Work Text:
Sarah’s laugh rang through the air, and Jordan grinned at her, their clasped hands swinging gently between them. It was the summer before their senior year of high school, and the two of them were off touring a college a few hours from their house.
Ever since Sarah had found out about Jordan’s powers a year ago (due to an unfortunate incident involving flight that Jordan would rather not think about ever again), the two of them had been traveling more and more together. Now that Jordan had the full range of Kryptonian powers, it was easy to hop to a faraway place in the blink of an eye. Today, however, they’d opted for a more traditional road-trip style visit, since the school was pretty close.
Everything was going splendidly - the town was cute, the academics were good, the older students were nice - until halfway through their tour, Jordan suddenly doubled over and vomited onto the sidewalk.
The rest of the tour group turned to stare in various degrees of shock and disgust, and Sarah moved to attempt to shield her boyfriend from prying eyes, placing a comforting hand on his back. He was still bent over, riding out residual heaves and trying to catch his breath. When he seemed done, Sarah gently tugged at his arm and shepherded him away from the group, shooting an apologetic glance at the tour guide as she went. Fortunately, they weren’t far from a quiet courtyard, and Sarah gently guided Jordan to a bench.
She was trying to stay calm for her boyfriend’s sake, but she couldn’t stop the panic that was coursing through her. As far as she was aware, Jordan couldn’t get sick, and there was nothing that could hurt him, except…
“Jordan, is this kryptonite?” she asked, fear and concern lacing her words.
He hummed an affirmative, hands pressed to his temples and face wrinkled in what Sarah could only imagine was agonizing pain.
“Oh, god. Um, ok, what do I do? Should I call someone? Your dad?”
That got a reaction out of Jordan, who jerked upright with a desperate “No!” as his face blanched even paler than it had been. He steadied himself with a hand on the bench, continuing, “No, no, don’t call dad. This will only take him out too. I jus’…just have to get away from it,” he mumbled, words starting to slur.
Wherever “it” is, Sarah thought. She wasn’t exactly sure how Kryptonite had ended up on a college campus in the middle of nowhere, but it wasn’t exactly her first priority right now anyway. She just had to figure out how she was going to get Jordan back to the car.
“Jordan, do you think you can walk?”
“Don’t really have that much of a choice,” he muttered, dragging himself to his feet. Once vertical, he staggered sideways alarmingly, and Sarah quickly moved to catch him and sling his arm over her shoulders. Gosh, he was heavy. Before she’d known his secret, she’d always wondered how Jordan seemed so fit and in shape. Besides his brief stint on the football team when she’d first met him, he hadn’t struck her as the most athletic guy. Of course, everything made sense now, and she silently cursed the fact that her boyfriend was built like a brick wall, one that she now had to drag back across campus to the parking garage.
They had to stop once for Jordan to heave unproductively into a garbage can, and Sarah kept having to wave off offers of help from passerby. As much as she appreciated that other people cared, she knew that nothing any normal person or doctor could do would help Jordan.
When they finally reached the Kent family truck, Jordan curled up in the passenger seat with a moan, resting his head on the window. Sarah quickly pulled out, glancing nervously over at her boyfriend every so often. He was still alarmingly pale and clammy, shivering lightly with his eyes firmly closed but certainly not asleep. She felt terrifyingly helpless, with nothing to do but drive and hope that the distance helped.
Much to her relief, it only took about 15 minutes of driving for Jordan to start looking a lot better. He still looked peaky and exhausted, but no longer in danger of being sick or passing out.
“Do you want me to pull over and call you dad? It would be safe for him now, right?”
“No, that’s alright. I just need to sleep the rest of it off. There’s not much dad can do now, though he’ll probably drag me to the fortress for a check up just in case.”
Sarah nodded, but despite his reassurances, the worry from earlier hadn’t quite faded.
“So that was Kryptonite, huh?” she asked, chewing on her lip nervously.
Jordan sighed. “Yeah. Pure, natural green kryptonite.”
At her questioning glance, he elaborated, “different forms of Kryptonite affect me differently. There’s different colors, each with different properties. I’ve never run into those, but Dad and Aunt Kara both have, and I know it’s not pretty. Then there’s the synthetic stuff, like the gas that made me miss the talent show.” Right, the talent show. Jordan had explained to her after she’d found out that it hadn’t only been about the Edge mess, but really about his new power developing unexpectedly. “The gas started out like a cold, but then it turned out it was freezing all this liquid inside my lungs, and I wasn’t gonna be able to breathe. Dad had to, uh, burn the Kryptonite out of me,” Jordan admitted, revulsion coloring his tone at the memory.
“God, Jordan. I didn’t know that part. It must’ve been terrifying.” The she grimaced, remembering her own actions from the time. “And I was such a jerk about it.”
“Sarah, you didn’t know. You thought I was ditching, and you had every right to be angry. And yeah, Kryptonite is really scary, regardless of the form. But Dad was there the first time, and you’re here now,” he said, sincerity clear as day. “Thank you, Sarah.”
She looked over at him, warmth filling both of their gazes, and reached out to clasp his hand.
“Anytime, Jordan. Though I hope we don’t make a habit of this,” she laughed, allowing some of the tension to slip out of her shoulders. With Jordan’s hand in hers, reassuringly warm and strong, it was easy to imagine that earlier had all been a dream. Of course, she knew better than that, and she knew that Jordan was still wiped out from the experience, but she knew that everything would be fine in the end. Jordan had been terrified when she’d found out that she would leave, but she hadn’t. She loved him, half-Kryptonian quirks and all.
It didn’t take long after that for Jordan to fall asleep, face smushed rather adorably into the window with his hand still in hers. She gently extracted her fingers to return them to the steering wheel, smiling the whole time. It was rare she saw Jordan asleep, given that he literally got up with the sun. It was nice to see him so relaxed and peaceful, even after everything.
An hour later, they pulled up at the Kent farm, and Jordan stretched awake as Sarah cut the engine. She went around to his side of the truck just in case, but when he got out there was no trace of the unsteadiness from earlier. He was moving a little stiff, maybe, and still looked like he could sleep for a week, but that was miles better than what Sarah had witnessed mere hours before.
The two of them climbed the porch stairs and stepped inside, the screen door closing with a bang behind them.
“Mom, Dad, we’re back!” Jordan called, and footsteps sounded on the stairs.
“Jordan, Sarah, how was your tour?” Lois’s voice was filled with excitement, eager to hear about their trip, but her smile faltered when she entered the kitchen and caught sight of her son.
“Jordan, what’s wrong? Are you alright?” She rushed forward, pressing a hand to Jordan’s face almost frantically.
“Mom, mom, it’s ok. I’m alright,” Jordan insisted, but Sarah saw the way he leaned into his mom’s touch. “There was just a little…incident…on campus,” he grimaced.
“Kryptonite. We ran into Kryptonite,” Sarah clarified. Lois’s gaze jumped to hers, fear and shock filling her face at the revelation.
“What?! Jordan, why didn’t you call me? Are you sure you’re alright? Let me call your dad, he’s at the store - “
“Mom, there was nothing you could’ve done. Dad couldn’t have come, you know it would’ve only put him out of commission too. The only thing was to get far away from it, and Sarah helped me. I’m fine now,” Jordan insisted, cutting off Lois’s panicked tirade.
Lois pursed her lips and set her phone down reluctantly. “Well, if you’re sure. Though you’re still going to the fortress later to get checked out. No arguments,” she said, interrupting the beginning of a protest from Jordan.
Then she turned to Sarah, genuine gratitude and sincerity in her face. “Thank you, for getting him home safe. I know it isn’t easy to deal with this kind of stuff. You did well.”
Sarah beamed at Lois’s praise. She’d spent a lot of time with the older Lane woman after Jordan had told her his secret. After all, Lois knew what it was to be a human in a relationship with a superpowered being.
“It was no problem. I’m just glad Jordan’s alright,” Sarah said, smiling at her boyfriend. “Anyway, I should get going home. Mom and Dad will want to know how everything went. And don’t worry, I’ll omit the whole Kryptonite fiasco.”
“Do you need a ride?” Lois asked.
“No, I’ll just walk. But thank you for the offer!”
With that, Sarah set out for home, mulling over the events of the day in her head. Sure, her life wasn’t normal, but she wouldn’t give up her friendship with Jordan for anything. Even if it did come with random disasters caused by alien rocks.