"So, Maxwell Lord, huh? You know, I never thought he would be one to sacrifice himself for his workers."

"Well, that's what everyone is saying happened, and when I got there, everyone told me he was gone."

"Kara, do we need to find him? He's kind of an asshole," Frankie deadpanned, her eyes rolling slightly.

"Don't let Winn hear you say that, Max is his personal hero."

"Really?"

"Yeah,"

"Then don't tell him I said that."

A few days after the cafe confessional, Frankie still hadn't completely forgiven Alex and Kara but she was no longer simmering with just-under-the-surface frustration. She closed her fingers in a tighter grip on her phone as she walked, swerving to avoid crashing into the people on the packed National City street.

"Hey, Frank, Ms Grant's hosting a gala dinner tonight to celebrate Supergirl. You should come."

"A party. To celebrate Supergirl."

"Yeah! There's gonna be food, and drinks. And me, I guess." Kara trailed off mid-sentence, her voice dropping out over the phone.

"Sounds fun," Frankie muttered blankly.

"I kind of ran out of ideas,"

"Yeah, I could tell."

"Please Frankie?" Kara begged. "It'll be great, I promise. Plus, you might even meet someone extra special."

Frankie could practically feel Kara's wide grin through the phone.

"Kara, look, I-"

Frankie broke off with a grunt, feeling her body crash into something big and solid.

She straightened up her coat and glanced over to see who she had collided with. It was some guy. Tall, dark hair, completely unfamiliar. He looked her up and down before apologizing and continuing to walk.

"Sorry but, it just sounds like a really bad idea," she continued, swerving violently out of the way of another group of tourists. "I don't even have anything to wear."

"I can fix that. Look, I'm busy after work today because I'll be helping Ms Grant set up, but come over at lunch and I'll help you find something."

Frankie sighed. Kara had made plans. She was bound to them now. There was no going back.

"Fine."

When she arrived at CatCo that afternoon, she felt a vibration coming from her phone. Looking down, she saw a text from Kara; meet us in room 6B. don't bring anyone.

Shoving down her immediate thoughts of more, suspicious, activities, she hurried quickly to the elevator.

Once it arrived, she stepped in alone, trying not to remind herself of her problem with elevators. She wasn't scared, more apprehensive. They moved pretty damn fast. She reached over to the floor buttons and instead of reaching for level eight like she normally would, she stopped at the button for level six.

After about thirty seconds of bad jazz music, the floor stopped shaking, and the doors crept open. She hurried gladly into the unfamiliar corridor and looked around, spotting a door at one end that was slightly hidden behind a wall.

Jumping into step, she reached the door and caught sight of a plaque that read; Ed Flaherty: Actuaries

She could hear voices from the other side and knew that something was going on inside, but this was where Kara had said to meet her.

The moment she pushed open the door, she spotted four people crowded around a desk of extremely high tech looking equipment. Kara, Winn, James and, Alex?

The room smelled heavily of musk and looked worn. The paint was chipped in some places, there were cobwebs in a back corner and two of the couches were covered in protective plastic.

"Frankie, glad you could make it," Kara said, looking up as the door opened.

"Um, what's happening?"

Nobody answered directly, but Alex gave her a spearing look that would've sent a heated panic through her bones if they weren't sisters.

"In regards to Reactron," she said, turning pointedly back to the computer she was sitting in front of. "I used the DEO satellite to scan the highway that you fought him on, and I was able to isolate the nuclear signature of his weapon system. It's powered by Thorium two thirty-two, which can only be found in one place."

She tapped some keys and brought up a diagram of the place in question.

Frankie had no idea what they were talking about or why Alex was mad at her all of a sudden, so she tried her best to melt slightly into the background. She caught Winn's eye and he gestured her over.

Kara, who was closest to Alex, read off one of the screens.

"Bakerline Nuclear Power Plant."

"Oh, I remember that," Winn said, raising himself on his tip-toes slightly to see around James. "Terrorists tried to start a full-on meltdown like, five years ago."

The name Bakerline Meltdown struck something in the deep recesses of Frankie's memory, but she couldn't quite pinpoint where it came from.

"But Superman stopped it."

Frankie's mind whirred sputteringly into action as she suddenly remembered what the Bakerline Meltdown actually was. The story had played non-stop on the news, and the more experienced people she worked with still talked about it in the break room.

"He prevented the reactor from exploding, right?" Frankie asked, crossing her arms.

"Saved millions of people." Alex nodded, not looking in Frankie's direction. "But two reactor engineers were killed when the facility was flooded with radiation. Ben and Alissa Crawl. They were married."

Some kind of facial recognition software popped onto the screens, and they all showed one identical model of a bald man. To Frankie, his mannequin-like appearance and low-resolution was zero help, but to Kara, it seemed to hold every answer she'd ever needed.

"Ben Crawl is Reactron."

How she could've possibly known that, Frankie had no idea. Deciding to go along with it, she said, "So you're saying he somehow survived the radiation exposure?"

"Must've," Winn muttered, shoving a hand into his pocket.

"That's why he hates my cousin. He blames him for the death of his wife." Kara's tone betrayed a faint hint of sadness, one akin to finding out that your seventh favourite tv show has just gotten cancelled. One that Frankie believed was warranted.

"But Superman still managed to prevent an American Chernobyl."

To Frankie, James was a cinch to read. His face was expressive, he wasn't amazing at hiding his body language, and she knew when people were lying. She was good at it. But his casual lean against the wall, 'trying too hard to hard to be cool' vibe was confusing. He was clearly trying to impress somebody, especially since this was the second time he'd brought up Superman in the space of a minute.

Then Frankie realised.

This guy was Jimmy fucking Olsen from the Daily Planet, Clark Kent's best friend.

No wonder.

Winn stood watching her for a second, then said, "Chernobyl. That gives me an idea about how we might find Crawl."

He shooed Alex out of her spot and started typing. After a minute of slightly awkward silence involving Alex avoiding Frankie's eyes in apparent and unexplained anger, Kara out of shame and James, most likely out of pride.

"This might take a while," Winn said, looking pointedly up at Kara.

Alex stood up.

"If there are any big updates, let me know immediately."

She spun and hurried out of the room. James quickly followed with no explanation.

"Ms Grant is probably freaking out. I should go." Kara turned to leave, but before she reached the door, she turned back to Frankie.

"Hey, I know this isn't exactly what we planned but-"

"It's ok. I'll have something at home, I'm sure."

Kara shook her head, watching as Frankie's heart cracked just the tiniest bit more.

"Frankie, I just don't want to do this to you again."

"You won't be. I promise."

"You sure?"

Frankie was good at knowing when people were lying. She was good at reading people. It also meant that she knew how to keep something secret, especially from Kara.

"Yeah," Frankie sighed.

Kara flashed an apologetic smile and was out the door in a flash.

"And then there were two," Frankie muttered, standing in the dishevelled office.

Aside from the buzzing and whirring of all the computers, the room was silent. Not awkward, but silent. That was until Winn spoke.

"Hey, you don't really have to be anywhere do you?" He asked, swivelling in his chair to face her.

"Nope," Frankie said, popping the 'p' slightly. "Cleared out my lunch break."

"Would you wanna maybe stay? I never have anything to do here anyway and I didn't really mean everyone had to leave."

She looked over at him again, his fingers working deftly to loosen the tie around his neck.

"Yeah, sure."

She pulled up a seat next to him and watched him type out commands that to her seemed like nonsense, but to him probably made more sense than English.

"So what are you actually doing?"

"Right, so when James said 'American Chernobyl', it made me think about what happened over there." He paused, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "How much do you remember from that?"

"Not a lot."

"Ok so there was this huge nuclear explosion in Pripyat in Ukraine, fifty-thousand people evacuated, the entire town is completely abandoned now. But when scientists and hazmat workers went back to look for signs of radiation and stuff, there was this black mould they'd never seen before." Winn's face lit at the chance to explain it all again to someone else.

"It was all full of melanin which meant that it essentially could've protected them from solar and ultraviolet radiation, which it thrives on. If I could find that same black fungus here in National City, then that could point to where abouts Crawl is, and therefore where he's keeping Lord."

Frankie sat blankly for a minute, trying to understand what he had just said. Eventually, it dawned on her what he was doing and she tried her best to answer intelligently.

"So, you're saying that because this fungus has only ever been found at the sight of a massive radiation eruption, then there's a very high chance that if we find it here, it's at a sight of high radiation."

"It's a long shot, but it's worth a try. Especially since it's the only lead anybody has."

Winn was grinning like an idiot, so Frankie smiled as well, whatever tension from Kara and Alex sliding out of her body like a river.

The rest of the time passed with ease even though it actually wasn't that long and conversation flowed evenly ("Why does this room smell like a person died in it?" Frankie asked. "Because I'm pretty sure they did, I can't exactly remember."), and eventually, they landed on the topic of the gala.

"So you're going tonight huh?" Winn asked, eyes still on the screens.

"I think so. I'll have to look pretty hard for something to wear though. I may have been lying when I said I had something at hand."

"I hope to see you there then. It might be a bit of a pain in the ass to get ready for but it could be fun."

"Everyone seems pretty stressed about it."

"Yeah well, Ms Grant didn't decide she wanted to do it until the start of this week so everyone's kind of been running over the walls to get it done for her."

Frankie looked over to see Winn staring at her. He quickly looked down again and she was reminded of James, constantly avoiding eye contact with her as though she was Medusa. But this time, Winn looked back up again and Frankie could see him open his mouth to say something. But before he could, there was a ping from the computer.

"Holy shit. To be honest, I didn't think it would actually work."

Frankie spun her chair around and faced the computer as well.

"Where is he?"

"Junkyard, sixty miles south of this room." He pulled out his phone and shot a text to James, informing him of the update. "Kara'll get there soon," he said before standing and grabbing his bag.

"I should get going," Frankie said quickly, rushing to the door.

"Wait," Winn called out before she could leave. "Take this," he said, scribbling something on a piece of paper before handing it to her and sidling out the door behind her. Curious, she looked at the scrawled note on the paper.

Throw me a text. We should really hang out more.

It was followed by a number. Frankie smiled to herself before stepping down the corridor and back towards the elevator.

Pushing open the door to her apartment, Frankie saw that it was empty.

The entire entrance was dark because she didn't have the money to leave lamps on, so as she moved further into the kitchen, she flicked on one light after another until the entire living room was full of light.

She knew she only had a limited amount of time to get ready, so she hurried into her closet and dug through the surprising amount of pale grey sweaters she owned until she pulled up a dress that she hadn't worn in years.

The dark blue bodice and flowy skirt that just barely touched the floor would be perfect. With a suitable pair of heels, she would be able to pull it off. The only drawback with the dress was that if she wore it to the gala, she couldn't wear it to another formal event for at least as long as it had been since the last time.

"Screw it," she whispered.

Throwing it on and quickly curling her hair, she rushed on a pair of black heels and flew out the door at a rate Kara would be proud of.

Hailing a taxi, she soon arrived outside the convention centre the gala would be taking place in.

Tugging the back of her dress into place, she stumbled out onto the street, her body alive with fiery nerves.

Everyone going into the huge hall was dressed just as nice as she was, but yet she still couldn't help but be slightly stressed.

Frankie didn't much enjoy parties, there were too many people, the music was always too loud, and someone always ended up naked. But granted, this wasn't one of the few college parties she'd been to, so there was at least a chance that this could be better.

So she held her head up high and tried her damn best to not trip as she walked up the steps.

Her phone buzzed and she looked down and saw a message from Alex;

Things with reactron didn't quite go to plan. Try and keep an eye on Kara tonight, please.

Frankie's mouth twisted slightly with confusion.

Whatdyou mean? did She go after him?

Yeah, but he put up a fight. She's ok, I just don't want her getting into any trouble.

Suddenly remembering Alex's attitude that afternoon, Frankie didn't hesitate to send a strongly-worded message straight back, carefully watching the path in front of her.

why were u so mad at me today? i havent DOne anyhitng wrong to youuu

I can't talk atm. Just watch Kara.

Frowning, Frankie looked up and found herself being thrust into the, very, extravagantly decorated hall. A quick scan of the room confirmed that Kara hadn't arrived yet, Lord was there and safe, and everyone in the room was rich.

She flagged down a passing hostess who was, dressed as Supergirl, and whisked a glass of wine off of the tray. She'd only been legal for a few years, but sometimes the occasion called for a little more exquisite.

Turning to the entrance again, she spotted Kara shuffling in, looking extremely awkward. Frankie immediately rushed over, pulling the unsuspecting Kryptonian into a tight hug.

"Kara, are you alright?" She asked when Kara pulled away hurriedly.

"Yeah, I'm just, very late. I've got to find Ms Grant."

Spotting said women strolling pointedly over, Frankie muttered, "You won't have to wait long," before she retreated to the back of the room with her glass and left Kara alone with her boss.

Watching the couples and groups around the room was more entertaining than it should've been and she soon found herself subconsciously searching for Winn. Spotting him dancing with Kara, she had to laugh. He was making massive heart eyes at her and she was completely oblivious. Pity her sister was an unobservant millennial. Winn was a nice guy.

Uh oh, trouble in paradise, she noted as James came over to the pair and all but pushed Winn out of the way. Rude, she muttered and saw him step away, looking mildly (and rightly) offended. He scanned the room, looking for someone when he spotted her and made his way over. She quickly busied herself with her glass so it didn't seem as though she was watching at him.

He arrived by her side and simply stood, not talking.

"What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"Fair enough."

Clearly trying to change the subject, he asked, "Got your eye on anyone?"

"I've only been here for ten minutes, Winn. Not yet."

He laughed before leaning back against the wall. He turned slightly to her and smiled.

"You look really nice," he complimented, eyeing the sequins.

She looked at his bowtie and found she appreciated the slightly nerdy style he had going on.

"Thanks. You look great too, you know."

He grinned back at her, showing off slight dimples she didn't know he had. He suddenly made a face she didn't really know how to describe and he sighed a little.

"I've gotta use the little men's room."

Frankie frowned.

"I think it's the little boy's room."

"Eh, same thing." He said, before walking off towards the bathrooms.

Frankie was just considering when the most appropriate time to leave would be before she was approached by someone else. A stranger.

He came over so casually that, for a second she wondered if she knew him. She then realised he was probably just being smooth. She sighed, ready to deal with whatever he had to say when she started slightly. She did know him. Kinda. She'd run into him earlier that day when she was talking to Kara on the phone.

"Hi," he said when he reached her.

Wow, such a charmer, she thought, placing her glass on a nearby table.

"I recognised you from this morning. I'm sorry for bumping into you."

"Yeah," she said, only slightly awkwardly. "I didn't really get a chance to apologize."

"It's all good. I just have one question."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Dance with me?"

Normally Frankie would never go for guys this forward, at least in this kind of setting, but something about him was different.

And how often was she going to be asked to dance by a rich guy at a charity gala.

"Sure," she said, allowing him to take her hand, letting him have his fun.

The jazzy song that had been playing ended just as they stepped onto the floor and, inevitably, a slow dance number started up again.

How fitting, she thought, letting herself be plunged into the experience of dancing with a stranger. They talked softly for a while and she managed to learn very basic things about him.

His name was Brad Coopers, he was from Metropolis, and he was one of CatCo's top investors, hence why he was at the party.

She could sense Kara staring at her behind her back and almost laughed out loud. She was allowed to have fun sometimes too. Not everyone had two boys fighting over them at once.

Just as the song was coming to a close, there was a deafening crash and the ceiling of the hall seemed to cave in. Brad's grip on her tightened ever so slightly and he pushed her backwards.

People screamed and ran out of the way, dodging debris and glass.

A man landed on the edge of the makeshift dancefloor, covered in metal armour.

He was unmistakable from every single article published about him. Every hair on Frankie's neck stood on end as she caught sight of Kara, straightening up to her full height.

It was Reactron.

"Where is Supergirl?"

A/N

I sure do have a habit of starting chapters with dialogue. A lot. And remember how I said a while ago that I thought 1000 words was long? Yeah that's not true anymore. Very clearly.

Aside from the point, I've watched The Greatest Showman three times in cinemas in a week and twice at home. I may have a problem. The soundtrack is just too beautiful.

Well, on that lovely note.

K bye.