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English
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Part 7 of Finding a Home
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Published:
2022-11-22
Completed:
2022-11-23
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6,570
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2/2
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Family of Steel

Chapter Text

*Seven Years Ago*

As soon as Superman landed in the backyard, Lois was tearing across the pavement towards him. Her heart was still racing from everything she had seen online, and she needed to be able to hold him close, proving to herself that he was here and safe.

Sinking into his arms, she settled into a desperate, hungry, soul-searing kiss.

“You’re never leaving home again, you hear that?” Her voice was muffled by Clark’s lips, but she knew he would hear it anyway.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He pulled away just far enough to respond. “I thought that–”

“That you’d be able to fight off a Kryptonite-powered robot by yourself?”

“Cyborg.”

“Don’t edit my rants, Smallville.”

She settled against his chest, leaning her weight almost fully against him. The rare smell of his sweat filled her nose. After all these years, she had thought she was used to watching Superman fly into incredible danger, but today felt different.

Today, the whole world knew who Superman was and what he had waiting for him at home. She had been flooded with well-meaning calls and texts as soon as news of Superman’s battle with Metallo had reached the news, and although a lot of people meant well, it only served to highlight how much she didn’t know.

“Are the boys…”

“Sleeping, thank god,” Lois answered. “They were already on their way to bed when the news hit.”

“Good. I really am sorry, Lois.”

“I know. I’m just glad you’re okay.” It was all part of being married to Superman, and even if there were times that it was incredibly hard, she wouldn’t want Clark to be any different.

He draped his arm around her shoulder, and they made their way back into the house. As Lois laced her fingers through his, she felt the familiar warm metal of his wedding band. From the first day everyone found out the truth, he had kept it on, finally able to show the world who he was coming home to after all the incredible feats he accomplished.

She let its solid presence wipe away the very last traces of her fear.


*Present Day*

Slowly, Jordan was making progress. He had managed to focus in on the sound of the clock in the living room, the rustle of the pages of his book, and the rushing of the pipes all without any pain. He was now working on keeping the headphones off despite the distracting tendrils of sound that whispered around him.

Having his dad leave had actually been helpful in a way; less pressure compared to having Superman giving him encouraging glances as he tried to relearn something as basic as listening. Still, it had been a while since he had left and Jordan was starting to wonder when he heard footsteps thundering on the deck. Wandering cautiously into the kitchen, he arrived just in time to see Jon come through the door.

“Hey! The headphones are off!”

“Arg! Jeez!” Jordan cringed backwards as the sound of his brother’s voice stabbed into his skull. He was tempted to cover his ears again, but then he caught sight of Sarah.

Last time he had seen her, he had almost blown up the school hallway and his dad had needed to come take him home. Wincing at the smallest sound was the exact opposite from the image he wanted to portray, so he did his best to focus his attention and look somewhat normal.

“You doing okay?” she asked warily.

“Yeah. Totally.” He gave her what he hoped was a breezy smile. “My dad, uh, taught me how to latch onto certain sounds, so now it’s just a matter of practice so I can–”

The sticky sound of their fridge opening broke his concentration, and he turned to glare at his brother.

Jon shrugged apologetically as he pulled a couple cans of soda out. “Is there anything that doesn’t hurt your ears right now?”

“Not really.”

It was a bit depressing to realize that although he had come a long way, there was still so much more for him to go. And even if he had been excited for the chance to see Sarah again, he felt a familiar anxious feeling swelling within him at the thought of them being alone together. He was a total part-Kryptonian freak, and she was completely normal. When his brother made a move to head upstairs, Jordan stopped him.

“You should hang out here. Help Sarah fill me in on what I’ve missed at school.” Eyes locked on his brother, Jordan tried to communicate all of the jumbled thoughts that were in his head. Unlike what countless tabloids had theorized on, they didn’t have telepathy, but there was still an unspoken communication they often managed.

Finally, Jon nodded. “Okay, sure. But you didn’t miss much. If I had known how boring normal school was, I wouldn’t have been so into going.”

It was still a little awkward as Jordan’s hearing slipped from time to time, but Jon somehow managed to keep things flowing smoothly no matter what. That was almost like a superpower in itself, and Jordan was glad for it right now.

“So, how long until you’re back at school?” Sarah asked.

“Well, my dad says that it took him a couple weeks before everything settled in for him.” That was a depressing thought. Maybe Jordan could push things a little faster than that? “I was thinking that–”

An ear splitting screech ripped into him as Sarah pushed her chair back along the tile floor.

“Sorry,” she winced. “I didn’t mean–”

“It’s fine. I know I gotta get used to it eventually. But, uh, that’s probably why I can’t go to school just yet.”

“He’s gonna kill it when he comes back,” Jon said brightly. “And, hey, we can totally pass on messages to him and stuff. There’s gotta be a way we can work that to our advantage, right?”

Sarah’s brow lifted. “So Jordan’ll be able to hear anything in the entire school?”

“He can hear any of the fluctuations in the collective sonic frequency,” Jon explained.

“Well, that makes no sense at all,” she frowned.

“It’s actually kind of cool.” Jon sat forward in his chair. “So, there’s this increased sensitivity–” He broke off when his phone buzzed. “It’s Grandpa.”

Jordan watched as his brother lifted the phone to his ear. Technically, he had the ability to hear the other end of that conversation. It was kind of wild to think about, and it felt different than the other powers he had gotten so far. This was a sort of always-on way of experiencing the world that was different from almost everyone else on the planet.

“Jordan.” Jon nudged him, bringing him back to reality. “When did Dad leave here?”

“Uh… Maybe a couple hours ago?” Now that he thought about it, it was kind of weird that Jordan hadn’t heard an update yet. The man in the metal suit was still at large, after all. Usually, his parents would have at least checked on him by now.

“Well, I guess Grandpa’s trying to get in touch with both him and Mom. They’re not answering their phones.”

An ear splitting sound cut through, and Jordan gasped and hunched himself down protectively. What the hell was that?

“Grandpa, you gotta shut that off! Jordan can hear it and it’s way too loud.” The sound cut out, and a muffled noise came from the phone.

Groaning, Jordan reached for Jon’s phone and pressed it to his ear. “I’m okay, Granddad, but do you think you can not do that again?”

“I’m sorry Jordan; I didn’t think.” His voice sounded tinny through the speaker, but at least it wasn’t painfully loud. “It didn’t work anyway. No sign of your dad.”

More bad news.

“Look, you and your brother just sit tight,” he instructed. “I’m sure there’s a good reason for what’s happened.”

Maybe there was a good reason, but Jordan still didn’t feel settled about it when he hung up. There were only a handful of reasons why their dad wouldn’t answer an ELT and none of them were good. He caught Jon’s gaze, and saw a similar fear within it. You’d think that for sons of Superman they wouldn’t be used to feeling this powerless.

“Jordan, maybe you can find out where they are.”

“Huh?” Jordan frowned. “Don’t know how I’m supposed to do that if Dad’s not answering an ELT.”

“Well, can’t you, like, listen for them?”

His jaw dangled. “Jon. I can barely listen to what’s in here. I can’t…” The idea of reaching out into the wide world was terrifying.

But Sarah was watching him. The idea of completely failing at this in front of her was even worse than any pain he might endure.

“I don’t even really know what to do,” he admitted warily. “Dad only taught me how to focus on stuff that I could see.”

Jon nodded, eyes glued on Jordan. “Okay, so Grandpa El told me a lot about it.”

“Wait, really? When?”

Jon shrugged. “Remember that one summer when you got super into Kryptonian epic poetry? Well, I got bored of that pretty soon so while you were listening to all that stuff, I was just asking him whatever I could think of about Dad’s powers.”

That made sense. Jon had been bored with Jordan’s fascination with Kryptonian mythology and the practical elements of superpowers would fall in line with his ‘action first’ interests. But it did put them both in a weird position.

“So, uh, what am I supposed to do?” Jordan asked.

Jon sat forward. “Okay, so Grandpa said that it’s like layers of sound? All the different frequencies and distances and stuff? So I guess you search through that?”

Layers. It sounded totally weird, especially when most of what Jordan had experienced was an avalanche. But he gave a shaky smile to Sarah and then closed his eyes.

He could hear the hum of the refrigerator, the shuffle of clothing… It was all a lot louder than he was comfortable with, though. An all-too-familiar pain between his eyebrows surged. But he wouldn’t let it stop him.

Digging deeper, he latched onto the sound of Jonathan and Sarah breathing, their bodies unconsciously syncing up as they watched him anxiously. Everything else was way too intense, and he dug his fingers into his palms to help him stay with it. His parents were counting on him. He wanted to show Sarah what he was capable of and…

Thudding heartbeats reached his ears, and Jordan stifled a pained groan. It was all too loud and all too much. He couldn’t even remember where he was let alone find–

Someone was shaking his shoulder, and Jordan pulled himself back to reality, taking a deep breath as if he had been trapped underwater this whole time.

“I can’t do it. I swear, I could hear every little sound in this room and still…”

“Well, Jordan, you’re not supposed to focus on the room, idiot.” Jonathan rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Jordan blinked. “What?”

“Yeah. You’re supposed to, like, pull back.”

“You didn’t say that!”

“I mean… I thought it was kinda obvious.”

Glaring, Jordan shrugged his brother’s hand off his shoulder. “None of this is obvious, Jon. Just because you–”

“Uh, guys?” Sarah waved her hand to get their attention. “Isn’t this kind of, like, urgent?”

The reminder sent a cold shock through Jordan, wiping out his heated annoyance as he turned back to his brother. “Yeah. It is. Okay, so what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, I think if you, like, pull back and try to take in the big picture it might help?” Jon suggested. “Then you can sort through all the stuff.”

He looked weirdly confident for someone who didn’t have superhearing, but it sounded like as good of a plan as any. Closing his eyes, he allowed his focus to drift outside of the room.

He could hear wind rushing through branches, distant motors running, voices from the town… Then, suddenly, something caught his attention.

“Clark!”

There was a whir of something mechanical mixed in with the sound of his mother’s voice, and then Jordan caught onto someone else, too.

“You keep calling him that, Lois. When are you going to see that it’s nothing more than a facade?”

A horrendous thud carried across the distance, and then Jordan heard something he never had before: his dad’s pained groan.

Snapping his head up, he gripped onto his brother’s arm. “I found them! We gotta go help Dad.”

It was hard to hear what was happening here while still keeping an ear out for where their parents were. Jon was saying something, but Jordan couldn’t completely understand it.

“Jon, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Sarah was talking. Forcing his focus back into the room, Jordan caught the tail-end of what she was saying.

“...get there on your own?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we’ve got to try something.”

A gleam lit up in Jon’s eyes. “I think I have an idea.”


‘Seeing stars’ had always seemed like a quaint expression to Clark, and it was one he had nodded along with enough times back when he was still pretending to be human.

Now that he had up close and personal experience with it, he was learning how unpleasant and terrifying it was. Dizzying, blurred shapes danced across his vision. The red lights sapped his strength and kept him from healing. He couldn’t focus long enough to figure out where in the warehouse he had been thrown, and all he was left with was the sound of Lois’ choked breathing from somewhere on the other end.

“You have to stop this!” she shouted at the man they had learned was actually the stranger. “He would never hurt anyone in this world.”

“I can’t take that risk.”

The reply was exactly what Clark feared, and he summoned up as much strength as he could to push himself off the ground. He had to fight against this. He had to be there for his family–

Another terrible blow landed against the side of his head, and he collapsed once more.

“It’s no use, Kal-El. I’ve been planning this for months, you know.”

The crunch of the stranger’s boots make Clark’s scalp tingle. Everything was sensitive. He could tell his body was starting to shut down. What would happen if he had to suffer another hit?

“I’m not like that person in the video,” he groaned. “I would never hurt Lois or anyone else.”

“You say that, Kal-El, but I know what happened on my world. How can you say yours is any different?”

“I have a family here! I need this world to be safe for them!”

Surprisingly, there was a pause. Had what he said actually gotten through? Lifting his head, Clark met the man’s curious eyes. Was there some kind of stirring within them?

“Clark! Get out of here! I’ll be okay, I promise.”

Lois’ voice shocked Clark back into the present. He couldn’t sit around and hope for a change of heart from his attacker; he needed to act.

She had been tied to the RV right after the first hit of the hammer, and there was no way Clark was leaving her here, no matter what she said. And there was also no way he’d make her watch him die. He’d figure a way out of this. One way or another–

A horrendous crash knocked Clark back to his knees. There was the roar of an engine, bright white lights, and then–

The stranger was hit violently by a red pickup truck. He flew across the room far away from Clark. Squinting, Clark tried to make out who his rescuer might be. The truck looked suspiciously familiar…

“Dad!” The door creaked open, and Jonathan of all people tumbled out. “Dad, what’s–”

“The lights.” It was the only thing Clark could manage to say. He wasn’t seeing stars anymore, but there was a black mist that was gradually solidifying over his field of vision.

He could hear a shuffling around him, a scraping sound, and then, finally, a crackle of electricity followed by a shower of sparks.

His bones sang in relief as he felt his strength come flooding back into him.

“Dad!” Jon was standing by the RV, hammer laying at his side. Jordan was blinking in confusion as he pulled himself off the side of the truck. Lois was there, too, her bright, relieved smile banishing the last traces of shadow from the room.

Clark let out a sigh. There was still more to do. The stranger needed to be dealt with and his motivations needed to be unpacked.

But Clark had no doubt that everything would work out just fine.


Lois had never been more proud of her kids. At the same time, there’d only been a few incidents in their lives when she’d been more upset with them or scared for them, and it was making for a confusing tangle of emotions within her.

“You had Sarah over here?” she asked in frustration.

Jordan shifted guiltily. “Well, yeah, but she went home before we got in the truck. We knew we shouldn’t bring her into something dangerous like that.”

“Mmhmm.” Her eyes narrowed. They may be trying to pass off their actions as being responsible, but there were a few glaring issues that she noticed. “And why didn’t you call your uncle?”

Jonathan and Jordan exchanged a look.

“Well, we didn’t know if he’d answer right away,” Jon finally defended. “And besides, if what’s-his-nuts managed to get the drop on Dad, then Uncle Tal was in danger, too, right?”

“So was Jordan,” Clark reminded them. “Are you sure you’re okay, bud?”

It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise for any of them that Jordan had reacted to the red lights. He got his powers the same way that Clark did, after all. But even though he was a little subdued, he managed to give both Lois and Clark a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It felt weird for a bit, but I was better as soon as Jon smashed those lights. Bro, that was totally badass!”

A smile lit up on Jon’s face. “Yeah! But I still can’t believe you figured out your powers so fast.”

“Well, ‘cause you helped lots. And you drove us there! I can’t believe that you just smashed through… Uh… I mean…” Jordan petered out self-consciously, eyes straying to his serious parents.

“It’s… okay.” Clark smiled cautiously. “You saved my life tonight. And we’re both proud of your courage and your quick action.”

“We’re not saying you two should run headfirst into danger as soon as something happens,” Lois added. “But for tonight… you did good.”

They had been creative and courageous and brave… It shouldn’t have been a surprise. They were Superman’s sons, after all. For years, Lois had tried to keep them insulated from the danger that was out there in the world, but tonight felt like a turning point in a lot of ways.

Jordan’s powers were continuing to grow and he rightfully wanted to use them to help. Jonathan’s bravery and creativity were also blossoming. They wouldn’t be content to stay tucked safely away for forever.

And something told her that they were going to feel ready to take on responsibility far sooner than she would be to see it.

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