Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: The Green, Green Haunting of Home

Hmmm, very interesting, Terry. I can see that you are bringing up two popular Terry-themes in this vignette: the righteousness and/or consequences of killing, and what it's like for a woman other than Lois to be in love with Clark.

Well, as a person who so often opposes killing, let me just say that I'm glad that Trask is dead. I don't want him to be in prison, I want him to be dead. He was too dangerous. Too fanatical. And he knew too much. And he was too powerful and deadly, for two reasons: one, because he was trained to kill if necessary, and he had access to Kryptonite and he knew about Clark and he had weird and paranoid ideas about him, and two, because he was an FBI agent, and he had a lot of authority because of his FBI status. This got to me:

Unfortunately, I think this is true, and I think Rachel Harris just possibly might have been fired for killing an FBI man. No, I don't think she would really have been fired, but yes, I think it could have happened.

This reminds me, very slightly, of something that happened a couple of years ago at a large hospital not for from where I live. An surgery team was carrying out a complicated operation on a patient. The chief surgeon had a very good record at this hospital, he was very well paid, and he had a ton of respect among his colleagues. Well, this time he was really off his head. He wasn't drunk, but maybe he had been popping pills or something, because he made a crazy decision to turn off the patient's circulation for much too long. The assistant surgeons protested, but timidly. They protested again, and again - but they didn't have the courage to really stand up to the famous surgeon, and so he had his way. And so the patient died. Afterwards the surgeon was fired. Nevertheless, it is interesting that if a person has enough status and charisma, he can get away with murder. I guess that is why Trask's men allowed themselves to be led where Trask would take them.

I think Jason Trask was more dangerous than Lex Luthor, by the way. Yes, because Luthor was driven by greed, but Trask was driven by fear and paranoia. When you are frightened out of your wits, you are literally fighting for your life all the time, and you may be prepared to go to almost any lengths to put an end to that which is scaring the daylights out of you. Do you remember Doctor Strangelove in the movie with Peter Sellers? Doctor Strangelove managed to start the Third World War (and possibly bring an end to all of mankind) because he, doctor Strangelove, just had to find a way to stop the flouridization of drinking water in America.

So I'm very grateful to Rachel for shooting and killing Jason Trask. Nevertheless, I can very much sympathize with her here:

Once I had a dream that I killed. It was horrible. I was cold and shaking when I woke up. I have no idea where that dream came from. I'm so glad that I'm never expected to carry any sort of weapons, and that it is never my job to physically subdue dangerous persons. Nevertheless, some people have that job, and occasionally they have to kill. I just wish, for everybody's safety, that everyone who has that job could be like Rachel Harris - that they would want to avoid killing if it is in any way possible. Unfortunately, people who dislike killing as much as Rachel Harris are also going to agonize over what they have done when they have been forced to kill, even if it was clearly the right and necessary thing to do.

I'm glad that Rachel has some people around her to support her, though. Martha's talk with her was great, and I liked this, too:

I'm glad her father is there for her.

As for Rachel's crush on Clark - well, sorry, Rachel, you are not getting all that much sympathy from me. For two reasons. One, I'm a hopeless Lois and Clark shipper, so I don't want to see Clark with you at all. And two, none of us owns another person. Two days ago I and a number of friends saw an outdoor performance of Carmen. Toward the end of this opera, Don Jose sings that he can't let Carmen go. So what if she is in love with another man now? He has sacrificed too much for her to let her go. She belongs to him. So when she insists on leaving him, he kills her.

Of course Rachel isn't thinking of killing Clark. Interestingly, if she has hung on to a piece of that Kryptonite that Trask used, she would in fact be capable of killing Clark, at least in theory. But of course she wouldn't do it. But refraining from killing someone is one thing, and letting go, allowing the other person to live and love, is another thing. I hope and think that Rachel has that in her. And like Martha said, of course she must stay on as a sheriff. And of course the state investigation into the shooting is not going to get Rachel fired.

I liked the mental journey that Martha made during the course of this vignette. In the beginning she was lonely and scared, frightened by the creaking of the house. But when she found out that she needed to be there for Rachel, and that she needed to really appreciate what Rachel had done for her and her family, things changed for Martha:

I love the tribute you pay to Martha's strength and determination here.

Interesting story, Terry!

Ann

I feel I should add, however, that even though I'm glad that Jason Trask is dead (as if he ever existed in the first place - eh :rolleyes: ), it would still have been wrong to kill him just because he was so dangerous. Rachel killed him because she absolutely had to stop him, and it wasn't possible to stop him by any other means than killing him. If she could have stopped him quickly and efficiently without killing him, then she would have been obliged to do so. And then, of course, Jason Trask would have told the whole world about the dangerous alien Clark Kent and the Kryptonite that could kill him. It would have been horrible. Still, allowing Trask to survive to say these things would have been the right thing to do.

But since it wasn't possible to stop him and prevent him from killing others without killing him first, Rachel did the right thing when she shot him dead.

Ann

Actually here's an interesting twist - Rachel thinks she shot a Federale, who was established as being an imposter while in Metropolis. (Remember, Trask's people ran from the Planet as soon as they were found out.)

This leads me to think that Trask's people are the ones throwing sand in the investigation of Trask's shooting and the real FBI is not going to be happy about being used by them that way when they find out - and they will.

But they're not going to tell Rachel that, of course. And it is known that officers who kill in the line of duty frequently (if not always) suffer serious psychological repercussions.

Well done!!

I love the way this story illuminates the vunerable side of Martha that we rarely see, and we begin to understand how she works hard to create and maintain the brave facade her son needs.

Terry, yet another masterful job of creating a scene of the type we rarely see. Thank you for sharing!

If this was a real event it would be easy to claim that Rachel should have acted differently, but as shown she had a fraction of a second to save Clark's life, and for all she knew the Kents and Lois too. There would naturally be an investigation, as shown in this story, but ultimately it would boil down to Rachel's word plus her deputy, who I think was also present, and Clark, with supporting evidence from Jonathan, Martha, and the guy who was kidnapped earlier in the episode. Put all of their evidence together and regardless of Trask's status (fugitive, agent, whatever) they would have no alternative than to say that Rachel was justified.

Very nice and refreshing to see a new side of this in someone elses viewpoint. Good job. Laura

I so enjoyed this, Terry! I love "Green, Green, Glow..." and really enjoy stories that explore the aftermath of those events more thoroughly than what we saw in the series.

In the episode, Rachel comes across to me as mostly tough talk, with a very vulnerable heart. And an event like shooting Trask to save Clark - someone she clearly cared for - would be bound to cut right through the toughness and leave her very raw and exposed. You've captured that perfectly here. I think she would have to stop at this point in her career and ask some hard questions about whether she made the right decision when she fired at Trask and whether she made the right decision when she went into law enforcement. She's very much at a crossroads now, not only with her career, but also, as you show us, with her romantic life.

I love that Martha is able to give her some guidance and is able to let her down a little bit easily about Clark. I hope she takes Martha's advice and hangs in there a little bit longer because you've made me like this Rachel very much, and I don't want Trask to triumph over her either!

Wonderful story!

Caroline

Excellent story, Terry. You weave this tale with a poet's heart. (As my hubby will tell you, I think the best poets are men )

My favorite parts haven't been quoted, yet, so...

I'm trying to find just a line here and a line there to quote, but it's too much. ...So I'll just 'xplain. I love the stream of consciousness intro. It's nice to see her thoughts about Lois as she flits from happy memory to happy memory. She clips Lois' article, and then feels she has to justify it to herself--even just a little bit. The progression from happy memories to the bone-jarring ones is not only plausible, but feels just as natural as if I had thought those thoughts today.

That's the way it is with fear. Your mind and your heart battle each other until the unrational seems rational.

Well written story, Terry.

Elisabeth

Thanks to those sent feedback, all of you! I'm always thrilled to know that someone likes what I write.

Each time I've watched GGGOH, I've noticed that Rachel Harris gets no screen time after pulling that trigger. I understand, of course, that there were time constraints and dramatic reasons to focus on Clark and Lois at that point, but that's where all us FOLC come in and fill in the background spaces.

In the real world, as Marcus pointed out (at least in the US), every police shooting these days is investigated thoroughly. The officer is almost always placed on paid administrative leave and ordered to see the department's therapist, either the one on staff or one contracted and paid on a case-by-case basis. It usually takes between three and ten days to wrap up the investigation, depending on the size of the department and the workload, and most of the officers who are judged to have behaved within the limits of both the law and department procedures return to duty soon afterward.

As Ann has pointed out both here and in other places, the taking of another person's life is a drastic event. It always changes a person for life, assuming that the person taking the life isn't already a dyed-in-the-wool sociopath. And I think it would hit Rachel very hard, because of her youth and her lack of experience (despite her evident skill) and her previous relationship with Clark and her feelings towards him. I've always wondered how she might have reacted, and since I couldn't find anything on the archive dealing directly with the subject, I decided to try my hand.

Ann, thanks for your kind comments. I know how much you hate killing, and I'm glad that you agree with just about everyone that there was simply no other option with Trask at that particular point than to shoot him, in order to save innocent lives. I agree that killing him for what he knew or for what he might have done in the future would not have been justified.

Angie, are you sure Martha has a calm and controlled facade? That would mean that she shows the world a false front. I'd rather think of her as a very strong person who's been shaken by recent events, but who also has the strength to overcome those events and be real.

Mrs. Mosley, Dandello, Laurach, thanks for the kind words! They warm my heart.

Elisabeth, you think I'm a poet? Maybe in free verse! Seriously, thank you for the compliment.

Caroline, I think we're all vulnerable in some way. Clark's physical weakness is Kryptonite, but we all know that he's completely helpless before Lois Lane. Yet we all overcome our weaknesses somehow and do what we have to do in life, just as Martha gets on with the business of living despite her recent harrowing experiences.

Marcus, I guess police shootings are pretty much the same over the free world. And yes, with the weight of testimony and the evidence, combined with the fact that Trask was a known and very dangerous loose cannon, Rachel would be cleared of any wrongdoing in this matter.

Again, thanks for reading and commenting, all! It's one of reasons I do this.

Terry that was such a great idea for a story. Green, Green Glow of Home is one of my favorite episodes and though there are a couple stories written about it, I'd always welcome reading another one. And this one especially because it deals with Martha Kent (who I love to read about) and Rachel Harris. I think we can all sort of relate to Rachel Harris. It was pretty clear she was in love with Clark and that sort of unrequited love is a sort of timeless thing. And I like how you humanized her, made her jealous and made her cry. It just seemed so real. This story was a perfect insight into her life and I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks so much for posting!

--Laura