Beautifully written, Nancy. There were so many little snippets and allusions that were just perfect.
Shows what I know - if Paul and Claude were federal disasters, than Lex was an international one.
That's true...
Now, though, happily ever after seems too far away to count on, and my relationship with Clark has jumped from being the first non-federal disaster to being an intergalactic one.
An intergalactic disaster! Yes indeed!!!
I loved this bit of spunkiness in your portrait of Lois:
Still, when he came and told me that he had a crush on Tabitha now, and by the way, could I return the heart pendant he had gotten me (plastic and clearly gotten out of a vending machine), I was hurt. But I was Lois Lane and even at six, I knew better than to let that show. I returned the heart to Ben as asked, but first I used the cigarette lighter I stole from my mother to melt it until its original shape was unrecognizable.
That's so funny, and I adore six-year-old Lois's spunkiness!
And this was groan-inducingly funny:
We were going to live happily ever after. Well, after we got past the resurgence of Lex, clones, and a psychiatrist who needed to have his license revoked.
But in the end, this fic is a melancholy one, and I feel sorry for Lois, as I have done so many times before.
In my heart, I'm waiting for him to come back and marry me, but my brain knows better. Clark isn't coming back. He's already married to Zara and back among his people. I know what he said when he left, but he grew up on Earth – he hadn't had a chance yet to appreciate what it would be like to be with other Kryptonians. The signs were there, though, even before he decided to go. The way he spoke about them it was clear, he felt an affinity for Krypton and its ways, even if he wasn't conscious of it yet.
This reminds me of one of the most famous stories in the Archive, where Clark does indeed marry Zara, stays on Krypton and has children with her.
This little snippet was astronomically inaccurate:
So, I should probably make some attempt to go to sleep. Well, at least after one more glance out the window to see if I could still see New Krypton.
It was a bright star in the night sky.
The stars are incredibly far away - they are as far away as they have to be to look as faint as they do, given that they are all blazing suns. And the planets that circle them are so faint, since they don't produce their own light, that even the Hubble Telescope can't see them.
Even so you should keep this a part of the story, the assumption that Lois can see New Krypton in the night sky. Because it leads so beautifully into this:
Had Clark arrived there yet? Where on the planet would he be – was he even on the side I could see? Could he look out his window and see Earth? Maybe more to the point – if he could, would he?
Yes, if Clark could see the Earth, would he look? In other words, would he think about his past life on the Earth at all, and would he think about Lois, or would he be all busy and happy adjusting to life on New Krypton?
You shouldn't let us know the answer. According to the show Clark comes back, which means that this Clark probably comes back to this, Lois, too. But there is always the possibility that like that other Clark in that famous story in the Archive, he does indeed decide to stay.
I'm glad that you let us choose the ending, or linger in this sense of melancholy.
Ann
