The last two parts were painful enough, but the opening on Part 10 was heartrending:
But this, here, feels real, and it is even better than she imagined, and so she lets herself lay there. Lets her body sink even farther into his hold. Lets her eyes drift open (slowly, lest this all fade) and move upward until she can see Clark. He’s asleep, his breaths lightly feathering against the flyaway hairs at her temples, his arms solid around her. Her headache is gone, and she feels…loved…and she doesn’t think she will ever move again.
This is better than the flashes. This can’t be blinked away, or ignored. This is real.
Yup, so real that I'm wondering why Lois does not communicate with Clark about everything that has been happening to her in the past few weeks. Especially these 'timely' visits by this silver-haired man who might either be an ancient version of Tempus or possibly H.G. Wells gone horribly wrong. After all, they are the only ones who know about Utopia.
Those insistent flashes of memory are trying to tell her Clark needs a counterbalance to Superman and she is it.
“You knew?” Instantly, she straightens (she promised herself she wouldn’t let him dissuade or distract her). Ignoring the migraine building up behind her eyes to replace the one Clark soothed away, she fixes an image of Clark’s hurt, bewildered eyes to steel her nerves. “Well, congratulations, you were right--about this. And if you already knew I wouldn’t go through with it, then why did you ever come to me in the first place? Why not pick someone else to do your dirty work?”
Why not indeed? This guy is a master manipulator, I can only wonder how this will all turn out.
Next part?
