What's new? Kara travels to Earth at age 3, not 13. And? Her powers start at puberty, not immediately. I mean, if you know the damage Earth toddlers can cause, you know the world would end if an Earth toddler had Super powers. And? There is no Kal-El. Thus, the force that rescues Kara when she lands on the planet is the American social services department. Fort Roz ain't got nothin' on the damage that underfunded, grossly understaffed organization causes. Don't believe me? Keep reading. Or see "Dear Supergirl" for more. PS Alex is 30, Kara 13.

What if Kara had ended up in the notoriously abusive foster care system instead of the Danvers house? Let's see, shall we?

"Is this really okay?" She looked up, for the first time the tiniest chink in Kara's steel emotional strength shown through, her forehead a row of questions, her eyes pools of uncertainty.

"Of course it is!" Alex's face was wide and bright with a smile, trying to encourage the young Kryptonian.

"I don't think it's okay." Her body language wasn't exactly positive. Her face returned to its normal expression, dark, emotionless, expressionless- unexploitable. Her body taught, stiff and unyielding.

"No, it is! Really!"

Kara let the kite drop as a silent answer.

"No," she shook her head. "It's not. It can't be." She backed away. "This is a waste of time. It's not productive. Kids don't even do this." She said it disdainfully, and also as if she truly believed she wasn't a kid.

It had been less than a month since Alex Danvers had been given charge of the Kryptonian girl by the DEO. She'd flown under the radar, literally, until recently, when her Earth powers had begun to manifest. (yes, think more old school Sabrina the Teenaged Witch than immediate powers SG) Alex had been leading the team that found her at National City's Ensign Home for Children. The fire had alerted the city's first responders, and the girl with the laser eyes had caught the attention of the DEO.

Standing in the middle of the park, Alex moved closer to Kara, who might be feeling more than a little bit exposed at the moment, in the open space where, as she'd put it when they'd walked out there "anyone could see us".

"I know it wasn't safe for you, it wasn't ever safe for you to be a child. You were always expected to be an adult, that's bad enough," She could still count on Kara to recite without a shred of emotion the physical and emotional hell that had been her life at the orphanage and in foster care. In captivity was more like it. At that moment Alex was thinking of one of Kara's latest emotionless recitation about having to steal money while in kindergaren- expected to go to buy food at the local gas station for her abusive foster mother. She walked to school alone, told to somehow steal money, then on the way home from school use the money to buy bread, butter, milk and cereal. When she'd come home without the milk because it was too heavy for her tiny five-year-old hands to carry, her foster brother'd slammed her forehead into the doorknob in gratitude.

That was one nice thing about Kara. If you asked her what her life was like, she had no problem telling you in graphic minute detail.

"but that you were always discouraged from showing emotion," Alex continued aloud, "or receiving physical affection and love. But it IS okay."

"No. It's only okay for children in kindergarten, or younger. Really by five you shouldn't expect to be loved anymore." They'd been going back and forth about expressions of love since earlier that morning. Kara was just picking it back up as if they'd never stopped. "You're too old. The older you get, the less people care about you."

Her child's eyes were steel, cold with excruciating experience, daring to be contradicted. Alex had no problem with that.

"That's not true!"

"You calling me a liar? I've lived it, lady." Her short blonde hair framed her face, making it seem narrow and cross.

"If that wasn't true, you wouldn't see people look away when an elderly person walks towards them. Or people stop to help a homeless child, but won't even see a homeless adult. The older you are, the less people have to care about you. If you're really old, they just wish you were dead."

There was a lot of painful truth to that. Actually, all of it. Alex thought it was a blessing the girl had only spent ten years on Earth in the hell that was the American foster care system, instead of nearly 20 like most. National City's orphans were no different than any other city. Even those lucky enough to be housed in foster care homes, they were sexually, physically, and mentally abused in the most horrific ways possible. As adults they usually ended up in prison, if not killed by pimps, Johns or committed suicide first. You can't house a lifetime of unlove and abuse into the body of a human being then magically expect them to become a happy productive member of society with loads of self respect, love and confidence at age 18. But that's exactly what was expected of these abused souls.

"You're right. About that. And that isn't right."

Kara narrowed her eyes at Alex. "Coming from the woman who thinks it's okay to hug people," she rolled her eyes and scoffed.

Alex bristled at the reminder of their latest conversation- Alex insisting it was okay to hug her. She decided to pick that up again. And again. And again. She'd keep trying.

" It's wrong to believe that once you're an adult that you don't need hugs from people- or that the only physically affection you can get has to be sexual." Alex reasoned she could use that term because Kara was well aware of adult sexual relationships, and sex in general. Or, more appropriately, rape, though Alex was certain Kara would not destinguish between the two. "Kids aren't allowed to hold hands anymore without people putting a relationship to it. But it used to be normal for friends to hold hands everywhere they go."

"But it's okay to be held. It's okay for a safe adult to hug you, or pick you up, or..." she thought about her ward's specific past, "enjoy being around you. To want to be around you. To want to see you happy."

The expressionless face told her doubts by hard and unending experience.

If you had never been shown real love in your entire existence how were you supposed to believe you could suddenly get it at age 13, out of nowhere? Or that it didn't come at a price and wouldn't be snatched away?

How could she make Kara understand that? Or open up? About anything? Speak? Just speak.

Silence.

Alex tried that. Stood in place silently for five minutes before Kara spoke.

"This whole Mary Poppins fly a kite thing? You want me to do this, but I'm acting like a five year old!" She kicked the kite on the ground towards Alex as proof.

Alex hid her smile. Kara'd barely said a complete sentence to her, so any speech, whether profanity laden, insult laden or not, was progress. At the moment Kara the Kryptonia was being as polite as the Pope.

"This is something that you enjoy, isn't it? Five minutes ago, you thought this was the coolest thing in the world."

Immediate suspicion was her answer. As if by admitting it, this thing could be taken from her. As punishment for showing her joy and love. The swift retribution of having the object of that affection snatched away to be mocked and ruined in punishment.

Alex tried returning silence again, and was rewarded. Frankly it was rare when Kara spoke at all, but slight goading and then silence seemed to be a trick Alex could use now.

Finally Kara admitted grudgingly looking at the ground, "Because no one else was around."

Witnesses. It made sense now. Alex shook her head, silently scolding herself for not realizing this oversight.

"If you act happy around other people, they'll think you're nuts and lock you away," she added. Then she shut her mouth as if she never intended to open it again. In these few weeks, Alex had learned that expression- as well as not to push Kara. It was her line in the sand.

But again Kara was right. It was wrong for adults, and teenagers to have to swallow their joy, stop expressing their joy. No more shrieks, no dancing, no jumping for joy or skipping. No physical expression of happiness was allowed for adults unless it was sexual expression. All wrong, again.

All an adult could do was self-depricatingly admit that she or he liked something. Even for the child Kara, who she still was a child, that was wrong. Had always been wrong.

At that moment Alex realized she was taking the wrong approach to this, using entirely the wrong tactic. But there was no definitive guideline here, no book to follow, so Alex couldn't fault herself for not knowing this.

It was she, the adult, who had to lead by example. Had to show Kara that expressing joy so that it could be heard and seen by others was okay. Even if it was wrong that adults and teens and even children scolded and laughed at an adult who found joy in something.

Her dark eyes met Kara's. "Can I show you one of my absolute favorite things on this planet?"

This might just be a one-shot. Unless anyone has some ideas, or things they'd like to see. I feed off my reader's input, and right now my brain is hungry.

When was the last time (if ever) that you saw kids or adults who were just friends holding hands? IE non-sexual, platonic love?