"Is he all right?" Jonathan didn't have to ask, he had seen the bike, if the child had survived...it would have been a pure miracle.
"No. We're not taking Clark in, Jonathan this was an accident, nothing more," Jonathan nodded gently and held his son tighter.
Jonathan helped his son get up and walk over towards the truck, Ethan was taking the other truck. Clark didn't say much, Jonathan looked at his son, as though checking him for any further injuries.
"Are you all right?" Clark looked up, with an emptiness in his eyes unlike any other. Jonathan grasped his son's head and looked at the child.
"I...killed someone dad," whimpered Clark, tears beginning to pour down his face. Jonathan pulled his son close again as he wept.
"I'm here son, I'm here, let it out," Jonathan listened to his eldest child sob in his arms, and he felt tears begin to fall from his own eyes. He rubbed the boy's back, as he felt each strangled sob come one right after another.
"I'm here," he sent up a silent prayer as he continued to hold the child. Yes, a mere child in sudden desperate need of the only two people in his world that had the ability to make everything all right
"I didn't mean to dad, I swear...I was careful..." Jonathan nodded, letting his son know he didn't blame him for anything.
"Shh I know son, I know," Jonathan sighed and gently opened the car door, helping his son get into the truck, he then closed the door and moved around to the drivers side.
Clark had cried himself to sleep in the fifteen minutes it took to get back home, Jonathan reached and gently pulled his son into his arms, carrying him similar to how he would carry a baby. He managed to get the door open, and Clark inside on the couch.
"My god what happened?" Martha asked alarmed. Jonathan grabbed a blanket from the side of the chair and draped it over Clark's long lanky form.
"Let's go into the kitchen, I need some coffee, and you will too," she nodded and followed her husband into the kitchen.
"What happened?" She asked watching her son sleep, she could tell he had been crying, tears tracks marked his face. He looked pale and sickly, he looked terrible.
"Clark was driving home, it was dark and a biker, a kid probably from his school rode in front of him, Clark didn't see the kid until it was too late. Martha Clark killed the boy. He didn't mean to, but...somehow I don't think that will stop Clark from blaming himself." Martha's hand went to her mouth as she looked at her son.
"My baby," she whispered, she moved past Jonathan and over to Clark. She knelt beside the sleeping child and gently touched his brow. His eyes slowly slid open and she could see the pain in them, she saw the tears suddenly well up. Clark instantly turned and found his mother's shoulder. She grabbed him and held him tight.
"Oh baby, we'll pull through this honey, we're gonna get through this I promise you," she whispered holding him. Jonathan came over on the other side of his son and enveloped their son into an embrace between the two people who couldn't love him more.
"I'm sorry," cried Clark gently as his parents held him tight and for hours. Martha stroked the side of his face gently as she held him, for the second time that evening their son cried himself to sleep.
"Let's get him spread out, looks like we'll spend the evening down here," Martha whispered. They both sat at the opposite ends of the couch, Martha held Clark's head in her lap, as she gently caressed his face, while Jonathan got comfortable wrapping a blanket around their son and themselves. He closed his eyes, knowing it would be a long night.