Something Just Like This 2C
Game Night Fail
Chapter 3
Still own nothing. This chapter backtracks a little bit.
The self-dubbed Super-friends were not having a good day.
For most, it had started out as a normal day.
Winn got up, prepared himself for work, made breakfast for him and Lyra, kissed her goodbye, and left for the DEO. He was only slightly hungover from the night before, having stayed up much too late playing WoW with Mon-El and James after he and the latter had returned from Guardian duties. Lyra had looked a little confused when he had arrived home but had joined them in the game without much protest.
He did have to wonder why she had made such a large dish of Mexican Lasagna (an Earth dish she had discovered and loved to the point of learning to make it) for just the two of them. He brushed off the thought. She had probably thought Mon-El and James were coming over to play in person (they had before), or she was planning to take some into work for her co-workers (another thing they all seemed to do, although that usually meant cookies).
Mon-El (who had not been directly invited) thought absolutely nothing of the Kryptonian he had been trying to pursue. He was much more interested in the two people currently in his bed arguing over going out to eat before work. He did have a vague thought that there had been something he was supposed to have gone to the night before that would probably explain the overabundance of chip bags, cheese dip, and gummy candy currently in his kitchen, but decided that he would remember later.
Alex woke with a stretch, smiling when her girlfriend tugged their blanket further over her head.
"The sun's barely up and neither phone has gone off, why are you awake?" Maggie groaned, yawning as she tried to snuggle deeper beneath the warm covers. With the storm that had last night, she was a bit surprised that there wasn't a blonde between them.
"Just had a good night is all," Alex settled back down long enough to kiss her girlfriend and try to tug the blanket off. "I'm going to make breakfast, pancakes?"
"Sounds good," Maggie gave up the fight and released the blanket just as Alex tugged on it again. She laughed at the taller woman's flustered look. "Losing your balance there Agent?"
"Hardly Detective," she launched a brief tickle battle, losing gracefully as she rolled off the bed. She checked the phones, mostly to turn off the alarms, and redden a little to see that both were dead. As no one had come over to pound on the door or sent Kara in search of them, Alex plugged them in unworried.
They worked well together, getting ready for their workday between food and their first coffees of the day. Alex was a little lost at the bag of deli meat, cheese, and hummus in the fridge along with the veggie dip and containers of precut vegetables and cherry tomatoes. Maggie blanked on why her collection of Cards Against Humanity was set out beside the door in its travel box but shrugged it aside as having simply forgotten to return it to its normal place in the hall closet. She figured she must have just set it there after the last game night and forgotten about it.
She picked it up and put it away, tugging out their helmets while she was at it. The day was already promising to be a dry California day, which meant they could take their bikes out for a ride.
Breakfast consumed, to-go cups filled with the last of the coffee, phones pocketed, they separated to go to work with a quick exchange of kisses.
James stared at the unbaked casserole sitting in his fridge. He vaguely remembered putting it together, but why? He rarely put the effort into such a dish outside of the holidays. On the rare occasions he did, it was in a reduced quantity to save himself having to worry about lunch or dinner for a few days.
Shrugging, he pushed it aside to get at the milk. He really should have passed on those last few beers that had caused him to oversleep.
Arriving at work was normal except that Kara wasn't there yet. James didn't think any of it. Supergirl had probably been needed for something or she was doing a morning patrol. Snapper may have even sent her out already.
"Eve, let me know when Ms. Danvers arrives." He walked right past his assistant.
Eve opened her mouth to tell him that Kara wouldn't be in for the day but closed it as he walked by her without a second glance. Instead, she double-checked that HR was aware of the absence and texted Jess that it was taken care of.
Nia and Brainy woke up together.
"Still no Kara?" Nia looked around the apartment with concern.
"It would appear not," Brainy folded the blanket they had used and placed it on the back of the couch.
They had been on a date, excitement and nervousness causing both of them to forget about Game Night and the pot-luck until just before the storm had started. Nia had tried to call, but not gotten any response. Brainy had left his phone behind at the DEO. Forgetting things was a new experience for him, but it wasn't as if it were impossible.
"Still no answer," Nia knew it was still early. The sun was barely cresting the horizon, but given the storm and the lack of them being called out to help then Kara should have come home at some point. She investigated the bedroom just enough to verify that Kara wasn't buried under the blankets there.
"Perhaps we should go to the DEO and start our search from there." Brainy had busied himself with putting things away from last night. From the packages of unopened bread, lack of trash, and the untouched stack of games he concluded that they weren't the only ones to have forgotten.
The last-minute items they had picked up (buckets of ice cream and several boxes of prepackaged brownies) had already been stored away. Finding no one home, Nia had been determined to stay until Kara returned so they could apologize in person and find a way to make up for it. As he was partly responsible, Brainy refused to let her do it alone.
With no Kara present and with her not answering any of their phone calls, the DEO made the most sense. Nia was worried about her friend and mentor. Kara being upset was understandable, but ignoring phone calls was very much unlike the blonde. Kara could be in danger or injured.
Alex wouldn't think to call anyone if that were true. The agent would simply have a cover story ready with the thinking that anyone who mattered would already be involved. Not entirely accurate, but the older woman was beyond stubborn about certain people.
Nia paused to think for a moment but pushed the thought aside. She had no way to contact Lena Luthor, but Brainy might know a way.
Vasquez woke up with a very bad feeling. Normally they would attribute that to an overindulgence of one thing or another, but the only thing they had indulged in the night before had been a long Skype date with their girlfriend.
The date had gone well. Work had been mention only in regard to Lucy asking about various people. They had settled down with their food and watched a movie. The pair had discussed a few tentative plans for when Lucy was meant to be National City in a few weeks. After that, they had said goodbye.
Vasquez frowned at their coffee. Lucy had mentioned Game Night and possibly revealing to their shared group of friends (mainly the Danvers sisters, Winn, and J'onn) that they were dating. Lucy also wanted to meet the new people (Nia, Brainy, Maggie, Lena) and terrorize a few others (James, Mon-El, some of the newer recruits, Winn).
Thinking about planning a game night, Vasquez groaned softly. They had been invited but had begged off, stating that they already had plans. Feeling bad at the sad look on Kara's face, Vasquez had made a batch of their uncle's apple butter cookies and given them to the blonde hero for the night in question.
They had almost been tempted to reveal that the reason for their continued 'no' was because of a date with Lucy Lane at just how happy Kara had been over the tin of cookies. Kara loved food, but Vasquez had a feeling it was less about the food and more about being remembered.
Well, they would find out soon enough.
Morning and well and truly begun and everyone was in their places. Well, almost everyone.
"Nia, slow down." Alex held up a hand and studied both of the people in front of her. "What do you mean that Kara is missing? Kara's at work." She glanced at the clock. "Or she will be after she reports in from patrol." Alex tapped her coms, requesting Supergirl to report in.
There was no response.
Alex did it again. Kara didn't always respond right away for a number of reasons.
"Agent Danvers, Supergirl left her coms at her home," Brainy informed his superior. "Which is part of what we are trying to tell you."
"So she forgot her coms, she's been known to do that for early morning patrols." Alex wasn't worried. "Vasquez, bring up Supergirl's location."
"Yes Ma'am," Vas did as requested, the dread building in her gut. "Two different readings. One is at her home and the other is from L-Corp."
Alex rolled her eyes. "Visual?"
Vas brought up video, eventually landing on a dead phone on a roof.
The DEO went deadly silent.
"Winn," Alex snapped, "get into Luthor's servers." She pulled out her phone and dialed her sister. It went straight to voicemail. She dialed Lena's number and after ringing for a few seconds it cut off as the call was rejected. "Vas, locate Luthor."
She barked out more orders. She dialed both Kara's and Lena's numbers multiple times with the same results. Winn kept getting ERROR messages. Vas calmly located the CEO and reported it.
The teams sent out were rebuffed and, after the second time, gift-wrapped and dropped at the DEO's underground entrance.
James called, wanting Alex to tell him why Kara hadn't gone into work. Eve called, alerting Alex that Kara was taking a personal day and already been cleared by HR. Jess called with a request to stop trying to infiltrate the property of a private citizen.
An unknown number called and thanked Alex for the practice for the mystery woman's security teams.
Lena continued rejecting her calls to the point where they weren't even going thru.
James had apparently made other calls because Vas took a few minutes to take a call from Lucy.
"Vas, what is going on?" Lucy slammed the lid shut of her carry-all. "I just got a very strange call from a person I haven't spoken to since Basic using a code that she could only have learned from a handful of people. I'm also fending off calls from my ex-boyfriend because he's 'concerned' about a particular pair spending time together."
Vas sighed and ran a hand thru their hair. "Are you asking as a friend or as a co-worker?"
"Friend, I'll let you know if that changes."
Nodding, Vas closed their eyes to organize their thoughts before speaking. "Kara planned a game night potluck for last night. You know why I refused the invite. Everyone else forgot and didn't bother to cancel, and now they are operating under the assumption that Ms. Luthor has kidnapped Ms. Danvers."
Lucy blinked for a moment. "And how did they make that leap of logic?"
"I'm not entirely certain, except that Ms. Danvers' dead phone was located on the roof of L-Corp and no one can reach her or Ms. Luthor." Vas checked to make sure no one was listening in. "I did not report that I have footage of Supergirl leaving Ms. Luthor's apartment and going somewhere."
"Good, leave it at that." Lucy rubbed her eyes. "I'm on my way to National City. Try to reign Agent Danvers in before we have a lawsuit on hand."
Vasquez wondered just how she was meant to do that.
Alex paced like a caged animal. Just who the fuck did Luthor's security team think they were? What on earth did Kara think she was doing, disappearing like this?
Not even Supergirl had shown up anywhere in the city. J'onn had gone out twice to cover up the fact that the real Supergirl was MIA. He wasn't happy about it.
He was less happy to hear that apparently every last one of them had blown Kara off the night before and not had the decency to tell her. He had been invited but declined because someone had to be at the DEO. Instead, he had offered to cover so that Kara wouldn't have to worry about being called away. J'onn had made certain that all of the agents involved were guaranteed the night off.
J'onn agreed that the actions currently being taken were not like Kara, but he doubted that there was anything nefarious going on. Lena Luthor was both more intelligent than her brother and had much more sense. Privately, he dreaded it if they had to face off against her. Kara was half in love with the woman. It would be like asking her to try and fight Alex.
Vasquez breaking their normal stoic façade and laughing out loud stopped the ongoings as everyone turned to stare at them. For their part, they had a hand over their mouth and looked just as shocked as everyone else.
"Sorry," they apologized quickly. They turned back and began to work again.
J'onn shoved aside his curiosity. It would be found out eventually. Right now, he had to deal with a very chastened group of individuals.
"And what, exactly, was that meant to accomplish?" He asked them, looking over Alex, Maggie, and James as they stood in front of him. The ladies, at least, had the decency to look a little ashamed of their actions. James simply looked mulish and he radiated injured male pride.
J'onn would have felt a little bit sorry for him, but the man should know by now not to underestimate someone based on their size or sex.
Seeing that none of them had an answer for him, he continued. "As it stands, you will stop this at once. Major Lane is waiting to speak to all of you in Conference Room B. She will explain exactly what she had to do in order to fix the stunts you've been pulling all day."
James crossed his arms and looked ready to protest that J'onn couldn't order him around, but the click of high heels stopped him as Agent Vasquez led in four women.
"Ms. Haung, Ms. Cabot, Ms. Hollis, Ms. Woods," J'onn greeted them.
"Mr. J'onzz," Ms. Cabot nodded to him. "I trust that Major Lane has already outlined the agreement reached with Ms. Luthor?"
"She has, they were about to go in and hear it now."
Alex managed not to winch at the sharp glare sent to her by the blonde lawyer that Lena Luthor had set lose on them. The glasses did nothing to soften the glare, but they did add to the 'you fucked up and I am going to make you pay for it' feeling the woman gave off even without the glare. Beside her, she felt Maggie creep behind her.
"I don't see-"
"Mr. Olsen, you attempted to enter a privately owned business under the guise of a reporter even after being informed that neither Ms. Luthor nor Ms. Danvers the younger were present." Cabot cut him off, gaze going straight to him and somehow intensifying. "Failing that, you then attempted to sneak in using your Guardian persona."
James did flinch at that.
"If you refuse to cooperate, my client is going to begin pressing charges." Cabot glanced at her watch. "Starting in the next minute."
"Get in the room James," Alex hissed out. Maggie followed her inside without a word.
On the screen, Lucy Lane was not pleased. This had not been anywhere near her agenda for the day. That it could have all been avoided by people not being so idiotically stupid…she had, well, more than a few words.
"It is only," she started slowly, "and I do stress only due to the fact that so far we can spin this as training that you aren't already being brought up on charges. Ms. Luthor has agreed not to press charges provided that we agree to stop hindering her employees from doing their jobs and take part in training exercises with her security team."
"That's bullshit!" James burst out. "That's exactly what she wants so that she can do who knows what to K-"
Alex's swift strike cut him off before he could reveal her sister's identity to four strangers. That fact that Jess Haung was making a note did not bode well.
"Enough," she growled at him. She glared at Winn as he slipped inside the room. Sheepishly, he came to stand beside James.
"I have the files you requested Major," he held up the tablet. Lena had run him on a merry chase all day and he still hadn't gotten into any of her servers. At this point, he conceded that he wasn't going to be able to do so.
"Good, Ms. Woods?"
Lexa stepped forward and took the tablet from Winn. Looking the man over, she smirked at him. Raven and her boys were going to have fun with this one. Her smirk widened when he flinched.
"Agent Schott, you will be working with Trikru's techs running cyber hack drills and whatever else they or Director J'onzz decides on," Lucy informed him.
"Yes Ma'am," he agreed.
"Detective Sawyer," Maggie straightened up, "consider this a warning not to use police resources needlessly. You have been loaned to the DEO and thus Trikru Security for the next two weeks. During that time, you are on leave from NCPD. Your captain has the rest of the information for you. Do you understand?"
"Yes Ma'am," Maggie understood both Danvers' sisters' comments now on finding Lucy Lane attractive, but scary. Frankly, if even half the rumors were true about Alexandra Cabot, she would take Major Lucy Lane.
"Agent Danvers," Lucy rubbed her forehead. "Director J'onzz has the full outline of your punishment for your actions today. Frankly, as both your superior and your friend, your actions today are unacceptable. Part of this agreement is that you drop whatever vendetta you clearly have against Lena Luthor. You are receiving an official reprimand to your file and will be running training exercises between TriKru Security and the DEO for the next two weeks. As of now, until proven otherwise, you are no longer Supergirl's handler."
"You can't do that!" Alex burst out, eyes wide. No one else could watch out for Kara as she could. No one else would care as she did!
"I did and I have," Lucy ignored the cold glare her friend was sending her way. "When Supergirl returns, so will I to take on that role. Agent Vasquez will fill in should the need arise before then." She met Alex's stare. "Is that understood?"
"Yes Ma'am," Alex grit out.
Lucy nodded. "Mr. Olsen, as a privet citizen there is very little I can actually do without arresting you and formally pressing charges." She cut off his look at the knees. "What I can do, and has been done, is the confiscation of your Guardian outfit and the van you and Agent Schott were using as your base. If you are found out on the streets dressed as Guardian, you will be arrested on the charge of vigilantism. If you have anyone helping you, they will be charged, at the very least, with aiding and abetting." She turned her attention to Winn.
"Is that understood Agent Schott?"
Weakly, Winn nodded. Well, Kara was getting her wish. They were going to stop. Weighing his job and freedom against playing 'the man in the van', the former won out.
"The floor is yours," Lucy turned it over the other women.
Ms. Hollis stood up first. "Mr. Olsen, we've already had one disagreement today. If being in charge of the Photography department of CatCo is no longer to your taste, you are welcome to leave. As it is, you are suspended for a week's time. In that time I expect, as do both Ms. Luthor and Ms. Grant, you to reach a decision. I cannot have you disrupting the workplace or ignoring your actual job to pursue a vendetta against someone who has done nothing to warrant your enmity." Carmilla was probably somewhere laughing at her right now. "I will also not tolerate you harassing Ms. Danvers upon her return, nor spreading sedition against an owner of the company we both work for." She took a breath. Oh, there was probably a whole load of people laughing at her right now. Karma sucked sometimes.
"I have heard the stories and read the reports, few as they are," she had faced scarier things than the glare currently on James Olsen's face, "but they are enough to warrant investigation. When you return from your suspension, you will be on probation until the investigation has been concluded. Understand?"
"Yes, Ms. Hollis." James turned and stormed from the room.
"Agent Vasquez, please escort Mr. Olsen from the building and ensure he turns over everything pertaining to Guardian."
"Yes Sir." Vas left quickly. They had no interest in watching the storm erupt inside that room.
Once that little show was over, Lexa stood up. "I will have a schedule prepared for you in no more than forty-eight hours. I'll have one of my captains or their seconds bring it here. I expect you to have your people selected and prepared by then."
Alex nodded. She was far from happy about this. Had anyone here spoken to Kara? Did her sister know that they were being separated? Somehow, this was all Luthor's fault. She never should have let Kara get so close to the other woman.
"I shall inform Ms. Luthor that things have been concluded." Jess stood up as she spoke. "Unless there is anything else you wish to discuss?"
Alex couldn't ask the question she wanted to, so she nodded. She would ask Lucy once the quartet had cleared out.
"We'll wait for you in the lobby Ms. Cabot," Lexa told the lawyer.
"Thank you," Cabot nodded and waited for them to leave before turning back to those still in the room. "Now that all of that is done. This is what will happen should someone breach the agreement."
Once the woman was done talking and left, all but J'onn were slumped in a chair.
Maggie breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'd heard the rumors, but I hadn't given them much credit."
"Rumors?" Winn asked, his voice thin. The woman ranked up there with Alex and Red-K Kara on his fear meter.
Maggie nodded. "She started as an ADA in New York City, moved out here with her wife who's the Captain of NCPD's SVU unit. Apparently, the two met when Cabot was the ADA assign to Captain Benson's unit. No one's really certain why she went from DA to private practice, and no one dares speculate after what happened with Farris."
"Please inform those of us who don't know police stuff, but what's SVU?" Winn almost didn't want an answer.
"Special Victim's Unit, sex crimes and anything that falls under that umbrella," Maggie shuddered. She had done a year as part of the unit. Never again. She'd much rather have the aliens. "We might get some crazy stuff, but they get all the twisted sickos."
"And what happened to Farris?" Alex felt like she had heard the story before, but wasn't certain.
"He made a comment that I will not repeat. Several of the Captains, including mine, his, and Benson, took him into interrogation for a chat. He lasted three months on SVU and quit the force." Maggie decided then and there that she believed the stories. Cabot did look like someone who could stare the worst of humanity down and come out victorious.
"Oh God, no wonder she scares me," Winn muttered. He had pulled out another tablet so he could search the woman. "Her first name is Alexandra and she tends to go by Alex."
"I should feel insulted by that," Alex muttered. She might, later, but right now she had too much else to deal with.
J'onn sent them out, Maggie to do what she needed to do and his agents to sleep in the beds they had made for themselves. They would figure it out eventually, and if they did then someone would set them right.
Alex was almost done for the day when her phone rang. As it played Aloha, E Komo Mai, Alex scrambled to answer it.
"Kara! Where are you? Do you have any idea what's been going on?" Alex said more, venting out her frustration on her sister. Didn't her alien understand just how worried she'd been?
"Hi Alex, I'm fine, thanks for asking. I'm on vacation. I'll be back Friday."
"VACATION!? What about work and Supergirl duties? You can't just-"
"Yes, I can." Kara cut her off. Actually cut her off. "No one was concerned last night when you all ditched me again with no explanation or apology."
"So you're going to throw a tantrum like a child over one missed game night?" Had there been a game…suddenly that bag of stuff from the deli made a lot more sense. So did Maggie's CAH collection being set out.
"One?" Alex didn't think Kara had ever sounded that angry at her. Not when they had been teenagers. Not when she'd been under the influence of Red-K.
"Try eight months of missed everything! Do you even remember when we had our last sister's night? Or the last time you and Maggie made it to game night or girl's night or anything? Do you even know the last time you spoke to me about anything other than work?"
She heard Kara take a deep breath. "Last Hanukah, Alex."
No…that couldn't be right. It sounded like Kara was trying not to cry.
"I'm ecstatic that you have Maggie and happy that she makes you happy. I know you're still mad about Jerimiah."
"Kara, I'm not-" Alex tried to protest. She wasn't upset at Kara about that, not anymore. Kara cut her off again.
"I don't even know what I did, really, to upset everyone else, well, I told Mon-El I didn't want to date him but that's something else. I know you don't care, but I don't want to be dragged around anymore by everyone. So I'll be back Friday. Leave Lena and her people alone. She's not done anything wrong. She hasn't kidnapped me or hurt me in any way. Lucy will let me know if Supergirl is needed before Friday. That's the only part of me anyone wants around anyway."
Her heartbroken little sister, the person she had promised to take care of and protect, hung up before Alex could say anything else.
She had made Kara cry.
Alex hadn't managed that particular sin since…since…how many times had she caused Kara to cry in the last eight months?
Sitting down in her desk chair, she stared at her phone and tried to find something to refute what Kara had said. Neither her memory nor her calendar told her anything different.
Oh, there were dates marked and written down. Highlighted with reminders and color-coded so she would know at a glance what it was. She couldn't even remember all the reasons why she had missed or canceled all of them. From what Kara implied, Alex had a feeling she hadn't bothered to always inform Kara she was doing so. She hadn't last night.
The storm last night. Maggie had commented on it, about how loud some of the thunder had been. How it was surprising that they hadn't ended up with Kara snuggled between them. Alex had said…something, waved it off. But her girlfriend had been right. Kara should have appeared at her apartment last night, even for just a little bit. Or at least called. Not that they would have gotten it, since both their phones had died sometime during the night.
Instead, she had gone out and been caught in it. Instead, she had been taken care of by Lena Luthor of all people. A Luthor who was now out for blood.
Shaking, she did the only thing she could think of. "Hey Maggie." She swallowed tightly. "Yea, I have. She's…okay. But…"
"What is it Alex?" Maggie was still stinging over the verbal spanking she'd just gotten from her captain (apparently his detectives shouldn't be made to piss themselves by a PA), but she had agreed to help so she would take her lumps.
"I fucked up Maggie. I really, really fucked up."