Hi, Corrina,

I love the story and have been enjoying each chapter. However, there is a question I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask for a few weeks.

The POV moving back and forth between Lois and Clark has been very effective in conveying the thoughts and emotions of each. So, I understand where Clark in coming from and I am very comfortable with the way he has evolved through the story so far.

However, I have been struggling with Lois for a while. Lois has told Clark that she is married to the chief. However, she is acting toward Clark very much in the way I’d expect if she were single. Also, unless I am misinterpreting her thoughts, she is thinking of a relationship with him.

She knows that Clark is from a background where “married” has a very particular meaning. However much she may have adopted the native perspective, she is from that same US culture so she has to know how Clark will be interpreting her actions as a married woman.

So, I guess my question is, “How am I supposed to reconcile Lois’s thoughts and actions against the backdrop of her knowledge of how Clark will interpret her married status?”

This question becomes especially troubling in light of the fact that Lois now knows that Lana was unfaithful to Clark.

Again, I love the story but for the past three segments this has become more and more of a seeming inconsistency. If Lois were not married, there would be no problem. Even if she hadn’t told Clark that she were married, then it would be better. But for all the Lois POV we’ve seen, there hasn’t been a single thought about, “How will Kent interpret our interaction and budding relationship in light of the fact that he knows I’m married?” I mean, they are sleeping in each other’s arms. As someone raised in a US culture, how can she not be having those thoughts?

I apologize if this seems critical, but I have been struggling to understand. As things are, I feel like I am misunderstanding something very fundamental to Lois's perspective.

Bob

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Re: I mean, they are sleeping in each others arms.

When I read the transition between parts 12 and 13, it felt to me that perhaps they - or at least Lois - had fallen asleep while they were holding each other. I interpreted that section transition as a longer time period that may have been intended. So, based on re-reading that section, I retract that assertion. (I never intended to imply that there was anything more than simply falling asleep.)

However, re-reading this Lois POV section, particularly what she does - and more importantly does not - think about, still feels like a thorn in my mind. She is having these thoughts of non-sexual intimacy such as in this section:
Quote
Their closeness was far greater than mere physical connection. She belonged here. By his side.

This morning, his arms had been wrapped around her. Now, she was the one surrounding him, but the sense of two halves coming together was just as strong.
The fact that she is not having thoughts of her own "married" status keeps gnawing at me.

I know I am probably off on a tangent of misunderstanding, but like any thorn, the irritation that this one thing triggers is very distracting.

B