Relative History, Part 3
By: C. Leuch
CJ had never considered himself a particularly patient person. He was fairly good at playing the long game, at setting things up for sustained success, but that involved action at prescribed times. Just sitting around watching the seconds tick by on the clock had always been torture for him, and having that letter in his hand first thing in the morning had made for a very long day. He had told himself that he couldn’t open it until he knew for sure that the time was right, and he tried to keep himself occupied with other things to keep his mind off it. But all morning it had sat on his desk and stared at him, taunting him, and eventually he gave in. And oh had it been worth the wait. Jon was in the past! With their grandparents! And had accidentally revealed himself to the world, a fact that a quick scan through the news archives had been able to confirm. When the whole thing was over he wanted to quiz his dad on what exactly he remembered from the whole encounter, but that would have to wait. For now he had a mystery to solve.
Even after opening the letter, CJ hadn’t been entirely sure that the event that sent Jon back had happened yet. He waited for a while to get a call or email from his dad or Diane, but it didn’t come, and eventually he got impatient. A quick internet search of Metropolis news revealed another appearance by the disappearing bandits, and he knew the time had come. That was when he called Diane.
He hadn’t expected such a short turnaround to their meeting, but he supposed it made sense. Her husband was gone and she wanted to remedy that…CJ just wanted to have a little fun with the situation. Rousing Laura to get a ride to Metropolis had been a little bit harder than he had expected. She had been spending a lot of time with Matt these days, which was probably to be expected since they announced their engagement last Christmas. CJ often got the feeling that he was interrupting intimate moments between them when he called her into action, and today was no different. It was somewhat amusing to him how completely she had gone from a loner with no interest in men to being plastered to the side of her boyfriend, but love was a funny thing. He couldn’t say that he felt guilty in prying them apart to get some actual work done, though, no matter how much Laura tried to do just that. The whole flight to Metropolis had been forlorn sighs and good-natured ribbing about how much of a slavedriver he was until he told her the whole story of what was going on, then it was all seriousness as she agreed that this job was definitely worth her time.
They landed in the alley adjacent to Diane’s precinct, and Laura changed into normal clothing before they made their way inside and asked for their sister-in-law. Another officer escorted them into a meeting room, which looked a little too much like an interrogation room for CJ’s comfort, and in a moment Diane joined them. Without a word, CJ handed her the envelope. She put the letter addressed to her in her back pocket without a second glance, then started with the main letter.
“1997?” Diane said. “And nobody else went with him?”
“There was no one else at place where he emerged...WHEN he emerged.”
“A warehouse on the docks.” Diane said. “Have we checked that place out yet?”
“I haven’t had time,” CJ said with a sigh. “And there wasn’t exactly an address, just an approximate location.”
Both Diane and CJ looked at Laura, and she smiled. “On it, boss,” she said, then disappeared.
“Stargate rules, I guess, but no physical hardware on either end,” Diane said, reading further.
“No time machine, which means no way back. Not unless we get really smart really fast.”
Laura showed up again at that moment. “That area’s been under redevelopment recently, by the looks of it. Lots of new lofts and upscale shops. I didn’t see anything that looked suspicious.”
“Strike one,” CJ said, wandering over to the table and leaning against it. “The letter talks a little bit about his investigation into these guys who use the portholes but doesn’t get into details, and I can’t say I follow Metropolis news all that closely these days. Do you know what he was looking at?”
Diane pulled out a chair and sat. “As a matter of fact, we were just talking about that before he left.” She proceeded to repeat the conversation they had, and all the information he had given to her. “I get the feeling that if we can get our hands on these guys, we can start to get some answers.”
“And nobody has anything yet?” CJ asked. At Diane’s shake of the head, CJ stood up again and started to pace. After a moment he stopped and looked at her. “I think maybe you’re looking at this case the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re going about it in the way that police typically do – gather evidence, look for patterns, interview witnesses, et cetra. But you’re dealing with a new technology, and new technology never works the way you want it to the first time out, trust me, I should know. They had to have tested it. There must have been some time that they used it before they pulled off that first heist. What kinds of things could’ve gone wrong that might have made the news?”
Laura put up her finger and looked off at some point in the distance. “You have a device of some sort that transports you someplace, right?” She turned back toward CJ for confirmation, and he gave a small nod. “When we think about transportation, we usually think in terms of the x and y coordinates – latitude and longitude, northing and easting. But every point in space also has an elevation.”
CJ snapped his fingers and pointed at Laura. “You’re right!” he said. “So let’s say you program your gizmo to get you to a certain point in space and you get your elevation wrong, because unless you have survey or very accurate LIDAR data, the best you can do is guess. And if you do get it wrong, if you walk through that porthole and can’t see what’s on the other side, you could wind up 20 feet in the air, or somewhere underground.” He turned toward Diane, excitement coursing through him. “Do you have any weird, unsolved deaths that might fit the bill?”
Something flitted across her features, and she stood up suddenly. “Actually, I think I might. Excuse me.” CJ watched as she jogged over to her desk and punched something up on her computer, then quickly made her way to another room. He found himself pacing again, impatient, though the sound of something…unexpected permeated his conscious, causing all the energy to instantly drain out of him. It was a sound that had no doubt been present earlier, that he had dismissed like so much background noise while they were out in public. But now that he and Laura were alone, it was almost deafening, and it was absolutely unmistakable. He found himself looking more closely at his sister, studying her. She seemed to sense his gaze.
“What?” she asked, and he wasn’t quite sure whether to smile or frown.
“When are you going to tell Mom and Dad?” CJ asked, then looked at her midsection. She gasped, her eyes growing wide.
“Tell them what?” she said.
CJ crossed his arms across his chest. “Come on, you think I don’t know the sound of a fetal heartbeat? It’s very distinctive. You’re, what, 10 weeks along?”
She stared at him, almost terrified, before looking at the floor and shrinking down in her chair. “I haven’t even told Matt. I don’t know what to say. I mean, we’re not even supposed to be married until fall. Hell, I’m still not done with school for another couple months.”
CJ went over and knelt down in front of her, giving her an encouraging smile. “The circumstances might not be the best. But you should be elated. I’m elated! You’re going to be a mom! I’m going to be an uncle again!”
She finally broke a smile, albeit a nervous one. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for it. And this kinda messes up all the plans I had. Grad school probably isn’t happening now, and I know Daddy is going to be disappointed. I mean, he’s all about truth and justice and all that…I’m going to be the daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock.”
“I don’t think he could ever be disappointed at the thought of a new addition to the family. And plans change, but that’s part of life. I mean, look at me. I’m the poster boy for that.” Her smile became more genuine. “Enjoy this. Because it really is special.” He opened his arms, and she leaned forward to embrace him, sniffing slightly as she blinked back tears. They were still locked in their embrace when Diane came back into the room carrying a cardboard box.
“What’s this?” she asked, a crooked smile coming to her face. CJ and Laura pulled apart, and he gave her a questioning glance, silently asking permission to let Diane in on the secret.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” Laura said with a self-effacing smile. She took a breath to compose herself, then sat up straighter, back to business as usual. “Looks like you have something,” she said, pointing to the box.
Diane looked at Laura for a few long moments, intrigued, before returning her attention to the box. “About a month ago, we got a report of a body in an abandoned lot,” she said, taking the lid off and setting it aside. “When we got there, and found a guy, dead, in the middle of the property, surrounded by undisturbed weeds and grasses, meaning nobody could’ve gone in and dumped him there. He had a broken skull and broken neck, almost like he had been dropped from a great distance, but there was nothing around that he could’ve jumped from, certainly nothing tall enough for him to receive the caliber of injuries that he had, and there were no reports of low-flying aircraft that day.” CJ and Laura peered into the box, which contained some papers, photographs and a couple other objects that CJ couldn’t quite make out. “We identified the body pretty quickly, but the guy’s family had no clue as to how he could’ve wound up where we found him. There are a lot of theories out there about what happened, but none of them seemed plausible. So barring magic or some far-fetched revenge plot by certain flying superheroes, we’ve got nothing.”
Diane reached into the box and pushed some of the papers aside, finally pulling out an object about the size of a cellphone, but fatter. “Then there was this,” she said, handing it to CJ. “We found it in his pocket. Nobody around here has any clue what it is, and neither did the family.”
“But I have a guess,” CJ rasped, looking at and through the object as he turned it over in his hands. The circuitry was odd, but very sophisticated. Components that shouldn’t go together were paired, and the power source didn’t look entirely stable. He was intrigued, and very excited. “Do you mind if I bring this home and play with it a little?” he asked her.
The look she gave him was one that cops all seem to have perfected, the one that spoke of authority, the one that made most people think twice before disagreeing. But CJ wasn’t most people. “Officially it’s evidence, and I can’t just give it to you to do with as you please.”
“Uh huh,” CJ said, giving her a lopsided smile. “But…”
Diane, like her husband, seemed to have an unnatural ability to resist his good humor, to maintain her steely resolve even in the face of even his goofiest grin. But today she smiled back, and CJ knew for certain that he was going to get what he wanted. Which, in turn, would hopefully get her what she wanted, namely Jon safe and sound n his own time. “But I don’t think anyone is going to miss this, at least not if you make it quick. And since your forte is solving the unsolvable cases, I’d think that we would welcome the help.”
“You need me to write a Bat-receipt or something?” CJ asked, and Diane’s good-natured grin began to take on the more annoyed quality that he was used to.
“Just keep it on the down low,” Diane said, and CJ smirked in response. He could be outrageous at times, at least around those who knew him, but his alter ego could keep a secret as well as anyone.
“Fine,” he said. “And while I try to reverse engineer this thing, or at least try to get it to work, you need to look a little more closely at your mystery man and who he associated with prior to your death. If this thing does what I think it does, then he’s absolutely connected to the case.”
Diane nodded and made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Of course,” she said, and CJ knew the meeting was over. They both had enough to keep them busy for a while, and Laura, well, CJ knew he could find a way to keep her occupied. Turning toward the door, he shoved the device into his jacket pocket. When he did, his fingers brushed across a paper, and he remembered the other little delivery he had for Diane. With a smile, he handed her the paper, which she quickly unfolded. “For the scrapbook,” he said, then gave her a nod and pulled open the door to the room.
“Thanks,” Diane mumbled, caught up in what she was seeing. On the paper was a printout of the 28-year-old article that CJ had found, which had a large color photo of a man suspended in midair wearing a red top with the S shield and no cape - Jon, unmistakably – saluting the camera. Even as CJ and Laura walked out of the building, she remained transfixed. They were already in the air and rapidly heading out of town before she finally seemed to snap out of her trance. “He always did know how to make an impression,” he finally heard her mutter, causing him to grin widely. They were going to get there eventually, he was sure.
---
Jon stood outside the door to the brownstone at 348 Hyperion Avenue in Metropolis, the place where he had lived his first couple years of life, but of which he held no memories. He had dressed in clothes that he could scavenge from his Dad’s childhood bedroom, which consisted of a pastel-colored polo that was horribly out-of-date even by 1997 standards, and some shorts, which would not normally be appropriate for wear during the current season. On his left hand was his wedding band; his cell phone remained safety at his grandparents’ farm. He didn’t bother with glasses, since he didn’t currently have a secret identity that needed protecting, certainly not from his parents.
No, he told himself, not his parents. The people he was meeting with had no children, at least not yet. More than half the life experiences that made his parents the people they were would be missing from the Lois and Clark that he was meeting, which really made them strangers. It was certainly easier to think of them that way. Not acknowledging their connection and putting a mental barrier between them would help him get through the evening, and not thinking of them as his parents would hopefully help him to avoid calling them Mom and Dad.
He still had to be very careful, though. The temptation would be there to reveal too much about himself, especially if he started to relax around them. Of absolute importance was that he couldn’t reveal that he was born on Earth of human and Kryptonian parentage. The belief that they couldn’t be parents had been important in shaping their lives, had brought them closer together and made them realize how much they wanted what they thought was unattainable. If they had thought that they could procreate like any couple, they might have been more careful, and he might have come into their life. For the sake of his own existence, he had to make them believe that he was also a visitor to the planet, an exile from Krypton just like his father. Maybe he could imply that he also arrived as a baby, which would make mentions of childhood memories not seem out of place. He also had to be careful when talking about his own children, possibly implying that they had been adopted, if he even wanted to mention them at all. It would be difficult, but a little misdirection would go a long way, and he had been mentally preparing his strategies ever since Clark left the Kent farm that afternoon.
With a deep breath, Jon pushed the buzzer and waited. It only took a few seconds before the door was pulled open, and there they stood, the 1997 version of Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Lois positioned herself behind her husband, her features almost painfully neutral, her eyes appraising. All Jon’s friends had been intimidated by that look when he was a kid, which usually resulted in him playing at other kids’ houses a lot. He had only been on the receiving end of it once or twice before, usually when he had been doing something he shouldn’t, and for a moment he felt like squirming. But Clark seemed very eager and welcoming, which effectively cancelled out his wife’s outward coldness.
“Hi, I’m Clark,” he said holding out his hand, which Jon shook. “This is my wife, Lois,” he said, gesturing toward Jon’s mother, who also shook his hand, mustering a pleasant smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Jon,” he said, thankful for once that the shortened form of his name was probably the most generic name in the English-speaking world. Clark had raised an eyebrow as he got a good look at Jon’s attire, meeting his eyes with an inquisitive glance. “I, uh, apologize for my wardrobe,” Jon said, gesturing to himself as he released Lois’s hand. “I didn’t arrive with a change of clothes, and this was the best I could find in your closet in Smallville.”
Clark gestured for Jon to enter, then closed the door behind him. “So you’re from…out of town,” Lois said, taking a seat on one of the couches in the living area.
Jon grinned, trying to soften her up. She was in reporter mode, which made sense considering how little they knew about him, but he wanted to quickly reassure her that they had nothing to fear from him. “I’m from a different Metropolis.”
“You mean like a different universe?” Clark asked.
“Something like that,” Jon answered. Technically it wasn’t a lie – his Metropolis was different from this one in an infinite number of ways. It might as well be a different universe, and he coached himself to think of it that way.
“So how did you get here?” Lois asked.
Clark went and sat next to Lois, and Jon took a seat across from them. The couch was different from the one he remembered, more stiff and formal. This was the furniture of people who didn’t have kids, he thought with a little grin. It probably didn’t survive long after he and his brother had their way with it – the large fish tank off to the side of the room certainly hadn’t. There were so many little things around the room that were familiar, from the photos and trinkets that hung on the wall to the books in the bookshelves, but so many others that he didn’t recognize at all. It all helped to remind him that these were different people from the parents he knew, and made him feel less nervous. “That’s a good question,” Jon said, settling in as best he could. “I was investigating a group of robbers who disappeared through some sort of porthole. I managed to catch them in the act, and figured if I followed them through their porthole I could stop them once and for all. But instead of winding up where they were, I came here.”
“And in your other Metropolis, you know me?” Clark asked. “I gather you work with me?”
“A version of you,” Jon said, which again wasn’t a lie. “And yes, we work together.” He turned toward Lois. “I know a version of you, too. And although we don’t work together in the same sense that Clark and I do, you’ve provided a lot of inspiration to me over the years.” He smiled at her, and that seemed to break the ice.
“So why go to the Kents? Why not come to us for help, or to your parents?” Lois asked, her voice holding less of an edge than it had.
“Well, like I said, I’m not from this Metropolis, and this place is very different from the place I know. You are a constant in both worlds, as are the Kents. But my parents…” he shrugged. “There are versions of them here, but they don’t know me, just like you don’t know me.”
“But the Kents knew you,” Lois said. It was a statement rather than a question, stated softly and confidently.
“Once I reminded them who I was, yes.” He smiled warmly.
Clark scooted forward on the couch. “How can it be that our worlds are so completely different? How can a person exist in one and not in another? It seems, I don’t know, almost hollow, to know that the possibility exists to work alongside someone like myself, someone who shares my powers and identity and sense of responsibility, someone who could be like the brother I never had. Yet somehow I exist in the reality where that didn’t happen.”
Jon wondered, not for the first time, what it must feel like to exist knowing that you are the last of your kind. Even having found someone to share it all with, even having a family as loving as the Kents, couldn’t stop the undeniable fact that there is nobody else in the world who can do what you do and see the world as you see it. Jon never had to know what that was like, since he always had his dad and his siblings. But for Clark, the loneliness must be overpowering sometimes. To have even one other person to share his experiences with would be a dream come true, and Jon knew that he would have that opportunity before he knew it. “I’m not a scientist,” he said. “Far from it, actually. But I’ve seen a lot of the world and dug into a fair number of oddities, and I do know this: each moment of each day is shaped by the choices we make and the choices made by those around us. A million different things over an indeterminate amount of time had to line up just right to create the world we live in, and if just one decision is changed anywhere along the line, the end result could be so different that you wouldn’t even recognize it. I couldn’t tell you what happened to make this place so different than mine, but I just know that it is. And as much as I would like to help you make your world more like mine, I also want to get back to the people who know and love me.”
Lois and Clark looked at him with respect and determination, and he knew he was no longer just a stranger to them. With uncanny timing, the buzzer in the kitchen chose that moment to go off. Both Clark and Jon turned to see what it was, and Jon was pleasantly surprised to see that his Dad had gone all out in cooking a roast with carrots and baked potatoes, no cheating required. “Looks like dinner’s ready,” Clark said, looking at Jon and nodding. “Come on,” he said, and they all made their way to the dining room.
The discussion over dinner was more pleasant and familiar. Jon took the opportunity to ask questions of his parents, to summon the stories that he’d heard countless times before, ostensibly to probe for the differences between their worlds. It was interesting to him, though, how the stories were colored by their perceived audience. All the other times he’d heard their tales, it was as a son. Now they told them to him as a colleague, a peer, and there were subtle differences in the details that they let slip. He had never known, for example, that the most intimate conversation of their pre-married lives happened inside a virtual reality computer. Why they felt the need to leave out that detail before, he wasn’t quite sure, but he supposed in their places, mentioning anything remotely intimate to his children would be rather awkward.
They asked him about his life, of course. The wedding band on his left hand didn’t go unnoticed, and they were rather surprised to hear that he’d been married over 5 years already, and even more so to hear that he and Diane had eloped. “Wish we’d thought of that,” Lois muttered, just as she did shortly after his wedding. “What about your parents?” she asked after a moment.
“They were fine with it, happy even,” he said, and at Lois’s confused gaze he blinked a couple time. “OH, you mean, what are they like?” Lois and Clark nodded in unison, and he had to hide a smile. How could he describe them to themselves without them knowing that’s what he was doing? “I couldn’t ask to be raised by two more caring people,” he said. “They were very busy, between work and hobbies and such, but they always found time to be there for me and my siblings.”
“Siblings?” Clark asked, his eyebrows raised.
“They have two other, natural children, my brother and sister. They’re younger than me.” Of course, he was their natural child, too, but they didn’t need to know that.
“Interesting,” Clark said with a tip of his head. “Do they know about you? Was there any jealousy?”
Jon laughed gently. “We’re siblings. There’s all the normal sibling stuff, jealousy included, though that went both ways. And, sure, they know about me…they didn’t know right away, but they were told in due time. My sister is so much younger than me that when it was her turn to find out, I was already out in public with my image in newspapers and magazines and such. Her friends all had crushes on me…and you, too, I guess,” Jon said, nodding toward him. “It was really weird. Then there was the thing with my brother’s finacee’s roommate….” He shuddered involuntarily.
Clark laughed. “And Lois and I are close with your family, too?” he asked.
“Very,” Jon said.
Lois and Clark smiled at him for moment, then Clark sighed. “I wish I could visit this world – it sounds wonderful. How are you planning to get back there? And could we come with for a few days?” Jon was pretty sure he was kidding about the last part, but he couldn’t help but notice something wistful in his expression.
“I, uh, accomplished a little task earlier today that should hopefully summon the cavalry. My brother’s a tech wiz, and if he can’t figure out how to get me home…well, let’s say I’m confident I won’t have to complete that sentence. And unfortunately, I think it’s a one way trip. But who knows, maybe some day we’ll figure out a way to bring you to our Metropolis.” Little did Clark know that he would most definitely be able to visit Jon’s world, that he would in fact be an important part of it.
As they finished their meal, Clark asked if Jon could stick around for a little while and socialize. As was common at the Kent household even in his era, eventually a deck of cards was brought out, and the games began. With a threesome, they could play games like Sheepshead, which he had gotten fairly good at over the years. They had only played a few hands when the distant sound of an alarm drew the attention of Clark and Jon. “Excuse me for a second,” Clark said, changing into uniform and taking off. Lois and Jon switched to spades, a game they played throughout Jon’s childhood.
Lois dealt and they played in silence for a few moments. Jon knew her moves quite well, and countered all of them, bringing a long glance from her. “You seem to know an awful lot about Clark and me, but we really don’t know a whole lot about you.” She played another card, and he countered expertly. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re keeping an important bit of information from us?”
Jon lowered his cards and regarded her. She was right, of course, and he couldn’t bring himself to deny it. “I never could keep anything from you,” he said.
“That sounds like something Clark would say.” She searched his features, and he had to tell himself to keep calm. “I know his face like I know my own, and looking at yours, I can see a lot of him. It’s almost like you’re brothers.”
“We’re not,” Jon said. “I’ve certainly heard that before, though.”
“But you’re related,” Lois said.
“We are,” Jon said quietly, raising his cards again.
“How?” Lois asked, and Jon shook his head.
“It’s enough to say that we share some DNA.” He floated slightly from the couch. “I mean, that much is pretty obvious. I just…I don’t exist here. And getting into the exact nature of our relationship won’t change that. It’s better just to enjoy our time together and leave it at that.”
Lois nodded thoughtfully, gave him another long look, then turned back to their card game. They made small talk until Clark returned, which ended up being quite a bit later than either of them had expected.
As Clark landed in the living room, he seemed perplexed. “The strangest thing just happened to me,” he said. Both Lois and Jon looked at him questioningly, wordlessly, and Clark continued. “I flew to the bank, and when I tried to come in for a landing, I couldn’t stop.”
“Couldn’t stop what?” Lois asked.
“Myself,” he said, biting his lip. “The next think I knew, I’d buried fifty feet under the pavement.”
Lois looked at Jon, who was having a vague feeling of déjà vu, then stood and walked toward Clark. “Wow. Are you all right?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.
“It was like I momentarily lost control of my powers. Then it turns out that nobody actually robbed the bank. The door was jimmied just enough to set off the alarm.”
“Red kryptonite!” Jon blurted out, standing. He’d heard this story before, too. And his brother had lived something similar. Both Lois and Clark looked at him, confused. “It was a test,” he said, starting to pace. “Someone set up a situation that they knew you’d react to, then exposed you to red kryptonite to see what would happen.”
“How…?” Lois asked.
“I’ve seen it happen before,” Jon said, which was more or less true. He’d seen the after effects of red kryptonite poisoning, and it was not pretty. More to the point, he knew how this story ended, and if he said too much more, he might change history. Willing himself to stop, he addressed his parents again. “Look, you need to keep an eye open for that stuff. For the next few days, you have to assume it’s around wherever Superman shows up. If they expose you again, the effects could be worse.”
“Worse than 50 feet underground?” Lois asked.
Jon held up his hand. “Trust me,” he said, then looked between them. “I should probably get going now,” he said. “Thank you for inviting me to dinner – I had a great time.” Before they got a chance to protest, he changed into his uniform and flew back to Kansas.
