Richard

Now:

Richard White followed his wife and uncle down the aisle to their seats. He didn't want to be there, didn't want to attend this wedding. He didn't want to even be in Chicago. More specifically, he didn't want to see Clark Kent.

He didn't want to be the one to explain that Lois had fooled both of them. That Jason's biological father was, in fact, Superman. He didn't want to have to apologize for being a fool, for seeing the other reporter as a threat. For trying to defend his wife from something that wasn't real, had probably never been real.

Richard was surprised to see Cat Grant coming down the aisle to greet them. She had left the Planet nearly two years ago allegedly under a cloud. The rumor mill claimed she was an alcoholic or a druggie. The rumor-mongers that claimed drugs were involved had also claimed that was the real reason Kent had left so abruptly.

Richard hadn't believed a word of it, but he knew Lois had grabbed onto the story like a life-line. She had used it to justify why Kent left for the second time without a word to her. Not that she would have listened even if he had said goodbye.

Cat looked good in her satin dress. Chicago agreed with her and he was glad for her.

"Where's the munchkin?" Cat asked.

"At home with my parents," Lois said, her tone cool. "I didn't want him to miss any school." Lois was lying. Jason wasn't going to miss school – he'd been suspended again for fighting and right now, Lois's dad was one of the few people able to handle him.

"You're kidding, right?" Cat looked astonished. Richard shook his head, warning her off. He knew a hand-written note in Perry's invitation had specifically asked that Jason come to see the ceremony. After two plus years, Jason still spoke fondly of 'Uncle Clark', wondered why the man never wrote or called him. How do you explain to a child that one of his favorite people had been ordered out of his life for something he hadn't done?

"I've got to get back to my post," Cat said with a smile. "I'll see you at the reception, right?"

"Yeah, Cat," Richard said. "We'll see you later."

He slid into the pew next to his wife. Perry was deep in conversation with Mike O'Hanlon, his counterpart at the Star. Richard found himself studying Lois, watching her watch everyone else. Once again he wondered what he'd been thinking when he thought he could steal her away from Jason's real father? Once again he wondered at what role he'd played in driving Superman away from Metropolis, the city that loved him best?

Then:

"I'm not doing another 'in depth' Superman story," Lois was telling Perry for the umpteenth time. "Let Polly or Mags do it. For that matter let Clark do it."

Richard smiled at the sudden look of astonished horror that crossed Clark's face at the suggestion. Richard was standing by the door to the conference room, watching the daily assignment meeting, where each of the senior reporters received their marching orders and told Perry what progress they were making on their various investigations. Superman was always the first topic of discussion.

The superhero had been back in Metropolis for two weeks now. The city was picking itself up from the earthquake Lex Luthor had created using stolen Kryptonian technology. The crime rate in Metropolis, indeed the entire eastern seaboard, was dropping. All was right with the world, mostly.

Perry dismissed the meeting with a stabbing finger at Lois: "Get me Superman!"

Outside, Richard pulled the star reporter to him and gave her a gentle kiss. He loved her for her strength, her brilliance, her obstinacy. "Maybe you and one of the others can work on it together so you don't have to be alone with him," he suggested.

"And you suggest, Clark?" she said with a grimace.

Richard shrugged. "Someone, anyone." He paused. "You know, we still need to talk."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"How about lunch?"

"I asked you when he first came back if you still loved him," Richard reminded her over lunch. They had gone to the deli just down the street from the Daily Planet. It was early and the restaurant was still quiet.

"And I told you 'no'," she told him. "I may not have been quite truthful. I was in love with him, and I thought he was in love with me. Then he left without a word and I found I was pregnant."

"Everybody thinks Jason is Clark's son," Richard said.

"Richard, I don't remember having sex with either of them."

Richard flinched inwardly at her choice of words. Not 'making love,' but 'having sex.' 'Having sex' was what one did after a drunken party, when all you wanted was release and the partner didn't matter and you just hoped you wouldn't catch something if your partner forgot the condoms. Lois caught a baby.

"You said 'was' in love with him."

"How can you really be in love with a god? I care about him, but I'm not 'in love' with him. He wasn't there when Jason was born, you were. He belongs to the world and the world loves him, the world needs him. I don't. I thought I did, but I was wrong."

"And what about Clark?" Richard spotted the other man walking into the deli, speaking to the order taker. Clark saw the couple in the back booth and nodded politely.

"What about him?"

"Look, we both know Jason looks just like him and we both know you were pregnant when we met. I just want to know how you plan to handle this."

"You are Jason's father," she said firmly. "It says so on his birth certificate, and I say so. Case closed."

Behind her, at the counter, Richard saw Clark flinch, as though he'd heard the coldness in Lois's tone while talking about him. After a moment, Clark's take-out order was handed to him and he left, shoulders slumped even more than usual. Was it possible Lois's voice had carried?

"In that case, why don't you want to set a date?"

In answer, Lois pulled out her Day-timer and opened it to October. "It only takes a couple days to get a license. Pick a date."

He looked over her calendar. "Don't you want to have time to plan?"

"What's to plan? I'll get Lucy to be my maid-of-honor. You figure out who you want to be best man. It'll be family and a few people from work, a couple friends. My mom will love handling the reception. I know she always wanted me to have a big wedding, but I'm sure Lucy will oblige," she said.

Richard pointed to the last Saturday of the month. "It gives us a couple weeks to get ready."

Lois wrote it in on her calendar.

It was a small ceremony in the side chapel of the church just down the street from their house. Jason gave the bride away and Perry was best man. As predicted, Lois's mother complained about there not being enough time to prepare properly. But the wedding cake was ready, as was the caterer.

The reception was in the church basement.

Richard was surprised to see that Lois had invited Clark to the ceremony. He wasn't surprised that the other man didn't come to the reception, although he had left a wedding present – a set of Messermeister kitchen knives. Richard wondered if Lois knew or cared how much her colleague had spent on her, them.

Richard had hoped that making things official would help. He was wrong. Clark managed several Superman exclusives, which Perry automatically put on the front page above the fold. Lois's stories on corruption at FEMA, the hunt for Lex Luthor, went below the fold or somewhere inside. It was a turn of events that made Lois almost impossible to live with. Clark had always been a good writer. He was becoming a great one. The bite that Perry had always thought was missing was now showing itself.

It was driving Lois crazy.

Then, Clark started going out with Cat Grant. Richard knew what the rumor mill said, had a pretty good idea what was really going on. Privately, he was glad that someone had noticed the reporter's lack of a life and decided to do something about it, even if it was a society columnist with the reputation of being a man-eater.

Richard also knew Jason thought the world of Clark. He was one of the few grownups in the newsroom who would actually stop and talk to the boy. Clark always had a kind word for him, never gave the impression that Jason was anything other than welcome. But when Clark's photo showed up on the society page of the rival Metropolis Star with Cat Grant, Lois forbade Jason's visits to Clark's desk.

It was only a matter of time and Richard wasn't surprised when Perry told him that Clark had transferred to Chicago. Richard barely noticed that Superman had stopped patrolling Metropolis.

He was surprised when Clark started emailing Lois with the subject line 'we need to talk.' Lois ignored them at first, refusing to read them. She complained to Perry, who apparently did nothing. When Richard complained to Perry, he was told it was business and Lois needed to answer her mail.

It was when the phone calls started at work and then on her cell phone that Richard lost it. Looking back, he realized what a fool he'd been, calling Mike O'Hanlon to complain about Clark harassing Lois. He realized it when the Planet picked up Clark Kent's exposé on Morgan Edge and Intergang over Lois's series of articles on the same subject.

Then Jason started doing impossible things and Richard realized what a fool he'd really been, he and Clark both.