4
The view from Swann's penthouse was always soothing. Kal-El loved the view of New York. He knew the concrete jungle was nothing like the crystaline spires or the eternal sunset of his homeworld. He just enjoyed the hustle and bustle of millions of bodies, of a city and its atmosphere. He knew that Kandor had brimmed with life like this once. He just couldn't go back to it.
"Kal-El, you could have let me know you were here," Dr. Swann said, his words measured out carefully as his tube took in air.
"I did not feel the need. I had not intended to disturb you," he replied, still staring out at the city, wiping discreetly at his eyes. Dr. Swann didn't need to see that.
"It doesn't disturb me. Kal-El, your mother called."
"Clark Kent's mother called."
"No, I meant that she called for you, Kal-El."
Kal sighed. "She is not my mother. She was trying to bring Clark back."
"She explained that to me. You can't blame her for wanting to see if the Fortress could help Clark. Until he showed back up, it was impossible to know if he were in pain."
"She and Sull-I-Van have what they wanted most back. There shall be no more room for me."
The tube breathed in and out, a drone that lasted too long for Kal-El's ears. "Your mother and Chloe love you very much. They've protected you. They've taken care of you for almost a year. Why would they change now?"
"Clark is back. He is everything they wanted. I am what they put up with."
"I have two daughters. Did you know that, Kal-El?"
"I did not pay much attention to personal lives."
"I didn't think so. I love Patricia and Piper very much. I can love them both equally. Even if sometimes Patricia and I share science together, I can't love one more than the other."
"I was always just a construct, a part of Clark, something Jor-El made."
"You don't believe that and neither do any of us."
"Clark and Jonathan Kent believe it."
"Clark's been awake all of an hour into a world he doesn't understand. Jonathan is-"
"He does not care for me. He fears me, would prefer that I were gone."
"Kal-El-"
"My birth father is dead and has been for years. My adoptive father cannot stand the sight of me. We are not...we are business associates."
"I can't be your father, Kal-El. I respect you and because I do I want you to have a relationship with Jonathan Kent. He is still the man that raise both you and Clark and I know it matters to you what he thinks."
"Despite all I do, he thinks me a monster. Mother and Sull-I-Van lied to me. I've no place to go."
Breathe in, breathe out, that steady drone. "You can stay here tonight."
"If I tarry here, mother will be in the penthouse when I wake."
"Of course."
"She betrayed me."
"She loves you both. I imagine to Clark, newly human, that that is a massive blow. To you, it hurts as badly. Perhaps all you need to do is learn to share, Kal-El. It won't hurt, I promise."
Kal-El sighed and stood up on the railing. "It already has."
And with that he took off into the night.
