I hope I will not ending up quoting pretty much all of this, but I've got to quote the first paragraph, at least:
After his lunch with Lois, Clark spent the next several hours making a concerted effort to keep his feet on the ground. His euphoria was premature, he knew, but that didn’t make it any less real. He felt exactly the same certainty about Lois that he had that night at the Stardust; it was a feeling of recognition, as if they’d met before and somehow gotten separated, and now they were saying, “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I love all of this - the reference to Clark's floating, which even I, the LNC-illiterate, know took place during the pilot. But, as Arawn pointed out, you put a new twist on this phenomenon: Clark is floating not because he is watching Lois and she is taking his breath away, but because he has found her at all, and he is sure she is
the one. And I apologize for quoting part of the first paragraph again, but that is only because it so marvellously flows into the second paragraph:
it was a feeling of recognition, as if they’d met before and somehow gotten separated, and now they were saying, “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
And he had. He’d been looking all over for her.
This little quote makes my Superman-barraged brain explode with all kinds of associations. Mainly this one: Where the heck was Clark Kent doing in his very early twenties? When I was a kid, there existed two versions of Superman: there was the teenager, the boy who was perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, Superboy, and there was the grown man, around thirty-five, Superman. So what the heck happened to Superman during those circa twenty years between the age of fifteen and thirty-five? There is a popular Swedish novel whose crazy title I won't even try to translate, but its main character gets locked inside something like a steam-engine when he is just a kid, and he sits there alone and immovable for a number of years, without anything to eat or drink. And then suddenly he is full of young male power and he flexes his muscles and the steam-engine just breaks open and the young man emerges. He isn't superpowered or anything, so the novel is just telling us, I guess, that nothing much happened for several years, and then suddenly this boy was big and strong and pretty much an adult and very ready to face the world.
Oh, but when it comes to our favorite Kryptonian, he
can't have been just locked up inside a steam-engine or something, biding his time! Things
must have happened to him in those in-between years. Yes, it is a part of LnC canon that he travelled, that he went all over the globe to get to know the world. But I love how you emphasize what was really going on when young Clark Kent was locked inside his chrysalis of globetrotting: He was looking for that one special amazing woman. And now he had found her.
He wanted her to be his, wanted to put a ring on her finger or a down-payment on a house or whatever it took to make sure that she couldn’t get away from him again.
Like Arawn already pointed out, this possessiveness seems somehow very typical of Clark.
He couldn’t afford the ring or the house, however, and he recognized that this fierce feeling of possessiveness was completely inappropriate at this early stage in the relationship - as inappropriate as falling into bed with her had been.
Ah, Caroline, this touches on the most typical stereotype that many women use when they look for the right man to date or marry. The perfect man to marry is rich, don't we all know it? (It is as well-known and predictable a cliché as the fact that the perfect
woman to marry, or at least to date and have an affair with, is young and beautiful.) Poor Clark. He is not rich, but Lex Luthor certainly is. Oh, Lois, how could you ever even think of choosing Lex instead of Clark?
He hadn’t expected love to be like this. He’d thought it would come on slowly, with friendship giving way to tenderness, tenderness blossoming into love. Instead, this was like an explosion of feeling, desperate and a little painful.
And I
love how you show us that Clark has most certainly never been in love before.
He glanced at Lois, bent over her report, and he felt almost sick at the thought that in rescuing this man, he might expose himself - might have to leave Metropolis, leave her, chased by the shadow of his own good deeds, as he had been so many times before.
Oh, the loneliness of the long distance runner, and the loneliness of the young Kryptonian male who still has not created his Superman persona.
I hate the word "gopher" because I have looked it up so many times in my English-Swedish dictionary, and I still don't know what the darn thing is. Well, unless we are talking about common rats, maybe we don't have any gophers in Sweden. Maybe that's why I can't picture them. This time I googled the word and asked for pictures, so - well, imagine this thing appearing out of a manhole wearing glasses and a sports coat and trousers:
Gopher (who\'s got a plan) “So how did you get that story?” she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
He shrugged and felt himself start to sweat a little. “I just... was in the right place at the right time, I guess.”
“Just happened to be walking by.”
“Yep.”
“Interesting.” She sipped her coffee, and the look she gave him over the rim of her mug made him shift nervously in his seat. “So, when you bolted out of here a little while ago like your pants were on fire, that didn’t have anything to do with the story?”
“No,” he said, too quickly and too vehemently. “I had a...” What? What did he have? His mind scrolled rapidly through a list of possibilities, as the feeling of nervousness began to edge towards panic. “...sudden craving. For ice cream.”
Hmmm. Interesting. Will this Lois be as dense as the Lois in the show was regarding the reason for Clark's disappearances? Or will this Lois be perceptive enough, and will she hold Clark in sufficiently high regard, to realize that if he is continuously bolting when there is an emergency somewhere, maybe he is actually getting out in order to save people's lives?
“Ice cream?”
“Mint chocolate chip.” Why had he said that? Why was he compounding his lie with more detail? He wouldn’t put it past Lois to sniff his breath for traces of mint. “But I didn’t get any,” he added quickly, hoping this small bit of honesty would help balance things out a little. “I happened on the sewer accident and...like I said, I just was in the right place at the right time.”
“Well. Good for you.” Her expression lightened and he felt himself begin to relax.
“Beginner’s luck,” he said modestly.
“Maybe.” She gave him a thoughtful look. “You know... you’re a strange one, Clark Kent. I think there’s more to you than meets the eye.”
She is accepting his lie, recognizing it for the lie that it is. But she is giving him the benefit of the doubt. She respects him enough to accept that he may have reasons for his behaviour that he can't yet share with her. Because for Clark, it is too soon:
Theirs had hardly been what one could call a stable relationship so far. On Monday, they had made incredible love on two hours’ acquaintance, and on Tuesday, he had awakened to find her gone. On Wednesday, he found out that she had lied to him about who she was and had tried to cost him his job, and on Thursday, they had exchanged passionate kisses and confessions on a millionaire’s balcony. Now it was Friday, and they’d had a nice lunch together and held hands for a few minutes in the park.
Oh, wow, I just
love this summary of their relationship.
His heart was shouting that he was in love, but his head was insisting that it was too soon to be spilling his deepest secret to this woman, no matter how much he thought he might love her.
Normally I'd tell Clark to throw caution to the wind and go ahead and tell Lois anyway. But even I can see a complication here. Lex Luthor. This Lois does not fancy herself in love with Luthor and has never entertained the notion of marrying him, but she still seems to respect him. She still seems to think of Lex Luthor as a man who uses his fortune to do good. If Clark tells Lois about himself, how can he be sure that Lois won't pass the information on to Luthor, suggesting to Luthor that he could seek out Clark Kent and ask for Kent's super-powered help to carry out his own humanitarian work?
Once they were surer of each other, once he was certain she was really The One - that’s when he would tell her. He couldn’t quite picture it - the exact moment when he would tell the woman he loved that he was from another planet - but he was sure he would know the right time when it came. Until then, he’d have to tread carefully.
Well, that's the big problem, Clark. There is not and will not be a perfect moment to tell her. But the longer you keep deceiving her, the worse the telling of the truth will be.
“I’m glad you care, Lois,” he said softly, so that no one else could hear. “And I’m glad you want to know more about me. I want to know more about you, too. But...it takes time.”
Please give me time, Lois, he thought anxiously. Sharing my body with you was easy compared to sharing this secret. I need time.
But I like this. Clark is acknowledging to Lois that she is right, that there is something very different about him, but that he can't tell her what it is. Not yet. But he wants to tell her, and he wants to trust her with his secrets.
She nodded. “There’s just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Her seriousness gave way to an impish look. “The next time you go for ice cream, you might ask me if I want some, too.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Chocolate, right?”
“Is there any other kind?”
And this is a lovely way of saying, Okay, Farmboy. I'll be waiting until you are ready, or at the very least, I won't press for an answer
now. He loved the funny silhouette of the sprawling barn, dark against the brilliant colors of the sky; when he was a child, he’d thought it looked like a fat man in a stovepipe hat. He still thought that.
Arawn has already pointed this out Caroline, and it is lovely. I remember other little memorable images you've given us - I think that in your previous story, you talked about the vast stitched landscape of Kansas, reminding me of a humongous quilt where one little spaceship carrying a small baby boy could get lost on the horizon-hugging flatness.
“Mom, we didn’t talk about the boots.”
“Did you think you’d wear your Nikes?”
“Hoped is more like it.”
“Clark Kent wears Nikes. This guy...what are we calling him again?”
“I have no idea.”
“Okay, well, whatever we’re calling him, he doesn’t wear Nikes.”
Got to love Martha. You know, I could easily be wrong, but I seem to remember a very old Joe Shuster picture of Superman where his footwear looked like - well, at least not boots. Maybe more like red Nikes with extremely long shoestrings, the kind which you wind several times around your lower legs.
Clark laughed. “You seem to know a lot about him. Glad one of us does.”
“You’ll figure it out as you go along, honey.”
Did I say you've got to love Martha? Talk about having confidence in her boy.
“You know, a reporter’s work is never done. You’re only as good as your next story, Perry White says.”
“Nice try.” Martha tugged the suit out of his hands, one red boot hitting the floor with a clunk. “I’m holding this for ransom,” she declared. “So did you or didn’t you?”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Jonathan looked from his wife to his son, who was suddenly blushing.
“You did!” Martha crowed triumphantly.
“I did,” Clark admitted.
“Did what?[/I9” Jonathan asked plaintively. “Why is it that I never have any idea what you two are talking about?”
“And...?” Martha asked, ignoring her husband completely.
“And things are... better,” Clark said cautiously.
“Define better,” Martha demanded, a grin spreading across her face. “Did you kiss her?”
Clark looked down at his feet, too embarrassed to meet her eyes. “Technically, she kissed me first.”
“I knew it! I knew she couldn’t resist my boy.” Martha was practically dancing a jig. “So did you do [i]more than kiss her?”
“Mom!” Clark exclaimed.
And this is - oh, so delicious!!!
And Clark confesses to his parents that he has lied to Lois, and that it troubles him.
“So what did you tell her?” Jonathan asked.
“That I’d had a sudden craving for ice cream,” Clark admitted sheepishly. “I know it was stupid. It was just the first thing that popped into my head.”
“Craving for ice cream, huh?” Martha laughed. “Well, tell her that if you’re pregnant, we’re going to expect her to make an honest man of you.”
“Mom!” Clark protested. “It’s not funny!”
Well, considering the really remote possibility that Lois might indeed be pregnant with Clark's child, and the still more remote possibility that Kryptonian males might react to the growth of the fetuses they have fathered by developing cravings themselves, and in view of the fact that Clark certainly hopes to marry Lois some day... yes, this thing about asking Lois to make an honest man of Clark in case there is a little Lane-Kent on the way was delightfully, intellectually funny, in spite of Clark's protests.
If I want to have a real relationship with her, I’m going to have to be honest.”
“It seems a little soon for that.” Jonathan's smile faded. “I mean, I know you like this girl, but don’t forget she lied to you about who she was. Are you sure you can trust her?”
“I... no,” Clark admitted. “I think I can, but I don’t know if that’s just because I want so much for it to be true.
This is so interesting. We tend to idealize the personal, human qualities of the people that we respond to, even though we may respond to them for, perhaps, a lot more superficial reasons. I like that Clark understands that he still doesn't know Lois, and that the good qualities he sees in her may yet be figments of wishful thinking.
Anyway, I agree that it’s too soon. I’m just going to have to hope that when and if I do tell her, she’ll be able to understand why I lied to her.”
But I don't like this. When and
if he tells her? If Clark is serious about wanting to win and marry Lois, he can't set out on this venture with the reservation that he might never tell her his secret.
He suspected that he’d been responsible for quite a few UFO sightings over the years, and as long as nothing linked the UFOs to Clark Kent, he didn’t much care.
As a space buff who doesn't believe that the Earth has been visited by aliens yet, I had a lot of fun at this image. Clark Kent, the UFO!
“I saw that,” she said, pointing at the eel.
He grinned at her. “One bite. That’s all I ask.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said, looking at the eel suspiciously. “Aren’t you going to fix a plate?”
“Yep. I’m starving.” As she began to eat, he served himself a healthy helping of everything he’d brought. When he was finished, Lois stabbed her chopsticks accusingly in the direction of his plate.
“You look like Mr. Hardbody and eat like a lumberjack,” she grumbled. “You must live at the gym.”
He shook his head. “Good metabolism.”
She glared at him. “If I didn’t kind of like you, I think I’d hate you for that.”
“You kind of like me?” he asked, laughing. “I feel like I’m back in eighth grade.”
“I never liked a boy well enough in the eighth grade to eat eels for him.”
“You haven’t eaten them for me, either,” Clark pointed out.
I wonder if Arawn didn't quote all of this, too? No matter. It is more than good enough to be quoted twice. What perfect, good-natured, "yes-we-
are-falling-in-love banter!
“You’re a nice guy, Clark Kent.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” he teased.
“I guess the only thing that surprises me is that you’d want anything to do with me,” she said. “I’m still trying to figure that out. Because I’m not all that nice, Clark, and if I weren’t so selfish, I’d warn you not to fall for me.”
“You’d be too late,” he told her softly, taking her hand and not giving a damn about the copy editors. “You’d be about five days too late.”
Well, groan. I'm sorry I saw Arawn's post before I wrote this. Because I end up repeating all of his quotes. Well, like Arawn said, this is a great variation of the words that Lois Lane said to Clark in the pilot. But the difference is that she is so very much nicer here, so much more honestly interested in him - and no wonder, of course.
She stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth parted in surprise, and he was just utterly lost. It was as if the newsroom disappeared, and there was no one in the world but the two of them, sheltered by a fortress of bamboo containers.
Gaahh!!! Arawn quoted this, too. But it is simply wonderful. Movie Superman has a surrealistic, artful and hyper-technological Arctic Fortress of Solitude to which he invited Lois Lane (and where they made love), but your Clark has a fortress of simple Chinese bamboo containers, which serves (almost) equally well as a love nest. Also, it should be pointed out, Clark and Lois are also sheltered by the fortress of their love. This fortress prevents them from seeing the world around them, but unfortunately it doesn't prevent people in the outside world from seeing inside the cocoon of their love.
If Perry White himself had stormed in, he couldn’t have stopped Clark from leaning in and claiming Lois’s lips in a deep, tender kiss that made his heart pound and the blood sing through his veins. He only pulled away when the sound of giggling coming from the corner somehow managed to penetrate his consciousness.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “You said you didn’t want to do that.”
“I take it back,” she said breathlessly. “It was a stupid thing to say. In fact, I want to do that a whole lot more.”
And I totally love this: Lois, so shy and skittish, and battle-scarred from her many federal disasters, loves Clark so much that, yes, she wants him to kiss her now, and right now she couldn't care less who sees them.
The only possible response to that was to kiss her again, and they continued to sneak kisses in between bites of Chinese food, neither of them caring that they would probably be the talk of the newsroom the next day. Clark was amazed at how easy it was, how familiar, as if he’d been kissing her forever. Of course, he’d been intimate with this woman in a way he’d never been intimate with any other, but he thought the feeling was something more than just an echo of their night together.
Well, Clark, this is just another effect of the cosmic bond you have with Lois. Didn't you know?
“Hey,” she complained, as she cracked hers open. “This is written in Chinese.”
“Let me see,” he said, taking the slip of paper from her hand.
“Oh, don’t tell me you can read...”
“’A good horse is like a member of the family’,” he read.
She gave the paper a dirty look. “I hate that. That’s not a fortune. What does yours say?”
He cracked his open and a slow smile spread across his face. “’You will find romance in the workplace’.”
“It doesn’t say that!”
“Yes it does,” he insisted.
“You made that up.”
“Read it yourself,” he said, handing it to her.
She sniffed. “I don’t think you can even read Chinese.”
“Can too.”
“Can not.”
“Can too.”
“I think we’ve gone from eighth grade to second,” she said, tossing the fortune onto her desk.
Sorry to quote all of this, but it is so funny, sweet and perfect. Of course Clark was lying about what his fortune said, and of course Lois knew that he was lying. The deliberate childishness of their argument is particularly delightful.
Clark laughed. “Tell you what - you share your horse with me, and I’ll share my workplace romance with you.”
“I don’t know,” she said doubtfully. “That horse is like a member of the family.”
“Well, there’s always Cat Grant,” he teased, picking up his fortune.
“Give me that.” She snatched it out of his hand.
“Do we have a deal?” he asked.
“You drive a hard bargain, Farmboy.” She leaned forward and sealed the deal with a quick kiss. “But you’ve gotta get out of here now and let me work.”
Oh, oh, oh. I just
love it. Their banter is absolutely priceless.
When he left the newsroom, she was once again bent over her report, but he smiled a little to see that she was still fingering the tiny slip of paper that had contained his fortune.
True gold fears no fire, it had said.
He hoped Lois never learned to read Chinese.
I don't know, Caroline, I thought that was a good fortune. I can clearly discern a message here. "Don't be afraid. You have found something of immense value and beauty. You are going to meet hardships and tribulations, but the treasure you have found is worth the battle you will have to fight for it."
And that is as good a fortune as any other.
Ann
It took me forever to get around to read this... I hate when that happens! But I'm so glad I finally found time for it, cause this was one of the best parts so far. 