For Dundan:
“I - heard a cry for help tonight,” he began jerkily, once they were seated and she’d looked at him enquiringly. “Sure, I hear those all the time, but... When I got there, Lois, I found a dead woman. She’d been raped and strangled. And she... she looked just like you.”
“What?” She gasped and stared at him. “She looked like me?”
“From behind, yes. She was lying face-down on the ground. But her height and build, her hair... even her shoes were like yours. Lois, for a moment - the longest moment of my entire life! - I thought you’d been killed!” He shuddered.
Lois could only stare at him. It wasn’t the fact that the dead woman resembled her which shocked her. It was Superman’s reaction to it. She’d never seen him so distressed; not even on the night Clark had been killed.
<You might consider that I don't really want to lose two people that I care about in the same week>
His harsh words from a couple of nights ago came back to her, and she blanched. He really did care about her. And believing that she was dead had clearly affected him just as much as Clark’s death had affected her.
Superman cared deeply about her. And she’d been treating him like something the cat had dragged in.
So what if she was angry with herself for what she’d done the night Clark had been killed? That was no excuse for using Superman as a scapegoat.
Lois reached out for Superman’s hand, squeezing it comfortingly; he responded by gripping hers tightly in return. “I’m not dead,” she said softly. “I’m here. I’m alive and well.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I can see that. I just can’t help being afraid that... Lois, you take risks. And you told me the other day that you didn’t care whether you stayed alive or not -”
She had made him so terrified for her safety? “Superman, I’m sorry! You caught me at a low moment, okay? I didn’t mean you to think that!”
His gaze didn’t leave her face; his hand tightened around hers. “I’m glad, Lois. I can’t lose you too...”
This is the bit you must have missed.
By the way, just to reassure anyone who may be concerned about the ratings question: nothing in this story has gone above PG-13.
Wendy
