Four months after the Battle of Metropolis, the city continued to be consumed by grief. They had yet to begin the reconstruction of the city, though the mayor had already announced that the heart of the city where most of the destruction had taken place would be turned into a memorial. All funded by Lex Luther of course.

The crash site of the Krypotonian ship had already been taken over by S.T.A.R. Labs.

And Irene was sure that the Metropolis would never be the same again.

Thousands of lives lost in the destruction. Hundreds injured. People lost their homes and their jobs and it would be no easy task for the city to be what it once was.

Irene could only attempt to return to her daily routine, she was aware of just how lucky she was. She hadn't lost anyone she cared for, the Daily Planet was still standing and her apartment building missed all of the destruction.

There was a sense of survivor's guilt that followed her everywhere she went. In fact her life was even better than before. Her Superman piece was a success and gave her the recognition and respect that she always desired.

The breakroom was unusually quiet, especially considering that the only two people in it were Lois and Cat. But even Cat tended to gossip less since the Battle of Metropolis.

"So have you talked to him since?" Lois questioned as Irene began to pour herself a cup of coffee.

"Talked to who?" Irene questioned though the words felt idiotic coming from her lips. Of course she knew who Lois was asking about, and it was hard to admit that she thought of her lack of contact with Clark often.

Only two days after the battle did Clark visit her at her apartment. She was surprised to find him waiting at her balcony dressed in his red and blue suit. He had given her the exclusive on Superman, though he still asked to keep his identity a secret.

It was a small meeting where the conversation never strayed from her interview questions. Irene concluded that he was still dealing with the guilt he felt from Zod's attack, and the grief of being forced to kill one of the last survivors of his home planet. But since that night she had not heard from him and she wasn't sure why she had initially believed that she would.

She felt foolish for it. She still did.

"Superman." Cat clarified eagerly, having more energy than anyone should ever have so early in the morning.

Irene shook her head looking away from the two reporters and turning her attention to preparing her much needed coffee. "No. No, I haven't."

"You seem disappointed." Lois pointed out.

"I'm... I'm not disappointed."

"Irene the way he was looking at you. If he was looking at me like that I would have dragged him to my apartment."

For a moment Irene wasn't sure how to reply to Cat's comment, and ultimately she found it better to ignore it entirely. "I'm sure he has more important things to do than talk to a reporter from the Daily Planet."

Oddly. Some part of Irene was disappointed to find that her words were true. Clark Kent was Superman now and too important to think about her. He wasn't just a hero to Metropolis but the rest of the world too.

"Anyways, Perry's finally going to start interviewing for a new stringer to take over for Corben." Cat declared, and Irene couldn't be anymore grateful that she had decided to change the subject.

Once Perry had discovered that John Corben had been the one to leak Irene's mystery man story to Glen Woodburn's terrible blog, effectively making her a target. Irene was surprised to find out that Perry had fired Corben but she was glad for it. She didn't think she would be able to work in the same building as the man after he leaked her knowledge of who the Kryptonian Zod was searching for.

Corben hadn't taken his termination lightly as Perry had to call security to remove him from the building. And for some reason Irene couldn't shake the feeling that it wouldn't be the last they would see of John Corben.

"He won't be missed." Lois stated as she took a long sip of her coffee.

"I hope he's hot." Cat commented with a mischievous smile as she slowly tapped her perfectly manicured nails against the table.

It had been a long time since Perry hired a new reporter. There had been plenty of interns but none of them had met Perry standards and didn't last very long. Ultimately, it all came down to Perry White not being the easiest boss to work for, he had high expectations for even the smallest of stories the paper published.

There was no knowing how long this new stringer would last even if he was able to pass the hiring process.

A knock at the door had all three reporters turn towards Jimmy who seemed unsure of himself now that all eyes were on him.

"Irene." Jimmy said awkwardly as he already began to backway from the doorway. "Chief wants to talk to you in his office."

Without another word Irene left the breakroom coffee still in hand and headed towards her editor-in-chief's office. She wasn't very worried that Perry wanted to talk to her as she hadn't really done anything that required any scolding on his part.

"Irene take a seat." Perry instructed as he leaned back against his chair in a gesture that was meant to be intimidating, but that Irene knew well enough to know that he really wasn't upset about anything in particular.

It was rare whenever Perry asked for her to take a seat, but she didn't question him as she did what he asked. After a moment of stretched science Irene raised an eyebrow expectantly not sure she wanted to play along with Perry's theatrics.

"Well, with Corben gone we need another senior reporter." Perry declared his words instantly causing Irene's heart to stop. He had yet to finish what he intended, and Irene refused to get her hopes up only to face disappointment. But the slight smile tugging at Perry's lips was making it a lot more difficult for Irene to contain all the emotions that were on the verge of overshadowing her self control. "Your Superman piece brought in a lot of readership. There's talk of a Pulitzer. And you're one of the hardest working reporters at the Planet."

"What are you trying to say Perry?" Irene finally said unable to help herself.

Perry seemed pleased with himself at slightly torturing Irene with prolonging whatever it was that he was going to say. It slightly irritated Irene but her excitement was making it impossible for her to even think much about it.

"Well what do you think about being promoted to one of our senior writers?"

Irene was completely speechless as she tried to gather all her thoughts. A senior writer along with Lois Lane, Cat Grant and Steve Lomabard? It was all she had ever wanted since she first stepped foot into the Daily Planet. Now that she was here she couldn't believe it.

There was no containing the smile that spread across Irene's lips. It felt that she hadn't had anything to celebrate for a very long time, even the success of her Superman piece felt numb. But this was something else entirely. "Perry you know that it's what I've wanted since day one."

"You've worked hard for it Irene." He replied, Irene knew that she would probably not receive anymore compliments from Perry after she left his office. Compliments from him were so rare to come by that she planned on memorizing their entire conversation. "Now here's the paperwork to make it official."

Perry slid a large stack of papers across his desk for Irene to look through. It seemed like a tedious task, but one that for once Irene was happy to do. For the last couple of months Irene had found herself in a slump where all that was on her mind was The Battle of Metropolis, it was difficult to escape it when its aftermath was still all over the city.

When Irene still occasionally had nightmares about Zod and all the lives that were lost that day. It was nearly impossible to think about anything else.

But this promotion gave her the slightest glimmer of hope. And hope was so rare to come by.

A/N: A shorter chapter than normal but a very necessary break after all the events of the last couple of chapters. Now there's only one more chapter until the end on this first part before we start on another adventure. Hope you're all still very excited for what's to come!