Very good to see you post a story, Tank!
"What's with all this fascination with volcanoes, Lois? I never knew you were interested in them."
Lois shrugged and grinned at him. "I dunno, ever since we studied them in junior high I've been fascinated by them. There's just something about a mountain that sits there so staid and majestic for so long, then suddenly, it explodes with such power and fury."
"Kind of a kindred spirit sort of thing, eh?"
Lovely!!!
"Oh no!" Her voice was a raw whisper. "What am I going to tell Perry?" Her hand flew to her mouth. "The Kents! Omigod, what can I tell them?" She turned and slumped back against the door. "I'm sorry, Jonathan and Martha, but I killed your son."
Well, Lois thinks she has killed Clark here. Thankfully, she hasn't, so I was able to appreciate how you showed us her feelings. At first, she was simply in shock. But what I just quoted here really shook me, even though I knew that Clark wasn't dead. Just imagine how Lois would feel when she realized she would have to tell Perry, and still worse, Jonathan and Martha, that Clark was dead, and that she had accidentally caused it. My mind boggles at the horror of it.
"Clark?" A flare of irrational hope flashed through Lois' brain, quickly replaced by fear. Was she going insane? Seeing things? Clark was dead. She had seen him disappear beneath the molten pool. She shook her head in denial, then her whole body began to shake. "No, it can't be." She looked up. "You can't be... alive. I ... I killed you."
Poor, poor Lois. "Dead" Clark is showing himself to her, and she would really have to think she was going mad. But then she started to believe her eyes after all:
"Oh, Clark!" She threw her hands around his neck and held on as if *her* life depended on it. He held her tightly. There were no words, just his wonderful arms around her as more tears fell. This time her tears were of joy and relief. She hadn't lost her partner and best friend. She hadn't killed him. Clark wasn't dead. Clark wasn't dead... Why wasn't Clark dead?
Beautiful paragraph, Tank. I so like Lois's love for Clark - oh, she loves him all right, even if she hasn't admitted it yet - and then I love how the smart reporter raises her head again, asking the right question.
How could he have survived? She had seen him land in the magma. No one but Superman could have survived. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open. No... one ... but ... Superman.
"You, you're him. All this time, and, and, you were him all along."
His sigh was audible. "Yes, Lois, I'm Superman."
I love this! I love it when Lois is smart and is able to figure things out on her own.
Unlike Janet, I don't entirely believe that Clark kept his secret from Lois just to protect her. I think he was scared of her reaction at his deceit, too. Still, I agree that it makes sense that he would want to protect her, too. He is this overprotective sort of guy, after all! I'm glad that Lois wasn't angry at him. But I very much applaud her conclusion that Clark had been wrong to keep his secret from her:
She wanted to be angry for his deception, but she knew that he actually thought he was protecting her by keeping the secret. It was a notion that she was going to have to dissuade him of. Didn't he see the advantages of having her in the know? She could help cover for him when he had to suddenly fly off to handle an emergency. She could be there for him when he needed someone to talk to about a particularly tough rescue. She would show him that it would be a good thing to have her know both sides of who he was.
Yes, yes, yes! Clark should have realized that Lois deserved to know and that the secret wouldn't be too much of a burden to her at all. I really think he
should have trusted Lois and her ability to keep a secret of such a magnitude. But luckily, Lois isn't angry at him:
She wasn't angry. This wasn't the time for anger. Instead, she had an opportunity to use this knowledge to forge a stronger and more meaningful relationship with a man she suddenly realized she couldn't bear to not have in her life.
Beautiful, Tank. Lovely!
But all is not well:
*I* may be alive, but Clark Kent isn't.
"I guess I'll just have to become Superman full time. We'll still be able to see each other on occasion. I'll make sure you get a lot of interviews."
The cruelty and irony of this, seeing that Lois used to prefer Superman over Clark... Tank, it's brilliant.
But the really brilliant one is Lois, however. She is the one who knows how to bring *Clark' back.
"Clark, what do you remember about the cliff face as you fell? Were there any overhanging branches, or protruding rocks you could have grabbed onto?"
Of course there were branches and ledges! And so Clark survived, thanks to Lois!
Brilliant, Tank! I really, really like it. Hey, you don't happen to have any other unfinished LnC stories floating around in your personal cyberspace that you could finish and post here? Eh... except for the Tank ending ones, I think I can do without them.
But, hey, I think you still owe us at least one more haircut story. You half-started one here, why not finish it?
Ann
