Oops! I know I said there would be 8 parts, but this one just kept getting longer and longer, so I broke it up. The next one is almost finished, though, and just needs Sara to take her red pen to it, so it should be up soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this next-to-the last part 
.From Part 7:After that, he – Clark – would take Lois somewhere private and tell her everything. He refused to allow himself to hope that conversation would end well, but at least it would be the truth. Truth and justice, Constance had said. That was what he owed Lois. But ever since she’d thrown herself into his arms two days before, he’d been neither honest nor fair. He’d spent every minute building castles in the air, pretending he could arrange the world as he thought it should be, and he’d been too afraid to ask her if the life he was imagining for them was even the life she wanted.
He was still afraid. Terrified, in fact, of what her response would be. But in a day that had been filled with confusion, two things finally stood before him in sharp relief: He had to be Superman, and he had to tell Lois the truth.
Finally, all that would be between them would be the truth.
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Part 8:Clark did not close his eyes that night, and when the sun finally rose above Metropolis, he was sitting in the window seat of his apartment, still holding his torn and filthy cape. It was a gray and dismal dawn; banks of heavy clouds had rolled in from the bay overnight and now hung ominously over the city.
“Gimme a break,” he told the sky. He hoped the rain would hold off long enough for him to get through the press conference; being soaked would do nothing for Lois’s temper.
The city stirred to life around him, but still he sat, forgoing his usual morning Superman duties in favor of the peace and quiet of his apartment. When the sun went down that night, it would all be different, and he was terrified. He had never thought of himself as a pessimist, but in this, he couldn’t seem to allow himself to hope. That single moment when he’d held Lois in his arms and recklessly decided to jettison Superman from his life seemed to taunt him with its remembered perfection. It had all been a fantasy, he knew, a Xanadu, but knowing it was impossible didn’t keep it from being painfully seductive. She deserved that life, and he couldn’t offer it to her. In a few hours, she would know it. All his lies - his years of deception - would be laid bare before her, and what sort of future could be built on such a weak and rotten foundation?
When he couldn’t put it off any longer, he rose from the window seat, stiff from sitting there so long, showered quickly and put on a clean Superman suit.
It was time. The press would be waiting for him.
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But they weren’t.
It was exactly 9 a.m. when he landed by the fountain in Centennial Park. He had expected to see the press assembled there, expected news vans and cameras and shouted questions upon his arrival. Instead, there was just the quiet bubbling of the fountain and the occasional bird call, with the hum of the city in the background.
His brain seemed to stumble. She’d said 9 o’clock, hadn’t she? At the fountain? His heart thundered in his chest as it dawned on him that something was very wrong.
“You didn’t think I was actually going to let you do it, did you?” Lois’s voice came from behind him, low and controlled.
He turned slowly to face her, his cape billowing behind him, caught by the blustery wind. Her eyes were icy as they met his and dared him to look away.
“You didn’t think you were actually going to get away with this?” She held out a creased sheet of paper – his press release – and he could see that her hand was trembling, just as his had been when he’d handed it to her.
There was a low rushing sound in his ears, and he felt himself sway a little, as if the world were tilting beneath his feet. “I… don’t understand.”
“I think you do.”
She took a step closer to him, and he closed his eyes, wishing the earth would open up at his feet and swallow him – anything to keep him from having to face her like this. He had a hundred questions, but he was afraid to ask them. Afraid of what the answers were going to be. Afraid of Lois and the fury that seemed to be radiating off of her in waves. He was the strongest man in the world, and he was terrified of this small woman who had a death grip on his heart.
“I didn’t call them.” Another step closer. “I didn’t send the fax.”
He could hear the tremor running through her voice, like the distant rumble of thunder before a storm.
He thought back to the previous day, to the moment he’d heard that fax go through, to the mixture of panic and exhilaration he’d felt. It had been for nothing, that feeling, and so many of the ones after that. Outrageous as it was, he felt a little cheated.
“You said you would,” he said stupidly.
“I lied. You know all about lying, don’t you? For instance, you told me you hadn’t discussed this with Clark. That was a lie, wasn’t it, Superman?”
“No.” He closed his eyes again. Because it was happening. The moment he’d been dreading for two years was happening, and there was nothing he could do to stop it, nothing he could do to change it. Somehow it had all gone out of his control. “It wasn’t.”
“You told me you wrote this press release. Was that the lie?”
He forced himself to look at her. “No. That wasn’t a lie either.”
“That’s interesting,” she said. “Because here’s the thing: I might be stupid enough to be fooled by a pair of glasses for two years, but I’m not so stupid I don’t recognize my own partner’s writing when I see it. You didn’t discuss this with Clark, and yet I would stake my career on the fact that Clark Kent wrote this press release. What should I make of that, Superman? What exactly does that mean?”
“You know what it means,” he said quietly. He felt like ice was filling his veins, freezing his heart. He was standing in the middle of Metropolis having this unthinkable conversation, and he couldn’t even find it in him to care. There was going to be nothing left after this anyway.
“The other night, you knew about the fire, didn’t you? You knew about the fire, and instead of going to help, you were making out with me on the couch.”
“I’d promised you I wouldn’t run away again. I’d promised you…”
“Don’t you dare blame this on me!” she cried, her composure suddenly shattering. “Don’t you dare tell me this is my fault! If you’d ever once been honest with me… if you’d ever once in two years told me the truth…”
“When was I supposed to do that, Lois?” Suddenly, out of nowhere, the anger rose up in him and poured out in a white-hot torrent. “In the early days when you’d have splashed it all over the front page of the paper? Or maybe when you were getting ready to marry the most dangerous criminal this city has ever known? Would that have been a good time? What about the day you handed me back my heart and then threw yourself at Superman? Should I have told you then?”
“Yes!” she hissed. “Any of those. All of them. Anything would be better than this.”
“’Even if you were an ordinary man leading an ordinary life.’ That’s what you said to me that night, Lois. That even if I had no powers at all, you would love me. Do you have any idea what those words did to me?”
“Do you have any idea what it did to me when you let me think you were
dead?” she spat back at him. “I was imagining my best friend’s body full of bullet holes, tossed in a ditch somewhere, and all the while you were flying around playing hero. Did it ever once occur to you then to tell me the truth?”
“You have no idea what I went through then,” Clark whispered. The memory of that time seemed to claw at his insides, somehow tied up with those boxes in his apartment. Either way, Cark Kent dead and gone, and nothing left but Superman.
“No,” she said, and all of a sudden the anger seemed to drain out of her, only to be replaced by something much worse – much more painful. “No, I
don’t have any idea what you went through because you never trusted me enough to tell me. You never once let me see you. You just lied and lied and lied some more. And now this.” She indicated the press release. “You’re not doing this. Not for me.”
“No,” he agreed hollowly. “I’m not.” He handed her his own version of the press release and waited as she unfolded it and read the short statement.
“This is what you were going to say?”
He nodded. “Last night… there was a baby…you probably saw it on the news, I don’t know. But he was wrapped in a newspaper. Wrapped in
our newspaper. I found him, and I realized I couldn’t… that Superman had to… stay.” He paused, realizing that he wasn’t making any sense, but he couldn’t explain it any better than that. “I can’t keep the promises I made to you, Lois. I can’t offer you a normal life. I thought I could do this… that I could be free. But I can’t. I love you… but I just…”
“Superman.” Constance Hunter’s voice broke into his jumbled thoughts. He’d forgotten she was coming – hadn’t even noticed when she’d arrived. But she was standing just a few feet away, clutching her briefcase and giving him a look that was both embarrassed and sympathetic. “I think you and Ms. Lane should continue this conversation in private.”
“No.” Lois shook her head and backed away from him. “I don’t have anything else to say to you right now.”
The heavy clouds that had been hovering over Metropolis all night long began to spit out rain that left spots like teardrops on the beige jacket Lois was wearing. The wind picked up, disarranging her sleek hair and stirring the trees around them. It was a restless sound, those quivering leaves and branches, and Clark wanted to gather Lois close and take her somewhere warm and dry.
“Lois,” he pleaded, hardly knowing what he was asking for – just knowing that he needed her not to leave things like this. But she shook her head.
“I can’t do this now. I can’t talk to you... like that.” She gestured at his suit. “I don’t even
know you like that.”
“I’ll change,” he said, hearing the desperation in his own voice. “It’s just a costume, Lois. It’s always been just a costume.”
“But who
are you, under that costume? That’s what I spent all day yesterday trying to figure out. And I never could.”
“You know who I am. You
know me.”
She shook her head. “The man I thought I knew....” Her lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears. “The man I thought I knew wouldn’t have done this to me. Not Clark. Not my best friend. He would never have lied to me about something so important. He wouldn’t have made a decision like this without telling me.” Her voice tore on a sob, and he was sure the sound of it was more painful to him than Kryptonite.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“I have to go.” She turned and nearly ran from him, and he stood stock still in the rain and watched her go.
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He didn’t know how many minutes passed before Constance approached him and touched his arm gently, but by then the rain was coming down hard and his suit was soaked through.
“You should go after her.”
“No,” he said dully. “You heard her. She’ll never forgive me for this.”
“I didn’t hear her say anything like that.”
He looked down at his attorney – his friend – who was standing in a steady rain and trying to comfort him.
“Thank you,” he said, forcing out the words he knew he should say. “But I think I’d better wait. And you should go. It’s raining.” He laughed bitterly. “I think I owe you another bagel after this.”
“I didn’t mean to intrude. When I realized what was happening, I was going to go away, but then I was afraid someone else might come along and overhear.”
“It doesn’t matter.” And it really didn’t. For the first time in his life, he didn’t care in the slightest that someone had probably just learned his secret. He turned to her and held out his hand. “In fact, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Clark Kent, and I’m Superman.”
It sounded ludicrous, as if he were beginning a twelve-step program for recovering superheroes, but as he said the words, he felt as if a giant weight was lifted from his soul.
My name is Clark Kent, and I’m Superman. He should have said those words to Lois long since, but he wasn’t sure he’d completely believed them himself until the night before in the alley, when he’d held that small, discarded life in his hands. In that one quiet moment, something had been reconciled. Something had been accepted. And now he could say the words and mean them.
Constance shook his hand and smiled, and he had a feeling she understood. But all she said was, “It’s nice to meet you, Clark. But if you don’t mind, I’m going to get out of this rain. You should do the same.”
He nodded. “I think I’m going to go to the hospital...check on the baby I found last night. Can I give you a ride somewhere first?”
“No, thanks.” She slicked her wet hair back away from her face and reached for her nearby briefcase before gesturing in the direction of a nearby street. “I’m parked just over there.”
They said their goodbyes and he watched her safely to her car, and then he shot into the sky, above the clouds, to a place where it was warm and dry... a place where he could see the sun.
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He went to the hospital because he had to go somewhere, and he was afraid of being alone with his thoughts. He went because he couldn't face Lois yet, and it was one place he was sure Lois wasn't going to be. He wasn’t sure what he expected – some difficulty, he guessed, given the way his day seemed to be going – but he was greeted warmly there, and the staff in the nursery didn’t question his desire to visit the baby he’d found. He was given over to a nurse who introduced herself as Katie. She seemed to be just a few years younger than his mother and had something of the same comfortable way about her. Clark liked her immediately.
“Do you want to hold him?” Katie asked, after he’d been briefed on the baby’s condition.
“I can do that?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said cheerfully. “We’ve all been holding him all morning. I’ll need you to wash up, though, and to wear this over your... uniform? Is that what you call it?” She reached into a drawer and pulled out some disposable scrubs.
“Thanks,” Clark said.
She showed him to a room where he could change and wash his hands, and when he was finished, she led him to the newborn nursery, where the newest residents of Metropolis lay squirming and squalling in their tiny rolling cribs. Somehow, his heart lightened a little at the sight; he could not forget his troubles with Lois for an instant, but it was impossible to feel completely hopeless in the presence of so much new life.
“Which one is Jonathan?” Clark asked.
“None of them,” she answered. “We had to separate him because he was born outside the hospital. He’s fine,” she said hastily, seeing his look of concern. “It’s standard procedure. Look, he’s just through here.”
A few more doorways, and they were in a quiet room where one baby was sleeping. He was tightly swaddled in a flannel blanket with turquoise stripes, and he had a tiny blue cap on his head. Clark approached the bassinette and looked at the child in wonder; such an amazing transformation in a few short hours! He was pink and healthy and sleeping soundly, innocent of the fact that his arrival to the world had been in any way unusual.
Katie scooped him up and placed him in Clark’s arms, and he turned slightly away from her when he felt tears prick his eyes. How embarrassing, for Superman to be getting choked up over a baby. He stared at an empty Isolette in the corner until he felt himself regain control, and then he walked slowly to a nearby rocking chair and lowered himself into it.
“He’s beautiful,” Clark said huskily, looking down at Jonathan. The baby’s lips were pursed and making small sucking motions in his sleep. “Perfect.”
“Yes, he is,” she said, smiling at him. “Listen, I need to get back to work, but you’re welcome to enjoy him as long as you’d like. If you wait another 45 minutes, you can feed him.”
“I’d like that.” He stroked Jonathan’s soft cheek, and the baby stretched a little and turned his head in response, his eyelids fluttering. Clark drew his hand away, not wanting to disturb him. Katie left them alone then, and he sighed deeply and settled the baby more comfortably as he rocked them slowly back and forth. Maybe it was the tight swaddling, but Jonathan felt more substantial to him now, his weight and warmth in Clark’s arms a solid, comforting thing.
And he needed that comfort. The memory of Lois’s face, shattered and hurt, was a constant torment. He would never forget the moment she told him he was not the man she’d thought she knew. It was worse, somehow, than anything he had feared, and the worst of it was that he had no defense. How could he expect her to have known him when he hadn’t truly known himself?
“My name is Clark Kent, and I’m Superman.”He whispered the words to the baby in his arms, and this time, when the tears filled his eyes, he didn’t fight them.
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More beta thanks to my wonderful and patient friend Sara Kraft! Only one more part, Sara, and then I’ll quit bugging you 
Thanks also to all who have let me know you’re reading. I hope you enjoy these final parts!
