Thanks to my beta readers John Lambert and KenJ.

Comments?

Oh, wow! Earth open up and swallow him whole! That was exactly what he didn't need at that moment.

Interesting parallels you made between Lori and Clark's relationship and between Clark and Lois's relationship. About how secrets and lies (omissions) kept him and Lori from being together, and how those same things might keep him and Lois apart.

Yes, it wasn't very nice of Lori to make a sudden appearance at Clark's work and announce such things as if only a day had passed since he proposed. It was great to see a different girlfriend in this scenario (apart from the usual Lana cameo). I like how Clark never considered getting back together with Lori because she never considered his feelings in the matter, or that their time apart (or the way she had dumped him) wouldn't influence how he felt. Had Lori expected Clark to be pining away for her during the last 7 years?

Lois had bashed his heart in very similarly manner during BatP and yet, he never fell out of love with her. I'm glad you had Lois call to Clark's attention that she might end up being discarded like Lori someday. I also like how you showed Clark's thought processes on why he should tell Lois the truth about him, up front, instead of waiting to see if their relationship worked out. At least, she'll have an extra reason not to be attracted to Dan Sardino.

Awwww! Nice use of Lori to get Lois and Clark started on the right foot.

(Incidentally, when Lori showed up in the 90's wedding comic, it baffled me then as now how someone with *mind-reading* abilities could be so obtuse with other people! )

Lori Lemaris!

How cool is that! The only other woman I can remember who Clark proposed to. This story was sweet and wonderful, a delicate hug on a hot day.

Thank you.

The story was posted.

This was a really good story. I like that Clark decides to tell Lois the truth. It just reinforces how right he is that he has no connection with Lori that she comes so out of left field with her acceptance of the proposal.

Yes! That was one thing I was trying to understand. Why now after all these years did she decide to accept Clark's proposal of marriage? What has she been doing in the meantime? Living in Atlantis or did she create a life for herself on land?

There are a number of questions Ms. Lemaris has left unanswered. Is there a sequel lurking out there?

Again, excellent story.

Wow! I really enjoyed this! That was a curveball I didn't see coming. And I liked that she announced to the whole newsroom that Clark couldn't have kids and Lois latched onto that. Well done!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you all liked the story.

Virginia:
Lois really has fallen for Clark by this point in the series - she admitted as much when she was getting ready for her wedding to Lex and at the end of TOGOM, even if she was the only one who heard her either time. It's just easier to stay with the status quo. I really think that she would have agreed to go out with Clark when he asked in the episode if Jimmy hadn't interrupted. And, of course, "don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone..." (and then something about parking lots... or whatever.)

He's got a string of girlfriends in the comics, but very few of them would work easily in a Lois & Clark context. One of these days I'll find a way to work Luma Lynai into a story...


Queen:
My theory is that she has to deliberately listen to people's thoughts, and she doesn't just automatically pick up stray thoughts around her. Mermaid culture would deem it impolite to pry into other people's heads without permission. But yeah, you'd think that she would act different if she could read minds. I've always wondered why Lori went out with Clark to begin with if she had no intention of sticking around. She was pretty heartless to string him along like that, and I don't see any way that she wouldn't have known how attached he was getting.

Morgana:
Glad you enjoyed it!

I had some ideas about what Lori had been up to, and I was going to work it into the story, but I decided that I didn't really care what she was doing. I was more interested in how Clark's experience with her would change his approach to his relationship with Lois.

Lori has been in Atlantis this whole time. One of my early ideas was that Lori got married (to Ronal, her alien merman husband from the comics) and had a baby boy, but they both recently died in an accident, and Lori went to Metropolis to get away from everything and decided that since Clark had declared his undying love for her way back when, he would probably still be in love with her, so she could hook up with him and not be lonely. Then things just started to get dark, so I decided that she's just been a lonely spinster who never found the right guy, and since her ailing father recently died and she no longer has to care for him, she's finally free to leave town and pursue her lost love.

As far as a sequel goes, I don't plan to write one, but I've been toying with an alternate ending for this one, picking up where Clark tells Lois he's Superman. I wrote this ending before I wrote the rest of the story, and it's satisfyingly waffy, but I don't think that Lois would actually react like that. I'm kind of mired down with trying to decide how much of the rest of the episode to work into it, since things wouldn't resolve for at least a day or two, and by that time in the episode Lex was back and they were staking out Bender's boat. I'm becoming less and less certain that I want to bother writing the alternate ending, though.

John:
Thanks. And thanks for your beta reading it for me.

The way I see it, if Clark had dated Lori in college and proposed to her before telling her about his powers and it blew up in his face, he wouldn't make the same mistake with Lois. It's always bothered me that he proposed to Lois before she really knew him well enough. It's all well and good to say that "Clark is who I am, Superman is what I do," but it's not really accurate. She still has to put up with him running off to be Superman. It's not exactly a small detail.


Mouse:
Glad you liked it!

I'd rather think of Lori coming to Metropolis because Clark has been broadcasting whiny thoughts. Picture her after your tale, heading back to Atlantis

Spearcarrier: "Did you solve the painful whiny thoughts problem?"

Lori: "Yup, some people you have to hit with a rock, some people need a really big rock*. These two needed an Asteroid."

*a modified quote from "A Civil Campaign" by Lois McMaster Bujold

I fell out of my chair on that one!

This was very nice. I enjoyed it on two levels.

1. The cluelessness of Lori. The way that she appears out of the blue and simply accepts a proposal that was made many years ago is... well, it's Lana-like. In fact, while I was reading this I kept having flashbacks to one of my favorite "clueless Lana" stories. Have you read Desperately Seeking Clark by AnnieM ? This Lana is very different than your Lori, but she has the same attitude of "I'm an old LL relationship of Clark's, and since I'm here now I will be the center of his life."

2. The other part - and the element that I enjoyed most - was that Lori's appearance drove Clark to consider that at the point that he is at with his relationship with Lois, he needs to be truthful with her ASAP. This isn't a normal first-date scenario. They have been friends (really more than just friends) for 1 1/2 years at this point. If he wants to take their relationship to the next step, it's time to come clean about his identity.

I enjoyed this very much. It was a good way to pull in a little bit of the non-LnC Superman universe and make it work perfectly.

Bob

Really nice. A sequel would be nice too. Maybe Lois' POV?

Artemis

My non-LnC Superman knowledge is close to zero, so Lori was a new character for me. Her being a mermaid was certainly a surprise, but I loved how Clark revealed that fact to Lois.

I also really enjoyed Clark's ability to learn from a past situation and use it to give him guidance in his hopes for a relationship with Lois.

Really nice story.

Corrina.

I love this idea!

I had forgotten about that story, but re-reading it today I found that I did read it a while back. It is pretty similar in that it has an old girlfriend throwing herself at Clark, which induces Lois to go for him. I guess it's just satisfying to think of Clark's exes as obsessed whackos.

Thanks!

I'm thrilled by all the positive feedback, and I'm a bit floored at the requests for a sequel. I didn't have anything further in mind to follow this story. I've actually got a couple of other stories I'm working on. Well, one that's really in the writing process, three others that are mostly vague ideas at the moment, and another that I'm trying to plot out. I need to figure out a good ending for before I start writing it because it would turn out to be pretty long, and if I can't find a satisfying way to end the story, I'll just waste a bunch of energy on nothing. I seem to have an easy time coming up with story premises and a hard time coming up with good endings, so I've decided that I need to write the endings first so that I know that I've got a whole story.

If anyone has a good idea for a sequel, let me know, or you're welcome to write it yourself. The best I can come up with at the moment is re-writing the rest of the episode with Lois and Clark already together, which would probably change their reactions (especially Lois's) to Lex's re-appearance. Already, they're not around to see Bender get kidnapped, and they won't see the pictures and info from Clark's FBI friend until the next day, and Lex won't run into Lois that night, so L&C are a day behind. Hmmm... We'll see if my muse can get into it.

lovely , I enjoyed reading this twist.

Michael