Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Clark blinked out of his daze of contemplation and looked over his shoulder at Lois as she stood in the front door of the Kent farmhouse with a gentle smile on her face. "I'm proud of Jordan for deciding on his own to quit the team," Clark said as his wife joined him on the patio, "but at the same time, I really wish it didn't have to be this way. He was happier than I've seen him in a long time!"

"I know," Lois agreed. "He finally seemed to have found something of a niche for himself, a sense of belonging."

"Exactly! His doctor actually felt comfortable putting him on a trial run without his meds. That's huge!"

Lois hugged her husband around his abdomen from behind, head resting between his shoulder blades. "And now you're afraid we might lose at least some of that progress?"

"The guilt of accidentally putting one of the first real friends he's made in the hospital might have already been enough to do that. But on top of that, he has to walk away from a social activity that really seemed to be bringing him out of his shell. So yeah, I am worried about that."

"Well, he has Sarah now, and not just as a friend anymore," Lois reminded Clark as she released her embrace and stepped forward to lean on the railing beside him. "And it's not like the friends he made on the team are going to totally ignore him now. Sean was over just yesterday, and Jordan's literally dating his ex!"

Clark laughed. "I guess if their friendship can survive that, leaving the team isn't likely to do much." He paused. "How he's treated Sarah is another thing I'm proud of him for. The friend zone is never a fun place to be, but he hardly ever complained, and certainly never to her face. I think he was just grateful to have her by his side in whatever capacity she was ready for."

"As I recall," Lois smirked, "you were actually respectful to a fault when you were his age. Lana told me about how she eventually got downright frustrated that you wouldn't make a move!"

Clark chuckled at his wife's playful taunt. "I nearly lost my chance because she wondered if I was even interested anymore. Yeah, I remember."

Lois' teasing smile morphed into a warmer one as she grew serious again. "Hey, don't let the attitude he has sometimes fool you. When it really counts, I think Jordan does listen to the life lessons you try to teach him, even if he doesn't always take your advice. I don't think genes are the only reason he takes after his father in mostly the best ways."

Clark raised an eyebrow at the impish use of the word "mostly" but decided to let it pass, as Lois' words once again led him back to a more serious topic. "Speaking of taking after his dad,…"

"The powers," Lois easily anticipated.

Clark shook his head. "He's levitating now, Lois, which means flying isn't far off if my own history is anything to go by. What I can't quite figure out is why his control has seemed to falter so much lately. When he first joined the football team, he seemed confident that he could keep his abilities in check, and for a long while, that really did seem to be the case. I mean, he still pancaked pretty much anyone who came up against him on the field, but it was never at a dangerous level, either for the other players or for the family secret. Honestly, I was impressed! But just in the past week or so,…I don't know. There was one especially brutal tackle that had me concerned, so I told him to dial it down, and for a few days, he seemed to succeed at that. Then it happened again, and that time, it was even worse. For the first time, I suspected he might be flirting with the upper limit of what could be considered reasonable for an ordinary human of his age and size. I can't help but think we were lucky that a broken bone was the worst of it. It's almost like…"

"…he's getting stronger and having to recalibrate his level of self-restraint," Lois finished for him.

Clark nodded. "Not just stronger. Faster. And of course, Earth's gravity is clearly losing its grip on him." He shook his head once more. "And the timing really worries me, too! It all seems to have started just a day or two after we took him off his pills."

"I had exactly the same thought, so I did some digging," Lois said. "That's actually what I was on my way to talk to you about before I caught you so deep in thought already."

Clark turned to face Lois more directly and crossed his arms with a small smile, eager both for some answers and for the sight of his wife once again in her element. "I'm listening."

"Well, Dr. Kidder advised that we still refill his prescriptions so we have some on reserve in case he seems to really need them again. But in the last batch of benzos that Jordan actually took, I noticed that the color seemed a bit off. I shrugged it off until I had the same thought you had: the timing of Jorden's apparent burst in abilities." Lois jerked her head in the direction of the front door. "I have the details on my computer inside, and to be extra safe, I've done all my Internet research in incognito mode on a VPN, but for now, the gist of it is…intriguing, to say the least. The particular brand we've always gotten chose that trademarked color because they wanted people to associate it with the 'GO' signal on a traffic light. It's a way of saying, 'Let your social life take off!' or something along those lines. But as it turns out, they've finally run out of their patented edible dye and had to switch to the closest thing they could find. The alternative is more expensive too, which is why the price of Jordan's drugs went up a bit. Anyway, they can't make any more of the dye because – get this – the asteroid mineral they grind up as the main ingredient has become almost impossible to get on the open market."

Clark stared at her. "Lois, those pills have always been neon green!"

Lois nodded. "And the mineral shortage? I checked with the company and cross-referenced with my dad. It happened right around the time he believes he finished acquiring as much kryptonite as he could find across the world. Then there's a press release the company had to put out a few years ago to assure their customers that their drugs weren't radioactive. Why? Because someone happened to notice that their benzos glow in the dark ever so slightly and posted on social media about it."

Clark sighed and took a seat on the bench swing. "So basically, we've been poisoning our own kid for years."

"Because of a marketing ploy, no less," Lois observed as she claimed a seat beside him. "I can only assume it was always in too trace of an amount to have any noticeable effect on you. It's probably different if you actually ingest the stuff and get it into your bloodstream."

Clark nodded again and met Lois' gaze, which mirrored his own growing concern. "So now, the question is just how powerful will Jordan actually get."

As if on cue, a now familiar vehicle arrived on the Kent farm and slowed to a halt in front of the house. Dr. Kidder, who was treating both Jordan and Sarah, had concurred with Lois that Sarah could be quite a valuable source of support for Jordan during his trial phase without medication. Indeed, she saw great potential for each to help the other heal from their respective issues. With her parents' blessing, Sarah's own individual therapy session that day was followed by a joint session with Jordan in which she was briefly instructed on basic coping mechanisms for social anxiety disorder that could be guided by a trusted companion. While notably later than expected, their arrival was no surprise.

What Lois and Clark did not expect, however, was a clearly very nervous Jordan to march towards them followed closely by three pensive and furiously murmuring Cushings.

The murmuring stopped as Clark and Lois met their son before the steps to the patio, immediately on alert. "How'd it go?" Clark ventured, glancing at the worry on Sarah's face, the confusion on Lana's, and the lingering bewilderment on Kyle's, before his gaze landed on his son, who now looked crestfallen.

"Dad," he hurried to say, "I'm sorry. It happened so fast! I didn't think I had a choice! I'm pretty sure Mr. Cushing would've died if I didn't do something."

The elder Kents exchanged a knowing but apprehensive look before Clark spoke up gently. "What happened?"

Chapter Text

"Jordan, you won't mind if we make a quick stop on the way, will you?"

Jordan startled slightly, as it was rare for Kyle to address him directly, but he promptly relaxed. The Cushings were quickly becoming a part of a small but valued group of people who hardly triggered any of his social anxiety symptoms even when they were all assembled around him at once. Sarah had long ceased to trigger anything. "Nah," he shrugged. "I'm in no hurry."

"Thanks," Kyle said with a nod of appreciation. "It won't take long. I gotta check out a rare car part I may have found."

"No worries," the younger male replied.

Lana rolled her eyes, though a small smile belied that her annoyance was mostly playful. "Just when I thought you'd called it quits on that '63 Impala!"

"Hey, I never give up, especially not on a classic like that!" Kyle shot back.

Sarah smiled at her parents from the back seat next to Jordan. Although she did not share her father's passion for vintage car restoration, she had come to recognize his indulgence thereof as a sign that the Cushing marriage was in the midst of one of its warmer spells. She turned to her boyfriend in time to see his face brighten at something on his smartphone.

"Oh, cool! I got a text and a photo from April! The new Oniglio's just opened up in New York!"

"April?" Sarah made a show of narrowing her eyes and pouting slightly, her playfulness masking a hint of genuine jealousy. "Should I be worried?"

"Oh, shit!" he feigned alarm and dramatically held the phone away from her while covering the screen. "I can explain! She's just a friend, I swear!"

If the twinkle in his eye or the deliberately over-the-top shiftiness of his response did not give him away, the smirk that he failed to suppress certainly did. Sarah smirked back and shoved him on the shoulder. "Ass!"

Jordan laughed out loud, unwittingly evaporating whatever lingering bit of genuine doubt she may have had. "Seriously, April's, like, about ten years older than me! I'll admit, I did have sort of a puppy crush on her when I was little and she used to babysit me and Jon, but that was a long time ago. Plus, she has a boyfriend she just moved in with a few months ago."

"So what's Oniglio's?" Sarah asked.

"It was the pizzeria her parents owned and ran back in Metropolis," Jordan replied. "Best in town! Their last name was actually O'Neil, but April's mom thought it'd be too weird for an Italian restaurant to have such an Irish name, so they basically just Italianized it, I guess. Anyway, Casey, her boyfriend was looking for work, and one day, they happened to stumble on an opportunity to rent out this building space at a real bargain rate. So, with a little investment from her parents, they decided to open up a brand new Oniglio's in New York and let Casey manage it. He had some experience unofficially managing the hockey team he played on a few years back. Apparently their official manager was one lazy son-of-a-bitch."

Sarah chuckled as she and Jordan briefly noticed the car coming to a stop at the entrance to the local junkyard. "So how did you and your family meet her?" she asked as her father stepped out of the car.

"Well, to make a long story short, Oniglio's was caught in the crossfire of a big fight between Superman and some goons. The ringleader was some metahuman weirdo that was just strong enough to keep Supes occupied, but he had a couple of armed henchmen with him who were normal but packing some pretty serious heat. April was only 16 then, but she was able to help diffuse the situation with some quick thinking and a bit of karate. Of course, since Superman was involved, my mom was the one to interview the O'Neils afterwards, and she was really impressed with April's courage!"

"Damn! Sounds really cool! I mean, scary as hell, of course, but still…"

Jordan smiled in agreement before continuing. "Anyway, that might've been the end of it if April hadn't shown some interest in going into journalism. I guess my parents saw alot of potential there and took her under their wing, especially Mom. She probably had something to do with April finally deciding to major in journalism and minor in computer science instead of the other way around. I don't think it was an easy choice for her, regardless. For one thing, she was a pretty damn good hacker even then, and I can assume she's only gotten better since. Luckily, she's only ever used her powers for good."

"A kung-fu badass with mad computer skills," Sarah summarized, genuinely impressed. "So how'd she end up in New York?"

"She went to Met-U, got an internship at the Planet, and about the time she probably would've been hired as an actual reporter there, Channel Three News caught wind of a particularly good piece of hers and 'poached' her, as Mom put it. She's both an anchor and a field reporter for their science and tech department now." Jordan chuckled. "Mom puts up a good fuss about how New York stole April from the Planet, but I can tell she's really proud of her, and even at the time, she had to admit the job offer was a really good one."

Sarah giggled briefly before she caught site of something over Jordan's shoulder. "Hey, is that a battery hooked up to that crane?"

Jordan turned to find Kyle kneeling in front of a heap of scrap metal, clearly fixated on one or two items within it. A couple of yards above him, on an electromagnetic crane, hung a lime green caravan with a heavily damaged trunk. Jordan followed Sarah's gaze to what indeed looked like a large battery or other sort of power back-up connected to the cockpit of the crane. On what he presumed was the power gauge, only a single red bar was lit among what clearly would have been two more red bars followed by four yellow and three green bars.

"How long has the power meter looked like that?" Lana voiced the concern her daughter was feeling, as she too had noticed it at about the same time.

Just a couple of seconds later, as if to answer their nascent apprehension, the single red bar suddenly went dim, and an ominous creak sounded from the crane. Immediately horrified, both Sarah and Lana grabbed the latches on their respective doors and leapt out, neither registering in that heart-stopping moment that there was little they could do as the caravan lurched downward.

Kyle looked up just in time to see the mass of metal just a couple of feet from his face, and it took a seemingly eternal second of stark terror before he realized it miraculously was not coming any closer.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Lana had barely taken a single hopeless step towards Kyle before Jordan appeared almost as if out of nowhere, hovering a few feet above the ground and supporting the massive vehicle with two outstretched palms spread as far apart as he could manage.

"Jesus Christ!" Kyle recovered just enough sense to stumble out of the caravan's reach.

On their part, Lana and Sarah broke out of their momentary reverie at Jordan's feat and turned their terrified attention back to Kyle, whom they instantly embraced in a desperate three-way hug.

"Oh, my God!" croaked Lana. "Are you okay?" She gripped his face in both hands and inspected him with wide, moist eyes.

Sarah was outright crying as she managed to say, "Holy shit, Dad! Are you alright?"

Kyle wrapped one arm around each of his family members and closed his eyes in immense relief. "I'm okay," he said after a tense pause, nodding as much to himself as to his wife and daughter. "I'm…fine." The second reassurance was slowed by bewilderment as his eyes refocused on Jordan. Sarah and Lana followed his gaze, staring in awe and confusion just as Jordan let himself sink back down to Earth, his shoes making a soft scratching noise as they met the ground.

Sarah looked back into the Cushing car to confirm that Jordan was not somehow still in the back seat and then just stared at her boyfriend, who suddenly looked more scared than she had ever seen him. "How the hell…?" was all she could utter.

"Y-you guys are s-seeing this too, right?" Lana stammered as Jordan awkwardly set the vehicle's front wheels on the ground.

"If you're seeing a scrawny teenage boy hold a several-ton car above his head," Kyle answered in a daze, "then yes."

Jordan did his best to ignore the scrutiny of six shocked eyes on him and concentrate instead on setting down the rest of the automobile, which did not feel as heavy to him as it probably should. He took a few clumsy steps to bring himself out from under the caravan, shifting his arms as he did so until he was able to guide the back wheels slowly back to the ground. No sooner was it safely resting and out of his hands, however, than he gave in to his nascent panic, wringing his hands nervously. "Okay, look, I…" he began in vain. "Please don't tell anyone! You guys weren't s'posed to know about this! No one was! But I didn't know what else to do! I couldn't just let…" He trailed off and ran his hands through his hair. "Can we just…forget this ever happened, or something?"

"Kid, not only did you just save my life," Kyle exclaimed, "you did it by holding a whole actual car above your head and floating in mid-air! There's no forgetting that!"

Lana finally recovered from her shock just enough to fully recognize how apprehensive Jordan was and take a gentler approach. "Jordan, what you just did should've been impossible! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that it wasn't,…" She shook her head, and suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude, she moved to hug him, but her daughter, presumably overcome with a wave of similar emotion, made an abrupt beeline for her boyfriend and beat her to it. Lana wept as she approached the two teens and hugged Jordan herself as best she could with Sarah already clinging to him. "…but still," she continued as she withdrew after a thorough embrace, "…that shouldn't have been even remotely possible."

Sarah finally pulled back and wiped her tears away. "Seriously, Jordan, how did you do it?"

"We won't tell anyone," Lana reassured him. "We'll help you keep whatever secret seems to be weighing on your shoulders,…but I think it would help all of us if you gave us at least the gist of what that secret is."

Jordan nodded but simultaneously started to hyperventilate. "I…uh…"

Sarah cupped his face in her hands. "Jordan, look at me," she said softly.

He met her gaze, and she could not help but be alarmed at the fear in his eyes.

"Let's talk about Oniglio's again for a minute," she said. "You said it was the best in town. What specifically did you like most about it?"

Jordan exhaled and thought for a moment. "The sauce," he said. "It was smooth. It didn't have any chunks of solid tomato. I never liked those in pizza or pasta. It had a really nice flavor to it, too. I could never quite put my finger on it."

"Cool," Sarah smiled. "Did you ever tell Mr. or Mrs. O'Neil that?"

"I don't think so, but I remember telling April once, and she probably passed it along."

"Speaking of April, did you ever meet her boyfriend? Do you know his last name? Do you like him?"

"It's Jones, I think. And yeah, I met him once when we visited April in New York about a year ago. He's cool."

"Do you know where in New York his new Oniglio's is?"

Jordan paused. "I believe it's at the corner of Eastman Boulevard and Laird Avenue."

"Cool! Maybe you can take me there sometime!" Sarah paused and smiled gently, noticing that his breathing had returned to normal over the course of their brief digression. "Now, do you feel comfortable talking a little more about what just happened?"

Jordan sighed and smiled at his girlfriend, realizing what she had done for him and grateful for it. He glanced between Sarah, Lana, and Kyle. "Look, if it were completely up to me, I'd probably tell you everything, but I really think we need to talk to my parents first."

Chapter Text

Clark scratched the back of his neck after hearing Lana's bewildered recounting of the incident in the junkyard. Lois' eyes met her husband's, and after a serious pause, a nod signaled a wordless agreement. He claimed a seat in one of the two chairs opposite the couch in the Kent living room, where he and Lois had promptly ushered the very anxious Cushings. Lois claimed the other chair, while Jordan nervously perched himself on the couch armrest next to Sarah, arms crossed.

"First of all," Clark gave his son what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "you did the right thing, Jordan. I should hope that would be obvious. Keeping our secret is very important, but it should never come at the expense of even a single human life. If I accidentally gave you even a slight impression otherwise, let me make it crystal clear right now. Whenever it comes down to either saving a life or keeping the secret, there's no contest. You save that life and deal with the fallout as best you can afterwards. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, absolutely!" Jordan said with a small but grateful smile of his own. "I didn't even think about letting anything happen to Mr. Cushing. I just wondered if maybe I could've figured out a way to save him without outing myself."

Clark nodded. "I'm glad to hear it, and even if there may have technically been a way to save him and stay under the radar at the same time, you clearly didn't have time to think of it. I would've done the same thing."

"Wait," Lana spoke up. "You mean you could have done the same thing?"

Clark turned to her with an apologetic look. "Sorry for immediately tuning you guys out for a bit, Lana, and yes, I actually could have done the same thing."

"How?" marveled Kyle.

Clark sighed, suddenly a bit nervous himself as he realized the point of no return was nigh. "Lana, you've known for a long time I was adopted."

"Yes," she confirmed. "The Kents said they found you abandoned in a cornfield as a baby."

Clark nodded again. "What they never told anyone was that they found me in a spaceship that landed in the cornfield." He exchanged another glance with Lois before he braced himself and uttered the single sentence from which there was no turning back. "I'm from the planet Krypton."

A pregnant pause followed before Sarah spoke next, now looking to Lois, presumably as the author of the seminal interview that, roughly twenty years before, had given the world a basic biography of the Man of Steel. "Krypton? As in Superman's home world? The one that was destroyed before he came to Earth?"

"The very same," Lois confirmed.

"Wait," Kyle blurted. "I thought Superman and Supergirl were the only survivors, besides the three not-so-friendly ones that those two had to fend off."

"They are," Lois said, noticing that Lana, the Cushing who knew her husband best, was the first to start looking pensive rather than confused or astonished.

"Sarah," Clark addressed the teen, "do you remember when you and your parents visited me and Lois in Metropolis a few years ago?"

"Yeah," the girl replied slowly, clearly curious as to the pertinence of the question.

"And do you remember what Lombard said I had the worst luck with, that you wouldn't stop teasing me about?"

Sarah's amused smile at the memory eased the tension a bit. "You could never seem to be around whenever…" Her smile fell and her eyes narrowed. "…Superman appeared."

Clark did his best to ignore Lana's jaw going slack as Sarah's abruptly re-widened eyes began darting back and forth between him and Jordan. He knew that, for at least two of the Cushings, the mental puzzle pieces were rapidly falling into place. With a heavy sigh, he removed his glasses. "Yeah, there's a reason for that." In a single, long-practiced motion, Clark opened his flannel shirt to reveal the unmistakable uniform underneath, though if Lana's gasp a mere couple of seconds prior was any indication, the literal scarlet letter on his chest only validated what was by then an overwhelming suspicion. "Not even I can ever be in two places at once."

A newly stunned Kyle leaned back and gripped the sides of his head in his hands. "Holy hell!"

"Are you serious?!" Sarah stared at Clark before turning to Jordan. "Your dad is literally Superman?!" Her hands flew to her mouth as her boyfriend could do little but nod.

Clark stood up and, just in case there was any lingering doubt, levitated a couple of feet above the floor for a few moments.

As he drifted back into a seated position on the chair, Lana shook her head in awe. "Clark,…all this time? You've been carrying this around your whole life?"

"Well, since I was old enough to fully understand the gravity of it, anyway. And my powers didn't really start coming in full force until I was a preteen."

A pregnant pause ensued before Kyle found his voice again. "So you're Superman?" It was more of a finalizing statement than a question. "Whenever you sense that you're needed, you just…rip of your normal clothes and take off?"

"Basically, yes."

"And Jordan…?"

"He's inherited at least some of my powers, though until recently, we didn't think he was anywhere near the level you saw. When Lois first got pregnant, neither of us had any idea just how much like me our kids would be. They didn't show any major signs of special abilities until shortly after Mom died."

"The accident in the barn," Sarah realized aloud.

Lois nodded. "We let you think it was luck, but we knew better."

"The truck accident in high school?" Lana ventured.

Clark shook his head. "That wasn't luck either."

Lana exhaled. "Clark,…I know we're not as close as we used to be, but really I wish you'd felt like you could trust me with this when we were."

He gave her a sad smile. "It's not just a matter of trust, Lana. In fact, I don't think that's even most of it."

"Then what is it?" Kyle wondered. "Why the secrecy?"

Clark and Lois exchanged another knowing look before the former proceeded. "Having a normal life, at least to the extent I can manage it, keeps me grounded. It helps me maintain my humanity and my capacity to empathize with people, which is very important for someone as powerful as I am. Without those human connections, no matter how deep or casual, I might be corrupted in some way or other by my power. Maybe not, and as I sit here now, it's very difficult to imagine compromising any of my values, but especially after the things I've seen in my career, it's just not a chance I'm willing to take. Besides, my actual origins aside, I was brought up by two very Earthly parents who raised me essentially as a human who just happened to have some unique gifts. I don't think I could ever give up that life entirely. It's just too much a part of who I am." He began re-buttoning his shirt before continuing. "But if my identity were public knowledge, even a decent semblance of a normal life would be virtually impossible. At least, that's why I hide it from people at large."

His shirt now closed, Clark put his glasses back on and preempted the question he knew would likely follow. "On a more personal basis, sharing in my secret can often be a burden, sometimes even dangerous, and as I'm sure you can guess, I don't like putting the people I care about in danger, or even just thrusting such a unique responsibility onto their shoulders."

Lois spoke up. "Of course, Clark realizes, and has for a long time now, that the closer anyone gets to him, the more of a right they have to know, but at the same time, the closer they are, the more he worries about potentially endangering them."

"Wait," said Sarah. "I get the responsibility, but I'm not sure where the danger comes in. I mean, I know you have plenty of enemies, but if they wanted to, like, get to you through us or something, wouldn't they have to know your secret too? Or are you afraid we'll be more likely to get caught in the crossfire of one of your epic battles or something?"

"Good question, Sarah," Clark replied with an appreciative smile. "And yes, you getting stuck in the middle of a fight is one possibility. But unfortunately, my enemies wouldn't necessarily need to already know my secret to make you a target. They'd just need to suspect that you know something useful about Superman."

Kyle caught his daughter's attention and demonstrated by forming an imaginary gun with his hand and pressing the tip of his finger against Lana's temple. "'Tell us who Superman is or else!'" he role-played.

"Exactly," affirmed Clark. "If they're particularly perceptive, they might get a clue even if you're consciously doing your best not to drop any hints. I know it's not fair to thrust this on you, but I don't have a choice anymore. The three of you are going to have to be very careful from here on out."

"Jordan saved Kyle's life!" Lana reminded him. "As far as I'm concerned, bearing this 'burden,' as you call it, is the least we can do!" Her husband and daughter both gave fervent nods and murmurs of agreement.

"I appreciate that, guys, I really do. But just to be clear, you don't owe me or Jordan anything." Clark's face briefly grew grim as he hastened to clarify, "Also, I hope this goes without saying, but I'd feel better if I said it anyway. If anyone ever does put a gun to your head over this, I don't want any of you to even think about sacrificing yourselves. Like I told Jordan, as important as keeping my identity secret is, it's definitely not worth any of your lives. Am I understood?" He successively looked each Cushing in the eye to impress his vehemence upon them.

The Cushings nodded. "As a mother," Lana admitted, "I might've preferred to spare Sarah from the potential danger, but I know that couldn't be avoided."

"At least Sophie's still clueless," Sarah offered. "Wait," she suddenly turned back to Jordan. "Is this why you quit the team? You were afraid you could've done alot more than break a bone?"

"Yeah," Jordan replied, lowering his gaze as a look of regret passed over his face.

"We never would've let him play at all if we thought he was going to be anywhere near as strong or as fast as he's turning out to be," Lois explained to Kyle and Lana. "Up until the past couple of weeks, every indication seemed to be that his powers would always be slight."

"That's what I don't get," Jordan said, taking the opportunity to ask his father a question of his own. "Jor-El said I would never be even a hundredth as strong as you, but I don't think I even broke a sweat in the junkyard. And yet, just a couple of weeks ago, I'm almost positive that I wouldn't have been able to do what I did. Not even close! So what the hell's going on?"

"Jor-El?" Kyle repeated.

"Clark's biological father, or rather, a hologram of him," Lois clarified. "Basically a ghost, but made possible by Kryptonian technology instead of anything supernatural."

While the Cushings digested that bit of information, Clark answered his son. "Yeah, we were wondering about that too, so your mother put her investigative skills to work. It turns out, your benzos were actually suppressing your powers all along."

Jordan raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? How did that work?"

"Until recently, the green coloring on them has apparently been laced with kryptonite. Your mom was actually sharing that discovery with me just when you and the Cushings arrived."

"Damn!" Jordan marveled.

"What's kryptonite?" asked Sarah.

"It's this glowing green rock that weakens Dad if he's anywhere near it," Jordan answered.

"There's actually something that can hurt you?" Lana remarked.

"Radioactive debris from the destruction of Krypton," Clark elaborated with a nod. "If I'm in the same room with a handful of it, my powers are noticeably dampened in less than a minute. After about five minutes or so, I become essentially like an ordinary man. If I'm exposed long enough to enough of it, it can theoretically kill me. Bullets and blades made of it tend to be just as effective against me as normal weapons are against humans."

"The amount on Jordan's pills was probably tiny, which is likely why it didn't seem to cause any noticeable reaction from Clark," Lois added, "but since Jordan was actually ingesting them, that seems to have been all it took to put a major dent in his abilities, especially since he'd been taking them for years."

"Does Jon have any powers?" Sarah asked.

"He doesn't seem to yet, but I suspect it's still a possibility," Clark responded. "Lois and I will be keeping a close eye on both of our boys for at least a few years yet."

Realization dawned on Kyle's face. "Is that why you became assistant coach? To watch for any signs of special abilities on the field?"

"You catch on quick," confirmed Lois.

"Which reminds me," Clark turned to his son with a smile. "I'm proud of you for deciding to quit football after what happened. I know it wasn't easy to give that up. You can probably guess that your mom and I would've made you quit anyway if you hadn't came to that decision on your own, but I hope you also know that we would've taken absolutely no pleasure in doing it. We just…have to take your powers seriously."

"Thanks," Jordan replied, his expression thoughtful. "I just don't want to have anymore accidents, I guess. What happened at practice kinda scared me."

Clark responded with a nod of understanding. "Believe me, Jordan, I've been there. But…" He clapped his knees, hoping to supplement his empathy with some reassurance. "…that's one thing neither your Grandpa Jon nor your Grandma could ever say to me, and I still turned out…okay, at least." He accompanied the implied self-deprecation with a mirthful smile, and his attempt to finally lighten the mood seemed to work, as it earned a smirk from Jordan, warm chuckles from the Cushings and a playful eye-roll from Lois.

There would be more to talk about in the days to come, but the worst was behind them, and it had gone as well as Clark could've hoped for. In some ways, he was actually grateful for the afternoon's turn of events. Possible perils notwithstanding, he knew there would also be a bright side to the Cushings being privy to his identity. If nothing else, having a few local confidantes would likely be a welcome comfort and perhaps even a convenience. He had a feeling it would be especially helpful to Jordan, serving to further strengthen a couple of the most healing and important bonds he had managed to forge outside of his family. The future demanded vigilance, but it also promised hope.