It was almost 11:30 at night in Metropolis when Kara Zor-El left Michael's apartment with tears in streaming down her face and the cold, bitter wind of the New England winter making the sting of the water feel all the more pronounced. Her white blouse glared from the streetlights as Kara had been walking for almost twenty minutes straight hoping to get some semblance of sense into her mind, trying to find some sense to it all and why it had happened, but it was all for nothing. The fact was that it had happened and, even with all of her god-like powers, there was really nothing she could do to stop it.

She took a moment to try and breathe as she leaned against the rough brick wall and just looked up to the sky, seeing past the clouds and the cold layer of winter fog and up to the stars. It brought her some comfort knowing that someone was going much the same thing as her.

An idea then appeared in Kara's head and she reached into her brown purse for her maligned cellular. She'd already gone through four Wayne phones, and she didn't want to tell anyone about her breaking the fifth. Her coworkers still wouldn't shut up about the first two that they knew she broke.

Rao help me if they find out about three and four, Kara joked to herself, the humor doing little to relieve her grief.

Another droplets began to flow and she tried to press the small touch screen buttons faster, only creating more and more small, crater-like cracks. Kara deep, calming, recognizing that she should stop now while she was ahead and, with forcibly slower movements, opened the Alfred app, on her phone.

Briefly, she swallowed back her tears and traced her finger over the icon. A bing noise echoed vaguely and she cleared her throat.

"Call Jason Todd," Kara requested.

Kara banged her head against the cold stone as her mind raced with what she'd say to him. "But what can I say? That my boyfriend just broke up with me?"

"What am I doing?" she asked herself aloud, Kara's mind beginning to mark off reason by reason on why Jason being her first choice to call was a mistake. "I can always hang up right now and-"

"Talk to me," she heard his gruff, Bowery accent and found herself grinning ever so slightly at the sound of his voice.

"Hello?" Jason asked again.

Too late now, Kara mused to herself before finally making a move.

"Hey, Jason, it's me, Kara". she introduced, keeping it together. It had been a skill she'd been working on for months: control, and it wasn't just of her powers, but of herself. From the sound of her voice, to how she carried herself and even the overall aura that she radiated when talking with other people.

Time to take it out for a test.

"How.. how are you?" she stammered as she began to scratch at the brick wall behind her, her nails easily taking the punishment. "Do you have a moment?"

"Kara, what's wrong?" There was clear concern in his voice and Kara swore mentally.

"Kara?"

"I'm here," she replied,sliding down the wall and not caring less about the fabric of the shirt she was wearing. "I'm here," she echoed. "I was just wondering," she gulped. "Are you nearby? Because if you want, we could, what's the human phrase? Hang out?"

There were several seconds of silence that forced Kara to regret what she'd asked Jason, and another that was spent preparing to a way to back out. He was a hundred miles away or more for all she knew. What's more was that she knew he probably had other things to worry about. She knew how bad crime in Gotham was. Yes, Jason usually had one foot outside the city, but even still, it needed it's heroes.

"I think I can swing that," Jason answered back after a cruel waiting period.

"Oh, good," Kara sent back. "That's... that's good. Um..." she began again, not wanting to sound too needy, but still needing to know. "How soon do you think you can be here?"

"Soon as I can, Kara," he paused and she'd hoped it was to come up with a better answer. "An hour and a half?" He finally spoke up again. "Maybe two?" She heard him sigh over his phone. "Kara, you sound tired. Why don't you go back home? I know where you live. I'll meet you there."

"Alright," she nodded weakly. "See you soon?"

"See you soon." he parroted as he hung up.

The call ended with the long ding ringing in her ears for several seconds that ended with Kara burying her head in her arms.

Kara once again looked up to the black sky; black, like the void that had replaced her home and her wished she could fly back in time, back home, where things would have been simpler. Just a soldier, sure, but it would have still been leading an average life.

She closed her eyes tightly, I wish...

"No," Kara bit back the tears as she rose up from the cold concrete. "No, I'm not victimizing myself," she began to sing to herself. "It's okay, it's okay. I got lost on my way, but I'm a Supergirl," she stated as she picked herself up off the concrete and began the flight back home.

"And Supergirls don't cry."

...

She heard three knocks that woke her up from her daze on her small, two person couch in what passed as a living room. Slowly, Kara's eyes opened, but everything was foggy at first, like it was a dream she'd still hadn't woken up from. Groggy, she pushed away from the supporting back of the couch and pushed herself off the furniture piece and onto the cheap and scratched linoleum floors of her apartment.

"Ugh," she groaned. Kara rubbed her head and the knocking this time was accompanied this time by a melody from her TV. "Right," she muttered, seeing the menu to the movie Frozen. Kara had almost forgotten that she'd turned the movie on to help her get some sleep before Jason showed up.

It worked.

"I'm coming," she mumbled as she dragged herself over the cheap carpeting and over to the door.

"I'm here," she said as she opened the door, keeping in mind not to squeeze the knob to hard. She already had to pay for one replacement and, though she didn't strictly need the money, she still enjoyed something else to do with her day. Kara would also be lying if she didn't enjoy the odd girls night out that Siobhan sprang on her once in a while.

"Hey, Jason," Kara greeted with a slight pang of guilt in her voice. She was somewhat desperate for company when she called and not thinking straight. "You weren't waiting by the door for very long, were you?"

He shook his head. "Nah, Tiny-girl," Jason began to replied with a favorite nickname. He was wearing a brown leather jacket that night, with a white t-shirt under it and blue jeans. "I honestly just got here. Traffic was crap."

"Traffic?" Kara questioned, regaining enough lucidity to do so. "After Midnight?"

"Hey, in Gotham, that's when stuff gets fun," he casually waved it off. "So," his expression became more serious. "You sounded kind of frazzled when you called. Mind telling me what's up, K?"

Kara looked down and crossed her arms and forced her head down with her eyes closed. She took a deep breath before finally coming out and saying it. "Michael broke up with me," she confessed.

"Ah," Jason replied back, running his hand through his thick, black hair. "You mind if I get something to drink?" He asked, pushing past her and making a beeline for the kitchen.

She shook her head. "No, it's fine," Kara answered back as Jason moved into her small kitchenette area and began rummaging around through all the warm drink packages. "Thank you for coming, Jason, really."

"Don't," he began as he dug around for the kettle. "Ever," Jason continued as he grabbed a couple of mugs, and filled the kettle with water. "Mention it," he'd nearly finished, placing the kettle on the stove and turning it on high. "I mean it. I have-"

"A 'rep to maintain'," she mocked what might have been his catch phrase at that point with a weak smile. If there's anything she'd learned him, it was that he'd deeply, almost religiously, hated people thinking well of him. Jason had explained it to her once before, saying that 'he needed the underworld to be have the fear of God when they caught wind of him'. She saw through it, though, and it wasn't just because she had x-ray vision. "I get it, still, you made a trip all the way from Gotham to Metropolis just to-"

"I said 'don't mention it', Kara," Jason didn't look at her as he began searching for a cup to drink the tea out of. "Friends help each other, right? And you know what that means?"

Kara shrugged slightly. "You don't owe me shit, kay?"

"Now," he began to speak again, rounding the corner of the kitchenette. "Tell me what happened. That's what you called me here for, right, Kara?" He inquired, throwing his brown leather jacket off to an unused barstool several feet away from him. "So…" Jason trailed off and he sat next to Kara on her two person couch. "Talk."

Supergirl took a deep breath and she looked down. "You remember what Michael was like, right?"

Jason nodded. "Black kid, wheelchair, nads of steel?"

Kara wasn't sure how to respond to that last one, so she just kept talking. "Well, he sat me down and said that he'd always love me for the joy I brought him in life, and then…" Kara took a long breath. "Then he just broke it off like that," she weakly snapped her fingers

Jason sat up. "He give a reason?"

"He said…" Kara swallowed. "He had said that he couldn't risk his family with being around me. We both knew I wasn't the most careful with my powers," her speech began to speed up. "But I was learning, and we were happy and what we had was real. I would have protected his family from anything! He knew that and he still broke up with me and I can't-" a tear began to stream down her face. "And I'm alone again and I hate it and I hate him and I-"

"Kara!" She felt Jason's hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "Calm down and listen, because I'm about to drop down some heavy truth bombs on you, alright?"

"Why? What could it possibly be? How could you justify him-" Jason continued to stare at her and she ceased her shouting. Kara then mentally braced herself, knowing she wasn't going to want to hear this.

"Kara, you know how a lot of times, us 'heroes' end up fishing off the company pier?" He asked.

"I don't know what that means, Jason," she remarked, her annoyance shown in her voice.

Jason sighed. "It means dating where you work, and for people like us," his hands motioned back between the two of them. "It means going out with other heroes, meta or not. You know why that is?" She looked down at the bare floor, having a feeling she knew what was coming next. "It's so that the people we love, the normal people, don't get caught in the crossfire, at least that's what I learned it meant. Hell, I could be wrong," Jason did a half sigh before he finished. "I've been wrong before."

Kara lifted her head up. "Who was she?" She asked bluntly.

Jason rubbed the back of his head and looked away, hoping that the kettle had been finished boiling, but knowing it hadn't. It wouldn't be for the next few minutes. She could tell that he wasn't used to opening up, judging by how insulated he and his friends were and how little she found him working with others outside of her, the outlaws and Batman.

"Jason," he felt Kara's soft, petite fingers turn his head toward her. "We're friends." Her expression suddenly became candid and straightforward. "More importantly, I opened up to you and it's only fair that you do the same for me."

"I also drove here from Gotham nonstop on a whim," he countered, grabbing her pale flesh and putting her arm down and getting up. "So I guess that still leaves us with one in my favor."

"Jason, wait," as soon as he made his move away, she made her own and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You know I wouldn't force you to do anything you didn't want, but," he stopped moving and she let go. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push, but I-" she fumbled over to find the right words and paused as she let go. "I'm trying to adjust, but it helps to have people like me walk me through it."

"People like you?" Jason arched his eyebrow, asking exactly what she meant.

"People like…" she tripped over her words once again, not quite sure how to phrase it but resolute to keep going. "I mean, the 'understudies' of our family, you know? You're constantly measuring yourself up to Batman," he glared at her and she didn't care. "And I'm stuck wearing my family symbol on my chest, and do you know who they think first when they see the 'El' on my chest?" Kara asked rhetorically. "We both know what it's like to have people see someone else when they look at us, Jason. So, as a friend that gets it in a way Roy and Kori don't, will you please let me in?"

Jason let out a brief and exasperated exhale as he took his hand back. Like he expected, there wasn't any fight from her to let him go. She seemed to be getting better at controlling her strength, at the very least. "Her name was Isabelle."

Kara smirks slightly at the small victory, soon followed by the sad realization he'd also lost someone."What happened?"

"We met on a flight to Hong Kong, see, she was a stewardess, flight attendant, whatever, on an airline. You know what a flight attendant is, right, Kara?" She shot him an irritated glare, forcing him to move on. "Right, well she gave me her number, and I wanted to throw it away, I should have thrown it away, but I kind of… didn't."

"Why not?" Kara asked, now genuinely curious.

"I don't know. I called, then hung up before she could answer, but things just…"

"Spiralled?" Kara offered.

"Things just spiralled." he agreed, no longer hesitating. "At any rate, to make a long story short, we liberated Tamaran, she got Joker gassed, then an adventure and a half later, I tried to patch things up, and she just… broke it off, not that I could blame her. I mean, when your boyfriend takes you to an island vacation that rips off of the plot from a 007 flick, what do you think will happen?" His tone came off as more sarcastic now. "Red Wine and Ferrero Rochers?"

She ignored the sass. "Did you like her a lot?"

"I…" he hesitated in his answer and looked at Kara in a kind of resigned joy. "Yeah, I did, actually," Jason smiled and still felt the fondness of having known her and then sighed. "I did. But, by the end of it, Isabelle straight up told me that she didn't want any of the life I had and said maybe when this is behind me, she'd consider it, but she knew what we know."

They stared at each other and and they both understood. "There is no leaving this life behind is there?" Kara brought voice to it. "At least, not when we can make a difference."

"I'm not saying it can't work out between us and normal people, but Kara, it would just take a lot of love and a whole lot more effort to make it work," Jason shrugged. "I guess that's why I respect your cousin as much as I do, even if I don't really like him."

Kara felt a pang of alarm and looked back up to the taller man. "You know-"

"Superman is Clark? Sure," he answered for her. "Not a lot of us do, and Batman keeps it on the downlow, but the hints are there if you look for them."

It was then that Kara decided to change the subject. "But you did have a chance with someone else, didn't you?" She asked sincerely, headed back to sit on the couch. "I mean, you and Batgirl…"

"How do you know about that?" Jason asked, following her lead and sitting back down on the couch next to her.

"Roy talks a lot."

"Roy needs to shut his trap, too."

"She seemed interested enough in you, Jason," Kara asserted, now trying to play something akin to match maker. "Tall, smart, attractive and driven. On Krypton, anyone would have tripped over themselves for a chance with someone like her. And she's a fish 'in the company pier'," she parroted his expression from earlier. "So why not take the chance?"

"I'm no good for her, Kara," Jason alleged. "She's the commissioner's daughter and arguably the second best crime fighter in Gotham and I'm still on InterPol's shit list. Besides," he laid his head back on the soft cushions. "I let her down easy."

"Jason, your last words to her were throwing her first words to you back in her face," she echoed his parting gift to Batgirl. "I'm pretty sure even Darkseid would think that's brutal. I mean, yeah, it probably stung at first, but I know you, Jason. You might not think you're good enough for something real, but I-" she caught her words and covered her mouth in regret, now knowing that she'd found out why. "Jason, do you not think you're-"

"Look, Kara," He interrupted her, now making the concerted effort not to look her in the why. "I get into some really weird crap, alright? Stuff that would make Batman scratch his head. I can't leave her, or anyone, waiting by the phone and listening for a call that'll never come. It wouldn't be fair to her, Isabelle. Anyone."

"So your plan is to just be alone until you die?" Kara felt a lump beginning to form in the back of her throat, accompanied by her blood slowly building to a boil.

"I have the outlaws," Jason offered, half sarcastically and half seriously. "Besides, what I need or want isn't important. If the world needs a hammer, then you can damn well bet that I'll be that hammer. If I had to smash my life to pieces to protect the people that actually matter, then why the hell wouldn't I?"

"Jason…" Kara gripped her jeans hard and felt warm tears stream down her face. "Why do Earth men have to be so stupid?"

"Hey, it adds to our mystique," he joked. "Kara, stop crying. I'm not worth-"

"You might not think you're worth it, but I do!" She shouted indignantly, now interrupted Jason. "You of all people know how bad it hurts to wear someone else's symbol, to feel like someone elses understudy and now, when you're trying to help me out, I find that you don't even care that you have the same problem?!" they were streaming down her face now. "How could you…" she bit back as she wept angrily on her friend's behalf. "How could you be so hypocritical that you don't even care about your own happiness?!"

"Kara," Jason tried to grab her hand, but she forced it away. "I don't cry for me, so don't you go-"

"I'll cry for you!" She shouted again. "Because obviously you won't do it for yourself!" She shook her head fiercely. "Damn you, Jason."

"Kara," the young man said softer than he had before and he made a second move for her, only this time going for her hand instead of her arm. "C'mon, I'm not a fan of seeing you…" she looked up to him with her blue eyes, shining wet from the tear drops and both his speech and thoughts slowed down.

He wiped her the water from her eyes and reminded her that he was there, with her, in the cheap light of a general store lamp. Jason came to her without asking what was in it for himself, without needing anything other than some dime store tea and without even pushing for more details. He just came to her.

She stared into his blue eyes. Neither of them was really certain what was going on but neither of them really prepared to break the moment. Within what had appeared to be seconds, Kara began to unconsciously count the beats skipped in both her and Jason's hearts and she knew what was about to happen. Her mind recounted all the times that she could have backed out of this meeting, but didn't: on the sidewalk, on the phone, in the doorway and grabbing onto Jason's arm and keeping him from leaving. Even if she didn't fully know why, she wanted him there, within arms reach.

There was a certain aroma that filled the air, as well. The smell of cold, winter chilled leather and the air of the open road, mixed in a bit of gunpowder and exhaust. Kara pursed her lips and licked the very back of them, enough to moisten them, but held it back so that he wouldn't see what she was thinking.

The kettle whistled, shattering, breaking, the moment. Jason broke eye contact and began to get up abruptly, obvious from his now shaky body language that he, for all his rugged wiles, wasn't sure how to proceed. "The tea's done, I should probably get-"

Control was lost and it was immediately replaced by the taste of black gas station coffee. Scars ran up and down his arms as his fingers seemingly danced over his ragged and cut arms. As their lips separated, another scent joined the fray. He reeked of something else that took her moments to discover: fear and longing, mixed into a single package.

"Kara…" Jason repeated once more, not hating what had just happened but not entirely sure what to make of it. He took a deep breath. "I should go," he finally said, ignoring the tea and grabbing his brown coat on the way out.

Quickly, he'd opened and closed the door, leaving the small apartment and leaving Kara with nothing but her couch and a small sigh, filled with nothing but not-quite-regret to keep her company.