Hi Jeff - I hadn't even realised you were reading this.
Sorry you had that reaction to the K-Mart stuff, but for a woman of Lois's kind of background and income,
even before her marriage to Luthor, they wouldn't have been the kind of places she'd have shopped at. I could see her waiting for the sales at Neiman Marcus or Sears or Macy's, or grabbing bargains in the Metropolis equivalent of Filene's Basement.
Certainly not Donna Karan or anything in that bracket, but I couldn't see a professional woman like Lois, who was also brought up by middle-class and professional parents (and even after her father walked out her mother wouldn't have been short of money for the girls' upbringing), needing - or being accustomed - to shop in low-budget shops.
She was a reporter who dressed well. I'm not sure how essential a good wardrobe really is to that kind of job, to be honest,
but in a job where you're expected to dress smartly (for Americans, I don't know the equivalent of not-casual <g>), WalMart etc just doesn't cut it. But there's a lot of scope in between K-Mart and designer, and for a woman on the kind of income Lois had, with no kids to support, good-quality clothes, even from designer factory outlets, wouldn't have been beyond her budget.
I wasn't making a personal judgement on anyone who shops in K-Mart, Jeff. I was simply reflecting how I felt Lois might feel about buying clothes in a shop she probably never went into before and where she'd never have considered buying clothing.
But I've just had a quick chat on IRC about JC Penney and realised that I was considering it a discount store when it's not really. So I'm editing that. Thanks for drawing my attention to it.
Quick question, though: other than the nitpick, are you actually enjoying the story?
Gerry, you may be right that I need to phrase that exchange a little better, but there is a passage where Lois agrees to take some cash from Clark:
As much as it embarrassed her to borrow money from Clark, he was right. She desperately needed new underwear, whatever about outer wear. He’d given her fifty dollars in fives and tens before they’d left his apartment, telling her that he had his chequebook and ATM card with him if she needed more. She didn’t intend to need more.
But I'll go back to the exchange you quote and see if I can improve on it - thanks for pointing it out.
Wendy
Are they going to let other in the investigation like Perry, Henderson or bobby?
Can't wait, tho!
The scariest thing of all was the split second when I knew we were going to crash... horrible. 
But the important thing was that no-one got worse than bruises.
