The last three weeks were possibly the most excruciating experience in Irene's life. As much as she wanted to believe that writing and the Daily Planet were not her entire life she couldn't be anymore wrong.

Having gotten the call from Perry telling her to meet him in his office once she came in, only filled Irene with dread and fear that maybe he had changed his mind. That he was going to fire her after all, and that she would have to say good-bye to the Daily Planet forever.

Irene always seemed to feel a sense of déjà vu whenever she stepped into Perry White's office. No doubt because she had done many times in the past when she overstepped or went against orders. The scene was always the same with Perry working and her entering the office as he lectured her, sometimes never bothering to look at her at all as he continued to do his work.

So it was no surprise that when Irene stepped into her editor-in-chief's office that he was writing and didn't even bother to look up or greet her as she walked in.

"I hope you don't think I have some kind of personal vendetta against you." Perry said as he continued to write whatever email or letter he was working on.

She knew some kind of lecture was about to occur or some kind of deep discussion about what it meant working as a reporter, and any other day Irene would have been fine with sitting down and listening. But all she wanted now was to sit at her desk and write.

Unfortunately that wasn't going to happen anytime soon until she had this conversation with her editor-in-chief. "I admit at first I thought you did. But I know that you told me to drop the story and I should have followed your orders. I disrespected your authority and I'm sorry."

The silence seemed to stretch for a moment too long and Irene wondered if she had said the wrong thing. That maybe he had expected her to say something else.

"You're a good writer Irene." Perry stated as he finally looked up and although he was complimenting her, the look of disappointment on his face didn't allow Irene to feel the joy that she should have felt in that moment. "This mystery man story is a good story. But not the one the world needs right now. The right story will come. But for now I need you to cover the new Downtown park project."

He slid a file across his desk before returning back to his writing. Picking up the file Irene walked out of his office knowing that the conversation was over.

Although Irene wasn't completely content with having to write a fluff piece, her conversation with Perry did bring her some kind of peace. He had faith in her and in a way he was right the right story would come to her eventually, even though just a couple of weeks ago she was sure that Clark Kent was going to be her big story.

That clearly wasn't the case.

Irene came to a stop at her desk where Jimmy was currently seated looking through photos on her computer. Clearly he had made himself comfortable there the last couple of weeks considering that there were scrap pieces of cameras littered across her desk.

"Your desk missed you." Jimmy declared as he ran his hands across the wooden surface. Irene really didn't know what to say considering that Jimmy had his own desk at the other side of the office, which was actually much larger than her's.

"Don't worry Irene Jimmy kept it warm for you." Cat stated as she looked pointedly at Jimmy who simply shrugged as he stood. "Though I didn't mind the new view."

Cat winked and Jimmy who instantly seemed to turn a bright shade of red. Of course Cat was only teasing and she seemed to love to tease Jimmy as he tended to blush incredibly easily . Oddly enough seeing Cat Grant now made Irene realize that in some way she missed her coworker, in many ways Cat was one of the few people at the Daily Planet who seemed to have her life together and was always joyful.

Irene wished she could borrow some of Cat's joy for just one day. Especially after the three painful weeks that she had been on leave.

"Cat you say that like if Jimmy isn't always sitting on my desk, even when I'm here." Irene replied unable to hide her smile as she finally took a seat behind her desk.

A bright smile touched Cat's lips as her eyes didn't stay from Jimmy who seemed to be doing everything possible to avoid her mischievous eyes. "But the past three weeks was just the two of us."

Before another word could be the building was consumed by darkness, any source of light going out causing a couple of the Daily Planet employees to gasp in surprise. But the darkness was brief as all the lights turned on again, Irene was ready to dismiss the accident as an unexpected power outage before a static sound filled the silence that had followed.

Looking down at her computer the words 'You are not alone' displayed themselves on the screen and when she looked across her desk to Cat, the very clear fear on her features told Irene that the same message was being displayed on her screen too.

Jimmy suddenly placed his hand on Irene's shoulder and as she followed his eyes she realized that the television screens around the office that usually ran different news channels were also running the same message.

The panic in the room could be felt as all the Daily Planet employees seemed to unconsciously gather around one of the larger T.V screens as an unknown voice began to repeat the words written all over their screens. The voice was enough to send a chill though Irene.

This felt like something that was common in Gotham with villains attempts to take over the city every other week. But this didn't feel like it was specific to Metropolis and that was more concerning and felt impossible. 

"You are not alone. You...are not...alone. You are not alone. You...are...not... alone."

"It's coming in on the RSS feeds. It's on my phone too." Ron declared as he raised his phone screen for all of us to see, seeing his phone screen flash the same message caused some of the writers looked down at their own phones.

Whoever was doing this wanted to make sure that everyone was listening.

They wanted our fear and from the looks of it they were getting exactly what they wanted.

Irene felt as Jimmy took her hand, and in the moment it took for her to meet Jimmy's fearful eyes people around her gasped as a new image replaced the four previous words. The static made it impossible to see the figure clearly but it was clearly a man who was now speaking to them.

"My name is General Zod. I come from a world far from yours. I have journeyed across an ocean of stars to reach you. For some time your world has sheltered one of my citizens. I request that you return this individual to my custody. For reasons unknown he has chosen to keep his existence a secret from you."

If Irene didn't feel a sense of fear before, she certainly did now.  She was instantly back in that field in Smallville talking to the mysterious Clark Kent and the idea that these people were looking for him was horrifying. Because there was no doubt in Irene's mind that he was who they were looking for, and after Clark Kent had clearly chosen a life of hiding this was ripping away his choice altogether.

"He will have made efforts to blend in. He will look like you, but he is not one of you. To those of you who may know of his current location, the fate of your planet rests in your hands. To Kal-El, I say this. Surrender within twenty-four hours, or watch this world suffer the consequences."

The screens went black for a moment before returning to the news channels they were on before. When the lights came back on it was like nothing had happened, only the news channels had switched to cover that had just happened. But there really was no focusing on anything as we all remained still processing the threat.

Everyone's fear and uncertainty was unmistakable.

Beside her Jimmy began to breathe erratically, quickly taking a hold of her friend's hand Irene led Jimmy into the supply closet closing the door behind her. Of course Jimmy was freaking out, he was one of the few people that has seen who this General Zod was looking for.

Knew his face. But luckily didn't know his name or his location. In theory there wasn't much Jimmy should be worried about other than the apparent alien invasion that was coming their way. The idea of any kind of invasion caused panic to flare inside Irene, but she quickly contained as she tried to comfort Jimmy as he paced in the small space.

"This is bad, this is really bad." He muttered as he stopped to look at Irene directly in the eyes. "Like really bad."

"Will you shut up? I know it's bad." Irene replied not wanting to think too much on the subject but that was impossible to do. She was possibly one of the only people that knew that Clark Kent was with Kal-El that Zod was looking for. Oddly enough the main thought in her mind was whether or not Clark had seen the message too, it was impossible that he didn't.

She could only imagine the weight on his shoulders now.

Irene knew she should feel conflicted. That she should feel the desire to come out asnf say she knew exactly who Kal-El was and where they could find him. That doing so could prevent the consequences that Zod was threatening the entire planet.

But Irene had unconsciously decided that she wasn't going to put Clark in that kind of danger. He deserved to try to have some sense of normalcy and it simply wasn't the right thing to do.

"Yeah, but I don't do well under stress. You know this."

Suddenly the door to the supply closet opened as Lois quickly stepped inside locking it behind her. In a way Irene was grateful that Lois had followed them there as she was clearly a lot more calm than Jimmy was and that Irene was pretending to be. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, nothing." Irene replied feeling the panic beginning to set in at the implications of what was going on. Everything felt like some kind of dream or more accurately a nightmare to her that she wasn't sure if she had still completely processed what had happened in the last five minutes. "The only people that know that I know are you two and Perry. Of course there's my brother but I know he's not going to talk either."

"I don't know Irene, this really doesn't seem like the best time for journalistic integrity." Jimmy muttered the shock seeming to slowly fade away, but the fear still remained.

Irene took a deep breath as an attempt to keep her voice as steady as possible, but she knew that her unfazed act was slowly cracking. "Why do you say that?"

"Well maybe it's the impending alien invasion!" Jimmy snapped as he began to pace around the small space again. Both Lois and Irene continued to try to move out of the way to give Jimmy some space until he finally seemed to have settled down. "I don't know about you but from that scary villain monologue on T.V. they are definitely not coming in peace."

Lois bit her lip deep in thought, and it seemed that the fear and uncertainty was getting to her too. Not that Irene could judge as she felt like the four walls were closing in on her with every passing moment. She had been hoping that Lois would be the one to tell them exactly how they should go around this situation, though there really didn't seem like any reasonable course of action that should be taken."In a way Jimmy is right and this can get really bad. But maybe you can go talk to this Kal-El and work something out. See what he wants to do."

Irene immediately shook her head thinking about everything that could go wrong if she went looking for Clark Kent. What if she got herself even more wrapped up in this whole extraterrestrial mess? "I don't think that's a good idea. I mean we shouldn't involve ourselves more."

"You're right." Lois agreed, gaining her confidence once again as she placed her hands on her hips looking at Irene and Jimmy the same way a school teacher looks at her restless students. "Then it's settled, we do nothing. We know nothing. We don't speak about it ever again."

Jimmy nodded as he ran his hand through his curly hair, releasing a shaking breath that he had clearly been holding for a very long time. "Easier said than done."

Lois reached toward the shelves picking up some supplies and handing them to Irene and Jimmy. Irene looked down at the box of pens she was holding as Jimmy frantically fanned himself with the stack of folders in his hands. "We go back out there and go back to work. Easy."

Without another word the three Daily Planet workers stepped out of the supply closet only to find themselves stepping out into the chaos of the office as everyone was rushing throughout the office as Perry gave out orders from the undouble headline changes for today's afternoon edition.

From across the office Irene met Perry's eyes as he gave her a single nod. She immediately knew what he was telling her.

He was telling her that he wasn't going to say anything either. That Irene's mystery man would remain a secret within the few employees of the Daily Planet that knew that Irene was aware of the identity of the mysterious Kal-El and where he could be found.

At least for now it seemed that Clark Kent was safe from whatever threat was coming their way.

A/N: Who ready for Clark again? I know I have definitely missed him. He's coming back soon I promise! Next chapter will definitely be more fun, but I really do enjoy writing Irene at the Daily Planet and interacting with all the characters there. But those of you who have read my other stories know how much I love a good slow burn.