"Small town life is simple and quiet, my foot. It's wearing me out," Lois said with a grumble.

"Unfortunately, there's still Morgan Edge to take care of," Clark said.

"No problem there, Dad. Captain Luthor left his RV. It's full of weapons to use on Kryptonians. Certainly more than enough to use on two of them." Jonathan was sharp, thinking ahead and making maneuvers as easily in this new life as he did on the field.

"Well, what are we waiting on?" Sam said. "You keep them busy, Clark. We'll find the weapons."

"I should help you, Dad," Jordan said.

Clark warmed to hear Jordan volunteering. It had been a long time since his slightly elder son had wanted anything to do with him. Just a year ago, Jordan would have been too much anxiety to even go into the office with him. Now he was offering to stand at his side and face down two very powerful Krytonians. It showed just how far he had come. "I'd feel better if you stayed with your mom and brother at home. Somebody has to look out for them, in case there's trouble."

He nodded, looking so grown up as he accepted the mission. Clark couldn't have been prouder.

It turned out that he didn't have to find them. Morgan and Leslie revealed themselves in due time. Fortunately, Sam had returned with the weapons and an army to wield them.

"So you're alone in the fight. A pity that it'll be over too soon," Edge taunted, seeing only him in the sky.

"I'm not alone," he replied, gesturing to all the military personnel behind him on the ground. "I have an army of my own."

He laughed. "Your army is made up of the humans of this planet? You'll lead them to the slaughter."

"And your problem is that you greatly underestimate them. You see them with no powers and lesser technology, and you assume they're weak, but that's not true. They are strong."

His father-in-law was behind him with the weapons that had belonged to Captain Luthor. He and Sam didn't always see eye-to-eye about everything, but they were family and allies, he couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather have supporting him in a fight.

The fight lasted only a few minutes though it felt longer. The weapons quickly grounded Morgan and Leslie, and the army was ready with kryptonite-infused handcuffs. They were taken into custody and though there were a few injuries, there were no causalities.

"You could have had a family," Morgan said accusingly though with less anger than before like he was hollow inside. He supposed he was as a tool of his father.

"I have one, which you could have been a part of. You chose to be an enemy instead."

"I'm not talking about genetic, weakling children born from an unholy union. I'm talking about real, full Kryptonians with powers like yourself."

"I know what you're talking about. Our people died nearly forty years ago. It was indeed a tragedy, but there is no bringing them back as much as you or I might wish it. You can instill a consciousness in them and give powers to an x-kryptonite exposed body, and it won't make them alive again. Not really. And I learned long ago that family doesn't have to share blood, only love. It's a lesson I wish you could have learned."

Morgan was put into a military transport unit. Clark did feel sorrow that he would never truly have a brother, not the way his children did, but he was glad this whole mess was over.

His family waited on him at home. He returned to his civilian clothing and joined them.

"You were great, Dad," Jonathan said. "We watched it all on TV."

"Do you think people are going to not trust Kryptonians now?" Jordan asked, able to see negative side and the future implications this event would have on his father and him if he should he decide to follow in his footsteps one day.

"I'll have to work to regain their trust."

"That's not fair," Jonathan said. "You didn't do anything. And you've been here on Earth fighting for all things good a lot longer than those Kryptonians-come-lately. Doesn't that mean anything to people?"

"That's the thing about trust. It only takes one incident to completely destroy it, and it doesn't even have to be you that did it. It could be a profession, a religion, a country, you name it, but one bad person or a few bad people can ruin other people's perception of that group so easily. It isn't fair, but it's the way that it is. Fortunately, trust can be rebuilt."

"Absolutely," Lois said, "and it'll start with a press conference, which I've already scheduled for Superman. And since the world will be here in the morning, you boys need to get in bed for school."

They grumbled good-naturedly, but they were too tired to put up too much of a fight.

Alone with Lois, he said, "We didn't have much of a chance to talk about seeing Natalie." She'd only caught a brief glimpse of her, enough to say hello and goodbye, but it had to have hurt her.

"Believe it or not, it was nice. It was healing really to know there's any version of Natalie out there thriving, and I'm happy she and her mother have each other. And I'm even happier that she has a version of you to be a father to her. She's going to need that after her own father proved to be a devil in disguise."

"I know. Poor kid. Not the way I would have chosen for our lives to go, but still, it's comforting to know that no matter how much we seem to mess up our lives, some things are just meant to be. I'm glad we're one of them."

"Amen. And you know, seeing her, it took some of my fear away too."

"Fear? What do you mean?"

"I've been afraid to say it out loud, to get my or your hopes up again, but I'm certain the extra heartbeat would soon have given me away. I'm pregnant."

She saw shock, joy, and yes, even a little bit of anxiety cross his features. He was always asking after her welfare, but she knew the loss of their Natalie and seeing this other Natalie had affected him as deeply as it had affected her.

He hugged and kissed her joyously. "It's too late. My hopes are up, but I have a good feeling about this. Things are going to go right for us. I can feel it."

"I think so too."

He was so proud of his family, all of them. Together, they made a team every bit as formidable as any superhero team he had ever been on.

He hoped wherever the other version of himself and Lois were that things had turned out as happily for them as it had for themselves.