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Six Months Later

"Heck of a bachelor party, Clark," Perry said semi-accusingly.

Clark raised his eyebrows. "What? You mean sitting with me, alone, on my balcony, the night before my wedding? Drinking ginger ale?" He gestured rhetorically. "What could be finer?"

Perry couldn't help laughing. "Just funnin' you." He took a deep sip of his ginger ale and leaned back, admiring the Metropolis skyline. Oh sure, from Clark's apartment, you couldn't see much of the skyline, but a few skyscrapers did poke over the unadorned expanse of warehouse brick wall that faced Clark's balcony. "I'm glad you suggested this. We had the rehearsal dinner, your Mom and Ben Hubbard get to go to bed early – "

"Preferably in separate rooms," Clark muttered. Perry chuckled. Love was in the air and Clark was having a minor conniption about the thought of his mother actually dating.

" – you get a good night's sleep before the big day – "

"Ha!" Clark said gloomily. "Like I'm going to be able to sleep."

"- and neither of us can go out drinking anyway, so why not hang out here?" Perry took another swig. "Besides, I can testify from personal experience, it's not all that much fun to walk down the aisle when you're all hung over."

Clark shrugged. "Not an option."

"And lucky for you." Perry changed the subject. "Um, not that I'm wondering or anything, but weren't more people invited?"

Clark looked abashed. "Well, Richard….I really didn't invite him. To the bachelor party, I mean. He did get an invitation to the wedding."

"Which he told me that he wouldn't be attending."

Clark stared off into the distance. "I understand that. I couldn't have gone to Lois' wedding to someone else, either." There was a moment of awkward silence until Clark leapt to fill it. "Jason – well, you know, he needs to go to bed early. I did ask Jimmy, but he said that he wanted to go over the photography arrangements one last time to make sure they were all set."

"I hope so," Perry growled.

"Perry, did you put the fear of God into him?" Clark asked, amused.

"No, I just told him that if there was any problem with the photos or video that he'd never work in this town again."

Clark choked on his ginger ale.

Perry hastened to defend himself. "I don't think he took me all that seriously."

"Not too sure about that, are you?" Clark teased.

"It's Lois. I think he takes her threats a lot more seriously than mine," Perry confessed.

"Yeah. I do too." Clark smiled. "Then, if I could have invited the rest of the newsroom guys, but then I couldn't have invited you. Bad for discipline and all that, you know." He looked straight in Perry's eyes. "I wanted to be with you more."

Perry leaned back, touched. Time to change the subject. "Interesting how the newsroom guys – and the gals too – all are so friendly with you now, Clark."

"I think being with Lois has allowed me to come out of my shell." Clark's eyes softened. "So to speak."

"They're just impressed that she hasn't disemboweled you yet," Perry said, "impressed that you've tamed Mad Dog Lane."

Clark laughed softly. "I could never tame her. I would never tame her. She is who she is."

"Yep," Perry agreed, smiling to himself. The two men sat in companionable silence for a minute, enjoying the spring air.

"You and Lois going to have more kids?" Perry blurted out. He'd been wondering.

Clark didn't take offense at the intrusive question. They were back in one of their AA talks, where anything went. "I wish we could," he said sadly.

Perry raised an eyebrow. "I thought that there were other hybrids," he ventured. "Lois told me about that Kryptonian living here that had a son – Dax-Ur? And what about the Kawatche skinwalkers?"

It was Clark's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Wow, you've done your homework," he said.

"Well, you know, sit down with me and a cup of coffee, and I'll listen to what you say. Your mom's a good conversationalist."

"I'll vouch for that." Clark stared off into space. "Actually, Perry, Kryptonians and humans aren't genetically compatible, at least not without some serious tinkering. Dax-Ur – well, he was a Kryptonian expatriate who had worked on the Brain Interactive Construct – so he had access to very sophisticated technology. I think when he fled Krypton to come to Earth, he brought a whole bag of tricks. It must have included the genetic modification technology."

"What about his son?" Perry asked. "The son would be half-Kryptonian." Like yours, he didn't need to add.

"I keep an eye on Jackson," Clark said. "He never knows – never knew what he could do." A grim expression crossed his face. "His father put blue kryptonite on him. He's been wearing a blue kryptonite pendant all his life."

"Blue?" Perry asked curiously. He'd seen the green, known of the red, but hadn't heard of the blue.

"Strips the powers without the pain of the green," Clark explained shortly. "I don't know what long-term exposure will do. Would Jackson have any powers if he took off the pendant? I'm sure he wouldn't know how to use them or how to control them."

"Oh," Perry said, musing. He leaned back in his chair.

"And the Kawatche – well, when Kryptonians were visiting, back in the day, Krypton was at the height of its, well, power and glory," Clark said, again getting that inward look. "From what the AI has said, the use of….I guess the closest term would be nanotechnology….for genetic compatibility was routine then."

"But not now," Perry said, guessing.

"No," Clark said quietly. "Just one of the many things lost when Krypton exploded." Bitterly, he said, "I may have what Jor-El said was 'the accumulated knowledge of the twenty-eight known galaxies' in the crystals in my Fortress – but I'm coming to realize how much was actually left out."

"But you do have Jason."

"Yes, Perry, but that was such a fluke. I had undergone a once-in-a-lifetime, um, procedure to depower me, and Lois had her meteor ability…The first part of that….well, it can't be done again."

Perry nodded.

"On the other hand," Clark said, looking marginally more cheerful, "is that I've put the AI to work in trying to rediscover the nanotechnology. Who knows? Maybe that information is in the crystals and I just have to find it."

"Uh-huh."

Clark continued, semi-desperately. "Actually, Lois has a theory…."

Perry leaned forward, the legs of his chair meeting the balcony floor with a thump. "A theory?"

"You sure got interested in a hurry there."

"Well, tales of Krypton in a galaxy far far away are certainly interesting, but remote. You know, far far away. Lois's theories are right here, right now, and they usually pan out," Perry said. "I wonder if I could put her intuition to work on lottery numbers."

"Well, Lois's theory," Clark said, in a pretended huff, "has everything to do with Krypton in a galaxy far far away. And if you don't apologize I won't tell you." His broad smile belied his words.

"OK," Perry said semi-mockingly. "I'm sorry I implied your home planet was irrelevant."

"And well you should be, Mr. Big-Time Editor," Clark teased. "It is so relevant."

"Just get to the theory."

"All right." Clark took a final swig of ginger ale, just to heighten the moment. "Lois's theory…."

"Yes?"

"Oh, all right. Lois' theory is that Kryptonians came here in the past, interbred with the Earth folk – for example, the Kawatche skinwalker legends. And that Kryptonian genes might actually convey a heightened survival advantage."

"Seems reasonable," Perry said, considering. "The speed and strength….I'll go with it."

"And that many people – Earth people – now might have a sprinkling of Kryptonian genes."

"OK."

"And – the big payoff – Lois thinks that exposure to meteor rock might activate these genes, or have them express inappropriately, thereby giving so-called meteor freaks their freakish powers."

Perry set down his ginger ale, thought about it for a bit. "I like it," he said musingly. "It explains why non-Smallvillians can have meteor powers, and why there's such a high concentration of meteor freaks in Smallville."

"Because that's where the meteor rocks are."

"So you get people with latent Kryptonian genetic material. They move to Smallville, or wear meteor rock jewelry – "

Clark shuddered.

"And bingo! Genes turn on, instant meteor freak? That's the theory?"

"It makes for good conversation. And do you have a better theory?"

"It doesn't explain why eighty percent of meteor freaks go insane, though," Perry said, dodging the challenge.

Clark shrugged. "If you had a TV, and you made one or two changes to the wiring, what're the chances that the changes you made will actually improve the picture or the sound? The brain is awesomely complex. What are the chances that some biochemical anomaly will change things for the better? It's probably something like that."

"Possible," Perry allowed, being just in that mellow state where much seemed possible, if not probable. "But it doesn't explain why meteor freaks have powers which native Kryptonians – you – don't."

"The human mix? Dilution of the trait? Heterozygosity with an incongruent allele? What the people really wanted, down deep in their subconscious – you know, the power of mind over matter? I didn't say the theory explained everything."

"If you're really serious about the scientific method, you'll find a way to test it," Perry offered.

"Not so much," Clark said wryly. "I think I'll just let things continue to astound and amaze me every day."

The two men shared gazes, laughed, and took a companionable drink together.

"How's Richard, by the way?" asked Perry.

"Fine," Clark replied. "It's funny. I actually get along a lot better with him now than Lois does."

Perry thought about the years his nephew and Lois had spent together, a marriage in all but name. "I'll think I'll just leave that one right where it's at."

Clark chuckled. "Richard is a good guy, Perry. Lois wouldn't have been with him so long if he weren't." Clark took another sip of his drink, then stared at his glass with disfavor.

"What?"

"Drink's warm," Clark said, and pursed his lips and blew. The glass immediately frosted over.

"Damn," Perry said. "And to think I was just going to get up and get you some more ice." He extended his own glass. "Chill mine?"

"Sure."

Another lean-back on the comfortable balcony furniture. Clark had really established a homey feeling to his new dwelling. The two men sipped their drinks in companionable silence.

"Good of you to get the Smallville contingent out here," Perry offered. "Ben Hubbard said that you paid for everyone's airfare and hotel." He was curious, but didn't want to ask Clark directly. He knew what Clark was paid, after all. And, given Metropolis prices, this had to be putting a serious dent in Clark's wallet. Martha Kent, Ben Hubbard, Ben's three children, their spouses and their children (Perry thought they'd been invited just to give Jason someone to play and stay with), and several other Smallville-area friends and neighbors – all were attending the wedding, and staying for a week afterward, courtesy of Clark (mostly) and Lois.

"You're wondering how I can afford it," Clark said outright.

Perry didn't bother lying. "Yep."

"Back before I left for Krypton, I made a bunch of diamonds for my mother," Clark began.

"Made some diamonds?"

Amused, Clark said, "They're only crystallized carbon. Get a piece of coal, subject it to heat and pressure….you get the picture." He mimicked making a fist and squeezing.

All Perry could do was sit back and take another sip of soda. He thought he'd heard everything, but apparently not.

"I wanted to make sure my mom would be OK financially when I left," Clark said. "She and my dad had such a hard time on the farm when I was a kid….I didn't want her to have to go through that again."

"So how'd your mother explain a bunch of diamonds?" Perry said. "Senators – even ex-Senators – usually have the media keeping a gimlet eye on their finances."

"She told me that she said that she'd gotten a delayed inheritance from her father's family. You know, the Clarks of Metropolis? The well-known law firm Clarks? Apparently my grandfather's mother had quite a few pieces of diamond jewelry. That's her story and she's sticking to it. She's the only one left now, so there's no one to contradict her."

"And?"

"My mother sold the diamonds. She kept half, and put half in an account for me. She made the investments and paid all the taxes. When I came back from Krypton, she had made a little nest egg for me. Not really what I intended, but she wouldn't take it back." Clark shrugged. "I don't really need a lot of money, so why not give everyone a Metropolis vacation? And it's not charity, which Ben and everyone wouldn't accept. It's just so they can be at my wedding."

Perry nodded.

"Plus, my mom, Ben, and his family will be keeping Jason for two weeks while Lois and I are away."

"Aha, the ulterior motive!"

"You got me there, Perry." Clark smiled.

"Well, if you're going around passing out diamonds, be sure to make me a sackful." Curiosity overtook Perry and he couldn't help asking, "Are they the raw stones, or do you cut them?"

"Oh, cut, of course," Clark said. "The laser vision – a handy item. And it increases the value of the stones."

"That does it," Perry said, laughing. "I'm putting my order in right now. I want a necklace for Alice. Each stone had better be at least a quarter-carat. Plus a bracelet. No, bracelets."

"Why not just order the whole parure?" Clark said wryly, getting into the spirit. "Alice deserves it all. Let's see," he said, making tally marks in the air with his finger as he enumerated. "A comb, a tiara, a diadem, a bandeau, a pair of bracelets, pins, rings, earrings – both the drop earrings and the cluster stud earrings. And a brooch. And don't forget the belt clasp that might be worn over a fine dress." He shot Perry a teasing glance. "I'll let you provide the fine dress."

"Already taken care of. She's got loads of fine dresses."

The two men burst out laughing. After a minute, Clark said shyly, "You know, Perry, if you or Alice really ever did need money…."

"I know. Thanks," Perry said softly. Embarrassed, he got up and stretched. "Excuse me a minute here." He padded down to Clark's washroom and used the facilities. He came back to find that Clark had gotten them each a new bottle.

"So, are you all rehearsal-ed out?" Clark asked.

"I'm fine."

"Sure you don't want to be the minister?" Clark asked teasingly.

"I never should have told you about that trip to Graceland and my ordination in the Church of the Blue Suede Deliverance," Perry grumbled.

"You have to admit that it has a certain cachet."

"I think that walking Lois down the aisle and being your best man is more than enough for one person at a wedding ceremony." A thought struck Perry. "Hey, I should be asking you. What if Superman is needed?"

Clark said firmly, "Superman is taking the next two weeks off."

"Can he do that?"

"Yes." Clark sipped his drink. His voice and expression turned serious. "Lois really did have it right, you know, when she wrote that article. The world doesn't really need Superman. Sure, he's nice to have, and all that, but he was away for five years, and the world got along OK."

"I don't know if I would say that," Perry said quietly, thinking of recent world events.

"It proved that the world can do without Superman if it has to."

"I don't know, Clark," Perry argued. "The world was a lot darker place while you were gone. It's like….well, there was no one to look up to. No higher ideals."

"I think you're making too much of me, Perry," Clark said.

"We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one."

Clark inhaled. "Lois is the most important thing in the world to me. She's my priority." He looked across at Perry. "When she was lost to me….I felt like I was behind a window. I could see through it, but I couldn't feel."

"I know," Perry said. "When I was drinking….it was like that. It was like everything was behind dirty glass. I didn't have to feel anything, I just had another drink. And everything was fuzzy. I didn't have to look at anything too closely." He shared Clark's gaze. "I just fell into living that way, and I didn't know how to get out of it. Then you came."

"Like me. When I really started getting my powers," Clark said softly, "I was like that too. Behind a window. Not connecting with the world." He looked at Perry. "That's why I liked the red kryptonite. It made me feel alive. I wasn't the guy in the plastic bubble. I was actually part of the world." He cast his eyes downward. "But you know, the red K was bad for me, and I found out if I worked at it, I could get the same feeling by helping other people."

Perry nodded.

"And then I lost Lois – she didn't remember. And I went right back behind the window – I could see through it, I just couldn't feel. Superman at the end there, he wasn't part of the world. He just floated above. Nothing affected him. So he went to Krypton," Clark said. "And when I came back, and Lois knew….it was like the window broke, and I was there in the middle of everything, and it hurt at first. But now I'm actually living. Not just existing."

"Me too," Perry said. "You and the Twelve Steps pulled me out of the drinking. Actually living is harder than just existing. But you have a lot more fun."

"Every day, I wake up, and I wonder how Lois will surprise me today."

"Me too. Well, not Lois, but Alice, and the Planet, and you. Plus," Perry said, "you have love. The only thing that makes life worth living."

Clark nodded his head solemnly. "Yes."

"Not to say that you won't have your arguments," Perry said briskly. "There'll be some days where you'll love her, but you won't like her all that much. And she'll feel the same. Take it from an old married man. But the Twelve Steps will get you through that, too. Tell her the truth. And – you know this one, Clark – "

The other man joined Perry. "Take it one day at a time."

THE END

Author's note: The reference to Perry being the minister, and being ordained by the Church of Blue Suede Deliverance is taken from the "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" TV show. In that show, Perry was quite an Elvis fan, and got his ordination when he visited Graceland (Elvis' home.) Also, in "L&C", Perry did indeed officiate at the Lane-Kent wedding, stepping in to save the day when the originally scheduled clergyman didn't show up. In my fic, Perry thinks about presiding, but I gave him some other tasks to do - walking Lois up the aisle, and being Clark's best man.

Thanks to all those who read and especially those who gave feedback. You gave me a boost, something to look forward to, and new ideas of looking at the material. It started to be only a small story about Twelve Steps, but it grew and grew. Thanks to all of you who demanded more.