Clark sat on his bed, his macbook on his lap. His parents had bought it for him at Christmas, in spite of his protests that it was too expensive. In actuality, it was less about the cost; it was one of the bottom price point macbooks available, he was more concerned that, barring media editing, it was basically useless for anything else. He was able to write on it, but seriously preferred a PC.

As he finished the paragraph he was working on for his article on Bruce Wayne's latest business venture into Metropolis, he heard a crash outside his bedroom door. He looked towards the door, lowering his glasses slightly down the bridge of his nose and using his x-ray vision; Jimmy Olsen, his roommate and co-worker, was throwing a party, as was normal for early twenty-something's on a Saturday night, and someone had just broke a lamp.

Clark quickly scanned the crowd; there were about two dozen people he didn't recognize, and three or four he did, including one; a girl in her very early twenties with shoulder length dyed red hair, in a blue tube top and denim mini-skirt; Lucy Lane. Unfortunately, if she was there, then her sister, the reporter Clark was usually partnered with, Lois, couldn't be too far behind. And when she saw the drunk guy currently pawing all over her sister, there would be hell to pay. Probably in blood.

He saved the file he was working on, shutting down the machine before standing up, dropping it lightly on his bed, walking to his bedroom door and stepping outside. He quickly grabbed one of the beers from the table, drinking half of it, glad that the alcohol couldn't affect him even if he wanted it to, before grabbing the ketchup and squirting a tiny bit on his finger. He sighed as he walked over to Lucy and the drunk guy.

"Hey Lucy, how's it going?" He said with a feigned drunken slur as he reached them.

"Back off, four-eyes," The drunk guy said, pushing Clark slightly "I saw her first."

"Four-eyes?" Clark said, cocking an eyebrow "That some kind of a joke, buddy?"

"Nope, but this is!" The guy said, before swinging for Clark, the blow barely connecting as Clark rolled with the punch, going to the floor, before the guy pulled his hand back in pain "Jesus, you got a metal plate in your jaw? Freak."

"Clark?" Lucy said, panicked "Clark, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Clark said, getting up and putting his finger to his mouth, quickly applying some of the ketchup to his lip "Great, I'm bleeding."

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." Lucy said, grabbing him by the hand "Where's the bathroom?"

"Lucy, it's fine." Clark said as she began to pull him towards one of the doors "Honestly, I'm fine."

"No, you're not, that guy floored you," She said "you've probably got... A concussion or something."

"Lucy, he's fine." Came an all too familiar voice from behind them, sounding very annoyed "At least, until I get my hands on him."

Clark spun on his heel, facing Lois. He had to tread carefully here; she'd already questioned him on whether or not he was Superman recently, if anything looked too suspicious, she might realize that, since J'onn could shapeshift and had similar basic powers to Clark, he could've easily been the one impersonating Superman at the conference.

"Uhm, Lois, it's not what it looks like..." Clark said, looking for an exit.

"Oh, so you're not being dragged off to a bathroom by my little sister?" Lois asked "I thought you Kansas boys had all those 'home-grown values' and crap like that."

"Lo, it's fine, there was an ass hitting on me, Clark stepped in and he got punched for it." Lucy said "We were just going to clean him up."

"Really?" Lois said, crossing her arms over her chest "So Smallville actually had a fight?"

"No, he got punched." Lucy said, before Clark could get a word in "Can you just admit you got something wrong for once?"

"Not in front of him." Lois hissed "I'll never live it down at work."

Clark had to suppress a chuckle. Lois knew she was wrong. She just wanted to save face in front of Clark for the sake of work. He paused for a second before his phone started ringing. He pulled the iPhone 3GS from his pocket, not really looking as he answered.

"Hello?" He said as he put the phone to his ear.

"Hello, is that Clark Kent?" Came the voice of a woman from the other end of the phone.

"Yes, it is." Clark said "May I ask to whom I'm speaking?"

"This is Chloe Sullivan over at Smallville General Hospital." The woman replied "Mr. Kent, it's your father. I'm afraid there's been an accident. He's in a coma."

"Dad..." Clark said to himself quietly, before saying "I'll be right there."

He didn't wait for a reply before hanging up the phone, putting it in his pocket as he began making his way to the door, only for Lois to bar it.

"Hold it, Smallville." Lois said, looking slightly awkward "Look, I, uhm..."

"Not now, Lois." Clark said, seeing she was about to make a comment "Please. I've got to go."

"Okay." Lois said, hesitating before saying "Are you okay, Smallville?"

"No, but it's fine." Clark said, side-stepping her and making for the door "I know you don't like listening to people's problems when there isn't a story."

He didn't give her a chance to answer before opening the door and stepping outside. He paused for a moment, before super speeding downstairs, not noticing Lois open the door behind him as he did.

...

Lex Luthor sat in his office, a young, slim man with sandy blonde hair in a black blazer, black jeans and an unironed blue shirt stood in front of him. The man was there to be interviewed for a position and, simply put, had currently failed to impress. His resume was bog standard at best, and Lex preferred all Luthorcorp employees to be the best.

"So, Mr..." Lex said, looking at the resume in front of him "Mr. Jones, what do you feel you can bring to Luthorcorp?"

"Honestly?" Jones replied, his voice exhibiting an accent akin to what you'd expect from New York's Bronx "I know I'm not the best, Mr. Luthor, not like the rest of your employees, but I'm eager to learn. I've been to college, I studied chemistry, if you give me a chance, maybe I could help you in that area?"

"Hmm..." Lex said "Chemistry... How are you with pharmacology?"

"Pharmacology?" Jones asked "I've done some studying, not a lot..."

"Well, I'm willing to give you a chance, Mr. Jones." Lex replied "You start Monday."

"Really?" Jones said, standing up as Lex did, shaking his hand enthusiastically "Thank you, Mr. Luthor, I promise, you won't regret this!"

"I'm sure I won't, Mr. Jones." Lex said, a small smile forming on his face "I'd appreciate it if you could send my assistant in on your way out."

"Of course, thank you." Jones said rapidly, quickly walking out, before a young woman in her mid-twenties with a tanned complexion and short, brown hair in a grey business suit and white blouse with black heels and tights walked into the office.

"You wanted to see me, Lex?" His assistant asked him, putting her hands behind her back, emphasising her figure.

"Yes, Mercy." Lex said "Have Mr. Jones, the man who just left, put on the Sierra project."

"Of course." Mercy said "Is that all?"

"No." Lex said "I think the safety precautions on Sierra are too intense. Have them relaxed a little."

"How much is a little?" Mercy asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Enough that we get to those human trials that seem to be so difficult to have approved under guidelines." Lex said with a grin "I want to see what these energy absorbing chemicals do when introduced to a Human being."

...

Clark walked into the hospital room he'd been directed to upon arrival. His mother was asleep in the chair beside the bed. In the bed, hooked up to several machines, tubes sticking out left, right and centre, was the unconscious form of his father.

Clark picked up the chart at the end of the bed, flipping through it. According to what he was reading, the coma occurred following a work unit collapsing on him. There were also notes of maintaining his heart medication. Clark was shocked; his parents hadn't mentioned anything about the medication to him. Probably trying to avoid worrying him. They seemed to forget he quite literally had had the weight of a world on his shoulders recently. Or maybe that was exactly why they didn't want to worry him.

He put the clipboard back, before sitting in the other chair in the room. He pulled his glasses off, rubbing his eyes. He was slightly tired, he could admit that; following the incident with Darkseid, he'd been pushing himself harder than usual, and had pushed himself even harder in an attempt to get back to Smallville quicker. It was taking it's toll on him.

He quickly put his glasses back on as he heard the latch on the door, a second before the door opened, Clark's mother walking in followed by a man around Clark's age, with short, dirty blonde hair and a goatee, a pair of wire frame glasses perched on his nose. The man was wearing a blue suit with a white shirt and a black tie, a U.S. flag pin on his lapel.

"What's the Kansas state senator doing here?" Clark asked, standing up and shaking the man's hand "It's been a long time, Pete."

"Yes it has, Clark." Pete replied, releasing Clark's hand and grabbing his own wrist, rolling it slightly "Still got a grip like a vice then. I saw your work in Metropolis. Flying now, are we?"

"Yeah, that one's still fairly new." Clark replied, turning to his mother "How's dad?"

"The Doctor's are fighting over what's the best course of action." She replied "With his heart, and the cancer, they-"

"Cancer?" Clark interjected, shocked "No one told me about any cancer."

"Lung cancer. I wanted to tell you, but he didn't want to worry you. He thought you had enough on your plate." Martha said, pulling Clark into a tight embrace "You might be a man of steel, but in his eyes, you're still our little boy."

Clark turned to look at the unconscious form of his father, a distressed look appearing on his face. He had all that technology up in the Fortress. If he hadn't been so busy flying around as Superman, maybe he could've caught this before, done something about it.

As he stood thinking about it, one of the machines began beeping rapidly. Jonathan's unconscious body began convulsing. Clark quickly moved to the bed, beginning to hold Jonathan still. He quickly ran his x-ray vision over his father; his heart was beating rapidly. A number of nurses and a pair of doctors rushed into the room, the nurses ushering Clark, Martha and Pete out of the room. Clark began to look through the closed curtains using his x-ray vision, listening to the events in the room.

"He's going into cardiac arrest. Get me the defibrillator!" One of the doctors said, the device being wheeled over, the man picking up the paddles "Charging to 200. Clear!"

Jonathan's body jolted as the paddles were put to his chest, the electric current applied. Clark used his x-ray vision, looking at his father's heart; it had stopped. He watched as the doctor tried the defibrillator a few more times.

"I'm calling it." The doctor said "Time of death, 8: 28 PM."

Clark stopped looking through the wall immediately, clamping his eyes shut as he felt a surge of emotions crash over him; anger, despair, sadness, rage and a whole other list of emotions he didn't care to think about. He didn't even listen as the doctor came out and told him and Martha about his father. Didn't pay attention to what was going on.

It was only when he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder and he shrugged it off, hard, that he came back to reality. He turned, seeing Pete slumped against the wall, looking up at Clark, a look of shock on his face. There was something else there, though. Something Clark had only seen once before on his friend's face. Fear. Pete was afraid of him. Afraid like he had been the day he'd found out what Clark could do, when Clark had caught that car that was flying through the air at him.

"Pete, I'm sorry." Clark said, looking between Pete and his mother, hoping they'd say something, both of them just looking at him shocked "I'm sorry."

With that, he ran out at super speed. As he reached the outside of the hospital, he leapt up into the air, taking flight. He had to get away. Somewhere he couldn't hurt anyone.