Well I'm weak Ann. Weak enough not to fight against this story because it's AMAZING. I. Love. It. The flow, the imagery, the humour, the tenderness. Here's a folc who really gets to the heart of her character and thinks about the motivation behind the actions she's going to inflict upon them. So, let's quote shall we? (settle in, cuz it's gonna be a while):
But what didn't remind her, now? What didn't? From the scent of freshly brewed coffee to the tang of sugar as it connected with her bottom lip from a doughnut to the lyrics of a particularly manufactured teenage pop anthem currently rocketing its way around Metropolis's main radio stations - all of them made her turn and start conversations with thin air.
Would you like a highly fattening, artery-clogging, nutritionally worthless snack item, Clark? Isn't it amazing what somebody with a bellybutton ring and a voice box can do these days, Clark? Can I get you a high-sugar, high-saturated-fat, fully-caffeinated cup of coffee, Clark? You realise at this rate you're going to develop diabetes before you're thirty, right, Clark?
One, love how the thoughts stay in her voice. 2) Love the pop music reference b/c it's plausible but not explicitly from the show 3) Love how I can just see her turning, these thoughts already forming in her mind, halfway to her lips, to talk to thin air b/c it's just so natural to think that he would be there. By her side, b/c that's just the way it is in her world. LOVE. IT.
and then...
She was walking, jogging, sprinting, saying his name into the air and not worrying about how crazy she was or how she looked or who might see.
Now Lois has willingly done some seemingly crazy things before it's true, but when she's running into the arms of a person she can't see but somehow recognizes, yelling the name of her dead partner, you just have to see the love there.
And she threw herself forward into his arms, wonderfully solid, hugging her as only Clark could hug her and he was there right in front of her and he wasn't a ghost, wasn't made out of mist, he was hers and he was there and he was alive, oh *Clark*...She was sobbing wildly as she hung onto him, as she ran her hands over his shoulders, glorying in the breadth and warmth of him. Clark, her strength, her life, her Clark, there in front of her, and the feel of his...
*As only Clark could hug her...he was hers...her strength, her life, her Clark* AWWWWW!
she gasped in a strangled breath at the familiar crest - the red and the yellow, the symbol of all that was good, the thing that made her hate him so.
"No!" And then: "Why?" She yelled, she screamed hoarsely, and she pounded a fist against the centre of his chest, against that thing that made him not-Clark. "*Why*? First you don't save him, the most *powerful* thing on the... and now... how could you make me think..."
I. LOVE. THIS. I have always wondered what Lois would say to Superman if she saw him before he came back as Clark, wanted to write a fic about it but Sara has taken the thought right out of my head and made the moment SO MUCH BETTER!
"Lois..." His deep voice a distant mocking mumble in her ears. "Don't you understand? This is what you wanted, this is what you asked for..."
"No!" she shrieked, horrified, stunned into submission at the dazzling candid unfairness of that. "I didn't want this! I don't want this, I don't want *you*, I want... I want..."
<...Clark...>
BEAUTY, people, has just been put down on paper. Love this moment of realization. You can just see cogs snapping into place in Lois' head, the horrified guilt and sudden awareness of her own feelings just crashing over her. LOVE IT!
And these hilarious moments...
Some people think living on the edge is fun. There's a whole group of them somewhere, they're called the People Who Think Living On The Edge Is Fun. Poor lunatics...
Lois's Sense of Timing still holidaying by a sparkling aquamarine pool, sipping cocktails along with Lois's Rational Thoughts and Lois's Patience.
So what if he wasn't like that? He could make an exception, couldn’t he? He could behave completely out of character for one night so that she wouldn't have to be so alone. She wouldn't have to be Wet Miserable Lonely Lois; she could be Lois and her Aggrieved Sense of Betrayal instead.
Or Lois and her Righteous Anger. Or Lois and her Sleazy Womanising Best Friend.
Sigh. I love Lois. She's insane, and like Clark, we love her because and not in spite of this. Thank you for so clearly portraying that delightful and beloved mix of craziness, belligerent child, and confused woman in love.
All the little things he did for her spoke for themselves. Unspoken avowals of love in the cups of coffee, the jelly doughnuts, the supportive hand on her shoulder as she pounded the keys of the computer in a desperate effort to squeeze the story in before deadline. The look in his eyes when she made him laugh, that warm sparkling appreciative... thing...
And then the big things - the unspoken understanding that flitted between them, the shirts she'd ruined with mascara after a particularly poignant scene in whatever movie she'd forced him to sit through, the way he'd tried to teach her how to cook, the way he hadn't strangled her when she'd nearly burnt his kitchen down
Imagery here is so sweet. We know they hang out together, and every thing here is so very possible that we can just see it happening and it makes us want to laugh and cry b/c they would be SO CUTE doing these scenes, so very cute together...
If she'd died right there, right alongside him, it would have been fine. When he was taken and she left, the very fact of her existence had destroyed her. It had been incomprehensible that she could breathe without him, impossible to contemplate living without him.
This is so beautiful and so true of Lois and Clark. You just know that for both of them the very thought of living after losing the other is like speaking to someone in a language even Clark doesn't know. It's indescribable how little sense it makes, b/c it doesn't make ANY to them. No Clark? No *Clark*? You can just see Lois's mental self screwing up her forehead and tilting her head, raising her eyebrows at the thought as if somehow it will suddenly become clear how that idea is supposed to make sense.
And the panic attack: Beautifully done. Followed by a simply amazing scene of love. When Lois is up and running, thinking all sorts of crazy thoughts about what could have happened/could be happening/could happen in mere seconds to Clark in the dark dangerous world, you just have to smile. Her desire to protect him is so automatic, her fear so strong that in her mind it's bigger than the fact that Clark is a big, strong, intelligent man not likely to wander into a den of thieves at one in the morning (though, being Superman...) I love how that doesn't even matter to her; the fact that she's shorter and he's stronger doesn't even make a difference. All she can think is "Clark is in trouble" and all she knows is her love for him is the mnost powerful thing she's ever known and if anything can save him it's that.
AMAZING. So delicious, I'll take as many servings as you got and even skip dessert.
