A little bloodthirsty, aren't we, Frame?
If this is the focus, I dislike your title. I can't see Lois being "adrift" due to the death of parents she did not see often and did not get along with.
Just because a child (even an adult child) doesn't get along with or socialize with his or her parents doesn't mean that their deaths won't be a tremendous shock. While Lois' parents are not her emotional anchor as a young adult, they and Lucy are all she has as family. Family is a vital part of any person's emotional makeup, and the sudden sundering of that bond can shatter the strongest individual.
No matter what Lois says, a part of her still wanted her parents to get back together and love each other. Her distance from them (and from Lucy) was partly a protective space to keep them from hurting her again. But this tragedy has crushed that bubble and smacked her in the heart with the agonizing reality that they won't get together again, they won't ever love each other again, and Lois will never have that close family relationship which she has always yearned for with her parents and her sister. And Clark's relationship with his parents won't be a comfort to her all the time, which is something Clark has sensed already.
Even though her anchor isn't her family, she's always known that they were there. Oh, she knew they'd fight, they'd yell, they'd argue, and they wouldn't resolve the real conflicts, but
they were there. She could talk to them, write letters and expect a reply, send birthday and Christmas cards, and know that there was a person on the other end of that tenuous tether.
That tether is gone now, ripped away violently. It's no wonder she's adrift. It's going to take some time for her to adjust to being alone in this brave new world. And Clark did exactly the right thing by not giving in to her request for him to distract her for a moment. If he had given in, her memory of their first night together would have always been inextricably wrapped up in the pain and shock of her parents' death, and their relationship could never have moved past the purely physical.
I'm waiting to see how Lois deals with this. I want to see how she and Lucy respond to each other and to this challenge, and how Clark helps both of them. I'm also curious to see how the new boyfriend behaves. Will he be a help or a hindrance to Lucy? Has he made the mistake that Clark avoided? And will Lucy blame Lois for all of this? (Unreasonable, yes, but people plunged into the depths of sudden grief are rarely reasonable.)
Next chapter, please? With angst on top?
