Hi, Virginia!
And in more ways than one.
Oh yeah!!
Clark not telling Lois his secret because he needed to know if Lois loved him for him, not Superman... sure puts a kink in his loving her. Truth be told, I bet it's more along the line that when it came to Lois, he didn't have the self-confidence in Clark to tell Lois the truth, especially after he told her on the bench that he loved her (before she accepted Luthor's proposal); therefore, putting the blame squarely on Lois's shoulders is doing her a disservice and makes her sound awfully shallow (then, again, she did accept Luthor'r proposal when not being in love with him and being in love with Superman). This isn't a comment on your story per se, DC, but that plotline from canon in general. After Lois rejected Superman to date Clark is really when he should have told Lois. Big ol' chicken!
Clark definitely has his baggage. He's been tossed aside in one suit, only to be propositioned in the other, then both get shoved aside while she almost marries a man he knows she doesn't love. So he's perhaps justifiably nervous about the "will she love Clark or Superman" thing. But after 6 months and a marriage proposal...well...his excuses are smoke in the wind.
It's ironic that Clark used Mayson learning that he was Superman as a way to let her down gently. Although, it was tackless to say (while she's in the room) that the real reason he couldn't be with Mayson was that she wasn't Lois. (So much for letting her down gently).
Well, to be fair, he never wanted Mayson to find out. And no one said that's how he let her down. I think Mayson always knew in the show that she didn't really have a chance with Clark, and that's why she was so aggressive in trying to pursue him and change that. Why else would she offer a weekend away in the woods with him so quickly after meeting him (The Eyes Have It)?
I was worried about Superman being in the hospital until I remembered that he had been in the hospital before during Top Copy. Jeffery C. (the guy who answered the phone at STAR Labs), isn't he the guy who tried to develop a virus from Kryptonite? The same one who framed Lois for her informant's murder in Metropolis V. Lois Lane? You really did jumble up the timeline in this story.
That's exactly what I was thinking. He's already been to the hospital in Top Copy, not that that would make him any less nervous about the prospect of going back!
Jeff is just a guy I made up. No connection to any other plotlines.
