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Finally a bit of progress. At least Clark does not think Lois is trying to get him to do her laundry or something like that.

Mike

Ouch! How painful. It's so sad to see Clark treat anyone this way, even if he is feeling hurt. He never treated Lex Luthor this bad and he's a BAD GUY! I feel for Lois. At least, she's learning to appreciate how difficult it is to be her friend.

How can he claim to still be in love with her and yet treat her so horribly? I'm glad Clark is willing to talk to Lois again and give her a second chance. I hope that means that he's going to stop being such a sour puss. She's trying and he isn't. Apparently, all she can do is make him miserable, no matter what. If he has given up on her completely, what is he still doing there? Is he trying to prove himself right, that Lois is this horrible person and he was stupid for ever loving her? Yeah, that's the perfect way to get himself out of this funk. What a grouch! Where's Martha to Gibb's slap him out of being a jerk? I'm beginning to wonder why she's even trying.

I can't remember why they decided to follow Dr. Kelly in the first place. Was it because they saw Dr. Carlin meet up with her? Or because their records showed that the ACL Corp and LexCorp had her in common? I hope they find Lex's body before he rises from the dead again. While the Phoenix is many people's favorite episode, I personally could do without the Lex-Interruptus.

I am pretty much the opposite. One way I see them making progress is if there is mortal danger to Lois and there was definitely that in Phoenix.

You are correct about Clark's attitude. I mean love and forgiveness go hand in hand. He is either in love with her or he is not. If he really feels the way he claims then he really is not in love with her and he just needs to leave. He now has enough resume to get a job at a great paper just about anywhere in the world. Since Lois is not going anywhere, him staying at the DP is just making himself and everyone else miserable. I also agree about Martha. She would be very disappointed in him right now.

Mike

Well, they're taking some small steps forward. It's only been 2 or 3 days since Lois threw in his face how right she was about Dr. Carlin, demanding that Clark as her partner had to accept her instincts. After she wouldn't listen to him about Luthor. And now she's made a 180 degree turn, wanting to renew their friendship after treating Clark horribly for months. No wonder Clark is questioning her sincerity. I'm glad she shared some of her feelings with Clark, and hopefully that will lead to them moving forward. He did agree to try to be her friend, which he may see as giving in to her yet again.

I'm glad to see him cautious about trusting Lois with his heart again. She really hurt him and that takes more than a couple of days to repair.

Did this Lois like canon Lois stop the wedding, or did Henderson's arrival? Does Clark know? I've been assuming this is canon Clark and Lois, just with Clark slower to go back to the way things were. And this story seems more realistic to me, than just ignoring all the issues that the 1st season left hanging. If she did and trusts Clark enough to tell him, that would help him to see that she is serious about resuming their friendship and that maybe it could be much more.

While Clark knows he has trust issues with Lois, does Lois realize that she also has trust issues with Clark?

Still waiting for them to trust each other enough to really talk out their feelings and issues. I can see how that probably will be delayed until they understand what they are.

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate y'all continuing to read!! I love that y'all are opinionated about this. It's fun to see

Virginia, they started following Dr. Kelly because of that tip from Bobby that Dr. Carlin and Dr. Kelly had been seen together, and that led to finding out that ACL had been paying Dr. Kelly, and since I think it is absolutely ridiculously unlikely that they would ignore the whole Lex's missing body thing, they're connecting those dots. I know they had to do it that way because it's TV, yada, yada, yada, but it never made sense to me that they never even hint at L&C looking into the missing body. Oh well, whatever. And, personally, I think Clark's reacting normally for someone who has that disconnect between their heart and their head. He's trying to self-protect, but he knows that he still loves Lois, so he's even colder in response. In his mind, he can't let himself end up in that mess of rejections that he was in before, he can't let Lois "control" him again, if that makes sense, and he's fighting himself more than he's fighting her. But, just like Lois couldn't see Lex properly because of her junk, Clark can't see the changes Lois is making in her character because of all the junk with BATP/HoL and the various other unaddressed issues--e.g., how Lois has compared him to Superman. And I think it's normal for people to treat their friends worse than strangers they dislike when they're hurt--although I don't think he's treating Lois badly per se: he hasn't yelled at her, he hasn't been mean, he's just inaccessible because he's hurt. The main thing I wanted to do with my story is to let Clark be human--yes, he's Kryptonian, but he's a person.

Mike, I so agree! Love and forgiveness do go hand in hand. But think post-modern, as in how people hold contradictory beliefs simply because they don't realize they're contradictory. All that illogical emotional junk. He'll get there Nothing like almost losing something to make you re-think

Thank you, cuidadora! It drove me nuts in the series that Clark gives and gives and gives and trusts and trusts and trusts without ever having a chance to just be hurt and broken. I mean, on the one hand, it's something we all love about him and all want in a partner, but c'mon, it's not the way things are in real life, and frankly, I find it enabling to just let someone continue in their bad habits. If we saw someone like that in real life, it'd be cause to encourage them to see a therapist because obviously they're so scared to lose the relationship that they're losing their own identity--or something along those lines. It's canon where she stopped the wedding. I said that somewheres... I think when Perry and her are talking when he's about to send her to Dr. Carlin and she talks him out of it. Anyway, just like in canon, Clark does not know that Lois stopped the wedding. That's an interesting question. Are you talking about the trust issues she has as in the trust issues she has with everyone or specifically with regards to how Clark is treating her now or with him because of the Superman secret or something else entirely?

I agree with you nivafrer about how Clark's hurts in the series seemed to be dismissed and never explored, especially after Season 1. Some of the issues from season 1 being ignored could be because of the change in producers and writers in Season 2, and the shift in the series towards more Superman action.

My question about Lois's trust issues really is about her trust of Clark. Does she know why she dismissed Clark's concerns about Lex as jealousy but thinks she would have accepted them from Superman? That's the only Clark-Superman issue I was thinking of regarding trust. Mostly because she's not aware of the secret identity issue.

I was also wondering if she sees that she's expecting Clark to trust her instincts but she doesn't do the same to him? Rather cruelly dismissing or not even asking for his opinion and ideas until the past couple of days when she goes in the opposite direction. I'm not necessarily looking for answers in this post, I just find it interesting to contemplate and you may or may not plan to address them in later chapters. I can wait to find out.

And I haven't said it before, but I think you're doing a great job of exploring the issues that got swept away and showing the painful journey both of them are going through because of their issues.

I think both of them contributed to the problems they have now, and neither can be considered entirely blameless or to blame.

Huh, I guess I always figured she'd have accepted it from Superman because she knows that he has sources of information that she doesn't. It doesn't have anything to do with her prowess as an investigator if he knows something she doesn't, and he's more likely to know things without being able to prove them, does that make sense? Clark on the other hand is just a "rookie," so if he figures out something before her, then it reflects on her capabilities. Plus, she still doesn't think of him as a gifted investigator in his own right--which I think I mentioned in this chapter. She realizes she needs to change that. I think it'd be fun to read something about how part of Lois' view of Clark as a rookie comes from his "inability" to hold down a job since he moves all over God's green earth before settling in Metropolis.

Anyway, I think if Clark would have given her hard facts (which obviously, he couldn't, at least not without telling her that he was Superman, or telling her as Superman), she would have been willing to listen. Sadly, he doesn't actually do all that great of a job telling her about Lex. I mean, really, why would she believe him when he says that he knows Lex better than she does at the end of Fly Hard? She's the one dating the man. And Clark is jealous, which I think Lois knows even before he confesses his love--even if it's just at an instinctual level--so she can brush aside the information as coming from a bad motive--like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

And I like when Clark is writing and he realizes that Lois couldn't let herself see through Lex's facade once she'd said it didn't exist. She's definitely not known for admitting mistakes. I mean, she does it, even from the first episode, but it seems like only when it's "hit you in the face with a two by four" kind of obvious. She gets better throughout the series. But early on she's still got that edgy desperation to prove herself. It's part of why I love that timeframe. It's so fun to work with characters who have that scope for change. My blog this week was on on how much I love the new Star Trek movies because the characters are just richer than the TOS versions, IMO. That raw brokenness in characters is so winsome.

So there, that's my rant about why Lois would have believed Superman and not Clark. Like everything else, I think it's complicated But also not intentionally hurtful. It's just a part of who each of them is. There's an inevitability to how they handle things because it flows out of who they are.

Thanks! I really love how this one turned out. I love torturing characters and forcing them to grow... it's so beautiful to watch people change!

Awesome chapter !

I am amazingly behind on reading (pretty much everything) on the boards right now, but wanted to throw in a quick bit of positive feedback before heading on over to Chapter 10.

I'm loving the bit of progression between them here. Lois got it 'out there' that, honestly, she really misses her friend. That is what's going on. She doesn't want anything, she doesn't need anything...just simply 'Clark' in her life.

Really looking forward to when Clark feels comfortable enough to be himself again with Lois. But enjoying their journey in the meantime...
Laura