Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: On The Other Hand, 52 and 53/?

FDK goes here .

Posting schedule [ET]:

Tuesday: Chapters 54 and 55, 1-3pm

Thursday: Chapters 56 and 57, 1-3pm

Saturday: Chapters 58 and 59, 10-11am

Just a quick note - given the upcoming holidays [and that fact that some of my in-laws are going out of town over Christmas and so we're celebrating with them before Thanksgiving], it's possible that the EOD schedule may be interrupted once or twice this month. I'll keep the posting schedule in the FDK threads as up to date as possible .

Thanks.
Carol

Loved these two parts. (Got my eyes all moist. But don't tell anybod, okay?) Waiting for Tuesday...

Carol,

I had the day off on Friday so I finally got a chance to read through all 53 chapters! Boy, have you kept me busy.

I was having trouble understanding Clark's motivations for marrying Lois and staying with her until reading the back story with Chris. Now, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit.

Although Lois knows now, she seems to be withdrawing to herself. I hope the pep talks with Jonathan and Martha will help bring these two together. Right now, the chasm between the two of them seems huge.

It might be too far off from where they are now, but I'd love to see Lois and Clark explore how their going to manage raising a baby and attend college. Aside from money, this Lois doesn't seem to be a workaholic, but I imagine she's career driven. A pregnancy so young could derail her plans completely.

Are you going to make us wait till the very end for you to confirm that Clark is indeed the father? If so, that's just cruel.

Can't wait till Tuesday.

grinch

I like Jonathan's ideas about him courting Lois. Also, I like how Martha helped Clark to realize what Lois' POV might be.

I have a friend who adopted two teenage girls. Their sister was a single, emancipated adult when she got pregnant. My friend called me and said, "J has never had a mom and has no husband. She knows nothing about childbirth and neither do I. You're coming over and telling her what to expect." I wish Lois had someone like that. She has no mom and Martha has never been through childbirth, just like J. But there's no one she can call, except maybe her doctor friend.


Elisabeth

Kind of a sad couple of parts. But it's way past time someone sat Clark down and said, "Here's what's going on while you're wallowing on a glacier." And Lois may not be in love with Clark like she said, but you still want to be able to share what's going on, and she doesn't even feel like she can do that. Man, I love J & M!

What a wicked web is woven.
JD

wow.... the ending to these parts was amazingly emotional.
Seeing Lois trying desperately to deal with all this... the strength she is using just to stay in the right space...
I think she is getting benefit from having talked to Clark's parents, but Martha is right... Lois isn't dwelling on Clark being an alien or what he can do... she needs something from Clark... and he is avoiding her. I was hoping after Martha chatted to him, Clark might have got something into that thick head of his that he needed to get closer to Lois (and I'm not talking in the physical sense)... but more of those one on one chats... Lois needs to tell Clark what she is going through with this baby just as much as Clark needed to tell her he was an alien...

I loved these parts. There are a lot of underlying emotions and feelings that are being exposed and explored, and it really is a rough ride, but you've written it so well. It's almost intoxicating.
I can not wait to read more!

Like others have said, these were two emotional, sad parts.

I've been thinking of Terry's excellent reply to the previous two parts. He pointed out that with role models like Chris and Jonathan, it is no wonder that Clark feels obliged to be there for Lois's baby. But let's toy with the idea that Chris hadn't been killed, and that it had been him and Martha who raised Clark. Well, the two of them got married just to be able to to take care of Clark, in the same way that Clark married Lois so that he could claim her baby (and save it from Navance). But let's return to Chris. What if he had said to Martha and Clark, after five years, that now he had stayed with them long enough, so now he was leaving?

Martha and Jonathan are right. Clark can't approach his marriage to Lois as something he will have to endure for five years, and then he can leave. If he married Lois for her baby's sake, then he must realize that the child is going to need him for more than five years.

I sympathize with Clark for wallowing, I really do. But it's got to stop now. It almost brought tears to my eyes that Clark would leave Lois alone once again, this time to speak to his parents. Maybe they said something important to him. But I hope that whatever they said, Clark will heed their advice to think more of Lois and work harder on his marriage to her.

Ann

I'm glad Martha put Lois's POV in perspective for Clark. It's true he hasn't really looked at things that way.

I think Jonathan's idea of courting Lois has merit, to a certain extent, after all they do need to spend more time together. If nothing else, they should be friends. And it's true that one of the reasons why Clark loves Lana is because he knows her better than Lois.

But let's look at this again.

Doens't that sound an awful lot like "force yourself to fall in love with Lois"?!!!!!!

Love can never be forced. And Jonathan should really realize that. In fact, Clark is going to have to be very carefull that his feelings arent' forced because he feels obiligated in this story.

I understand Jonathan believes Clark is marrying her only because the baby is supposed to be his. And he believes in "till death do us part." So that's probably the meaning behind it.

But still...

I still think he expects Clark to snap his fingers and say "I want to feel this way, so I do." (ie - resentment against Lois, not being in love with Lana, etc.)

Seriously, this Jonathan makes me want to scream sometimes!

I am curious as to why Clark wanted alone time with his parents. Is it just because he wants to spend time with them, (although he has had one on one time with each parent individually)or does he want to tell them the truth.

I also hope we start seeing more significant movement in their relationship even if it is just friendship and respect. I hope we don't have to wait until the end of the story. The snippets of these that I see are very very very small

Reading this story only has one downside....the posting schedule It's too long between posts!!!

James, who realizes just how silly that sounds when the woman is double posting for us...

LOL James.

To be fair - these chapters are about 1/2 the length of the LTL chapters...

Sara - I don't see it as him telling Clark to fall in love with her, but rather how does he expect the relationship to work - on any level - if he's hanging on to Lana and doesn't really know Lois and she doesn't know him. Getting to know each other much better is necessary for them to eventually love each other the way they need to and Jonathan's suggesting that. I don't think Jonathan expect Clark to snap his fingers and change things, but how can Clark expect things to change if he's avoiding Lois. At least that's how I see it.

More later.

Carol

I've been married long enough for the lovey-dovey feelings to come and go. It is amazing how much feelings follow actions. When I act like a woman in love, the next thing you know I feel like a woman in love. Yes, it takes consistency over days and weeks, but I know for a fact that feelings follow actions because I've experienced it. It starts with little things, like choosing to smile over the dinner table and saying thank you for things I normally take for granted and works its way from there.


Elisabeth
who imagines that Jonathan has been married for quite a while, too

Listen to your Dad, Clark.

Well... she won't be sick and tired all the nine months.

I love Jonathan!

It was past time somebody talked some sense into that dense skull. :rolleyes:

Listen to your Mom, Clark.

What is up?

This is so sad.

Sad, sad, sad. Is there a silver lining sometime soon? Please?

Andreia

/puzzled/

Silver lining?

What's that?

/runs and hides then whispers/

More rapid progress coming soon... At least progress along that continuum we call time... And maybe space...

Carol

I read this this morning and now my mind is all sluggish and all I can remember is yay and awww and and more and what sort of bed is that that the mattress didn't sag in the middle, forcing Lois and Clark to slide together during the night

Did I mention before that the fanfic-stuff is hilarious? If not, it so is

And from the other thread
You mean he will dump that homewrecker and go back to his true love before this story is over?

Michael, who is for now completely ignoring the concept of holidays or other reasons for Carol to not post EOD. ED is fine by me, in case you can't do EOD. But NEOD you will have to compensate with triple-posts Please? Pwetty pwease?

Hi Carol,

I too found these two chapters very sad, and I hope that Clark stops wallowing very soon.

I can understand that he feels his life with Lana has been ruined, or has been put on hold for a very long time, but he was the one who chose to marry Lois. He wasn't forced, or only by circumstances, and certainly not by Lois. Yet he seems to be making her pay for his misery.

At first, I thought that he didn't understand how badly he was treating Lois by leaving her alone so often, and I certainly hoped that matters would improve after Martha's chat with Clark. Yet all the time at the farm, he continues to keep out of her way.

Poor Lois is feeling very lonely and scared of the future. She believes she's lost Clark's friendship and she so needs his support right now.

The only thing that could make me excuse his conduct right now would be the thought that he might be returning to Metropolis to find some place for them to live in a few weeks time, and the 'alone' time he needs with his parents is asking for their help in getting things arranged.

Clark really needs to suck it up and stop acting like a spoiled child. He decided to marry Lois because of his history and his sense of honour, so it's time for him to live up to his ethics.

You'll notice, Carol, that your story has really got under my skin.

I'm looking forward to the next parts in the hope that we will have a sliver lining soon ... at least to the point where Lois and Clark can be friends again.

Yours Jenni

Like everyone else I am on pins to find out why Clark needed alone time with his parents (if it wasn't just for quality time). Given the talks from M&J, I would think that Clark would realize that any withdrawal on his part now would make Lois feel worse. His actions could be completely innocent, but mix hormones with a lack of communication, and things become suspect. Even if he wanted to tell his parents the truth, that would be something that Lois should be in on.

The idea of progress along the space-time continuum makes me excited!

Hmm...

Several people have mentioned it so...

Nothing... nefarious or anti-nefarious in Clark's meeting with his parents. Just sharing HDHTB with them. It's mentioned in 54 iirc. Even though Lois saw it first etc, it was something he wanted to do on his own.

I do promise that somewhere along that space-time continuum some of the points you guys have raised will be discussed [like the difference, at the moment, between Chris and Clark].

Carol

Okay - detailed FDK on FDK . I was avoiding this for a while for fear of giving too much away but I think I'm okay this time - now that the Chris thing is out in the open.

Lara - mums the word!

Grinch - wow! That's A LOT of reading! When will official confirmation of paternity happen? Do you really thing I'm going to tell you that ? It will happen, but it may be a while.

Elisabeth - you're right about that with Lois. And right about what you said below. Feelings can follow actions. I think Jonathan is saying 'how can you expect this to work if you don't even know her? get to know her and go from there.'

JD - Clark's a lunkhead. We all know that . I love the J/M too - I usually do but this set more than most. I think part of it is that LtL, my last major work [which is done being GE'd finally!!! WOOHOO!!], was in an Alt-U with no M/J.

Lisamaree - Martha is right - it's not the alien thing that's bothering Lois, it's something she can't even define at the moment, but she will. Soon [I think, trying to remember the chapter number - yes, soon]. Intoxicating? Cool .

Ann - You bring up some good points, as has Terry. Clark and Lois have both said that he will continue being a dad [I think they've said it... they intend it], it's only the marriage that will end and then they'll be the 'typical' family of divorce - at least that's how they see it playing out at this point. I think I left more fdk earlier - he wanted some time to show them his paper. That may not have been obvious here, but he mentions it in the next one iirc.

Sara - see both my and Elisabeth's earlier responses about the 'force himself to fall in love' thing. I don't think Clark's capable of 'forcing' himself to feel things for Lois at this point, even though he might feel he wants to.

robinson - it's the HDHTB thing . Nothing nefarious or anything like that. They'll... at least be friends again long before the end of the story. How's that?

James - you crack me up! Really, you do! Promise, the day after it's finished being beta'd, I'll start posting daily. How's that?

Andreia - I'm going to get back to that vid project once Nano's over - thanks again for your help with that! Clark may need a diagram. Clark is Kryptonian and has an extra dense physiology because of that. I think it translates to his skull as well...

Michael - I'm glad you like the fic stuff. I have a sneaking suspicion Nano may even make into the fic at some point .

Jenni - /looks for more Jenni fic/ Aw, not yet. Hope things are going well there and we get more soon . I don't think Clark is *meaning* to make Lois pay for his misery, it's simply a byproduct of his misery. There's something else going on we haven't been told yet, it will be alluded to in the next chapter, but something happened in Smallville besides the convos with M/J so... And what is this silver lining thing? Seriously...

Sonia - Space-time continuum progress coming right up!

Off to edit the next two parts. Look for them soon...

Thanks!

Carol

I understand what you and Elisabeth are saying. Really. And in fact, I didn't want to say anything more about this, because it sounds like I'm picking a fight. (I'm not, really.)

But I will say there is a difference between working at keeping your feelings for your husband/wife, etc. that you still have some feelings for, or once had feelings for, and trying to force yourself to have feelings that you don't have.
(I've done both, by the way.)

Guilt about not having feelings that you should have can be a powerful force. To me, this is what a lot of "Learning to Love" was about on Lois's part. (I remember her saying things like "I want to want to." (ie - her fear of sleeping with Clark) Some of that was her rape and trust issues, but I thought some of that was the double - edged guilt.

She wants to feel about Clark the way he does about her, but she knows that's not real love. So she was careful about making sure it wasn't just guilt.

But I digress.
I know Jonathan believes he's trying to give Clark good advice. And even though he still does make me want to scream sometimes, I also understand he's never been in the situation of facing that guilt of not loving someone you believe you should. So I know I should cut him some slack.