“Jerome?” Jonathan’s soft voice said after a minute.
“Or should we call you ‘Kal-El’?” Martha’s unexpected voice suggested.
Hmmm, which is truer to him? Kal-El
is his birth name after all but Jerome is his middle name.
Jerome looked like he didn’t know exactly what to say. He still appeared as stunned by the message of the globe, which they had kept from spacecraft where they had found the little baby boy all those years ago, as she and Jonathan were, if not more so.
Huh? Are you meaning to say that the Kents are less stunned than Clark or something else?
“Are you…?”
Jerome cleared his throat and shook his head. “Yes… and no,” he replied. “Yes, Kal-El is the boy you found in Shuster’s field all those years ago. Yes, I am also Kal-El…”
Martha gasped, raising her hand to her mouth. How could that be?
“But I’m not your Kal-El,” he continued sadly.
All his memories and negative reactions are from the ghosts of his own past. Sadly in his own way he is as much a ghost of their own past as well.
“I am who that Kal-El, your son, could have been, had he been able to survive that day he arrived here on Earth,” Jerome explained, lifting his coffee up to his lips and taking a sip. “I am Kal-El, but I am from another time and another dimension, a parallel universe.”
I could see how that would be a little hard to wrap their heads around considering how brief a connection they had to something so out of this world up to this point. Meeting someone from a different dimension/parallel universe is far and away much more unbelievable than an alien. It's the kind of thing that requires multiple things of evidence to prove. Something that Lois might have a hard time with.
A grin slipped upon Jerome’s face. “No, they’re still there. I’m just repeating them.” He chuckled.
“Why?” Martha wondered.
His smiled faded. “Lois.”
“Lois?” Jonathan repeated. He pointed to the ceiling. “Lois Lois?”
That could be taken as extremely romantic or extremely stalkerish depending on how he acts.
“In February 1996, a Lois from yet another dimension was dropped into my universe by an evil, evil man from the future by the name of Tempus,” Jerome said, waving his hand as if doing so would erase the man from existence. “It was love at first sight. Well, first kiss actually. You see, that Lois was engaged to be married to her Clark, so when she saw me, she thought I was him and rushed up and kissed me.” He smiled as if remembering the moment with fondness. “Lana wasn’t happy in the least.”
I sincerely hope that when Lois learns about that Lois she doesn't consider herself a replacement.
Jerome shrugged. “No accounting for taste, I guess. We had been dating almost ten years. She was all I had, or so I thought. I didn’t realize, until I met Lois, how selfless and wonderful love could actually be, because that’s how she loves her Clark.” He reached across the table and set his hand on top their hands. “Don’t get me wrong. My parents shared a relationship as loving and tender and giving as yours, but…” He sniffled.
I had been wondering if Martha was thinking, "why would I let my son continue to date someone like her?" I don't know why, but I'm guessing
“Never be sorry for loving and missing your folks, Jerome. They’re who made you who you are today.”
“Yes and no. It was Lois, that other Lois, who made me Superman. Her Clark had wanted to use his abilities to help the people in his dimension. He created the Superman persona so that he could both help and still have a personal life as Clark Kent, average Joe reporter,” he explained. “But, it’s true, that my folks helped shaped me into a man who would want to follow in that other Clark’s footsteps. Actually, I met his folks, when I went to help his dimension after Tempus pushed him through a time window, losing him temporarily in time. They are very nice people. You remind me of them.” He smiled weakly at them.
Not, "you remind me of my parents" (although that is true."
“Honey, why are you here?” Martha finally asked, moving back to her chair. “I mean, we’re thankful you came here, but why? Why did you come here to our universe?”
“Lois. Your dimension has one. Mine doesn’t,” he said simply.
Martha and Jonathan exchanged a glance.
Aaand it continues to sound slightly stalkery (even though that's not exactly the case.)
“Shortly after, hours actually, Superman started helping people, my secret identity was revealed to the world on television. Lana left me,” he said with a slight roll of his eyes. “No big surprise there. It didn’t really matter to me, because I had fallen in love with that Lois from the other dimension. As I said, it was love at first sight – for me, at least, but that Lois already has a Clark, her Clark. She’s married to him, and they’re living their happily-ever-after now.” His brow furrowed. “Or actually in four years from now.” He shrugged.
The way you have him saying this makes me think there really isn't any jealousy between Alt-Clark and Canon-Clark. That's actually rather amazing to me.
Martha plated out three slices of pie and set them on the table, and then she topped off their coffee.
Clark won't be eating that slice of pie, now will he?
“Why should she believe you?” Martha said truthfully, nudging the untouched plate of pie closer to Jerome. She knew he was hungry. Why wasn’t he eating?
And I wonder if he's going to come clean on his "allergy" to sugar or if Martha's going to convince him to eat the pie just as Lois catches him doing it. Can you say nuclear reaction?
“It wouldn’t, if Lois were any other woman… er… but Lois… um… I know her.” He cleared his throat, and flushed, probably because of the skeptical expression Martha was giving him. He pulled his apple pie plate in front of him closer, picked up his fork, and took a bite.
Hunger won out over sugar. Now I'm just waiting for Lois to blow in and go
“But she’s still in love with Superman!” he said.
“And why shouldn’t she be? He’s a terrific guy,” she countered. “He’s sweet, and kind, and generous, and helpful, and he thinks of others before he thinks of himself, and he fights for the little guy, who can’t defend himself, and he’s on the side of good. Oh, lo and behold, so are you. If you think she’s shallow enough to be interested in Superman just for his buns of steel, then you don’t deserve her.”
*cracks whip* Martha Kent: Telling it like it is since 1966.
“It’s tradition to have Thanksgiving with your mama, and Jonathan and I are very traditional.”
Jonathan roared with laughter. “Since when?” He turned to Jerome. “She got into sculpture last year, before my accident. Craziest, modern day stuff you ever did see. It most certainly was not traditional.”
Hey now!
Martha Kent: *yelling at Jonathan* You can be forward-thinking artistically and still be traditional!
“Jonathan Kent, are you making fun of me?” she snapped.
Her husband paled. “Did I mention it was unique and more beautiful than any other sculpture I had ever seen?”
*cackles madly*
If there were a way Martha could adopt Lois too, the way they offered to be Clark’s parents, Lois would snatch it up in an instant. Of course, that would make Clark literally her brother, which would be awkward, so never mind.
Still wants to leave a romantic window open, huh?
Lois didn’t want to acknowledge Martha’s theory that perhaps she was in love with Clark. That was just plain preposterous. Okay, maybe somewhere, buried incredibly deep inside her, was some eensy weensy, microcosmic, although highly unlikely possibility, that Lois felt some sort of unmotivated and completely unrealistic love for Clark. If she did, it was the love of a friend; a good friend who she had thought had been shot and almost died.
Ooooooh she won't be saying
that when the Revenge is released.
Clark probably thought that LexCorp and Lex’s philanthropy was a cover for organized crime, as he had seen back in Italy in regards to the mob. What was she thinking? Of course, that was what Clark thought. He had said as much.
Well she knows the truth even if it isn't the complete and unvarnished truth, just the honestly hadged truth. It still allows her to see a man who has experience with the "underbelly" and would (potentially) recognize Luthor for what he is. Methinks that while this won't change the Superman thing it will help on the "investigating Luthor" front.
