Hi Terry!
Pain is most definitely the name of the game here. Physical and mental pain early on as Clark was broken and now more of the emotional scarring that's occurred to the people around him. I like tormenting characters (and readers) on occasion. It's fun, what can I say?
I chose not to show the foot/ankle surgery for the sake of redundancy, but rest assured it would be just as bad as the hands. Poor Lois and Martha are pretty much at their wit's end by the time his deformities are set right.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about Lois carrying Martha's pain. She IS doing everything in her power to shoulder the older woman's pain and grief. She's grown close to the Kents over the last twenty years and with Jonathan gone, well, you know Lois. She would feel responsible for making sure Martha has a support system and doesn't have to be in pain alone. And, as a parent myself, I can't imagine seeing my child every day and knowing that they might never be who they were again. Worse than burying a child? I'm not here to make that judgement call and I don't want to envision a world in which I would ever experience either situation.
Buckle up, as much "off-roading" as this fic has done, the rollercoaster isn't over yet! I hope you enjoy the second half of the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
