Author Note: Wow, it has been a pretty long time for me to update this so thank you to anyone who is reading this and especially to those who waited for this new chapter. I'm actually trying to read The New 52 in order and just read Action Comics 1 so lots of Superman on my mind. Again, thank you for your patience and I really hope anyone who reads this enjoys it.

Chapter Eight

Martha stared at Troy as he tried to steady himself. She knew that the news of his death must be so startling for her son and maybe there was a way of him going back to how he was. Maybe there was a way of him returning to the life of Clark Kent. She hated to admit that she was a little excited by the possibility, but the look on her son's face wasn't of that much hope and excitement.

"Are you alright going by yourself, dear?" she asked as she took a few steps forwards and gently placed a hand on Lois's wrist.

The reporter looked to her and nodded, "It should be fine. I should be fine," she said before looking at Troy for a split second and then turning to her mother in law. "It's going to be so hard to see my husband's body like that, but I think it's best for me to see it. Maybe there will be something that could reveal the truth about the amazing person that Superman was without the cape."

Troy looked at her nervously, "Lois, don't push yourself, alright?" he asked. "I don't want to think about you falling into another tra-"

"I'm fine, Troy," she said as she glanced at him with the love and acceptance that had become the most valued form of comfort in her eyes. "I'll be back before anything can happen. Are you thinking that I'm not a smart and resourceful woman, I could prove to you I am if you want."

"We'll wait for you," Martha said. "So, make sure to come back safely."

Lois nodded before she smiled at Troy again and then left.

Martha sighed deeply, she really hoped that her daughter in law, that her family would be alright but was that just a foolish dream that didn't carry any merit with it? Was she just wishing on stars and not considering the real impact that was going on especially within her family. She turned to look at where Troy was and her eyes widened.

He was gone.

"Oh god," she said slowly, "Please be safe out there, Clark. We can't lose you again."

….

….

Lois looked at the body of Clark Kent…or was it Superman since the glasses had been removed. Sometimes even she had trouble figuring out the right name to call him. However, her husband had insisted that Superman was just someone he could become, some special ability that he could do. The need for this to be Superman wasn't just about the super powers, it was to do with the icon.

Well, the icon for her was always the news reporter. Clark had always told her that the pen was mightier than the sword, that even if you had intelligence and strength that finding the right words was more of a testament to the noble pursuit. He had allowed her to think with that. The man of steel, the superhero, the Lord Kal-El, these had all been called less than a writer with his pen. Of course, she preferred Clark to any other identity – with perhaps Troy being an exception – but that's not who the world really wanted.

They wanted the show. They wanted the cape. They wanted the dream of something else being out there.

All she wanted was her husband. She was glad that the police were giving her a moment alone after the identification of the body was done. She didn't know how she could show that she wasn't as deep in mourning as they thought. Still, this was a goodbye, it was her saying a goodbye to her husband's body, the shell he had been using for so lo-

She heard a noise behind her and turned around to see Troy there. She shook her head, "I knew you'd follow me."

"What kind of reporter would you be if that detail slipped your mind?" Troy asked in a joking manner.

"What kind of a wife would I be if I wasn't fully in tune with my husband," Lois commented before taking a step forward and brushing her fingers through her husband's hair.

Troy shivered a little as he felt the same action being done to him. He didn't know how but he and this body were still connected. He didn't know if that would be possible, they had said that he would never be able to get his old life now but the more Lois touched him, the more he could feel it through this new body.

"Is everything alright with you?" Lois asked in concern as she turned to look back at Troy.

"I felt that," Troy said, "Stand back," he said slowly before going over to his old body and closed his eyes. He reached his hand out and instead of feeling his fingers slip around Clark Kent's body, he felt them slip into. With a deep inhale, Clark imagined himself stepping into the body and before he knew it, he was there on the table as the corpse seemed to be reanimated.

"Hey," he said noticing that his voice was his own and saw her eyes widen.

Lois clapped a hand to her mouth, she didn't know what to say but this was her husband moving again and the body of Troy O'Neil was slumped onto the ground below. She felt the tears in her eyes. "It is still…"

"I think," Clark said before looking at the body of the blond, "I don't feel like I've clicked though. It's like I'm wearing a skin," he said, "Not that I'm actually inside of it."

Lois saw the desperate way that he looked at Troy, she didn't know what her husband was thinking about this, but she loved him. If he needed to be Troy instead of Clark, then that was what he needed. She had needed things in the past herself and he had always been there to support her. It would be wrong for her to just ignore his wants to focus on her own.

"Go back," she told him, "We'll figure things out. Just go back to being Troy."

Clark looked at her and held out a hand, "Isn't this the body that you want?" he asked her as Lois looked at him, placing a hand on each cheek.

"I want you. I don't care about your body, I care about your heart, your soul. Whatever you need to do, well whatever it is I'll be there beside you," she promised him. "You say you can't connect to the body of Clark Kent, but try Troy's again."

Clark nodded before he felt that he clicked with the younger body and got up off the floor.

Troy looked at the woman he loved before staring back at the body. "I know what I want to do," he told her, "but first, I have to ask you to get out of here. I can't have you connected to this. I need you to be safe and I need you to be with a police officer who can witness the event," he said slowly as she stared at him confused.

"Troy?" she asked, "I will, but is it possible for me to know what you're doing? You say we always need to face things as a team, if you get hurt…"

"I'm going to relocate Clark Kent's body to a place where I'll be able to use it later. I'll find somewhere to freeze it so it doesn't undergo decay. Then I feel as if there's a way to get the true Troy back his body. Once I find his spirit, I'll leave this body and enter that one," he pointed to his former body. "I just need time to think about the best method to…"

"This madness," Lois teased.

"Exactly," Troy smiled back. "I want to be able to give this body back to the correct spirit, I want to thank this boy for giving me a way of finding you again. I just need you to leave this room right now."

Lois nodded, "Alright, but I do get to ask you one thing. With all these people thinking that you, or rather both Clark and Superman are dead, how do you get them to accept the news that you've returned and that your death isn't as permanent as originally believed."

Troy shrugged, "Why question the logic behind Superman?" he asked which Lois accepted as just as good a reason as any other.

….

….

Jonathan paled as he listened to the news that had just been reported. He had been shocked and overwhelmed with the grief that his son, his little boy who he had helped become interested in the world, had passed away, but that his body had been stolen too was horrifying.

All the farmer could think of was that there was a team of scientists who had bypassed the legal methods of securing the body – though Jonathan would have fought for them not to even be able to touch the body of his son – and were now doing research on it. He had always known that to others, the information that they could collect about alien lifeforms and galactic oddities would always weigh more heavily than respecting his son's life and the love from those who knew him.

He felt guilty.

If only he had protected his son more, told him about all of the dangers that existed out there in the world, well he might not have brought Clark up with such naiveite about the real despicableness people can hold. He was just getting his coat on and planning how to approach the people who had last been in possession of Clark's body, when he opened the door to see Martha standing there with the boy he had seen before. This was the kid with the impossible story.

"Jonathan," Martha said with a stern look, "I know you're aware that everyone believes that Clark is dead, but I know that your love for your son is far more important than your feeling of pride and your need to have wariness about trust. This," she gestured to Troy, "is our son, but in a different form."

Jonathan stared ahead at Troy as he saw the way the kid was acting.

He had to admit that the gestures and posture that this kid had were exactly like his son's at that age. He remembered a particularly memorable time when Clark had set the fence of another farm on fire by accident and had tried his best to stop the damages. It had led to a couple of escaped pigs and some scorched grass but he had done his best to help the farmer.

Clark had always been a good kid.

"I'm so sorry, dad" Troy looked down, he knew he might be in trouble with his new family for staying this long in Metropolis, but the things that needed to be sorted out now were matters of so high importance it made everything else look mundane. "I should have used my wits like you told me, I should have had less trust and more sense,"

"Honey, that's going a little overboard," Martha tried to tell him. She knew that Clark was hurting, but these words weren't the ones she wanted to hear. She never wanted to let anybody, even her own husband, take away the morals and ethics that made up Clark Kent or Troy O'Neil now.

"I can't accept you as my son," Jonathan said, "my son died. I don't know what kind of mind control you've executed on my wife, but you are no son of mine," he said as Troy's eyes widened.

Martha looked towards her son and saw his fear grow stronger with every heartbeat, before she could help him calm, he had taken off and Jonathan looked after him with wide eyes.

"Did he just?" he asked as he pointed in the direction of where Troy had gone.

"That's right," Martha nodded, "Our son just flew away from you."