Beta Team: Special thanks goes out to my very patient, very talented beta team: RheaJediknight, markclark and special technical consultant vanel

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, they are the rights of their perspective owners, I am not involved with Superman Returns or the Superman comics or any other Superman franchise. DC Comics owns Superman. I am not making money from this work and no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N : In my SR universe fics Clois was together for roughly six months before he erased her memories and left to find Krypton. Surprisingly while researching this fic, there was very little collaborating evidence for a birthday date. I picked the one which appears most common from Google, if it is wrong please let me know.

Written for the summer challenge on 12daysofclois on LJ


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Part 1 – Loose ends

The lake was glass. The surrounding forestry reflected as an uninterrupted image in the tranquil water. The air was damp and smelled of summer.

Lois sat at the edge of the dock, her feet dangling lazily over the edge, not stirring the water. It was a long day. She came to visit her parents at their vacation home to escape life in Metropolis. Well, at least that is what she told her Mom, the General, and Lucy.

She really came up here so she could have space from the end her relationship with Richard. They both knew it was over, but neither of them was ready to take the proper steps to move on. She could not move forward toward a new beginning without first having an ending.

With a sigh she flipped open her cell phone and started dialing.

"Hi Lo, how is the vacation going?" His voice was casual and relaxed.

"Jason already has adopted a new pet frog, 'Greeny Beany'" her attempt at polite small talk was not working. Her tone as usual betrayed her emotions. Lois took a deep breath and before she lost her courage "Richard, we need to figure a way to move on. I'm sorry, but we both know this isn't working anymore."

He chuckled softly on the phone "I know, Lois, I'm just not sure how." His tone was earnest, and she understood what he meant. The logistics were difficult. Who keeps the house? Who will pick Jason up from school? How do we break the news to the people at work? She desperately wanted to keep a small collection of coffee table art books she had collected over the years, she normally didn't have materialistic attachments but these books felt important to her. She remembered when she started collecting them, about six years ago.

"Last month when we had that argument about my covering of the Claudis trial, I realized then that you didn't love me. You love a woman who doesn't really exist. To be fair I don't think you really know meI think - I don't think I have been myself for some time now"She bit her lip, why did she have to be mean, she was not a cruel person, but the fact that Richard was avoiding the - whose moving out conversation was eating away at her last nerve.

Her feet dipped into the water as they spoke, creating waves of circles floating across the lake.

"I thought I did." There was a pause. "But now I think I have come to realize that was wrong. Do you love someone else?"

She knew exactly who he was talking about, and she knew she was not going to engage in this conversation with Richard. This was a question she was trying to answer for herself. "Richard" she inhaled deeply "you deserve better then me. You deserve someone who can love you the way you thought you loved me."

"Lois, I want to be part of Jason's life, he is my son no matter whose DNA he has."

"I would never ask you to stay away. Of course you can be part of Jason's life. I have been afraid you wouldn't want to be. Let's work out the details of the situation when we come back."

"Goodnight, Lo."

"Goodnight, Richard and thanks."

Even though Lois was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, she dove into the lake. The water felt cool on her skin and revived her. For the first time in years she felt free, alive and hopeful.

She began to swim across the lake, and while she was swimming she thought about him. It had only been a few months since his release from the hospital, and she suspected that he was avoiding her. She knew he came almost nightly to check in on Jason, but he would always leave when she came near. At least twice a week in the late afternoon she would go onto the roof of the Planet and wait for him, he never came. She never called for him because she felt that would be a betrayal of Richard, she just always hoped he would show up.

Her strokes in the water became increasingly fierce as she thought about the situation. How can I not remember sleeping with him? Was it a one night stand or was it something more? She knew she wasn't above a one-nighter, but somehow she thought Superman wasn't the kind of guy who slept around.

She wanted, no, she needed to talk with him. She swam to the far side of the lake and reached the shallow water. She walked onto the beach and looked across the lake at her parent's home. Was she having second thoughts? No, this was the right decision.

"Superman, if you are not busy, can we talk?" Doesn't he have a real name? The venom in her thoughts surprised even her, I mean, come on, Super-Man, man who left me pregnant, scared and alone without a word, without a memory . . .Super-Jerk is more like it.

Despite these traitorous thoughts going through her mind, she knew it was childish to hold a grudge; after all it wasn't his fault she didn't remember. It was her fault she put herself in a position to get pregnant, and now it was her responsibility to find a way to put her anger behind to figure out how to raise Jason. Jason would need him, and Jason comes first.

She closed her eyes to feel the warm summer night breeze on her face. When she opened her eyes, he was in front of her.

"Hello Lois." His voice was deep, and sent a tingle through her.

"We need to talk. We need to clear the air between us. We cannot pretend the past has not happened, we need to come to terms with it and figure a way to move on."

"Lois, I am so sorr---"

She put her hand up in a motion for him to stop. "Let me go first, I have a lot to say."

When does she not have a lot to say, he thought silently to himself. He quickly looked her over, and it was amusing to see her so disheveled. It appeared she swam across the lake wearing her clothes. Her hair was knotty and matted, and her t-shirt accentuated her curves, but he quickly glanced away. She was gorgeous, and if he starred to long, it would be noticeable that he thought so.

She had been practicing this speech in her mind for the last several weeks. Like a diver on the edge of the board she drew in a deep breath.

"I am sorry. I don't know why I don't remember us, but I have no memories of kissing you, let alone creating a child with you. I think, I was involved with a co-worker of mine during the time when Jason was conceived, and I have some fuzzy memories of being in a relationship with him, but I do not remember too many details. I think I was in love with him, but then to know I cheated on him with you is hard for me to understand. I never thought of myself to be like that."

"Lois, this co-worker you mentioned, are you talking about Richard?"

"No, not Richard. God, I am really making a mess of things at the office aren't I? First Clark, then Richard and now Clark again . . . really if I don't have a reputation by now…."

"Did you say Clark? Do you mean Clark Kent?" He stood now, arms crossed over his chest, not making eye contact with Lois, instead looking out to the water.

"Oh, of course you must know Clark, he helped me write a few stories about you. Is this going to make things awkward between the two of you, I mean I don't want to hurt Clark anymore then I have already."

Did she say 'hurt Clark'? What is she talking about? He reviewed the last several months in his mind, and she had been nice to him, at least in the last couple of weeks. At night while flying around, he often thought the niceness was odd, and he missed her pointy sarcasm, but he was enjoying being on her good side of late. More confused then ever, he spoke trying to hide the madness of his words, "How have you hurt Clark?"

"Well, I said I am pretty sure I was dating him – the memories aren't clear, but I have better memories of kissing him, then those of you, and I think he found out I cheated on him with you. That's why he left for a few years. I think it hurt him too much to know." Lois' voice was tinted with a sad regret "Jimmy said Clark was speechless when he found out I had a child, I think he was sad that Jason wasn't his."

Superman was overwhelmed with emotions at the words Lois spoke. He recalled holding the picture his first day at the office " . . .Lois is a mommy" Jimmy had told him. At that moment he didn't know what hurt more the fear that Jason was not his son or the fear that he was. It's funny how a moment, a second, four words changed his life.

Lois and Superman stood in silence lost in their own thoughts. He recalled their relationship all those years ago, and he wondered why Lois remembered kissing Clark and not him or that he was him.

Lois' voice brought him back to the present.

She misunderstood his frozen stance. "Although, I am sorry that we jumped into bed together all those years ago, I am not sorry about Jason."

The images of them in bed together flashed through his mind and the air seemed to be electrified with an intensity of attraction drawing them to each other. Their body language shifted slightly so they were now angled towards each other. Lois was looking at her feet, and Superman was looking at her.

Lois felt the tension in the air, blushed and stumbling on her words as she managed to finish her train of thought, "He is the best part of my life, the best part of me. I don't know what happened to me to cause me to forget about six months of my life – you don't know how scary it is to find yourself pregnant and the two people you trusted more then anyone before the six month period are gone."

Guilt overwhelmed him. In the pit of his overall being he understood he could not let another day go by without confessing his actions.