By KenJ <ken.janney@kjanney.com>
Rated: PG-13
Submitted July 9, 2102
Summary: This story takes place in the Matchmaker Chronicles universe. Lois and Clark have been married for approximately sixteen years. When Superman and Ultra Woman are called to deal with a tropical storm, the kids have an evening at home with Jon, the eldest child, now a teenager, in charge.
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Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros., except those I created. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
***
August 17, 2013
It had been a rather uneventful day at the Daily Planet, at least as far as investigative reporting was concerned. Lois and Clark had recently broken up a ring which was smuggling in illegal aliens by hiding them in shipping containers on cargo ships.
The break had come when Superman had rescued an individual that had been left behind in a container and he had spilled the beans to Superman because he had been able to question him in his native language.
From the information gathered they had been able to follow right up the chain, link by link, until they had found the ring leader and Superman and Ultra Woman had turned him and the evidence they had gathered over to the police. Naturally they gave the exclusive interview to Lois and Clark.
This afternoon Lois had gone down to the daycare facility and nursed fourteen month old Sam, her youngest, at around noon and visited with two year old Lucy and four year old Jimmy. Jon, Lara, Sean, Celeste and Jessie were in another section for the school aged children which was overseen by a set of grandmotherly women whom the children all adored.
At five PM Lois packed up her bag and she and Clark went down to the second floor to collect the children and head home.
They all loaded into the mini-van and headed home.
Once they were home Lois took Sam upstairs to nurse him while Clark started supper and the rest of the kids went into the play room.
At this point Jon was thirteen years old and was strong, fast, his hearing abilities had come on and he was starting to have his vision abilities. These would come and go at unexpected times. When his vision would kick in at times it would be very embarrassing. Suddenly he would see through the walls. Unfortunately when it kicked in once he saw his parents in their bedroom. At least all they were doing was cuddling in bed and he could hear them discussing their plans for their upcoming vacation. They were all going to spend some time at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa Kent. That meant some time at Smallville Lake and also some time for the younger kids to play in the tree house.
Just as they were finishing dinner there was a call for Superman and Ultra Woman to assist with a Tropical Storm threatening the Florida panhandle. It was on a track that would take it into Mobile Bay. The winds on the northeast quadrant would be the strongest and produce the most damage. Therefore Pensacola, Florida would be threatened.
Clark had pulled Jon aside and told him that he and his mom had to leave. “Jon, you’re the oldest so we are leaving you in charge. See to it that your brothers and sisters behave and stay out of trouble.”
“Okay Dad. I’ll take care of them. You and Mom can go ahead. We’ll be fine.”
Clark said with a smile and a pat on Jon’s shoulder, “Okay Sport, we’re counting on you.”
Clark and Lois both exited through the back door spun into their uniforms and took off.
***
Jon pulled his sister Lara aside. Lara was two years younger than Jon and her powers had started coming on and she had been brought in on the family secret. Jon said, “Mom and Dad had to go take care of an emergency. They left me in charge but I’m going to count on you to help me. I don’t know how long they will be away. Mom left some breast milk in the fridge for Sam so when he gets hungry could you feed him?”
“Sure Jon. I can handle it. What do you plan to do with everyone?”
“I was thinking we could put on some cartoons or one of our videos. Maybe we could pop some corn. I don’t think Mom and Dad would mind, we’ve already had dinner.”
Lara asked, “Can I pick out the video?”
Jon replied, “Sure sis. Go ahead and I’ll bring the rest of the kids into the living room.”
While Jon was gathering his siblings Lara went to the cabinet and selected one of her favorite videos, “The Incredibles” and put the DVD in the player. As it started playing all of her brothers and sisters came in and sprawled around to watch the movie.
After Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl were married Jon went into the kitchen to make the popcorn. Lara was so engrossed in the movie that she didn’t notice two year old Lucy get up and leave the living room.
It took Jon some time to pop the corn and when her returned Mr. Incredible was fighting a giant robot and he put the bowl of popcorn down where everyone could reach it and he sat down to enjoy the rest of the movie.
When Elastigirl was sneaking into Syndrome’s lair Lara thought of feeding Sam so she went into the kitchen and warmed up a bottle of breast milk. She brought it back into the living room and pulled Sam into her lap and started feeding him. She looked away from the HDTV and started counting noses. She came up short and with a worried tone in her voice asked Jon, “Where’s Lucy?”
Jon, startled, looked around and said, “I don’t know. I thought you were watching her.”
Lara retorted, “I’m not the one that was left in charge! You better find her before Mom and Dad get back!”
Jon got up and started checking rooms. First he checked the play room. He blanched and said, “Oh, no!” What he found was a total mess. Every toy was out of the toy box and they were scattered all over the floor. All of the board games were open and all of the pieces were scattered around. Lucy was nowhere to be seen.
Next he checked the downstairs bathroom. When he opened the door he exclaimed, “OH, NO!”
All of the toilet tissue was off the roll and the end was in the toilet, as if the flushing of the toilet was being used to pull the paper off the roll and the water was running in the tub with the stopper in. Fortunately it hadn’t crested the sides as yet. Jon prevented a disaster by quickly crossing the room and turning the water off and pulling out the stopper.
As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom he shouted, “LUCY! Where are you?”
He didn’t get an answer so he tried to tune in with his superhearing. He thought he heard a noise upstairs and so he headed that way. The noise was coming from the master bedroom. When he opened the door he was appalled at what he saw. His Mom’s cosmetics were strewn all over and there were lipstick marks like crayon drawings on his mother’s vanity mirror.
Lucy was curled up on his Mom’s bed sound asleep with bright red lips and miscellaneous dark marks on her face from where she had gotten into her mom’s eyeliner and mascara.
Just then he heard the back door open and his mom shout, “We’re home! Where is everyone?”
Jon could hear Lara say, “It wasn’t my fault! Jon was in charge.”
He could hear a worried tone in his mom’s voice as she asked, “Where’s Jon?” Then she raised her voice and shouted, “Jon! Where are you?”
Jon picked up Lucy and carried her with him as he trudged downstairs to face the music.
As soon as Lois saw Lucy she started to laugh. Clark started checking rooms at superspeed and saw all of the damage done by Lucy.
When he got back he said, “We just had to deal with a Tropical Storm in the Gulf and now we come home to Hurricane Lucy!”
THE END