Disclaimer: The giants are kind enough to let me play in their sand box.

Author's Note: Speakfire has a chapter in her story about the actual Pulitzer ceremony. It even features Trish. This chapter deals more with one moment of realization.

After the ceremony Lois carried her Pulitzer Prize around. She had forgotten her acceptance speech, or at least the note cards. So, she had adlibbed. It wasn't like she hadn't done that a thousand times while she worked on Mrs. Kent's state senate staff. She had thanked her father, The General, and her departed mother. She had thanked her son. And then she did something very out of character. A single tear meandered down her face and she apologized. To Superman. She was on the verge of completely dissolving into tears, so she thanked the crowd and stepped down.

Later, under the sky in the courtyard of Bruce's hotel, by the fountain, Lois stood there still kind of floating through the evening. Richard had taken Jason for ice cream. She seemed to be holding on to her Pulitzer like it was her life line. She saw Clark talking with one of the Amazons who had come with Diana, an Amazon who looked remarkably like Chloe had back in college. Except her hair was the wrong color.

Lois realized it was raining. It had moved from a mist up to a drizzle. She wondered where Superman was. Why hadn't he come to accept her apology? Why wasn't she dancing in the sky with him?

Clark and the Amazon had turned so that Lois could see slightly more of Clark's face and slightly more of the Amazon's back. Clark's hair was wet. His glasses were steamed over. He had taken the glass off to awkwardly try to clean them on the handkerchief he removed from his coat pocket. He almost stepped on the Amazon's feet. But she dodged gracefully around him, like Chloe always used to do. He continued rubbing his glasses and nearly elbowed the Amazon. Clark was such a klutz.

Finally the Amazon and Clark sat down on one of the benches surrounding the fountain. Clark still didn't have his glasses back on. Lois seemed to be floating with the same point of view since Clark had taken off his glasses. The Amazon reached over and pushed Clark's hair back out of his face. She missed a single lock of hair, one that began to curl slightly.

And then the world froze for Lois Lane. Or perhaps it was she who froze. She couldn't tell. It was like a bolt of lightening had struck her. Perhaps this was how St. Paul felt when he recovered his sight after the journey to Damascus. Suddenly she saw with perfect clarity. She saw what had been right in front of her eyes since the day ran her truck off the road into a corn field in Nowhere, KS, no make that Smallville, KS all those years before. Clark Kent was Superman. Superman was Clark Kent. The two were one in the same. One plus one does not make two. It makes one. Do not pass Go. Do not drop your Pulitzer. Do not vomit into the fountain.

And then she remembered. Everything. It unspooled before her like a life flashing before her eyes: Clark reaching into the fire in that stupid pink hotel room in Canada; Clark flying her to the crystal Fortress in the mountains cradled in his arms; Clark stepping into the red light chamber and giving up his powers; the night they spent together. Zod! Ursa! Narn! Luthor! Back to the Fortress. Her fist connecting with Ursa's face after Clark broke Zod's hand.

And Jason. Nine months after that first fateful trip to Superman's crystal temple of solitude in the mountains, Jason was born. She and Richard had thought Jason had been a couple of months premature. But Jason arrived right on time. And he was the son of Superman, the son of Kal-El of Krypton. Talk about the unprintable story of the century. How am I going to explain this to Richard?

And then she did drop her Pulitzer.

She did vomit into the fountain.

Clark and the Amazon picked her up. Clark was standing there with his glasses back on, moving his hands in and out from the center of his chest and twirling them around. Clark told her to breath and offered to get her a glass of water. She reached around and grabbed a drink out of someone else's hand and threw it into Clark's face. "You are not doing that to me again. I know who you are."

And then Diana was at one elbow. Bruce was at the other. Lois was wrapped in a towel and Bruce led her out of his hotel to a cab.