'Touched by an Angel' /

'Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'

Crossover story

By: Yvette Jessen

2004, an amateur story and is not intended to infringe on any previously or currently held copyrights.

*****

The Metropolis skyline shimmered in the early morning sunshine. It was a beautiful spring day and the city was a bustle with activity, people going to work, children going to school and the general stresses of big city life being taken in stride. On one side, a woman with shoulder length brown hair was running towards the glass door to a tall high-rise building. In front of the modern high-rise, a large globe-shaped sculpture stood with the words Daily Planet etched on one side in the same metallic material. On the opposite side of the street, a man with glasses and dark hair was also walking towards the building, his eyes filled with sadness, but he continued to make his way towards the same building, some quite obvious hesitancy emanating him.

Unseen by either of them, three angels stood observing their movements as well as observing the overall mood of the people around them. All three pairs of eyes were on the building that they had just entered. The tall auburn headed woman stared at the building and then glanced back over at her companions. “Tess, who is our assignment here?”

“Well, Miss Wings, this assignment is a little bit harder to explain,” the elder of the three angels answered. This woman was heavyset, with mahogany colored skin, gray hair, and kind, wise eyes. Her companions, one, a woman with long auburn hair and kind brown eyes, and a man with shoulder-length wavy blonde hair and compassionate green eyes, were standing and both of the younger angels looked confused.

The eldest angel took a deep breath before she was able to attempt explaining the case that she, herself, had a hard time understanding. “You and Andrew are going to be working at the Daily Planet and a part of the assignment is going to be Lois Lane. She's the woman you just saw who was in a hurry to get to work. The other part of your assignment will be Clark Kent, but you'll also be working with a young man named Jimmy Olsen. Anyway, Clark was the man who went inside after Lois, the dark-headed young man with glasses.”

“Three different assignments?” Monica looked at Tess.

“Well, this is going to be a complex case, Angel Babies,” Tess said softly as she shook her head. “Lois has been hurt many times in her life, Monica, and somewhere in there is an attitude that she won't let go of until she understands the concept of the whole truth and nothing but. I suppose that if anything, that was why she became a reporter in the first place, she's the best in Metropolis, and she knows it, but there is a part of her that wants to find the truth at all costs. Sometimes that cost causes her to do things without any conscientious thought as to whether what she is doing is the best thing for her or her safety. Clark is more level headed of the two, but he also has to learn that honesty is the best way to go and there is a secret in there that is destroying their newfound love for one another.”

“Tess, where are you going to be over the course of this assignment?” Monica asked.

“For now, I'll be working in Smallville, I don't really know yet what I will be doing there, as the assignment is actually here, but the Father is being very vague with us on this one, so I'm afraid to say, so I don't really know why I'll be there, but I think you two have things under control here.”

“You don't know why you're not going to be working with us here?” Monica asked.

“No, baby, I don't, but we're going to have to trust Him and hope for the best in this regard,” Tess said as she shrugged her shoulders.

“So what specifically are we going to be doing, Tess?” Andrew asked.

“Monica is going to see Perry White this morning and will submit an application for employment in order to become a reporter, and in a few days, you're going to do the same, except you will apply to be a staff photographer. You're not supposed to know each other yet, so Monica, you'll be on your own here for a couple of days, and then Andrew will come into the assignment and the two of you will officially ‘meet’.”

“Why is that? Why can't we work together from the start?” Monica asked, the confusion shadowing her pretty face.

“I think I know,” Andrew said as he ran his hand through his wavy, blonde hair. Although he sometimes did casework with Monica and Tess, he was also an Angel of Death. However, unlike the images that could emerge from many of today's horror movies, Andrew was anything but the gruesomeness that one might imagine whenever they would contemplate his job. The gentle angel positively loathed this concept of a creature that killed people or delighted in their demise, and his main task was to act as the link between Earth and the hereafter. He was, in fact, a depiction of kindness, compassion, and empathy. He was tall and handsome, dressed in light colored slacks and a beige, almost white, pullover. His shining green eyes were focused on the building as he spoke. “Did you see how Lois looked when she went in? She seemed as though she did not want to trust anyone in the world, and based on how Clark looked, I am under the impression that maybe Lois' attitude may have something to do with men in general.”

Tess nodded, “you're absolutely right, Angel Boy, Lois has been hurt, and you two are going to be walking on some eggshells until this assignment starts to take some turns and you are able to break down that wall she has successfully built up around herself. Don't loose heart, it is going to take some time for Lois to come around.”

Monica nodded and within seconds, she realized that now she was standing alone on the street. She looked down at her clothing and could see the pristine olive green suit that she was now wearing. Knotted around her throat was a matching silk scarf and in her hand, she carried a soft leather briefcase. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the street and walked into the building without looking back.

*****

Perry White was seated at his desk at that moment, his eyes staring down at the latest edition of the Daily Planet. He smiled in satisfaction as he read the headline that was splashed across the top of the paper. He could not help but beam with pride as yet another crime-wave had been stopped by the work of his dedicated reporters. He could feel the sense of fatherly pride overcome him as he looked out through the glass window and could see his star reporters, Lois Lane and Clark Kent each at their desks, but instead of hearing the casual chatter that tended to emanate the newsroom, an almost stony silence seemed to resonate all around this familiar place.

A knock interrupted his thoughts and he looked between the blinds to see that a pretty auburn headed woman was standing on the other side of the door. He went over and opened the door, and cleared his throat as he offered the woman a warm smile, but a confused look. He had no appointments and he was not certain who she was or what she wanted.

“Mr. White?” She spoke, her soft Irish lilted voice filled with warmth, and she smiled at him, her expression filled with warmth and honesty.

“Yes, what can I do for you?” He asked.

“My name is Monica, and I wanted to apply to work here as a reporter. I'm new in Metropolis, just got here last night from Chicago,” she said.

“Ah, Chicago,” Perry smiled. “You do any reporting there?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. I worked at the Guardian for a while and wrote a few articles there, but I've also done television reporting, but only small scale,” Monica explained. “I was the weather girl at a station back west, as well.”

“Well, not to worry, we don't really focus too much on television experience around here, but every little bit helps,” Perry smiled. Something about this woman was very nice, she seemed to have a very relaxed and calm demeanor and something told him that this would be a tremendous asset around the Planet, especially right now when a reenactment of World War II seemed to be going on between his top reporters. “Do you have any writing samples with you, by chance?”

Monica nodded, dug in her briefcase, and handed the editor three typed pages with one of the stories she had written at the Guardian. Perry looked down and began to scan the pages, as he did a smile covered his face and he nodded approvingly as he finished the article and looked back up in her direction.

“Not bad, but tell me, are you one of these eccentric types who doesn't believe in surnames?” He asked.

“Why do you ask?”

“Your by-line says just ‘Monica’,” he said looking at her with obvious confusion on his face.

Monica smiled weakly. “Is it required to have a surname, Mr. White?”

“Well, it does help with regard to reporter identification,” he said. “I’m more an old fashioned editor, I suppose and surnames do help.”

Monica smiled as she thought about his words. Angels did not have surnames, but if it would pacify him, she'd provide him with a surname. “Wings,” she finally said.

“Monica Wings,” he nodded. “OK, we'll get you started. I will have to put you with a partner, since you’re new and need to learn the ropes here.”

“Oh, that's fine,” she smiled at him.

“OK, good,” he stood up and went to the door to the office. “Come with me, and I'll introduce you to Jimmy, and he can show you around. When I figure out whom you'll be working with, I'll let you know. Just concentrate on getting yourself acquainted with everyone here and you might get started looking into the archives a little bit and just acquaint yourself a little bit with format how we do things around here.”

“OK,” Monica nodded and smiled as they walked out into the newsroom.

“Jimmy?” Perry called out.

“Yes, Chief,” came the youthful sounding response as a young man with brown hair and friendly eyes approached.

“Jimmy Olsen, this is Monica Wings, she's new here, and I thought maybe you could show her around the databanks and maybe introduce her to some of the others,” Perry said.

Jimmy nodded and smiled briefly as Perry left and returned to his office. Once he was gone, Jimmy led Monica over to his desk and offered her his chair. Once she sat down he began to show her how to use the archives to do research until it was nearing lunchtime.

“Time flies when you're having fun,” he interrupted her after an hour had passed and he looked at her, and smiled. “You want to have lunch with me, Monica?” He offered.

“Sure,” she smiled, closed the archive, and stood up.

“Really?” He looked at her, bewilderment shadowing his face.

“Yes, where do you have in mind?” She asked as she realized that she was hungry.

“There's a coffee shop down the street,” Jimmy said.

“Sounds good, do you know if they serve mocha lattes?” Monica asked, her mouth watering at the mention of her favorite drink.

“No idea, come on we can find out. We have about half an hour, then when we get back I'll introduce you to a few people, then I have an assignment to get to.” As the last words emerged, Monica noticed a look of pride that briefly crossed the young man’s face.

She liked Jimmy; he was much smarter than given credit for being, but was also young, and energetic. There was also a trace of melancholy in his demeanor and she wondered for a moment what it could have meant. She looked up and could see that Jimmy was watching a man who was seated at the desk on the other side of the newsroom. “Is everything OK?” She eventually asked him, thus breaking him out of his reverie.

The young man shook his head as he stared over at his long time friend, Clark Kent.

"Is that a friend of yours?" Monica asked, casually trying to get Jimmy to open up a little bit to her.

“Uh, yeah I guess so, his name’s Clark Kent, he's one of the best reporters in Metropolis, and he's also one of my best friends, but for the last couple of days, he really hasn't been himself,” Jimmy said. “I guess it's no big deal, because everyone has a bad day now and again.” He shrugged his shoulders, smiled bravely at her and they left the newsroom.

*****

A half an hour later, Jimmy and Monica returned, and much to the angel's added confusion, Jimmy did not seem able to cast any light on anything as to why she was even there. Sighing deeply, she looked around the busy newsroom, her soft brown eyes filled with confusion as to why such an assertive and confident woman as Lois Lane needed an angel.

Jimmy walked with her over to Clark's desk. “Hey C.K., this is Monica she’s the new rookie. Perry asked me to show her around and introduce her to some of the folks.” Jimmy said, the unfamiliar pride back in his voice.

The man at the desk looked up and smiled at her. “Hello, I’m Clark Kent.”

“Nice to meet you,” Monica said smiling. “I had a chance to read some of your articles while I was working in the archives this morning, you’re a wonderful reporter, Mr. Kent,” Monica said.

“Call me Clark, and thank you,” Clark said smiling briefly, but he looked at Jimmy, he took a deep breath before he was able to exhale. “Jimmy, I'm not going to be able to go fishing with you this weekend. Something came up and I have to go home.”

“It's OK, C.K., I figured that something had come up, you look kind of tired,” Jimmy said, but Monica could detect the disappointment in the younger man's eyes. Instead of speaking about it, she remained silent.

“Any breaks on the drug case?” Jimmy asked.

“None, it's almost as though contacts and connections have just dried up,” Clark said. He glanced over towards where Lois usually sat and it was clear to anyone who were to look at him that he was getting aggravated with the silent treatment that Lois was dishing out. He knew that he wanted to run away, and maybe going back to Smallville was the way to do so.

As he began to drown into his thoughts, he could see that Lois was coming out of the elevator and he went over to meet her. “Lois?”

The woman at the elevator looked at him scornfully, her eyes filled with rage. “Why do you do this to me?” She asked; her voice filled with scorn.

“Calling your name?” He asked with puzzlement in his voice. “Look, I’m not doing anything, Lois, but we need to talk. Please, you don’t have to say anything, but I have to explain.”

“There's nothing to explain, we may have to work together, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.” With that, she walked over to her computer and sat down, her hands brusquely typing, all the while she was trying to shut him out. Eventually, he went back over to his desk where Monica and Jimmy were and sat down.

“Strike two?” Jimmy asked, looking at his friend, his eyes filled with worry.

“Yeah,” Clark said softly, but did not say another word about Lois Lane.

By this time, Jimmy had excused himself to go out and fulfill his assignment, thus leaving Monica standing next to the desk and on her own in the large newsroom. “Clark, can I ask you a question?”

“Maybe later, Monica, I think I need to talk to Perry about something,” Clark stood up and made a beeline towards the editor’s office.

Unmoving, Monica was left standing next to his desk, and rather than stay there, she walked a short distance over to where Lois sat at her desk. “Excuse me?” She spoke, causing Lois to look up.

“Yes?” The reporter addressed the angel with a no-nonsense voice.

“My name is Monica, and I'm new here at the Planet,” she began.

“Yeah, so?” Lois’ eyes never left the computer screen.

“I just thought since I hadn't met you yet, that I would come over and say ‘hello’,” Monica said.

“Hi,” Lois looked up and after a second, she looked back down at her notes. Monica shifted her weight slightly, but when she said nothing, Lois eventually looked up, her dark eyes filled with obvious frustration. “What do you want?”

The angel shook her head. “I wasn't expecting anything, I just wanted to say ‘hello’,” Monica looked down and could see the nameplate on the desk. “You're Lois Lane?”

“And you're a rocket scientist who can read,” Lois looked up, her sarcasm literally dripping in her words.

Monica shrugged her shoulders as she remembered what Tess had said that morning about Lois’ demeanor. She backed slowly away from the desk and made her way back over towards where Clark’s desk was. When he didn't come out of Perry's office, she went back over to Jimmy's and continued searching the archives and trying to find a way to find out about the relationship that seemed to exist between Lois and Clark.

She continued to investigate their relationship through the articles they wrote, and she discovered a new person coming into the mixture, Superman. He seemed to be the theme of many of Lois and Clark’s articles, in fact, she found herself smiling as she scanned the articles and saw pictures of the attractive man who wore blue tights and a red cape.

As she read through the articles, she found herself really liking him; he seemed to stand for things that she and her friends also stood for: truth, goodness, and honesty. Just like an angel, and he can fly too, she thought trying to keep herself from chuckling under her breath as she continued to study the articles.

As she learned more about Superman, she discovered that the people who seemed to have the closest ties to him were the two people who wrote the most about him. Shaking her head in bewilderment, she continued to read, all the while, she wondered how it was that these two people could reach the point where they were so angry with each another. What sort of secret could be so detrimental that it would destroy their friendship or possible romance? What could it possibly be that was keeping two people apart who obviously loved each other, and deeply? The questions continued to buzz around in her head until six O'clock, when many of the reporters still in the newsroom started to pack up their things and head for home.

*****

Just before Monica was ready to leave for the evening, she finally started to get a small glimpse as to why Lois needed to have angelic assistance. The angel had been working in the databanks at Jimmy's desk for much of the afternoon, when out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Clark had gunned up the courage to get up from his desk and once again go over to where Lois was now sitting. “Lois,” he began as he tried to clear his throat. “Can we talk?”

“I think you could have talked to me long before now, Clark, but you didn't,” she snapped finally managing to look up at him, her eyes practically shooting fire. “Of all the people in my life, why is it that you had to go and lie to me?”

“Lois,” Clark tried to plead with her, his eyes filled with urgency. “You really don't understand.”

“Understand?” She shook her head. “What’s there to understand? I mean; you're not going to deny it, are you? How many times have you thought to yourself ‘what a stupid broad Lois is, all she had to do was remove a pair of cheap glasses and she would have figured out the truth’?” As she spoke, her words were barely above a detectable whisper, but they were positively laced with aggravation. “I guess you figured that you would have some fun with me, I couldn't tell the difference, I didn't know.” She looked at him; her expression filled with bitterness, but deeply embedded in this anger, was pain.

Monica could see from Jimmy's desk, that Lois was hurting. The angel did not know why, but she could detect that Lois' trust in Clark was nonexistent, and now she refused to forgive him for whatever it was he had done to her.

Lois shook her head. “How could you do this to me? Did you not think I would eventually find out the truth? I'm a reporter, I should have been able to see right through all those made up ideas of yours.”

“No, I had hoped that you wouldn’t,” Clark said before he was able to prevent the words from emerging. “I didn't mean that, I just…” His voice trailed and he shook his head. “Lois, I'm sorry I hurt you, it wasn't intended.”

“It wasn't intended,” Lois shouted sarcastically. “You just said that you hoped that you could have kept the truth from me. Did you not understand that a lie is a lie? You're a reporter, Clark, you're supposed to find facts, but if the biggest fact is staring you in the face and you still didn't talk about it, then it's a lie. I will never be able to trust you again, and I will never be able to look at you without remembering that you lied to me, and that you probably spent weekends at the lake with your dad having a good laugh at my expense.”

“That's not true,” Clark objected, his voice filled with pain. “I never laughed at you, Lois.”

“You didn't huh? Well Mr. Kent, I have a hard time believing anything you say to me, so just leave me alone. Our partnership is terminated, and I mean it this time.” Without saying another word, she got up abruptly, and left the newsroom, the pain in her face so massive that even Superman could not have cut through it.

Clark stood stunned, his eyes misting over as he watched her go. He shook his head as he looked down at the ground. At that moment, Monica came over to him. “Is everything OK?” She asked him after a few moments, when she saw the pain etched in his face.

He shook his head and looked at her.

“Love is sometimes hard, isn't it, Clark?” Monica asked.

Clark looked at her. “I don't know if it's really love anymore. I mean; she and I were partners, but we also worked well together on other levels.”

Monica rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Anyone can see that you love her very much and that you both are in pain right now. But I’m sure that whatever it is that came between you, you will find a way to resolve it. It will be in a way that will help Lois find a way to accept and appreciate that those feelings you carry for her deep in your heart are real.”

“My heart?” Clark scoffed shrugging his shoulders. “My heart is broken, there is nothing but fragments left of it.”

“What's broken can always be put back together,” Monica said gently. “But, nothing will ever be the same if a lie is what keeps a relationship going.”

“You heard what she said, didn't you?” Clark asked.

“Uh, without trying to embarrass you, but I think the entire newsroom heard what she said,” Monica said softly. “Voices carry.”

Clark looked around the room and when he could see that the small handful of people in the room had heard this exchange, he took a deep breath and released it slowly. Without saying another word, he went back to his desk and lowered himself into the chair. Monica followed him over to the desk and she leaned up against it, her soft brown eyes seeking his.

“Clark, if you need a friend, I'm here,” she said gently.

“No, it's OK, Monica, I’m fine, don't worry about me,” he smiled weakly, but added silently; unfortunately, the only thing that could kill me is kryptonite. Sighing once again, he looked down at his desk as his thoughts continued, well that and Lois’ rejection comes pretty close.

“Easier said than done,” she said softly. “I know this is only my first day, and I don't know you very well, but you had a first day once too, and sometimes change is never easy.”

“Yeah,” he said nodding. As he spoke, he could hear someone calling for help, and he stood up. “Listen, I need to go, I think I uh…forgot to put enough money in the parking meter. I'll see you later.”

Parking meter? Monica asked herself as Clark dashed off like a shot. Tess had parked her car in a nearby parking garage, she thought, there were no parking meters around the building. There was definitely something strange going on, but before she could even begin to find out, she glanced up to see that Tess had reappeared and was standing next to Clark’s desk.

“How’s it going, Miss Wings?” Tess asked as she looked at her younger charge.

Monica shook her head, her confusion matching that of her supervisor. “Nothing but unanswered questions, Tess.”

“Such as?” Tess asked.

“Well, I’ll start with: What happened to them? I showed up here and there was a stony silence between both of them, and now Clark has disappeared, and Lois looks as though she has lost absolutely everything.”

“In a way, she has. You see, Angel Girl, a secret has torn its way into the hearts of both of them. They love each other, baby, but the fear of being hurt is going to drag Lois down and it will be our job to make sure that they both learn that they are a stronger force together than separated.”

“What kind of secret is doing this to them, Tess?” Monica asked.

“I don't know, the Father hasn't told me anything about it,” Tess took a deep breath.

“How can I help them if they are hiding behind a secret and I don't even know what that secret is?” Monica asked.

“The secret isn't so important, well, it only is because Lois and Clark have put some relevance on it, but what is important, Miss Wings, is that they both have to learn that their love for each other should be capable to withstand anything. This is why the Father has sent them angels.”

Monica nodded but looked around the quickly emptying newsroom. She walked over to Lois’ desk. “When is Andrew going to come?”

“Give it time, Monica, he'll come when the Father is ready for him to come, but right now, you have to get ready, because tomorrow there are going to be some changes happening here and these two are going to need angels now more than ever.”

With that Tess was gone and Monica was standing alone in the large room. She sighed deeply as she turned towards the elevator and pressed the button that would take her downstairs to the lobby. Her thoughts were still a complete jumble as she made her way downstairs and stepped out onto the sidewalk some five minutes later.

*****

That evening, Lois had come home and after getting something to eat, she found a comfortable place to sit on the sofa. Her sister had come by and brought some movies over and she looked forward to sitting alone with something to distract her from all the pain and heartache that she was now experiencing.

As she pulled a small blanket up over her lap, she could hear that the doorbell was ringing, and she stood up thinking that it was her sister with the movies. Unconsciously, she rubbed her hand through her hair and next she rubbed her face, all the while trying to get the sleep out of her eyes.

Opening the door, she could see that Clark was standing on the other side. “Why are you here?” She immediately asked.

“We need to talk, Lois, and I'm not going anywhere until we do,” Clark said, his voice filled with an assertiveness that she rarely heard when he would speak with her.

“So, how will you go when you’re done, through the door, or through the window? What difference would it make anyway?” Lois spat out. “My answer is still the same, I don't want to see you again.”

Clark looked at her. “I love you, Lois, and I think you know deep inside, that I would never have wanted to hurt you.”

“Love?” Lois shook her head. “You call that ‘love’? I don't think you even know what love is. You have embarrassed me to such a degree that I can't even look at you without feeling ashamed of the things I said to ‘Superman’ about you, or to you about him. Do you even know how much that degrades me, but then I discover that Superman and you are one and the same. Do you even realize or care how humiliating that is? Lois Lane, star reporter for the Daily Planet, but she is so stupid that it took her over two years to figure out the biggest scoop of her life, that her partner, and best friend, Clark Kent, is Superman.”

“I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how,” he began.

“Did you really want to or were you just trying to keep it to yourself like you said back in the news room?” Lois asked sarcastically. “If you really wanted to be honest with me, what stopped you from telling me, a three car pileup, perhaps?”

“Lois, that’s not fair, when we first met, it was something that I couldn't talk about, only my parents knew, and I realized that the only way I would ever be able to talk about this would be with someone who meant so much to me that I know this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he said. “The point is, as we became closer, I wanted to find the right time to tell you, but then I got scared.”

“Scared? Superman got scared,” She shook her head, her words taking on a sarcastic edge.

“Lois, let me at least try to explain something to you. Superman isn’t me, Superman is what I can do, but it's not who I really am,” he said softly. “I'm Clark, a reporter and a friend, and you know that I have feelings as well, and one of them is that I was afraid to tell you the truth because I did not want to hurt you. I knew as we got closer that you were not just going to love an image, but I had spent the last two years hoping that you would love me, as Clark, not as Superman. As we got closer, this uncertainty about me versus Superman became less and less dominant, yet, there were times that I wanted to tell you everything, but I didn't know where to start.”

“I just want to know why you simply decided to lie to me for the last two years,” Lois asked.

“I've already told you why; you know that I was scared, but I was also trying to protect you as well as my parents,” he said.

She shook her head. “Protect me? Yeah, it makes perfect sense to me. You know, trust is something that I never really had with men. Every time I even started to trust or believe in someone, they turned around and lied to me. I suppose, I should be used to men lying to me, I figure it's probably something that you all learned to do when you were learning to repair a carburetor in shop class during high school.”

“I didn't lie to you, Lois,” he insisted.

“You didn't tell me the truth either, that you moonlight in blue tights,” she snapped, but before Clark could respond she looked at him, her eyes filled with anger. “Please just go, I don't want to see you again. If it means me leaving Metropolis than fine, I will, but I don't want to see you again. Just get out of here!”

Clark looked at her, the dejection evident in his eyes and he could see that she was close to crying. Instead of trying to console her, he nodded, but before taking his leave, he looked at her. “If you don't want me around, then you don't have to leave Metropolis, Lois, I will, tomorrow, I'll put in my resignation and go back home to Smallville. Without you, there's really nothing left for me here anyway.”

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with anger and pain, and she spoke, the one word emerged shooting through the man of steel as though it were a dagger made of kryptonite. “Fine.”

*****

The following morning, Lois arrived at the newsroom early and she immediately went to Perry White's office and banged on the door. The editor watched with shock as the door suddenly opened the door as a very agitated reporter entered. Before she could speak, he spoke, his voice laced with concern. “Lois, what in tarnation is going on with you? Are you well? You look as though you haven’t slept in weeks.”

“Perry, we need to talk about something important,” she said, her voice filled with weariness, but she conveniently disregarded his other questions. Somehow, he knew that her personal frustrations were what had been getting the better of her and it was starting to have an affect on everything about her. He glanced up to see that Clark had not arrived at the newsroom yet.

“Where's Clark?” Perry asked.

“I don't know, and I don't care,” Lois spat out before she could stop herself, her personal frustrations obviously getting the better of her. She eyed the editor as he backed away from the door, closed it once she had entered the small office.

“What seems to be the problem?” Perry eventually asked, almost not wanting to know what the answer to his inquiry was going to be.

“I will not be working with Clark anymore, Perry. I can't,” Lois said, her voice filled with anger, and her eyes, although tired, were intent. “In fact, I don't want anymore partners at all.”

“Well, Lois, what you want and what you need are two entirely different things,” Perry began, almost automatically as though he was just waiting for the day, and the moment to deliver this particular speech. The way things were going around there, it was completely obvious that she had reached the point where the editor had no choice but to put his foot down in this regard. “Now, you know that I have always been there for you, and stood by you, but I will not let you go out on assignments alone, especially not in this frame of mind. You will work with a partner, or you will not work at all, period!”

“Excuse me?” Lois snapped. “Perry, before Clark came here, I was working solo.”

“I know that, Lois, and maybe later you can work solo again, but I think under these circumstances, you need to work with a partner at least for the time being,” he said firmly.

“Well if I must, then what choice do I have?” She muttered.

“You can choose who you work with, but you are not working alone. Now whether you believe it or not, this is for your own good,” Perry stood his ground as he looked across the desk at her. “You have been working very well with Clark for the last two years, and now you want to terminate a completely successful partnership. The reasons why, I suppose, are your business, and I am pretty certain that you have no intention of telling me them. However, I will not have you going out looking like death warmed over in order to interview people for articles. Right now, whether you like it or not, you need a rest, no question, and since you don't seem all that willing to take some time off to rest, I can only say that you need to divide the workload with someone else. Now, if you're not going to work with Clark, then I want you to work with Monica.”

“The new girl? You mean; the weather bunny from Chicago? Perry, you can't be serious,” Lois looked at him as though he was kidding. She knew that if she had to spend even five minutes in the presence of this particular person, she would resolve herself to going crazy. It should be a sin, for someone to be that upbeat. “I can't work with some wet behind the ears reporter, it would be like I'm a babysitter again; I am not a kindergarten teacher.”

“No, but you are part of a team, Lois, and if you won't work with Clark, then you will work with Monica, and I won't hear anything else about it,” he said, his eyes never faltering.

“I have to work with Miss Sunshine?” Lois asked. “I saw her here yesterday and talked to her for a few minutes, and she looked so happy and fluffy that I thought she could act as double for the Easter Bunny.”

“Lois, maybe we need someone around here who could cheer things up a little, and far be it from me to get angry with you for copping this attitude, but the fact remains, I am the boss and what I say goes. Now, you may hate me for it, but I am looking out for your best interests here, and Monica may be the new rookie in town, but every reporter has to start somewhere, and why not with the best in Metropolis?”

Lois' anger dissipated slightly when she realized that he was paying her a compliment, but her sour look returned when he got up from the desk and went to open the door. “Monica, could I see you in here for a minute?”

Seconds later, Monica had come into the office and sat down in the neighboring chair next to where Lois was already seated. “You two know each other?”

Monica shook her head. “Not very well, we talked a little yesterday when Jimmy was showing me around.”

“This is Lois Lane, Monica, and she's going to be your new partner,” Perry said.

“Nice to meet you,” Monica offered, but Lois looked away and the angel could see the aversion in the reporter's stance. “I look forward to working with you, I've heard a lot of wonderful things about your work,” she tried again, but when Lois did not reply, she stopped speaking.

Lois finally looked at Perry. “Is that all or am I sentenced to scraping gum out from under the desks, too?”

Her biting sarcasm caused Perry took a deep breath and he shook his head as his star reporter got up to go. Once she was gone, Monica looked at the editor.

“Did I say something wrong?” She asked.

“No, she's just having a bad day,” Perry said softly as Monica got up to leave the office. Once the angel was gone, the editor looked down at the clutter on his desk. At least I hope it's nothing more than just a bad day, he thought to himself as he watched Monica walking slowly over towards Lois’ desk and trying to engage the stony-faced reporter in conversation.

Next, his gaze came to rest on Clark Kent's desk, but when he realized that he had not arrived at work, he started to wonder where it was Kent had disappeared to, and what was going on with his two star reporters. Sighing deeply, he reached for a cup that was on his desk and took a long sip of the coffee that had been waiting for him since before Lois had come into the office.

As he watched the events in the newsroom, he could see that Clark had finally arrived, but instead of going to his desk, he could see that Clark was coming towards his office, and the reporter did not look happy.

*****

Once Lois and Monica had left to go out on their first assignment, Clark took the opportunity to submit his resignation to Perry. His eyes were filled with sadness when he knocked on the office door and was asked to come inside.

“Perry, I guess you noticed that things have gotten out of hand around here these past few days,” he began, his expression earnest, but he knew that the last thing he wanted to do was to say something that would cause Lois even more pain.

“What is it, son?” Perry asked once he looked at Clark and could see sadness in the eyes of the reporter.

“I'm going back to Smallville, Perry,” he said softly.

“You're leaving because something happened with Lois?” Perry asked.

“She terminated our partnership,” Clark replied.

“I know, I had to put her to work with Monica,” Perry said.

“Monica's very nice, maybe things will work out for both of them,” came the unenthusiastic response, and Perry looked at Clark, somehow detecting some kind of hidden meaning in the words of the younger man who was seated on the opposite side of the desk.

“Clark, is everything OK?” Perry asked as he intently looked at the younger man.

“Sure, everything's fine,” he hedged.

“Something tells me that you aren't telling me the entire truth. I think you and Lois could give stubborn lessons to a mule sometimes,” Perry said trying all the while to lighten the mood, but this mood became all the more distressing to the editor as Clark reached across the desk and handed him a piece of paper. Once he looked down at it and quickly skimmed the writing on it, his smile disappeared and he looked up. “You want to resign?”

“Yes,” Clark's response was almost automatic and forced. Noticing this, the editor, for some reason could not buy this response. After a few moments, he looked at Clark, all the while, seeing the determination in his eyes, and he figured that it was futile to argue the point of the reporter staying on.

“Are you sure?” Perry asked. “Is this really what you want to do?”

“It's not what I want to do, Perry, it's what I have to do,” Clark said softly. “I'm leaving Metropolis, and chances are I won't be coming back.”

“Clark, all that professionalism stuff aside; are you sure that you want to go?” Perry asked as he placed the piece of paper on the stack of pages already on his desk and looked back up at Clark. “If this has anything to do with Lois…”

“…It's my decision and I don't really want to talk about Lois anymore, I just want to go home because that is where I belong,” Clark's words were agonized, and Perry looked away only briefly, but after a few moments, he looked back over to the reporter on the other side of the desk.

“Let me make a suggestion,” Perry said. “In the interest of the Planet, go home for a time, think about what you really want to do, I mean; put some thought into it. Give it a couple of weeks, maybe three, talk it over with your parents if you want, and then call me, and tell me what you decide to do. But, son, don't throw away your career over this, it's a rash decision, and it may not be the choice that you would ultimately want to make. I'll hold your resignation for a time, but I won't file it until I hear from you, and I won't do anything with it for three weeks.”

Clark looked at the editor. Perry has always cared for him, and he knew it, and this action was just another way in which, he was showing how much he cared. After a few minutes, Clark reluctantly nodded. “I'm going to miss Metropolis, Chief.”

“You'll be back, I'm almost certain of it, but Clark, do think about what I said,” Perry smiled and nodded as he reached for the phone and watched as Clark left the office.

Once outside in the newsroom, Jimmy spotted him and came over to him. “Hey C.K., why the long face?”

“I'm going home, Jimmy, I just filed my resignation with Perry,” Clark said and the color faded from the younger man's face.

“No, you can't take off, C.K., you're one of the best reporters Metropolis has ever seen,” Jimmy objected, but when he looked at Clark, he knew that it was true, and there was nothing he could do to stop this nightmare from coming true.

“Jimmy, I'm sorry, but I'm leaving. I'll try to write you from Smallville,” Clark said, the determination in his voice, but his words were not convincing.

The young photographer, instead of speaking, simply nodded numbly as he walked over to his desk and sat down, his shoulders slumped as he stared down at the photos he had taken that morning.

As he stared at the pictures, his eyes began to mist over, but instead of showing Clark how hurt he was, Jimmy tried to conceal his emotions from the world. The thought of responding as his feelings seemed to have dictated seemed wrong somehow, so he shook his head and stared down at the desk as Clark left the newsroom.

Behind him, unseen by the people in the room, Andrew stood watching the young man all the while knowing that he was hurt about the fact that his best friend was leaving. At that moment, the angel received word that in two days, he would be sent to the Daily Planet and would have the opportunity to actively take part in this assignment.

“Angel Boy?” A voice emerged behind Andrew and he turned around.

“Tess, I thought you were in Smallville,” Andrew said softly.

“I will be going there very soon, in fact, once I leave you, I'll be working at the cafeteria at the Smallville Press and chances are, I will be working to convince Clark Kent to not give up his life in Metropolis. Did you get any word on your part of the assignment?”

“Yes, I am supposed to go in two days from now,” he said.

Tess nodded and looked down at Jimmy as he sat almost stoically at the desk, the young man still staring down at the photographs.

"He was the only one in this crummy place that treated me like an equal," Jimmy muttered under his breath. “Why does he think he has to leave?”

Andrew looked at the supervising angel. “I don't think Clark realizes the impact he has had on Jimmy, do you, Tess?”

“Clark has a lot to realize, and it is not just the fact that he possesses the ability to leave a positive impact on other people,” Tess said and smiled at him before disappearing leaving the compassionate angel still staring at Jimmy, his eyes filled with empathy.

*****

On the other side of town, Monica made very little headway with Lois; in fact, the reporter did not speak more than two words to her since they had left the Daily Planet newsroom after Perry had assigned them to work together.

They both climbed into a cab and were on their way back to the newspaper building. Once they were seated, Monica continued her observations of the reporter. She had learned a lot about Lois that day, but what the auburn headed angel wished for was that she could do more to help her assignment. Part of her wanted to show Lois that she wasn't as wet behind the ears as the reporter presumed, but she also thought that if she could show Lois this without coming across threatening, that they could become friends and she would be better able to help her.

She had not seen Tess or Andrew in over twenty-four hours, and she was starting to miss her angelic friends. With Lois treating her so indignantly gave Monica a new, strange, and unfamiliar sense of loneliness. She wanted to help, but she honestly did not know how.

As they disembarked the cab in front of the large high-rise building, Monica took a deep breath and finally decided to try and break her silence. “Lois?”

The reporter released a suppressed breath. “What?”

“I know you don't like working with me, but I wanted to tell you that I appreciate getting the chance to work with you,” Monica said earnestly. “I have been trying to learn how you are able to get answers to hard questions, and I discovered that you really do have a gift with this kind of thing.”

“Monica, let's get one thing out in the open before this charade goes on. You're not a reporter, are you?” Lois asked.

“I've donesome reporting,” she hedged.

“No, taking minutes at the business meeting of ‘Troop number 12 of the Boy Scouts’ is not reporting, I mean; have you ever been down in the trenches before?” Lois asked.

Monica shrugged her shoulders as she released a pent up sigh. “I'm sort of new at this, Lois.”

“Let me give you some vocational advice,” Lois began, her voice edgy, but she kept it level. “If you want to make it in Metropolis as a reporter, get rid of the ‘Miss Sunshine’ stance, it's becoming a real aggravation.”

“Miss Sunshine?” Monica asked looking somewhat bewildered.

“Yeah, you know, all that disgusting ‘have a nice day' stuff. It's getting you nowhere and fast. Take it from me; if you want to make it as a reporter, you've got to give it your all to get the story. That means, going on stakeouts like the police, believing in the worst about people, because they're always going to let you down, and simply not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

“I can't do that, Lois,” Monica said.

“Then you'd better go back to taking minutes then, because that’s what it takes to be a good reporter around here,” came the sharp answer.

Monica nodded numbly, her eyes filled with confusion, and after a few moments, she glanced over at Lois. “I am under the impression that you don't like me.”

Lois' eyes rolled upon hearing Monica's words and she turned around and made eye contact with the angel. “Let's just keep this on a professional level, shall we?”

Having little if no choice, the angel nodded as the two of them made their way towards the large building, which housed the newspaper. As they walked, Monica took another deep breath all the while the young angel was trying to remember what Tess had said to her prior to her having gone to Perry in order to interview for this job the day before.

Once inside the building, Monica stopped in the lobby as Lois walked towards the elevator with the intention of riding it up to the newsroom. As the light blinked indicating that the elevator had reached the ground floor, both women looked up to see that Clark was coming out of it, and in his arms, he was carrying what appeared to be a large, heavy cardboard box.

“Clark?” Monica spoke as Lois ignored the two of them and stepped into the elevator and pressed the button without giving Monica a second thought. Seconds later, the doors closed behind her.

“I’m leaving Metropolis, Monica,” he said once Lois was gone and he was left standing in the lobby with the young angel. Monica looked at him and somewhere in the deep recesses of his eyes; she could see the utter pain and heartbreak that shadowed his handsome face.

“Why?” She asked. “You remember what we talked about yesterday, don't you?”

“Yes, I remember, but I can't stay here, it's too hard for me,” he said but before she could say anything to counter what he had just said, he walked slowly away from her, his shoulders slumped. As soon as he disappeared outside and she was alone, she covered her face with her hands and shook her head.

“Oh Father, what now?” She asked softly, as she looked from the entrance to the building back in the direction Lois had gone. With deliberate steps, she walked towards the elevator and once she reached it, she could see that Andrew was standing next to the door waiting for her. The Angel of Death was in angelic form, so no one could see him except for Monica. When she looked over at him, she could see that he carried a concerned look on his face. “Andrew?”

“Hi,” he said softly, and reached over and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Rough day?”

“What am I doing here?” She finally asked, her confidence in this assignment seriously waning.

“I don't know, Monica,” he said softly. “In two days, I'll be here working with you, but until then, all I can tell you is to just hang in there.”

“Andrew, what are you doing here?” She finally managed to ask him.

The Angel of Death shifted his weight uncomfortably; he knew that Monica didn't like it very much when he tried to interfere with her on assignments. In fact, she seemed to like it about as much as Lois did.

Andrew smiled weakly as he realized that this was one similarity that both his friend and the reporter seemed to share. Perhaps it was enough to give Monica the leverage in regards to helping Lois. He took a deep breath and exhaled it very slowly before he began to speak. “Tess wanted me to come here and check in with you and see how everything is going, just doing my part to be a good friend,” he smiled weakly, but quickly added. “I think you're doing a great job though, Monica, and you don't really need me around unless to give you a little moral support.” With that, he handed her a styrofoam cup and when she took the lid off, she inhaled the scent of a decaffeinated mocha latte.

“You always know what I need, Andrew,” she smiled at him.

“You’re going to do just fine,” Andrew said as she sipped the drink.

She nodded but looked up at him, and shook her head. “How am I doing? Oh Andrew, I don't know how I'm doing. Lois doesn't like me, it's perfectly obvious, she doesn't talk to me, and when she does, she's usually angry and sarcastic. She calls me ‘Miss Sunshine’, but all it does is give me the distinct impression that I'm doing everything wrong. I mean; when I offer a compliment she gets upset, and when I try to help, she literally tells me to butt out.”

“Did it ever occur to you that you're not doing anything wrong, Monica?” Andrew asked gently as he squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. “She just doesn't want to trust because she's been hurt by people in the past. This isn't a reflection on you; you’re doing your best, and the Father made the best decision possible when He put you on this case,” Andrew said softly and smiled gently at his sensitive friend. “Remember what Tess said at the beginning of all this? She told us how hard it was going to be for us to get close to Lois. Something or someone has hurt her. We don't know what it is yet, but this hurt is causing her to say and do things that she would not normally say or do. Keep that in mind, but don't give up on her; she needs to learn to trust, and this defensive mechanism that she has is going to take a little bit of time to break through.”

“I still don't think I'm the right angel for Lois, Andrew, maybe Tess is better suited for this one,” Monica said softly as she thought about Tess’ attitude and she shrugged her shoulders as she looked at her friend.

“This was no mistake, Monica, you're here because this was the best place for you to be,” Andrew said sternly. “Now, you just do your best, that's all you can do.”

“I don't know if I can even do this assignment, Andrew.”

“Listen to me, Monica, you will do just fine,” Andrew said smiling at her. “Sometimes working with people like Lois, helps an angel to find their belief in themselves, but at the same time, it enhances their understanding. Although people have free will, it is God who is in control of the situation, but you know as well as I do that He does offer them help if they wish to accept it. He knows you're doing your best, but just keep this in mind as you try to make heads or tails of all of this.”

Monica nodded, and within seconds, she was once again alone and the elevator had reached the ground floor. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the small closet sized room and rode up to the newsroom, her thoughts a constant jumble.

*****

Once Monica had reached the correct floor and the doors had opened, she stepped out into the foyer. Once she came out into the newsroom, Lois came over and met her. “Monica, do you still have the notes I gave you this afternoon?”

“Yes, I have them, they're right here,” Monica said softly, all the while trying to maintain her characteristic optimism. She pulled the requested papers from her briefcase and handed them to the reporter. “What does all this mean, Lois?”

“Rookies,” Lois muttered under her breath, but when she noticed the hurt expression on her partner's face, her tone softened considerably and she tried to offer an adequate response to Monica's inquiry. “Just before you showed up here in Metropolis, there was a big drug bust that went down, and Superman was there and he sort of cleaned things up, but now one of the big bosses is back in town and seems to be in circulation again. Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: We’ve got to take care of them, as well as help put them out of commission.”

“What can we do?” Monica asked. “We're just reporters.”

“Well Rookie, since we have to work together, I'll let you in on the story I have been trying to find a break in. Now, grant it, I'm not completely thrilled with sharing this with you, in fact, if truth were known, I wouldn’t. However, I also know that if I didn't, Perry would hit the roof, and the last thing I need right now is more stress. So, this is strictly on a professional level.”

“I suppose that's a start,” Monica mused more to herself than to Lois.

“Start, huh? Well, just so you'll know, I'm not looking for any new friends, I'm just looking to have results, and if there aren't any, then that will mean nothing but trouble for both of us.” As she spoke, Monica could see the hesitancy in Lois’ stance, and instead of asking about it, she remained quiet as Lois continued speaking. “I heard that in a few weeks there going to be a rave going on in one of the clubs on the eastside, I thought maybe we could dress as outdated hippies or something, go there, and see if we can blend in a little and get the story out.”

Monica looked at her. “Hippies?”

“You must be from the sticks, Monica, or do they not have rave parties in Ireland?” Lois asked after a few moments of silence. It was obvious that she was trying to place Monica's accent, and seemed to have been successful at detecting it.

“No, I suppose not,” she smiled weakly and rather than elaborate on what Lois had just asked, she took a deep breath and rubbed her hands together. Deep inside Monica had this uncanny feeling that she had finally found a small break in Lois' abruptness, but this did not last long, as the reporter seemed to be rather reluctant about offering any information about herself at all.

“Well, then I guess we have some work to do, Miss Sunshine,” Lois continued to speak, her voice filled with sarcastic undertones. Once she sat down at her desk, Monica managed to pull a chair over and sit down as well.

“Why do you call me that?” Monica asked after a few moments of awkward silence had passed between them.

“Well, it suits you for one thing,” Lois, said and taking a deep breath she looked over at Monica. “The truth is, without Clark around, I guess I'm a little lonely here, I mean Jimmy's here, but now he looks at me as if I've got a contagious disease or something.”

“Maybe he's hurting, too, Lois. From the looks of things, it seems as though he has lost his best friend,” Monica said as she looked across the room and could see that the young photographer looked lost. After a second, she glanced over to see that Lois also carried a despondent look on her face. Without thinking, she continued. “It also looks as though you have lost yours as well.”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Lois said icily. “It's bad enough that we have to work together, but if you start meshing yourself into my private affairs, then I will not work with you at all, and I don't care what Perry says about that.”

Monica, knowing that she had lost, nodded numbly and the two of them went over to Lois' desk and got to work.

*****

That evening Clark arrived in Smallville and immediately went to the home of his parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent. The small farmhouse where he had grown up was a welcome sight for the weary reporter and as soon as he came into the house, he knew that his parents were going to be expecting a viable sort of explanation from him as to why he had abruptly left Metropolis. As he came into the kitchen, he could see that his mother was hard at work cooking dinner.

“Mom, you don't have to go through so much trouble for me,” he offered as he sat down at the kitchen table, thus causing her to turn around.

“Don't you worry yourself about that, Clark, it's perfectly obvious that you're tired,” she offered. She and her husband had just returned from their anniversary trip to Italy, and her face was flushed with happiness, but when she saw the unhappy look on her son's face, this newfound joy melted away and her expression altered, the concern so evident, that she eventually sat down at the table and looked at him. The expression on her face was a cross between fear and worry for his welfare. “What is it?”

“Mom, Lois knows the truth, but now she hates me,” Clark said softly. “The weird thing is, I tried to tell her the truth before, but every time I tried the phone would ring, or Jimmy would come into the conference room where we were talking, and I never got the chance. I mean it feels like fate has something against me even telling her the truth.”

Martha shook her head. “I don't think it was fate, honey, it was just bad timing is all.”

“OK, maybe so, but Mom, you didn't hear her last night; she absolutely hates me,” Clark said miserably.

“I don't think so, Clark,” Martha patted her son's hand gently, and her eyes met his. “I have the feeling that she’s just angry, maybe her pride is just a little bit hurt, but I honestly think that she'll come around. Now, tell me, was this the reason you came home, or is there something else?” Martha smiled gently at him; her eyes filled with all the love only a mother could carry.

“I just wanted to come and see you and Dad,” Clark said sadly. “I was thinking about quitting at the Planet, but Perry told me to take three weeks off and see if I can come back after a little bit of time has passed. I suppose he figures that I will change my mind.”

“Rather smart of him, time tends to have an effect on decisions, especially rash ones,” Martha said smiling at her son. “So you're home for three weeks?” She asked as Clark’s father came inside, his eyes brightening considerably when he saw his son seated at the kitchen table.

“What brings you home, Clark?” He asked, not expecting to see his son there, especially in the middle of the week. He smiled warmly as he ran his hand through his gray hair as he sat down at the table as well.

“Perry gave me three weeks off,” Clark said, deciding it best not to elaborate too much. “I've got a few things to think about here, but if I just sit around here the whole time, I think I'll go nuts. I can't just sit here and do nothing but think about what has happened in my life.”

Jonathan nodded. “We're glad you're home, aren't we Martha?”

She nodded and rested a reassuring hand on Clark's shoulder.

“Well, if I could, I'd like to stay here for awhile, maybe get a job in town,” Clark said weakly.

“I have a friend who works for the Smallville Press, maybe she can help you get some part-time hours in over there, but you need rest, Clark, you've got circles around your eyes,” Martha said. “It wouldn't hurt to take a little bit of time off for yourself, and I think your father would be just a little bit skeptical of you sitting around here moping.” She looked at Jonathan and received a reciprocating nod.

“OK, Mom, I'll work part-time,” he conceded. “I'll go by there tomorrow morning and see if there's any openings there. At this stage of the game, I'll even work in the mailroom if I have to. I guess since I may have a job to go to tomorrow then I should get some sleep, it’s late and it's been a very long day.”

“Maybe you should, but I’d suggest that you do so after you have eaten a good meal,” she said and smiled as she stood up and retrieved a bowl from the cabinet, filled it with homemade chicken and noodles, and placed it on the table in front of him.

Using super speed, he ate the food his mother had prepared, and stood up to go down the hall to his room. Once he was gone, Martha looked at Jonathan all the while shaking her head. “You ever notice how our friends would complain about how quickly their children inhaled their food? If any of them could see how quickly Clark sometimes eats, they would immediately stop their complaining.”

Jonathan chuckled, but in the recesses of his mind, there was a matching concern dwelling there. “Sometimes things look a little bit better after someone has gotten a good night's sleep,” he offered trying to lighten his wife's mood, but as he looked at Clark's empty plate, he shook his head, barely able to believe those words.

*****

By this time, Clark had gone down the hall and went into his old room. Once he closed the door, he looked around the familiar room and smiled only slightly. His parents had kept the room as it was in case he was to come back to Smallville to visit. He was still unsure as to whether or not he would ever go back to Metropolis, but something told him that he would not really want to go back until the three weeks Perry had insisted on were behind him.

Sighing deeply, he sat down on the bed, his thoughts literally encasing him. He knew that Monica was in Metropolis working with Lois, so maybe the pretty auburn headed woman would help curtail her endless quest to get into trouble. As his mind drifted to that topic, he sighed deeply. It was at that instance that he understood that he would have to show up there periodically in order to protect his secret. Even with this knowledge, he realized that Superman was not always going to be around to bail Lois out and this made his heart literally ache.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and slowly removed his glasses. Once he laid them on the nightstand next to the bed, he began to rub his face with his hands. He was tired, but he was not sure if he would even be able to sleep. Lois' angry words from the night before still stabbed at his conscience and he shook his head in denial as he contemplated what she had said to him.

He continued to ponder the decision he had made to leave Metropolis. Not only was there Lois to consider, but then there was also the Planet. He had friends there, Perry and Jimmy, to name a few. He really liked Jimmy, the young man was more like the younger brother he never had, and Perry was more like an adopted father than a boss. Clark continued to reflect on how Perry even called him ‘son’ now and again. This made a difference to him, even though he had the most wonderful parents in the world.

After a few more minutes of mulling over his complicating life, he stood up and finished getting ready for bed. This secret identity stuff was not what it was cracked up to be, he thought sadly. Sometimes, he felt as though he was split in two, and the worst part about it was the person he loved more than anything, was one he had hurt the most because of this secret.

Releasing another pent up sigh, he laid down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes refusing to close, but all the while he hoped that he would eventually be able to sleep. He lightly punched his pillow, hoping that he would be able to fluff it without sending the feathers flying because of the usual force sustained with his super-strength. This had often happened to him when he was younger. Today, he had lost count as to how many pillows he had unintentionally destroyed because during his teen years, he did not know his own strength sometimes.

As he continued to stare at the ceiling, the realization dawned on him how nice it was to actually be back home, how the sounds of nature had replaced the sounds of police sirens, alley cats, and the hustle and bustle of the life in the big city. He inhaled slowly and could smell the freshness of the air around him, the scent of honeysuckle and hay filling his nostrils.

“Maybe in all of this, I can actually find some peace,” he whispered to himself as he closed his eyes and rested his hands comfortingly behind his head.

Beside his bed, Tess stood in angelic form, all the while; she was shaking her head sadly. “You will find your peace, baby,” she said softly, her voice filled with motherly compassion. “But, you will have to go back to Metropolis and face some very hard truths before you will find that peace, which you desperately need. I am here and I have every intention of helping you do that, but it is going to be very difficult.” Without another word, the angel disappeared and Clark sat bolt upright in bed and abruptly opened his eyes.

“Who's there?” He asked the stillness, all the while, he was completely certain that his super-hearing had detected a soft and gentle utterance. It was a comforting and loving voice, which literally enfolded him, and the resonance of it, seemed to be coming from a spot right next to his bed. He looked around the room for a few minutes, and when he noticed in the direction of his bedroom door; he could see that the lights in the rest of the house were out, an indication that his parents had already gone to bed.

He looked around the room one last time, but when he could see that he was still alone in this room, he shook his head, bewilderment shadowing his handsome face, but eventually, he laid back down against the pillow, pulled the comforter up to his chin and on his back, he stared at the ceiling until sleep eventually overcame him.

*****

The following morning Clark woke up bright and early and got dressed to go into town. He had been told that he would be able to go to the Smallville Press and that he was assured that because of his reputation back in Metropolis that he would be able to secure his old job there. He hadn't been back to the small town newspaper since leaving for Metropolis, but none of that seemed to matter because everyone there seemed to know him anyway. Although he could not stop thinking about Lois, he was really glad to be back in the swing of reporting, even if what he was reporting were things that were small and insignificant compared to the action of the big city.

After getting his assignment, he met the young Hispanic man who was to become his working associate. The youth was a photographer named Raphael, who reminded him a lot of Jimmy, although there was absolutely nothing similar in their behavior whatsoever. Raphael was a sort of 'in your face' personality, and oddly enough, the only thing he shared with Jimmy was an uncanny enthusiasm for work, as well as appearing to be around the same age.

“So you've been living in Metropolis for the last two years?” Raphael asked trying to get Clark to start talking as they were leaving the PTA meeting that was taking place on the other side of town. As they were walking back through the old fashioned town in the direction of the offices, Clark seemed to have his head in the clouds, but a nudge from the young man brought him back down to earth, and he looked at Raphael, suddenly realizing that the photographer had spoken.

“Yeah I was there for awhile, but something came up and I had to come back home,” he offered freely as they walked through the square. “Sometimes coming home is the best thing for a person. It kind of puts their situation into a proper perspective.”

Raphael nodded as he, too, began to think about home. “I know what you mean, Amigo.”

“Listen, I'm going to go and have a cappuccino, want to come along?” Clark asked. “I remember they used to have the best cappuccinos around here, well next to Italy, of course.”

“Sounds great,” Raphael said smiling broadly.

Once the two of them went through a small doorway on one side of the Smallville Press’ leased out office space. There, they entered a cafeteria and they approached the counter. On the opposite side, stood Tess, a caring smile on her face and her brown eyes were filled with compassion. “Hello there, what can I get for you two today?” She asked warmly as she took a towel and wiped it across the counter.

“Can one still get a cappuccino here?” Clark asked.

“Yes, is that what you would like?” She asked; her alto voice filled with warmth and kindness. “You can get it with whipped cream or condensed milk on top, so what's your preference?”

“Condensed milk for me,” Clark said as Tess looked at Raphael her eyebrow raised in expectation of what he was going to order.

“I'll have a caffeine free cola, and a bag of chips,” Raphael said and once Tess tossed a bag of chips at him she went over to retrieve the bottle of cola for him.

“The cappuccino is going to take a few minutes to make, but I'll bring it to you when it's done,” she said as Clark went over to an empty table and sat down. A copy of the newspaper was on the table, so he reached for it and opened it as Raphael looked at Tess.

“What's his story?” Raphael asked softly, trying to keep his voice low.

“None of us know yet, baby,” Tess said.

“Andrew and Monica are in Metropolis?” Raphael asked.

Tess nodded. “Our job is going to be helping Clark get back there and face his past, but I don't know anything else, I'm afraid. Did you find out anything about why he came here?”

“Nothing, he's really quiet about his life, it's like he has a secret or something and doesn't really know how to deal with it,” Raphael said as he took a sip of his drink.

“I know, I'd better get his cappuccino done, why don't you go over and try to get him to talk about himself?” Tess suggested, but before he had completely walked away, she looked up. “Angel Child?”

“Yes, Tess?”

“It's a hard case right now, Monica's been having some problems with her end of it, but the Father has the utmost faith in you,” she smiled and watched as he picked up the bag of chips and the bottle of cola and walked over to the table where Clark was sitting.

“What are you reading?” Raphael asked as he sat down next to Clark and watched as he mulled over the newspaper that was in front of him.

“Someone left a copy of the Metropolis Star here and I was just checking out what was happening back there,” he said shrugging his shoulders.

“Did you work for the Star?” Raphael asked.

“No, I was working at the Daily Planet,” he offered freely.

“Really, that must have been awesome, I mean; the Planet is big time, not like here where people are just getting their feet wet. So you did big time reporting there?”

“I don't know about that,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I enjoyed the work.”

Raphael shook his head in disbelief. “I heard about the Kerth award you got earlier this year for your reporting, Clark. The deal is; if you were so successful there, why did you come back here? I mean; most of the people around here would give their right eye to work for Perry White and hang around the Daily Planet. Most people here would love it if you came back and just did a workshop on reporting here, not actually work here.”

“I'd just like to forget about it, Raphael,” Clark said softly, but something told him that the enthusiastic young photographer was not about to give it a rest, in fact, he seemed just the type that would savor the flavors of the big city.

“Why? I mean; you're one of the best reporters around, and when I was told that I would be working with you, I thought that was the greatest privilege that I could have been given.”

“Look, in this game, we're equals, and nobody is better or worse than anyone else,” Clark said softly.

“Oh man, I know you're right, but still.” As he spoke, Tess brought over Clark's cappuccino and sat it on the table in front of him.

“You need anything else, baby?” Tess asked, thus causing Clark to snap his head up and look at her with a mixed expression on his face, one was bewilderment, the other anxiety. After a few seconds had passed, he shook his head indicating that he was OK and she walked away.

“What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost?” Raphael asked as Clark began to put spoonfuls of sugar into his drink.

“There's something just different about her, I can't put my finger on it, but something unusual,” he said shrugging his shoulders, but opted to keep his thoughts about the dream to himself. Strangely enough, he could not get the events of the night before out of his mind. He had heard someone speaking to him while he was lying in bed, he just knew it, but there was no one there. The words that the woman had said to him had emerged as clear as crystal. Specifically, the word ‘baby’ seemed to vividly stand out in his mind. Oddly enough, as Tess had brought his cappuccino, she had used the same word.

He shook his head, almost as though he was in denial, but then he had come into this cafeteria and Tess had said this word to him, the cadence of it practically the same and he could almost feel the essence of the word literally leaping out at him. To add to his confusion, he could not remember if last night had only been a dream, but there was a subconscious impression of familiarity, and this, if anything, added to his confusion.

Part of his abilities included a nearly flawless memory, and yet, even though he could remember every single person he had rescued since becoming Superman, he could not remember ever having rescued or seen the warmhearted woman standing at the counter in the cafeteria. Although she was a stranger to him, he realized that she seemed oddly familiar, his instincts telling him that she was someone he could trust, but the reason behind this was still unknown and rather spooky to him.

“Maybe you should talk to her about these weird feelings,” Raphael was saying, and the words seemed to abruptly break Clark out of his reverie. When he saw the expression on his new colleague's face, he thought better of it. “Listen, Tess has been working here for only a few days now, and she's really nice, very wise to the ways of the world. In fact, there is probably nothing that you could say that would surprise her; so why don't you try?”

Clark smiled ironically, the last question causing him to shake his head slowly. As he sat and stared down at the cappuccino in front of him, he wondered what was happening in Metropolis, and how Lois was faring now that he was not around to make things complicating.

*****

The morning after Clark started working in Smallville for their newspaper, a handsome new photographer walked into the Daily Planet building in order to apply for a job. He rode up to the newsroom and walked through it, stopping only for a moment at Lois Lane’s desk. Lois had come to work early and was concentrating on the rough draft of one of the stories she had been assigned to work with Monica on.

“Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but I was wondering if you could tell me how to find Perry White's office,” the man spoke, causing Lois to immediately look up and into a pair of compassionate green eyes.

“Right over there,” she pointed to a glass door and returned her attention to the notes in front of her.

“Thank you,” he said with a smile and walked over to the door, knocked and when he heard the voice on the other side saying ‘come in’, he opened the door and went inside. “Good morning, Mr. White?”

“Yes, and you're?” Perry asked.

“My name is Andrew,” came the response and as the angel looked across the desk at the editor, he realized that it would be prudent to supply a surname. “Andrew Halo,” he quickly supplied all the while smiling at the nickname Tess had given to him.

Perry nodded. “You're a photographer, right?”

“Yes,” he smiled.

As the editor looked outside into the newsroom he could see that Jimmy was sitting at his desk, his elbows on the desk, his hands practically holding his chin up. He was staring at the computer screen and Perry sighed deeply as he tried to look at Andrew instead of at the young man who had not been himself since Clark Kent had left Metropolis.

“Mr. White?” Andrew spoke, but instead of waiting for an answer, he turned around and followed the gaze of the older man.

“Call me Perry, almost everyone around here does,” came the almost automatic response, but the man was still staring at Jimmy through the blinds that separated the glass encased office from the outer sanctions of the newsroom.

Once Andrew could also see Jimmy, he nodded as though he understood, Perry was worried, and perhaps for good reason. “You're worried about him, aren't you?”

Sensing the sincerity in Andrew’s words, the editor nodded as he tried to refocus his attention on the man who was applying to work there. “Yes, I suppose I am. You see, Andrew, I tend to look out for people who work here. I guess you could say I'm like an overprotective mother hen or something, but that's just how things are here. We're kind of like family here, and a few days ago, one of our family members decided to fly the coop, so to speak.”

“I'm sorry,” Andrew said.

“No reason, anyway, if you want a job here, it's yours, just do me a favor and fill out this paperwork and give it back to me by the end of the day. Once you do that, we'll see what we can do to get you processed into the system and get you out there in the field. Incidentally, it's a nice coincidence that you came in when you did because we're a few photographers short right now.”

“I don't believe in coincidences, Perry, I'm just glad to be here,” Andrew said.

“Whatever, so I imagine with that huge chunk of equipment you're carrying that you know which end to look through in order to take a picture?” Perry asked through an almost forced smile.

“Absolutely,” Andrew smiled.

“OK, I'll let you go to work with Jimmy for now, at least until you learn the ropes around here. Jimmy is kind of young, but he knows his way around here, and I figure that he can put you on the fast track as to how things are here,” he said smiling, but he did not add that he was concerned with Jimmy's mental state so soon after his best friend had left the paper and gone back to Smallville. For some reason, he hoped that the kind-hearted, green-eyed photographer would be able to help Jimmy not feel so upset about Clark's abrupt disappearance. The editor also figured that he could always put Andrew elsewhere if or when Clark was to come back.

Andrew stood up to leave the office, “Thank you.”

With a wave of his hand, Perry dismissed his newest photographer.

Outside in the newsroom, Andrew went over to Jimmy's desk. “Jimmy Olsen?”

The younger man looked up. “Yeah, what can I do for you?”

“Hi, my name's Andrew, I'm new here and Perry said that once I fill out all this paperwork, I could work with you a little bit, and that maybe you could show me around,” he smiled at the younger man.

“Sure,” Jimmy stood up and ran his hand through his dark brown hair. Once Andrew had filled in the paperwork, he returned it to Perry and then came back out into the newsroom. As he stood next to the desk, Jimmy smiled weakly. “You can drop your stuff here if you want. I was just going downstairs to get something to drink.”

Andrew smiled and did as the younger man suggested. “So, how long have you been working here?”

“Awhile, seems almost like forever,” came the unenthusiastic answer.

“Is there something wrong?” Andrew asked noticing this.

“No, it's nothing,” Jimmy said.

“If you need a friend, I'll listen,” Andrew offered.

“Look, it's no big deal, I just have been having a rough few days is all,” Jimmy said shrugging his shoulders as they got into the elevator and rode down to the lobby. “You ever wonder if the world is going to take you seriously?” He muttered to himself all the while hoping that Andrew had not heard the soft utterances he had spoken. He knew that the only reason he had said them was to vent his frustrations, but not with the expectations of an answer.

“Sometimes, people feel like they have to prove themselves a lot, I suppose,” Andrew said, “but there's really no reason to.”

“Maybe not, but the only person around here who actually treated me as an equal is gone and I'm left here to muddle through alone,” Jimmy said as they came outside and walked towards the small coffee wagon that was located down the street from the building where they worked.

“You're not alone, Jimmy,” Andrew said softly. “You still have friends here.”

“Yeah, well, that's all fine and good, but new friends can't replace the old ones,” he said.

“No, they can't but new friends can help you to accept what has happened, and help you to make the best of it,” Andrew said. “I'm new here, completely new to Metropolis, I don't know anyone in this town, I have only been a photographer for a short time, and I don't have very much experience when it comes to the newspaper business. Maybe that's why Perry decided to let me work with you; maybe he has more confidence in you then you realized.”

“Really?” Jimmy asked looking up as Andrew's words somehow struck a chord with him. “You mean it?”

“Why would I say this if I didn't?” Andrew challenged him with one of his own. “Sometimes it's nice to have someone to talk to who understands these kinds of things. It's nice to have a friend to go to bat for you, so to speak.”

“Yeah, you're right, it is.” Jimmy placed his order and paid when he was given a cup filled with cola and ice. He took a drink as Andrew paid for his order and the two of them walked back in the direction of the building.

“It's a nice day, isn't it?” Andrew asked as he looked towards the heavens, the sun was high in the sky and he could feel the warmth of it on his face. Across the street, he could see that Monica was walking towards the door of the building.

“Yeah,” he said, but instead of commenting further, he started to quicken his step and ran to catch up with Monica. Andrew followed and by the time they reached the lobby of the building, they had managed to catch up with her. “Hey, Monica.”

“Hi Jimmy,” Monica smiled.

“This is Andrew, he just started today,” Jimmy introduced the two angels and pressed the button that would summon the elevator. “This is Monica, she's fairly new here too.”

“Hello,” Monica said and Andrew could detect a sense of relief on the face of his friend and fellow angel. She looked completely frazzled, and although he had tried to help her with this particular case, he knew that his efforts had been unsuccessful.

“Hi,” Andrew smiled. “Jimmy's been showing me around, we went first to the coffee cart and got a hot decaffeinated mocha latte.”

“Oh, that's my favorite,” Monica said smiling.

“Do you want this one?” He offered. “I haven't had any of it yet, so if you want it, you're more than welcome to it.”

“Thank you,” Monica smiled and accepted the cup. “I’m running a little late today. I set my alarm for seven, but for some reason it didn't go off.”

“That happens to me a lot,” Jimmy said smiling ever so slightly as he took a drink of his cola. “I sometimes wonder what would happen if Perry wasn't the boss around here, I'd probably have been fired at least a dozen times.”

Monica laughed as she took a sip of the coffee.

As they reached the floor to the newsroom and stepped out of the elevator, Perry approached them. “Jimmy, I want you and Andrew to hightail it over to the fairgrounds, there's a rodeo that is going on, and you guys need to get some pictures for the morning edition. Can you handle that, Son?”

“Yeah, Chief, no problem,” Jimmy responded and once he and Andrew retrieved their cameras, the two of them left the newsroom.

*****

Once they were gone, Monica made her way over to where Lois was sitting. “Good morning, Lois,” Monica offered.

“Where have you been, Miss Sunshine?” Lois asked.

“Strange thing, my alarm didn't go off this morning,” Monica said honestly and shrugged her shoulders as thought she was simply uncertain what was going on.

“You meet Blondie?” Lois asked as she continued typing.

“You mean Andrew?” Monica asked and once Lois nodded, she continued. “Yes, we met downstairs, he's very nice, and he bought me a mocha latte.”

“How to win friends and influence people, through coffee beans and oversleeping,” Lois said sarcastically noticing the smile on her partner’s pretty face. “So, do you like him?”

“He seems like a nice guy,” Monica offered freely wondering all the while where the conversation was actually going.

“He’s cute, but that’s only on the surface,” Lois said. “Take it from me, getting involved with another pretty face will only lead to heartache.”

Monica sat down next to Lois’ desk without saying a word.

After a few minutes, Monica looked over at the article Lois was working on and began to read.

As the morning faded into the afternoon, Lois continued giving Monica the silent treatment until eventually Perry came out of his office and noticed that Andrew and Jimmy had returned from their assignment. It was obvious that the new photographer and Jimmy were getting along rather well and after watching them go over to Jimmy's desk, he approached Lois and Monica.

“I just got a call Lois, and you and Monica need to get over to the museum, the mayor is supposed to give a speech at the opening. We’re going to need a report, as well as some photos, so you can take Jimmy and Andrew with you.”

Lois looked up. “Maybe this can be done without me, I have to get this drug ring story finished.”

“That story's not going anywhere, Lois, and based on the report you handed in yesterday, this story is still on ice until next week,” Perry said. “Go ahead, you look as though a little fresh air will do you some good.”

Lois nodded, and rather than argue the point with him, she grabbed for her purse and motioned for Monica to follow her. The two of them walked over to Jimmy's desk. “Grab your stuff, you guys,” she began, “we’ve got an assignment to get to.”

Jimmy nodded, but he looked as though he wanted to run out of the room. Shrugging his shoulders, he picked up his camera and began to follow the two reporters towards the elevator. Andrew followed and once they reached the elevator, the young photographer looked at Andrew. “Did you catch the baseball game on TV last night?” His question emerged with more optimism than he seemed to carry.

“No, can't say I have,” Andrew offered as Lois impatiently pressed the button and the elevator carried the four of them down to the ground level.

“I saw it,” Monica said.

“You're a sports fan?” Jimmy asked looking at Monica with new interest.

“Yes, it was quite a good game,” she said. “Maybe you can explain some of this to me, I haven't watched too many baseball games, but they are quite exciting, aren't they?”

Lois looked at Andrew her eyebrows arching, but no words emerged. Deep inside, she could not help but sense the amusement in this, her new partner could talk baseball with Jimmy, and Andrew seemed to be totally in the dark with anything sports related. She shook her head as the elevator doors opened and the four of them walked through the lobby and out into the bright spring sunshine.

“It's a beautiful day, isn't it?” Andrew asked no one in particular, but his eyes were on Lois. When she did not answer, he glanced skyward, his thoughts drifting up to the heavens. Father, she is really a tough nut to crack.

Yes, My angel, but don't give up, Lois has to learn to trust, The Father's voice resonated in his conscious and he glanced over towards Monica who was now in conversation with Jimmy about the intricacies of baseball. He looked at Lois; the reporter seemed to have an impatient look on her face, and he wondered why it was that she seemed to not only dislike him, but that she was so reluctant about being friends with Monica. The more he thought about this, the more confused he became.

*****

Back in Smallville, Clark was experiencing his own brand of confusion. He had not spoken to his parents about the dream or about the lady in the cafeteria as of yet. At the same time, he could not help but notice that whenever he would go into the small cafeteria to buy cappuccinos or snacks, that Tess was always there, and she would often be looking over at him, with a warmth, which was strange but also unsettling.

On this particular day, Raphael had gone out on another assignment and Clark had other things to do, so the two had parted company for the day. It had been almost a week since going to work for the Smallville Press, and even though he had become friends with Raphael, and he was happy at home, there was something very intense that was missing for him. It seemed to happen every time he went as Superman to take a look at how things were shaping up in Metropolis, yet, right after he would come back, he would only feel a greater sense of emptiness enveloping him than he had experienced before actually going.

He walked with weighted steps in the direction of the cafeteria and pulled the door open. Just as before, when he had come to this place, it was practically empty. Tess was standing at the counter, and she offered him another of her, now familiar, smiles.

Instead of going to a table, he went and took a seat on one of the circular stools in front of the counter, which extended from one side of the small cafeteria to the other. He took a deep breath as Tess came over and placed his usual cappuccino in front of him. “I had a funny feeling that you would be back in here today, baby,” she said, the final word hanging in the air like a pendulum almost enticing him to speak to her or ask if he actually knew her from somewhere.

As he reached for the sugar bowl and began to stir in generous portions to the cup, Tess came over as he was supplying the fourth spoonful. As she watched him, she arched her eyebrows. “Would like a fork for that?”

“Huh?” Clark looked up to see that she was staring at the cup in front of him, and rather than respond to her inquiry, he shrugged his shoulders.

“I asked if you would like a fork for that, or do you want some cappuccino to have with that sugar?” Tess asked.

“I like it sweet,” Clark said remembering how his mother, and even Lois for that matter, would say that he had the diet of an eight-year-old.

“Obviously,” Tess said as she removed the apron she was wearing and came out from behind the counter to sit down next to him. “I have a friend who loves coffee, she would drink twenty a day if she was given the chance. Of course, that's what some people would call ‘excessive’.”

Clark nodded but continued to stir the drink even after the sugar had dissolved in the cup and the angel could tell that this seemed more of a reflex to him than a task that needed to be completed.

“You OK, honey?” She finally asked after about two minutes had passed and he was still sitting there listlessly stirring the drink and not even bringing the cup to his lips. She took a deep breath as she watched him; he was not even moving, and she could not help but look at him with concern in her dark eyes.

“Sure, I'm fine,” he said softly, his eyes constantly on the cup, which sat before him.

“If that's fine, than I'm Miss America,” Tess said sarcastically, thus causing Clark to look at her. Tess was not what one would call a ‘beauty queen’, but her beauty seemed to emerge more in her words and actions than in her outward appearance. On the surface, she was heavyset, with mahogany colored skin and gray hair. She looked to be in her mid to late sixties, but Clark thought she was pretty, simply because her words and actions seemed to emanate a caring and loving disposition. In fact, whenever he thought about her, in the back of his mind, he would also think about his parents.

“You know, a person can only carry so much burden around before it literally collapses on them and they start to loose track of everything,” Tess continued breaking him out of his reverie, thus causing him to look up.

“Who are you, really?” Clark finally managed to ask after her words had literally doused him like a cold shower.

“My name is Tess,” she began.

“Well, I know that much, and I know that you started working here about a week before I came, but something strange is going on here, and I can't even begin to explain it,” he began once he managed to bring the steaming cup to his lips. After he had taken a long drink of the chocolaty coffee and sugar, he looked over at Tess. “Have we met before? I mean, before Raphael and I came in here. I feel like I know you, but this was before I even started working here.”

Tess smiled, but did not reply.

“Well?” Clark pressed.

“Why do you ask?” She asked.

Clark shook his head, his confusion mounting with each breath. “I don't know.”

“Well, I can't help you if you don't know, but if you happen to remember, then I'm always here,” she said and stood up to return behind the counter.

“Wait, this just doesn't make sense to me. I mean; I remember something, but it was very strange, and probably no big deal,” he offered honestly. He did not know why he had said this, but something about Tess’ mannerisms made him wonder if Raphael had been right about her and if he really could talk to her about what he had experienced. After a few minutes he looked over at her. “I had a strange dream the other night.”

Tess sat back down on the stool and smiled at him. “And?”

Clark exhaled the breath he was holding. “Yeah, it was just one of those out of the ordinary kinds of things. Anyway, it's kind of hard to explain, but there was a woman, and she called me ‘baby’. I guess that stood out in my mind, because when I was in here with Raphael the morning after that, you called me that as well. I guess it kind of stood out because not even my mother calls me ‘baby’ anymore. What I mean is; I guess she called me that once upon a time, but that was when I was little. Today, she just calls me ‘Clark’ or if she's really worried and playing ‘mom’; she might call me ‘honey’.”

“I tend to call a lot of people ‘baby’,” Tess said shrugging it off.

“Yes, but you have to admit, even around here, you really have an unusual style, Tess,” he offered weakly, not sure where this was going to go, or how much he was going to actually tell her. “You make people relax somehow, but this is all very strange to me. In my experience, whenever people appear to be too good and kind, it's because there was something in it for them. It's hard to explain, but it's uncanny for me to meet someone who is so nice, that it makes it seem almost too good to be true.”

“You know, some things do not bear explanations, Clark, they just are,” she began, but she could see the look of apt contemplation on his face. “You don't see excessive kindness very much in people, do you?” She reached over and touched his hand. “You have a lot of people worrying about you, but instead of worrying about them, it seems to me that you spend too much time worrying about them in their relationship with you.”

“Yeah,” Clark said softly as the image of Lois filtered across his mind, but ironically, the words of the woman seated next to him did not cause him to immediately go on the defensive.

Something in him believed that on the surface, Tess was a trustworthy person. He smiled slightly as he thought about Lois' neighbor, Star, and how he considered her to be a nice person as well. Yet, whenever he would have to deal with her, he had to get beyond the eccentric personality she had. Somewhere in his heart, he knew that Star, in her own way, cared for Lois and for him.

Sighing deeply, he looked over at Tess, and could almost detect this same sense of kindness and understanding in her. All the while, he realized that this was a woman who seemed to be older and wiser to the ways of the world than Star was, thus the personalities of the two were completely contradictory. He could not help but admit that Tess’ words did make more sense to him than anything else he had been told.

“You can't make all things right, all the time,” Tess said breaking him once again out of his reverie. When he finally looked up, he could see her dark brown eyes string intently into his own, but they were filled with a wisdom that he had never seen before when looking at anyone and waited for her to continue speaking. “There is only one who can really do that, and that's God.”

Clark’s eyes subconsciously rolled, the last thing he wanted to do was get into a discussion with someone about religion and that seemed to be the direction this was going in. Without thinking, he began to drag his feet in this regard. “I’m honestly not interested in a religious discussion right now. I have too much on my mind.”

“Clark, I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about God, a universal truth that has nothing to do with religion whatsoever,” Tess said emphatically.

“OK, but that’s a personal thing with a lot of people, and when someone mentions God, it becomes almost like taboo. I guess, I always figured that if I live a good life and fight for what's right, then I'm doing just fine.”

“And you are, but honey, God is not something to drag your feet about; He is real and unconditionally loving,” Tess said. “That’s all you really need to know about Him, the rest is defined by mankind, and all the churches and all the religions of this world, strive to do two things; offer their followers an understanding as well as some logical explanation about God. Some succeed and some fail, but that’s all a matter for the individual to determine for him or herself.”

“You're not trying to get me to join some kind of church, sect, or something, are you?” He asked; his voice still etched in disbelief.

“No, I'm just telling you that regardless of what you can do or how many people you can help, you can only do so much to help them. You cannot save any one person any better than someone who knocks on your front door professing to know the ‘complete truth about God’ is able to. You can help people until the cows come home, baby, but you cannot be the ‘key to salvation’ for another person. The only person that you can be fully responsible for is Clark Kent. If that is what your definition of a ‘religious debate’ is, then it is because you, yourself chose to make it one.”

He nodded numbly, not really certain what to say to the blunt words of the angel. “It's strange, but I always thought I had to use my abilities to help people and protect the ones I love.”

Tess shook her head. “There's a perfectly beautiful linguistic expression for that kind of feeling, Clark, it's called ‘empathy’; that means you show compassion and understanding for your fellow man by trying to put yourself into their shoes, but that’s not always possible, even today.” She stood up in order to go back behind the counter, but rather than doing so, she reached over and touched his shoulder before leaving him alone. Once she was on the other side of the counter, she looked back at him, her eyes intent. “It's a beautiful emotion to carry, and no one should hinder you from using it in order to help others, but at the same time, no one should expect you to fill God's shoes either. Just think about this, baby, after what you just said about using your abilities to help people and protect the ones you love. Is it possible that you are subconsciously trying to do this and feel yourself a disappointment when you fail?”

Clark did not respond, but once Tess had gone back to work, he silently finished his coffee, her words, instead of easing the tension that he felt in his heart, he could feel them becoming all the more empowering and this, if anything, brought even more questions to his conscience.

As he stood up to leave, he said nothing further to the angel, and once he was gone, she took a deep breath and watched from the window as he walked out onto the street and disappeared in the distance.

*****

As the week progressed, and Monica and Andrew settled into life at the Daily Planet, they noticed that the newspaper had a lackluster activity about it. Clark’s abrupt absence had left a hole in the successful newspaper and the usual chatter that permeated the newsroom was now more subdued and Monica and Andrew could both see it, most of it centering on the case centering on Lois Lane.

For her part, Lois had successfully distanced herself from Monica, who appeared to have become close friends with Jimmy. Pretty soon, Andrew had reached the conclusion that Monica had reached a point where she wanted him to try and make some sort of progress with the young man, thus leaving him to chisel away at Lois’ abrupt and standoffish demeanor.

Although Andrew could understand that Lois was wary around him, he continued to try to talk to her, sometimes being disdainfully cut off from all attempts to get closer to the reporter, sometimes trying to talk to her when he and Jimmy had been sent out to cover a story with Lois and Monica. At the same time, the Angel of Death pondered why it was that Lois did not trust him. Often he would ask himself if it was because he was new there or if it was because he was a man. Yet, he also remembered the words he had said to Tess about Lois' lacking of trust in men on the day that Monica had started at the Planet. In a way, he could understand, but in another, he wondered why it was that she seemed to look at him in disdain every time their eyes happened to meet.

When he returned from the darkroom after having developed the film that would go along with Lois' story, Andrew walked over to where she was sitting and typing. She must have been completely focused on the story because she did not hear him come up from behind. She practically jumped out her skin when she felt his hand on her shoulder. She whirled around literally knocking him off his feet, her expression registering shock. “What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack or something?”

The Angel of Death was taken somewhat by surprise by her choice of wording, but after a second he recovered and began to speak. “Perry told me to give you these pictures after I developed the film.”

“Thank you,” she replied dryly and turned back towards the terminal.

“Lois?”

“What, Andrew?” She looked up at him.

The angel took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I was going to go downstairs and get a cappuccino, and I was wondering if you wanted something.”

Lois thought for a minute; she did not want to leave the story half written, but she was also thirsty for something hot. She rubbed her cool hands together and turned back around. “Well, if you're going, maybe you could get me a cappuccino, too.”

Andrew nodded, “No problem.”

Lois smiled weakly as Andrew walked towards the elevator. Once he was gone, she shook her head. “Calm down, Lois, it's a cappuccino, not a date or anything,” she whispered to herself as she went back to work.

Five minutes later, Andrew returned with the cappuccino. “I didn't know what you liked in it, so I got plenty of sugar and cream.” He placed the cup on her desk, and three packages of sugar and two small plastic cream containers were next to it. Once he had given them to her, he sat down in a nearby chair and pulled the plastic lid off the cup he had gotten for himself.

“Thank you, Andrew,” she said, her voice somewhat stilted, but she tried to offer him a cordial smile; this emerging almost forced.

“It was no trouble,” he said and looked around the newsroom all the while grateful that she didn’t call him ‘Blondie’ or ‘Rookie’ again as she usually did when referring to, or addressing him. “You work a lot, don't you? But, I suppose the breaking news stories don't stop when six o’clock rolls around.”

She looked at him. “No, I guess they don't. I've been here for a long time, and I'm not used to taking time off.”

“Why not?” Andrew asked.

“I don't know why that is, I just know that if I concentrate on career, than everything else will just naturally fall into place,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “What about you? Are you one of those ‘give it all for the best picture’ types?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I guess you could say that I'm more or less into freelance. This is the first real position I have had at a large newspaper.”

Lois picked up the photograph he had given to her earlier and nodded approvingly as she looked down at it. “Your pictures are pretty good.”

“Thank you,” he smiled.

“Listen, I'm sorry if I came across so unhelpful when you first got here, I suppose I don't work very well with people is all,” she shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the pictures and then back up at him. “No hard feelings?”

“No hard feelings,” he affirmed smiling gently. “I know that you may not like to work with other people, but if you need a friend, you have friends here who care for you.”

Lois glanced back at the story she had been working on, but after a few moments, she glanced over at him. “You mean, you?” She asked ironically, her voice filled with mistrust and skepticism.

“Well,” Andrew began trying to keep his voice level but all the while knowing that he had to be completely honest with her. “Lois, I would like to become your friend, but I also realize that you don't know me very well, so I completely understand that to become friends with me would take some time. A real friendship will always have to take time to build, but when I said that; I was actually meaning people like Jimmy and Perry. You've known them for a long time, a lot longer than me, and they are really good people. I simply think you should know that when I interviewed here almost a week ago, Perry was very concerned for you and he probably still is. It's a sign that he cares for you, he doesn't want to see you get hurt, either professionally or privately.”

“You're not trying to butter me up, are you?” She asked.

“No, I don't ‘butter people up’, Lois, I just try to speak the truth,” Andrew said softly.

“You're a very strange person, Andrew, you claim that you don't lie, but you can’t buy the truth with a ninety-five cent cappuccino. I mean; you tell me things that maybe I should listen to, but…” Lois said all the while shaking her head, but instead of elaborating further on this, she turned her attention back to the computer monitor and shrugged her shoulders and made the attempt to change the subject. “Do you have any idea where Jimmy and Monica went?”

“Yes, Perry told me that they would be covering the circus or something along that line this morning. I guess he figured that it was better to leave you alone here to work on this instead of sending you off on a ‘fluffy page filler’ piece.”

“He knows me well, I'm not one of these people who get into fairs and things, unless something dangerous happens, and Superman…” her voice trailed and she shrugged her shoulders trying to get these particular thoughts out of her mind.

“Superman?” Andrew looked at her somewhat bewildered.

Lois took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “If you want to know more about him, check in the archives, Andrew, I don't feel like talking about him right now.”

“I will do that later, but are you sure you’re OK, Lois?” He asked his voice etched in concern.

“I'm fine,” she took a deep breath and looked back at the screen without saying anything further.

After a few moments, she glanced back over to where he had been sitting and noticed that he had not yet gotten to his feet and left her alone.

For his part, Andrew nodded as though he understood, but something inside him just would not let go of the idea that she was holding back something very significant. The Angel of Death eventually made his way over to an empty desk and sat down.

Unbeknownst to him, throughout the afternoon, Lois would look up from her work, and her eyes would be glancing over in his direction.

*****

When at last the day had ended, Andrew got up from the desk and looked around to where Monica and Jimmy had been working. When he noticed that they were both once again gone, he grabbed his jacket and walked slowly over towards where Lois was still seated and hard at work on the finishing touches of her story.

En route to her desk, Perry had come out of his office and intercepted him. “Well, Andrew, how is it going, are the kids playing nice with you?”

“Everything is fine, Perry,” Andrew offered cordially. “It was pretty slow this afternoon, so I did some research about Superman.”

“Oh yes, our local celebrity,” Perry smiled. “Nice that you took the incentive to use the downtime productively. It's a sign of a good newspaperman to take the incentive to do the research. Good work, Andrew. By the way, Lois sent up the shots you took at the news conference two days ago, and I have to say, you shoot some good stuff. Look for one of your pictures on page two in the early edition tomorrow.” He glanced down at his watch as he continued. “Anyway, I guess newcomers to this city would eventually have to get to know about Superman, but the best place to look are through Lois or Clark's articles, as they seem to be the insiders on him.”

“Clark?”

“Clark is on three week sabbatical, I guess you could say, and he should be back in about two weeks,” Perry said, but silently he added: I hope.

Andrew nodded as Perry went back into his office and he continued walking towards where Lois was working. “Lois?”

She glanced up, her eyes tired, but otherwise, she looked to be wide-awake. “Yes?”

Andrew sat down nearby and offered her a smile. “I didn’t really have a question, I just wanted to see how things were going with you.”

“You don’t let a sleeping dog lie, do you Andrew?” Lois asked skeptically.

“If the dog seems to be having nightmares, then no, I suppose I don’t,” he said.

“I thought you were a photographer, but now you're trying to sound like a strange cross between a Shakespearian wannabe and a psychiatrist,” Lois muttered under her breath as she reached over and turned off the computer.

She knew for some reason that Andrew wasn't going to just get up and go away, and somewhere deep inside of her, she did not know why, but she really didn’t want him to go away. He seemed to care, though more like a protective older brother than what someone would call a boyfriend. Aside from that, the last thing she wanted to do was to have another boyfriend, her heartache over Clark had been enough for her.

“I am not trying to be either, Lois,” Andrew said softly. “I guess the only time you want to talk to me would be if I came along with a photo for a story, but it would always have to be something work related, wouldn't it?”

“Well, that’s why I’m here,” she said, her voice emotionless.

“You know, sometimes the personal struggles become a part of your work and you don't even realize it's happening until it's too late.” He looked at her, his eyes intent, but filled with gentility. “Sometimes, having someone to talk to who is not directly involved, is a rather nice thing to have, don’t you think?”

Lois stood up and turned around, her emotions for the first time in ages, completely upside down. Why was this new guy so much like Clark? Not necessarily in appearance, but there was a certainly a sense about him that reminded her of Clark, right down to the point that he seemed to be totally patient and kind with her even when she was giving him the brush off.

As she reached for her bag, she took a deep breath, his words somehow hitting her like a ton of bricks, but instead of responding, as she would have liked to, she simply looked at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Andrew. Good night.”

She abruptly walked away from him and headed towards the elevator. The angel stood watching her disappear inside the small enclosure and once the doors closed, he was alone in the darkened newsroom. Sighing deeply, he disappeared.

*****

Clark flew over Metropolis at that moment, he had been thinking so much about what Tess had said at the Cafeteria earlier that day, he just wanted to see the Planet building and take care of some things for his apartment. He had kept his lease, and did as Perry had suggested. As Superman, he knew he could not completely have left the city.

As he heard a woman screaming for help, he landed in the street and decided to investigate. Where he had landed was an alleyway that extended from a main street which lead back in the direction of the downtown sectors of the city. The street where he now stood was lined with garbage and what he had heard from overhead had originated in this place, but why he could not see anyone there was beyond him. The cries had all but died off giving the area a very eerie almost frightening appearance. He walked through the small litter-lined street but immediately noticed that the perpetrator had all but vanished.

He looked around curious as to whether or not the victim, an elderly lady who appeared to be in her late 70's had been injured in what appeared to be a mugging. Coming closer, he pondered when he saw the woman’s body unmoving on the sidewalk, if she had been killed in the attack.

Scanning the area, he realized that the perpetrators were now long gone, and so he approached the body of the victim. Just before he reached her, he unconsciously glanced up and at the other end of the street, he could see that another man had appeared and was making his way up the street in the opposite direction towards where the woman lie. The man in beige reached her first and before Clark could approach, he watched at the man crouched down amidst the litter lined street and took the woman’s hand gently in his. “Hello, Helen,” the words of the man emerged, but that was all Clark could make out, because in the distance, a crash of a metallic garbage emerged and by the time the silence had once more overcome the area, the man had stopped speaking.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Clark approached the man as well as the elderly victim, but when he came closer, the man in beige suddenly looked up, his green eyes locking with his own and Clark could feel at least a hundred questions rising in his conscious.

Instead of speaking to the man, he crouched down next to Helen, took her hand gently in his, and patted it as his mother had often done with him when he was a little boy. As the woman began to stir, he glanced up and noticed that the man in beige had disappeared. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but when he refocused on the entrance into the alley, he still could not see the man at all, and for a moment, he thought that he was hallucinating.

“W-what happened?” The woman's voice cracked as she looked up and could see a kind pair of eyes looking down at her. “Superman?”

“Are you OK?” He asked as he helped the woman get to her feet.

“I-I think so,” Helen said softly.

“Do you remember what happened?” He asked.

“There were these boys, they wanted money for drugs, I think,” she said shaking her head as she tried to remember. “I was walking on the main street and they ambushed me and dragged me here.”

“Do you remember anything else about them?” He asked.

“No, not really, except they said something about ‘Tempus’, or something which sounded like the name of a rock and roll band that my grandkids listen to.” She shook her head all the while rubbing her eyes. “Then that…that beautiful man showed up…”

“Man?” Clark looked at her, not able to suppress his surprise.

“Yes, a handsome young man, he was wearing the prettiest beige suit, he was glowing, had green eyes the color of a field in summertime, and he was so kind,” she whispered and Clark was left trying to rationalize if the person he had just seen had been real. Blonde hair, green eyes; beige clothing; it sounded like the same person. Was Helen describing the same person he had seen or was she merely hallucinating because of shock?

His mind was, by this time, literally reeling, she had said ‘Tempus’, but this was not possible. This man he had seen looked nothing like Tempus, but yet, based on his experiences with this man from the future, there was nothing left for Clark to conclude except that he was back in Metropolis. He mulled over the idea that if Tempus was present, he would not be simply preying on elderly women, but rather had another, much bigger, scheme in mind.

Sighing deeply, he realized that no matter how hard it was going to be with Lois, he would have to return to Metropolis as soon as possible, patrol the city daily, and find out what exactly was going on. He understood that this was no longer centered on Lois; this was about the security of the city that he had taken upon himself to protect.

Once he brought Helen to the police department, he helped her go through the process of taking a statement about the mugging. Next, he took her to the hospital where they could run tests on her to make sure she was OK and then he flew back in the direction of Smallville.

As he reached the small town, he understood that it might be a good idea for him to sit down and talk this over with his parents, maybe they would be able to shed some light on this entire episode in a way that he could not. As he flew home, he realized that Lois or no Lois, he really missed the excitement of the big city, and living in Smallville was not the same for him.

As he reached the farm, he could see a red Cadillac convertible parked next to his father's truck in the driveway and instead of entering the house in his ‘Superman’ attire, he landed outside by the truck, quickly changed into his regular clothes, and managed to make his way towards the front door.

Dismissing all of the strange events he had seen, he walked towards the front door and came into the house. He could barely contain his surprise when he saw that Tess was seated on the sofa in the living room and was drinking tea with his parents. “Hello,” he offered as he took off his jacket and flung it over one of the chairs and sat down across from his parents.

“Clark, I think you already know Tess,” Martha began. “We met in town earlier this week and she said that she works in the cafeteria at the Smallville Press and met you there.”

“Yes, that's right. Hello Tess, it's nice to see you again,” he said, but in the back of his mind, his plate of worries was still growing. First, he knew Tess from somewhere, second, he had heard the name Tempus dropped, and that always made the hair on his arms literally stand on end, and finally, he could not forget the mysterious stranger that had been with Helen in the alley.

Shaking his head, he retrieved the cup of tea that his mother had placed in front of him and began to generously apply sugar to it. One, two, no, three heaping spoonfuls of the white powdery substance was added to the brown colored liquid.

“If I consumed sugar the way you do, I would have a mouth full of cavities and weigh in at 300 pounds,” Martha quipped as Clark brought the mixture to his lips and took a drink.

Once he replaced the cup, he smiled weakly at his mother as Tess chuckled. “I think I said something along that line when we met at the cafeteria.”

Jonathan regarded his son with a smile. After a few moments of silence passed, he looked at Clark. “Is something wrong?”

The younger man shook his head. “I'll tell you about it later.”

“OK.” Jonathan conceded all the while figuring that it had something to do with Superman, so he didn't press the issue, instead, he looked at Tess. “So, how long have you been in Smallville?”

“About two weeks,” Tess said as she took a sip of her tea. “It's a very nice town, quiet and peaceful.”

Martha smiled and nodded. “Yes, I think that is why we like it here so much, but sometimes it's nice to go to Metropolis and visit our friends there, too. You know that Clark works at the Daily Planet so he can tell you that there is always something going on there. But, Jonathan and I like the quiet of the small town, don't we?”

The elder Kent took a sip of his tea and stood up. “You'd be surprised with all the things that can happen on a farm, so I don't really know where Martha goes off saying that it’s quiet out here, especially during tornado season.”

Tess smiled all the while remembering the time Monica had been assigned to a storm chaser and had tracked a twister across the Oklahoma countryside. For her part, she had stayed in the local diner and tried to assure the small town folk that there was no such thing as luck. “Have you ever been hit by one?”

“No, not that I recall, but I don’t believe in luck of the draw,” Jonathan said. “There's something much bigger at work when it comes to the forces of Mother Nature.”

Martha nodded. “I think we get used to them, though. It's kind of like those folks that live on the coast and have to accustom themselves to hurricanes.”

“I think I'll turn in,” Clark finally announced. He just wanted to get away from discussions of tornados, natural disasters, and small towns versus big cities. He emptied his cup, and stood up. “Good night, Mom, Dad, Tess.”

“Good night, Son,” Jonathan said and the three of them watched as he left the room.

Tess looked at Martha and Jonathan; she could clearly see the concern on both of their faces. “You know, maybe I should be getting back,” Tess said. “I figure that there is probably some things that you two will want to discuss with your son without having me around.” She smiled warmly as she drank the last of her tea and placed the cup in the small saucer.

Martha looked at Tess gratefully. “We’re so sorry if we seemed so rude to you, Tess, but there is something going on with Clark, he's been dealing with much more than he’s telling us. We think it may have something to do with Lois, and usually he talks to his father about it, but lately, he's been very tight lipped about everything.”

Tess nodded, her thoughts drifting back to her two angel babies and she could not help but wonder if either of them had made any progress with Lois Lane. Instead of speaking of this, she smiled and stood up. Martha and Jonathan followed suit and once their guest had left, the two of them went down the hall and tapped on Clark's door.

“Clark,” Martha called out, her voice emerging, the worry obvious.

The door opened and Clark stood in the doorway looking at his parents. “Yes?”

“Are you going to tell us what's going on?” Jonathan asked cutting to the chase.

“What's there to tell?”

“Well, for starters, you haven't been yourself since you came home, Clark. I know that you have told us about what Perry said to you, but there's something else you're not telling us and maybe talking about it might help,” Martha said.

“Mom, where did you really meet Tess?” Clark asked.

“Well, you know your father and I were down at the church a few days ago, and Tess had gone there, I guess to pray or meditate, and we got to talking and she mentioned having met you and Raphael at the cafeteria. So we got to talking and I realized that we had a lot in common and I invited her for tea this evening,” Martha explained quickly all the while wanting the conversation to return to the welfare of her son.

“I don't really know why, but there's something strange about her,” Clark said softly.

Jonathan came over to the bed and sat down. “What is strange about her, she seems perfectly normal to me?”

“Dad, I can't explain it, I just feel like I know her from somewhere,” Clark said softly.

“Maybe she was one of the people you rescued,” Martha said.

“No, I would have remembered her if I had rescued her. There's just something weird going on, and it’s not just the stuff with Lois, but there’s something else happening here, something really strange. I don’t just mean with regards to Tess, but today, I went to help an elderly woman in Metropolis after she had been mugged and just as I was going to help her, I saw a man dressed in a beige suit. He knew the woman's name, but I had this strange feeling that they had never met, but yet, she seemed familiar with him.”

“What all did he say?”

“That's just it, Dad, even with super hearing, I don't know everything. He said something like ‘Hello Helen’, then a garbage can was knocked over and I couldn't make out the rest of it. Then the woman suddenly woke up, the man had disappeared, but she asked me if I had seen him. I did see him, but I didn’t answer her because I thought I was hallucinating.”

“As far as we know, you’ve never hallucinated,” Jonathan said matter-of-factly.

“I know, but when she described him, she saw exactly what I saw; she said that he was glowing, and I could see light surrounding him but I had no idea of the source. Mom, Dad, I just don't see how that would be possible.”

“From what you describe, it’s not humanly possible,” Jonathan responded, but Martha looked at her son with concern.

“Clark, are you positive that that was what you saw?” She asked gently.

“I’m positive, I saw it with my own two eyes,” he said sadly.

“We believe you, but you know sometimes the light from the sun can play tricks on a person, even someone like you, Clark,” Martha said all the while trying to see the world through a mother's reason.

“Mom, it was dark outside, the guy was glowing, I mean, honest, there was something out of the ordinary about him, something so eerie, that I can't get it out of my mind. You know how people always say that there’s got to be a logical explanation for this?” Once his parents nodded, Clark continued. “Well, this time, there isn’t, there's not any convincing explanation for the things that Tess has said to me or for this man that I saw. He was real, and I'm going to find out who he is and if he poses any threat to Metropolis.”

Martha and Jonathan nodded as they stood up.

“Maybe you should be careful around Tess,” Clark said softly. “She seems nice, but none of us know who she is, yet something keeps nagging at me that I know her from somewhere.”

“OK, we'll be careful, now you go to sleep,” Martha said and her voice emerged as though she was speaking to a little boy instead of a grown man.

Once his light was out, Clark looked at the walls around him wondering all the while who or what he had seen when he had helped Helen back in Metropolis.

*****

Once she said good-bye to Martha and Jonathan, Tess left the farmhouse, got in her car, and drove back towards Smallville. When she reached the small apartment, she met Monica who was sitting in her apartment and waiting for her.

“Miss Wings, what are you doing here?” She asked; her voice etched with concern, but also traces of impatience.

“Tess, I haven't made any progress with Lois, and I feel completely useless on this case,” Monica said softly as she stirred the decaffeinated coffee that was in front of her.

“Who said you weren't making any progress?” Tess asked. “Remember when this started and I told you and Andrew that there were three parts to the case, and Jimmy Olsen was one of them?”

“Yes.”

“Well, tell me how things are shaping up with him,” Tess said as she sat down at the table as well and looked over at her younger charge.

“He's talking to me a little, but it seems as though he wants to talk mostly about baseball, and anything else that distracts him from his wavering self-esteem,” Monica said. “I think I've learned more about baseball from him than I did when I was actually coaching a team.”

“What about Andrew, has he made any progress?” Tess asked.

“I don't know, Jimmy and I were away from the offices all afternoon, and when I got back to the building, Andrew had left,” Monica responded.

“Yes, I was told that he had to go out on an assignment.”

“Another assignment?” Monica asked.

“Nothing related to this case baby, just one of his usual stand-by cases. Everything is OK now and he should be back at his apartment in Metropolis right now,” Tess said. “Now, tell me how things are shaping up with Jimmy.”

Monica sighed and took a deep breath before she started speaking. “Jimmy misses Clark something terrible, Tess. I think the closest emotion that could describe how his feelings are is ‘abandonment’.”

Tess nodded, it was obvious to her that this case was starting to show the extent of how many layers it had, but when she looked at Monica, she could see the dejection in the face of her younger friend. “Don't worry, your role here is just as significant as Andrew’s, and you have seen where sometimes, his compassion comes in quite handy, especially when dealing with tough nuts like Lois Lane.”

Monica nodded and smiled as she stood up. “Yes, you're right, but I still want to help Lois, and I don't know how. It seems like she doesn't want me around, and I have been working with Jimmy more often than with her. It seems like instead of me working with Lois and Andrew working with Jimmy, our roles have switched.”

“Maybe they have, but you know that Lois is going to need a friend, and we are all on the same team, Angel Girl, so you get back to Metropolis and don't forget that,” Tess said.

“So, you think I can find out from Jimmy a little more about the two of them?” Monica asked.

“Yes, I do.” Came the almost immediate response.

“Tess?”

“What is it, Angel Girl?”

“Has the Father even said anything to you about this case, or are we still as in the dark as to why we are here?” Monica sat back down.

“All that I know is that Clark has a secret that he cannot tell too many people about. It seems to me that he is trying to protect his family, but what that secret is will have to come from him and him alone,” Tess said. “Now, I think you need to get your little angel backside back to Metropolis.”

Monica nodded, smiled weakly, and disappeared.

*****

The following morning, Tess returned to the coffee shop and as she came in for the morning shift, Clark was seated on a barstool, his head down, his shoulders slumped, and she knew that he did not even start talking things extensively over with his parents. She shook her head as she came into the small cafeteria. “Good morning, baby.” She said softly as soon as she had reached him and rested her hand gently on the upper part of his back as a way of letting him know that she had arrived.

“Hi Tess,” he said as he raised his head only slightly, but his gaze never faltered away from the countertop. “I didn't know that you knew my parents, but my mom said last night that you met last week.”

“That's right,” Tess said. “We had gone to the church to help with their fundraiser and then they invited me for tea and cake. I arrived there last night while you were at work.”

“I know, they told me. I guess I forget sometimes how everyone in a small town seems to know everyone else,” Clark mused.

Tess stepped behind the counter and began to make some coffee. “You’re here awfully early, Clark, I don't even think Raphael is in yet.”

“I haven't seen anyone from the paper here today yet, maybe it's too early. I suppose the reason for that is that things here are much slower and laid back than they are in Metropolis,” he said sadly. “Sometimes I forget that.”

“You miss it, don't you?” Tess asked. “The hustle and bustle of the big city, its rather addictive, don't you think?”

“Yes, I suppose it is. You know, life is a lot less complicating here than there, but still…” his voice trailed.

“Still?”

“One misses it after awhile, and sometimes it's just too quiet and simple here,” he smiled weakly.

“Did you ever consider going back?” Tess asked as she put a cup of coffee in front of him and watched as he reached for a spoon and once again opened the sugar bowl.

As he poured the sugar into the cup, he raised his head and looked at Tess. “I was thinking about it, but I don't know if there is anything for me there anymore.”

“Anything or anyone?”

Clark shook his head sorrowfully. “There is someone, but…” His voice trailed and he tried to block the emotions he carried.

“Clark if I may be so bold, maybe what you need to do is embrace your feelings about this. You know, strength is not just a physical attribute, it is a spiritual mechanism that is inside every creation of God,” Tess said gently as she reached over and rested a motherly hand on his. “Now, I think you know me well enough to tell me what's bothering you, so why don't we both sit down and stop beating around the bush about all of this?”

Clark looked at her, but after a few moments of hesitation, he could sense that she was not about to take ‘no’ for an answer, and reluctantly he nodded before getting down off the stool. Tess stood up as well and the two of them went over to a table and sat down.

Once they were comfortable, Tess smiled. “Now, I know that you were hesitant about whether or not you could trust me, but Clark, I think you know that you can.”

“It's so strange, but I already know that, Tess,” Clark said softly all the while realizing that he still felt strange in her presence. Somewhere deep inside of him told him that she meant no one any harm and this was the feeling he went with. Sighing deeply, he looked at her, all the while hoping that he could tell her everything without being afraid of being sent to the nearest psychologist's office. “The night I came home, Lois and I had a fight, and it was the worst fight I could imagine having. I guess I should tell you about Lois though.”

“It's not necessary, baby, your parents have already told me a little bit about Lois,” Tess said softly. “Last night before you came home, we were just talking about how much they like her and how much they hope you will resolve things with her. You know, sometimes in-laws don't always get along, and Martha and Jonathan both seem completely overjoyed that you love someone that is compatible with them as well, it keeps families together after two people make that pledge before God.”

Clark sighed deeply. “Lois gets along with my parents really well, but I think the relationship is over, I don't think she wants to marry me, so I don't know why they even brought her up in the first place.”

Tess nodded. “If you don't mind me saying so, I think right now you are so willing to give up on her, then it seems to me that the self-confidant and empathic person I talked to yesterday has all but disappeared.”

“In all fairness, you really can't make these assumptions about me, you hardly even know me,” Clark said, suddenly on the defensive.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don't, but listen to me Clark, if you love someone, then you can’t just run away from them without even trying to communicate, and cutting out of town is hardly a sign of courage in that regard,” Tess said.

“It’s not that easy, Tess,” Clark said, and it was obvious that he was getting more emotional about the situation he lived with.

“It’s not? Well, baby, I see it this way. If you really love Lois, then why are you so willing to give up on her? Love does not end when things get hard, it perseveres and tries to make the best of everything. You have talked about Metropolis endlessly, and yet you have hidden away at your parents’ house rather than fighting for the one you love. Now, I'm not telling you what to do, and neither are your parents, but you’re a big boy, Clark Kent, it's time for you to stop running away at every bump in the road and for crying out loud, cut down on the sugar intake, it's no wonder you look as though you’re about to jump out of your skin.”

Clark looked at her, a small smile breaking through. “Who are you, Tess? I mean; you blow into town like a tornado, you speak with so much wisdom that it’s eerie, and you make so much sense.”

“Well, when you get to be my age baby, you tend to have a little bit of old-fashioned wisdom. I've had more experiences than you would care to count, and I'm going to tell you something. If you would only let go of all this pain, all this confusion, then you might be able to see your way back to the one you love and find the peace you need.”

Clark nodded numbly, but he looked at her, his trust in her emerging contrary to the pain he carried in his heart and the confusion he still had about who she was. “It’s not so easy Tess, she thinks I lied to her.”

“Did you?” Tess asked.

“No, I just didn’t tell her everything,” he said softly.

“Would you say that that might come close to lying?” Tess’ gaze never faltered, and somewhere he could feel the intimidation at having her stare him down like this.

“I didn’t lie,” Clark objected.

“But, you didn’t tell her the truth either?” Her question was automatic.

“I couldn’t,” was his simple response.

“Now, I’m not here to judge you, baby, but try to think about what I've said. Put yourself in her shoes, if you’ve kept the truth away from her, then maybe she perceives it as being a lie. Maybe as much as she needs to understand where you're coming from, you need to understand where she’s coming from. It will be through that, that you will find forgiveness and resolution.”

“I was only trying to protect her,” he offered weakly.

“Did you tell her that?” Tess asked. “Did you look her in the eye and with all the gumption and all the strength that you have, tell her that you did not mean to withhold the truth from her, and that you’re sorry you hurt her?”

“Yes, I tried countless times, but you don't know Lois’ temper, if she gets angry enough she could talk anyone down to the size of a mouse,” Clark said softly.

“From the way you describe her, it sounds like you love that aspect of her personality very much,” Tess said simply as she took a drink of her coffee.

“Yeah, I guess I do,” he said. “What would you do?”

“Well, it may come as a surprise to you, but I would pray about it, and then I would pick up my boot straps and go back to where it is I belong,” Tess said softly. “You have a choice, Clark, you always have, now it is going to be up to you to make the choice that is best. It may be hard, but it will be the best and only you can make it.” With that, Tess disappeared into the kitchen, thus leaving him alone in the cafeteria.

*****

That same morning, a few hours after Tess and Clark had spoken, Jimmy Olsen walked into the Planet building, his eyes filled with sadness. This had been his usual stance for the past few days and Monica approached the building at the same time. The young angel had decided to make the best of everything and she was going to try and help Jimmy the best way she knew how. She smiled as she stepped into the building from the bright sunshine outside.

“Jimmy, hold the elevator please,” she called out as she watched him going into the small enclosure.

“Hi Monica,” the young photographer said as she stepped inside and he pressed the button for the floor of the newsroom.

“Hi, thanks for waiting,” she said once the doors closed and they were alone.

“No problem, how's it going?” He asked.

“Great, and with you?” She asked.

“It's OK, just the same as always,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “You gonna go with me today to work on the carnival story?”

“If you don’t mind the company,” Monica smiled.

“Why should I mind? It seems as though Perry is looking for someone to baby-sit me,” he mused.

“Now, wait a minute, if you don't want me around, just say so and I'll stay away, but keep in mind, Jimmy, Perry wanted me to accompany you so that I could get the story that would go along with the pictures. Look at Lois, she’s working in a similar way with Andrew and that seems to be working just fine.”

“Yeah, poor Andrew,” Jimmy chided all the while trying to keep his humor in top form.

“Why do you say that? Lois isn't so bad,” Monica offered.

“Yeah, then what happened to your so-called ‘partnership’? I mean; from where I’m sitting, it looks as though it dissolved like a snowball in July,” Jimmy offered bluntly.

Monica sighed deeply and she looked at him, all the while shrugging her shoulders.

“Let me guess, she and you didn’t hit it off?” Jimmy offered.

“I guess when you put it that way, no, we didn't.”

“Don't take it too hard, Monica, when Clark first started here, Lois was just as rough around the edges as she is now with you and Andrew. I guess now it’s worse because anytime I even mention C.K., she looks as though she would be perfectly happy throwing me head first out a twenty story building.” Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.

“You don't sound exceedingly happy about his absence,” Monica offered.

“Very observant, because the truth is, I think it stinks to high heaven,” Jimmy said.

“You and Clark are good friends then?” Monica asked as the elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped out and came down the small staircase that extended into the newsroom.

“He’s my best friend ever,” Jimmy's voice was sad as they made their way over to his desk. There Andrew was standing and the Angel of Death greeted the two of them cordially before Jimmy managed to continue, this time his words indicative of someone wishing to change the subject completely. “Anyway, Monica, we need to be downtown at nine, so I'll go downstairs and get something off the breakfast cart before we go. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

Once he was gone, Andrew looked at her. “Did you find out anything?”

Monica shook her head. “Nothing, but I think Jimmy feels a wee bit sad that his friend is away.”

“No kidding,” Andrew whispered. “The first day I was here, Jimmy made some remark about Clark being the only one around here who took him seriously, so chances are, he's feeling a bit negative about himself here. I guess it stands to reason, most of the people here are some years older than he is, and somehow I get the impression that he is feeling a like a fifth wheel, unwanted or unneeded and his ideas are often disregarded.”

“How are things with Lois?” Monica asked.

“I made only a little progress yesterday while you were out covering the story with Jimmy, but it's not something that I would be considering a major breakthrough,” Andrew said softly as they both looked up and could see that Lois had arrived and was coming through the newsroom.

Monica sat down at a vacant desk without saying another word and Andrew walked over to the desk where she had dropped her things. “Good morning, Lois,” he offered freely, thus causing her to glance up.

“Hi,” she said as she rummaged around in her bag and when she found a notebook and a pen, she shoved the purse aside and sat down at her desk.

“You feeling any better today?” He asked as she sat down at the desk.

“What makes you so sure that I wasn’t feeling fine yesterday?” She asked and Andrew took a deep breath, but before he could respond, she continued. “Look, Andrew, I think you’re a nice guy and all, but I’m not interested in anymore relationships, so why don’t you just leave the pretense at the door?”

“Relationship?” Andrew was, to say the least, bewildered. “Lois, I’m not trying to start a relationship with you, I am only trying to be a friend, and react as a friend might, but I’m not really interested in romance, not with anyone.”

“You’re not?” She looked at him in utter disbelief.

“No, I’m not,” he smiled weakly.

“Then why are you being so nice to me?” She asked skeptically.

Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “Does it upset you to know that someone is being nice just to be nice?”

“It’s awkward,” she said weakly.

“Awkward?” Andrew was confused.

“Yes,” she looked down at the desk.

Andrew reached over and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Lois, sometimes people say or do things that might hurt someone else not realizing that they have done so. It doesn’t make it right or wrong, but it does make them human.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t want to do or say anything that would hurt you and I would walk away before I would allow myself to say or do something that would upset you.”

“You would just walk away?” She asked, the skepticism evident.

“Yes, I would, you see, to hurt anyone is just not me, Lois,” Andrew said softly and for an instant, he could see that somewhere in her, the barrier that she built up around herself in order to protect herself was now starting to break down. Right before his eyes, he watched as she wiped a frustrated hand across her cheek in order to hide the extent of emotion that she seemed to be carrying.

After a few moments had passed, she glanced back over at him before standing up with the intention of leaving the newsroom. “Andrew, would it be OK if we talked about this a little later?”

“Of course, Lois,” he smiled as he pulled a tissue out of his pocket and pressed it into her hand. “Just take your time. I think you know that I'll do whatever I can to help you.”

Lois accepted the tissue and used it to wipe the area just underneath her eyes. After that, she blew her nose and once she deposited the tissue into the wastebasket, she nodded before leaving the newsroom.

Maybe this Andrew would be the key to helping her get over the pain that she experienced because of Clark Kent, she was thinking as she walked towards the elevator. Maybe Andrew would be the friend who would help her, maybe he would be the one who would give her the help she needed in order to forget the pain. As she sank into her contemplations, Andrew stood on the opposite side of the room watching her.

As she stepped into the small enclosure, her stubborn demeanor gave way and she reluctantly allowed the tears to fall from beneath her eyes, but by the time she reached the ground level, she had gotten her emotions back in check and walked outside as though nothing had happened inside the newsroom at all.

*****

Andrew's thoughts were a jumble at that moment, but he could see that Lois was starting to, at least, trust him a little and that was as good of a start as anything. After a second, he raised his head and from the window, he could see the brown eyes of a man who was hovering just outside the window staring coldly inside the building at him.

With his confusion about the case still mounting, Andrew approached the window as knowledge about this person he was about to speak with flooded into his being. “Superman?” He spoke, but stopped some distance from the window. He already knew what the answer was going to be and for now, he just wanted to offer some sort of greeting.

“Yes. Who are you?” The question emerged as a demand rather than an inquiry and the angel could sense a strange hostility in the man’s tone of voice.

“My name is Andrew,” emerged his simple answer.

“No, I mean, what are you?” Clark demanded.

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” Andrew responded simply.

“Try me,” came the almost immediate retort.

“You’re not ready to know the truth yet, but soon you will be,” Andrew said softly. “You see; there are many things you don’t yet understand, but understanding has to come entirely from you.”

“Yeah, right,” Clark nodded pretending to understand, but the confusion was reaching the breaking point with him and he was suddenly determined to get some sort of answer out of this man who seemed to be showing an uncanny interest in Lois. This added to the fact that Andrew’s answers did not seem to be adding up to the man of steel’s expectations. Eventually, he looked at the angel, his gaze never faltering and his eyes bearing into the green eyes of his perceived rival. “OK, without focusing on Lois, what about what happened last night. Why you didn’t do anything to help Helen last night? You were just as capable as I was.”

“No, I wasn’t, but I did help her, just not in the same way you did,” the angel responded gently as he came even closer to the window. “You see, you have a gift of helping people; you use your strength to offer assistance to those who need you. I've read a great deal about you, Superman, you have inherited wonderful qualities, but don't forget the ultimate source from where they came.”

“What about you, who the heck are you and why do you speak in riddles? After I helped Helen last night, you just disappeared into thin air. Who do you work for?”

“At the moment, I work for Perry White,” he said simply, but when Clark said nothing further, Andrew continued. “Last night, when you saw me with Helen, you failed to hear what I had said, and there was a reason for that.”

“And what reason, pray tell, do you have for not helping an elderly lady get away from teenage drug addicts?” Clark demanded.

“I’m sorry, but I can't tell you that yet, you’re not ready to know, otherwise you would have heard everything that was said then. When the time does come for you to know what the message is, then you will know, not just part of it, but all of it,” Andrew responded calmly.

“You're speaking in riddles,” Clark said shaking his head.

“Not necessarily, but you must understand that I use the concept of truth to relay messages that have been given to me to deliver, and that is the reason why I was sent to Helen last night as well as why she heard my words and you did not,” Andrew tried to explain.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry, but that's all I can tell you right now,” Andrew said softly as he backed away from the window and turned around with the intention of going back over to Lois’ now vacated desk.

“That's all, you give me a puzzle with words to decipher like in those old spy movies?” Clark asked, disbelief etching his face, the confusion and frustration literally encasing him.

“I can only tell you what I am supposed to tell you, I can’t tell you more, I’m sorry,” with that, Andrew sat down at Lois’ desk and Clark, having no choice, flew away.

*****

Away from the building, Clark landed and walked down the sidewalk, his thoughts constantly on the man in beige, this Andrew; how he was getting closer to Lois, and why it was that he seemed to speak in riddles.

It had to be him, but who this man was, was a complete mystery to the man of steel. Who was he, and why on earth was he homing in on Lois? It was similar to the incident with Scardino, the police detective that tried to court Lois just before she had discovered his secret. He could feel the jealousy beginning to build up in him, but the other emotion that seemed to encase him was fear; fear that this man who people called Andrew was involved in something dark, something sinister and he was using Lois as a way to get to him or his family.

Taking a deep breath, he realized that at least he knew about Scardino and although he didn't like him, he, at least knew about his personality. Andrew, on the other hand, he knew absolutely nothing about and this concerned him. His thoughts returned to Helen’s words the night before about Tempus and now he could not help but ponder if Andrew was involved with the man from the future and if he was trying to get to him through Lois.

When he arrived in Smallville, he was still shaking his head when he reached the Press offices and went inside. Once inside, he could see that Raphael was waiting and the two of them set out to get their needed interviews done.

“You OK, Clark?” Raphael asked as they made their way towards the town square where the mayor was giving a press conference.

“Yeah, sure, I'm fine, this has just been the weirdest day on record,” Clark responded almost automatically, but there was something in his answer that did not ring true.

“Weird, huh?” Raphael asked all the while shrugging his shoulders.

“I suppose it’s nothing, but I have just been really stressed out lately, and I suppose that will pass as well.”

Raphael nodded. “Well, let’s get going, the press conference is supposed to start in about twenty minutes, and I figure it won’t be too long.”

Clark followed but his thoughts were a jumble and if truth were known, he could have cared less if the mayor had come out to deliver his statements in a chicken costume. Everything was getting more and more baffling by the minute, and oddly enough, he had no idea where this was going. Part of him wished that he could go back to Metropolis and take his position at the Daily Planet but, Perry’s words had been explicit, three weeks leave of absence and don’t even think about coming back until that time has passed.

Deep inside, Clark was glad that he hadn't have quit, but he asked himself almost constantly why it was he couldn’t go back yet.

“Is everything OK?” Raphael's voice emerged bringing him out of his reverie.

“I was just thinking about going back to Metropolis in a couple of weeks,” Clark said honestly.

“Cool, maybe I can come and check things out there,” Raphael said enthusiastically. “I always wanted to work in the big city.”

Clark nodded. “I don't see why not.”

The two of them reached the gazebo, which was near the Smallville County Courthouse, and Clark and Raphael reached the small crop of reporters who had arrived and were setting up their equipment for the conference. At the other end of the large open space, he could see that his parents had come out of the local hardware store. Excusing himself, he went over to his parents, the conversation with Andrew still in his mind.

“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?” He asked. “Did you come to hear the mayor drone about school taxes or something?”

“No,” Jonathan offered. “Martha needed to get some seeds to plant some marigolds and Tess called this morning and invited us to come over to the church this morning for their bazaar. It's supposed to be really great, she said, and we figured that the fresh air would do us both some good.”

Clark nodded. “I saw the bulletin at the Press office, but I didn't know that Tess was involved in so much around town, I thought she was new here.”

Martha nodded. “Yes, but my guess is that she's been very actively involved with the church since she came into town.”

Clark nodded as he remembered the conversation he had had with Tess when she had abruptly mentioned God, and he had started to drag his feet in that regard. Sighing deeply, he looked at his parents. “I really need to talk to you about something, but I can't do this here.”

Martha nodded, “then tell us tonight at the house.”

“OK, it's just everything is so strange now,” he shook his head as he spoke, but his parents could see that he was looking more and more stressed. Something was really attacking the emotions of their son, and this concerned them both.

“Listen, son, maybe you should cut back on the work,” Jonathan said.

“No, it’s not the work, in fact, working with Raphael sort of distracts me from everything that has been happening.” He glanced over in the direction where Raphael was standing and had started taking pictures. “I guess I’d better get going, I need to make sure I catch the entire press conference. I’ll see you at the house tonight.”

Martha and Jonathan nodded as they walked away, and after a few moments, they stopped and turned around to see that their son was walking back towards the courthouse. Martha shook her head. “I’m worried, Jonathan,” she whispered, her voice barely above a whisper. “What has happened to Clark?”

“I don’t know, I’m guessing that he's having more than his share of relationship hassles,” Jonathan replied. “Maybe he really needs to talk about this situation with Lois.”

“Or maybe I should fly to Metropolis and have a heart to heart with Lois,” Martha said.

“You think that would make a difference?” Jonathan asked.

“I could only hope that it would,” Martha said softly. “Lois and I get along pretty well, and Clark did say that she knows the truth now, maybe by talking to her, I can find out why it is that she is so upset and why it is Clark is not himself.”

Jonathan shook his head. “I don't know what good it would do, but far be it from me to keep you from doing what you think is right.”

Martha smiled. “Could you tell Tess that I couldn't make it to the church, I’ve got to get a ticket and get home and pack.”

Jonathan handed her the keys to the truck. “You be careful, and call me when you get there, OK?”

Martha nodded and Jonathan watched as she walked in the direction of the local travel agency. Once she disappeared inside, Jonathan walked in the direction of the church, but to one side, he failed to notice that Tess was standing in angelic form watching them. The angel smiled and nodded. She had this feeling that Martha might just hold the key in getting Lois to listen to reason.

*****

As the clock struck six, Lois pushed the papers aside that she had been reading. She reached over and shut off the computer. The rest of the room was practically empty, Monica and Jimmy had left together, and she sighed deeply. At least Miss Sunshine had found someone else to pester besides me, she thought to herself as she reached for her purse. Even Andrew appeared to have left for the day, as she had not seen him all afternoon, not since Perry sent him to cover a neighborhood watch photo story.

She swung her purse onto her shoulder, and walked slowly towards the elevator. She could not forget the words Andrew had said to her earlier that day, but she knew that she did not really want to contemplate them either. Unconsciously, she tried to block them, but she could not stop them from filtering through her conscious.

Once she had taken the elevator down to the first floor, she stepped outside of the small enclosure and walked towards the glass doors leading outside. It was still light outside, the sun was shining, but she did not seem to notice it, her thoughts were elsewhere.

“Lois?” A masculine voice called out her name and she turned around abruptly, the gentle voice taking her by surprise, but she could see that Andrew was walking towards her, his soft blonde hair blowing gently in the breeze.

“Hi Andrew,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I finished the photo story, took the film upstairs to the darkroom, and came back down. I guess we missed each other in the elevator or something,” he said with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said.

“Where are you heading?” He asked. “Off to cover another story?”

“Actually, no, I was going to get something to eat at the Chinese take out, and then I was going to go home,” she said.

“Mind if I join you? I haven’t eaten anything yet, and maybe instead of take out food, we could go and have dinner somewhere.”

“You said that you weren’t interested in relationships, but now it sounds like you’re asking me out on a date,” Lois said, her voice etched in skepticism.

“No, what I mean is…I thought that this would be strictly a dinner among friends…uh, I mean, of course, colleagues…” Andrew attempted to speak, but all the while his handsome face was flushing and he was grasping for words just like a shy little schoolboy. Anyone could tell that he was trying to use honesty as well as caution in his words, but was not exceedingly successful with it. He took a deep breath and discovered that Lois truly had a gift of words, and he realized that he really had to be careful which ones he selected. “I mean…”

Lois smiled slightly when she saw how tongue-tied he was getting, and instead of making a big deal about this, she finally decided to let him off the hook. “OK, stop trying to explain, let’s just go, it’ll be like a business dinner of sorts.”

Andrew smiled weakly and nodded, his gratitude evidently showing that she wasn’t raking him over the coals for not speaking as eloquently as he was capable of doing.

“You're a strange person, Andrew,” Lois said for the second time since meeting him, but didn't add that there was something rather comforting about him, something that made her feel somewhat relaxed and not so on edge.

“You’ve already said as much,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “What is it about me that is so strange to you?”

The reporter shook her head. “I don’t know, you seem honest, I mean; when you told me earlier that you didn't lie, I guess you know that I didn’t really believe you. Then just now when you stumbled over what words you wanted to say, you reminded me of a shy teenager who wanted to ask a girl to a school dance.”

“A school dance?” He looked puzzled by the analogy and made no attempt to hide his confusion.

“I can't really explain it, but there was something innocent in your words that made me realize that maybe you were telling me the truth and something inside of me believes that you really wouldn't lie to or hurt me,” she offered freely, but looked at him intently. “Would you?”

“No, I wouldn’t,” he said softly.

Lois looked at him. “You remind me of someone; a friend.”

“I would like to be a friend, Lois, but a friendship is based on trust, and if a friend cannot be trusted, then a friendship doesn't exist,” Andrew replied.

Lois nodded, but even though she liked what he was saying, she was still uncertain as to how much she could say without telling him too much of what she was feeling inside. As they reached the restaurant and went inside, Lois realized that this was the same restaurant where she and Clark had come, and where she had spilled her guts to him about her life, about her relationship with her father, as well as how she became the hard-nosed reporter that she was.

She looked around the brightly lit dining room, and sighed deeply.

“Is something wrong?” Andrew asked.

“No, nothing,” Lois quickly recovered, the untruthful words emerging as they were led to a table and were seated. Once she was seated, she looked across the table at him. “That’s not entirely true, but it’s not so important,” she muttered under her breath.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Andrew asked.

“Not really, I don't even know why I agreed to come here,” she said softly.

“Maybe because you needed to,” Andrew said. “I noticed you at the newsroom, and for the past week since I started there, you have sat at your desk, literally drowning in cappuccinos and news stories.”

“How do you know what I do at work?” She asked defensively. “Are you spying on me?”

“Who do you think has been bringing you those cappuccinos?” He shot back challengingly, all the while trying to keep his voice gentle and level.

“I never asked you to,” Lois shot back.

“No and I didn’t ask you to come here to debate how many cappuccinos you drink or what stories you write. I asked because I want to be a friend, simple as that,” Andrew said, and taking a deep breath; he continued. “I know it may seem out of line to say so, but it’s perfectly obvious that you have something on your mind and I want to help, but I can’t if you won’t talk to me.”

Lois looked at him and shook her head. “I can’t.”

“You can’t or you won’t?” He pressed, his challenging question taking her by surprise.

Lois looked at him, her expression filled with sadness. “I can’t.”

“But, you wish you could, don’t you?” Andrew asked; his voice filled with gentility. “You wish you could talk about the pain that’s building up inside of you, but finding someone you can trust is hard, isn’t it? I don’t expect you to tell me what feel, Lois, but you do need to talk to someone about it without always feeling like you have to cop some kind of attitude first.” He stood up with the intention of leaving, but this took her by surprise and he only stopped when he heard her voice.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“I think I may have said too much just now,” he said honestly.

“Please, don’t go, Andrew,” she said softly. “I know you’re right. I know I’ve been doing that; it’s just hard for me to tell people how I feel.”

“I can tell,” he said.

“How?”

He pointed to her eyes. “When I was reading material from the archives, I saw pictures of you when you were nominated for the Kerth award and other things, and I noticed that when I saw you a week ago, you didn’t look like you did in the pictures.”

“Well, everyone changes over the course of a year,” Lois objected.

Andrew took a deep breath as he shook his head and came over to where she was sitting. “No, I don’t mean that, I mean…” His voice trailed off, but after a second, he found the words he needed and continued. “…Do you have a compact mirror?”

“Why? Did you lose your contact lens or something?” She asked as she dug in her purse and pulled the compact out and handed it to him.

Once he opened it, he handed it back to her. “Look at your reflection in this mirror and tell me honestly that you are happy right now, at this very moment.”

Lois took the offered mirror and looked down at her reflection. Her eyes were somewhat swollen, as though she had not slept in months, her face was unusually pale. “I've had better days,” she offered as she closed the compact. “I guess I forgot to put some make-up on this morning before going to work.”

“You forgot, or you just didn’t care?” Andrew asked.

“Why do you ask me this?” She asked, her question almost like a counter response.

Andrew rubbed his hand across his face and he looked at her. “Just look at yourself, and tell me.”

Lois took a deep breath and once again, opened the mirror and stared down at her reflection without saying a word.

“This is what everyone sees when they look at you,” Andrew said gently. “You can’t hide the pain from people, Lois. Perry sees a friend when he looks at you, he sees someone who has been through so much, but also a woman who is afraid to tell others how she really feels. Right now, Jimmy must deal with his own emotions about all of this, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s your friend as well, contrary to the fact that he's treated like a boy, rather than a man.”

“What does this have to do with me?” She asked softly.

“It has a lot to do with you, and no matter how much you want to fight it, Lois, Perry and Jimmy are your friends, and although the past few weeks have been painful for them, they are saddened to see you in so much pain. Yet, you know that it will be up to you to let them into your world, to let them know how you feel, what you’re going through, and that your spirit is aching,” Andrew said gently.

“You don’t expect me to talk about this to you, do you?” She asked.

“I don’t expect anything, but I will listen if you want to talk to me. Like I said, a friendship is based on trust,” Andrew said smiling gently. “You would have to reach the point where you can trust that I will not betray your confidence, that I will not do something that will hurt you, that I will simply listen and speak only words of encouragement.”

Lois returned the compact to her purse, but nodded as she tried to combat the tears. Why were the words emerging from this man getting to her? He was nothing but a rookie photographer, but yet when he spoke, she had the feeling that he could see deep inside of her. “Why do you say this stuff?” She asked, all the while her head was down, and she did not want to look up and meet his piercing gaze.

“You mean, the truth?” Andrew asked softly. “I guess it's just the way I am.” He paused taking a deep breath. “I don’t mean to upset you, but Lois, something has happened to you, hasn’t it? You have a hard time trusting people, maybe because you’ve been lied to so many times in your life. I think it’s hard for someone to see the truth simply because the lies get in the way.”

Lois nodded. “I don’t know where to start, Andrew. I honestly don’t. I mean, you’re right, I have been hurt, and I’ve tried to be tough so that people don't see that I’m falling apart inside. It’s a horrible feeling, like I’m falling and no one’s there to catch me.”

“But there is someone,” he said smiling weakly. “God is there, Lois.”

“Great,” Lois whispered sarcastically as her eyes rolled. “You know I never took you for one of those angry religious types, Andrew.”

“I'm not,” he said softly as he shook his head. “I just have faith, but, let me ask you a question, do you believe in God?”

Lois nodded, “I guess I do, but I never really talked about Him before. I'm a reporter, Andrew; I look for the facts, so I guess I would believe in Him more if I could interview Him. The exclusive, 'My Interview With God' with fancy byline.” As the words emerged, she could not help but smile, the idea was just too funny to be real.

Andrew chuckled. “That would be quite an interview.”

“You’re not offended by that idea?” She asked. “I think some people would be absolutely flabbergasted.”

“No, see, I think God has a wonderful sense of humor about things like that. Imagine what it would be like to sit at a table and interview God. What kind of questions would you ask Him?” Andrew asked, his eyes dancing merrily.

“I don't know, I suppose I would ask why men kill each other, why people lie to each other,” she shook her head. “You know questions that humanity can’t even begin to answer because we're so caught up in all of it. I guess just for the idea of looking at it from another perspective. From the big chair, so to speak.”

Andrew smiled; he really was enjoying this dinner. “So you would ask Him some pretty hard questions.”

“Sure, what would you ask?” Lois asked.

“I don't know, I think I would tell Him that He's wonderful and doing a great job,” Andrew smiled ironically.

“Oh come on, don't tell me that you would sit at a table with God and go fluffy,” Lois shook her head. “Lesson one in the newspaper business, you have to go for the nitty-gritty, Andrew. A good newspaper doesn’t sell when all you have are compliments and stuff, you have to really ask those hard questions that people really want to know the answers to.”

“OK, then give me some more examples,” Andrew said.

“What am I doing wrong? Why doesn't my life work? Why do people kill each other and say it's in Your name? I mean; those are some real questions, and if the reporter could get the answers from the man upstairs, they would be in line for a Pulitzer no question.” Lois smiled weakly. “At least if the answers were halfway believable and they could prove that the answers really came from God, and not from John Doe.”

“Do you think God would lie to you?” Andrew asked still not able to get past the skepticism in her voice.

“God has always been the personification of a man, so I would be compelled to say ‘yes’, because I have been lied to so many times by men. Please don't take it the wrong way, or offer up a sermon, but experiences seem to speak the bottom line for me,” she said, but when she looked across the table at him, she sighed and continued to speak. “Then again, because of what religion says, and if I were to say ‘no’, then I would be lying to myself. So, I guess the safest answer would be I don’t know,” Lois said as she reached for her glass of iced tea and took a drink. Once she replaced the glass she shrugged her shoulders.

“No sermon, I promise,” Andrew said. “Did you ever notice that every time we start to talk to each other, it always comes back to work?”

“I’m a workaholic, what can I say?” Lois smiled sarcastically, but she realized as the evening progressed, that she was really having fun. Andrew was really fun, and even though this conversation had turned to God, she could somehow see that he was not as fundamentalist about it as she had surmised immediately after the topic had come up and that came as a relief to her. She had never really discussed things of a religious nature, and today, she had not only started to trust someone, but that this someone had given her a great deal of food for thought, and that did not happen to Lois Lane every day.

*****

After dinner, Andrew paid the bill and they left the restaurant. “This wasn't a date, you know?” Lois said when she offered her half of the bill and he refused.

“I’ll tell you what, next time, you pay, and then we'll call it a draw,” he smiled.

“You’re a tough customer, Andrew, but OK,” Lois said shaking her head, but as they walked in the direction of her apartment, she was scanning the horizon for Clark. She knew that Andrew would never be anything more than a friend, but she could not help but ponder if Clark was around, or if he was watching them and how jealous he was getting of Andrew’s presence in her life.

“If you think I'm tough, you should meet a friend of mine, she gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘attitude’,” he smiled when he thought about Tess, and when he glanced over, he could see her standing on the sidewalk, she had heard everything and was looking at him with a scowl on her face.

“Attitude huh,” she muttered before disappearing almost causing him to laugh out loud for no apparent reason.

Lois smiled. “Andrew, I really had fun tonight, it was the first time in a long time that I could just get away from work and stuff and just talk to somebody. I mean; I don’t really have a lot of friends, and as strange as it sounds, I would really like it if we could maybe be friends.”

Andrew smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

“I mean, mutual,” Lois said, her voice somewhat uncertain that he might just take her words the wrong way.

“Mutual,” he smiled and nodded. “Believe it or not, I could be nothing more than that.”

Lois nodded and smiled as when they reached the building where she lived. He accompanied her up the stairs and once they had reached her door, she pulled the key from her pocket and smiled weakly at him not wishing to be rude, but also not wanting to invite him inside. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” She offered weakly.

“Yes, of course, Lois, I'll see you at the Planet.”

She turned to go inside but stopped before she was completely inside and turned to see him walking towards the stairs. “Andrew?”

He stopped and turned around. “Yes?”

“Thank you,” she smiled at him.

“My pleasure,” he said gently before descending the stairs and she went inside.

Once inside, she could see that Clark was standing in the living room, his cape blowing in the gentle breeze that was wafting through her living room from an open window.

“Lois?”

“What are you doing here?” She demanded.

“We need to talk,” he began.

“About us?”

“Yes, but also about that guy you had dinner with tonight,” Clark's face was expressionless at the mention of Andrew, and she could see that his jealousy was coming to a head.

Lois looked at him through angry eyes and sighing she tried to ignore the fact that he was staring at her through fearful eyes. Ignoring that, she spoke, her words curt. “What are you doing, following me all over Metropolis?” She asked bitingly. “I'm a big girl, Clark, I can take care of myself.”

“Lois, I know you're going to think I’m completely mad, but I don’t trust that guy,” Clark objected, his voice filled with urgency. He came over to her and rested his hand on her shoulder, his eyes practically demanding her to listen to him. “I saw him in the street a few days ago, and one minute he was there, the next, he was gone.”

“Oh, come on, Clark, this isn’t funny,” Lois objected. “I only had dinner with him, he’s a nice guy, and a good friend, but I can also assure you that there is nothing going on between us, we just had dinner and talked, nothing more.”

“Maybe not, but I have seen him do some pretty strange things and I just want you to be careful around him,” Clark objected.

“You think Andrew is an alien from space or something?” Lois asked with a slight smirk on her face. “Maybe he can fly too and has tights in his closet.”

“That’s just the point, I don’t know who or what he is, and I certainly don’t trust him,” Clark answered, his voice firm.

“Just like you didn’t trust Scardino, and anyone else who has even shown a remote interest in me,” she said bitingly all the while shaking her head.

“No, it’s not that, it's thisthis guy,” Clark said. “How do you know that he’s not working in the underworld? I mean; you did hear about the increased drug activity here.”

“Yes, and my story, for lack of interest has been put on ice, Clark, I think you’re just overreacting,” Lois said curtly.

“Please, just be careful; I mean it, Lois, during the past couple of days, I have had a very strange feeling that something bad was about to happen.”

“Clark, ‘this guy’, as you call him, does have a name, it’s Andrew, and he is a friend, and at least I know one thing about him; he would never lie to me,” she said, her words filled with the extent of her frustration and hurt.

“Tell me, do you even know his last name?”

“Yes, I do, it’s Halo, and Clark, I also know he’s a photographer, he’s generous, very kind, and you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Clark tried without success to be convincing. “Even if I was, can you look me in the eye and tell me you know anything else about him besides his name? Do you know where he comes from or who his parents are?” Clark asked.

Lois shook her head. “I’m just getting to know him, and besides, even Perry says I should get out more and not waste away in a newsroom. I guess you could say that I’m just taking some advice from a friend.”

“Lois, you don't know what you’re getting yourself into with this guy,” Clark said. “I mean; you know nothing about him. Maybe you should just follow your instincts, you are a reporter after all.”

“Yes, and my instincts are telling me two things; that you’re jealous, that Andrew is a real friend, and that he would not do anything like break my heart or lie to me,” Lois said sourly.

Clark closed his eyes and raised his head as though to speak to her, but discovered that his voice simply would not come. After a few moments of silence passed between them, he shook his head in profound disbelief.

Lois, instead of waiting for him to speak, broke her silence as she looked at him. “So, let me get this straight; you show up here out of the blue after lying to me, and you tell me that I should turn away from someone who has made the effort to be nothing more than a mutual friend. Can you imagine how hard it is for me to remember the last time I actually went to dinner with a friend? I mean; not some joker who was hitting on me, not some wacko that tried to give me everything I wanted; just someone who listened.”

Clark looked at her. “Lois, what happened to us?”

She shook her head. “Andrew said something earlier tonight that made a whole lot of sense, he said: ‘A friendship that is not based on trust, is not a friendship at all’.”

Upon hearing her words, Clark took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I guess this is still going to be a sore point with you, isn’t it?”

“You lying to me, yes, I guess it will,” Lois said ironically. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him tightly, giving him the biggest kiss that she was capable of giving. In that blue suit and red cape, it was no secret, Clark had a magical way of making her heart flutter, but somehow this knowledge was just too much for her to contend with. “I’ll be careful,” she finally said, but the words were forced, and Clark could tell by looking at her, that she was just trying to pacify him.

“Lois,” he implored her.

“Please, just go,” she whispered her voice etched with pain.

Clark backed towards the window, and within seconds, he was gone.

Once he had flown away, she went and closed the window, her gaze coming to rest on the stars. “Oh God, I need help.”

On the other side of the room, Andrew and Monica stood watching her, both angels in angelic form.

Monica looked at Andrew, “she's really in love with him.”

“Yes, she is,” Andrew said, “and now I understand what's been happening here. You remember when I talked to Superman earlier today, about what happened at the Daily Planet?”

Monica nodded. “Now this case is actually starting to make some kind of sense, Clark Kent is Superman.”

“That's right angel babies, but you were not supposed to know that yet,” Tess’ voice emerged and the eldest of the three angels appeared in the room. “You both knew better than to come here.”

“Tess, Lois is hurting,” Andrew objected.

“They both are, baby, and Clark thinks you’re in cahoots with a fellow named Tempus,” Tess said softly.

“Tempus?” Monica looked at Tess with surprise shadowing her brown eyes.

“Who is Tempus and how could I be involved with him if I don't even know who he is?” Andrew asked almost at the precise instant Monica had spoken.

“Well, Tempus is a man from the future, oh how can I put this? Time and space are somehow passable; he has somehow managed to travel into this time, right before Lois discovered Clark’s secret identity. Anyway, he had somehow managed to coerce H.G. Wells to use his time machine to try and do away with Superman so that the future will be encased with chaos rather than peace,” Tess tried to explain, but she knew that she was not explaining it very well.

“H.G. Wells as in the man who wrote ‘War Of The Worlds’?” Andrew asked, his face paling with the mention of anything even remotely related to Halloween. It was obvious to his two angelic companions that the Angel of Death hated Halloween.

After a few moments, Andrew shook his head, his intention obvious, he wanted out of this case and out of anything that even remotely resembled Halloween, but when he cast a sideways glance in the direction of Lois Lane, he knew that he could not just disappear, she needed a friend and in all of this, it was him that the reporter had actually started to trust.

Tess could see the contemplative look on his face and after a few moments, he looked back over at her before she continued. “H.G. Wells was a writer, Andrew, but what he wrote isn't as significant as the fact that he showed up here to help Lois and Clark battle Tempus. The problem that Tempus is presently faced with is as follows: The time period from where he comes is uninteresting to him because it is a peaceful, almost utopian, environment. In Tempus’ vocabulary, that means it's ‘boring’,” she paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. “This time, the Father has sent us in the place of H.G. Wells.”

“So, H.G. Wells isn't going to show up here?” Andrew asked.

Tess shook her head as Monica looked over in Lois’ direction.

“Tess, how could H.G. Wells even show up here, I mean; he's been dead for years?” Monica finally asked and though Andrew had made an earlier enquiry, he was now as curious as his fellow angel in this regard.

“Hold up, babies, didn’t you hear what I just said? Time and space are not absolute. Wells found a way to pass through time and space, so the problem is not whether or not H.G. Wells or Tempus sometimes show up here, but rather the intentions of Tempus, and how he is going to measure into this assignment. The situation is serious because he wants to destroy Clark Kent, and thus put an end to Superman,” Tess said. “Without Superman, Tempus believes that the future would be laced with chaos to an unbelievable degree, thus making it more ‘interesting’. In some ways, he's right, because the future will be determined by what happens in the present, and the existence of Superman is a significant part of this present reality as well as prospect of a peaceful future.”

“Wait, Tess, Tempus means to do harm to Superman?” Monica asked. “But that’s not possible, there's no way that anyone could kill Superman.”

“Well, there is one way,” Andrew said softly all the while shaking his head. “Have you ever heard of a substance called ‘Kryptonite’?”

“Excuse me?” Monica asked.

“Kryptonite is a green, almost crystal-like substance and properties in it could kill Superman and Tempus already knows this,” Andrew said softly and Tess nodded.

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Monica asked. “I mean, wouldn’t this be a job for ‘Search and Rescue’?” She asked referring to another of the angelic departments and one that she had worked in before becoming a caseworker.

Andrew shook his head. “Lois and Clark have battled Tempus before, but they are going to have to get over their relationship woes if they are going to defeat him again. This is why we are here, not because of an idea of rescuing Clark from Tempus, but the fact that there is a whole lot more riding on this case than just a relationship falling apart. If we don’t succeed in getting Lois and Clark to see the monumental intensity of their love for one another, then Clark will die, and very soon.”

Monica looked at the Angel of Death, her eyes wide with shock. “That's not possible, Andrew, you must be mistaken.”

He cast a final look over at Lois and shook his head sadly. “I wish I was mistaken, Monica, this time I really wish I was.” With emphasis he pulled out his pocket watch, opened it and stared down at the numbers. After a few seconds, he returned it to his pocket. “We have less than a week.”

*****

At the same time, Tempus was in an undisclosed area of the city. “It's so elementary, if we can control the entire youth drug culture of Metropolis, then we can create more chaos than the likes this town has seen since Superman showed up here and started all his do-gooder deeds.”

“Mister Tempus, you know how it is, the drug culture is dying out here, people are wanting to be like Superman, the kids aren’t getting hooked anymore,” Smyth, one of the most notorious drug lords in the city, said as he lit a cigar and blew a ring of smoke in the direction of the man from the future.

In response, Tempus irritably waved his hand in front of his face, and looked at Smyth with disdain. “Are you kidding, Smyth, we're already on our way. The pills we gave to your hoods last night were filled with mind-altering substances that make the user only listen to the sultry sounds of my voice. I could turn the entire underground world into a mobilized army within seconds.” He grinned evilly and his eyes brightened as his next words emerged. “What could be better than an army that will listen only to me and do my bidding?” He regarded the drug lord who was smoking his cigar contentedly. “You underrate the sheer magnitude of the workings of my brilliant mind.”

“No, boss, of course I don’t, I just wonder what will bring me and the boys into more money,” Smyth said, his eyes gleaming. “So, what about Superman? You did say you had a plan as to how to get him out of the way. Are you going to tell me about it, or do I have to grovel for information?”

Tempus smiled broadly, his eyes lightening up with evil intent upon the mere mention of the man of steel. “Superman,” he held up a single finger and then pointed towards a bookshelf that was located on one end of their underground dwelling. “You see, my dear Mr. Smyth, behind that wall is just another of the many tricks I happen to have up my sleeve.”

Smyth still looked confused and it was obvious to the man from the future that the drug lord could barely add one and one together, much less manage to see that Tempus had a surefire plan to back up his arrogant claims. After a few moments of impatient silence, Tempus looked at him as he stubbornly stuffed the cigar back in his mouth and took a long draw on it.

“You remember about a year ago when Lex Luther was about to marry Lois Lane don't you?” Tempus asked all the while showing his disdain at having to explain something that he was already well aware of.

“Not really,” Smyth responded, and it looked as thought his brain working on overload, and that one could literally see the gears turning.

“Well, let me refresh your memory, my little pea-brained friend,” Tempus sneered, his eyes flashing. “Lex Luther had somehow managed to trap Superman in a basement. He had what I have come to call a handy little cage, the bars made entirely of kryptonite; the one substance known to man that could destroy Superman. It's sort of his Achilles heel so to speak, Mr. Smyth, but strangely enough, Luther didn't count on Superman escaping and well, based on my estimations, it seemed rather impossible for him to do so.” He paused and watched as Smyth took another draw on his cigar and exhaled, the smoke encircling his head. “After Lois jilted poor Lex at the altar, poor Mr. Luther freaked out a little and ended up jumping from a window of a high rise building. Not a very safe or smart exit, but a pretty dramatic and effective one. Anyway, as ironic as it sounds, he turned up a little later, but eventually, Lois and Superman helped land him back behind bars and thus, to the underground world, Luther was completely humiliated.”

“What does this sob story have to do with us?” Smyth asked.

Tempus pressed a button and the bookcase slid away, and behind it, the kryptonite cage was seen parallel to the room where they were now standing. “You see my dear pea-brained assistant, if Superman gives us any trouble with our plan, and I imagine he will, then, we'll simply lure him right where we want him…to this cage and to his…” he smiled smugly, but after a few seconds, the dramatic final word emerged from between his pursed lips, “…death.”

Smyth looked at Tempus with a crooked and tobacco-stained yellow grin. “You seemed to have thought of everything, but what about that nosy reporter, Lois Lane? The story is, she's all buddy-buddy with Superman.”

“Don't worry about her, we’ll send her and her friends off on a wild goose chase and then move in for the kill. In two nights, we're going to stage a rave, one that the likes of this town has not seen in years.”

“A rave?” Smyth pondered.

“Yes,” Tempus smiled. “Lois Lane has been known to go undercover at events like this to get the latest stories, and so we're going to set up what she is going to want. I am certain that she and her partner will show up there and then…”

“We move in for the kill?” Smyth asked still chomping down on his cigar.

“Right you are, and by the time they realize what has happened, the Daily Planet will be writing Superman’s eulogy for the weekend edition,” Tempus grinned. “Lois Lane and Clark Kent will both die on Friday night and if we're really lucky, then poor Perry White will be doing the writing, because his star reporters will be gone.” Tempus said, but when he looked back over at Smyth, he still carried the look of unhidden disgust on his face. “Now then, did you give your boys the pills that I asked you to?”

“They should be distributing them as we speak,” Smyth responded all the while grinning as though he had been awarded the key to the city.

“Good, then by tomorrow morning, Metropolis will have a new threat to contend with, this one emanating from drugged out and hypnotized youth,” Tempus smiled broadly as he clapped Smyth on the back with his hand, thus causing the cigar to fly out of the mouth of the drug lord.

As he scrambled to retrieve it, he looked back over at Tempus. “Will I still get my cash like you promised?”

“A million big ones, just like we agreed on. First we play a little, get Superman out of commission and then you'll get what you have coming,” Tempus said and smiled.

Although he didn't trust Tempus, Smyth knew that the man had the upper hand in this caper. However, he also knew that without Superman around, his business would run much smoother than before. Now that the youth had a good role model, they were saying no to his wares, and he was loosing money.

Without Superman's influence, then perhaps he would have the upper hand with the kids, and they would once again become dependent on him to supply them with what they needed. Without saying anything further, he blew the dust off the cigar, and stuffed it stubbornly in his mouth as he stared at the large kryptonite cage that Tempus had somehow managed to get his hands on, the thoughts of the drug lord no longer on the green bars of the cage, instead, his focus was now on something else that was green in color.

*****

Martha Kent arrived at Lois’ front door at that moment, and she rang the doorbell. She looked down at her watch, and realized that it was half past eleven, but when the door eventually swung open, a surprised Lois was standing on the other side and looking out at her. “Martha, what on earth are you doing here, it’s nearly midnight?”

“Actually, I think you and I need to have a little talk about something,” Martha began as she outlined a letter ‘S’ over her chest, and looked at Lois with an earnest look on her face. “Clark told us that you figured out the truth, but there are a few things you need to know not just about him, but also about why things happened the way they did.”

Lois nodded as she wordlessly backed up allowing Clark's mother to come into the apartment. As the two women got comfortable on the sofa, Lois looked at her expecting her to begin speaking.

“I realize that it may seem out of line for me to come here, but the reason I am here is because I'm concerned about you, but I'm also worried about my son. I thought I should at least try and find out what has happened between you two, and Jonathan is back in Smallville trying to talk to Clark about this so I flew out here this afternoon in the hopes that I could talk to you about what has been happening.”

“Martha, I…” Lois began to speak, but somehow her words trailed off.

“Lois, my son has spent his entire life with one goal in mind, and that is something that you and I, as well as everyone else in this world, takes for granted every single day of our lives. It's this idea of leading a completely normal life without a care in the world. You wake up each morning and you go about your normal routine of getting a cappuccino on your way to work. You don't have to worry about a secret that could have a catastrophic impact on the rest of the world.” As she spoke, she could see that Lois was processing her words.

Taking a deep breath, she continued. “You know that you can simply walk down the street never having to worry about hearing voices ringing in your ears crying out for ‘help’. But you see; Clark lives with this kind of thing every day. He became Superman so that he could use his gifts to help people, not to hide from what he is or keep secrets from those he loves, but so that he could, as Clark, live a normal and productive life. He loves you, Lois, and his reason for keeping this from you was not to hurt, lie to, or to anger you, but simply because he had to.”

The reporter shook her head. “I know you’re trying to help, but I really have to find my own way of dealing with this.”

Martha nodded. “I know you do, but keep in mind that Clark is who my son is, Superman is just an inherited state that he got from Krypton. But, imagine the loneliness he feels at being the only one of his kind here. Just try to picture how you would feel if you were in his shoes and had to live with the burdens that he must deal with.”

As she thought about what Clark’s mother had said, she realized how right Martha was. She really did love Clark even though she was still hurt by what he had done to her. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the wise woman as she got up to leave. “Do you have a place to stay?” She asked trying to keep the focus off of the disturbing thoughts that seemed to emanate her.

“I'm going to spend the night at Clark's apartment, I imagine after being away from there for two weeks, the place could use a little bit of attention,” she said smiling gently at Lois.

“He's been staying in Smallville?” Lois asked softly.

“Yes, but Lois, please give him a chance, let him tell you how he feels, and what he’s experiencing in all of this. He does love you, you know and he really didn't intend to hurt you,” Martha smiled reassuringly at her and once Lois nodded, she left the apartment leaving Lois alone to think about the words she had said.

Once she was gone, Lois went over and sat down on the sofa. Even if I wanted to, she thought sadly to herself, I don't think Clark would even want to talk to me anymore. I wouldn't even know what to say to him, so what does it matter? Maybe when he comes back to the Planet, then we can talk about all of this.

She took a deep breath before getting up to lock the front door. As soon as she had turned the lights out, she went back to her bedroom. As she crawled into bed, she leaned over to turn the light off, but oddly enough, she was not able to sleep. She kept thinking about some of the things Clark had told her when he had been there earlier, but she shook her head when she contemplated the assertions Clark had had about Andrew. There was simply no way that the photographer could be involved with Tempus.

Use your instincts, you're a reporter, Clark's words kept returning to her and she tried with everything that was inside of her to trust those instincts, but they kept telling her the same thing, Clark was overreacting and he was jealous. After a few moments, she started to think about Andrew. As she did a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. He must have dropped from the heavens, she thought as she closed her eyes. After a few moments, she opened them again and stared at the ceiling for some hours, her thoughts drifting from Clark, the man she loved, to Andrew, the new friend she had met at work, and back again.

She remained lying on her back staring at the ceiling, her thoughts adrift until she managed to drift off into a dreamless slumber.

*****

Metropolis was a buzz of activity the following morning when Lois arrived at the Daily Planet building. She rode up to the newsroom in silence and when she reached the floor of the newsroom, she emerged to hear Jimmy’s voice as the young photographer was addressing Monica.

“I tell you there were three armed robberies all of them on one street during a twenty minute span of time,” he was saying and she approached.

“Did you find out anything else about what had happened?” Lois asked Jimmy.

“Yeah, three guys, all seventeen-years-old were found dead outside of the ‘Willis Warehouse’ this morning at six. The police have already sealed off the entire area and when I talked to them this morning, they said that it looked to be an overdose. Anyway, Monica has been doing some research since before you came in and she found out that there is going to be a rave downtown tomorrow night,” Jimmy said.

“A rave, huh?” Lois said more to herself than to him, but she nodded and walked slowly over to the computer terminal where Monica was hastily typing. “You find anything else, Rookie?”

Monica looked up, her expression somewhat bemused; Lois was actually talking to her, and she sounded as though she was trying to be friendly to her.

Smiling weakly, the angel nodded as she began to speak. “Well, according to this website, the ‘Portal of Love’, techno group are planning to have their annual rave for months now. It’s supposed to happen tomorrow night. Now, I was also looking for information about their history and I found this in the Metropolis Police archives.” She reached for a printout and handed it to Lois. “It says that this particular group has been known to have run-ins with the police quite frequently, and more often than not, they have been the object of raids and what have you.”

“So this says that they are rather notorious here,” Lois said once she had consulted the printout. “Jimmy, was there anymore information given when you talked to the police this morning?”

“Yes, they referred me to Dr. Klein from Star Labs. Anyway, according to the police, they said that Superman had requested that the lab run some tests on the traces of medication that were found at the scene this morning, and he affirmed that there were traces of ecstasy as well as some unknown chemical substances. Dr. Klein further concluded that some of these seemed to be mind altering substances inside them, but nothing conclusive has been established as of yet.”

Lois nodded. “You think someone’s trying to drug the kids as a way to control them?”

“Well it seems kind of weird that the entire underworld has apparently gone psychotic on us all in one morning,” Jimmy said.

Seconds later the phone rang and Jimmy grabbed it. “Jimmy Olsen?” After a few moments, he handed the phone to Lois. “It's the police chief, he wants to talk to you.”

Lois accepted the phone. “Hello?” A pause. “A press conference?” Another pause as the officer gave her some more news and she nodded. “Thank you for the information.” With that she hung up the phone. “He said that he’s baffled by what's happening here, and there’s going to be a press conference at the City Council meeting today at one.”

“Something tells me that this is not the makings of an exclusive,” Jimmy muttered as he handed Lois another piece of paper.

“Did the police say anything else when they called?” Lois asked. “You did say that three seventeen-year-olds were found dead outside Willis Warehouse this morning. Is all the criminal activity in the city being committed by young people?”

“You know, they didn’t really say, but according to the police, the culprits of some muggings from early this morning were all committed by teenagers who were known by the police as being repeat offenders of petty crimes, you know pick-pocketing, shoplifting and what have you. I can always go and check the online news service and see if there’s any new developments.” As he spoke, Andrew had arrived and was stepping out of the elevator and was now making his way over towards where Lois, Monica, and Jimmy were all hunched around the computer terminal.

As he reached them, Lois nodded at him as if to say ‘good morning’, but her attention was primarily focused on the papers she now held. Seconds passed and with a new sense of determination, she went back over to her desk leaving Monica and Andrew standing alone. As soon as she reached it, she picked up the phone.

Once Jimmy returned his focus to the computer, Monica got up and excused herself saying that she was going downstairs to get an mocha latte. She motioned to Andrew who followed her to the elevator. Once they came into the small enclosure and the doors had closed, she looked at him.

“Andrew?” She spoke her voice etched with concern and gone were the notions that Lois had been nice to her, and the story they were researching. She could immediately tell that based on Andrew's outward appearance that he was tired bordering on exhausted. “You were there with those three boys?”

He nodded, and she could tell that he carried a look on his face that clearly said: ‘I really don't want to do this’. She knew this look well; it was the same expression that she had seen when some teenage girls who were HIV positive had pondered suicide.

“Did you hear anything about what has been going on around here?” Monica asked.

Andrew nodded numbly, his green eyes filled with utter hopelessness. “Monica, I’ve been on call since five-thirty this morning. I’ve already taken five people Home, and I have another ‘appointment’ in about five minutes,” Andrew said as he reached in his pocket, pulled out his watch.

He opened the golden cover, looked down at the numbers and then back at Monica as he closed the cover and returned the object to his pocket. “I have to get going, but something is happening in this city, Monica, maybe you and Lois can find out what it is. I'm going to see if any other angels have been sent here.” Once the elevator doors opened, Andrew stepped out from the enclosure. As he left her in the building's lobby, she watched as he faded from view. Monica was still staring after him even after he was gone.

“Father, what is happening here?” She whispered under her breath, not really expecting any sort of answer. She stepped out onto the street and looked around. The street seemed to be filled with business people, all of them making their way towards large office buildings. On another street corner, she could see some pale-faced boys dressed in black t-shirts and jeans. A strange feeling encompassed the young angel, but without thinking, she walked in the direction of the small coffee wagon not far away.

As she got her drink and paid for it, one of the youths came over to her, his gray eyes flashing with unkind intent. He started looking her up and down; this action, she realized was not exceedingly a positive mannerism, but she said nothing, not even when she suddenly felt a hand pressed up against her lower back. “Hey baby,” he slurred, his hand becoming heavier against her back.

Monica abruptly turned around, the surprise shadowing not only her face, but also that of the youth, because the coffee cup she now held had practically flown out of her hand and the hot substance spilled, thus the brunt of it landing on the boy's arm. He yelped in pain, as the scalding hot liquid spattered across the exposed skin on his lower arm.

Rather than standing around waiting, he and his three friends ran off shouting obscenities and Monica released a pent-up sigh as they disappeared around a corner. Glancing back, she sought eye contact with the vendor of the coffee wagon. The man smiled at her. “Thanks lady,” he said with obvious relief. “I was convinced that those guys were going to rob me.”

“What’s happening here?” She eventually asked.

The young man shook his head. “I haven't the foggiest, it's like the entire city is drugged out or something.”

Monica nodded, “you don't suppose I might get another mocha latte?”

The young man nodded and handed her a second cup. “This one’s on the house.”

The angel nodded, accepted the cup, and walked back towards the planet building. The vendor was definitely right about one thing, something was happening here, there was something evil in the air and the Irish tongued angel did not like it one single bit.

*****

At the other end of town Andrew was making his way down the street where he met Adam, another Angel of Death and a mutual friend of his and Monica’s. It was obvious that Adam, too, had been sent to Metropolis to take care of the same sorts of things that had taken Andrew away from his current assignment. “Hey Adam?” He called out, and the angel with beard and salt and pepper hair turned abruptly around and came over to where he was now standing.

“Hey Andrew, buddy, what brings you to Metropolis?” Adam asked as he rubbed his hands over his face and eventually made eye contact with his younger friend.

“Monica and I are on assignment here,” Andrew said shaking his head, but when he could see the chaos that seemed to emanate the city, he shook his head. “But, right now, I think I’m here for the same reason you are. Something very strange is going on, it's surreal almost evil in nature,” Andrew said shaking his head. “I’ve already been called away from my regular assignment six times since this morning and I'm at a loss about what is going on.”

“You and me both, I already took three kids home who overdosed, and then I have a tentative 10:15 out on the east side,” Adam said as he shook his head, the entire situation in this city had him somewhat mystified. “Anyway, I heard Monica’s working over at the Planet, does she have any idea what's going on?”

“No, I’m on assignment there as well and neither of us have any idea what is happening here, we just got in this morning to hear that there was a lot of chaos happening in and around the city. I kept having to take off so I didn’t get a chance to find out what, specifically was going on. I just took another kid Home two minutes ago, and now have another tentative assignment in about twenty minutes,” Andrew said sadly. “I wish I knew what was going on, but it's like it's out of our control. It's as though pandemonium is ruling the day.”

“You know that's not true,” Adam objected.

Andrew smiled weakly and nodded. “I know, it just feels that way at times. So much has happened, and this just after everything here had been so quiet. It’s strange.” As a shot was fired in the distance, Adam’s gray eyes widened and he nodded.

“I gotta go, Buddy, that’s my 10:15 goin’ down,” the angel said sadly.

“OK, then I guess I’ll see you later, then. Maybe when all this is over we can meet for a ginger ale,” Andrew suggested.

Adam smiled and within seconds, he walked in the direction of where the gunshot had originated and within seconds had disappeared, thus leaving Andrew standing and staring down the street in the direction of a small delicatessen where he was now being sent.

When he reached the corner, he rounded it all the while, completely unaware that from above, he was being closely watched by Clark Kent, and instead of calming him down, Clark’s concern was only heightened by this particular situation. The one who called himself Adam looked oddly familiar to him, but what Adam had said had triggered a number of feelings that were going rampant in the man of steel.

Like Andrew, Clark had also been working through the night as Superman. He was literally going from one drug bust and dangerous situation straight into another. Thankfully, he did not tire quickly from this, but it did do a run on his emotions.

It was at that precise instant that Clark had reached the realization that he would probably not be able to go back to Smallville and continue the job his alter ego had started, he would have no choice but to return to his life in Metropolis as it was before Lois had learned the truth. Luckily, he happened to work for an editor at the Press who seemed to think that a reporter of Clark's caliber was too experienced in the field to be working at a small town newspaper.

I’ve been selfish, he thought to himself, all this time I had thought about my relationship with Lois, but now looking around, I know that in good conscience, I cannot leave Metropolis, this city needs Superman, and for what it was worth, Superman needed the city; especially now, when things here were literally reaching a breaking point.

With his thoughts still drifting, he returned his focus towards the man in beige who was making his way down the street in the direction of a small Japanese deli that was run by Mr. Yin, a friend of his and Lois.

Without thinking twice about what he was doing, he landed in a nearby alley, quickly switched back into his street clothes and within seconds, had practically cornered Andrew as the angel was coming towards the door that would lead inside the delicatessen.

“Hey,” he called out suddenly, thus causing Andrew to turn around and seeing him standing near the entrance.

Instead of speaking, Andrew consulted his golden watch and when he realized that he had some extra time, he returned the object to his pocket before walking closer to where Clark was waiting. Once he reached where Clark was now standing, Andrew offered him a tired smile.

“Who are you?” Clark asked as opposed to giving the angel any sort of cordial greeting.

“My name is Andrew,” the angel began, his voice soft.

“No, when I said ‘who are you?’ I did not mean name, rank, and serial number, I meant; what are you?” Clark looked at him, his gaze never faltering. When Andrew said nothing, he took a deep breath and continued speaking. “I’ve been watching you.”

“You have?” Andrew asked weakly.

“After I saw you with Helen, I started following you and I would see how you would appear and disappear at will. Don’t try to deny it, you’re not from here, are you?” Clark asked, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

“No, and I'm not denying any of it, Clark,” Andrew said, his voice soft. “Anymore than I did the last time we spoke.”

“We have never spoken,” Clark said eventually, but he knew that he was speaking an untruth, as he could not get the event that had happened at the Planet out of his mind.

“Yes, we did speak, it was a few days ago, you were floating outside of the window at the Daily Planet,” Andrew said calmly. “I know who you are, I also know that you are Superman.”

“Who told you?” Clark asked bitingly. “Tempus?”

Andrew took a deep breath, here was that name again and he was getting more and more confused with this assignment, especially whenever the mention of ‘Tempus’ were to emerge. He remembered what Tess had said about him, but even this information was sketchy, and he could not comprehend how someone would conclude that he and the man from the future were linked. Finally, he spoke. “Please tell me, who is this Tempus? I have heard a little bit about him, but I don’t know who he is and how you could link me to him.”

“How?” Clark asked, his voice emerging more or less as a sarcastic snort. “Shall I start reeling off the list? Let’s see, you appear and disappear at will; that would be enough evidence for me to say that you are either not from Earth or at least not from this time period. What I don't know is who you work for, and why it is you have taken it upon yourself to become all buddy-buddy with Lois.” Clark said evenly.

“Clark, you really don't understand, I don't work for Tempus, I work for God, and no one else,” Andrew said, but he could see disbelief on the face of the other man.

“God?” Clark spoke the name as though it were a question, but there was no denying it, he was baffled. He had heard Tess mention God, and now he was hearing Andrew speak of Him as well. This was getting very, very strange.

Instead of replying to this question, Andrew looked earnestly in the eyes of the other man. “I think deep inside, you know that I would never ever hurt Lois. I also know that you do care very deeply for her, but you have to know that I am not here to start a relationship with her, or hurt the one you and she have built. The truth is, I'm trying to help both of you.”

“You're trying to help us?” Clark shook his head. Somewhere he could sense the truth in Andrew's words, but his jealousy seemed to be what was preventing him from listening to the truth.

The Angel of Death nodded. “I share something very important and significant with you, Clark, I don’t lie. When I said I work for God, I meant it,” Andrew said softly. “However, I have to say that although I would never lie to anyone, I do understand why you have to bend the truth in to protect your identity.”

“How could you know or understand any of this?”

Andrew cocked his head to one side, but did not offer an answer; instead, he waited for Clark to continue processing his words. When he did not speak, the Angel of Death continued. “I realize that this sounds very strange to you, but I do understand.”

“How could you? Have you ever had a secret identity?” Clark demanded but before he could even stop himself, he continued, his voice rising in pitch and fervor as he looked into the compassionate eyes of the angel. “Do you even know how hard it is to keep such a thing a secret from the people you love?”

Andrew nodded. “You may not believe me, but yes, I do.”

“You couldn’t possibly…” Clark said as he shook his head, his words trailing, but before he could take a breath and begin to speak further, Andrew was gone.

Clark remained standing in the alley some moments after Andrew had left and all the while, he continued to ponder whether or not there was even a trace of honesty and truth in Andrew's words. Somewhere deep inside of him, he wanted to believe that Andrew was there to help him, but the words 'too good to be true' kept echoing in his conscious.

Some time passed and the sound of a gunshot catapulted him back to the real world and he raced through the door at super-speed all the while switching back into his blue and red suit. As he ran through the small shop and to the front of the store, he stopped when he recognized that a drugged out teenager had shot Mr. Yin.

Taking a ragged breath, Clark stopped short when he saw that Mr. Yin's youngest daughter was hovering next to his body, the man was loosing blood fast and the teenager’s face streaked with frightened tears.

“Superman,” the girl cried out in broken English as he reached them. “He’s hurt.”

“I know, Li, I'm going to take him to the hospital, but he'll be just fine.” Clark said as he smiled reassuringly at the fourteen-year-old girl.

She nodded and watched as the man of steel picked her father carefully up in his arms, walked outside, and disappeared in a blue streak. At that moment, the young girl looked up to see that she was not alone, there was a handsome man in beige standing over her, his green eyes shining with relief as he regarded her. After a few seconds on the floor, she got up and as she walked towards him, she could feel the tears still streaming down her cheeks. With sad coal black eyes, she regarded the man curiously.

“Who are you?” She whispered softly, the English words emerging slowly.

“A friend,” Andrew spoke, his voice soft as he smiled gently at the young girl.

“Thank you for watching over my father,” she whispered to him and offered him her tiny hands. “He will be OK, yes?”

As the Angel of Death took her offered hands in both of his, he continued to smile at her as he nodded. “Your father is going to be just fine, Li. Don't worry, Superman came at just the right moment.”

The girl nodded and looked up at him, a smile of relief on her face, and once she released his hands, she could see that the angel was now gone and the Japanese girl went over to the counter on one side of the delicatessen and lit the candle that was placed before a small statue of Buddha.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she grasped a heart shaped locket that hung on a golden chain around her neck.

*****

An hour later, Andrew finally was able to return from all the assignments. Needless to say, the morning's events had left the Angel of Death completely frazzled. As he came into the newsroom, he could see that Jimmy and Monica were once again hard at work on one of the terminals and Lois was sitting at her desk with a typical look of impatience on her face. She looked as though she had been on the phone all morning and had run into a series of brick walls.

As Andrew reached Lois’ desk, he watched for a few moments as the reporter had once again hung up the phone. When she didn't notice him standing there, he tapped gently on her desk and smiled down at her when she looked up.

“Hi,” he said and smiled once she looked up.

“Good afternoon, Andrew,” Lois said emphasizing the word ‘afternoon’ once she had consulted her watch and realized that it was already after noon. “Where have you been, extended coffee break?” She asked as she rubbed the frustration out of her eyes.

“I had some things I needed to tend to,” Andrew said shrugging his shoulders. “Sorry, they took much longer than I had anticipated.”

“Yeah, I guessed so,” she said softly as she glanced across the room in the direction where Monica was hovering over the terminal with Jimmy. After a few moments, she looked up at him. “Listen, I know I sound a little high strung today, I've been trying to find out what has happened here, and I have had nothing but bad luck in this regard.” She inhaled slowly as he placed a hot cappuccino on the desk.

“Thank you,” she smiled as she removed the lid and took a long, savory sip. As she swallowed, she looked up at him. “How did you know that that was just what I needed?”

“I have my ways,” he said and smiled as he pointed down to a printout that was on her desk. “What's that?”

“It’s a printout about this rave party that is going to happen tomorrow night. I’m going undercover, Perry already gave me the OK on it, as long as I take Monica with me,” Lois said.

Andrew's face paled slightly as he shook his head. “Are you sure that's such a good idea? It sounds kind of dangerous.”

Lois looked at him, with unsuppressed annoyance in her eyes. “Look, you are my friend, you are not my father, nor are you my protector. This is the newspaper business, Andrew, and I'm a big girl. One doesn't get to this level pushing papers and attending news conferences.” Once she took another sip of her cappuccino, she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “Why is it that every guy who comes into my life thinks that I need to be protected from the rest of the world?”

“I’m not trying to protect you, Lois. It’s not my job to keep you out of danger, you have free will and you alone make the choice as to what you do or where you go,” Andrew said softly as Lois’ face flushed upon the realization that he had actually overheard her.

When he noticed her red face, Andrew immediately tried to rectify things with her. “I know, I may be out of line, but just be careful.”

She took another sip of the cappuccino and once she swallowed, she looked up at him, her eyes literally laughing. “I know what it's about, you are afraid something will happen to me and then I won't be able to take you to dinner.” She nudged him in the side as she spoke, and watched as his face flushed.

“No, that’s not it,” he said all the while releasing a pent-up sigh.

“We’ll be OK, besides Perry wouldn't let me do something if it was too dangerous,” she said.

“No, he wouldn’t, that's why you would sneak out and do it,” Jimmy chided playfully as he came over to her desk and she shot him an angry glare. “I'm kidding, OK,” he smiled impishly trying all the while to lighten the mood and he looked at Andrew. “Lois is probably the only reporter here who can handle just about anything. From what I heard about the rave, it's going to be pretty lame, those kinds of things always are, as long as you stay away from the ecstasy.”

As Jimmy spoke, Andrew nodded unwillingly. He hated this, he knew that something was wrong with all of this, but he was not to interfere any more than he already had done. Instead of speaking any further to his assignments, the Angel of Death's shoulders slumped. He was not happy with this, but there was very little that he could do to change it. As he watched Jimmy going back over to the computer after dropping some more information at Lois’ desk, she looked up at him.

“Andrew, is everything OK?” Lois finally asked.

He nodded. “I’m fine,” he said as he offered her a brave, almost forced smile.

“You don't look fine,” she said and when she saw the concern in his expression, she smiled at him. “If this is about tomorrow, I have been in many more dangerous situations before, and believe me, I’ve gotten out of them.” Before he could respond, she reached over and rested a gentle hand on his. “You know, you're a good friend, and I know that you're worried, but don’t be, I can handle it.”

“You know my job isn't to tell you what you should do, Lois,” he said softly.

“Then don’t,” she said smiling. “Let's just keep our friendship on the level of cappuccinos and Chinese food. OK?”

Andrew smiled and nodded as she reached for the cup. “OK.”

As she took another drink, she reached for the nearby napkin and wiped it over her mouth. “Listen, I just wanted to thank you for talking to me last night about everything, it was really nice of you and I did have a good time.”

“You have no reason to thank me,” he said with a smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

“No, actually it’s more than that, I just wanted to apologize to you. I need to do so with Monica too, I know that I haven't been overly nice or helpful to either of you, but I realized one thing last night,” she began, her voice somewhat sad.

“What's that?” He asked, and when he saw a shadow cross her face, he could not figure out for the life of him what it was that made her seem so unhappy. Instead of asking, he waited for her answer.

“I really have to get back into the swing of things, and put the past away and find out what is going on around here. I realized this morning when all these things started happening that the news isn't going to stop happening just because Lois Lane is having relationship problems,” she shrugged her shoulders, but after a few moments, instead of elaborating, she looked over her shoulder and called out across the room. “Hey Monica, come over here, I think we might have gotten a few more leads regarding what has been happening around here.”

Andrew looked at her with raised eyebrows. Hidden in his concern for Lois was a sense of confusion as to what had transpired while he was away. Lois seemed to have reconciled with the idea of working with Monica. It was not a mistake, he had seen her talking somewhat civilly with Monica, but he wondered what had happened that had brought this on. After a few moments, he glanced up and his eyes met those of his fellow angel. Somewhere in her brown eyes, he could see that she was just as surprised by what was happening with Lois as he was.

“Did the information prove to be a little bit more helpful?” Monica asked once she had come over to Lois’ desk.

“Yeah, somewhat anyway,” Lois said. “Andrew, there's going to be a news conference in about an hour, the chief of police is going to give us some low down on what's been happening since this morning. The four of us need to get over there for it, and then afterwards Monica and I have some other work to do.”

“We do?” Monica asked her expression a depiction of confusion.

Lois nodded adamantly. “OK, let's rehash everything that we know. Since early this morning, there have been more break ins, more attempted homicides, and more petty criminal activity in the city, and nobody really seems to knows why, but I'm guessing that based on the information Jimmy provided earlier, that it might tie into the youth drug culture here. The police seem to have a number of theories about what has been going on, but they have no confirmations. They have a bunch of dead or dying kids, but no reason why and I intend to find out just what is going on with all of this. The police chief is supposed to take matters into his own hands, but for the last four hours, nothing's been done as of yet except arranging a press conference in order to sit around and talk about it. That’s politics in motion, but I guess, in all fairness they are at as much of a loss about it as we all are. It seems to have taken the entire city by complete surprise.”

“You think we can find out what is going on?” Monica asked.

“Well, let me put it this way, we have to find out. This is the biggest crime-wave since…” Lois said and her voice trailed off, simply because she could honestly not remember a bigger one. “Anyway, that's why I wanted to know about the rave,” she paused taking a deep breath before looking back over in Monica's direction. “Are you busy this afternoon?”

Monica shook her head and looked at Lois and then at Andrew. “No, there’s not any sort of news conference happening any time this afternoon, so I had planned on staying here and doing some more research.”

Lois shook her head. “I think you and I need to get out of here for awhile.” She eyed Monica's conservative beige sundress and blazer jacket. “You don't happen to have a leather mini-dress and spiked boots do you?”

“No,” Monica said.

“Then you and me need to go do some shopping, because you need to have some flashy killer-clothes by tomorrow night. They're not going to let you into a rave in sandals and sundresses,” Lois said matter-of-factly all the while ignoring the strange look that crossed the angel's face.

“Killer clothes?” Monica mouthed the words and looked at Andrew who was still standing next to Lois’ desk. He could not help but smile when he saw the completely horrified look that crossed his fellow angel’s pretty face.

For his part, Andrew seemed to be enjoying this scenario as it was playing out, not necessarily out of spite, but simply because he had never seen his friend in a mini-dress and spiked black leather boots before, and he found the concept more funny than anything else.

Monica, still seeing the look of determination on Lois’ face, looked to Andrew for some sort of help, but when she made eye-contact with his normally compassionate green eyes, she could see a flint of mischief lurking in them and when he offered her a lopsided grin she came close to loosing it. As she continued to study the Angel of Death's face, the color suddenly drained from her own. Like it or not, she knew that she would have to put on what Lois dubbed as ‘killer clothes’ and go through with whatever plan Lois seemed to have in mind.

As her and Andrew’s silent communication continued, all she could do when he did not let up with this was give him a look that clearly said: ‘Don't even think about it’.

Eventually, she glanced back in Lois’ direction. “Must we do this?” She finally asked.

“Yes, we must,” Lois said all the while oblivious to the look of horror that had crossed Monica’s otherwise cheerful face.

When Lois’ snappy answer emerged, Monica self-consciously glanced skyward, all the while hoping that the Father could bail her out. She was not exceedingly comfortable dressing in a black mini dress and spiked boots. Is this really necessary, Father? The questions seemed to be running amuck in her mind, but instead of being able to wait for an answer, Lois had interrupted her train of thought once again.

“Monica, don't worry about it, it really is no big deal, and by the time you go home afterwards, you'll probably not mind wearing them. That's what happened the first time I went undercover, but you're not going to fit in at a rave in that kind of outfit. So, the way I see it, we’ll spend the afternoon doing some shopping. Don't worry though, you can write it in as a job related expense. Now then, once we get the clothes, I will go online and download the directions to where the rave is going to take place.”

Monica cringed. “Is it really necessary to dress in these ‘killer clothes’? What I mean is, isn’t there another way to get the information for this story?”

“First of all, yes, it is necessary, and no there is no other way that I can think of,” Lois said releasing an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just say that tomorrow night is going to be a rather intensive crash course for you on how to get the nitty-gritty for a story.”

“The nitty-gritty?” Monica asked.

“Sometimes, you have to sit around here on the phone waiting for the news to hit, and sometimes, like right now, you have to go out and find the scoops. So, I have to go with a partner, and I figure you're as good of a choice as anyone.”

“Why couldn’t you go with Andrew?” Monica asked as she cast a sideways look in the direction of her fellow angel.

“In this business you have to understand that guys, in general, are little too overprotective with things like this, so I figured that this was an easier solution, besides, Perry already said that either I work with you or Clark, and since Clark isn't here, then I have to work with you.”

Monica nodded, but when Lois got up to go speak to Perry about some extra business related expenses for her, she shook her head as she looked at him. “Andrew, I can't do this.”

“I think you’re going to have to,” he said gently. “Besides, now that I think about it, Perry wouldn't approve it if he thought it was dangerous. I think that Lois really knows what she's doing.” But, silently he added that he hoped she did, because he still did not have a good feeling about either their assignment or one of his fellow angels going into this kind of environment. He could not help but remember events passed when he had to go there and take countless kids Home who had overdosed. This literally broke the compassionate Angel of Death's heart.

“Perhaps, but Andrew tell me truthfully, based on what you found out in Permanent Records about Lois Lane, how many times has she gotten into trouble doing stuff like this?” Monica reasoned, but when Andrew didn’t speak further, she slumped back down in the chair. “I rest my case.”

Andrew looked at his friend. “The Father knows that you are doing your best, Monica, and now that you are helping Lois with this, I’m going to see if I can help Jimmy, he’s still part of this case, and right now, I think he's going to need to know that he's a significant person in all their lives.”

Monica nodded and after some moments passed, Lois reemerged from Perry’s office and she had a Cheshire cat grin on her face. “Everything's approved, let's get going, we've got a press conference to cover.”

*****

Back in Smallville, Clark had a chance to talk to the editor of the paper and as he came out of the office, he met up with Raphael, who had been trying to cover his stories while he was in Metropolis trying to help with everything there. “Hey, Amigo, you look exhausted,” Raphael said once Clark had come out.

“I suppose I am a little bit,” he said honestly. “You know, I thought about what you said about Metropolis and I decided to go back. I guess I was pondering this decision for a while now, but this morning, I decided that I missed my life there just too much.”

“That's really great, Clark, because I really think that you do belong there. I know that the Press is going to miss you terribly, but you're a fixture in Metropolis and at the Planet. I've read a lot of your articles, and I have to tell you that they are really awesome.”

“Thanks, Raphael,” Clark smiled weakly as they headed out through the lobby of the small paper. As they walked in the direction of the cafeteria where Clark had met Tess the first time, he smiled weakly. “Why don't I treat you to something to drink before I take off. I really would like to say good-bye to Tess and thank her before I go back to my parents’ house and start packing my things for the trip back to Metropolis.”

“That sounds really good, it’s pretty warm outside, and I could use something cold to drink.” Raphael said and smiled all the while grateful that Clark was offering to treat.

As the two of them walked towards the glass door leading inside, Clark had managed to block the morning’s events in Metropolis from his mind. He knew that even Superman needed a break, and after his latest confrontation with Andrew still buzzing through his mind, he was at a loss as to what he should be doing next.

The cafeteria was, as usual, empty when they came inside, and Tess was wiping the counter off all the while was humming the melody to the song ‘Amazing Grace’. She carried serious, but serene look on her face as the music emerged and Clark found her voice to be melodious.

Seconds later, when she spotted him and Raphael coming into the cafeteria, she stopped humming and smiled brightly as she made eye contact with the two of them.

Clark was looking a lot better, his expression seemed tired, but something deep inside of her said that he was going to be OK, that he was finding the courage to face the things that were often hard for him to cope with.

“Good morning, babies,” Tess said with a smile.

“Hi Tess,” Clark said smiling. “Can I get a cappuccino?” He turned to Raphael and smiled. “What would you like?”

“The usual, a coke and a bag of chips,” Raphael smiled and once Tess handed him a bottle, a glass, and the small plastic bag, he looked at Clark. “I’ll save you a seat.”

“Thanks,” Clark said, but instead of immediately going over to the table where Raphael was seated, he sat down at the bar not far from where Tess was preparing the cappuccino. “You know, I've been thinking a lot about what you said the last time I was in here.”

“And?” Tess turned around and looked at him, her eyes filled with understanding, but there was a hidden sternness in them as well. After a second, she turned back to the task of preparing his drink.

“I’m going back to Metropolis,” he said softly, but his voice was loud enough for her to hear him. “I’m going to try and resolve things with Lois. I mean; I’ve talked to her once since I was here last, but it wasn't really about us, it was, more or less, about this other guy.” He took a deep breath. “I guess I'm overprotective of her, but this Andrew joker, I don't know why it is, I just don’t trust him.”

“You don’t trust him, or you don’t want to trust him?” Tess asked and smiled slightly upon hearing the name of her ‘Angel Boy’ emerging from the assignment. As she put the drink into a mug, she turned back around and faced Clark.

“I guess, I don’t want to trust him, I mean; some of what he says makes a lot of sense, but…” his voice trailed off and he shook his head as Tess placed the cappuccino mug on the counter in front of him.

“Clark, sometimes you need to look beyond what your senses might be telling you,” Tess said gently. “Are you seeing Andrew as a potential threat or maybe you’re just angry and upset because he's just trying to be a friend to Lois? Not every emotion of love is going to be a depiction of romance, and not every friendship means that the green eyed monster should emerge. Sometimes, people just love each other as friends, confidants, and in all honesty, there is really no place for jealousy.”

“Maybe I was jealous of him, but there’s something else. Tess, you may think I’m crazy, but I can sometimes see things that other people can't and what I saw this guy do was not normal or natural. I saw him in an empty alleyway disappear into thin air. I thought I was cracking up, so I started following him, and he was doing all kinds of weird things. Anyway, later, I saw him hanging around with Lois, and I got scared for her. I mean; what if he tries to hurt her?”

“Some people might say the same thing to her about her sharing a friendship with Superman,” Tess said.

“That's different, everyone knows that Superman is a good guy,” Clark said almost defensively.

“Not everyone, baby, Jason Trask didn't know this, he had his own theories about Superman, and he thought that was trying to save the planet from an alien invasion,” Tess said. “Think about this, Clark, are you responding to Andrew in the same manner that Trask responded to Superman? Andrew may not be this bad-guy you have judged him to be, he may be in Metropolis for the exact same reason Superman is there; to help the people.”

Clark took a deep breath and instead of responding, he added two heaping spoonfuls of sugar to his drink, stirred it, and took a sip. Once he replaced the cup, he looked at her, the words still were not coming, and instead of waiting for him to speak, she continued.

“Clark, you know that God made a lot of people, and gave people gifts to overcome all these things that seem to take hold of their lives. Have you talked to Him about this; have you tried to find the truth, not through your eyes, but through your heart? There is not one path that will take you directly to the Father, but there are thousands of ways, some widely traveled, some with underbrush on either side.”

“You’re speaking in imagery,” he interrupted.

“Yes, I am, but there are lots of ways to God, Clark, and God hears you when you talk to Him. It doesn't matter what you say, or how you say it, what matters is that you said it,” Tess smiled. “Sometimes, God will whisper to you and give you an answer in the simplest and the smallest of things, but sometimes, He will send someone to help you find that answer, or guide you. Now, that may very well be why He created you and Lois in the first place.”

“You really do believe this?” He asked. “When we first met, I told you that I didn’t want to get into a religious debate, but this isn't really about religion, is it?”

Tess shook her head. “Lois is your soul mate, Clark. God made you with her in mind, and He created her with you in mind. There’s no question, a soul mate is defined as a connection between two spirits, yours and hers. Thus, there is no room or place for jealousy. You asked about religion, but this is not about religion, this is about listening to that still small voice inside of you, and getting over being afraid of those external things. You need to get over being afraid of a lot of things, Clark. Get over being afraid that Andrew is bad for Lois, of telling Lois how you feel, but especially that because someone is different from you, that they are bad news. If you keep holding these things in, you will ultimately destroy yourself. God doesn’t want you to do that, He wants you to be happy, and He wants you to tap into His wisdom now and again without being afraid or dragging your feet about it.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Experience, Clark,” Tess said and smiled. “I know that this may be hard for you to believe, but Raphael and I are here to help you with that. We’re angels, baby, and we were sent here to help you find your way back home.”

As she spoke she started to glow, and when he turned around, he could see that Raphael was glowing as well and he shook his head in profound disbelief. “Angels?”

“Yes, and God loves you, Clark Kent,” Raphael said and smiled, his brown eyes shining brightly.

“God loves me?” Clark looked at Tess.

She nodded. “Yes, He does very much, baby, and He knows that you are Superman, but He also knows, more importantly, that you're Clark. You were right when you said that Superman is what you do, but what's in here,” she reached over and tapped his chest, “is Clark Kent; son, reporter, friend, and confidant. He knows that having this secret identity is very difficult for you; He knows that you want to be loved for you and not for what you can do. But, at the same time, He is so proud of you for using your abilities to help others. He knows it's hard for you to see injustice, but if you trust Him, He will help you find the balance between the two.”

“I don’t believe it,” Clark said softly.

“It’s the truth,” Raphael said gently. “You are an amazing person, Clark, but now that you’re going back to where it is you belong, you won’t need us anymore.”

“You’re both leaving?” Clark asked and he looked at Tess. “I kept hoping as you were talking to me, that you would want to come with me and help me with this.”

Tess shook her head. “No baby, now it is time for you to use that courage that the Father gave you. You have strength, Clark, but as I said before, strength is not just a physical attribute, strength is a spiritual asset and now is the time for you to demonstrate the extent that it exists in you.”

Clark nodded and instead of getting up to leave, he reached across the bar and took her hand. “Thank you, Tess, I don't know what I would have done without your help.”

“Don't thank me, thank the One who sent me,” she said and squeezed his hand. Seconds later, Clark shook hands with Raphael before he left the cafeteria for the last time.

Once outside, he glanced towards the heavens. “Wherever You are, thank You.” Feeling at least ninety pounds lighter, Clark Kent raced back in the direction of his parents’ home at super speed.

When he reached the small farmhouse, he could see that his father was sitting outside on the porch. Jonathan had been working outside, and was taking a break, a large glass of iced down lemonade in his hand.

“Clark, what are you doing here, you’re supposed to be at work?“ Jonathan asked as he took a sip of the lemonade. “You want a glass?”

He shook his head and sat down next to his father. “Dad, I'm going back to Metropolis, I decided to try and reconcile everything with Lois.”

“When are you leaving?” Jonathan asked.

“I was thinking about leaving tomorrow morning. I figured I would call Perry tonight at home and see if I can come back in a couple of days. I figured that by Saturday morning, my ‘leave of absence’ would be sufficient.”

“You’re going to try to face everything,” Jonathan said and nodded approvingly. “I'm proud of you, son.”

“Well, it wasn’t me, Dad, you're probably not going to believe it, but I saw an angel. Actually, there were two,” Clark said softly.

Jonathan smiled and nodded. “After seeing an alien spaceship back when you arrived, I would be willing to bet that anything is possible in this world, and maybe God does send angels to help us out a little bit when things get a little too hard to take. What did this angel tell you?”

“That facing the truth is hard, but it is what God wants,” Clark said as he shook his head. “You know, I always had this idea that an angel would tell us what a preacher would say, but that didn't happen, she told me the truth, but not from a point of view of a church, but rather a universal perspective. She said that Lois is my soul mate, that we were made for each other.”

“Then you have to go back and try to resolve this with her,” Jonathan said. “Your mother flew to Metropolis last night and she called me this morning after you had gone to work and said that Lois and her had had a heart to heart talk last night. Maybe Lois will be ready to listen to you when you get back home.”

Clark smiled weakly. “If you want to know the truth, I'm still a little scared, Dad.”

“I know, I was so scared when I asked your mother to marry me that I could have done the entire fall harvest with these two hands. Being afraid is completely normal; it’s how you handle that fear that will define whether or not you're a man. Does that make any sense?”

“Two days ago, I would have said no, but now, I think it does,” Clark said and smiled as he and his father stared out in the direction of the pasture. “I still think I will stick around till later tonight. Besides, in this heat, I think you could probably use an extra pair of hands.”

Jonathan smiled, because he knew at this moment that Clark was not staying as a means to run away, but rather to help, and in his own way, of thanking his parents for being there for him through all of this.

*****

By this time, Monica and Lois were at the mall. The press conference did not offer them too much information, in fact as they were leaving Lois was grumbling about political promises and the typical ‘do nothing’ politicians. As they got into her car, Monica finally spoke. “I guess the bright side is you might very well get your ‘exclusive’.” Her words emerged unconvincing, but Lois smiled slightly as she climbed behind the wheel and started the ignition.

“You know, maybe you’ve got something there,” she said as she drove them in the direction of a large shopping center. “So, now that that is done, we can go and get you ready for the rave. It should be a lot of fun, aside from an experience, but whatever you do, don't take anything that those people give you, or else you'll be seeing things like pink elephants and purple rhinos.” She laughed softly but looked at Monica, who carried a strange look on her face.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she offered honestly. “So where are we going?”

“There's a biker store at the mall that I always get my killer clothes at, and I figured that we could go there and outfit you with something, and then we'll head back to the Planet and see if Jimmy and Andrew were able to find out anything else.”

Monica nodded as Lois pulled the car into a parking spot and they got out and walked across the parking lot towards the door leading inside a large shopping mall. As they came inside, a teenage boy suddenly ran past Monica and grabbed a hold of the strap of her purse. When he managed to get it from her, he took off running in the direction of the food court.

Without thinking the two women took off running after him and when they lost him, Lois was fuming. “He got away,” she grumbled, “we'd better go notify mall security.”

Monica nodded, “I will meet you there, there is something I have to do, OK?”

“Monica, that kid just stole your purse,” Lois practically shouted.

“I know,” she said, “I intend to notify security, but I need to do something first.”

“Ah, the ladies room, I see,” Lois said. “I guess we didn’t get a chance to do so since before we left the Planet. OK, I’ll meet you there in about ten minutes.” Lois turned and walked away before Monica could say a word.

Moments later, she knew where the boy had gone, and she started walking in the direction of the food court. What on earth is going on here, she thought to herself. She still had not gotten the incident out of her mind from that morning, but now things were getting way out of hand, something was simply not working right, and the young caseworker was about at her wits end. Father, she prayed softly, what is happening here? Why all this chaos?

When she eventually reached the food court, she could see that the boy who had stolen her purse was sitting at a table out in broad daylight digging through it. When he found nothing, he tossed it to one side and groaned, his disgust quite obvious at not having landed a score in stealing the woman’s purse.

Monica approached slowly, and when she was standing right next to him, she reached out and rested a firm hand on his shoulder, thus causing him to look up. His eyes widened as though in a drugged out stupor when he saw her, and he tried to back up. She increased the pressure on his shoulder but said nothing. The boy did not seem all that willing to offer any explanation either. He just stared blankly at her, his eyes totally without feeling.

“Speak to his spirit,” Tess’ words seemed to echo in her conscience and she nodded as though she finally understood something about him that no other person possibly could.

“Paul,” she spoke, her voice soft as she addressed him, and when he heard his given name spoken by the angel, his eyes widened, and he tried once again to back away from her. “You cannot run from the truth any more than pills can hide the pain you carry inside.”

The boy nodded as though he understood, and when he looked into the eyes of the angel, he shook his head as though he was trying to come out of the stupor the drugs had done to him. In his mind, he could hear the words ‘kill her’ resonating in his conscious, and he reached out with the intention of choking Monica, but when the angel sensed this, she quickly grabbed his hands and squeezed them.

“You cannot kill me, Paul, an angel cannot die,” Monica said evenly, as Andrew appeared next to her, his eyes serene as he looked down at the boy and then back at his angelic friend. “Andrew?”

“He’s dying Monica, I am here to take him Home,” Andrew said softly.

“What is this, he looks so lost?” Monica could feel the tears in her own eyes, and she looked at the Angel of Death.

“He is lost, there are some pills in his pocket, if you want to help Lois stop what is happening here, you need to take them to Star Labs and let Dr. Klein analyze them,” Andrew said softly as the boy started to sink deeper into his hallucinations. Monica watched as he drifted out of consciousness and collapsed to a heap on the floor.

With tears still streaming down her cheeks, Monica collected the contents of her purse and reached into the pocket of the drugged out youth and pulled the small pill bottle out. With trembling hands, she put them inside her purse, and then looked up to Andrew who was still crouched down next to the boy.

She watched as the Angel of Death brushed the back of his hand against the gaunt cheek of the boy, and once the boy stood up and had joined her angelic friend, she turned to go back in the direction of where Lois would be waiting for her at the security stand. Behind her, she could hear other shoppers surrounding the body of the boy. She could feel the emotions getting the better of her and she tried to wipe the tears from her face as she walked slowly away without looking back.

When she got to the security stand, Lois was waiting and she looked at the angel’s tearstained face. “What on earth happened to you? I thought you had to go to the ladies room?”

“I found the boy, Lois,“ Monica began, as fresh tears made their way down her cheek.

“And you’re crying because of that. I’ve heard of bleeding hearts before, but I had no idea that you were one of them.”

“It’s not that, Lois, it's the boy, he’s…the child is dead. I’m guessing he overdosed on these. There’s something in these pills, they somehow seem to control people’s minds, but the affects they have on the person are deadly.” Once she handed the bottle to the reporter, she watched as Lois opened the bottle and stared down at the ecstasy that was inside.

“Tempus,” she whispered. “Clark was right.”

“Excuse me,” Monica asked, the confusion evident in her voice.

Lois shook her head. “Monica, Tempus is someone I would rather have no dealings with at all. He’s hard to explain, but he’s done this kind of thing before, and it looks like he’s using the ecstasy to control the drugged out kids. Come on, we have to get these to Dr. Klein as soon as possible and see if he can find out anything about this. We’ll come back afterwards and get your clothes for tomorrow.”

Monica consented and the two women broke into a run to get out of the mall and back to the car.

*****

Two hours later, Andrew returned to the Planet and discovered that Monica and Lois had not returned. Jimmy was still sitting at his computer trying to find some more leads about the drugged out teenagers. He had finished developing the film for the press conference story and had given it to Perry. Now, he sat as still as a statue and staring off into space.

“Jimmy?” Andrew spoke his name, thus causing him to look up.

“Hey, Andrew, where have you been?” He asked.

“I had something that needed tending,” Andrew offered as he sat down in an empty chair next to the desk where the younger man was working. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I’m trying to figure out where the rave tomorrow night is going to be.”

“Why don't you just call it up on the Internet?” Andrew asked.

“It's not that easy, usually they don’t disclose the location until the day it happens, and now because of all the problems that have been going on since this morning, they are only going to do it in code,” Jimmy said. “They've been posting a key word to the code every hour, and by tonight at 11, they should have the entire code up. That’s why I'm spending so much time online.”

“Did you write down all the clues?”

“Well, there have only been two words and they aren’t all that useful, one is ‘dog’ and the other is ‘cellar’.”

“Dog and cellar?” Andrew looked at him.

“Yeah, your guess on this is about as good as mine, and you know Lois will flip out when she gets back and finds out that I’ve not been able to crack the code,” Jimmy looked down at the table.

“Not everyone is as gifted when it comes to cracking codes,” Andrew offered.

“I know, but you try telling that to someone like Lois,” Jimmy said taking a deep breath. “When Clark was here, I could tell him I failed, and he would say ‘Oh that's OK’, but if I went and told Lois that I failed, then I’d get one of her impatient evil-eyed looks.” He stared at the computer screen as the next code came up. “Great, ‘summer’. Andrew, does this make any sense to you?”

“If you want to know the truth, Jimmy, none of this stuff makes any sense to me,” he said honestly.

“Are you being serious, or are you just saying that?” Jimmy looked into the earnest green eyes of the angel.

“I’m being a hundred percent serious, Jimmy,” Andrew began. “You know, sometimes you really can be hard on yourself. I know that you would like for people to tell you that you do good work here, and that you would like them to acknowledge you for the contributions you make.”

“When? Like when I'm 80,” Jimmy shook his head.

“I’m sure it will be before then,” Andrew said honestly.

Jimmy looked at the angel. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” came the simple response, but intertwined in Andrew’s words was an indescribable sense of sadness.

Jimmy noticed this and looked over at the angel, he definitely looked tired, as though he had pulled a 48-hour workday instead of just having come into the office that afternoon. “Are you OK?” He finally asked as he wrote the third word to the code down and looked up at Andrew.

The angel nodded numbly, but looked at the inquisitive younger man. “Jimmy, I’m fine, I’m just concerned, I have been out on the streets today, and I have seen so much chaos that I don’t know what to think or even how to respond to it all.”

“I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve buried myself away here trying to decode this thing,” Jimmy mused as Perry came out of his office and walked over to where they were sitting.

“Jimmy, did you find out where that rave thing was going to be tomorrow night?” Perry asked as he stirred a cup of coffee that he held in his hand.

“Not yet, Chief, I’ve been trying all afternoon, but they seem to be giving the parts of the code every hour over the Internet,” Jimmy said.

“I would guess that the police are also sitting in their precinct houses trying to figure out the same thing if they even know about it,” Perry said. “You have any ideas, Andrew?”

“No, I haven't any idea, but Jimmy’s been writing the code words down whenever they would come up,” Andrew said. “I have a feeling that that’s all we can do as of right now.”

“Have Monica and Lois gotten back?” Perry asked.

“I haven’t seen them since the press conference this morning,” Jimmy said.

Perry nodded as he took a sip of his coffee and turned with the intention of going back into his office.

Once the editor was gone, Jimmy took a deep breath as he covered his face with his hands. He didn’t want to say anything to Andrew, but he wished that Clark was there. He looked down at the paper where the three words were written. “Dog, cellar and summer, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, you’re right, it doesn’t, but maybe when we get the other pieces to the code you’ll figure it out,“ Andrew said. “Something tells me that you have to really know the city well in order to crack the code. You have been here a pretty long time, right?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy nodded. “I'm one of those people who will probably die here and never leave the city again. I guess Metropolis has that sort of affect on people.”

Andrew smiled. “Well, maybe this is a place that could be affiliated with the three words in the code.”

Jimmy rested his elbows on the desk and began to contemplate the words to the code. After a few moments, his eyes widened and he looked at Andrew. “I think I may have just figured it out. Last year, there was a big scandal that went down and it dealt with dog food. It happened in June, and there was talk of an old warehouse on the outskirts of town where this stuff was manufactured.”

“What happened to the place after the scandal broke?” Andrew asked.

“It was shut down by the health department, something about expired dates and hazardous working conditions. Most people probably don’t think about dog food being processed at hazardous temperatures, but that was pretty much what happened, they had worked under unsafe environmental conditions and there were a number of dogs that died as a result of this contaminated food. Clark did the story about it, and one of the things he did was went out and interviewed the head of the Metropolis Animal Hospital as well as all the area animal shelters.” He took a deep breath and looked over at Andrew. “This has got to be the place, I mean; it's out in the boonies, there is tons of room inside for people to move around, and the building has been condemned since before the story broke and since it is in a secluded part of town, no one would think about going and calling the cops about it.”

Andrew nodded. “Should I go tell Perry?”

Jimmy shook his head, but offered the angel a weak smile. “Let me,” he said and once he brushed past and had reached the door, Andrew had a weak smile on his face.

“He’s right, isn’t he, Tess?” Andrew asked once his supervisor appeared next to him.

“Unfortunately, he is, but now this news is about to lead Lois, Monica and Clark straight into danger.”

Andrew sighed and nodded as the younger man disappeared inside the office. “What now?”

Tess shook her head and looked at her younger charge. “I don't really know, but I think you should probably take the rest of the day off, you looked exhausted.”

Andrew nodded. “That's only the half of it. I ran into Adam this morning, and between him and I, we have had more cases and near misses here in Metropolis since, I don't even know when. Tess, what on earth is going on?”

“Remember what I told you about Tempus?”

“Is he the one responsible for all of this?” Andrew asked.

Tess nodded and disappeared as the elevator doors opened and Monica and Lois returned from their shopping trip. Monica's face was shadowed with relief when she saw Andrew, but he could see that his friend's face looked unusually pale.

“Monica, Lois, is everything OK?” He asked trying to keep the knowingness out of his voice.

“Don’t hover over us, Andrew,” Lois scolded when he came over to them. “It’s just another normal day in Metropolis.”

Monica smiled weakly. “I had to leave a statement at the police, and then we went by Star Labs and talked to Dr. Klein about a pill sample that we had found,” she offered. “That’s why it took so long for us to get back here.”

“Why?” He asked innocently all the while trying to keep his cover.

“Some drugged out kid stole Monica’s purse, and then when she found him, he was totally tripping out and died,” Lois said.

“How horrible,” Andrew said softly as Jimmy came out of the editor's office.

“Hey, Lois, I think I may have found out where the rave will be happening tomorrow night,” Jimmy said proudly as she went over to where she was standing, thus leaving Andrew and Monica standing near the elevator.

“Great,” Lois said enthusiastically. “So, what did you find out? Where is this place?”

As Jimmy reported his findings, Andrew noticed the shopping bag in Monica's hand and looked at his friend. “So, what’s in the bag?” He asked.

“You don't want to know,” Monica whispered. “The definition that Lois seems to have is ‘Killer Clothes’. She said that I will have to wear them tomorrow night when we go to the rave.”

Andrew sighed deeply. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He whispered.

“You know I have to, it’s part of the assignment,” Monica said softly. “If I could get out of wearing a black mini dress and spiked boots, then don't you think I would?”

“Is that what you got in there?” He asked.

“Andrew,” she cried out, her voice a cross between annoyance and a whine.

He responded by holding his hands up in negation and looked at Monica. “Listen, I don’t want to worry you, but Tess was just here, and this is not looking good. There's going to be trouble, but I can’t even determine how or from where.”

“What do you mean?” Monica asked.

“Tess said that if you and Lois go to that rave tomorrow night, then there will not only be danger for you and her, but also for Clark. Something is happening, there's something dark and evil at work here. Adam and I have been working overtime since this morning. This was why I was late getting here today.”

“Adam’s here?” Monica asked.

“…And Henry, and a bunch of other Angels of Death,” Andrew whispered as Lois and Jimmy came back over to them.

“Jimmy found it, Monica, tomorrow night we’re set,” Lois said happily and she looked at Andrew. “You know, maybe you should get home, Andrew, you look like death warmed over.” Ignoring the look that crossed his face, Lois and Jimmy returned to the databanks, but before she could type something in, she looked at Monica pointedly. “You coming?”

Once Monica went back over to the computers, Andrew was back on call and instead of going to get some rest, he had been once more sent to the other side of town to a case of a man named Lenny Smyth.

*****

At this precise instant, Andrew’s assignment, Lenny Smyth and Tempus were at the warehouse out next to the Metropolis Shipping yards. This particular area looked to be abandoned. A gray colored warehouse stood not too far away from where the two men were, and Andrew appeared and began to take in what the two men were saying. The Angel of Death could see the confusion that seemed to shadow the drug lord’s face, but inching closer, he stood and listened as the two men conversed, Smyth appearing to be somewhat on the angry side because Tempus had appeared behind him completely unexpected. “What are you doing out here?” He finally asked his cohort, but looked around the area nervously. “I have some business here that doesn’t involve you.”

“Everything involves me, and what you have in mind is a part of that,” Tempus looked at him. "Lenny, in all of your experiences on the outs with the law, have you ever heard the term ‘casualty of war’?”

Smyth bit off the end of his cigar and spit the butt onto the ground. “Yeah,” he snorted, “what about it?” He asked as he looked at the man from the future.

“Well, maybe I can put it into language that one of your miniscule intelligence can understand. The life of every person on this measly planet are like figures in a chess game,” Tempus said sneering. “Each piece steps into danger depending on their overall lot in life. Now, you are the pawn, do you know what that means?”

Lenny grunted, but shook his head as he pulled a cigar out of his shirt pocket, bit off the end and callously spit in onto the ground as Tempus continued speaking.

“A pawn is the most useless piece on the Chess board. It can be maneuvered to the liking of the queen, who is the most powerful piece the game. Now, in terms of our ‘working’ relationship, you are that pawn and I am that queen.”

“Why not the king?” Lenny asked, still not getting the implied meaning behind Tempus’ words.

“The king is a casualty too,” Tempus explained, clearly bored with this whole exchange. “But, now that we have cleared that up, you must know that I have everything I could possibly want from you, I don’t need you anymore.”

“Excuse me? Is that it? I thought we were friends,” Smyth said as he greedily puffed on his cigar.

“You know, Lenny, you really should give up smoking, it could kill you one day,” Tempus said evenly, his voice void of emotion and his eyes gleaming with murderous intent as he regarded the man through gleaming eyes.

“So you followed me out here to terminate our partnership and give me my loot, right?” Smyth smiled broadly, thinking for a split second that he was there for payment.

Before Tempus could say anything, another voice emerged and the drug lord turned around to see Andrew standing some three feet from him, the angel dressed in a beige suit and was glowing. “Lenny, this man is no one’s friend, he is only here to create chaos and you have helped him do so.”

“Who are you?” Lenny shouted as he turned around and faced the Angel of Death who was now standing behind him, the angel went unseen by the man from the future, but Lenny Smyth could see him quite well through the ringlet of smoke that encircled his head.

“My name is Andrew, and I’m an angel sent by God to tell you that you still have a chance to make peace with your Creator before you die,” Andrew said evenly as the color faded from the face of the drug lord and he turned around to face the man from the future.

“You ain’t gonna pay me, are you, Mr. Tempus?” Smyth shouted out as the realization of Andrew’s words hit him like a cold-water shower. All the words about casualties of war, and chess matches seemed to hit home with Lenny and he turned with the intention of getting away from Tempus.

The man from the future had other thoughts in mind; he simply offered the drug lord a sideways smirk as he nodded. “Now, you're catching on, you brainless dweeb,” he said smugly as he quickly pulled a gun from his overcoat, aimed it at Smyth and squeezed the trigger. A loud explosion erupted the stillness of the area as Smyth was hit by the bullet and literally catapulted to the ground, his hand resting over the spot on his chest where the bullet went in, and he lay dying in a puddle of blood on the ground. “Thanks for your help,” the man from the future said snidely as he backed away from the drug lord’s body and disappeared in the distance as police sirens erupted the stillness.

By this time, Andrew had reached the man's side, the drug lord lying on the wooden peer at the Metropolis harbor. As he lay dying, Smyth could sense that someone was now standing over him and he tried to focus on whom it was, and whether this man who called himself Andrew and said that he was an angel had actually remained. Without saying anything, the injured man’s eyes closed as the angel spoke.

“Lenny, can you hear me?”

“W-what happened?” The man mumbled, his words a collection of inaudible syllables and he seemed to only concentrate on the pain that was throbbing in his chest from where the bullet had entered. “Where am I?”

“You're dying, Lenny,” Andrew said softly. “The Father is calling you home, but it will be entirely up to you if you accept this and journey with me.”

“Dying?” the man uttered, his voice etched in denial, but a surge of pain engulfed him and he looked at Andrew. “Who are you?” He asked as though Andrew’s earlier words had only been in his imagination and nothing more than a flight into the fantasy.

“I’m an angel, Lenny, my name is Andrew,” he said softly. “You have a choice to make and God and I are waiting for you to make it.”

“A-a choice?”

“Yes, you have made a number of mistakes in your life, but God wants you to know that He loves you and will welcome you Home without question if you seek His assurances and love. It will entirely be your choice as to whether or not you come with me, or if you distance yourself from His love and mercy,” Andrew said softly, but he could see that the man was not thinking so much about God as he was about what had just transpired.

“Who is Tempus, Andrew?” Lenny eventually asked. “He’s not like you, is he?”

“No, he’s mortal, but is a man from the future, Lenny, and he was using your influence to destroy the peace here in Metropolis so that he may destroy the peace in Utopia, the place from which he comes. You helped him in many ways, to do it, today; many of the city’s addicted youth are overdosing on these drugs that you have supplied them with. Today, you must face these things you have done.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s too late for me,” Lenny coughed and closed his eyes.

“Leonard, it’s not ever too late,” Andrew said using the man's given name, but when he could no longer detect that the man was alive, he laid his head back down on the ground and stood there helplessly watching as the man died in darkness.

Sighing deeply, Andrew backed away from Leonard Smyth, and when he looked up, he could see that Clark had landed at the other end of the peer and was walking closer to where he was standing. “What happened?” Clark finally asked him.

“Tempus shot this man, and he’s dead,” Andrew said softly.

“As if you didn’t have anything to do with that,” Clark said gruffly. “What are you doing here? I mean; you do know that this is one of the most notorious drug lords in the city, don't you?”

Andrew nodded. “Yes, I know, I was sent here to help him.”

“To help him? You should concern yourself with helping to put him out of business,” Clark said angrily. “Well, from the look of things, you didn’t help him at all, I would say that you probably sent him to where he belonged,” Clark said snidely.

“I did not murder this man,” Andrew said matter-of-factly, “I was here and saw him get shot, and then he died.”

Clark shook his head. “I don’t believe it, why would you show up saying that you would help him, if all you are going to do is watch this man die?”

“I help in a different way,” Andrew tried to explain without telling the man of steel who he really was, but seeing the disbelief on the other man’s face, he took a deep breath and released it slowly as Clark spoke.

“OK, Andrew, as if that’s your real name, let’s put our cards on the table, shall we? Who are you?”

“I already told you, Superman, my name is Andrew, I don’t work for Tempus, I work for God, I am an…” His words died on his lips as the sound of an explosion resonated the area and before Andrew could finish what he was going to say, Clark had flown away, and Andrew sighed deeply as the last word emerged to the stillness. “…Angel.” As his word emerged, he shook his head sadly. “Should he know, Father?” He asked the stillness. His last word emerged in the emptiness of the area and he realized that he needed to tell Clark the truth and he wondered if he would ever have the chance to do so.

Sighing deeply he glanced back over at Smyth’s body, and then looked around to see that Adam had come up the peer in his direction and he took a deep breath and went to join the other Angel of Death.

Adam had witnessed the entire scene and he could see the look of dejection on his friend’s face. “Did you take Leonard Home?” The silence was broken as Adam spoke to his fellow Angel of Death.

Andrew shook his head. “He didn’t even want to call out to the Father, Adam, he was preoccupied with thoughts of getting a lot of money.”

“You know that you really couldn’t have done anything to help him,” Adam said softly as he rested his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “Human beings face this every day, they face dying, but they don’t seem to grasp that love is the gift, not how much one possesses. You know as well as I do that one cannot take the money and the power with them.”

“You’re right, it’s true, but every time I try to help the people here, I end up getting into another confrontation with Clark Kent about it. He seems so convinced that I work with Tempus, and when I try to tell him that I have nothing to do with this man, he scoffs of off and seems to think because he’s Superman, that he is knowledgeable of everything. I just now tried to tell him the truth, but he got sidetracked by an explosion and left. The worst thing is now he thinks I’m trying to come on to Lois, and you know I cannot get into any sort of relationship with her,” Andrew shook his head sadly. “The problem is, he is making all these assumptions about me, but every last one of them is completely inaccurate and he won’t stick around and listen to reason.”

“You know the truth, buddy,” Adam said smiling at his friend. “I know that it is hard, but believe me, you are doing everything you can, just try to keep in mind that you’re pulling a double shift simply because you're on here as a caseworker as well as an Angel of Death.”

“It’s almost like I have…a secret identity, too,” Andrew said softly as he nodded. “I think I understand now why I’m here in the first place.”

Adam nodded. “Clark Kent and you have a lot more in common than either of you believe or realize at this particular moment, my friend.”

Andrew shrugged his shoulders as he looked down at the ground. “Something tells me that this isn’t going to matter too much after tomorrow night, because if an angel can’t reach Lois or Clark by then, then he and Lois are both going to die at that rave.”

“Excuse me?” Adam asked.

“Lois is trying to get the information about a rave that is taking place tomorrow night and based on what Jimmy and I were able to find out, she knows where it is and she’s going to take Monica with her.”

Adam cracked a smile. “Monica at a rave? I don’t believe it.”

“I didn’t want to, but it looks as though Monica is going to dress in a very tight leather mini-skirt and will go undercover with Lois. Lois calls the outfit that Monica bought ‘killer clothes’ if that gives you any sort of idea as to what we should expect.”

“Did you try to talk them out of it?” Adam asked.

“Yes, countless times even, but you don’t know how stubborn Lois is. Even though she thinks that Superman will always come to her aid and save her from danger, this time it is uncertain. It simply looks as though she is overestimating what may take place tomorrow night and what kind of danger the two of them could be walking straight into.”

“What are you going to do?” Adam asked.

“I’m going back to the Daily Planet, I can only hope there’s going to be a chance that I can talk Lois out of going to this rave, but any time someone tries to look out for her, she gets a chip on her shoulder,” Andrew said softly.

“Maybe because Clark has hovered over her since they have ‘fallen in love’,” Adam offered. “Sometimes, people misinterpret love for that guise of an ‘overprotective bodyguard’.”

“Yes, and that seems to be what is happening with Lois whenever I try to look out for her,“ Andrew said softly as he looked at his friend and noticed that Adam looked almost lost in space. “What about you? What are you going to do?” He asked, thus snapping his friend back to reality.

“I have a tentative appointment back on the eastside in five minutes,” Adam said as he pulled his watch out of his pocket, checked it, and returned it to his suit pocket.

Andrew nodded and once Adam was gone, he sighed deeply as he walked unseen by the human eye back up the peer towards the large warehouse that was adjacent to the pier.

*****

Back at the Daily Planet, Lois was putting the finishing touches on her story when her phone rang. She picked it up. “Lois Lane,” she spoke into the receiver and she nearly fell off her chair when the words of the police sergeant could be heard on the other end of the line. She swallowed and grabbed a notepad and pencil and began to scribble down some notations as she spoke. “Are you sure, Sergeant Hudson?”

She listened to the answer as she continued to scribble down the information and nodded a couple more times before she returned the phone to the cradle. “Hey Monica, get over here, there’s been a break in the drugged out teenager story. It looks as though a Leonard Smyth was shot out on the peer less than an hour ago, the cops found his body with a fatal gunshot to the chest, the guy is dead.”

“Who's that?” Monica asked trying to conceal the concern that now seemed to literally encase her. She knew that Andrew had gone out to the pier to possibly take Leonard Smyth Home, but she had no idea that this would happen. As she looked up and saw the Angel of Death stepping out of the elevator and coming into the newsroom, she could almost tell without even asking that Lois had heard the news accurately; Leonard had died in the darkness and Andrew could do nothing to help him.

“Monica, Lenny Smyth was probably one of the most notorious drug lords in the city. I can, off the top of my head, think of about a hundred people who wouldn’t have minded seeing this guy get strung up by his toes for all the stuff he has been pegged for, but he was someone who was so slimy that he could get by without being prosecuted.” Lois consulted her notes. “Anyway, according to Sergeant Hudson from the Metropolis Police Department, Lenny's body was found in broad daylight down at the pier next to the warehouse where the rave is to take place tomorrow night. The place is about as remote as a place can be, one side is surrounded by water, the other by the slums of the lower east side.”

Monica looked at Andrew, and once he had nodded, she took a deep breath. “So, now that this has been discovered, I guess the rave is out?” She asked hopefully.

Lois shook her head. “Don't hang up your spiked boots yet, Rookie, we still have a job to do, and I have every intention of finding out who it was that murdered Leonard Smyth. I would be willing to bet the farm that they are in cahoots with the rave organizers. We find them, then chances are we will also find out who was behind Smyth’s death as well as the person responsible for the drugged out kids.”

“Lois, this could get dangerous,” Monica objected.

“No, ‘could’ is an understatement, this is dangerous,” Andrew came over and he looked at the determined reporter nervously.

“Look kids,” Lois looked from one angel to the other. “I am going to that rave tomorrow night with or without your help. I have no intention of skirting my duties here. There is a story here, and I have every intention of finding it.” With that, she looked down at her notes. “Now, if you two goody-goodies will excuse me, I have an appointment with the head of the Metropolis Police.” With that, she made a beeline to the elevator.

Sighing deeply Monica started to follow her, but Andrew reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Monica if she goes to that rave tomorrow, she and Clark may die there,” he said softly.

“What can I do to convince her to not go?” Monica asked softly. “I can’t very well interfere with her free will, Andrew.”

The Angel of Death shook his head. “I don't know, but she seems to have this idea that I am only there to play watchdog with her, and it doesn’t even look as though she’s going to listen to one word I say.”

“What are you going to do?” Monica asked.

“I guess all I can do is try and find Clark and tell him the truth,” Andrew said softly. “He is probably the only person who can actually get Lois to listen to reason.”

Monica shook her head and walked towards the elevator. She still had an assignment to fulfill, and regardless of the fact that this case was getting complicating and very quickly, she still had to go after her assignment and hope that her powers of persuasion were convincing enough to get someone as hard-headed as Lois to actually listen to her.

As soon as she disappeared inside the elevator, Andrew went over to where Jimmy was still working at his desk. He had taken some photos and had scanned them into the computer and was trying to position them on a layout page.

“Hi Jimmy,” Andrew offered as the young photographer looked up.

“Hey Andrew,” came the enthusiastic response but Jimmy did not look up.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asked trying to get the young man to say anything that would get his mind off the situation with Lois.

“This is a little project of mine. I would play around with this layout program and try to organize these pictures so that they would look their best. I needed a break from trying to find out information for Lois about tomorrow night. Now that we know where it is, I can take a little bit of a break.”

“How do you feel about Lois going to this place?” Andrew asked.

Jimmy looked up, no one had really asked this question of him before, but one of the things that he didn't like to do was get too involved in what Lois was doing. He wouldn't say so, but he somehow had the feeling that Lois knew exactly what she was doing. “I don’t know,” he said nonchalantly and looked at Andrew. “Usually when she goes to them, I’m here and if I think there's going to be trouble, I usually call the police.”

Andrew sat down on the corner of the desk. “You’re not worried?”

“Let me tell you something about working here, if you start to even remotely hover around Lois, she’ll bite your head off,” Jimmy said shrugging his shoulders. “Aside from that rather obvious tidbit, she’s rather dependent on Superman. She is pretty much of the mindset that Superman will always be around to bail her out if she gets into some kind of trouble.”

Andrew took a deep breath. “I suppose I always felt that way, but not about Superman, but rather about God.”

“God?” Jimmy looked up from the computer terminal.

Andrew nodded, “do you believe in God?”

“Sure, I guess everyone does,” the younger man said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I figure that it is probably best not to talk about religion around here, though. People tend to have really private beliefs about that kind of stuff.”

The angel smiled weakly, but instead of pressing the issue, he looked around the newsroom, went over and sat down without saying anything further.

*****

Monica was still rushing to catch up with Lois by the time she had gotten downstairs and was following Lois through the lobby. “Lois,” She called out, thus causing the reporter to stop. Once she had reached her, she could see that Lois was not smiling.

“The nerve of him,” Lois fumed once Monica had joined her.

“Who?”

“Andrew,” Lois seethed as they walked outside.

“He’s just concerned for your safety, Lois,” Monica offered.

“I know, but I'm a big girl, Monica, I can take care of myself,” Lois said angrily.

“No one is denying this, but Andrew is concerned because he cares,” Monica said sighing as she remembered the first time she had worked with Andrew. He had been so condescending with her and initially she had really been aggravated by his presumptions. Sighing as she remembered this, she took a deep breath and looked at the reporter. “I still think he’s just trying to help. I mean; think about it, Lois, if Leonard Smyth is dead, then chances are, he was murdered, then it could be dangerous trying to go into a place where we both know is not safe. It just sounds like a risk that maybe you should consider not taking.”

Lois looked at her. “Ah, I get it, you and Andrew have become like buddies, right? You both have decided to take it upon yourselves to dictate to me what I do, well, listen here, Rookie, neither you nor he will tell me what to do, and if you cannot accept that I’m a big girl, I'll go to the rave alone and get the story on my own.”

“Perry would never approve,” Monica said evenly.

“Then Perry wouldn't have to know,” Lois said stubbornly. “I am going, and that’s final. Now, are you my partner or not?”

Monica took a deep breath and when she looked up, she could see that Tess was standing on one side of the street looking at her. She could tell that her supervisor was not happy, but eventually, she offered Lois a brief nod.

Lois accepted and interpreted that Monica was in concurrence with her and started walking down the street towards the police precinct where she was to meet the head of the Metropolis Police Department.

As they reached the door leading inside, Monica had somehow managed to get her consuming worries out of her mind for the time being. She looked around the precinct house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she could not help but notice that there was a lot of activity going on and before she could ask Lois about it, a teenager ran through the room and bumped into her.

“Watch it lady,” he snarled at her, and the police officer somehow managed to shove him through the lobby towards the back.

The cop offered Monica a brief look as he shook his head. “I haven't seen it this bad in years,” he muttered under his breath and Monica went to catch up with Lois, who had by then gotten the attention of the on duty policeman and was informing him of her scheduled appointment.

Within minutes, the sergeant came out of an office and when his eyes met Lois’, he offered a curt nod. “Ms. Lane,” he nodded at her and looked at Monica. “And you are?”

“Her name's Monica,” Lois offered before Monica could even speak. “She’s my partner while Clark is on leave of absence.”

The sergeant nodded and led them both back into an office and once the door was closed, he went over and sat down at a desk and waited for the two of them to take seats as well. “Now, then Ms. Lane,” he said immediately getting down to business. “I know that we should probably have had a press conference, but all we know is one thing and that is that Leonard Smyth is dead. He was found about an hour ago down at the docks with a gunshot sustained to his chest. There is not much to say, he was obviously killed in broad daylight, but the entire security team was doing crowd control downtown when all the riots broke out this morning.”

“Any idea what could have caused them, Sergeant Hudson?” Lois asked.

“No, and we don't even know yet if the murder of Mr. Smyth and the events going on downtown are even related,” he shook his head.

“Then you’re saying its just coincidence?” Lois asked.

“In this line of work, there are no coincidences, Ms. Lane, but right now, all I have to go on are assumptions, and even those are somewhat sketchy. I can’t even begin to tell you what has happened because this department is at as big of a loss as the mayor and the city council. I made the recommendation that the city take in a curfew starting tonight. That means, no one should be allowed out on the street after dark at least not until we get this stuff sorted out.”

“Do you think that this will actually help curb the criminal behavior taking place here?” Lois asked. “It may actually backfire and send the wrong signal out to the people.”

The sergeant shook his head. “I don’t see how it would, but as long as the law abiding citizens are warned of what is out there, it may serve as a means to round up the deviants quicker.”

“Sergeant Hudson, were you aware that there was a rave planned tomorrow evening somewhere here in Metropolis?” Monica asked and when Lois looked at her, the reporter’s eyes were flashing with anger.

“Nothing about that has been confirmed by this department,” he responded, “so I’m guessing that this is a rumor, but we’ve got a special squad set up that oversees these sorts of things. They go in and check the Internet daily for disturbing circumstances that could arise here in town, but just to be on the safe side, we’ll have someone go ahead and look into your tip and see if anything of this kind is going on.”

Monica nodded, but she knew that in asking about the rave, she had overstepped her boundaries and Lois was, if anything, absolutely beside herself with fury.

Some twenty minutes later, the two of them stepped outside into the bright Metropolis sunshine and Lois turned on Monica. “Do you have any idea what you have done?”

Monica looked at her. “Lois, the ones who should be intervening at this rave are the police, not a couple of reporters.”

“That’s your opinion,” Lois snapped. “Now, if you are done telling me how to do my job, we can get to our next appointment, or are you going to play ‘Benedict Arnold’ and sabotage everything I’m trying to do here?”

“I’m not trying to do anything, honestly, Lois,” Monica said as Superman landed in front of them and Lois looked up at him, but instead of speaking, she continued to walk in the direction of the Daily Planet, her eyes were still filled with bitterness, but after talking to Martha the night before, she realized that she was no longer angry with him, she was just frustrated by the fact that Monica had behaved so unprofessionally back at the police precinct.

“Lois?” Clark began, his voice caught in his throat and when he saw that Monica remained next to the reporter, he nodded in her direction before looking at the woman he loved.

“I have work to do, Superman,” Lois said softly. “I don't have time to conduct an interview right now, but if you would, maybe you can come by tonight and we can talk.”

“You want to talk to me?” Clark asked with disbelief in his voice.

Monica looked at her watch and smiled at them. “Please excuse me, I think I need a cappuccino and I see a coffee wagon not too far from here.”

Once she had distanced herself from them, Lois looked at him. “What are you doing here?” She asked.

“I’ve been here since this morning, but Lois I have to tell you something, it's about this Andrew character who’s been working at the Planet, and please hear me out because something strange is going on.”

“What?” Lois asked deciding to listen to him for the first time in weeks.

“I saw Leonard Smyth get killed this morning and it was nothing like I had ever seen before, Lois. It’s all so strange, and yet I cannot explain it. I’m almost certain that the one who murdered him was Andrew.”

“Why would Andrew kill Smyth?” Lois asked.

“I don’t know, but he was there, he watched it happen, and then when I asked him why it was that he had done nothing, he said something like, ‘this is not why I was sent’.” Clark whispered. “Lois, I know you probably think I’m jealous of him, or that I’m reacting in a way that is not for the best, but something is happening here, something that I have absolutely no control over. I cannot explain it to save my life, but it is happening and we cannot change it.”

“But Andrew wouldn’t…” she began, but her voice trailed off.

“OK, then tell me this, have you seen him at the Planet? Or is he gone more often then there? I mean; did you notice how scarce he was when the riots started this morning?” Clark asked rationally.

“I just cannot imagine Andrew as being a murderer,” Lois said. “He seems so overprotective…” Her voice trailed off and she looked at Clark. “Maybe you’re on to something, ever since the rave came up, he’s been trying to talk me out of it,“ she thought aloud. “Is it possible that Andrew could be trying to keep me out of harm’s way, because he knows what could happen?”

“I don’t know,” Clark shook his head. “What is this about a rave?”

“It’s supposed to happen tomorrow, and Monica and I are going,” Lois said adamantly.

Clark shook his head. “OK, I won’t try to convince you not to go, just be careful, and make sure you help Monica with this, she’s rather the greenhorn here.”

Lois nodded but looked at him. “Superman, I know that I thought you were…” she mouthed the word ‘jealous’ and he nodded as she continued. “Then all the stuff happened at the Planet, and I started to notice that Andrew would just disappear and be gone for hours on end. He would come back with some of the same excuses you used to make when you would…” She motioned with her arm as though like a plane about to take off. He’d be gone for a long time, and I asked Jimmy earlier where he was, and he didn’t know. It’s really strange, he’s been hovering over me and now he’s all but convinced Monica of the same thing. They have both taken it upon themselves to be completely aggravating.” She shook her head. “Do you really think that Andrew is working with Tempus? Maybe he’s doing the dirty work for him.”

Clark shook his head. “I don’t know, but something doesn't seem right with any of them.”

“Are you going to come back?” She asked.

“Yes,” he said, but within seconds he heard someone screaming and he looked at her with a pained look on his face.

“Go, Clark, we’ll talk tonight,” she whispered and watched as he flew away.

Sighing, she walked back towards the newspaper building; her confusion mounting and she wondered what would happen that night when she and Clark were to talk. Only two hours until six, no interviews left, but a number of phone calls that would need to be made before she would call it a day.

*****

That night, Lois let herself into an empty apartment and took a deep breath as she tossed her briefcase onto the chair in the living room. She still was pondering what was happening, and she had made note that Andrew was no longer at the Planet offices, but then remembering that he had been sent ‘home’ for the rest of the day, she grabbed a bottle of water and went and settled herself on the sofa to go over the notes she had collected for the day.

After what seemed like an eternity the doorbell chimed and she went to open it expecting to see Clark standing on the other side. As she opened it, she saw that instead of seeing the man she loved, she saw Andrew. The angel was dressed in his beige suit and he regarded her through empathic, but exhausted green eyes. “Lois, may I come in?”

“What do you want at this hour and why are you dressed so strangely?” She asked softly as she made note of his external appearance.

Andrew looked at her and sighed. “I have to explain something to you. I was hoping to explain this to Clark as well, but he’s nowhere to be found and I’ve been trying to find him all afternoon.”

“Why, what for?” She asked automatically going on the defensive as her thoughts immediately drifted back to the conversation that she had had with Clark that very afternoon. “What do you want with him?”

“I only want to talk to him, to explain why I’m here, and who sent me,” Andrew looked at her. “May I come in?”

Lois, despite her hesitation, nodded and the angel came into the apartment and she closed the door, went over to the sofa and sat down. Once Andrew had followed suit, she looked at him intently, her dark eyes demanding answers. “OK, shoot.”

Andrew looked at her. “Do you remember the night we had dinner and talked?”

“Yes, and I take it now you’re here to collect,” Lois said matter-of-factly.

Andrew shook his head. “No, and as surprising as it may sound to you, I’m not here for or about dinner, I just want to talk to you is all. Lois, please, I know what you must be thinking about me and it is probably the very same thing that Clark thinks.”

“Maybe, but what makes you so certain that I know anything?” She asked all the while trying to sidetrack him.

Andrew looked at her, his green eyes intent. “Because right now you’re no longer reacting to me as a friend, instead you responding to me as though I am your enemy, as though you believe something about me that is not the truth, something which you know in your heart to be untrue, but your logical nature will not release it. It is as though you have spoken to Clark and he has told you what he has seen.”

Lois stood up abruptly and backed away from the angel. “Then he was right, you do work for Tempus, don’t you?” Lois looked at him through angry eyes, her fists now clenched as she regarded him.

“No I don’t,” Andrew said adamantly. “Clark’s assumptions about me have been inaccurate from the beginning, and now he is dragging you into a crop of untruths.” He looked at Lois, his eyes filled with sincerity.

“OK, then tell me who your parents are, where you come from, whether you have brothers and sisters, or even a dog,” Lois turned around and faced him.

Andrew took a deep breath. “If you are afraid of me, then nothing I say or do will explain what you and Clark want to know. Nothing I say will pacify your questions, because it will not be believable or explainable in your current perspective.”

“You’re speaking in riddles,” Lois said softly but it appeared to the angel that she was ready to listen to him.

“Lois, I know that when we first met, you didn’t trust me because you had been hurt by someone else, but now your fears are borne out of something else other than a simple mistrust of a stranger. Now, it has become destructive because it has emerged through rumors that you may have heard. As a reporter, I learned how to rely heavily on my instincts, but there is something else that emerges through these acts of getting the best stories. It’s a feeling, a gut suspicion that says ‘this is going to be dangerous’ or ‘this is going to be easy’, and you seem to be the type of reporter who may ignore these suspicions either way. The truth is, you initially wouldn’t let me get close to you because you wanted to protect yourself, but now you’re trying to protect someone else, aren’t you?”

“Who?” Lois asked.

“Clark Kent, or perhaps his alter ego, Superman,” Andrew said softly and Lois jumped to her feet once again.

“You do work for Tempus, don’t deny it,” she snapped.

“No, I don’t,” he said calmly but adamantly. “Lois, if I tell you who I am, then chances are you won’t believe it anyway and you will do whatever you can to try and disprove my words.”

“Oh try me,” she looked at him, her arms now crossed over her chest.

Andrew sighed and nodded. “OK, I’m an angel,” he whispered.

“You sure think highly of yourself, don’t you?” She shot back as Andrew came over and sat down next to her and reached for her hand.

“It’s not about what I think of myself, it’s about the truth,” he said softly. “Do you remember at the restaurant when I asked you if you believed in God?”

Lois nodded as he continued to speak. “I remember as well, you made some comments about having an interview with Him, which I found to be quite nice. Yet when I first mentioned God, you took the stance that I was some angry religious person. I am not religious, Lois, but I have been sent by God.”

“If what you say is the truth, then why me?” She asked. “And why would Clark assume that you work for Tempus?”

“Before I respond to that, answer one question, and think logically about it before you do. Do you honestly believe that some man from the future who is set on destroying the peace and tranquility in both his and your times would talk about God as much as I do? Do you think that after hearing what I have said to you tonight, that I would help a man who tries to prevent a virtual Heaven on Earth from happening?”

“I honestly don’t know, I mean; my memories of Tempus are rather sketchy. Clark obviously remembers him, especially if he’s linked you to him” Lois said softly.

“Lois, another word for ‘Utopia’ is interpreted or defined by some to be ‘Heaven’, it is a concept of peace and understanding that emanates this future society to such a degree that they called themselves Utopians. In today’s language, you and Clark have paved the way through your love, to what some would call ‘world peace’. In this current reality, that has yet to be realized. God created Heaven and Earth, and depending on how one might interpret this thing called ‘Utopia’, will determine not only the linkage between this time and the future, but it will also act as a link between God and humanity. This isn’t just about a statue of you and Clark in the future, it is about the preservation of the past, all the while still doing God’s work.”

“God’s work?” Lois shook her head.

“Lois, just look at me, it’s obvious that you don’t believe anything I have said here, your eyes give you away,” he said softly.

“Andrew…if you’re not working with Tempus, then how did you know that Clark is Superman?” She eventually asked; her thoughts still stuck on that one specific point.

“When I started working at the Planet, I actually had to do some of my own investigative reporting to figure it out,” Andrew said softly.

“Oh God didn’t tell you?” Lois asked coyly, she still could not believe the story he was dishing out, but she was going to play this one for all it was worth. If she could milk this guy for information about Tempus, she might actually have some of the information she needed for her story. At the same time, she could not fathom that he would figure out the truth after only a short time frame, but that it took her two years to find out.

“Lois, God only tells me what I need to know when I need to know it,” Andrew tried to explain. “I spent a great deal of time digging through the archives at the Planet, and was able to piece together things that were confirmed when my friend Tess showed up. Let me explain something that you have an understanding of, at least on an unconscious level. When Clark left Metropolis two weeks ago, the overall sighting of Superman went down considerably. There were no more stories put out about Superman, and it was as though he had vanished completely. OK, perhaps Clark, being a highly intelligent person, knew this, so to cover his ground, every so often people would see Superman flying over the city. Yet, there weren’t as many things happening during his absence that brought on Superman’s presence until the stories came out about the teenagers and the drug overdoses,” Andrew tried to explain. “Lois, if nothing I say makes any sense to you, then let me ask you another question. When Superman first came to Metropolis, was it about the same time that Clark had started working at the Daily Planet?”

Lois sighed and nodded. “Yes, I suppose it was, that’s why I…”

“…You felt that as a reporter, this was the biggest story of your life and you were so drawn into it that you were a part of that story. You became a part of it, the day you met Clark Kent. It’s not about him wearing a pair of glasses, it was the idea that you couldn’t fathom having worked for two years with a person who lived with a secret identity and didn’t figure it out. Is that it?” He asked softly.

Lois nodded stubbornly.

“You believe somehow that you should have figured it out, you’re a reporter, you’re supposed to see these facts, or find them,” Andrew reached over and touched her shoulder. “Yet, there existed one truth that you have yet to understand and that is there exists nothing at all wrong with not having known. You are not expected to know all. God is the only One who does.” He paused for a moment and then taking a deep breath, he continued. “This was the secret that you were trying to conceal from me, wasn’t it?”

Lois looked at him, but eventually, she offered him another nod.

They sat in silence for a few moments until eventually she looked at him. “How about pizza?”

“Excuse me?” He asked.

“Well, it’s my turn to provide dinner, and I know this pizza parlor that delivers, and they have the best pizza in Metropolis?” She offered.

Andrew smiled. “I would, but unfortunately, I have an assignment to get to tonight, this is why I have been away from the Planet during the morning. People needed me, and I had to go to them. Clark does the same thing when he hears people call for help.”

Before she could say another word, Andrew had vanished before her eyes and she shook her head. “He really is an angel,” she mumbled.

The evening passed slowly, Lois worked on her story as she waited for Clark to show up, but when he didn’t, she eventually went and got ready for bed, her thoughts literally racing as she put on her nightgown and crawled into bed and turned off the light. “Oh Clark,” she whispered as she turned off the light. “If only you had come, then I would have told you the truth about Andrew…”

Once the apartment was dark, Lois drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

In the corner of the room, Tess and Monica stood as they watched over the reporter. “Tess, will this change anything?”

“No, Miss spiked boots and leather mini-dress, you’re still on for tomorrow night, but at least with Andrew’s revelation, Lois’ life will be saved, but as long as Clark believes that my Angel Boy works with Tempus, his life will hang in the balance.”

“I don’t understand,” Monica said softly.

“Well, without Lois knowing who Andrew was, she would have gone to the rave assuming that Andrew and her were fighting against each other, as opposed to working on the same side. Andrew will be there tomorrow night, and you will find out then specifically why it is that his presence will be needed.”

Monica watched the sleeping reporter. “I just wish I had convinced her to not go to the rave.”

“I know, Angel Girl,” Tess said softly. “But, trying to convince Lois Lane to stay away from danger is like trying to ask you to give up mocha lattes.”

Monica offered a small smile and then shrugged her shoulders as the two angels disappeared.

*****

The following morning, Clark arrived at the familiar glass building that housed the Daily Planet. He had had a long night behind him, his first instinct was to get his mother home and out of harm’s way, so the previous afternoon, he had gone with Martha back to Smallville and had had dinner with his parents.

Upon his return to Metropolis, it had been late, and he spent most of the night helping the Metropolis police department at rounding up a number of the rioters, all of whom had been the youth who were taken to prison in order to go through detox. There was something in the pills he had found at a number of the crime scenes and he pondered if Dr. Klein over Star Labs would be able to provide them some information about what was happening.

As dawn was breaking, he realized that he had intended on going back to see Lois, but had been so sidetracked that he didn’t get around to going to her apartment. Sighing, he got into the elevator and rode up to the newsroom. Perry had come in early and so when he arrived; the newsroom was all but empty except for the layout people who were putting the finishing touches on the morning edition.

He approached the editor’s office and tapped on the door and waited for Perry to open it. “Son, what in the name of Sam Hill are you doing here? It hasn’t been two weeks since we talked.” Perry’s face was filled with a certain amount of nervousness as he faced the reporter. Deep inside, he did not wish to lose his prize reporter because of a misunderstanding and something was telling him that this was specifically what the situation was.

“I know, Chief,” Clark said as he held up his hands in negation. “I have had enough time to think about all of this, and I have made a decision about my future here. I wanted to come back today and tell you what I have decided to do, as opposed to waiting an extra week, simply because the decision will be the same as then as it is now.”

“Now don’t go and make a rash decision,” Perry said.

“I think two weeks is enough time for me to make a decision. I want to stay at the Planet, Chief,” Clark said softly. “I realized that it would be like virtual torture for me to quit the work I enjoy so much and go back to the Smallville Press as opposed to being where I am really happy. A friend of mine talked some reason into me and I realized that it was just as important for me to make a choice for myself as it was to make the right choice.”

Perry smiled and nodded. “So you decided that you would stay here, huh?”

Clark nodded. “I just wanted to thank you for not letting me make a rash decision, and the time I spent at home did help get me realize a few things.”

With that, a very relieved Clark Kent got to his feet and left the editor’s office. Once he was gone, Perry smiled broadly. “I knew it,” he gloated to the stillness as an intern came in with a copy of the morning edition. “None of my chicks are going to fly my coop.” He smiled as he glanced up to see that Jimmy had come off the elevator and watched as the young man’s face broke into a broad grin when he recognized that Clark was now seated at his desk. “Now, maybe things will get back to normal around here,” the editor mumbled to himself as the steady trickle of reporters began to steadily stream into the newsroom.

*****

At this moment, Tempus was grinning as broadly as the Daily Planet’s editor. “It’s perfect,” he muttered under his breath. He had managed to avoid detection by the Metropolis Police and Superman with regards to Smyth’s death. In fact, the rumor mill was working overtime and he smiled when he heard that Superman seemed to be more concerned with some joker in beige than with him. “His paranoia is what will ultimately do him in and I would bet my right eye that he’s bringing Lois Lane into his little game as well. This is working better than I planned.”

The man from the future affectionately rubbed the glowing green bars of the cage that he intended to use to trap Superman. The best thing was that he had planned to do this in the middle of the rave when all the kids would be watching. The crowd would go out of control when they saw this cage, and Superman would be trapped and killed. If Lois Lane was stupid enough to show up, he concluded, then she would be trampled to death. This meant no more Utopia of the future.

It was the most perfect plan; the kids whom he was trying to save would the ones who would hold the key to his undoing. It would be a mob scene, and the best thing was that once he had destroyed Superman, he would become the head of an army of angry youth and no one would be left to stop him.

He smiled as Smyth’s replacement came into the room, the greasy haired man eyeing the cage and smiling as he regarded the cage.

“You’re amazing, Mr. Tempus,” the man said as he took a drink from the can he was holding in his left hand. “When Lenny told me that you had gotten the cage, I didn’t believe it, but it looks like when you speak, you deliver.”

“Oh no great credit to me, Carlos, this is all in a day’s work,” Tempus said smiling slyly as he eyed the can that Carlos was drinking from.

“Pity that Lenny got shot by those snipers,” Carlos said unemotionally after a few minutes of silence had passed between them. “He was like a brother to me, but maybe his sacrifice will be worth it if we could get Superman out of the way.”

What an unbelievable dolt this one is, Tempus thought, but looked at the man with false sincerity. “Yes, Carlos, it really is a pity, but I saw the whole thing, a young looking businessman in beige had done it, I saw the whole thing.” He glanced back over at the cage and then at the man. “Did you get everything arranged with this little gem?” He asked.

“Oh yes, we’re going to have the cage hung as decoration directly over the dance floor,” Carlos said as placed the can on the table and from his pocket; he pulled a slip of paper and unfolded it. Tempus leaned over and saw that the schematics of the entire setup were scribbled onto this piece of paper.

“I want a dark tarp put over the cage so that it won’t be visible until Superman arrives on the scene,” Tempus instructed. “We are going on the element of surprise here, and I don’t want anything to go wrong tonight. There’s a lot riding on all of this, and I don’t just mean Superman, but we have the kids under our control.”

“Hardly a chance of that happening, Boss, we have the best helpers with this, I even arranged a DJ that really rocks,” Carlos put his thumb up. “OK, so what if he’s my cousin, Benny, but without trying to be partial, he is the best rave DJ in all of Metropolis, and he said that the price was right. Tonight is really going to rock.”

“Yes, it will,” Tempus said smugly and nodded. “The rocking that will be done will happen to be a rare and glowing green metal that will destroy anything remotely resembling a hundred percent peaceful and tranquil.” In one hand he held up a small bottle with some white colored pills inside, with the other, a small piece of kryptonite was held between his thumb and forefinger. The bottle of ecstasy, he threw to Carlos. “Now, I want you to make sure that everyone who comes into the rave tonight gets a free sample to make the party all the more better for them.”

Carlos nodded. “My boys will keep everything under control, Boss, we’ll even make sure that they all take their medicine like good little boys and girls.” He chortled at his own attempt at humor. He placed the schematics into his pocket with the ecstasy as he reached for the can drink and started to walk towards the stairs. “OK, boys, raise the cage on my word.” Seconds later he gave the word and the men had pulled on the cables and the cage was raised high in the air.

“Now that the cage is in place, let’s get the final touches done for tonight’s party,” Tempus smiled cunningly as Carlos and two men reached the top of the stairs and disappeared outside. Tempus stared after them. “I’m surrounded by idiots,” he mumbled under his breath. “But, no matter, they do everything I say.” He smiled as he looked down at the small can of cola that sat on a nearby table. “Everything’s going my way…” He smiled as he crushed the can with the side of his fist.

Seconds later, he went up the stairs behind the three men, the flattened can, he left on the table, the piece of kryptonite casually resting next to it.

*****

By late afternoon, things had returned to normal at the Planet. Lois had not had much of a chance to talk to Clark; he was in and out of the newsroom like a virtual whirlwind that she discovered that it was next to impossible for her to talk to him about any of the events that had transpired the night before. At the same time, she wondered if Clark would have believed her. She knew that it was hard for even her to believe, even though she, herself had experienced it.

Sighing, she looked at the wall where a clock hung nearby. She must have been staring at it for a while because before she knew it, the time had changed from three to three thirty without her getting anything done. What she would have given to share this unbelievable story with someone. She knew Perry would scoff off the whole angel scoop. It was one of those ‘been there, done that’ stories. The only people who might be even remotely interested would be Star, her somewhat eccentric neighbor.

Shaking her head, she looked down at the information that Jimmy had collected for her the day before. The youth looked happy for the first time in days, she thought as the realization dawned on her that perhaps Jimmy had been heartbroken about Clark’s abrupt absence. Perhaps there was another reason behind his behavior and that the two of them had been in the same boat all along.

Her thoughts were still on the conversation she had had with Andrew the night before. An angel in Metropolis, that was too weird to be believed, yet she could not deny the truth in what he had said. Why would someone who talks about God be someone who is in cahoots with making trouble? Something just didn’t add up, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Andrew had to have been telling the truth.

Sighing, she watched as Monica inched over to her desk and after a few moments, she made eye contact with the angel. “So, you ready to go for the gusto, Rookie?” She asked, but her voice was anything but convincing. You’re a reporter, Lane, keep your mind on your work, she chastised herself and tried without much success at getting herself psyched up for going undercover that night with a partner who wasn’t Clark.

“I suppose so,” Monica said cheerfully, but she noticed the look of hesitancy in Lois’ eyes and she looked at the reporter. “Lois, is everything alright? You look a wee bit upset.”

“A wee bit upset?” Lois looked at Monica, her eyes widening, but she smiled. “I haven’t heard that wording since I was in high school and visited Ireland.”

Monica shrugged her shoulders. “Perhaps, but you do look upset, do you want to talk about it?”

Lois shook her head. “No, Monica, I’ll be fine.”

The angel nodded unconvincingly, but offered the reporter a smile. She was not sure why it was, but she concluded that Lois must not be comfortable with the mention of Andrew’s revelation from the night before. She had hoped that Lois would have trusted her enough to talk about it, but she didn’t and so she went back over to the desk she was using and sat down at it and began to stir the hot mug of coffee that was placed there.

About an hour prior to Lois and Monica’s planned departure, the telephone rang and Lois grabbed it and spoke into the receiver. “Lois Lane,” she said into the receiver and waited for the caller to identify himself or herself.

“Ms. Lane, it’s Dr. Klein from Star Labs,” the caller said.

“Did you find out anything about the samples that we brought in yesterday?” She asked and motioned for Monica to come over to her desk. When the angel reached her she made a thumbs-up sign and grabbed a pencil and a slip of paper.

“Yes, I did. We spun a sample down and were able to find the basic chemical compounds of the drug in question. Along with the normal substances usually found in ecstasy, we found a highly concentrated amount of anti-depressive components. That is to say that under these high dosages of medication, the user could, depending on body chemistry, come under external control, or worse, they could eventually die if exposed to this drug for a prolonged amount of time.”

“Do you mean to say that if kids are taking these drugs, then they could very easily become…like an army of sorts?” Lois asked as she scribbled some notes down and looked at Monica all the while shaking her head in absolute disbelief.

“Well, yes, this could, in fact, happen, but Ms. Lane, given the extreme high dosages of the anti-depressive medication in this sample, I cannot give you any accurate numbers as to how many people will survive from even one dosage of this particular drug. Based on the information we received through the sample you and Ms. Wings provided, I can only ascertain that it is far worse than just a bunch of kids rebelling against society. There is a serious epidemic going on here. I checked with Metropolis Memorial Hospital this morning where a number of my friends and colleagues work, and they informed me that they have, since yesterday morning, had an estimated hundred extra cases, all of which were kids who had overdosed or had been exposed to this particular ecstasy drug.”

“Did any of them disclose where they had gotten their drugs?” Lois asked. “Was there any indication as to who their dealer was?”

“No, most were unconscious when they were brought in, some have actually died from it, and the ones who were awake were completely oblivious to what was happening around them. Some of my colleagues from the hospital have spoken to me and have said that when things get calmed down somewhat, they’d agree to an interview about their findings, but at present, the entire staff at all the hospitals in Metropolis have been put on high alert because of this. They don’t have time for interviews or anything because kids are constantly being brought in and it’s been going on since early yesterday morning. It’s an epidemic.”

Lois nodded and a few seconds later, she thanked Dr. Klein and hung up the phone all the while looking over at Monica. The angel was quietly seated next to her desk, but after the reporter looked down at the slip of paper where Chief of Police’s cell phone number was scrawled across it, she shook her head with disbelief. “First Smyth is found as dead as a doornail out on the pier yesterday morning, and then this ecstasy thing. Monica, there’s got to be a connection here. If Smyth, one of the most notorious drug lords in Metropolis, is found dead on the pier about two hundred yards from the building where this ‘rave’ is supposed to be tonight, then there has to be a link. That warehouse has been abandoned for over a year, no one’s been inside.”

“Then what would the link be?” Monica asked.

“I don’t know, maybe we’ll find out tonight, but something tells me that Smyth was in on this the whole time, and chances are, the deal suddenly went sour on him and whoever was responsible for putting the anti-depressants into the ecstasy, then I would bet my right arm that its the same person who killed Smyth.”

“To silence him?” Monica asked.

“No, because Smyth wouldn’t have cared. Silence was never a problem for him, I know I tried to interview him once, and that man was like a clam, nothing, absolutely nothing came out,” she smiled weakly. “Well, not until Superman showed up, then he suddenly became the virtual ‘tower of babble’. He hated Superman for that, and when he managed squeak through the legal system without so much as time behind bars, he swore that he’d get even.”

“So, do you think that maybe he got involved in this because he and his killer had the dislike of Superman in common?” Monica asked.

“I’d be willing to bet money on it. Smyth was good at what he did, not good as in positive, but the man knew from the start that everything was about money,” Lois said, but after a few moments she looked at Monica, her eyes brightening considerably. “That’s got to be it. Do you know how much money Smyth could have made in this deal? Let’s get our facts down here.” Lois grabbed a pencil and handed it to Monica who reached for a stenographer’s notebook. “Fact number one, Superman has given kids a positive role model. Fact number two, these kids instead of doing drugs are following Superman’s example, and this does not go over very well for Smyth or his boys.” Lois continued to count on her fingers as Monica quickly wrote the information down. “Fact number three, Smyth was always good friends with bad money. He’s been linked to more cases of money laundering and even counterfeiting than I’d care to count.”

Monica continued to make the notations. “So, if Smyth gets rid of Superman, then he would be able to control most of the money in the Metropolis Underworld.”

“Yes, if he were to get rid of Superman, then he probably thought that the kids would revert their professed loyalty from Superman onto him. But, now he’s dead, so who would be behind what is going on?” Lois asked.

Monica shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really know.”

“I would guess that it is whoever thinks the along the lines that money is power,” Jimmy said as he ambled over to them. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear you,” he said as Lois looked at him and he lowered his head.

Eventually, he raised it again in shock as Lois’ next words emerged. “Good point, Jimmy, thanks,“ said and they both watched as the young man proudly ambled back over to his desk and sat down in front of the terminal.

“You made a difference to him,” Monica said, thus breaking the subject.

“Well, it’s true, but let’s not get off topic here,” Lois looked down at the list that Monica held. “So, if someone thinks money is power, then chances are, they were scummier than Smyth, they got what they wanted out of him and bumped him off so they wouldn’t have to pay him for his help. So, essentially, we find out who is behind Smyth’s death, then we will find the answer to the problem of the drugged out youth, but also an enemy of Superman…” Her voice trailed off and she looked at Monica. “…Maybe I should tell you about Tempus.”

Monica looked at the reporter. “Lois, I already know about him.”

“Where?” The reporter asked.

“I’ll explain everything later,” the angel said softly. “But, I do know that this man is dangerous, and I know that tonight isn’t just about proving who killed Leonard Smyth, but it is about saving the lives of others.”

Lois looked at her. “So you’re with me on this.”

Monica nodded. “It’s my job,” was all she said.

Lois smiled. “Thanks, Monica.”

The angel smiled as Lois began to type the notes at the computer, but the angel watched as Lois got to the by-line that had been saved in the computer. Monica watched as Lois deleted the name Clark Kent from the by-line and inserted the name: Monica Wings. “Maybe one day I’ll have my old partner back, but until then, it will remain this way,” she whispered, but instead of saving the new by-line, she saved a new file and then started to put the information for the story into the computer.

By the time she had finished she looked up at the clock and noticed that it was six, and the newsroom was practically empty. She still had not seen Clark or Andrew, but now she had more important things to contend to.

“Are you ready, Red?” She asked as Monica got to her feet and had come over to her desk.

“Red?” Monica asked.

“That’s your alias, fits with your hair anyway,” Lois said. “It’s sort of nondescript, which is just what we need for tonight.”

Monica nodded. “OK, then you’re Dove.”

Lois looked at her and nodded. “That’s the idea.”

“I’m a fast learner,” Monica said as Lois gave her the bag with the clothing inside.

“We’ll change at my place,” Lois said. “That way, I can make sure you have not only the clothes, but the look.”

Monica nodded. “I trust you, Lois.”

“Thanks, let’s get going,” Lois smiled and the two women walked to the elevator.

As they went into the small enclosure and the doors slid back together, Andrew appeared in the newsroom and watched them. “Tess,” he looked at the other angel. “They’re really going through with this?” He asked.

“They have to, it’s their job, Angel Boy, and you have a job, too. It’s going to be a long night,” Tess said as she looked at Andrew’s beige clothing. “You need to fit in there, too, Mr. Halo. That means that you’re going to have to undergo a few changes.”

Seconds passed and Andrew’s clothing had abruptly changed. Instead of being dressed in a pristine beige suit and tie with kempt shoulder length hair, the Angel of Death was dressed in black leather pants, Iron Maiden concert t-shirt, silver loop earrings in his ears and his hair was greasy and tied back in a simple rubber band. His face showed the start of a beard.

“Now, I want you to get over there, Andrew, you will see Adam and some of the other Angels of Death at this rave, but your assignment is Clark Kent and no one else. I want you to keep your focus on him,” the Supervisor said.

“I know, Tess, I know,“ Andrew whispered. “He’s going to die tonight…” His voice trailed off sadly.

“The way things are going, yes, but things can change,” Tess said. “Whatever happens, we will have to accept that God is in complete control of the situation.”

*****

As Lois and Monica were leaving the Planet, Clark was flying overhead surveying the scene that was going on below. He had virtually been on call all day and this did not seem to lessen as afternoon turned to dusk and cries for help seemed to emerge every five seconds.

There was no question in his mind, this was a crime wave of epic proportions, most of the culprits not caring if they were caught or ran free and most of the crimes were petty things a mugging here a purse snatching there.

The strangest thing of all wasn’t the fact that he was constantly on the run, but when he had been too late to help people, then he started to notice that there were these strange people present with the victims. They were dressed in beige clothing and seemed more or less passive about what was happening around them. They would sit on the ground and hold the hands of the victims, and it was as though the culprits could not see them. Clark had even seen this Andrew a few times, but neither seemed interested or intent on confronting the other, so they merely had crossed paths a few times without so much as a word.

It had been this way ever since the kids went crazy, Clark had started to see men and women dressed in beige clothing appearing and disappearing throughout Metropolis. He was not sure what to make of this situation, but he wished that he had been able to keep his appointment with Lois the night before and discuss all these things with her. Superman didn’t lie, and he was not about to start just because Lois knew the truth about who he was. She would have to understand, he concluded, considering everything that was happening in Metropolis, sometimes things just happened that was beyond even Superman’s control.

Shaking his head, he landed in the alleyway next to his apartment. His eyes widened as he turned around and recognized Tess standing in the doorway to his apartment.

“Tess?” He spoke her name and the angel smiled and nodded.

“Yes, baby, how are you?” She asked.

“Confused,” he shook his head. “What is happening here? Am I losing my mind?”

“No, baby, you’re not, you’ve been trying to cope with all the things that have happened since you returned to Metropolis,” she said softly. “Now, you have a grave danger ahead of you. I came back to tell you that no matter what happens, you’re not alone, and you will understand everything tonight.” She reached over and touched his face. “God is proud of you, and so am I.”

Clark nodded and once the angel had disappeared, he heard another cry for help and took off. His thoughts were a buzz, but all those things aside; he realized that he had things that he needed to do, and this would all have to take the backburner until he had helped the people of Metropolis.

As he flew over Lois’ apartment building, he looked down to see that Lois and Monica had entered the building. He felt torn at that moment. He would have given anything to land and go and speak with Lois, but now he could not. Sighing, he disappeared over the horizon, his thoughts racing. “Forgive me Lois,” he whispered under his breath as he disappeared across the horizon, his next task as Superman beckoning him.

*****

Back at Lois’ apartment, Monica was fidgeting as she came out of Lois’ bedroom, her hair now tied back in a haphazard French braid. Her eyes highlighted with black mascara thus making her already pale cheeks look a ghostly white. On one of her cheekbones, Lois had applied a black smudge saying that the makeup was necessary.

Monica’s attire was about as odd as her makeup job. She wore a black mini dress, spiked boots and a silver belt was wrapped around her thin waist, the lopsided belt against her waist on the left side, but on the right, it was down over her hips.

A cropped leather jacket that only went down to the small of her back completed the look and as she stood before the mirror and tried without success at pulling down the jacket so that it would cover her more proved unsuccessful. Eventually, Lois slapped her hand away. “Stop fidgeting, Monica, you’ll blow our cover,” she said and when Monica did eventually stop, the reporter looked at her and nodded with approval. “Looking good, Red,” Lois said as she took a beret style hat and put it on her head. “I never thought I’d see the day that you would dress in this way, but I’ve got to say, you do look good.”

Monica swallowed as she beheld the strange looking reflection staring back from the mirror at her. “I didn’t think I’d be able to do this either,” she offered as she released a pent up breath and looked at Lois. “Do you think it will work?”

“As long as you stop fidgeting and acting like you’re a good little school girl, then it will work,” Lois said matter-of-factly.

Monica sighed, but eventually nodded as Lois grabbed a tiny matching leather purse. A tiny backpack, she tossed to Monica and once she had put it on the two women were ready to go.

“Now, remember, Red, no drugs,” Lois said. “You have to keep a clear head about all of this, and after what Dr. Klein told me today when he called, chances are, any drugs that we could get into our systems could kill us.”

Monica nodded. “You’re right Lois, and I won’t be taking anything, I had already decided that,” she smiled weakly.

Lois smiled. “Well, let’s get going. I figure the safest bet is to take the bus, that way fewer witnesses, and there is a line that runs directly adjacent to the warehouse.”

Monica nodded as she cast one last glance in the mirror. This was very strange, to say the least.

“Don’t worry, Rookie,” Lois said as she noticed Monica’s discomfort. “You look like one of Hell’s Angels, it’s workable for where we’re going.”

Hell’s angels? Monica’s mind began to literally race, but instead of arguing the point, she followed Lois to the front door and out into the hallway.

When they came down the stairs and stepped out onto the street, Lois looked at Monica. “Oh man,” she muttered. “I nearly forgot they wanted to start a citywide curfew, the busses will probably not be running.”

Monica nodded, she remembered hearing that, but as she looked around the area, she could see a number of people roaming the streets and she nudged Lois. “I don’t think anyone paid much attention to this,” she whispered as they noticed that down the street the sounds of glass breaking and a blaring siren could be heard in the distance.

“Come on,” Lois said as the sounds of the siren grew louder and she pulled Monica into a crop of bushes as the sounds of the siren grew louder, until a police car passed where they were hiding, and eventually rounded a corner at the end of the street. “Seems the boys in blue have more to contend with at the moment then two broads out for a good time,” Lois said sighing as they made their way towards the next main street and rounded a corner.

“Maybe we will have to take cab after all,” Monica said after some moments had passed.

The reporter nodded as they crossed the street and found three cabs parked along the side of the street. “Come on Red, and let me do the talking.”

Monica nodded as they reached a cab and the man behind the wheel got out of the cab and looked at them, his eyes narrowing. “Yes ladies?” He slurred.

“We need to get to the corner market down by the docks,” Lois improvised.

The cab driver nodded and with a grunt, he muttered ‘get in’, and slid back behind the wheel. Monica and Lois crawled into the backseat and with the tires squealing the cab drove off in the direction of the rave.

No words were exchanged as they reached the corner market and Lois paid the faire and they got out and watched as the cab sped away. Lois and Monica stood for some moments in front of the store until the cab was no longer visible and the two of them started to walk towards the large warehouse.

As they got closer, they could see a virtual mob of youth, all of who were scrambling towards the building, their voices loud. At that moment, Monica nudged Lois. “I have an idea if someone tries to give us anything in there.” From her backpack the angel produced two small identical tablets.

“Are you insane?” Lois hissed.

“No, it’s concentrated sugar, there are no drugs in it, but they won’t know that, they will think that we had the drugs and that we were going along with them. Just trust me,” Monica said softly.

Lois looked at her and nodded. “OK, let’s wait and take them when we’re inside.”

Monica nodded as they got closer to the door and Lois immediately noticed that two burly men were standing at the door.

“They must be bouncers,” Lois said as Monica nodded.

As they reached the entrance to the warehouse, Lois noticed that the two men were not just standing and guarding the entrance; they were also distributing drugs. Lois reached the door first and the man handed her a small white pill. “Here you go, doll, brain candy,” he chortled as he gave one to Monica, and chortled. “On the house…”

From behind someone pushed her and Monica found herself plowing into Lois and the pill that she carried flew from her hand.

“Hey watch it,” someone slurred from in front of them and Monica glanced around to see that the person who had pushed her was Andrew. The Angel of Death shook his head and when she understood his silent communication, she moved towards the stairs that led down into the basement where the rave was to take place.

As she reached a doorway, a man stood with cups of water. It was Carlos and he was literally forcing the kids to take the ecstasy. “Now you babies, go and take your medicine and then have a good time,” he chortled and looked at her. “What are you waiting for, Christmas?” The man laughed and Monica opened her palm and the man could see to small round pill that rested in her hand.

She watched as Lois took the sugar pill and washed it down with a cup of water that was offered to her.

“Come on, Red, get the lead out,” Lois said once she had swallowed the sugar.

Monica nodded and followed suit.

Once they had supposedly taken the pills, Monica and Lois were allowed to go down the stairs and into the main room where pulsating music could be heard all around them. Monica inched closer to Lois and nudged her. “What are we looking for?” She asked.

“We’ll know when we find it,” Lois said. “For now, all we can do is blend in.”

“Blend in?” A question emerged and Lois looked up to see the pale eyes of the man from the future. “My dear Lois Lane, do you think a little makeup and black clothing is going to make me not recognize you?”

Monica swallowed as the man from the future turned to face her. “And what have we here, Ms. Lane’s protégé?” His words emerged with confidence and he regarded her through condescending eyes.

Monica remained silent, but Lois looked at him. “What do you want here, Tempus?”

“Oh I don’t know, the usual, pandemonium with a side order of chaos,” the man from the future said. “And you will find out the longer you and your little friend are here, just how much disorder I can create.” He smiled at her as he merged his way between the dancing teenagers and disappeared in the crowd.

Once he was gone, Lois took a deep breath. “I cannot stand him…” she grumbled.

Monica looked at her. “I don’t think we’re going to find out anything here. Even if Tempus is behind Smyth’s murder, we’ll never be able to prove it.”

“Maybe you’re not here to prove anything, Monica,” a voice emerged and she whirled around to see Andrew standing behind them.

“Oh, Andrew, looking good,” Lois said snidely as she regarded the disheveled appearance of the angel.

“Listen, you two, there’s a reason why we’re all here, and it’s not about getting the story,” Andrew said. The moment he said these words, a blur of blue and red whirled though the room.

Lois sighed with relief when she saw Clark landing in the middle of the room.

“Let the games begin,” Tempus shouted as he reached for a rope, pulled it and the sound of a loud crash could be heard and the people that had been on the dance floor scattered as the black tarp covering the cage gave way and began to lower itself from the ceiling.

Clark’s eyes grew wide as he felt a wave of dizziness overwhelming him and he sank to the ground.

Lois watched this and began to scream all the while the pulsating music growing louder as the affects of the ecstasy began took effect on the kids in the large room. The music seemed to get louder and louder with each passing second, even to Monica and Lois, who both had their wits about them, but the DJ, like everyone else in this room seemed to be under some sort of mind control and Lois could tell by the way things were escalating. The kids were starting to push and pull on each other, all the while ignoring her and Monica.

Tempus’ laugher filled the room as he stood at the top of the stairs and watched the scene below. “Crush them,” the man from the future shouted over the thundering music and Monica and Lois could both feel themselves abruptly pushed up against the wall.

Lois’ eyes went wild, she could see that Clark was still trapped, but when she suddenly saw Andrew appearing next to a suffering Clark. She tried to push her way through the crowd of drugged out kids, some of whom slurred obscenities at her, but most of them were indifferent towards her and barely able to stay on their own two feet, much less react aggressively towards her.

The rest of the crowd seemed not to care, the cage to them looked like a normal part of the rave, and Lois and Monica could hear them arguing about who would be next to dance inside of it. These kids had completely lost control of themselves, all of them zoning out from the effects of the drugs, but Lois could have cared less, she continued to try and get close enough to Clark to speak to him, to say she was sorry, to offer him some sort of words of comfort to the man she loved who lay suffering from the exposure to the kryptonite. “Superman,” she screamed out. “Please don’t die, Metropolis needs you…” her words were loud, and she watched as he raised his head only slightly as if to acknowledge her presence. As the words drifted to the heavens, three more words emerged, but no one could have possibly heard them, except perhaps Clark. “…I need you.”

Lois continued to try to break through the group of kids, some of them giving way, leaving her enough room to get to the cage, Monica following close behind, she managed to reach Lois as the pulsating music reached its climax and the kids at level of mass hysteria; some of them collapsing onto the floor while others fled from the room in the hopes of getting outside.

At that point, Monica managed to reach the reporter’s side as the kids trampled through the building, but the angel glanced around the room and saw that Adam and a number of Angels of Death were standing, each one over a teenager that lay unmoving on the floor. A sob caught in her throat, she wiped the tears from her eyes and watched as about half of the angels took the children Home. A split second they were gone, while others remained, their hands holding those of the kids, Adam looked up at her. “Don’t worry, Monica, there’s still time, but for Clark not much.”

She nodded and ran over to where Lois was now sitting on the ground next to the cage. She had taken Clark’s hand in hers, and she watched the man she loved look up only slightly, his heavy lidded eyes meeting hers. “I love you,” she whispered, and she felt the soft squeeze of his hand against her.

“Superman, please don’t die…” she pleaded and looked up to see Andrew was still standing over Clark. “You…You’re really an angel?” She said to the angel as the music stopped and she glanced over to see that Tess had appeared next to the DJ’s stand and had managed to finally shut off the pulsating music.

“Yes, I am,” Andrew said softy, his green eyes filled with sadness as he regarded Clark in this defeated state. The angel was no longer dressed in black, instead he was dressed in his beige suit, the same suit that he had worn the night before when he had told Lois the truth. He looked deeply into her eyes for a moment, as realization washed over him that she had not believed anything he had said. Now, he knew that she no longer had a choice in the matter. Andrew Halo really was an angel, he was glowing, and the light that surrounded him filled with warmth and gentility, but when she looked at Clark and then back at Andrew, her face went a ghostly white.

“Y-You’re an Angel of Death,” she stammered, the shock evident in her eyes.

“Yes, Andrew is an Angel of Death,” Monica said softly and when the reporter turned, she could see that Monica too had changed, she was now dressed in a white dress, her hair now hanging loosely down over her shoulders. “I’m an angel too, Lois, and God sent us here, not to watch Superman die, but the choices and decisions that people have made will bring about his passing, but what you can change is whether or not Superman dies in peace and happiness, or if this event will make his passing one of sadness and spiritual turmoil.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Lois whispered as Clark raised his head only slightly and looked at her.

“L-Lois…” he whispered as he licked his dry lips. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know,” she responded in kind. “Deep inside I knew.” She looked at the angels, first at Andrew and then at Monica. “You’ve got to help me…” She stood up and tried without success at lifting the cage that trapped Clark.

“I cannot,” Andrew whispered with agony in his voice. “There is nothing on earth I would wish to do more than to help you, Lois, but I cannot interfere with the results of choices that people make. It is your free will that brought you into this situation, I’m sorry.”

“You mean this is our own fault,” Lois whispered. “This was why it was you told me that I shouldn’t come here.”

Andrew nodded as Clark looked at Lois and then at the Angel of Death. “A team of wild horses couldn’t have stopped her, Andrew.”

“You know her well,” Andrew smiled weakly, but he reached down and brushed the dark hair out from in front of Clark’s face.

“I should have seen through your identity,” Clark said softly. “Only someone from God could emanate light the way you do…”

Andrew nodded. “Clark, I tried to tell you so many times, we both just somehow got sidetracked. I was present when Leonard Smyth died, and when Helen was attacked, but I’m here now, for you, Clark Kent. God sends angels at many times in people’s lives, when they are born, throughout, and at the end of one’s life. I am usually sent to help in that transition. This is what you saw me do.”

“Then what you said earlier was true, you really are an Angel of Death?” Lois asked. “And I’m going to lose Clark, because…” Her voice trailed off but she watched as Andrew sat down on the ground next to Clark, reached over and took Lois’ hand.

“Yes, I am an Angel of Death…” Andrew responded softly, but before he could speak further, the door literally was burst off its hinges, and at least 30 armed policemen and the same number of medical personnel charged into the room.

When they saw Clark crumpled in a heap on the floor and suffering, they quickly went to work and managed to pull the offending object up and away from Clark, thus giving him enough energy to crawl slowly away from the deadly substance. As soon as he was away from it, Lois ran over to him and threw her arms around him. “I was so scared,” she whispered as she buried her tearstained face against the large letter ‘S’ that was on the chest of Clark’s spandex suit.

Clark brushed his hands gently through her hair and she looked up and into his eyes. “I don’t know what happened, but I think that we need to talk,” he whispered, his gaze sweeping some two feet from where they were now standing and Lois could tell that he meant Monica and Andrew in that observation as well.

The two angels, for their part, nodded and Clark looked at them as a cry for help seemed to split into his world and he looked down at Lois apologetically. “I have to go…”

“…Someone needs you?” She asked meekly and he nodded, this time his expression pained, but she reached up and touched his cheek. “Go be a hero, you’re already mine.”

With that and with his strength once more intact, he sped out of the large room leaving Lois standing in the room with Monica, Andrew and about three policemen. Right now, all she wanted to do was to get out of there, go home, take a shower and await Clark’s impending visit. Sighing, she glanced around the room and realized that she still had to find out what had happened. Specifically, why and how it was that the police had known to bust in when they did. This was nothing short of perfect timing, but part of her job was to find out what had happened that had brought the police to the warehouse.

She looked at Monica. “There’s a story to be gotten and then I will ask that you both take me home.”

Both angels nodded. “We’ll do that, Lois,” Andrew nodded.

At that moment, one of the officers had come over to her and rested his hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright, Ms. Lane?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine, but what on earth happened? How did you guys know that we were even here and how did you find out about the rave being in this particular location?” She asked. “When I talked to the chief of police yesterday, he never mentioned anything about it me and we talked for over an hour.”

“Well, at around nine, a friend of yours named Jimmy Olsen came down to the precinct house in quite a tizzy. He spoke of what you and Ms. Wings were doing, and said that you didn’t have all the information necessary to go in. We, of course asked him why and he asked if he could show us the website with the clues to the whereabouts of the rave. We’d been getting leaks that something was going down tonight, but we didn’t know to what extent until he came in,” he said clearing his throat. “We have already gotten Tempus in custody, he didn’t put up much of a fight, the paramedics have taken the kids who survived to area hospitals, but sadly a number of them died before we could get here.” He shook his head sadly. “County Central Hospital has set up a detox program and that should help the kids come down from their prospective highs. Now, that Smyth’s drug ring and Tempus are gone, things should return to normal, but the one who really deserves the credit for helping us is your friend, Mr. Olsen.”

“Wait a minute, do you mean to tell me that Jimmy is responsible for getting you guys out here?” Lois asked her eyes constantly on the police officer, the disbelief shadowing her pretty features.

“He felt it was best to inform us of what was going down tonight,” the policeman explained. “The boy’s investigative skills are nothing short of impressive, Ms. Lane, he should be hailed a hero. He may have foregone a possible scoop for your newspaper, but in doing so, he saved a number of lives here, including Superman’s, that’s no small potatoes either. At any rate, while he was at the precinct house, he showed some schematics that he had downloaded from the Internet as well as having done some research about this building and its history.”

Lois nodded. “He did all that? Well, what was it, what specifically did he find out?”

The policeman shrugged his shoulders. “The very last clue for the rave was something that was in code, it was something that made the whole thing look rather fishy to him, perhaps because he’s young and is in tuned with the youth culture. At any rate, after your friend, Mr. Olsen studied the last word in the code, he discovered that every person who attended this rave would ultimately be forced to take some sort of drug when they arrived tonight.” He held up a small piece of paper. “What he found out was based on some of your notations were similar in scope to the last word in the clue. Something on this piece of paper caught Mr. Olsen’s attention and he basically went with his intuition.”

“What could it have been? Those were merely some scribbled up notes from when I talked to Dr. Klein over at Star Labs earlier today.” Lois looked at the policeman. “So what was it that caught his attention?”

“All the words that were listed came through in a specific order, the first three you knew from what he had found and once he had figured the clue out, you figured that there was no need for the rest of the words in the code. Dog, cellar, and summer were the words you had, and there is really no significance to them. The other words however did not spark his curiosity. Pier, abandoned, building, and June were like the first three, not very important but the last one had nothing to do with a location, instead, it was an object. The word was brain-candy. Taking this reference, Mr. Olsen went through the archives of the dog food manufacturers and discovered that they used to call the food they produced for the dogs ‘canine brain-candy’. As silly as it sounds, this was a part of their old advertisement gimmicks that stood out in his mind. He said something about a friend of his reminding him that sometimes knowing the history of a place would help to sort things out. This was not about brain-candy for dogs so it didn’t apply as a clue about location, Ms. Lane, this is about something much more specific. Some younger patients have used the term during rehab, and that term was what they used when they described ‘drugs’.”

“So he remembered all that?” Lois asked.

The officer nodded. “This city owes your friend Mr. Olsen a debt of gratitude.” With that, the officer walked away and Lois remained standing, all the while shaking her head.

She started towards the stairs, but stopped when someone called her name and she turned around to see that Monica was now standing behind her, the angel’s face no longer pale from the biker style makeup. She was once again dressed in a long white flowing dress and she regarded the reporter with a warm and gentle smile. The light colored clothing that Monica wore seemed to blend into the light that emanated the angel and made her all the more breathtaking.

“You’re really an angel?” Lois asked softly. “Like Andrew? I didn’t believe him last night when he told me, but…”

“Yes, I am,” Monica smiled and nodded. “You see Lois, God sends angels in many shapes and sizes. He knows what is in your heart, and He knows the pain that one must endure when it comes to making things work in human relationships. He brought you and Clark together for a divine purpose. It may seem as though it happened in a strange way, but you have to admit that He did good in bringing two wonderful people together. That is God’s way, He did this because He loves you both very much and in the purest and most unconditional form that exists. Andrew and I have been sent to be with you for these last weeks, but this time, we did not work alone, in fact, the one who helped the most was not an angel at all, he was a young man who has his own insecurities of being the youngster in an adult world. Jimmy cared enough for both of you that he risked you possibly being angry with him when he decided to take matters into his own hands, all the while not knowing that his actions saved both of your lives. Jimmy called the police and got them here, but he did because he listened to the voice in his heart that said that you and Clark were in grave danger.”

Lois nodded. “He knew that Clark had come back to the Planet?”

“He had seem him come out of Perry’s office earlier today, and he was happy, for the first time in weeks, he had a reason to smile,” Monica said softly.

“I never really talked to him about the stuff like when Clark left,” Lois said. “I knew that he saw Clark as an older brother of sorts.”

“He saw that in me as well,” Andrew said breaking his silence. “Tonight after we meet Clark at your home, we will be leaving and it will be up to you and Clark to tell Jimmy what he needs to know.”

“If we tell him you’re angels, he’s going to think we’re crazy,” Lois said.

“Not necessarily,” Monica said smiling.

Lois shrugged her shoulders. “So can we get out of here already? I’ve had enough for one night.”

The two angels smiled and nodded. “We know the feeling,” Andrew muttered under his breath and the three of them went up the stairs and left for the last time.

Behind them, Tess stood and watched them go.

*****

An hour later, Clark was standing and waiting by the front door to Lois’ apartment. He had knocked on the door, but when Lois didn’t answer, he assumed that she had not yet returned home, so he opted to wait for her.

Waiting was not his forte, in fact, he paced for some minutes, all the while rubbing his hands together, shifting from one leg to the other and constantly moving his glasses up his nose. I really need to get these glasses adjusted, he was thinking, but anyone who was to actually look at him could see the absolute nervousness that emanated the handsome man.

After about ten minutes of waiting, Lois came down the hall, the angels following her and he smiled nervously and waited for her to reach him.

“Lois…” he stammered. “…Please, there’s so much I want to tell you…”

“…Let’s talk inside,” she responded rationally. “We don’t want to disturb the neighbors with all these theatrics.”

Clark agreed and the four of them went into Lois’ cozy apartment. Once inside, she closed the door and waited for her guests to sit down on the sofa. Clark looked at Andrew. “I owe you an apology,” he said softly as he extended his hand to the angel.

Andrew accepted it and smiled. “It’s OK, Clark, I can understand why you reacted to me as you did.”

“I’ve never met anyone else who has to deal with things like secret identities,” he said. “How do you do it?”

“We’re different then you, Clark,” Monica said softly. “We are angels, we cannot get into relationships with people as you can. Your task of keeping this secret is not an easy one, and although we figured it out, we had the advantage of not being directly involved in either of your lives or the lives of the people of Metropolis. We also have a rather good source of information.”

“So God did tell you?” Lois asked, her face losing all color.

“In a way, God affirmed our suspicions, which is something that most people don’t listen for,” Andrew said softly and looked at Monica and waited for her to continue her explanation.

The pretty angel nodded and looked at Lois. “It’s a lot easier for us, as outsiders, to try and figure out Clark’s identity simply because we’re not emotionally invested in this as you and others may be. Lois, you didn’t figure out who Superman was for a long time because you’re emotionally involved with both him and Clark and it would have been too difficult to try and resolve all of this. Most of Metropolis has pretty much accepted that Superman is a part of their lives, whether directly or indirectly, so they won’t concern themselves with who Superman is when he’s not being Superman. I hope this makes sense to you,” she said smiling and once Lois nodded, she diverted her attention and was now looking at Clark. “The part of this that affects you is your emotional ties to this city and the level of caring you have for the people here. You cared enough for them to take on the burden of using your gifts to help them.”

“I often wished that I could be like everyone else,” Clark said, but this time instead of Monica speaking, Andrew did.

“You are unique as you are, Clark, and that uniqueness makes you special in Lois’ eyes, but it also makes you special in the eyes of your Creator,” the Angel of Death smiled gently. “I can only be grateful that I didn’t have to take you Home tonight. Yet, what I noticed was the deep love you hold for one another, but since the day we met, I wondered when you would find the courage to tell the other how you felt. Many people wait until the moment I come, to open their hearts and speak of the feelings they carry for another. This is what happened with both of you. You held off on telling each other the most profound feelings you carried until the moment of truth,” Andrew paused for a moment before continuing to speak. “I am really glad that everything turned out as it did, that you both were able to get those feelings out, but the reason that things didn’t turn out differently was because you both have a friend who went the extra mile to help you.”

“A friend?” Clark looked at Andrew. “I don’t understand.”

Lois looked at him. “Clark, when the police raided the rave earlier tonight, one of the officers told me that they had been given a tip by Jimmy.”

Monica nodded. “Yes, Jimmy did a lot of extra research on the rave location and the words in the code and this enabled him to get help to you both before something tragic could happen to you.”

Andrew looked at the two of them. “We know that you have a complicated relationship, but what God brings together cannot be torn apart, not by Tempus, or Lex Luthor or anything external. All the love and caring that you hold for another has been approved on the highest level that exists. Love is more powerful than any force outside of yourselves, and you will find struggles and heartaches in your love for another, but you both know that no relationship is ever going to be one hundred percent easy.”

Clark nodded. “He’s right, look at Perry and Alice.”

Lois smiled as she looked at the angels. “All this time I thought Clark had lied to me.”

“He withheld a truth from you was all, Lois,” Monica said smiling and looked at Andrew. “I guess it’s time for us to go.”

“Wait before you go, there’s some business we need to discuss, Monica,” Lois said. “It’s about the by-line.”

“Put yourself first, Lois, and I’ll see a copy of the paper in the morning,” Monica said smiling. Within seconds the two angels were gone.

Lois looked at Clark. “Their exits are more dramatic than yours.”

“I can’t appear and disappear at will,” Clark chuckled and looked at her. “I guess I was a coward, huh?”

“No, I was just a grouch, but they made a lot of sense,” Lois said. “Do you think we’ll ever see them again?”

“I don’t know, but they did come at the right moment,” he said.

She wrapped her arms around him and began to nibble on his neck. “And they exited at just the right moment too,” she purred.

Clark swept her up in his arms and held tightly. “You can say that again,” he buried his face in her mass of dark brown hair. “I don’t think I could have gone to heaven tonight, Lois, heaven is right here in your arms.”

*****

The following morning Lois and Clark showed up bright and early for work. Perry was waiting for them when they came in, his face filled with pride as he saw his top reporters coming out of the elevator together. “You kids did good work,” he smiled proudly.

“No, it was Lois and Monica’s work this time,” Clark said smiling. “I think Lois could work with anyone.”

“No, I couldn’t,” Lois shot back playfully as she looked at her partner. “It’s you and me, baby, forever and ever, a-men.”

Clark chuckled as he glanced over at Jimmy’s desk and could see that the young man was stirring a cup of coffee. “I think we should go and tell him what we found out last night,” he said as Perry went back into his office and closed the door behind him.

Lois nodded. “Yeah, no kidding, he really does look like he could use a friend and in the worst way.”

The two reporters went over to the young photographer’s desk. “Hey Jimmy,” Clark spoke up and the younger man looked up.

“Hey, C.K.,” he said smiling weakly.

“Did you know that they are hailing you as a hero down at Metropolis PD?” Lois asked, her brown eyes intent.

“Me? What did I do?” Jimmy asked.

“Well, you saved Superman’s life,” Clark said.

“I saved Superman’s life?” Jimmy looked at them as though their ship had just landed.

“We’re serious, Jimmy, your investigative skills may have wrecked a scoop for Monica and me, but you saved lives last night,” Lois said and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Mine included.”

“I saved your life?” Jimmy said, his voice cracking somewhat.

“Yes, and about twenty kids, Superman…shall I try to comprise a list? I can call the hospitals and ask, but it would take me all morning and I have a story to write,” Lois said and paused for a moment and glanced over in Clark’s direction. “I mean, of course, we have a story to write.”

“You mean you’re partners again?” Jimmy asked.

Clark nodded. “Monica and Andrew left last night, and I don’t think Perry would have it any other way.”

Jimmy’s face fell. “Monica and Andrew are gone?”

“I’m afraid so,” Lois said softly. “But they have a message for you and they asked us to deliver it to you.”

Clark grabbed two chairs and they sat down. “The truth is, Andrew and Monica are angels and they came here to help all of us.”

Jimmy smiled. “Yeah, right…”

“You don’t believe us? Well, use those investigative skills, did you notice that Andrew’s last name was Halo, and Monica’s is Wings?” Lois asked as she held up a copy of the morning edition of the Daily Planet and showed it to him. “Now, I ask you, is that just coincidence?”

Jimmy looked at them not knowing what to say, instead, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “If they are angels, then I thank God that they showed up when they did.”

“Why’s that?” Clark asked.

“I thought I had lost my best friend,” Jimmy whispered more to himself than to either of them.

Clark rested his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. You would have, he thought sadly, just not in the way you initially thought. He glanced over at Lois and watched as she nodded, she knew exactly what was going through his mind, but without another word, she reached for his hand and squeezed it.

“You’re still going to miss them though, aren’t you?” Lois asked.

“Well, yeah, but all things aside, I don’t believe they are angels,” Jimmy said winking at them. I know they are, he added silently to himself as Lois and Clark got to their feet and went over to their desks.

Once they were gone, Jimmy reached inside his desk and pulled out a small notebook. There, stuck between the pages, a soft white feather was placed. He patted the object affectionately, but after a few moments had passed, he looked towards the window at that moment and watched as dove flew away from the building and disappeared in the distance.

Ende

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