Thanks for the feedback, FOLCs!
Ann, your comment about Claude
A small nitpick, Terry. Would Claude really be a reporter for the Daily Planet if his command of English was this bad?
is perfectly valid. In my defense of my characterization of him, I must point out that written command of a language is different from spoken command, and most reporters have their stories reviewed by an editor before publication, so any French constructions he might leave in would be weeded out. Also, at this point Claude is very angry (unjustified, of course), and when one is very angry one often loses part of a second language, especially if that fluency is recently gained. So, all in all, I think Claude's grammar errors are understandable.
Maria, I think you're right about Clark starting to let go of Lana a little bit. He feels something for Lois, and we'll see more of it soon.
Elisabeth, thanks for taking the time to comment. I tried to cut this story down to size, I really did, but all those story points masquerading as flamingos keep poking out and squawking at me! You should see the stuff I decided NOT to put in this monster.
Ann, you pointed out that Henderson told Clark something that he didn't tell Lois. Maybe it's a test to see if that info gets around to the wrong people. If not, then Clark may not be the leak. It's the kind of thing that sneaky cops sometimes do when they have no legitimate avenues of investigation open to them. Besides, Bill already knows Lois and seems to trust her, so maybe it has nothing to do with her.
And maybe it does after all. Hmmm.
Alcyone, I'm sorry if you were put off by the humor in the first part. (It's not a big part of the story, I promise!) There were a couple of reasons for it, some of which haven't been revealed yet. But I got similar reactions from my betas. One thought it was hysterical, one thought it was kinda funny but gross, and one asked me if I
really wanted to put that kind of thing in my story. It just points up something we've discussed before in a lot of different threads, that not everyone is the same and not everybody likes the same things.
And no, the remaining thirty-plus parts aren't filled with hearts and flowers. Who'd believe that of me anyway?
Next chapter up soon!
