Loved this chapter!
Figuring it was obvious he hadn’t given a complete answer, Lois waited, restraining her natural inclination to bombard him with questions.
I don't know if I'm more impressed that you justified giving her this amount of patience or having her think that's he's intelligent enough to know this wasn't an answer - just so advanced from the interview techniques we see her employ on the show!
“She wasn’t my sweetheart. Not then. Not now.”
Love that he's not leaving room for interpretation here! lol I really like 'straightforward Clark.'
“So much loss,” Clark said in a voice weighed down with sorrow. “Mom and Lana lost their husbands. Wayne and Maggie lost their son. Levi and I lost our dads.”
So tragic. But you phrase this in such a lovely way - the structure of the idea really feels like it compounds the sorrow you describe.
“If Lana moved, Wayne and Maggie would lose their grandson.”
“Yeah,” Clark said with a long sigh. “And that was about when Maggie started trying to push Lana and me together.”
Oof, this is rough. Such a complicated situation for all the relationships involved!
“Lana doesn’t want to marry you?”
“We haven’t talked about it. I’ve tried to pretend I’m oblivious. It’s not just Maggie. It seems half the town have us already married off.”
It's a nice detail here that he feels like he can really talk to Lois, but doesn't feel like he can talk to Lana.
“Mom heard some of the talk, and she is absolutely against me marrying Lana.”
YAY!!! Yay, Martha!!
Lois snorted. “I am not the person to be asking.”
This is a brilliant retort here.
“Worse. I seem to be attracted to terrible men, with absolutely no conscience, who are completely untrustworthy. And even more damning,” she said, trying to smother the resentment from her voice, “is that I don’t seem to be able to learn from the disasters.”
It's that last part that really hurts!
The alarm bells started to clang, jarring and dissonant. “What?” she said sharply.
Clark took an incredible shot using this opening here. OMG, that man IS brave!
I felt exactly this in the last chapter when you listed his name under the story!
“Now that I’ve experienced a little bit of your life, I can see how… how toxic that is.”
Maybe she's finally learning from those federal disasters. I really love the underlying premise and foundations for this story, where distance offers clarity and kindness helps you heal.
“If Perry offered you your job back, would you take it?”
Lois chuckled sombrely. “Not a fair question, Farm Boy.”
But the price is living a cutthroat, exhausting, lonely, meaningless, empty life in a relentless pressure cooker world. I’m no longer sure I want to pay that price.”
I'm fascinated how this ends. Because if Lois and Clark aren't at the Planet, it seems like it removes the indomitable Lois Lane truth-seeker from Metropolis, and without her, how many crimes go unpunished? And if she's not in Metropolis, I wonder how Superman gets the idea to help, and how he would make that work. It seems like it would be an awfully bleak world to remove the good that they would both do?
Suddenly, she giggled.
“What?” Clark asked, sounding concerned.
“Did you get the chocolate?”
I love how you write her in these moments!
Lois had been asleep for over half an hour. Clark had decided three times he would wait ‘just another couple of minutes’, but they were still here.
This is SO CUTE!
His fear – irrational and unlikely – had been that he would marry Lana and then later meet a woman who was everything he’d ever wanted. Also, there was the more likely possibility of Lana meeting a man she loved yet being stuck in a friendship marriage with Clark.
This is such a deeply thoughtful consideration - it feels so in character!
If he’d been a normal man, it would be simple. Terrifying, but simple.
Ugh, way to double down on how tragic this feels!
He yearned to drop a light kiss to her cheek but forced himself to walk away.
“Goodnight, Lois,” he said, very low. Then, “I love you,” even lower.
Back to back, this is heartbreaking.
“I shut the gate,” Lois informed him.
This is adorable, and so in character.
She scratched her little hips, and the calf leaned sideways in encouragement. Lois laughed softly. “Daisy,” she said, “you’re wonderful.”
This is SO charming. ...And exactly how you fall in love with animals!
Lois watched him for a moment, then drifted back to Daisy.
Reading this, you really do get the feeling that she could step in for him for a day, if they were really in a jam, you know? I love that.
He was unsure whether to sigh or laugh out loud. The laughter won.
He had a date with Lois!
Such a sweet ending!
Looking forward to the next chapter!
