Chapter Text
“Jon, why did you ask me to drive us here? I thought we were going on a date,” Candice asked, sporting her trademark frown. She flipped her brown hair and began tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. Jon nervously ran his fingers through his blonde curls. When he had come up with this plan he hoped Candice would understand why he needed her help and not be angry with him. Based on her expression, Jon realized he owed her a major explanation.
“Look, we will have our date, I promise.” He looked earnestly at her, desperately hoping that she wouldn’t be upset about the deception. “I’m going to buy us lunch and we can have a picnic at a nearby park I found that overlooks a small pond.”
“Now that’s the kind of sweet thing I would expect of you. So tell me Jon, if you planned such a romantic date, why are we parked at a doctor’s office right now.”
Jon took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I scheduled an appointment for myself and I needed a ride. So we had to stop here first, but then we will have the exact date I promised you.”
“Okay, but why couldn’t you just go to the clinic in Smallville or come with your parents,” Candice asked, her eyebrows furrowed. The confusion was still evident on her face, but the annoyance seemed to have passed.
Jon looked down. This was the hard part. “Because I didn't want them to know.” He said softly, unable to make eye contact with his girlfriend. It was tough to admit, but it was the truth.
For the first time, Candice's eyes softened, and a worried look crossed her face. “Why?”
“It’s complicated I guess,”
She reached over and gently grabbed his hand, "Wait, are you okay?" Jon relished in the feeling of her soft hands. Noticing the concern in her voice, he looked up and squeezed her hand.
“Yeah, I think so. I’ve just been having these painful headaches lately,” he admitted. Taking another deep breath, he pushed ahead. “Pain meds haven’t been helping so I’m wondering if it’s a migraine or something. I wanted to get checked out, see if I could get some medicine that actually helped.”
“God, Jon, why didn’t you say anything,” Candice asked, her voice switching from polite concern to full on worry.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it was that big a deal, but it is getting annoying being so tired all the time and–”
“Wait, are you not sleeping?”
Crap. He hadn’t planned to tell her that part. “Actually, no, not really,” he confessed, noticing the look of surprise on her face. “Most of the time the headaches are either late at night or early in the morning.”
“Has this been happening every night,” she asked, moving her hand over to his shoulder, desperate to provide more comfort.
“I mean, it’s always different, but yeah, I’ve had some form of a headache every night.”
Candice was silent. She had not been expecting this. The reality of the situation he was telling her about was finally sinking in. “Your parents don’t know anything about this do they?”
Jon sighed again. “No, they don’t,” he admitted.
“Babe, why wouldn’t you tell them?”
“Like I said, it’s complicated. Let’s go in okay,” Jon said, pulling his hand away from hers and pushing open the car door. Candice quickly got out of the driver’s side and went around to join her boyfriend.
“Hold on a second.” She grabbed Jon’s arm. He turned and faced her, a determined look on his face. But she could be just as stubborn. And at this moment, she was very worried about her boyfriend. “J, I know how close you are with your family. Why haven’t you told them,” Candice asked, trying to get to the bottom of Jon’s secrecy.
“Look, it’s not a big deal. They just have other things to worry about and I didn’t want to bother them.” Noticing the concern in her face, Jon softened. His sweet and subtle smile had never been more endearing to Candice. In addition, his impossibly blue eyes shined and drew her in.
“Everything's fine, babe. Let’s just get this over with so we can spend the rest of the day together.” He gave her a cute smirk; the one that made Candice melt until she was helpless to say anything otherwise.
They leaned in for a quick kiss. It wasn't too passionate, they were in the parking lot after all. But as usual, the kiss hinted at things to come later.
~
The waiting room was pretty typical, Candice thought, as she took a seat while Jon went to check in. Uncomfortable, patterned chairs that had probably been designed decades ago were scattered around the small waiting room along with basic wooden tables holding tacky magazines that were anything but current. Only a few other patients occupied the space, meaning they would get to have a fair amount of privacy.
Jon had claimed everything was fine. He implied that the appointment was totally routine and there was no need to worry. But no matter what he said to reassure her, Candice just couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong. She couldn't pinpoint anything major he was doing to give her that impression. But rather, it was the little things.
Jon returned with a clipboard so he could fill out his basic information. He gave her a quick smile before hunching over, giving his attention to the crisp forms. Jon's eyes had a wariness that wasn't normal for him. He was jittery and anxious. Candice was also surprised to see Jon's hands shaking while writing.
That behavior was nothing like the Jon she knew.
She reached over and softly rested her hand on his wrist. He visibly relaxed, gave her an adoring look and leaned in for a kiss. They didn't usually engage in a lot of PDA, but despite what Jon insisted, they both knew it wasn't just a normal day. He smiled at her once more, then went back to filling out the forms.
~
Candice had been surprisingly observant since they reached Bristol. Jon thought he was doing a good job of playing it cool, but apparently things had still been slipping through his facade. He continued holding her at bay though, relying on his charm to keep her from getting too suspicious. Honestly, he thought he was doing pretty damn good, considering the truth.
And the truth was, Jonathan Kent was completely and utterly terrified.
From the moment the bizzaro version of himself had shown up, Jon's head had hurt. Some days it was worse than others, especially when he was having the visions. Sometimes it was just a dull ache. But it was always there.
Even after Jon-El was in custody and the visions had stopped Jon's headache didn't go away. At first it was manageable and he slIpped aspirin whenever he could. But everything changed a few nights later.
Jon finished filling out his information for the nurses and returned the forms to the front desk. As he sat back down he let his mind wander back to that night when everything had gotten worse.
It had been a normal day of Jon trying to be his happy, positive self despite the continuous headache. But that night at supper, things had begun to change. They were eating later because Clark was handling a plane incident halfway around the world, but had insisted he would be back soon enough to eat with them. Naturally, wrapping things up had taken longer than Clark had claimed. But by 7:45, all of the Kents had sat down to eat.
Jon tried his best to engage in the conversation with his family members, but the truth was he was freaked out by how weird he was feeling. Every time he got up he felt dizzy and shaky. The lights seemed too bright and loud noises hurt his ears. Jon also didn't have much of an appetite and was a bit nauseous.
Basically, Jon felt sick. And he wasn't going to tell anyone about it.
Lois and Clark let him go upstairs under the guise of too much homework and Jon was thankful. Even though it was hell, walking all the way upstairs, his cool dark bedroom brought him great reprieve. Finally, due to the lack of bright lights and loud sounds he could relax a bit.
But just as he started to feel better, the pounding started. It was like a relentless, unforgiving, constant attack, specifically on the right side of his head. Jon had grabbed his head and buried it in the pillow. He quickly learned movement made it worse, so he tried staying very still, which unfortunately didn’t help much. The pain was always there; that stinging, pulsing pain in his head that refused to let up. At one point he thought about going downstairs to get some pain medicine, but moving just hurt too much.
It also occurred to him to just call out for his dad; he would be able to grab the medicine. But that thought left his mind as soon as it entered. Clark Kent had bigger things to worry about than the headache of a lying soon who had dishonored the whole family. No, he wasn't going to call his dad.
Toughing it out was the only option.
Jon kept the painful nights a secret for a whole week before he couldn't handle it anymore. He wasn't getting any sleep and was tired of feeling sick, faking being happy, and dealing with the constant headache. So over lunch he snuck away, called the doctor's office in Bristol, and made an appointment. Later that day he convinced Candice they deserved a "date day" and cleared the whole thing with his parents. Jon had been on good terms with them so they easily agreed.
Of course the whole thing was a scam. Jon just needed to get to a doctor and get some damn medicine for the never ending headache.
The sad thing was he never really considered going to his parents with his injury. They were just too busy with bigger problems. Besides, he already felt like a failure more and more every day.
His twin brother was learning to fly and Jon couldn't even get a handle on a simple headache? Yeah right. No way he was telling his family about this.
"Jonathan Kent?"
He looked up, surprised they called his name so quickly. "Yeah that's me."
"We are ready for you." The nurse was in her mid twenties and had a kind smile. There was nothing to be scared of, Jon thought to himself as he stood up. He had only taken a few steps when he saw Candice following behind him.
"Babe, what are you–"
"I'm not letting you go in alone, Jon. I'm just not," said Candice, with a look of steel on her face. Jon always figured he would handle the appointment by himself. But in that moment, seeing her unwavering support, Jon was grateful.
He nodded, letting her know it was okay if she joined him and they two continued on, ready to face the appointment together.