Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: To Wake from Dreams (11/16)

Revelations, revelations

Thanks for the feedback so far w/ all the parts! It helps me so much! After reading through it, I am constantly going into later parts of the story and adding/changing/tweaking things, so thank you!!

I really hope you like Part 11!

~NICOLE

Oh, wow! I was blown away by Lois's reaction after she asked Superman to become Clark again.

Very impressively written!

Good job!

Irene

Hi,

Great part.

Nicely done, and pretty intense so far. Lois' reaction is believable, and seems to work well in context.

But the story also plays to one of my pet peeves when it comes to TOGoM variants. Everyone makes a big deal of Lois' suffering, and rightly so. But for all so-called insensitivity to her grief that Clark supposedly displays, everyone tends to under play Clark's point of view.

Now, everyone knows that I'm an obsessive Lois fan and generally don't give a hoot about Clark, but I think that most writers tend to too easily dismiss Clark's motivations when measured against Lois's grief (which, for the sake of story is usually overplayed).

Even in this story, Lois calls Clark's reasoning 'weak'. Clark thinks that his life is over. It doesn't matter that he's not physically dead, to his mind, Clark Kent died that night. There is no more Clark Kent. And that's a pretty devastating situation.

So, his logic that, since Clark Kent is effectively dead, it makes sense that he should allow Lois, and his other friends, to grieve naturally and adjust to life without him. Even seeing Lois reacting in a manner that surprises him still doesn't change one hard fact. To his thinking, Clark Kent is dead, and revealing that his body wasn't killed doesn't alter the fact that Clark is still gone.

Why would he think it would be kinder to tell Lois that he's really Superman and so Clark wasn't actually killed, but since the world thinks that Clark was killed he can never be Clark again. So... Clark WAS killed.

This logic is valid and Clark should 'fight' more for his decision even in the face of Lois' righteous grief and anger. Until it occurs to him, or Lois that Clark could be brought back by some ridiculous miracle, he has to live with the death of Clark Kent, and so does everyone else.

So, future TOGoM writers, remember, Clark has a legitimate point of view also. So lets not let Lois run roughshod over him just because he believes that she'd be better off with a lie than with a reality that she can't actually benefit from.

Tank (who will now slip back into his 'all things Lois' mode)

Ah, I can breathe easier now. Thanks for posting this part so quickly! I like that Lois didn't tear him to pieces. However,
Why not "we have another chance"? Lois' line touched me as rather self-centered. Overall, though, I'm really enjoying this. I look forward to Lois' news!
Susan

Tank, your comment almost sounds like a request for a challenge fic.....???

This part was so powerful. Lois' reaction to finally seeing 'Clark' and his reaction to her was beautifully written. I was in tears.

Great job. I'm still loving this story and am dying to finish it.

I do have to say, though, that I full-heartedly agree with Tank. Not that this, or any other TOGOM story is bad or wrong. I would just like to see future ones pay a little respect to Clark's reasoning.

I kind of take her wording because she never got her chance to tell him that she loved him. I think, and I could be wrong, as far as this story line goes she doesn't know for absolute sure that Clark loves her as much as he does. She may have an inkling, but he never flat out admits it. Just my opinion.

Can't wait till tomorrow.

~Kristen

I agree with Tank and the rest. This was a Great! part and a relief! Thank you! I needed that! I can't wait for more. Laura

Like Irene and Kristen, I was very moved by Lois's reaction to seeing Clark as Clark. Very nicely done, Nicole!

Interesting, too, that she's not mad - or, rather, that she's letting her relief at Clark being alive temper her anger. Maybe, in the end, it'll be hurt rather than anger that she feels, and hurt will heal.

Tank raises a point which has been discussed on these boards before, including by him. Yes, Clark didn't have any other option, or at least so he thought. And he might well feel justified in what he did, given that Clark Kent was to all intents and purposes dead. He might well feel that he had no option but to let Lois carry on believing that her best friend had been murdered - but it's not as simple as that. First, what right has he to decide for Lois that it's better for her to believe Clark is dead - and that she's responsible! - than for her to know that he's alive but she can only see him occasionally as Superman? Second, by this time in their relationship they're a team. He knows better than anyone how well they work together. How resourceful Lois is, and how often she comes up with ideas which have sheer brilliance. And how often, when he's felt that all hope is gone, she's inspired him to do more as Superman. So why wouldn't she be able to find a solution this time?

This is why, while I have written Clark insist to Lois that he did the right thing even in the face of her pain, I refuse to let him get away with it. Yes, on the night he was shot he was in no state to think rationally and realise what he needed to do. But by the following day he should have known that he couldn't just hide away. He knew that Lois was upset, and it would be hard to fool himself that she'd get over it in a few days or a week or so. Plus at some point he's got to start thinking rationally.

And I do think that, even if Clark does have a point that he didn't seem to have any other option open to him, that does not negate Lois's right to be angry and upset. He's supposedly her best friend, and he let her think that he was dead. That has to be one of the worst possible things anyone can do to a friend. And I think, in Nicole's scene, Clark realised that - he'd realised it before he even saw Lois, given that he'd spent the last hour or so finding out what had happened to her. He'd realised that she was still desperately grieving, instead of moving on with her life as he'd hoped. That she'd quit the Planet. That she was really barely existing, rather than actually living - and that all of this was because of his 'death'. Yes, in the circumstances I'd think he'd be less inclined to argue that he did the right thing and more inclined to apologise for the pain he caused her!

Anyway, I hope you're posting more soon, Nicole!


Wendy

If Lois doesnt have a nervous break down after making love in her sleep to a dead man,finding out she's pregnant , and then discovering the son of a gun is Superman of all people,she's the invulnerable one.
Clark had seen enough pain in his rescue work to know something of what grief does to people. He should have told her sooner.

If he wasn't really dead, then yes, this would certainly apply. But as far as he was concerned he was dead. Until he comes to the realization/decision to change that, I don't think the argument is valid.

If he'd been lost in a small-plane crash and presumed dead no-one (including Lois) would be angry with him if he suddenly showed up a month later, having finally managed to hike his way back down out of the Rocky Mountains.

Just because he wasn't physically trapped by these circumstances (like a human would have been in the event of a plane crash) does not invalidate the fact that he was trapped and needed time to start to work his way free again.

Wow... I don't know what to say!! A discussion! Well, sort of

Again, thank you for ALL your feedback. EVERY bit helps me!!

And reading through this thread, I know why I've always been petrified to touch TOGOM. It's a very fine line Clark walks. He's upset and you have to treat his feelings with sensitivity, BUT... yeah, there's Lois. The most important person to him, who's beyond consoling when she loses him. It's understandable that when writing your own interpretation of this, you will alienate some people - or rather force them to find holes in the story - and you will have other readers in agreement with the actions you've written and how they've progressed/been justified.

FIRST, though:

Susan, until you pointed that out, I hadn't looked at it that way... but I could immediately see how it could be interpreted that way. BUT Kristen's interpretation was how I meant the line as well. In the ACTUAL episode, she says to Perry "he died without ever knowing," and this idea, this knowledge, is a huge part of my motivation in this story for Lois. Why she is beyond upset and can't get over it. Why her regrets start to take over her mind. She says to Superman early on in my story "he loved me." She knows it. She realizes it. And he tells her that is true. And she breaks down because no one knew, ESPECIALLY Clark, that she HAD felt the same way. She didn't admit it to herself until he was gone. She never got the chance to tell him. But now he's back... and she has a second chance to make that right.

Sorry that was a long answer

Okay... now for the comments from Tank and the replies to them from others-

First of all, thank you for saying Lois's reaction was believable. A few people said this, too. And I was so happy to read it. I felt that Lois - who was so far gone without Clark in this story - would just be bowled over with a relief so strong that she was actually unable to BE what she does have a right to be. Angry. And I think she has that right because he saw her that night. He saw that she was inconsolable. Screaming. Talking about wishing she had died instead. It was intense. And he saw that.

I was so incredibly interested in everything you said about Clark's POV. I tried to be sensitive to what Clark was going through, too, showing him putting distance even between his parents, who KNOW he's not dead, because he wants to get his new life going. But he can't. He is devastated at what he's lost. He has lost his old life and misses it painfully. He is trying to come to terms with it throughout. Trying to do something to get a new life going. Even though he knows a lot of people are suffering.

Onaleia wrote:

A month... well, that is time for him to rightfully, as argued here and by some others, deal with his own issues, feeling himself justified to NOT tell Lois he hadn't been killed that night. Okay...

But I also tried to be true to Clark's nature. He caused a lot of people (argumentably *unneccessary*) pain and suffering. People he loves. And Clark can't just focus on himself when that is the situation. I do believe that in the face of his own devastation he would in the end put his focus on the fact that before his very eyes, he saw LOIS... who he loves more than anything... break. Just break.

And bottom line: he is not dead.

On this, Wendy wrote:
I tried to bring this point home (not sure on its effect) with Lois's line about if the tables had been turned. Clark's feelings for Lois are so strong, he could see that if he thought she were dead, but she WASN'T... he would want to know. He'd go nuts in the same situation. He'd feel the way she did. And it's a horrible way to feel.

I think his devastation at losing his life is valid!! I am so glad you brought it up, Tank, too, because I WOULD be interested in seeing a story that emphasized his loss over hers, or put them on an equal ground anyway. If a story like that worked, it would be incredibly interesting to read. I know I've focused on Lois's grief mostly (as do many writers taking on this episode). So basically, I do feel his devastation is valid. I also get that he *is* for all intents and purposes dead. BUT... again, if he thought Lois dead, but for some secret reason she weren't ACTUALLY dead, he would want to know. He knows that.

Besides, again, he SAW her that night. He ran away because he saw her that night and couldn't face what his secret had done to her.

But it's true... Clark's very nature is what prevents him from putting his own devastation above Lois and his concern for her in the end. His love for her. I can't even imagine him not apologizing.

Okay, I am not sure if I've made ANY sense, but hopefully I did.

SJH wrote:
LOL I haven't given her a nervous breakdown as you can see, but I could definitely see why she might have one. She's just a plucky one, I guess!!


Thank you Irene, Kristen and Wendy for complimenting Lois's reaction to seeing Clark again. As Clark, that is. And Laura, Susan, Wendy- for writing that you enjoyed that she didn't tear him apart; that you enjoyed the reaction here or that you found it interesting that her relief would overwhelm her anger.


MAF wrote:

... stick with me

Thank you all for the replies and the VERY interesting discussion. It does give me (and others!) food for thought. While I tried to be sensitive to Clark, it's interesting to see how it translates, for sure!!

~NICOLE