Everyone was shocked. It couldn't be… there was a woman from the child protection at their front door and accused him of domestic violence…
"Ehm… sorry Ma'am?" was all Clark was able to say.
"Mr. Kent, we received an anonymous call about you beating your children."
"What…?!" now Clark was shocked. "This is… this is absolutely ridiculous. Who says that?"
"Excuses Ma'am, but what brings you to accuse my husband of being a bad father." Lois asked when she arrived at the front door, too.
"A witness claims he saw it."
"What witness? WHO?" Lois asked. The only true witnesses were Jordan, Lois and Sam. And the other 'witnesses' were their friends. Friends who knew that Clark would never hurt his sons on purpose. But did Lana, or Sarah, or Chrissy, or John-Henry, or Natalie really called the child-protection-service?
"Where is your son? And what is this meaning?" the woman asked, pointing on Jon's suitcase that was still laying on the ground in the mud outside.
"Oh, we forgot that!" Clark said. They indeed forgot Jon's suitcase outside after he knocked him out accidentally.
"Where is the boy?"
"My son is not home. He is with a doctor now." Clark told her. His mother was really a doctor on Krypton and able to help their son better than any human doctor.
"After what happened?" she looked around, obviously looking for a clue or a proof.
"Please, come in. We have nothing to hide." Clark said, letting her in, hoping it will also show her that they cooperate.
Nothing to hide, was the most biggest lie Clark could say. As the Kent's had literally the biggest secret of the world to hide.
The woman entered the house and looked around. Looking for another clue next to the suitcase outside. Clark went outside and got the suitcase back inside. He also found Jonathan's smartphone there. It must have fallen out of his hand when he got knocked out. He ignored that it was vibrating regularly…
"I would like to talk to your son!" she said.
"We already told you, he is with the doctor now." Clark said. "I would like to know who comes up with the story that I beat my sons?"
The woman looked on Jordan. Jordan cried just shortly before. His eyes were still bloodshot and his face wet. This was more than suspiscious…
"Did you cry?" she asked patiently.
"Ehm…" Jordan was only able to shrug…
Clark realized that he won't be able to get rid of that woman that fast…
Jonathan meanwhile, was watching the holographic story of his Kryptonian grandmother and listened to every or Lara's words in awe. His grandmother saw immediately that Jonathan was indeed the open, curious, and inquisitive boy his father described. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so stick to her words…
"…and our planet wasn't anymore…" Lara told while the holographic Krypton exploded. "…only a few weeks after your father was born, we had to put him into his pod and send him to Earth, so he can survive."
"This is so sad!"
"Your father and your Uncle Tal are the only known survivors." Lara told. "And you and your brother are the first human-kryptonian hybrids ever born."
"Ohh… So, I am something special?" Jonathan asked with a wide grin.
"Oh, yes! You are indeed something special! Shall I teach you our language?" Lara asked. She really hoped, Jonathan and Jordan will learn the language one day to prevent it from dying out.
"Okay!"
"Great… I am convinced that you will have no trouble learning our language." Lara said with a bright smile. "Let's begin with the alphabet…"
Lara was happy to see that Jonathan was indeed how her son described. He might have lost his memory, but he was basically the same boy. He was not the drug-taking, frustrated, neglected human-one. Now he was as innocent as a new-born-baby! But with the brain-capacity of a Kryptonian, his normal personality and a lot of potential. And so, she was not surprised how fast he was able to learn their language…
"This is very interesting!" Jonathan said in perfect and accent free Kryptonese, only a few lectures later.
"Yes! But I wonder what takes your father so long?!" Lara said also in Kryptonese.
In Smallville, Clark only thought about Jonathan and his urge to get back to his son as soon as possible. The sudden arrival of this woman from the child protection service just complicated everything…
Jonathan's smartphone beeped regularly. Someone send him messages and seemed to desperately try to contact him.
"Ma'am… listen, I know you just do your job!" Clark said, very close from bursting out in tears again. He decided to cooperate and tell her the truth! At least that what he was able to tell. The Kents sat on the couch, while the woman settled down in the armchair. "I don't deny it! We had a terrible fight today! Maybe the worst fight ever? We all said some things we wish we never said. It was awful… Jonathan went threw a lot in the past. Since our move from Metropolis to Smallville, he had his troubles. I… I admit my plan to spend more time with him failed…"
"What happened today, Mr. Kent?"
"Aww… I… I broke my promises again!" Clark confessed, a tear running down his face. "After all the trouble he had in the past few months. And today… yeah… I broke my promise again! And after our fight he stormed upstairs locked himself in his room. Then, when his brother tried to talk to him, the door got broken and ehm… let's say it became embarrassing."
Jordan turned his face away ashamed while remembering how mad Jonathan became on him. His face turning deeply red and not looking forward for the moment, Jonathan remembers how mad he is on him.
"He packed up his things and said he is going to stay with a friend tonight! But I wanted to convince him to stay and somehow… aww… I don't know how it happened. And I am not proud on it! But somehow, he got a punch on his head…" Clark lowered his head in shame. "…he… he lost his consciousness briefly and when he woke up, he didn't recognize us. He suffers from amnesia."
"Amnesia?!" the woman was suddenly much more upset. What a 'lucky circumstance'?
"Yes!" Clark confessed ashamed. "I took him to the… the doctor!"
"Which doctor?"
"She is retired! Dr. Lara Lorvan!" Clark said. It was the truth. He just pronounced his mother's name in English.
"Dr. Lorvan?"
"Yes!" Clark said. And it was not even a lie!
"And your son is now with her?"
"Yes! And he needs us now! I am sorry Ma'am; we will answer all your questions. You can even arrest us later if you want. But now, we need to get to our son. Because now, he needs us! He needs our love and our attention. Because he is a little scared boy now, that needs his family!" Clark insisted and lift from the couch again. "Jordan, get your brother some fresh clothes. And Miss, may we…"
"Mr. Kent… your statement is patchy and your explanations sound made-up." She cut him off. But she allowed Jordan to leave. She could see the tension and the anger in his face. He couldn't wait to get away from the others so she let him go. Hoping to get more infos from him when he calms down a bit.
"Listen, we have no clue who told you that I beat my kids. But I never… And I mean really never ever hurt them and would never do that!" Clark said. He shuddered at that thought.
"Who called you? We had guests! Several guests, who can all confirm you that my husband is the most patient, dignified, and candid man in the world!" Lois said, holding Clark's hand to comfort him. "And they can all confirm that it was an accident! I can understand that you hear that so often in your job, or that even the most picture-perfect family can be in truth…"
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent…" she cut Lois off.
"Ms. Lane!" Lois corrected her. "I kept my maiden name!"
"Okay… Mr. Kent, Ms. Lane, will the people, you claim were here when it happened, all confirm your story?"
"Yes!" Lois said. Using her infamous self-confidence when she took her notepad and a pen to write down names and phone-numbers. "Talk to them! And we really have to leave now. Our son needs us!"
"I would like to talk to Dr. Lorvan, too! Does she have a office in town?"
"She has no real office. She is retired… an old friend of my father!" Clark lied.
Clark realized that this was going to be more complicated than first expected…
Jonathan meanwhile, continued listening to his grandmothers exciting stories about Krypton…
After telling him about Krypton and teaching him the language (he learned quick), Lara continued telling him about his home planet Earth.
The new fortress was able to connect to the Internet and had access to mobile phone systems in every country. That made it easy for Lara to explain him the latest data about Earth and not the outdated they had from 1938, when the last signals from Earth were received, before 41 years later their own planet exploded.
"Our planet is so fascinating." Jonathan said. "But I like Earth, too!"
"Yes, it is. One of the reasons, we have sent your father to Earth is that people on Earth are more open for new things. They are diverse and versatile. They are open and able to tolerable to foreign. On Krypton we had only one gouvernement, one language and pretty much the same culture all over."
"Earth is interesting!" Jonathan said.
"I am glad you like your home planet."
"Can you show me Krypton again…" he said but suddenly Jonathan's smile faded and he became silent.
Lara, who was watching his brainwaves the whole time, knew what was happening. But she was only a hologram. Not able to stop hin.
She used the new-fortress' ELT function to send a signal to her son…
"Kal, it's happening! Your son has a psychotic attack!"
Clark was able to hear it in Smallville while he was forced to watch the woman from the child-protection-service to observe Jonathan's damaged door and the mess in his room…
As they saw now, Jonathan not only packed some things, he also put many of his trophies, his football-posters, actually a lot of things he liked into a trash-bag and threw it out of the window… They hadn't mentioned the trash-bag laying behind the house until now and were ashamed of it. Realizing how bad it was about their son's condition Clark fought against his tears again. The woman meanwhile began to believe that someone kicked in the door on purpose to attack Jonathan in his room. Not knowing that it was just an accident by a superpowered teen who briefly lost control over his strength.
"Mr. Kent… the longer I am here, the more I believe that you have serious family problems…"
"Yes! We had a fight! But it is now more important that we get to our son and help him through his difficult situation!"
"Have you ever considered to ask for help? You know that there are various offers for families who have conflicts? Counselling centers, or family therapists!"
"Yeah… I know… My son Jordan was in therapy for years!" Clark told. "Social anxiety!"
"Mr. Kent, you will hear from us again." The woman said in a threatening tone. For now she had seen and heard enough.
She went down the stairs, discretely handling a card with the phone-number of her office to Jordan.
"Don't hesitate to call us if there is trouble!" she whispered.
Clark could hear it and became much sadder. And Jordan didn't dare to defend his father. Instead, he just showed the card into his pocket, nodded to the woman and send his father a death-glare. A death-glare, that was able to reach the level of an infamous Lois-Lane-death-glare. Jordan was able to hear the signal from the fortress, too. And he couldn't wait to get to the fortress to look after his brother.
Sam was sitting in the living-room the whole time. Cramped and still full of shame for what he did and what he said to Jonathan. He wanted to help. He wanted to say something. Thinking the whole time how unfair he was towards Jonathan and his relationship to his grandson and how it developed over the years. But now he had to wait for that woman to leave before he could say something.
"Ma'am!" he said politely.
She looked on him with an expression, he didn't like. It was like a 'beware' or a 'shame-on-you' one.
The woman left the house and went to her car. Clark was able to hear her whispering that something 'is wrong about this family'. Clark lowered his head again and had to admit that she was right.
Thinking about what Jonathan had went though, what happened, and what he has to deal with every day.
"Do you think we should go to a family-therapy?" Clark asked his wife.
Lois was just about to agree and telling him that they should really look for help when Jordan stormed down the stairs with a plastic-bag full of clothes for Jonathan.
"I was not even allowed tell Dr. Donner! What do you want to tell a therapist? That I, the powered one, broke my non-powered brother his arm, almost strangled him, ruined his life and have to safe him every time to let him feel useless and helpless?" he moaned, when he grabbed another prepared bag to leave. "I go to Jon now and try to make amends for everything! Let's hope he does not forget how to breath, thanks to you!"
"We go all together!" Clark insisted speeding upstairs to get his mother's scrapbooks with photos and returned in just a glimpse of a second later. "The faster we get there the better!"
"Lois, Clark…" Sam lifts up from the couch and approached them. "…ehm… I know that it is your fortress, but I want to help Jonathan, too… what I said to him was not right and…"
"You can come with us!" Clark answered before Sam was even able to finish his question. Clark just took his smartphone to call Lana and tell her about what just happened. They will deal with the child protection later, or with the question who called them.
Just a minute later, Clark departed with Lois in his arms, Sam on his back and Jordan by his side into the air and flew to the fortress. Packed with bags with fresh clothes for Jonathan, his smartphone, some of his favorite food and snacks, scrapbooks and some things from his room, Jordan found coincidentally.
It was Sam's first trip to the family-fortress and to any fortress ever. And he was honestly pretty impressed when they arrived on the terrace. Together the family went inside to look for Jonathan who was nowhere to be seen.
"Jonathan? Jonathan, we are back!" Clark said.
"Kal-El, my son!" Lara said. She was still active. "What took you so long?"
"Sorry, mother… there was some trouble at home! Mother, you remember Lois! This is Sam, my father-in-law! Sam, my mother!"
"We already met once!" Lara remembered.
"Yes… while you were in Mrs. Cushing's body? Nice to see you in person this time." Sam responds to the hologram. He heard the story before and knew about the holograms but seeing it in person was still overwhelming.
"Mother, where is Jonathan?" Clark asked worried. Jonathan was nowhere to be seen.
"Son, he had his first psychotic attack I warned you about. I was not able to stop him… but it was a short and relatively harmless one and it is already over."
"What happened?" now Clark was scared.
"Hello!" suddenly Jonathan's voice said.
The family turned around and gasped… Jonathan stood there. With a bright smile and completely naked. But totally relaxed and obviously not aware that he was nude.
"Jon?" Jordan tried to avoid a scream.
"Sweetie… where are your clothes?" Lois asked carefully while she became red.
Jonathan looked down on himself. His expression totally numb and calm. "Ehm… I don't know…"
"Go to the other room, Jon-El! I need to talk to them in private!" Lara said to Jon in Kryptonese.
"Yes, grandmother!" Jonathan respond with a bow. The family looked on him with big eyes.
"You speak Kryptonese?" Clark asked. "And you know Kryptonian gestures?"
"It is our language!" Jon said and went through an opening into another room.
"Mother? What did you tell him?" Clark asked with big eyes. "Jonathan would never refer Kryptonese as his language!"
"Just the truth!" Lara said. "As your son, he is Kryptonian, too. I don't want to offend his human side. Especially not with his human-mother and his human grandfather being present. But he has a right to learn our language, too! Jordan is not your only son."
"Of course!" Clark said. Lowering his head again. Aware of his failure.
"Okay… but why is he… naked?" Lois asked. "I mean… I changed his diapers when he was a baby, so there is nothing that I haven't seen already, but what happened?"
"During an Kryptonian amnesia, the brain needs to heal. The healing process can cause various moments of mental dropouts. Or breakdowns. Some are brief but others can take hours. He won't remember any of those attacks. As I am scanning and watching his brain activities the whole time, I will be able to warn you every time an attack happens and how intense it will be."
"Will he remember the remaining time during his amnesia?" Clark asked.
"He will. Only his attacks will leave no memory behind."
"Okay, one more reason to show him now how much we love him. Especially now!" Clark said, looking through the bag with the scrapbooks. "Maybe some nice Earth-memories will help him, too."
"But what happened with his clothes?" Lois asked again.
"Those psychotic attacks can be everything. They can be realistic flashbacks of traumatic events, nice memories he is living through again, he could even think that he is someone else. I didn't understand what he was screaming during his attack, but he threw his clothing into the sea."
Lois looked out threw the window. It was the only window the fortress had. It had no glass and was big enough for someone to jump through and fly away. Lois could see Jonathan's trousers floating outside and was shocked again…
"Hmm… At least that were just his clothes and not him." she murmured.
Jonathan came into the room again. Still naked…
"Oh… ehm… Jonathan… you should put on something!" Clark said blushing. Lifting the bag with some clothes for Jonathan. "Jordan, would you go and help your brother to dress, please!"
"Okay…" Jordan said and went closer to whisper to his father. "…when he remembers this after this is over and he is mad on me again, I will ask for the golden Kryptonite!"
"Of course!" Clark understood the warning and the thread. He didn't deserve better.
Jordan was a good brother. He didn't endure his brother being so mad on him. It was Jonathan who helped him to grow on his powers and help him through it. Without Jonathan he wouldn't be able to handle this mess. Jordan put on a fake smile for his mother and his brother, send his father a final death-glare and took the bag with clothes to give them to his brother…
"Let's dress you!"
"No!" Jonathan suddenly yelled like a stubborn little child and ran away.
"He has another attack!" Lara warned.
Jordan used his superspeed to prevent Jonathan to ran outside and got in his way…
"No, let's dress you first…"
"The attack is over! It was too short!" Lara said.
"Oh… that was cool!" Jonathan said with a childish smile. He saw how his 'brother' used his superspeed and was visibly impressed.
"Well…" Jordan blushed. "…I am still a rookie!"
"Jonathan, just do this for us…" Clark blushed.
"Can you do that, too?" Jonathan asked.
"What?"
"Move so fast!" Jonathan swarmed. "How comes he is so fast?"
Clark had no clue how to respond to this. Thinking it might be better to spare him from the whole powers-mess and his powerlessness. As it was Krypton and his origins that made him so mad on them. He should be happy and careless! And not much more confused…
"Well… ehm…"
"Thanks to the powerful yellow sun of Earth, Kryptonian cells are able to absorb it's energy which grants our kind those abilities." Lara suddenly began to explain. Jonathan turned back to her fascinated, while Clark, Lois and Sam tried to signal her to not to begin with it. But Lara decided to see with her own eyes if Jonathan hated Krypton really that much like his father guessed. "Your father can fly, is very strong, invulnerable and has some other impressive abilities he only can have on Earth…"
"Oh, that's cool!" Jonathan said with another wide grin. Clark smiled innocently.
"And your brother's abilities develop quicker than expected…" Lara continued.
"Oh… And what superpowers do I have?" Jonathan asked excited.
Everyone (except Lara) let out a shocked gasp…
Please Review and keep well!
I hope you like it all so far! There will be some funny moments in the next chapter!