Yea!
It's up! /And I'm on the boards, so I can comment. I read this earlier on my iPhone, but I have to say, I much prefer it on my big screen./
Lois laughed uneasily. “No, really, what’s your secret? Are you some kind of magician?”
Clark hesitated. His voice was neutral. “Would you prefer to believe that?”
“Maybe one of your foster parents was a stage magician,” Lois said. “I’ve never really gotten a good look at what you keep in that bag of yours.”
Say, what? Okay, I can understand her total non-acceptance of his "I'm not human" or whatever he had said. It's not like there's an abundance of proof (well, believable proof) on aliens walking the earth.
Although, I don't understand how a magician would be able to do what she's kind of seen and heard Clark do.
Clark was silent for a long moment, then he chuckled. “I’ve thought about what this moment would be like for a long time. Sharing this is a big deal for me. For some reason it never occurred to me that people wouldn’t believe me.”
I can understand his anger (earlier). He's being honest and she's not believing him. It wasn't until here that he realizes that what he's saying is quite unbelievable to someone who doesn't know everything that he can do.
“I hated Close Encounters of the Third Kind, too. I had nightmares about being abducted, taken because of what I was.”
How sad. I could see that, especially since it isn't until the end of the film that you realize how nice the aliens are.
Clark stared at his hands. “None of that works very well in foster care. I couldn’t tell anyone; my father had warned me that I’d get cut up like a frog if I told anyone, and I was terrified someone would find out.”
What he was saying fit with the record she’d seen, which it would have if he was rationalizing away his real behaviors.
It sounds like she's rationalizing away his reasoning.
“I keep having a dream,” Clark said. He closed his eyes. “Everybody is made of tissue paper, and no matter what I do everything I touch dies.”
Poor Clark. Yeah, he's not touching Lois any time soon.
Clark shrugged. “My mother had a theory. You remember the story of Moses in the basket?”
You know, I've never thought about it quite like that. Martha, you're a genius!
“I was there,” Clark said. “I just wasn’t fast enough to save them. Kind of like tonight, except that I would have been.”
“Surely you can’t be…” Lois began, then she stared.
Clark was standing across the room, his blankets folded up neatly where he’d been. She hadn’t even seen him move, although she could feel the wind of his passage.
Surely, he is. I think this was more convincing than the bed test.
He paced. “I can hear everything in a thirty mile radius. I can see the flag on the moon left by the Apollo astronauts. I can see through anything if I want, except lead. I should have known.”
Is the "should have known" referring to Joe? How could Clark have known? He doesn't want to think that the father of a boy he knows would do this, let alone in front of his son. Then, again, Charlie had warned him about those CostMart people.
“I keep going over and over in my head, the things I could have done,” Clark said. “I could have made his gun so hot he couldn’t hold it. I could have jumped over the fence and ripped the gun out of his hand so fast he couldn’t see me. I could have stood up and let him shoot at me. Instead, I just crouched there, frozen.”
Poor Clark. He's blaming himself for Bill Church's actions.
“You know how well that worked for Bugs Bunny,” Lois said dryly. “The gun would probably explode anyway, and then you’d have revealed what you are to them.”
“Joe would be alive,’ Clark said stubbornly.
“Are you sure about that? Could you watch him every second of every day, especially once they knew who your friends are?”
Yea, Lois, for showing him the big picture!
“What happens when they want you to invade Nicaragua? Maybe the Middle East? Worrying about the politics of losing too many soldiers is one of the few things holding us back, but if they had you…that kind of power would be addictive. It might not start out that way, but eventually they’d end up using you to conquer the world.”
Good point, Lois. Some secrets are best kept secret because if someone else controlled him... /shivers/ Let's hope that doesn't... Oh, wait, that's happening in Colleen's story over on the Superman FanFic from Other Canon forum... yeah. Scary.
“You could kidnap government leaders until somebody was elected that they liked,” Lois said. “You could destroy oil refineries, factories, airports…just the threat of you would be enough to make some countries give in.”
“I think you’re exaggerating,” Clark said, but he looked troubled. “The United States can already do that kind of thing.”
“At a million dollars a missile,” Lois said. “Using you, it’d be fast, and it’d be free.”
Clark scowled and stared at the floor.
Does Clark think Lois is condoning this? 'Cause it sounds like another version of "Be careful or they'll dissect you" threat his dad used to say.
Her mind racing, Lois explained the basics of the plan that was forming in her mind. Getting justice for Joe wasn’t their only priority. As long as the Churches controlled a criminal organization, neither they or any of their loved ones would ever be safe.
They were going to have to go to war.
What? A plan already? Wow. I'm amazed. That's fast! I can't wait to see what the plan will be... but I guess, I'll have to.
Have a good weekend! That's okay. I have to say that I love your "often" posting schedule, though.
