Given the title, I was afraid the story would go in the other direction. You really captured Clark's angst and indecision. I don't usually think of him as this insecure, but it's exactly these kinds of thoughts that led him to decide to run away and leave Metropolis when Lois told Superman that she had decided who she was going to date.
I always got the impression that Lois was a bit blindsided by Dan and his advances and didn't know what to do with him, but she really shouldn't have been stringing both Dan and Clark along like that.
Thank you for commenting mrsMxyzptlk,
I have to admit I was tempted to make him make that mistake and shatter everything but thankfully I was talked out of it. Yes, I wanted to get in Clark's head at that moment when he realized how fragile things were between him and Lois. There's always the focus on Mayson's death in Resurrection fics, but I tried to make the focus on everything he and Lois had been through and let his insecurities bubble to the surface. As Clark puts it so eloquently in a later episode,
"Superman is what I can do Clark is who I am," making it evident just how human he can be outside of the powers he's been gifted.
He's not perfect by any stretch of the word, and his insecurities have shown many times before so I thought this was a good place to really shine some light on the emotions he was feeling in that moment. With everything on the line the fact that Lois responded to Dan's request with "I don't know" had to be painful for him.
The more I'm thinking about it I'm tempted to shine some light on the other end of the spectrum and show Lois' side of things.
Nicely done! I love how tortured Clark is in the beginning. He has EVERY right to be hurt that the woman he's been seeing/dating would even entertain the idea of going out with another man RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. That always pisses me off every time I watch. That Scardino would be gutsy enough to try that and that Lois would stick the knife into Clark like that. We know, Lois, he's been flaky on you, but wow that was a low blow to him.
Anyway, I'm glad the lunkhead made the decision to meet up with her. If he hadn't...she never would have forgiven him. He would have lost his chance forever. And doomed Utopia in the process. All because he's acting petulant. But, he didn't, so we'll have to excuse his angry thoughts and near "throwing in the towel" moment.
Great story!
Thanks Vicki,
And thanks again for talking me down from making Clark walk away from everything. That would not have ended up being a short fic at all.
Yeah, I still don't understand the thought process going on there. He asked her out. She said yes. Then it took them two months to go out. They both admitted it was risky because of their friendship. That in itself should have warranted a more serious tone in their relationship on her part. The response to Dan that I'm sure Clark overheard had to cut deep.
Though I wouldn't have blamed Clark for walking away I'm glad I didn't make him do that either. He has to work through his emotions and you may end up with a sequel to this one or a spin-off I guess is more appropriate term for it.
Thanks for reading and commenting everyone.
