Wow, Anonpip, I really can't complain this time, can I?
“Sweetheart,” Martha picked up the story, but then caught herself, “Lois, we feel like perhaps it may have felt like we were ganging up on you earlier. And we're sorry for that. We all should have thought about how you may have taken what we were saying.”
...
Clark is important to all of us, Lois. Of course he is. But so are you.”
“It's okay,” Lois said in an effort to get back to talking about Clark – both as it was important and so as not to have to deal with the sudden onslaught of emotions.
“No, it's not, darlin',” Perry said and Lois could hear some of the stubbornness that had made him such a good editor coming through. “We were being insensitive to you. Jimmy here pointed out that it may have sounded like we were telling you how you should feel about Clark only being Superman.”
“And we weren't,” Martha inserted. “Or at least we didn't mean to. We want more for you than a relationship like that, but that doesn't mean it has to matter to you.”
“And,” Jonathan piped up, ”No one here was trying to excuse Clark for not telling you who he was just because we hoped it wouldn't be enough for you. He should have told you anyway. Something Martha and I told him more times than we can count.”
“Don't worry about it, Clark,” she said.
“Of course, I will, Lois. That was your money. I'd pay you back now except that of course I have no money aside from the Foundation. But I'll definitely pay you back.”
“Clark, your parents already wrote me a check for the new furniture and vacuum for Lucy. And they paid the vacuum shampoo-er when they came by.”
“Oh,” Clark said. “Thank you anyway. It doesn't matter. You didn't know they would do that. You didn't even consider the cost. You put me above everything else. I can't thank you enough for that especially considering everything I've done to you.”
Apologies everywhere! And there was more, too. Clark apologized and thanked her, and apologized and thanked her. I'm very glad that he did, but even I have to admit that he doesn't have to beat himself up anymore. He can't go back and change the past, and after all these heartfelt apologies, it is impossible to ask him that he should keep blaming himself. Personally I wasn't very angry at him in the previous chapter - yes, I was irritated at how he reacted to the fact that Lois had bought a new couch, but he more than made up for that here. I was a lot more angry at Martha and Perry, but they, too, really made amends here. I loved this:
Lois flushed as she sat down. She wanted to believe it was from annoyance at no one listening to her, but she knew it wasn't. Just the desire of everyone to talk about her at a time like this made her feel cared for in a way she hadn't in years except when she spent time with Sammy.
Sniffle! That almost made me cry. Yes, because I have often felt that no one cares much about Lois in this fic. Here I could feel how Lois responded to the caring and concern from Martha, Jonathan and Perry like a desiccated plant responds to life-giving water. It warmed my heart that Lois felt cared for! So now I have no objections to the idea of Martha and Jonathan becoming her in-laws... well, unless they start acting like real jerks again, but I really, really don't think they will.
So now I want to see the A-plot resolved! Who is behind the kryptonite? It really should be someone with a lot of resources and an overwhelming desire to see Superman dead. Luthor, Intergang, Trask... yes, I think we are looking for that kind of people. But how did the person responsible for this mess manage to spread the kryptonite in the atmosphere? And how can Lois and Clark, or Dr Klein, or anyone, get it out of there?
Like Sheila, I noticed that Lois wasn't aware that Clark had been locked in a kryptonite cage in Luthor's wine cellar (or wherever it was). I wonder if that is important, or maybe it is just part of the fact that in this fic, Lois and Clark never got close enough in the past to notice a couple of things: Clark almost certainly didn't realize that Lois turned down Lex because she suddenly understood that she wanted to marry Clark instead, and Lois didn't know that Clark had tried to come to her rescue, but he had almost died in Luthor's kryptonite cage when he tried to do that for her.
Anyway, it's time to look ahead now, and to deal with present problems and, later, to resolve the B-plot by working from where Lois and Clark are standing now, ten years after that night in the what's-its-name club and Clark's decision not to come clean with Lois. But that was then. This is now.
Ann
