Fic: Brotherly Love Ch14
Title: Brotherly Love
Fandom: Smallville
Author: Jayson
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Eventual Clark Queen/Oliver Queen, Jason Teague/OMC: Andrew Sterling, Eventual Lucas Luthor/Whitney Fordman
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Language, Violence, Slash, Mpreg, Incest
Summary: The meteor shower hit Smallville in 1983, instead of 1989. Robert Queen was in Metropolis for a business meeting. Afterward, Robert, his wife Laura, and son Oliver go for a drive in the country and have a picnic. The meteor shower hits on their way back to Metropolis and they’re shocked to find a spaceship with a boy their son's age inside. After some discussion, Robert and Laura decide to adopt the boy who they name Clark and raise him as their own. Join Clark and Oliver as they navigate life as brothers who eventually find themselves falling in love not only with each other but another pair of brothers.
Brotherly Love
Written by J.C. Vascardi
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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to the television show Smallville are the property of its creators. I am not profiting from this story and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The only things about this story that I own are the storylines, places, and characters that are not featured on the show.
Pairings: Eventual Clark/Oliver/OMC/OMC, Jason/OMC, Eventual Lucas/Whitney
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Language, Violence, M/M Sex, M/M/M Sex, Incest, Mpreg, Original Characters, Rape/Non-Con
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Chapter Fourteen
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The next morning, Clark, Oliver, Cody, Derek, and Chris headed outside to milk the cows and collect the eggs from the chickens. Once they had finished their chores, showered and headed into the main house, they found Martha in the process of setting the table for breakfast. There was a delicious smell in the air which told them what was for breakfast moments before the oven timer went off and Jessica picked up a hot pad before leaning down to pull the muffin pans from the oven.
“Mmm, fresh-baked muffins,” Chris said with a happy smile.
Jessica smiled at her grandson. “Yes, I made a dozen blueberry and a dozen apple cinnamon. That along with a bowl of cereal should give you all a good start to the day.”
Making their way over to the table, the boys sat down as Jessica began removing the muffins from the pans. Martha brought over a box of corn flakes and a box of raisin bran for the boys to choose from. It was also around this time that Hiram and Jonathan came in after doing their morning rounds of checking all the fences, inspecting the crops, and mucking out the animal stalls.
“Smells good,” Hiram said as he leaned over and kissed his wife.
“Thank you,” Jessica said, before wrinkling her nose in disgust. “You, however, do not so go shower, please.”
“Yes dear,” Hiram said, as both he and Jonathan—who paused to kiss Martha as he passed—headed upstairs to shower.
Clark and Oliver opted for corn flakes, while Chris opted for raisin bran. Having thought ahead, Martha brought a pair of smaller bowls for Cody and Derek, which proved a good thing as Cody wanted raisin bran, while Derek wanted corn flakes. Since they only had one stomach between them, however, this meant smaller bowls of cereal. As Martha poured them all a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, she said, “Charles Randall called while you were out doing your chores.”
“How’s Ian?” Derek asked.
“He’s fine,” Martha answered. “And so is Finn.”
“I take it they haven’t been able to remerge yet,” Cody said.
“No, apparently not,” Martha confirmed. “Anyway, with his wife still in Florida until tomorrow afternoon, Charles has made arrangements for a sub to take over his classes so that he can stay home with them.”
As Jessica came over with the muffins, Chris said, “Can’t imagine Ian and Finn are all that thrilled with having a babysitter at their age.”
“Probably not, no,” Jessica agreed. “Although I can understand why Charles would want to make sure that they stay in the house. It would be awfully hard to explain why Ian suddenly has a conjoined twin brother, so it’s best that they stay out of sight until they can figure out how to remerge.”
“Not sure how they’re going to do that,” Clark said, before shaking his head. “And to think I thought living in Smallville was going to be boring.”
“It’s definitely not that,” Oliver said, as he took one of each flavor of muffin.
“Anyway, Charles also asked if you could collect Ian’s homework for him, Cody, Derek,” Martha said as she headed over to grab the coffee pot.
Cody nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.”
“We’ll head over to the Randalls after school,” Derek added before he raised a spoonful of cereal to this mouth.
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A few hours later, Cody and Derek sat down at their workstation in the science lab for their third-period science class, not long after their lab partner and best friend, Tyler Small, joined them.
“Hey guys,” Tyler said with a smile.
“Hey Ty,” Derek said, as the two exchanged a high five. Cody, meanwhile, was totally in the zone and concentrating on his notes. Tyler and Derek rolled their eyes and shook their heads, as they silently came to the conclusion that Cody probably hadn’t even noticed Tyler’s arrival.
Tyler wasn’t upset by this, however, as he knew just how studious Cody was, considering that the three of them had been friends since their first day of kindergarten together. The three of them had all been targeted for bullying by some of the other kids for things that they had no control over. Obviously, for Cody and Derek, it was their shared body, whereas for Tyler it was because he was the five-times-great-grandson of the town founder, Ezra Small.
One might think that would have earned Tyler some respect since his family was literally the town’s first family. There were people in Smallville who did respect the Small family because of their roots in the community, but for a group of Tyler’s peers, they saw it as the perfect opportunity to bully him because they figured he must be an entitled and spoiled brat. Just as they believed that Cody and Derek were some kind of weird two-headed freak. Both of them getting bullied for things that they couldn’t change brought them together as friends and formed a bond that was in some ways closer than brothers.
As they got older, the bullying lessened, especially for Cody and Derek, as with time people in town just got used to them. Tyler still got the occasional snide comment about his ancestor, especially after he started the seventh grade and began attending Ezra Small Junior High School. But the instances of bullying became fewer and farther between as they got older and the three boys got more and more popular. They’d all made additional good friends over the years, but remained each other’s first and best friends.
“Five bucks says that the classroom erupts in laughter during roll call,” Tyler said.
Shaking his head, Derek said, “Nope, not taking that bet Ty.”
“Why not?”
“Would you take a bet that you were 99% sure you would lose?” Derek asked as he raised an eyebrow at his friend. “I mean, come on, Ty. It happens every time that we get a new substitute that we haven’t had before.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Tyler said before he sighed and said, “Guess I’ll have to find some other way to start recouping my losses from our last bet.”
Derek grinned and couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him as he said, “I wish you luck. Honestly, I was half-tempted not to accept the money because I felt bad about making the bet in the first place when I knew you didn’t stand a chance.”
“Oh gee thanks,” Tyler said. “I’ll have you know that I studied my butt off for three weeks.”
“I’m sure you did,” Derek said. “But betting me a hundred bucks that you’d win the spelling bee? Against Code?”
“Probably not the best idea to make any bets involving memory when you’re going up against someone who can literally quote every conversation we’ve ever had over the last eight years verbatim.”
“You actually are listening,” Tyler said with a smile, as he leaned his head forward slightly to look past Derek at Cody, who finally took his eyes off his notes.
“Of course I am,” Cody said. “We’re in class, so I don’t have my headphones.”
Being as close as Cody and Derek were had required them to work together in order to do pretty much everything. There were times, however, that one of them wanted to have a private conversation that didn’t involve the other. One would probably think that it was impossible for two boys who shared everything from the neck down, but they’d found a way to make it work. Whenever one of them wanted some privacy, the other would put on a blindfold and a pair of noise-canceling headphones and then crank up their playlist as loud as they could stand it. The result was that as long as the one seeking privacy wasn’t yelling, a conversation that the other wasn’t privy to was possible.
“Touché,” Tyler said with a grin, just as the bell signaling the beginning of class rang and the substitute stood up.
Of course, the teacher was a rather short and plump older woman who was only just barely taller than the class full of thirteen and fourteen-year-olds she was teaching. Over her shoulder, everyone could see the name Ms. Beasley written on the blackboard and Tyler smiled, as he knew they’d never had her before, so it was definitely going to happen.
Cody and Derek shared a knowing look first with each other and then with Tyler as the teacher began taking roll call. The students whose surnames began with A through J were called out without incident, with only one or two not answering and being marked down as absent. Eventually, the teacher was saying, “Kent, Cody.”
“Here,” Cody said.
And then it happened. The whole class erupted into giggles when the teacher said, “Kent, Derek.”
The teacher looked up confused at the reaction and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Mr. Randall usually just skips me if Cody answers that he’s here,” Derek answered before he and Cody stood up and he added, “For reasons which I think are quite obvious.”
Raising their left hand, Cody gave a little wave and said, “Cody Kent.”
Raising their right hand, Derek repeated the motion and said, “Derek Kent.”
The giggles only intensified at this, and more than a few whispers were heard. One of the most prominent being, “Would be pretty hard for Derek not to be here if Cody is.”
“Physically impossible yes,” Tyler said in an exaggerated stage whisper. “Intellectually, however? The jury’s still out.”
Turning his head, Derek gave Tyler a mock glare and said, “Hahaha, very funny, Ty.”
“All right, all right, class settle down,” Ms. Beasley said. Looking at Cody and Derek, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kent and Mr. Kent, I’ve never taught Siamese twins before. Anyway, please take your seats.”
Cody looked like he wanted to correct the teacher, but before he could open his mouth and say that the proper term was conjoined twins, Derek sealed his hand over Cody’s mouth and they sat down. Ms. Beasley seemed to have taken the incident in stride and didn’t seem angry, but Derek figured it wasn’t a good idea to press their luck. As they did have both regular teachers and substitutes over the years who did not take kindly to Cody correcting their terminology and he had landed them both in detention more than once because of it.
It took a few minutes, but finally Ms. Beasley was able to continue taking roll call. It was when she called out, “Randall, Ian,” and a familiar voice answered, “Here,” that Cody’s and Derek’s eyes widened almost comically, as they turned in their seat and looked back to the workstation that Ian normally sat at. Much to their shock, Ian was sitting there and there was no sign of his clone.
Turning back around in their seat to face the front of the room, Cody turned his head to look at Derek as Derek did to the same to look at Cody. They didn’t even need to speak in order to understand what the other one was thinking.
‘What the hell?’
That was the question on both of their minds because Ian’s dad had called and talked to their mom that very morning. Martha had clearly said that according to their Dad, Ian and Finn still hadn’t been able to separate as of 6:30 that morning and yet here Ian was with no sign of Finn in third period. Knowing that they couldn’t do anything about it now, however, they just turned their minds to the class as Ms. Beasley finished roll call and started the lesson.
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About forty minutes later, after third period ended, Cody, Derek, and Tyler left the science lab and Tyler excused himself, saying he’d meet Cody and Derek in their English Lit class, as he had to go to the bathroom first. Cody and Derek nodded, as they headed for their lockers and put away their science texts and notebooks, grabbing their supplies for English Lit. It was as they were closing their respective lockers that they spotted Ian across the hall at his own locker.
Cody and Derek were seriously tempted to go over and ask Ian what was happening, but they decided that now wasn’t the right time, as there were far too many other students around for them to have a private conversation. They’d promised both Ian and his father that they would keep Ian’s duplication ability secret, so talking about it in the hall during passing time when there was over a hundred other students in earshot wasn’t a good idea.
Shaking their heads, Cody and Derek decided to bide their time and wait for an opportunity to present itself. The opportunity came after lunch as they were leaving the school cafeteria. Their schedule was structured so that following lunch there was a thirty minute free period before the next class so that students could go outside and get some fresh air if they wanted to. For those students who didn’t want to go outside, they were also allowed to visit the library, the computer lab, or the pool and weight room in the gym.
Cody and Derek alternated every other day what they did, doing what Derek wanted to do on Mondays and Wednesdays, and what Cody wanted to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays they’d agreed to do a coin toss, heads Cody got to pick and tails Derek did. Today being Tuesday, it was Cody’s day to determine what they did and he decided that they’d head for the library.
It was as they were walking down the corridor to head for the library that they spotted Ian again, as he exited the shop class room. While Ian, Cody, Derek and Tyler were all in science class together during third period, Ian had wood shop during fourth period when Cody, Derek, and Tyler were in English Lit. With all the students being able to choose what they did over the free period, there weren’t that many students around at any given time, especially on the sunny days like today when the majority chose to go outside and enjoy the weather.
There were maybe two other people in the corridor besides Ian and the twins but they were at least fifty feet further down and thus would be out of earshot so long as Cody and Derek didn’t yell. Walking over to where Ian was, they said, “Hey Ian.”
He ignored them, however, as he kept walking, only stopping when he stooped down to take a drink from one of the school water fountains. Waiting until he was finished, Derek said, “Ian, can we talk?”
“No,” Ian said.
“Is something wrong?” Cody asked, surprised at the rather brusque tone. Ian had never talked to them that way before. Tyler was hands down the twin’s best friend, but they’d also always gotten along with Ian, as he like Cody was very studious, so on the days where Cody decided what they’d do during the free period they frequently ended up in the same place that Ian did, preferring the more intellectual pursuits.
Ian was quiet for a moment, before he said, “Yes, you’re talking to me.”
“What?” Derek asked, confused. “Why is…”
He didn’t get the chance to finish, as he and Cody found themselves being pushed hard up against the nearby wall of lockers, as Ian used one hand to hold them against the lockers, his hand digging rather painfully into the flesh of their shoulder blade between their heads. Ian had balled up his other hand into a fist, which he raised as if he was going to punch them.
Cody and Derek were so stunned that they didn’t know how to react as they had definitely never seen this side of their friend. Cody and Derek were no slouches in the physical department as growing up on a farm and doing the various chores, including moving hay bales up to the hay loft made it pretty much impossible for them to not be physically fit. On Derek’s days, they also often ended up in the weight room or the pool, which Cody was actually fine with, not only because of their need to cooperate, but also because staying fit was a good thing since they were on the swimming and soccer teams.
Before either Cody or Derek could say anything, Ian said, “I’ve seen you two giving me strange looks ever since science class. I know I’m hot, but I’m also straight and not interested in doing anything with your faggot asses… or I suppose I should say ass, singular, since you’re a two-headed freak.”
The twins were definitely stunned, confused, and hurt by Ian’s words because he had never acted this way towards them before and they’d been friends since they were in third grade. They also didn’t understand why Ian was saying that he was straight, because he’d previously told them otherwise. Tyler had been both twins’ first kiss, as he like the twins was gay, but they’d mutually decided that they worked better as best friends and didn’t want to ruin their long term friendship by trying to make it something more. Especially since their friendship was close enough that Tyler honestly thought of Cody and Derek, and even Chris to an extent, as the brothers he’d never had.
Of course, being teenagers with overly active hormones, they had fooled around a bit and Ian was actually included in that, as the four of them were good enough friends that Cody, Derek, and Tyler had come out to Ian. Not long after that, Ian had approached them saying that he was bi-curious and asked if they would help him experiment. After some fairly innocent fooling around and some making out, stretched out over two or three weeks, Ian realized that he was attracted to boys, but that he still found girls attractive, too. This realization, combined with the fact that he’d enjoyed kissing and fooling around with the twins and Tyler, and was open to doing more in the future, in addition to wanting to do it with girls too, had made Ian strongly suspect that he was truly bisexual.
“I’m only going to say this once, so I suggest you listen,” Ian said. “Stop looking at me. Stop talking to me. I have absolutely zero interest in doing anything with you two freaks.”
Being the braver and more irreverent of the twins, Derek asked, “Really? You could have fooled me. All those times that we made out and jacked each other off.”
Ian growled and neither twin had time to react before Ian’s first connected with Derek’s face and there was a sickening crunch, followed by a metallic bang. Sharing everything from their necks down also meant that they shared a central nervous system, so even if somebody was touching only Derek’s head, Cody still felt it and vice-versa. Thus, they both winced when Ian’s first made contact with Derek’s nose, causing the back of his head to hit the locker behind him.
“Never mention that again, you sick ass freak, you hear me?” Ian said as Derek raised his hand and tried to stem the flow of blood from his nose that both twins were fairly sure from the pain they’d both felt was broken.
After a moment, Ian grinned and raising his now blood-covered fist, he said, “Might as well make you two faggots match,” before he punched Cody in the nose, knocking his glasses off his face in the process. A moment later there was a crunching sound and while he was too preoccupied with trying to stop the blood coming out of his nose, Cody was pretty sure that if he looked down at the floor, he would see that Ian had stomped on his glasses when they’d hit the floor.
“Don’t talk to me, don’t look at me,” Ian said. “And if you even think about telling anyone how you broke your noses, you’ll regret the day that your ugly, disgusting, and freakish two-headed ass was born, you understand me?”
Cody and Derek each nodded very slightly, as they could both hear the threat in Ian’s voice and they’d be lying if they said they weren’t terrified of what would happen if they pissed off Ian. They’d known he had a temper, but they had never been on the receiving end of it and they had no idea that it was this bad.
Letting go of the twins, Ian washed the blood off his hand by sticking his hand in the stream of water from the water fountain, before walking away and leaving the twins standing alone in the corridor.
Dazed by the pain of two broken noses that they’d both felt as clearly as if it had been their own, and feeling a bit light-headed from blood loss, the twins weren’t sure how long they stood there against the lockers. Cody did have enough presence of mind to remember that he’d read that in the case of a broken nose they should breath through their mouths and lean forward to reduce the amount of blood draining into the throat. Not long after they’d done so, while Ian was long gone, they heard a familiar voice ask, “Cody? Derek? Where are…? Oh my god!”
The next thing they knew, Tyler was in front of them, having pulled out the little travel pack of tissues he carried in his pocket due to his allergies and giving them both several tissues. He then took hold of Cody’s arm to lead them to the nurse’s office.
In a muffled tone, Cody mentioned his glasses, which Tyler bent down and picked up, although there was no way Cody was putting them back on since one lens was completely broken into several small pieces and had fallen out of the frame, while the other was very visibly cracked. Of course, since Cody’s frames were made of plastic and only had the bridge between the frames with no top bar, even without the damage to the lenses Cody would have been unable to wear them since the bridge had snapped in half.
Arriving in the nurse’s office, the school nurse sprang into action, treating them as quickly and efficiently as she could with the supplies she had on hand. As she was doing so she told them that the breaks to their noses were relatively minor compared to some other cases she’d seen over the course of her career.
However, out of an abundance of caution she excused the twins from their afternoon classes and when she called the farm to have someone come pick them up, she strongly suggested that they be taken to the Smallville Medical Center to be checked out by a doctor. While the med center was a rather small hospital compared to the major regional ones like the one in Metropolis, it was still far better equipped than the nurse’s office at the junior high school.
Jessica was the only one home when the nurse called and she said she’d be there as quickly as she could. While they waited for her to arrive, both the nurse and Tyler tried to get Cody and Derek to tell them how they’d broken their noses, but they weren’t talking. After some prodding, Derek mumbled that they’d tripped and fallen face first into the wall, although neither the nurse nor Tyler believed that, especially since there was no blood on the wall where Tyler had found them and that explanation definitely did not explain how Cody’s glasses got so badly broken. They didn’t press the issue, however, as that’s when Jessica arrived.
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Arriving back at the farm after the trip to the med center, Jessica parked her car and got out, as did her grandsons. The moment they were out of the car, however, Jessica said, “Cody, Derek, where do you think you’re going?” As they’d been headed towards the barn as if they were going to head up to their bedroom. “Get your butt into the main house. Now.”
“So much for a quick getaway,” Derek mumbled, only loud enough for Cody to hear.
Not wanting to risk their grandmother’s wrath, they headed into the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. Jessica was quiet for a few minutes after she came into the house, putting down her purse on the sideboard near the back door, before she came over to the kitchen island and stood behind it so that she was looking at her grandsons. Her palms were flat on the countertop and they could easily hear her foot tapping on the tile floor.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Derek Jonathan Kent don’t even try it,” Jessica answered. “You know damn well what. I said nothing when you told the doctor how you broke your noses. But now, it’s just us, so tell me the truth.”
“We trip…” Cody started, but Jessica cut him off. “Cody William Kent, you are far too smart to think that’s going to work, so don’t even try it. You and I both know that you two have never tripped in your lives. You were probably among the only toddlers in the world who didn’t stumble even once when you were learning how to walk… an especially amazing feat considering that you each have control of only one leg. And you looked like you’d been skating for years when you put on roller skates and later ice skates for the very first time. So I don’t buy for one second that you tripped and fell into a wall.”
Cody sighed. “We don’t have a choice, Wreck.”
“I know, Code,” Derek said, with a sigh of his own. “We were punched.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Jessica asked, “You were fighting?”
“No, we never touched him,” Cody answered. ‘At least, not today,’ he added in his head.
“Explain.”
“It was Ian Randall,” Derek said. “He must have reabsorbed Finn or something. We were shocked when he turned up in science class this morning. After lunch we tried to talk to him, but he started hurling conjoined twin and gay insults at us. I said something he didn’t like and he punched me.”
“And then he punched me to make us match,” Cody added. “Knocked my glasses off and stomped on them.”
Jessica was quiet for a moment, before she said, “I’m not saying I doubt you, but I also don’t see how it could possibly have been Ian who punched you.” When Derek looked like he was about to say something, Jessica held up her hand and said, “When the nurse called, I had just gotten back here after having lunch with Mr. Randall at his house. Charles doesn’t know how to sew, so I went over and used his wife’s sewing machine to sew some more clothes for Ian and Finn to wear. As a thank you, he invited me to stay for lunch with him, Ian, and Finn. So, I saw them both with my own eyes and they were definitely still connected and at home, not school.”
“How could he possibly be in two places at once?” Derek asked. “Conjoined and not conjoined? It doesn’t make sense.”
Cody sighed. “No, but then again, a lot of things don’t make sense. I mean just look at the whole Harry Volk situation. Or us, for that matter. Two separate bodies, clearly identifiable, according to the September ultrasound and then only one when we were born in November.”
“Huh, yeah, you’ve got a point,” Derek conceded. “Even the fact that Ian can spawn a clone of himself doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty sure that most medical professionals would agree that doing so is impossible.”
“They clearly haven’t lived in Smallville,” Jessica commented.
“Clearly,” Cody said, before he had a sudden thought and said, “Maybe that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Derek asked.
“You remember when we found Ian in the lab?” Cody asked and Derek nodded. “He asked us to grab his clothes for him and they weren’t there and his backpack was missing.”
“So you think he spawned more than one clone?” Derek asked. “And that they took his clothes and backpack? But how did they get out of the room without us seeing them?”
“We never did go into the chemical supply room,” Cody answered. “They could have hidden in there until everyone was gone.” After a few minutes of silence, Cody added, “This is purely conjecture, but I’m also wondering if maybe the meteor rock did something more than just make Ian spawn an extra clone.”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“Well, the Ian who punched us was a version of Ian we’ve never seen before,” Cody said. “We knew he had a temper, but we’ve known him since third grade and while we have seen him get mad before, he never started insulting anyone and throwing punches.”
“True,” Derek conceded. “So what are you thinking?”
“That maybe the meteor rock split him into his good and evil sides,” Cody said. “Ian and Finn are the good side, but the Ian we saw was the evil Ian, who without any of the good instincts to temper the bad, is a complete...” he paused here, as he considered saying either jackass or asshat but knowing that both options would get him in trouble with Jessica, continued, “…fill in the blank with the negative word of your choice.”
Before anyone could comment, Jonathan walked in the back door and stopped short when he saw Cody and Derek, “How did you two get home so quick? Wait, Cody why aren’t you wearing your glasses?” After a moment, he asked, “And are those splints on your noses?”
“Yes, Jonathan, they are,” Jessica said, before explaining what had happened.
“Why did you ask how we got home so quick?” Derek asked, as he glanced over at the clock on the wall. “School doesn’t let out for another hour and a half.”
“Your school closed early,” Jonathan said. “Everyone was being sent home early after being questioned by Ethan and his deputies.”
“Why?” Jessica asked.
“Because the school is officially a crime scene,” Jonathan explained. “Jeff Frankel, the shop teacher, was found dead in his classroom. It’s been ruled a murder since he had a chisel sticking out of his chest and burns on his face from a blow torch.”
“Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit,” Derek said softly.
“Derek, language!” Jessica chastised.
Ignoring the rebuke, his eyes wide, he said, “We saw Ian coming out of the shop classroom before he broke our noses.”
Cody’s eyes widened at that, as he said, “Oh my god, you’re right. Which makes us potential witnesses who can place Ian at a murder scene.”
Jonathan sighed. “This is bad, especially since we know it wasn’t really Ian, since we know the real Ian is at home with his father and new conjoined twin.” Shaking his head, he added, “I can’t say that I ever thought I’d find myself in the position of having to withhold possible evidence about a murder.”
“Neither did I,” Jessica said. “But I don’t see that we have any choice in the matter.” After a moment, she asked, “The school doesn’t have a surveillance system does it?”
“Only on the outside of the building,” Jonathan said. “There was some talk at the last PTA meeting about adding some cameras in the hallways, but it was voted down due to both privacy concerns and a lack of funds.”
“I get the feeling that after today, both of those concerns might disappear,” Jessica said, as the other three nodded in agreement.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, before she said, “Anyway, I’m going to make up the couch in the living room. I think it would be best if Chris slept there until your noses heal, so that he can’t accidentally elbow you in his sleep. Plus, as the doctor said, you’re going to have to sleep with your heads higher up than normal to help with the swelling. Speaking of which,” at this she went over to the freezer, grabbed the tray of ice cubes, and began making ice packs.
“What about my glasses?” Cody asked.
Jonathan was quiet for a moment, before he said, “Well, you and Derek have an appointment with the optometrist next week, so it doesn’t really pay for you to get new glasses now when it’s possible your prescription might change in a week.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “In the meantime, I guess you’ll just have to wear Derek’s glasses.”
Derek generally preferred contact lenses, although because he could only wear them for about ten hours a day without irritation, Derek did have glasses. Although because he thought they made him look too nerdy, he tended to not wear them as often as he should and just made due with the blurry vision between the times when he had to remove his contacts and going to bed. His vision wasn’t bad enough that he was bumping into things, after all, and it’s not like he didn’t have a second pair of eyes to rely on, even if they were Cody’s.
“His prescription isn’t the same as mine,” Cody pointed out.
“I’m aware of that, although the difference isn’t that much,” Jonathan said. “So, you’ll just have to make due for a week until your appointment and then you’ll have your own again.”
-o-0-o-
Roughly an hour and a half later, Cody and Derek were sitting in the living room playing Mortal Kombat 3 on Clark’s and Oliver’s PlayStation. While there was a small television in their bedroom, it was an old model that Hiram had bought in the late 1950s and thus it was strictly black and white and had only a ten inch screen. It also didn’t have the necessary audio/video ports to connect the PlayStation to it, so it was agreed that Clark and Oliver could hook it up to the thirty-two inch color television in the living room of the main house.
“This game is rather violent, isn’t it?” Jessica asked as she looked up from her knitting just in time to see Cody and Derek’s character, Sub-Zero, take out their AI opponent by breathing an icy mist on them, at which point they froze solid, tipped over, and broke into several pieces.
“Sub-Zero wins. Flawless Victory. Fatality,” the game said, as Cody and Derek put down the controller and high-fived each other.
“To be fair,” Derek commented, “compared to some of the other fatalities that was pretty tame.”
Having heard the conversation as he entered the house after school and paused in the kitchen to get himself a drink, Clark entered the living room with Oliver just behind him and said, “Yes, some of them are quite a bit bloodier.”
It was then that Clark and Oliver noticed that Cody was wearing different glasses—as Derek’s frames were different—and that they each had splints on their noses.
“What happened?” Oliver asked, concerned as he came over and sat down on the couch next to Derek, as Clark sat next to Cody.
Cody sighed. “Long story,” before he and Derek launched into the tale, with a few additions from Jessica.
“Wow.” Oliver said.
“Yeah,” Clark said, before he leaned over and very gently and lightly kissed the tip of Cody’s nose.
Not to be outdone, Oliver did the same to Derek, the twins grinning like loons at the attention, while Jessica smiled and shook her head. After a moment of silence, Clark asked, “So, are these your spare glasses?”
Shaking his head, Cody said, “No, they’re Derek’s.”
Oliver did a double-take at this, as he said, “Derek has glasses? I’ve never seen him wear them.”
“He thinks they make him look nerdy,” Cody said. “So he doesn’t wear them as a general rule, preferring to use contacts. He can only wear them for about ten hours a day without irritation though, so he’s supposed to wear the glasses in the interim between then and bedtime… not that he ever does.”
“Can I see you wear them?” Oliver asked.
“Why?” Derek asked. “Code and I are identical, so it’s not like you can’t picture me with glasses on since you know what he looks like with them on.”
“I know,” Oliver said. “Humor me though?”
“Fine,” Derek said as he raised his hand in an expectant manner, prompting Cody to sigh as he pulled the glasses off his face and handed them to Derek.
While there were some things the twins absolutely couldn’t do with only one hand, they did tend to do as much stuff as they possibly could one-handed. Playing video games was one of those things that they had to cooperate with each other on, which is why they’d been playing Mortal Kombat in single-player mode, as they couldn’t each operate a controller with one hand.
Putting them on his face, Derek said, “Happy now?”
Oliver was quiet for a moment before he grinned and said, “Yes, quite. And can I just say that nerdy is not the word I’d use?”
“What would you use then?” Derek asked as he raised his left eyebrow.
“Cute,” Oliver said aloud, as he leaned over and kissed Derek on the cheek, before whispering in his ear, “Sexy.”
Derek blushed and Cody groaned, as he had a feeling that he’d have a harder time getting Derek to share his glasses with him from now on, especially when Oliver was around.
-o-0-o-
To be continued…
And there you have Ch14 of “Brotherly Love.” I hope you enjoyed it. I’m going to try to wrap up the ‘Dichotic’ and ‘Onyx’ storylines in the next chapter, so if there’s any other episodes of Smallville you’d like to see covered, let me know. Or if you’d prefer a couple of chapters in which the characters can just take a break and not be dealing with bizarre events from the show, let me know that too.
Also, on a more personal note, while I’m not a particularly religious person if any of you reading this are, I’d appreciate it if you could keep Nigel Davies, my long-time beta reader and sounding board who helps me draft many of the plots and storylines for my stories, in your thoughts and/or prayers. He’s recently developed a serious health issue which without going into too much detail, has a risk of costing him his eyesight. Hopefully, he’ll recover and suffer no long-term ill effects, but last I heard, I’m afraid it doesn’t sound good.
On a separate, but related note, if anyone is interested in beta-reading for me and acting as a sounding board for my various works, I may well need to find someone at least temporarily. I’m really hoping that Nigel makes a full recovery and I won’t need someone else long-term, but I’m putting this out there just in case.
Ability to read and review chapters using the Track Changes option in MS Word is required and I’d prefer someone who can chat via Skype text message. You don’t need to be familiar with every fandom I write for, although if you’re willing to work on more than one of my works, that’d be great. Nigel isn’t completely familiar with all the fandoms I write for but currently helps with all of my fanfics and even my original works as well.
Fandom: Smallville
Author: Jayson
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Eventual Clark Queen/Oliver Queen, Jason Teague/OMC: Andrew Sterling, Eventual Lucas Luthor/Whitney Fordman
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Language, Violence, Slash, Mpreg, Incest
Summary: The meteor shower hit Smallville in 1983, instead of 1989. Robert Queen was in Metropolis for a business meeting. Afterward, Robert, his wife Laura, and son Oliver go for a drive in the country and have a picnic. The meteor shower hits on their way back to Metropolis and they’re shocked to find a spaceship with a boy their son's age inside. After some discussion, Robert and Laura decide to adopt the boy who they name Clark and raise him as their own. Join Clark and Oliver as they navigate life as brothers who eventually find themselves falling in love not only with each other but another pair of brothers.
Brotherly Love
Written by J.C. Vascardi
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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to the television show Smallville are the property of its creators. I am not profiting from this story and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The only things about this story that I own are the storylines, places, and characters that are not featured on the show.
Pairings: Eventual Clark/Oliver/OMC/OMC, Jason/OMC, Eventual Lucas/Whitney
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Language, Violence, M/M Sex, M/M/M Sex, Incest, Mpreg, Original Characters, Rape/Non-Con
-o-0-o-
Chapter Fourteen
-o-0-o-
The next morning, Clark, Oliver, Cody, Derek, and Chris headed outside to milk the cows and collect the eggs from the chickens. Once they had finished their chores, showered and headed into the main house, they found Martha in the process of setting the table for breakfast. There was a delicious smell in the air which told them what was for breakfast moments before the oven timer went off and Jessica picked up a hot pad before leaning down to pull the muffin pans from the oven.
“Mmm, fresh-baked muffins,” Chris said with a happy smile.
Jessica smiled at her grandson. “Yes, I made a dozen blueberry and a dozen apple cinnamon. That along with a bowl of cereal should give you all a good start to the day.”
Making their way over to the table, the boys sat down as Jessica began removing the muffins from the pans. Martha brought over a box of corn flakes and a box of raisin bran for the boys to choose from. It was also around this time that Hiram and Jonathan came in after doing their morning rounds of checking all the fences, inspecting the crops, and mucking out the animal stalls.
“Smells good,” Hiram said as he leaned over and kissed his wife.
“Thank you,” Jessica said, before wrinkling her nose in disgust. “You, however, do not so go shower, please.”
“Yes dear,” Hiram said, as both he and Jonathan—who paused to kiss Martha as he passed—headed upstairs to shower.
Clark and Oliver opted for corn flakes, while Chris opted for raisin bran. Having thought ahead, Martha brought a pair of smaller bowls for Cody and Derek, which proved a good thing as Cody wanted raisin bran, while Derek wanted corn flakes. Since they only had one stomach between them, however, this meant smaller bowls of cereal. As Martha poured them all a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, she said, “Charles Randall called while you were out doing your chores.”
“How’s Ian?” Derek asked.
“He’s fine,” Martha answered. “And so is Finn.”
“I take it they haven’t been able to remerge yet,” Cody said.
“No, apparently not,” Martha confirmed. “Anyway, with his wife still in Florida until tomorrow afternoon, Charles has made arrangements for a sub to take over his classes so that he can stay home with them.”
As Jessica came over with the muffins, Chris said, “Can’t imagine Ian and Finn are all that thrilled with having a babysitter at their age.”
“Probably not, no,” Jessica agreed. “Although I can understand why Charles would want to make sure that they stay in the house. It would be awfully hard to explain why Ian suddenly has a conjoined twin brother, so it’s best that they stay out of sight until they can figure out how to remerge.”
“Not sure how they’re going to do that,” Clark said, before shaking his head. “And to think I thought living in Smallville was going to be boring.”
“It’s definitely not that,” Oliver said, as he took one of each flavor of muffin.
“Anyway, Charles also asked if you could collect Ian’s homework for him, Cody, Derek,” Martha said as she headed over to grab the coffee pot.
Cody nodded. “Yeah, we can do that.”
“We’ll head over to the Randalls after school,” Derek added before he raised a spoonful of cereal to this mouth.
-o-0-o-
A few hours later, Cody and Derek sat down at their workstation in the science lab for their third-period science class, not long after their lab partner and best friend, Tyler Small, joined them.
“Hey guys,” Tyler said with a smile.
“Hey Ty,” Derek said, as the two exchanged a high five. Cody, meanwhile, was totally in the zone and concentrating on his notes. Tyler and Derek rolled their eyes and shook their heads, as they silently came to the conclusion that Cody probably hadn’t even noticed Tyler’s arrival.
Tyler wasn’t upset by this, however, as he knew just how studious Cody was, considering that the three of them had been friends since their first day of kindergarten together. The three of them had all been targeted for bullying by some of the other kids for things that they had no control over. Obviously, for Cody and Derek, it was their shared body, whereas for Tyler it was because he was the five-times-great-grandson of the town founder, Ezra Small.
One might think that would have earned Tyler some respect since his family was literally the town’s first family. There were people in Smallville who did respect the Small family because of their roots in the community, but for a group of Tyler’s peers, they saw it as the perfect opportunity to bully him because they figured he must be an entitled and spoiled brat. Just as they believed that Cody and Derek were some kind of weird two-headed freak. Both of them getting bullied for things that they couldn’t change brought them together as friends and formed a bond that was in some ways closer than brothers.
As they got older, the bullying lessened, especially for Cody and Derek, as with time people in town just got used to them. Tyler still got the occasional snide comment about his ancestor, especially after he started the seventh grade and began attending Ezra Small Junior High School. But the instances of bullying became fewer and farther between as they got older and the three boys got more and more popular. They’d all made additional good friends over the years, but remained each other’s first and best friends.
“Five bucks says that the classroom erupts in laughter during roll call,” Tyler said.
Shaking his head, Derek said, “Nope, not taking that bet Ty.”
“Why not?”
“Would you take a bet that you were 99% sure you would lose?” Derek asked as he raised an eyebrow at his friend. “I mean, come on, Ty. It happens every time that we get a new substitute that we haven’t had before.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Tyler said before he sighed and said, “Guess I’ll have to find some other way to start recouping my losses from our last bet.”
Derek grinned and couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him as he said, “I wish you luck. Honestly, I was half-tempted not to accept the money because I felt bad about making the bet in the first place when I knew you didn’t stand a chance.”
“Oh gee thanks,” Tyler said. “I’ll have you know that I studied my butt off for three weeks.”
“I’m sure you did,” Derek said. “But betting me a hundred bucks that you’d win the spelling bee? Against Code?”
“Probably not the best idea to make any bets involving memory when you’re going up against someone who can literally quote every conversation we’ve ever had over the last eight years verbatim.”
“You actually are listening,” Tyler said with a smile, as he leaned his head forward slightly to look past Derek at Cody, who finally took his eyes off his notes.
“Of course I am,” Cody said. “We’re in class, so I don’t have my headphones.”
Being as close as Cody and Derek were had required them to work together in order to do pretty much everything. There were times, however, that one of them wanted to have a private conversation that didn’t involve the other. One would probably think that it was impossible for two boys who shared everything from the neck down, but they’d found a way to make it work. Whenever one of them wanted some privacy, the other would put on a blindfold and a pair of noise-canceling headphones and then crank up their playlist as loud as they could stand it. The result was that as long as the one seeking privacy wasn’t yelling, a conversation that the other wasn’t privy to was possible.
“Touché,” Tyler said with a grin, just as the bell signaling the beginning of class rang and the substitute stood up.
Of course, the teacher was a rather short and plump older woman who was only just barely taller than the class full of thirteen and fourteen-year-olds she was teaching. Over her shoulder, everyone could see the name Ms. Beasley written on the blackboard and Tyler smiled, as he knew they’d never had her before, so it was definitely going to happen.
Cody and Derek shared a knowing look first with each other and then with Tyler as the teacher began taking roll call. The students whose surnames began with A through J were called out without incident, with only one or two not answering and being marked down as absent. Eventually, the teacher was saying, “Kent, Cody.”
“Here,” Cody said.
And then it happened. The whole class erupted into giggles when the teacher said, “Kent, Derek.”
The teacher looked up confused at the reaction and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Mr. Randall usually just skips me if Cody answers that he’s here,” Derek answered before he and Cody stood up and he added, “For reasons which I think are quite obvious.”
Raising their left hand, Cody gave a little wave and said, “Cody Kent.”
Raising their right hand, Derek repeated the motion and said, “Derek Kent.”
The giggles only intensified at this, and more than a few whispers were heard. One of the most prominent being, “Would be pretty hard for Derek not to be here if Cody is.”
“Physically impossible yes,” Tyler said in an exaggerated stage whisper. “Intellectually, however? The jury’s still out.”
Turning his head, Derek gave Tyler a mock glare and said, “Hahaha, very funny, Ty.”
“All right, all right, class settle down,” Ms. Beasley said. Looking at Cody and Derek, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kent and Mr. Kent, I’ve never taught Siamese twins before. Anyway, please take your seats.”
Cody looked like he wanted to correct the teacher, but before he could open his mouth and say that the proper term was conjoined twins, Derek sealed his hand over Cody’s mouth and they sat down. Ms. Beasley seemed to have taken the incident in stride and didn’t seem angry, but Derek figured it wasn’t a good idea to press their luck. As they did have both regular teachers and substitutes over the years who did not take kindly to Cody correcting their terminology and he had landed them both in detention more than once because of it.
It took a few minutes, but finally Ms. Beasley was able to continue taking roll call. It was when she called out, “Randall, Ian,” and a familiar voice answered, “Here,” that Cody’s and Derek’s eyes widened almost comically, as they turned in their seat and looked back to the workstation that Ian normally sat at. Much to their shock, Ian was sitting there and there was no sign of his clone.
Turning back around in their seat to face the front of the room, Cody turned his head to look at Derek as Derek did to the same to look at Cody. They didn’t even need to speak in order to understand what the other one was thinking.
‘What the hell?’
That was the question on both of their minds because Ian’s dad had called and talked to their mom that very morning. Martha had clearly said that according to their Dad, Ian and Finn still hadn’t been able to separate as of 6:30 that morning and yet here Ian was with no sign of Finn in third period. Knowing that they couldn’t do anything about it now, however, they just turned their minds to the class as Ms. Beasley finished roll call and started the lesson.
-o-0-o-
About forty minutes later, after third period ended, Cody, Derek, and Tyler left the science lab and Tyler excused himself, saying he’d meet Cody and Derek in their English Lit class, as he had to go to the bathroom first. Cody and Derek nodded, as they headed for their lockers and put away their science texts and notebooks, grabbing their supplies for English Lit. It was as they were closing their respective lockers that they spotted Ian across the hall at his own locker.
Cody and Derek were seriously tempted to go over and ask Ian what was happening, but they decided that now wasn’t the right time, as there were far too many other students around for them to have a private conversation. They’d promised both Ian and his father that they would keep Ian’s duplication ability secret, so talking about it in the hall during passing time when there was over a hundred other students in earshot wasn’t a good idea.
Shaking their heads, Cody and Derek decided to bide their time and wait for an opportunity to present itself. The opportunity came after lunch as they were leaving the school cafeteria. Their schedule was structured so that following lunch there was a thirty minute free period before the next class so that students could go outside and get some fresh air if they wanted to. For those students who didn’t want to go outside, they were also allowed to visit the library, the computer lab, or the pool and weight room in the gym.
Cody and Derek alternated every other day what they did, doing what Derek wanted to do on Mondays and Wednesdays, and what Cody wanted to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays they’d agreed to do a coin toss, heads Cody got to pick and tails Derek did. Today being Tuesday, it was Cody’s day to determine what they did and he decided that they’d head for the library.
It was as they were walking down the corridor to head for the library that they spotted Ian again, as he exited the shop class room. While Ian, Cody, Derek and Tyler were all in science class together during third period, Ian had wood shop during fourth period when Cody, Derek, and Tyler were in English Lit. With all the students being able to choose what they did over the free period, there weren’t that many students around at any given time, especially on the sunny days like today when the majority chose to go outside and enjoy the weather.
There were maybe two other people in the corridor besides Ian and the twins but they were at least fifty feet further down and thus would be out of earshot so long as Cody and Derek didn’t yell. Walking over to where Ian was, they said, “Hey Ian.”
He ignored them, however, as he kept walking, only stopping when he stooped down to take a drink from one of the school water fountains. Waiting until he was finished, Derek said, “Ian, can we talk?”
“No,” Ian said.
“Is something wrong?” Cody asked, surprised at the rather brusque tone. Ian had never talked to them that way before. Tyler was hands down the twin’s best friend, but they’d also always gotten along with Ian, as he like Cody was very studious, so on the days where Cody decided what they’d do during the free period they frequently ended up in the same place that Ian did, preferring the more intellectual pursuits.
Ian was quiet for a moment, before he said, “Yes, you’re talking to me.”
“What?” Derek asked, confused. “Why is…”
He didn’t get the chance to finish, as he and Cody found themselves being pushed hard up against the nearby wall of lockers, as Ian used one hand to hold them against the lockers, his hand digging rather painfully into the flesh of their shoulder blade between their heads. Ian had balled up his other hand into a fist, which he raised as if he was going to punch them.
Cody and Derek were so stunned that they didn’t know how to react as they had definitely never seen this side of their friend. Cody and Derek were no slouches in the physical department as growing up on a farm and doing the various chores, including moving hay bales up to the hay loft made it pretty much impossible for them to not be physically fit. On Derek’s days, they also often ended up in the weight room or the pool, which Cody was actually fine with, not only because of their need to cooperate, but also because staying fit was a good thing since they were on the swimming and soccer teams.
Before either Cody or Derek could say anything, Ian said, “I’ve seen you two giving me strange looks ever since science class. I know I’m hot, but I’m also straight and not interested in doing anything with your faggot asses… or I suppose I should say ass, singular, since you’re a two-headed freak.”
The twins were definitely stunned, confused, and hurt by Ian’s words because he had never acted this way towards them before and they’d been friends since they were in third grade. They also didn’t understand why Ian was saying that he was straight, because he’d previously told them otherwise. Tyler had been both twins’ first kiss, as he like the twins was gay, but they’d mutually decided that they worked better as best friends and didn’t want to ruin their long term friendship by trying to make it something more. Especially since their friendship was close enough that Tyler honestly thought of Cody and Derek, and even Chris to an extent, as the brothers he’d never had.
Of course, being teenagers with overly active hormones, they had fooled around a bit and Ian was actually included in that, as the four of them were good enough friends that Cody, Derek, and Tyler had come out to Ian. Not long after that, Ian had approached them saying that he was bi-curious and asked if they would help him experiment. After some fairly innocent fooling around and some making out, stretched out over two or three weeks, Ian realized that he was attracted to boys, but that he still found girls attractive, too. This realization, combined with the fact that he’d enjoyed kissing and fooling around with the twins and Tyler, and was open to doing more in the future, in addition to wanting to do it with girls too, had made Ian strongly suspect that he was truly bisexual.
“I’m only going to say this once, so I suggest you listen,” Ian said. “Stop looking at me. Stop talking to me. I have absolutely zero interest in doing anything with you two freaks.”
Being the braver and more irreverent of the twins, Derek asked, “Really? You could have fooled me. All those times that we made out and jacked each other off.”
Ian growled and neither twin had time to react before Ian’s first connected with Derek’s face and there was a sickening crunch, followed by a metallic bang. Sharing everything from their necks down also meant that they shared a central nervous system, so even if somebody was touching only Derek’s head, Cody still felt it and vice-versa. Thus, they both winced when Ian’s first made contact with Derek’s nose, causing the back of his head to hit the locker behind him.
“Never mention that again, you sick ass freak, you hear me?” Ian said as Derek raised his hand and tried to stem the flow of blood from his nose that both twins were fairly sure from the pain they’d both felt was broken.
After a moment, Ian grinned and raising his now blood-covered fist, he said, “Might as well make you two faggots match,” before he punched Cody in the nose, knocking his glasses off his face in the process. A moment later there was a crunching sound and while he was too preoccupied with trying to stop the blood coming out of his nose, Cody was pretty sure that if he looked down at the floor, he would see that Ian had stomped on his glasses when they’d hit the floor.
“Don’t talk to me, don’t look at me,” Ian said. “And if you even think about telling anyone how you broke your noses, you’ll regret the day that your ugly, disgusting, and freakish two-headed ass was born, you understand me?”
Cody and Derek each nodded very slightly, as they could both hear the threat in Ian’s voice and they’d be lying if they said they weren’t terrified of what would happen if they pissed off Ian. They’d known he had a temper, but they had never been on the receiving end of it and they had no idea that it was this bad.
Letting go of the twins, Ian washed the blood off his hand by sticking his hand in the stream of water from the water fountain, before walking away and leaving the twins standing alone in the corridor.
Dazed by the pain of two broken noses that they’d both felt as clearly as if it had been their own, and feeling a bit light-headed from blood loss, the twins weren’t sure how long they stood there against the lockers. Cody did have enough presence of mind to remember that he’d read that in the case of a broken nose they should breath through their mouths and lean forward to reduce the amount of blood draining into the throat. Not long after they’d done so, while Ian was long gone, they heard a familiar voice ask, “Cody? Derek? Where are…? Oh my god!”
The next thing they knew, Tyler was in front of them, having pulled out the little travel pack of tissues he carried in his pocket due to his allergies and giving them both several tissues. He then took hold of Cody’s arm to lead them to the nurse’s office.
In a muffled tone, Cody mentioned his glasses, which Tyler bent down and picked up, although there was no way Cody was putting them back on since one lens was completely broken into several small pieces and had fallen out of the frame, while the other was very visibly cracked. Of course, since Cody’s frames were made of plastic and only had the bridge between the frames with no top bar, even without the damage to the lenses Cody would have been unable to wear them since the bridge had snapped in half.
Arriving in the nurse’s office, the school nurse sprang into action, treating them as quickly and efficiently as she could with the supplies she had on hand. As she was doing so she told them that the breaks to their noses were relatively minor compared to some other cases she’d seen over the course of her career.
However, out of an abundance of caution she excused the twins from their afternoon classes and when she called the farm to have someone come pick them up, she strongly suggested that they be taken to the Smallville Medical Center to be checked out by a doctor. While the med center was a rather small hospital compared to the major regional ones like the one in Metropolis, it was still far better equipped than the nurse’s office at the junior high school.
Jessica was the only one home when the nurse called and she said she’d be there as quickly as she could. While they waited for her to arrive, both the nurse and Tyler tried to get Cody and Derek to tell them how they’d broken their noses, but they weren’t talking. After some prodding, Derek mumbled that they’d tripped and fallen face first into the wall, although neither the nurse nor Tyler believed that, especially since there was no blood on the wall where Tyler had found them and that explanation definitely did not explain how Cody’s glasses got so badly broken. They didn’t press the issue, however, as that’s when Jessica arrived.
-o-0-o-
Arriving back at the farm after the trip to the med center, Jessica parked her car and got out, as did her grandsons. The moment they were out of the car, however, Jessica said, “Cody, Derek, where do you think you’re going?” As they’d been headed towards the barn as if they were going to head up to their bedroom. “Get your butt into the main house. Now.”
“So much for a quick getaway,” Derek mumbled, only loud enough for Cody to hear.
Not wanting to risk their grandmother’s wrath, they headed into the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. Jessica was quiet for a few minutes after she came into the house, putting down her purse on the sideboard near the back door, before she came over to the kitchen island and stood behind it so that she was looking at her grandsons. Her palms were flat on the countertop and they could easily hear her foot tapping on the tile floor.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Derek Jonathan Kent don’t even try it,” Jessica answered. “You know damn well what. I said nothing when you told the doctor how you broke your noses. But now, it’s just us, so tell me the truth.”
“We trip…” Cody started, but Jessica cut him off. “Cody William Kent, you are far too smart to think that’s going to work, so don’t even try it. You and I both know that you two have never tripped in your lives. You were probably among the only toddlers in the world who didn’t stumble even once when you were learning how to walk… an especially amazing feat considering that you each have control of only one leg. And you looked like you’d been skating for years when you put on roller skates and later ice skates for the very first time. So I don’t buy for one second that you tripped and fell into a wall.”
Cody sighed. “We don’t have a choice, Wreck.”
“I know, Code,” Derek said, with a sigh of his own. “We were punched.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Jessica asked, “You were fighting?”
“No, we never touched him,” Cody answered. ‘At least, not today,’ he added in his head.
“Explain.”
“It was Ian Randall,” Derek said. “He must have reabsorbed Finn or something. We were shocked when he turned up in science class this morning. After lunch we tried to talk to him, but he started hurling conjoined twin and gay insults at us. I said something he didn’t like and he punched me.”
“And then he punched me to make us match,” Cody added. “Knocked my glasses off and stomped on them.”
Jessica was quiet for a moment, before she said, “I’m not saying I doubt you, but I also don’t see how it could possibly have been Ian who punched you.” When Derek looked like he was about to say something, Jessica held up her hand and said, “When the nurse called, I had just gotten back here after having lunch with Mr. Randall at his house. Charles doesn’t know how to sew, so I went over and used his wife’s sewing machine to sew some more clothes for Ian and Finn to wear. As a thank you, he invited me to stay for lunch with him, Ian, and Finn. So, I saw them both with my own eyes and they were definitely still connected and at home, not school.”
“How could he possibly be in two places at once?” Derek asked. “Conjoined and not conjoined? It doesn’t make sense.”
Cody sighed. “No, but then again, a lot of things don’t make sense. I mean just look at the whole Harry Volk situation. Or us, for that matter. Two separate bodies, clearly identifiable, according to the September ultrasound and then only one when we were born in November.”
“Huh, yeah, you’ve got a point,” Derek conceded. “Even the fact that Ian can spawn a clone of himself doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty sure that most medical professionals would agree that doing so is impossible.”
“They clearly haven’t lived in Smallville,” Jessica commented.
“Clearly,” Cody said, before he had a sudden thought and said, “Maybe that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Derek asked.
“You remember when we found Ian in the lab?” Cody asked and Derek nodded. “He asked us to grab his clothes for him and they weren’t there and his backpack was missing.”
“So you think he spawned more than one clone?” Derek asked. “And that they took his clothes and backpack? But how did they get out of the room without us seeing them?”
“We never did go into the chemical supply room,” Cody answered. “They could have hidden in there until everyone was gone.” After a few minutes of silence, Cody added, “This is purely conjecture, but I’m also wondering if maybe the meteor rock did something more than just make Ian spawn an extra clone.”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“Well, the Ian who punched us was a version of Ian we’ve never seen before,” Cody said. “We knew he had a temper, but we’ve known him since third grade and while we have seen him get mad before, he never started insulting anyone and throwing punches.”
“True,” Derek conceded. “So what are you thinking?”
“That maybe the meteor rock split him into his good and evil sides,” Cody said. “Ian and Finn are the good side, but the Ian we saw was the evil Ian, who without any of the good instincts to temper the bad, is a complete...” he paused here, as he considered saying either jackass or asshat but knowing that both options would get him in trouble with Jessica, continued, “…fill in the blank with the negative word of your choice.”
Before anyone could comment, Jonathan walked in the back door and stopped short when he saw Cody and Derek, “How did you two get home so quick? Wait, Cody why aren’t you wearing your glasses?” After a moment, he asked, “And are those splints on your noses?”
“Yes, Jonathan, they are,” Jessica said, before explaining what had happened.
“Why did you ask how we got home so quick?” Derek asked, as he glanced over at the clock on the wall. “School doesn’t let out for another hour and a half.”
“Your school closed early,” Jonathan said. “Everyone was being sent home early after being questioned by Ethan and his deputies.”
“Why?” Jessica asked.
“Because the school is officially a crime scene,” Jonathan explained. “Jeff Frankel, the shop teacher, was found dead in his classroom. It’s been ruled a murder since he had a chisel sticking out of his chest and burns on his face from a blow torch.”
“Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit,” Derek said softly.
“Derek, language!” Jessica chastised.
Ignoring the rebuke, his eyes wide, he said, “We saw Ian coming out of the shop classroom before he broke our noses.”
Cody’s eyes widened at that, as he said, “Oh my god, you’re right. Which makes us potential witnesses who can place Ian at a murder scene.”
Jonathan sighed. “This is bad, especially since we know it wasn’t really Ian, since we know the real Ian is at home with his father and new conjoined twin.” Shaking his head, he added, “I can’t say that I ever thought I’d find myself in the position of having to withhold possible evidence about a murder.”
“Neither did I,” Jessica said. “But I don’t see that we have any choice in the matter.” After a moment, she asked, “The school doesn’t have a surveillance system does it?”
“Only on the outside of the building,” Jonathan said. “There was some talk at the last PTA meeting about adding some cameras in the hallways, but it was voted down due to both privacy concerns and a lack of funds.”
“I get the feeling that after today, both of those concerns might disappear,” Jessica said, as the other three nodded in agreement.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, before she said, “Anyway, I’m going to make up the couch in the living room. I think it would be best if Chris slept there until your noses heal, so that he can’t accidentally elbow you in his sleep. Plus, as the doctor said, you’re going to have to sleep with your heads higher up than normal to help with the swelling. Speaking of which,” at this she went over to the freezer, grabbed the tray of ice cubes, and began making ice packs.
“What about my glasses?” Cody asked.
Jonathan was quiet for a moment, before he said, “Well, you and Derek have an appointment with the optometrist next week, so it doesn’t really pay for you to get new glasses now when it’s possible your prescription might change in a week.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “In the meantime, I guess you’ll just have to wear Derek’s glasses.”
Derek generally preferred contact lenses, although because he could only wear them for about ten hours a day without irritation, Derek did have glasses. Although because he thought they made him look too nerdy, he tended to not wear them as often as he should and just made due with the blurry vision between the times when he had to remove his contacts and going to bed. His vision wasn’t bad enough that he was bumping into things, after all, and it’s not like he didn’t have a second pair of eyes to rely on, even if they were Cody’s.
“His prescription isn’t the same as mine,” Cody pointed out.
“I’m aware of that, although the difference isn’t that much,” Jonathan said. “So, you’ll just have to make due for a week until your appointment and then you’ll have your own again.”
-o-0-o-
Roughly an hour and a half later, Cody and Derek were sitting in the living room playing Mortal Kombat 3 on Clark’s and Oliver’s PlayStation. While there was a small television in their bedroom, it was an old model that Hiram had bought in the late 1950s and thus it was strictly black and white and had only a ten inch screen. It also didn’t have the necessary audio/video ports to connect the PlayStation to it, so it was agreed that Clark and Oliver could hook it up to the thirty-two inch color television in the living room of the main house.
“This game is rather violent, isn’t it?” Jessica asked as she looked up from her knitting just in time to see Cody and Derek’s character, Sub-Zero, take out their AI opponent by breathing an icy mist on them, at which point they froze solid, tipped over, and broke into several pieces.
“Sub-Zero wins. Flawless Victory. Fatality,” the game said, as Cody and Derek put down the controller and high-fived each other.
“To be fair,” Derek commented, “compared to some of the other fatalities that was pretty tame.”
Having heard the conversation as he entered the house after school and paused in the kitchen to get himself a drink, Clark entered the living room with Oliver just behind him and said, “Yes, some of them are quite a bit bloodier.”
It was then that Clark and Oliver noticed that Cody was wearing different glasses—as Derek’s frames were different—and that they each had splints on their noses.
“What happened?” Oliver asked, concerned as he came over and sat down on the couch next to Derek, as Clark sat next to Cody.
Cody sighed. “Long story,” before he and Derek launched into the tale, with a few additions from Jessica.
“Wow.” Oliver said.
“Yeah,” Clark said, before he leaned over and very gently and lightly kissed the tip of Cody’s nose.
Not to be outdone, Oliver did the same to Derek, the twins grinning like loons at the attention, while Jessica smiled and shook her head. After a moment of silence, Clark asked, “So, are these your spare glasses?”
Shaking his head, Cody said, “No, they’re Derek’s.”
Oliver did a double-take at this, as he said, “Derek has glasses? I’ve never seen him wear them.”
“He thinks they make him look nerdy,” Cody said. “So he doesn’t wear them as a general rule, preferring to use contacts. He can only wear them for about ten hours a day without irritation though, so he’s supposed to wear the glasses in the interim between then and bedtime… not that he ever does.”
“Can I see you wear them?” Oliver asked.
“Why?” Derek asked. “Code and I are identical, so it’s not like you can’t picture me with glasses on since you know what he looks like with them on.”
“I know,” Oliver said. “Humor me though?”
“Fine,” Derek said as he raised his hand in an expectant manner, prompting Cody to sigh as he pulled the glasses off his face and handed them to Derek.
While there were some things the twins absolutely couldn’t do with only one hand, they did tend to do as much stuff as they possibly could one-handed. Playing video games was one of those things that they had to cooperate with each other on, which is why they’d been playing Mortal Kombat in single-player mode, as they couldn’t each operate a controller with one hand.
Putting them on his face, Derek said, “Happy now?”
Oliver was quiet for a moment before he grinned and said, “Yes, quite. And can I just say that nerdy is not the word I’d use?”
“What would you use then?” Derek asked as he raised his left eyebrow.
“Cute,” Oliver said aloud, as he leaned over and kissed Derek on the cheek, before whispering in his ear, “Sexy.”
Derek blushed and Cody groaned, as he had a feeling that he’d have a harder time getting Derek to share his glasses with him from now on, especially when Oliver was around.
-o-0-o-
To be continued…
And there you have Ch14 of “Brotherly Love.” I hope you enjoyed it. I’m going to try to wrap up the ‘Dichotic’ and ‘Onyx’ storylines in the next chapter, so if there’s any other episodes of Smallville you’d like to see covered, let me know. Or if you’d prefer a couple of chapters in which the characters can just take a break and not be dealing with bizarre events from the show, let me know that too.
Also, on a more personal note, while I’m not a particularly religious person if any of you reading this are, I’d appreciate it if you could keep Nigel Davies, my long-time beta reader and sounding board who helps me draft many of the plots and storylines for my stories, in your thoughts and/or prayers. He’s recently developed a serious health issue which without going into too much detail, has a risk of costing him his eyesight. Hopefully, he’ll recover and suffer no long-term ill effects, but last I heard, I’m afraid it doesn’t sound good.
On a separate, but related note, if anyone is interested in beta-reading for me and acting as a sounding board for my various works, I may well need to find someone at least temporarily. I’m really hoping that Nigel makes a full recovery and I won’t need someone else long-term, but I’m putting this out there just in case.
Ability to read and review chapters using the Track Changes option in MS Word is required and I’d prefer someone who can chat via Skype text message. You don’t need to be familiar with every fandom I write for, although if you’re willing to work on more than one of my works, that’d be great. Nigel isn’t completely familiar with all the fandoms I write for but currently helps with all of my fanfics and even my original works as well.