Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm glad you're all enjoying it! Please keep reviewing! And please, I haven't been getting any new reviews on the other story I'm working on, Till Death Do Us Part. Please read and review it! I can't finsih it if I don't get any reviews! You can link to it from my bio. Anyway, thanks a lot!
Chapter 5
At that moment, Jonathan Kent stepped through the door into the house, and he, too, stopped short.
"Martha, Clark, what…?" he said, but stopped when he saw Wesley Crusher, just as his wife had.
The rest of those in the room looked back and forth between the Kents and Wesley, all confused, their curiosity mounting. And in his mind's eye, Wesley found himself swept back to an event that had taken place nearly twelve years earlier, an event that had started out as just another typical day aboard the Enterprise-D…
Fifteen-year-old Wesley Crusher walked into his and his mother's quarters after coming off duty on the bridge just in time to see the view of lazily passing starts in the large windows of the main room change. A large, green and red cloud came into view. He knew the Enterprise had not been scheduled to look at such a thing right now, so he assumed it was something the ship had simply come across. That seeming to be the case, he moved closer to the windows to get a better look, fascinated.
What Wes didn't know was that a tendril of the cloud was coming dangerously close to the ship's hull, and before he knew what was happening, the arm of the cloud brushed against the ship, right where he was standing. His eyes widened when something began to happen to the window that was being touched. A vortex of some kind formed, and through it he could see cornfields, and what must have been a road, though not of the current century.
He started to back away in fright, but suddenly a force he couldn't explain stopped him. The doors hissed open, and Beverly Crusher entered to see her son disappear into the vortex without a trace.
"Wesley!" she cried, running to the window. But all evidence of what had been there was gone.
Jonathan Kent slammed on the brakes to his truck when on the seemingly empty road just in front of him, some strange phenomena, some kind of vortex, opened and dumped a teenage boy into the middle of the road. The boy hit and rolled, and before the truck stopped completely it had hit him.
"Oh my God," Jonathan said to himself as he jumped out of the truck, and didn't even bother to push the door closed as rushed in front of the vehicle. There, laying unconscious in front of his truck, was a bluish-gray clad, slight teenage boy. His clothes were strange, and so was how he had gotten here, but Jonathan Kent was used to strange, and pushed past that as he realized that the boy was obviously injured, though thankfully it didn't seem to be serious. Not knowing what else to do, Jonathan scooped the boy up into his arms, placed him into the passenger side of the truck, and raced back his farm.
"Martha!" Jonathan called as he entered the house carrying the still unconscious boy.
"What is it?" his wife said, coming into the kitchen from the living room, five-year-old Clark right behind her. She gasped when she saw the teenager in her husband's arms. "Jonathan who is that? What happened?" she exclaimed, rushing to the two of them. "He's hurt!" she cried when she saw his dirtied clothing and the gash on his forehead.
"I don't know who he is. I found him," Jonathan said.
"What happened to him?"
Jonathan sighed. "I…hit him with the truck."
"Jonathan!"
"He dropped into the road from some anomaly, Martha. I had no warning." Jonathan said, in mild annoyance. He walked past his wife to the living room and gently put the boy down on the couch. His statement stopped Martha from chastising him any further, and she only nodded and headed to the sink.
"I'll get something to clean up that cut," she said quietly.
"Thanks," Jonathan called after her.
Clark came and sat on the floor next to the couch, near Jonathan. "Who is that, daddy?" the little boy asked.
"I don't know, Clark," Mr. Kent sighed. "I guess we'll find out when he wakes up."
Wesley shifted and moaned as he regained consciousness. He didn't know where he was. There were soft, strange voices talking above him, and something cool was pressed against his forehead. Slowly, he opened his eyes. An unfamiliar man and woman were looking down at him. The woman didn't look completely unlike his mother, though. In surprise he sat up, and tried to back away but found that he couldn't because he had been lying on a couch.
"Where am I? Who are you?" he asked hesitantly. Then he winced, realizing that he had a whopping headache.
"Be careful," the woman said with concern. "That's a pretty nasty cut on your forehead. I was just about to bandage it, now lean back over here."
Wes put a hand to his forehead and came away with blood. Grimacing, he nodded and allowed her to bandage the small wound. His initial reaction was that she shouldn't have to, that she could simply seal it, but then he took in his surroundings and realized that he was not somewhere with the kind of medical technology he was used to. I'm certainly not in Kansas anymore, he thought ruefully.
When the woman was done, she pulled back and looked at him. "There, that should do for now."
"You're in Smallville," the man said in answer to Wesley's question.
Wes just looked at him. "Smallville…?"
"Smallville, Kansas. United States, if you need to get any more specific," the man said, smiling.
Wesley almost laughed out loud. "No, that's okay, I know where Kansas is, thanks," he said. So much for not being in Kansas anymore. The irony of what he'd thought a few seconds before and what he had just discovered was not lost on him, but after the realization of it he quickly forgot it, knowing he had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.
The man continued. "I'm Jonathan Kent, and this is my wife, Martha," he said, gesturing to the two of them respectively and then offering a hand to the boy.
Wesley took it and shook it. "I'm Wesley, Wesley Crusher," he said. "Umm...nice to meet you and…thanks for helping me out."
Jonathan winced involuntarily. "Yes, well…actually I hit you with my truck first. Sorry about that."
"It's okay. I don't guess I can blame you. I must've surprised you when I dropped out of no-where."
"Yes, about that," Jonathan began. "What happened to you? Where are you from?"
Keeping the Prime Directive in mind, as all Starfleet officers should, Wes only shook his head. "I…can't tell you that," he said quietly. "Besides, it wouldn't help much. I don't know how I got here, why I'm here, anything. I can only hope that I can find a way back."
Despite the fact that the boy was trying his best to hide his fear, Martha saw right through the guise and gently put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll help you. I don't know what we can do, but we'll try. And you can stay with us for now. We don't have an extra bedroom, but you're welcome to sleep down here on the couch." She looked at her husband imploringly. "Right, Jonathan?"
Mr. Kent nodded. "Yes. We'll do all we can, son."
Wesley looked up at the couple standing in front of him, and smiled for the first time since he had woken up.
"Thanks," he said. "Thanks a lot."
All of this had gone through his mind in seconds, and Wesley shook himself out of his memories as Jonathan stepped forward.
"Wesley…Is that you?" he asked curiously.
Slowly the young Traveler nodded. "Yes. It's good to see you again, Mr. Kent, Mrs. Kent."
"But what are you doing here?" Martha asked. "And who are these people? Did that whatever-it-was open again? Were you brought here by accident?"
Wesley nodded again as Riker held up his hands. "Wait a minute! Wes, you know these people?"
"Yes sir. Remember when I was pulled through that vortex a few years ago? This is where it dropped me."
"Mom, dad, what's going on?" Clark asked.
"You probably don't remember, son. You were five at the time," Jonathan said simply.
"So he's been here before?" Clark said, motioning towards Wesley.
"Yes, just for a few days," Martha said. "I wondered what happened. One day a vortex opened again and he disappeared."
"I still don't know what all that was about. And now it seems as if it has happened again," Wesley sighed.
