Hurray for Lois taking charge! Clark can be such a pushover, can't he? Especially alt-Clark, who learned meekness as a survival trait while he bounced round various foster homes.

One thing I have to tell you, Nan: I hadn't yet read your alt-story. After reading this sequel, I'm off to read it NOW.

Hazel

EDIT: Read it, enjoyed it. LOL at leaving Tempus stranded on a tropical island and being intelligent enough not to tell *anybody* about it. Two questions, Nan, that I seem to have missed: How did Tempus find them on the island? And why mention fleas, and not the lack of plumbing?

Hmm, she's going to be his spokeperson and a reporter?

Yay! Love the idea of Lois "handling" the press <g> Feel free to post this kind of Christmas story anytime during the year!

PJ

In reply to Hazel's question: As to how he found them, who knows? Tempus seems to have his ways, and our heroes didn't have time to ask him. Maybe once he returned to the time when he left Lois, he located them via Clark's beacon. As for the fleas versus the plumbing, well, this is a g-rated fic <g>, and besides, they were talking about clothing having such little inhabitants. It's just the way the conversation turned out.

Nan

This was really good, like everything else you write!

I would love to see more of this universe...

James

Nan

A wonderful sequel! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tricia

Hi,

Great piece. Where is that part?


Brilliant!

Nan, I've been so far behind with fdk lately that I never got the chance to tell you how much I enjoyed the first story. And the same with the sequel.

I like the way their relationship is progressing. Nothing *too* fast, yet it's clear that things are on the right track and moving in the direction that will make everyone happy. I think Lois will be a wonderful spokesman for Clark.

And this...
had me chuckling. No kidding, huh...

Great job, Nan.

Kathy

I'm finally catching up on my FDKing: Nan, as usual you've given us an excellent stand-alone story that's also an answer to the (incessant) question, "And then what happened?".

I was rereading some of your series stories recently, and it looks like you've got another one off to a good start-- if you choose to continue it, I think all your readers will be pretty happy about it.

I really liked how Lois took charge of Clark's public vs. private life situation. She wasn't mean, but she let everyone know firmly that they can't push him around anymore. She was right, he's too nice to tell them to leave him alone, even when they take advantage of that niceness. And she obviously laid out the new plan to Clark, as well-- he assumed the remote "Superman" attitude and zapped all the cameras-- so the press understands that what Lois said isn't just empty threats.

And their relationship is moving slowly toward something more, and they're already pretty comfortable with each other. That's evident in how they talk to each other. Nice to see how well they complement each other's strengths and weaknesses already.

Maybe it's best to let marooned Tempuses stay that way. I guess Clark could do a high-altitude flyover of the island, looking for bones... If the island's small enough and remote enough, maybe even if someone from the future knew the "when" he went to, they wouldn't be able to find him. It'd be funny if some native population ventured off on a journey and established a colony on that island, and Tempus had his own little (inbred) dynasty going... A big fish in a little pond, living in obscurity on an undiscovered island until his death, when the only connection to him once the island was discovered was that the natives inexplicably had lighter skin than many of the surrounding native populations, and the language of the people who called themselves the Tumpu had an all-purpose greeting word used as "hello", "goodbye", and "cheers" that sounded like "duh"...

Hmmm, maybe that's more a Queen of the Capes scenario than a Nan scenario.

Anyway, I really enjoyed both of these, the "Christmas Vacation" and "Homecoming" stories.

~Toc