Jason turned and watched the television with Perry and Alice. The GNN news team wondered aloud at the absence of Superman. Then: "Superman!" The cheer went up from the firefighters as Superman landed and sought out the person in charge of the effort.

Jason propped the baby against his chest so she could watch the TV screen. "That's Superman," he explained to her softly. "He flies, and he's real strong, and he's friends with my mommy and our daddy. And when you're older, I bet he'll take you flying, too."

"Superman's taken you flying?" Alice asked.

Jason nodded. "I like flying."

Superman listened attentively as the plant's senior engineer explained the problem. One of the main feed valves had cracked. It probably wouldn't have been a problem, had the technician working to repair it followed proper, or even common sense, procedures. But something happened and the valve exploded into a fireball, killing the technician. Now the fire was out of control with most of the plant involved.

The engineer, Joshua Farger, had a schematic of the plant. "If we could cut the fuel supply here and here," he said, pointing out the two valves in question, "We should be able to starve the main fire out and get the fire teams in to take care of the rest. But be careful," he warned. "You mustn't allow the oil to atomize or create a spray effect. With the air currents in the fire…"

"Venturi effect?" Superman asked.

Farger nodded. "Nasty piece of business. It'll go off like a bomb."

Superman nodded, peering into the inferno, looking for the two pipes Farger pointed out. "I see them," he said and flew off, toward the refinery.

First, cool the oil enough that it became viscous, almost solid, while taking care not to cool the pipes so fast that they would crack even more. Then, flatten the pipes and seal them. The fire screamed at him. He'd forgotten how incredibly loud fire was, especially large fires. It threatened to overwhelm his senses. He spotted the first pipe and sealed it off. The second pipe was harder to find and it took several minutes. Finally, that one too was sealed.

The noise level hadn't gone down. The fire was still raging all around him. Superman launched himself into the air then stopped only a hundred feet above the flames, using x-ray vision to assess the rest of the fire. Other feed pipes had also been compromised. He took note of the locations. The pattern didn't fit – some of the spewing pipes could not have been damaged by the current fire. Sabotage? Terrorists?

A blast of cold to congeal the fuel source and cool the combustion. Then seal the cracked pipes, by warming the metal enough to make it flexible, flatten the end, and seal the end with laser-vision. Finally, after five minutes that felt like an eternity, the fire was out. There were still some hot spots, but the fire crews should be able to handle them.

He flew up, making one last survey of the scene before coming to ground beside Farger.

"There are still hot spots, so tell your people to be careful," Superman told him. He peered at the schematic. "May I have this?"

Farger shrugged. "Sure, but why?"

"I saw some things, and the fire marshal will need to know about them."

"Like what?" Lois Lane asked, walking up to them. She flashed her press card at Farger. "Daily Planet." She turned back to Superman. "What did you see?"

"Good evening to you too, Ms. Lane," Superman said.

She nodded at him. "What did you see?" she repeated.

He looked over at Farger. "Some of the damage I observed was not consistent with a single point ignition."

"You're talking arson?"

Superman shrugged, a small almost non-motion. "Sabotage, possibly." He turned to Lois. "You realize this is going to be a criminal investigation."

"I know that, Superman," Lois reminded him. "No details until the fire marshal approves. By the way, have you seen my partner around, tall fellow, dark hair, glasses, trips over his own feet?"

Superman simply looked at her for a long moment. Long enough for Lois to start to feel nervous about joking with Superman.

"I think you'll find him somewhere around the GNN camera crew," he said finally. He looked over at Farger. "Let the fire marshal know I'll check in sometime tomorrow." With that, he disappeared into the sky.

"Does he always do that?" Farger asked Lois as more reporters arrived on the scene.

"Disappear?" Lois asked. "Yeah. He's a busy man."

"Must be tough," Farger said. "Always looking out for everyone else, always on call."

"It's not easy," Lois said. "But it's what he does."

"Lois!" Clark called out, trotting up to them. He pushed his glasses up his nose as he stopped beside Lois, watching her expectantly.

"Clark, there you are." She looked up at him, smelling smoke in his jacket, in his hair. There was a dark smudge across his cheek. She reached up to brush it off and discovered the dirt didn't want to come off that way. That's odd. She grabbed a tissue from her purse, spat on it and started scrubbing the spot. "You are as bad Jason," she commented. "Oh, this is Joshua Farger, the senior plant engineer." She looked over to Farger. "My partner at the Planet, Clark Kent." She turned back to Clark, satisfied his face was passably clean.

She took his arm and led him away from the other reporters. "Okay, what have you got?"

"Five employees unaccounted for, presumed dead," he told her. "And someone called GNN. The timing indicates they were contacted a good fifteen minutes before the emergency alarms went off."

"Do they have any idea who called them?"

Clark shook his head. "Call was ID blocked, but apparently, the call was recorded."

"Any chance we can get a copy?"

"GNN doesn't want to share it with the police," he told her.

"Think they'd share it with Superman?" she wondered softly.

He just looked at her.

She shrugged. "I had to ask."

He sighed. "Actually, they might give Superman a copy of the recording, or the police might. According to Mark Hadwyn, Superman was specifically mention by the caller."

"To stay away?" Lois asked. "Or to make sure he knew this was going down?"

"Mark didn't hear the recording," he told her. "But he was given the impression that the caller wanted to make sure Superman was on the scene."

"Why would a saboteur want Superman here?" Lois asked.

"That is a very good question," Clark said, looking over her shoulder at the group surrounding Farger. He absently reached under his jacket to rub the right side of his back with the back of his hand.

"Are you okay?"

He gave her a surprised look. "The place I got stabbed is hurting a little," he admitted. "Funny, though, it hasn't bothered me in a couple days. I figured it was healed up."

"Maybe you should have somebody take a look at it?"

"Whom do you suggest?" he asked. "Our Met General isn't exactly set up to treat my kind."

"Maybe we should suggest it to them."

"Maybe we should get this story written up," Clark suggested.

He flew them both to the roof of the Daily Planet building. He switched back into his street clothes and followed her down the stairs, then down the elevator to the newsroom. It was late enough for the rest of the staff to have gone home except for the cleaning crew. Mahalia glowered at them as they made their way around her cleaning cart.

It took less than an hour to finish the story. Perry would have it first thing in the morning.

Lois noticed that Clark was still absently rubbing at the wound Luthor had given him.

"Take off your jacket and let me look at your back," she finally ordered.

"It's fine, really," he protested. "I just strained it a little."

"Clark…" she warned.

"Okay, okay," he reluctantly agreed. She beckoned him to follow her into Richard's office. He trailed after her and she shut the office door behind him and then lowered the blinds for privacy. No sense in giving Mahalia a show.

"Off with the jacket and the shirt," she ordered. He's just like Jason. A grown man as shy as a little boy when it comes to taking off his clothes. It's a wonder we were able to make love.

"Lois, please…"

"Off with them."

With a sigh of resignation, Clark shrugged off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. His tie was at his desk, thrown over the back of his chair. She pulled the shirt off his shoulders and dropped it on Richard's desk. She'd forgotten how well muscled he was, forgotten how broad his shoulders were, how tapered his waist was. The Suit left little to the imagination, but seeing Clark naked to the waist sent shivers through her belly. How blind was I that I didn't see it?

The wound on his back just above his right kidney wasn't healing, at least not as fast as she knew it should. It was still red and swollen and there was dark bruising around it. She touched it and he hissed in pain.

"I know you normally heal faster than this," she commented.

"How bad is it?" His head was down and she could hear the pain, the worry, in his voice.

"It doesn't look infected or anything. Just badly bruised," she told him. "I wonder if an ice pack would help."

"Lois, I have my doubts," he told her. "Heat and cold don't usually bother me."

"Clark, pain isn't usually a problem for you either," Lois reminded him. "There should be ice down in the cafeteria. You wait here and I'll go get some."

The house had been too quiet after Lois and Jason headed over to Perry's so Jason could meet his new baby sister. Richard turned on the television. A fire at the oil refinery up the coast. Superman was already there and the GNN camera crew had pictures of him conferring with plant officials. A dark-haired woman was in the background, watching – Lois. Lois was at the fire.

Within minutes the fire was out, thanks to Superman. The GNN crew approached him, waving a microphone in his face. He gave them his patented smile.

"Superman," Hadwyn, the man with the microphone began. "Can you tell us where you've been the past three days?"

Superman paused, the smile fading a little. "Helping some friends," he said with finality.

Hadwyn didn't seem to get the message. "Doing what?"

Superman looked at the man for a moment, arms crossed over his chest. "Doing what I do well. Being helpful," he told them. "Now, if you'll excuse me." He turned on his heel and walked away.

Lois went to the fire? Richard grabbed the phone and called Perry's house. "Perry, is Jason with you?"

"Of course," his uncle answered. "Lois asked us to watch him while she and Clark headed out to that fire. Looks like they must have hitched a ride with Superman."

"I saw Lois on TV," Richard told him. "Do you want me to come over and take Jason home?"

"Jason's fine," Perry assured him. "He's helping watch the baby with us. I expect the two of them will be back here after they write up the story."

Of course Lois would run after a story like that. Of course she would drag Clark along with her. Of course Superman would be there.

The drive to the Planet took less than twenty minutes. Richard wasn't sure why he was heading to his office. Maybe because he no longer felt comfortable in Lois's house – it was her house, not his. Bought with the proceeds of the sale of her penthouse condo just before Jason was born and a best-selling book on the life and death of Mayor Berkowitz.

Some of the furniture was his, but not much of it and it was foolish to try to ship it overseas. Some of the art was also his and that he would have shipped. But his prize was the seaplane. He hadn't given much thought to what he was going to do with it. He doubted he could take it to Paris with him and he wasn't going to have much time to rent moorage space. Maybe he could talk Lois into letting him keep it at the house.

The newsroom was dark, except for the glow from the monitor on Clark's desk and the lights peaking through the blinds from his own office. The blinds were down and closed, although he remembered them being up when he left for the day.

He opened the door to his office and walked in. Clark was standing in the middle of the office, head bowed, and his shirt off. Lois was standing behind him. Richard couldn't see what she was doing but he had an ugly suspicion. Clark raised his head at the sound of the door opening.

"Couldn't you at least wait until I was out of town?" Richard asked.

"Richard, don't be stupid," Lois warned. She looked up at Clark, then back over to Richard. "There should be some bandages around here, in one of the first aid kits," she said.

"Lois, it's okay, really," Clark protested. "It's not that bad."

"Richard, go find some bandages, now please," Lois ordered.

"Lois, what's going on?"

She stopped and stared at him as if surprised that he hadn't already left. "I told you Clark got hurt during the crystalquake. Well, they didn't put stitches in like they probably should have and he won't rest like he's supposed to and it's all inflamed now."

"Lois, please. I'm not a child," Clark protested. "I can take care of myself."

She snorted and then glared at Richard.

He left to find a first aid kit and some bandages. If Clark was that badly hurt during the crystalquake, then why the devil was he out with Lois and Superman to wherever it was they'd disappeared to for three days?

The baby was asleep in Jason's lap and Jason was beginning to nod off as well. Alice gently picked the baby up and placed her back in her carrier then beckoned for her husband to follow her into the kitchen.

"Perry, is it true what Jason said? That Clark is his father too?" she asked quietly.

Perry nodded.

"That's not why he left, was it?"

"No," Perry assured her. "He didn't know. Neither of them knew at the time."

"What about Richard? He's been Jason's father ever since he was born. He was there when Jason was born."

"I know, Alice," Perry said. "But he's decided to take over the Planet's operations in Paris. And I know Lois won't be going with him."

"It's Superman, isn't it?" Alice asked. "She's still in love with him. Despite everything Richard's done for her, she's willing to chuck it all for an alien? Does Clark know that part?"

"All I really know is that Richard is the one who decided to leave," Perry told her. "Maybe he just didn't want to be her second choice. I know he was waiting for her to decide between them. And when he saw Lois and Clark together with the baby, he made his decision to leave. And Alice, he's taking along a young, pretty female assistant. One he's been hanging around with for the past month."

"You're telling me it was Richard who decided to break up with Lois?"

Perry nodded. "He was making noises about her needing to make a decision between him and Clark even before they came back from wherever they went with Superman. I know he accepted the post in Paris before he even had a chance to talk to her," he told his wife. "So, you tell me who broke up with whom?"

"Does Clark have any idea of the mess he's caused?"

"He certainly didn't intend to," Perry said. "I don't think he intended any of this to happen and I think he and Lois have a lot of issues to work out. But I think Lois is a lot more likely to walk down the aisle with Clark than she ever was with Richard. I mean, let's face it. She and Richard were engaged for nearly five years with no wedding date in sight. It was an engagement of convenience for both of them,"

"What about Superman? I mean, Lois was practically his press agent," Alice said. "And speculation was they may have been more than just friends. That article she wrote definitely came from a woman scorned."

Perry chuckled. "I'm sure he will be high on the list of things Lois and Clark will be discussing soon, if they haven't done it already."

"Clark, do you think there was kryptonite at the fire?" Lois asked. She'd found some ice in the tiny refrigerator in the corner of Richard's office and had wrapped it in Clark's handkerchief. How old fashioned can you get? He carries a cloth handkerchief? She knew the ice was hurting him as she placed it over the angry looking wound. She could see how the muscles in his back bunched as he held himself rigid against the pain.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"It's okay," Clark told her though clenched teeth. "I'm not used to actually feeling pain. It's something of a comeuppance. I never really appreciated what being human meant. I didn't understand how people could just keep going despite the pain, despite everything."

"And now you do?" she asked.

There was a sharp intake of breath as she moved the improvised ice pack. "Yeah, I think I do, a little," he admitted, although there was a tremor in his voice. "I've always respected police and fire fighters – they go out everyday to do their jobs, knowing that the next call they get, the next run they make could be their last. But I'm not sure I really understood that it applied to everybody. It's scary."

"Being alive is scary," Lois said. "But it's got to beat the alternative. By the way, you didn't answer my question about the possibility of kryptonite contamination at the refinery."

"I honestly don't know," he told her. "But I don't think so. I'm sure Superman would have mentioned it to one of us."

The way he phrased his statement confused her until she looked over to see Richard standing in the office door. He had a package of gauze and a roll of surgical tape in his hands. "This is all I found," he explained. He looked closer at Clark. "You're not looking so good."

"I'm not feeling so good, actually," Clark said. He shivered when she put her hand between his shoulder blades. He wasn't sweating, but he was very warm – too warm, even for him. She took his wrist, searching for a pulse with the first two fingers of her hand.

"Like I didn't know where Jason got it from," she muttered to herself as she gave up on his wrist and sought out a pulse at his throat. All the color had gone out of his face. "What's your normal resting heart rate?"

"Forty-five or so… why?"

"Because Richard's right. You look like hell and I think you're running a fever."

"But that's…" Clark started.

Lois looked at him with eyebrows raised, waiting for him to finish – Impossible?

"Um, that's not good, is it?" he said instead.

Lois shook her head. "That's not good. I'm going to bandage your back and then we'll get back to Perry's and get you into bed. With any luck you'll be able to fight this off in a few days."

Clark just nodded as Lois took the gauze and tape from Richard and began to cover the wound in his back.