Jordan noticed that this was a bad idea! Why didn't he wait for Timmy to be alone or for coming closer to the fence? Instead, he just not only catches his attention, but also those of the thirty other people who were with Timmy for this meeting or whatever they had here…
"What are you doing here?" Timmy asked perplexed. "How did you get here?"
"Timmy, can we talk?" Jordan asked, trying to ignore the piercing glares of everyone or the fact that he was supposed to be in his school now.
"Why? Do you want to bug me, too?" Timmy asked angrily and crossed his arms, showing Jordan openly how mad he was about this.
"No! I just want to talk! About Jon!" Jordan wailed.
"Didn't you and your parents heard everything yesterday evening over that bug your mother placed in Jon's pager?"
"I did, yes! I confess, it was shabby and ugly!"
"How would you feel if I place a bug in your place to listen to you and your father while you do your thing?!" Timmy ranted.
Jordan's heart drop. They would have found the bug, but just thinking that someone could secretly listen to them let him shiver. It made what he did with Jon yesterday even worse!
Jordan looked up to face Timmy and to see the others who were with him. Jordan recognized the most. The guy with the pink dyed hair was Jay Nakamura, whom he remembered was a fan of his mom! The man who looked like Colossus from the X-Men-movies was Coach Patterson. And the others were various friends Jon made over the years. Some guys from his former team, some he helped over the years, and even Eliza.
Eliza stood in the background and tried to not to look on him as if he was a freak. She was visibly ashamed for how she ended it with Jonathan, but mostly for her following relationship with Jimmy Cutter, which was a death blow for her own popularity and turned her into a pariah afterwards. It took very long for her to gain the trust of others again.
Most of those who were present came because Jonathan helped them in the past. Because they knew the true Jonathan! The Jonathan, Smallville didn't want! The Jonathan, who had great potential to be extraordinary, if he would only get the chance to openly show it. And not be hold back by the backwards people of Smallville…
"I would be mad, too! Believe me…" Jordan wailed. "…Timmy, could we talk somewhere… alone?" Jordan asked. All these eyes looking on him, scared him.
"Why? What you tell me, you can tell everyone else, too!" Timmy said, raising his arms to indicate everyone to come closer.
"Oh, please! I want to talk to you about Jon!"
"That you can tell us all!" Timmy said, raising his arms again to tell everyone to stand up and look on Jordan, too. "Unlike you, we really want to help him! And not just to help you and your dad to do your thing!"
"That's not what I want!" Jordan cried up. "Seriously… I want to help Jon! Just like you!"
"Jordan… I have no clue what sick THING is going on between you and your father, but let me tell you: Neither I, nor anyone else here, or anyone else who likes Jon, is not going to value it! Not if its only purpose is to hurt Jon!" Timmy ranted.
Jordan became pale after that sentence. Hearing these words from Timmy (a boy who was never mean to him before) was hurtful. Thinking about them, he wouldn't like it to see his brother flying with their father, too if he was the powerless one. Nor would he ever like it to see his brother wearing a suit and be a hero while he just cleans the barn. He would hate it! He would hate his brother's powers! He would hate Krypton! And he would hate Smallville! But most of all he would hate their father! Just like Jon does!
"I don't tell you that to hurt you, or to be mean! Because unlike you, I saw how much Jon is hurting. Once he was so full of self-confidence! But now he is a wreck? And that just because of your and your father's… thing?!"
Jordan paled again. Jonathan was always the self-confident one, who knew how to go on with his life. He wanted to use football to get a scholarship into a good university and have a great future ahead of him. But all this was over now and Jonathan was facing a uncertain future. A future Jonathan got told that it was only to be a worker on the farm. The farm and only the farm! All while Jordan could go to any place on earth now. Nobody could stop him. He could visit places, others would only dream of. And after his flying lesson yesterday, Jordan could only think about himself flying side-by-side with his father doing superhero-stuff. But if he was truly honest, he had no plan what to do else. What should he do aside from the superhero thing? If Lara really takes his powers, he will be not more than a farm-worker! He will be unimportant!
"I know! I heard what he said. And I understand…" Jordan cried up.
"No, you don't!"
"But…"
"Jordan… you might have spied on him… but I have seen him live! I have seen his face while he was telling me how he got left out! How you guys use your THING to let him feel inferior. Jonathan is the without doubt strongest guy I ever met! And he has always been there for you! So, I wonder why you so suddenly decided to let him down and don't even help him to meet his grandparents! Seeing him there in my kitchen having this breakdown and hurting himself was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen…"
Timmy's face paled when he thought about what he was going to say next…
"And you know what is even worse?"
"No, what?" Jordan was now really scared
"Jon is not the one who has to apologize, but he will be the first one!" Timmy explained. "He will apologize for making a scene and for the broken frying pan. Not because he has to but because it is his style. Because you and your family have obviously taught him to always put the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. Seriously, where he got that from?"
Jordan thought about it. It was true! And Jon definitely got that from their father! Jon was truly Superman's son!
Jordan shuddered at the thought. He was trembling. He didn't hear anything what happened after Jon pressed the button of the ELT to taunt him with its sound. But his mother told him what she heard and in his head this scenario played ever and ever again.
"Now that we talk about it: What is the reason?"
"For what?" Jordan asked scared.
"What is the reason Jon is not allowed to know his grandparents?"
Jordan became pale again. Everyone was looking on him. Some were shaking their heads in disappointment. Obviously, Timmy spread that, and most opinions were that it was awful. And to make it worse Lara's voice echoed through his ears again for her hourly demand to see Jonathan.
"Being Kryptonian is not about having powers! Bring Jonathan here!"
Jordan shuddered. Just like his father he was able to hear these demands. After Lara's rant and after she literally disowned him and his father for what they did, Jordan and Clark were so upset that they didn't even take her crystal out. Which meant that she was permanently active and that they will have to hear her demands endlessly, if they don't manage to get Jonathan to her. And Jordan was really scared to go there again without Jon.
"There was no reason!" Jordan said and a tear ran down his face. "I was only selfish! We… we all ignored that they are Jon's grandparents, too."
"How would you feel if you wouldn't be allowed to know them?" Timmy asked harshly.
"I… I would be ashamed! I would ask myself why? And… Jon… he said he wants to have nothing to do with them, but I think he only said this to not to feel the pain!" Jordan stuttered. He would say the same, just to don't admit that he was not wanted by them. "But that is not important now! I went to her yesterday! I told Lara everything! And she was so furious… I never saw her like this… And… she said that I am not allowed to come over again until she has not met Jon!"
The real Lara would have reacted the same way! But the real Lara would have been able to leave the fortress and figure out about Jonathan by herself. Jordan was so much in trouble.
"I… I understand you are mad on me! I would be mad, too…"
"JORDAN!"
Jordan shuddered again when he heard that voice behind him. He turned around and saw John-Henry Irons approaching him through the bushes with crossed arms and a stern look on his face.
"Do your parents know that you are here?"
"Oh… Mr. Irons?"
"Who is that?" Timmy asked now.
"That's… a friend of my parents!" Jordan said. "What eh… how do you…"
Jordan wanted to ask: 'How did you know that I am here?' But he couldn't ask this openly, since he would only make Timmy and the others more curious.
"Natalie called me and told me that you screwed off!" John-Henry said. The rest he would explain to Jordan later. He couldn't say openly in front of all those people that he used his 'Kryptonian-scanner' to localize him, then flew here with his suit, that he parked in safe distance to not to be seen by the other teens and walked to Jordan. "We go back! Now!"
"Just one second…" Jordan begged and turned back to Timmy. "… Timmy, I know you don't trust me! Not after everything you heard! But please, if you see Jon, please tell him that I am sorry and that I… I will give up the thing!"
Timmy looked on Jordan with big eyes.
"I realized that there are more important things! And Jon is more important to me than the thing! I just wanted to tell you that! That… and that it is great what you try to organize here! Jon would be happy to know that there are so many people behind him. Thank you, Timmy!"
With his head lowered, Jordan turned away and went to John-Henry. He felt the eyes of everyone looking on him mad and disappointed. But Jordan was also glad to know that so many people want to help his brother. If Smallville would just acknowledge how great Jon is, they would know how much they hurt his brother.
"Are you going to tell my parents?" Jordan asked when he walked together with John-Henry away.
"I should! But I understand that you are upset! Let's get you back to school before you get in trouble! And apologize to Natalie! She was worried!"
Jordan nodded and allowed John-Henry to fly him back after latter called his suit again. He still felt guilty when using his own ability to fly… but he was also too upset to fly by himself…
Timmy meanwhile went back to the group to continue with their meeting.
"Do you think he said the truth?" his friend Jay asked.
"I don't know!" Timmy said, looking on the fence again where Jordan stood before. "I know him for years… But I am not sure about his promise! You should have seen Jon yesterday. Jordan and their dad messed up too much!"
"And the thing? Do you think he will really give it up?"
"For that I don't know enough about it!" Timmy moaned and looked on Jay's computer-screen again. His screensaver was a picture of Superman flying over the skyline of Gamorra City, the capital of Gamorra, where Jay's parents come from. "Look at him! Jon deserves to be the son of this guy instead! Superman would never let down his kids! And the thing… I am going to figure that out on my own! No matter what it takes…"
In Smallville…
The rumors spreading in the Smallville-High-School were wild and partly disturbing.
Knowing that Natalie was a friend of the Kent-boys and used to live with them for a few weeks, everyone thought that she knew what was going on. If it was true, that Jonathan Kent ran away from home because he does not endure to be an abused slave on the farm anymore?
Natalie, who was aware and shocked about the barn-scene and its aftermath, denied it. But she also felt that urge to tell everyone how Jonathan felt left out just to slap Clark for his dumbness. After growing up on a planet that was destroyed by evil Kryptonians who all believed that they were superior only because of powers, she had reservations on Clark and his sons the moment she learned about them. She and Jon had a lot in common when she thought more about it. They both don't like Krypton because of the powers they have. She never dared to think that Jon hates Krypton even more than she does.
"Nat!"
Natalie turned around to see Sarah standing behind here.
"Oh, finally a nice face!" Natalie said relieved. "No, I don't know anything! I just know that Jon is in hospital!"
"But what about that other rumor?" Sarah asked. "About the… you know…"
"I only know that Jon felt offended by his father and Jordan." Natalie lied. She knew the full story but couldn't tell Sarah that Jordan and his father left Jon behind on the farm to do chores while they practice flying. "May we talk somewhere where not all eyes are fixed on us?"
Everyone was looking on them. Sarah understood this and walked with Natalie to the stairway. Natalie was just about to tell Sarah a censored human-version of the barn-scene when suddenly Candice approached them.
"Hey, what happened with Jon? Is it true?" Candice asked. Her face pale and full of horror.
"No, Jon was not beaten into hospital! His father offended him, he wanted to sleep at a friend's place in Metropolis, there he had an accident and now he is in hospital." Natalie explained.
"Why I have the feeling that this is a lie!" Candice asked upset.
"Says the right one?" Sarah moaned. "Jordan told me everything: You were the one who sold the X-K!"
Candice start to cry…
"I had no other choice! They forced me!"
"Who?" Sarah asked before she turned to Natalie again. "And do you know where Jordan is? He was so extremely upset!"
"Well…" Natalie smiled and thought about Jordan.
She was supposed to babysit him. But Jordan managed to screw off anyway and used his powers to go to Metropolis to try to do anything. Natalie called her father immediately. They might not have super hearing, but they had advanced technology that was able to detect Kryptonians, and in Jordan's case half-Kryptonians. Her father will force him if necessary.
Natalie was just about to open her mouth when there was suddenly an announcement…
"Attention, please! Candice Pergrande, please come to the principal's office immediately! Candice Pergrande, please!" a foreign male voice said over the loudspeakers.
"Who was that?" Sarah asked after hearing the voice. This was not a teacher's voice she knew.
Candice wondered what it was. She just shrugged and walked away. Having no clue, what to expect…
Natalie and Sarah meanwhile looked on each other again. Natalie still thought about her words.
"Is there anything going on with the Kent's that I don't know but that I should know?" Sarah asked.
"A lot!" Natalie murmured and thought about the Kent's family-secret that Jordan wanted to share with Sarah a few months ago before she suddenly saw through the window a black van arriving on the parking lot in front of the school. "Hey… who are those people?"
Sarah and Natalie could see four men in suits arriving… One of them was putting on a jacket with the letters 'FBI' while approaching the school… causing both girls to wonder what was going on…
Jonathan meanwhile woke up from his nightmares and realized that he was in a bed. He opened his eyes, but something covered them, so he closed them again. It felt like a cloth…
He felt dazed. He had headache. His body was so heavy and felt so weak. But he was laying soft on a mattress or something. Jonathan remembered slowly more and more what happened: He was with Timmy and told him everything! Well… not everything, but enough to feel better. The Tanners called their social-worker-neighbor. And then the ELT… yes, his parents used the ELT to spy on him… after that? He remembered a frying pan… his father… blood… Ambulance…
Is he in hospital now? A really silent hospital! He couldn't hear any other people.
"Hello?" Jon was able to speak out weakly.
No response! Was he alone? In a separate room maybe? Carefully he reached out his hand to look for a call button. Every hospital bed has a call button for a nurse in case of emergency. But he felt no. Instead, he could feel that the bed he was laying in was very narrow.
Jonathan opened his eyes again and once again saw that reddish cloth laying over his eyes. Blocking his sight. When he hit his head, he must have hurt himself?
"Hello? Is there anyone?" Jonathan said again. His mouth was so dry and his voice sound so weird. As if his body was different. "Nurse… Nurse!"
Once again, no response! Jon tried to lift his arms to pull away the cloth from his face when suddenly a new wave of dizziness overcame him…
Jonathan winched in pain when the headache got worse again. Jon closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep again… he was so tired…
In Smallville…
Clark felt more and more unpleasant with this woman from the CPS in his house. Especially when she found Jonathan's damaged trophies, and some really disturbing stuff…
"You were not aware of this?" she asked harshly when presenting Clark the death-treats Jon received over the past weeks.
Clark was absolutely shocked: "No! No, he never told anyone of us!"
"Well, according to this barn-scene, your son told his friend in Metropolis about, you wouldn't have listened to him anyway!"
Clark shuddered: it was true! Yesterday was just the perfect example of how he treats his son ever since he was young. That Jordan comes always first! And that because of powers! It began with Jordan's anxiety and became a super-power-thing.
"Oh… what do we have here?" the woman said after finding a little box with some old notepads, old pictures, children's drawings and a Superman-themed-coloring-book.
"That is stuff from my mother!" Clark realized. "Jonathan must have found it at some point and kept it."
Clark watched the woman browsing through the coloring-book and remembered how Jonathan used to be a fan of his alter-ego when he was little. Especially a certain moment…
"Aww…" Clark moaned.
"What?" the CPS-lady asked after hearing the moan.
"Gosh, I am so stupid!" Clark wailed when he remembered it…
Flying was Jonathan's favorite superpower! When the boys were little, they didn't stop talking about how awesome and how cool it is! And Clark could confirm that it was the only superpower, that does not hurt when it kicks in! And he rubbed him into his face that he will never be able to fly. With Jonathan's favorite power…
Clark turned away in shame to hide his tears while the woman received a call.
"Yes… aha… yes, I am in Smallville now! … At the local High-School? … Well… I could be there in a few minutes… okay… bye!" the woman said and hang off. Clark would have usually heard it, but he was too deeply sunken in thoughts about little Jonathan, sitting on their kitchen-table in Metropolis, smiling happily, telling the full of joy that he would ask Superman if he can teach him to fly if he ever gets to meet him in person. "Mr. Kent, you will hear from us soon. But I can tell you that it looks not good for you!"
"I am going to fight for him!" Clark wailed. "No matter what it takes! I love him! He is one of the most important people in my life!"
"You should have thought about this earlier!" the woman said.
She finally left. But Clark felt now even worse. Realizing that his family was indeed about to fall apart. He was so distracted, that he didn't hear the screams in the boys' school… but he was determined to fight for his family…
Lois meanwhile was back in her motel-room and made some calls…
She knew she couldn't go to the hospital by herself to check for her son. So, she hoped that some former colleagues at the Daily Planet could help her. But most immediately asked her for a picture that was posted last night on X… formerly Twitter…
It was a picture of her, taken by one of the Tanner's neighbors. #LoisLane, #arrest… Titled: 'Does Superman know that his no. one fan is in trouble again?'
It was so humiliating… With every passing second, it seemed that all just got worse. And to make things worse, she knew that Jonathan will apologize for this! And he was not the one who needed to apologize. It was her! Her and Clark and Jordan… actually everyone in the boy's life…
Suddenly someone knocked on the door…
"Lois?"
"Ehm… Chrissy?!" Lois was surprised.
Lois opened the door to see her friend and business-partner Chrissy Beppo standing outside. She was tired and worried, too.
"Lois, here you are! I already knocked on a dozen other doors." Chrissy said and came in.
"How… I mean… Where do you know from that I am here?" Lois asked perplexed.
"I did WWLLD, again! What-would-Lois-Lane-do? And I see it in the app that you used the Gazette's credit-card to pay two nights in this motel! And after all the crazy stuff that is going on lately and after seeing that picture of you getting arrested let me fear the worst. What is going on here, Lois?"
Lois looked on her friend and was worried. Unfortunately, the full truth was no option.
"Jonathan is in hospital!"
"I heard about this! But I am talking about those rumors!" Chrissy said. "One said Jonathan ran away because Clark beats him, another one says you use military technology to observe him, another one says you cheat on Clark… What is going on here, Lois? I thought we are partners?"
"We are!" Lois wailed.
"And why does it feel sometimes as if you don't tell me the truth! It was the same about your sister and the Inverse-society! And not to forget that lie about your husband being on assignment for your paper just to hide that he…"
"I KNOW!" Lois yelled now desperately, cutting of Chrissy. That was the moment Lois burst out in tears again. "I know!"
"Lois, is there anything going on? Anything that I should know?"
Lois looked on her partner again and thought about it. Jonathan felt a lot better after telling his friend yesterday everything. Even if it was a censored version. And Chrissy was not only her partner, but she was also a friend. A really good friend! After everything they went through it might be overdue to open to her, Lois thought.
"I am sorry, Lois! But I can't go on like this…" Chrissy moaned and turned around. She was ready to leave.
Suddenly Lois grabbed Chrissy by her arm to stop her.
"Chrissy, wait!"
Latter looked on Lois who start to cry even more.
"Yes, it's true: I lied! I lied to you about my sister, about Clark and about everything! I lie to everyone. You, my friends, my kids… we are more than partners Chrissy! You are my friend! And I think it is time to show you how much I trust and value you. My own son believes he is not worth to be valued and I already lost him probably because I am a fucking liar!"
Lois led Chrissy to the bed so they could both sit down on it. Then Lois lowered her head in shame…
"Chrissy… there is something about my family only a handful of other people know… about my husband… and my son… my both sons…"
Jonathan meanwhile woke up again…
He was still laying on this soft bed, his eyes covered with this reddish cloth…
His headache was a little bit better, but it was still overwhelming. More details came back into Jon's mind… he fell… after the frying pan hit his forehead… he smashed with his head against the counter…
"Aww… I have to replace the frying pan!" Jon wailed abashed.
Just like everyone predicted, Jonathan's first thought was that he should apologize to the Tanner's and pay for the frying pan he broke. But also for the shock he might have caused them. How much does a frying pan costs?
What the hell… Is he really thinking about the price for a frying pan? His parents have humiliated him! They bugged him! They invaded his privacy! What if they heard some other things, he was too embarrassed and too scared to speak out loudly to them? Hell, it was all a trick…
Jon tried to lift his arms again but his whole body ached. This was so humiliating: He is not going to forgive that to his parents that easy.
He will not go back to Smallville. He talks with that CPS friend of Mrs. Tanner again and tells her how his parents treat him. He shows them that he is not forgiving them. At least not for now. All he wanted was to be loved by his parents, but when they are not able to accept him on their own or realize how he is feeling, he does not give them a chance. When he sees them again, he remains strong! He will not cry, he will not show any weakness, he shows them that he does not want to be treated like trash.
And hell that outburst: How could he yell after his doppelganger? Everyone will think that he is crazy! He needs to be strong now! He has to show sanity and strength when he faces everyone!
He was always scared. He knew that he, as a powerless human, is not able to fight back to powered Kryptonians. His father, his brother, his mother and his grandfather had made that clear! Actually, everyone in his life has made it clear that he is inferior and useless. But there was Timmy, there were Timmy's parents, that social-worker and that police-detective he at least saw glimpses of. He was not alone! There were people who stepped in for him. People who were not X-K and Smallville-damaged. He had to build on them and not on his parents!
He has no future in Smallville! Smallville will sooner or later be his doom. He does not want to give them the victory of destroying him. As soon as his headache is gone, he will fight back! He knew that his outburst and his behavior at the Tanner's house will look like as if he lost his mind and went insane. He will show that he is mentally stable and fight. Fuck on his father's powers, fuck on his brother's powers, fuck on Krypton and fuck on Smallville! He wants his life back! A life that is worth living!
Jonathan was finally able to lift his hand and pull away the cloth from his face…
"Hello… doctor? Nurse?" Jon wailed and opened his eyes.
What Jonathan didn't expect, was to look directly on a ceiling with a bright red lamp shining down on him. He was in a room with glass-walls, flooded in red light…
"WHAT THE FUCK!" the teenager exclaimed and suddenly his headache and his weak feeling were forgotten…
Jon was not in a hospital… he realized that he was in a cell…
A cell that was obviously designed to contain a Kryptonian!
