Clark was never planning to leave his son alone. And that in a foreign country.
When he and Jonathan stood in the wine field, he hoped to figure out what was bothering his son. He felt how much his son relaxed during their flight. He even felt for a brief moment, that his son was flying by himself, so relaxed was he. And then he had to hear that tornado building up over Tehran.
He didn't want to leave. Jon was just about to tell him what was going on. But he soon realized that the tornado in Tehran was not a natural phenomenon. He was forced to leave. He expected to be bad in a couple of minutes. But the whole mess in Tehran took longer than expected. He just finished the tornados and heard the cheering Iranian crowds when he found the mad scientist responsible for the mess and was kept busy for a while longer.
To make things more complicated, the new head of the DOD called him shortly after he was done in Iran. He knew Anderson (unfortunately) well enough to know that he couldn't ignore that call. As much as he wanted to, he was forced to go there. Just to receive a rebuke for saving Iranians. If Anderson would be in charge, Superman would be in full service for the DOD and America only.
What followed was another long and unnecessary discussion about Superman's allegiance. Clark swore to protect everyone on earth. No matter from which country he comes from or what is his religion, political opinion, or his relationship with the USA. And they had another argument about Anderson's new team of Superpowered people, bearing his family-crest. Normally they had no right to do so. He did so to honor his heritage.
The only people on this planet, if they would follow Kryptonian rules, who were allowed to wear the crest of the house of El would be him, Lois (as she was married to him) and his sons! And Anderson was just about to use this symbol, that once meant hope, as a war symbol for American interests. Their argument took a while and ended when both were sure that there was no solution for their disagreements.
Clark, now pretty worried and frustrated, flew back home. Lois was in her home-office, typing on her computer and asked how their trip to Europe was. That was the moment, Clark realized that Jon was still in Moldova…
Shocked and full of shame, Clark raced back to Moldova and to the wine-field, where he left Jonathan behind. Jon was gone. Clark only found the broken fence, Jon kicked against in fury. Clark speeded threw the town. Discreetly of course. He was surprised to find his son on the local cemetery. Kneeling in front of a grave…
Clark expected his son to be mad. Clark made a mistake only he was able to make and it was not good for the anyway struggling relationship with his son. But what his son said, was so shocking that Clark was literally frozen. His son was kneeling in front of the grave of a man who looked excactly like him and he just told him that he doubts their relation…
"Jonathan, what did you say?" Clark knew it, but he denied believing it.
"You heard right!"
"Jonathan, this is ridiculous. Who is that?"
"Probably my real father." Jon said with a shrug. Clark was shocked.
"Who says that?" Clark was too shocked to think clearly.
"Oh, just everyone!"
"Jonathan, please… I know you are mad…"
"MAD! WHAT SHOULD I BE MAD FOR?" Jon screamed. "I was just about to pour out my heart to you and you leave me alone on a wine field…"
"Jon, I am sorry! I know this…"
"YOU KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" Jon yelled. "I AM NOT ABLE TO FLY! I AM NOT SPENDING ALL DAY IN A BASEMENT, NEXT TO A FUCKING SPACESHIP, ON TRAINING TO CONTROL SOME POWERS!"
"Ssschhhh… The people could hear you!" Clark hissed.
"Who cares! Nobody here understands English!" Jon said, turned around and walked away.
"Where are you going?"
"Home!"
"On foot?"
"My house is just down in that neighborhood there! And I should leave now. My neighbor makes Zeama for me!"
Clark was not sure how to react to this. Was Jon just upset and said it to hurt him on purpose? No, that's not typical for his son. This went far deeper than he expected. And he just worsened it. "Jon, please let's go home and we talk about it!"
This time, Clark didn't warn him before. He just grabbled him to fly him back to Kansas forcefully. Jon yelled and screamed. Boxing around wildly, like normally only criminals he cached do when they try to escape. Clark felt much worse…
Just seconds later, they were back on the farm. Lois and Jordan were on the terrace, waiting for them. Lois was furious on Clark for leaving Jon alone in Europe but also expected Jon to be in a very bad mood. But what she saw was way worse than she expected…
"Jonathan, what happened?" she asked shocked.
"Lois, Jonathan lost his mind…" Clark wailed.
"Jonathan, your father made a mistake. But he is really sorry." Lois expected Jon to be mad. But this was a very bad moment to make Jon mad. "Once he forgot me in South America for a whole afternoon…"
Jon didn't listen. He stormed inside and up in his room, to get the note and the photos he got from the woman. This is it now…
"Jonathan, please…" Lois begged.
Jon came down again. The rest of 'his family' was in the living-room. Looking on him worried and upset. Jon asked himself for the past day and the whole night how to tell them. But now it just blurted out of him.
"I think I am not your son!"
Hearing this, Lois felt her whole world crumble. And to make it worse Jon throw the photos of his doppelganger on the table…
"The woman I met yesterday is convinced that I am her son. And I start to believe that it is possible."
Lois was terrified. Clark speechless. And Jordan looked on him with big eyes.
"You don't really believe that!" his 'brother' said. "Come on, we are twins…"
"Says the guy who said by himself that we are as different as day and night, or that it is like comparing apples to oranges…"
"Jon, please! Just because someone you have never seen before comes to you and tells you…"
"SAYS THE GUY WHO DRAGGED ME TO THIS TOWN, WHERE I AM A NOBODY!" Jon yelled now angrier.
Now he let it out… a tantrum full of fear, desperation, and sorrow. About that feeling not to know who he is, in a family full of Supermans, Superboys and world-famous journalists. While he begins to struggle with the simplest things. About everything he gave up, lost and never achieved. That all his hopes and ambitions were crushed and that he feels like being left out because he is the human-one. And that it would be great to be not their son, as it would mean that he can be a human again…
Without another look on them, Jon stormed out of the house.
"JONATHAN, WAIT…" Clark yelled, still hurt by the last statement.
"DAD!" Jordan grabbed his father's arm, hoping that he does not superspeed out to catch him. "Let me talk to him…"
"But…"
"I can get threw to him!" Jordan convinced them.
Clark agreed and Jordan left. Lois meanwhile fell on her knees and burst out in tears.
Jordan saw Jonathan jogging away from the house as fast as he could. He knew how Jon must feel. In the past he had similar breakdowns. It was easy for him to catch up to Jon, who just wanted to get away from that darn farm as far as possible.
"JON!"
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Jon, please… Tell me, what does make you believe…" Jordan stopped when they heard that familiar 'swoosh' again.
"See… there are more important things for him! Kryptonian stuff I guess…" Jon said, turning around again and walking faster. He had no clue that Clark left to get proves for Jon that he was lied to, or that he is really their son.
"Is it the whole powers, thing?" Jordan asked. He thought Jon was fine with it. "I never asked for them! I always wondered why I had to get them and not you…"
"THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME FUCKING LASERS TO SHOOT OUT OF EYES. OR ICE THAT'S BEEN BREATHED OUT…" Jon screamed. He had to take a deep breath again, because his throat was burning terribly from that screaming. "I don't know who I am! I don't know what I am. I don't know since that moment he lifted that truck from the ground, Superboy."
"Please, don't call me that! I don't feel like a Superboy eighter."
"I want to be human!" Jon said. "You can be whatever you want! He can be what ever he wants! But I… Congratulations, Jordan! You took my place, and I am the crazy now… You can fly and I already crashed…"
Jordan saw it. He was right: Jon feels left out!
"Jon, please… You have always been there for me when I needed help and you protected me. Not just me but everyone else… Please, allow us to help you just once…"
Jon stopped. Thinking about his words…
"Come on, do you think that they throw you out, just because of it? Never ever! And believe, me I can't await the day for you to get powers…" Jordan said and avoids speaking out loudly a sentence that was burning on his tongue for months: '…so I don't be the only half-alien freak on this planet anymore!' He knew that this would have hurt him.
Jordan took the ELT out of his pocket.
"I'll call dad, we go back and…"
Full of fury, Jon grabbled the ELT out of Jordans hand, threw it on the asphalt where it shattered and stomped on it as strong as possible to crush it. Screaming like a maniac in the progress…
"JON, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Jordan asked shocked, seeing the crushed leftovers of the ELT on the road.
"I AM SICK OF BEEING THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS IN THIS CRAP!" Jon screamed and walked away.
They walked for a while until suddenly a white Ford came around the corner and stopped right next to them. Jordan switched automatically back to the 'everything is normally human' state when the female driver left the car.
"Allo!" she said Hello in Russian.
"Allo!" Jon repeated, went closer to her, and hugged her…
Jordan was shocked about this. He saw that this had to be the woman, who told him this 'fairytale'. Jon wanted to leave with her, she agreed.
"I agree. We don't need a test… Mommy!" Jon said.
Jordan was just about to scream, when he suddenly felt that sharp pain in his chest, right in his heart… a very shockingly familiar pain, he knew was only caused by a certain substance… A substance, Jon didn't seem to realize that it was there. He just entered the car and left with the woman. Leaving his shocked and terrified brother alone.
"Jon… watch out… Kr…" Jordan fell on his knees.
He had to get back to the farm. But the ELT was destroyed. And his father elsewhere…
On the farm, Lois was still upset. Crying so hard that the teardrops were visible all over her clothes. Searching all her personal belongings. Looking for her stuff to show it to 'her' son. Yelling and crying all over again: "She is a god dammed liar! She wants a Green-Card! Or Money! She is a god dammed liar…"
Clark meanwhile, had rushed back to Moldova to get more information from the people there. As he spoke every language on earth, he was able to talk to the people on the 'welcome-party' Jon left and what he learned was shocking…
It was not a lie and not a fluke. Everyone there confirmed to Clark that the photos the woman showed to Jonathan were real and that everyone here is convinced that he is the lost son of this couple. It was a shock. Clark denied believing it. Lois, too…
Lois remembered every single moment of the day; her boys were born. Every face she saw on that day, every voice… She remembered a woman with blonde hair and an East-European accent. Her first child. She was older than Lois but much calmer and very friendly. Telling about her plans to stay in America and start a new live…
Lois gave birth to twins. She knew that. She gave birth to them. She was only separated from them for just a few moments…
She didn't want to believe it. Jon was their son! He has to be! Just because he did never react to Kryptonite, doesn't mean… otherwise… she always wondered why one child has powers while the other does not! The woman on the wedding-photo… she remembered her. It had to be the woman, she talked to for hours and that she heard crying hours later. She never saw her husband…
With a swoosh, Clark arrived back in the room. Telling her that the woman didn't lie. She was real, her husband was real and her suspicion that Jon is her son was real and justified…
"NO! NO, CLARK IT CAN'T BE!" Lois screamed, her eyes filling with tears again.
Clark hugged her. He was upset, too. While Lois blamed herself, he blamed himself.
"It's my fault… not yours…" he said.
Clark really wished to travel back in time to be there when they were born. He was out, saving a plane that was about to crash into the city center of Rome. He came just five minutes too late to their birth but wished that he was there. To know what happened. Or to the other occasions Jon needed him. Or at least back to the wine-field in Vadul-lui-Voda… The last time they felt so powerless and scared was when Edge kidnapped Jordan. Clark feared to go and search them by his own. They had to hope that Jordan was able to calm Jonathan down and bring him back…
Jon meanwhile, felt a sharp pain in his heart. This has to be a broken heart, he guessed. And he felt that sharp pain in his arm again. He felt dazed and tired. After this day, he was right to be upset. He had no clue that there was another reason…
"Are you okay? You look so sad!"
"I admit, it's pretty weird." Jon said, rubbing his arm.
"You have pain in arm?"
"Aww… I broke it twice last year! Aww… I am so… tired…"
"Drink?" she offered him a bottle of water.
"Thanks!" Jon said when he took the bottle. But the pain in his arm was so strong that he was almost not able to open the bottle. It felt like his whole body was aching.
His parents didn't stop to be worried…
What if its true? Was Jon probably not their son? In the fortress, the tests told that he is more human. But they also didn't tell him if there is any trace of Kryptonian heritage. Why the hell Clark didn't take him to the fortress, too last year? There they could have figured out everything or gave him certainty. Why he had to believe that Jon was fine all the time? He obviously wasn't!
"What shall we do?"
"We test him! We test him and show him that he is our son!" Clark advised, still reproaching himself for not didn't doing it after their move.
"How?"
"I take him to the fortress…"
"The last time you took him to your fortress, he was just madder."
"Then… I take him to Edge's fortress! It's still working…"
"I don't want Zeta close to my other child, too… aww…" Lois cried. That wording: my 'other' child. It could be understood differently than she really meant. "He is our son… I know it! I feel it…"
"Lois, he was flying!" Clark said. In all that drama he forgot to mention that.
"What?"
"When we were on the way to Moldova… I told him to relax! I… don't know if it's true but… There was this short moment! A climpse of a second… I… I can't explain you but for a very brief moment, it felt like… he was flying! By himself!"
Lois was always a bit scared for her boys being able to fly. Knowing how deep they can fall, or how difficult it would be to watch them when they can go everywhere. But right now, she really wished that Jon is able to fly. To fly back home to them…
Suddenly Ckark was able to hear Jordan wailing outside, who just arrived back on the property after walking back the long way.
When Clark heard Jordan's wailing, he stormed out to get to his son. Seeing how sick he was and was worried.
"Dad… she… Jon…"
"What happened?" Clark asked shocked. He saw that Jordan seemed to be sick.
"Jon… the woman… he… He left with her in her car… There was Kryptonite!"
"Kryptonite?!" Clark said shocked.
"Yes! She had it with her…" Jordan explained.
This was not good!
Jon and 'his mother' reached the motel in town. Jon only knew it from outside and he always thought that it is closed, because it always looked like that. She parked the car and led him upstairs into the first floor. She was so happy… Happy to have her son back. The child she lost years ago…
Jon meanwhile felt still hurt. He should be happy to be fully human. He always thought that having certainty would let him feel better. But he felt guilty. Guilty for yelling on Clark, Lois and Jordan. Guilty for running away and leaving without giving them any chance to explain.
She used her keys to open a door and led him in. The room was (for a cheap motel) surprisingly tidy and inviting. A photo-album on the desk, cached Jon's attention. The woman mentioned this and sat down next to Jon on the bed to show him the photos. Most of them, with the younger Jon.
"He was very popular in school. And he had many friends!" she told, showing him photos. "And he was very ambitious."
Jon was once popular in school, too. And he had many friends, too. And he had ambitions… But these times were over. Smallville never really felt like home. The people here seem to dislike him. He spent only two hours in Moldova, and the people over there even slaughtered animals for him…
"Back in Soviet time… Your father wanted to be a pilot!" she told, showing him a photo of his 'younger self' in front of a soviet-airliner on a airport. "After revolution and independence, there was no chance for him anymore. He worked abroad to send money to family. After we failed to stay, in America… and lost you… we were so devastated. He went to Russia and I went to Turkey… we not talking for long time. And when I came back to Moldova, they told me… about his accident in mine…"
She cried again. Jon felt so sorry for her. Thinking about that he never ever gets a chance to meet his 'real father'.
"How was he?" Jon drunk so much water, but his mouth felt as dry as dust.
"He was great!" she said, with more tears in her eyes. "He was a… a Superman… only without costume… always helpful and open hearted… I miss him so much."
She stood up again, went to the mini-fridge and took out a bottle of liquor. Jon didn't saw what she filled into the glasses, but it was obviously that she mixed something. Jon was more focusing on the photos, so he didn't mention that she mixed some crushed pills into the drinks…
"Let's drink on us and your father!" she said, giving Jon the glass with schnapps.
"Oh, gosh… I am not old enough." Jon said. He still felt terribly weak and his whole body was still trembling. It was like he had chills and fever. Otherwise, it would be impolite. One little drink won't hurt him. When she is offering it! "Okay…"
"Na sdorovje, moi dorogoi syn! Za nashu semje!" (Cheers, my dear son. On our family!)
"Na sdo-ro-weje… ehm… you know!" Jon tried to repeat what she said but he failed.
Jon and the woman drunk the liquid. Tears shoot into his eyes. He tried schnapps once before. But only once. It was on a party of a friend, back in Metropolis. Back then, it was so ugly that he swore to never drink schnapps again. But this drink had a weird aftertaste… like… pills…!
"What was in that stuff?" he asked shocked.
The woman only smiled and carefully let him lay down on the bed, to lay down next to him. "Everything will be fine!"
Jon felt even weaker than before. It was like this one single glass of schnapps was pulling on his head violently. But as soon he laid down, his body felt like a whole haybale was laying on him. Jon looked on the woman again in shock, and saw her necklace…
"What is that?" he asked shocked.
She laid down next to him, and pulled out her necklace, to show it to him. A green stone was hanging on the bottom of it. It looked like it was glowing under the ceiling lamp, but Jon soon realized that it was not glowing from the lamps! It was glowing because it was reacting to his presence!
"This was a present from your father." She told. "He found it one day on the shore of river Dniester. He polished and made necklace self. Nice stone, isn't it."
"That's Kryptonite…" Jon murmured shocked…
Please Review and keep well!