Hi Amanda!
Small changes can lead to big consequences – but not all of them are bad.
LOIS: What do you mean that the freelance article by Clark Kent got nominated for a Kerth instead of my story?
CLARK: /prepares himself a couch to sleep on/
Specific reasons will be explained in another ficlet but, suffice it to say, they were trying to prevent their relationship from leading them to make even bigger changes to the timeline than they had already made.
After their latest pregnancy scare, Lois decided to take things slow?
Oh, and this one is a bit longer than 1000 words. Sorry, not sorry.
She didn’t know what to do. Could anything be done? Probably not. It was already there, already decided. But it wasn’t supposed to happen. Not yet.
I have no idea what’s going on.
. She was on to something big – and not something she’d done the first time around either.
Eeep? Gun running?
Those stories were almost boring. They had to be written of course, so she buckled down and did them over again. If they happened to be better than they were before, that was hardly her fault.
LOIS: Was that the one where I almost died in a cab-falling-off-a-bridge accident or the one with the subway derailment? Oh, nope, it’s the one with the Sweeny Todd impersonator! How could I forget that. It ruined my favorite sweater…
And if those facts happened to make their way into her stories now, well… she could just blame H.G. Wells.
“Lex Luthor indicted as mob boss after failed bombing of Messenger space transport”
She didn’t stop to wonder what they were about.
Kerth? No. Pulitzer?
while vaguely considering what to order for dinner,
Now she can order Chinese takeout served on a Clark.
that she’d seen the package again and decided to investigate.
Cute phrasing.
They hadn’t seen each other or even spoken on the phone in nearly eight years.
Eeeeeeep!
He had been right. There were too many temptations, too many moments when they had argued for ‘just a little change,’
CLARK: It won’t be a big change. Just three minutes my buddies tell me.
LOIS: Plus nine months, my sex-ed teacher said.
and too many big changes just waiting to be grasped.
/points out quote from Seinfeld by Teri Hatcher’s character/
And she had needed the time and the space to rediscover herself as someone who didn’t need anyone else to be able to rise to the top.
Awwwww, poor dear. “Been there, done that” no longer works.
No big changes. Nothing they couldn’t just blame on H.G. Wells.
No early Superman. No college freshman winning her first Kerry Award.
LOIS: And I still stick to my story that Claude getting kicked between his legs by a mule was not my fault. I mean, how could I have even engineered it?
Clark dropped his hands, looking confused now. “Fine? But you called my mom. She said you needed to talk to me, that it was urgent.”
It was like coming home. She was surrounded by his scent, which had long since faded from his jersey.
It’s also why she snagged it, huh? We are going to get that, right? I’m pretty sure they did one particular change before taking a time out and Lois overpacked while gathering her things in his bedroom back in Smallville.
“But, Clark, don’t you see? This is huge.”
“Of course it’s huge! It’s a Pulitzer!”
/points to earlier remarks/
And you know, given that the Pulitzer is a medal or coin, the envelope was a dead giveaway.
“No! I mean yes. It is a Pulitzer. That’s the problem. I’m not supposed to win a Pulitzer yet.
“yet”. “yet” is cute!
Go to the award ceremony with her new fiancé?
and sat down on her gray, leather sofa. Clark raised an eyebrow at the furniture but didn’t question it
to that cabinet over there where you hide your four Kerths.
Okay, she’s worried about a Pulitzer, but didn’t sleep with Claude.
LOIS: Your point being…?
And then you are going to revel in the fact that you are the youngest investigative journalist to win a Pulitzer.”
At least until their super powered little one will get one during her junior year in college.
“Only because I didn’t let Claude steal my story this time,” Lois pointed out.
Clark nodded. “Right, and we agreed that some changes were necessary.”
LOIS: Of course they were. Me getting arrested for emasculation just wouldn’t do.
“Yes, even then. This isn’t completely life-altering. It’s just an award, Lois.”
Lois looked at him like he’d suddenly grown two heads. “Did you really just say that?”
“Will you come with me to the awards dinner?”
Clark stilled and sobered a bit. “I don’t know, Lois. I’m not technically supposed to be in Metropolis until September. I shouldn’t even be here now.”
LOIS: Perry, you know how a Pulitzer allows me to find employment anywhere I’d like?
PERRY: Uh-huh?
LOIS: Then I’d like you to meet my new permanent partner, Clark Kent. It a so great you decided to hire him on the spot.
Also: /pst/ Clark arrived in May, It’s confirmed during the Supermann episode.
“It’s just one night,” she argued.
That’s what she said after Clark’s high school prom.
“But we agreed that we should stay apart – to rediscover ourselves, to prevent really big changes.”
Lois is tired of rediscovering herself by herself.
“We’ll just tell them the truth.” Lois shrugged. “You’re a childhood friend, visiting the big city for the weekend and I wanted to show you a good time.”
CAT: Good time. Right. /takes second look at Lois’s evening dress/ You’re serious!
It was another great fun one!
Michael
