Ahhhhh - it's so good to come home from a long and hectic day and find FDK.
cp33 - I feel sorry for both of them - the Lois and Clark who know what they're missing. <sniffle>
Carol - I swear, I'm not trying to make you (or anyone else) cry. I just enjoy torturing Clark on occasion.
Lieta - Thank you (yet again!) for laughing at the right parts. Hee!
Sara - You know, it took me a day or two, but it sort of dawned on me that you might not be the same Sara. By then, though, it was kinda too late to go back and change my post.
I'm delighted that you're reading, no matter how addled my brain gets.
You do bring up an interesting point:
But married Lois is still in love with MARRIED Clark, not the Clark she was dating a few years ago.
And married Clark is love with MARRIED Lois, not the Lois he was dating a few years ago.All that is true, BUT they weren't married when they first fell in love. Their love has certainly grown and deepened, but it was always there. Give me a few more parts and I'll elaborate.
And, no, this isn't a "Dr. Klein was wrong" story and neither version of Lois is going to end up pregnant.
Robinson - New reader! Yay! Thanks for replying!
sarahg - No tears! Not until the end, anyway. Oh, wait. Uh… No, no tears at all. <g>
Ann - Yes, Flois is relaxed and somewhat playful around Clark, but she definitely wasn't deliberately teasing him when she touched his knee. It was a completely unconscious gesture, one that she stopped as soon as she caught herself. Her sleepy "are you home now" was entirely because she wasn't fully aware of the circumstances.
I have to take exception to this:
He is still stuck in his belief that the best way to make Lois love him is to lie to her. Or at least, he believes that nothing is a greater threat to his future with Lois than the truth, particularly if it is Lois who knows it. Not true! Clark isn't lying to Lois to try and make her love him. He's evading her questions because he honestly believes that he/they shouldn't jeopardize the future by changing the past. If PastClark were the one he was talking to, he'd still evade all questions! It's my belief that Clark is always the more cautious and idiotically self-sacrificing (especially when he can't see that it's actually both their happiness that he's sacrificing) of the two. For example, his "break up" with Lois or his early avoidance of telling her his secret when he believed she wanted to marry Lex.
I'll break the seal of the author's confessional enough to hint that maybe there are things about all four of them (past and future Lois/past and future Clark) that need to be discovered by all four of them. There's a darn good reason (or two) why HG Wells picked this time and place for the swap (on both ends).
You were absolutely right that Clark's love for Lois (no matter which one he's confronted with) is "desperately genuine". Actually, that goes double for Lois - she just might not realize it yet.
Andreia - You always find the funnest little gifs for your posts (I still giggle about the seal). I'm not trying to make you sad, I promise. Things will pick up!
Pam - You said:
he doesn't even think of trying to persuade her; it's all her choice. He takes that attitude to unhealthy extremes, at times, but it really is admirable -- he loves Lois so much he wants *her* to be happy even if her choice makes him miserable. Yes! Yes! I'm glad that someone else sees his character the same way! <high five!>
Artemis - Ha! I promise, entropy doesn’t win. <g>
Nan! - Now I have Nan reading, too! <woot!> You are correct - Lois will bounce back with her usual flair. You're right again that Wells should have learned his lesson about tweaking time after Tempus. However, maybe that's why no one got an explanation? <heh> If Tempus doesn't notice, did they really get switched and/or did anything change? <double heh>
Laurach - Lois
is looking at her future husband with interest. As for whether they can resist each other -- well, geez, it's Superman. Surely he can resist? <g>
Jen - LOL!
Get, real guys! If you can time travel, you can fix this. Have a bite of a reality sandwich. Yeah, we'll be serving sandwiches in the rear of the compartment shortly. On a different topic - what kind of websites are you designing in what kind of pajamas?
Michael - Oh, PastClark is definitely going to wonder about this altered Lois, but he doesn't know yet about time travel, so he can't come up with a good explanation. Personally, I think it's kind of fun for Lois to be the one with the secret while he's clueless. <vbg>
Iolan - Threads will (eventually) be untangled. There's still seven parts to go. We can't solve it all in one part. Well, I could, but I'd be leaving out all the little scenarios that I wanted so desperately to write.
Many, many thanks to everyone who has replied. You guys rock my world!
