Chapter Nine

Clark groaned as he left The Planet. As he had feared, the part of his life which he was most proud of was disappearing, slipping through his Kryptonian fingers and people would forget what world he actually knew as his home. He closed his eyes, noticing people staring at him again and did his best to block out their whispers, their gossiping. He heard some footsteps in his direction and looked up expecting to see Lois but the surprise showed in his expression. "Jimmy?" he asked taking a step back.

"Listen, I know that things are weird right now but hear me out, okay?" Jimmy said as he looked forwards to his friend. He slowed his breaths and noticed that more people were staring at him. "CK, you're a great journalist."

"One of the best," Clark said sounding annoyed. Why shouldn't he be annoyed? His home seemed to be slipping away from him.

"Agreed," Jimmy nodded. "And whatever happened with Chief, I don't know…I don't know what he's thinking but…don't give up on this. You were a journalist before you started flying around and stopping bad guys, right?"

"Little bit of both," Clark shrugged as he thought back to a time in his youth where he had stopped a robbery from happening as a young boy. Even at that point he knew he was special, his parents knew it too and they did everything they could to hide his powers in order to protect him.

"Yeah but I'm sure…like meteors are…a different category," Jimmy continued and Clark nodded to him. "Don't let them define you. If all I ever ended up being was a photographer then I know that they would be letting a part of me go to waste. I'm sure what you've been through recently and even now is at a level of cruelty I don't want to think of but you can't let others define you."

"As the man of steel," Clark rolled his eyes. "I was Clark Kent long before -"

"Then let them see that, let them know the side that we all know. I mean, just to admit it, I'm still in shock but it'll pass. It's an adjustment I have to get used to," he said and Clark stared at him. He didn't know if he trusted going back to Perry and allowing him to sell on his name and identity. He hadn't expected something like that from someone he respected so much and so sincerely.

"Clark, honey," Lois said as she ran over to him, not worrying about anything other than his wellbeing. "Are you okay?" she ran over to him and placed a hand on his cheek. She kissed him as she wrapped her arms around him. "What happened? Did he say something to you? What is -"

"It's fine, I'll be returning in a moment," Clark replied and Lois studied him. He seemed to be okay. She couldn't feel that rage from him right now but he was confused. Was there even anyone they could really find for him to talk to other than her and his parents? Would everyone else consider him as a god among mortals. Clark didn't want that. He wanted to fit in and be seen as normal. The government had robbed him of that.

"You don't have to," Lois replied, "They owe us a lot of money if we do press charges on them and I'm not some helpless woman of a century back, I can make us enough to live comfortably. Don't sell out if you don't want to. We can always do something together, if you'll sell for the Planet then you can always sell for us."

"The Planet is like a second home to me," Clark commented. "I want to go back, give it a try, see how it works out."

Jimmy smiled showing his support as Lois placed a hand on his upper arm. "If this doesn't work out then I don't blame you," she told him.

LLCKLLCKLLCK

Clark looked out of the window at the new desk he had been assigned. There were good things and bad things about this. First of all, it marked a change in what people thought about him. He had enjoyed having a desk in the middle and especially next to Lois and though he could still look at her, he felt isolated and as if he were some strange zoo attraction. The positives were that he had avoided Perry giving him a private office and it would be easier to do his side jobs near a window but…that was what people expected from him.

He looked over a list of things in front of him to work on, he hated not being able to find his own stories. He really loved them and had carried a soft spot for even the puffiest of pieces. What he had now were things that he could accomplish much more efficiently than others because of his powers and his access to people and places others wouldn't have. He sighed as he pushed a hand through his hair.

"You wouldn't want to push yourself too hard, would you?" Cat asked as she came over to him. "Of course, that doesn't seem to be an issue with you."

"And once again, I am going to pretend that I don't know what you're doing over here," Clark replied as he looked at her and Cat licked her lips. What did she think she was doing? He knew that she tried to use her sexiness to win over others but he had found that she had respected his and Lois's relationship well before this. "Cat, what are you doing?"

"You think that you're the only one who can, let's say, exert some energy, gain some…super speed," she said and Clark raised an eyebrow.

"Although I'm glad that you're speaking to me as if I'm a regular person, I don't think that you should be making these jokes. You know how happily married I am," he said and she reached out to straighten his collar as he pulled back. She smiled as she caught sight of the suit underneath.

"Now I really know what you have on underneath," she purred before seeing Lois come over and place her hand on Clark's shoulder. "I can't believe you were keeping this from everyone," Cat said as she looked Lois in the eyes. Lois did not look thrilled to see her.

"I would think that you would need to get back to work. Weren't you going to go out on a date with some rich executive or something, try to dig up a little dirt on them like you usually do. No need to bother my husband." Clark smiled his gratitude to Lois who continued to stand firm.

"You shouldn't keep this much man to yourself," Cat commented as she stood up and walked away from the desk. "Especially once as superas he is."

Lois sighed before sinking down onto the desk. She laughed weakly and Clark gave her a questioning look. "She never changes which you know is probably a good thing for this situation. If she's treating you like this and isn't scared to approach you, I don't see why others would be feeling intimidated. I'm sure that in a couple of days this will just…blow over. That's what news is, right? That's what they say, today's papers will be in tomorrow's wastepaper bins."

Clark sighed and looked at her as if asking her whether she truly believed that. "This isn't some easy story, honey," he said although he knew that she was fully aware of that. "These people just learned that their coworker isn't human. Sure, I might look human and when I was younger I believed I was human but I'm an alien. To them I probably have more in common with a creature you'd find in Roswell than any employee here."

Lois sighed. She didn't know how to argue with that and even if she did, she knew that Clark could easily see through her lies. She leaned over to him and kissed him, lifting his cheek with her hand. "You just know that I love you no matter what, we'll get through this as a team, okay?" she asked him and he nodded before sighing. He started to take off his shirt.

"Emergency," he told her, "train is about to be derailed."

He quickly left but as he did so, Lois noticed that more than half the staff was looking in the direction where he had just been. She laughed weakly. "You've never seen someone leave an office building, before?" she asked hearing the gossip start to take place. She looked out of the window. Her life would never be the same but she knew that, she knew that when she had married him. If it was to live an unusual life with her husband or live a normal life without him, there was definitely a clear choice.

LLCKLLCKLLCK

Clark sighed as he sat down in the editor-in-chief's office facing Perry as he read over the first part of the autobiographic series that he had been talked into doing. He saw his face keep steady on the page. Perry had always supported him as Clark Kent, he had always talked to him as a friend and an employee, now that everyone knew the truth he was wondering if he was just a marketing gimmick to the man, a way to sell more issues.

"I don't know what to tell you," Perry said as he slightly knocked his hand against the page. "Talking about your parents and not knowing you were adopted. Them trying to hide your powers. The work that you did to help your parents on their farm. The love they evidently showed you it's too…..too…"

"Too what?" Clark asked as he looked at him with a sense of curiosity. If there was something that he could work on then he would prefer that than being treated like some god or some idol. He didn't want for his Kryptonian identity to cloud people's minds about his human one.

"It's too human," Perry commented. "Come on, you have to have some better stories than this, I mean, look at you especially without the glasses."

"I didn't know I was anything other than human during this time," Clark commented. He looked at his hand. "I mean, I was aware that I wasn't normal and that I could do things that others couldn't. I was aware that I never seemed to get sick and that doctor appointments didn't happen for me. My parents told me much later on in my life."

"Still, I would think that picking up hay bales as a six-year-old isn't much of a feat. Come on, son, I was hoping for something more exciting," he said and Clark took a deep breath in.

"You said to break this into pieces, keep it as a series, this is what happened to me in my early life," Clark sighed as he tried to think of the right thing to say. "I mean, you want to get people hooked and wanting to continue reading, don't you? Isn't the fact that I'm writing this enough of a start?" Clark said and Perry sighed, he nodded again before putting it into a file.

"It's just kind of hard to look at you," he said. "I went all this time thinking that you were this man from Smallville, a journalist, and now this, it's hard to go back to the way things were."

Clark sighed. He bit his top lip. Yes, things would be hard to go back to the way things were. It's not as if he could turn the Earth on its circumference and turn back time to get to before his secret was exposed. This wasn't a movie after all.

End of Chapter Nine

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