Yay, part 4! It's been a great week on the MBs ^^
“But I don’t just hand out money to everyone who asks. Maybe some of those people could really use it, but what about the con artists out there just trying to scam you? No way! If I’m going to make a donation, I do my research and then I make an annual contribution to an official organization.”
Actually, this makes a lot of sense for Lois's character. She'll help, but on her own terms. That way, she avoids being made a fool of, which is something she hates. And that seems to be a recurring theme in this series!
None of their conversations were simple anymore since she’d learned his secret. Now everything he said sounded like it was only half true or awkwardly truncated or a deliberate obfuscation. She was definitely getting better at pinpointing when he was lying, but she still doubted the veracity of everything he said, replaying conversations in her head and second guessing what she’d thought he’d really meant.
Again, this makes perfect sense. She feels like she's fallen behind in this run (ha!) and wants more than anything to close that gap.
She missed having her reliable, trustworthy friend at her side.
Oh
“You’ve just… never really mentioned liking kids before,” he replied more carefully.
“That doesn’t mean I think they should be illiterate.”
Ok, this made me laugh unexpectedly.
Please say it, hint it, just allude to it and we can end all this, and I can have my best friend back.
It feels like my heart has been ripped apart.
He hadn’t asked her if she was going insane every day, knowing that her best friend lied to her nearly every time he opened his mouth. He hadn’t asked if she was constantly at war with herself, trying to decide if she should tell him or punish him or reveal him or forgive him or beg him to forgive her. And he hadn’t asked her if she walked through her days absolutely heartbroken and unable to tell anyone.
*stands up to applaud* So many emotions, so beautifully written! The "beg him to forgive her" part makes it seem like Lois feels guilty about the situation too. Very interesting. And she really couldn't talk about it with anyone but Clark, which makes the whole thing even sadder.
He smiled at her warmly, as if he were looking forward to spending the evening working beside her. “Sound good to me.”
Poor Clark, he's so oblivious...
The space between them was just as intense as the look in his eyes [...]
OMG this line!!! UARRR. *screaming in her native language* I'm feeling THINGS.
But he wasn’t Clark.
He was Superman.
Clark is stuck on the idea he's just Clark, while Lois is stuck on the idea that he's Superman. I'm curious to see how they'll find a balance.
“What!?” Cat asked incredulously.
LOL.
She suddenly understood. He needed to work with her tonight so that he could then escape her and go help the robbery hostages, the same way he had a hundred other times with a hundred other rescues. He was about to lie to her again.
And she couldn’t stand it.
She knew he needed to help those hostages.
But it didn’t need to be her that he lied to.
[...]
She already heard the lie coming. He was setting it up right now. She snapped.
She pushes him toward Cat because she doesn't want to be the one he lies to this time!!! That's so deep and sad. It brought up feelings I'm still processing.
Because she’d been the person that had made it harder for Superman to get to that rescue.
So if anything happened to any of the hostages…
It would be her fault.
Oh, an ethical dilemma! Excellent! Things are getting more and more interesting. I wonder if we'll see a direct consequence of this in the next part.
I loved how you captured Lois’s conflicting feelings so well. As a reader, it’s possible to understand her and relate to her. I especially like how she cares about the fact that she and Clark are - or should be - best friends, and how that haunts her, because I think that, on top of feeling intellectually diminished, it makes sense that it hurts her so much. Besides, she also thinks she could have helped him if she had known. And of course, she also uses anger as a shield, which confuses her even more, especially in the moments when she actually doesn’t want to or can’t feel angry at him. It’s a beautifully human conflict.
I’m really curious to see how they’ll work things out and what their conversation will be like. Will Clark tell her? (Hmm, I doubt it.) Will Lois give in and say she knows? Or will Clark end up finding out that she knows now? Can't wait for the next part. And thanks for sharing this gem with us.
