Hopefully, I'll have time to comment on the actual story, the details of, later. For now, I'll just say something about the fact that this is a Clark deathfic (but not really) and a Lois-moving-on fic (but not really).
Everybody knows that I hate Lois deathfics, and well, I totally, totally hate Clark-moving-on fics, too. For much of my life, I have been worrying about the fact that Superman treated Lois badly, and I have been afraid that he would dump her. I have felt, so intensely, that Lois has been treated unfairly.
I know, I know, she wasn't treated unfairly in LnC, and this site is dedicated to LnC, so I shouldn't let those other incarnations of Superman and Lois cloud my perception of LnC's Clark and Lois. For all of that, they do. I don't know if LnC's Lois deserves to be punished, to be killed, to have Clark leave her etcetera, but I do know that the Lois I grew up with didn't deserve to be treated like that. It hurts like hell every time I come across a Lois deathfic or a Clark-moves-on-fic. So I'm very grateful to the authors who write these fics for warning me to stay away from their stories.
I don't want to see Clark killed. I don't want to see Lois move on. But in view of the number of Lois deathfics, and the much talked-about recent Clark-moving-on fic, well, I can't help it... I needed a story like this one. A story that says that Clark can be killed, too (there's Kryptonite, remember?) and Lois can move on, too. And there are other nice guys who may like her, not just a scumbag like Lex who just wants to conquer her.
So I think of this story as a reminder that Clark, too, is mortal, and Lois, too, could move on. I don't want her to move on, and I don't want Clark to die, but in view of recent Lois deathfics and Clark-moves-on fics... Yes, I was glad to see this story here.
And somehow, I was a little depressed at the epilogue. It seems to me that we always offer Clark an "out". If we kill him, we usually revive him again. But if we kill Lois, she sure as heck stays dead. And if Lois moves on, she is usually made to go back to Clark again. (The only exceptions are the stories where Clark is absolutely unavailable, as in Becky Bain's "Per Aspera Ad Astra".) In the Clark-moves-on fics, he stays with his new woman, whether Lois wants him back or not.
I want to read Lois and Clark fics, where Lois and Clark both survive and get to be happy together. For all of that... yes, I liked this story, ML.
Ann
