My Igloo can WRITE!
I looooovvveeee this. Sometimes short is the sweetest, and this certainly is. It's bittersweet, too. I always wondered if Clark was actually asleep in the car, especially since she was SO happy to see him, and he would have wanted to really make sure she was OK. (And seriously, come on, what man in the right mind falls asleep when an attractive woman is driving him home wearing nothing but his suit jacket?!?!)
Anyway, I always figured that he did hear her, because had he not known she was starting to feel something for him, he never would have asked her out in "The Phoenix." Clark always put Lois' comfort first, and I think that there had to be a reason why he decided to ask her out at that point. And in the car, Lois never said she HAD feelings, but instead wondered if there could be feelings. That, I think, gave Clark the confidence to ask her out later.
My favorite part was his self-awareness of what his "death" had done to Lois, and the vast ways his relationship with her as Clark differed with his relationship with her as Superman, and it's pretty clear that he cherishes her rants and working on stories and having her show up at his place in the middle of the night. He just ... loves her. And you do a beautiful job of demonstrating that, while also not letting him off the hook for what he did to her.
And I also love his rationale -- that he pretended to be asleep in order to protect her. Awww, Clark. He's a darn nice guy -- and he's darn hot, too.
