Kara loves the rain. There's something cleansing about it, something soothing about the constant steady rhythm beating down on the streets below. True, it makes flying less fun and undercuts her Supergirl pose slightly when her hair's plastered to her head and her cape hangs limply behind her, but it's a trade-off Kara takes happily. It's not like there's much call for her Supergirl pose on nights like this; the people of National City, citizens of a desert city as they are, are almost entirely unused to the steady downpour, and most of them take it as a sign to stay inside. Even the criminals are less active tonight, leaving Kara with more free time than she's used to.

There's only so long one can fly around blinking water out of one's eyes, though, and after a few circuits of the city that reveal nothing of interest, Kara alights on a balcony to take a short break. She chooses it at random, she tells herself, and the fact that she recognises it after she lands is a total coincidence. It's not like she went looking for L-Corp's distinctive shape among the other skyscrapers, and if she just happens to choose the balcony attached to Lena's office, it was out of subconscious familiarity rather than any overt desire.

The office is empty and dark, anyway, and even the odd art installation on the wall is dimmed. Disappointment curls in Kara's stomach only briefly before she quashes it, telling herself that she's glad that Lena's not there, that she's apparently gone home at something approaching a reasonable hour for once.

With nothing in the building to distract her, Kara turns back to the city. She floats herself up until she can settle on the railing, letting her legs dangle out over the drop as she gazes out at the lights that shimmer in the rain. She picks out a tiny figure on the ground as he dashes from one sheltered spot to the next, shielding himself with his briefcase until he finally manages to flag down a taxi. She idly tracks the glow of its headlights as it winds its way through the streets, switching to another car once the first one's drifted out of view. She sits there following that pattern, watching as the tiny lights wend their way through the city like ants in an anthill as the wind plucks at her cape and her hair and the rain fills a puddle in her lap, until,

"Aren't you cold?" a voice asks from behind her, and Kara flinches so hard she nearly falls off the balcony. She'd been lost in her own head, not listening to anything other than the soft susurrus of the rain and the wind, and hadn't heard anyone approach. She glances over her shoulder once she's regained her equilibrium to see Lena leaning against the now-open door with a curious smile. Her hair is loose and curling around her shoulders, and she's standing short enough that Kara can tell she's kicked her heels off. She looks softer like this, with the wind tugging gently at her hair and her eyes glittering in the reflected light of the city. She looks less the ruthless Luthor who'd crushed her competitors with a smile, and more like Lena, who'd unwound herself on the floor of Kara's apartment in a dress that cost more than Kara's rent, drinking wine and telling stories of her disastrous college days.

"Le—Ms Luthor. I didn't know you were still here," Kara says as she twists through the air until she's standing on the balcony properly, going for her usual Supergirl confidence but remembering at the last second that she's still soaked through and looking distinctly less impressive than usual.

"I was in the lab," Lena tells her, looking faintly amused as Kara fidgets. "I was about to go home when security let me know I had a visitor." She nods her head towards a camera that Kara hadn't noticed, nestled up in a dark corner where the roof meets the windows of the office. It's an odd precaution, given how high up they are, but after the number of attempts on Lena's life, perhaps an understandable one. "Did you want me for something?"

"No," Kara says, then realises how that sounds. "I mean, not specifically. I didn't not want you. I was just…" She makes a swooping gesture with her hand. "Patrolling. You know."

Lena glances up at the murky sky and raises an eyebrow. "Nice night for it?" she asks, but Kara can see the smile she's trying to hide.

"Well you know the saying, 'neither rain nor sleet nor snow…'" Kara says, and then winces internally. Something about Lena has always thrown her ever-so-slightly off-balance, like she'd missed a step, and the first victim of the weird swooping feeling in her stomach is usually her composure. "I mean, I know that's postal workers but the principle still applies, right?"

Kara's babbling and she knows it, can feel the blush creeping up her cheeks that's completely at odds with the whole Supergirl mystique she likes to convey. Lena's smile is hovering somewhere between amusement and fondness, and there's a spark in her eyes that makes Kara's stomach flutter in a not-unpleasant way. Somewhere in the back of her head Kara can hear Alex laughing at her, and she's actively resisting the urge to throw herself backwards off the balcony before she dies of embarrassment.

And then the building explodes.

Not the whole building, she finds out later. Not even the whole floor; the blast is centred on Lena's office, but in the moment, with the shockwave rocketing towards her, Kara's half convinced that someone's bombed the whole block. Lena is thrown forward, towards her, but Kara moves quickly enough that she's grabbed her around the waist and flown backwards out over the balcony before Lena's had time to react.

Kara scans the other floors quickly, but it's late and the only other people there are two security guards on the ground floor who have the good sense to run outside when the building starts to shake. Lena is trembling in her arms, and it takes Kara a second to realise that it could be less from the shock than the fact that they're thirty stories up and being pelted by rain. She fumbles briefly with her cape, trying to wrap it around her passenger without loosening her already-awkward grip, and she's relieved when she manages it and Lena's shaking eases.

Her relief is short-lived, however, because now she's had a moment to assess, Kara can smell the sharp tang of blood in the air, can feel a wetness against her forearms that's too warm to be the rain.

"Lena, are you okay?" Kara asks, squinting at her as best she can with the awkward angle. Lena's bones are all intact, but her back is peppered with little bits of debris that almost sparkle in Kara's x-ray vision. Kara tries to crane her neck over Lena's shoulder to get a better look, but her cape is in the way, and when she inadvertently loosens her grip, Lena's arms tighten around her neck and she whimpers in pain.

"Hurts," she hisses into Kara's chest, and Kara tilts them backward, manoeuvring so Lena is laying on top of her, allowing her to shift her arms without risking Lena slipping.

The new position lets Kara lift her cape an inch, and as she sweeps Lena's hair out of the way she realises with some alarm that, under the shredded remains of Lena's shirt, one of the larger metal shards actually is sparkling with a faint blue light. She also realises that there's quite a bit more blood than she'd thought. Lena is shaking again, her breaths coming in quick, pained gasps that wash across Kara's throat, and her heartbeat is fluttering in Kara's ears. The wail of approaching sirens is bouncing off the glass of the skyscrapers, the rattle of falling debris is echoing from the broken building behind her, and Kara notices with growing panic that Lena is slowly going limp in her arms. The wind is howling at her and the rain is stabbing into her skin, and with her heart pounding in her throat and a painfully familiar dread curling in her stomach, Kara does the one thing she's always done when she's feeling overwhelmed.

She closes her eyes and listens for Alex.