The next day was like torture on Lena. Even though it was uneventful and typical, her whole world had been so turned upside down that this lack of anything out of the ordinary almost made it all the worse. It was like losing a loved one to death. Even though that loved one was gone, the rest of the world kept on turning like normal. The sun would rise and shine, the birds would chirp, the cars would speed on down roads, businesses would be run, transactions would be made, smiles would be shared, people would talk, phones would ring, the Earth would spin. Everything and nothing had changed and the normality of this day almost felt like another cruel, mocking blow from life onto poor Lena's weary shoulders. She almost wished that something crazy would happen just to take her mind off of this numbing abyss it was currently trapped in.
"Sam's coming, Sam's coming, Sam's coming," the Luthor continued to repeat to herself as she rubbed her temples again. The broken photo of her and Kara had been buried at the bottom of her desk's trashcan. Sam became Lena's last and only hope.
Finally, the long day ended and the glaring sun set, a mercifully dark and cool sky taking over the heavens. Lena left her office hastily, almost forgetting to finish her final tasks before she closed up the office for the day. She sped on home where Sam was already waiting for her.
"Lena!" Sam had been leaning up against her car when Lena arrived. Her eyes were warm and wide and there was a smile on her face, but Lena ignored all of it to run into Sam's arms, just holding her close and tight, clutching her as hard as she could, burying her face into her shoulder.
As expected, it thoroughly freaked Sam out, but Sam managed to keep her own composure and comfort Lena instead, knowing that for once, Lena needed to be the emotional one. She needed Sam to be the resilient one. She needed to get all of her feelings out and she needed Sam to help her on through. Sam would have to quash her own worries for now. But Sam was good at that. She'd had to help Ruby out of a lot of tough spots before. Sam knew how to comfort. She knew when to be emotional and when to hold back. Now was definitely one of the latter times.
A few minutes later, the two were back inside Lena's home, sitting side by side on the couch.
"Tell me everything," Sam insisted. "But please, do take your time first," she added. Lena obliged, just sitting there, sobbing for a solid 30 minutes. With every new tear shed and every new tissue used, Sam grew more and more concerned, but she hid her concern well, wearing only a tender and open expression as she watched Lena get all of her emotions out. She didn't say a word either, she just let it happen...
It had been a concern of Lena's, originally, that maybe Sam might've been in on Kara's secret as well, but that was part of why Lena had agreed to see Sam at all. Now that she had let her last strands of denial go, Lena was about to interrogate Sam on how much she knew regarding Kara and her dirty little secret. Since they were face to face, Lena would easily be able to tell if Sam was lying or not. She hoped against hope that Sam would pass the test and prove just as blindsided as Lena had been. But that truth was yet to be seen. If she could stop crying for more than two minutes, she could begin her mini investigation and try to learn how much Sam really knew...
10 minutes later, Lena was bawling again. Sam had proven herself innocent and ignorant. She, like Lena, had been in kept in the dark. The tears Lena shed now were a mixture of grief that Sam should've also been left in the dark, anger that Kara had lied to more than one person, and relief that, for once, she was not the only one to be mistrusted like this. She found it comforting and upsetting to realize that Kara had deceived Sam just as thoroughly and unrepentantly as she had deceived Lena. Then it made her wonder why. Why would Kara lie to her and Sam, but tell everyone else? All of them used to be part of the same friend group after all, and all of them knew about the alien-superpower-superhero stuff anyway, so why had Sam and Lena been the ones to be left untold? Why were they the ones Kara deceived?
It did occur to Lena briefly that this might've been because Sam used to be Reign, a Worldkiller, who was about as pleasant as her title entailed, but even before that discovery had been made and even after Sam was freed from Reign, Kara had not told Sam. And Lena knew this because she had carefully said and asked several things that would've made a guilty person slip up, but Sam innocently overshot all of Lena's little verbal tripwires and managed to prove that she, like Lena, had never been told the secret. Lena would forever be grateful for this.
At last, though, Lena did manage to stop crying long enough to properly, correctly and fully tell her story.
"You know that Kara and I have been close for years," she began.
"Yes," Sam nodded, even though it hadn't been a question.
"And you know that all of Kara's friends have been like my family just as much as she has," Lena continued. "J'onn, James, Winn, Alex..."
"Yes," Sam nodded again.
"Well, I thought we really were a family. Bound tighter than blood, by something far stronger: our love. I thought it was mutual. I thought we were all on the same playing field and that we all trusted each other. I thought we were family..." Lena trailed off with a wounded look again.
"But I was wrong," she continued and Sam only nodded gently, having expected Lena to say this. "It turns out, I've never been a part of their group. For all of our history together, after all we've done and been through, I was still the odd-one-out. I've always been on the outside, I just didn't realize it. I didn't want to realize it..." Lena went on for a bit more, continuing to explain how she'd been left out of the loop on one very big and important detail that everyone else in her (ex) friend circle had known.
"They never told me. I was the only one. The only one who never knew. The only one who didn't, doesn't, belong," she whispered, tears streaming down her face again. She didn't bother to wipe them away anymore. "After everything I've done, it was all for nothing. I was never ever a part of their family at all. It had all only ever been a lie, and I was too stupid and afraid to realize it."
Then at long last, Lena said it. She came out and said it. She said was the secret was.
"No one in that giant circle of friends ever told me that Kara Danvers is Supergirl." And Sam's stunned, disbelieving reaction only confirmed Lena's earlier suspicion that Sam genuinely hadn't known either.
"No!" she gasped.
"Yes," Lena replied brokenly, then she pulled out her phone, presumably to offer up proof. But Sam had believed Lena at once. Eyes like that could not lie. And the misery in her voice was a dead giveaway.
But Lena quickly went into her Photos App. There was not a single trace of Kara or any of their other old friends in there anymore. Instead, there were only videos.
"Surveillance," Lena said bitterly, handing Sam the phone.
"Oh my god," Sam breathed as she watched it unfold, a compilation of Kara using all of Supergirl's powers to defend L-Corp from an attack. And then it switched over to her destroying an underground bunker. Sam had no idea where it was located, but she knew that that detail didn't matter. What mattered was realizing who Kara really was...
Sam shook her head as the video came to an end. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lena's pained and bitter smile.
"Me too," she said hollowly as she watched Sam shake her head. "Or at least... I used to be that way..." then her bitter smile turned into a genuinely betrayed frown. Now Sam understood. Now it all was clear to her. In that one simple frown, Sam saw a lifetime of pain and loneliness. She had already known how much Lena had loved Kara, and she had already known how soft and fragile Lena really was underneath her tough and scary exterior. Sam had already known what kind of person Lena was, and she could only imagine the emotional pain and turmoil that the poor Luthor was in right now. An uncovered truth of this caliber could not have been easy on someone like her, especially given all the surrounding and combing circumstances to make it that much more painful.
Sam started to shake her head again, but not in denial about Kara's true identity as Supergirl. This time, she was shaking her head at what this revelation had done to Lena. Sam still felt a deep sense of gratitude to Lena for saving her for Reign. She still felt eternally in debt to the Luthor. To see her now, hurting so much, made Sam's blood boil. She was doubly glad, then, that Reign was no longer part of her. No doubt, something like this would've brought Reign roaring to life, off to execute Kara for the crimes of dishonesty, deceit and betrayal. But even if Sam hadn't felt so loyal to Lena, Lena was such a genuinely and generally nice person that Sam wanted to protect and help her either way. Even if Reign had never been an issue, Sam still cared deeply for Lena. And she still knew that Lena did not deserve the devastation Kara had brought upon her.
But Sam knew that now was not the time for anger. Now was the time for love. No matter how Sam felt, Lena was more important right now. Lena did not need a White Knight to slay the evil dragon. Lena needed a shoulder to cry on, and a rock to keep her grounded before her emotions swept her clean off her feet and into the endless abyss. So Sam set aside her own feelings and anger, allowing the bitterness to melt from her face and be replaced with nothing but tenderness, understanding and compassion. She even opened up her arms and Lena wasted no time in launching into them once again, sobbing anew. Sam only continued to hold her close and rub her back, empathetic tears glistening in her eyes.
At last, however, Lena managed to recover again. She was still miserable and lost and lonely, but thanks to Sam just sitting there and being with her, she managed to calm down once again.
"What am I going to do?" the Luthor finally asked, voice somewhat muffled by Sam's shoulder.
"I honestly don't know," Sam replied with a sigh. She could feel Lena bristle in her arms, clearly unpleased with that reply, but Sam continued to insist as such, refusing to give Lena poor advice or false hope. Better to tell the woman the truth than a lie. Better to admit that the situation was bleak rather than search for temporary solutions that would do nothing in the long run. Better to admit ignorance than bluff intelligence.
"This was a hard blow for you," Sam continued. "You won't recover over night. I don't know what to tell you and I have no advice to give on how you should proceed. All I can say is that you've been hurt deeply and, as with any wound, it's going to take a lot of time and attention and care to help it heal back up. It's going to be a slow and painful process, like with me and Reign, but that's all I can say about it."
"I know that!" Lena muttered dismissively. "I mean, what am I going to do now? Should I tell Kara that I know? Should I wait? Should I try to forgive and forget? Should I call her and the others out on it? Should I actually be allowed to get angry this time? I don't want to go back, but I have to! I have a company to run! I can't just run away! But how else am I supposed to face them? I'm all alone!"
"No," Sam whispered quickly as Lena spoke that last sentence. "No. You are not alone. No matter how scared or angry or upset or defeated you feel, you are never alone. You will always have me and Ruby, always," her voice had taken on a very firm quality that brooked no room for arguments. It was not a rough or fierce tone, but one full of strength, fire and reassurance. But Sam was very used to speaking in this way, having given many similar talks to Ruby, and to herself during her dark times as Reign.
She gripped Lena a little tighter as she continued to pledge her loyalty and support to the poor woman, and all the while, Lena had begun to cry yet again. To hear words like that, of such love and support, would forever be her greatest weakness. This was her Kryptonite, and even though the last few people who had promised their undying loyalty to her had betrayed her and lied to her, hearing someone else make similar promises still worked every single time. She melted even deeper into Sam's arms and basked in her promises.
It did occur to Lena that Sam could be lying, or that Sam might change her mind one day, but at the moment, Lena couldn't help but believe and feel truly safe and secure. After so much drama and turmoil and after so much family heartbreak and deceit, to finally find someone that she could trust unconditionally and who could (and did) trust her in return, seemed too good to be true. And she was even worried that this was the case. But Sam felt so solid, surrounding her from all sides, sheltering her from her troubles, that Lena couldn't help but believe every word.
Besides, Sam had been deceived and betrayed too. Not just by Kara, but by another Kryptonian as well: Reign. Even though Sam had literally been Reign, the way they were melded together meant that Sam was totally unaware of it. So she knew what it felt like, to know and trust someone completely only to learn that there was something wrong all along. Maybe the dynamic was a bit different, but Sam knew what it felt like to be tricked and used.
Sam knew what it felt like to be betrayed by someone she knew very well. She knew what it felt like to have the rug pulled out from underneath her. She knew what it felt like to go through such a crazy epiphany. She knew what it felt like to learn that something obvious had been lying there in plain sight all along. She knew the terror and anger and disbelief and fear and hurt and sorrow and shame and self-loathing and defeat all too well. Sam was no stranger to betrayal from someone close to her. Sam was no stranger to surprise reveals.
In short, Sam knew exactly how Lena felt. Sam's own initial disbelief and horror when hearing about Reign was very much like Lena's initial disbelief and horror when hearing about Supergirl. That was part of the reason why Lena felt so glad to be with Sam at the moment, and why she felt certain that Sam was not lying to her at all. They were in the same boat and for that, Lena was glad.
"I promise," Sam continued. "You are never alone, because even if you don't always have anyone else, you will always have us."
"Thank you," Lena whispered back, tears in her eyes and her voice. She held onto Sam's arms, which were still tightly wrapped around her.