***
It’s A Small World After All: Dr. Bernard Klein
***
Superman was depending on him.
The world’s greatest superhero, the man who’d quite literally saved all of mankind multiple times…was depending…on him.
Nope. He still couldn’t comprehend it. Couldn’t even process it no matter how many different ways he phrased it. There were still days he thought he’d pretty much dreamed up the fact that Superman knew him and came to him for expertise. That Superman trusted him.
Trusted him? Was the man crazy? They’d only ever even met because the Kryptonite--the one thing Superman had entrusted STAR Labs with--had been stolen. Didn’t that clue Superman into the fact that he definitely should not put his life in Bernard’s hands?
Breathe, he told himself. He had to get a grip.
Lois Lane was still talking to him, but it was all right that he’d tuned out because he already knew the gist of what she was saying--she wanted a miracle. Superman was depending on a miracle. The world hinged on him providing that miracle.
But Bernard was empty.
Out of ideas.
Stuck.
Useless.
And poor Superman, the tiny little guy still zipping around lifting weights heavier than Bernard could manage--he was going to shrink away into nothing. Or maybe not. Maybe he’d just have to adjust to going around saving single-cell organisms, put his trust in them and hope they didn’t fail him.
Like Bernard was going to.
He snapped. Truthfully, he was kind of surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Either way, he’d known it was coming, and at least it happened in front of Lois Lane instead of Superman.
All of his helplessness and desperation boiled under the pressure and came tumbling out of him as words.
“Lois, I’ve never been under this much pressure! I have this enormous responsibility! If the world knew he was shrinking--”
Thankfully, Ms. Lane shook him and stopped him before he could really dwell on all the ramifications of his failure. Though, confidentially, he wasn’t too sure Ms. Lane wasn’t cracking under the strain too. Not that he blamed her. This was too much pressure for anyone to take.
Bernard sagged into a seat as Ms. Lane babbled at him. Poor Superman. Just once, he’d like to be able to give the poor little guy some good news. Just once, he’d like to feel like he deserved Superman’s trust.
But that would never happen if he didn’t find some way to reverse the shrinking.
Rubbing exhaustion from his eyes, Bernard turned his attention to the papers Ms. Lane had brought him.
After all, Superman was counting on him.
***
***
Through A Glass, Darkly: Clark Kent
***
“I was just thinking about how different my life would’ve been if we’d never met.”
It sends a shiver up his spine sometimes, just the thought that there’s a world out there somewhere where he doesn’t get this—Lois smiling and joking about their wedding, engagement ring sparkling on her finger, love brimming from her eyes. It would have been so easy, to not come to Metropolis, to never take the chance on the life of stability and purpose he wanted.
If Professor Carlton hadn’t told him he’d write him a letter of reference. If he hadn’t made that last rescue in Borneo that attracted a bit too much attention, the straw that broke the camel’s back and made him close his suitcase for the thousandth time. The instant he realized he didn’t want to keep doing this, moving and fleeing and isolating himself ever further from the world when all he wanted to do was belong. If he hadn’t been brave in a way he’d really thought, at the time, was rather foolish.
Where would he be now? In some forgotten corner of the world helping on the sly, writing for local papers that cared more about filling space than changing the world. Afraid to be known. Afraid to let anyone close. Just…afraid.
It’s not that he was unhappy back then, not really--his life holds too much good in it to ever really be miserable--and he likes the more personal angles small papers allow, knows that he made a difference in those tiny corners of the world.
But he was so lonely. So lost, adrift, anchorless. If he’d never come to Metropolis, he wouldn’t even know how it feels to truly belong, to know he is exactly where he’s supposed to be. He’d still be searching.
Because even if he’d still become Superman, if he still got a job at some metropolitan newspaper, if he were living in the same place for more than a month running…he’d still be alone. Without Lois, he’d be missing half of himself. Even if Krypton still existed and Clark had grown up exactly like every other Kryptonian, with no powers to isolate him, he’d still be alone. Lonely. Missing something.
Lois gives him a home, a place, and hones his purpose, makes him strong enough to keep being Superman while pushing him to be a better reporter.
She makes his life better, and for just this brief moment, he lets himself think on the bleak alternatives just so he can fully savor that he did come to Metropolis. He did apply at the Planet. He did meet Lois, and now she has promised to stay by his side forever.
For all that he can imagine so many worse possibilities, Clark realizes that he can’t even begin to imagine a better one. And this one…this one he wouldn’t trade for anything.
***
***
Big Girls Don’t Fly: Jonathan Kent
***
“Take care of yourself, son,” you say, because you have to say something, but as soon as you hear the words spoken aloud, you hate them. You would give anything for them not to be the last words you--ever?--say to your boy.
Too late. Too late, the doors are open to the public, the Kryptonians are hanging over your head like vultures, and you will never have another chance to say anything. The last thing he’ll ever hear you say is the completely useless admonition to take care of himself. He’ll never do that, you know him so much better than that, know that he will always look to others first. And yet, you wish he would.
Because no one else will.
You have always, from the first moment you saw a star falling from the sky, tried your best to be there for Clark, to protect him from the cold world’s realities, to shelter his tender heart, to watch out for the things that will trip him up while he’s reaching ahead toward ideals and fantasies.
“Where is Kal-El, the child who fell from the stars?” that alien assassin had asked, and you knew the answer. You’ve always known where Clark is. He’s your son, and so good, so you knew where he was. When he traveled the world, you knew he’d always come back to you. When he settled in Metropolis, you knew he’d always return to visit you and Martha.
But now, for the first time, you won’t know. You’ll have no idea where he is or what he’s doing. You won’t be able to help him or comfort him or just let him know that he is not alone.
He will be alone. He’s so human, your Clark, and that will set him apart on this New Krypton, as much as his powers have isolated him here on Earth.
“We’ve never been asked to send a son to war,” you’d said, and oh, how you wish that were still true. You would give anything to have New Krypton vanish entirely--and if that makes you a worse man than Clark, to wish away these beleaguered survivors, you don’t care--and Clark happy and unconvicted and settled here. You almost wish you hadn’t raised Clark to be so willing to do the right thing.
Almost. But you think he would have learned it on his own, would have followed his conscience no matter what you taught him.
He’s strong and brave and now he’s gone, off to fight a war and go to battle and lose all the innocence you’d give anything to protect.
Too late to choose different parting words. He’s gone, vanished in a blur, and you would falter and stumble and drop to your knees except that Lois is swaying and she needs you and Martha to hold her up as she voices what you’re all thinking.
He’s gone, and you never should have let him go. He’s gone and there is no going back. No taking it back. No keeping him here where guilt would fell him as surely as whatever might face him out there among the cold stars.
“A love that risks nothing is worth nothing,” you tell Lois.
But the words are actually meant for Clark. Better parting words to give him, and you know the extent of his hearing so you think he will actually catch them.
You hope he does, because if you never see him again, you want him to know you love him enough to risk it all. You want him to know that you understand how deep and wide and courageous his love is.
You want him, above all, to know how proud you are of him.
***
