Save Me

Chapter 33

"What in the hell happened to my face?" Clark said as he kept touching his face as he stared at the reflection in the mirror. He stepped away from the mirror before he walked back to it again."Where am I? Where are my parents? Where are my kids? Where is my wife?" He yelled at himself as he turned back towards the mirror. He covered his face with his hands as opening he would open them and everything would be okay.

He waited for a few minutes and was about to take his hands down when he heard his cell phone ring. He removed his hands only to see his face was the same and the phone was still ringing. He shook his head and worked his jaw as he walked to the coffee table in the living room. He saw a red and blue cell phone as he picked it up. He opened it and cleared his throat before he answered it. "Hello?" He said in a deeper voice into the phone. "Clark, we're at the restaurant. Where are you?" A woman spoke into the line. "Celeste?" He smiled hoping it was her. "Yes, Clark. It's me your ex-wife, Celeste. Now, are you on your way." Celeste said as he made a face walking around the room. "What restaurant? Ex-wife? We just got married?" He said.

"Clark, have you hit your head? We've been divorced for twenty -two years. You live in the apartment and I got a house across Metropolis in the suburbs with the kids. But we have joint custody of the twins. Our only children, who are celebrating their twenty-second birthday today. Now, are you coming to the restaurant?" Celeste said in a tired tone.

Clark saw a set of keys and grabbed them. "Sure. Sure, Celeste. Where is it again?" "Taners On 42nd, Clark. And please, hurry. The kids will be here soon." She said before hanging up. He closed the phone as he stared at it. "We've been divorced all of our kids' lives? What in the world is going on?" He sighed as he placed the phone in his pocket before went to the balcony and wondered how he was going to deal with his clothes when he noticed they disappeared off him and he was suddenly in his suit. "Wow. What about my clothes?" He thought aloud as he watched his clothes appear on him, but this time he was in a casual suit and his phone and wallet were in the jacket pocket. "This is something new." He said to himself as he thought about his suit. He changed back into it and walked deeper on the big balcony and flew up into the sky.

He arrived downtown Metropolis in a matter of minutes before he swooped down into the subway and blurred his way into the men's bathroom before he changed back into his suit and walked back out. He straightened his glasses and went up the stairs to cross the busy street.

The city was totally different than he last remembered. Everything was more computerized and sleeker. Less simple, like it was when he was his younger self. Hell when his, now 22-year-old, kids were younger. He wasn't sure what to expect, but the knowledge that he and Courtney were divorced didn't sit well with him.

He walked into the restaurant and smiled at the hostess. "Um, Kent birthday party?" He said in a nervous tone. Amazingly he really was nervous. He was in a body he didn't recognize and a city that was his but didn't seem familiar. With a family that grew up and apart from him in the blink of an eye. "Right this way, sir." The hostess said as she walked Clark over to a big table near the back bay window.

There sat three familiar faces and three new ones. He was silently thankful that he remembered meeting CJ and Caey back before they were born because they looked exactly the same as young adults. And Celeste had looked even more beautiful. She cut her hair some to where it was just past her shoulders a bit. "Dad!" CJ smiled as he stood up to hug Clark. "Daddy!" Caelyn stood also to hug him. " Hey, Caey. CJ." Clark said as he slipped his glasses up some. "Sorry, I'm late." He said before the three of them sat down.

He sat in between a young man and young woman he didn't know. He noticed they sat next to CJ and Caelyn while the third member he didn't know sat next to Celeste. "No, problem dad. "CJ said as he draped his arm around the chair with the young lady in it. "We came early because we wanted to introduce you and mom to some special people in our lives."

"Yeah, daddy." This is my boyfriend, Peter." Caelyn said. Clark looked at the young man and extended a hand. He looked at it before he looked at Caelyn. "I thought you said that was your dad, Lyn?" Peter said. "No, that is my mom's guy friend. This is my daddy." "Well, I think you and I need to talk," Peter said as he stood up looking at her. "Now, wait a minute this is her and her brother's birthday," Clark said as he stood up. "I'm talking to my girlfriend, old man. You stay out of this." "Hey, don't talk to my dad that way," CJ said. "You stay out of this. How can you even be her brother? What are you, a stepbrother or something?" " Is he kidding me?" CJ said as he stood up also. "Caelyn, sweetie, take care of this so we can celebrate your birthday," Celeste said as she looked at her daughter's boyfriend.


"Yeah, daddy, you can sit back down. I'll be back." Caelyn smiled before she walked off with Peter. Clark watched his only daughter step outside with her boyfriend. "Clark, sit back down, please," Celeste said. Clark sat down as CJ tried to focus on something else. Like introducing his girlfriend."Dad, mom. This is Melissa. My girlfriend." Melissa smiled as she shook both their hands and leaned into CJ. "And I hope soon, my husband." Both Celeste and Clark looked at Melissa with shock, right as Peter and Caelyn came back in and sat down. Clark watched his little girl grow quiet as the waitress brought their cake. "Happy Birthday, Caey and CJ!" Clark and Celeste said as others said happy birthday. "Thank you," CJ said as he Caelyn agreed by nodding. "Well," Clark spoke for everyone. "Make a wish, kids." Caelyn and CJ both gave each other looks of understanding and blew the candles out at the same time.

They opened up presents and everyone had dinner and cake before casual talk went about the table with everyone except Peter, who decided it was time for him to leave. "You're not staying Peter?" Clark faked concern as he watched Peter shake his head. "No, I have to go to work. Besides, honestly, I don't like race-mixing. And I don't want to associate with people who do." Clark stood up as he narrowed his eyes. "Daddy," Caelyn said as he caught himself. "You must live a lonely life, Peter. The world is full of beautiful people and we all have to live on this planet and co-exist in peace and harmony as one race. The human race."

Clark could hear people clapping around him before he continued. "And sometimes you can help who you fall in love with." Peter rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Save that Superman bull for someone who gives a shit." He turned towards Caelyn and gave her a look of disgust. "I thought you were 1100 percent black. And now to know you aren't. Hmm. I guess we both know why you are just now introducing your father, brother, and I to each other. Goodbye Caelyn Kent. And don't ever call me again."

Caelyn opened her mouth then shut it as she looked back her plate as Peter walked away. At that moment, Sam felt he needed to change morale by getting down on his knee. "C.C. I know you and I have been seeing each other for the last twelve years but I can't just see you anymore. I want you to make you my wife. Celeste Kent will you become Celeste Gray?"

Clark's head whipped around at the same time that CJ's and Caelyn's did. They waited on bated breath for her to speak. A few minutes felt like hours as Celeste opened her mouth. She caught Clark's heartbreaking expression as she shook her head no. She got up went to the bathroom. Caelyn followed as Sam got up off his knees." I don't know why I even thought that tonight would be different. I mean I have been trying since day one. But no she would rather be miserable and alone. Tell her I said I'll be gone by the time you all get home." He said to CJ. "Kent." He said as he grabbed the ring and left.


Clark sat down as he began to feel a million emotions inside of his body. "I need to talk to your grandfather," Clark said as CJ looked at him with confusion. "You mean you're going to Smallville to sit at their graves?" Clark looked up with tears brimming at his eyes. "Graves?" Clark asked. "Yeah, dad. Graves as in at a cemetery?" CJ said in a slow and sad tone. "Grandfather died fifteen years ago and grandmother died just last year." Clark slumped in his seat and he began to cry, not caring who saw. "Dad? Dad?" CJ rushed over to him and let him cry on his shoulder. "Dad, are you okay?"

"No." He simply said. "Nothing is how it should be. How it's supposed to be?" He replied. "Dad, it's okay. We love you both and you both raised us as best as you could even living far part. And we know you did it to save us." CJ whispered in his father's ear. "To make sure we were safe. No one knows about you, as Kal-El and Superman, father. And we don't use our powers. We keep them dormant."

Melissa sensed the father/ son moment and excused herself. "Clark", She said as they looked up at her at the same time. She smiled. "Junior. My Clark. I need to go home. Long day at work." She said. "Okay." He smiled." Bye." "Bye. Bye, Mr. Kent." She waved before she left. "So, I'm still alone," Clark mumbled to himself. "No, you still have us. But now we are older. We don't get to see you that much. And with you being the owner of the Daily Planet as well Superman." CJ whispered the latter part before speaking his normal tone again. "You don't get to see us that much as well. But this birthday dinner was nice. Except for the Peter guy."


"About him. Why would Caey choose him as someone she wanted to spend time with?" Clark asked his son. "Between you and mom not married and you not hardly there and Sam always with mom, and I am busy with Melissa, traveling all over the world. I guess she searched and found what she needed from him." CJ explained. Clark breathed a heavy breath causing the table cloth to flutter lightly.


At that moment Celeste and Caelyn walked back to see father and son, huddled together sad and everyone else gone. "Where is everyone?"Celeste said. "Melissa had to go home and Sam said that by the time we get home, he'll be gone," CJ explained. Celeste sighed as she sat down. "I guess that's it. I was wondering when he would get tired." Caelyn sat back down also, deep in her own thoughts." Take a trip with me." Clark said aloud. The three of them looked at him as he exhaled a short breath. "Go where, Clark?" Celeste asked in a tired tone. " To Smallville. We all need to have some serious family time and I want to see my mother and father."


Caelyn and CJ gave each other looks before they cast their glances at their mother, who tilted her head taking Clark in. "Why? Nothing will change. You and I will still be divorced and Mom and Pop will still be gone. And our kids will still be the same as well." She said defeated. "That may be true." He sighed sadly. "Our children are grown and who knows when we can do this ever again. Please, Celeste." He said as he watched her think it over.

"Courtney, Please?" He said softly. Celeste looked up as she fought the smile at her lips. "You haven't called me that in decades." CJ grinned and Caelyn smiled at the fact that their parents were sharing a moment. "Can we mom?" CJ asked, hoping she would say yes. "Yeah, mama, can we?" Caelyn said.

"When, Clark?" She asked him as she glanced at their adult children acting like little kids. "We leave, tonight. Now in fact." He smiled for the first time tonight.