Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Date by Arrangement 9

First of all, thanks for posting so fast, Wendy. Who said nagging didn't help?

And then, you problably know the drill by now: Where are the whams??? Nearly at the end and no whams? How could you? We only got something small in the previous post, so here I was, hoping for something really big like whams. And what happens? Nothing! Completely nothing!

Anyway, post the last part ASAP!!!

Saskia

Loved this part, Wendy.


I am a real fan of Martha's, and you gave her such perfectly great things to say and in just the right way.


Only negative comment --- you said 9 parts -- you mean I have to wait for another segment? <g> Okay, but hurry up.


Barb.

Well, in the absence of a Kryptonite-coated Clue Bat (tm), Martha works pretty well to get a few things jammed into Clark's head...

But Lois is spinning her wheels... she'd better get her act together, or she'll lose him forever -- oh, no, wait! Saved by the doorbell

Post more later today, okay?

PJ

:-p ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /me refuses to say more until she sees the next part!!

AAAAAHHHH! I need more now! I loved this but I can't wait to find out what he says to her. Laura

Where there really needed ten parts? :p

I wouldn't have minded a loooong part 9

Jose Cliffhanger...

Let's see. Clark was his typical wishy washy self. He couldn't even keep his righteous anger with his mother. Instead he allows her to placate him with cornbread, and answers shrouded in BS, half truths and mis-directions. I didn't expect Clark to get nasty with his mother, but she really did step over the line this time.

I'm going to miss Lois' 'search' for Clark's mystery woman. Even if it was only going to be in her head. Now we are going to have a 'Wendy conversation'. That means it will start out with some confusion, move onto some mis-understanding, then anger, then one of them will take the initiative and force the ohter one to 'listen to them'. Then they will realize that they both feel the same way about each other, then fall into some sort of gooey, waffy kissy-face ending.

In other words... yucky stuff... NEXT!

Tank (who hopes that this Lois and Clark don't wind up in bed, that would be pushing it a bit too far, even for Wendy)

Wendy
another great part
hate cliffhangers
merry

Hi,

Great part.

Finally, an adult. :rolleyes:

More soon, please.

MAF

I may be one of the few here, but I thought Clark was a bit of a wuss with his mother. He has every right to be angry with her, and I believe that she may have had the best intentions when she spoke to Lois, but we know where some of the best intentions can lead to.

Then she's so know-it-all proving Clark wrong. It might not have worked at all.

I guess what I'm saying is that Martha was not right in this case. She could have messed up the whole relationship with Lois and Clark (who usually do well enough on their own to mess up the relationship).

I believe that she owes them a big apology. None of this cornbread right out of the oven (or even a pie). I think she needs to realize that even when things work out, she has no right to meddle.

Woh! I think I'm really angry at Martha here.

At least the next part is the final one....

gerry

Wendy

A great part!

I can't wait to read the next part.
Please post it soon.

Tricia

Wendy,

I'm late catching up.

I don't have any real grief with Martha. The opposite, as a matter of fact. I feel like she's the one "smart" character.

I just feel like Lois and Clark are kind of...hmmm...clueless? More so than usual?

Lois so badly misinterpreting the intended kiss in part 8 got under my skin a bit. (There, I've said it.) I mean, isn't Lois Lane a smart woman? Isn't that why we love her? ( trying to fit soapbox back under desk, but keeps trying to pop back out...) But here she is such a neurotic mess she can't see what is fairly obvious...

Ok, you're just going to say that you're glad you pushed my buttons and that good writing does that....And I know you'll wrap this up nicely.

In defense of Clark-the-wuss, though, I would say that most well brought-up, grown men can't really fuss at their mamas, even when it's deserved and they so want to. I'd wager that 9 times out of 10 the cornbread dodge works.

Still reading, Wendy, still frowning at the screen, but ready for what's up your sleeve,

CC

I also thought Martha was a bit too smug in wiggling out of her interference. Even though she had all the best intentions, it could have gone so wrong.

BUT... at least Clark is at Lois' door - hopefully she won't slam it in his face - and this is the last part so things should work out.

More soon!!! Like maybe in honor of BR Day?
/me asks hopefully.

Missy

One thing I love about posting fanfic to the boards is how people can read the same story and have such different reactions. I guess that's why I revisit comments folders, even after I've posted, to read what everyone else has to say.

I don't have any problem with Clueless Lois 'n' Clark (tm) since the light-hearted tone of the story lets you get away with a few plot devices. And I loved the fact that Clark showed up on Lois's doorstep -- yes, I would have loved to see her go to work and dig for the name of his "girlfriend" but that would require several more parts and I'm ready for smoochies.

But alas, I'm in the camp that wanted Clark to wipe the smug look off Martha's face ... she was just entirely too pleased with herself when Clark was clearly very upset about the whole situation. She's making a lot of assumptions that Clark is misinterpreting Lois's reactions -- it seems to me that, since she wasn't on the date, she would take Clark's word for it that Lois was offended that he would try to romance her when he supposedly was interested in someone else. I would have prefered to have her fret about her plan backfiring, then talk things through with Clark to bring him (them both) to the realization that maybe the plan worked after all.

That said, I am very much looking forward to part 10. Bring on the romance!

Kathy

Sorry I've been so slow posting comments, but I've just been really busy.

This was a great part, Wendy. After the last part, I was tearing my hair out, wondering just what it would take to knock some sense into both of their heads. Clark runs away and Lois can't figure out the obvious.

For this part, Martha was her usual voice of reason. While she tiptoes and parses words, she manages to make Clark realize just what Lois was saying and putting things into the proper perspective. She gives him hope.

Yes! How is it that Martha can see what neither one of them can see from half a country away? Ah, but we do love our two lunkheads.

Finally, it's sinking into his thick skull.

It's amazing what some people will delude themselves into believing. Martha basically came out and gave Lois all the answers. She in turn made up a love interest for Clark, failing to recognize she fit all the parameters. Then she misses all the clues Clark dropped for his perfect woman. /me thwaps Lois with a 2x4

This would have been funny to see.

Look in the mirror, Lois!

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, WHOOHOO! They're going to talk it out and start smooching in the next part. On the other hand, it would have been fun, too, to watch Lois grilling everybody in sight for clues to who Clark's mystery love is. And maybe somebody at the Planet would thwap her over the head by telling her that everybody else already knew what she couldn't see.

Oh well, can't have everything.

Again, great part, Wendy! Looking forward to Part 10, which will be posted now, right?

Hi guys! Back again for the penultimate time... Yes, Saskia, nagging occasionally works even better than you think.

Thanks to you all for sticking with me thus far, and for telling me what you think. I was fully expecting that this post would be more controversial than some others, because I'm very well aware that, with Martha, I'm perhaps treading on the borders of what might be acceptable characterisation for her or for Clark. And the responses illustrate exactly that - some people think I've gone too far:

That was Tank. And Gerry agreed:
Yup, Gerry, you were pretty mad at Martha! Mind you, in Martha's defence I might suggest that you should rather be mad at me instead.

And then there was Missy:
and Kathy:
You all make a number of good points, and actually, I like Kathy's suggestion, though I don't think I'll make any changes to the story now. (It's gone for GEing, apart from anything else - the pressure of end-of-year deadlines, apart from whether I could actually work a scene like that in).

But then, there are others who don't have a problem with either Martha or Clark; for instance, Roger said:
True... and I like the way you trace her reasoning through, too, Roger!

Barb said:
Aww! Thank you! And Pam said:

And hey! Even CC agrees! Must have done something right if CC agrees...

Though of course CC has concerns with Lois and Clark - I won't comment on that other than to say that I agree with Kathy there.

But I'm certainly not saying that anyone who thought that Martha had overstepped the mark or that Clark should have given her more grief for it is wrong - absolutely not! It's a perfectly valid interpretation of the characters, and I knew I'd get this reaction from at least some readers (I'm just glad it's not from all of you! <g>).

The way I saw it is like this: Martha knows Clark very well. She also had Lois summed up the very first time Lois came to Smallville. She was very sure that Lois was more interested in Clark than she pretended, and I can only imagine that M&J's trip to Metropolis in The Source would have reinforced that impression. Therefore, for Martha, it was only a question of giving Lois something to think about, of engineering some way in which she was forced to confront her feelings. As Roger says, Martha never actually said that Clark's mystery love was someone else - Lois just assumed it.

My interpretation is that Martha would never have done it if she hadn't already known how Lois would react - and from there it was just a matter of waiting until either the penny dropped or Lois decided to fight for her man.

Speaking of Lois fighting for her man, this seems a fairly typical view:
Yup, I was getting this impression from the comments to Part 8 as well. Actually, originally I had the idea that this might be a longer story, that it might take some time for the penny to drop and that Lois might actually start trying to entice Clark away from the mystery woman while at the same time he would be working up the courage to ask her out. But then, as sometimes happened, the characters sort of went their own way during the date and when Clark took Lois home, and once that happened it seemed to me that the misunderstanding simply couldn't be allowed to drag out. Clark would, of course, talk to Martha, and having talked to her he would want to see Lois and get things straightened out.

Hence ten parts instead of the 40 or so I've been known to run to in the past!!


Anyway, enough rambling on... Part 10 coming up very soon! After all, how could I possibly delay any more:

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! /me runs from a vengeful Kaethel...

Thanks again for all your comments.


Wendy