Hello and Welcome to this One-Shot!
While writing the previous story 'Golden Future' in which Jonathan Kent travels back in time to use golden Kryptonite on Jordan to take his powers and prevent a terrible future. As Sam will most likely not appear in Season 4 and therefor gets 'killed off the show' I had in mind that Sam is dead while writing the previous story. But I purposefully wrote everything vague to make it not obvious if he is dead or alive.
After all the positive respond to the finale of the previous story, I decided to make Sam alive again and write this one-shot sequel!
Enjoy!
Sam Lane was sure that his life is going to be different from now. The doctors confirmed it, and his body remembered him with every movement that it is true.
Sam tried to cope with his current condition. Lois and Clark were in despair for not finding him earlier. Jordan was in despair for giving him the app in which he met that woman, who turned out to be an ally of Lex Luthor.
Sam was unconscious most of the time when he was captured. They told him later that he was five days in the hands of his kidnappers. Lois was able to localize him, and the DOD sent a team to get him out. His kidnappers escaped. Clark was still fighting the Doomsday-Monster on the moon when he was brought to hospital. And for a couple of days, he was now in this rehabilitation clinic for army-veterans outside of Metropolis.
The doctors said, he will never be able to walk again. He is unable to work from now. Now he is retired for good. Sam was unhappy and frustrated. Not able to accept it. Everyone reassured him that it was not his fault. Lois and Lucy were organizing everything for him. And yesterday in the morning, Clark showed up to bring him fresh clothes and they talked a bit. Clark told about that Jordan is still grounded and that Jonathan is at a fire-fighter-seminar in Wichita.
Clark said that they would come all together today again to visit him. But now Sam was sitting in his wheelchair, wrapped in thick blankets, on a picnic-table in the garden of the clinic and waited for his family. The weather was not the best and the day itself was weird.
Yesterday, when Clark was here with him, he suddenly had to get to a forest fire in Bosnia. Later that day he got a call from his old secretary at the DOD who told him that his office was searched, and that Superman stole the content of his safe. Sam had not heard anything from Clark since then. But he was terrified.
The documents in his safe could not only bust the Kent's family secret, but they could also tear the family apart and ruin everything. At the DOD, for the government… Sam had one destiny: Protect this country! But he knew that other countries and governments would be upset about his 'secret-project' and turn against the United States at any cost. Sanctions, embargos, cutting down of diplomatic relationships… maybe even war…
Sam was barely able to hold a phone. A nurse always had to help him to write messages. Over TV he figured out about 'a weird incident' near Smallville. A road was damaged, and witnesses claimed that they saw two figures fighting in the sky… that was before Clark was at the DOD.
Sam was upset. Upset and worried. He had this feeling that something terrible happened. He could feel it! There was a short message from Lois that arrived him at the evening…
"DOD handled, see you tomorrow. Everything calmed down!"
Nothing else since then. Sam only hoped that they don't read the documents. Clark knew that he had no right to and would never spread the content.
Sam looked over the clock and wondered where his family is. He expected them one hour ago. But he was still alone.
"General Lane how are you today?" a nurse asked when she passed his table with a bright smile.
Sam smiled back and used his left hand (the one he could move without feeling pain in his back) to wink.
"Thank you, good! Waiting for my family!" Sam responded back and looked around again. Near and far no trace of his family.
Sam looked on his phone and wondered if he missed a message, that they come later. Or maybe Clark is on a safe somewhere. It would explain the delay. While being focused on his phone, Sam could suddenly feel that someone was moving him with his wheelchair away from the picnic-table.
"SAM…" Clark said when he pushed Sam in his wheelchair away.
"Oh, Clark… hello! Ehm… Where are Lois and the boys?" Sam asked when he realized that Clark was alone.
"We go and meet Lois in the forest! There is something we need to talk to you without people listening!" Clark said. He was upset and Sam could hear anger in his voice. "Jordan is at home, doing chores and Jonathan is at the fortress!"
"Jonathan at the fortress? You mean Jordan, right?" Sam asked.
"No! Jonathan is at the fortress! My mother teaches him about my family history and about Kryptonian culture! Jordan and I are not allowed to go there for a while!" Clark moaned.
"What? Why?" Sam was confused.
"This is a long story, and I and Lois can't wait to tell you!" Clark said.
There was this venom in Clark's voice and that anger. Sam knew that Clark was always calm and friendly. The only other time he really got upset was when one of the boys was in danger. He also remembered Clark's voice being the same when he figured out about Jonathan's X-K abuse.
"Did something happen? Are you mad on me?" Sam asked confused.
"I don't know what I am now!" Clark responded and pushed Sam on his wheelchair over the walking path into the forest.
The rehabilitation-clinic was surrounded by wide green forests with a lot of hiking-paths, bike roads and wide areas where you can get lost easily. After entering the forest, Sam could feel them getting faster. Not super-fast but at least 'car-fast' when Clark brought them as far away as possible from any other people without breaking the wheelchair in the progress.
Sam got nervous. If he wouldn't know Clark, he would think he brings him to the forest to kill him. Otherwise made Clark a face as if he is ready to kill him. Sam had a terrible feeling…
The arrived at a nice, remote spot with a bench. Lois was sitting on the bench. Looking as if she hadn't slept last night. A signpost right next to the bench indicated that they were a half-mile away from the clinic now. Clark placed Sam in front of the bench, so he could face Lois and set the breaks of his wheelchair before he walked over to the bench and sat down next to Lois.
"Why we are here?" Sam asked.
"Because there is something we need to discuss with you without the half clinic listening!" Lois said. Her voice was trembling, and it was obvious that she tried to suppress her anger.
"We could had done that in my room?" Sam offered. Slowly he starts to become nervous, too.
"Not this, Sam!" Clark said.
"Are you two okays! You seem so upset!" Sam said. He slowly got scared. "Is there anything wrong with the boys? Is it Luthor?"
"No, it isn't Luthor!" Lois said. "It's us! Me, you, Clark, and the boys! There was an incident yesterday!"
"My secretary called me and told me that Hardcastle let my office search. But that you were able to safe my files!" Sam said. Suddenly he became pale…
"Yes! You know there was an incident on the farm before…" Clark told. His voice was trembling, too and he looked up as if he expected someone to float over them. "Jordan was alone! A man showed up! He had Kryptonite with him and a new form of Kryptonite! One that is able to destroy the Kryptonian cells' ability to absorb solar energy!"
"What?" Sam asked. "You… you mean… someone… tried to take Jordan's powers? How is he? Is he okay?"
"Jordan is okay! But he is temporarily powerless!" Clark continued.
"Powerless? How long?" Sam asked. "Is he okay?"
"A couple of weeks! But I think the boy needs this! After everything what happened recently it is better when he gets a sense of being normal again!" Lois said. "And don't attract attention!"
"Yes… yes that would be good!" Sam said and nodded. He could hear the venom in Lois' voice, too. "And… who is the attacker?"
"Jonathan!" Clark said.
"Jonathan?" Sam asked shocked.
"Yes, Jonathan! Not the current Jonathan, who was at the seminar in Wichita at the same time! But… Jonathan from the future!" Clark explained what confused Sam even more.
"Jonathan from the future?"
"Yes!" Lois and Clark confirmed in unison and nodded.
"You mean… really from the future?"
"Yes, dad!" Lois moaned.
"And what did he tell you?"
"Oh… he told us a lot!" Clark moaned.
"Did he tell you how to defeat Luthor?" Sam asked.
"No!" Lois said. "But I admit I really wanted him to ask that!"
"So, what? What happened?"
"Oh, nothing… we just…" Clark stopped talking shortly while he and Lois looked on each other sadly. "…we just got the confirmation that we are bad parents, that we made many things wrong, that… Jonathan is leaving us one day and never comes back…"
"What?"
"Don't pretend that you are surprised!" it blurted out of Lois.
"Excuse me?" Sam was surprised.
"Don't act dumb!" Lois shot back.
"What?"
"Aww… while we were at the fortress all together to listen how we ruined his life and how Jordan will destroy the world with his arrogant behavior, he obviously has because of us…" Clark moaned and Sam wanted to interfere to ask what it was meaning, but Clark waved him off and continued. "…and while we were talking, Jordan from the future came back in time, too! And before he came to the fortress and fought his brother, he tricked Sarah to call the DOD and tell them about the documents in your safe!"
"Oh… did you…" Sam wanted to ask now if they read them. According to way they look at him, they did…
"Before you ask… Nobody at the DOD saw anything from this folder!" Lois said and opened her purse to pull out the folder full of documents. "But the future Jordan wanted them to get published to become a hero! That's what you planned for him, right? Make him a hero and Jonathan a test-subject!"
"WHAT? I would never lock up Jonathan in a lab!" Sam said shocked.
Their voices got louder. No surprise that Clark brought them here. He became pale and the sweat start to run down his face. He was busted! But he would never dare to put Jonathan in a lab!
"Listen… I know that these files let it look as if I…"
"SO WHAT?" Lois yelled.
"SAM…" Clark interfered. But before he continued, he took a deep breath. "…listen, my past experience with Jonathan and everything I heard yesterday made me aware that I have to… and I mean really have to listen to the other side, too to not to get biased. So, Sam… what can you say in your defense?"
Sam lowered his head in shame.
"I really had good intentions!"
"What? To alienate Jonathan from us to send him away so you can have full control of Jordan?" Lois yelled.
"No!"
"So what?"
"I tried to protect Jonathan!" Sam told.
"From us?" Clark asked shocked.
"From everything!" Sam said with a lowered head.
"Why don't I believe you?" Lois asked upset.
"I know I made some mistakes! Not only with you and Lucy, but also with the boys!" Sam confessed. "Believe me… ever since Jordan's public exposure I am asking myself if I could have done anything different! If I should had waited with the suit? If I should had been stricter…"
"If you should had spent a bit more time with Jonathan, too! Even if he does not fit in your Super-Unit!" Clark moaned.
"The Super-Unit, you are talking about, will never be. I have decided to stop the project, long ago!"
"When? Five seconds ago?" Lois moaned.
"No… After… After Jordan revealed himself!" Sam confessed. "I stopped everything and made some arrangements… I swear I planned to destroy these documents! Why the future Jordan wanted them to get published? You could be busted?"
"We know…" Clark moaned before he and Lois looked at each other again questionably. "…They didn't tell us directly, but according to what they yelled on each other, we guess that our family-secret got exposed at some point in the future. And that thanks to your plan, Jordan gets hailed as a hero and Jonathan becomes the laughingstock of the world! So bad that he even fakes his dead and leaves to live in hiding! Until Jordan kills his fiancée and Jonathan plots his time-travelling thing."
"What?" Sam asked with big eyes.
"And Jonathan will never tell me when his powers kick in, because he thinks I would only love him if he has them?" Clark continued.
"Powers? The future Jonathan has powers?" Sam asked.
"Yes!" Clark moaned.
"Did he take X-K again?" Sam asked.
"NO! And before you even think about it, either he or anyone else is your soldier!" Lois moaned.
Sam was surprised by that statement. He always guessed that Jonathan will never have powers and could live a normal life. When the future Jonathan has powers, too one day, it would be better for him to stay.
"But…"
"BUT… Jonathan is now even madder on me! And I realized that I ruined everything with him by myself. Because I didn't introduce him to Jor-El! Because I let him feel left out! Because I gave him the feeling that he is worthless without powers!" Clark moaned with tears running down his face. "I and Jordan grew so close over the past years! But Jonathan and I will never have it! I had so much fun to train Jordan to fly, while Jonathan believes I hate him for his humanity! In a year he finishes school and leaves for college, and I will look back and think that I missed every opportunity to bond with him. Jordan thinks he is better than everyone else because we were too lax with him and Jonathan… aww…"
More tears ran down his face while Clark thought about everything. Jonathan was already looking for a college. He was saving money to be able to live on his own. He had to think about his mother's words the day before she died. About the boys leaving in a few years and that it was time to bond with them. The perfect illusion of a close relationship with the boys was gone. He and Jonathan were further apart than before the move to Smallville and Clark let all chances pass unused. He made promises he never kept!
"Don't give me the blame for you not wanting Jonathan in your fortress!" Sam said, which was another stitch in Clark's heart. "You didn't take him to your fortress! You allowed Jordan to play football with his powers! You showed Jonathan that he can never keep up with a Kryptonian…"
"AND YOU TOLD HIM TO BE AFRAID OF ME AND HIS BROTHER! YOU TOLD HIM TO NEVER COME TO ME WITH HIS PROBLEMS! YOU SHOWED HIM TOO THAT YOU PREFER HIS BROTHER!" Clark yelled. "We know everything… Jonathan confessed everything to us yesterday! The current and the older one! You told both boys to don't come to me with their problems, so I am not distracted from being Superman…"
"It was a crisis!" Sam defended himself.
"It was John-Henry! And after you figured out that Jordan has powers, you told Jonathan to be afraid of me and him! Shortly after he watched a video of my doppelganger from John-Henry's world killing Lois' doppelganger! Sam… my mother is so mad on me for not showing Jonathan the good aspects of being Kryptonian. He believes that all Kryptonians are selfish, arrogant, superior tyrants! I have never seen Lara so ashamed. I am ashamed. But… I admit you never saw anything else in Krypton, too!"
"Everything I see in Krypton is a planet full of tyrants seeking for world dominance, too!" Sam responded.
"See… I would love to yell on you that this is not true. But I had a whole night to brood about everything, and at all it was my fault. Because I didn't take the chance when I had the chance to." Clark said upset and cried again.
Lois took him by his hand to comfort him.
"We both have fault! I could had said something earlier…" Lois reassured him before turning to her father. "…like 'stay away from my kids!"
"I am sorry, okay! I never wanted to create a rift between you!"
"It is what you did, and it is what happened!" Clark moaned. "You planned to send him away after he got caught with the X-K. No! You already planned that before the X-K! Not to punish him, but to keep sure you can turn Jordan into your soldier without distraction!"
Clark opened the folder and presented Sam the evidence, Jonathan found yesterday. Sam became red.
"This was in case he gets in more trouble with the people in Smallville! To… protect him!"
"Protect him? Or alienate him from us even more?" Clark asked. "Aghh… I… wanted to get closer to my sons. Instead I drifted away from one even more!"
"Clark… I really had good intentions. Ever since that night and Jordan's bad behavior, I was thinking! I really meant what I said when I told you that it was too early to give Jordan the suit! And I was really looking forward to seeing Jonathan, too today!" Sam confessed.
For the first time in decades, Lois saw a tear in her father's face. She knew that her stern, gruff and always upset father was not able to cry on command. This was a real tear.
"The last time I saw Jonathan, shortly before I got kidnapped, he didn't really talk to me!"
"You barely talked to him for months either. I can't even remember you two really spending time for years!" Clark said.
"And that, is what I realized when Jonathan never visited! When he gave me that glare! When I thought back on everything… Look at me! I will spend the rest of my life in this wheelchair! I am not… General Lane anymore! Leader of the DOD! I am just me! And I had a lot of time to think about everything! About you, about Jonathan, about everything…" Sam told. It was obvious that he was in pain and needed a few seconds for the pain to vanish before he was able to continue. "…I admit it! I admit I neglected Jonathan! I didn't think like a grandfather, I thought like a soldier! I thought I could use Jordan's and Natalie's special talents for the national security, but I didn't see what I ruined. I ruined what I told you when I figured out you told the boys that you are Superman: I ruined their chance for a normal youth! A normal life! I thought I could preserve that at least for Jonathan, but I just made it worse!"
Lois and Clark had no clue how to react to this. They had never seen Sam in this condition. So sad and full of remorse.
"I can't turn back time! I can't make everything unhappened! Believe me, I have a lot of time to think about everything currently. And things are going to change without that I can influence them. And that not for good!"
"What is that meaning now?" Lois asked.
"I am not longer the head of the DOD! There is nothing I can do to support this family anymore. Hardcastle is now in charge of the DOD, and she is not a Superman-fan if you forgot that!"
"You can leave Hardcastle aside! I will handle everything!"
"Jonathan and Jordan are in trouble! Hardcastle doesn't know about them yet and it is important that it never happens. I can't tell you how sorry I am. It is Hardcastle who would lock them up in a lab without hesitation! I know I already said it… but I am really, really sorry for everything. I don't care if you believe me, but I will make amends for it, I promise! I don't know how long I have to stay in this clinic, but as soon as I am out, I will arrange something…"
"No!" it blurted out of Lois.
"No?"
"YES!"
"So, what?" Sam was confused.
"I mean… AWWW…" Lois lift from the bench to walk up and down and try to calm down. The tears flowing down her face. She turned around and pointed with her index finger on Sam. "…I ACTUALLY CAME HERE TO TELL YOU TO NEVER EVER TALK TO MY SONS OR NATALIE AGAIN! TO NEVER EVER SHOW UP AT THE FARM, OR IN SMALLVILLE AGAIN! I WANTED TO YELL ON YOU! But that would be hypocritical! Because it's my fault, too. Just like yours and yours!"
Lois turned away again to hide her tears after she yelled on Sam and on Clark, who lowered his head, too. It was true: he wanted to yell the crap out of Sam, too. But after a sleepless night full of brooding, he knew it would be more than hypocritical to give the full blame on Sam only. It was his and Lois' fault, too.
"Are…" Sam was really upset and fought his own tears. "…are they still here? The future Jonathan and Jordan! I… I want to apologize if you allow me that!"
"They are gone!" Clark said with trembling voice.
"Have they returned to the future?" Sam asked.
"I don't know!" Clark answered.
"What do you mean with that?"
"I mean, that I don't know it!" Clark responded. "After they fought and both got their powers taken away, Jonathan saw them fading away into nothing, while crumbling into dust!"
"They are dead?" Sam asked shocked.
"Their current versions are! But as they are fainted and the documents in our possession now and Jonathan didn't get his arm broken again yesterday…"
"What?"
"Don't cut me off!" Clark hissed. "We don't know what happened to them and there is a lot we have to handle now! And we do that without your help! We don't need your help!"
Sam had a shocking suspicion what was going to follow. He didn't dare to say anything anymore.
"I saw the scars on the older Jonathan's body, Sam! I saw the marks from the abuse and from the experiments…" Clark said, thinking about what he saw on the older Jonathan's body.
"I would never put the in a lab and I have done everything to prevent it in the past that anyone figures out about you! Half of the DOD administrators and the governments in the world would love to put you in a lab to study more about. But I would never allow Jonathan or Jordan to be put in there!"
"But it happened! Or would have happened! Or… I don't know! I want to forget that this day, but that would be a mistake. Because it would mean I don't learn from my mistakes."
"Where is Jonathan now?" Sam asked worried.
"At the fortress! My mother wants to keep sure to properly meet him!" Clark said. "I missed enough time and enough chances with him! I should look after him. To keep sure he has enough water and food! My mother doesn't let me in, but I can at least drop everything at the entrance…"
And with that Clark, who was still extremely upset departed into the air like a rocket and was out of sight within a second. He wanted to check at the fortress and bring Jonathan more water and more food
Sam lowered his head again and looked on Lois who opened the folder again to pull a certain note out. A piece of paper full of potential boarding-schools, military-academies and boot-camps for Jonathan.
"This is never going to happen! Especially now! Especially after we figured out!" Lois said.
Saying these words, she took out a package with matches out of her purse ignited one to light up the paper. Sam watched the paper, he wrote when he began to train Jordan, lightning up and burning to ash. Seeing these suggestions today, let his heart drop…
"Burn the rest, too! It is the best! I will handle the DOD and Hard…"
"NO!" Lois said, while throwing the burning piece of paper into the empty trash-bin next to the bench. "You did enough! Right now, I don't care for the DOD! Or anything Kryptonian, or Superman-related! What really matters, is that my family is going to fall apart. And that I have to stop it!"
Lois threw the rest of the documents into the burning trash-bin and together they watched the flames getting bigger and destroying everything. Lois kept sure that absolutely everything got destroyed. When the flames were almost gone. Lois took another match to take sure that even the last remains of the documents were destroyed.
"I think it is time to go back!" Lois said after a while and lift from the bench, walked to her father and opened the breaks to walk with him back to the clinic.
"Lois… I understand that you are mad! Mad, disappointed, and full of fury… I would think so, too…" Sam said, while Lois pushed her father silently in his wheelchair back towards the clinic. "…but I want to make amends for it! Believe it or not! But I will make better!"
Lois didn't say anything. Sam was worried.
"Lois… you should wait for Clark to push me! Push me over a cliff if you want! I accept every punishment! But please say something!" Sam begged.
They suddenly stopped! They just reached the edge of the forest and Sam could see the clinic in the distance. Sam could hear Lois taking a deep breath.
"I don't know what to say!" she said finally after a few seconds. "Not now! Not yesterday! I simply don't know! I want to scream, but I can't! I want to run, but my body denies! I want to spit on the world, but my mouth is kept shot. Because no matter how mad I am, I know it is hypocritical! Because I allowed it to happen! I focused on other things instead of my sons! I let it happen that my family falls apart. I should normally say to you now that this is the last time you ever see me and that you will never see the boys or Natalie again…"
Sam could feel a cold shiver run down his body and a painful stich in his heart when he realized the harsh reality of the consequences his acts did…
"But… I don't know what to do! For the first time in my life I have no plan! I haven't made a decision yet! First I need to see what my family learns from the events from yesterday!"
And with this words they arrived back in the garden of the clinic. Lois 'parked' Sam back at the picnic-table where Clark found Sam before and left before any other patient or someone from the staff asks her why she was crying.
"I'll call Lucy to arrange the rest!" he heard her mumbling.
Sam turned around and could see her walking away. She didn't even dare to turn around to look at him one last time. It hurt. It hurt Sam so terribly that he burst out in tears…
"Nurse… NURSE!" Sam cried.
"General? Are you okay?" a worried nurse asked when she approached him.
"I need something to write… urgently!" Sam commanded.
"Sir, are you okay?"
"NOW!" Sam yelled.
The nurse nodded and rushed away to come back a minute later with a pen and a writing-pad. She placed the pad on the table and handed the pen to Sam who start to make new notes… mainly a To-do-list and a list of people he needed to call. But also a plan to apologize to everyone!
Everything will be different from today! He is no longer head of the DOD! And especially now, his family needed him more than ever. No matter if they accept it or not: He is going to make amends for it! He has not much time left on this world, but he will use every available second to make sure, that all the bad things that might have happened to his family because of his mistakes, will never happen!
My personal expectation for season 4 are that we get another Jordan-focused season with him being the shining hero and Jonathan eighter pushed aside, or having more unimportant or only Jordan-supportive storylines that end him up getting abused more by Coach Gaines and the Smallville townsfolk or being forced to give up what he achieved again.
What I think would be very interesting (but is extremely unlikely) would be Lex Luthor figuring out about Superman's powerless son and learning about his struggles. Lex could try to manipulate Jonathan to turn him against his family. Or using this information in public to publicly denounce Lois and Clark as bad parents. A very interesting cliffhanger would be a public-reveal, or not? But I doubt the series will have that! They focus too much on Jordan. :(
What I really really miss and really really wish to happen in the series is Jonathan to scold his parents for always preferring his brother and neglecting him. The series is so unrealistic with the always happy and satisfied Jonathan.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this piece and see you in my next project! Comments and constructive critics are always appreciated!