Thank you, Beth, for this fluffy WAFF. You really made my day after that WHAM out there on the boards.

Something I completely missed in/had forgotten from part 9: Why haven't Ellie and Jay seen each other for 10 days?

Daddy Stewart is such a nice guy, isn't he. Did he take lessons from Sam Lane?

Loved the Superhero fidgeting at the end So looking forward to next Friday.

Michael

Let me get this straight; you've left the verbally abusive Mr Stewart alone in a room with his son, Jay, daughter, Kaylie and their future mother in law Lois Lane?

You've painted him as someone who would make Sam Lane seem a saint.

You've set him up as the kind of guy who will make condescending remarks about two young people who are within the circle of Lois's family? In front of her?

How long till he says something to set off MadDogLane? Without Clark or the kids there to hold her back?

Neither Jay nor Kaylie have met MadDogLane.

Oh my God, you are totally right!

I can really see where this is going, and I can’t wait for next Friday!

Heh heh, a very big chuckle at the beef ending. And yeah, I'm totally with Frame--the 4 of them in a room together? Can't wait to see if something comes out of that.

Great part!
JD

Oh, yeah, Jay's dad won't pick up on that. No, he won't see through that at all, nope, not a bit.

This guy reminds me of my late father-in-law. He and I never had a decent conversation. His interests included drinking, fishing while drinking, repairing cars while drinking, working while drinking, chasing women while drinking, and sleeping off his drinking. Of that list, only the fishing part interests me, and I'm mostly into catch-and-release, so we had little to discuss. It also impacted my relationship with my then-girlfriend-who-became-my-wife, and if Jon's not careful it's going to drive a wedge between himself and Ellie. She wants Jon to stand up for himself, and he just doesn't have the energy to withstand the untempered absoluteness his father projects.

That's a dangerous situation. And the situation Patrick outlined is not unlike a completely self-absorbed man with a lit match standing next to a pond of gasoline. Sooner or later he's going to wave it in the wrong direction and BOOM! Thar she blows! (Mad Dog Lane, that is.)

Getting interesting again. Don't keep us in suspenders! Post the next chapter soon!

Thanks so much guys for the feedback.

Michael, to answer your question, they haven't seen each other in ten days because Ellie's been burning the candle at both ends trying to find a solution to their problem while fitting in Nebula duties and her school research.

And I hate to disappoint people, but this is the last we'll see of Mr. Stewart for a while. I've edited the last part a little (and will probably do some more editing before it hits the archive) to hopefully make his character a bit clearer, but he's not likely to say anything in front of Lois.

This man is very much aware of the power structure between people. In this setting, Lois is on equal ground with him, so he's going to play along and be nice to everyone. He makes his living by acting, so this won't be a problem.

Even at the lunch with Ellie, he wouldn't normally have been so overtly critical, especially with things that came very close to revealing too much about Jay' former job. But he was thrown off balance by Jay's announcement of dating Ellie, and he compensated by hitting Jay over and over with verbal abuse, therefore reminding his son who exactly is in control of the relationship.

All this sounds like Jay's father is a cold, calculating, nasty man. And he is on the outside, especially to people he's abused. But his behavior is all about controlling the circumstances around him, and not just because he wants to be mean. There was one very important moment in his life that he couldn't control, and all this behavior is him trying to make up for that. Of course that doesn't excuse him, but hopefully that humanizes him. I don't like writing mean, shallow characters who are mean just for the sake of it, so just remember that this guy has some redeeming qualities, if he is ever willing to let them come out.

Hey, Terry, I just saw your comment. Very good point, although I assume you mean Ellie and JAY, not Jon. Having a loving, accepting father like Clark, Ellie has had a very different experience from Jay.

Thanks everyone for commenting!

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I very clearly edited my - oops - I mean wrote my comment concerning Jay's father, the over-controlling Mr. Stewart. And since we won't see much more of him in this story, I can only assume that you're saving him for some interesting situations at Jon and Kaylie's wedding, or maybe at Jay and Ellie's engagement dinner.

I just realized that the children of Jay and Ellie would be double first cousins of the children of Jon and Kaylie. You've got a whole raft of third-generation stories just waiting to be written. You'll never run out of material for this future-verse.