Shayne, did you write this epilogue just for me?
Let's see... I love the idea that it is
Lois who makes
Clark a better person, more than the other way round.
It was one of the things he loved about her, the sense of kindness. She'd forced it on him until it was becoming a second nature to him and he was discovering that it also came with unexpected benefits.
His wife had gotten over her fears of being the lesser partner by demanding to be treated as an equal. She was a major force behind the work the Foundation was doing, and she was a major part of the reason he was changing.
She pushed him into becoming a better man. For all that he resisted, he loved the person he was becoming, and it was all because of her and Lisa.
Check!!
And with my own very liberal views, I obviously wish that Lisa would become a champion of various worthy causes of her own...
Where she'd gotten her political views he'd never know. She was even more liberal than her mother, and some of the political arguments around the dinner table were heated.
Clark may have been trying to be more compassionate, but he was a businessman at heart. He knew what was good for the economy and some of the things she was pushing for were ill advised.
Going to protests for half a dozen different causes, spending time with people who would have been hippies back in the sixties but now weren't half as respectable…
Sometimes it felt like she did it just to vex him.
Check!!
I also hoped that, in spite of her growing up hearing people have sex, Lisa wouldn't start having sex too soon herself or become promiscuous.
At least she didn't bother with sex as far as he could see. Her observations about human nature had left her too cynical to fall for the lines that teenaged boys tended to use. Plus, the thought that daddy might be listening in might have had a factor.
Check!!
But I hoped that, in spite of all, Lisa would still be able to fall in love.
“I did it!” she said. “I flew!”
He gaped at her for a moment and then grinned. This was something the both of them had been waiting for, the last thing they could do together that no one else could.
Flying with him had been wonderful, but flying on her own was indescribably better. Especially since it had happened after…
“I met someone,” Lisa said.
Check!!
Oh, wow!
Clark flew for the first time right after he had had sex with Lois. Did Lisa have sex with this police officer? No, I don't really think so. Clark and Lois were both "under the influence" when they had sex, and I really don't think that Lisa would be. Alcohol wouldn't affect her, and hopefully there is no more Red K around.
But Lisa has almost certainly fallen in love! Yay!
As for Lois and Clark, I so wanted them to be happy, and have a good love life. And I wanted Lois to get pregnant one more time, with Clark's child.
“Do you think we should tell her?” Lois asked, putting a hand on her still flat stomach.
“She'll know the moment she hears you,” Clark said.
The rapid beating of the second heart under her ribcage would be glaringly obvious to Lisa, even if she did usually choose not to hear things her parents were doing.
He kissed Lois deeply and passionately. The promise of their early meeting had been more than fulfilled. With her he'd found passion that he hadn't ever experienced before, and joy.
Check!!!!
And finally, I wanted Clark to keep his promise to Joshua that he would be able to walk again.
They entered Joshua's room, where he was sitting, looking over reports on the computer. He glanced up at them and smiled.
Slowly, he stood up and shook the reporter's hand.
Although Joshua still needed a cane to walk, Clark had fulfilled his promise. Joshua had been the first to push for clinical trials for some of the new treatments and although he was still being treated, his prognosis was bright.
“Six months ago I was confined to a wheelchair,” Joshua told the reporter. “But through the work of the Foundation I am able to walk again.”
Check!!!
And the last lines were perfect.
For all their arguments and contentiousness, they were a family. Lisa was happy with the person she was now, and she knew both of her parents were as well. It wasn't the life she'd envisioned when she was a child wondering about her father.
It was better.
Thank you, Shayne! I absolutely loved this story!!!
Ann
