A/N: So I know canonically Lena is only 24, but prior to "Luthors" I headcanoned that she was in her early 30s and the age is staying true for this. A year or two older than Laurel. For the sake of the fic, Lena is 33.

It had been six months and nothing. 24 weeks. An entire half-a-year and she had nothing to show for it but wasted cash. But it wasn't really wasted, was it? No. It was impossible to waste money on an endeavor like this. She had to do this. Laurel didn't understand. Was something wrong with her? She wanted this. She had always had "mom" somewhere in her future when she wrote everything in her "when I grow up" notebook. Winn was supportive, she loved him for that. Lena was, too, of course. Oh, god, Lena. The ex she thought she would never see again. After how they ended things, Laurel was surprised when Lena took her on as LuthorCorp's part-time legal counsel in 2010. Against Lex's wishes. Laurel didn't like Lex, though like Lena she thought he could be saved. Then he couldn't be. It was over just like that. Lena worked out of LuthorCorp's Metropolis office for two years before she moved to Starling; Laurel had followed. It was soon after the second move, to Midway City, that their relationship fell apart. Laurel had stayed in Starling. They had a grand total of one date in the three months that followed, and it was over Skype. It ended with the classic "I think we need to take a break" line. From Lena. Lena, who had begun the relationship back in '05 in the first place! Laurel would be lying if she said it didn't sting. It was her longest uninterrupted romance since she had a middle school thing with Oliver Queen when his family briefly lived in Metropolis. She hadn't seen or heard from him in almost 20 years and she hoped he was doing well. When she and Lena first started dating her sophomore year (Lena's senior year), the sky and introverted Laurel fully expected her open and unapologetic bisexuality to be greeted with hostility by she whom everyone on campus had dubbed "the God-tier Gay". Where Laurel was soft, Lena projected the image of the tough girl. When Laurel brought Lena home for Thanksgiving her junior year, her father Quentin and her mother Dinah had welcomed Lena with open arms. All they cared about was their only daughter's happiness. That night, Lena confessed she wished her own coming out had been so warmly received by her stepparents. Then all that ended in 2008 and Laurel drowned her sorrows in Tinder, where she met Winn. Winslow Schott, Jr. He was kind and nerdy, a bit of a hopeless romantic sure but Laurel found it endearing. She herself was the definition of hopeless romantic. A year in and they had moved in, another year and they were engaged. In November 2011 they decided to have kids and immediately got started. Who cares if they were married? Well, aside from Laurel's very Catholic/Methodist parents. A new fertility clinic had opened up in Starling so the couple moved to Starling. One run by a balding, kinda creepy fellow who went by "Jax" instead of "Jackson". Strange dude. Maybe that would be the answer?

By June, she and Winn got into a fight over it. By August, Laurel was moving back to Metropolis, to fully commit to being LuthorCorp's legal advisor. This time Laurel ended things. She felt like she was letting Winn down, holding him back. She told him to let her go and find someone that could give him everything he wanted. This issue she had made her feel inferior, not that her self-esteem was all that great to begin with.

Laurel longed for simpler times. She was fiddling with the coffee pot the next morning when she heard Kara come down the stairs.

"Morning," she greeted.

"Morning," was the yawned reply.

"Hey, Kara, Lena told me she wanted me to let you know that she's out. Business stuff. She won't be back until later."

"Okay," Kara was still out-of-it and not really paying attention to much of anything for the time being. As Kara was plopping down onto the couch and shifting until she was comfortable, Laurel's curiosity was piqued when she caught the slip of Kara's patch. This one was located just above her tailbone, on the small of her back.

"Kara?"

"Huh?"

"What's that on your back?"

"Oh, this old thing?" Kara got up, tossed off her shirt (who gives a shit, it's her house?) and turned around so Laurel could see. It was pulsing dimly, a dark red. "It's a red solar patch. It's designed to keep my body just human enough so my body doesn't reject the fetus."

"And you're choosing to keep it?"

"It's complicated. Part of me knows that it's one of the last chances for at least partial perpetuation of my race. The other part of me is slowly remembering the circumstances through which this happened and I'm thinking of giving it up once it comes out. But then… a half-Kryptonian baby? The metabolism alone would drive anyone crazy."

"So what's your game plan?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I've accepted the situation, but I don't know if Lena has. She's been weirdly overprotective lately. Of me."

"She does that when she's head over heels for someone." Laurel's eyes twinkled in remembrance.

Kara caught onto her tone. "You two…?"
"A long time ago. She was the first girl I ever dated. Then I went with this guy Winn for a bit and-"

"Wait, Winn? Winn Schott?"

"Yeah! You know him!"

Kara started cackling. "Oh my Ra- uh, gosh. You were Waterloo."

"Yep." Laurel seemed a bit embarrassed. "I was Waterloo."

Still beaming like the physical embodiment of sunshine, Kara closed the space between them and wrapped Laurel in a warm embrace.

"Well, I guess that explains why the Kryptonite knife didn't hurt you, the patch" Laurel apologized. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. It might come in handy," Kara downplayed. "Come on, let's get some breakfast? Are there any leftover potstickers?"

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Finding the DEO's city-based station again was easy. She marched right in and found Director Henshaw. Err, J'onn J'onzz. She would have to get rid of her alien mistrust sooner rather than later. And it wasn't that she mistrusted aliens in the first place, it was more a healthy concern for the wellbeing for National City in the wake of Myriad.

"J'onn! Hi, Lena Luthor," the CEO reintroduced herself.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking right now," she joked.

The Martian was summarily not amused by the joke.

"Okay, then" Lena wrung her hands. "Um. Is Alex here?"

"Agent Danvers!"

Alex came running. Lena pulled the two over to a safe, secluded area and started in.

"Laurel is back!"

"That's great," Alex smiled.

"She has information for us on Zod's base of operations. Their lead scientists, Jax-Ur, was the head of the genetic component of the project. Laurel killed him, but she knows the Kryptonians will find someone else to take Jax-Ur's place."

"I had a run-in with Jax-Ur once," J'onn muttered. "Good riddance."

"Let's go, then!" Alex almost yelled.

"Agent Danvers, I understand your emotional stake in this. We all love Kara and we all want this bastard put on ice. What he's doing is monstrous," J'onn admitted, "but we can't go in unprepared. We should get the NCPD on this, see if there have been any more missing persons since we Kara came back to us."

"The NCPD couldn't find Kara," Alex reminded him. "And anyone who knew anything about the Kryptonians and their science experiment were assassinated."

"Assassinated?" Lena inquired. "By whom?"

"A merc-for-hire. His name is Slade Wilson. At least we think he's responsible. Maggie told me one of her contacts saw a man who fit his description earlier this week."

"Let's get to it, then." J'onn had that determined look Alex knew all too well.

Lena glanced at her watch. It was almost noon. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get back. Personal matters."

"Oh, tell Kara and Laurel I say hi," Alex smiled.

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As Kara and Laurel sat down eating their leftover potsticker breakfast (well, Kara ate them and Laurel just watched in awe as Kara just shoveled them into her mouth), the two were left blissfully unaware that someone was watching them. A bit closer than their previous peeping tom, in both emotional and physical closeness. Astra decided it was time. She flew to the front door and knocked. Kara opened and her mouth dropped open.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, little one."

Kara could hardly form words. What was going on?

"Aunt Astra?"

Then came the waterworks. Astra scooped Kara into a warm, tight embrace. "Hello, Kara."

In the trees, another visitor lurked. One who did not dare show his face. As soon as he got a glimpse of Kara and Laurel, he disappeared back into the forest. Zod grinned the whole way back to the facility. His gambit in letting Jax-Ur die and letting Laurel go had paid off. He'd found his prizes and he would not lose them again.