Chapter Text
Seven years later.
“Mr Kent, this is Mrs Holloway. From your daughter’s school.”
Clark paused. Why would the school be calling? Especially the assistant principal.
“Uh, yes, Mrs Holloway. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I’m afraid something has happened. Are you or your wife able to come down to the school?”
Clark glanced up as Lois came in with a page in her hand. From the look on her face, she wasn’t happy.
“We’re both tied up at work,” he said. “Could you tell me what it is?”
Lois frowned at him and mouthed something that he couldn’t quite figure out. The woman began speaking again.
“Your daughter has been involved in a little accident.”
Accident? This did not sound good.
“All right, Mrs Holloway. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
Lois again frowned at him. “What’s going on?”
“That was Kally’s school. I’d better go.”
She nodded. They had a deadline to meet and only one of them could go. Clark dashed up the stairs to explain to Perry. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but Kally was twelve and showing signs she was beginning puberty. He wondered if her accident had anything to do with her coming into some abilities.
The editor-in-chief at least seemed to be in a good mood. While he often lectured on the importance of sticking to deadlines and being committed to the job, he also understood that many of the journalists under his command had family commitments as well.
They’d driven together to work and he didn’t want to leave his wife stranded with no way to get home, so Clark decided to fly home and drive the truck to Sullivan Heights middle school.
Kally was sitting on a chair outside the principal’s office when he entered. She stared wide-eyed at him.
“Daddy, I don’t know what happened. I swear I didn’t.”
He nodded and held a hand up so she would quiet down.
“Okay. Let me talk to Mrs Holloway and we’ll see if we can’t get this straightened out.” He turned to the secretary, who just smiled and nodded.
“She’ll be right out,” she said.
Clark sat down next to his daughter, patting her hand. She was tall for a twelve-year-old. Clark expected she was going to be much taller than she already was. Probably very close to his own height of six foot three.
She looked as if she had been crying. Clark had no idea if the tears had been brought on by the drama of whatever she had done, or guilt. He guessed he would find out.
The door to the office opened and a heavy-set woman came out. She smiled kindly at Kally before nodding at Clark.
“Mr Kent. Thank you for coming so promptly. Would you please come in? Kally, you, too.”
Clark waited until the woman sat down behind the desk.
“What is this about?” he asked.
“To be honest, I’ve had a few conflicting stories about this. It seems that one of the eighth graders was bullying one of Kally’s classmates and Kally stood up to him.”
“Surely that’s a good thing.”
“Here is the confusing part. The boy claims Kally sprained his wrist and pushed him down. Yet I don’t see how that is possible. Your daughter has witnesses saying the boy struck her. Frankly, I’m inclined to believe your daughter’s version of events. The boy is a known troublemaker.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Kally said, sounding tearful.
“She knows, honey,” Clark said, shushing her. “So, what do you want to do?”
The assistant principal told him she thought the best thing to do would be to take Kally home and let her process what had happened. It wasn’t a punishment. The girl was obviously upset that she might have actually done something to hurt the boy. His parents had already been in to the school and shouted at Kally, blaming her for the entire thing. That was probably what had upset her more.
Clark drove her home in the truck. He left her with a snack of cookies and milk while he called his wife and told her what happened.
“I think it’s time, Smallville.”
“You’re right. But I think we should tell her together. After the kids are in bed.”
He went back to watch his daughter. She had a half-full glass of milk in front of her and was just playing with the cookie on her plate.
“Am I in trouble?” she asked.
He frowned at her. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you don’t normally go have a private confab with Mom unless it’s something you don’t want me to hear.”
“Honey, no, you’re not in trouble. But I need to know what happened at school. Or what you think happened.”
She chewed on her lower lip in a perfect imitation of her mother when Lois was worrying over something.
“Well, Ryan was picking on Judy. You know, she’s in my class.”
Clark nodded. The two girls were not exactly friends, but Judy had been to one of Kally’s birthday parties before.
“He started shoving her and I went over to him and told him to pick on someone his own size. He started calling me a freak and I told him to leave Judy alone or else I was going to tell a teacher. Just like you and Mom told me to do. That’s when he hit me. I swear, Daddy, I didn’t touch him, but he tried to punch me and he just fell over and started screaming, holding his hand like he’d broken something. I don’t know what happened.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I know, sweetie. It’s okay. Why don’t you eat your cookies and go upstairs and start your homework. Trust me, you did the right thing.”
He watched her go, sighing. He had not looked forward to this day from the moment Jor-El had told him that his daughter might get some of his abilities. As difficult as his own life was, he knew it was about to get more difficult for Kally.
“Well, that’s what we’re here for,” Lois told him later as they sat down to relax after dinner. Their youngest two children were upstairs playing. “To help her through this.”
“We still don’t really know what to expect.”
“No, we don’t, but then, neither did your parents when they found you in that cornfield. We will get through this, Smallville. We have to. Our little girl needs us. She needs to know what might happen.”
Kally came in from the kitchen. “Mom, I loaded the dishwasher.”
Lois smiled at her. “Thank you, sweetie. Why don’t you come sit down?”
She looked so uncertain, Clark didn’t really know how to ease her worries.
“I guess Dad told you what happened,” Kally said. She looked so small as she sat down in the chair opposite them.
“Yes, he did, and I couldn’t be more proud of you, honey. You not only stood up to a bully, but you didn’t sink down to his level.”
Kally looked surprised. “You believe me?”
Clark nodded. “We know you didn’t hit Ryan, honey. The same thing happened to me when I stood up to a bully. I was a lot younger than you, but I accidentally pushed him through a door.”
“Through a door?” Kally’s eyes widened. “But how?” She frowned at him. “How old were you?”
“I was in first grade.”
“What did Grandma and Grandpa do?”
“They were worried, of course, but your Grandpa told the school principal that the door was already warped.” Of course, it had been a lie, but since the principal couldn’t really point at Clark, who was younger and smaller than the other boy, she had to accept the lie.
“Was he hurt? The bully, I mean.”
“Yes, but only bruising.”
“Wow!” She worried at her lower lip again. “Daddy, can I tell you something? It’s kind of … weird.”
“You can tell us anything, sweetheart. You know that.”
“I’ve kind of been noticing stuff. Like, the other day, when we were out at the farm, I was playing with the kids, like baseball. Jon threw the ball and I started running and for a minute I ran really fast. Like I thought I couldn’t stop. When I did, I was like in the middle of Main Street. How did I do that, Dad?”
“We’ll get to that. What else?”
“Well, you know how sometimes I go out and help Grandpa feed the cows and how last year I couldn’t even lift the hay bales? Well, now it’s like they’re light as anything.”
He remembered. When she was younger, the hay bales had been so heavy, she’d needed her grandfather’s help to just lift one.
“I didn’t tell anybody, Daddy. I swear. Not even Grandpa Sam.”
He’d definitely left it long enough.
“Okay, honey, there are some things you need to know. But first, you can’t tell anyone except your mom and your grandparents.”
She nodded. “Daddy, am I getting powers like you?”
They’d told her everything years ago. About Krypton and the avatar of her grandfather in the crystal fortress.
“It looks like it. Your grandfather Jor-El wasn’t certain just what would happen, but he suspected it might happen about now.”
He explained the visit she’d had in the icy fortress when she was a year old. Kally listened as he told her how some of his powers had manifested.
“Do you think I’m going to get all the same powers?” she asked. “Like, you know, heat vision and stuff? Will I fly?”
“We don’t really know, sweetheart. Not even your grandfather would be able to tell you.”
“So does that mean the kids are going to get powers too?”
“That’s another thing we don’t know. Your grandfather told us that kind of thing is going to be hard to predict, because we don’t really know how much of your mother’s genes each one of you has. Plus you were all born under a yellow sun. The reason I have all my abilities is because I was born under a red sun. There’s a whole science to it that I don’t completely understand but it has to do with my body’s ability to store energy.”
“Oh.”
“We know this is a lot to take in, sweetheart,” Lois said.
“No, I know. I’m okay. I mean, I always knew I was kind of different from other kids.” Having known about her father’s abilities from an early age probably helped her understanding.
A few weeks later, they were staying at the farm getting ready for their annual Memorial Weekend cookout.
“Dad, can I ask you something?”
Clark looked up from the tractor. Kally stood in the barn doorway. She’d clearly just been out on Starlight as she was carrying the bridle she always used when out on her horse. Her long black hair had been tied back in a braid.
“What is it, sweetie?” he asked.
“Well, we were sort of doing this family tree at school today.”
Clark chewed his lip. He remembered having to do his own family tree, right around the time the cave had activated the A.I and downloaded the Kryptonian language into his brain. That had led to a whole series of problems that he didn’t want to think about.
He had the sense that wasn’t quite what Kally was wanting to ask though. She sat on the hay bale. Krypto sat at her feet. While Clark had named the dog, he’d always been more or less Kally’s pet. He’d protected her in more ways than her parents could count.
“You and Mom were really young when I was born, huh?”
He nodded. “That’s right. Your mom was not quite eighteen.”
“I asked Grandpa about it on the way home from school the other day and he said I was a mistake.”
Uh oh, Clark thought. Sam obviously meant well, but his preference for straight-talking could sometimes be misread.
He put down his tools and wiped his hands on the rag beside him before going to sit down on the hay bale beside his daughter.
Kally gazed at him, her blue eyes practically mirrors of his own. “Am I a mistake, Daddy?” she asked, sounding a little upset.
“No, baby. You’re not.”
“But if you and Mom weren’t like … together …”
He wrapped his arm around her. “Honey, I think you might have misinterpreted something your Grandpa said. What happened between your mom and I … we didn’t plan for it to happen, but that doesn’t mean it was a mistake. Sometimes, the world has a way of making sure something happens. You know how Grandfather Jor-El is always talking about destiny?”
“Yeah, only he says it’s like your destiny to be Superman.”
“Exactly. So, what happened with me and your mom, it was like destiny. We did go our separate ways for a while, but then you came along and that led to us meeting again.”
He could still remember, all those years ago, seeing his daughter for the first time. Her chubby little face and eyes so big he couldn’t help but notice how blue they were. She had been wearing a little blue sundress that almost perfectly matched her eyes. He’d fallen instantly.
“And I’m glad for it. Kally, I loved you from the first moment I saw you, with your mop of hair and your big blue eyes. I always thought you were the most beautiful little girl I ever saw and I still think that.”
She chuckled lightly in exasperation. “Daddy, I’m thirteen. I’m not a little girl anymore.”
He squeezed her gently. “You’ll always be my little girl,” he said.
“So you really mean it? That I’m not a mistake?”
“No, baby. You are definitely not a mistake. Your mom and I love you very much. You and your brother and sister. We wouldn’t change you for the world.”
She smiled up at him. “I love you, Daddy.”
He hugged her. “Why don’t you go help the other kids tidy the house. You know your grandma likes to see a clean house.”
Her eyes widened. “Grandma and Grandpa are coming home?”
Clark's dad was still a senator, his popularity growing more each year. There was even talk of him running for President.
He nodded. “Yup. Grandpa’s got a break from the senate for Memorial Day weekend and he wants to spend it with his grandchildren.”
“Don’t forget your Grandpa Sam too,” Lois said, coming into the barn. “You know he loves to give white glove inspections.”
Kally sighed heavily. “Yeah, he made me scrub the bathroom tiles with a toothbrush!” she complained.
Lois laughed. “He did that to me too. Lots of times. But that’s okay. If he tries to make you do that again, you just send him to me. I’ll sort him out.”
Kally hugged her mother before running off to the house, Krypto following. Lois grinned at Clark.
“Nicely done, Smallville,” she said.
He wrapped his arms around his wife. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to hear what you said.”
“I meant every word.”
She kissed him. “I know you did. That’s what I love about you Smallville. You always know the right thing to say. And I’m glad too. If it hadn’t been for Kally, I might never have met you again and fallen in love with you.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think somehow we would have met up. With or without Kally.”
They strolled out of the barn into the cool May afternoon. Clark could hear the sounds of activity as Kally began ordering her siblings around, telling them to clean up their respective messes. He smiled at the resulting protests.
They were noisy and sometimes fought like he guessed all siblings did from time to time, but he still wouldn’t change that for the world.