Carol, you made me completely empathize with Lois, which is something I so easily do, of course!
This whole thing was way too family. She'd failed family. This was not some formal, business related gala where she could work the room, gathering information and making contacts. This was different: this was family and friends of such long standing they might as well be family. For that you needed small talk. Lois had failed small talk, too.
Lois had failed family, she had failed small talk... you had me sniffling in sympathy with her.
Who was she kidding? All her relationships had been federal disasters. Besides "all" was a dismally short list, and she vaguely wondered how long something had to last to qualify as a bona fide relationship.
"You're so bloody normal, Clark. So ... " Her hands flailed as she glared at him, feeling foolish, angry - at him for she had no idea what exactly, at herself for so many things, for being so absolutely, appallingly ridiculous. For behaving badly. Yet she couldn't stop herself.
"What?" He was astounded.
"You're so damned ... whole."
He was stunned. Whole? All his life he'd been searching, always knowing something was missing. A piece of his soul. And then one day he'd walked into the Daily Planet and there she was.
"Lois... No, never - not until I met you."
She raised her head then, looked at him, met his dark eyes, the turmoil in hers gentled by the depth of emotion in his.
"Oh." A sigh escaped her lips, and the tension slid from her shoulders. "Oh" she breathed.
You know I love this, Carol. The soulmate connection.
But I don't quite believe him here:
"Lois," he repeated, touching her cheek gently, willing her to see him, all of him.
Clark, if you want Lois to see
all of you, you might have acted slightly different with her when you flew her to Smallville as Superman:
She snuck a look at the man in red and blue beside her, intimidated by his stoic mask.
But you hinted that Clark might be reconsidering things, and might be willing to show Lois more of the real him. I would really, really like to see a sequel!
And I just have to add a few more of my favorite quotes from this vignette:
There had to be a good reason why she couldn't go.
....
Well, there wasn't, of course. For this, she blamed Perry White's inability to assign her at the appropriate time to anything Metropolis related that was out of state or in a foreign country or the backwoods of Canada or wherever - there were so many possibilities if he would have just given it some thought. The Chief had absolutely no imagination!
You had me laughing and crying here!
Still, it was odd. Frivolous, and she doubted Superman had a frivolous bone in his very perfect body. But then it was Martha who'd arranged it, and that explained it all; Martha probably had stuff on Superman, too. Embarrassing photos or something.
Martha Kent was pretty amazing - Lois thought they should just put her in charge of running the universe.
Delightful!
Great vignette, Carol!
Ann
