Merry Christmas, Rachel! Thank you for the very nice present.
I love it that Jonathan challenged Clark to fight through the pain and the terror and the fear of torture and death to accept what happened to him and deal with it. It's not what Martha would have done, nore even something Martha could have done, I believe, but instead of being on opposing sides they were actually counseling and treating different parts of Clark. Martha was so frightened by the physical aspect of Clark's injuries (although she certainly didn't miss the psychological aspects), and Jonathan was frightened by what he perceived as Clark's mental injuries over his bodily injuries. So he challenged his son to see if he'd been broken completely or just bent badly.
It turns out that maybe Clark isn't bent quite as badly as even he feared. He confessed to a desire to track down those responsible for his imprisonment and kill them, but in almost the same breath he realizes that he couldn't possibly do that and remain Superman.
I also wonder what he's going to do about Lois. I doubt he'll be able to simply pretend that nothing happened between them, and it's a safe bet that she won't ignore it! There's still a lot of drama and angst to wring out of this story, and you're doing a great job. Keep it up!
