This remains a lovely story, beautifully told. These are my two favorite quotes from it:
“I wasn't expecting you tonight,” he said.
“I know. I felt like we had to talk. Is this a bad time?”
Chad sank onto the couch and placed his head in his hands. “You need to ask? You need to ask if this is a bad time for us to talk?” he asked me. Even from the door I could see that his eyes were covered with tears. “Lois, you are my wife. You are the most important person in my life. I…” he paused and took a deep breath. “There's never a bad time for you to talk to me. I can't believe we've really gotten to a point where you feel the need to ask.”
So sad, and so beautiful.
“I think the option of keeping things as they are is out anyway,” Chad said. “It puts our marriage at risk too much. I don't want to come out of this loving my job but having lost you.”
“Me neither,” I said, hearing the tears I'd done such a good job of staving off coming on.
“More ice cream?” Chad asked me with a slight grin.
“No,” I said, putting a big spoonful into my mouth. I got whip cream on my lip, Chad started laughing, and my tears dried up.
Just adorable.
As for the actual plot development in this part... I don't know. I agree that it's in character for this Lois to make the decision that she made here. She loves her husband too much not to sacrifice a lot for her marriage. And it is fair, of course, that she should stay in Smallville for a while for Chad's sake, since Chad lived in Metropolis for several years for Lois's sake.
Still I don't think it's a very good decision for her to move to Smallville. I think Lois has a unique talent, and not very many places where she can put that talent to really good use. It's different for Chad. Good doctors are needed everywhere. But there is, literally, only one Daily Planet.
I just don't think that Smallville is a good place for Lois in the long run. That is especially true in view of the fact that she doesn't have children. If she did, she might be happy enough being a housewife and a mother, at least while her children were young. But the way things are now, what is she going to do with herself in Smallville, when Chad is at work? She can't impose herself on Rachel all the time, because Rachel is also at work. Maybe she can spend all her days with Martha and Jonathan?
Ann
