Lori and Clark – The New, New Adventures of Superman – MMC V 6 13/32
By Ken Janney
Warning: This story is rated PG-13.
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
Previously:
“If we were able to leave immediately we could be back at New Krypton in time to have a New Krypton month, roughly equivalent to forty-five Earth days, to prepare.”
“That’s not very much time. We have to talk it over.” He looked at Lori and said, “We have a big decision ahead. Let’s head home.” To Ching he said, “We’ll let you know by tomorrow, will that be okay?”
Zara spoke up, “Kal, Lori please keep in mind that the continued existence of New Krypton rests on your decision. If we cannot defend ourselves we will have to evacuate and abandon what we have created. It will be the same as when Krypton exploded. We will be homeless vagabonds in space.”
Clark said, “We could hardly forget. We will inform you of our decision shortly.” Ching exited with them to guide them back to the air lock.
Before they entered the air lock, Ching held out his arm and Clark grasped it. Ching said, “I know that you will make the right decision. Watch the pressure indicator. The outer hatch will open automatically when the pressure is at zero.” Knowing that they would be leaving the zone of artificial gravity they started to float and as Ching stepped back they floated into the air lock and Ching sealed the door. They each took a deep breath and held it while they watched the pressure gauge drop. When it reached zero the outer hatch opened automatically and they flew out and shaped their course for Metropolis. They managed to control their reentry so that they didn’t appear as a couple of streaks across the sky and landed in the Kent residence back yard. They spun into their casual attire and walked to the house.
As they walked Clark said, “I think we need to call a family council. What do you think?”
She replied, “I don’t think we have the time for that. I think we have to go, but, what about CJ?”
Clark said, “CJ could be a problem. He isn’t fully Kryptonian and might not survive under the red sun and higher gravitation of New Krypton. Can we leave him with one of the kids? We actually need to make this time away look like we are away on vacation. How would it look if we left him with one of the kids?”
“More importantly, how are we going to explain the time away from the Planet?”
“We could say that since NK is a trading partner we were invited to come and report on the conflict since it could affect that trade.”
A few seconds later they entered the back door of the house and Lori called, “Teri, we’re home!”
Hearing concern in the voice of their granddaughter they heard Teri call from the living room, “Grams, you better come in here, NOW! There’s someone here to see you.”
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 12 – Guess Who
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -124 Alt-Prime
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
As they hastened toward the living room Lori called out, “Teri, you know you’re not supposed to let strangers in while we are away!”
As they rounded the doorway into the living room they saw Teri, holding CJ in one arm and a lamp like a club in the other while standing in a far corner facing a gentleman in a suit that was somewhat out of step with the times who had his hands up in a defensive posture.
As soon as they saw the bowler hat they stopped dead in their tracks and in unison shouted, “Herb!”
The nattily dressed, somewhat short gentleman in the wire rimmed spectacles and bowler hat turned when he heard his name.
Teri in her own defense said, “I didn’t let him in, he just … appeared ... out of thin air … here in the living room ... a couple of minutes ago.”
Relieved, Lori said, “Oh, Honey, it’s okay. This is an old friend of ours.”
With a relieved smile, Herb said, “I was starting to explain when you came in. I was hoping that she wouldn’t *bash* me with that *lamp*.”
Clark had started chuckling at the scene. Their granddaughter was threatening Herb with the lamp defending her little uncle. He walked over and relieved Teri of her weapon as she slowly relaxed.
CJ appeared to be none the worse for wear, in fact he was cooing and gurgling happily at all of the excitement.
Lori walked over and reclaimed her son. Seeing that he was fine she gave him a kiss and handed him back to Teri and asked, “Teri, could you please take CJ up and get him ready for bed?”
Teri was still giving Herb a wary eye as she took CJ back and said, “Sure Grams, happy to.” She exited with her little charge.
After Teri exited the room, Lori and Clark turned to Herb. Clark asked, “Okay Herb, what brings you here this time?” As they turned to him they could see that this was the 1917 or maybe 1918 version as opposed to the 1912 version.
Herb took off his bowler hat and started shuffling his hands around the rim, spinning the hat in his hands. He asked, “Can we sit down? This could take some time.”
Clark nodded and with a relieved sigh, Herb sank into a chair while Clark and Lori took seats on the sofa.
Herb started, “Well, it’s this way, you are about to travel to New Krypton on a mission at the request of the New Krypton ruling council. You need to find a place for CJ, where he will be safe and well cared for and loved.”
Clark said, “If I didn’t know you so well I’d ask how you know. To you, it’s history, right?”
“Quite so my boy, quite so. CJ will need to be there for the same period of time that you will be away so that he ages appropriately. I have a solution for you.”
Lori asked, “Okay, let’s hear it, what’s your solution?”
“My dear, I’m going to ask both of you to search your memory. Back to before Jon was born, when you thought that you couldn’t have children.”
Clark and Lori were both obviously concentrating on dredging up the memories of that time when a look of dawning comprehension came over both of their faces. With awe in their voices, almost simultaneously they both said, “CJ!”
Heb said, “Right you are, CJ, the child you found in your house at the time when you were so despondent over having been told that you couldn’t have children. I propose to take CJ back and give him to you as guardians while you are away.”
In a resigned way, Clark said, “Well, I guess that it really is inevitable. It happened so it has to happen.” He turned to Lori and said, “There’s our answer. CJ will be taken care of by his own parents and we already know that he will be loved and cared for very well, because we remember taking care of him.”
Lori had a terrified expression as she said, “We had him for over eight months. Is this mission going to take that long?”
“Yes, my dear. This mission will take quite some time.”
Clark asked, “Will we succeed?”
With an unreadable expression on his face Herb replied, “My boy, you should know better than to even ask that. If I were to tell you the outcome it could perhaps prejudice your thinking and change the outcome, creating yet another universe. Remember my motto, ‘Too much information, too soon is not good’. It does not carry any indication as to the outcome of the mission for New Krypton, but, if you think about it, I did come to retrieve CJ and return him to you.”
Lori said, “I guess we’ll have to be satisfied with that consolation. We make it back and we get back a happy, healthy, little boy. It’s going to be hard leaving him behind.”
At this point Teri came walking in carrying CJ who was now in his sleeper. Lori took the bull by the horns and as she reached for her son said, “Teri, Honey, I need you to do something else for me. I need you to pack the diaper bag for me. Enough supplies for a couple of days.” She put CJ on her lap and looked very intently at his face as if committing every nuance to memory as she finished up, “CJ’s taking a little trip.”
Teri asked, “Where ya goin’ Grams?”
Somewhat distractedly as she was looking intently in her son’s face she said, “He’s not going with us. He’s going with Herb. He has to take him to us, in the past.”
Teri was confused, “He’s taking CJ to you in the past?”
Lori finally gave her granddaughter her full attention, “I’m sorry, you don’t know. Herb is a time traveler. Gramps and I are going away on a mission. Herb is taking CJ into the past so that we can take care of him and love him and protect him from what is going to happen.”
Teri, finally understanding somewhat asked, “Do you want me to go with him? I could go to help take care of him.”
Lori said, “No, not this time Sweetie. I appreciate the offer, but, it didn’t happen, so it can’t happen.”
Teri was mystified and said, “Huh? It didn’t happen so it can’t happen?”
Understanding just how confusing the situation could be Lori said, “That’s right, Sweetie. You being there didn’t happen. You see we, Gramps and I, we took care of CJ, back before your Uncle Jon was born. It is our history. It happened. It’s happening now.”
Lori gave this a couple of minutes to sink in and then said, “I need you to pack that diaper bag for me, please. Can you do that for me? Here, I’ll let you take CJ with you. He’s going to be gone for over eight months.”
Being practical, Teri replied, “I can’t pack that much supplies in the diaper bag.”
“No Sweetie, you don’t need to. We will be buying what we need, in the past. I know, I’m mixing my tenses, but, that’s what happens with time travel. It’s confusing.”
“I’ll say. We will buy the things we need in the past. Why not say, ‘we bought the things we needed in the past?”
“Because, CJ isn’t in the past yet. Wait a minute, he was in the past he just hasn’t left yet. My head is starting to hurt. Herb! What’s the right way to say it?”
“I don’t know, my Dear. I’m just as confused as you are. The English language it too limited to express the situation properly. Yes, quite. Too limited. I say, jolly good.”
“Okay Grams, I’ll stuff as much as I can into the diaper bag. Come on CJ, let’s go get you packed for your trip.” She put CJ on her hip and headed for the nursery.
Lori stopped her, “Teri, please include his blanket with the shield on it. He’ll need that to keep him warm.”
“You got it Grams, I’ll grab it.”
Once Teri had walked out of the room Lori turned to Herb and said, “I think that Clark should write the note. Clark, do you remember what was in it?”
“Like it was yesterday. Herb, if I recall correctly, you came by the next day with a fake birth certificate and a letter from my ‘cousin’. You’re going to take care of those, right?”
“That is correct, my boy, I have them right here,” he said patting his breast pocket, “There will be no questions. I’ll take CJ directly to 1997 and see that he is safely delivered to 348 Hyperion Ave. Since it is near his bedtime I will drop him off at night and then I will simply skip ahead to the following morning and deliver the papers. This is really the best way. You already know that he is loved and cared for because you are the ones doing it and you can relax in that knowledge. That is one less thing that you will have to worry about.”
“We can see that Herb, still, we are going to be away from him for eight long months.”
“Ah, but the beauty of this solution is that you do not miss those eight months. You already have the memory of him during that period so you will not miss out on that period of his development. I’m sure you have all the memories of his milestones, his first word, crawling, first step and all of that. You see, by doing this you are able to have him safely protected, he will age appropriately and you get to have all of the memories associated with his development. It is almost like you are not separated at all.”
“I just wish that we had been able to include more information in the note that we send with him.” Clark stepped into another room and prepared the note returning in just a short time.
A few minutes later Teri came back into the living room with CJ on her hip and the diaper bag over her shoulder. She said, “Grams, I packed as much as the bag would hold but it’s only going to be enough for a couple of days at best. The way he’s going through diapers they might not even last that long. I also packed all of the breast milk; it would just go bad if he didn’t take it with him.”
Lori said, “That’s very thoughtful of you, Sweetie. I had forgotten all about that. It was critical and that way we had enough to get started.”
Still confused by all of this and the concepts involved with the time travel Teri said, “Huh? You sound like you know.”
“I do Honey. Remember, it’s our history. Herb is taking CJ into the past and giving him to Gramps and me and we are going to be taking care of him ourselves. You see, we can remember taking care of him because it already happened, uh, is happening, well, will happen, uh, did happen. It’s really confusing. It’s about to happen, but it already happened.”
Lori reached out for CJ and pulled him into a close embrace. She wasn’t crying, at least not outwardly. She held her son and looked intently at him for a couple of minutes as she said, “Well, little guy, Mommy is going to miss you. You need to be good for Mommy and be a good boy for Mommy, your other Mommy, the one in the past.”
Clark came over and folded both Lori and CJ up in his strong arms. They both gave CJ kisses on the forehead as Clark stepped back.
As Lori was about to hand CJ to Herb, Herb started as if he had suddenly remembered something. He said, “Oh my, I nearly forgot.” Herb reached into his pocket and pulled out a pendant.
He handed it to Lori as she handed him CJ. He said, “My dear, this pendant is for you to wear when on New Krypton. According to our calculations on New Krypton with your current pendant you would be able to survive the higher gravitation, but, that would be all. This pendant has a double sized piece of the Star Sapphire Kryptonite and a correspondingly larger piece of the red K. If our calculations are correct you should, with this, retain your powers even on New Krypton. It is our belief that you may have need of them.”
As soon as the pendant hit her hand Lori felt her powers surge. She was careful, when she closed her hand on the pendant that she didn’t crush it in the process. She said, “Thanks, Herb, this is greatly appreciated.” She turned to Clark and said, “Well, it sure looks like role reversal. On New Krypton, I’ll be the superhero. At least I won’t have to worry about maintaining a secret identity.”
Herb said, “I will return CJ to you as soon as you return from your mission.” Herb pulled his TaDT from his pocket and entered the space and time coordinates. A portal opened in front of him and he stepped through, carrying CJ with the diaper bag over his shoulder. The portal closed itself as soon as they had passed through.
As the portal was closing behind Herb another memory from that time suddenly hit Lori and she started laughing hysterically.
Clark and Teri looked at her like they thought that she had lost her mind.
Noting their expressions, Lori started laughing that much harder. After a couple of minutes she started to settle down and she said, “Clark, think back to when we had CJ! Do you remember the prescription?”
For a moment Clark stood there thinking back and suddenly he started to laugh and Lori joined in with him. By the time they settled down they both had tears running down their cheeks.
Observing this behavior Teri started to have some doubts about the sanity of her grandparents. She asked, “What prescription?”
Walking over and putting her arms around her granddaughter Lori said, “It’s a prescription that Herb has to deliver to us in the past when he drops CJ off with us.”
Mystified, Teri asked, “What prescription? CJ doesn’t take any medicine! He’s very healthy.”
“Honey, the prescription isn’t for CJ, it’s for me.”
“Are you sick, uh, were you sick, back in the past, I mean?”
Lori started laughing again, “No, Sweetie, I wasn’t sick and the prescription wasn’t for medicine, at least, not exactly and Gramps and I had to work on it together. It was just … a surprise, that’s all.” She gave Clark a sidelong glance and a wicked little grin as she finished, “A very pleasant surprise.”
Lori had an inscrutable smile which totally mystified Teri, but, as she watched her grandmother and grandfather put their arms around each other and kissed. This put all of her fears at rest. Her grandparents loved each other and all was right with her world as a result.
comments go here TBC
