Chapter Eight

Lois placed a hand on Clark's chest as they stood facing Jimmy outside the Planet. She kissed his cheek as the two men stared at one another. She could feel Clark's breath tighten in his chest as he realized that the relationship that had mattered to him so much had been distorted in a way she couldn't fix.

"I mean…" Jimmy said weakly as he looked over Clark, "Yeah, yeah it does matter a great deal," he said and Clark looked aside. He had always felt human. He had always been someone who had wanted human friends, human parents, human love. Yes, his child was half Kryptonian and nobody knew exactly how Johnathan had come into existence but he loved him.

"I didn't think it would matter," Clark whispered and Lois grabbed his hand.

"It's a shock. That's what it is," she tried to persuade him. She looked over at Jimmy who began to nod along to what was being said. There were so many people staring in their direction and that was the problem. Now that Clark had settled, his powers had begun to grow and he could hear both the interested people gossiping and the few people who considered him a freak at attempting to appear normal. It would only get worse inside the building.

"Maybe I shouldn't -" Clark said and Jimmy felt a deep stabbing in his chest. He moved forwards, his expression turning to one of concern rather than bewilderment.

"I'm sorry, CK," he said. "I mean, yeah, it's going to take some time to get used to it but you've always been there for me. I mean…now I know that you've always been there for me but do I get to be friends with you when you're….you."

"He's still Clark," Lois commented and Jimmy nodded weakly. "Obviously, I've known for years and yet you don't see me treat him as anything else." She kissed her husband's cheek.

"Maybe it would help with the glasses," Jimmy said feeling immature saying that. He knew that although it might help him mentally visualize the difference between the two of them, the whole world knew now. Superman didn't need glasses, his eyesight was better than a human's, it was only a disguise and yet it was a way to separate the two parts of him.

"Honey," Clark said as he turned. "Maybe it was better to not come here."

He started to walk away, freezing as he heard something in the distance. He saw people watching him and then leaned closer to Lois. "There's an eruption at a plant," he whispered before sighing. He didn't have to hide it any longer, in fact, he really couldn't hide it any longer. He stripped his shirt off and flew off, proving once again who he truly was. Lois wrapped her arms around herself. It would probably be only a matter of minutes until he was back, far less than an hour before he returned.

"He's right," she said as she listened to the gossip as well as the faint echoes of some cameras. Jimmy stared at her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. "Clark grew up in Smallville where he was told to keep his powers secret in order to fit in. He came to this city wanting to be taken seriously as a journalist but his good heart made it impossible for him not to help others. That's why he created his alter ego, he wanted to have a life as normal as possible despite his origins. He's always treated you as a friend and we've always considered you one."

"Yet I've always had a huge debt to pay to him," Jimmy replied. He took a deep breath in before closing his eyes and let his head fall. "If I had known it was Clark who had made sure that my youth was restored, I would have never left him in the hospital without checking on him and how his health was. I wouldn't have let all that stuff happen to him thinking that he could just handle it. I'm in shock. Weren't you in shock when you learned?"

Lois sighed and kept her arms crossed over her chest. "Yes," she nodded. "I was shocked, I was even angry at him, I felt that he was using his powers to get the upper hand on me but you want to know the truth," Jimmy nodded slowly. "Clark isn't different in here," she placed a hand over her heart. "Imagine if the world treated you as an alien, some kind of sideshow attraction either to be wondered about or tested on. Do you even know the extent of what he's been through? Did you know that they wanted to lobotomize him to see how his brain worked?"

Jimmy took a step back as he looked at her in complete shock, "Lobotomize?" he asked and Lois felt tears in her eyes. "That…would mean…."

"It could have meant the death of Clark Kent," she told him. "And although I would and will always love him, he did absolutely nothing to deserve that. They poisoned his body with Kryptonite, the thing that is his biggest weakness. They tried to cut away his bones, his flesh, just to analyze it. Don't you want to help him?"

The younger man nodded weakly, his face still showed how little he had been expecting for that to be the case. He had just been thinking of how Clark was different now that he knew he was an alien of another species. He hadn't considered the pain that had accompanied the world knowing the truth. He nodded again, "Yeah," he said as he pushed his hair back. "How do I do that? Is there something that I can do?"

"Clark cares about your friendship," Lois reminded her long time colleague, "Just remember that. Clark cares deeply about that. All he wants is for you two to continue to be friends and for you to accept him as -"

There was an unexpected whoosh as Clark appeared beside them again with the crowd starting to gossip. He looked between them and Jimmy nodded weakly, he turned to Lois.

"I think I can do that," he stated and Clark looked between the two of them.

"Do what?" he asked and Jimmy smiled before gesturing with his head for the two of them to follow him into the Planet. Lois wrapped herself around one of Clark's arms.

"I think everything is going to be okay now," she tried to comfort him. She didn't know if this was true but Jimmy was smart. He was kind and energetic and she just believed that he and Clark would maintain their friendship. Maybe it would even deepen now the junior reporter knew the truth.

LLCKLLCKLLCK

Clark sighed as he stared at Perry who wasn't saying anything to him. He could hear the whispers around him with people asking one another if they knew the secret or what to make of the secret or the fact that this might be how Clark had managed to get such great scoops so would his evidence even be considered received honestly. He sighed as he tried to prepare himself to listen to the editor in chief.

"I know what you're going to ask," Perry said before laughing, "And I can't give you too much of a promotion. I mean, I could give you some more tasks, foreign correspondent maybe. I mean, it would definitely save us some money on travelling," he laughed. "I mean, son, if you could share some of your powers."

"If I could…share my powers?" Clark asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Chief, I'm not asking for special treatment here. I'm -"

"Do you want your own office? It'll take a day or so to get you one but I can -" Perry offered and Clark pushed a hand through his hair, "I mean, I'm sure that you've got all kinds of health needs and I don't know if we need to have a doctor on call for you plus with these side jo-"

"I'm not asking for any special treatment," Clark commented. "I just want to come back to work. Not as anyone else but as Clark Kent, reporter. I've built a career for myself on that I just want to -"

"Using a second name on a byline could sell more issues for us," Perry chuckled, "If you know what I mean. Now, Elvis had the name of The King so people knew how to honor him. I mean, you're more than a name, what you do is…well, heck, you know what you do."

"I'm not interested in appearing as anyone else but Clark Kent. I don't want to be considered a symbol or anything like that. I want to live my life as Clark Kent even with these so-called side jobs that people keep mentioning," Clark sighed as he looked out of the office where Lois was waiting for him. So, Perry White was thinking of advertising him as a marketable part of the newspaper. He was thinking of getting more copies being sold because he could advertise it as something that Superman was working on.

"I mean, it would help the readership if we did a multiple part biography on you, even an autobiography," Perry said as he still appeared a little in shock. "Break down who you are, what you are, go into the laws that apply to -"

"Go into what I am," Clark coughed. "Just because I wasn't born here doesn't make me any different from any of the other reporters. You put your trust in me even though I came from Smallville. Coming from -"

"See, that's the thing," Perry said as he walked closer to Clark. "Nobody is that interested in a kid from Smallville with an interest in journalism and an impressive profile in relation to where he came from but an alien, one of those beings out there," Perry said as he gestured to the upper atmosphere. "That's what people want to know about. They want to know about organs, tissues, bones."

"So the type of things that were pulled out of me at a lab," Clark said as he felt the anger within him once again. He heard it raining outside but he didn't care. The weather wasn't important to him, it made absolutely no difference but hearing that Perry wanted to treat him as an object, an issue for a continuous run of articles, that hurt him. He stood and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't be here any longer," he said which caused Perry to laugh. "I can't just be a publicity draw. I thought returning here would be helpful and that I would be considered for my writing and journalism abilities but it doesn't seem I have much of a choice."

"I wouldn't say that," Perry said. "Son, you're still quite a good journalist."

"One of the best," Clark replied before walking out of the office without another word. Lois immediately jumped up and ran after him. She sensed that something was wrong from his body language but she needed for him to tell her. Hopefully the way people had been talking, the way people had been treating him, hopefully that didn't lead to the erasure of Clark Kent.

End of Chapter Eight

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