Once again, thanks to everybody who has posted FDK already, thereby helping me to get a better handle on this story. Let me start by quoting two of Incognito's comments:
quote:
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“Actually, ‘bump’ isn’t really the right word. It’s more like the road is...washed out.”
“Washed out?”
“There’s a big storm, lot of damage...it happens sometimes.”
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Hee. That made me laugh. Clark's little tornado has been busy.
Clark's little tornado swept away the entire road... I
love it!!!!
And let me go on quoting Incognito:
quote:
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“Please, Clark....” Her voice changed completely all of a sudden, and when he looked at her, he was horrified to see the sheen of tears in her eyes. “Please don’t do this to me. It was supposed to be one perfect night...just one night...and you’re ruining it.” Her voice broke. “You’re ruining everything.”
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Oh, Lois. I know she's the one not being reasonable about all this, but much like Clark, I'm not impervious to Lois' tears.
Like Incognito, I'm a Lois fan. I hurt when she hurts. Yes, I very, very much disapprove of her unreasonable behaviour towards Clark in this story, but that still doesn't mean I want Clark to punish her. I hope he can allay her fears and make
her dare to approach him. That's what I'd like to see. Of course, I agree with Framework that the most likely development is that Clark becomes Superman and starts avoiding Lois like the plague when he is in the suit. Surely this Lois will see through his flimsy disguise, and he must prevent that from happening if he possibly can. Because so far, he really has no reason at all to trust Lois.
Second, between Lisa and LaraMoon, all my favorite passages have already been quoted. Let me just repeat them anyway:
Every inch of the place reminded him of Wanda and of the fact that at some point the night before, he’d lost his mind and maybe his heart and decided to act out the lyrics to a bad country song.
Delightful. Delightful. Delightful. Delightful. Unlike LaraMoon, I do think there are bad country songs, but thanks to you, Caroline, I think I'm going to listen to the lyrics with a new sense of respect after this. Perhaps one of these songs really is about Superman in disguise losing his heart one night to a disguise who won't admit she is a woman?
And I've never come across such a poignant explanation to why Superman loves to fly. Hey, we'd all love to fly, wouldn't we? But we wouldn't have Superman's reason for it:
He was an alien. A visitor from the planet Krypton. At one time, he’d have cringed away from that knowledge. Holding the globe in his hand, however, he’d felt only peace. This, then, was why he was so different. This was why he never quite felt he belonged. This was why he felt most at home when he was drifting in the quiet space between the stars and the earth, as if he were waiting for one or the other to claim him.
Because Clark doesn't know where he belongs, he likes to stay in the sky, between the Earth and Krypton. And never mind that the rational astronomy buff in me insists that in soaring in the Earth's atmosphere he hasn't left the Earth at all, and the few puny miles by which he has lessened the gulf between the surface of the Earth and the surface of Krypton doesn't matter at all. Even so, this is so moving:
As he’d stood in that darkened field, holding the tiny globe in the palm of his hand, he’d wondered if perhaps Krypton was staking her claim.
But as he’d held Wanda Detroit in his arms, he’d felt certain that she was.
Clark is waiting for either Earth or Krypton to reach out to his adult self, to embrace him in a way his adoptive parents can't. The globe seemed to do it on Krypton's behalf. Wanda unconditionally did it for the Earth, at least for that one, magic night.
But now Wanda is gone, and Clark is left bereaved and vacillating, hoping to find peace in the sky:
She had slipped away from him and into the night, like a dream he would soon only half-remember. And with her had gone that confidence that earth was the place he belonged. He was uncertain now, and with the uncertainty came the urge to disappear into the night sky – to pillow his head on the clouds and wrap himself in a blanket of stars.
To pillow his head on the clouds and wrap himself in a blanket of stars... the space romantic in me is tearful with gratitude for the beauty of this.
However, this time the peace of the sky is gone for Clark.
Okay, I won't quote from Clark's very disheartening conversation with Perry. But he goes to see Lois afterwards, and I loved this:
“Excuse me. Lois Lane?”
“Yeah?” She didn’t look up. Kept typing furiously, hidden behind her curtain of hair, though Clark noted with some satisfaction that gibberish was filling her screen.
Lois is typing furiously, but she is typing gibberish. What a wonderful way to show that she is busy working, except she isn't working at all. She's just giving Clark the coldest shoulder possibly.
And this - wow:
“Ms. Lane,” he said angrily, “I think I have a right to...”
He trailed off.
Searched the face that was turned on him in utter fury.
“Wanda...?” he whispered.
“Don’t call me that!” she hissed.
Oh, wow - I'm speechless at this!
And I love Lois's attempt at explaining herself to Clark, which she can't, or won't:
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“No,” she snapped. “It’s none of your business. All you need to know is that there is no Wanda Detroit. She doesn’t exist. She’s just someone I made up to...to...just someone I made up. So whatever fantasies you built up around her...not gonna happen. And if you can’t handle that, that’s too bad. Wanda told you she could only offer you one night, and that’s what you got.”
Well, Wanda
did tell him she was giving him only one night. That, at least, is true. But I love this:
She’s just someone I made up to...to...just someone I made up.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave!
“You realize, don’t you, that you’re not making any sense? I mean, really, none at all. You can’t change your whole identity by changing your hair and clothes!”
Hah! Like others here, I love the suggestion that Clark apparently got the idea of his own Superman disguise from Wanda-Lois!
And this is so moving - Clark's grief at losing Wanda:
“Well, it sure feels like it from where I’m sitting. I really felt something for you...her...whoever.” He looked down at the smooth conference table. His throat had gone tight, making it hard to speak. “That night meant a lot to me.”
This is not unlike Lois's frustration at not being able to have Superman, even though canon Superman never made love to canon Lois before they were married and she knew everything about him.
But this is even more moving:
“Yeah,” she said acidly. “It meant so much to you that when you saw me the next day, you didn’t even know me.”
This is
just like Clark's frustration at Lois's starry-eyed hero-worship of Superman, while at the same time she's ignoring him, Clark! Yes, you did make me feel Lois's pain when Clark didn't notice her on his way into Perry's office in the previous chapter, Caroline! Both Lois and Clark feel that their disguises are being adored, while the real person is ignored.
And all of this - oh, how sad and painful:
“See! This is exactly what I’m talking about – why you working here could never work. You just can’t let that go, can you?”
“It’s a pretty big thing!”
“And you’d never forget it, not as long as we both worked here. It’d just be this big, awkward thing between us, and you’d never be able to see me as anything except some tramp you’d picked up in a bar...”
“I never thought of you like that!”
“...and you’d probably spend half of every day trying to look down my blouse or up my skirt, and I don’t need that. I’ve worked damned hard to get where I am, and I don’t intend to let a stupid one-night-stand ruin everything!”
And suddenly Lois's anger melts away, and is replaced by her tears:
“Please, Clark....” Her voice changed completely all of a sudden, and when he looked at her, he was horrified to see the sheen of tears in her eyes. “Please don’t do this to me. It was supposed to be one perfect night...just one night...and you’re ruining it.” Her voice broke. “You’re ruining everything.”
Incognito's quote all over again! But it so moves me.
And this whole conversation is perfect:
“I wanted to know you,” he insisted. “You just didn’t feel the same way about me. And that’s fine – that’s your prerogative – but don’t dress it up in a bunch of talk about perfect nights and people who don’t exist. You wanted a guy for one night, and you got him. What I don’t understand is why you want to punish me for it. I need this job. I earned this job. All I’m asking is that you give me a chance to do it.”
“What about everybody else?” she asked in a low voice. “Is the whole newsroom going to know…how we met?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Is that what you’re worried about? That I’m going to go around bragging?”
“Most men would.”
“I’m not most men.”
Clark won't give up his job without a fight. More importantly, he won't give up
Lois without a fight. And Lois voices another of her fears, that she will be made the object of cruel gossip once again. But Clark won't tell anyone about them, because he is - indeed - not like most men.
And I just love this little sentence:
Lois….” He was surprised at how right the name felt on his tongue.
Well, Lois and Clark are off to a rough start, that's for sure. This story is totally fascinating, and the possibilities it opens up are - not endless, but there sure are many of them! Well, I'm a lover of happy endings, and I hope there is going to one eventually. After a lot more heartache and angst, of course!
Ann
It's excellent!! I especially like that the whole "you lied to me about who you are" is turned upside down. I can't wait to see what comes next! 
