This is another brilliant part, Caroline.
The heart and center of this part, and what I take to be the turning point of the entire fic, is Clark-as-Superman saving the little baby boy in the trash can. I was momentarily sorry that it was important to Clark that the baby he saved was a boy, because I am convinced that the vast majority of fetuses aborted and infants abandoned globally are girls, not boys. Oh, but... yes, I can see why the little baby that Clark saved from the trashcan had to be a boy:
He lifted it out carefully, and for a dizzying moment, he felt transported back in time; spots seemed to dance before his eyes, and he saw not his hands but his mother's hands, lifting another baby and clasping him to her heart.
Yes indeed. As he lifts the baby out of the trash can, he is reminded of his mother lifting
himself out of his spaceship. He can see himself in this infant. Like himself, this little baby can be regarded as an abandoned orphan, forever cut off from his blood ties and his blood relatives. (And because the baby represents himself, it has to be a boy.)
The baby was wrapped in a back issue of the Daily Planet, and....
He caught sight of his own byline as he peeled the newspaper away, the name "Clark Kent' jumping out at him amid the jumble of words on the page.
This little baby is, literally, "clothed in Clark Kent". He has, very nearly, "Clark Kent" stamped on his skin. It was the baby's mother who wrapped her baby in the newspaper and "stamped him" as Clark Kent. But then she dumped him in a trash can.
What is the significance of the fact that this little boy was found in a trash can?
His mother's hands had lifted him from a spaceship, and together, she and his father had crafted a man named Clark Kent... and Superman.
Yes. Martha and Jonathan had raised
their foundling son to be Clark Kent
and Superman. But Clark had been about to throw the Superman aspect of himself away - he had been about to dump Superman in a trash can, as it were.
This other little foundling's mother had "clothed her son in Clark Kent" and thrown him away. Clark retrieved the baby and wrapped him in Superman's cape. He saved the baby's life, the baby that already "was" "Clark Kent", and now he bestowed the aspect of Superman on the little boy. And in the process, he saved the part of himself that he had been about to throw away - he saved Superman.
But wait a minute. Was that all he saved? Was it all about saving Superman? What about Clark Kent? Would Clark Kent have been all right if he had ripped away the part of himself that was Superman?
Caroline, you made Constance Hunter explain it to Clark in the previous part. CLark/Superman is not two people. He is
one man. Trying to amputate an unwanted aspect of himself is not going to turn him into a hale and happy Clark Kent. It's going to turn him into a mental cripple - no, worse: it's going to turn him into a piece of discarded garbage, all of him, because Clark Kent can't be separated from Superman.
Clark was about to dump himself in the garbage can. He had been about to dump everything that his parents had so lovingly nurtured and helped to blossom. But when he retrieved the little baby boy who was "clothed in Clark Kent", and when he "wrapped the baby in Superman" and saved his life, then he saved his own life, too. He saved Superman.
And Clark Kent. And now that he understands that, he can finally be truthful with Lois. And he can be himself to her. And he can be truly faithful to her. I loved your observation that when Superman had discussed his problems with Constance Hunter, but had refused to talk about them with Lois, then he had in a way been unfaithful to her. Because he had had no faith in her. Now, at last, he is going to put
her wishes and needs before his own fears of rejection. Now, at last, he is ready to love Lois as an honest man.
This is a brilliant chapter, Caroline.
Ann
A couple of weeks though? *sniff*
He couldn't go on with his (Clark's) life while so many people need Superman. And if he were to help as Clark, soon the truth would be exposed and Lois wouldn't forgive him for lying to her. I'm looking forward for the next part! 
.
. Thanks for your comments!