Barbara, I have extremely little time to reply, but this was a great part. Well, you said it was for me, after all....
“Women do strange things to us, son. Alice can drive me rather crazy sometimes, but I love her. And you love Lois.”
“With all my heart,” Clark admitted.
“That’s the reason why she affects you so much. She brings out the best and the worst in you,” Perry said softly.
“But I don’t want to be the worst version of myself, Perry. That’s way too scary,” Clark muttered and sank down on his sofa, covering his face with his hands.
Poor Clark!
In his mind he already saw Lois enslaved by Luthor. Clark was literally able to fly, but Lois was the person with the wings. She shouldn’t be caged like that. She needed to be able to spread her wings and fly wherever the winds carried her.
This is positively poetic.
“You really think that love is an ever-happy kind of thing? This is about feelings, Clark. You can’t have true feelings for a person and never get angry with him or her. What she does bothers you because she can touch your soul. It would be a sad sign if she wasn’t able to annoy you.”
Clark slowly nodded as Perry’s words sank in. Maybe he didn’t have to feel guilty because Lois had turned him into an emotional wreck over the last couple of days. Maybe he really felt that way because Lois mattered to him so much.
How true. And sweet.
She ended the kiss and rested her head against his shoulder, allowing him to drink in the sweet but spicy scent of her hair, a mixture of roses and something he wasn’t able to define. Clark was aware of her with every one of his senses. He heard her steady but increasing heart beat and smelled the unique scent of her. Her body felt warm in his arms. He could still taste her kiss on his lips; it was like dark chocolate. It was a bittersweet moment, and it fulfilled his desires but also made him ache for more. Even though his eyes were closed, he could still see her beauty And he didn't just see her face; he saw her soul.
Clark's dream is so lovely. It's a bit wishful thinking-like, but the dream is right about Lois and Clark being the couple that's destined to be together, not <shudder> Lois and Lex.
“What will we get?” The criminal wanted to know.
“My personal guarantee that Superman won't fly loops during your flight to the police,” Clark replied.
Now this is the kind of Angry Clark that I can appreciate.
“I don’t feel like I could really leave her, Lois. When I admitted my feelings for you in that park, I really hoped that you would say that you love me, too. I hoped that with you I would find the strength and courage to leave her. I thought that you and I would be strong enough to do that together. His voice was trembling from the effort of holding back tears. She could see them glistening in his eyes. “Lois, please don’t marry Luthor. He’s evil. He doesn’t love you the way I do.” Clark kissed her, and she could almost taste his despair and felt him begging her to let go of Luthor and help him cut his ties with Sarah.
Lois's dream about Clark is clearly "wrong" in that she believes that Clark is married. But it is "right" in that her dream tells her that she and Clark love each other.
She had again had a dream about Clark. Why was she dreaming about him? She could still feel his pain as if it had been real, as if it was hers. Why did he affect her so much? She could no longer run away from the realization that there was more to Clark than she was willing to admit.
Sure there is, Lois. You love him.
Lois looked at the marriage certificate in her hands. Why had she taken it with her?
So she did find the planted marriage certificate. I guess it's too much to ask for her to take a closer look at this certificate, to see if it could possibly be forged?
She couldn’t easily destroy a marriage since she had suffered from the divorce of her parents so much. She couldn’t be the reason for something that had once made her mother start to drink. She would never want to be the cause of such misery.
Excuse me, but Sarah is hardly the kind of innocent woman who deserves to have a husband who stands by her through thick and thin. And even Lois doesn't believe that Clark and Sarah have any children who would suffer if their parents divorced.
She heard a soft tapping at her window and looked over to it. Superman’s concerned eyes watched her and pleaded silently for entrance. She was surprised to see him, but she stood up and opened the window for him. He wasn’t the man she longed to see. If only it had been Clark telling her that everything was all right, and that he was free from Sarah.
Good! She wants Clark now, not Superman.
“He has told you?” she asked, even more surprised. Clark and Superman were obviously really close friends. He didn’t answer her question. “Has he sent you?”
“No, he didn’t. He is still working up all his courage to apologize to you, but he would never ask me to do it for him.” Superman said. “Lois, I…”
What Superman says here is sufficiently close to a lie to be virtually indistinguishable from it.
Lois sank back on her couch and buried her face in her hands. A sob escaped her and she interrupted Superman. “I love him. I told him that I didn’t, but I love him so much.”
“He loves you, too.” She heard Superman swallow. His voice was husky for some reason. He didn’t sound much like himself.
Good that he doesn't sound much like "Superman". I think we all like you better as Clark, Clark!
“It’s impossible, though.” Lois sobbed again and then started to cry her heart out. ”I can never have him.”
Superman sat down next to her and put his arms around her. She leaned into his embrace and sobbed against his firm chest. Her tears fell on his suit and got it wet, but Superman didn’t seem to care.
Oh, what an adorable scene.
“You haven’t lost him, Lois. He will come to apologize, I’m sure. Tell him that you love him.”
“I can’t,” she mumbled. “He hasn’t told you about it, has he?”
“Told me what?” Superman asked.
“I better not say. It was bad enough that I betrayed him by rummaging through his things. I won’t do that again by telling you his secrets,” she said firmly.
“Lois, what secret are you talking about?” Superman inquired.
“I can’t. Please leave me alone, Superman.” Lois cried. “Go!” She screamed the last word, sounding as helpless as Clark had sounded when she had seen him in his apartment.
Okay, and this is pretty much how this chapter ends. I sure hope that Clark realizes by now not only that Lois doesn't know about his double identity, but that she thinks she has found out another secret about him. But since he hasn't got any other secrets (apart from his virginity, and that can hardly be the secret she thinks she knows about), shouldn't he start wondering about what Lois meant when she talked about his "wife"?
Like I said, great chapter, Barbara!
Ann
