Good morning Ann.
I'm glad you continued to enjoy the story down to the end. I'm proud of you for reading it even after the WHAM I had posted. And I have to admit a certain sense of pride at this quote:
If Lois had remained dead in this story, I could never have allowed myself to appreciate this scene in any way. I would have been too busy defending myself from it. But as it is, I can be almost swept away by the beauty of the fact that Clar's picking up Lois and holding her even though she's dead.
Wow! If I can manage to move *you* with this scene, even get you to read this scene, then I feel a sense of accomplishment. I know how you hate death-of-Lois fics and I'm flattered you were willing to give mine a chance.
I'm glad you liked the touching scenes with Mayson. Clark did love her and I couldn't see him leaving without saying goodbye to her.
Yes, I know most fics don't focus on the curse in Soul Mates, but I find that intriguing because so many stories refer to them being soul mates and being bound together, and yet that curse was tied up in that. Superman's worst fear is that he won't be able to save Lois, that's why he's so protective of her and careful. It takes something like *this*, working against him, for him to fail...and yet he still didn't fail, in the end.
I'm not absolutely sure I, the space buff and to a lesser extent, the science buff, am buying what you are saying about there being a sort of absolute *present* in the universe.
That was only Wells' best guess. That's the wonderful thing about time travel. It's not science, it's science fiction, and it is *different* and explained differently in each and every story I've read about it in or movie/tv show, I've seen it in. Until someone actually manages to time travel, it's open to each author's interpretation. I think the strangest use of time travel I ever read was H.G. Wells saying he'd drop Lois & Clark back before he ever picked them up so they wouldn't remember...um, sorry, that never worked for me.
So, I'm taking my interpretive right on that part...I actually didn't have that detailed of an explanation to begin with. I added that in later, just in an attempt to better explain what Wells and Clark thought had happened.
The final dream sequence...I borrowed that from the episode "Meet John Doe" in season 4. This story is supposed to be a prelude to "Meet John Doe".
Thanks so much Ann! I'm glad you enjoyed the ride!