And so it's time for another visit to that magical alt-version of Lois and Clark which is brought to these boards by Janet. The verisimilitude and resemblance to the "real" Lois and Clark is as amazing as the differences are startling. Consider this:
The attendant jerked a thumb toward the elevator and refocused his or her attention on the cell phone.
“The stairs, I think,” Kent suggested as they crossed the stained and buckled linoleum. “It’s… marginally safer, I suspect.”
Lois didn’t bother to agree; she merely turned with him toward the stairs.
When I had read this, I was automatically thinking, Well,
he doesn't have to worry about the elevator, but
she'd better be careful. When, in reality, it might well be the other way round here.
That's another wonderful thing about your story, by the way: Lois may be superpowered, but for all of that, it may be very unsafe for her to use her powers. At least, she's certainly acting as if discovery would be the worst thing that could happen to her, so that even giving in to sexual assault might be preferable. This has made me think more about how dangerous and difficult it must be to be superpowered Clark, too. Everybody's favorite episode, TOGOM, deals with that, of course. In that one, Clark finds death preferable to being outed.
Here, too, Lois is very careful and reluctant about using her powers. The scene where Lois was listening to the heartbeat which she assumed was Dr. Platt's, only to find it was the cat's... well, that scene was very effective and very shocking. The whole decrepit house sequence could have been taken out of a better-class horror movie, the kind which doesn't contain any stupid supernatural threats. The real world, as we all know, is plenty scary enough. That thing about the cat's bloody paw-prints really got to me. It increased the horror of Doctor Platt's death, and at the same time I felt so sorry for the poor animal.
This was so good and right:
With a small sound of distress, she turned away – to find Clark right behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, one hand curving up over the back of her head, pressing her protectively to him. She could hear his heartbeat without any special use of her senses, strong and steady; it drowned out the sound of the cat’s. His arms were comforting, secure – it felt like coming home.
Vintage, wonderful Lois and Clark! And this, too, was just great:
“I won’t let the dragons win,” she whispered, not realizing she’d said it loud enough for him to hear until Clark pulled back slightly and repeated, “Dragons, Lois?”
Lois tells Clark about her mission to fight the dragons! Talk about trusting him. And now there is no way she can keep up that "Kent" pretense:
Watching him, she admitted that it was impossible to dislike him. Before she could think better of it, she said, “Clark?”
And she's thanking him! Several times! And apologizing for her behaviour towards him! And apologizing for not being able to change into a nicer person! And Clark's response was heartwarming and wonderful:
“Lois.” He stood and came over to her side of the two desks, and squatted down beside her chair so that his eyes were almost level with hers. “I don’t want you to change. I… think we’re becoming friends?” He smiled at her, and she nodded tentatively.
“I like you just the way you are.“ He looked intently at her, unsmiling. “I like everything about you.”
And when she feels crowded, he immediately takes a step back. But now, for the first time, he is able to gently banter with her. What progress they have made! I love the way Lois sums up Clark:
Princess Elizabeth’s prince had been a total loss, but it was beginning to look like Lois might have one that was a champion.
I adore it that Princess Elizabeth's prince really
had been so pitiful! I think it's great that Lois's Mama told her daughter to trust in her own ability instead of waiting for the prince to rescue her. However, when you have both your own great ability
and your wonderful prince-cum-knight in shining armour, then surely you have the best of both worlds?
This shocked me:
“This guy’s made this generous offer – more than once – to fund a space station. Not to fund *this* space station – to fund a new one. To start over entirely – new design, new name, and so on.” She looked over at Clark.
“Kind of over the top, I’d say,” he said. “Is he on the up-and-up?”
“Well, this guy – Lex Luthor - is… he’s been voted Man of the Year three times in a row, Clark. He’s squeaky clean.”
Luthor! Luthor is going to be part of this story, too. But I'm incredibly relieved to find that this Lois isn't likely to fall in love with him, or to be taken in by him at all:
And there’s something about him… the one time I met him in person, all my… investigative reporter senses just *screamed* at me.” She looked at Clark. “I can’t explain it…”
Whew! Thank you, Lois, and thank you, Janet!
And I think I'm interrupting a flow of something, but this paragraph just had me in stitches - well, Lois has just agreed to work with Clark the next day, to try to find something incriminating about Luthor:
“It’s a date,” she said without thinking. “Oh! I mean, not a… *date* date. I… What I meant was… You know, just… a confirmation that we’ll go over that information Jimmy found me. Tomorrow, at the Planet…“ Good lord, she was babbling. She *never* babbled. Hardly at all, anyway.
Right, she hardly ever babbles! So adorable!! So, so Lois!!!
And then this is what happens when they are going home to their respective apartments:
So saying, he rose to his feet, curling his hand around hers long enough to tug her to her own feet, and then he was offering his quiet “Good night.” as he opened her apartment door.
The sensation of his hand on hers lingered for what seemed like an awfully long time.
He affects her in other ways, too:
Clark’s laughter, warm and rich, made her feel the way she did when she drank hot chocolate.
The sweetness of
this lonely Lois falling in love with Clark is... well, I'm a Swede, so don't blame me for failing to find an English adjective that will fully convey the loveliness of it. But it
is completely wonderful.
And then there is the whole space station business. Even though EPRAD has reason to believe that some very advanced sabotage has been done to harm or destroy the "Prometheus", they are still going to launch it:
“…EPRAD has stated that their experts have rechecked every systems program, and have verified that only the launch sequence was affected. The code is being corrected, and an internal investigation is ongoing. And now, in other news…”
Gaaahhh! It reminds me of how NASA was apparently warned about those faulty O-rings of the "Challenger" shuttle, but they launched it anyway, killing seven astronauts and teacher Christa MacAuliffe. And some years later they were warned that pieces of hard foam might hit their shuttles during launches, but they didn't worry about this, either, and that way "Columbia" and its seven astronauts perished. So that EPRAD response feels frustratingly typical, Janet!
And now I'm interrupting some kind of narrative again, I think, but I just loved this:
We – Perry, Lois, me, and a bunch of other Daily Planet people, saw it the night he unveiled it, at his big Orchid Ball –“
“Perry, Lois, *and I* saw the model, Jimmy,” Lois stated sharply.
Hah!!! I'm sure this Lois doesn't need a lot of help either with her spelling or with her grammar!!!
Well, Jimmy is on the case, helping Lois and Clark to dig up dirt on Luthor (who must be behind the sabotage of the Prometheus, surely?).
And Clark is a man of mystery, coming and going in mysterious ways. Well, if he didn't, he wouldn't be Clark, would he?
And Clark apparently had somewhere to go, too, although she refused to ask outright, preferring that he volunteer any information. He didn’t.
It *had* to be a girlfriend, she thought glumly, and then pulled herself up sharply. It was nothing to do with her. They were *friends*. He’d said that – “I think we’re becoming friends, Lois?” And she’d agreed. It was… nice to have a friend. She didn’t need anything more.
Oh, Lois. You so, so need him as more than a friend.
And Janet, you know I love this, so please keep it coming!
Ann
