Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Girl Next Door by Janet Owens - February Fanfic Club Discussion **Spoilers**

Discuss The Girl Next Door by Janet Owens here.

It wasn't until I started reading this story did I realize that I've read it before, but I can't remember what comes next. /I'm still reading and still don't remember what comes next./ I'm really embarrassed especially since I recommended this story twice for reading club. It's a good story, and I'm totally hooked (again I only wish I could remember if I finished reading it the first time and, if I did, how it ended. / :rolleyes: at self, again/

I almost stopped reading this one when they thought that Lois was his sister and not his "birthwife." There were a few things that felt off. The mother they never say the name of. Who was she beyond the one who found and began raising Lois before she died of cancer? It was a plot-point that either a) was dropped or b) just a way to make her less connected to the Lanes. I would rather have seen her being the (first-run) adopted daughter of Same and Ellen. It would have been interesting to see. One idea I had was to do my own version of this story (before I was relieved to find out that Lois was indeed, Zara and not Clark's biological sister) was to have Sam find the baby and then bring her home. Ellen would be miffed that Sam was bringing one of his illegitimate kids home only to find out about the men knocking on their door (and being contrite with Sam afterwards). Basically I'd see the characterization of the Lanes as being pretty close to what we saw in the first season and not that of the later ones. Close, yet strained.

I thought it was to show how exactly young Lois was when she lost her 'Mama' that she never really knew her real name or knew her outside of the relationship of the parent / child relationship.

I agree. That also would have been interesting twist, being raised by adoptive grandparents who weren't at all exactly thrilled at what their adoptive daughter had done (of course, Lois's "Mama" would have told them Lois was her own child).

I've been waiting for this thread to open. I read this story over a few days, which was faster than I planned on reading it. But I've always been one who would start reading a book and keep reading until I got to the end, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I finished it so quickly. :p

I knew what Lois' secret was and that was what drew me to wanting to read the story. I didn't know that Clark would share her secret however, so that was a fun surprise.

The chains that were with Lois when she was found made me think about betrothal, so I never really thought she and Clark would be related. Even though I suspected the purpose/meaning of the chains I never expected for Lois to be Zara. That definitely took me by surprise. I thought that Clark had just been betrothed to someone else of nobility on Krypton.

Since people are still reading the story I don't want to go into things from later parts of the story right now, even though it says spoilers in the title. I'll give people more time to read before posting anymore. I will say though that I really enjoyed the story.

Okay, I'm about 3/4 the way through now. Clark's finally recovered his powers after dealing with his first dose of Green K. Then he goes to deal with a car wreck. When he returns to the DP, he's clean shaven (for her) and kissing Lois more passionately than ever before. He's not even wary that he's using his powers at the office. Does anyone else think that he might have been exposed to Red K at the car wreck, but Lois and Clark didn't notice because they're already so into each other? That was a big chance kissing her until they hit the rafters, and it doesn't sound like something that a right-minded Clark would allow himself to do even with Lois.

What do you think? I don't know if it's a subtle thing or if it was intentionally left vague.

My first thought upon reading that part of the story was that Red K may have possibly been involved. It would fit in both with the way Clark was behaving and the Superman testing that had been going on.

When I read that scene, I had the same thought about red K. His behavior seemed off - he was much less guarded in public than he had been before. After the scene concluded, I figured that I was wrong and he hadn't actually been exposed to red K.

I was imagining that whoever was testing him had gotten ahold of red K and tested it out on him the same way he was exposed to green K.

The two of them certainly got less circumspect in their behavior as the story went on.

Just finished re-reading the story last night. I remember when I first read about Trask holding the convention hostage and how much I love the imagery and how in character it was. It kept me on the edge of my seat, then as it did now on re-reading it. Excellent scene. My kids even asked what I was reading and asked me to read it to them (so they got a reading of the beginning of the hostage scene). My son was hooked but my daughter was ready to move on to her princess book.

Does anyone know if Janet Owens wrote a follow-up to this story? I'd love to read more about Superman and Kinetic Girl! I love that whole Epilogue. I'm glad she's gotten to a point where she can laugh about living in such a sexist world, but I'm sure when she got back to the newsroom Perry got an earful from Mad Dog Lane!

I imagine her trying to correct people when giving interviews after rescues and when writing articles about her as Lois Lane for the Daily Planet always using her "Proper Name" and making sure Clark did the same. Not giving up until people got her name right.

This would never have worked. Sam and Ellen's marriage was so dysfunctional, Lois would not have turned out well if she had been raised with them from the beginning. Lois needed "Mama" to raise her during those first impressionable childhood years, to make her turn out right.

I think that depends. I feel like the Season One versions of Same and Ellen might well have been able to pull together to raise her a little better than you're suggesting.

So begins one of the best stories (in my humble opinion) in the archives. We see a very, very different Lois Lane, one who was raised by a mysterious, courageous woman known to us only as 'Mama'. During Lois' formative years, Mama taught her to use simple problem solving games to train herself when she began to see through things or hear conversations from far away. Those simple games helped Lois as each power emerged and she trained herself to use those abilities effectively.

Without spilling the beans I can happily say I enjoyed this story a great deal. Lois is very vulnerable and lonely, but she hides the loniliness under the guise of 'Mad Dog Lane'. A guise that she uses to great effect ... until a certain dark-haired, handsome reporter starts working in the newsroom.

Those of you who have not finished reading, keep doing so - you are in for a treat!

still reading, it's a great story!

I am pretty sure I read this story before, but on this read I am not far at all yet. I definitely remember the "Mama" part.

I think it adds to the Lois perspective that she does not know her name. However part of me says "I could see this Lois going back and changing her name."

I just got to where Lois finally meets Clark. I was worried he would not show up.

I am glad in this version Claude got properly punished.

Actually, the more I read, the less sure I am that I read anything past the Mama and then Doctors Lane lines before. At least I don't remember anything else very well.

I have to say I thought the residence of Platt here made more sense than it had in canon.

I'll agree with you on that.

The more I read, the more I think I didn't get very far in my last read. Maybe I stopped at the exposure of Claude.

I just got to where the bomb is stopped. I guess it makes sense that Lois had never tested her strength against a bomb.

I love that introduction to Superman, though. How he gets this frightened look on his face, 'oh, no! Everyone is going to know who I am!' Priceless. I wish we could have had a little bit of the story from his POV, because I would have loved to see what was going on in his head at that point.

Hello ~ I'm the author

I wasn't really thinking of their specific interactions in the canon pilot when I was writing this, more just the overall amorality of both of them, so it was fairly easy to write Toni in as Lex's sister. He still dismissed her awfully easily in the end.

It's more the fact that she's been so alone during her formative years - except for her time with Mama, and that ended so early in her life - that she does indeed not really understand people as well as canon Lois did.

I'm glad you liked that. I wanted to show that simply having all those abilities might not be enough if she did not know how to defend herself without using them. Realistically, an investigative reporter would potentially find him- or herself in dangerous situations during stakeouts or whatever. If your only weapons were abilities you had to keep hidden at all costs, then your costs might be too high…

And I wanted Claude to be threatening and scary and ultimately, legally in much more trouble than simply stealing other people's work would get him…

Yes - Mama's real name was never really important to the story; instead, it was her character, what she taught Lois, that was important. And Lois lost her when she was barely six years old, so all of her memories were indeed tied to the parent/child relationship. There were parallels in "Mama's" life - she was abandoned such that she had nothing, not even her real name - she was given a name by those who found her, and she was alone all her short, young life until she found Lois. Hers was perhaps even the stronger character, ultimately, because she turned out to be a very good person at a still very young age (nineteen when she found Lois) without any influence from a parent or guardian.

Having "Mama" be the Lanes' adopted daughter wouldn't have worked. Lois's "Mama" was never pregnant with Lois, and didn't even know about Lois until she found her, so she couldn't even pretend to be pregnant. So "Mama" had to live alone - and be alone regularly, that is, not have close friends or family - or she'd never have been able to pull off Lois as her own baby. The Lanes, as doctors, would never have been fooled by "Mama" presenting the baby as her own if they'd known her prior to her finding Lois.


Huh. Actually, I never thought of that - it was more that I was trying to show that he'd simply lost control without having any real reason behind it other than that things were escalating with their relationship. It was very risky to do that at the office.

But now that I think of it, red K would've been a good reason that he did actually lose control. After all, both of them had spent their lives exercising extreme control, so yes, it was a bit out of character. (Of course, if it was red K, then I'd have to find a way to write it in so that they discovered its existence…)

Wow! I'm amazed and flattered that you'd a) read it aloud and b) they like it.

Yeah, I really wanted to show Trask as mentally unstable - and getting worse. I though the real, canon character was mentally unstable and I wanted to run with that. I tried to show this Trask as not just extremely xenophobic, but having utter disregard, ultimately, for any "collateral damage" when it came to achieving his goal. And I wanted to show that at least some of his men were originally simply soldiers following orders but gradually coming to realize that he was not someone they should be dutifully and unquestioningly following.

I have not written a follow-up story…yet. I have bits and pieces of stuff that could possibly be turned into a follow-up story, but that's not likely to happen soon. I'm not sure it ever will, although I guess I shouldn't rule it out completely. After all, shortly after I soundly assured Wendy that I'd never be a writer, only a reader, I found myself writing. So who knows? (Interestingly, one of the bits and pieces I have sitting in a dusty folder on my hard drive is an exploration of one of the other characters in the story, rather than Lois or Clark.)

LabRat is thoroughly responsible for that whole Kinetic Girl thing. She made a comment while beta'ing mentioning that it would be funny if everyone kept saying Kinetic Girl instead of just Kinetic, and how Lois would react. That was all it took to just run with it, and the rest of the epilogue pretty much fell into place around that.

I don't know… I have a feeling she could correct people in both writing and in speaking until she was blue in the face, and some people would still use Kinetic Girl. I can even picture a short drabble where people argue about what her name is, without any input from her or Clark, either in or out of superhero uniform…

Hmmm…

Thank you! You are always so good for my self esteem!

Well, shoot! You guys have me going back and reading my own story over again… and coming up with some ideas for spin-offs or epilogues or what-next stories… And I've got so much other Real Life stuff to do…

Seriously, I'm flattered to have made the Fanfic Club list and I'm so glad you like my story. The first part of the story sat unfinished on my hard drive for such a long time that when I dragged it out and started to work on it, I wasn't sure initially that the very beginning was even my words. I put the first bit up on the boards asking if anyone recognized it, and got an overwhelming "Nope, but could you write more?" response.

Reading over it again today, I realize how much bits of me or my experiences are at least peripherally in the story. The Kents' farmhouse, for instance, is based at least a bit on my childhood home. Such little things as the superficial description of Eduardo - when I was writing that part I based him a bit on a sometimes-coworker I had at the time who lifted weights and had stepped in to defend another coworker from a threatening ex. (Nothing like Lois's situation with Claude, just a face-to-face "stop it, man" kind of talk.) Some of Jimmy's enthusiasm and knowledge and speech patterns are based partly on a couple of people I know. And so on.

Anyway, I'm glad you like it, and thank you all for the positive comments.

'Toc