I enjoyed this. I was suspicious of Kelly almost from the start, but I think it's just because I really don't want to see Clark with anyone but Lois. But I never suspected all sorts of hidden agendas and feelings on her part - everything with Lex and Trask took me completely by surprise.
And the fact that it was too late to save Clark.
I wasn't expecting that either! I was sure that even though it was horrifically close, that the kryptonite wouldn't quite kill him.
I think I would personally prefer the story without the epilogue, but I understand perfectly your need for one. And for me your epilogue rewrite works better than the first one, so I hope you will include it as an option if you post it to the Archives.
Since I'm not up-to-date on my reading, I haven't seen a spate of "Clark and/or Lois moving on" stories recently, but perhaps some have slipped by me. Of course, two or three stories do not portend a long-lived future trend. If so, then we'll also have to worry that there will never be any TOGoM stories ever again, since there were none within the past year.
But no matter how much angst we, as writers and/or readers, may want to put Clark and Lois through, I think we all want to see them come out triumphant and together at the end of
almost every story...if not
every story.
Kathy
