by: Empress Vader
feedback: [email protected]
homepage: http://dawnzone.crosswinds.net/fanzone/smallville.html
Summary: Clark Kent officially becomes a part of Smallville, but his parents are afraid that his special abilities will cause trouble.
Disclaimer: Kal-El/ Clark Kent/ Superman belongs to DC comics, it's not mine, Smallville belongs to the WB, it's not mine. Just something written for for fun.
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Metropolis:
Three year old Clark ran through the store, he couldn't ever remember being in a place like this. He loved the feeling of new clothes against his skin. It would change in coming years, he would come to pull away and be embarrassed when his mother dressed him in front of kiddie store mirrors. He would even find shopping boring. But right now every sight, smell, touch, was new. And toys, tons of toys. Toys all over the place. There were all kinds of sizes and shapes and types. Some made noises and played music and moved. But the oddest thing caught his attention. It was a toy that looked like a person and did nothing at all. It was a doll. It had long dark hair and pretty brown eyes.
"Marfa look," he yelled as he pointed at a doll. "What's that."
"That's a doll, little girls play with them," Martha said. "And don't call me Martha, call me mom."
"It'll come," Jonathan said with a comforting touch to her shoulder.
"Jon-fin I want," Clark said. His simple vocabulary was still somewhat simple, but easily expanding. They'd only had him two days and were constantly surprised how he soaked up information.
"But it's a girl's toy," his father said.
"Jonathan get him the toy," his mother said. "It's harmless."
Jonathan shrugged and added it to the cart.
They'd left Smallville a week ago. The town was still recovering from the Meteor shower. In the commotion of the after effects no one was really paying much attention to the Kents. They'd manage to keep Clark hidden from prying eyes for a few days and disappeared in the middle of the night with the boy asleep in the car. By the time Clark woke up they were far enough away from Smallville that Martha could walk around with him. In Metropolis, your business was your own. And the first thing they had to take care of was making Clark legally there child. A good chunk of their saving had went to some underground sources in the city so they could aquire records that supported their story about Clark's adoption.
Not knowing his own strength, Clark still made the occasional mistake of breaking things. It seemed like they were saying 'be careful' all the time. Another huge chunk of there savings went into buying supplies, a small toddler bed and some other children's furniture to be delivered to their Smallville home. They were weighed down with clothes, shoes, toys, etc. etc. to lug back on their own. Knowing this would probably be there only child, they went overboard, but they were aware of their indulgence.
Tomorrow they would be back in Smallville, officially a family. As they left the store with the new packages, this reality weighed heavy on Martha. Metropolis had been an escape, a safe haven. People saw her with a child and that was all she needed to be Clark's mother. Smallville knew she hadn't given birth to Clark, not that it made her love him any less.
"Won't people think it's weird he calls us by our names," Martha asked Jonathan softly.
"No," Jonathan said. "Lots of kids experiment with it. Some parents even prefer it."
"Well I want him to call me mom," Martha said. "Do you think anyone will find out these papers are fake. I mean if they.."
"Honey, no one has a reason to question it. We have a good reputation around there. People will trust these papers because they don't have a reason to do anything else."
"I'm just so scared of going back home and having him snatched away. Or finding out it's all a dream. I couldn't love him anymore, but I don't feel like he's ours yet."
"Marfa look," Clark said pointing to some balloons as they walked out the door.
"What a cute little boy," said the woman at the balloon stand. He smiled. "Is he yours?"
"Yes," Martha said.
"Should have known, those are Mommy's eyes aren't they?" She pinched his cheek and gave him a balloon.
"What do you say Clark?"
"Your Welcome," he said proudly.
"No, your suppose to say thank you."
"That's okay," the woman said. "I know what he meant. Bye pretty boy."
"Bye," Clark said.
The Kents packed the last of their packages and started toward home.
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Smallville:
As the Kents pulled in front of the local store, several people paused as the little boy emerged from their car. They had been home since last night. Clark had slept on a cot, his bed would arrive that evening. He was dressed in a red shirt and little blue overalls. Curious people came up and looked at him.
"Well well who's this?" said one man.
"The newest Kent, my son Clark," Jonathan said proudly.
"You finally got adopted a kid huh? And a fine boy he is."
The man ruffled his hair and walked away. They turned to go in the store and ran right into Nell coming out.
"Martha!" Nell said shocked. "You're back?"
"Yeah," Martha replied.
"Marfa?" Clark questioned. "Who dis?"
Nell suddenly saw the little boy holding Jonathan's hand.
"Hello, who are you"
"Me Clark," he said. "Me boy."
"We just adopted him," Martha said.
"Then I guess we're both new parents, I've been officially declared Lana's legal guardian."
"That's good," Martha said.
"You'll probably handle this mother thing better than me, I mean you were born for it and you wanted it so long. Me and Lana, Lana and I, we're a mess. She's grieving in her own little way, not really understanding what happened. And I'm--well I'm no better. It's amazing how different the daily grind of raising a child can be from short days of baby-sitting."
"You'll figure it out," Martha said. "We both will. The way all parents do."
Considering Nell was her husband's ex, it was weird how she felt connected to her at this moment. Both of them nervous, new parents of toddlers. Martha gave Nell a comforting hug and then Nell walked away. Martha breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's ours now, a part of the town" Jonathan whispered into her ear.
And then he kissed her gently on the head. But it still didn't seem real
to her, it didn't seem real to have this little child as she did her grocery
shopping. She was still afraid something would happen, someone would find
out, and he would be gone.
Jonathan was right, Smallville was a place where everyone knew everyone and word of the new Kent spread through word of mouth. No one thought anything of it, no one grilled them about there story, they just accepted Clark as the son of the Kents. No one seemed to even care or make a big deal about the fact he was adopted. Clark was just Martha and Jonathan's son. His parents were still afraid to be too far from him, afraid he would show his super strength or some other odd ability the hadn't seen yet in front of someone. The first couple weeks there was always some excuse when people called about play dates and Clark coming to birthday parties. People made up there own excuses as to why Martha seemed to be so protective and possessive of the child. However, Martha could tell Clark was getting frustrated and lonely. As much as he loved being around them, he needed people his own age. She didn't know what to do about that, she didn't know if it was even safe for him to be with other kids.
He was very gentle when he needed to be, despite his super strength.
They saw that as they taught him how to handle and care for different animals.
Most of the time he didn't feel or look or act any different than most
toddlers. But there were those moments where he lifted something he shouldn't
be able to or played to hard and left a dent or crack in something. And
those were the moments she was afraid would happen the second he wasn't
in there sight. But he would have to go to school one day, deal with the
outside world. She knew that.
One day Nell called asking for help preparing a meal for Lana's Grandparents, who wanted to come up and check on Lana. Jonathan was busy, so Clark came with Martha over to Nell's house. He was holding his doll and a GI Joe he'd gotten while in Metropolis. Jonathan wasn't to happy about Clark walking around with a Doll, but at Martha's insistence he let it be. When they got to Nell's door, she was waiting for them.
"Hello Clark," Nell said.
"Hi," Clark said.
"Have you met my niece Lana?"
Clark shook his head no.
"Come with me," she said taking his hand. She walked him into the living room with Martha close behind.
Clark saw her for the first time sitting in the living room floor coloring with her whole fist around a crayon. He couldn't say much at first. She reminded him of something he couldn't place. Lana looked up at him. He looked at her dark hair and brown eyes, took the sight in, analyzed it. She seemed really sad. She looked back down at her coloring paper obviously disinterested in the visitors. Suddenly Clark placed her face.
"Marfa, she a doll," Clark said softly. Nell laughed.
"I think somebody has a crush."
"Please, they're just babies."
"A doll," Clark said showing Martha his doll.
Martha realized to him she looked a lot like his doll. "She's a doll," Martha laughed realizing this.
"Lana," Nell said. "Say hi to Clark."
"Hi," she mumbled.
"Clark, why don't you stay here and play with her."
He nodded. Nell headed toward the kitchen. Martha reluctantly followed, glancing back every few seconds at Clark finally disappearing around a corner. Clark came and sat in front of Lana. She didn't pay him any attention, so he picked up the crayon on the floor.
"What's that?" he said holding it.
"It's a horsey," Lana said thinking he was talking about her picture.
"Marfa got me horsey," Clark said.
Lana looked at him. "You're lying. Ms. Kent didn't get you a horse."
"Lots of Horse. A horsey like this," he said showing her the crayon.
Lana laughed. Because Lana was laughing, he laughed.
"You're silly," the girl said. "That's a crayon that's not a horse."
In the kitchen, Nell heard the laughing.
"She's laughing," Nell said. "I haven't heard her laugh since...bless that kid of yours."
Martha smiled.
In the living room, Lana was suddenly interested in Clark. Now that the name of the crayon was cleared up Lana looked at the toys Clark had brought. She picked up the doll.
"What are you doing with a doll? It's a girl's toy and you're a boy," Lana said.
"Marfa bought it for me."
"Isn't Marfa your mommy?"
He thought about it a minute and shook his head yes.
"Then why don't you call her Mommy?"
"She call me Clark, I call her Marfa."
"Yeah mommies 'pose to use kids names, but kids call there mommy mommy and there daddy daddy. You're 'pose to."
"She your mommy?" Clark asked pointing to a picture of Nell.
"No," Lana said. She went and got a small photo album from the shelf and turned to a wedding picture. "That's my mommy and daddy."
"Where Mommy and Daddy?"
"Mine? In heaven," she said pointing up.
"They come back?"
"No," Lana said sadly. She put the book away and picked up the doll he'd bought. "It's a pretty doll."
"It's like you," Clark said.
Lana smiled. "I have dolls, lots of them. But my favorite fell behind the TV. Dad gave it to me. Aunt Nell can't move the TV, dad put the TV there. It's really heavy, but he was really strong so he could've moved it.."
"I move it," Clark said running to the TV.
"You can't, you're too little," Lana said.
But before she knew what was going on Clark had pushed the huge floor model TV over enough that Lana could grab her doll. The doll's face was black from dirt and dust, but Lana couldn't have been more thrilled as she took the doll in her arms.
"Thank you Clark, thank you."
She ran into the kitchen. "Aunt Nell, Clark moved the TV, I got my doll back."
"What?" Nell said. "He couldn't have..."
Both parents ran into the living room and saw the TV pulled out.
"I helped her," Clark said to his mother.
"I knew he couldn't have done it by himself. They probably both pushed it."
"But Aunt Nell he--"
"What you two did was very dangerous," Nell chastised. "What if the TV had fallen on one of you? Never do something dangerous for a toy."
"But Aunt--," Lana whined.
"Give her a break," Martha said knowing Clark probably had moved the TV on his own. "I better take Clark home.
"I don't know how kids do things like this, I can barely move that TV. But get a determined child involved and ---."
"Say bye Clark," Martha said.
"We're leaving?" Clark asked sadly.
"Yes"
"I see Lana again?"
"I don't see why not," Martha said, but she was really thinking Clark would never be over here again.
He picked up his toys and took his mothers hand. As they headed for the door he looked down at his dolls face. He thought it looked better than the one she pulled from behind the TV. And suddenly he wanted Lana to have it.
"I want to give it to Lana Mommy," Clark said.
"What did you call me?" Martha couldn't help smiling.
Clark thought maybe he had said something wrong, but Lana had said that's what he was suppose to call her.
"You finally called me mommy," she said hugging Clark close. "Thank you."
He smiled realizing Lana had been right. "Can I give it to her mommy?"
"Yeah," Martha said letting him walk back toward Lana.
"You can keep this," Clark said handing it to Lana. "It's a girl toy."
"Thank you Clark. I hope you can come play again."
"I want to play."
Lana hugged Clark and then he left. Maybe Clark could play with her
again Martha reasoned.
At home, Jonathan heard about what happened at Nell's and realized he had to talk to his son. He put the boy on his shoulders, surprised that a child so unnaturally strong could be as light as any other toddler. He took him on a long walk and then sat him down beside him in a deserted field.
"Clark, I know you want to play with other kids," Jonathan said. "But you have to be very careful not to show them that you're a little stronger than them."
The boy stared at him blankly.
"Your a very special boy Clark and it's a great thing. It's a gift to be so little and be as strong as you are, but your just a little boy and all little boys aren't suppose to be that strong. When you're playing, you have to be very careful. Because other children aren't as strong as you, like Lana. They might get hurt by accident if you're too rough or if they try to do the things you do."
"Why daddy?"
"Daddy?" he repeated beaming as much as Martha. "You know how long I wanted a little boy who would call me that?" He said these things to himself, but Clark could tell from both there reactions that they wanted to be called Mommy and Daddy instead of Martha and Jonathan. So from then on he used the titles instead of there names.
"I don't know why you're different," his father said. "I just know if you want to stay with me and mommy and you want to play with other little kids, you have to hide some of the things you can do."
"Okay Daddy," Clark said. "Dinner time?"
"Yeah, dinner time," Jonathan smiled back. He didn't really know if Clark understood at all.
As he walked back to the house with Clark he knew this wouldn't be the
last conversation. There would be many more about acting like other kids,
being cautious about not hurting others. He had to have these things drummed
into his head for his own safety. And in those first days he mostly just
smiled as his father talked to him and nodded, but there would come a day
when "because Daddy said so" wouldn't be enough.