Jonathan Kent: superdad (A DCU One-Shot)

1972

 

In a lone blue dodge sat a young woman named Martha Clark Kent, playing with some fuzzy dice that had hung from the rearview mirror while waiting for her newlywed husband. She immediately glanced up as she noticed the front door slamming open.

 

“Jonathan, please!” Jessica, Jonathan's mom pleaded; Clutching to her son’s hand.

 

“No Ma, I’m tired of dealing with that man’s crap.” He responds.

 

“That man is your father Jon.”

 

“I don’t care! He can’t control my life anymore. I won’t let him.”

 

“Where are you gonna go?”

 

“Anywhere that isn’t near him would be good enough for me.” He tries to head to his truck. He’s however stopped again by his mother, tears running down her cheeks.

 

“Please, Jon! I lost your brothers, I can’t lose you too.” It takes a brief moment for him to pull his arm back, but he does.

 

“Goodbye ma.” He says weakly before getting in his truck and driving off as his mother stands there, sobbing.

 

The hours passed by and he checked to see his wife, sleeping in the front seat. A small smile escaped him. He focused back on the road, for the past few hours, he’d been thinking about his life now, with the world already in the shitter, he kept thinking to himself what he can do now. Almost all his friends are on the other side of the world, fighting the viet cong, while the ones that stayed are fighting the government with the movements along with some of those ‘heroes’ he always heard on the radio. But he couldn’t care less. He noticed a shooting star, which was weird, since it looked like it was getting closer.

 

“Oh shi-” He swirves to avoid the collision of the meteor that hits a cornfield nearby. Martha wakes up due to the harsh movement of the car and takes in several deep breaths.

 

“Jon, what the hell is wrong with you?!” she yells out as Jon unbuckles his seatbelt.

 

“Make sure you lock the car when I get out.”

 

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

 

“I dunno.” Jonathan says before unlocking the door and grabbing his revolver, he’s only used it once, but he hopes it’ll be enough. He rushes to the source of the smoke emerging from the crashsite. As he headed through the cornfield, getting closer, he could hear wailing. He stops to see the rocket, with the bawling sounding that sounded less of a wounded animal, and more like that of a baby. He puts the gun in his pocket, walking to the hole in the rocket and seeing…

 

“A baby?” He stands there, trying to process what he is witnessing. But the continued crying catches his attention back as he grabs the child and holds it closely.

 

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.” Jonathan whispers. Shushing the baby to sleep.

 

“Jon?” He turns back to see his wife, flashlight in hand.

 

“Hey hon.” He responds. She glances at the baby in his arms.

 

“Is that-”

 

“Yeah. I found him in the rocket.” He points to the rocket next to him. She walks to him as he passes the infant to her. He looked around the rocket, spotting another container that was broken open.

 

“Martha, there was another-”

 

“I know.” She interrupts, he looks back at her, slightly confused.

 

“That’s actually what I was coming to talk to you about. As I was waiting in the car, I saw a small pup. It looked weak and I brought it into the car.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“So… did you think of a name for this sweetheart?”

 

“Wait, are you implying that you want to-”

 

“He doesn’t have a home to go to. Neither does the pup.” He lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose.

 

“Okay, let’s uh… Let’s say we did adopt them. How do we know we’re ready, I mean, I didn’t even think we’d have a kid this soon.” She puts a hand on her husband’s shoulder.

 

“I don’t think that’s for us to decide, Jon.”

 

“Alright, fair enough. Have you thought of a name? Cause I’m running a blank.”

 

“Yeah, Clark.” She says as she watches the young Clark Kent sleep.

 

---------------------------

 

1989

 

Jonathan was under the hood of his dodge, attempting to fix the engine. When he hears a call from Martha.

 

“Jonathan! Come over here, will you? It’s ready.” He lets out a sigh before grabbing a rag to wipe the oil from his hands and heading inside the house. He immediately notices bits of fabric with sketches strewn across the living room. His eyes darted to his son Clark, dressed in a blue suit with black lines and a red cape.

 

“What do you think dad?” Clark asks, posing with his hands on his hips.

 

“It’s alright, although I’m not a huge fan of the black.” Jonathan finally says.

 

“See, I told you it was too much.” Martha adds, to which Clark shrugs in response.

 

“Agree to disagree.”

 

Jonathan hears the house phone ringing and picks it up.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Um, h-hello Mr. Kent, it’s Lana. I-Is Clark there?”

 

“Yeah, he’s here.” I pull the phone to call out Clark.

 

“Clark! Your girlfriend Lana’s calling you.” Clark turns back, he grumbles a bit before taking the phone from his father’s hand.

 

“Yeah? Oh no, me and dad will pick you up. Right, okay, bye.” He hangs up the phone before looking back at his dad.

 

“Did you have to say girlfriend? Pete is coming with us as well to the senior prom.”

 

“Better me than your mother.”

 

Clark groans while Jonathan chuckles.

 

“And Clark?” Jonathan puts a hand on his shoulder just as Clark is about to head to his room.

 

“Please don’t use your powers tonight, I know your ma is excited to see you dressed up and all. But I don’t wanna see any trouble coming your way.”

 

“I know dad.”

 

“Okay, now get dressed, we leave in thirty.” He says as he pats Clark’s back

 

 

---------------------------

 

The car pauses to a calm halt as it stops at the front of Smallville High School, Jonathan turns to the three teens.

 

“Now make you three try not to cause any trouble, I’ll pick you three up at around ten.”

 

“We’re eighteen y’know.” Clark responds.

 

“Yet you still pout like an eight year old.”

 

“Ma would never be this cruel.” He mutters while getting out of the car along with the other two.

 

“Have fun!” Jonathan yells out, waving as the trio head inside before driving off.

 

A few hours later, as he was heading back to pick up the kids, he notices a car driving towards him, he immediately swerves off the road. But the car stopped before it could crash into a tree.

 

“What the...” He looks up to see Clark, dressed in his superhero attire from earlier.

 

“C-Clark?” Jonathan asked shakily, slowly recovering from the shock.

 

“My god. He saved me, I could’ve died, but he saved me.” Jonathan thinks to himself. Remembering the times he told him to be careful, to hide his powers, to not be selfless and risk it all. He realizes maybe he wasn’t just worried about Clark, maybe he was worried about himself…

 

“P-Dad, I know you wanted me to not use my powers tonight. B-But when I heard your car nearby. I-I had no choice but to check. I’m so so-” Clark is brought into a hug by his father.

 

“Dad, are you okay?” He asks.

 

“I’m just glad to see you, son.”

 

---------------------------

 

1992

 

“Alright Krypto, you ready?” Jonathan asks the wolf-like dog, who happily barked, wagging his three tails in excitement.

 

“Alright…” Jonathan, readying his position clutching on the ball with his right arm.

 

“Go!” He yells out, throwing the ball as far as he can. Krypto speeds off into the cornfields after the ball. He walks to a nearby basket full of baseballs, grabbing a new one as he expects that Krypto will likely break another one.

 

“Hey dad.” Jonathan stops to turn around and see his son, Clark.

 

“Hey, didn’t expect to see you so soon. Thought you’d be busy getting the next big scoop.” Clark scratches the back of his head.

 

“Yeah, well, after the rumors of a ‘Superman’, it seems like my next big scoop is gonna pale in comparison.”

 

“Bah, you act as if none of your’s are interesting, your ma and I would beg to differ.” Krypto pops out of the cornfields, broken ball in mouth as he walks up to Jonathan to hand him the ball, to which he rewards the dog with a treat.

 

“It’s actually why I mainly came here.” He says to which Jonathan looks back up to him.

 

“Why did you send me the suit? I…I thought you didn’t like me being a hero.” Jonathan is silent for a few moments, trying to find the right words.

 

“It… It wasn’t you being a hero that I was worried about, it was you being in danger. Look, when I was young, my pa was… for a lack of a better word an asshole. He always wanted us to be strong and fight anything that got in our way, whether that was good or bad.” He tries to choke back the resentment and hatred of his past.

 

“But eventually, I just couldn’t keep tolerating it anymore. Then Vietnam came, and my two brothers enlisted. We lost Joseph due to a bombing. Jerry came back, but I guess he saw too much bad stuff, horrible enough that even we couldn’t save him. I was unable to face that at the time, and I didn’t want to just stand there and take the pain that came from staying with my pa anymore." Jonathan sniffles, following it with a calm and deep breath.

 

“Honestly, I didn’t know what to do next after that. I mean I married your ma, but I didn't know what god, or whoever was up there’s plans for me, I was lost, I had no purpose,” Clark doesn’t know what exactly to say.

 

“What changed?” Jonathan unknowingly lets out a comforting smile.

 

“You did, when you crashed down, I felt like maybe this was a second chance or something. I wasn’t and still am not sure. All I knew was I had to keep you safe. When I found you, I knew if anyone found who or what you were, you would get hurt. I didn’t want you to be a hero, I thought that you doing so would get yourself hurt. So I sent you the suit so you could be you and not what I wanted you to be. It took me too long to realize that I was being selfish and trying so hard not to be my pa. I’m sorry.” Clark gives him a look of shock.

 

“What-What are you talking about? You weren’t a bad father, you were just trying to keep me safe. I knew that then That’s-That’s why I gave it up.”

 

“And that’s why I gave you the suit, because the world doesn’t just need Clark Kent or Superman.” Jonathan puts both hands on his son’s shoulders.

 

“It needs both of you. I wish I could’ve told you how proud I was for you to be who you are sooner.” He hugs Clark.

 

“Thanks dad.” He hugs back. They turn to the sound of Krypto barking from just outside of the house.

 

“Sounds like dinner is ready, you wanna join us tonight?” Clark smiles in response.

 

“Why not? Better ma’s cooking than takeout.” They share a laugh. As they head into the house, Clark asks.

 

“So we’ve had the talk, would it be okay if I called you Pa?” Jonathan gives him a slightly annoyed yet somewhat acceptful look.

 

“Maybe, but not today.”

 

---------------------------

 

2008

 

Jonathan drives silently as he spots his wife Martha frustratingly scrolling through her phone. He smiles a bit.

 

“Still haven’t figured out how to use it yet?” He asks while laughing a bit. She turns to him, not having any of it.

 

“Says the man who still uses a landline.”

 

“Hey, still works like a charm and does it’s purpose.”

 

“I know that.” She looks back at her phone.

 

“But I’d still like to see the video of the Snow White play Lois sent me. Apparently Jon was adorable as one of the dwarfs.” She mutters. He shakes his head in amusement.

 

 

“Finally back home.” He says, Martha sighs as Jonathan pulls the car up on the driveway. She’s is the first to get out and open the trunk, grab several grocery bags and unlock the front door, when Krypto excitedly rushes out the door. She turns back to yell out.

 

“I’m going to start cooking in a bit, and then after that, I’ll call Lois on how to work this darn phone.”

 

“And how are you gonna talk to her again?” He asks, smirking. Martha stares back at him , not amused at all before rolling her eyes and heading back inside. Jonathan starts to get out, but stops himself as he feels a slight discomfort in the center of his chest. It passes after a few moments. He takes a deep breath, spotting a picture that was taken recently of him, Clark, and his grandson Jon. He finally gets out of the car and grabs some of the remaining groceries and walks to the house, but about halfway there, he stops himself, feeling the discomfort come back again, but this time with a strong force. His breath stops.

 

“Oh, shi-'' Jonathan falls to the ground. His hands start clutching to his chest, feeling his heart almost being squeezed as he struggles to breath. Krypto, confused as to why he fell down, starts barking which catches Martha’s attention. She gets out of the house to check why Krypto’s barking, and spots her husband struggling.

 

“Jonathan.” She whispers, before running out to her husband.

 

“Jonathan!” She repeats loudly as she gets down on the ground and struggles to lift his body up. Tears start welling up in her eyes as she tries figuring out what to do, before realizing.

 

“Clark!” She screams out.

 

“You’re gonna be okay. He’s on his way.” She whispers as she sees her husband’s eyelids start getting heavy.

 

“Clark!” Martha calls out again, hoping that he can hear her, and he can save him.

 

“Clark!” She shouts, waiting for him to come and help as she notices his eyelids fall and he succumbs. She immediately puts her ear to his chest, and doesn’t hear anything.

 

“Jonathan!” She screams. Putting her head to his chest, bawling. Krypto walks up to her as he whines, licking her hand, before noticing something and barks. She turns to see her son, dressed in his suit, walking up to her before falling on his knees, tears falling down his cheeks.

 

“P-Pa…” Is the only thing he can say. As he clutches both his parents close, sobbing, as he failed to save his father.

 

Done