Martha was the first to move, kneeling next to Clark and grabbing his hand. She put a hand on his forehead and gave a sigh of relief when she realized he was not running a fever.

Lois appeared beside her, holding out a cordless phone. “I thought you might want to call Jonathan,” she explained in a soft voice.

Martha nodded in agreement, not trusting herself to speak. She dialed the number with one hand, keeping the other tightly in Clark's grasp.

When Jonathan answered the phone, she took a breath, trying to sound calm, “Clark is at Lois',” she started.

Immediately hearing the panic in his wife's voice, he replied, “What's wrong with him?”

“I don't know. He collapsed on her floor. He has cuts on his arms, but no fever.”

“Not Kryptonite, then. He always runs a fever with Kryptonite,” Jonathan thought out loud. “Or,” he continued, “there was Kryptonite, but he got away from it.”

Martha grabbed on to this thought, nodding her head in agreement, forgetting that Jonathan could not see her. She silently watched as Lois gently ran a washcloth over Clark's face, wiping away the dirt.

“Martha?” Jonathan called to her.

“I'm here. You're probably right,” she said.

“I'm going to pack a bag. I'll call you before I leave for the airport,” Jonathan replied before hanging up the phone.

Martha placed the phone down, her eyes still trained on her son's face. Lois continued to wash Clark's face, concern showing clearly on her own.

Clark moaned, whispering, “Lois?” as he struggled to open his eyes.

Both women sighed in relief. “I'm here, Clark,” Lois replied.

Clark opened his eyes fully and took in his surroundings, “I'm fine,” he told the two women.

“I'd say your presence on my floor makes that seem unlikely,” Lois replied.

Clark gently pulled his hand out of his mother's hand and struggled to sit up.

“What happened, Clark?” Martha asked.

“I…I'm fine, Mom, really. There was k…k…kryptonite near the site of the earthquake. Not a lot, mostly d…d…dust,” Clark said, though his voice was still weak.

“But, if it wasn't much…” Martha started, but stopped when Clark put his hand on hers.

“I couldn't l…l…leave, Mom, there was s…s…so much to do. I guess I should have w…w…waited before I came back here, though,” he mused.

“Why didn't you go home so you could rest?” Martha asked.

“I… I came to give L…L…Lois her s…s…story,” Clark said lamely.

“Lot of good it will do me when you can barely talk,” Lois said, but her tone was gentle.

Clark smiled slightly.

“You need rest,” Martha insisted, picking up the phone when it rang. “He's fine,” she said into the handset. She could hear Jonathan give a sigh of relief similar to the ones she and Lois had given a few moments ago.

“Can you get up?” Lois asked Clark while Martha finished her phone call, telling Jonathan there was no need to come.

“Maybe,” Clark said, although he looked like he was struggling when he tried. Lois moved to help him, and a moment later, Martha joined, too. Soon they had Clark standing, his weight supported between them both.

“You should sleep,” Lois demanded. “Let's move you to my bed.”

“I c…c…can't take your b…b…bed, Lois. And I need to shower f…f…first.”

“You can't stand on your own. How are you going to shower?” Lois asked, logically.

“I'll manage,” Clark insisted, his voice sounding stronger. “I'm s…s…so dirty. I c…c…can't sit on anything l…l…like this.”

Martha and Lois helped Clark into the bathroom and into the shower stall. They left him, at his instruction, leaning against the wall.

“He'll be okay,” Martha assured Lois when they returned to the living room.

Lois nodded, moving to pick up the washcloth from earlier and busying herself with cleaning it in the kitchen. She tried to imagine how kryptonite found its way to Australia, but could not. She thought of anything she could to keep off the idea off of Clark weak and dirty in her shower.

A few minutes later, she heard her bathroom door open, and leaning heavily on the wall, wrapped in a towel, Clark emerged, making his way slowly to the couch.

“Oh, no you don't!” Lois ordered. “The other way, Clark. Into my room.”

Martha moved over to place her hand over Clark's, clearly in agreement with Lois. She helped him turn around and guided him towards Lois' room and into her bed.

Clark, looking childlike and small under the blanket, smiled at Lois, “What about your s…s…story?” he asked.

“After you've slept. Preferably when you can talk again,” Lois said, keeping her tone even.

Clark nodded slowly, his eyelids dropping closed, “Thank you,” he whispered.

Martha leaned down to kiss Clark on the forehead before both women left the room.

“Are you alright?” Lois asked Martha gently as they re-entered the living room.

Martha nodded, sitting down on the couch. Placing a hand on Lois' arm, she asked, “You?”

Lois nodded. “How long will it take for the effects of the kryptonite to wear off?”

“I'm not sure,” Martha said softly. “He doesn't usually stick around when he feels it. I can't imagine how kryptonite even got near Australia. We've only found it near Smallville before – in the area where his space ship landed.”

Lois stared blankly ahead of her, trying to answer this question. Perhaps there was a story here. Was it possible that someone had planted kryptonite in Australia? And why do it in these little villages?

Lois was distracted by the feel of Martha's hand on her arm. “Take a break, Lois. The story can wait,” Martha was smiling at her and Lois found herself smiling back. Martha was right. She was tired. A short break made sense.

“So,” Martha began, leaning her head against the back of the couch. “Tell me what you've been up to. Clark has told us some things, but, well, you know, without talking to you, there's a lot we don't know. How did you get to San Diego? What have you been doing since you got here?”

Lois sighed, and feeling sleepy she followed Martha's example and laid her head back. “My sister, Lucy, got married and had a daughter. It's hard to believe considering how flaky Lucy used to be, but she's really got her act together now. Her husband, Sean, is fantastic and Lucy has a great job as a paralegal. Anyway, originally I just came for a visit to see my niece, but Lucy and Sean were looking for someone to watch Sammy while they were at work and I was at loose ends so I stayed.”

Martha turned her head slightly to look at Lois more closely, “Why were you at loose ends? I never understood. Clark would check on you and come back with these stories of what you were doing. They never made sense – you had always seemed so strong to me and yet you seemed to melt away. What happened?”

Lois tried not to smile. She had forgotten how blunt Martha could be.

She could feel Martha's eyes on her, but stared straight ahead, not wanting to hear the sob she could feel building in her throat at the answer to Martha's question. “I don't know,” she whispered. “It was like a downward spiral. After Clark died, I was consumed with energy. I felt this intense need to catch Capone and his goons. I wanted nothing more than to avenge Clark's death.

“But once I did that, it was like all the fight went out of me. Perry gave me small stories thinking I just needed some time, but I just never wanted anything bigger. Once or twice I woke up and felt the old fire inside and convinced myself that this was the day things were going to change. But then I'd get to the Planet and see Clark's desk and all the fight went out of me.

“I thought quitting was the answer, moving to a new paper. I thought I just had to stop having to confront all these memories of Clark. So, I quit. But then I still felt listless – I couldn't work up the energy to look for a new job. I just felt so guilty. I forced Clark into the club that night – he didn't want to go. If I had listened to him, he would still be alive.”

“Honey,” Martha interjected. “Clark is an adult. He makes his own decisions. Even if he had died that night, it wouldn't be your fault. He could have said no.”

Lois shrugged, then quietly replied, “I get that now. But at the time, all I could think of was that I knew that Clark would do anything for me. And I abused that all the time, always pushing to get my way. I was lucky nothing had happened before that.”

“Anyway,” she continued, “I had a little bit of money saved up, so it wasn't a problem to be out of work. Besides, I didn't have too many expenses aside from rent. I was barely eating and spent most of my time asleep, so my electricity bill was low. Lucy visited and told me I needed help; she said I was clinically depressed. Even Superman…” Lois' voice trailed off for a second as she comprehended what she was about to say, remembering something she had not thought about since she realized Superman and Clark were the same person.

“You need help, Lois,” Superman said, his voice firm, arms folded across his chest. “If you won't go see a doctor voluntarily, I'll take you there myself.”

“It's my life, Superman,” Lois spat. “I don't need your help.”

Superman sat down on her bed, looking dejected. “Please, Lois. I'm worried about you,” he said softly. He reached out to take her hand, but she pulled away from him.

“If you had really cared about me, you would have been there that day,” Lois said, her voice still hard.

He sighed, looking guiltily at the floor. “You're right. I should have been.”

“But you weren't. You didn't help me then, and I don't need your help now. It's not like you will even explain where you were.”

Looking at her earnestly, Superman reached for her hand again, but again she pulled away from him. “I'll make you a deal, Lois. You let me take you to the hospital or you get help on your own and I'll tell you where I was that day.”

Lois looked at him more closely. “You told me you couldn't say,” she reminded him, her voice wary.

“And I shouldn't. But it's that important to me that you get help,” he replied, his voice soft.

Lois thought for a moment and was about to accept – just to find out where he had been. But then she felt tricked, blackmailed.

“No, I don't need help.”

Superman got up and she thought she had won, but he moved closer and placed his arms under her, lifting her into his arms. “I'm sorry, Lois,” he said, “I don't agree. I don't want to force you, but you look malnourished and depressed. I can't leave you like this,” his voice was anguished and Lois knew she was about to lose.

Her competitive nature came out in full force, and in a quiet but completely calm voice she said, “No, I don't need help from you, Superman. Put me down, you, you, … Alien!”

She knew she had won the moment she saw his face. He lay her back down on the bed, his eyes showing his surprise at her words.

He moved back towards her door, turning around once he was there. “Lois, please, consider getting help. I am worried about you,” he whispered, the sob audible in his voice.

Then, with a whoosh, he was gone.

Lois looked at Martha, guilt on her face. “I didn't mean it, I was just so angry at him,” she whispered.

Martha nodded, “I know, Lois. I'm sure, Clark did, too.”

“He came back the next day,” Lois said quietly. “And the day after that. But I had discovered the way to fight. As long as I called him names, he wouldn't force the issue, just keep asking me to get help. And somehow, getting my own way proved to me that I didn't need help. Sometimes, I even liked it. It made me feel strong. If I could overpower Superman, I couldn't be that weak, couldn't really need help.”

Lois paused for a moment, thinking over Martha's reply. “He didn't tell you?” she asked. “He didn't tell you the names I called him?”

Martha shook her head slightly.

Finding it difficult to keep the sob out of her voice now, Lois took a deep breath before saying, “I called him an alien. A freak. A genetic mutation. Anything I could to keep him from taking me the hospital.”

Martha grabbed her hand, “It was different, Lois, and I'm sure Clark knew it. That's why he never told us. He knew you didn't mean it, you were just trying to keep your distance.”

“But they hurt him, I knew they did. I could see it in his eyes – it's how I knew I was winning. But I just kept saying them day after day, as long as they worked.” Lois took a deep breath trying to calm her voice.

She heard his soft landing from her bedroom. Drat! She had meant to lock the windows earlier.

“Go away, Superman,” she called, but her voice lacked its normal venom.

Heedless of her request, Superman walked into her room, leaning against the doorframe. “Lois, you need help,” he stated.

“I don't need your help, you freak!” she said, grinning inwardly when she saw him flinch. It didn't seem to matter how many names she called him, he never seemed to expect it. And the flinch was just the precursor. She knew it would take less than a minute to get Superman out of her apartment today.

“I'm sorry, Lois,” he whispered as he came closer, “I don't want to force this, but you need help.”

“And how can you help me, you freak of nature?” Lois asked, then cringed slightly. She had already used freak – she needed to get more creative.

Superman did not respond this time, although she could see the hurt in his eyes. He walked to the side of her bed and lifted her into his arms. Without a word, he carried her back to the window in her living room and lifted them both outside.

“Put me down!” Lois yelled, “What do you think you're doing? This is kidnapping!” she insisted.

Superman said nothing, but a few moments later dropped to the ground outside a small office building. Keeping Lois in his arms, he walked inside. Lois saw the nameplate outside the office door he opened – “Shari Wilson, MD”.

“I don't need a doctor, you mutant!” she said, her voice quiet, although her tone was anything but friendly.

“See her for me, Lois?” Superman asked, “If she agrees with you, I won't ask again.”

“Why would I do anything for you?” Lois asked.

“Because I care about you. So much,” he whispered, his head in her hair.

He placed her down, but kept a tight hold on her arm as he announced her presence to the receptionist.

“I was so angry at him,” Lois told Martha. “I didn't want to see a shrink and didn't see how it could help.” Lois' voice trailed off for a moment and she took stock of her apartment.

“But in the end, it felt good to see Dr. Wilson. I started eating again and thought about looking for work. And the best part was that once I started seeing Dr. Wilson regularly, Superman stopped coming by. That was the deal we made and he stuck to it.

“I couldn't stand to see him – he reminded me of everything that went wrong that night,” Lois paused for a moment, but Martha said nothing.

“I took the job at the Boston Globe because the Globe wasn't a small paper and yet it was completely different than the Planet. When I first walked in, I thought it would be different. There were no memories of Clark there.

Lois paused before entering the newsroom. It only took a short look around before she realized that her reputation had preceded her. No one there looked happy to see her.

She saw the Globe's editor, Ryan Jackson, speaking to a reporter on the other side of the room. Ryan seemed nice enough – he was in his late sixties, but had no writing experience. His background was in general management, having obtained an MBA from Harvard in the 1950s and working in a variety of businesses since then.

She knew he thought getting Lois Lane to join the staff was quite a coup. She only hoped she could deliver what it was he was expecting.

The first week was hard, but she knew it would be. But it wasn't getting easier. No one wanted to work with her, Ryan was increasingly disappointed in her copy, and Lois was dreading coming into work more each day.

“It was almost like I just couldn't hack it anymore,” she said, “like nothing worked without Clark. Ryan put me on smaller and smaller stories until I was barely reporting the news anymore.

“I hated it, but I knew I couldn't complain. It wasn't Ryan's fault my ability to write had seemed to die with Clark.

“I never really built a life in Boston. I didn't make any friends. Aside from Superman, no one had been into my apartment. And he hadn't come since shortly after I moved there.”

Lois was surprised by the knock on the door, she had not given anyone her address. Opening it, she was even more surprised when she saw Superman on the other side holding a box.

“Didn't take you long to track me down, did it?” Lois asked, hearing the bitterness in her voice and not caring.

Superman did not say anything to this, but held the box out for her.
“Congratulations on the new job, Lois,” he said, his voice soft. “I wanted to bring you a house-warming gift and thought you'd like this better than a plant.”

Lois glanced at the box realizing it was a case of Double Fudge Crunch bars and smiled despite herself. “Thank you,” she said, her voice softer than before.

While she did not invite him in, she left the door open while she moved to the living room to place the box down, and he followed her. Lois turned around, unsure what to say. She almost laughed at how out of place Superman looked.

Taking a seat on her new sofa, Superman grinned at her. “This is much more comfortable than the one you had in Metropolis,” he teased.

Lois felt her whole body stiffen and she struggled with an appropriate reply. Clark used to tease her about how uncomfortable her couch was. Had he told Superman or was the comment just a coincidence?

Suddenly, Lois forgot all about the box of chocolates. She just wanted Superman to leave her alone. “What are you doing here, Superman?” she asked, her voice cold again.

The grin immediately wiped off his face, Superman fumbled for something to say. “I just… I just wanted to check on you. See how you were doing.”

Again with the reminders of Clark – his voice, his tonality, it was all fumbling Clark Kent rather than Superman. She wanted him out now – all he did was remind her of Clark. She did not want Superman's cheap imitation Clark around.

“I'm fine, and I don't need you checking up on me,” she told him, standing up and moving toward the door.

Looking lost and embarrassed, Superman made his way to the door. He placed a hand on Lois' shoulder. “You know, I'll always be your friend, right Lois?” he asked.

“You are not my friend,” Lois assured him. “I don't need your friendship. I don't want your friendship. I'm fine. Please don't check up on me again.”

Superman leaned down and placed a kiss on her cheek, although she could see the hurt in his eyes. Then, without a word, he took off.

“I guess he got the point, because he never came back,” Lois said.

Martha smiled at Lois, interjecting softly, “He checked up on you all the time. It took Jonathan and me about two months before realized he wasn't actually still talking to you.”

“What do you mean?” Lois asked.

“I think maybe she's starting to settle in,” Clark announced. “She still doesn't seem to be making friends, but at least she's finally got most of her boxes unpacked.”

“That's good, dear,” Martha said.

“I just wish… well, I can't imagine she's happy with the stories she's writing. Nothing big, nothing even really investigative,” Clark mused aloud.

“Well, does she seem unhappy?” Jonathan asked, “What has she said to you about it?”

There was a pause at the table while Jonathan and Martha waited for Clark to speak. Then Martha got it.

“She doesn't say anything to you, Clark, does she? You haven't told us anything that Lois has said directly to you in ages.” She placed a comforting hand on his arm while he looked down at the table.

“No, I haven't talked to her in a couple of months. She just seemed so upset with me last time,” Clark said, his tone dejected.

“But Clark,” Jonathan began, but Clark cut him off.

“I've given it a lot of thought, Dad. I keep going to see Lois because I miss her. But it's clear seeing me is just painful for her. I'm being selfish and the gain even for me is only short-term, because I only feel worse when she makes it clear she doesn't want to see me. So, this is the best way. I still know what she's up to, I know I can be there for her if she gets into trouble, and yet, I don't upset her by interacting with her.”

“I still think you should tell her your Clark and then she'd be happy to see you,” Martha stated, although her voice was soft.

“No!” Clark replied, emphatically. “We've talked about that. It's completely unfair to Lois. I have nothing to offer her as Clark anymore. It's better that she thinks I'm dead.”

“But you're not dead, Clark,” Jonathan reminded him. “You are still very much alive.”

“As Superman. Clark Kent is dead,” Clark said, his voice still strong. “And what can I offer her as Superman? Lana is right. Who would want that kind of relationship? Even if Lois thought she did, I couldn't ask that of her. A relationship that's a secret? Her safety at risk if anyone ever found out? That's just cruel. It's better this way.”

Jonathan gave Clark a pointed look. “For Lois,” Clark clarified. “This is better for Lois.”

“We tried,” Martha said, “we tried to convince Clark to go see you and tell you who he was, but he was convinced this was better and there was no changing his mind. But he watched over you as much as he could. It was almost amusing how much he could talk about you without ever actually interacting with you.”

Lois smiled a little. It felt a little good to know that Superman had been watching over her all that time.

“So, was he right? Did you hate the stories you were covering in Boston? Is that why you left?” Martha asked.

“Well, sort of,” Lois hedged while she tried to remember what it had felt like at the time. “I didn't hate it at the Globe and I wasn't as bothered as I should have been at the lack of hard-hitting stories. I knew it was my fault. I didn't get good stories as I couldn't write them.

“So, I was okay. But when I got the call from Newsday, it just made sense to leave. Nothing was tying me to Boston. I kind of thought a change of scenery would be good for me. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that Boston had been a change of scenery. Besides, they were paying for me to move to Long Island.

“Of course, I hated it there. Living in the suburbs was just not for me. But this time I was determined to make it work. So I stayed. It wasn't really any different than at the Globe. I still couldn't write; I still didn't bother to make any friends. It was a miserable five years. I probably shouldn't have stayed, but I felt like I'd be a failure if I left.

“I was glad when Lucy called. It gave me a legitimate reason to quit. And I loved taking care of Sammy. I actually felt like I was getting me back. It was weird considering how much different my life was with Sammy than normal. But I didn't miss working. But it was like I had been right the whole time – I needed a change of scenery. But a new newsroom wasn't enough. It was like I had a big hole in my life where Clark was supposed to be and as long as I tried to write, he was still there. But there was no room for Clark in my new life and so I felt like I was functioning again.”

“Clark was baffled when you moved to Long Island,” Martha smiled, a chuckle in her voice. “For most of the first year you were there, he would go on these long diatribes about how wrong suburbia was for you. Sometimes Jonathan would feel compelled to remind Clark that he was from rural USA. Clark would just look at him like he was crazy, though. "That's Clark, not Lois!' he'd exclaim. "Lois is a city girl through and through. She must be miserable on Long Island. What is she thinking?'”

“Did he still watch me?” Lois asked, her voice small.

“All the time,” Martha replied. “Sometimes it seemed that's all he did. If he wasn't needed anywhere, he'd spend his day hovering around Long Island. Once or twice a month he'd tell us he was going to talk to you the next day, but he'd always chicken out at the last minute, thinking that you still didn't want to see him. When we'd try to convince him that time had passed, you may feel differently, he'd always remind us that you would call for Superman if you wanted to see him.

“He was devastated when you left Newsday. Not because he thought it was good for you, but since you weren't writing, he couldn't find you. For months he spent more time searching for you than on rescues. But he only checked major metropolises thinking that's where you'd be. When that didn't work, he looked for rural areas. But rarely did he check more suburban settings like San Diego. He thought it was that aspect of Long Island that made you decide to move.

“Somehow, even though he hadn't talked to you in years, seeing you made him feel better and when he couldn't find you anymore he was depressed. I'm not surprised that he went back to see you so shortly after finding you again.”

“Well, in the end, that couldn't have made him all that happy, could it?” Lois asked.

“He's not angry at you, honey. You know that right?” Martha asked. “He knows your anger is justified. He feels guilty, as he should. But he's not evil or selfish. Stupid, perhaps, but I know Clark wants nothing more than for you to be happy.”

Lois stifled a yawn as she nodded, not sure what to say. She got the fact that he had not told her he was alive as he thought it was best for her. Still, that did not mean she was going to be able to forgive him easily. He had hurt her terribly regardless of his intentions.

Getting up and stretching, Martha sighed. “Perhaps we should get some sleep?” she asked Lois.

Lois nodded. “The couch pulls out into a double bed,” she said. “We can share.”