And Maybe That's Alright

Love

"Where are you going?"

Jethro smiled.

"I won't be long." He murmured, back-stepping towards the bed to take Clark's outstretched hand. "You won't even realise I'm gone." He assured.

Clark pouted childishly through sleepy features, causing Jethro to chuckle fondly. He dropped and shook his head, hair falling into his eyes and lips pulling into an endearing grin that had Clark infatuated.

He softly squeezed Clark's hand, leaning to press his lips to the boy's forehead in a lingering kiss. "I'll be back soon, call if you need me." Clark let out a protesting whine but let go of Jethro's hand regardless, watching as he slipped from the room with a warm smile.

It wasn't long, Clark felt, before Jethro's place was filled in. That could be, however, on accounts of the fatiguing effect that at least one of whichever medications the hospital was having him take had to have.

"Knock knock." A voice roused and Clark didn't realise his eyes had closed until he had to open them to identify the distinctly-not-Jethro figure. "How are you feeling?"

He smiled and blinked the sleep from his eyes, awkwardly shifting, pushing and shuffling until he was sat properly upright. "The hot nurse says I'm almost talking as much as I used to." He grinned.

Selene's eyes widened, blood running cold, and Clark's act broke in devilish giggles. "I'm kidding, I know it's Ro." He dismissed and Selene let a relieved smile reshape her lips. "The feeling's definitely come back to my body but he does a good job of distracting me from the pain. It won't be long before I'm out."

"That's good." She smiled, taking up the seat beside Clark's bed and debating taking his hand in hers again. She did, if only to properly assure herself that the boy really was alive. "Auri misses you."

Clark's face warmed initially before dropping cold. "You're supposed to be in England right now taking care of her." He more stated to himself but Selene squeezed his hand in reassurance anyways.

"She's with Jethro - I'm not supposed to know but I think he's taking her to get ice cream." She said calmly. "He and Mrs Bosko have agreed to help taking care of her while we're here dealing with everything." Clark couldn't help his fond smile.

"You knew I'd take the case as soon as I was out." Selene nodded easily.

"And I knew you'd need all the help you can get. I picked up everything from the house that looked remotely important to him and downloaded all the footage from the home cameras in case there was anything to be found there - Darryl and Zak are looking through it all for us." She retold, watching the way Clark's face flowed through surprise into soft awe.

"You didn't need to do that." He mumbled, squeezing tight to her hand. She shook her head lightly.

"I've been idle for too long, shying away and turning a blind eye to everything he does to you when I could have tried to help even a little bit." She dismissed. "This is the least I can do. I didn't speak out in the past but I can now."

It was silent for a moment as Clark focussed on not choking up, breathing ragged.

"Can I have a hug?" He asked, all too small and young sounding.