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The Return of Jor-El

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  • The Return of Jor-El

    This will be a two chapter fic. I'll try my best to post the rest before I sleep tonight.



    The Return of Jor-El


    Chapter 1



    Lana’s wedding to Lex was long past. For that matter, so was their honeymoon, both literally and in a figurative sense. When Lex had wanted to consummate their wedding, Lana had turned him away. When one rejection became many, Lana found herself forced to admit to Lex that she had only married him because of a death threat from Lionel. She never told him the threat had been directed at Clark and hoped that omission would be enough to satisfy Lionel’s conditions.

    Soon after Lana’s revelation, she discovered the truth about her ‘baby.’ That little piece of information had ended any slight chance of a happy marriage between them. Lex’s rage at Lana’s discovering the truth had been a thing to behold, but he had managed to avoid striking Lana. The same could not be said for many of the valuables in his office, a room which looked like a war zone once he was done. From that day on, they slept in separate beds, with Lex only pursuing a sexual relationship on nights when he’d had too much to drink.

    Lana had found plenty to occupy herself since then. She had thrown herself and a small portion of Lex’s vast resources into a wide array of charity work in both Smallville and Metropolis. When there was a crisis like a flood, an ice storm, or tornadoes, Lana made sure help was there immediately, and she was active on the charity fund-raising circuit.

    At first, Lex looked upon Lana’s endeavors as huge wastes of money and time. But when he began to feel a small portion of the goodwill Lana was generating for the Luthor name, he suddenly realized what a boon she would be for both himself and for LuthorCorp.

    She may single-handedly rehabilitate my image. At least I’ll get something positive out of this marriage, Lex groused. Well, that and taking her away from Clark.

    Since the wedding, Clark had withdrawn. Always a reserved man, one who was hard to get to know, Clark had now become a virtual hermit. He stayed on the farm, only leaving on farm-related matters.

    The only people he talked to on anything like a regular basis were his mother, Lois, and, most of all, Chloe. To her he had spilled out all of the details of the wedding day, from his last minute appearance in the Luthor mansion to confess everything, to Lana cutting him off and saying she wasn’t going to marry Lex, and then promising to meet Clark at the barn. He then went on to explain his agony as he waited well past the appointed time in the loft and finished by telling what had happened at, and most especially after the wedding.

    “I know she still loves me, Chloe,” Clark had said, his frustration evident in each word, “but somehow Lex got to her, and forced her to marry him.”

    Chloe now knew that the shoe was on the other foot in the Clark and Lana relationship. She felt like asking Clark if he liked how it felt being the rejectee instead of the rejector, but she wisely kept that comment to herself. Clark was right, Chloe thought, when he said that if Lana married Lex, there’d be no going back. Unlike when Clark dumped Lana, this is permanent. Lana can’t just walk up and apologize to fix things.

    For months after that, Clark didn’t allow anyone to bring up the subject of Lana Luthor. On days when Lionel came to call on his mother, Clark made himself scarce, not trusting himself with what he might say to any Luthor now. Most significantly, Clark stopped using his abilities for anything other than running the farm and helping Martha and Chloe. With the money he saved by not hiring any outside help, Clark was making big strides in bringing the farm out of debt. As far as helping others went, Clark decided that the only people who deserved his help were the ones who were closest to him, those who had always helped him.

    He had tried using his abilities to help others, had done it for years in fact, but the one thing he had wanted for himself had been yanked away from him by an uncaring and selfish world. If only people would be satisfied with my results instead of having to know about, and be in control of, the process, Clark thought bitterly, I would’ve been able to tell Lana about me years ago. If they want to be that way, see how well they do without me being here to save them.

    Chloe didn’t see too much of Lana, because she was less than comfortable walking into the Lion’s den, especially after she had been kidnapped by Lex’s thugs. The first time they did meet after the wedding, the first words out of Chloe’s mouth had been, ‘Lana, I’ll talk about anything you want, except Clark Kent. Where he is, what he’s doing, how he’s coping, anything related to him, is off-limits. He begged me for this and I intend to keep this secret for him as readily as I kept your secrets.’

    The itch to help out in some small way started to overcome Clark, but he soothed it by finding a way that didn’t involve his abilities, at least not much. He went through the rigorous, for humans anyway, training to become a volunteer fire fighter. Soon, whenever there was a fire call, Clark was there. After a while, with the department, it began to seem as if he specialized in pulling people from burning cars and houses. Other firefighters said he seemed to have a nose for where people were trapped and how to get to them safely.

    Lana didn’t know about Firefighter Kent until one night when a local apartment building went up in flames. The entire top half of the six story building was engulfed in flames by the time Lana’s organization got there to begin the process of finding places for the displaced tenants to stay. Most of the tenants had made it out safely due to the building’s first-rate smoke alarm system, but Lana heard one woman who was crazed with fear, screaming at the top of her lungs for ‘her babies’ as she fought like a tiger to reenter the building.

    Lana looked up just in time to see a firefighter come running out of the building, holding a heavily soot-stained child under each arm. Paramedics immediately relieved him of his burdens and hooked the kids up to oxygen tanks as they were checked over before being sent to the hospital.

    Unbeknownst to Lana, that was the firefighter’s third rescue of the night. She watched him intently, wondering what kind of man it took to hurl himself into a place that every instinct said to run away from. The firefighter pulled off his helmet and then his mask, leaving a raccoon-like clean space around his eyes, nose, and mouth. The rest of his face, along with his firefighter’s equipment, was covered in soot like a chimney sweep. When he turned her way, Lana got her first good look at his face.

    It was Clark.

    He hadn’t seen her yet and the paramedics were giving him a quick checkup before allowing him to rejoin his comrades in fighting the blaze itself, but as usual, they found him to have suffered no ill effects whatsoever.

    Clark checked his equipment before grabbing his mask and helmet. He was smiling and sharing a joke with a paramedic before sliding on the mask when he finally saw Lana and her intent stare. His animated face turned to stone in the instant it took to pull the mask into place, and his eyes were colder than a glacier-fed mountain stream as he pulled on the wide-brimmed helmet and headed back to the blaze.

    Lana was confused and hurt. She thought she knew most of what Clark could do, and she wondered why, if he was helping fight a fire, that he’d need firefighting equipment at all. And the way he had looked at her had been crushing. She’d never been able to visit Clark after the wedding because she didn’t think she could keep the truth from him any longer if she did. She wasn’t sure how Lionel meant to carry out his threat, but she wasn’t going to take that chance. Telling Lex that there had been a threat of some sort was as big of a chance as she had felt she could take.

    Lana had a long night ahead of her helping people get settled in new accommodations, which quickly pushed thoughts of Clark from her mind. The next morning, however, she was in her office bright and early and on the phone to Chloe.

    “Hi, Chloe,” Lana said brightly, as she worked to keep any hard edges from popping up. “How about meeting me for lunch?”

    “Where at?”

    “How about The Silk Road? I haven’t had any good Chinese in months.”

    “Okay,” Chloe said, “I’m up for some dim sum. Noon okay for you?”

    “Yeah. I’ll see you there.”

    Lana spent the morning sifting through the paperwork tied to the previous night’s fire and associated relocations. I have to get an assistant for drudge work like this, Lana thought. Still, it does help to pass the time. Lunch time was nearly upon Lana as she finished the last of the paperwork. Checking her watch, she decided to leave early and go on over to The Silk Road. This way, she could get a table and a cup of green tea while she waited. She drove her BMW M5 into town at breakneck speed, forcing her security detail to follow suit.

    She was sipping tea from a delicate porcelain cup when Chloe walked in. She spotted Lana almost immediately, and made her way over to the table. Once Chloe was seated, the waiter gave her ample opportunity to scan the menu before coming over to take their orders.

    True to her word, Chloe ordered an appetizer of dim sum which was large enough for the both of them. They had polished off the appetizer and were each halfway through the main course before Lana turned their conversation to what she really wanted to know.

    “I was at the Fox Run Apartments fire last night,” Lana said, “and you wouldn’t believe what I saw.” Chloe hadn’t seen Clark this morning, so she wasn’t too sure what was coming. “I saw a fireman carry two kids out of the burning building. I marveled at the dedication and bravery it must have taken to plunge in where mortal men fear to tread…and then I saw it was Clark.”

    Chloe just sat there and cringed as she tried to imagine the questions Lana wanted to ask that Clark wouldn’t let her answer.

    “You know Clark is off limits, Lana.” Lana scowled at that and Chloe scowled back. “You know better than to bring him up in conversation.”

    “But I just want to know what’s happened to him.”

    Chloe bit her tongue to keep herself from lacing into Lana. “If you want to learn about Clark, talk to him.”

    “I can’t go over there,” Lana said. “It’ll look suspicious to Lex.”

    Exasperated, Chloe said, “Then meet him some place public. I don’t care how you do it, just leave me out of it. Playing traffic cop between you two is a hazard to my mental health.”

    Tentatively, Lana asked one final question. “Does…does Clark ever ask you about me?”

    Chloe relented just a bit, shook her head sadly, and said, “No. Not ever. He acts as if you’d never existed.”

    Lionel, meanwhile, had been watching Clark’s non-progression with increasing agitation. Instead of pushing to eliminate the rest of the phantom zone escapees and then go to the Fortress of Solitude for training, he seemed to be preparing to spend the rest of his life in Smallville. Despite Lionel's best efforts to remove what he had judged to be the last remaining impediment to Clark fulfilling his destiny, the boy stubbornly clung to his human home and now seemed less inclined than ever to do what was needed.

    Maybe it’s time I reveal myself, Lionel thought. I’ve done everything short of kill his adoptive mother, and this body rebels at that idea.

  • #2
    Great!!! Awesome!!! I sent you something about Lionel's motives didn't I? Maybe Not It's still very close to what I was Thinking!!! You must have read my mind if not the message!!! I really like it!!! PPMS!!! How many !'s is that? like 50?!

    Comment


    • #3
      oh man... you took that part of Lionel blackmail and turn it into J-E's work...


      good one Card...

      I hope you can post the next part in the next hour...

      this is interesting... PPMS!!

      Comment


      • #4
        Brrrr...those thoughts from "Lionel" gave me such cold chills. I sure hope that you have something clever in mind for redeeming You-Know-Who--I HATE how the show writers have left him as a passive-aggressive SOB who doesn't truly give a damn about anything except forcing Clark into something he's never even given a straight answer about. Brrrr...again.

        Comment


        • #5
          Wow, what a beginning! I do not feel bad for Lana, in fact I pity her. She did everything that is happening now to herself. Go Clark, save people! I hate Lionel on SV now- hate him- his thoughts here were disturbing! *shivers in fear*

          PPMS!

          Comment


          • #6
            oh I know what's going on.....Sad so far can't wait for the next chapter!

            PPMS!

            Card Card are you posting the rest soon? how soon before you go to bed??

            Comment


            • #7
              I read the first chapter last night, It was great!! Where's the rest?

              Comment


              • #8
                The Return of Jor-El


                Chapter 2



                It was early afternoon, and Clark was stretched out on top of a giant hay bale a long way from the farm house and thus wasn’t expecting any visitors when he heard Lionel’s voice call out to him. Clark had just gotten a voice mail message from Lana begging him to meet her at the fountain in the middle of Ezra Small Park, and was debating whether or not to go.

                “Clark!” Lionel called out, this time much closer.

                Clark raised himself up on his elbows and said, “What? Can’t a guy take a break?”

                “If you would be so kind, son, as to come down here so we don’t have to shout, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

                “I told you once, Lionel,” Clark said with some heat, “you don’t get to call me ‘son.’ My only father died on this farm.”

                “Jonathan Kent did die here,” Lionel acknowledged, "but now I am the only father you have left. It’s time for you to acknowledge your destiny and to fulfill it.”

                Clark leaned forward and peered at Lionel as hard as he could. That doesn’t sound like Lionel, Clark thought. That sounds like Jor-El talking.

                Clark’s impression was confirmed when Jor-El read the changes in Clark’s expression and body language and said, “Yes, Kal-El, it is me, your father, Jor-El.”

                “After Raya and I restored the Fortress, I wondered when you’d come back.” Clark stood up and then hopped off the bale, landing lightly on his feet. “If you’ve been watching as long as I suddenly suspect you have been, then you know I’m done with my ‘destiny.’ Any leftover zoners I’ll deal with if they come to me, but I’m done hunting them down…and you can just plain old forget me coming to the Fortress for any additional training. Any planet that has nothing for me, doesn’t need me to defend it.”

                “So, even with Lana Lang out of the way, you still refuse to do your duty?”

                “What duty? A duty imposed on me by someone else? No thanks. I’d rather enjoy what little I have left to me on this planet, than give it all up just so you can justify yourself and your irritating attempts at controlling my life.” Clark then picked up on the other part of Jor-El’s sentence. “And what, exactly, did you have to do with Lana being ‘out of the way?’ I always thought it was Lex…but so help me, if you had anything to do with Lana marrying him, I’ll rain some serious destruction on the Fortress of Solitude.”

                Jor-El stared soberly at his son who was so confident in his abilities, but untutored in their use. He knew Kal-El wasn’t ready to handle the threats this planet would face, but in this relatively fragile body, Jor-El knew he would be unable to force Kal-El to do anything before the body broke down from the stress.

                Faced with these circumstances, Jor-El tried a different tack…frank, unrelenting honesty. He didn’t know how dangerous that idea was in Kal-El’s current state.

                “I didn’t have anything to do with the marriage of those two, I had everything to do with it.”

                Clark couldn't believe the cojones that Jor-El was displaying. Clark picked Lionel’s body up by his suit coat lapels, hoisted him into the air, and said, “Explain.”

                “In an attempt at freeing you from Lana Lang’s distracting influence, I used this body to make that young woman fear for your life.”

                “Huh?”

                “I made sure she believed that I, or Lionel Luthor anyway, would kill you if she didn’t marry Lex Luthor or if she told anyone about my threat.”

                Clark had only thought himself to be stunned before. Now, his hands literally shook with rage as he tried to keep them from closing on Lionel’s throat.

                “Why?!” Clark cried out. “Lana’s all I’ve ever wanted from this life and you took her from me.”

                This is getting tedious, Jor-El thought. “As I explained before, I had come to the conclusion that your feelings for this woman were keeping you from your duty. I arranged it so she would be forced to marry Lex Luthor instead of you.”

                “I promised to destroy the Fortress if you were in any way responsible for this…I guess it’s time to keep that promise.”

                Knowing that Kal-El could never complete his duties if the Fortress were gone, Jor-El felt forced to compromise. “So…must you have this woman before you’ll attend to your duties?”

                “Why should I care what happens to this planet if I don’t have anything to fight for, anything that belongs to me to defend? I’m not an automaton here for the sole purpose of defending the Earth. I’m here to have a life of my own, a life that should include Lana.”

                “Very well, Kal-El. Upon receiving your promise to return to dealing with the Phantom Zone escapees, and then to return to the Fortress to complete your training, I will release Miss Lang from her prison of fear.”

                Clark slowly lowered Jor-El to the ground.

                “I promise.”

                “You’ve made me a promise before that you failed to keep, Kal-El,” Jor-El said. “Fail me again, and those around you will regret it.”

                Lana currently sat on a bench that faced the fountain in Ezra Small Park, waiting, hoping, for Clark to show up. She knew he only had a passing acquaintance with being on time, so she was prepared to wait for a very long time. While she waited, she received a phone call from Lionel of all people. Suddenly, she wondered if he considered even talking to Clark to be a violation. Lana took the call with great distaste, but she was afraid to learn what he might do if she made him angry.

                “Hello, Lionel,” Lana said in a sweet and syrupy voice.

                “Hello, Lana. I will make this short, and for you, very sweet.” That preamble had Lana’s interest piqued. “I will no longer threaten Clark Kent’s life, no matter what you choose to say or do.” Lana was so surprised that her phone dropped from suddenly boneless fingers. When she picked the phone back up, Lionel added, “And as for my son, I expect you know enough of his recent activities by now to keep him at bay during, and after, any divorce proceedings.” Lana was still flabbergasted. “Oh, one last thing, Clark asked me to tell you that he will be with you momentarily.”

                Lana hadn’t been able to get a single word in, but now that she was off of the phone, she leapt to her feet and raced around the burbling fountain, screaming her head off. The other people sitting around the fountain were curious, and wondered what had caused the formerly anxious young woman to become so excited.

                True to Lionel’s word, Clark came to a stop in a nearby thicket of trees and bushes and stepped out to meet her. Lana heard the bushes swish as Clark stepped out and whirled to face him. Their eyes locked immediately, and in something out of a bad romance novel, they began running toward each other full out, heedless of anyone who was watching.

                Clark swept Lana off of the ground and into his arms where he whirled her around. An explanation was no longer necessary, even though Lana kept trying to give one through her tears and their kisses. Clark was crying just as hard as she was, and he figured the only way to keep her from apologizing for trying to save his life was to kiss her harder, faster, and longer. Anything to keep her mouth too busy to talk.

                Some time later, Clark and Lana were sitting on the bench Lana had once occupied by herself. Lana was sitting across Clark’s lap, and had turned her head so that she faced him.

                “So,” Clark said, “does this mean you still love me?”

                “Oh yes,” Lana replied. “I never stopped. I just couldn’t show you for a while. What about you?”

                “Same with me. I’ve always loved you, but you sure made it hard on me the last several months.” Clark’s eyes looked down, away from Lana’s as he said, “I guess now I know what it was like to be you after I dumped you.”

                Lana knew Clark well enough to know that an apology was on the way. She stopped it by pressing two fingers against his mouth and saying, “Sorry, Clark. If I can’t apologize, neither can you. We have a lot of things to work on, but our love isn’t one of them.”

                “Where do we go from here?”

                “Anywhere we want, Clark. Anywhere we want.”



                The End

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                • #9
                  1st? That was really good but I have to know, with how good i thought this story was, did my PM to you have any influence in this story? Again really good!! I really Liked it!!
                  Last edited by clanas1ally; 03-23-2007, 07:50 AM.

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                  • #10
                    ah now you post it here

                    Jor-El is starting to wise up...

                    if he had work with the Lana factor since the beginning instead of working against it then I bet Clark would have come to the training a lot faster...

                    good work !!!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Good thing I didn't wait up last night for an update!
                      Awesome way to end the story! Glad those two finally got everything settled!~

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by clanas1ally
                        1st? That was really good but I have to know, with how good i thought this story was, did my PM to you have any influence in this story?
                        No idea. Since I don't keep the PMs sent to me, I can't go back and check. I would guess it's possible though. I've used good ideas that readers have sent me before.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          love the story Cardinal.

                          love the story Cardinal. oh and I need to give you credit in mine, the idea of having lana waiting for clark when the buses got in from an away game in my fix, I think I stole the idea from your "bless the broken road" fic, shich is awesome by the way.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            that was so totally awesome card!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Great story

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