Terry,
I'm blushing, really. Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying the fic so far.
Things will definitely get a lot worse, as you've stated. But perhaps not in the way you might expect. Lex very much has the upper hand here - there's no reason for him to kill Jonathan and Martha at the moment, unless he gets annoyed with Clark's defiance. And really, it wouldn't do to have the parents of someone reported missing go missing themselves. Or turn up dead. Lex is smart and is flying as far under the radar as he can. And he still thinks Lois will come crawling back. I think he always underestimated just how smart she is. Which is not to say that Lois will crack the case here. Plus, as with Jonathan and Martha, killing his ex-fiancé would cause too much suspicion.
You're right about one thing. I WILL be laughing at all the feedback calling me evil.
Writing Luthor and Nigel was fun. I used to be intimidated by the thought of climbing inside Luthor's head, but it's so slimy that it's really easy to slip and fall into the void. And Nigel is kind of fun too. I think, sometimes, he becomes a bit of a background brute and it gets lost that he's as deadly and violent as any villain. And he's smart, so he's even more dangerous than a common thug.
Thanks again for reading!
