Chapter One: (She moves the one who can't be moved effortlessly)
Alex is sixteen and holding at least ten paint color samples of blue in her hands. They all are various shades of light blue and some seem to be the same shade. Eliza isn't sure where her daughter's obsession with the color came from.
"Alex," she says, her patience wearing thin, "We just redid your room. Don't you like the purple?" And they had, Alex's room was all backs and purples. They had finished it up just weeks before Kal El had brought Kara to them.
"That was two years ago Mom!" Alex protests. Eliza sighs and walks from the living room to the kitchen. Alex follows her, shuffling the samples in her hands. Eliza gets a wine glass out of the cabinet and begins to consider which of the two wines she has out on the counter to unwind with.
"I'm just saying I think it'd be cool," Alex starts again. "Mom don't you think it would look pretty?"
"Sure honey." Eliza pours a generous amount of red wine into her glass. Jeremiah was still gone. She moves to sit back on the living room couch, laying her glass on the expensive looking coffee table before looking around for the remote. Two weeks have passed since they last heard of her husband.
"Mom?" Alex tries again, her voice a little quieter. Eliza knows she should look at her, knows she should take an interest, but this morning Kara had shot lasers, actual lasers from her eyes causing glowing scars on a large portion of her bedroom floor and Jeremiah wasn't here and she is just so tired.
"Alex, why don't you go work on some homework? You could be doing better if you applied yourself a little more." Eliza finally finds the remote between the couch cushions and sits down, flipping the TV to the news. She feels a little twinge of guilt.
"I'm sorry honey, we don't have the money right now." Silence. Eliza turns around, looking over the couch. Alex is already gone. She takes a long sip of wine.
This morning had been cold. Snow had begun to blanket the streets so Eliza had woken her girls up for school a little earlier than usual. Where they lived, just outside of National City, there was hardly ever a delay of any kind. Alex had just recently gotten her provisional so Eliza allowed her to use the car to drive herself and Kara to school or occasionally for trips to the store and to see friends.
Kara had already been awake, and at Eliza's mention of pancakes, her blue eyes had visibly brightened and she had bolted downstairs shouting "Thank you!" It had happened just a little too fast but Eliza let it slide. Instead, she had called out "Don't forget to brush your teeth!" even though she didn't have to yell.
Kara had been with the Danvers family for two years now. She had nearly perfected controlling her strength. The amount of things she broke was almost nonexistent prior to when she had first arrived. Needless to say, the Danvers were catching up financially. Still, sometimes Kara would move too fast when she was excited or her English would falter or her accent would slip out. The family had passed it off as a disability. Kara rarely had panic attacks from a senses overload as well. Kara had been much happier and healthier as of late and Eliza thought it was partly due to how well she and Alex were starting to get along. Where their relationship had gone from Alex reluctantly watching out for Kara, Eliza noticed that now there seemed to be a real friendship blossoming between the two of them.
It had taken some effort to wake Alex up this morning, her moody sixteen-year-old was annoyed. "Alex I don't want you driving when the snow gets heavier!" Eliza had snapped, not able to tolerate her daughter's attitude. A rift had begun to form between them ever since she discovered Alex watching a show in which depicted homosexuality. She hadn't known how to react, and had questioned Alex. She didn't like her daughter watching mature shows anyways, and this surprised her. Her daughter had been flustered, angry, and insisted it had nothing to do with her. Eliza had let it go. She had said nothing to suggest her daughter wasn't straight. She had told Alex she wasn't allowed to watch shows above a TV-14 rating and left the room with an unsettling feeling in her stomach. Something had changed between them. Eliza liked to blame it on teenage rebellion.
So when Alex snapped "Mom I can handle it," in reply Eliza had ignored her and walked down the stairs to join Kara in the kitchen. She had heard Alex mutter "There better be pancakes left for me, Kara," as she passed through the door on the way out. Even though Kara was all the way downstairs, both Eliza and Alex knew she was listening. "She shouldn't be listening like that," Eliza said pointedly, propping her head back in Alex's room. Alex's mouth twitches, her face set in her usual moody expression. "It helps her to focus on something instead of trying to avoid focusing on everything." Eliza hadn't known what to say to that.
The phone ringing jolts Eliza back to the present. Her heart leaps. Could it be? For a soaring instant, she thinks her husband might finally be off mission and calling back. For a wonderful moment, she hopes. But the phone's caller ID tells her it was just the floor company calling her back to confirm a time to come fix the carpet in Kara's room. Thanks to her husbands job, the issue of how to explain the molten holes in the floor would be taken care of.
She had heard the thrumming noise before the screams. It was loud, high pitched, and roaring. She had been cleaning up the dishes, waiting to see Alex and Kara off for school. Kara had finished her breakfast (finally) and headed upstairs to change while Alex had (finally) gotten in the shower. It was a good thing she had woke them up. The moment she heard the searing noise, she had been taking a sip of coffee. Eliza had frozen in place, the cup an inch from her pursed lips, her eyes shooting to the ceiling. At the following crescendo of screaming, her favorite mug had slipped from her fingers and she ran, fearing the worst, the cup shattering behind her as she made her way upstairs.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw, or smelled. The air was slightly foggy, with smoke. Thank god they had disabled the smoke alarms, the sound would make everything worse. "Kara?!" Eliza shouted. "Alex?"
"Eliza don't come closer! I don't know what's wrong with me," she hears Kara sobbing. Cautiously, her heart pounding, Eliza made her way down the hall and peered into her room. Orange molten holes in the form of two long zig-zag patters glowed on the carpet. She could see that whatever it was had melted through the floor. With a start, Eliza realized she could see through the floor to downstairs, where an exact same pattern of holes steamed. "Kara-"
"What happened?" Suddenly Alex is there, pushing past her and rushing toward Kara. Her hair is wet and plastered to the back of her shirt. She must've been in the middle of dressing. Eliza reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her, not wanting to spook Kara. With a start, Eliza realized she was shaking.
"Alex no!" Kara screams. Her hands covered her eyes. The fourteen-year-old is curled in a ball in the far corner of the room. Eliza turns to Alex. "Go downstairs..." she trails off. Alex's glare does something to Eliza's soul. She lets go of her arm.
"Kara it's ok, you're not going to hurt us," Alex spoke before Eliza could. Something had shifted as she watched her daughter move toward Kara's trembling form, although slower than before.
"Kara, it's ok," Eliza speaks up. Needing to offer something. "You just discovered your heat vision." She frowns, her fears disappearing but a new nervousness takes its place, her mind wandering over what Superman had told her regarding Kryptonian maturity and heat vision years ago.
"It just- I didn't know-" Kara stuttered through her tears. Her hands seemed to be glued to her face. The scientific side of Eliza muses that nothing on earth besides the man of steel himself was strong enough to pull her hands away from her face. But Alex did.
Alex had kneeled in front of the shivering alien girl, and lifted her hands away from her tear streaked face. Kara's hands came away so lightly, wrapped up in Alex's; as if Kara couldn't shatter a man's skull with a flick of her finger. Kara sniffled once, and brown eyes had met blue. "See?" Alex smiled, brushing a golden lock behind Kara's ear.
Eliza finally moves, breaking the tension in the room. Her arm comes to rest around Kara's shoulders. "I'm sorry about the floor Eliza," Kara managed. Her eyes welled up with new tears. "Shhhh, it was bound to happen," Eliza said, relived Kara hadn't vaporized her or Alex. It was so easy to forget how deadly Kara was. She still was having trouble processing what had happened. "You girls still have to go to school." And then, Eliza said to Kara, "I think you, Kal and I will have to talk." Kara's face turned redder than Eliza had ever seen; and the poor girl blushed all the time. Alex hadn't noticed. She was more concerned with why her sister shooting lasers from her head wasn't a good excuse to skip school.
"Because" Eliza said, the floor can be fixed, but if you skip school, your future can't." Alex had muttered how inaccurate her comment really was and dragged a distraught Kara out the house, leaving Eliza alone amongst broken flooring and thin smoke.
Eliza set the time for the floor company to assess the damage next week. On Wednesday at 4pm the government's special floor team would arrive. A text from Alex reverted her attention to her cell lying on the coffee table. 'Kara and I are going to the mall is that ok? She can handle it." Eliza closed her eyes. Maybe a nap would do her good.
She awoke to the sounds of laughter, and the fridge opening in the kitchen. "Alex! Your mom's asleep on the couch!" She hears Kara whisper yell. Eliza closes her eyes again, hoping to return to her peaceful slumber. She considers making her state of awareness known but figures the girls will leave after Kara gets her snack. They must've just got back from the mall. "It wasn't so bad was it?" Alex is whispering. Eliza can hear the pride in her voice. Eliza herself feels a smile creep into her face. Kara had never been to the mall because they thought it would trigger another panic attack. To hear it went well made her heart soar. She would have to congratulate her later. Kara's voice got slightly higher like it does when she's embarrassed and Eliza's attention snaps back to their conversation.
"But Alex are you sure that the shirt is a good idea?" There's a pause, longer than seems appropriate for the question and suddenly Alex is stuttering. Eliza's smile turns into a line. She's never heard her daughter stutter. "Of course," she hears Alex laugh, "the blue, it ..." Alex falters, "it brings out your eyes." Oh Eliza thinks. Just oh. She stays silent on the couch as the girls leave, their foot steps fading upstairs. The uncomfortable feeling she's been aware of since she caught Alex watching that TV show finally makes sense...but she isn't sure if she's in denial or just paranoid.