Author Note: Even though it's been a while between updates, I hope you like this 😊 I just read Action Comics #5 for the New 52 and it was really an incredible read. Can't wait to start reading Superman Rebirth 😊 Well I hope you enjoy
Chapter Nine – Seeing Him There
Lois looked over the different articles that people had written for rival newspapers about the death of Superman and the fact that Clark Kent, a rural farmboy, had really been the one who had been protecting the earth from new dangers. The journalists had definitely tried to write a good story, but they all lacked the depth in their writing when they tried to show who Superman and ultimately all sides of Clark were.
She looked through the pages and then smiled as she remembered her own time with her husband. At least, she still thought of him as her husband, was that acceptable? After all of the things that the two of them had been through together, didn't she have the right to think of him as close as she needed to. She paused as she heard the elevator open and quickly turned towards it.
She smiled as she saw Jimmy enter with Troy.
"Morning," she tried to keep her composure as she looked at the two of them. She was about to approach Troy and say something sweet that would reassure him that she was there to support him and that she loved him, but she couldn't do that with their coworkers. "So, I think chief said it's up to you to show Troy here the ropes, Jimmy…or is it James,"she said teasingly.
"Come on Lois, it's always gonna be Jimmy," Jimmy smiled before looking at Troy. "So, this is going to be interesting," he said before playfully rolling his eyes. "Try to keep up when I show you things today, this business doesn't work on super speed or X-ray vision and if there's something that you don't understand, speak up. Only someone who has been working with editorials for years would know how to do these things."
"Oh really," Troy smiled as the three of them knew that this wasn't really going to be a stressful training, "Well, I'll make sure to keep reminding myself that, Mr. Olson."
"That's going to be really weird," Jimmy commented before looking back at him, "You know, Jimmy, Jimmy is fine." He looked away with a soft smile, "After all of those things that I've had to deal with and especially after I had my youth sucked from me, I had a really good friend in Clark Kent. That guy didn't put himself first, he made sure to take care of the people who were important to him. Superman took care of people he didn't even know and people who were against him, but Clark…"
"Might come back," Troy shrugged as Jimmy stared at him confused.
"You did hear that they said the body is…" Jimmy began before reading the expression on face of the man opposite him. He didn't want to question logic with the man who was once Superman. Clark knew a lot about being human, but Kal-El knew a lot about things Jimmy would never dream of. "Heh, well I'd love to see that happen."
"I wonder if he could ever come back and work for this paper," Troy mused and Jimmy nodded energetically.
"Yeah, I mean, sure he could. I bet the readers will even triple in numbers once they figure out that Superman is writing for the Daily Planet again. Not sure how many crime exposees there are in that but I mean a big name like Superman," Jimmy said as Troy nodded.
"I'll have to test it out," Troy smiled before looking down at the tables. "So, I think it's best if you start showing me how a news office is run."
Jimmy laughed as he looked at the recent pictures of Superman, "Sure thing. I'd better take advantage of this chance to boss you around CK," he said as he whispered the nickname. Troy laughed and followed him as they started their work around the office.
Lois watched after Troy longingly. She wondered whether people could see them sharing these looks or peeking back at one another. She wondered how strange she had become to her colleagues. There was something different between finding out that someone was lucky enough to have fallen in love with and married a superhero and a woman who kept looking at a kid when her own husband had recently died. Even though to Lois the two were the same, all three of them were her Clark, to an outside observer it might be seen as wrong or even perverted.
Lois took a deep breath in and turned, she was about to get on with her work before finding that she was staring at a man's shoes. She looked guiltily up into the face of Perry White.
….
…
Lois tried to steady herself as she sat in the editor's office, she raised her eyebrow as she took in her boss and tried to keep her mind on the fact that she was a woman who was at the height of what was traditionally a man's profession. She watched Perry as he seemed to be concentrating on some files before him.
From a quick glance at them, she knew they were all articles about Clark.
"Lois," he said in a dark voice, "I've been watching you and aww, let's just say that there are some women who don't believe in aliens and some who do."
Lois coughed, "I'd be surprised if there's many people in a country where Superman existed, or even in a world where Superman coexisted with them that would fight you on the existence of aliens," she argued in her usual headstrong manner. Perry frowned.
"Well, maybe that wasn't such a great example, but tell me this, news was just found that your husband was dead. I know you two were trying to get through a divorce, which heck, that alone is bad, but for him to die and you to return to work as usual," Perry tried to explain his thought pattern and Lois looked at him, her eyes showing how she was trying to read him as much as he was trying to read the situation.
"You're saying that you don't think Clark and I are broken up?" she asked as Perry frowned.
"Is Clark dead?" he asked, "Look, you know that I care about you crazy kids. You should know that I also respect everything that Clark did both as you know himself and Superman, but I can't go on pretending that you're not in mourning and pretending that I am okay with it. So, is he dead?"
Lois looked away, "I hate to tell you, chief," she said trying to put a wall up between them so as not to break the trust she had with the man she loved, "but it's complicated. The man we knew as Clark Kent is dead, that was Clark Kent's body that…"
"I know it's his body," Perry said as Lois felt that he was getting to be on the right track and she didn't know how problematic that would be, "I'm not talking about his body, I'm talking about his soul. Now if you tell me that Kent's in a peanut butter and banana sandwich, well I might have to question you on that, but I think that his soul has been placed inside of that boy," he said as Lois turned to Troy.
Was it that obvious?
"Perry, what are you trying to say?" Lois sighed exhausted. She didn't know how much longer she could deal with this, everything surrounding this event in her and her husband's lives seemed to be getting more complex and less easy to smooth out. First there was Jonathan Kent to deal with and now there was Perry White. Why couldn't things come easily anymore.
Red Kryptonite now seemed easier to figure out than whatever was going on here.
"I'm saying that not a lot of wives would be so easy going after they thought that the man they loved and were loved by passed away and not a lot of kids like Jimmy would be able to bounce back either. Look, Lois, I know that with my epic dance moves and my smooth way with the ladies I may sometimes come across as incompetent, but I'm not. There's a reason why I'm editor in chief of this paper," he smiled. "And I'd say that if that really is Kent in there, it's a good thing for all of us that we still have some version of him in our lives."
Lois paused and looked away, "Even if it was Clark in there, that's not my secret to tell…"
"Ah, admission by omission," Perry nodded, "I told you I was a smart guy, but…"
"Can you try to at least pretend until he tells you?" Lois asked, "It was meant to be a secret, if anyone knows that he's not…that he might be someone else you can bet that they'd be coming for him. Nobody should know he's in another body and all I'm looking to do is keep him safe."
"Roger that," Perry smiled. "We'll have to both work on that aim together."
….
….
Jonathan looked over at his wife, he was still attempting to get his head wrapped around all of the things that he had been told over the past two days. It seemed too much to go through. His son had switched bodies and then died in somebody else's body. He had somehow been able to return back to life but had been put into a third person's body. Meanwhile, his original body had died and all of the super powers stayed with the soul.
Well, he knew that his child was different, he had known that ever since he had rescued him from that ship that had brought him to earth. However, what was going on now broke so many of the logical rules that Jonathan Kent had followed in his life.
What was really hurting him however wasn't the fact that Clark had gone through three or four bodies Just as someone might go through three or four rolls of bandages, it wasn't even the fact that he had died and been brought back to life. No, the thing that hurt him so much more than any of that was the knowledge that Clark had been hurt because of him, because of his inability to listen.
He could imagine the young boy feeling alienated and lost as a child. He could see him with people attempting to hurt him, with being scared that he was different. One of the things that Johnathan had tried to reassure his son of were the bonds between family members. The fact that those bonds were strengthened by unconditional love.
And that was the question.
Was he able to love Troy? Before, when he had had the chance to express the emotions, he had frozen up. He had been held back by logic and that had stopped the love from showing through. Now that he understood that his son was now inside of Troy, that his son had turned into Troy, he wanted another chance. He loved his son no matter what.
It just sometimes felt that his heart couldn't take it.