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I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry it took so long!

Chapter fourteen

It was about a week later when Jordan really began doubting his choices.

At first it had just been a tiny nagging voice in the back of his head, something that he was easily able to ignore with just how busy his life was.

After a while though, things changed.

He couldn't ignore the screaming in his brain that he had done something wrong or the all-consuming guilt that made him feel sick to his stomach.

Jordan had just wanted to protect his brother. Was that really so wrong?

He slammed his history textbook shut, and stood up. Thoughts of Jon-El were ruining his life. He couldn't focus on school or anything else.

He needed to talk to someone, to explain what had happened. Maybe they would side with him and agree that the world was safest with Jon-El in prison.

Jordan paced around his room for a few minutes as he tried to figure out what to say, then walked towards his brother's room.

For a second, he hesitated at the door, his heartbeat getting faster with every second that he waited. Jon would listen to him, and he would give advice, but Jordan worried about what his answer could be.

Jon was the most sacrificial person Jordan knew, he had given up everything for the people he loved and made his one life hell in the process. He would understand, wouldn't he?

All Jordan had wanted to do was save Jon from any more harm. He didn't want to give Jon-El the chance to hurt him. Surely it wasn't that bad. Surely he was overreacting.

He reached over and knocked on the door before walking in.

Jon looked up at him and smiled. It wasn't the creepy smile that Jon-El always seemed to have on his face, but the smile that Jordan knew so well. The one that was safe and welcoming.

"What's up?" Jon asked as he set down his phone on his bed and leaned back.

Suddenly, Jordan wasn't so sure that this was a good idea. Admitting what he had done was going to be way harder than he thought it would be.

The words didn't want to come out, they got caught in his throat.

Jon frowned and stood up. "Jordan? Are you okay?"

Jordan shook his head as he walked over to his younger brother. "I think I made a huge mistake."

It wasn't the words that Jordan had expected to leave his mouth.

Jordan felt Jon's hands on his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked again. "What happened?"

Jordan took a deep breath, but it didn't stop the fresh wave of anxiety that hit him. It made his stomach churn and his heart beat faster.

"It's about Jon-El," Jordan began.

At the name, Jon winced. There had been something about the two of them that Jordan didn't quite understand. It was almost like they had related to each other, but that wasn't possible. The two of them were as different as night and day.

"What about him?" Jon asked as he led Jordan over to the bed and the two of them sat down.

Jordan looked up at him, and he hesitated for a second. Finally, he knew he just had to get it over with. "I sort of lied about what happened," he admitted.

Jon frowned, and his entire demeanor changed without much warning. "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice slow and hesitant itself.

Jordan ducked his head, he didn't want to see his brother's reaction to what he had to say.

"He hit me, but…" he stopped as another wave of guilt rushed over him. "I provoked him."

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Jon tensed up.

"You what?" Jon gasped.

Jordan looked up and immediately wished that he hadn't. Jon was pale now, his face horror-stricken.

"I didn't want him to hurt you!" he explained, desperate to give his full side of the story. A privilege that he knew Jon-El hadn't been given…

The look of horror on Jon's face only grew. "Me?" he said. "Jordan! Jon-El is stuck in that prison forever now!"

"I know." Jordan said. If he was being honest, he really didn't want to talk about that. It only made him feel worse. "I know..."

Jon stood up and started pacing around his room. He ran his fingers through his hair, and Jordan knew that he was thinking about the situation and what to do about it.

After a few minutes, Jon turned back to Jordan. "You have to tell Mom and Dad," he said.

Jordan opened his mouth to protest, but Jon shook his head.

"They're the only people who can fix this, Jordan," he said. "Trust me, I know how bad it's gonna suck to have to admit this to them, but you have to."

"I just wanted to keep you safe," Jordan said. "I saw what he did to you last time…"

It was true. Jordan had seen the pain that Jon had been in when Jon-El had tried to merge with him, and when he was just nearby. It had been miserable for Jon.

Jon bit at his thumbnail, then nodded. "I know," he said. "But…"

Jon didn't have to say it, Jordan knew what he was thinking. It had been wrong of him. He had completely ruined Jon-El's chance at a new life.

He should have been the one put in that cell…

Jordan sighed, though it didn't help the ever-growing anxiety and guilt. "I'll tell Mom and Dad when they get home."

For the past week, Lois tried her hardest to bury herself in her work. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but it was the only one she had.

Having another child taken from her was far too much to bear. Sure, she had only known Jon-El for a short amount of time, but it had been long enough. Her maternal heart had latched onto the poor lost boy and made him one of her own.

And now he was gone.

He wasn't dead, but she had no way to get to him. She wasn't allowed in the place he was kept, and she had to live out the rest of her days knowing that he was in a glass cage that he could never leave.

It hurt far more than she wanted to admit. She knew what his life had been like, she knew the details about the family he had come from. What the poor child had needed was love, but he hadn't been willing to receive it.

So she buried herself in her work, trying not to allow herself to think too long or hard about what would become of her son's doppelganger. She couldn't let herself think about it.

The less she thought about it, the better it would be for everyone.

At some point during her work, Clark had walked in and sat down in the chair by the bookcase. It was his normal spot in her office, and she enjoyed his company even if they didn't talk.

He made her feel less alone.

For the most part, they stayed silent, only talking if Lois needed his help spelling something.

The only sounds in the room were from her typing and his page turning. It was nice. It reminded her of the days before the twins were born, when the house was quiet.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Lois looked up and smiled as Jordan opened the door and poked his head in.

"Can I come in?" he asked softly. There was an anxious twang to his voice, which instantly set Lois onto high alert.

"Of course," she said as she closed her laptop and Clark put down his book.

"What's going on, kid?" Lois asked. She tried to keep her voice as calm and gentle as possible. She knew how she could feed into Jordan's own panic if she sounded even remotely worried. "Everything okay?"

Jordan shook his head. "I um… I did something really bad," he told them, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What happened?" Clark asked.

Jordan bowed his head. "I just wanted to protect Jon, to protect all of us…" he said.

Lois could feel her stomach starting to churn anxiously with nausea. "What is it?"

He swallowed, then looked up at both of them. "I did it," he confessed. "I set him up so that he would punch me. I provoked him and riled him up and said all kinds of horrible things so that he would hurt me."

No matter how hard she tried, Lois couldn't seem to get air into her lungs.

She looked over to Clark, and his expression seemed to match what she was feeling.

They had messed up.

They had messed up so badly.

"Tell us more," Clark said. His voice was incredibly firm and harsh, but in the moment, Lois understood why. Their son had done something awful.

Jordan hesitated. "I guess… I thought he was going to do something horrible and try to merge with Jon or end the world. I thought that he was still following Ally, and when you guys let him get away with running off, I figured that he had somehow conned the two of you into thinking that he was changed," he told them.

"Then what?" Lois asked. She had to know what happened. If Jon-El was innocent…

"I kinda set him up," he said. "I went out to the barn while Dad was gone and started provoking him."

"What did you say?" Clark asked. It was a great question, it would help them understand everything a little bit more.

Jordan winced. "Do I have to repeat it?"

"Yes, Jordan," Clark told him.

He bit his lip for a moment. "I taunted him, calling him a crybaby, a freak, a disappointment, a… a murderer."

Lois felt like she couldn't breathe. She had spent so much of Jordan's childhood telling him that he wasn't a crybaby or a freak or a disappointment, and now he was calling other people that?

What kind of person had she raised? How could she have let him think that this was an okay thing to do.

She opened her mouth to scold him, but Clark's words came first.

"What else?"

Jordan ducked his head and stayed quiet.

"What else, Jordan?" Clark asked.

"I… I said…" He began, then stopped. He took a deep breath. "I said it was no wonder that his father hated him."

Lois had to hold back a gasp. It was practically common knowledge that Jon-El hadn't had a good relationship with his father, but she would have never expected her own son to use that fact against him, or to blame him for it.

"And then he punched you," Clark said. "Right?"

Jordan nodded. "Yes, sir."

Lois looked at Clark, but he didn't look back at her. Instead, he was focused on Jordan.

Lois, on the other hand, was focused on Jon-El. While yes, he had punched Jordan, it was because he had been provoked. They hadn't listened to his side of the story before they had put him back in his cell, they hadn't asked him anything besides if Jordan was telling the truth.

They had messed up. How could they have done this? Hadn't they been trying to protect him? Weren't they trying to give him a second chance?

Lois felt sick just thinking about this.

"Go to your room, Jordan," Clark said. "Your mother and I need to talk about this."

"We'll be up to talk to you soon," Lois said.

Jordan nodded silently, then left the room.

As soon as he was gone, Lois turned to Clark. There were so many things that could be said, so many things that they needed to talk about.

But there was only one thing that came to Lois's mind.

She looked at Clark, their eyes locking as their minds still reeled from what had just happened.

"Go to him, Clark," she told him. "As fast as you can."

I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!