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I'll be back!

Wow!!!! I didn't see that coming!!!

Of course I should have. Of course Lois loves Clark. I didn't realize it, because Lois's way of caring for Clark and Jory seemed so altruistic, so... okay, let me be Biblical for a while. Me the non-religious person loves sprouting Biblical stuff, you know. Anyway, in the Bible, or maybe rather in theology, two kinds of love are recognized, eros and agape. (Okay, there may be still more kinds of love according to the Bible, but we'll ignore them here.)

Eros, as you might have guessed, refers to the love between a man and a woman. As unselfish as that love may be, it almost always has at least some sort of selfish component. After all, desire underlies eros, and desire has to be selfish.

Agape, on the other hand, is defined as God's love for man (and hopefully for woman, too), and it is defined as completely unselfish. And when I read about how Lois cared for Clark and Jory in this story, I thought she was amazingly unselfish, so that she asked for practically nothing in return. You yourself said that Lois's motives were pure, Sonia. But you managed to spring it on Lois as well as on me that Lois loves Clark. Of course she does. But neither Lois nor I had realized it.

I never thought that Clark was anywhere nearly as unselfish in the show as Lois was here. Clark seemed to know, right from the beginning, that he wanted Lois, and he set out methodically to try to win her. He did it very nicely, and he would have accepted it if she had chosen someone else, but for all of that, his motives were somewhat selfish. You have to wonder what it was about Clark that made Lois fall in love with him. I guess that Clark appealed to this Lois's mothering instincts, since he seemed so lost and unhappy, but she probably saw him - subconsciously - as a challenge, too. Just like Clark probably saw Lois as a challenge in the show. Could Clark make this, uh, prize bith love him? Could Lois melt this cold man's heart and make him smile and relax around her?

She could do that. Because of her, he smiled and relaxed. And she fell in love with him, head over heels. What she felt for him was not only agape, but eros. She wanted him for herself.

In the show, Lois is the woman who is extremely suspicious of men because she has had her heart broken by several of them. This Lois has never had any truly bad experiences of men - until now. Is Clark going to be the one who breaks her heart and makes her hard and unapproachable? That is, until she meets the irresistible FBI agent "Call me Dan" Scardino who impresses her with his warm smile and colorful Hawaii shirts?

No, no! That can't happen here. Because one thing here is different from the show. Lois knows that Jory needs her. I don't think she is going to give Clark the cold shoulder that he deserves if it means that Jory is going to suffer. She will not abandon Jory. And if she can't really be there for the little boy unless she makes up with his father, she will give Clark another chance. At least that is what I believe.

Ann

Wow, Lucy calling the L-word. And Lois going along with it. This is a complete role reversal you are pulling here.

I wonder what would happen if Lois actually just went Cat on him and kissed him senseless.

More please.

Michael

(Lois and Lucy)'s conversation was terrific

I really enjoyed this chapter. The conversation between Jimmy and Clark at the beginning was so poignant. Although Jimmy is extending his friendship to Clark, Clark reacts so bitterly that even he notices it. I hope this is enough to snap Clark out of it - he can't really want to be that kind of person.

Uh-huh. Sure. Keep repeating it to yourself until you really believe it. I know that Clark has been hurt, but surely there is some small part of him that still wants to connect, to be a part of the world in some small way. I hope he finds that connection with Lois is worth the risk.

The conversations later with Sam/Ellen and Lucy make it clear that Lois is in love with Clark and I loved the introspection that Lois does as she comes to accept it. I love this Lucy. She's so in character with S1/Pilot Lucy that I can just picture her giving her big sister the lecture on love.

I think that Lucy is also right, that because Lois Clark cut things off because he's hurt that Lois doesn't love him. Once she declares her love to him, he'll start to realize that he has feelings for her, too.

I would hope that they call a truce before the awards ceremony, but knowing how stubborn these two are, it'll probably take something drastic to get them to admit it to each other (assuming of course that we get a happy ending to the b-plot).

Still worried about Jory, though. The poor little boy has been used and abused his whole life. I hope he gets to have a little happiness, especially if his life ends prematurely.

Looking forward to the next part,
BJ

Great chapter! Lois loves Clark. Makes total sense. But I'm worried about how Clark feels about Lois. Is he going to be ready to love someone? I guess we'll have to see.

Well, I think Lucy is wrong here. I believe that one of the reasons why Lois has fallen in love with Clark is because she loves Jory, and he loves her. This Lois has grown up in a loving home, but for all of that she has probably never met anyone who has loved her as much and needed her as much as Jory has loved and needed her. And because Jory is a clone of Clark, Jory is Clark. (At least that is what Clark told her.) Well, if Jory is Clark, then Clark is Jory, isn't he? And then he should be capable of loving Lois as much as Jory loves her.

I know. This reasoning is deeply flawed. Jory isn't Clark, and Clark most certainly isn't Jory. Not only is Jory not a perfect copy of Clark, but his life experiences aren't the same as Clark's by far. Lois can't just assume that Clark's feelings towards her are, or should be, identical or similar to Jory's. But I think that some small subconscious part of her refuses to believe that. And therefore Lois not only wants the egg as well as the chicken, but she may want the chicken partly because she loves the egg.

Clearly the focus of several upcoming parts is going to be on Jory. I think it was Elisabeth who criticised Lois for inserting herself into Jory's life and making the boy dependent on her, only to cruelly withdraw herself from him again. I can see Elisabeth's point, but I want to defend Lois and say that, like Sonia has already told us, Lois's motives were pure. It was Martha, after all, who asked Lois to help keeping an eye on Jory. And then it was Clark who asked for her help with the boy. And when Jory had one of his 'hearing attacks' and was hysterical because of his pain and confusion, Lois comforted him as well as she could. And he responded to her care and comfort. Yes, Lois inserted herself in Jory's life more than she should have, but it just happened. It wasn't as if she was being calculating or deliberately cruel.

Nevertheless, now we have this situation where Jory has grown dependent on Lois, but suddenly she won't be showing up again. How will that affect Jory? Certainly the effect won't be good. It could be that Jory feels deeply betrayed and rejected by Lois, so that he will refuse to see her again if she should come back.

Lucy told Lois that she should deal with the fact that she is in love. Yes, maybe, but it is more important that she tries to deal with 'the Jory problem'. The way I see it, Lois just has no moral right to abandon Jory. Not now. She carries around a picture of a dying little boy to remind herself of the photographer who took the picture of that child only to walk away from the child and abandon him. Jory may or may not be dying right now, but Lois mustn't abandon him all the same.

It may have been Elisabeth who said that Lois had no right to make Jory so dependent on her since she wasn't his mommy. (And if it wasn't you who said this, Elisabeth, then I apologize.) Anyway, I don't agree. Why shouldn't Lois be Jory's mommy? Because she isn't his mommy? That's no reason why she couldn't become his mom. It's not as if she is stealing the rightful position from another woman, because Jory has no mother at all. And there is no reason why Lois couldn't become his foster mother or adoptive mother. After all, we all accept that Martha Kent is Clark's mom, even though she isn't his biological mother. So why couldn't Lois become Jory's mom?

Ann

Wow, eggs and chicken, chicken and eggs!

As the humble author who merely writes what the characters tell me to via my muse, I won't say that every one of their psyche's come from the same place.

I attempted to show some different POV's looking at the situation in this chapter - the parents, the sister, Lois herself... With Lois's introspection I was trying to show that it all was a bit surprising to her to realize that she did in fact have deep feelings for Clark. From the other standpoints, everyone was really making their own reads without knowing the entire story, so while some might have been spot on - some might have been way off, and then some might have been somewhere in the middle. You be the judge

I like Ann's argument for somewhat selfish reasons. I have created this motherless child who kind of chooses his family. I am paralleling Clark's own journey in a minor way - there are some Superman 'retellings' where Martha believes that Clark 'found' them, and not necessarily the other way around. In both cases (Clark's and Jory's) the question of what makes a parent has a lot to do with love. Of course there are other complications and considerations, but is Clark automatically a father? What would make him so? (I think Elisabeth already brought up these points earlier as well)

There has also been some conversation about Clark's need to wake up. I would like to submit that this was Martha's (and Jonathan's) position early on when he got kicked out of the house. I think that when kids are first placed on their feet to walk alone, they stumble a few times. Clark is stumbling. I offer no excuse for his behavior, but I wonder if not having someone to fall on will encourage him to pick himself up.

On that note, I see that we are on a bit of a deadline. The boards go on a brief retreat on Friday. It doesn't really affect this story, but I kind of like the idea of putting a little pressure on myself now that we are drawing near the end. So, I'm going to see if we can get these last 5 chapters in before the boards take their weekend hiatus. On y va!

Argh -I had a post almost written and screwed it up somehow...

Anyway...

Clark asked for Lois' help and she gave it willingly. She was there when Clark couldn't be [the attack]. The 'mother' thing was wrong, but unintentional and she's tried to make it right, but 3yos can be stubborn [believe me - I have one turning 3 tomorrow]. Now Clark is yanking her out of Jory's life because of a conversation he partially overheard [kind of like unsubstantiated rumors... the best kind :rolleyes: ].

As for Lois being Jory's mother... Ann, you're right, there's no reason why she can't be - but in appropriate circumstances. She's not. Jory doesn't know [I hope], that he's an imperfect clone of Clark. If she were married to Clark - or even dating or engaged, that would be one thing. But now, she's a coworker and maybe friend and 'mom' shouldn't be her role at this point. I don't think anyone's saying that she COULDN'T be, but at this point, I don't think it's appropriate. A caring female in his life - yes. Mom - no. Mom implies permanence even if a divorce happens or whatever, Mom is still Mom and that's simply not the case at this point, I don't think.

More soon please .
Carol