Caroline, as I've been thinking back on your story, I realize more and more that this is the paragraph I need to quote:
She raised her head, determined to just do it, and she was immediately arrested by a pair of soulful brown eyes. He was staring at her, with something in his face that made her breath hitch and her heart start to pound. He was hurting. She knew this from one glance, though she couldn’t have said how, and just like the day before when they’d watched the Messenger explode, she had an almost uncontrollable impulse to go to him, to offer what comfort she could. Odd, that, since the night before she’d been desperately wanting his comfort and been so sure that he was strong enough to handle anything.
I said in my previous post that this Lois knows how to give, if only in limited ways, but she doesn't know how to receive. But in this paragraph you show us how Clark's pain affects her so strongly, so viscerally, that she is almost overwhelmed by her need to comfort him. At the same time, she desperately wants to turn to him for for comfort, so that
he can comfort
her. Clark is the man who can make Lois give love and caring as well as receive it. With him she can heal, and learn to trust and love. If only she can find it in herself to dare to risk her heart.
This is not news, Caroline. On some level, all LnC fans know that Lois's distrust and skittishness are what is keeping her and Clark apart. Oh, and Clark's inability to trust Lois with the truth about himself certainly doesn't help, either.
But this is what is so remarkable about your way of telling your story: you tell us what we know already, and yet you amaze us with your ability to shed mesmerizing new light on these two characters and their situation.
Ann
