Disclaimer: All recognisable characters etc are property of DC Comics, Warner Bros and December 3rd Productions.
Author's note: Ninth in the At First Sight series, set during Man of Steel Bars between Superman stopping the power plant and Clark returning to the Daily Planet. This has not been beta-read, so hopefully I caught any typos.
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They judged me guilty without proof.
They drove me out of my home. I left my job, my friends, my family and the woman I love.
Now they want me back.
...
I've never felt more like an outsider than I have this week.
I thought I'd found some measure of acceptance in Metropolis.
I guess a few months of catching criminals and saving lives isn't enough to overcome humanity's innate fear of the unknown. It's easier to blame a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon on a scapegoat than it is to search for answers.
I know now who my true friends are. Lois, Jimmy and Perry never gave up on me. The rest of the city is a different story.
Until they needed my help.
Now they expect me to come back and protect them like nothing happened. Like 24 hours previously they hadn't been screaming for me to get as far away from the city as possible.
Like they hadn't treated me like a criminal.
Why should I help them?
I don't want to leave Metropolis. Leaving Metropolis means leaving Lois. I've only just found her. I can't lose her.
But how can I stay, knowing that the people of Metropolis can- and will- turn on me without warning, simply because of who and what I am?
Snow is starting to fall over the city now. Things are returning to normal. I need to make a decision. Stay or go?
I have friends here. My dream job. A life. A future.
And unfinished business. Was the leak engineered? I don't know. It seems unlikely that a leak of that magnitude could have escaped detection unless people were being paid to look the other way.
If that's so, Luthor will have to pay the price. He is my unfinished business.
Lois told me two nights ago that I'm not a quitter.
It's time to put aside my resentment and prove her right.
