Wow. Just… wow. Like everyone, I'm finding the interactions between Clark and Lois to be wonderful, but THIS is the part that's really going to stay with me.
For a moment, he felt the familiar panic with his own frailties and limitations, the gaps in his knowledge and the very real knowledge of his own weakness, the things he couldn’t do and the burden of all that depended on him. For a moment, he felt the familiar urge to curl up into a tight ball and shut out the jagged, harsh, painful pleas for his help, to go back to his apartment in Metropolis or his parents’ farmhouse in Smallville and pretend, for just an hour, a day, a week, that he didn’t hold such breathtaking, soul-crushing responsibility on his shoulders.
And then, as he always did, he fought off the cowardice, fought off the exhaustion, focused his every ounce of attention on the emergency before him--and he became Superman.
It's just SO powerful, and goes right to the core of who he is and how he lives his life. Think I'm probably going to reread this section a few times to really catch all the wonderful nuance!
