The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan

[phoenixnz]

Lois: Oh and about that lap dance, if you decide to tell anybody about it, your Elmer Fudd nightlight will make a very public appearance.Clark: Aye aye...sailor.

Elmer Fudd to the Rescue

Jonathan wasn’t sure how it started or why it started, but suddenly Clark seemed to be having nightmares. He would wake them up, screaming. It was almost always at two o’clock in the morning when the five-year-old should be deep in dreamland. Having pleasant dreams, not horrible ones.

After the fifth time, Clark began refusing to go to bed. Jonathan was at a loss to what to do, especially when his son would sit on the couch, his arms crossed over his chest, a stubborn expression on his face.

He tried not to yell at his only child, but this was getting ridiculous, he thought. If Clark didn’t go to bed he would be tired and cranky in the morning. He couldn’t sleep with his parents. He might still be only little at five, but their bed wasn’t exactly roomy.

Part of him wondered if Clark was perhaps dreaming about his flight through space, or the parents that had sent him to Earth. Jonathan still wondered what had caused the little boy’s family to do such a thing. It was understandable that that abandonment would give a boy such nightmarish visions, but it was odd that it was only just now happening when he’d been living with them for three years.

Maybe it wasn’t about that at all, he thought. Then again, he had no idea what else it could be.

He ran a hand through his blond hair, gazing at his wife over the head of his stubborn child.

“What do we do?” he asked.

Martha looked just as perplexed as him.

“Clark, sweetie, why don’t you want to go to bed?”

“The monsters’ll get me,” he said.

“What monsters, baby?”

“The monsters under my bed.”

Martha glanced at Jonathan, raising an eyebrow. Jonathan understood. Bill Ross had been talking about Pete and his own youngest son’s bedtime routine. Pete had recently begun refusing to go to bed claiming there were monsters in his room.

“I know how to fix this,” he murmured.

When he was a child, he remembered, he’d had nightmares. While he couldn’t remember the visions, he did remember that his mother had provided a solution. She had had his dad make up a nightlight, putting it beside his bed to protect him from the dark.

“C’mon, son,” he said, holding out his hand. “Come with me.”

Clark bit his lip, as if considering the situation, then got up, taking his father’s hand. When he realised Jonathan was taking him upstairs, he began crying.

“It’s okay,” Jonathan told him. “I promise everything will be okay.”

He led his son to his bedroom, keeping the light on and sat him down on the bed. He sat next to him.

“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, Clark. See, those monsters under your bed, well, they’re afraid of the light.”

“Why?”

“Cause it hurts them.”

“Like the gremlins?”

“What gremlins?”

“Like the ones in that movie. Pete showed it to me.”

Well, that definitely explained a lot. At five, Clark, as smart as he was, wasn’t savvy enough to separate fiction from reality, so there was a good chance he thought the gremlins were real. Jonathan nodded sombrely.

“Yep, exactly like those old gremlins. So, how about this? Tomorrow we’ll get you your own nightlight so you can always have a light on in your room when it’s time for you to go to sleep. And that way, the monsters can’t come out. How about that?”

“Okay.”

“Do you think you can sleep with the light on tonight?”

Clark nodded. “I can do that, Daddy.”

Jonathan hugged him. “That’s my boy. C’mon, let’s get you in your pyjamas.”

Martha laughed when he joined her a few minutes later.

“Gremlins?” she said. “We are going to have to talk to Bill about letting the boys watch such movies.”

Jonathan shrugged. “Boys will be boys. I’m guessing Sam or one of the older boys showed it to them.”

Next day, Jonathan took his son into Fordmans Department Store. While Martha browsed the fabric department, Jonathan led Clark to the electrical department. They were greeted at the counter by George Fordman. He grinned at them, then glanced at someone who must have been standing behind one of the racks.

“Whit? Don’t disappear on me, okay?”

Jonathan looked around and smiled at the towheaded boy. Whitney was eight and while essentially was a good kid, tended to be a bit mischievous. It looked like he was spending the day helping his dad in the store.

“So what can I do for you folks?”

Jonathan placed a hand on his son’s head.

“We’re looking for nightlights. For Clark.”

“So the monsters under my bed can’t come and eat me,” Clark said.

George winked at him.

“Well,” he said, leaning on the counter so his face was almost at Clark’s level, “I think I have just the thing.”

He led the way to the nightlights. There were a few of them, from plain lights with characters painted on lampshades to various stands made to look like characters from cartoons or movie heroes.

“What do you think, Clark?” Jonathan asked.

Clark looked over them all, poking his tongue out slightly as he considered his choices. Then he pointed to one.

“That one,” he said.

Jonathan grinned. Of course. Clark loved his Saturday morning cartoons, and Warner Bros were his favourites of all. George smiled and picked it up. The stand itself was shaped like the character with a frame made to look like the character was holding the bulb in his hand.

“Well, guess this is the one then.”

They paid and Clark clutched the box to his chest. Martha rejoined them. She didn’t seem to have bought anything.

“Hi boys. I see you got your nightlight, sweetie. Do you think Elmer’s going to be a good bodyguard?”

Clark nodded. “Yep. He’s just gonna shoot the monsters, like he does Bugs.”

“Well, that’s good then.”

“See anything you like, sweetheart?” Jonathan asked his wife, kissing her on the cheek.

“Not here,” she said. “At least one of us got something he needed.”

“How about we have lunch in town,” Jonathan suggested. “We can get Clark some hot chocolate. Would you like that son?”

“Yay!”

Holding hands, they left the store and walked down the street, Clark still happily clutching his Elmer Fudd nightlight.

That night, their little boy happily went to bed, secure in the knowledge that Elmer would indeed keep him safe from the monsters.

Martha laughed at the complete turnaround.

“Looks like that did the trick,” she said. “How clever you are, Mr Kent.”

Jonathan grinned at her.

“Except now I have a problem with monsters under my bed,” he told her, winking.

She wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Hmm, what are we going to do about that?” she asked.

“Well, I have a few ideas,” he murmured, kissing her softly.

“I bet you do,” she replied, getting the idea. She let him go. “Last one up is a rotten egg.”

Chuckling, Jonathan chased her up the stairs.

[BigRed67]

I know I've said this a hundred times, but omg little Clark is just too cute!! I'm so happy you wrote an Elmer Fudd story cause that line by Lois was just so funny!

[phoenixnz]

I know I've said this a hundred times, but omg little Clark is just too cute!! I'm so happy you wrote an Elmer Fudd story cause that line by Lois was just so funny!

That story had to come at some point. I'm glad you love what I came up with.

[phoenixnz]

Season 4: Transference. Clark (in Lionel's body)

Mom, no, Mom, remember -- remember when I was 6,and I was playing tag with Dad, and all of a sudden I started running faster than I'd ever run before, and I was in the middle of Palmer Woods, completely lost. And you and Dad had to call Sheriff Ethan. And when you saw me, you started crying. And I thought something was wrong with me, and you said, no, there wasn't. And then you held me in your arms, and you told me I was just special, I'm your special boy.

a/n: I still cringe at some of the scenes in that episode. Some of it was just too weird. No matter how good JG was, this scene always weirds me out. Having said that, the speech inspired this vignette.

Their Special Boy

To Martha and Jonathan, Clark was more than just a special child. It wasn’t just the fact that he was literally from out of this world. He was their miracle. The child they had never thought they could have.

On Clark’s first day at school, both his parents decided to accompany him. Martha had thought she would be the one who would find it hard to pull away and watch her little boy walk proudly into school carrying his very own lunchbox. But no, it was his dad who couldn’t tear himself away. It was his dad who waited anxiously by the fence every day at home time those first few days, looking for the school bus. Since Clark lived on a farm, several miles from Smallville Elementary, there was only one way for him to get to school, and that was by bus. Unless one or both of his parents took him, and on a busy farm that just wasn’t possible.

Clark had walked in to school that first day with his head high. When he saw his parents after school, he chattered non-stop about his teacher, Mrs Robbins and the pretty little girl who sat next to him. It took a while for Martha to realise he was talking about Lana Lang. She was even more amused to realise he had his first crush.

The school principal had asked why they hadn’t entered Clark in kindergarten and all they could tell her was that they had been homeschooling Clark, but had realised he was better being around children his own age. Martha wanted to protect her son, but she didn’t want to wrap him in cotton either.

They’d explained to him very carefully, in a way he could understand, how important it was that he never show his abilities. Martha often wondered if she’d given her son nightmares by telling him that if people found out about him that the authorities might very well take him away. She was careful not to say ‘the police’ since Ethan was often at the house, even in uniform, and it wouldn’t do to have Clark afraid of Jonathan’s old friend.

Martha would often bake cookies fresh so her boy would have some when he came home from school. The kitchen would be filled with the sweet aroma of the cookies. Jonathan had also taken to coming in to get cookies right around the same time the bus would pull up. Once Clark had eaten his cookies, Jonathan would take him outside to play a few games. Maybe a little football, or a little tag. Spending time with his son was so important at this age, Jonathan would say.
Martha couldn’t agree more.

“Hey sweetheart.”

She looked up and smiled at her husband. He kissed her cheek then went to the refrigerator, grabbing the bottle of milk, tipping it up. Martha pretended to be outraged at her husband’s cheek.

“Jonathan Kent! Use a glass!”

He responded with a sly grin, then pinched her backside for good measure. She picked up the towel and flicked it at him. Jonathan laughed and dodged, grabbing a wooden spoon from the dish rack and holding it up in the en garde position.

“Oh, that’s how it is, huh?” she said, pretending the towel was her own weapon, aiming it at him.

“Gonna have to do better than that,” Jonathan said, crowing.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh really? Cocky aren’t we?”

“That’s cause I always win,” he returned.

“We’ll see about that,” she told him.

The sound of a beeping horn could be heard across the field, stopping them in the middle of their horseplay. Jonathan took advantage of her distraction and grabbed her around the waist.

“Gotcha!” he said, dipping her and planting a kiss on her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hoping he would take the hint. He deepened the kiss, making a sound suspiciously like a soft growl.

“Mommy, Daddy!”

Great. Childus interruptus, Martha thought, wishing Clark had taken just a little bit longer. Although she could have sworn only about a minute had passed, rather than the four or five it usually took Clark to get from the bus to the porch.

Jonathan let her up.

“Hey Clark,” he said. “How was school kiddo.”

Martha turned, laying cool hands on her face, giving herself a few moments to collect herself before she set about giving Clark his usual glass of milk and placing cookies on a plate.

She watched as her son munched on his cookie, chattering to his dad about his day at school. Jonathan responded just as enthusiastically, eating his own cookies. Martha shook her head and smiled fondly at her two boys.

The cookies were gone and the glasses were emptied when Jonathan suggested taking Clark out to play tag. Martha took the plate and the glasses and rinsed them. She stood at the sink, daydreaming.

“Martha?”

She looked around, realising she had been standing there daydreaming for more than ten minutes. Jonathan shouted again and she went out, frowning.

“Jonathan?”

As she looked at her husband, she realised something was missing. Clark.

“Where’s Clark?”

He looked at her helplessly. “I don’t know,” he said.

She stared at him. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

He shrugged, his face worried. “I mean, I don’t know. Clark just suddenly started running and then he disappeared.” He told her that their son had somehow been able to run faster than any normal person.

She continued to stare at him in disbelief. When Clark didn’t appear after an hour, she knew something was terribly wrong. Jonathan had gone to the edge of their property to look for their son, but he’d come back saying there was no trace of him.

Worried that Clark had somehow fallen somewhere and hurt himself, Martha began calling all their friends. Jonathan, meanwhile, called Ethan.

Jonathan and Ethan went out to conduct a wider search, while Martha chose to stay at home in case Clark somehow found his way home.

She had no idea what to tell him if he did show up. She hadn’t known he could run so fast and if she hadn’t known then it was highly probable Clark didn’t know either. Having peculiar strength was one thing, but this had to be frightening for him. Especially if he’d managed to get himself lost.

Martha wondered if it had something to do with him not being born on Earth. Then again, she had been hearing a few odd stories in town of people who had been acting strangely ever since the meteor shower.

It was several hours after dark before she heard the door open and an exhausted Jonathan came in, carrying their son. He put Clark down. Clark’s face was dirty and streaked, as if he’d been crying. Seeing that, Martha couldn’t help bursting into tears herself.

She ran to her son and scooped him up, still crying.

“Mommy?”

“I’m here baby.” She let him go and held him by the shoulders, looking him over.

“Am I bad, Mommy?”

She glanced at Jonathan, who shook his head in confusion.

“What do you mean, sweetie?”

“I ran and got lost. I was scared Mommy.”

“I know you were, baby. But it’s okay. You’re home now.”

“I didn’t mean to run so far away,” Clark said in a small voice. “Daddy told me, Daddy said …”

Martha could only imagine what Jonathan had told him. The last thing she wanted to do was give her little boy a complex about his strange abilities, but the truth was, she was terrified that she would lose him because of those abilities. The only thing she could do, she thought, was reassure him.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.

“No, baby. You are not bad. You’re special. You’re my special boy, Clark.”

[phoenixnz]

Season One: Zero

Pete: Well, there was something back in the first grade.
Chloe: Thank you! That's more than I've uncovered in, like, the past two days. Now please, let's continue.
Pete: There was this bully three grades ahead of us. This dude was determined to pound dents into every kid in the school. One day, I guess it was my turn. He was just about to take my head off when Clark jumped between us.
Chloe: So Clark ran interference. Now, as kind as that sounds, Pete, I really don't think it falls under the "something amazing" test.
Clark: What test?
Pete: I'm not finished. Clark didn't just push brain-dead away. He put him through a door, as in splinters and broken hinges. How he did it, I still have no idea. The guy was at least twice our size.
Chloe: Clark, any comments?
Clark: Uh, well, we were, you know, six years old. Twice our size was three feet tall.

Bully

The phone was ringing, the sound reverberating off the walls of the narrow hallway as Jonathan stepped inside.

“Martha?” he called out, then remembered she’d gone to a meeting for the bake sale being held that weekend. She’d volunteered to man a stall as well as bake a few of her famous muffins. He picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Mr Kent?”

He frowned.

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is Mrs Hennessey. I’m the principal at Smallville Elementary.”

“Oh,” he said, the name jogging his memory. He hadn’t really liked the woman much when they’d met her, just before they’d enrolled Clark in school. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was far too early for Clark to be out of school and there were no parent-teacher meetings scheduled.

“I was wondering if you and your wife could come down to the school,” the woman said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I’d rather not discuss that over the phone.”

That didn’t sound good, he thought as he hung up. The screen door squeaked and he looked up. Martha frowned at him, seeing the phone in his hand.

“Who was on the phone?”

“Clark’s principal.”

Martha immediately looked worried. “Did she say …”

“She wants us to come down to the school. Soon as we can.” He shook his head. “I’m sure it’s nothing, sweetheart.”

She still looked worried. Jonathan could understand that. Given Clark’s differences, no matter how much they told him to keep it to himself, Jonathan often wondered if his son was just too young to realise the repercussions if someone were to discover what he could do.

The discovery that he could run faster than any normal adult male had been alarming to say the least. Not because they were afraid of his ability, but because he could so easily have gotten lost. Jonathan still had nightmares about searching Palmer Woods for days only to come across his son’s still body. He thanked God that had never happened, but Clark had been terrified.

Jonathan recalled when he’d found Clark that he’d wrapped his arms around him and told him never to do that again. He had tried to keep from scaring his son, but the truth was, he’d been terrified himself, wondering what he was going to find.

The last thing he’d wanted was to give his little boy a complex about his strange abilities, but he had no idea how he was supposed to handle this. The strength was one thing, but he had hoped he’d managed to teach Clark how to hide that. The speed was something else. He knew he would have to keep his son out of school sports, but since physical education was a big part of his school life, Jonathan just didn’t know how he was going to do that.

He still tried to think of possible scenarios as he drove the truck to the school. Martha was silent on the bench seat beside him, probably trying to guess what the meeting was about as much as he was.

When they stepped into the school’s administration block, they saw Clark sitting with Pete on chairs outside the principal’s office. The nurse’s office was open across from them and what looked like a fourth grader was being treated by the nurse. He had a cut lip and she was holding a cloth to his face. She looked up and frowned at them but said nothing.

Jonathan was about to ask his son what was going on when the principal’s door opened.

“Mr and Mrs Kent, please come in.”

Jonathan was surprised to see Abby and Bill Ross in the office. Abby was a lawyer who seemed to be doing quite well for herself.

“Mrs Hennessey …”

“Please sit down,” the woman responded. “I’m very sorry to have had to call you all here, but this is a very serious matter.”

Jonathan glanced at Bill, then frowned at the principal.

“What is it?”

“Clark has been fighting.”

“Fighting?” Abby asked.

“I’m afraid so. All I can get out of the boys is that an older boy was bullying Peter and using, well, dare I say it, racist remarks.”

Jonathan listened in amazement. The older boy had begun pushing Pete around on the playground and Clark had jumped to his defence. In retaliation, the boy had begun shoving Clark, who had shoved back. Somehow, the boy had ended up falling through a door, breaking both the door and the hinges.

Martha and Abby stared at each other, the shock clear on their faces.

“How did that happen?”

The principal shrugged. “I have no idea. The janitor thinks perhaps it’s termites, but it doesn’t explain the broken hinges.”

“Well, perhaps that’s just metal fatigue,” Jonathan replied, mentally crossing his fingers.

“I suppose.”

“You’re not punishing Clark, are you?” he asked.

She looked at him. “Well, this is a very serious matter, as I said. I can’t just let Clark …”

“Let him what? Go unpunished? He was standing up for his friend. From what I understand from my sons, this boy has been bullying other children at the school and you’ve allowed him to get away with it. Frankly, Mrs Hennessey, I’m appalled that you have allowed this behaviour to continue right under your nose. Tell me, why are his parents not here?”

“Mrs Ross …”

“You are very lucky that my son has not been injured by this boy, or else this school would be facing a lawsuit,” Abby said sternly. Bill was wisely staying silent, allowing his wife to handle the situation.

The principal spluttered, trying to say that it was Clark who was in the wrong.

“Well, I can’t see how on Earth you would think Clark would be responsible for what happened to your door,” Martha replied in a tone similar to Abby’s. She was acting every inch the lawyer her father had once tried to force her to be. “It seems clear to me the boy just slipped and fell. Something I have no doubt would never have happened if he hadn’t been bullying Pete.”

The other woman bit her lip, clearly seeing she was outnumbered.

“Yes, of course,” she replied. “This was just an unfortunate … accident.”

Jonathan couldn’t help thinking as they walked away from the school with Clark that they had dodged a bullet on this one. The worst part was, if Clark’s abilities kept on growing, they might be dodging a few more in years to come.

Still, there was no point worrying over it right now. They would just have to cross that bridge when they came to it.

[BigRed67]

Damn Leanne! I'm slacking off if I've missed two stories!
Ok well let's start with My special boy shall we? I must say I agree with you that there were some uncomfortable moment's in Transference, I always thought Tom played Lionel really well but John's version of Clark was meh. Anyway onto poor baby Clark. I can imagine to horror of realising your child is missing, but knowing that Clark was there one moment then just gone the next? Absolutely terrifying. I did have a laugh at the childus interuptus moment though, totally get that!
Now for Bully. Typical of the times, the bully gets away scott free and the victim gets the blame. Good on Abby and Martha for pointing out that the bully's parents were absent yet their boys were in trouble. Nasty little toad got what he deserved!

[phoenixnz]

Damn Leanne! I'm slacking off if I've missed two stories!
Ok well let's start with My special boy shall we? I must say I agree with you that there were some uncomfortable moment's in Transference, I always thought Tom played Lionel really well but John's version of Clark was meh. Anyway onto poor baby Clark. I can imagine to horror of realising your child is missing, but knowing that Clark was there one moment then just gone the next? Absolutely terrifying. I did have a laugh at the childus interuptus moment though, totally get that!

I think we can both agree just what a terrifying moment that would have been not only for his parents, but for Clark too. It sort of makes you realise just how much they had to deal with. These snippets are really good for making me see them from a different perspective.

Now for Bully. Typical of the times, the bully gets away scott free and the victim gets the blame. Good on Abby and Martha for pointing out that the bully's parents were absent yet their boys were in trouble. Nasty little toad got what he deserved!

Yeah, I know what you mean. Unfortunately that tends to be the attitude. Clark injured the boy, so he's the one in trouble, never mind that the boy has been bullying other kids. I had trouble coming up with a way for Martha and Jonathan to talk their way out of the problem of Clark's secret and having Abby there was a perfect solution. Given that she became a judge in the series.

[phoenixnz]

a/n: Ok, so the following is from Season Two: Fever. I had to think why Clark would suddenly have this fear and my guess is that around this time, Clark was told he was adopted. He would be seven years old by this time and old enough to know what adoption means. Anyway, I hope the following snippet helps explain it a little.

It's weird how random memories can just pop into your head, huh? When I was in second grade, I was afraid to go to school because I thought my mom would disappear while I was gone and never come back. I wouldn't even get on the bus in the morning until she promised she'd be there when I got home. Sure enough, every day, there she was when I walked in the door.

Adopted

“Clark Kent, if you don’t hurry up, you’re going to miss the bus to school.”

Martha waited a few moments, listening for the sound of footsteps as her son scrambled to get his things together. She heard various thumps and thuds, but still no little boy appearing on the stairs.

“Clark Jerome Kent! I’m not telling you again!”

Clark came running down the stairs, faster than any normal little boy should, from what Martha could tell, although he'd been told not to practice his super speed in the house.

“I don’t want to go to school,” he complained.

“You have to go,” she said, looking at her seven-year-old. She stood at the bottom of the stairs with hands on her hips.

“But Mommy …”

“No, Clark.”

“But if I go on the bus, I’m scared you won’t be here when I come home.”

She frowned at him. Clark had the strap of his red backpack slung over one shoulder. The pack was unzipped and gaping open, his Scooby-Doo lunchbox almost falling out. He was wearing his favourite red jacket and blue jeans, the edges of a blue flannel shirt peeking out from the bottom of his jacket.

“Honey, what are you talking about?”

Clark poked his tongue out a little as if he was considering the question.

“Well, Whitney told me that Lana’s mommy and daddy didn’t come back for her.”

Martha wondered if there was more to the story than Clark was telling her. She had no idea how old he really was when he’d been sent rocketing into space. How did she know he didn’t have some residual fears of abandonment?

She wanted to tell him that what had happened to Lana had been a completely different story, but she didn’t want to make him worry.

She knelt down and held him gently.

“Sweetie, Mommy’s not going anywhere. I promise, I will be right here when you come home from school.”

“With cookies?” he asked hopefully.

She grinned. Clark loved her home-baked cookies.

“Of course,” she said.

He wrapped his little arms around her.

“I love you Mommy.”

She watched him run to the door and open it. He paused and looked at her for a moment, his bottom lip stuck out in what looked suspiciously like a pout.

“I promise,” she repeated.

He nodded and left the house, running to catch the bus. Martha watched until the yellow school bus disappeared down the road, biting her lip.

She worked at her morning chores, but the incident bothered her. Wondering what to do, she decided to phone Nell. Since their neighbour had decided to take in her niece, the once strained relationship had changed. They would never be friends, but at least Nell was more civil.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Martha.”

“It just seems very sudden that he’s reluctant to go to school.”

“Well, like I said, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m sorry. I have to get ready to go to the city.”

Nell had been spending a lot of time in the city lately. Martha had been talking to her mother, who seemed to know all the gossip, and it seemed Nell had been talking to Lionel Luthor about some kind of business deal. It seemed odd for Nell to even have anything to do with the Metropolis billionaire, especially after having lost his wife Lillian a few months before.

Having got no answer out of Nell, Martha wanted to brush it off, but it still bothered her. She went out to join her husband, who was working in the barn. Since it was winter, farm chores were mostly indoors.

Jonathan was hammering in some rails guarding the stairs to the hayloft. He’d decided to turn it into a space for Clark to play in and later perhaps study in. It would give him some much needed privacy.

He stopped and looked at her.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?”

“Clark didn’t want to go to school.”

He frowned. “That’s weird. Clark loves school.”

“He seemed afraid I wouldn’t be there when he got home from school.”

“And you can’t figure out why?”

“He said something about Lana’s parents not coming back for her, but I don’t think that’s it. I asked Nell if she knew anything but she couldn’t shed any light on it either.”

He stepped down and put his tools down.

“I guess we’ll just have to ask him,” he said.

They waited with hot cocoa when Clark came home. Jonathan sat him down at the table.

“I thought we should have a talk. Man to man.”

Clark’s eyes widened as he stared at his father. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, son,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “You’re not in trouble. Your mom’s a little worried about you though. She said you didn’t want to go to school today. Wanna talk about it?”

“Umm …”

“Hey, kiddo, it’s okay to get scared about stuff. But if something’s bothering you, then you should talk to us about it.”

“Well, Whitney was talking about how Lana’s mom and dad went away and didn’t come back and Nell ‘dopted her and then Lana said I was ‘dopted too.”

Jonathan nodded. They’d told Clark about his adoption, knowing the subject was likely to come up in school. Kids had a way of pointing out certain things, like the fact Clark didn’t look like either of his parents. They had discussed it and told him at least the partial truth.

“So what happened to my real mom and dad?” Clark asked.

Jonathan hid the wince Clark had unwittingly caused. Martha found it a little hurtful when people in town would comment about Clark’s ‘real parents’ as if the two of them were not his ‘real’ parents because Martha hadn’t given birth to him.

“Clark, the truth is, we don’t really know what happened to them. We just know that they loved you and wanted you to grow up with people who love you, the way your mom and I do.”

“And you’re not gonna go away and never come back?”

“Never ever,” Jonathan promised, holding up his hand in a scout’s salute. “Scout’s honour.”

Martha snorted. She’d been standing at the counter, listening.

“Jonathan, you were never a boy scout!”

“Dad, what do I say to people when they ask?”

“You can tell them the truth,” Martha replied. “That your dad and I adopted you because we love you very much and we couldn’t love you more if you were our natural child.”

Clark got up and ran to his mother, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his face into her. Jonathan didn’t hear what he said but got the gist of it when Martha told him she loved him.

Jonathan took his son’s hand.

“How about you come and help me in the barn, son?”

Clark frowned. He’d been told he was too little to use his dad’s tools, but Jonathan figured this was one project they could finish together.

He led his son out to the barn and showed him the loft.

“Wow!” Clark’s eyes lit up. “Can I play here?”

“Sure you can son. This will be your space so you can do anything you want.”

Clark practically jumped into his arms, laughing. Jonathan hugged his son. Sometimes it was just the simple things, he thought.

[BigRed67]

Aww Leanne, that was a great way to answer Clark's fears. Children so often pick up other kids fears and make them their own, and god knows what other rubbish Clark would hear from small town kids, especially about his own adoption. I would imagine the gossip mill would have been full steam ahead when the Kents adopted Clark.

[phoenixnz]

Aww Leanne, that was a great way to answer Clark's fears. Children so often pick up other kids fears and make them their own, and god knows what other rubbish Clark would hear from small town kids, especially about his own adoption. I would imagine the gossip mill would have been full steam ahead when the Kents adopted Clark.

Sometimes kids can be cruel without meaning to be and I think it would have been really unsettling for Clark to find out he's adopted.

You get a bit of Jonathan's perspective on that in the next one.

[phoenixnz]

a/n: I think this question has been asked many times and I do think it's a major plot hole in the series. How did Jonathan manage to keep the ship a secret from Clark for twelve years if it was in the storm cellar? Especially since they live in tornado country. This was my attempt to answer that.

Twister

The one thing Jonathan had never really liked about living in the Mid-West was the occasional tornado that would blow across the Kansas countryside. They had been extremely lucky that, while there had been a few twisters since Martha came to live at the farm, none had brought with them the devastating destruction that had once flattened the little farmhouse a decade before he was born.

The farm had a purpose-built storm cellar. It was right in the middle of the yard, between the barn and the house. Martha kept her preserves in the cellar, since it was cool.

Of course, there was one other item in the storm cellar that they never talked about and never even acknowledged. It was covered with a plastic sheet in the back of the cellar. It was the only place Jonathan had been able to think of to keep it. Clark’s spaceship.

Clark never went down in the cellar. Not without one of them with him. He’d followed his mother once when she went to get a jar of peaches, but had run out shrieking about the nest of spiders. The little boy might be stronger than normal boys and he might be able to run faster than the eye could see, but he was still a little boy who had normal fears of the dark and of spiders. Luckily he had never seen the plastic-covered spaceship.

They hadn’t needed to use the storm cellar in the time since Clark had come to live with them. They might live in tornado alley but it was usually the luck of the draw if a twister set down near the farm and so far they had been extremely fortunate.

In the spring of 1995, they had a run of twisters. Most had been only small, force one or two at best. The occasional whirlwind would blow as cold air from above hit hot air from below but they disappeared within seconds. They never even came close to the farmhouse.

It was Murphy’s Law that things like that could turnaround in a moment.

Jonathan was out on the farm checking on the cows and making sure their water troughs were filled and they had adequate feed. It was late April and unseasonably warm. Sweat gathered on his brow as he doled out more hay in the hot sun. Martha would nag him about wearing a hat but most of the time he didn’t bother. Especially being out on the tractor.

A breeze blew, kicking up some leaves which had fallen from the trees. The small amount of debris seemed to spin in a circle, like a mini whirlwind. He gazed at it, his brow creasing in a frown. The cows began to make noises as if they were feeling unsettled.

“Jonathan?”

He looked up and over toward the boundary fence. Martha stood there, calling and waving to him. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a clearer look at her face. He’d recently been having trouble with his vision but had put it down to getting older. He was sure Martha would nag him about going to the eye doctor and he kept putting it off.

He turned the tractor around and headed toward his wife. A sudden cold gust made him shiver and look up at the sky. In the distance, he could see black clouds gathering. They were in for a storm.

“Martha?”

“The school called. They’re sending the children home early. There’s been a tornado warning.” Her face showed worry.

He shook his head. “I’m sure it’ll be fine Martha,” he said, even as he was filled with a sense of foreboding. He’d lived long enough to get a sense when something was brewing and he felt it in the air. It was the same kind of feeling he got when he sensed a thunderstorm approaching. Like an electrified atmosphere.

Martha went on to say that she had been talking to a couple of the parents who lived the other side of town. Both of them had relatives in the next county. A tornado had struck that morning and their relatives had barely escaped with their lives.

Just as he headed toward the gate to put the tractor in the barn, he heard the sound of a 250-horsepower engine chugging along the road. From the sound of the engine, it could use a decent overhaul, he thought.

Martha shielded her eyes from the sun and looked toward the bus stop. Obviously the school hadn’t been able to call all the parents in time, or else they’d assumed those children who lived on the many farms dotted around Smallville would be home.

Clark came running up the driveway, reaching the barn just as Jonathan got off the tractor.

“Mom, Dad. They said there’s gonna be a tornado.”

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, we heard, son. Come help me get some things inside.”

The storm began moving closer, the wind whipping up and the air growing colder. Jonathan felt the same apprehension he always felt in a storm, like a sickening sensation in his stomach.

Martha came back from the house. “They just said on the radio a tornado touched down about a couple of miles south of here.”

Jonathan looked up at the sky. It was now an odd shade of green.

“We’d better get to the storm cellar,” he said. “Grab Clark.”

He felt the wind whipping around his short hair. In a space of five minutes, the wind had risen in intensity. Not to mention the noise. He’d often heard it said that a tornado sounded like a freight train coming. He didn’t know about that but it was sure loud.

He struggled to pull open the double doors to the cellar. As he started to step inside, he was reminded of the ship in the back of the cellar. Apart from the one time Clark had followed his mother in, he had never been down here. Jonathan knew eventually he’d have to tell his son about the ship in the cellar but he fervently hoped today was not the day.

He glanced uneasily toward the dark shape in the corner. He hated that thing. It always served as a reminder that his son was not really his. He had read a couple of books on adoption: one was about a mother whose child’s birth mother had come looking for them. The adopted mother had ended up going to court to stop the birth mother from taking the child and had lost. That had always been Jonathan’s worst fear. That Clark’s birth parents were alive out there and would tell them it had all been a mistake.

Still, there was nothing he could do about it right now. Not with a tornado coming.

“Martha?” he called.

She ran with her hand in Clark’s. The wind was practically roaring now, whipping her hair in her face so she was almost blinded. He ran to her and grabbed her hand. Together, the three of them ran to the storm cellar. Just as he reached for the doors he saw it. The twister was moving fast across the field. It looked big enough to be a Force Three or Four. He prayed it would leave the farmhouse untouched.

He pulled the doors shut and locked them. The doors rattled in the wind as he joined his family, wrapping his arms around them. He could feel Clark shivering in fright.

“It’s all right, son. It’ll be over soon,” he promised.

Clark buried his face in his father’s legs. He hadn’t quite grown to waist height yet, but he was getting taller.

They held each other in the darkness, waiting out the storm.

“Dad, what’s that?”

He frowned. “What’s what, son?”

Clark, forgetting his fright in his curiosity, had let go of his father and was wandering toward the ship.

“That’s just farm equipment, son. It’s old stuff we don’t use anymore.”

“Really?”

It was dark in the cellar but the rattling doors let in just enough light that Jonathan could see Martha looking worried and Clark reaching out a small hand to touch the plastic sheeting.

“No! Clark! Don’t touch that!”

The little boy turned and stared at his father.

“It’s very dangerous,” Jonathan told him.

Clark looked dubious, hesitating as he turned to the strangely-shaped object, clearly torn between obeying his father and trying to find out what the object was.

“Please, baby, come away,” his mother told him. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”

How she managed to convince him to come back to them he didn’t know, but he was relieved when Clark returned to his side. Martha seemed to have a way of talking to Clark and getting him to obey with only a look or a word.

The wind had dropped and he checked by opening one of the doors. The tornado had passed and the sun had come out again. They could leave the storm cellar.

As Martha took Clark out to inspect the damage, Jonathan lingered, glancing once again at the ship. One day, he knew, he would have to tell Clark the truth. Eventually Clark would disregard his parents and look under the sheet. He was a good kid and tended to do as his parents asked without them needing to push but his curiosity could only be kept at bay so long.

Jonathan just hoped he would be able to handle telling his son the truth when that day came.

[Aurora Moon]

It almost feels like we're coming to the end now that clark's getting older... which is a shame. Because I really enjoy those chapters.

[phoenixnz]

It almost feels like we're coming to the end now that clark's getting older... which is a shame. Because I really enjoy those chapters.

I still have a couple from his childhood to do. One example comes from the Pilot.

[Bally]

I like how you've written that despite having super-human abilities, the young Clark still has the same sort of fears as most kids his age. It fits with his inquisitive yet slightly cautious nature, and it humanises him. It also shows how the Kents have to face the same sort of issues that come with raising a normal child, wanting him to learn about the outside world and yet wanting to protect him from the dangers that lurk.

[BigRed67]

Ahhh yes the ever present yet slightly poorly hidden space ship. I think you really hit on the idea that Clark, although super powered, is still at heart the obedient son. It's not his nature to push his boundaries even at that young age. And of course as a mother Martha would have perfected "the look", my kids know it well!!
And I know I've said it before but I really love this series.