arms around him. He smelled like hay and earth and sweet summer all at once. Which was strange to her because she'd never met any farm boys and she'd certainly never been to the middle of the country for any amount of time.

But the dream was always the same. Always safe, and warm, and loved.

That's probably why it was just a dream, since she'd never met anyone like that in real life.

The door to the roof was propped open and she could hear her god son and his babysitter laughing up on the roof. As she quietly slipped out onto the sunny rooftop she could just hear the conversation.

"Now I have it on authority that your dad took you flying just yesterday in the seaplane."

Hmmm...not exactly the voice of a wallflower that she'd been led to believe Kent was. She could hear quiet strength and a smile in the voice.

"But it's different when we go flying! C'mon Dad! Please! I promise that I won't ask for the rest of the week!"

Dad? Dad! Oh Lois...why didn't you say anything?

"Oh the rest of the week, huh? What with today being Friday that's a pretty big offer!"

She could see as Clark swept Jason...his son...into a huge embrace and started tickling the little boy. Jason burst out with peals of laughter which she hadn't realized how much she'd missed until now. The two kept talking and laughing and she could see how close they were. It made sense though, Clark had left right before Lois had found out and anytime that she had ever asked about the reporter, Lois always feigned indifference. For awhile she had thought that Jason's biological father might have been Superman, based off of Lois' frustrations with the absent alien, but Clark was a much more real explanation.

And from the way that the two carried on here on the rooftop, things really had gotten much better. She was going to wring Lois out like a hot washcloth for keeping this from her.

In that stolen moment she saw Clark Kent in the May sunshine and the breath went right out of her. His tie was loosened and the top button of his shirt was undone. While he had on an adorable three piece suit he had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and the jacket hung from a light pole. His deep black hair was windswept from the spring breeze and even through his glasses, she could see that he had incredible eyes, which were currently full of love for the little boy in his arms. In that moment, she fell in love a little.

Time to make her presence known. The last time she'd seen Jason had been at his fourth birthday party where she, Lois, and Richard, had ended up showing Jason the joys of his first food fight when the birthday boy's gluten-free, vegan, chocolate cake had been the primary source of ammo. She could only hope that her favorite kid in the world still wanted to see her.

Clark was so intent on playing with his son that he hadn't even heard the footsteps on the roof. He let his guard down with Jason, feeling free to be himself, no matter what the clothes. That's one reason why he was so shocked when a voice cut into the sunshine.

"Any chance of getting a hug from my godson?"

Clark put his son down and Jason, already a happy little boy, went immediately to red alert.

"CHLOE!" the boy shouted joyously and was across the rooftop in a second.

"Chloechloechloechloe," Jason yelled happily as he locked on to the womans leg with a grip that would someday move mountains.

Clark took in the woman who had swept his son into her arms, covering the little boy with kisses. As she marveled over his growth since the last time she saw him, Clark started to straighten his tie and retrieved his jacket, slipping back into his persona. So this was Lois' cousin, Chloe Sullivan, he'd heard about her but had never seen a picture as the young woman was apparently photo phobic. When he'd asked Lois about it she'd laughed and said that all of Chloe's best work was done behind a camera, and cited a series of photos from a party which had ended anyones chances of getting "Sully" in frame.

Chloe was about the same height as Lois but that was where the similarities between cousins ended. Where Lois opted for a very stylized forties kind of wardrobe, Chloe was currently wearing a very comfy looking mix of casually professional clothing. Tailored slacks met up with an off the shoulder flimsy long sleeved top that was night sky blue. Clark could see the straps of a camisole top on her shoulders as well as the strap to a slightly battered Nikon. Her long honey brunette hair was streaked liberally with dusky blond and was up at the back, held with some long lacquered sticks while a few strands had gotten free and hung around her face. All in all a very casual, breezy, yet still gorgeous woman.

Gorgeous?

"Dad! This is Chloe! Come and say hi!" Jason had wiggled loose and realized that two of his favorite people had never met. The exuberant six year old ran to his dad and began leading Clark across the roof, and Clark tried vainly to get back into his "geek" persona, only to find that bumbling and stuttering around the pretty photojournalist wasn't hard at all.

In fact, it wasn't an act, which was why tripping over the edge of the Daily Planet globe's mounting was truly embarrassing for the suddenly shy Kryptonian.

As Clark's face became acquainted with the roof , he heard his glasses break and groaned. Perfect first impression.

"Dad!"

"Mr. Kent!"

Chloe and Jason scrambled to help the reporter back to his feet and Chloe couldn't help but be fascinated by the blush creeping across his kissable face.

Kissable?

Chloe couldn't help but giggle a bit (Giggle! When did I start doing that again?) as she dusted off the man in front of her, him stuttering as he tried to introduce himself but that died away as her eyes met his and her hands came to rest on Clark's chest, the two lost for a second.

Jason was a perceptive boy and while he couldn't figure out the more subtle aspects of what was happening on the perfect day here on the roof, he knew that his Dad and his Aunt Chloe were probably going to be friends. And that's all the little boy needed to know, as far as he was concerned.

Two weeks later, two conversations about the exact same thing were happening in two different parts of Metropolis.

Lois Lane and Chloe Sullivan were currently at the Lois and Richards house as Chloe was getting final adjustments on her dress for the ceremony.

The wedding was a week away and Lois was still trying to decide exactly what she wanted for the cake filling.

Lois was exasperated, Richard had been of absolutely zero help on the cake as he preferred "yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Maybe vanilla." She had thrown a stapler at him for that. Clark was no help either, citing that he was more of a pie man. That's why she had thrown his stapler. Chloe had just finished with the seamstress and was bringing over a glass of wine for Lois before her curiosity got the best of her.

"So what can you tell me about Clark Kent," Chloe ventured cautiously, attempting casual but failing miserably

"Smallville? Hmm, I don't know. Why?" Lois hid her grin by focusing on the wine. She was going to enjoy this.

"Lois," Chloe growled. She knew that Lois saw right through her and was about to make her life hell. "Seriously Lo, I just want to get to know more about him. How could I not? Let's go over the list or reasons why I should know about Clark Kent: award winning journalist, Richard's best man, Jason's biological father."

Lois winced at that last bit. That had been quite the conversation.

Seeing that Chloe wasn't about to back down, Lois began to spill everything about Clark Kent to the woman she thought of as closer than a sister. Well, almost everything.

Across town Richard and Clark had dropped Jason off for a play date so the boy wouldn't be cooped up at the Planet all day and decided to get a late lunch at "Ink" downtown.

Lincoln's bar had been in Metropolis for seventy years and next to Bibbo's "Ace O' Clubs", it was the place for reporters to kick back a few. After the first twenty years of dealing with news hounds, the original Lincoln had installed a bank of telephones (which years later would become optical connections and Wi-Fi) for his thirsty crowd and had started to frame articles from his award winning patrons. As the years went by and the place became renown for looking after the press, the bar was generally known as "Ink", playing on the obvious two sources.

Settling into the booth that was surrounded by ferns and Daily Planet articles (Clark remembered when the current Lincoln running the place had put up a Kent article in this booth) Richard and Clark spoke about Jason,work, and the wedding. After laughing about Lois' reaction to the "cake incident" Clark finally sucked up his courage and broached the subject that had been on his thoughts to Richard.

"So what can you tell me about Chloe Sullivan?"

Richard smiled and dug into his George Taylor Burger. This was going to be fun.

The next week was humorous for many people, all of whom were not Chloe Sullivan or Clark Kent.

Chloe had decided to work with the Planet as a freelancer, at least as long as she was in town. She had accrued a body of work in a three years that would have been impossible to ignore to any editor let alone Perry White. She had traipsed around the world, searching out metahumans and how they affected the populace. She had reams of paper and huge albums of photos cataloging the everyday people who fought against or worked with superheros. Chloe showed the cost and the reward of having superhumans in the world with a keen eye and a sharp pen.

Perry had gladly accepted Chloe's unique eye and her viewpoint that the Metahuman population should be viewed much the same as firefighters and ambulance workers. They had skills that allowed them to do a specific job and that was how the public should see them in Chloe's opinion. Chloe had found friends at the Daily Planet quickly in her short time back in Metropolis and found herself having a ball, arguing shutter speeds with Jimmy Olsen, or arguing that who Green Lantern may or may not be dating wasn't worth Cat Grant's column. Despite his inability to talk directly to "Sully"(so named for her Scully like dissection of superheros and bizarre events) Clark found himself working the periphery of many office debates at "Ink" and the "Ace O' Clubs", coming into contact with the fiery photojournalist more often than not.

Clark respected Chloe's opinions on Superhero's and more often than not found himself arguing a counterpoint just to be able to talk to her since that's the only way the two could converse. He felt (and accurately) that she knew what he was up to in the arguing for the sake of communication, but it was still funny that when anyone they were with pointed out that Clark and Chloe were almost having a conversation, the two would instantly turn into blushing adolescents, stammering and unable to look each other in the eye.

Chloe for her part used the debates as opportunities to see how Clark's mind worked. Lois would always cue her in when Clark was going against his own values in order to take an opposing viewpoint, but Chloe was always impressed at how knowledgeable Clark was to have the facts on both sides of a topic. It was those times when she could see the real Clark Kent coming out to play, despite his best efforts.

Chloe couldn't count the times she had just wanted to grab "Smallville" as Lois called him, by the tie and kiss the reporter senseless during the weeks that passed. Just as their intensity would build to a breaking point and they almost tumbled over the edge, something would happen that would cause them to shoot apart though.

The hotter the air between them, the worse the awkwardness became though. Cat Grant had started running a pool as to when Clark and Chloe would get together and who would make the first move. Clark had spilled more drinks on himself than Lois could ever remember him doing prior to Chloe's arrival, and even Richard teased Clark about the dry cleaning costs Clark was racking up. Chloe valiantly maintained a fully professional facade at all times, the exception being the few times that Chloe and Clark had been in the elevators at the Daily Planet together. Lois and Richard had howled with laughter as she told Richard how a full elevator had pressed Clark into Chloe's back and Chloe had flushed bright red and bit her lip. Lois had seen her baby cousin desperately close her eyes and count to ten over Clark's proximity.

Of course, based off of Clark's reaction, Lois knew that Superman had a weakness other than Kryptonite.

(4/5)