Ships of Noah

Disclaimer: The characters and story plot of Smallville belongs to those farm folks at Warner Bros. Many thanks to them, for not minding fan fic when we fans 'borrow' them for a spell.
Spoiler Warning: Oct 2nd airring of Smallville eps. Read at your liking.
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Everyone had someone.

Be it best friends, co-workers, acquaintances, pets, parents or ex-girlfriends.

Everyone had someone, but like most creatures with empathy hitting deep cavern points, it sometimes took more than a parent or friend to pull them out. Sometimes, they needed to stew in that very place for a while, re-thinking actions, choices and decisions. Especially when they were his own.


~~~ Last Night ~~~


Kal-El no longer had pets. Since the death of his father, he often struggled to take care of Martha despite knowing full well that on any given day, she was strong enough to take care of herself. His acquaintances had become a smaller friend pool since attending Smallville High and college hadn't turned out to be the wonderful crack up he had originally hoped.

Not entirely his fault, Kal-El recognized events for what they were.

After his mother came home from the costume ball, Kal-El refusing to go, he sat up with her for a bit to hear how her 'business arrangements' went. Sometimes Kal-El wished he didn't ask so many questions. He knew better than to poke at Pandora's Box, he really did, but the square container was too tempting for anyone and he was no better. Life could be simpler if he allowed himself to be farm boy dumb and remain in the dark on certain subjects, but he couldn't leave well enough alone.

Who, with blood circulating in their veins, could honestly not open the box?

Senator Kent, dearest Martha to his father Jonathan, sat down with her son for a late night glass of cookies and milk, describing the party and listening to her son tell of what he had discovered with Chloe and Olsen. The hospital not yet releasing to the press the late-breaking news, Kal-El's mind should have been more on Jimmy's condition. He should have been focused on trying to discover what the alien park ranger was up to, how to stop her, yet somehow those scenarios were only a brief mention to Martha from her son.

"Something wrong Clark?" Martha asked, knowing the answer but giving him a chance to bring it up first. So much like her late husband, Martha knew the best way to get this type of information out of her son was to ease him into the idea, so then he'd feel better having taken the lead.

A typical shrug of his shoulders, staring down at the cookies as if they were moving about in entertainment, Kal-El replied, "Did you see them there?" His light blue eyes shifted from the countertop and rose to meet Martha's gaze. So transparent, she knew him, every thought and uneasy gesture speaking to the mother.

Slow, Martha acted casual for the sake of her son, she brought her glass to her lips to drink, "Yes. I saw them." Concern in her eyes, she noted Clark looking away.

It didn't take long for Kal-El to stab at the core of his continued irritation now that she laid out the ground work, "What did they dress as? Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne? Did Lana wear a large, red 'A' around her neck?"

"Clark," His hurt so apparent, Martha had to hold back her wince, "That's not really fair, you know." Soft fingers reached out to touch his, until Clark's face turned to see her. She loved her son and would do anything for him, including remind him to be a better man in the moments where he wanted to falter the most.

Intermixed with anger and guilt, Kal-El muttered, "I know." He told Lana to go. Never sharing the secret that only a few trusted knew. "What were they dressed as then?"

"Does it matter?" She reached up to her little boy in a man's body and stroked his hair. No matter how old he may become, she always saw her baby son through his eyes.

"Yes." Kal-El hesitated, "No. I don't know. Just tell me what they were."

The rest of the hour was filled with Kal-El hearing about the two of them, Roman soldier and Egyptian priestess indeed, and when he wasn't cursing them out to a degree, he was sitting there shocked hearing about a new coupling to his already convoluted world.

"Lois and your business contact, Queen?" Despite Martha's reassurance that Lois was only making amends, Kal-El didn't buy it. No male on the face of the planet asked a woman to accompany him to a shin dig like Lex's for 'simple business purposes'. At least, no one that he could think of.

"It was innocent Clark." When he said nothing, she tried to think of something that might comfort him, could ease the restless mind and Martha willed the spirit of Jonathan to her. Try as she may, there were no wisdom filled words from her dead husband that she could muster. "Clark..." She tried, but came up empty.

"I'm going to bed," he stood, giving Martha a kiss on the cheek but she noted he grabbed his red jacket and headed out the back door instead of the stairs. She felt for him, Senator Kent really did, but sometimes a boy Clark's age had to figure things out on his own.

No amount of mothering would save him.

Tugging on his blue T-shirt, grabbing the back to give a yank, Kal-El unbunched the cloth from the jacket he hastily threw around his torso. "This sucks," he was beside himself, not knowing how to feel and worse, knowing his concentration shouldn't be on what he didn't have. Jonathan raised him better than this, yet here he was, falling into that easy pattern all the same.

Kal-El leaned over to scoop the yellow tennis ball that lay among the hay and clutched it tight in his fingers. He would need a dumb bell to act as a true stress ball due to his alien make up, so making due, he climbed into the loft where he plopped down and bounced the fuzzy orb against the wall. The banging and bounce almost a comfort while he thought.

Ex-girlfriends. Best friends. New acquaintances. Lana was with Lex, which dug at Kal-El more than he ever imagined it would. Earlier he found out that Chloe and Jimmy were... dating.... Egads. He didn't see that coming a mile away and the way Jimmy went on, seeing to freak out over 'C.K.', it almost made his stomach turn. The newest kicker to the bunch was Lois Lane.

Why should he give a crap if Lois was now interested in some rich CEO?

Tossing the ball and missing the catch, not really putting in the effort, Kal-El sighed to himself, "Because it's like watching Noah's ark and you're sitting on the sidelines about to be rained upon." His eyes followed the tennis ball, as it rolled to the edge and slipped out of view. The sound of it hitting the hard, hay laden floor below, easily reached his ears.

Lana. Lex. Lois. Queen. Chloe. Jimmy.

He leaned back and closed his eyes, letting his hands fall lifeless at his side while thoughts of them all stoked the internal, building fire. Why, even Jimmy Olsen could get a date...... Jimmy Olsen. Impregnated with seeds and in need of immediate medical attention, less he end up like that guy in the hospital room. The Park Ranger needed to be stopped, and the more he thought on it, the more Kal-El realized it was his doing that she was here. Sort of. Zod threw him into the Phantom Zone and he busted out more than a few entities when he escaped.

Affairs of the mind and heart tore at Kal-El and he looked through the barn, through the house and into his mother's bed room. She was sitting on her bed, still in costume, with a pillow hugged to her chest. The blue stripped pillow case with the torn corner indicated it was His pillow that caught her dripped tears.

"I miss him too," Kal-El's whisper was offered to his mother from a far, knowing as well as she that had Jonathan been still alive, both of them might have less occurrences when each felt incredibly lost.

A good son, he rose to his feet and headed back into the house. Sometimes, Kal-El knew, he could make Martha feel better just by being there for her.

No matter how awful he felt, ironic enough, helping his mother usually made his spirits lift too.




Kal El
"Born in Space. Lost on Earth"