It wasn't often Lena slept through the night. In fact, she was, more often than not, a terrible insomniac, pacing her apartment at all hours or simply working until she couldn't keep her eyes open, even if that didn't happen until well after midnight. She had always had trouble falling asleep, whether from nerves or a brain that simply refused to stop and allow her rest. Even when she was able to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, she always managed to stir well before the rising sun. She had adapted to this though, claiming the early hours for herself, the quiet moments when even National City seemed to doze, that was her time. She used it wisely, maximizing the turnings of her cerebral gears, dreaming up fantastical ideas that no sane, or well-rested person could ever hope to conceive, but it was the implausibility of these ideas that gave her company its innovative edge; when all was said and done, she owed much to her inability to sleep.

This morning, however, she was roused by sunlight pouring in through wide windows that were not her own. She squinted in the unforgiving brightness then squeezed her eyes shut again and nestled back into the covers. Something else, someone else, was there with her and she hummed happily, nuzzling into the warmth without thinking. She stilled for a moment and heard the deep steady beat of a heart against her ear, the rise and fall of breath under her arm. After a moment or two of silence and heartbeat she remembered where she was, with whom, and sighed happily. She would normally have been mortified, waking to find herself unceremoniously wrapped around a prone, sleeping stranger, but this wasn't a stranger at all, this was Kara, her Supergirl.

Rather than lift her head from the other woman's chest, unwind her arm from around her torso, draw her legs from their tangle with Kara's, she instead held tighter, drew closer. Lena gasped when, in response, the blonde turned toward her, still lost in sleep, and pulled her, safe and secure, against her chest. Lena tucked her head into the hollow at Kara's throat and breathed another contented sigh before pressing a soft kiss into the exposed skin there, and drifted back to sleep, cradled in the blonde's strong embrace.

The next time she woke, she was alone, the pillow next to hers long cold, and she stretched, arms and legs, pushed out until she was a starfish floating in a sea of soft sheets and blankets. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, memory harkening back to the feel of Kara's arms around her.

"Safe." She murmured, to no one in particular.

"Hey, you're awake!" a voice chimed from the other room and Lena started, sitting up and clutching at her heart in shock. Kara poked her head around the screen between the living and bedrooms, "Oh, sorry."

The groggy Luthor scrambled for her glasses, squinting toward the voice, until the frames found their way to her face. Kara's hair was loose, hanging in perfect waves and she was already in her super suit, Lena noted.

"It's alright, just a minor heart attack," the dark-haired woman chuckled good-naturedly. "Oh god, what time is it?" She suddenly looked stricken, realizing how much higher the sun was in the sky than when she first woke.

"Don't worry, it's only 10:30. I've already been by the office and your apartment." Kara crossed toward the bed and held out a hand for Lena, who took it and rose, somewhat self-consciously. "Jess is calling everyone, doing final checks for the ceremony tomorrow and I grabbed your computer so you can do some work here if you want. The DEO is almost done at your apartment, then we can go there in a bit."

"Almost done? They've been there all night?"

"Yep, they've got a cleaning unit for that sort of thing You can hardly tell anything happened," Kara crossed to the kitchen table and plucked up a white paper bag, folded delicately at the top. "Actually, you should be able to stay there tonight."

"Oh," Lena said, more quietly than she intended. It wasn't as if she didn't want to go home, to be among her own things, surrounded by familiarity and comfort, but the thought of being back there, especially at night, was troublesome. Moreover, the thought of being without Kara, specifically, was downright depressing.

"You won't be alone though. We'll have agents stationed outside your door and throughout the area, so you won't have to worry."

"Right." Lena's mood had taken a quite noticeable downturn, "Thank you."

"What's the matter?" Kara reached over and Lena couldn't help falling into the deep blue of her eyes for a moment, catching herself before drowning completely.

"It's nothing." Lena shrugged and crossed to sit at one of the stools around the kitchen table. She caught one of the stray bits of hair that had come loose from her messy updo and started winding it absentmindedly around her fingers. "I suppose I'm still a bit shaken up from last night. And anyway, there's still a lot to do for tomorrow's ceremony, I should probably get going." This wasn't altogether untrue, but the Luthor heiress was far more upset over the prospect of spending the evening alone than she was fearful for her own safety.

"Hey, hey," Kara caught her arm, gently as she pushed off from her perch, "there's no rush. Jess has got it handled at the office at least for a bit. I mean, I know she was just an intern, but you should hire that girl, she puts me to shame." Kara laughed and held out the white paper bag to her houseguest, "Plus, I thought you could use some fried, sugary goodness in your life. You do eat donuts, right?"

The dark-haired woman leaned forward and nicked the bag from Kara, "Well, I am human." She pulled out a glazed yeast donut and pushed the bag back to the blonde, happily picking the donut apart with her fingers.

"I'm not, but I can confirm that donuts are one of the best things in the universe and the next." Kara slipped her hand into the bag and drew out a frosted pink cake donut, biting into it without any further ceremony. "Now, let the sugar work its magic and tell me what's really bothering you."

"I... might be a bit nervous about going back to my own apartment. I mean, I had a hard enough time sleeping here, and I've never felt so safe." Kara smiled through a blush remembering how she woke, tangled up in the dark-haired woman, holding her close, and listened as Lena continued. "I feel ridiculous even saying it, but I'm scared to be there alone."

"That's not ridiculous."

"Fear is weakness and a Luthor never shows weakness." Lena pulled her mouth into a stoic, straight line.

"Fear just means you understand the risk and are responding to it appropriately." Kara countered. She paused a moment, considering what to say, she settled on, "Fear is also an important part of being brave."

"I don't know if I'm that brave." Lena sighed, her donut forgotten.

"Listen, can I be honest?" Kara's brows gathered around the crinkle in her forehead. She waited for the nod from her breakfast companion before continuing. "You are that brave. And while I never knew your father, I do know you're too smart to place so much stock in the things he's told you. 'A Luthor never shows weakness'? Understanding yourself, your needs and your shortcomings, is not weakness, it's strength." She paused a moment, carefully considering her words before continuing, "I am bulletproof, Lena, literally bulletproof, and even I get scared sometimes, does that make me weak?"

"Of course not. But I can't imagine you being scared of anything."

Kara crossed to the other side of the table, taking the seat next to the young Luthor.

"I was terrified last night, when those men were hurting you. The things I did, I – I could have killed them, Lena, I was so frightened and so angry. I just... saw red." Kara placed a tentative hand on the other woman's forearm, the touch barely registering, "But I pushed through it, then I called my sister, I asked for help, I talked to you. I felt better. Fear is just the first step; it's how you respond to it that matters."

Lena leaned in – close enough for Kara to have a moment's panic at her proximity – and kissed the blonde on the cheek, "Thank you." She moved back out and popped the last piece of donut into her mouth, "You, Kara Danvers, are amazing. And I think I'm going to take your advice. Yes, I'm scared, but I also know when to ask for help." The dark-haired woman slid from the stool and stood next to Kara, blinking helplessly, still in shock, "Will you stay with me at my apartment tonight, at least until I fall asleep? It would mean so much to me."

"Of – of course I will."

"Excellent!" Lena flounced back toward the bedroom, intent on getting ready for the day ahead, while a stunned Supergirl ran fingers over her cheek where the kiss still burned.


"On my count!"

Alex hovered near the warehouse door, poised and ready.

"One, two," She tensed, instinctively, "THREE!"

She drew back as three agents with a heavy ram rushed the door, which crumpled upon first impact. She tried the switch by the destroyed door, hoping to shed some light on their surroundings, but a cursory flick registered no change. There was an eerie silence, which seemed to hit them in a wave as she and several others, dressed in stealth black with guns and flashlights brandished, spread out through the cavernous space. They wove through shelves and called across to one another as each section was cleared.

"Director, tell Winn his intel was good, he's two for two."

Winn had managed to decrypt the location data from the comm units they confiscated and cross-referenced the data against Lex's old files to come up with a series of matching points. As much as Alex hated to admit it, she was actually glad he was on-board. True there were others at the DEO who could maneuver around a computer in much the same way, but none had his speed or intuition. The man had a gift, if only it didn't come wrapped in such an annoying package. Truth be told, she actually liked having him around to argue with, though, if anyone ever tried to get her to admit that, she'd drown them in acid.

Winn's data was solid; it had revealed a handful of warehouses owned by Shurr's shell companies, also frequented by the hitmen currently held in lockup. This was the second warehouse they'd raided this morning, the first having been completely empty, most likely a decoy. This one, however, was proving to be more fruitful, though whether that was a good or a bad thing, Alex didn't quite know.

She swung her flashlight, scanning rows and rows of shelving piled with nothing but empty cases, some lined with foam cutouts where guns might rest, others disassembled, piecemeal, having held who knows what.

"Agent Danvers, what do you see?" Director Henshaw's voice echoed over her comm.

"A whole lot of nothing. These guys cleared out fast, and they took their toys with them." Alex continued to peruse the shelves, "By the looks of it, we can expect a repeat of last night's performance. There was a lot of artillery here and it wasn't packed for travel, it's definitely live."

"Agent Danvers!"

Alex whipped her head toward the voice in the warehouse and found her way to a small klatch of agents surrounding a large structure, draped in a sheet, surrounded by levers and control panels. The redhead drew back the cover with a flourish to revealed something resembling a huge twelve-foot tall Tesla coil. She circled it slowly, noting the scorch marks scarring the metallic surface of the surrounding panels. The coil sat atop a large tank filled with what she supposed to be coolant, though the tank had cracks in the glass and many of the screws securing it were missing. She scowled, running a cursory hand over the ruined structure, examining its obviously disastrous design.

"Everyone step back." Alex holstered her gun and stepped toward a series of levers sprouting up from the concrete. She pulled the clutch atop the closest lever and, straining a bit at the effort, dragged it toward her. Somewhere, a mechanical whirr spiraled to life and died off within seconds, half-hearted and exhausted. Whatever this device had meant to accomplish, it was inoperable now – abandoned – and Alex had the distinct impression that they might come upon similar setups in the other warehouses on Winn's list.

Another agent caught Alex's attention and she trotted over as he pulled second sheet off something tall and mechanical, mere feet away. He gasped and staggered back a few feet, looking up to the machine's full height.

"Wh – what is that?" the young man stammered.

"Director?"

"Yes, Agent Danvers?"

"We need Lena Luthor here. Now."