After the world changes, he comes looking for the people who matter most.
She seems nervous to see him, but he doesn't take it personally. He knows it's because of the hospital bed, and the fact that she's the one in it. Were their roles reversed, she would have sauntered in, joking about how he couldn't take care of himself and trying to pretend he hadn't scared her by winding up in there in the first place.
He doesn't try to pretend she didn't scare him. When he was locked in the Phantom Zone, he was scared for everyone. Scared of what he might find when he got out. Scared of what he might not find.
He's scared about what she may have seen. It's part of the reason he came here so quickly. His mom told him about the crash and its aftermath. He wonders what his world would look like if she ever found out his secret. He used to imagine telling Lana, Chloe, Pete, even Lex. The words flowed so glibly in those hypothetical scenarios, but somehow, when he thinks about telling Lois, his mind becomes a blank. He is hoping he won't have to fill that blank with words today.
He's trying to think about how to bring up the subject when she brings it up for him. She doesn't remember the crash, she says, but his relief is short-lived. She remembers a warm glow in a palace of ice. Somehow unable to put much conviction into his voice, he hints that she may have been hallucinating. She insists, her eyes showing that her need to tell the truth has barely won out over her confusion and fear that he will mock her. She thinks it was heaven.
That makes me your angel, he thinks, laughing to himself as he imagines her response, and as he comes back to the moment after just that one instant, he feels the smile on his face and the warmth in his hand, and he knows what she meant. Everything feels right.
She's looking at him as if he's turned into something else. The hand he has taken in a natural gesture of friendship tenses up. Her heart rate escalates, stuck in fight-or-flight mode with no-one to fight and nowhere to fly.
He can't help rolling his eyes as he releases her hand, but he's still smiling.
It's nice to know that some things never change.