The alarm beat Lena to a state of wakefulness for the first time in months. It took her a moment to remember which side to turn, in order to switch it off. Her legs wouldn't move, so she had to stretch to reach the clock. As soon as the room was silent again, she realised her legs were entangled with Kara's. She turned her head to look over at the superhero. Kara's eyes were open and she was staring back at her.

"Morning," Kara smiled at her.

"Good morning."

"Would you like to stay for breakfast?" Lena asked.

"Sure. We still need to talk about Argo."

Lena pushed the covers back and felt Kara move her legs, "breakfast first."

"Lena..."

"No, I'm going to get ready for work and then I'll make us some breakfast. Anything else will have to wait until tonight."

"Yesterday you said you'd talk about it today," Kara reminded her.

"I never agreed a time to discuss it."

"There isn't much to discuss, Alex said..."

"Clothes, then breakfast," Lena repeated, walking over to her closet and trying to focus on what to wear.

She heard Kara move, heard the bathroom door shut and closed her eyes. It was just ridiculous, she couldn't move to an alien world, she was still trying to adapt to Lex's new Earth.

Once they were both dressed, Kara sat at the kitchen counter while Lena prepared their breakfast.

"I'm not going Kara."

"But..."

"There would be no way to explain my absence and Lex would want to know where I'd gone."

"Brainy will think of something, maybe a project that takes you halfway across the world."

"While I'm stuck on some planetary fragment with strangers and a completely alien culture? Unless you're coming with me?"

"I'm needed here."

"Well I'm definitely not going alone, so that's settled. If we need to I can get some red sun lamps for the labour."

"Alex said..."

"I'm just as smart as your sister, I can handle whatever this pregnancy throws at me," Lena grabbed some cutlery from a drawer and threw it down in front of Kara before turning back to the boiling kettle..

"Um, Lena," Kara's voice was a little less sure now.

"What?" Lena turned around and frowned when she saw that the cutlery looked strange. "Don't worry about it, I've got plenty. It must be hard to remember about your strength all the time."

"It wasn't me."

"Don't be silly, they were perfectly fine when I got them out of the drawer and now they've got indentations from your fingers."

"I think it was you."

"Kara, I'm not the one who can bend metal."

"Try it."

Lena walked over, shaking her head as she picked up a fork, "see."

The fork bent easily. Assuming there was some mistake, Lena tried a knife, then another fork - both with the same result.

"How?" Kara asked, "do you think the baby is making you stronger somehow?"

"Fetal microchimerism," Lena whispered to herself, Kara's enhanced hearing picked it up anyway.

"What's that?"

"You know how the baby gets it's nutrients from me, well some scientists have also discovered that some of the fetal cells gets transferred to a mother through the placenta during pregnancy, going into her bloodstream and moving around her body."

"Is it permanent?"

"Sometimes the cells are killed off once the baby is born, in rarer cases they stay for a lifetime. It's still being studied, so..."

"So you could have superpowers?"

"No, definitely not."

"But you have super-strength," Kara pointed to the deformed cutlery.

"I'm sure it'll go away once we've eaten."

"What if it doesn't?"

"I'll figure something out."

"You should call in sick to work, at least until it's under control."

"If I do that Lillian will call or turn up to check on me."

Kara stood up and walked around the counter to stand next to Lena, she put an arm around her shoulder, "then we'll tuck you up in bed and I'll stay to look after you. If she insists on checking your temperature I can use my heat vision to send the thermometer higher."

"Let's have breakfast first."

"I'll finish it, you sit down and rest."

Lena raised an eyebrow, "I think I can manage."

"When I first arrived on Earth I wanted to become independent, to learn to look after myself and use all of the strange appliances in the kitchen. I still owe mom for several toasters and other assorted items that my powers broke or destroyed. It takes time to learn control, let me help you."

"Fine," Lena sighed and went to sit down, she gave Kara a smile as the other woman replaced the cutlery, "thank you."

"You're welcome."

After breakfast, Lena sipped her coffee as she watched Kara load the dishwasher. While Kara's attention was focused on arranging the plates, she looked down at the damaged cutlery and nervously picked up a knife. Lena closed her eyes when it straightened out as easily as if it had been a plastic straw. While she waited for Kara she fixed the others, though she didn't know what to do about the marks where her fingers had gripped them too hard.

Eventually Kara finished and came to stand beside her chair, "if anyone sees them you can just say it's part of the design, then you don't have to worry about replacing them."

"I don't think that'll be a problem."

"We should call Alex," Kara suggested.

"I guess. Or I could stop off at the DEO after work..."

"No Lena, we need to figure this out before someone gets hurt."

"Well how did you deal with coming to Earth and being able to do all these things?"

"Eliza home-schooled me to start with, I had so much to learn about fitting in. I wonder what other powers you'll get."

"None, I hope."

"We'll try them out at the DEO, less chance of damaging your apartment that way."

"Yeah I guess setting something on fire with laser eyes would be a problem."

"We call it heat vision, but better to find out now than later."

"Okay, tell Alex we're on our way and maybe ask her to send a message to Lillian that they've called me in to consult on something so I have an excuse to be late to work."

"Good plan."

"While you're doing that I'll see if I buy a couple more fire extinguishers. Anything else I might need? Half a dozen kettles or toasters?"

"And alarm clocks, even now if I'm half-asleep I forget my own strength," Kara joked.

"Got it," Lena smiled.

Alex felt like she was spending more time in the medical bay since her sister became Supergirl than she had before. As she waited for the results of Lena's tests, she had tried convincing the other other woman that moving to Argo was the safest option. Lena didn't want to listen.

"What about Kryptonite?" Lena suggested.

"Lena!" Kara was horrified by the idea, not wanting to risk her child's life by having it anywhere near them.

"I'm assuming Lex made sure there was some on this Earth. I'd only need a small amount, perhaps hide it in some jewellery, then I can access it when I need it. It might even be a solution to your concerns about my body handling the pregnancy."

"How would you explain to Lex that you needed it?" Alex countered.

"If I said I wanted to study it, I'm sure he'd be thrilled. So you do have some?"

"Brainy has secured it until it can be safely destroyed, even Lex would have trouble getting access now."

"Will you let me test it, under your supervision? Kara can wait at a safe distance." Lena folded her arms, "I really don't want to synthesise it in the lab where Lex or Lillian can see."

Kara was shaking her head, but Alex knew Lena would persist until she was allowed to try.

"Fine, I will ask Brainy to bring a small amount, in a lead-lined container and you will follow my instructions so I can monitor your reaction."

"Alex!"

"No Kara, we might as well find out how she'll react to the stuff now."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet. I am going to hook you up to several monitors - at the first blip I'm taking it away - and I'll want some sun lamps in here just in case."

"Whatever you think is necessary," Lena smiled, pleased to be getting her own way.

They were waiting for Brainy to return with the Kryptonite. He assured Alex he would bring one of the smaller pieces, about the size of his thumbnail. Alex and Kara were giving Lena some time alone, waiting in a room adjoining hers. She had been on the phone to Lillian, promising to be in the office before lunch and repeating the details of the fake project Alex had already explained to her.

"Why aren't you taking her to the training room with the Kryptonite emitters?" Kara asked.

"Because I want all this medical equipment on hand in case anything goes wrong," Alex explained. "She's had super-strength for a couple of hours now, but no other powers. She may or may not be affected by the Kryptonite, and your child is half-human so fingers crossed nothing will happen. We haven't tested it on baby Jonathan, I did mention to Clark," she whispered his name, just in case Lena could heard them, "that we had the Kryptonite but for now it's better that it's here so Lex isn't trying to make any of his own - I've asked Brainy to run a few scans for it just in case."

"We were getting along and then Lena developed this super-strength... I'm just worried that she'll use it as another excuse..."

"Kara, she's fine. She's calm, not angry or crying, and while I'd love to have your gift of flight this isn't the most dangerous ability to inherit."

"What about her theory that it could last beyond the pregnancy?"

"We'll deal with that if it happens, though I can't see her turning into a superhero and fighting crime with you and the others."

"I don't know, she'd probably have fun designing a suit and hiding her identity behind a mask," Kara smiled, finally relaxing a little, which had been Alex's intention.

"We'd have to come up with a suitable name for her alter-ego. Though there's always the risk that the powers would go away eventually so she'd have to be careful."

"Oh my god, do you think the same thing will have happened to Lois?" Kara whispered to Alex, following her lead about keeping the name of Superman's wife a secret.

"Lois Lane with superpowers? That's scarier than Lena having them," Alex laughed and hugged her sister when she laughed too.

AN: 'fetal microchimerism' - I had the idea of Lena getting some of Kara's superpowers as her body adjusts to the baby, to help her deal with the pregnancy, and shortly after watched the episode with Song Oak in Kipo and the Wonderbeasts (I won't say anymore in case it spoils it for anyone who hasn't seen the show yet), then looked it up and discovered it's real so it gets the proper name and not something I have to make up. Yay science! :)