And I need to stop making fun of this and treat it more seriously.
Some time ago, Terry Leatherwood wrote a deathfic where Lois died after Clark froze her. And while I didn't read the story, I realized that the premise made such perfect sense. Ever since then I have thought that - yes, if he was galactically stupid enough to
freeze her, who could be surprised if she never woke up again? Who could be surprised if she died? And if that had happened, Clark would really, actively have killed her. Oh, he wouldn't
deliberately have killed her, of course, but he would knowingly have subjected her to absolutely unacceptable, mortal danger. How could he ever do something like that?
Well, he did it because he is - flawed, I guess. I remember a Calvin and Hobbes strip I read some years ago. Little Calvin asks his dad a question, and his dad, who doesn't know the answer, tells his son something anyway, and it sounds so pompous and spectacular that Calvin is blown away with admiration for his dad. So he asks daddy how grownups like him can know so much, and daddy replies:
- It's because I can look up the answers to everything in the big book of facts that they give to you when you become a dad.
So Calvin's dad pretended to be the owner of a big book that told him absolutely everything he needed to know about the world and about being a dad. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding book for Clark which tells him everything he needs to know about the world and about being Superman and doing the right thing in every situation. So Clark hobbles along, making spur-of-the-moment decisions, doing his best. He also has this irrational fear of telling his secret to Lois, so instead of coming clean with her and having an honest discussion with her about their best course of action, he reflexively clung to his secret and was unable to deny her her wish to have him freeze her and expose her to mortal danger. The lunkhead. Oh, how he would have needed The Big Book About Every Last Thing That Superman Needs To Know right at that moment.
He didn't have the book. He made the wrong decision. Luckily for him, in the show at least, Lois survived.
But as much as it irks me - infuriates me, almost - that he would do such a horrifyingly reckless and irresponsible thing to the woman he loves, there is no way I can read a sentence like this one and say that Clark doesn't love Lois:
Her eyes closed and his entire body shivered with the magnitude of what she was doing. For him. She was doing this for him.
And then there is this:
He couldn't do it. He reached out to touch her cheek, desperately trying to put off her request for a few precious seconds more. The words he wanted to say ricocheted in his mind - I love you. I need you. I can't do this. Please, there has to be another way.
His imperfection. His fear. His wordless love. His helplessness without that book of instructions that would have told him what to do. And therefore, his inability to do anything but comply with her request and, perhaps, kill her.
But he does love her. In your story, Sue, there can be no doubt of that.
Ann
