After that, it was just the daily grind. Perry did his editorial job, got an update from Clark every day (now it was almost ten days since the whole episode), checked on Richard every day (who was having complications and was still stuck in a hospital bed), ate his meals, went home to Alice, and regularly woke up at night flashing back to the moment he'd killed a man.

The loud crack of the gunshot, the smell of burned powder, the sting of the ejected brass hitting him on the cheekbone, the recoil pushing his arms up….Perry concentrated on these so he wouldn't have to remember the man falling, bleeding, the light in his eyes fading.

It was Friday. Clark came to make his daily report – by now, the questions about Lois had subsided to a questioning look on Perry's part and a dejected shake of the head on Clark's – and made a few comments about the recent stories he'd turned in.

"Perry, I'm going to spend the weekend in Kansas," Clark said. "I'm off, and if you need me you can contact me on my cell phone." His voice turned colorless as he asked, "Is Richard out of the hospital yet?"

"No," Perry said. "It looks like it might be another day or two."

"Does he want to see Jason?" Clark asked. Perry heard the undertone of reluctance, overlaid by the doing-the-right-thing tone that Clark lived his life by. Clark had offered to bring the child to see Richard every day, and every day, Richard had declined. The first few days, Richard was too sick, but after that, the reason given was that Richard didn't want Jason to see him confined to a hospital bed. Perry thought it was bullshit but it wasn't his place to say.

Perry thought that he had noticed Richard distancing himself from Jason and Lois. When Richard talked of Lois, he often referred to their relationship as being in the past. He didn't talk about future plans with the two of them together. Richard had had one afternoon where all he could speak of was Lois, and Perry felt that Richard's reminiscences were in the nature of a wake – memorializing Lois, as if she was dead and gone. And from the way Richard looked, Perry bet his nephew wasn't getting much sleep, either.

Richard said little about Jason. He said that he was grateful to Clark for the latter taking Jason to the Kansas farm, and Perry didn't question Richard further. It would be hard for any man to discover that the son he thought was his, wasn't. And that said son might not be human.

"No," Perry said, recalled to the here-and-now by Clark's patient stare. "Richard doesn't want to see Jason today."

A frown, quickly wiped off Clark's face. He had mentioned once to Perry that so much of the crime he stopped in his Superman persona had its roots in poor or absent parenting. "All right," Clark said. "Call me if you need me. Otherwise I'll see you Monday."

"OK."

The tall reporter left the room. Perry went back to work.

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

On Perry's visit to Richard on Saturday, he got good news.

"Perry, they're letting me out of here tomorrow," Richard said. "Giving me the OK."

"That's great!" Perry said, and he meant it. Richard was his only nephew, and it would have left a big hole in the world if Richard had died.

"Can you pick me up tomorrow and take me back to the house?" Richard asked.

"No problem," Perry said. "Just tell me the time and I'll be here."

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

Perry pushed open the door of Richard and Lois' house. The "Crime Scene" yellow tape had been removed, and all evidence of the ghastly events had been cleaned up.

I wonder if that was in the cleaning service's contract, or if they charge extra for bullet holes and fingerprint powder, Perry thought. He was just glad that someone had taken charge of the cleanup.

The house air smelled musty. Richard stepped in behind Perry and sniffed. "Better get some windows open," he muttered. "It's been two weeks." He went around and suited the action to the words.

"Stay for lunch, Perry?" Richard asked.

"Sure." Perry didn't have anywhere he had to be, and he felt a just a little apprehensive about Richard being alone in the big house.

Richard opened a pantry door, took out a pile of well-thumbed takeout menus, and passed them to Perry. Perry leafed through them, decided on the Middle Eastern feast from Mister Kabob Restaurant. Richard phoned and made the order, telling Perry after he hung up that all the nearby takeout restaurants had his and Lois' credit card information on file.

"Do you mind if I take a shower while we're waiting, Perry?" Richard asked. "I just want to get all this hospital stuff washed away."

"No problem," Perry said.

Richard nodded and headed upstairs. "It might take awhile," he warned Perry.

Perry nodded. He knew the feeling. Washing away the grime, more mental than physical.

Perry ambled back through the house, stopping back at the den where the shooting had occurred. The room looked totally different now in the brisk morning light, very unlike the deep twilight Perry remembered in his flashbacks. There had definitely been a call to the "Blood and Brains Cleanup Agency", because there was no sign of the horrific events that had happened. Perry thought about it a moment, then decided it was probably Clark who had arranged the cleanup – he himself hadn't, Richard was in the hospital, Lois was…um, mostly dead, and Lex Luthor was still in his coma. Or maybe it was Maggie Sawyer. She knew all the best contractors for cleaning up messy suicides, long-dead semi-liquefied corpses, and post-murder debris. They charged a lot extra, she had confided in Perry once. But they were worth it.

A knock at the door startled Perry out of his reverie. It was probably the takeout delivery, he thought. Perry walked to the door, pulling out his wallet to tip the delivery boy. He opened the door to see….Clark, holding bags of food.

"I met the delivery guy in the driveway and paid him for the food," Clark said, with a smile.

"It was already paid for," Perry said automatically. Then his brain caught up with his mouth. "I didn't expect to see you," Perry said.

Clark smiled even more widely. "Then the delivery guy got a really good tip," Clark said. "And you really won't be expecting to see…" he came in. Lois walked in behind him.

"Lois!" Perry exclaimed. "Lois!" He reached out, embracing her in a tight hug. He let go and set her back from him. "Are you all right?"

Lois grinned at him and his heart leapt – the joyous grin was pure Lois.

"I'm fine, Chief," she said. "Good as new."

"You sure, honey?" Perry asked, the "honey" just slipping out.

"Perry," Lois said firmly, "I'm all right."

Perry gave a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that."

Clark cleared his throat and jiggled the food bags.

"Clark, why don't you take those into the kitchen?" Lois said, taking control. "Follow me." Clark and Perry followed her into the kitchen, and Clark set the food on the table. The contrast between their last meeting at this table and today could not have been greater. On the one hand, an awkward dinner marked by twilight gunshots and terror. Now, a sunny morning, three people in harmony with each other.

"How did you do it?" Perry asked Clark. No need to ask what "it" was.

"It wasn't just me," Clark admitted.

"What?"

"I kept on thinking about what you said," Clark said. "Sleeping Beauty?" He shot Lois a heated look and she smiled knowingly.

"I thought you said you were kissing her every day," Perry accused.

Lois looked surprised for a moment, then smiled that inner smile again.

"Yeah," Clark replied. "But I finally asked Jason too."

"Huh?"

"Well, he'd been curious about the locked room, especially after my mother started reading him fairy tales. And then Jason looked ahead in the fairy tale book and read "Bluebeard". Then he really got upset."

"Yeah, I can guess," Perry said, remembering the tale.

"So I figured I'd better show him what was going on – I explained things as best I could – told him it was Sleeping Beauty and not Bluebeard - "

"Let me tell it, Clark," Lois said. She turned to Perry. "It was like I was asleep, or something – "

Or something, thought Perry.

" – and then I could hear Clark and Jason calling me. And it was like one of those dreams where you have to force yourself to wake up – "

" – and Jason and I both kissed her at the same time, and called her name – " Clark interjected.

" – and I heard them, and woke up," Lois finished simply.

"Oh-kay," Perry said. "Hey, if it works in fairy tales, and in real life, I'm not going to say no." He laughed. "The good thing is, Lois, you're back."

"I'm back," she agreed, satisfaction in her tone.

"And I want you to get back on the beat right away. No, you've got to talk with Sawyer first," Perry said, thinking. "Find out what's going on inside the Metropolis Police Department. What's happening with the internal probe? Clark and I haven't heard much – you're the one with the real good contacts in the MPD."

"Clark's got contacts, too," Lois protested.

"Not like you," Clark said, grinning. It was strange, Perry thought, that Lois' sheer presence could cause them both to grin and laugh and feel like jumping for joy. But it did.

"Maggie Sawyer's going to want to ask you all about that evening," Perry said. "Did Clark give you the official story?"

"Yep," Lois said. "I've talked with him and I know just what to say." A cloud passed over her face. "Perry?"

"Yes?"

"I was just thinking. There's still kryptonite in the gun safe, isn't there? Did the police get into the safe?" Lois asked.

"Yes, and no," Perry replied. "The police didn't open the safe. I hoped they wouldn't – I'd hate to see Richard's grandfather's guns taken into "evidence" at the MPD. Those guns are very collectible – he'd never see them again." He and Clark shared a sardonic look. The amount of evidence "lost" from MPD custody was legendary. Among big cities, only Gotham was worse. Perry went on. "The kryptonite is still in there."

Lois said with determination, "No time like the present. Let's take care of it."

"What do you want to do?" Perry asked.

"Well, we need some lead for a radiation barrier…" Lois mused.

"Leave it to me." With a whoosh, Clark was gone; twenty seconds later, he returned, carrying several grayish bags. "My mom has a bunch of these at the farmhouse."

Perry reached for one of the bags – it was heavier than it looked. "Let me guess – lead bags for protecting film going through airport security?"

"Yes," Clark confirmed. "Of course, no one needs those now – everything's digital. Nobody uses film anymore." He smiled. "It's a good thing my mom stocked up. Pretty soon these will be off the market."

"OK." Perry and Lois took the bags – Perry figured they'd probably only need one, or at most, two, to fit in all the kryptonite that he'd removed from Lex Luthor that night – and headed to the den. Lois rummaged in her purse – still, incredibly, on the go-to shelf by the back door. She'd put it there two weeks earlier, before the ill-fated dinner. She pulled out a key ring, dug deeper into the purse, and pulled out a second key ring, with fewer keys on it.

"All set," she said.

Perry and Lois stood before the gun safe as Lois fumbled with her key ring. Clark had followed them into the den, but stood as far away as possible. Lois inserted the key into the safe lock and opened the door.

As Perry had said, the kryptonite had remained untouched. He noticed, however, that it had a very slight glow. Perry turned back to look at Clark and saw the taller man looking pale.

"Can you feel it from there?" Perry asked.

"A little bit," Clark admitted.

Perry said nothing, just turned back to the safe, and began shoveling the green crystals into the lead-lined bag that Lois held open. The surprising amount of kryptonite did fill one bag, enough so that they could barely close it. Perry checked the remainder – several small fragments, and one large almost-cylindrical crystal. He swept the fragments into the second bag, and reached for the larger crystal.

"Wait a minute, Perry," Lois said. She sealed the bag, and took the larger crystal from Perry's hand. "Is this…" her question trailed off. "Clark!"

Clark called cautiously, "What?"

"Clark, come here!" Lois called.

"Um…" Clark dithered.

"Oh, don't worry, we've got all the kryptonite behind lead," Lois said. "You don't feel it any longer, right?"

Clark advanced slowly, nervous at first, then gradually gaining confidence. "I'm all right," he said, almost disbelievingly. With greater speed, he met Perry and Lois at the safe. His eyes caught sight of the green crystal Lois held.

"That's…." he said, whispering.

"It's what I thought, right, Clark?" Lois asked.

Perry was confused. He thought the crystal was kryptonite. But it wasn't glowing in Clark's presence, it had a healthier look than the nauseating kryptonite green, and – most tellingly - Clark wasn't incapacitated.

"What's this all about?" Perry asked.

"It's the father crystal," Clark said in a hushed tone.

"What's the father crystal?" Perry asked, irritated.

Clark gave him a momentary exasperated look. Then Clark smoothed his face and began talking in a lecture-y tone.

"I told you that I had a Fortress of Solitude up in the Arctic, right, Perry?" he asked.

"You've mentioned it one or two times," Perry said.

"And I mentioned that it was grown via Kryptonian crystal technology, right?" Clark said, obviously going step by step.

"Right," Perry agreed.

"The Fortress was powered by various crystals, and the crystals also contained memories, archives….the library, in other words," Clark explained. "Lex Luthor stole all my removable crystals. That's how he was able to pull off his latest nefarious plan." Clark grimaced. "The last time I went to the Fortress, it was dark. Silent. Lex stole everything."

"Uh-huh," Perry said. Inwardly he sympathized with Clark's obvious pain and regret.

"Lieutenant Sawyer said that they'd captured Lex's accomplice, Kitty Kowalski," Clark went on patiently. "And Sawyer said that Kitty said that she had stolen the crystals from Lex and dumped them onto the kryptonite continent."

"The continent that you lifted into space!" Perry said brightly. Then the implications hit him. "Darn. The crystals aren't destroyed, but you can't get them back, can you?"

"Well, it'd be rather difficult," Clark said with a twisted smile. "But, with this father crystal - " he gestured with the green crystal in his hand, and his smile turned real, " – I can re-grow all the lost crystals and restore the Fortress." His grin was blinding now. "It's like the master backup."

"That's good, right?" Perry asked rhetorically.

"Good? It's great!" Lois answered for Clark, her tone showing that she realized Perry was teasing them. "You can't know what it means to Clark, having the records from Krypton, the galaxy-wide information – "

"Just funnin' you two," Perry said. "I'm glad for you, Clark. One thing?"

"Yes?" Clark said, turning to Perry.

"A little better security next time?" Perry asked.

Clark chuckled. "Yes. When I repair the Fortress, Luthor – or anyone else – isn't getting in without my say-so."

Lois said brightly, "So, Fortress restored, I'm restored, Clark's restored – "

"You're restored?" Perry asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm all better," Lois said. "No more injuries." She looked at Perry solemnly. "And I remember everything."

Perry inhaled sharply. Clark beamed. Perry had never seen him so happy. "Everything?" Perry asked.

"Everything," Lois replied. "I remember back to our high school days, when I met Clark. I remember all the weird things that happened around him. I remember learning about him, you know, and then working with him. I remember us planning Superman, and working out all the details. Everything."

"That's great!" Perry said, and spontaneously swung Lois into another hug.

"Perry, I can restore you, too," Lois said with unwonted seriousness.

Perry gave her a questioning look.

"I really didn't know how much I'd lost until I healed, and it was all back again," Lois explained. "I'm guessing you're the same."

"Clark's been talking with me…" Perry said, trailing off at Clark's abashed look.

"Sorry again," Clark said.

"Perry, let me heal you," Lois said quietly. "You'll get everything back."

Perry considered it. On the one hand – the promised return of his memories, although Perry thought that he had most of the lost ones back anyway. On the other hand, the sheer weirdness of Lois's healing was, well, downright unearthly. On the other hand, it was Lois. And they'd been through so much together – he could trust her. And it was important to Lois, Perry thought, that at least one person knew of her metahuman status and didn't flinch away. Clark didn't count – he wasn't human himself. The final straw that tipped the balance was the way he'd felt after Lois had healed him the first time. God help him, he wanted to feel that way again.

"OK," Perry found himself saying.

"Sit right here," Lois said, bustling him to a comfortable couch. She stood behind him and placed her hands on Perry's temples. "Just stay still."

Perry felt the smoothness of her palms, heard her breathing quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the beginnings of the glow he'd seen before. The warmth cascaded over him, and suddenly he was back in the dark room with all the marbles.

He looked at the tables covered with marbles in their intricate, vastly detailed patterns. At his side, a vast presence – so much more friendly, more benign than the Kryptonian AI who had taken his memory – tchk'd in dismay over the numerous marbles still scattered against the walls of the room, the intricate designs of memory plundered, ravaged, incomplete.

Perry sighed – he could see, now, how much of his memory had been suppressed. Some of the patterns had obviously been damaged, but were partially repaired. Perry picked up one of the marbles in a partly damaged pattern….

….and he saw Clark, once again, holding an unconscious Lois in his arms and vanishing from the newsroom, something that no human could do.

Perry picked up another marble…..and he was back in a collapsing building, but now he saw the walls falling on Clark, and Clark standing up, pushing away the building debris as if it were paper.

The presence in Perry's mind….gathered itself….and suddenly a deep golden light filled the room. Perry's mind whirled. His recollections, the complex patterns, and the isolated-censored memories at the edges of the dark room, began to whirl. Like a hurricane, the marbles spun, the light somehow whipping all of Perry's memories into a cyclonic tumble. Perry staggered.

And, then, the hurricane stopped. All the patterns lay on their tables once again, all the designs completed, no marbles out of their place, all restored to rightness. The vast presence with Perry laughed, and Perry laughed too, in sheer joy at the sense of rightness, the sensation of order, of everything being where it should be, mind restored to fullness.

The presence slipped away slowly. Before it left, Perry took one last look at the no-longer-dark room of his memory, seeing the intricate chains one last time, marveling at the complexity. And then Perry followed the presence out, away, back to the world.

Perry opened his eyes, not surprised to find tears. Lois' hands still rested on his head, and she slowly pulled them away. Perry saw a golden glow at her hands, quietly fading away.

"I didn't know what I'd lost, till now," Perry whispered. "It's back."

"The same thing happened to me," Lois replied, just as quietly. Their eyes met, and they relived the feeling of restoration, of healing. "It's all right now."

"Very interesting," came a cutting voice from the doorway. Richard stood there at the threshold, casually dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, his hair damp and slicked back. "Why didn't you tell me before?" His eyes stabbed Lois.