Once Upon National City
A/N: Hey all! How's everyone? This was just a funny (and a bit angsty) piece I thought up previously but didn't get around to writing it until now. It was supposed to be posted a while ago, but better late than never. XD
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.
Summary: Everyone knew not to wash the whites with the reds. That didn't stop Kara from doing just that though. Rao, Alex was going to kill her! Kara & Alex. Humor/Hurt/Comfort.
*** ~ Pretty in Pink ~ ***
Alex was going to kill her.
"Psst!"
Scratch that. Alex was going to murder her, in a horrible, messy way (because Alex was terrifying like that), and there was nothing Kara could do about it. Not that it was really her fault this had happened.
"Pssssssst!"
Well, it was totally her fault this happened, but that was beside the point! The point was she needed to fix this before her sister found out and that's what Kara was going to do! Now if only a certain someone got the hint, she'd be on her merry way.
"Pssssssssssssst!"
Throwing up her hands in exasperation after her discrete calls went unnoticed for the third time, Kara muttered Kryptonian curses under her breath as she left her hiding spot down one of the lesser used hallways leading into the DEO Command Centre to approach her best friend now turned DEO agent.
"Winn," she said tightly, a fake smile plastered across her face. "Can I borrow you for a sec?"
Looking up at her over the top of his computer monitor, Winn smiled at Kara.
"Hey Kara!" he greeted her. "What can I do for my favorite super gal?"
Glancing around and noticing a few curious looks, Kara discretely leaned closer to him.
"Can we talk?" she asked quietly. "Like over there?"
Without even looking, Kara pointed to some random hallway behind her. Not that they'd actually talk wherever she pointed to, but the faster she could get Winn away from everyone else, the better. Currently Alex was nowhere to been seen, not in the closest vicinity at least. Knowing her sister though, Alex was bound to make an appearance sooner or later, and that could not happen until after Kara fixed her earlier mistake.
Looking over her shoulder, Winn nodded, not the least bit suspicious.
"Sure," he said. "Just let me-"
Kara grabbed Winn by the arm and super sped them into Alex's personal DEO lab before he could even finish his sentence.
"What the hell!" Winn exclaimed the moment Kara let go of him. He stumbled and collapsed onto the couch nearby, just behind Alex's desk.
"Shhhh!" Kara exclaimed, her eyes wide as she scanned the area. Thankfully, it was just the two of them right now, the hallways outside of her sister's lab empty at the moment.
"K-Kara," Winn whimpered, a hand over his mouth and the other on his stomach.
Frowning, Kara made a mental note just how easily her human friend got motion sick. It was kind of disappointing really. Such a trip wouldn't have phased Alex in the least.
"What-" Winn began once he got over his initial bout of nausea. "No…"
Green eyes went wide.
"No, no, no, no!"
Kara watched in almost rapt fascination as Winn went from ready to vomit everywhere to full out panic, complete with flailing limbs.
"What are we doing here?!" Winn exclaimed, his voice reaching heights Kara never knew were possible. He scrambled off of Alex's lab couch as if it was lava. "This is Alex's lab! We can't be in here! She'll kill us! How did we even get in here?!"
Kara rolled her eyes.
"Hello! Alex is my sister," she said. "Anywhere she can go, so can I."
At that comment, Winn stilled in his frantic freak out to peer at her.
"Even sub-level fifty-one?" the former Catco programmer questioned.
Kara blinked. "We have a sub-level fifty-one?"
"Yeah," Winn said, frowning at her. "You know, the level where only a few select individuals in our own government have access to, aside from certain DEO agents including J'onn and Alex?"
"Oh," Kara said dumbly at that explanation. And here she thought she knew everything there was to know about the DEO. "Maybe not that level."
"What?" Winn said, looking at her in confusion. "But I thought you just said-"
A shake of the head.
"You know what?" Winn said, cutting himself off. "It doesn't matter. What matters now is getting out of here before Alex comes back and-"
"No!"
Using her super speed again, Kara dashed in front of Winn, her back now pressed against the door to Alex's lab, her arms open wide.
"You're not going anywhere!" she exclaimed, a cold fear gripping her heart.
"Kara! What-?!" Winn jumped back a foot in surprise. "What has gotten into you today?!"
"Winn," Kara said, walking up to her friend and putting her hands on his shoulders. "I need your help."
"Yeah?" Winn retorted, trying to move around her only to be held in place by her hands. "Well, no amount of help is going to save me if Alex finds me in her lab again without permission. Even with you here. Did you forget what happened last time?"
Pursing her lips together, it was only through willpower alone which prevented the cackling laughter from escaping Kara's lips at that memory. While Winn described that incident as the day he almost literally (not really) died, Kara still remembered the comical scene she came across, in this very lab, when Alex caught him tinkering with her stuff after wandering in. Rao! That was the most hilarious thing she had ever seen in her life! And she'd seen a lot already, having visited multiple planets when she was younger.
"Stop laughing!" Winn whined. "It's not funny!"
"I didn't say anything!" Kara said, a chuckle almost coming out.
"You didn't have to!" Winn groused. "I could see it in your eyes!"
Half grimacing, half smirking, Kara smiled apologetically. "Sorry?"
Winn pouted.
"Winn-" Kara started.
"I know! I know!" the DEO nerd said, sighing. "It's not your fault. Alex is just scary when she wants to be and it's not your fault."
"She is pretty badass," Kara nodded in agreement.
"No kidding," Winn acquiesced. "Good thing she's on our side. Speaking of which, don't you like usually go to Alex for help with whatever first? Not that I'm offended by that or anything, but we are talking about Alex here."
"About that…" Kara trailed off hesitantly. She rubbed the back of her neck.
"Kara," Winn said, squinting at her. "I know that look. What did you do?"
Tugging at a snatch of her cape, Kara smiled wearily.
"What do you mean what did I do?" she said, her right booted foot kicking around an imaginary ball of dust on the floor. "Why do you think I did something?"
"Kara," Winn said, his eyes narrowing more. "What. Did. You. Do?"
Knowing a lost cause when she saw one, Kara sighed before meeting Winn's gaze reluctantly.
"I may have done something I wasn't supposed to with something of Alex's and need your help to fix it?"
At that question, or rather, statement, all of the colour drained out of Winn's face.
"You did what?" he exclaimed.
Biting her lip, Kara briefly considered starting from the very beginning before she thought otherwise. Instead, she zipped away for a moment only to return with a baby pink lab coat in her hands, one she practically threw at her best friend.
Stumbling back a step, Winn caught himself before looking down at the garment in his grasp.
"Kara," he said.
"Yes?" she responded nervously.
Brows furling, Winn peered at the pink thing in his hands.
"What am I looking at?"
"It's a lab coat," Kara stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I can see that," Winn said.
"A very pink lab coat," Kara reiterated.
"Yes, and…?"
"It's Alex's," Kara added, as if that would shed light on why she had just subjected him to this entire conversation.
"Huh," Winn commented, an eyebrow raised. "I never realized Alex was a pink type of girl. Don't tell her I said that by the way."
"She's not," Kara said, drawing Winn's confused look. "It was originally white."
"I see," the DEO agent said, his head bobbing up and down. "I'm guessing the whole turning pink thing was your doing?"
"Total accident," Kara said, hands up defensively. "I swear."
"Uh huh," Winn said, sounding totally unconvinced. "You want me to turn it back white, don't you?"
Kara nodded enthusiastically.
"You do realize you can just bleach this and be done with it, right?"
"No!" Kara exclaimed, making Winn jump again. She even went so far as to zoom right up to his face to emphasize her point. "You can't!"
Gulping at Kara's sudden proximity, Winn took a few steps backwards before breathing again.
"Why not?" he asked, completely baffled by her reaction.
"Look at the front," Kara directed him.
Giving her a confused look, Winn did as he was told, turning the coat over in his hands. Holding it up in front of him, both of them could clearly see the single pocket on the breast of the lab coat, the pocket donning two initials in big, black, bold letters.
JD
"J. D.," Winn murmured, tracing the embroidery with his finger. "What does that stand for?"
"Jeremiah Danvers," Kara replied grimly.
Winn's gaze snapped to hers in an instant.
"Then that would make this lab coat's… Oh…"
"Yeah," Kara grimaced. "Oh."
An uncomfortable silence settled upon them, Kara fidgeting with her hands while Winn just stared at the lab coat in his hands.
"You can fix it, right?" Kara said after a few seconds, looking at Winn expectantly.
Winn winced under her gaze.
"Sorry Kara," he said.
Kara's heart dropped into her stomach.
"No can do."
"What do you mean no can do?" Kara asked, something akin to panic starting to creep in. "Aren't you like a genius or something?"
Giving her a sympathetic look, Winn gently draped the lap coat over one arm.
"Kara," he said. "Once whites get stained, especially like this, the only way to get them back to their original white self is bleach. Even then, it's not guaranteed they'll turn back fully white."
"But…" Kara trailed off, her heart dropping and her anxiety skyrocketing. "That can't be! We have an anti-spacecraft gun on the roof, a nuclear reactor in the basement and alien technology from all reaches of the universe locked away in the armory, yet we don't have something to change this back to white except for bleach!?"
"Woah, woah, woah now!" Winn said backing up a few steps, fearfully holding up the pink lab coat up in front of him like a shield. "Don't shoot the messenger! You came to me first after all!"
Frustrated, Kara rubbed a hand over her face, the heat from her impending Heat Vision dissipating.
"I know!" she exclaimed. "I know."
A sigh.
"I'm sorry."
Kara's shoulders slumped forward as she trudged over to Alex's lab couch and sat down, defeated. Of all the things she could fight against, apparently laundry was the one thing that would be the death of her.
"Hey," Winn said, sitting down next to Kara. He pulled her in for a side hug. "Hey, it's okay. We'll get this figured out. Okay?"
Kara didn't reply, merely nodding as she thought about all of the ways she could apologize to Alex for this.
"If you don't mind me asking," Winn said, breaking Kara out of her thoughts. "How did it get like this? You said it was originally white."
At that question, Kara rubbed a hand over her face again.
"I came looking for Alex earlier," Kara began, glancing down at the pink lab coat next to her. "And found it on the floor next to her desk. Seeing as my cape smelled a bit funky from the alien fight earlier this morning, and the lab coat looked a bit grungy from being on the floor, I decided to wash it together with my cape while I waited for her to come back."
Kara looked down at her hands in her lap.
"It's been rough for Alex lately, you know?" Kara said, playing with the hem of her sleeve. "Breaking up with Maggie, and all of this other stuff. So I thought I'd do something nice for her. I didn't notice anything was wrong until I took it out of the washer."
"Makes sense," Winn said, nodding in agreement.
A pause.
"Wait," the DEO agent said. "We have laundry facilities at the DEO?"
Kara gave Winn a look.
"You knew about the nuclear reactor in the basement but you didn't know about laundry on the twenty-second floor?"
"Excuse me," Winn retorted indignantly. "Unlike some people, I actually do my own laundry at home."
"Uh huh," Kara smirked, her heavy mood lifting if only for a little bit. "Why do I get the feeling it's not actually you doing your laundry but your Mom?"
Winn scoffed.
"I'll have you know that she's only done my laundry once! Once!" he exclaimed. "And that was only after the whole thing with Dad's psycho apprentice and the flying monkey toys."
"If you say so," Kara said with a chuckle.
"I do," Winn huffed, looking all the bit of a ruffled bird in Kara's opinion. "Besides, how did you even know about the laundry level? It's not like the DEO has a brochure advertising these things."
"How do you think I've been cleaning my suit all this time?" Kara countered, raising an eyebrow at him. "This thing doesn't exactly fit in my laundry machine at home you know."
"Well, I just thought-"
Winn eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"You've been throwing your suit in the laundry machine!?" he squawked, absolutely horrified and revolted at the same time.
"Pretty much every week," Kara said as a matter of fact. "If not more than that. You'd be surprised how fast this thing gets dirty."
"You can't just throw my baby in a washing machine!" Winn whined. "It's delicate!"
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes again, Kara just shook her head, turning her gaze to the spot next to sister's desk where she originally found the lab coat.
"What were you doing washing your cape and the lab coat together anyways?" Winn continued. "Don't you know you're not supposed to wash reds and whites together? That's like a universal law somewhere!"
"I know that!" Kara exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "But my cape has been blown up, set on fire, and drowned, and nothing happened to it. How was I supposed to know a simple wash would finally make it run?!"
Running a hand through her hair, Kara proceeded to pace the length of Alex's lab, the tension in her shoulders palpable. Sensing her obvious frustration, Winn opted for a different line of questioning.
"How come you didn't wash them separately?" he asked.
A huff.
"There was only one washing machine free at the time," Kara said in annoyance. "And I practically had to arm wrestle Agent Vasquez to use it first. Did you know Tuesdays are designated DEO laundry days?"
"Really?" Winn said, blinking in surprise. "That's just… huh."
"Yeah," Kara said, finally calming down some. "Weird, right? Like why of all days does it have to be Tuesday? Why not like Friday? Or the weekend?"
"Bad guys hate Tuesdays just as much as they hate Mondays?" Winn lamely offered.
Kara sighed.
"You know," Winn continued. "I always wondered about that. The whole bad guy rationale about when they decide to do bad stuff. Take for instance-"
At the sound of a familiar heartbeat quickly approaching, Kara's head snapped towards the source of the sound. Her X-ray vision piercing through the walls, Kara easily spied the lithe form of her sister, Alex currently looking down at something on her phone as she walked towards her lab. How her sister made it this far without Kara noticing earlier, Kara had no idea. What she did know however was that she was out of time. And with no solution to her current dilemma, and Alex already too close for her to escape without being caught, there was only one thing she could do now.
Rao, this was not going to be pretty.
"I'm mean, like really?" Winn's voice filtered back into Kara's consciousness. "Who the heck-"
"Winn," she interrupted, her lips pressed together in a fine line.
"Hmm?" Winn said, looking at her expectantly. "What's up?"
"Not what," Kara said, giving her friend an apologetic look. "Who."
"Who?" Winn echoed before his eyes widened in realization. "No..."
"I'm sorry?" Kara offered in weak consolation.
No sooner had she said that, there was the beep outside the door and a second later, Alex came striding into her lab.
Alex froze.
"Do I even want to know?"
When Alex decided to pass by her personal DEO lab to pick up some paperwork, this was not what she envisioned she'd be walking into. That being Winn and Kara. Acting all… weird. And was that a pink lab coat in Winn's hand?
"This is not what it looks like-" Winn started.
"I can totally explain-" Kara said at the same time Winn spoke.
Blinking at the two of them as they stared at each other startled, Alex closed her eyes before rubbing her forehead with a sigh.
"Alright," she said, tucking her cellphone away in her back pants pocket. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Spit it out. What's going on?"
Winn immediately looked at Kara, Kara looking back at him before turning towards Alex.
"Well?"
Giving Winn a once over, it pleased Alex quite a bit when the other DEO agent flinched under her gaze. No doubt he remembered what happened last time. Chewing on the inside of her cheek as she fought to keep a straight face, Alex turned to her sister, Kara looking clearly torn between spilling the beans and saying nothing at all.
Alex internally smirked.
This was going to be so much fun.
"Do I need to remind you both what happened last time?" Alex said, uncrossing her arms from her chest to rest her hands on her hips instead.
At that question, Winn cowered behind Kara, clutching at the pink lab coat in his hands tightly. Focusing on the article of clothing in Winn's hands, Alex swore she'd seen that before from somewhere, but couldn't quite place it.
"Well…" Kara began, drawing Alex's attention to her fidgeting hands. "It's a funny story actually…"
Meeting her sister's gaze dead on, Alex waited for whatever fantastical story the Kryptonian was going to dazzle her with only to be left with nothing. Kara, for her part, floundered for the better part of thirty seconds, her mouth opening and closing, not a single sound coming out.
"Kara, what-"
"I'm so sorry!" Kara exclaimed in an explosion of movement.
Alex blinked in surprise as the pink lab coat was suddenly thrust at her as a peace offering.
"PleasedontblameWinnitwasmyfaultIfoundthelabcoatbutitwasdirtyandsowasmycapesoIwashedthemtogeteherinthelaundryandturneditpinkandImsosorrybecauseIknowJeremiahleftittoyouandthisisallmyfaultpleasedontbemad!"
Had this been anyone else, the words coming out of Supergirl's mouth would have sounded like absolute gibberish. Another language even. To Alex however, who grew up with this alien girl and was used to such outbursts every so often, it took her but a moment to decipher her sister's ramblings.
Lab coat. Supergirl's cape. Laundry. Turned pink. Jeremiah. Please don't be mad.
Was that what this was all about? Some random lab coat they'd found? Wait. Kara mentioned Jeremiah. How was he involved in all of this?
Looking between the two of them, and then to the pink lab coat again, Alex finally spotted the breast pocket of the thing, and the initials marked on it.
Oh.
Oh! Now it all made sense.
Alex burst out laughing.
"K-Kara," Winn stuttered, staring at Alex wide eyed. "I think you broke her."
Laughing even harder at that comment, Alex would have fallen over completely had it not been for her sister's steadying grip on her arm.
"Alex!" Kara exclaimed, terrified.
"Dr. Hamilton!" Winn exclaimed in a panic, racing past them. "Dr. Hamilton!"
Alex grabbed Winn's arm before he dashed out of reach and yanked him back.
"Winn!" she laughed. "Stop. Stop! You're overreacting!"
"Says the girl who is laughing like a maniac right now," Winn retorted, looking stiff with fright in Alex's grip. "Please don't hurt me!"
Following his panic-stricken glance downwards to the hand she had on his arm, Alex released Winn, the tech nerd cowering behind Kara again.
"Alex, you-" Kara jumped in before things could take a turn for the worst.
"It's fine," Alex said, not making a move towards either of them. Seriously, if she'd have known this was what was awaiting her in her lab, Alex would have come here sooner. She really needed a good laugh after the week she'd been having.
"Don't worry," Alex said, smiling at the both of them. "I'm not mad at you. Either of you."
"But-"
"This isn't Dad's," Alex cut off her sister before something else could be misunderstood.
"But-what?" Kara stuttered, absolutely baffled.
"This lab coat is not Dad's," Alex repeated.
"But if it's not Jeremiah's," Winn finally piped up, looking down at the lab coat in his hands. "Whose own is it?"
"Mine."
"Yours?" Both Kara and Winn echoed.
"But the initials-"
"Stand for Junior Doctor," Alex finished for them. Staring at their blank faces, Alex chuckled before continuing.
"In med school," she explained. "All first year interns were given lab coats like this one, as a sort of initiation. If you survived the first year, you'd get your official lab coat with your name on it the next year. I found that while I was cleaning out my lab yesterday and threw it in the corner until I could decide what to do with it."
The collective sigh of relief from both Winn and Kara almost made Alex cackle.
"If I'd known you were so eager to add some colour to it," Alex continued, waving to the object in question. "I would have gladly given it to you."
Kara had the decency to look sheepish.
"I have to say," Alex said, taking the garment from Winn to inspect it. "Pink doesn't actually look all that bad. Maybe I should swap out my typical wardrobe for pink instead."
"Really?!"
Winn looked absolutely horrified at that comment. Kara, on the other hand, was absolutely ecstatic. Alex gave them both a look followed by a raised eyebrow.
"What do you think?"
"I think pink looks good on you," Kara said, earning her an eye roll. "Yet someone refuses to wear the colour."
"Sorry Sis," Alex said, her smirk playful. "You're the one who rocks pink, not me."
"And here I thought Kara was the weird one," Winn muttered to himself.
Alex heard it anyhow.
"What was that Schott?"
"I need to get back to work?" the other DEO agent squeaked, looking ready to wet himself.
Smiling to herself, Alex nodded to the door. "No one's stopping you."
With that said, Winn smiled wearily, said his goodbyes and darted out of the door without a look back.
Alex blinked, staring at the door to her personal lab as it closed. "Did you know Winn could run that fast?"
"To be fair," Kara said, drawing Alex's attention to her. "You can be quite scary when you're ready."
Alex laughed.
"Would you have it any other way?"
"Nope!" Kara replied, laughing alongside her.
"You know," Alex said, once their giggles died down. She lifted up the pink lab coat again and turned in over in her hands. "Even if this did belong to Dad, and this happened to it, I wouldn't have been mad at you. You know that right?"
"Really?" Kara asked, Alex frowning at the slight waver of vulnerability heard in her sister's voice.
Without hesitation, Alex pulled her sister in for a hug.
"Kara," she said, squeezing the Kryptonian tightly.
It was so easy to forget Kara was anything but super underneath her suit. To the outside world, Kara was a hero. Unbreakable. But to Alex, she would always remember the scared, vulnerable little girl who was brought to them by Superman all those years ago.
"You are my sister," Alex said, rubbing her sibling's back. "And I love you. No matter what."
While Kara had matured into a beautiful, strong woman at this point, there were always times, like now, when that scared, little girl shone through. And when she did, Alex was always there to remind her that she wasn't alone. That she was wanted.
"Even if-" Kara started to protest.
"No matter what," Alex repeated.
Pulling back to face her super sibling, Alex tucked a lock of hair around Kara's ear.
"Clothes, books, things can be replaced," Alex said before the superhero could argue any further. "But you-"
Alex poked Kara in the family crest with her finger.
"You can't be," she said. "There is only one of you. And if I had to choose between having all of the things in the world and you, I'd always choose you. Never forget that."
"Aww, Alex," Kara said, her eyes brimming with tears. "I love you too."
Allowing herself to be pulled into another hug, Alex smiled when Kara squeezed her tight.
"Love you too, Sis," she said. "Always."
EXTRA
"I still can't believe you managed to do this," Alex said, looking down at the pink lab coat in her hands again.
"Alex," Kara whined. "How was I supposed to know my cape would run in the wash?"
"Maybe you wouldn't have," Alex said. "But you do know you're not supposed to wash reds with whites."
That comment was met with a super pout.
"You know," Alex said, not the least bit phased by her sister's puppy eyes. "If you were so worried I'd freak out about it, why didn't you try bleaching it?"
Kara looked at her aghast.
"Hello!" the superhero said. "It would have bleached the embroidery on the pocket too."
"You know there's bleach for colours too, right?" Alex asked.
Kara's eyes went wide. "There is?"
Alex face palmed.
A/N: And there you have it! Lol.
So, I have no idea what colour Jeremy Jordan's (Winslow Schott's actor) eye colour is. After googling it, some sites say it's green, others say it's blue, and others say it's gray. Seeing as how quite a few sites stated his eye colour was green, I'm going with that. XD
I know the DEO walls are lined with lead, as confirmed in Season 2, but let's just say, for the purposes of this drabble, non-classified areas of the DEO are not lead lined. :P
I don't claim to know how initiation works in med school. For the purposes of this drabble, I totally made the jacket initiation thing up.
As for the whole colours bleach thing, let's just say in their panic, Winn and Kara totally forgot about that handy fact. Or maybe they just don't do laundry enough to know there is a bleach for colours. I'll let you the reader decide. XD