Thanks for all of your wonderful comments, everyone. I'm so happy to see that people enjoyed this story. Before I get to thanking each of you individually, I hope you'll indulge a brief author's note (If not, just skip the next two paragraphs or so
).
This had been sitting on my hard drive half finished for about a year and a half. The whole story came from the image of Lois playing the piano in an empty bar with Clark watching on as an unwanted audience. I confess to writing what I know, and this story is definitely no exception. I heard the piece, 'Single Petal of a Rose,' for the first time five years ago this month in the jazz club on 44th Street (in New York's Hell's Kitchen, not Metropolis's Devil's Den). Unlike Lois, I was old enough to get in without a fake ID. I was so taken by the piece that I paid to stay for both music sets that night just so I could hear it again. (Ann, I'm pretty sure I know the version you found on-line. I admire the young man's talent, but I'm not a fan of the license he takes with the tempo and the theme and I feel that the original is completely in a league of its own).
Having worked on white collar criminal investigations for years, I thought I'd try to transplant just a little bit of what I learned there into the storyline here - how do you make sure you've exhausted sources of information, how do you develop new investigative strategies when others don't work, etc. I feel like the show had to take a lot of short cuts with the actual work of investigating as it was not a police procedural and there was probably plenty enough other stuff to work into the 44 minutes per episode. As a result, I think it missed out on a lot of what could have been interesting character and storyline development, out of sheer necessity. That's the nice thing about writing without the same sort of limitations an actual TV program would have - more freedom to explore different approaches to pacing and development without being a slave to a schedule or an entire season's storyline. Laura, I'm glad you enjoyed the ending. Over the last week and a half or so, Avia and I have been working through it to get it right. It was definitely the most troublesome part to write, so I'm glad it worked for you.
Sheila, it was my pleasure to share the story. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
IolantheAlias, glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for reading and commenting, Artemis!
Annalina, thank you for taking the time to read this and give feedback. I'm glad you liked the ending.
Thank you, Michael. Great to hear that the conclusion worked for you.
Bob, thanks for your comments. I agree that Lois needed to have a meltdown. I didn't really give her a choice thanks to the Worst.Revelation.Ever (TM Michael). I also felt it was still early enough in their partnership/friendship that Clark's behavior looks like temporary insanity/weakness, not a long-term calculated plot to deceive, so I hoped it would be believable that she'd get over it sooner rather than later.
I'm also glad to hear you liked the roses. I thought the show's use of them in the Prankster episode was poignant and kind of wanted Clark to be able to give Lois roses without her pouring stale coffee over them. Also, while the source of the study is clearly biased (American Society of Florists), 60% of men surveyed would like to receive roses. Lois is a forward thinking woman, I figured having her send Clark roses would be a good bookend to the story.
Ann, thank you, as always, for your extremely thoughtful comments. I'm very pleased to see you enjoyed the story and that the ending rang true to you. I realized as I was working on this that I didn't want it to turn into some long, protracted battle between the characters. Usually, though, I let them take me where they want to go. If they want a long, protracted battle, they get it (as you are, no doubt, aware). In this case, it was tough to have a conclusion in mind and then try to work toward it. I was worried that I would start forcing the characters to behave in a way that served the story and my goals, instead of serving their own motivations.
As you said, more eloquently than I, love makes people do stupid things. Out of fear of losing that love, they rationalize bad decisions or they hide, lie, deny the obvious, whatever. And I think you're right about the point of the story. While the A plot is entirely about Lois and her realization of her feelings for Clark is important, this story is largely about Clark's love for Lois. Something I've tried to I touch upon in "The Longest Road" is the idea of what's left of a person when you strip away status, profession, relationships, and everything else that people use to identify that person and their place in the world. What are we at our molecular level? What is the smallest measure of Lois Lane or Clark Kent that is recognizable as Lois or Clark?
In my opinion, for Lois, it's the need to fight back. It doesn't even matter against what. Lois Lane fights back. At a molecular level, that's who she is. That's the part of her that doesn't change, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what her experiences.
For Clark, I'd be tempted to say that Clark Kent helps others. However, I think Clark helps in large part because it connects him to humanity. It makes him part of this world and allows him to take part in life on Earth as a fully participating member. He helps because he's a good and decent person raised to be that way by Martha and Jonathan Kent. He helps because he can't imagine what other reason there would be for him to have such remarkable powers. But these are precisely the connections and the desires and hopes that make up our relationships with the world and other people. At his core, I would say that Clark Kent is the man who loves Lois Lane. That is who he is. That is the thing about him that cannot change, no matter what.
This isn't meant to diminish Lois's love for Clark or to try to compare the two. I don't think it's really possible to compare the two characters and say he loves her more than she loves him, or anything like that. I don't think you could say he wouldn't hesitate to die for her, but she might think twice. But I do think Lois would survive losing Clark better than he would survive losing her. She would revert back to fighter mode. I have a tougher time seeing Clark do the same. Now you know why I've been so much crueler to Clark than Lois in 'The Longest Road.' I'm a really big jerk.
And as a post script, for any impressionable young, or not so young folks out there: While I agree with Ann that Clark's thoughts at this point are singularly about being with Lois, not about white picket fences, or church weddings or whatnot, the conversation about protection did in fact happen. It just happened during one of those times when the characters turned at me and said "Rac, do you mind? A little privacy, please?" so the scene faded to black.
Thanks for your wonderful comments, Chris. I'm glad you enjoyed the story and am very pleased if it brought back a sense of nostalgia for LnC.
Jenni, thanks so much for reading and commenting. Glad to hear you enjoyed the story and the ending.
Flowerpot, I'm glad to hear that I managed to tell this story without you wanting to blame the characters. They did some less than brilliant things (Clark especially), but I wanted to make sure it was believable.
Female Hawk, thanks for taking the time to read the story. I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the very kind words, Terry. I'm glad you enjoyed the story, even if Clark was a dolt the whole way through.
Thanks, Gamesaway! Glad you liked the story!
Regards,
Rac
