Jenni, I'm so, so glad to see this story finished. Somehow it takes on a special significance that you and Clark both had so much to overcome before you could reach this stage.
There were so many beautiful things about this chapter, so many wrapping-ups of the best kind. Naturally I loved the way Clark suddenly remembered his own special pet name for his youngest daughter - and, like Lisa has already pointed out, it made it even more beautiful that at first he didn't even realize that it was remarkable that he could remember it at all. At that moment, he was back to the wonderful father he had been before, the man who didn't just love but also knew his children. The man who delighted in his children, not someone who worried about why he couldn't remember them, not even somebody who was happier about his own recovery than about his children.
I was also very moved by Lois's disappointment when Clark at first didn't seem to regain his memory. She had thought she was happy enough to have him back in the flesh and with his wonderful personality intact, but when his surgery didn't seem to cure his amnesia, she had to admit to herself how sad she was that the lovely past she had shared with Clark seemed to remain unknown to him forever. Of course, as we could see, it didn't turn out that way.
Imagine that I quoted that paragraph about Lois and Clark that Lisa quoted already, because it was so beautiful.
I also loved the long scene with Matt and Clark. I liked it so much that Clark could be there for his son, guiding him, when he was unable to help him physically. I loved his trust in his son, and how that made Matt proud, and how it made him believe even more in himself. And the floating scene was just exquisitely beautiful. I suppose you were telling us that Clark's powers were slowly returning, not to the extent that he could ever be Superman again, but enough to make him do a few "super" things, at least. But to me, that floating seemed to be about more than just the return of a small bit of his superpowers. More than anything, I felt that Clark was floating on "the power of love", as it were. Matt's love, Lois's love, the acceptance and welcoming he met everywhere; and his own faith in his ability to be, not Superman, but a man he would love to be. Long ago, I read the original story about Mary Poppins. (I read it in a Swedish translation, obviously, because I was just a kid.) Anyway, in the story about Mary Poppins, Mary's two young charges find themselves floating, because they have inhaled "laughing gas", or whatever it might have been called in English. The point, I think, is that the children float because they are so happy. In your story, Clark is being held by his superpowered son, held aloft by his beloved son high above the beautiful, beautiful planet that has adopted him and welcomed him as its own son. I could feel Clark being carried aloft by love, floating on love and joy and acceptance.
Thank you, Jenni. It was so beautiful.
Ann
