She was all he could think about. While normally this would have been sweet of him to say, she knew that this wasn't the right time. If he wanted to be sentimental that was one thing, but there were greater things at stake here. Admittedly he was still that same farm-bread Kansanite, but right now, when things were starting to become serious - politically, was there really time for them?
"Your mother and I were never in jeopardy. If they even thought about coming after us you know that Perry would have the paper's lawyers on them before they could get out the cuffs." She was angry with him. She'd been angry with him. And with good reason. Beyond who he was, Clark was a symbol. And sometimes there were hard choices to make. But what he'd done wasn't so much in question now - as it had been thoroughly been fought over before. Now it was what to do next.
For once, tact overweighed her need to be blunt and her voice lost its edge for a moment. "Clark, standing up here staring down there is not going to solve anything," she said it seriously. "You signed it. Now you have two options if you're not happy. You can either go along with it, which I know is what your first instinct is, or you can fight back. And right now? The second one seems to be your only good option." She spoke seriously, not as someone who cared for him, but more as someone who saw the picture the way it was. He really only had one option.