Everybody is writing short reviews, and me too, I'm sorry, Rachel. RL is just overwhelming....
As I was reading, I was thinking: Clark
has to tell Lois his secret now! Well, she already knows, of course, but he has to work up the guts to tell her himself! And he did! What a relief!
Let me tell you, by the way, that this was the best of both worlds. Well, having Lois figure it out on her own but not telling him that she knows, and then him actually telling her. I've never liked Lois's galactic stupidity, which is why I'm so happy when Lois manages to do the equation on her own and see that CK=S. On the other hand, if Clark never tells her himself, I'm left with a nagging suspicion that maybe he wasn't
ever going to tell her. There have been a few stories where Clark has at least married Lois without telling her who he is. To me there is something awful about that - the idea that Clark wants Lois so much that he would marry her, yet he fears her reaction to a possible revelation so much that he wouldn't explain to her the conditions under which she is entering this marriage. (It reminds me of a mock trial on Swedish television, where real lawyers, prosecutors and judges had to act out cases that didn't really exist. In one such case, a woman had sued her husband because he hadn't told her that he was HIV positive, and now he had infected her. I'm still fuming at how the defense explained that: Well, he couldn't tell her, because then she might have left him! If she had been given an informed choice! And do you know that the defense got away with that? Well, this was in the 1980s. I hope and think that this line of argument from the defense wouldn't have been accepted today.)
Usually, I strongly dislike it when Lois apologizes to Clark for making him lie to her. I normally hate that. Clark
chose to lie to Lois, it was his idea entirely, and Lois didn't have anything to do with it at all. Why should she apologize? Because she was more impressed with Superman than with Clark? Is that a reason to apologize? Nonsense.
So I was doing a bit of eye-rolling when I read how Lois was apologizing to Clark in this story. Until I came to this passage:
Lois swore, and held him tight again and soaking his shirt with her tears. “See?” she said, her voice soft, guilty. “Look what I've done to you, Clark. I never meant to hurt you. I was r-ready to take on the world for you, and here I was, beating you down worse than anybody when you needed m-me the most.”
That's so great. Lois is apologizing - or she is so, so sorry about - the fact that her reaction to Superman and Clark has reduced Clark to a shivering wreck. Of course she has reason to be sorry about that! Because she most certainly never meant to do that to the man who means the world to her!
So I just want to say that I was left with a glowing good feeling at the end of this chapter, when Clark had finally spilled the beans to Lois, and they had hugged and cried and clung to each other. But now I have one request. Surely, after such an emotional evening, Clark and Lois aren't ready to go home to their separate apartments and spend the night alone? Surely they want to sleep in each other's arms this night? Let them keep their clothes on, by all means. Just let them spend the night holding one another, okay?
Ann
Thank you so much for sharing.
The inner turmoil before the revelation had me on the edge of my seat, cuz I was swearing up and down that he was going to back out at the last second...and then BAM! Revelation! And Lois's reaction... priceless!