Relative History, Part 9
By: C. Leuch
Jon’s first stop after waiting for Laura to arrive was to go home and surprise his family with some breakfast. It felt so good flying over Metropolis, seeing the sights that were familiar in a way that he had taken for granted for so long. At last he saw his apartment, and he sped toward it, landing on the back patio, spinning into his normal clothes as soon as his fit hit the concrete. So intent was he on seeing his family that he entered the house without even looking to see who was up. It quickly became evident that this wasn’t a normal morning.
“Mom?” he said, stopping after two steps. His mother was in the kitchen, wrangling two toddlers while simultaneously trying to pour cereal into bowls and milk into sippy cups.
“Daddy!” two little voices shouted, their eyes lighting up as they noticed his presence. As they ran toward him, a look of relief passed over his mother’s features. It was a little strange seeing the present version of her after just leaving a much younger version in 1997, but it was also comforting, another cue that he was where he needed to be.
“Hey, sweetie,” Lois said. “Where’ve you been? The news has been rather quiet.”
“Oh, just on an out-of-town case,” he said, squatting down and opening up his arms to let his two little ones tackle him. They all broke out in a fit of giggles for a moment before he scooped them up and carried them back to the kitchen and the breakfast that now awaited them. “It’s kind of hush-hush,” Jon continued after a moment. “Nothing that would make it on the news.”
“Oh really?” Lois said, something in her voice telling him that she didn’t believe him. He turned to look at her and saw…something on her face, a knowing expression that was there and gone in the blink of an eye.
“I’m just glad you made it back in one piece,” she said.
“That makes two of us,” he muttered, then shook his head and smiled. “So where’s Diane?” he asked, scanning the house quickly.
“She went in to work,” Lois said. “I guess she got a break in her case overnight.”
Jon stiffened. “She did? That was quick.”
“You know how these things go. Once they get something credible, they pounce on it before the suspect catches wind that they’re on to him.” Lois turned to the toaster and started making herself something to eat. “She got out of here a couple hours ago.”
Something tickled the back of Jon’s brain, an unquantifiable feeling of danger. He knew Diane was a cop, and while she wasn’t routinely in the field anymore, she still got out of the office to investigate cases and help in wider operations. If she was the one to finger a suspect, chances were that she would want to be in on the bust. He would be lying if he said he didn’t worry about her, but he knew she was a professional and could keep herself out of trouble. This time, though… He couldn’t explain why he felt that something was wrong, especially since the porthole robbers hadn’t been especially violent in the past. But he had learned a long time ago to trust his hunches when it came to Diane and potential problems.
He leaned over and gave each of his children another small hug and kiss, before moving to hug his mom. “I know I just got here, but I think I might need to go and check on Diane. I don’t suppose she left any clues about where she was going?” Lois sighed and shook her head. “Okay. Well, I suppose I’ll see you at work a little later?”
“Certainly,” Lois said. Jon started for the patio again, but was stopped by his mom’s voice. “Jon?” she said, causing him to look back at her questioningly. “I think your dad and I need to talk to you about your trip,” she said with a smile. “Maybe over lunch?”
He looked at her for a long moment, wondering how much she knew about where he had just been, but he decided that he would find out at lunch either way. “I’ll be there,” he said with a nod. As he reached the patio door, he pulled the curtains aside and stepped outside, waiting for them to bounce into place before taking off. From behind, he could hear his son ask for him.
“I think a big vulture carried him off because he didn’t eat his breakfast,” Lois said playfully to little Eddie, causing him to giggle. “What, you don’t think that’s what it is?”
“That’s silly, Grandma,” he heard Ellie say, though there was a question in her voice, something that said she could be convinced that it wasn’t just make-believe.
“I don’t know…I think I saw one out there earlier. Maybe you should eat your breakfast to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you.” Jon shook his head as he forced his attention away from what was happening at home. Yes, Mad Dog Lane, scourge of the newsroom, had managed to become a great mom without a doubt. She was also very practiced in running interference with little ones, something earned after years of experience.
Jon headed upward, positioning himself over Diane’s precinct, and closed his eyes, zeroing in on the police band. He wasn’t sure how much he would hear, given that sting operations tended to be stealthy. Maybe it would help to think about where she might be headed, he thought, his eyes popping open. His gaze wandered to the docks and the area where he had emerged from the porthole in 1997, noticing that the old warehouses were now gone, replaced with higher end condos. And, he thought with a smile, it was impossible to miss the fair number of police cruisers that were all parked near one of the new buildings. Looking through the walls, he saw a force making its way to the second story, a couple of officers parking themselves in front of an apartment door, while others manned the stairwells and elevators. Another few officers waited on the ground, out of sight of the apartment windows. Diane, of course, was leading the charge, knocking on the door of the apartment flanked by two officers with drawn guns. A quick glance into the apartment showed that this operation wouldn’t be a smooth one. A half dozen men quietly scrambled to gather guns and ammunition, each pointing their gun at the door as they became armed.
This had all the hallmarks of a potential bloodbath, Jon decided, speeding toward the scene as soon as he saw Diane’s hand raised to knock on the door. He was about a block away once her knuckles finally made contact, and he smashed through the apartment window a split second after the first shots began to fly. He plucked the bullets out of the air before disarming each of the perpetrators, stockpiling the guns in the corner before looking for a way to subdue the men.
“Metropolis PD,” Diane said from outside the door. “Open up, NOW!” Jon located a roll of stereo cable that could repurposed as restraints, and got to work in tying the men up. He had managed to hog tie three of the now very surprised men before he heard kicks at the door. As he finished, the door splintered at the handle and flew open. Jon came to a stop, crossing his arms over his chest, as officers poured into the room, guns drawn. Diane, who had broken down the door, stood motionless in the middle of the chaos, taking a moment to survey the scene before shifting her eyes to his. As he watched the intensity that had been there quickly faded, replaced by a look of relief. As officers continued to pour into the apartment, tending to the perpetrators and their cache, searching the apartment and shouting orders, the two of them stood with their eyes locked, oblivious to it all. He wanted to sweep her into his arms, to take her away from it all and make up for lost time, and it didn’t take much to see that she wanted that, too. But he was also painfully aware that they were not alone, and he could see her straining to not smile.
“Superman?” one of the officers said, and Jon was aware that he had been speaking to him, though what had been said had been completely lost.
Jon blinked, forcing himself to pay attention to the task at hand. “These men had you dead to rights, officer,” Jon said, his voice taking on the deeper timbre it always did while he was in uniform. “Lucky I happened to notice your operation while I was flying over.”
“And these are all their weapons?” the officer asked, looking toward the makeshift stockpile of weapons Jon had removed from the men.
“That’s what they had on them,” he said, taking the time to x-ray the apartment now that the excitement had died down. “Looks like there’s some more hidden in a storage area below the floorboards in the bedroom.” He brought his eyebrows together as he saw something unfamiliar. “There’s also…something else. Devices of some sort that I’m unfamiliar with.”
“Those must be the porthole devices,” Diane said, approaching him. Jon nodded mutely, then led the officers toward the bedroom, pulling up the loose board to reveal the items. A couple cops scrambled to start cataloging the find, as Jon looked around some more. “There’s also a safe in the wall,” he said, gesturing to a large print on the wall. “Lead-lined, so I can’t tell you what’s inside.”
“Jones, summon the safecracker,” one of the officers shouted, but Jon shook his head.
“Allow me,” he said, removing the print to reveal the lock mechanism. If he was trying to be discreet, he probably could’ve cycled through a number of combinations in a matter of seconds, or found a way to short the controller, but on this morning he didn’t have the patience. The steel of the door provided little resistance, and he easily punched through to reveal diamonds and other stolen merchandise on the inside.
A couple of officers quickly moved in to start cataloging everything, and Jon stepped aside, his gaze inevitably turning back to his wife, who had now gotten down to business of her own. It was probably time to go; the officers seemed to have things well in hand, and the danger seemed to have passed. Without another word he left, though he didn’t go far. A couple moments later, Jonathan Kent emerged from the dark space between buildings a couple blocks away, dressed for work.
The fact that this was also his story came in pretty handy, giving him an excuse to return to the scene. He could bear witness the final chapter in a story that he’d been following since the beginning and at the same time he could go see his wife, who he missed terribly during his time away, without any additional pretenses. Approaching the scene, he made small talk with the officers outside guarding the entry, all of whom knew him well from various after-hours precinct gatherings. Because of his relationship with Diane, they didn’t need to ask how he knew what was going on, and they weren’t as guarded as they might be around other reporters. After a while they waved him through the door, and he made his way up to the apartment he had so recently left. He produced a notebook and started jotting down some observations and quotes, gathering the information he needed to tell the story that he had observed firsthand. Wandering through the apartment, it didn’t take long for him to catch the eye of a certain officer, who sought him out as soon as she caught sight of him.
“Hey, you,” she said with a smile, wrapping an arm around his waist in a very unusual public display of affection. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”
Jon returned her gesture, then went further, wrapping both arms around her and pulling her closer. Diane didn’t resist, instead looking up at him with amusement. Her eyes danced, the corners of her mouth quirked into a little grin, and she had never been more beautiful in his eyes. Before he knew it, he was leaning down for a kiss, and she was returning it gladly, though he only let it last for a few moments. “So,” he said, dropping his arms. “You want to find a quiet corner so we can conduct a little interview.”
“I’d love to, Mr. Kent,” she said, having the grace to look disappointed at the loss of his embrace. Diane was not normally one for public intimacy, though she could be persuaded into hand holding or small kisses if she was in the right mood. Jon could practically feel the eyes of other officers on them at that moment, and he knew Diane could, too, but he didn’t care. It felt wonderful just to be in her arms again. Diane gestured toward the kitchen area, on the opposite end of the apartment from the earlier action, and he led the way there. “How was your trip?” she asked as they settled up against the counter.
He sighed, reaching for her hand. “It was…odd. Educational. Humbling, I guess. Confusing. I met my grandparents, who were wonderful, and my parents, who were…the younger, more impulsive version of the people I know. In some weird role reversal I ended up being the steady, experienced voice of reason and my dad was the hothead that you just want to smack some sense into.”
Diane raised her eyebrows. “Clark? A hothead? I have a hard time seeing that.”
“Well, I’m sure we all have things in our past that we look back on after the passage of years and cringe at.” He interlaced his fingers with hers. “Our first dinner, for example.”
“Or any of the first half dozen times we met,” Diane said with a nod.
“I’m sure I was more…overconfident when I first started out, too. I’ll try not to be too hard on Dad the next time we talk, since we’ve all had our youthful indiscretions and he was the one who taught me all about control. But that’s not to say he won’t hear about it.” They looked at each other for a long moment, then he turned to survey the scene again. “So how did all this come about?”
Diane followed his gaze. “Wish I could say I was the brilliant mind that pieced the case together, but I wasn’t.” She lowered her voice and looked around, making sure nobody was nearby to overhear their conversation. “Your brother, believe it or not, provided the first breakthrough. He changed how we were looking at everything, and it led to us discovering an unsolved death that could very well be linked to the robberies. I was able to deep background the victim and come up with a list of associates and known addresses, which was enough to start some legwork and dig deeper, but not enough to prove anything definitive. Enter a certain member of Central City’s finest, who just so happened to have been on the case for almost 3 decades without anyone knowing.”
Jon gave a low whistle. “He and Laura must’ve talked after I left, because I never told him about any of this,” he said with a sweep of his arm.
“Well, let’s just say that he’s good at his job. He basically gave us the suspect on a silver platter. Normally a name without any other corroboration doesn’t get you much, but then your brother did his homework, filled in the evidence gap, and gave it all to me. The lynch pin in it all was the fact that Barry’s suspect and my dead guy had a connection, which was enough to secure a warrant. And here we are.”
“I’m just glad I decided to come home in time for breakfast with my family or else this could’ve had a very different ending.”
Diane squeezed his hand and gave him another smile. “Thanks for saving our bacon,” she said. “I think we’ll have to take a rain check on that breakfast, though. The Captain is probably going to have my hide if I don’t get back to it soon.”
“It’s okay,” he said, fighting the urge to kiss her again. “Looks like I have some work of my own ahead of me. Are you guys going to officially call this case closed, do you think?”
“You saw what was in that safe. It’s a pretty close match to what was stolen over the last few days, so I’d say it’s a pretty good bet. But don’t publish that until we give the word.” She took a step away from him and back toward the crime scene. “And by the way, you didn’t officially see any of the stuff in that safe, right?”
“Of course. But I bet you could confirm what an unnamed source of mine might have seen…”
She laughed and took another step away. “In your dreams, Kent. Oh, and if you see your unnamed source again, let him know that I missed him while he was gone.”
“You did? I think I might be jealous,” he said, drawing a smirk from her. The terms of endearment always seemed to flow more freely once the conversation shifted to coded discussion about his other identity. It was an old game between them – her complimenting his anonymous sources and him feigning jealousy – but it never got tired. His other identity had always had that effect on her, even before she knew the man behind the S.
She smiled at him, unsaid words passing though in her eyes, then she turned and made her way back to the scene. With that, Jon took another turn around the apartment, then made his way in to work. Even though he had spent a couple days in the past, he had only been missing from this time for a few hours, which was less time than he spent at some of the more serious disasters that he tended to. Nobody at work even so much as acknowledged his absence from the previous afternoon, which was fine by him. Without any interference, he was able to put together quite a substantial story about the pothole robbers and their capture. This story was sure to be featured prominently in the afternoon edition, and might even be interesting enough to pick up national attention. The outside world remined quiet throughout the rest of the morning, and by the time lunch rolled around, he was about ready to send the story to his editor. Before he got the chance, though, his dad approached his desk.
“Join us for lunch?” he asked, gesturing toward Lois, who was making her way toward them, as well.
“Sure,” Jon said, grabbing his suit coat and rising from his chair. “Where to?”
“Let’s go home for this one,” Clark said with a glance toward the stairwell.
Jon held up a finger. “Meet you there? I need to make a quick call.” Clark nodded once and left with Lois, making their way discreetly toward the stairwell. Once they were out of immediate earshot, Jon called his sister, letting her know about their meeting. It was only right that she be there, too, since she played an important role in the expedition to the past, and Jon was fairly certain that’s what this little meeting would be about. Once he was done, he also headed for the stairwell, changing into his suit and taking off as soon as the door closed as he was sure he was alone. It only took a couple seconds to reach his parents’ house, where he landed in the back yard. His mom and dad were already inside, with Clark raiding the refrigerator and setting sandwich components – bread, lunchmeat, cheese, lettuce, condiments – onto the table while Lois gathered dishes. Soon some chips, fruit, and drinks also arrived, and once Jon joined them, they all got to work putting together their lunches.
“So did I see that Diane’s precinct caught the guys involved in the porthole robberies this morning?” Clark started, drawing a silent nod from Jon. “Must feel good to finally solve that case.”
“It really seemed to come together pretty quickly,” Lois added. “And all while you were at some mysterious location.”
Jon looked at them closely, mentally confirming that this was the conversation that he had expected, even if they were a bit circuitous in getting to the point. “Well, you know, Barry decided to give us some help. Diane said his contribution really put it over the top.”
“Barry, huh?” Lois said, putting the top piece of bread on her sandwich and taking a bite. “What was his interest in the case?”
Jon only smiled, letting them fill in the blanks. “Barry’s pretty resourceful,” Clark replied. “Batman has the reputation of being the master detective, but Barry’s right up there, too. He can also help you out with other problems, too. Say, if you find yourself in the past….”
Jon nodded once and relaxed. “I wondered if you would figure it out. I probably said way too much to you guys when I was in 1997.”
“It was nothing you said,” Lois said, looking at him thoughtfully. “Though some of it was what you didn’t say, the blanks that were left and the story that could be told if you filled them in the right way. That, and I found your phone.”
Clark laughed at his wife’s nonchalant admission. “Even before that, she was on the right track. It took me a lot longer to be convinced.”
“I was really worried that if I said the wrong thing or left the wrong clues, something terrible would happen to the future,” Jon said. “Part of me was just waiting to wink out of existence at the slightest slip of the tongue. If I said something that made you realize you could have kids, maybe you would decide that’s not what you wanted, or at least not until you got your Pulitzer or something, and then that would be it for me.”
“I can understand that, I suppose,” Lois continued. “But the thing is, once I knew for sure who you were and let myself absorb the information, once I got a chance to study your face knowing that you were my child, something washed over me that I had never felt before. I felt protective and proud, and I felt the most incredible sense of love, but it was a different type of love than I felt with Clark. Up to that point, I was rather ambivalent about children – I didn’t know if I wanted them even if we could even have them, though we were pretty sure we couldn’t. And if we did have kids, I was certain that I would be a terrible mother, given the examples that I’d had in my life. But then you came along, and I realized that I wanted you in my life more than I wanted anything. I couldn’t care less about any stupid journalism awards or career benchmarks, or about what would happen to my life by adding a child to it. I just knew that if you were the result, it couldn’t happen soon enough. I’m not sure how long it would’ve taken me to come around to the idea of having children if you hadn’t visited us, though I’m sure I could’ve been convinced eventually…but it might have been too late to have brought you into this world.”
“Of course, she never told me any of this,” Clark said. “All I knew is that she was insatiable for a while after that….” Lois smacked him gently, though her smile revealed that she wasn’t really all that upset. Clark laughed gently again, grabbing her hand and kissing it.
“I did tell you my suspicions, as you recall, but you were rather adamant that I was wrong. So once I found the truth, rather than bringing it up again and starting some sort of argument, I just kept it to myself.” Lois looked rather smug at that moment, and Jon couldn’t blame her. He had always thought that his mother was amazing, and this just reinforced that.
Clark looked at Jon with an eyebrow cocked. “I was kind of stubborn when I was younger. I don’t know if you noticed.”
“Kind of hard not to,” Jon said, looking over to his mother and giving her a knowing smile before turning back to Clark. “So when did you make the connection?” Jon asked.
“Well, after you were born it occurred to me that you shared a name, and as you got older it was hard not to notice that you kind of looked similar, though memory can sometimes fool you. Then after Mom died and we were cleaning out the house, we found these.” Clark got up and walked toward his study, disappearing inside for a moment, then re-emerging with some faded photographs. He pushed away some of the sandwich supplies and set them down on the table. The top photo was CJ and Jen’s most recent Christmas photo. Reaching out to rifle through them, Jon found his family portrait and Laura’s engagement photo, as well as an older photo of Lois and Clark with Jon, CJ, and Laura, dating to about the time Jon graduated from college. He had seen some of these when Laura delivered them to their grandparents, but not all.
“Laura brought these,” Jon said, turning over the photos to see names written on the back in Martha’s hand. “She wanted to bring them something to show them the family they built.”
“Laura was there?” Lois asked, genuinely surprised. Clark, too, seemed startled at the news.
“I used the cosmic treadmill to get back, but Barry had to modify it to work for me. Laura delivered the instructions on how to do that. She was only there for maybe 12 hours. It would’ve been less if I hadn’t had to watch over you.” Jon shrugged and waved his hand. “So when you saw these photos, what did you think?”
“We recognized you right away, of course,” Clark said. “CJ…I think I thought maybe he looked familiar, but there’s no way that I was going to connect this sophisticated and responsible-looking adult wearing stylish glasses with the CJ I knew.” Clark grabbed CJ’s family photo and turned it over. “And it was labeled as Sam Wayne, so that stumped me, too. I asked Bruce once if he had any relatives named Sam, and he looked at me like I was crazy.” He shuffled to Laura’s photo. As he did, the sound of a heavy thud came from the back yard, and Jon knew right away that Laura had come for her debriefing, too. “This photo was the most interesting one to me, because Laura was so young at the time. I was blown away when I saw what a beautiful young woman she would grow into.”
Laura walked into the kitchen as Clark was talking, and immediately went over to give him a hug, though her cheeks grew a brighter red the more he spoke. “Thanks, Daddy,” she said softly, breaking off the hug after a moment and settling into one of the empty chairs.
“She brought them some videos, too,” Jon said. “Nothing that they could keep, but enough so that they knew we were thinking about them.”
“So that’s what you were doing with your camera last night,” Clark said to Laura. “I bet they appreciated it.”
“I think it was a little overwhelming, to be honest,” Laura said, grabbing a plate and assembling her lunch. “Jon had already shown them everything he had on his phone, so by the time I arrived they already knew the basics. Then they got messages from Matt and Jen and Diane, and the one from CJ…oof.”
Clark got a far away look in his eyes. “They never let on that they had met you, or that they knew what the future held. I always found it a little disconcerting how calm they were when we had concerns about you guys, about conceiving, about how various events would turn out. When we worried about how you would react to figuring out the big family secret after having been deceived for so many years, they were steadfast in their belief that it would all turn out fine, that you wouldn’t be resentful, despite my fears. I guess I always just chalked it up to their positive natures, which was probably part of it. But you gave them a wonderful gift: the knowledge that everything would work out for the best and that the future would be filled with happiness.”
“They sent something back, you know,” Laura said, reaching for her phone. “One recorded message for each of us. I showed Grandma how to shoot videos, and I left her and Grandpa alone so that they could do it privately. I have no idea what they said, but there’s one here for you, Dad. You too, Mom.”
Laura held the phone toward Lois and Clark, but for a long moment all they could do was stare at it. Clark’s face was a mixture of surprise and apprehension. Jon knew that he had been devastated when his parents had died, and it had taken a long time for him to make peace with their absence, even though the whole family knew that the inevitable had to happen eventually. Jon didn’t want to know what that feeling must be like, and he fervently hoped to not have to find out, at least not for a very long time. He could understand why his dad might not want to watch that video and open that old wound, but at the same time the urge to see them one last time, to be at the receiving end of their words of love and support, had to be overwhelming. Slowly, Clark’s hand reached up and took the phone.
“Do you want some privacy?” Laura asked, looking at their parents before turning toward Jon.
“I think we’ll wait until after lunch to watch these, if you don’t mind,” Clark said, and Laura nodded.
It was quiet around the table for a few minutes as everyone indulged in their lunches. Eventually Lois broke the ice. “So, Jon, please tell me that visiting our younger selves wasn’t too traumatizing. Clark said that when you first met in Smallville, you looked like you were going to go into shock.”
Jon smiled and shook his head. “Like I said, years of watching time travel movies had convinced me that a dire fate awaited me if I interacted with anyone who could affect my future. Once I relaxed, I actually had a pretty good time. Even going out in your suit, cape and all, was a lot more fun than I remembered it being when I was younger.”
Clark looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned to Jon, a half smile on his face. “That’s right, you went out and helped with some storm fighting in Kansas your first night there. I had forgotten about that, but now that you mention it….” He chuckled, shook his head and reached for a handful of potato chips, popping one into his mouth and chewing on it before continuing. “Shortly after we revealed the family secret to Jen’s parents, Randy Sears came up to me and stated that he’d met Superman before, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember. Then he said that he had been driving on I-70 on the way home from Denver one day, when some weather came up and he was forced to stop in a small town just off the interstate. Before he knew it, the tornado sirens were going off and he was stuck in a gas station bathroom while an F4 bore down on him. If Superman hadn’t swooped down and saved him and the others from that gas station, he probably wouldn’t be alive. I smiled and nodded, took his thanks gracefully, though I still had no idea what he was talking about. But I think maybe it wasn’t me that he met, it was you.”
“Are you saying that I saved Jen’s dad when I was there? That, if it wasn’t for me she would not have been born?” Jon felt his appetite leave him at that moment, and the weight of that statement sunk in. Clark raised is eyebrows and nodded. “Wow,” Jon whispered, bringing his hand up and running it through his hair. Jenny Sears had been his friend before she ever met his brother, and even though they never had a romantic relationship, he counted her as one of his closest friends. It helped that she knew his secrets, that he didn’t have to keep anything from her, and that she still treated him like she always had, even before she knew that he could fly. It was incredibly heady to realize the he was responsible not just for her life, but for CJ’s life as he knew it, for the very existence of his family. If there was no Jen, what kind of man would his brother be now? Where would Laura be, without a nephew to draw her to go to college in Gotham? How different would all their lives be?
“You were meant to be there all along,” Laura said, lightly touching his arm. “And not just to help Mom and Dad get through their red kryptonite problem.”
“I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this,” Jon said.
“Barry once told me that the strands of time were like a spider web,” Clark said quietly. “Past, present, and future all weave together to create reality, the strands crossing each other, interacting with each other, such that it is impossible to separate them. Pull on one thread and the whole thing falls apart. Having traveled to the past myself, I’ve seen how reality can be affected by the things we do outside our own time. It makes you wonder if there isn’t someone out there who knows how it all fits together, who watches over time to make sure that what is meant to happen, does.”
“That’s a good point,” Jon said, pondering it for a moment. “I’ve saved people I love before – did it this morning, in fact – and I know how my actions can affect my own future and the futures of those I love. But we typically operate in the here and now, and the future is just an abstract idea, something that is guided by the choices we make and is at least somewhat under our control. But what if it isn’t? It wasn’t my choice to travel to the past, but if I hadn’t, then the world as we know it would be completely different. It all feels predetermined somehow, and if that’s the case, does choice even play into it?” He stood up and started pacing, gesturing as he did. “Whether guided by some sort of divine providence or stupid luck, my actions when I was in 1997 had consequences. If I hadn’t made the choices I had, I might not have a niece and nephew, I might have a brother who was utterly destroyed by that plane crash, so much so that he might have actually become the dark and brooding man his costume represents. You might not have met the love of your life,” he said to Laura.
“Make no mistake, life is about making choices,” Lois countered, her gentle voice coaxing Jon to sit back down at the table. “Even though your actions were in the past and your life has been spent living with the aftermath, they were still your actions, your choices. I think that, rather than fretting about what could’ve happened, you should be proud of what came out of all this. Ultimately, you trusted your instincts did what was right, and this is the world that was created because of that. Have some faith in yourself, honey.”
Jon smiled. “Thanks, Mom.”
Laura fidgeted at that moment, drawing a curious look from her parents. The talk about choices and consequences seemed to make her uncomfortable, and it was very hard not to notice. “Is something wrong?” Lois asked her.
“No, nothing’s wrong, not really, it’s just….” Laura sighed, looking down momentarily before putting a forced smile on her face and looking at Jon. “Thank you,” she said to him, her voice sincere. “If you played a part in creating the world we live in, then I’m grateful. You seem to have a knack for doing the right thing, and you make it look easy. That’s a gift, because in reality it’s not an easy thing at all.”
“Whoa, hold on,” Jon said, putting up his hands. “Thanks for the compliment, but I don’t think I’ve earned it. Despite what Mom said, I’m still pretty sure that it was luck that made everything turn out. My wife could tell you that I’m less than perfect, that I don’t always make the right decision or do the right thing.” He stopped and looked at her, really looked, and he saw for the first time that she seemed almost scared. “I get the feeling this isn’t about me, though.”
Her eyes got a little wider for a moment, and he knew he had hit on something. Before she could say anything, though, Clark jumped into the conversation. “Well I, for one, admit to not being perfect, but you guys knew that. I mean, Jon just got back from saving me from my own pigheadedness. And that episode was hardly the worst thing I did in my youth. I got your mom to admit she loved me, then promptly broke up with her. How dumb was that?” He smiled supportively, almost mischievously, and Jon could see what he was doing. Superman could be a hero to his daughter by admitting he had flaws, not that any of them were under the illusions that he didn’t. But because Laura was doubting herself for some reason, feeling unequal to her brother, he was levelling the playing field. Jon looked to his mother, seeing a sparkle in her eyes, and he knew what she would say before she even said it.
“In a display of terrible decision making, I about got myself killed dozens of times, all in the name of journalism. Apparently, it took me a while to figure out that directly confronting megalomaniacs could get me tied to explosives. Lucky for me that your Dad was watching out for me, or I’d have checked out a long time ago.” She stood up and took her plate over to the sink as she spoke. On her way back she trailed her finger along Clark’s chin, finally cupping her hand under his chin and tilting her head up to kiss him. “I had to marry you, despite your stubbornness and numerous character flaws, just to thank you.”
“Yeah, that’s the only reason,” Clark said, the corner or his mouth quirked up before kissing her again.
Jon could almost feel Laura rolling her eyes. “Okay, guys, I get it. You’re not perfect and I shouldn’t expect myself to be, either. So when I tell you that I’m pregnant, you won’t be too disappointed.”
Lois gasped, and Clark just gaped at her for a long moment. “Disappointed?” Lois said, scrambling over to her. “That would be the last thing I felt. Come here,” she said, motioning for Laura to stand, then wrapping her in a big hug.
“This is wonderful,” Clark said, giving her his widest smile. “Why on Earth would you think we would be disappointed?”
“I’m not married yet,” Laura said simply with a shrug, stepping away from Lois to get her hug from Clark.
“This isn’t 1950,” Lois said. “You and Matt love each other, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You were planning to have a family together eventually, right?”
“Yeah, I guess. We didn’t talk about it, but….”
“Well, when you do certain things, it’s probably going to happen,” Jon chipped in, and Laura shot him a look that told him that he wasn’t helping.
“You’re a responsible person, despite what you believe,” Clark said. “I’m sure you’ll be a great mom.”
“It feels like I’m not ready yet, like I’m not adult enough to guide some other little person,” Laura said.
“Nobody does. We didn’t,” Lois said. “You think CJ seemed adult enough to be a Dad when Adam came along?”
Jon cringed, though he had to admit that his perspective was a little skewed. A part of him always saw his brother as the little twerp he knew as a kid. Likewise, his little sister would always be the little kid in pigtails, and he couldn’t believe she was old enough for motherhood. But the simple fact was that she was getting ready to graduate from college, to get married, and she WAS going to be a mom. “If you do it right, you can prolong your childhood through your child,” Jon said, pointing to her belly. “You will be able to build pillow forts, play dress-up and do all the other fun kid things with them. Could you do that it grad school?”
“You might be surprised,” Laura said with a laugh, and Jon couldn’t help but smile. With that, Laura started talking about her revised plans for the next few months, and Jon sat back and ate his lunch, silently observing. With Laura’s announcement, it suddenly felt like all the drama around his trip to the past didn’t matter much anymore. The past was past, the present was what it was for better or for worse, and the future held so many possibilities. At this point it was best to just enjoy the ride and stop worrying, and that’s just what he intended to do.
