Lena and Kara are forced to tell the truth about the secrets kept by their family after something happens at the kids' school checkups.
Andrew (12)
Alexis (9)
Secrets and Truths
Following the realization that Andrew was born without powers and the discovery that Ruby was half Kryptonian it was soon agreed that a trusted doctor would be needed to oversee the children's medical care. Doctor Sean Rory had been recruited by J'onn right around the time he'd recruited Alex, and was trusted by everyone concerned. He'd been taking care of Andrew since he was a baby, and then Alexis, and now Maya as well. Whenever the kids needed to see Sean for any reason they set up an office on one of the lower floors of the DEO building. As far as the kids were concerned the building looked like any other high rise office building in National City, and had no reason to think otherwise.
School would be starting soon so the kids needed their yearly check ups and Andrew, since he was going to be starting middle school, needed updated vaccinations. While Alexis sat in the waiting room with Sam, Alex, and Maya, Lena and Kara sat in the exam room with their son. Andrew sat on the exam table in his boxer shorts, tank top, and socks while Doctor Rory took notes about the exam and spoke to his mothers about how he was in great health. Then he watched a bit nervously as Doctor Rory prepared the shots he was due for. Andrew was to old to admit it, but he hated needles. Thankfully Doctor Rory was really good at distracting the kids and was often able to give them their injections before they even realized he'd done it.
"Are you excited about middle school, lad?" Sean asked while he worked near the counter.
Andrew nodded. "A little nervous but yeah. I can join the robotics club now. They build and program robots and fight them against other schools."
"Sounds safer than what we use to fight at your age." Sean said with a laugh as he carried a metal tray with two syringes on it to the table beside the exam table.
"What did you fight?" The boy asked while jerking his head a bit to clear his black hair from his eyes. From across the room he could hear his mom groan. Lena hated when his hair got shaggy like it was now. She'd be fussing at him about a haircut soon, before school starts, she would insist on it. While he was allowed to wear his hair however he wanted, and whatever style of clothes he wanted during the summer, Lena liked something a little more clean cut during the school months. Andrew never had a problem giving in to his mom about his hair because he was still allowed to wear whatever he liked when he wasn't in school. She didn't even fuss at him about his favorite hoodie, which he worn all the time, even to a fundraising dinner for the children's hospital. His hoodie went well with bowties, or at least he thought so.
Sean laughed. "Each other." He got the boy to laugh as he picked up the first vaccine. "We didn't do it because we were smart or clever the way you are, lad. We did it to impress the lasses."
Andrew's eyes twitched slightly with curiosity. "Did it work?"
"Not at all." Sean answered. "They thought we were just a band of idiot were alright for a bit of fun, but it was the smart lads who always ended up with the best girls."
While Sean kept Andrew talking and chuckling as he teased Lena who was fussing about their topic of conversation. "He's a smart and handsome lad, Lena. You're going to have girls fawning all over him." He pressed the needle to the boy's bicep and the needle snapped. Sean blinked. He looked over at the boy's mothers with a questioning look. Kara was on her feet with a look of surprise. "I take it that's new?"
"Very." Kara answered.
Sean tried again and again the needle snapped.
Andrew was starting to feel not only confused but a little scared. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing bad, lad." Sean said as he went back to the counter. He returned to the boy with the small needle device used to prick the kids fingers for a drop of blood. It didn't pierce his skin either.
Kara and Lena shared a look.
They knew it would be a conversation they would have to have with their children. They just wanted to let them be kids for as long as possible, without the burden of the truth. Now it seemed that it was no longer something they could keep from them. Andrew's powers were developing. They did their best to reassure Andrew and promised they would explain everything at home. They stopped for ice cream afterwards like they always did and when they got home Lena sent them off to watch tv and eat their treats while she and Kara slipped into the kitchen.
"We should tell them both." Kara said softly. "It will be hard to hide his powers from Alexis. They'll be uncontrollable and random for awhile."
Lena nodded. Andrew already knew that he had a biological father and that Kara had adopted him. He understood that he'd been born before she and Kara were together, and accepted that Lena had simply wanted a child. So she wasn't worried about that aspect of explaining to her son that he was half alien, it was the type of alien and his reaction to that, that caused her concern. The failed Daxamite invasion was apart of history, something children learned about in school, and was still brought up from time to time in the media.
Kara could read her wife well and slipped her hand into Lena's to reassure her. "He'll have questions and concerns, he'll be a little confused and even a little frightened, but we'll get him through this."
"I know." Lena replied softly.
When they returned to the living room they sat side by side on the coffee table across from their children. Andrew's eyes were full of concern and fear. He didn't understand what was happening, what was wrong with him. Alexis scensed the tenison and looked worried and uneasy. Kara smiled warmly, lovingly at her children to reassure them before she began speaking.
"There is something that your mother and I have been keeping from you both." Kara began. "We wanted you two to be kids for as long as possible without the burden of the secrets that come with the truth about what you are."
Lena looked at each of her children before telling them. "You are both half alien." Then she focused on Andrew. "Andrew, your biological father, he came from a planet from the same solar system as Krypton, which means…"
"He was a Daxamite." Andrew said with a horrified gasp, his big blue eyes going wide.
Kara nodded confirmation. "He is, but Andrew, he wasn't apart of the invasion. He fought against the invasion."
"We will tell you all about Mon-El." Lena told their son. "I promise. Right now however, we want to focus on what happened today, about the changes you're about to go through."
Andrew held out his hands and flexed his fingers and then looked up at his mothers. "Those needles, they couldn't pierce my skin."
"Invulnerability is usually the first power to develop once our bodies start absorbing, metabolizing, and storing yellow sun radiation." Kara explained. "It's normally coupled with enhanced strength. Those two abilities are needed for the others to work properly."
Dark blue eyes looked up at Kara and blinked as Andrew tried to process what he was being told. He was half alien, half Daxamite no less, and he was going to have powers? Like Supergirl or Astra? He had so many questions, so many feelings he couldn't sort through, but what he finally managed to asked was, "Our bodies?" He looked at Kara and tilted his head in the same inquisitive way Kara did sometimes. "Mama?"
From the moment their mother had said they were both half alien Alexis' gaze was locked on Kara. If Andrew's biological father made him half alien that meant their shared parent, their Mommy, was human, which meant if Alexis was half alien too it came from Kara. Her mama was an alien. But there was more to it than just that, wasn't there? There were alien kids in her class at school, aliens who worked at L-Corp and CatCo openly. There had to be more to this, more to keeping all of this a secret, than just them being half alien. While their mothers talked to her brother Alexis' mind worked, turning thoughts and memories over and over as if she were examining something in her hands and wanted to see every angle of it. When it finally struck her she gasped, her bright green eyes opening as wide as they physically could.
"Mama!" She repeated the word her brother had just spoken as a question. "You're Supergirl!"
Kara smiled at her daughter while Lena beamed. "My clever Bug."
"Wait." Andrew said as he looked at his mothers and sister as he took in yet more new information. This seemed easier to deal with then being a half Daxamite with powers so he focused his thoughts on his mama being Supergirl and what else that meant. He let his thoughts expand beyond the nucleus of his family to his extending family and then it was Andrew connecting the sudden dots. "If Mama's Supergirl then Aunt Sam must be Astra, and Ruby, she's Astra Girl."
"Can you see why we kept all of this form you for so long?" Lena asked as she watched her children take all of these new truths in and process it all. "No one outside our family can know about this. You can't tell anyone that Mama is Supergirl, or about Sam and Ruby."
"Or about yourselves." Kara added in. "No one can know you have powers." She looked into Andrew's eyes as she said this and then turned to Alexis. "Or will have powers."
"You powers will be very similar if not exactly the same as Supergirl's powers." Lena continued. "It wouldn't take much for some people to connect your powers to hers, and then you to your Mama, and in order to keep our lives safe and somewhat normal it's imperative that no one know Kara Danvers-Luthor is Supergirl."
Both kids were seriously overwhelmed so they both simply nodded. Kara and Lena shared a look, a silent conversation passed between them. They knew that they would need to be there for their kids, to help them deal with all of this, and to constantly remind them to keep this huge secret. It seemed so unfair, and really against what they should be teaching their children, but they knew they had to drill in the importance of keeping secrets.
Seeing that the kids were in fact overwhelmed Lena asked if they had any questions and when she reserved shrugs she said, "If you do have a question or need us to explain something come and asked us, ok? Otherwise, why don't we talk more about this tomorrow."
"Ok." Andrew said while Alexis nodded.
The penthouse was quite that night but no one was really asleep. In their room Kara and Lena talked about how they would help the kids get through this and how best to handle Andrew's budding powers. Lena also reminded Kara that they may have to deal with issues later on down the line because there was a good chance that Andrew and Alexis wouldn't have the same powerset. Kryptonians could do more than Daxamites.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." Kara replied. "Alexis is only nine, we have time before her powers emerge."
Andrew gently flexed the fingers of his right hand in Peanut Butter's soft fluffy fur, while he used his left hand to hold his tablet and scroll through the information with his thumb. He was reading an old article written by Lois a year after the failed Daxamite invasion. She had interviewed Superman who told her how thousands of years before the destruction of his planet Krypton, the Daxamites and Kryptonians waged a bloody and devastating war. Andrew looked up suddenly and blinked. His Mama was Supergirl, Superman was Supergirl's cousin, Clark Kent was Kara Danver's cousin. "Uncle Clark is Superman, Conner is Superboy, and I don't think Jon climbed that tree to get Streaky out of it last summer." He blinked and then looked down at his dog, and then smacked himself in the forehead. "Krypto! Is he from Krypton? Does he have powers? Will you?"
Peanut Butter looked at Andrew and huffed as if to say don't be silly. Andrew relaxed as he thought it through. They'd had Peanut Butter for seven years now, if his dog had super powers surely he would have seen it by now. Sighing softly Andrew returned to the tablet. Further into the article Lois talks about Queen Rhea and then he sees it. "The Prince of Daxam, Rhea's son, Mon-El…" Andrew's stomach rolled. Not only was he half Daxamite, he was the grandson of the woman leading the invasion. Why was he his father? How was he his father? Andrew sighed softly. So many questions he wasn't sure he wanted the answers to but felt as if he needed to know them.
There was a soft knock on his door which caused Andrew to hide the open tab on his browser and turn off his tablet. He just managed to set it on his nightstand when his door opened.
"Drew?" Alexis whispered into the room. "Are you asleep?"
"No." Andrew replied.
Alexis entered her brother's room and closed the door behind her. She walked over to his bed and joined him, her hand instantly going in to pet Peanut Butter as well. She looked into her brother's eyes for a few moments before she began to speak. "Do you remember a couple of years ago when Mommy and Mama were fighting really bad and we finally got to meet Grandmother Luthor?"
"Yeah, I remember." Andrew said with a nod. He remembered how his mothers' fight made his stomach hurt, and how the tall woman who'd introduced herself as their grandmother made something cold run down his spine.
"Do you remember how Ruby and Maya, and Pops came over?" Alexis continued. "Ruby brought pizza and we were watching the World Series and the news broke in and they showed someone in a green and purple power suit fighting Supergirl." Alexis' voice was soft and it started to crack a little as she spoke. Her soft green eyes shimmered with tears as she looked into her brother's eyes. "Supergirl got beat pretty badly by the person in the suit especially when it started to glow green."
Andrew shifted himself and Peanut Butter and Alexis so he could pull his sister into his side and put his arm around her. "I remember Lex. Someone in a much cooler blue and red power suit showed up and helped defeat the one in the green and purple suit."
Alexis looked up at him, the tears now rolling down her cheeks. "Yeah, but Drew, Supergirl was hurt really really badly, and Drew, Mama's Supergirl. Mama was hurt really really badly. And it wasn't the only time, before we were born Supergirl was hurt bad by someone called Reign. I saw pictures, Drew, Mama was broken and…"
"Hey." Andrew said softly while pulling Alexis into a tight hug. "Lex. Lex, Mama's fine. She's ok."
"But what if…" Alexis mumbled into her brother's chest.
"Supergirl has been fighting bad guys long before we were born." Andrew said gently but firmly. "And Superman has been doing it longer then that. Sometimes beating the bad guys isn't easy, and sometimes they get hurt, but they get better. Mama isn't alone when she's Supergirl. She has a team who helps her, who watches her back."
"But what if…" Alexis sniffled.
"Lex, Mama is Supergirl." Andrew said it as if that simple statement was all that needed to be said, as if saying it that way meant Kara being Supergirl meant there could never be any what ifs.
Down the hall in the master bedroom tears ran from Kara's blue eyes like streams. Lena held her and softly asked what was wrong and Kara's voice cracked much like the small voice she'd been listening too. "I've scared her, Lena. Our little girl is afraid and worried because she's realized Supergirl gets hurt sometimes and that I'm Supergirl."
"That fear is something everyone who loves you has to learn to live with, Kara." Lena said gently as she tried in vein to wipe away her love's tears but they just kept coming. "I know that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. When you first became Supergirl Alex and Eliza had to learn to live with that fear, when you came into my life I had to learn to live with it, and now so will Drew and Alexis."
"But she's so little, so young, she's just a baby, Lena." Kara sighed. "She shouldn't have to carry this, to deal with this, and neither shoulder Drew."
"Our daughter is strong." Lena ressured. "So is our son. They can handle it, love, and we'll be there to help them."
Kara nodded. They would be there through every step of this. She knew her children were remarkable, that they could handle the truth and whatever comes from knowing it. They would deal with this new path their lives were on together as a family. Kara knew this, had confidence in this, but that still didn't mean she wished they could have just been normal kids just a little bit longer.
