Perry sighed in contentment. He'd done it. He was Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Planet, a major metropolitan newspaper, a newspaper that probably had the most prestige of any publication on the globe. Pretty good for an ex-drunk.

He pulled his one-year sobriety coin out of his pocket and rubbed it for good luck. Light glinted off the obverse and Perry found himself reading the Serenity Prayer for the umpteenth time.

Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Perry sat in reverie for moment.

Then he looked out the glass windows of his office. This early in the morning, only a few reporters populated the lonely bullpen. The quiet would give way to the steady noise of conversation, the click of keyboards, and all the other sounds of a busy newsroom soon enough. Perry noticed that Cat Grant worked at her desk; he smiled at her work ethic. Since she'd taken on the gossip column, the Planet had scooped other publications on the hot new buzz.

The door opening caught Perry's eye. Clark and Lois entered, engaged in vigorous conversation. They dropped off their briefcases at their adjoining desks while still talking. Cat looked up from her monitor and got up to join them. The two greeted her warmly and all three went to get coffee. Lois brought a package to the coffee station and opened it to reveal two tins of coffee. Perry remembered (how was it that he remembered stuff like this, he thought, but he couldn't remember his son's birthday?) that Lois had signed up for coffee supply duty this week. Even though Lois drank a lot of coffee, she signed up for more than her share of replenishment. But she was that kind of person, Perry thought.

The three began a slow walk to Perry's office, still chatting, Cat using her hands and arms liberally to illustrate her point, whatever it was. Seeing Clark's tall form bracketed by the two shorter women suddenly reminded Perry that he was going to give Clark his file today and tell him about Perry's unofficial eavesdropping.

He'd prefer to be alone with Clark for that, but it looked like all three were coming to his office. Oh well, he could do it anytime. Perry pulled the file out and laid it on his desk.

Something in the demeanors of Clark and Lois hinted at suppressed excitement, Perry thought. It might not be visible to others, but Perry knew them well now. He thought back to Lois' comment that they would have a story for him about the time of his editorial debut. He studied them carefully; by their posture, they weren't quite ready with it yet. Maybe they were coming to him for some last-minute advice?

Lois politely knocked on the open door but didn't wait for Perry's growled "Come in." Instead, she, Clark and Cat stepped in, smiling.

"Congratulations, Chief," Lois said with a snarky smile. She'd found out about the whole embarrassing drunk-Indian-chief episode (of course) and every once in awhile she'd refer to it. Perry had gotten over it and now, in a weird way, kind of liked getting needled by Lois Lane. It kept him humble. Nobody else better try it, though.

"Don't call me Chief," he responded automatically. Then, "Thank you."

"You're the right one for the job, Perry," Clark said in his baritone. From anyone else it would have been flattery, but Perry could hear the sincerity in Clark's tone.

"Thanks, Clark," Perry said. No time like the present. "Oh, yes, here's a file for you. I'd like you to look at it later and talk with me about it." He handed Clark the dossier he'd compiled on the other man.

Clark tucked the file into his document case without bothering to look at the contents. "I'll get to it, Perry."

Lois interrupted. "What else does our esteemed Editor-In-Chief desire?" she teased.

"OK, enough of that," Perry said. "What've you got for me, Lois? How's that Luthorcorp story coming along?"

Lois frowned a little and advanced toward Perry at his desk. "It's hard, Perry," she said. "Lex Luthor runs a coverup machine better than Richard Nixon ever did." Lois gestured toward Cat. "Cat hears some things on her beat."

Cat Grant smiled, but for once said nothing.

"And Clark, he's working along with me on it," Lois said. A mischievous smile crossed her face. "In fact, he's got a new disguise for going undercover." She poked Clark in the side. "Show us all, Clark."

Perry held his breath. The surprised glance that Clark gave to Lois, and the loving nod she gave back to him, suggested a significance to the disguise that Perry and Cat were missing.

"OK," Clark said slowly. He turned away from Perry to face Lois, with Cat off to one side. Perry saw only Clark's profile, but he heard Clark's smile in his voice. "You get to see it first, Lois."

Lois chattered, "Clark is interviewing so many questionable people, we felt that he needed some sort of disguise, or at least a way to make his face look different…."

Clark reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses. Slowly, staring at Lois, he put them on. Perry saw her eyes meet Clark's.

Her chatter stopped. Lois' eyes locked to Clark's. Her face paled, and she trembled. And suddenly, gracefully, she collapsed.

Clark seemed caught by surprise as Lois buckled and fell. Perry saw with alarm that Lois had hit her head on the corner of his table. A small trickle of blood dripped down her temple and Perry could see a bruise forming already. Clark rushed to her side, and Cat too.

"Smallville!" Cat said angrily. "What'd you do this time?"

Clark lifted his head from Lois to catch Cat's gaze. And Perry saw Cat turn pale. And then Cat sat down hurriedly, fortunately not hitting anything on the way down.

Perry didn't remember getting to his feet and hurrying to Lois. "Is she all right?" he asked Clark as he knelt next to the younger man at Lois' still body.

"I don't know," he heard Clark say. And then Clark turned his head to meet Perry's eyes.

The first thing Perry thought was that Clark's thick black-framed specs were the nerdiest, dorkiest pair of glasses Perry had seen since…since…well, those glasses reached new levels of dorkitude, if that was even a word. Clark Kent looked like a total dweeb.

Then Perry's brown eyes met Clark's deep blue ones. And suddenly Perry was sliding down a tunnel, faster and faster, reaching to stop himself but unable to, slipping and sliding down, out of control. He hadn't left his office, but his mind whirled in a hurricane of vertigo.

He found himself in an expansive dark room. A pinpoint light source illuminated him in its center, its rays fading to darkness at the edges of the room, making its boundaries diffuse and indefinite. Wooden shelves filled some of the acres of stone floor space. Perry, curious, went up to one set of shelves.

Trays of marbles. Perry thought back to his boyhood marble collection – aggies, crystal clear, rubies, cats-eyes. More were here than he'd ever had, more than he'd ever dreamed of having. The marbles formed complex swirling patterns on the trays. He pulled out some drawers; some patterns were three-dimensional. The colors, the layouts, the patterns - all held a vast comfort to Perry.

And a great wind came and blew through the room. And all the marbles in all the trays and in all the drawers blew over or fell out. And hundreds, thousands, millions, of marbles skittered across the cold stone floor. Waves of marbles rose and fell, currents of marbles worked their random way under the wreckage of the wooden shelves and trays.

Perry gasped in horror and reached down futilely to stop the tide, the inundation of marbles knocked out of their patterns. A marble tsunami overcame him as he grasped blindly. He picked up a yellow aggie –

And he was at the beach with Alice, their honeymoon, and she lay on the sand in her bikini, smiling seductively at him -

He picked up a red taw.

He was in a bar fight, and getting the worst of it. A punch sent blood flying from his nose.

More and more marbles touched Perry, and memories bombarded him.

- Walking the streets of Metropolis, contacting a source

-Pacing the halls of the hospital as Alice labored to give birth to their son

-Hawking the Planet as a young newsboy

-Dating Cindy Harris, taking her to Makeout Point

-Lunch with Alice, a quiet day

-Vomiting blood the day after a particularly bad bender

-Reading newspaper articles, vowing he'd write for the papers one day

-Hanging over Shuster's Gorge, being rescued by Clark Kent

-Feeding baby food to his son, and changing the diaper later

-Reading in bed quietly one night

-Polishing his shoes

Perry cried out as the marbles rolled away, skittering to the edges of the dark room, bearing his memories with them, memories now lost, or at least jumbled beyond repair. He flailed, wanting to set up the shelves and trays, desperately needing to put the marbles all back in order.

And suddenly there was help. An unseen presence stood behind his shoulder, giving him strength, stopping the insane rolling of acres of marbles, setting up the shelves and trays, restoring the marbles to their places, all at a speed which Perry found breathtaking.

Perry helped, grabbing handfuls of marbles, and somehow knowing where they belonged. And he lived each memory as he did.

Perry grabbed one last blue marble – Clark Kent, shaking hands with Perry at the bus stop in Smallville, no rope burns on his hands today when they were there yesterday – ready to put it in its place. He felt disapproval from the unseen presence behind him, and his hand opened, not of his own accord. Perry dropped the marble and watched dully as it bounced and rolled away, off to the dark edges of the big room. Another blue marble – Clark Kent, building debris falling on him and he's not hurt – and that one, too, was forced out of his hand. It skittered away with a tiny tapping sound, far out of Perry's reach.

And the unseen presence seemed to have gathered many more blue marbles, and Perry knew somehow that they were all about Clark Kent. And he saw those memories, those marbles, taken away from him, scattered around, lost in the darkness, not to be found again.

And as Perry stood, dazed, in the center of the room, the vast presence restored the rest of the marbles to their places, the shelves and trays set as they should be. All seemed in order. Perry felt a slight uneasiness at that thought. Or had a few of the patterns changed? He couldn't remember. Maybe - was it something about Clark Kent?

No. Clark was just a regular guy. Why did Perry feel like he'd just forgotten something about Clark?

Perry closed his eyes. The slipping down a tunnel slide sensation came over him again. He stopped with a thump.

He opened his eyes to find himself sitting on a chair by his office table, Cat on a facing chair. Clark leaned over him, concern in the blue eyes, the eyes that were strangely dulled by the lenses of the dorky glasses. Clark breathed out as Perry opened his eyes. Perry noted with dull alarm that Lois hadn't regained consciousness. But he couldn't muster up the gumption to get up and help her. Cotton wool wrapped his senses. With relief, Perry noticed that Clark knelt on the floor next to Lois.

"Lois," Clark said urgently, cradling her in his arms, ignoring the blood from her head wound staining his suit jacket. "Lois!"

Lois remained unconscious. Perry looked over at Cat – she at least was awake, although looking as if she had a bad hangover.

Clark hugged Lois closer. "Lois! Lois!"

Perry saw Lois open her eyes. Clark gave a sigh of relief. Lois raised a hand to her head and rubbed at the bruised area before wincing and pulling her hand away. She gazed up at Clark and said brightly, "Who are you?"

"What?" Clark and Perry said simultaneously.

Lois continued looking up at Clark. "Why am I on the floor, why are you holding me, and Who. Are. You.?" she asked slowly, as if talking to a mentally impaired person.

Vacant incomprehension covered Clark's face. Then Perry saw Clark rip the nerdy glasses off his face and stare at them in absolute horror.

"Lois! Don't you know me?" Clark pleaded. Perry thought Clark's voice sounded defeated, as if he already knew the answer.

"You look sort of familiar," Lois said. She put her hand to her temple again and gently felt the injured area.

"Don't you know Smallville?" Cat asked. Perry noted her usual acerbic tone was flattened and dulled, as he suspected his own voice was.

Clark had gathered up Lois and set her on another chair at Perry's office table. He picked up his glasses from the floor and carefully, almost gingerly, thought Perry, tucked them into his jacket pocket. "Wait here," he said shortly.

Perry was looking directly at Clark when the latter…shimmered. There was no other word for it, thought Perry. And in any other circumstances, Perry would be on it like a starving dog on a steak. But whatever the cause of Perry's odd lethargy and dullness, it prevented him from getting too excited. Perry's thought was only, Oh yeah, in a flat monotone. He didn't even turn to Cat and Lois to ask if they'd seen it too.

When Clark finished shimmering, Perry saw with muted amazement that Clark now had a box in each hand. The dull gray boxes had no labels or indication of contents. Clark stepped up to Perry.

"Perry, do this for me, please," he said. Clark reached into his jacket and carefully pulled out the nerdy glasses. "I want you to take what's in this box and touch it to the glasses."

Why? Perry thought about asking. But he couldn't generate the enthusiasm. He reached for the box. It was surprisingly heavy. Clark moved back to the far end of the office. Perry opened the box.

Inside, a chunk of green rock took up most of the interior space. Perry raised his eyebrows. This was meteor rock, for sure. Perry had run across enough of it in his Smallville investigation – Why was I in Smallville anyway? Oh yes, for X-Styles, about the….about…. He couldn't remember why. But the cotton wool came down and stopped his worry about not remembering.

The glasses on the table caught his eye. Perry pulled the meteor rock out of the heavy box. That was interesting, he thought. The rock had taken on a slight glow. As asked, Perry touched it to the glasses.

"Nothing," he told Clark, who stood quite far away. "Are you all right, Clark?" Perry asked. Clark certainly looked pale and trembly, enough for Perry to see even in Perry's dulled condition.

"I'm OK," Clark said tightly. "Please, touch Lois with that, Perry." He jerked his head in Lois' direction.

Weird request. But it just seemed easier to do what Clark asked, so Perry leaned over and touched Lois with the glowing rock. Perry looked up to see Clark staring at her hopefully.

"Lois? Do you know me now?" Clark asked.

She raised her head to return his gaze. Even Perry could see that she had no recollection of Clark.

Clark sighed deeply. His shoulders slumped. "We've got to try the other one," he told Perry. "Could you please put that back in the box and close the lid?"

In a semi-stupor, Perry did as Clark requested.

"And now could you please open the other box, and do the same things? Touch the glasses with what's in there, and touch Lois with it, too?"

OK, Perry thought, again finding it easier just to do what Clark said rather than get up or argue or even think. He opened the second box to find a Smallville High class ring. He pulled it out, noticing that the ruby-red stone had also acquired a slight glow in the fluorescent lights of his office.

He touched it to the glasses. Really, he had no idea as to why Clark looked at them with the unblinking intensity usually devoted to perusal of a live bomb. As Perry expected, touching the glasses with the class ring caused no change in ring, glasses, Lois, Cat, or himself.

"Touch it to Lois, please," Clark almost begged. He came a little closer to the table where Perry, Cat, and Lois sat.

"Hey, what's all this 'hit Lois with stones' stuff?" Lois demanded. She grabbed Perry's hand and forced him to give her the class ring. "What are you doing? What is this?" She rolled the ring around in her palm for a minute. "I come into the office, I get hit on the head, and now you're pelting me with rocks!" Breathing heavily, she punctuated the end of her rant by throwing the ring at Clark. He was only a few feet away. She could hardly miss.

Clark quickly grabbed the ring, stopping it from hitting him in the eye. Perry's eyes were naturally drawn to the motion of the thrown ring; he sighed in relief as Clark caught it. Perry kept his eyes on Clark's for a moment longer and gave a gasp of surprise as he saw Clark's eyes turn red. Then Perry blinked. Clark's eyes were normal now. Had Perry imagined it?

Clark stood straighter now. Suddenly his posture exuded menace. Perry shivered. This wasn't the usual friendly Clark Kent. This was someone he really didn't want to meet in a dark alley somewhere. The scary Clark came closer and Perry realized he didn't want to meet this Clark at all. This Clark was a predator and Perry was the prey. Perry cowered back in his seat.

"I'll take her to Jorl and we'll get this settled!" growled Menacing Clark. He picked up Lois, held her in his arms.

Clark and Lois vanished.

Perry felt his mouth fall open. The door hadn't opened, the windows were shut, and Clark's footprints still crushed the pile of the rug near Perry's desk. Clark had literally vanished. One moment he was there, the next gone.

It wasn't till Perry turned in his chair to see Cat, her face holding an identical expression, that he realized that the two boxes, Clark's glasses, and Lois had vanished too.

Cat and Perry stared at each other.

"That was odd," Cat said carefully, quietly.

"Um, yes," Perry agreed. The cotton wool seemed to descend again and Perry felt an intensification of the strange lassitude that had held him captive ever since he met Clark Kent's eyes. That is, Clark Kent's eyes behind the nerdy glasses. Judging by the way Cat slumped in her chair, she was feeling the same thing.

"Uh, Clark getting angry like that….Lois doesn't seem herself either…" Perry mumbled. He tried to list the sequence of events in his head. He'd need to describe the events leading to Lois' head injury to the workmen's comp people, he knew. But the more he tried to remember the exact circumstances, the more the cotton wool pressed down. Once again, Perry felt that vast presence in his head, sorting through memories and discarding some.

Clark vanishing… Gone.

The strange glowing of the meteor rocks… Gone.

The red tinge in Clark's eyes… Gone.

Lois' sudden strange unfamiliarity with Clark… No, it wasn't sudden. She hardly knew him.

Perry fought back against the strange mental censor. Certainly Lois knew Clark! They'd spent their teen years in Smallville together, they were informal partners at the Planet, and they were working on some big story together.

The looming presence in Perry's mind, like the incoming tide, could not be resisted.

Lois and Clark chatting at the morning coffee station, making some sort of secret, but highly anticipated, plans…..gone.

Clark kissing Lois on the sly in the newsroom, but Perry had caught a glimpse of that display of affection… Gone.

Lois and Clark arguing with Perry over a story, each finishing the other's sentences… Gone.

Lois meeting Clark and Perry for coffee after a Friendly Friday meeting… Gone.

Lois doesn't know Clark… Yes, that's right, thought Perry dully. And there's nothing unusual about Clark Kent. He's just a regular guy, maybe with a little drug problem, that goes to Friendly Friday meetings with me, a guy who's worked himself up to be a reporter at the Daily Planet. Clark's just as normal as you and me.

He said that out loud, and Cat Grant nodded her head. "Clark's as normal as you and me," she repeated.

****************

Later that afternoon, Perry got a call.

"Perry?" Clark's voice sounded tired and beaten.

"Clark?" Perry replied.

"I'm here at Metropolis General with Lois," Clark said.

"Metropolis General?" Perry repeated.

"Yes, Perry," Clark said patiently. "She hit her head, remember?"

A slight recurrence of the cotton-wool feeling. Then Perry remembered – a mini-staff meeting in his office, Lois gesturing and losing her balance, and hitting her head on the edge of the table. Clark had…what had he done, specifically? A strange feeling of something missing here, then the cotton wool descended again. Oh yes, Clark had rushed Lois to the hospital. A nice thing to do considering they hardly knew each other.

"How's she doing?" Perry asked. He liked Lois; she was one of his best reporters. A quick tinge of a memory of Clark, Lois and himself arguing about proper verb forms…...no, that was gone.

"The doctors say she's going to be fine, but they want to keep her overnight for observation," Clark said wearily. "They're concerned about a concussion."

"Well, make sure she's settled in OK, and come back here, Clark," Perry said. "We've still got to cover the city beat."

******************

Later, when Clark entered the newsroom, Perry thought he'd never seen the man look so down. Clark's shoulders, usually straight, bowed as if under a heavy weight. And his usual cheerful face carried a bitter, hopeless expression.

"Clark! How's Lois?" Perry came up to ask him.

"She's fine," Clark said dully. Then he muttered, "At least, as fine as she's going to be."

Perry decided to let that one lie there. He caught a glimpse of the ring on Clark's finger.

"Hey, I thought those Smallville class rings had rubies in them. How come yours is clear glass?"

"Oh, it got inactivated…" Clark trailed off into a mumble. Perry thought he heard, "by Jorl at the Fortress…" but that made no sense.

"Well, Clark, time to get back to business," Perry said in a deliberately brisk tone. Work would be the cure for whatever was ailing Clark, Perry thought. "I thought you had promised me a big story for the day I took over the editorship?"

Surprise, realization, and then a profound bitterness crossed Clark's face. "I'm sorry, Perry," he said in a trembling voice, "I need Lois to do that story. We were working on it together."

"Well, can't you reconstruct it from her notes? Just because she's in the hospital…" Perry pushed.

"No, Perry, she wasn't keeping written notes on this story," Clark replied more steadily. "It was all in her head. And right now, she doesn't remember…." He looked down at the ground and said softly, "I'm lost without her."

Perry let that comment go by. Obviously Clark hadn't meant it to be heard. "OK, no big story, then, Kent?" he challenged Clark.

Clark shook his head, not looking Perry in the eye.

"Then get out there and bring in some news, Kent!" Perry said sharply.

Clark turned away and began walking to his desk.

"Kent!" Perry called.

Clark looked back at Perry.

"I thought you were wearing glasses now?"

Clark gave another bitter smile. "I don't think I'll be wearing those glasses for awhile," he said as he walked away. "I don't like the way they make people look at me."

*************************

Author's note: Thanks to EllenF (ellyfanfiction.blogspot.com) whose amnesia idea from the fine story "First Meetings" was borrowed/stolen for my fic. Also thanks to the unremembered person who posted on Kryptonsite.com, a post suggesting that Clark Kent's nerdy glasses were Kryptonian in origin. If I can find out or remember your name, I'll credit you properly. If any reviewers know it, please let me know.