Jon's first thought was that it was just his tireness and his exhaustion. But then he saw in horror the veins on his hands slowly turning green…
That's why he is feeling weaker and weaker! That's why he felt this pain since he entered her car: Because he is a fucking Kryptonian!
He was wrong! She was wrong! They all were wrong! He is Clark Kent's, alias Superman's son! That's because he is reacting to that darn alien stone, the woman obviously believes to be a normal emerald or similar.
"Everything is fine!" she said. Her voice was weaker than before. She took the photo-album with her death husband's pictures between them, hold Jon's hand, not seeing his green veins, and closed her eyes. "Relax… We go and meet daddy again…"
The panic overcame him… Jon realized: This is a suicide! And she gave him the same pills. She wanted him, her supposed son, to join her…
"No! No… I… Don't…" Jon tried to wake her up again. But his arms were so heavy, he was barely able to lift them. The dizziness hit him with full force. He was still in bed, but his body felt like it was spinning.
Jon felt it: He had to get out of here. The Kryptonite presence let his whole body burn as it was on fire. The woman already passed out. Without an immediate treatment she will die. Jon couldn't allow that. She might not be his real mother and just tried to pull him with her to death, but he will not allow that she dies here right next to him…
Finally, the adrenaline inside him was stronger than the Kryptonite and the pills, and Jon was able to roll himself off the bed and crawl to the door. With trembling hands, he was able to unlock it and get out of the room. Jon reached the outside hallway and took a deep breath. Having some distance now to her Kryptonite necklace. He needed his father. His real father. He had to scream like he did in Moldova. With full force he yelled…
"DAAAAADDDD…"
Jon screamed until he was out of breath. Just to feel his father arriving in a swoosh and holding him, while his also present mother stormed into the room…
After Jordan told them about the Kryptonite, they were worried. Thinking about a possible kidnapping attempt or an attack on their family. Clark rushed all over the county with Lois sitting on his back. Lois called her father, hoping that he, despite his retirement, was able to arrange something. But when Clark heard Jon screaming, he went to the motel…
"Kryptonite… she threw in pills…" Jon wailed…
"Ssshh… everything will be okay…" his father said, hugging him, holding him tightly when he saw what the Kryptonite did to Jon.
"… so sorry… I am so sorry…" Jon said, while he felt that he was fainting away. Literally feeling his life draining out of him.
"SHHH… It's okay… We will be all all right…" his father said.
Jon opened his eyes again to find himself in his father's arms. High over the clouds and with the sun shining on his body. He felt that weightlessness again. The pain was gone. He felt so light and free again. His father took him up in the air and several thousand miles to the west, where the sun was higher and stronger. Clark held his son, just letting him relax in the sun. To let him feel it again. That wonderful feeling of flying…
Clark let his totally relaxed son float in the sunlight. And Jon felt the sun releasing him from his pain … that was the moment, he realized that he was wrong to doubt…
"I am the dumbest person on this planet!" Jon murmured, when he sat in the living-room sometime later.
"That's not true! You were just kind! And this is a great trait!" his mother comforted him.
The whole family was in the living-room. Jon wrapped in a blanket, his twin-brother, and his mother around him. He felt safe again. Suddenly the house felt so homey and inviting like it did never ever before. It was evening now.
He was still a bit pale. But after everything what happened, it was normal. The pills didn't affect him anymore. Obviously another Kryptonian-trait. But he felt bad for almost destroying everything. This family, the secret… absolutely everything. Nobody was mad on him. His parents were mostly mad on themselves. Telling him that they would have doubted everything, too, if they were in his situation.
In the other room, his father just finished a call and came back to the living-room.
"She is okay. She will survive it!" he said, joining them on the couch. Lois was able to force her to puke in the motel-room and give first aid until the ambulance arrived.
"What happens to her now?" Jon asked.
Nobody was mad on her. Neighter Jon, who only felt pity for her, nor his parents, who knew how it felt to lose a child.
"She will be taken into psychatric treatment again." Clark said. "Let's hope that the therapy will be successful this time…"
After she was taken into a hospital and Clark took Jon into the sunlight to recover, they made some research…
Her backstory was true. As well as her story about her dead husband and her search for her child. But what she didn't tell Jon, was that she had a mental breakdown after the supposed death of her child and was taken into psychiatric treatment. She was mentally unstable since she was a teenager. It was not her first attempt…
After the death of her husband, she had another breakdown and was in treatment for years. That's also why she learned so late about the mistake in the hospital. Which was made in another room and not affected the Kents. She was right to believe that her son was alive. He really is. And considering the shocking similarity between Jon and her dead husband, she was right to believe that it was Jon.
Jon told them now, this time calm, slowly and detailed, everything what happened since he stormed out of the house after his fight with Lois. About his feelings and his doubts, he had. The weird nightmares. And about his fears and the reasons why he didn't tell them…
"I admit in our family, this can mean something!" Clark agreed. "I was always afraid that it will bother you two pretty much."
"I know it was not okay to keep this secret from you so long. I honestly wanted to tell you since that day, you figured out by yourself." Lois told.
"What? I knew it before?" Jon asked confused.
"You were just a year old… I just came home. And the babysitter put the TV on to watch the news. Your father, well Superman, was shown on the screen." Lois told and blushed about the cute memory. "You saw your father on screen, lift you hand, and you said 'Dada'!"
"Really!" Jon was too young to remember that.
"Yeah, you just started to talk, and you recognized your father in TV, while he was Superman." Lois said, tears of joy running down her face. "That was so cute! Shocking but cute. I was just glad that the babysitter didn't hear you. That would have been very awkward to explain. But what I mean, you… you were so smart as a baby. We were afraid that we won't be able to keep it a secret from you…"
Now Jon could feel that he blushed…
"Seriously?"
"Yeah… and the one time, you and your friends played Superman in the yard." Clark said, remembering his son's and their friends playing back there. "Aww… I admit I really wanted to just grab you and take you with me on a flight around the world…"
Jon blushed again…
"Well… yeah… flying with you felt great… But what I don't understand: I never reacted to Kryptonite! Why I did now?" Jon asked confused.
His father already asked himself that question, too. "You're maybe just developed. Or you never had a reaction before because every time, you got exposed to Kryptonite, it was the synthetic version made by the DOD! And not the pure stuff that came with me!"
"That's great… The DOD can't hurt you!" Jordan said cheerful.
"Great, like a normal human I can't lift trucks, breath ice and shoot lasers out of my eyes, but I can be hurt by alien-stones like an alien. I admit, next to Superman and Superboy I sometimes felt like an unimportant bystander." Jon revealed. Lois and Clark felt so sorry. It was never their purpose to let one child feel let out.
"Come on, for that you can fly!" Jordan interfered to cheer his brother up. "Dad said that it happened during your trip to Moldova. And flying is definitely best power of all."
"Aww… that wasn't me! It was him!" Jon said, before he looked on his father a bit worried. "Or not?"
"Ehm… I can't tell you." Clark said with a shrug. "But for a second it felt like you were flying by yourself…."
Jon felt that he blushed again. His brother used this as an excuse to go upstairs and get Jon's super-suit, that was still wrapped up as a present upstairs.
"You haven't opened it, yet!" Jordan said, giving Jon the wrapped suit.
Carefully, Jon took his grandmother's last present and start to unwrap it. The first he saw was the familiar crest in yellow and red, but it was bigger than the one on his father's suit. It was a dark blue suit with a red cape and (much to Jon's relieve) without a red underpants. But for that, it had red shoulders that seem to extend the crest and connected it with the cape. And matching boots, Martha made by herself.
"Wow… I like it." Jon said with a bright smile. He loved the design. And the fabric felt so soft and comfy. Just like he expected it: Not a cheap Halloween-copy made in Taiwan! An accurate, Superhero-worthy suit.
"Oh… I like it, too. Now I am a bit jealous. My costume does not feel that soft." Clark said with big eyes when he went with his fingers over the cloth.
"Compared to my suit, yours is much brighter… and it feels comfier. Wanna switch suits?" Jordan asked a bit jealous, too.
Jon had to laugh… for the first time in days…
"I can't believe that we talk about super-suits here?!" Jon said.
"This similarity is really scary. Maybe you are a time-traveler?" Jordan guessed, holding the photo of the dead husband.
"If I get the chance to travel through time, why I should go to the Soviet-Union during the Cold War?" Jonathan asked, looking on the photo again. "The people there were so friendly to me… Gosh, that granny killed a rooster for me?"
"That's part of their culture!" Clark said. "The people in the former Soviet-Union are very hospitable. I heard somewhere that hospitality is very important for the people in Moldova. I am sure that granny would have slaughtered that rooster for you anyway."
"Hmmm… at least your little fan was happy about the Zeama…" Jon murmured and told his father about the boy in the too small Superman-t-shirt.
"Zeama?" Jordan and Lois asked. Jon didn't try it but now he wished that he did at least.
"But…" Clark continued. "I stay with my opinion: It was unfair from me to not include you. You are my son, too. You are as much Kryptonian as I and Jordan. I should had taken you to the fortress too back then to show you where I come from. It's your heritage, too."
"It's okay… I… yeah… Okay… Maybe you are right! When I saw you and Jordan flying away that day… I…" Jon had no clue how to describe it. "… I don't know! It was like I am predestined to be the human one. Then all the trouble with the move, the new school, the isolation… Tag Harris getting powers, an evil uncle appearing out of nowhere, people in town turning into aliens… what happens next?"
"Who knows… But Jonathan, whatever happens: We will handle this together." Clark said.
"But may I say that it was unfair that Tag Harris got powers!" Jordan said. "Seriously, it's like he got the powers, Jon was supposed to have! It's like he stole them from them."
"This is another story." Clark interfered. "But Jonathan, you are our son. And even if it had been true, and you got switched at birth it would have changed nothing. And I don't care what others say or that you have powers or not. Who knows, maybe you will be more powerful than me one day?"
After that sentence Jon blushed again, looking on his father with big eyes. It was hard for him to imagine but a nice thought anyway…
"You've got so many good traits from me and your mother. Who cares about Kryptonians? We're on Earth. And you all are the most important people on this planet for me. And I promise to never ever forget you in another country. Or let you feel like the blonde step-child." Clark said.
"I accept your apology. If you accept my apology for everything I said today."
"Of course! We are a family… we hold together…" Clark said.
Jon hugged his father. His brother and his mother joined them…
Jon felt so great among them again. They might not be the picture-perfect family, but Jon wouldn't change them for anything in the world… but suddenly he remembered the people in Moldova he wrongly made hopes…
"Ehm… I am afraid… there is one more thing… Dad… Is it possible to go back to Moldova?" Jon asked, receiving curious glares from his family.
The next morning… in Moldova…
The Moldavian farmer, who was furious when he saw his broken fence, Jon smashed yesterday, was surprised to find his fence repaired and even fresh painted. Together with an apology-letter. Jon wanted to fix his mistake!
Not far away, down in town, the granny who slaughtered a rooster for Jon was shocked to find a small living chicken at the gate to her property. Together with another apology-letter and a little present for her grandson: A new and bigger Superman-t-shirt, he was able to grow into!
The boy's cheer was so loud, that even people without super-hearing, were able to hear him miles away…
"Sounds like he likes it!" Lois said happily. "Jonathan, that was very kind of you."
"And this town is nice!" Jordan added. "Why Smallville does not have a beach?"
The Kents sat together on the artificial beach at the edge of town and watched the sunrise. It was a rare, shared family-moment.
"Thanks mom! But I wish I could help that poor woman. I mean, nobody knows what happened to her child." Jon said.
"Well… According to what we figured out, all switched babies were identified and reunited with their real parents." Clark told. "Except…"
"Except?" now Jon was curious…
"Except one!" Clark said.
Back in America… it was late evening here…
Jon knocked on the door of a house in a suburb of Metropolis. Not knowing if the people are still awake that late. Or that the address, his parents figured out, was still correct. A woman around his mother's age opened him…
"Good evening, ma'am!" Jon said. "Please excuse the late disturb. But… ehm... is your son home?"
"Why? Who are you?" she asked. She mentioned that Jon looked very familiar.
"Ehm… It's a long story! But… your son…? You know that he was switched at birth, don't you?" Jon asked directly.
The woman became pale and looked on him with big eyes. This was a family-secret. She and her husband were aware of it. Their son knew it for a while, too now. It was a hard time for them.
But they continued their life. For their son, they were still his parents and for the parents he was still their son. But there was always the question who he really is and who his real parents were…
"I … Well, I think I know who he really is…"
Jon was allowed to enter and spend the next three hours telling a boy, who looks like he could be his brother and asked himself who he really is for years, or where he comes from, about his real parents, his heritage and about the people in his parents' hometown who will slaughter their livestock just to welcome him home…
Jon left with the good feeling that he helped someone with his identity issues and probably helped the woman too on her way to mental recovery…
Jon met his father in front of the house. It was already past midnight here and he waited for him to fly them home.
"You are a hero, Jonathan! You know that?" Clark said proudly. "Even without powers. Come on… let's go home…"
Clark took his son up in the air again…
Once in the air, Clark made that gesture again, inviting his son to stretch out his arms to imitate his flying pose. Jon risked it and raised his arms to imitate his father's flying pose. Feeling that great feeling of flying again. That feeling of being free and weightless…
Jon had no clue what the future holds for him. Maybe he gets powers. Maybe he will remain powerless. Maybe he will be more powerful than Jordan or even his father, or maybe always be the human one. They all agreed that it was too early to fix on one scenario. And Jon was aware now that he must be open for everything. But whatever happens, he was not alone. And just in case, he already had a suit…
And so, he just enjoyed the flight. That incredible feeling of being weightless and free. That allowed him to relax. Jon opened his eyes and was surprised to see his father flying ahead of him. Smiling and winking him. He was not holding him anymore…
This time, Clark risked it and just let his son fly by himself…
THE END!
So this is it!
Originally this was not planned to be a 'Jon-gets-powers-story'. But I thought that this would be a nice finish. I belong to the group who really wants Jon to get powers, too. I mean real powers and not that crap with the X-Kryptonite.
I think this will have a bad ending and have a lasting impact on the Kents. As soon as they figure out it could destroy Jon completely. And when he gets real powers, they could accuse him for taking X-Kryptonite again. This could even worse everything.
Thanks to all the kudos, comments and loyal readers. I tried to update regulary. My busy job with very bad working times sometimes, does not leave pretty much time to write. And I am really impressed by how quick some authors in this fandom update and come up with new stories. Kudos to all of them.
The show just began to air here in Germany. And the German dub made the ultimate connection to the Arrowverse: Clark has the same voice as Oliver Queen and Lois has the same voice as Laurel Lance. It's a bit funny to hear them talking. Of course I follow the show anyway over the internet and over Youtube clips and I hope that there will be some scene one day in that Clark and Jon talk about his Kryptonian heritage, too. Just saw the first two episodes and I think it was really unfair from Clark to not take Jon to the fortress, too.
Anyway, thank you all. And hope to see you with my next story again. No clue when it will be ready. I have countless of ideas...
Thank you, Spasibo, Multumesc and Danke Schön!