past small shops filled with books or coffee or clothing or souvenirs stamped with an emerald sigil shaped like a lantern.
Oooh! Is the Justice League starting...?
Of course, it’s not the gardening that’s the miracle cure, she knows; it’s Jonathan himself, and James’s promise, and Clark’s forgiving smile, and Martha’s nervous efforts.
Awww...
and Lois wants to see the park because she wants them to be happy.
YES! Good girl, Lois. You've earned one Clark smile.
“It’s been a while, but I haven’t quite forgotten what your favorite cookies are.”
Cookies! Can I have some too?
who exactly will help me bake all these incentives
Lois, because she can use the lessons.
Not Lois, because no one needs the fire department to show up.
She is included.
James pulled her into their teasing. Martha listed her contributions to their daily chores alongside Jonathan’s.
Her two detractors, and they are including her.
Accepting her.
Teasing her.
As if she’s part of the family. Part of their unit. One of them.
Not an outsider. Not a murderer. Not their worst nightmare.
An ally. A compatriot. Someone who will do anything for Clark up to and including giving up her life for him.
*sniffle* So happy here...(so I'm anticipating a sucker punch).
Regular, normal people who can relax in their average anonymity, their relative mediocrity…their alter egos.
Love this, but this is who they really are, Lois. Just like Clark is Clark, not Superman. At least, how they used to be.
“Well, he’s much sneakier than Clark ever was. You’re on your own with him--though I have the feeling that if he sees you headed into a shop, he’ll find a way to distract himself.”
LOL!
“They’re buttering us up.” Jonathan turns tender as he meets Martha’s gaze, their hands idly caressing each other when he takes a cookie from her. “Must mean we’re going to be stuck with an afternoon of shopping.”
She’s just tucking her wallet back into her purse and looping the handles of her plastic bag over her wrist when she feels it.
A bomb?
“Ma’am, you need to duck and cover!”
Earthquake.
This must be what Clark felt like that day.
This is what he must have thought was happening when he walked into the Daily Planet, straight into the firing squad.
Because Jonathan and Martha were standing outside.
<is gutted>
His right arm hangs limp and lifeless at his side,
Superman, when he comes once more into mortal sight, is on his knees. He is staring down at two bodies, uncovered by stone, drenched in blood, their angles unnatural enough to make Lois’s eyes skitter away from them. She looks, instead, back up to Superman.
Anddddd what was left of my hope is dead.
“I’m taking them to Mercy Hospital,”
*sniffle* (I think you might owe me boxes of tissues now. You might have surpassed me on the cry-factor.)
No, no, no! You cannot stop there! Why do you torture us so? Please? Pretty please give us more???
(Loved the installment even if I feel horrible for Clark.)
