To make up for the long wait for the last chapter, here's one less than a week later! Just...don't hate me when you finish, all right?

Oy, so wonderfully written yet so painful. I really, really, really hope that you unbreak my heart by the time this is finished.

No no no no no no no!!!!!! You can't do that now!

And I will be crying, won't I?

Ooh, if you only knew. I have a feeling this is going to turn into Clark's worst nightmare, isn't it?

Oh, marvelous. Wonderful. Yeah, no promises that I won't hate you.

Ouch. Yikes.
I don't quite understand. Clark claimed he was so worried about Lois loving Superman instead of Clark that he proposed to her first. Shouldn't Clark be upset here? Even if he's considering Lois's feelings for him being clouded by Superman, it doesn't work, because canon says that Clark's fear of not being accepted is so great that when lois said "not yet," Clark said, "You found out something about me you just didn't like." (To paraphrase.) I've always thought that one of the reasons why Clark never told her, perhaps subconsciously, is because he didn't want to ruin his chances as Clark. Why would he give that speech here and now, when she's clearly still focused on Superman? I would have expected Clark to get mad.

Other than that, though....


...How dare you.
This is awful. This is terrible! We saw just how engrained and serious that fear of not being accepted is to Clark, and all this did was confirm it. How will he be able to trust her again, even after everything is over? It's almost like Lois with her trust issues-once you've been hurt enough, once that confirmation has been placed, it's difficult to overcome.
How's Clark going to recover? How is Lois going to live with herself? How am I going to wait another week?
Now, I know Clark has more than enough reason to believe Lois, to hate her and let her go, but I sincerely hope that kiss she stole before everything exploded will tell him something. I hope something in his subconscious figures her out.
Congratulations, you've succeeded in destroying my favorite couple.

Y'ouch. Wow. That was one nasty breakup.

I don't quite see how Lois expected Clark to continue at the Daily Planet (and for them to continue as co-workers or partners) after breaking his heart. I could see him abandoning Metropolis altogether. I could also see him lose his hope, his faith in humanity, and I could see him give up on Superman again. Slowly have the hero fade away. Because without Lois, what's the need for Superman?

Will Lois have to hunt him down once she realizes that it was her breaking his heart that ruined the future? Only someone who had never felt love could believe that love could ruin something rather than make it stronger. For this reason, I pity Lois. Will she also fade away, as her migraines take over, as she dreams about what might have been?

Poor Clark. Superman was always his contingency plan. His fail-safe if Lois wouldn't accept Clark, she would always want his alter-ego. But to find out at once, that she rejected both sides of him. Ouch! That's not something he'll get over very quickly, if ever.

How will you fix this? Do we fast forward to the future where Lois is miserable with some guy named Dan, and Clark is miserable with some woman named Mayson, and Superman no longer exists, because Clark no longer wants to help out the world? Please don't drag out our torment. Fix this soon!

This part was painful! Please tell me all the toys will be put back in the box the way you found them?

How heartbreaking! As always, so beautifully written, yet so painful to read. If it makes any sense, I both look forward to and dread reading each chapter. Poor Clark. It's his worst fears realized. I only hope he can trust Lois again once he discovers what's actually going on.

Can't wait for more!

Oh...wow. Just...wow.



This chapter? I've been so excited to read it, but also, so worried for both of them in doing so. I figured it'd be like a bandage, and the best thing to do would be to read it really quickly? ....But ouch, yeah, it still hurt (a lot) !

Poor, poor Clark! To have your biggest fear blow up in your face. To love someone, want most in the world to have them accept you, and to have that person be the one to hurt you so thoroughly by not wanting you in their life . And to think that he was finally in the 'place' to be able to tell Lois his secret--share himself completely with her. That definitely adds another layer to the pain that he is going to have to work through.

And Lois. As frustrated as I am with her. As much as I don't like what she is doing. I do feel really horrible for her, too. She knew--deep down and with a lot of certainty--just what this breakup would do to Clark. She's been wracked with guilt and physically sick over it since the beginning. And then to have to break up with him anyway, loose your best friend and partner (cause like Virginia, I don't know how they are going to be able to work together? ), and to do it all while deep down not even wanting to! She has fallen in love with him, and knowingly destroying him would destroy her from the inside out.

To echo Annie, I am really hoping that kiss will be Lois' undoing. You don't give the 'in desperation goodbye kiss' to someone and then rip out their heart, you know? You don't claim that you want your relationship over, that there is nothing there between you, but kiss like that immediately beforehand. I'm reeeaaalllly wanting Clark to piece that together .

Awesome job--I'm so curious to read more. But my gut is telling me it might get a lot worse for both Lois and Clark before it gets better?
Laura

Quite an emotional roll coaster this chapter. It has been a long time since I felt so much pain for Lois and Clark.
This was brilliantly written. I loved the entertwined dialogue with Lois trying to break up while Clark was doing everything he could to keep her by revealing his Secret.
Please give us the suite!! I am so eager for Clark to finally understand why Lois is acting as she is.

There are many, many revelation stories, but this part is such a great build-up, such a great insight into how Clark is feeling in this moment.


This idea that, good or bad, at least it will be done. That by pushing past the fear, he'll have told the truth, so that's out of the way, and that all that's left is to deal with the consequences. I'd think there would be a real sense of relief in that, letting go of the pressure of holding on to the secret, regardless of what that means the next day.

Awww! That's so true, regardless of the outcome.

But then, the revelation scene...oh my god! Riveting, powerful, shocking in its brutal honesty - I felt the energy crackling in that room! So heartbreakingly good! It takes genuine talent to write that level of emotion and make it feel so real.

Waiting impatiently for more!

I hope I can unbreak your heart too, GooBoo -- I'll do my best anyway!

Sorry, AnnieL! I knew I wouldn't be anyone's favorite person after this chapter dropped! I love reading revelations, but most of them are Lois finding out on her own (which I love, because that's the way I think it should be) or Clark being forced into revealing himself somehow (which I also love, because there's little more sympathetic than a desperate Clark), but since I feel like I don't have much new to offer to a revelation story, I really wanted to play around with the idea of him choosing, of his own free will, to tell Lois...and then following through on it. And then, yes, because this is the story I finally got to do that in, it goes just terribly.

Just to specifically address one of your concerns, though, I did go back and forth quite a bit on Clark breathing out that sigh of relief to hear that Lois was still hung up on Superman. In any other context, I would be completely with you -- Clark is jealous of Superman, is afraid that he won't be accepted or loved as himself, and that Lois's love will be misplaced. However, in this one-time scenario, I felt this was most in-character. At this point, Clark has already decided to confide his secret, and her being still hung up on the possibility of Superman is far preferable to her not having any chemistry or attraction to Clark Kent whatsoever. This is explored in later chapters, too, so hopefully that will help explain it. If not, well, I hope it doesn't ruin the story for you. And I will try to fix your favorite couple before I'm done, don't worry!

No fast-forwards, Virginia, I promise! Poor Lois is in a bad situation, because in her experience, love HAS been a weakness, and since when she started the Daily Planet wasn't open, she had all kinds of reasons for believing her source. Now, things are a lot harder for her though!

I don't know that the toys will be put back EXACTLY as they were, Morgana, but I do have a good ending planned out!

Thanks, DC -- I love that you both dread and look forward to each chapter! Means I'm doing my job! Finding their way to trust each other will be hard, but nothing is beyond Lois and Clark.

There are some dark times still ahead, LMA, but like you said, the bandage is ripped off now, so hopefully some healing is ahead. I'm relieved to hear that Lois is still sympathetic; I actually find myself REALLY feeling for her in this story -- I sure do put her through a lot in my stories, poor girl. Not that Clark gets off easy, either...

Thanks, Annalina19! I really enjoyed getting to weave their dialogue through each other, both of them talking about separate things and coming at the conversation from wholly different angles. It did make putting it all together a bit complicated, but worth it!

I'm glad the build-up worked, groobie! To be honest, I've never had to put Clark readying himself to tell the Secret into words before, so it actually took me quite a while. So many concepts we're all aware of because we love the show/story, but it was different trying to nail it down in specifics.

Thank you, everyone, for sticking with me through this dark time! Hope you all enjoy what's to come!