Chapter 12

It was late when Lillian gets inside the offices at Catco

"Cat Grant, so nice of you to receive me in such a short notice…"

The Queen of all the media doesn't say a word, she just laughs at the words of the old Luthor.

"Please, I'm not nice…"

"You're nicer than me"

"Anyone is nicer than you"

Lillian smirks, taking the comment as a compliment.

"What brings you here, Lillian?"

"Always to the point, you never change"

"And, you're not the kind of person who requests a meeting without a reason. So, what brings you here?"

"I'm looking for my daughter, Lena. She walked away from me during dinner a few days ago and it seems that no one has seen her since then…"

Cat makes no comment about it, she just takes a sip of her glass as she watches Lilian's posture. The iron woman doesn't look so indestructible now that Lena is missing.

"It's this linked to what you asked me to look into, a few weeks ago?"

Lillian recalls their previous meetings, the reason why she flew back to town was because Cat told her she got the information she requested.

"You looked at me with fear that night"

Lillian recalls the welcome she got from Cat that night when she stepped into her office. Being feared has always brought pride to herself till now, Lillian thinks.

"I wasn't afraid of you, Lillian. I was scared to acknowledge that I'm not very different from Lionel"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not the easiest boss either. I'm also an expert when it comes to hurting people with nothing more than words and ink. Pushing my staff to do the impossible and request the imaginable has always been something that made me proud till…"

"Till you realized that your staff are more than assets. That they are more fragile than what you believe. That your words can hit harder than a fist and that you have the power to destroy lives with a simple snap of your fingers…"

Cat gulps hard and Lillian smirks at how shocked she looks.

"The goal of making you look into the past was never to make you reflect on your behavior as a boss. But, if it happened in between, I guess, it's a collateral damage I can live with…"

Cat and Lillian smile at each other, and the Queen of media laughs when Lillian thinks that she owes her another favor if she's helping her to be a better person.

"You ask too much, Lillian! Asking me to personally look into the accident of your son and the past of that poor girl, Kiera wasn't enough?"

"Her name is Kara…"

Cat rolls her eyes, getting the correct name seems irrelevant right now.

After Lex's death, Lillian used all her connections to find out if it was more than a simple accident. It wouldn't be the first time that someone tried to kill a Luthor. And, she will not say it out loud but she needed to find any conspiracy behind the death of her dear Lex or, the grief would eat her alive. Lillian needed to blame someone, she needed to put in someone else all her pain, her sorrow, her frustration but to her shock, the accident was nothing more than an accident due to an animal that crossed the road at that time.

Since when Lex was protector of the animals? Lillian is sure that she instilled in her children the notion of always putting their life ahead of anything! So, it's hard to believe for her that one of her kids died just because he couldn't put his life as a priority, no, he decided that protecting the life of a damn animal was more important, and it makes Lillian sick to think about the real reason behind the death of Lex.

If Lex was enough stupid to put his life at risk for an animal, then, he definitely was stupid enough to choose the mother of his kid. That's what Lillian thinks and that is the reason why she asked Cat to look deeply into Kara's past, she needed to find who was this Kara Danvers, the woman who was carrying her grandchild.

"I normally don't do this kind of work, but, since it was for you, I did it…"

"You owed me a favor and that's why you played to be a journalist looking for the truth…"

Cat smirks at Lillian's comment, it's true that she digged into Kara's past because she wanted to pay a debt, but, to be honest, she enjoyed it more than what she was expecting. Looking into documents, interviewing people, and making the research, it brought her back to her old days when she was nothing more than a newbie reporter.

"You remembered why I chose this profession. Thank you for that…"

"It sounds like you owe me another favor, then…"

Cat laughs, it seems she will never get her bill settled with the old Luthor. And, while this mother is using her connexions to find Lena. The others have to do the best they can with what they have. That's why, across town, Kara and Alex are looking for Lena on the streets.

"Lena! Lena! Where are you? Lena!"

"Really, Kara? She's not a dog, you know?"

The blonde ignores the sarcastic comment of Alex and continues to yell the name of the girl she dies to see again. Walking around the streets, calling to hospitals, it's the only thing that Kara gets to do in order to find her dear Luthor.

"I'll call her again"

It's the 50th or the 80th she does it? They have lost count of how many calls, how many texts they have sent to Lena, but when the blonde realizes that the voicemail is full, she realizes too that she has arrived to her limit.

This is why she doesn't let people in. This is the reason why she was a runaway, because it hurt less to leave than to be abandoned. And, Kara blames no one than herself for feeling like this, but, it's too late to do something about it. She has opened up to Lena, she cares for her, she has let her in and that's why she stares at her phone, begging God to bring Lena back to her.

It breaks Alex to see how Kara stares at her phone, wondering if the other girl will call at any second. If Alex wasn't a fan of Lena, she hates her even more now, for how she's making Kara feel. And, to be honest, she's not the only one who hates Lena right now. Lena hates herself too.

Yeah, the raven-haired woman hates herself so much that she's drinking her problems without caring about how this could affect her health. Drink after drink, Lena is lost in a plush bar.

"Are you sure you want another drink?"

The bartender hesitates to keep serving more liquor. Lena doesn't reply, she just puts 50$ in the pocket of the barman and the man understands he just needs to shut his mouth and fill the glass of the woman again. It's not a fancy bar, lots of immigrants and people from many places are here. She's sure no one will find her here till the last person she wanted to see appears at the door.

"Oh! For Lord's sake, mother! You're worse than the plague! I cannot get rid of you, isn't it?"

"Language, Lena! You may be hiding in a dump but regardless of where you're, you should always show manners…"

Lena rolls her eyes when her mother scolds her with the etiquette standards.

"How did you find me, mother?"

Lillian doesn't reply, she will never admit she had to ask for help from someone like Cat Grant to find her own daughter, and even if she's not sure how Cat got the correct address of where Lena was, she's glad she found the raven-haired woman before she passed out.

"You don't belong here, Lena. Let's go…"

"Where should I go?"

"To your home…"

Lena sadly chuckles under the thought of going home. Home is Kara and she cannot be with Kara if it's her family's fault all the bad that happened in Kara's past.

"I cannot go home…"

"Why?"

"Because… because…"

Lena doesn't finish her sentences, she just burst into tears and Lillian rolls her eyes, she hates to deal with emotional breakdowns and to be honest, she was hoping that her daughter would be stronger than this. After all, she built her to be unbreakable. But, there's nothing which cannot break in this world, everything has its breaking point and for Lena, this is it, the truth of what comes with being a Luthor.

Back to the apartment, Kara was with Alex when the door opens and the blonde smiles because she sees again...

"Lena!"

Kara brightly smiles when she sees Lillian's driver carrying an unconscious Lena to the bedroom. The blonde makes no comment about how drunk she's, the pregnant woman is just happy to have Lena back. Lillian makes no comment about how happy Kara is, she just says...

"She will need some aspirins in the morning. I'll take care of the company for the moment. Let her know I'm not happy with her behavior…"

The blonde nods and she hugs Lillian again, this time tighter as she cannot stop saying 'thanks' to the old woman because she brought home her dear Lena. Lillan is unfamiliar with the touching need of the blonde to always hug. She makes no comment about and just leaves without saying another word.

Now that Lena is home, Kara is happy again and Alex cannot understand why. Why does this woman mean so much to Kara? Why the Luthor is Kara's home? Alex doesn't think she can hold it anymore, the question for which one she knows already the answer.

"You love her, don't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Please, Kara! Don't lie to me! And, mostly don't lie to yourself!"

It was like a bucket of cold water what hit her when Alex insisted that she needed to acknowledge her feelings. More than once, she asked Alex to drop the subject but acting like a big sister, Alex refused to drop it till Kara badly snapped against her.

"Whatever I feel or not, it's not your damn business, Alex!"

"It's my business because you're my little sister, Kara."

"No, I'm not!"

Alex gulps hard when Kara denies any relationship between them.

"Kara, I…"

"You never wanted a sister. You got stuck with me for a while and that's it. You're not my sister, you never were, you never will be…"

Alex gets a knot in her throat. She's out of words, especially when Kara opens the door for her and asks her to leave and never come back again.

"I don't know what you were expecting when we met again on Ruby's birthday, Alex. But, I don't need your bad energy around me, okay!"

"It's not a bad vibe, Kara! I'm just worried about you! I know I screwed up big time when we were younger. But, I'm not that child anymore. I'm here and this time I want to be a real sister for you"

"Then stop constantly telling me that I shouldn't be with Lena when she's the only that really matters for me in this world!"

The blonde is speaking from the heart and tears roll over her eyes as she clearly stated her only request towards the brunette.

"Why is she so important to you, Kara?"

"Because Lena is my home, Alex. You already left me without a home once. Please, don't do it again…"

Alex deeply sighs, looking down she has no intention to cause more pain to Kara so she just leaves for now, without saying another word. After closing the door, Kara feels like she can breathe again. Dragging her tired body to the bedroom, she hesitates to get closer to Lena when she smells the liquor emanating from the sleeping CEO. Nevertheless, her desire to feel close to Lena is stronger than any mixing feeling she might have against the alcohol.

Trying to hold her breath, Kara curls besides Lena, and just like her, she's falling asleep when she mumbles…

"Please, do not become a monster too, Lena…"

Kara knows how alcohol can transform good people into monsters when they rely on it. She really wishes Lena doesn't end like her father, that's why she falls asleep, praying for Lena's soul. And, to be honest, she's not the only one who's scared of becoming a monster. Maybe that's why the next morning when Kara wakes up, she finds the CEO deep thinking in the kitchen.

"Lena! You're awake!"

The raven-haired woman nods, her head is still spinning but she's sober enough to know what she needs to do next.

"Kara. We need to talk"

In the end, all that matters, it's not to know if we can live forever or not, it's to know if we're able to make happy those we cherish the most. Believing we're good, we're fighters it's harder of what it looks like. And, maybe that's why Lena is getting ready to quit any dream before daring to really fight for it.