Second Chances: Superman and Lois

Chapter 2

Here's my first update of the New Year and cutting it kind of close, but I made it. Here's one of my New Year's resolutions. Seeing this series through to the end. Hopefully I can see it through. And now on with the chapter.

As Clark headed back towards his family farm, he continued to adapt to the new consciousness that the Monitor had essentially merged with his own until by the time he landed, Clark now possessed the consciousness of his counterpart from the old universe, since Novu seemed to have found a way to make that consciousness dominant, while he retained the memories of his double from this world, allowing him to be able to adapt to the new reality, which was a relief, since now he still had the memories of watching both of his twin sons grow up, since in this reality, he had twins and not a single son like he had before.

These new memories were the reason why instead of going into the house when he got home, Clark decided to return to the skies, since he found that sometimes that was where he did his best thinking and he had a lot to think about, since his life in this reality had several key differences in it as opposed to the way it had been in the old reality.

For starters, he found out that he'd married Lois several years earlier than he had in the original reality, which was a relief, since even Clark would admit that he'd dragged his feet in the sand about that for way too long in the old reality. Hell, he'd waited until after he'd gotten Lois pregnant before he'd finally worked up the guts to propose to her, where in this reality, Clark had proposed to her years before she got pregnant with their two sons. That was the next big change. Instead of being the father of one infant son, now Clark was the father of two teenage sons.

Like in the old reality, one of his sons was named Jonathan after his adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. His other son was named Jordan, after his kryptonian father, Jor-El. Clark was very grateful that he'd retained his memories from this world, since it meant that he'd still have the memories of watching his sons grow up. And he was glad about that, since he also remembered that he had a lot to make up for, since being Superman had caused him to miss several key moments of his sons' lives. Of course, they knew that the reason he was always gone was because he was Superman, though that had been Lois's idea, an idea that had been supported by Kara, who served as a surrogate aunt to the boys, something that made Clark smile, since she'd always been more of a sister to him than a cousin, but it also made him hope that someday she'd find someone to start a family of her own with.

Anyways, to Clark's surprise, he'd had some unexpected backup on this view of keeping the boys in the dark about his secret. Lois's father. It turns out that in this reality, Sam Lane was a completely different person. Instead of being one genius intellect away from being the Lex Luthor, in this reality, Sam Lane not only knew Clark's secret, but he staunchly supported Superman and believed that the world needed him, but also respected that while Clark had a duty to the country and the world, he also had a duty to his family as a husband and father, though Lois had something to do with that. Clark still chuckled as he remembered that fight, since it appeared Sam had forgotten something Clark had learned a long time ago. No one can defeat Lois Lane in an argument. And she'd also reminded him about all the mistakes he'd made raising her and her sister, how Sam had always put work ahead of his family and she didn't want Clark to make the same mistakes. And Clark was very glad that he'd been able to find a way to balance being a Superman with being Clark Kent, since one negative thing about this new reality was that his mother, Martha Kent, had passed away due to a heart attack about a year before the memory flashes had started and Clark was grateful that he'd had more time to spend with his mom before she died, but still, he'd been heartbroken when Martha had died, though he'd been lucky that he and his family had been visiting the farm from Metropolis. It had been after the funeral that Clark had discovered that his son Jordan had inherited his Kryptonian powers, which had led to him and Lois deciding to move their family to Smallville for the simpler life. However, Clark had been sure not to leave Metropolis completely undefended before he left, since in this reality, he found that another change was that his best friend James Olsen, who'd actually been the best man at his and Lois's wedding, had been chosen to become a member of the elite Green Lantern Corps, a choice that Clark fully agreed with and wished that James had gotten the opportunity for in the other reality, but anyways, since Clark would be living in Smallville, he appointed James or Green Lantern as the new protector of Metropolis, since he knew that if the criminals there realized that Superman was gone, it would be open season, so he'd rely on Green Lantern to keep them in check.

Anyways, as Clark continued to go through his memories of the new world, he saw just how different his sons were. Like he'd discovered earlier, his son Jordan had inherited his powers, however, he also discovered just how introverted Jordan was and that moving to Smallville had actually been a blessing for his son in more ways than one, since in addition to giving him a place to learn his powers in peace, it also allowed him to escape the incessant bullying he'd suffered from in Metropolis.

However, while Jordan had enjoyed their move to Smallville, Clark could tell that Jonathan had not, since he'd been forced to uproot his entire life in Metropolis as the popular quarterback of their high school football team when they'd moved to Smallville and he'd lost everything because of that. His friends and his girlfriend and from what Clark could remember, neither he or Lois had truly focused on how much that was impacting Jonathan, something he planned to change when he returned home. Anyways, Clark also knew another thing that made things more difficult for Jonathan was the fact that Jonathan didn't inherit his powers like Jordan had, so Clark could understand his frustrations about that. However, in Clark's opinion, Jonathan got a different kind of superpower. Jonathan wasn't just a pro athlete, he also had a genius level IQ and had spent a majority of his childhood taking things apart and putting them back together, much to his mother's chagrin. And now Clark was thinking that there were a few people he should consider getting his son in touch with to help put that brain to use.

Anyways, the final change Clark realized was a thing was the fact that Lois was once again pregnant, this time with a girl and the reason Clark knew that was because she was about 14 weeks pregnant. He was looking forward to being a father again, especially since now he'd get the opportunity to be the overprotective father who scared boys away from his father. Something that his father-in-law had already started giving him tips about, which Clark appreciated. But now he knew it was time to return home and see his family and start preparing for the new life he had in this new world.