Katherine Kent's "Arrival of Destiny" got me to thinking... What would happen if canon Lois, while looking out the window speech during Lucy's "Mr. Right may be right out there" speech in the pilot, actually saw Clark?

Would she think she is delusional and keep silent? Confront Clark? And how would it affect Superman's debut (not to mention their future relationship)?

Joy,
Lynn

OOOooooo.... Thoughts abound on this one!

Here's my "off the cuff" idea for it...

Lois peered out the window in thought the movement of the curtains drew her gaze away from the romantic stars above. She gasped lightly at the shadow of a man floating almost effortlessly above the fire escape. She blinked her eyes and tried to rub the dust from them. When she opened her eyes again, however, the shadow was gone, as if he never existed.

Later: at the first reveal of the suit...

Lois stared at the man in front of her for a moment, trying to place where she might have seen him before. Finally it hit her.
"You," she breathed in shock, "you were the man who peered into my window a few days ago."

His eyes widened in shock, before he blushed slightly. He coughed for a moment, "I'm sorry for that Ms. Lane," he replied, but I thought I ought to see you home safe."

"I don't NEED a protector... you... you... whoever you are."

Well done, Christina.

My own thoughts: Lois will see Clark, but won't believe her eyes. Given her thoughts in ILTY on anything not explainable by science, she will reject what her eyes are telling her and will just assume (incorrectly) that Clark has some sort of rappelling gear which she just can't see because it is too dark. She will also assume (alas, correctly), that he is outside her window because he is being stalker-ish. She will tell him off in no uncertain terms and the next day will demand that Perry fire Clark. Perry will refuse on the grounds that since she didn't go to the police and she has no evidence, it would just be a "he-said, she-said" situation and if he fired Clark, Clark could claim wrongful termination. Perry does, however, agree to put them on opposite sides of the bullpen and not be partners.

So here's where you get to choose your own adventure:

1) The Tank ending: Clark is so distraught over both what he had done and Lois' reaction to him that he quits his job and starts working as an anchor at WGBS. Lois and Jimmy are killed by the "accident" which Dr. Baines causes, since Clark isn't there to rescue them.

Clark never becomes Superman, and so everyone aboard the habitation module dies when the bomb explodes. This compounds Clark's feelings of guilt. He knows of no way to commit suicide, so he does the next best thing: He constructs a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic where he lives the rest of his life. Jonathan is so devastated by Clark's precipitous and permanent departure that he dies of a heart attack. Martha's grief at losing both her husband and her son causes her to go insane and she spends the rest of her life in a mental hospital.

2) The closest-to-WAFFy-as-I-can-come-up-with ending: Everything else continues more-or-less as it did in the pilot (except for the Lois-and-Clark heart-to-heart while being chained up) until Clark swallows the bomb and flies Lois back to the DP. She immediately realizes who Superman really is and decides to pretend to forgive Clark so that she can work with him in order to gather sufficient evidence to be able to write a strong enough CK=S story that Perry (or the competition) will publish it. Although her forgiveness is entirely an act at first, Clark's gentle demeanour and Superman's personification of the good get her to realize that what he did -- while reprehensible -- was something that was not his typical behaviour, and she eventually comes to forgive him in earnest. By the time she has enough evidence, she has decided not to go for the Pulitzer with this story, after all. (Or, alternately, she could go ahead with publishing the story and this would then be the launching off point for Alisha Knight's phenomenal -- but disquieting -- story From the Ruins.)

3) The create-your-own-ending: ?

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., Any other takers on this challenge?

Lois sees Clark outside her window but thinks she's seeing things, and wonders if Luthor might have drugged her. She starts investigating him and turns up some disquieting things about him. Not long after, Clark makes his first appearance as Superman, and Lois realizes that she wasn't hallucinating after all. She confronts him and tells him that she knows who he is, and asks what he was doing outside her window. Clark tells her that he was trying to protect her from Luthor. Lois decides not to reveal that CK=S, because it's more important to take down Luthor than to reveal that her dorky co-worker (who is more attractive than she'll admit) is moonlighting in tights, especially since Clark's powers make it easier to gather information on Luthor. They succeed in taking Luthor down, and by that time Lois returns Clark's affection and won't reveal his secret (even if it would win her a second Pulitzer; she and Clark share the Pulitzer for the story that takes down Luthor).

Luthor never has a chance to clone Lois and interfere in her relationship with Clark, so Lois and Clark get married much sooner and the path of true love goes considerably more smoothly than in canon.

How's that for WAFFy?

Very WAFFy indeed. Thanks for answering the challenge, Annie.

Joy,
Lynn