Finally a long-overdue conversation! Not everything's magically fixed, of course (I think we can all agree that that wouldn't be realistic at all, even in a story about an alien and time-traveling!), but at least both Lois and Clark are nearer the same page now.

Thanks for your patience! Hope you enjoy!

Oh, dear. By confronting Clark. By telling him what happened with Tempus... er... John Doe... she's done it. She's completed the recipe just as Tempus wanted her to. She's given Clark what he's needed to recover from her breaking his heart. Now, Superman can survive without Lois and Clark can survive without Lois. Will he be able to love again? Probably not. It would take him a whole heck of a lot of time to ever trust anyone as he used to trust Lois. No, I can't see him trusting Lois again. Why should he? Why would he want to date someone who trusted a stranger's word over his? Clark might be able to date again, but I couldn't see him trust anyone to give his heart to. So, there will be a Superman and Clark, just as John Doe said there would, only I doubt either will be lovable as the old Clark and Superman were. How will the world trust a Superman who doesn't trust anyone? No, I can't see Utopia being built on his ideal. He can still be a hero, as Batman is a hero, but without love... oh, this is too sad to even contemplate. Please come back and fix this!

I like that Clark is standing up to Lois and speaking his mind and insisting that she treat him as an equal. Will he ever recover?

I could also see what Tempus / John Doe saying to be true. That Clark failed to rescue Lois that one time and gave up everything when he lost her, therefore losing Utopia. Let's hope that doesn't come to fruition either.

I'm not quite sure how Clark's plan of luring John Doe back and stealing his future window will work. I'm curious what he plans to do. And if Clark does forgive Lois, how will she ever get the Kents to trust her again?

Clark is definitely in a bad place now, Virginia, not that Lois had much of a chance at this point. Probably one of the scariest things I can think of is a Superman who has no hope, though hopefully his parents will help him out a bit here. I am doing my best to fix it -- the next chapters are some of my favorites, and I've been waiting a long time to finally get to them! And yeah, I definitely thing the Kents will be harder to win over than Clark; he has a lot of guilt he insists on feeling on his own side, but his parents are just protective over him!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

This reminds me, are we ever going to get to see Jimmy's reaction to all this? He's been absent for quite a while!

Oh goody, Lois is going nuts!


As much as I can sympathize with her cause, Lois was being insensitive here. that was an awful way to pull Clark back, especially under the circumstances.

Great point. I didn't even think about that!

To be fair, you can't just expect to waltz back into someone's life after causing that much damage. Normally Clark would see things from her side, but this is a little bit different. Clark's personal well-being should always be more important than his public image, and I think that's where Lois screwed up here despite her very good intentions!

Very sad chapter, but it was very well-written. Keep it up!

It has been very hard not having much Jimmy, Annie -- I got used to him being around in Newsworthy. Yeah, Lois is not really in her right mind now, in several ways, and this is one result of that! I like how you put that about how his personal well-being should have a higher priority than his public image. I think Lois has always connected really strongly to that image, though (maybe because she is the first one who saw it and publicized it?), which was shown nicely in Sex, Lies, and Videotape. When she and Clark are on the same side, it's a good thing, but I wanted to show how that could be a bad thing here -- strengths being flaws and vice versa is one of my favorite things to play around with!

Anyway, sorry for the rambling reply, but thanks for the feedback! Glad you're still enjoying!

Good chapter. I like that they've had this conversation, that Lois has gotten the truth out in the open. But the tension that still exists between them is real. Clark shouldn't just forgive her; it's in his nature to believe her, but that doesn't mean it's easy to reconnect emotionally.
Absolutely! There is no Superman without Lois Lane. Everyone needs a support system, especially someone who gives so much of himself to everyone else. Lois should have realized this own her own, before she caused irreparable damage to their relationship. She should have trusted Clark over a stranger; she should have confided with him about her vision of the future before she participated in the scheme to break his heart. I don't know if they can every rebuild the relationship they were destined to have - they may glue it back together, but the crack will always be there.

Oh man! I'm so glad they've spoken, but has Lois unintentionally just caused Clark more pain? He believes her story, but can he trust the feelings that she's opened to him? Can they find their way back from this chasm?

Oh, Lois! Jumping off a building? I'm relieved she had a harness, but will Clark take that as a slap in the face - that she didn't trust him enough that he would actually show up to save her?

Wow, the tension is high! But it's good that the truth is out in the open and they are on the same side again, at least in defeating Tempus.

Thanks, groobie! This conversation has been around on paper for a long time but plugging it in here after so much else had been written was a bit challenging. Lois's reasons made sense to her -- and to me -- before she got to see Clark as a whole and completely fell in love with him, but now they seem shallow and insufficient. So trying to explain herself, hearing the flaws in her own rationalizations (which is one reason Lois tries to avoid stopping and thinking before moving ahead, really), really hammers home the problems. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that!

I love writing tension between Lois and Clark, especially when both of them are trying to move past it, or at least ignore it. I don't know why, but it's a lot of fun to explore their dynamics in such situations. (Also, it's been fun to go from And Then There Was Light, when Clark knew more that he couldn't say to Lois, to this story, where Lois knew more but couldn't tell him. Fun juxtaposition.) Also, I don't see Clark as being offended Lois had a harness, but I do see him being very upset if she had just jumped with no contingency plan! Even when he's angry with her, he doesn't want her dead!

Thanks so much for reading -- it's such an encouragement!