I wanted to get this chapter out as early as I could, so it's a little short than the others. I wanted to combine this one with the next, but I've had to make some last minute changes to my schedule this week and I wanted to give you all a new update on when to expect a new chapter and just give you all some content at all. Unfortunately and devastatingly, there's been a death on my wife's said of the family and we're going to Tennessee tomorrow and Wednesday for the funeral. Ever since my wife and I got together over 7 years ago, her family has been nothing but supportive and accepted me into their own brood without so much as a second thought once they found out my own family had disowned me. I've had to push my workdays back to make it to the funeral, so when I come back I will have a doctor's appointment, work, class, my last two assignments for the semester before finals and then more work on Thursday and Friday. So I most likely will not be updating until sometime over the weekend or possibly even early/middle next week. I'll be getting as much writing as I can in here and there, but I'm not expecting the time to sit down and write out a full chapter and post it. Not for what I have planned. So just bare with me on that.

As far as the next chapter goes, Lena is finally coming in. There's going to be sooooo much angst and everything in the next few chapters, so prepare yourselves for that. Lena's also going to explain her absence next chapter as well, hopefully. That's the idea. I want to put Ali and Lena's meeting and then Kara and Lena's meeting all in the same chapter because it's all going to revolve around what's happened in this chapter. I'm super excited for it. But for now, I am going to go get some sleep before we make the three hour trip to Tennessee in the morning and let the next few days be for grieving.

I love you all. I love that you're all loving this story so far. Stay safe and stay awesome. -Commander

Chapter Three:

It was quiet. That should have been Kara's first clue that something was obviously wrong when she woke up.

Mornings were never quiet in the Danvers household. Ali always woke before Kara did and the older Kryptonian was always awoken by the sound of her daughter making breakfast and signing quietly along with whatever music the teen had settled on that morning. Never had Kara walked into the kitchen to see said teenager sitting silently at the attached island, hands folded in front of her and sporting a very serious look. Until this morning.

"Hey…is everything okay?"

Without a word, the teenager unfolded her hands (that Kara now realized where resting on a small stack of papers) and slid said papers in her general direction. On the top of the stack, pinned together with a metal paperclip was a small envelope covered in a familiar handwriting that had the hero's heart thudding in her chest instantly. "What is this?"

"I don't know. I didn't open yours."

Tentatively, Kara reached one hand out, hating that it was shaking slightly as she scooted the papers closer to her. "I don't understand…where did you? …Mine? …Did you-?"

"Yesterday. Sam gave it to me. She said it arrived that morning and…I took it home with me."

That caught the older woman's attention, her blue eyes narrowing slightly as she stared down her child. "Yesterday? You've had this since yesterday? Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Silently, Kara watched as the teenager pulled out another envelope from underneath the counter, gently laying it down on the granite top. "I…I don't know. I didn't mean to hide it from you, I was just so…I wanted to read it first. I was going to tell you about it, I swear, Jeju."

The Kryptonian resisted the urge to automatically burn everything on her counter with her laser vision after she tore open the letter addressed to her, the only thing the letter containing a simple sentence of "Please call me. I need to explain everything."

How dare she?! After ten years, ten long, heartbreaking years, Lena suddenly thought she could send a letter and some papers and expect what? Some kind of communication back? A quick call and that would suddenly fix the fact that she had abandoned her and their daughter without so much of a second thought?

"Have you talked to her?"

Ali jumped slightly, her eyes widening at her mother's angry tone. "What?"

"Your mother, have you talked to her?"

It was weird, referring to Lena as Ali's mother out loud, but Kara was so far past the point of carrying right now. She was confused. Hell, she was livid. She hadn't spent the past ten years trying to fix Lena's mess just so the woman could waltz back in (in a very Lena way) and fuck it all up again.

"I mean, I saw the number on the back of the papers…"

"You called her?!"

"No! I…I texted her, but she…," Ali shrunk down in her seat as her mother's glare intensified. She had been expecting her mother to be angry, obviously. She just hadn't expected to that anger to be directed towards her. Ali had hoped that giving her mother the papers herself rather than just letting the older woman find them would have warranted a less angry reaction. That had backfired tremendously. "She…she hasn't said anything back…yet."

Tearing her angry gaze away from her daughter, Kara gathered up the various papers and the letter, stuffing them in her work purse a little too hard. The silence that had taken over the kitchen was deafening, given that the Kryptonian couldn't hear anything other than the frantic beat of her heart and think of how angry that mad her. Ten years later and Lena could still get under her skin.

Taking a deep breath in a failed attempt to calm her slightly, Kara turned back to see her daughter was watching her with a concerned and guilty expression and the hero's anger returned ten-fold. Lena could fuck with her all she wanted to, but Kara wasn't going to let her daughter get hurt by the woman. Not again.

"Delete the number. I don't want you talking to her."

"What? Why?!"

Ignoring the pleading look on her daughter's face, Kara started back towards her bedroom, the sound of footsteps echoing her own. "Because I said so."

"But Jeju, I-."

Turning on her heel, the hero came face to face with her child, feeling her anger lessen with every second. She wasn't far from breaking down and that was something she didn't want to do in front of Ali. "No! There are no "buts" for this, Ali! I'm trying to protect you, why are you fighting me on this?! I don't want you talking with her and that's final!"

Watching as the teenager's face fell slightly, Kara let out a sigh, running a hand through her messy hair. How had the morning managed to turn into this? She could count the number of times she had raised her voice with Ali on one hand and still have plenty of fingers left. This wasn't something they did, and the blonde knew she had let her own feelings get the best of her. "I'm sorry. I wasn't…I didn't mean to yell. I just…can you just please promise me that you won't talk to her until I have all this sorted out? Please?"

"I promise. I'm sorry, Jeju. I didn't mean to-."

Ali was cut off by her mother suddenly pulling her into a hug, most of the tension disappearing from the teenager's body.

"Don't apologize, okay? You have nothing to be sorry for."

After a few moments of simply hugging one another, Ali pulled away to look up at her mother, slightly guilty that she had brought more stress into her mother's already definition-of-stressed life. "I guess I should get going. School's starting soon."

"If you wanted to stay home…"

The teenager shook her head, already walking back towards the kitchen. "I want to go. It'll help keep my mind busy."

Kara watched as her daughter gathered her things, leaning against her bedroom doorframe. "Okay. I'll try not to be late tonight. We can…we can talk more about all this then."

With a small smile, Ali slung her bag over her shoulder. "I love you, Jeju."

"Love you, too, babe. Have a good day and call me if you need anything."

Once Ali was out of the apartment building and at a far enough away distance that she knew her mother wouldn't instantly pick up the sound of her voice with her super hearing, the brunette pulled out her cell phone and dialed a familiar number as she ventured off her path to a secluded alley.

"What an unusual time for you to calling. Aren't you supposed be in your government-issued educational program?"

Rolling her eyes, Ali resisted the urge to snort at the wording of the question. "Change of plans, Brainy. I need to cash in that favor you owe me."

"Right. You aided me with my latest experimentation, and in return I promised you a favor. What do you need?"

Glancing around, Ali let out a sigh before lowering her voice. "I need you to hack into L-Corp's employee files and get me the location of an employee's office and schedule for today."

"That fire-wall was more difficult than I imagined a twenty-first century network security system to be. Interesting. Now, who I am finding?"

Slipping her bag off her back, Ali reached in to pull the concealing flight jacket she'd been gifted with last year by her aunt, all thoughts of school and the promise she had made to her mother flying right out her window of thought. "Lena Luthor. Can you send it to my phone? And can you also not mention this to my mother?"

She was going to Metropolis. And her mother was most definitely going to kill her afterwards.