Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Innocence Lost 1/1

This is very beautiful, very poignant, Caroline. I love the way you write the story in the first person from Clark's POV, how he is just married - I love this:

Clark is just married, and there are many other little things in your story that testifies to this:

Isn't this an absolutely beautiful "Just Married" feeling - you love seeing your own stuff and your loved one's stuff side by side.

And Clark isn't the only one in love. Lois is in love too, and that's why she is prepared to show Clark some of her most personal stuff - the secret stuff that little-girl Lois kept in her ballerina jewelry box.

So Clark is allowed to look. And after he and Lois have looked and laughed at some charms she got from her very first boyfriend, and after they have bantered about when they got their respective first kiss - (and I love the fact that Clark feels unreasonably jealous when Lois tells him of that first smoochie) - Clark finds an odd, beautiful crystal razor-sharp chunk of glass among little-girl Lois's secret things. And Lois tells him about the night when her childhood was shattered like her parents' marriage and their fancy wedding present of a crystal bowl. The horror of that night makes her squeeze that crystal piece and cut up her hand so badly that it may have been a bad thing that they didn't go to the hospital.

Out of love, Clark does everything he can to make things better for Lois. He bandages her hand and does not insist they go to the hospital for stitches. He flies to Paris and buys her favorite croissants. He rents just the movie she's been wanting to see. He stops fussing when she asks him to. He does not throw away her little-girl things, not even the piece of crystal, even though he so much wants to. But because he loves her, he can't dispose of her things as if he owned them, because when you love someone, you respect their wishes and don't treat them as your property.

And Clark can't reach back in time and comfort the eleven-year-old girl huddled under the covers of her bed with her sister, too stubborn to cry. But as if she had suffered a mental rape at the age of eleven, Lois's (and Clark's) white sheets now bear witness to the brutality that little-girl Lois knew about twenty years ago:

This is so sad, Caroline. And so poignant, and harrowing. But your vignette is about the love and security that Lois lost when she was a child, and that she is getting now. Of course, there are things that can never be recovered once they are lost, and one such thing is a happy childhood. But even so... this is a story about love, and moving from a time where there was little love, to a time when there is a lot of it.

There was no need for a WHAM warning.

Ann

Ohhh, Caroline....

This was wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing, and as Ann mentioned above, no WHAM warning needed in my opinion.

It was sad, but beautiful and sweet at the same time. (I still have your longer stories on my list and have started them, but since you had this short one written and I had time to read it... I decided I owed you some fdk...)

I'll refrain from quoting because Ann quoted a lot of what I would have quoted (love ya Ann )

But...

I love how detailed your descriptions are... like with the music box (yes, I had one of those too as a little girl, how neat, you conjured up some old memories of my own )

I love the way you invoke such strong feelings for these two characters in the way that you write them. It is so easy for me to picture them in the settings you present and to hear them saying the words you write for them.

Lovely.

Thanks for sharing.

-- MR

Thanks for the relaxing, though tinged with sadness, few moments!

Sara

*sniffle*

Absolutely, breathtakingly marvelous. Each word chosen carefully, each sentence honed and perfected, each image arresting.

Brava!

This is a very moving piece. I really enjoyed it. Overall, a very satisfying read. I just wanted to tell Lois to throw that piece of glass away and let the past go. (You know . . . being slightly odd and talking to the monitor and all!)



Rhea

Beautiful, Caroline! Such lovely ideas: Clark taken with the beauty of Lois asleep, the idea that he is a different person with her, the jewelry box, and the end...

The beginning of this is just so... awwww! -- well, at least it is to me. This is why I adore Clark, because he's just so sweet like that. Makes you want to hug the guy, like.. till the end of forever or something.

Most of the conversation between them is so precious and heartwarming. And for some reason make me feel kind of like a voyeur, peeking in that bedroom and eavesdropping on them...

...and then of course, there's a point where I start feeling so bad for her -- and him! -- and sure enough I need to grab for a kleenex and hope my boyfriend doesn't realize I've started to cry while reading fanfic again. Pity he doesn't understand that I actually enjoy the fact that there are stories out there which will do exactly that to me.

Thanks for sharing this with us, I absolutely loved it!

Interesting how small things like a shard of crystal can evoke such strong memories and emotions. And it's also interesting that those who love us the most can feel those emotions as if they are their own memories.

Clark is so tender, so loving, so understanding, so empathetic here, it makes me wish I were more like that. Lois has learned to deal with those memories, but they still have the power to hurt her, and therefore they have the power to hurt Clark. Still, he realizes on some level that removing those memories would change Lois on some fundamental level so that she wouldn't quite be the person he fell in love with. Unlike the Christopher Reeve character in Superman 2, our Clark has no thought of altering the woman he loves, but instead wants to carry her burden with her. What a guy. I wish he were my real-life friend.

Excellent story. Excellent insight in to Lois's character. And a powerful reminder that children are not the tiny adults we sometimes think they are. They're growing into adulthood, and we have to do all we can to protect them from the pain of life until they're old enough to handle it.

Maybe this event would have a different slant to it if Lucy were telling the story. Maybe you could tackle that one too, Caroline. I'd certainly read it.

It's been a while since a story made my eyes well up. It struck a chord with me and I drifted off to my own childhood.

The writing made me feel like I could be Lois or Clark sitting there.

I can't remember if I ever got my ballerina jewlery box...I do remember I wanted one even though I would have stuck out my tounge at anyone suggesting that I should/want one. I enjoyed this introduction of this object and the tale it contained within.

I love how one moment rolled into another. Something so pleasant (and annoying if you have a lot of stuff!) about going through ones stuff gathered over the years. I love how you captured the angst that can come about from just one small item. Something insignificant to someone else, yet can bring out a strong feeling in its owner is wonderfully, realiticly captured...to me.

When Clark saw the blood on the white sheet, I think his reaction was beautifully written.

Believe me, I know what it means. Hiding under the covers, determined not to - or too terrified - to cry... It has been a long time now that I last thought of that time in my live, but all it needs is one sentence.

You have struck a chord deep in me, and I´m not sure whether I should thank you for that.

But it´s a wonderful written story!

Thank you all for your lovely comments.

I don't quite know where this one came from - it just popped into my head in Clark's voice and demanded to be written. I wanted it to be about intimacy in marriage and how that grows one day at a time, one story at a time - and, as Ann said, to show that Lois's growing intimacy with Clark is helping her heal some of those old wounds we so often carry with us into our adult lives. I've never written Lois and Clark married before, but I rather liked it. I'm looking forward to the release of Season Four next month and seeing what the show's writers made of it.

Funny, isn't it, how many of us had the ballerina jewelry box? My daughter has one that is basically the same, but it has one of the Disney princesses instead of the ballerina, and it's always just seemed *wrong* to me. It's supposed to be a ballerina, darn it.

Cornelia,

Understood.

((hugs))

Thank you again to all who took the time to comment on my first-ever vignette here. I need to get back to the WiP now, I guess...

Best,

Caroline

Thank you for your sympathy. I´m sorry for that, but it just ran away with me.

Please don´t worry, I´m fine.

Beautiful imagery. I love storeis like this that allows me to feel what the characters are feeling.

Oh, Caroline, you did such a wonderful job with the imagery in this story. It made images of my own childhood pop into my head - especially the little ballerina jewelry box. Mine was shaped like a baby grand piano which made it extra special since I'm a pianist.

Oooh, I like this.

Yeah, not a good excuse, Clark. Go get those croissants.

Yeah, she’s right.

Oh, man, this reminds that there is some stuff I seriously need to throw away.

Awww…

Thanks Angie & Classicalla! I'm glad you enjoyed the story