"Clark, I know it hurts, but you can't just keep it held in like this" Martha pleaded with her son. It had been almost two weeks since the man of the house passed away and the new man of the house was still having a hard time adjusting to life without his father, her husband. He only seemed to want to push everyone away... and accidentally breaks things.
There was one incident, yesterday, of him trying to fix Jonathan's old tractor. In trying that meant continuously breaking every socket wrench his hands came in contact with. The head farmhand, Earl had come in the barn trying to him, but Clark would have none of it. He had only touched the tractor and Clark snapped, and with frighten quickness slammed Earl against the wall. Earl had barely managed to talk Clark down. Once Clark had realized what he had done, he instantly began mindlessly apologizing, but Earl waved it off, eyeing the young man understandingly, offering to help get the stubborn machine back in working order as he had intended to do in the first place.
Miraculously, Lois and Lana had been the only other two people to stay, somewhat, in his radar. Lana mainly because she could seem to know exactly how to handle Clark, as if she knew about what he was feeling before anyone else did. Her ability to read Clark had improved so drastically it was scary, and vise versa. Finishing one another sentences was only the tip of the iceberg. Lois' breakdown and stress from Lucy's death, oddly enough, also softened Clark. Even in depression, Clark only wanted to help others in need. Martha was proud of her son for that, but really thought he should be helping himself get through his own problems a little more these days.
"I told you before, I'm fine" Clark snapped. He looked over his mother's attire as she picked up her coat and headed for the door. "Where are you going? It's getting pretty late." he asked, packing the last few boxes for the big move to Metropolis. They only packed the necessities, since his mom said this place would still be home... in a 'home away from home' sort of way.
"I have to pick up some papers from the office at Metropolis. I figured I'd give your father's clothes to the homeless shelter as well. It might be too early for that, but I can't see them in the closet anymore. I can still smell his after shave on them... It's just too painful." She wiped the lone tear from her face "you should take a look and see if there's anything you want to keep"
"I'm sure there's someone who can use it more than I can" he replied with no emotion at all.
She choked back the coming tears and tried to hand him Jonathon's watch "I think he would have wanted you to have this. Remember when he taught you how to tell time with it?" she asked, desperately trying to get any reaction out of him, but got none and that almost scared her.
She head to the door "I'll be back sometime tonight or tomorrow morning." She looked back at Clark with a pause "This could be a new beginning for us. We're not leaving our past behind, but... but we need to look to the future now. Please Clark, for me, try for me." She pleaded.
"You should go now, it's very dark. Be careful mom" he forced a smile at her.
Outside
"Goin' out so late, Senator Kent?" A thickly country voice asked, coming from near the barn area.
"Oh, hi Earl. I told you please call me Martha, or Mrs. Kent" she said to the new stocky farmhand team leader. He smiled at that statement, wiping some sweat from the tan skin of his forehead. It would have been nice to have had Jonathon meet Earl, with the way he had been running the farm since he arrived a few days ago, they would have gotten along well. Earl was a very big fellow, but a hard worker and good manager of the other farmhands. He seemed to always find a happy medium between having fun and getting all the work done for the day. He was also very easy to talk to. "Your still here?" she asked seeing as how dark it was.
"Well, Mrs. Kent, as much as I like the new farm equipment Mr. Luthor brought my people for this job, I just like workin' on this ol' tracker your husband use to have. I don't like to see stuff broken and it'll run as good as new when I'm done with it. So that'll give us another machine to lighten the work load. I'm gonna head out in a few though, because it's getting really late" he said, looking directly at Martha.
"To answer your question, I'm going to Metropolis on business" she retorted, throwing a box of clothes in the back of her pick-up.
"Well I reckin'. Going to the big city, hmm?" he said, scratching his nose "Just be careful the city is a devil's den" he said very seriously.
"Thanks, I'll try to be care-" she started but was interrupted by a maroon colored SUV pulling into the driveway. "Oh that must be Lana"
"Well I'll let you be on you way. Be safe, Martha" he said, surprising her. It had been the first time he had called her by her first name. She didn't want to feel like a Senator at her own house. She just wanted to be Martha.
"Thanks, Goodnight Earl"
Later in Metropolis
Martha had just left from the office with the papers she needed. The alley was cold and wet. The eerily look of this crevice between building made her feel rough around the edges. She made a mental note to only get papers from this office early in the day from now on. She continued to her truck and reached for the door...
'Click' she heard the sound steel snapping lightly on steel.
"Nice purse" a voice said huskily from behind her poking Martha in the back with something hard, something cold "how about you just give it to me, NOW!"
"Let go of ME!" She screamed, rearing back and striking the mugger with all the force she had. His head whipped back exposing his tattooed neck, but he recovered too quick and seemed more angry than hurt as he struck her back, with pistol in hand and with enough power to send her straight to the ground.
"Hmm, nice watch" he said snatching it from her limp wrist. "Kill the bitch" he told his counterpart, who appeared from behind a nearby dumpster.
A smirk creped onto the other criminal's face as he raised his knife armed hand to deliver a final blow.
Unfortunately for him it never met the destination, instead it took a detour into his own right shoulder, causing a terrified yelped to escape his lips.
The sudden outburst caused the main assailant to look back at his partner. Seeing him on the ground turn to escape, but a trench coat wearing, masked woman wearing all black was blocking his exit.
"Who the Hell are-" he tried to say, raising his gun to her face, but was instantly spun around and slam into a Martha's truck, cause him to drop the firearm on impact.
She roughly jerked his head up and noticed the tattoo that Martha had saw earlier "I've been looking from you" she smiled evilly.
"Back off, or the bitch gets it" the other said from behind them, holding the knife he had pulled from his bloody shoulder, against Martha's neck.
She didn't negotiate though. The vigilante shot through the air at him. Surprised by her flight, his moment of hesitation presented him with a prize. Frequent Flyer Miles and a one-way trip through a nearby chain link fence.
She turned around ready to get back to her main subject, when out of nowhere; a police helicopter appeared on top of the area. 'Damn' she thought to herself, seeing as how her prey had escaped from her grasp again. 'Oh the woman, better see if she alright'
Martha opened her eyes and ears to a loud choppy noise and a spotlight. "Your safe now" she heard someone say. With so many things going on around her, it took awhile for her mind to come into focus. When it did though, she managed to catch the tail end of someone soaring through the sky "Clark..." she whispered, already knowing it wasn't him.
End of Chapter 7, Part 1(I know, no Clana in this update, and this update was pretty short, but that can't be helped. Good thing is an update like this is rare, so expect Clana to return in full force.)