Trying to post a mini-comment here...
Caroline, that was absolutely amazing. What you showed us here, I think, was how Clark's love for Lois had grown into an obsession with being accepted and *loved* by her for his own humanity. And if Lois can't love him for his human side, then, purely and simply and starkly, he will have to retire that aspect of himself. He will have to regard it as something he tried his hand at, like a sport, but when he found that he wasn't any good at it, or when he became seriously injured (because he had his heart broken, say) he had to give up his efforts in that sport. Clark Kent, who excelled at being a human, stumbled on the path of love, broke his heart, and was never heard from again.
But just as Clark was about to pack up his human identity and store it away for good, Lois came to him and declared her love for his humanity. For Clark Kent, the human. And Clark was so *saved*, so redeemed, that he decided that he would be the best human ever. Before, he had been a good human - well, really good under the circumstances. But now he decided that he would do away with the circumstances and just be damn good, great, excellent. Because now he would retire his alienness, his spandex and his cape and his insufferable need to fly off at a moment's notice and tell Lois lies until he was blue in the face. No more. Because from now on, Superman would be no more.
Caroline, that was so beautiful, so heartfelt, so wonderfully logical and right from a narrative point of view, and so harrowingly wrong on Clark's part! Because Lois can't love Clark unless she loves the truth about him. And the truth and the essence is that Clark is a Kryptonian who needs to be Clark Kent, who needs to don his colorful spandex and fly off to help people. That is who he is. And that is the person that Lois must love, if she is ever to love him at all.
Wonderful! Caroline, your premise is great, and your writing is superb. I'm not quoting, but I remember how the afternoon light slanting in through the window took on a special quality to Clark as Lois told him that she loved him: it turned into Fate writing a portentous message on the wall: humanity shall be your destiny. But Clark, you misread the writing on the wall. You have to be true to yourself, and if you don't give Lois the chance to love that truth about you, you are fooling her into loving a mirage. And then, she will never be able to love *you*.
Wonderful! Come back soon with more!
Ann
