Perry

Now:

Perry permitted himself a self-satisfied smile. Clark looked happier than the Daily Planet editor had seen him in years. And he hadn't missed Clark's little remark to Lois in the receiving line.

"By the way, she's a pilot, and she doesn't much like horror movies."

Good for you, son.

The receiving line was going to take a while longer. Perry grabbed a glass of champagne from one of the waiters' trays. He knew his doctor didn't want him drinking, but this was a party. That damn pill-pusher can go hang. Not everyday your favorite writer gets hitched to a general's daughter.

He found a relatively quiet corner to watch from. Lois seemed to be barely holding together, Richard holding onto her arm as if he was afraid she would get away from him. Jimmy and Penny had grabbed champagne for themselves and were heading toward him.

"Some party, huh, Chief?" Jimmy observed.

"EPRAD and Straker can afford it," Perry told him. Perry nodded to the military uniforms with their masses of gold braid and the middle-aged businessmen and women with their spouses.

"You're a cynic, Chief," Jimmy stated.

"I prefer to think of myself as a realist," Perry corrected mildly. "Do you really think more than a handful of people here know or care who Clark and Esther Kent are? This is a prime example of a social event being warfare concealed. Straker is marking his territory in front of his peers, showing off his power. I can just about guarantee the only people here who even know Clark's a writer are all from the media or family. And I doubt even the media people here have read his work outside of what's in the Star." He shrugged. "Well, maybe they've read his book on Intergang," he amended.

"Do you think Clark and Esther realize that?" Penny asked.

"I can guarantee it," Perry said, taking a sip from his glass. "Neither of them are stupid or naïve. At least not that way." He looked around at the growing crowd. In one corner a young man was setting out CDs, checking the connections to his sound equipment. He punched a button and some light jazz started playing.

"I wonder why Superman didn't show up," Penny commented. "He's supposed to be a friend of Clark's, isn't he?"

"If Superman came in wearing a tuxedo instead of the red cape, would anyone here recognize him?" Perry asked.

Perry noticed Clark's eyes on him and raised his glass to him. Clark smiled slightly and gave a hint of a nod in acknowledgement.

"I'd like to think I would," Jimmy said.

Perry just chuckled.

Then:

"Perry, how could you?" Lois fumed from the back seat of the cab.

Perry was in the front seat, peering back at her benignly, which apparently infuriated her even more. Richard was patting her hand, trying to calm her down. Perry had known Lois wasn't going to be easy to live with for a few days, maybe week. She hadn't won the Pulitzer she'd been short-listed for. More to the point, Clark Kent had won in his category, then left in his old familiar, perplexing, hurry. At least they hadn't been in direct competition.

"How could I have done what, hon'?" Perry asked, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.

"I don't believe for a minute that the seating committee would make a mistake of listing Clark with the wrong paper and putting him at our table," she explained. "So what were you playing at? I mean, the man walked out on you, us, more than a year ago."

"Lois, he didn't just 'walk out' and you know it," Perry reminded her. "What I don't understand is why you keep insisting he did and why you keep on feeding those rumors that he was involved in unsavory things before he left. We're talking about Clark the boy scout, the choir boy, here. The one who wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful." He was finally getting exasperated with her. He couldn't believe his best investigative reporter could be so dense.

"You're still upset he beat you out on that Intergang exposé, aren't you?" Richard observed. Lois hunkered down in her seat, glowering at both of them.

"Lois, you knew the rules I laid down on that," Perry reminded her. "It was your choice not to work with him on his terms. And I've no doubt he'll be on a Pulitzer short list for next year as well. If not for that series, then for the book he's writing on it."

"You didn't tell me he got a book contract out of it," Lois fumed.

"It's not my job to tell you what other journalists are up to, except for the ones who work here," Perry reminded her.

The cab stopped in front of the Daily Planet. Perry paid the driver and led the way into the building. As they waited for the elevator doors to open onto the newsroom floor, Perry wondered a little how he was going to explain why he did what he did.

"Yes, Lois, I did ask for Clark to be seated at our table," Perry admitted as they left the elevator, heading for his office. "That call I took just before we left for the ceremony? That was Mike O'Hanlon letting me know that Clark had agreed to go into Tazarastan again, and given what happened last time he was there, tonight may well be the last time any of us see him alive."

"What do you mean?" Richard asked. "I mean, Clark's not that much of a klutz, and he's certainly not one to just walk into danger. At least he wasn't."

Lois snorted. "Clark hates guns, and has no stomach at all for violence. He fainted the first time he was mugged."

"You're sure about that, are you?" Perry asked. Lois snorted again. "You both remember the WMD investigation team that was murdered five weeks ago?"

"Sure," Richard said. "The current regime blamed a splinter military cell for it." His forehead was creased into a frown. "But what does…?"

"Richard, you're International. Who was the U.S. journalist embedded with that team?" Perry asked.

Richard sighed. "Clark Kent, Chicago Star. The story I got was he was recalled to the States only a day before it happened, no explanations."

"Make that half an hour before," Perry told them. "Mike got hold of an intelligence report – and don't even ask where he got it, he won't even tell me – that one of the factions had targeted Superman, and Clark was meant to be the bait. Clark made it to the main airport and Superman brought him home. The rest of the team went ahead with the inspection and we all know what happened then. Mike thinks Clark agreed to go back in order to find the people who killed the WMD team and were targeting Superman."

"But Superman was the one who negotiated the peace accord, got the factions to sit down together," Lois reminded them. "Isn't it a little late to go after him now?"

"Revenge isn't logical, Lois," Richard reminded her. "You of all people should know that."

"One more thing," Perry said. "Mike told me they asked for a photographer, too. He thought it might be a good idea if that came from the Planet. I'm going to ask Jimmy if he wants to go."

Perry watched Lois and Richard's relationship seem to go from bad to worse. Losing the Pulitzer griped at her. She was spending every waking hour working on a series of investigations on the aftermath of the fall on Intergang. There were days she didn't go home at all, meeting with sources at all hours of the day and night. She was a woman driven.

Lois didn't even seem to notice the hurt and pain in Richard's face when he came to work. But Perry noticed.

"Richard, what's wrong?" Perry asked, finally. Lois was gone again, whether on the aftermath story or another one she'd been assigned, Perry didn't know, or even much care. If she was out of the office, she wasn't causing trouble for anyone else in the newsroom.

"Nothing," Richard stated. He was staring at his computer monitor, refusing to look up at his uncle.

"I haven't been in this business as long as I have been and not be able to read my own family," Perry told him. "Out with it."

"I found out last week that Lois hasn't been entirely truthful about Jason's paternity," Richard said softly. "It's not Clark."

Perry raised one eyebrow. "So, who was it?"

Richard looked up at him, made a small 'swoosh' motion with his hand.

Superman? "You're kidding," Perry said aloud. "Does he know?"

Richard nodded. "There was a problem last week. I called Clark to get hold of Superman. He was right there to help. He gave me some advice before he left. Even told me what kind of glasses to get Jason to help him learn how to manage."

"Does Clark know about Superman…?"

"I don't know," Richard admitted. "I suspect so. My call made it pretty obvious, if he thought about it at all."

"And what about Lois?"

Richard sighed. "I haven't talked to her since I found out. I've hardly even seen her. All her energy, all her time, is going into this investigation," he said. "I hope she gets done with it soon. I'd like to have my wife back. Jason would like to have his mother back."

"Is there anything I can do?" Perry asked, knowing the answer.

Richard shook his head. "We'll get through this. I just hope it's soon."

The first article of Lois's series was on the front page the following Monday. Like Clark's Intergang series almost five months before, it was picked up by the Planet's sister papers, then internationally within a week. Privately, Perry considered it one of the best pieces of reporting he'd seen in years. Certainly the best Lois Lane had produced. If she didn't win the Pulitzer for this one, the judging committee had no idea what they were doing.

As soon as the article hit, Richard and Lois's relationship seemed to improve. Lois started going to family therapy with Richard and Jason on Wednesdays. That seemed to help too. But Perry still wondered what was happening with Jason. How he was holding up. Jason didn't come to the newsroom as often as he used to. Jason is Superman's son. No wonder Lois is so messed up.

"Clark's getting married?" Lois asked Perry. A small announcement had shown up on the newsroom bulletin board. A clipping from the Chicago Star announcing the impending wedding of Clark Joseph Kent and Esther Krystin Straker.

"Yes," Perry acknowledged. "I already have an invitation. It's in April, right after Easter." He watched her reaction. Disbelief? "Lois, did you think it would never happen? That he wasn't capable of making a life for himself? That he wouldn't be able to get over you?"

Lois gave him a sharp look. "Did you think I didn't know he was in love with you?" Perry asked.

"That was his problem. I certainly never gave him any ideas," Lois told him.

Liar.

"I'm just a little surprised, that's all," Lois admitted. "Do you know what she's like?"

"Ask Jimmy," Perry told her. "He spent a lot of time with her and Clark while he was over there. He says she's good people."

"I'm glad for him," she said.

Perry wasn't sure he believed her. But maybe she was finally getting over her anger at Clark. Maybe. But then maybe not. Perry hadn't posted the Pulitzer short lists yet, but this year, Lois Lane and Clark Kent were both on the list for investigative journalism. They'd both won Kerths earlier in the year for their work on Intergang, Clark in the Midwest chapter and Lois on the East Coast.

Lois is going to have kittens.