Hi everyone, please be patient with me, I will be posting twice tonight and if I can stay up once more at the wee hours of the morning. Happy reading and thanks for the reviews and for taking this ride with me.
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In Medias Res
"Into the middle of things"
"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." Kahlil Gibran
Chapter 7
Because you are my son!
Jonathan entered the house and instantly knew some thing was off.
"Did you get everything we needed honey?" asked his wife as he set the shopping bags down. Jonathan nodded and shot a look over at his son.
Something had happened and judging the look on Clark's face things had not gone well.
"Where's mommy!" JJ came running inside carrying a pack of Twizzlers. Martha looked at Clark who nervously moved from where he had been sitting towards his son.
"JJ, you think you can help me walk Shelby?"
The little boy fought back the urge to roll hi eyes. He knew what this was. The adults in his life always treated him as if he didn't have eyes. They always wanted to soften the blows, but he always knew, sometimes even before they did.
Something was wrong and it had to do with his mommy.
'Maybe it was whatever it is that always caused his mommy to get that strange look in her eyes whenever his daddy's name was mentioned. And there was this morning, he hadn't missed their interaction, his mommy was really angry with his dad and it was the deep kind of angry not like when she stepped on one of his Batman action figure game pieces.
He handed the pack of Twizzlers to his grandpa. "Don't let mommy eat all of them grandpa." He instructed. The last time he had bought a pack, she had eaten the whole thing and blamed it on disgruntled elves that stole socks from the laundry and moved your things around for kicks.
Martha smiled and Jonathan chuckled nodding.
"Don't worry I'll keep these close by."
Clark couldn't help smile, his son was adorable and obviously very conscious of his mother's habits and quirks. Whistling for Shelby, he began walking to the door. JJ rushed to join him, slipping his small hands in his fathers large one. Clark looked down at their joined hands and then at the child's upturned face. JJ flashed him a bright dimpled smile and he returned one identical to the boys.
They walked for a long while, all the way to the back of the property, Shelby happily strolling beside them. Clark didn't know how to start, but he knew that the child was waiting. Somehow, the little boy knew that this was about more than walking Shelby.
JJ looked up at his dad, he could tell he was nervous.
"Aunt Chloe said she was your best-friend growing up." The little boy declared trying to ease his father's nervousness. Clark looked down at him and nodded.
"Chloe and I have been friends since were kids, she has always been the best friend I didn't deserve."
JJ nodded noting the sadness in his voice. Clark stopped and lowered himself down on the grass. JJ flowed suit, 'here we go.' He thought
"JJ, your mommy and I, we have a lot to work through."
"Aunt Chloe said you guys fought a lot."
Clark nodded.
"Lois and I have a tendency to do that, yes."
"Mommy is not happy you're here?"
Clark somberly looked over at his son.
"I would have come back sooner if I knew about you." He admitted.
JJ looked over at him and smiled.
"Grandpa said that too."
Clark reached over and stroke his dark curls.
"You look so much like me, it must drive her crazy." He declared with amusement in his voice. JJ nodded still smiling.
"Mommy said I got the best parts of you."
Clark smiled, that was a plus, Lois thought he had best parts.
"Mom told me you and dad had a special talk."
JJ lowered his head, yeah, talking was a two way process, his grandpa just did the talking.
"I can do special things that other children can't do. I have to always be careful when I use them so I don't hurt anyone as well where I use them because the wrong person could use it to hurt me or my family."
Clark felt bad, he knew that speech, his father had given him the same one. He also, knew the burden his special heritage had placed on him as a child. He remembered the loneliness; thankfully, JJ would not be alone.
"Did grandpa say more about the special things you can do, where they come from and such?"
JJ shook his head and looked up at his dad.
"He said you would do it."
Clark nodded and looked away, he should have known.
"Tyler in group said that he is meteor infected that's why we are in group because we are different. His dad is meteor infected as well as his mom, I don't know what they can do, but I know Tyler can-"
"Wait your in a group with other kids that can do special things?" he asked cutting the child off. Suddenly the familiar panic of having others know surfaced. JJ nodded, his father did not seemed too thrill to hear about group.
"I want to go to school, but mommy said I'm four."
Clark looked over at his son.
"JJ, your not meteor infected."
JJ frowned, this was new.
"I'm not?"
Clark shook his head,
"No, you can so these special things because you're my son."
JJ frown deeper,
"You can do special things too?"
Clark nodded,
"I'm from a planet called Krypton."
JJ eyes bugged out,
"You're from another planet!" he cried aloud.
Clark nodded again,
"I came here when I was just a year older than you are now; I crashed in a cornfield not far from here. And grandpa and grandma found me and my ship, took me in and raised me as their very own." "I started developing these special abilities all because of this planets yellow sun."
JJ was stunned, he couldn't believe it, his father was an alien.
"My planet was destroyed by its sun but not before my parents put me on a ship and sent me to Earth."
JJ was quiet as his father went on and on about Krypton and its way of life, how while he was away he was learning about the planet that once was home. Clark covered everything; why he was sent to Earth and the destiny he must follow. Finally he stopped and looked over at the little boy was still quiet and wide-eyed.
Clark began to wonder if he had overloaded the child, maybe even scared him. He feared JJ would reject him and his heritage. He had rejected who he was for years and the price was severe. He did not want that for his son.
"JJ is there anything you want to ask me?" he asked nervously.
The boy blinked a couple of times, his shocked expression never changing.
"You have a space ship!"
