I was so proud in successfully immersing myself in Clark and Lex's exchange of pertinent Fine-Zod details (great work you did there) that I was able to hold back the urge to cry. Then you had to bring out the big guns, so I kept on reading through their emotional sharing by clenching my teeth so hard they hurt. Then Lex was saying "Do you believe a man can fly?" and I lost it. And I was that close making it to the end of the chapter without breaking down, but I'm not taking your excellent writing's affective wallop on me personally. :D It still amazes me how Lex and Clark's dialogue in the Pilot, which would have been cheesy in any other reality, would resonate so powerfully to me despite all the changes they have gone through in the canon passage of time. *sighs* I'm such a hopeless Clex romantic.

The Lex-nalysis has been immortalized in many fellow fans' hearts by now, so I while I wouldn't hope too much, I will still believe the spirit of it in spite of what retcon may happen in canon.