I didn't really give this story a chance mainly for two reasons. I don't like galactically stupid Lois, particularly not when she is blithely marrying an arch-criminal, and I don't much like fics where arch-criminals play an important part.
Ah, but a good ending can be a joy to read! So I decided to go for part four here. I found that I probably didn't miss much by skipping the previous parts - just Lois marrying Tex and Tex putting Clark in a Kryptonite cage - but there were some real delicacies in this final part. Such as this:
“How can we help Lois?” she asked quietly. “She's hurting so bad now. She is sure Clark is dead.”
“We can't tell her he's alive without telling her ...”
“Maybe that's what we should do.”
“It's not our secret to tell, Lois. Anything we alter, they have to deal with.”
“So we should allow them to keep bumbling around, continually colliding into a glass barricade she doesn't know is there and he thinks is impenetrable?” She backed away so she could see his face. “I know how she's feeling.” Her voice shook with the memory. “We *have* to tell her.”
Clark sighed and glanced at not-our Clark lying on the bed. “Would they want us to interfere?”
Would
they want us to interfere? That's so easy for Clark to say! He always liked, no, make that
loved, his secret. He always clung to it. He wasn't quite sure what he valued more, Lois or his secret. I always felt that he might have sacrificed Lois just to keep his secret. In the show, he decided to have both, Lois as well as his secret, so he proposed to her without telling her about himself.
But Lois won't condemn the other Lois to the same heartache that she has suffered herself. She won't back down this time:
“That night, after I'd seen Clyde shoot you, the night I thought you were dead... was the worst night of my life. Worse than the night you went to New Krypton –“
“Worse than that?” he said, a tremor in his voice.
“In a sense, yes. Because then you were alive and you knew I loved you. But the night I thought you were dead ... so much regret, so many wasted opportunities, so much left unsaid. I thought the best thing in my life had ended before it even started.”
“Are you sure? About telling her?”
“She believes he died thinking she'd married Tempus.”
Clark pulled her against him again. “I'll tell her,” he said.
“No, I'll do it.” She moved away and smiled teasingly. “Last time, you rehearsed for months and still didn't get it right.”
Yes!!! Yes!!!
Yes!!!! And Lois got it so right, too. You know, one of the reasons why I didn't read the story was that there were two Lois and Clarks in it. I didn't really feel for such a story. But here it came out perfectly, when 'our' Lois could tell 'not our Lois' Clark's secret.
I completely loved the ending, too:
“Don't lie to me, beautiful wife. I saw his chest and it's just as defined as mine.”
She giggled as his biting turned to nibbling, then to kissing. “It was your hair.”
“My hair?”
“When you're Superman, you part your hair straight back and then across, sort of like an "L'”
“What does he do?”
“Sweeps it back on both sides.”
“So it was the "L'?”
“Uh huh. The "L' ... like you"re marked as mine.”
He lifted her fully onto his chest. “Always.” He kissed her. “Forever.” Kiss. “In my heart.” Kiss. “Everywhere else.”
She nestled her body even closer into his. “Now,” she purred. “About those *special techniques* of yours ...”
Superman wears an 'L' in his hair, as well as in his heart, because of his love for Lois!
What a lovely ending!!!!!
Ann
. Thanks for reading and taking the time to respond to the bits you liked.
