Smallville Fic(let)/Drabble Meme + shameless TVD promotion

[ladygawain]

I am overcome with many of the feelings on the soon-coming end of my show, (Smallville). So to help myself (and maybe some of you) through this, I propose a.........

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[ladygawain]

So posting my own challenge because I had a story that Dominion helped me finish, might as well post it here.

Lois-centric, waiting for Superman

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 1

[ladygawain]

This story has been hanging around for a while but I couldn't finish it. The muse struck today. It's based on the comic The Death of Superman, Doomsday (animated film) and Smallville. Hope whoever reads likes. Angst Machine, sorry, it was that kind of day.

Part 1Lois sips on a cup of coffee, checking her leads carefully when the deafening crash of an explosion rocks the building and the news comes in on the wire. She turns to the telecast and sees a blur of blue and a dark splotch as Superman and Doomsday go at it. She shivers. She’s seen him fight before, obviously, but there’s a viciousness to this one that makes her wince with every punch, every aftershock that shakes the earth

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 2+3

[ladygawain]

Part 2aIt’s Lois who realizes that something’s wrong. She starts to move after standing frozen, waiting, like everyone else, for him to just get up and fly away. Running to his body, she sees his chest moving jaggedly. She trips and grazes her knee on the rubble, but she doesn’t notice

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 4

[ladygawain]

Part 4Lois buries herself in her work. The entire bullpen is shocked when she arrives bright and early the very next week, ready to sink her teeth into a story. She is her usual Mad-dog self. But everyone is looking at her in the way that people look at a person in mourning, as though they’re a rabid dog set in amongst the civilized, or a delicate glass cup teetering on the edge of a table, just waiting to fall and shatter on the ground in fragments

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 5

[ladygawain]

Part 5a
Lois walks in measured steps along the familiar corridor to the apartment. Her heels clip against the ground, unnaturally loud. She fumbles in her purse for her keychain, and pushes the single, gold key into the lock, turning it clockwise. She twists the knob and nudges the door inwards, stepping in after it. Without looking up, she turns to face the door, closing it with a quiet thud. Her fingers rest on the steel handle and she presses her forehead against the cool wood.

Come on, Lois, it’s just a room. It’s just our apartment.

The apartment was theirs - but it didn’t feel like it. Not anymore. It didn’t feel like home

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 6+7

[ladygawain]

Part 6
She’s lost Clark before. She can think about it now.

She watched him fall to what she thought was death - over forty storeys down from the top of a building. She’d been so scared, and couldn’t tell the difference between wet rain and warm, wet blood. She kept calling his name, slapping at his cheek to wake him up - nothing. She finally did pull the dagger out, and just let her head rest on his chest. Until a beat - the echo of a heartbeat - vibrated against her ear. She thought she was dreaming. Or hallucinating. But then his chest moved and moved again. He came back.

Then there was the three weeks, nearly four, just before they got married. She hadn’t been able to think straight or see straight that time - the first real time perhaps. She’d even pulled a gun on Tess. The cold, hard steel was an anchor in a world that seemed to be slipping very quickly into chaos

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 6+7 continued

[ladygawain]

Then there was the time he was stuck in a parallel universe with Diana. The other time he was off-planet on New Krypton for months and months. The times when he was on duty at Watchtower or battling earthquakes and monsoons an ocean away. Like any good military wife, she did damn well at carving her life outside of that, at waiting. He always came back.

But she can’t even hold onto that now. Hoping for that is like trying to gather sand with her fingers - fruitless and stupid.

Part 7She goes back to work eventually. There’s only so long she can hide away on the farm without getting antsy. And she thinks it’s better for her to do rather than sit in a place where the memories of him and her permeate every square foot. The apartment isn’t any better but at least she can stay at the Planet so late that she’s too tired to take anything in by the time she gets home at night. She can rush out in the mornings and grab breakfast at the café round the corner. And it’s fine. Everything is fine

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 8

[ladygawain]

Part 8
There was a rash of fake ‘Supermans’ in the months after he died.

The first time, and only the first, she was dumb enough to let herself hope. She’d rushed to the roof of the Planet, panting and panicking, and yelled for him right then and there. She’d contemplated throwing herself over the building to catch his attention. She’d started planning the rant she was going to give him for making her worry so damn much.

But the person - the thing that came to meet her wasn’t him. Maybe from afar it could fool the masses; already the headlines were screaming “Superman is Back!” But she knew her husband better than she knew herself and this - wasn’t him. Its movements had been mechanical, stilted and studied at the same time. It knew her name. It smiled, lips stretching wide over perfect, white teeth. When it reached out to touch her face, she flinched back, shook her head slowly, and stepped away

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 9

[ladygawain]

Part 9
So when she comes across another one of the ‘Supermen’, slammed into the ground ten feet in front of her in a black suit with the House of El crest painted over in silver - she just rolls her eyes. Apparently, the tin can idiots have turned on each other, and they’re tearing the city apart. She’d grab a quote but she’s not Superman’s Girl Friday anymore and she’s got better things to do. She turns to veer to the left of the slow-moving lump.

“Lois…”

She stops. Not because she wants to - but her legs just quit moving. Frowning, she tilts her head for a second at that voice… and then shakes it to clear it, “Don’t be ridiculous, Lois.” She starts walking again, faster this time.

“Wait - Lois,” he says again, and he’s closer to her this time, she can hear it. She swings around quickly, hand raised, “Look, buddy, leave me alone - and go harass someone else!”

He says nothing, simply looks at her as if he’s trying hard to take every detail of her in at once. His eyes, changeable green, are wet. Lois frowns. Is he

gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[ladygawain]

He simply gazes at her steadily.

Lois studies him. His dark hair is long, unruly even; his shoulders are broad as ever; his eyes soft, new green leaves, and trained on her. She bites her lip and says, “It’s not you. It’s not. But, you know,” a sad smile touches her mouth, “Great job this time because you look damn close to the real deal.”

She makes to turn around but he stops her with a hand to her elbow. She looks at the fingers around her arm and then at him. He just keeps watching her. So still and focused. And her heart hurts because that’s how he used to look at her - like she’s the only thing that exists in the world.

She gasps. “N-no, it can’t be.”

She’s crying. How long has she been crying? She takes a step back, then two more. He follows her. “No… no, please.” He lifts a hand up to her cheek and she closes her eyes. His palm is warm and solid, callused but not overly so, gentle. “It is me.” Three words and she’s not sure whether to slap herself for paying attention to this lunatic, even a moment, or for

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[ladygawain]

Thank you very much, Sarin :)

Lois broke me. Clark broke me. They both break me all the damn time with their beauty.

Thank you and I am so glad you liked it and that it was emotionally affecting :'(

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[emerald_night]

I just....I'm sobbing. That was utterly stunning and beautiful. Loved the tie in with Dominion (and just picturing THAT killed me, so you can imagine the rest lol)

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[ladygawain]

Aw, thank you, love. I'm so glad you enjoyed it - I was crying when I wrote some of it.

Dominion is just slaying me - now onto my third re-watch. Clark and Lois, I can't. *hands tissues*

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[cindythecookie]

My heart. It hurts

Re: gathering sand, lois (and clark), pg Part 10

[ladygawain]

Yay, that's exactly the response I wanted - because I keep thinking about this a lot for some morbid reason - I'm pretty morbid in general though. Yeah, Dominion was like many episodes this season - it just didn't go there enough so I wanted this drabble to set up the scenario that Lois and Clark will face time and time again and that it will maybe become something she'll be able to deal with easier - because she's Lois fucking Lane, but the pain of it will still be as sharp and horrible for her. I can't even handle how much I love this character. So thank you, I'm glad you liked this.

And I think it's as much Lois being strong enough to not give up on Clark and keep believing he'll come back as it is her holding onto that belief because if she doesn't, it will literally break her in two. And I like that tension, also it breaks my heart when I think on it.

I love her. I love Lois.

Thank you, bb. Sorry for this nonsensical response, she just gives me many of the feelings.

I LOVE YOU :)))))))))) :'(