I did promise I'd come back to this, now, didn't I? No one can say I don't hold to my promises... BTW, Anti-K, I've got a bunch of your Chuck story updates lurking in my email somewhere. Hopefully I've got an eensie-bit more time now and can catch up on reading them soon. (Woo! Exciting!)
Can I just start out by commenting on just how well written this piece was, all around? Your writing style is just fantastic. Points I liked...
I had really hoped Clark would be out here waiting for us, a smile to greet us, his hands stuffed in his pockets, that habitual hesitance as he met Lois's eyes, a half-hearted remark about some errand he'd forgotten to do but had been duty-bound to see to.
But he wasn't there. I sifted quickly through the individuals milling about, my gaze flicking from one person to the next. But CK's ebony hair was missing, his dark, almost-slanted eyes, his large, unassuming build, his ambling stride, his voice caught between tenor and baritone-nowhere to be seen or heard.
I really like the concern for Clark that you brought out here from Jimmy. Good way of describing it, too.
but Clark hadn't been the same since she'd accepted Luthor's proposal of marriage. Hadn't been the same since he'd gone to see her at LNN. Hadn't been the same since they'd stopped talking after the Chief's retirement dinner. Clark had changed, and I didn't like it. Didn't like seeing the slump of his shoulders, hearing the merest edge of cynicism added to his voice, observing the almost manic energy that had spurred him to continue investigating Luthor without pausing to eat or rest, watching him separate himself ever so slightly from us as he turned all his efforts to saving Lois.
Poor Clark. I can completely visualize his actions and attitude at that point- matches the glimpses we got in the show perfectly.
I was glad he was there for Lois. Glad he knew what to say, glad he was the one who had put his arm around her to guide her forward. The Chief had always loved Lois, at least he had as long as I had been working at the Daily Planet. He always knew what to say, what to do, how to approach a problem, and I knew Lois needed someone like him right now.
Another good point. Besides Clark, Perry is probably the best person for Lois at this time of distress. He's even more like a father than her actual father... glad you pointed that out.
Where's Clark? Well, that was the question, wasn't it? The question Perry and Jack and I had been wondering the afternoon before, asking the evening before, and so desperately trying not to think about all day. Because if we asked it now, after listening to the message Luthor's back-stabbing crony had left on Clark's answering machine, then images of dumpsters and alleys and rivers inevitably came to mind.
And I, for one, could not even begin to think of CK thrown aside like garbage, could not think of him cold and still, could not think of his empty apartment and all the accompanying pictures of his smiling parents
Motion, half-glimpsed out of the corner of my eye, registered, a movement that resembled Clark's casual stride. But the gait was different, I knew without even giving it a closer look, slower and less defined, more hesitant.
Great, great description.
Only...he didn't move with his customary grace, hardly took a step at all. And his face was shadowed and lined with tension I had never seen in him before. And his hands shook. And his shoulders were as slumped as if he carried the weight of the world. And he breathed heavily as if every inhalation cut deep.
Glad you had Jimmy pick up on these slight changes, made him notice the pain he'd been through.
Or maybe, I thought as I studied him carefully, maybe with Lois in his arms--unmarried and single--maybe he *had* completed his assignment. Maybe this had been his goal all along.
Ding Ding Ding! Yep. Jimmy's got a good picture of what Clark's thought process really boils down to.
The gasps and mutters from the crowd behind us attracted my attention, and I followed the direction of their gazes. Far above us, teetering on the edge of his penthouse balcony, Luthor balanced between life and death. I gaped up at him, mind spinning, heart lodged somewhere in the vicinity of my stomach. I had worked to bring Luthor down, but never, not even once, had I thought I was working to see him *dead*.
Looking behind him, Luthor shouted something indiscernible...and then he leaped over the edge and succumbed to gravity.
I watched him fall, watched him twist in mid-air so that he looked like he was flying. Only he didn't have a red cape and integrity stronger than Kryptonian muscles and the power of flight. I watched, and at the last second, I turned away. Because photographer or not, there was no way I wanted to see the end of the House of Luthor so up close and personal.
Ugh. So torturous and wonderful a description. Really, the idea of coming at the scene from Jimmy's perspective is brilliant. You made Luthor's death feel even more painful.
A lump crawled its stubborn way up my throat as I saw Clark place his hand on Lois's head and hold her face to him. There was something...tragic, something broken about his expression that made me suddenly want to do anything I could for him--get him a coffee, remount his bass, fix the horn on his golf cart, *anything* just so long as it dulled the edges of the emotion ravaging his features.
Jimmy's reaction to Clark's pain is just so believable and so sad! Gah.
He wasn't abandoning me like Dad had. Wasn't moving on to a warmer place and a better job like Mom had. Wasn't letting me go when our careers were no longer tied together like Jack and most of the people at the Daily Planet had. He was staying, and that was enough to let me sink back into my seat and take a sip of my lukewarm coffee, realizing with a soft pang that Perry had flavored it exactly the way I liked it.
I always think of Lois being the one coming from a tough family background and childhood, but Jimmy's admission here reminded me otherwise. It makes the moment doubly sad when he compares Clark leaving to how he felt when his father left him.
Everyone knew that Clark Kent loved Lois Lane.
But I wondered how many people knew that Lois Lane loved Clark Kent in return.
*That* was a secret better kept even though she didn't hide it very well. In fact, I would guess that even Clark himself didn't know that particular secret, no matter how obvious it was when you knew what to look for.
And great way of putting it, too.
She'd get mad, naturally, but that was kind of the way Lois Lane worked. The madder she got, the better she became. A righteously angry Lois Lane was better to have on your side than the entire United States military.
It was, in all respects, the story of a lifetime.
And I...I was its photographer.
Perfect way to end it! And once again, great story!
