Title: Five things that never happened to Jonathan Kent
Author:
idontlikegravyBeta: Big thanks as always to the ever wonderful
strangevisitor7Prompt: Five Things
Rated: Gen
Characters: Duncan, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Clark Kent
Disclaimer: The characters you know and love all belong to their respective creators.
Summary: After Jonathan Kent died, his life got even stranger....
Five things that never happened to Jonathan Kent
Jonathan sat up with a gasp and looked around. Standing over him was a man with long dark hair.
“Where am I? I thought I was dead.”
“You were,” replied the stranger, pointing. Jonathan looked and realised he was in a graveyard. He was sitting beside a grave. The newly placed headstone read: Jonathan Kent, beloved husband and father. “You were lucky I found you.”
“Is this some trick of Jor-el’s?”
“Who? Look, there’s no time for explanations, we have to go before someone sees you.” The stranger offered Jonathan his hand, “I’m Duncan MacLeod and I’m here to help.”
***
“It’s no good Duncan, I have to go back.”
“How will you explain?”
“If anyone will understand, it’s them. They need me.”
“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Immortality is a hard thing to understand.”
Jonathan laughed and drove off.
He passed through a decimated Smallville and headed home. He found his family in the barn.
“I knew you’d have fixed things before I got here son.” Jonathan said. Clark and Martha turned with a start.
“Jonathan?”
“Dad? Is it really you?” Clark asked. Jonathan nodded.
“How?” Martha asked, crying. “Jor-el?”
“No. Let’s go inside and I’ll explain.”
***
Clark heard the clash of metal two blocks away. Jonathan had been distracted and disappeared after dinner without a word. Concerned, Clark had followed him.
He heard his father cry out, so he ran at super-speed to the alley. A man stood over Jonathan, sword raised. Clark sped forward, sending the man crashing to the ground.
“You…shouldn’t…have…interfered,” Jonathan gasped, wounds making speech difficult. “Leave.”
“I can’t just leave you here to die!”
“You have to, son. The Rules.”
Clark looked in his eyes and saw how serious he was. He nodded and left, returning home to wait for his father.
***
Clark and Jonathan stood beside the grave in silent prayer. The mourners had left hours ago, the gravediggers had done their job, and now the graveyard was empty as the rain beat down upon the two men.
One was over eighty years old, the other fifty, but neither looked their age.
“Time was, I couldn’t picture a world without her in it.”
“We’ll get through it Dad, together.” Clark placed a comforting arm around his father’s shoulder.
“I know we will, son. We have no choice,” Jonathan replied. He knelt and placed a rose on the fresh grave. “Goodbye, Martha.”
***
“How do you do it, Duncan?” Jonathan asked. “How do you say goodbye over and over? Even to ones you shouldn’t have to say goodbye to.”
“It doesn’t get any easier. Everyone dies in the end, even Immortals.”
“But not him. He wasn’t like us, he should have lived forever. I shouldn’t have outlived him.”
“I’m sorry Jonathan. No man should outlive his son,” Duncan said, sympathetically.
“No. No he shouldn’t,” Jonathan said with a sigh.
Duncan picked up his whiskey glass and raised it aloft in a toast. “To Superman.”
“To Clark,” Jonathan added, raising his own glass.