COPYRIGHT: The following is a work of 'fan-fiction' and no copyright infringement is intended against those who own the rights to Supergirl and all related characters. All original Characters are the possession and copyright of The Rainbow Writers.
Please note that while we are big fans of the TV Show, we are not up on every nuanced bit of history and lore, so if we get something horribly wrong... we're sorry in advance.
TW/Suicide: In future chapters there will be discussion between characters of suicidal/self harm thoughts and the statistical rate of suicide. While there may be passing reference to past suicidal thoughts, there is no plot points in this fan-fiction to suicide, no character death but we wanted to be upfront so that no reader is caught unaware and have to endure undue mental heath pain. We urge anyone who is experiencing thoughts of self harm or suicide to please reach out to anyone in their life they trust or to a mental health hot-line.
Pairing: Supercorp, Alex & Maggie Set: Season Two Episode Six 'Changing', Branch from Canon from this point out.
Note: Hi, for any of our long time readers who happen to catch this- Hi. It's been quite a long time and as anyone can imagine we have our reasons for being silent but hopefully some good will come out the continued Pandemic as we've found motivation to create again. For those interested we have applied to cross post at Archive but are waiting for approval. This may not be the continuation of any of our historical stories, but we hope you give it a go and enjoy it none the less. Long live powerful women everywhere! The Rainbow Writers (Kath and Beth)
Broken
Episode Six: The Things People Say
By: The Rainbow Writers
Each and every time that Alex touched her sister, as she went through a series of medical checks when Kara had discharged herself from the yellow sun room, she did so with ultimate care and attention. All light finger tips and and gentle motions. It was clear that in no uncertain terms was the oldest Danvers sister over all that had happened.
"Are you sure you're doing well enough to be out of there?" Even the tone was gentle as she finished up her work and stood with a slight hip lean next to the younger individual.
"Yes." Kara answered simply turning to give her sister a soft smile. "Yellow sunlight only does so much, I just need a little sleep and a whole lot of food." She patted her belly softly.
"I could take you down to the cafeteria, and I have regular med beds all around me." Alex was cautious. "And if you were here if anything happened I would be right there."
"I've already ate all the cafeteria food I can stand. I don't just eat anything you know?" Kara teased but when she saw that her sister didn't so much as give her a dirty look for the joke, she had to stop and re-think her approach. "How bad did it get?" She finally opened with the broad question, using a soft sympathetic voice.
For a moment it was obvious that Alex was considering how to answer this inquiry. Whether to be honest, or whether to down play it and underline it was more the length of time that mattered not the severity. However, shaking her head a little Alex decided on the truth.
"Bad." She summed up, crossing her legs and folding her arms across her chest. "For literally days all I could do was watch as your stats crept steadily worse, you went from fully competent but listless to basically a coma in less than two days, and even then your stats just kept slipping further and further out of the even remotely normal range." She took a breath. "For more time than I care to admit, we literally had... nothing."
"Wow, I have to admit when I first woke up under the lamps I figured I had burned myself out fighting one thing or another and the memory would come back to me but..." Kara reached out to pick at a thread on the surgical pants she was wearing. "I think the last thing I really remember clearly is you poking at me in the main hall and ordering me to med bay, after that I have snippets and bits but it's all a little jumbled and kinda psychedelic." She tried to sum up her experience. "And hey, no matter how long it took, you figured it out." She moved to put her arm around her sister and give her a light squeeze.
Alex stayed stiff in the embrace and even pushed a little to part them.
"No, I didn't." She said whisper quiet.
"Alex, of course you did, no one could make me believe for a second that in whatever was going on to figure out what was wrong with me and what could be done to help, you weren't right there in the middle of it... probably not sleeping, not eating and just working non stop to find answers." Kara disagreed with her gently.
"Oh I was there, and you were right about the slight lack of personal care time I gave myself but..." Tired, sad and almost haunted eyes looked into blue. "Like I told you I... we... had nothing." She shook her head again. "It was Lena." She breathed out the truth. "Without her, I have no idea if you would be here or not."
"I remember her coming to see me in the sun room when I was heavily dozing still." Kara admitted the memory with a hint of a smile. "I figured there must be a reason that she was here at the DEO." She finished the admittance of how her brain had tried to fill in the holes she had. "The important thing is that you brought Lena in to help, I'm sure that wasn't an easy thing to convince J'onn about."
"For you that might be the important thing. That and that you're going to be fine but for me." Alex frowned slightly. "I don't know if that's my take away."
"Tell me what happened Alex." Kara turned a little to look more at her sister urging her to fill her in. "All of it, from the beginning... and for me that's anything after you ordered me to med bay."
This time there was no hesitation in Alex's reply.
"No." She shook her head again. "Not right now, I need you to go home, rest and be good to yourself." She said in an assured tone. "When I'm done here I'll come to your place to check on you, sleep on your couch, do the big sister thing."
"How about no back?" Kara shook her head immediately. "Not about the run down, you're right we can do that later but what you need to do for me right now is finish up only what you absolutely need to do here and then go home." She softly underscored the words in a lovingly stern tone. "Have a long hot shower, climb into bed and sleep for a good twelve hours straight, then wake up have something to eat and then sleep some more." She reached out and ran her hand over her sister's hair. "You did the hard part Alex, and whoever gets the credit it doesn't matter, I know you were right there beside me for all of it, the good, the bad and the worse parts." She smiled at her sister. "So please, take care of you for the rest of the day and I don't want to see you until tomorrow at the earliest, I'm fine now."
"I don't want to burst any bubbles you have Kara but the day is barely starting." She nodded to one of the clocks in the lab, pointing out just what the time was. "I'm not sure I can clock out an hour before I'm even supposed to clock in." She smile with a little more strength.
"You can when you've been literally at work for days without end Alex." Kara argued with her. "If I go find J'onn I know he'll agree that you should go home, he might even order you too." She raised an eyebrow. "Is that what it's going to take to get you to pay yourself a little self care?"
"I'll make you a deal." Alex's tone was a little closer to 'normal' now and she leaned back from her sister more. "I'll leave on time, no staying here past five, how about that?"
"Nope, not good enough." Kara shook her head and pushed up to stand moving right in front of her sister. "I am the recently sick sister, and that means that I get to make all the choices and my choice is for you to pack up right now, drive me to my place and then head to yours in order to sleep and sleep some more. You don't even have to waste time showering until you're battery is over half full, because right now you are running on fumes. If it would help I'd be shoving you under the yellow sun lamps."
Alex actually managed a laugh as she moved close and pulled her sister into a hug.
"I must love you." She leaned back but didn't break the contact. "Let me just get my things."
"You can't deny the sick sister." Kara grinned at her, so pleased that she had won, before she pulled Alex into another hug. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I don't mean too." She offered in a apologetic tone.
"I'm sure there have been times I've scared you." Alex summed up. "I think we both should be thankful that neither one of us is keeping score."
"Let's not start." Kara shook her head gently in place. "By the way, does Eliza know or not know about this whole latest thing?" She questioned leaning back biting her lip. "Just so I know how to play it."
-x-
Even with update texts from Alex all night confirming that moment by moment Kara was getting better and better, Lena had still found she couldn't sleep. Even trying to drown herself in a bottle of scotch, her proverbial bad day go too, had left her hating herself for wasting a good drink as she poured the first half full one down her sink. She'd retreated in time to the only thing she could; work. Always there, always willing to monopolize her time, her mind and her focus even when she knew she wasn't exactly on her game to be making million dollar decisions.
The CEO had found 'work' to occupy her until the wee hours of the morning, and mostly because she had hardly slept at all while helping at the DEO, she found her head nodding down against her arm as she tried to read stock projection tables. It was when the numbers began to bleed together that she finally gave in and crawled into bed to give in to her exhaustion. Her head had barely hit the pillow before she'd been pulled down into a dark dreamless sleep, the truth being that she had exhausted both the reserves of her mind and her body. The total shut down by her system was despite itself, not because she wanted to check out of the world.
It had been late in the morning, brunch time as her mother would have referenced, when she had finally felt herself pulled out of the darkness of sleep by the need to use the washroom. She had immediately checked her phone to see a few more updates from Alex to confirm that Kara's recover was going exactly as expected, which brought her still tired mind some measure of calmness. The crisis had been averted, Kara was going to be okay.
Immediately making coffee for herself, she tried to satisfy the emptiness in her stomach with a random health bar stored in her kitchen for when she was doing exactly what she was doing now, not taking care of herself very well. She ate it on the patio, looking out to the blue sky over National City almost wishing that she would see the familiar form of Supergirl arriving on the wind in all of her glory. But in her heart she knew Kara was still at the DEO recovering. When her phone beeped, she nearly missed it, accept for the fact when she looked down to where she had rested it on a small table she caught the almost shadowed alert of 'Kara' as the sender of the message and as her phone went dark she fought to get it to wake up immediately to look at the text.
K: I thought we made an arrangement that you were going to be here Pillow? Do I have to come to you?
Lena's fingers literally flew over the on screen keyboard. The fact that Kara was home already was unexpected. The fact that Kara seemed disappointed she wasn't at the blonde's apartment waiting for her made her heart lurch at the idea. How could she be already letting Kara down?
L : You're home? Already? I'll be there in fifteen minutes.
She didn't really even think about the words she had just typed, she just typed them because they were exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to throw herself into some clothes and race as fast as possible to the blonde's side to support her and selfishly to prove to herself indeed the crisis was over.
K: Perfect. The door's unlocked.
L: You want some Pot-stickers and a pizza?
K: Always, especially if you're delivering!
L: I'll be more like twenty five then, put a video on.
K: Okay, sick girl picks, that was the rule right? You might regret agreeing to the Danvers rule, there might be talking animals.
L: I don't care.
Lena accompanied her text with a small love heart emoji, not stopping to think about whether she should include it or not as she moved through her apartment back to her closet to find something clean to wear.
K: Drive safe, it's okay if you take 30 minutes my pizza is still free.
The joke came with a heart emoji of its own and a little flying star symbol.
L: Goof ball.
As she typed the simple words Lena felt the hot sting of tears come to her eyes, but unlike all the other times since she'd found out Kara was sick, the feeling welled up from a place of happiness.
-x-
It had taken Alex some time to decide where she should go after dropping Kara off. Should she go home and just lose herself in sleep, drinking and more sleep, or should she follow that small part inside her heart that directed her towards Maggie's place. Not that she wanted to talk about anything or even catch up really, it was just like she had said to Kara not that long ago, there is that stage that happens when you need to be with a person, in there space just to have them close by. It was for that reason that the agent made the decision to go to her girlfriend's, bargaining with herself that if Maggie was on shift she would just turn around and go home.
With slight trepidation Alex took the stairs up to the detective's apartment and knocked lightly, honestly unsure of what she wanted to happen next.
"Hey there..." Maggie pulled open the door having looking through the security keyhole to see Alex standing there, her mood changing instantly from when she had believed she was being accosted by either a salesperson or a religious zealot. "You look like hell... get in here and tell me how I can help." She began to worry immediately. It wasn't that she wasn't used to seeing Alex look tired, or even stressed and strung out, but right now Agent Danvers somehow looked like she was all these things and a few new ones thrown in that Maggie wasn't used to.
Alex looked up at Maggie but didn't move from the door step.
"I wasn't sure you would be home." She said honestly. "I..." She began but stopped pushing her hand through her hair to clear it from her face. "It's over, Kara's okay." The taller brunette's voice shifted to a whisper.
"She is? That's great." Maggie's face pulled into a smile but then a shadow of a question crossed over her face and she took a few steps backwards hoping that Alex would follow her. She waited until Alex had come in and closed the door behind herself before she spoke again. "I thought it was Supergirl who was sick?" She tilted her head with a soft smirk on her face. "I should have known, and you must be almost asleep on your feet to make that kind of a slip." Not hesitating, even when the look of panic came over Alex's features at her mention of Supergirl, she crossed the short distance between them and pulled Alex into a hug. "I'm so glad your sister is okay."
For once Alex didn't resist the draw to lean into Maggie's arms, bringing her own up to hold onto her girlfriend's back.
"I'm so tired." Again her words were barely audible in the embrace.
"Come on then, we'll sit and you can tell me all about your last few days." Maggie gently led her over to the large corner couch in her loft and settle them both down into the corner. "Have you slept at all since I talked to you?"
"No." Alex admitted, waiting until Maggie's hold around her shoulder eased a little before she shifted purposefully away from the other woman, but unlike what she might have done on a different day, all she did was ease her body down and lay her head in Maggie's lap. "And no talking, I just wanted to be with you."
"Okay Danvers." Out of view a soft surprised smile spread onto Maggie's features, as she moved her hand and began to softly thread her fingers through Alex's hair. "Considering the hell you've been living, you get your way for now." She offered in a tender voice as her fingers made another pass. "I'm glad you came."
A barely mumbled reply came from her girlfriend as heavy eyes just drifted closed and her breathing eased into a gentle calm rhythm.
-x-
Lena was taking the last few steps to Kara's door exactly 32 minutes after her last text to the blonde. Carefully balanced in one hand she had two large pizza boxes, one on top of the another. On top of that was balanced a collection of little brown bags all with their top curled down in an attempt to keep the heat of the product they carried inside. Her oversized Coach bag was slung over the forearm of the other. The expensive accessory was in line with the three quarter length camel coat she was wearing, but it hardly matched the simple jeans and thin navy wool sweater combo she had thrown on at home.
Reaching up with her free hand, she gave a light knock on the door, shifting her hand immediately to close around the door handle and push inside remember Kara had told her to just come in.
"Kara?" She called, slipping into her friend's apartment, struggling once again to try and close the door behind her with all that she was carrying.
"Hey Lena!" The excitement in Kara's voice was hard to contain, as from the couch she pushed the blanket she had over her off and began to move towards the kitchen. She was wearing a pair of 'casual' hunter green leggings that clung to her every curve and a loose multi-coloured peasant top that ended just low enough to hide her backside, signalled how relaxed the blonde was. Lena knew instantly that there was no way her Supergirl outfit was hidden under the ensemble. "Let me help you, that smells so good..." She immediately made a noise of enjoyment and her stomach gave a large independent grumble of its own in appreciation. She moved to lift the entire collection out of Lena's arms to transfer it the short distance to the kitchen island, leaving Lena to resettle her purse that had slipped down into her elbow crook awkwardly as the brunette finally managed to close the door. "Hi." Without any hesitation Kara moved back to the brunette, catching her up in an immediate hug.
"Hi." Lena wrapped her arms around the blonde as tightly as she could, needing to feel the heat and strength of the other woman that she had missed so much, needing to rid the ghosts in her head of the idea that this may never have happened again. "It's good to see you." She added closing her eyes in the embrace as her head settled over the blonde's shoulder.
"I'm so glad you could come over." Kara underlined that fact as she hugged the brunette a little tighter in return before she gave a soft hummed noise of pleasure. "You smell even better than the food, if that's possible."
"I thought I was the one who had the smell thing." Lena eventually eased back and looked into blue eyes. "How are you?" She asked the instant question, still not moving fully away from the other woman.
"Better, much better." Kara's smile was bright, as she didn't step away either from the half embrace. "I'm still a little kitten weak for me, all things considered but getting stronger by the minute." She underlined with a gentle move of her head to throw her hair over her shoulder. "And I think the reason I'm having your smell sensitivity is that they washed me down with some sort of cleaner at the DEO to make sure all of the parasite spores were gone, gone. Alex and I had almost escaped even before her shift was to start but then suddenly J'onn was there with a bottle of the worse smelling cleaner I've ever been in contact with." Her nose screwed up in disgust at the smell. "And it's stuck up my nose, so don't mind me if I keep sniffing you to replace it with something much nicer."
Lena actually broke their physical connection for a moment, just to delve into her purse and from it she pulled a small container full of a deep pink liquid which she immediately held out for the blonde.
"Go run yourself through the shower." She smiled brightly. "It's the one you liked from my office." She added. "I promise not to eat everything before you're done."
"You can smell it too?" Kara half asked the question as she took the bottle.
"No Kara, I just want you to be as comfortable as possible." Lena shook her head, her smile still bright as she admitted her goal.
"How about then, if it's not bugging you, we eat first and then I'll have a shower?" Kara offered the bargain as her stomach growled again. "Because if I'm not mistaken those bags are full of pot stickers from The Dumpling Bowl?" She did a little dance in place showing her excitement without even knowing she was doing it.
"They are." Lena confirmed. "There are five orders for you and one for me." She admitted the reason for so many bags. "I expect one to be finished before we even sit down." She gave a soft laugh as indeed Kara had already opened one of the bags and popped open the plastic clam shell container inside to pop one pot sticker into her mouth.
"Emfphmmmmm." Kara made the noise of enjoyment as if this was the first pot sticker she had ever eaten and almost before the noise had cleared the room she was putting another one in her mouth.
-x-
A little more than an hour later and all of the pot stickers were devoured, along with a good portion of the pizza. Just the fact that Kara had eaten with her normal voracity had made Lena happier then she'd ever have admitted to anyone. They were both sitting on the blonde's small couch, when Kara leaned the short distance to rest her head on Lena's shoulder feeling satiated and content.
"I wanted to say thank you, for everything you did to help, from what Alex told me you were the key to figuring out the whole parasite problem." Kara's voice was soft and heartfelt as she fussed with the blanket that was draped over the two of them even though the afternoon sunlight that poured in through the large windows made it a comfortable temperature in her apartment.
"I was just another cog introduced into an already turning wheel." Lena shook her head at the idea that she had been 'so important' in everything that had transpired.
"Um not what I was told. Alex said you were probably the only reason they figured it all out in time, and you were the one who worked out a way to get it to abandon ship." Kara underlined the point that her sister had in their brief talk about the episode while she'd been in the shower at the lab. Mostly she had demanded Alex stand guard because the shower she was instructed to use was 'in the middle of the busy' part of the DEO and Kara had been concerned someone would see her. The task had given her a chance to get her sister to tell her a little more about what had happened to her.
"I did, though..." Lena stalled for a moment. "If you remember any of it, I'm sorry I had to hurt you to make it work. I had no idea that what I planned would cause you such trauma." Her mouth pulled into a soft frown as she remembered how Kara had reacted to the introduction of the Kryptonite.
"Kryptonite is... painful." Kara lifted her head to look at Lena again giving a soft wince. "But I don't remember a lot of it to be honest, it was kinda blurry and mixed up, like a movie out of sequence if that makes sense, with big chunks of time missing." She tried to explain her experience within it all. "I know if you could have gotten rid of the parasite another way you would have." She underlined this belief to the brunette wholeheartedly.
"If I had had more time I would have tried to find another way to isolate something specific that the organism rejected but..." She stopped realizing she had been about to say 'because I was brought in so late' but she realized that remark came too close to expressing her own feelings of pain and exclusion and so stopped. "We all just needed it to stop."
"I promise I'm going to underline to Alex that in the future, it's up to her to make sure you're in the loop." Kara made the point having thought about it since she'd been dropped off at home. "I saw your messages, three days without any animal videos, I would have sent a search party out for me by then if I was you." She smiled softly.
A small frown pulled at Lena's brow for a moment.
"Then you're going to hate what I have to tell you next." She brought her hands into her lap and toyed with them slightly. "I have to go away, for a few days, maybe a week." She offered up the fact to Kara. "I'm not sure how reachable I'll be." She added. "It's a work thing... Switzerland..." She offered a weak fake smile.
"No Lena, that's different." Kara shook her head. "I mean yes I hate the idea of not being able to text with you, or bug you to see your reaction to videos I send or meet up to get yummies but I'm going to know where you are, and that you're safe and that if you're suddenly not safe you will send me a message so I can fly to you, even in Switzerland." She underlined. "I know I just sorta dropped off the face of the earth. I didn't even realize I was sick, we were working on the whole crash landing case and I went into the DEO for an update and suddenly my sister is barking at me to stay while she pokes at me and then I'm in med bay and more poking and then it goes all David Lynch movie." She frowned softly. "When things like that happen all the important people are supposed to be in the loop, and Alex should have known to at least text you."
Lena decided not to pursue the problem of her being left out of the loop, excluded from even knowing that her precious friend was sick, let along in danger. Mostly because of how unstable it made her feel and though her up coming business conference was different, for the brunette it had a very similar vibe to it, and that unsettled her even more.
"You had the cutest rash." She offered a more 'upbeat' topic. "You looked a little like Bambi."
"Did I?" Kara scrunched up her nose. "I hope no one took pictures, did you sneak pictures?" She teased softly.
"I'm pretty sure all of the episode is on tape, if I ran the DEO, things like that would be, so I could go over the tapes, looking for every detail I could that I might have missed." Lena replied honestly.
"So now you know about the thing I couldn't tell you about because it wasn't my secret to tell." Kara frowned softly. "What did you think of it? I think it needs less concrete and more colour."
"I have to be honest Kara..." Lena took a breath and looked into blue eyes. "Something I dare not be with your sister but... I already knew about the DEO." She looked away. "Not that your sister was a part of it, or Winn for that matter, but I had my suspicions. Lex... had details about a government 'alien watching' agency. He wanted a way in but could never find one that wouldn't expose what he was doing in turn."
"You and that super brain." Kara smiled at her. "Well I'm just glad it isn't a secret anymore, I hate trying to remember not to say certain words or names, now it just doesn't matter because you've been there and met everyone important. You did meet Hank I'm betting, sorry if he was well... a seriously stuffy old guy, he's really quite nice and kind when you get to know him."
"Hank?" Lena squinted on eye for a moment and then seemed to nod slightly. "J'onn?" She offered the alternative from Kara's description. "He didn't like me."
"He comes across like it doesn't like anyone, even me sometimes, and I mean who doesn't like me?" Kara pointed at herself with a grin. "Though he was introduced as J'onn?" She made the note to mention it to Alex. "I bet it was because with the parasite everyone was worried he'd catch it."
"He introduced himself to me as that." Lena recalled the moment clearly.
"Then he actually really likes you." Kara's smile broadened. "He's a green martian, he can shape shift."
Lena actually cursed softly under her breath
"Does he fly?" She almost had a growl in her voice as she asked the question.
"Yeah." Kara nodded. "Why?"
"God dammit." She cursed again. "He could have had the sample of Kryptonite we needed to use in literally seconds, not the hour and a half it took your sister and I to get it." The brunette seemed genuinely upset, which of course she was. It wouldn't seem to matter now, but at that moment everything had been under a time crunch and for all they could have known that hour and a half could have been the difference between Kara surviving and the unthinkable.
"Oh, I just assumed the Kryptonite had come from Superman. He arranged to store all of the DEO's stock in a secure location where it couldn't be used against me or him." Kara looked confused for a second.
Lena sighed for a third time and then actually shifted on the couch away from Kara so she could look at her more fully. The movement made her pull one leg up underneath her, which sat her a little taller on the couch cushion.
"It didn't." She summed up through her sigh. "When collating through my brother's things, I found a device, a force field generator basically." She summed up. "It was powered with Kryptonite. After I stripped it down to parts, I separated the remaining fuel, sealed it into a lead container and moved it to a secure storage I own miles West into the dessert." She gave the summary. "But it wasn't to have something that could hurt you..." She added instantly. "I wanted to study it, work out a way to reverse its damaging effect on Kryptonians, create an anti-venom..." She was going to go into a full babble-fest of her hopes and dreams about the substance when Kara cut her off.
"Lena..." The blonde brought up a finger and put in gently to up to Lena's lips to stop her. "It's okay, I would never assume you kept it to hurt me, or Superman for that matter." She shook her head softly. "You have such a big mess to clean up because of Lex, and I'm not stupid enough to think you can do that in a month or in the year he's been in jail." She explained what she did know. "And I know you when you have big plans, you're eyes light up with possibilities and wonder at the options..." She smiled softly having read the way that Lena's mind had scientifically sped up with options just from the look on her face. "And if anyone can figure out a way to make it so that Kryptonite isn't so dangerous to me, I bet it's you. Maybe with a little pushing I can get the DEO to work with you on a few of those ideas I can see floating around in your super brain."
For a moment Lena struggled with herself to comment back on all Kara had said, but then she just nodded.
"I hope so too." She admitted. "After all we're all working for the same team right?"
Before Kara got to say anything, there came a soft ringing from the kitchen where Lena had left her phone on top of her purse.
"I should get that..." She glanced from Kara, over the kitchen and back to Kara.
"Let me get it for you." Kara moved up and was walking over. "And I know I'm resting but my legs work." She threw back with a smirk and returned to hand Lena her phone. "I hope it's just a weather update or something."
Lena smiled as she took the phone, a smile that dissipated when she glanced down at it's screen.
"It's not." She said with a breath out as she pressed up to stand moving her phone to her ear. "Mother?" She said the simple greeting in a flat even tone.
Kara knew it was hard in her apartment to afford anyone any kind of 'space' to make a phone call so she made a motion and headed to the bathroom, brushing her teeth for no other reason then to give Lena the chance to speak without her eavesdropping. She scrubbed the tiny brush hard into her teeth trying to tune into the echo of it in her head and the sound of the running water coming out of the bathroom tap. When she came back into the main room, Kara was relieved and happy at the same time to see that Lena had returned to her place on the couch and her phone was on the table in front of her.
"How's your Mom?" Kara tried to broach the subject tentatively knowing that while Lena made frequent mentions of her brother, almost always in the negative, the brunette's adopted mother wasn't someone she talked about at all. In fact if it hadn't of been for the one time the older Luthor had appeared while she was talking to Lena, the blonde wouldn't even have a face to put to the name. She'd never seen a picture of any kind anywhere in her short visit to Lena's condo of any of the Luthor family.
"Infuriating." Lena offered with a hard sigh, the look of tiredness because of the last few days that Lena had lived through sitting heavy on her features, but she immediately seemed to shake it off. "It's nothing." She shook her head.
"Alex gets that same look after talking to Eliza a lot." Kara frowned softly. "Do you want to talk about it or just ignore it and deal with it when you have too?" She offered the options not wanting to push Lena to talk if she didn't want too but wanting to leave the option open for her if she did.
"That only gives me a reprieve until tomorrow when I now have a meeting with her, but I'll take it" Lean tried to relax again as she picked up her phone and with intense purpose moved back to the kitchen to bury the device in her oversized purse. The unusual cue that Lena had no intention of answering any more calls, or worrying about any texts of messages she received. No, right now Lena Luthor was with the only person she wanted to give any of her attention too.
"Well then we ignore it." Kara smiled at her and patted the couch cushion beside her again. "Come My Pillow, I have a movie all picked out." Her mouth pulled into a smirk as she could suddenly hear Alex in her head telling her she shouldn't, no couldn't call Lena Luthor a pillow. But instantly she pushed away the negativity knowing that it was a 'thing' between them now, or at least she hoped it was. "And I was nice and didn't pick one with talking animals."
"Does it have talking cartoon animals?" Lena let herself chuckle as she crossed back to the couch.
"Would I do that too you?" Kara blinked at her innocently. "No, it has people, well some of them have wings but it's perfectly normal where they are." She fluttered her eyelashes.
"It's Maleficent, the second one isn't it?" Lena eased down close to the blonde.
"You're such a good guesser, when I finally get you to come to game night we are going to make the other teams wish they were us." Kara gave grin at the idea, knowing it would drive her sister crazy. "Now do you want to be big spoon or little spoon?"
"Is that a trick question?" Lena asked with a quirk of her eyebrow. "You're the woman of steel, how 'little spoon' does that sound?"
"Good answer." Kara made a few noises as she got comfy and adjusted the pillow behind her head before patting her stomach. "Come pillow spoon I am ready." She used a goofy narrator voice.
"You send me one text with that as my moniker and I will torture you with kale forever." Lena laughed as she literally laid herself out along the couch and pressed herself back into Kara's reclined body. She didn't even stop to overthink the position, the combination of Kara's clear desire for this to be the position they watched the movie in and her lowered guard made it easy to just give in. Though the truth was a position like this was exactly how close she wanted to be to the blonde right now. Close enough to feel her heartbeat, feel every breath the blonde took, feel every sign that underlined Kara was no longer in danger.
"You are so Maleficent, you're going to have to dress up as her for Halloween now." Kara gave a rumbling laugh as she draped one arm around the brunette when she settled and reached with the other to start the movie that was already paused on the screen. "So when you're away, can I still send you messages even if you won't have time to respond or should I save them all up and bombard you when you're home?"
"Save them all up." Lena requested as she shifted just a little into the most comfortable position in the world. "I tend to get very 'game face' when I'm at something like this, that doesn't mix well with kittens totally failing to jump half a foot off a couch and face planting into their owners slipper."
"Very true." Kara agreed as without even thinking she moved to interlink her fingers into the hand that Lena had settled on her own stomach. "I wish you didn't have to go, but I know you're like really important or something." She teased.
"Or something." Lena laughed softly.
-x-
"Supergirl!" J'onn's voice was the very first thing Kara heard as she landed at the DEO and stepped inside. Her blue eyes panned over to him instantly, seeing him stood next to his 'office' door in the midst of everything. "If you would." He nodded to the open entryway.
"I'll be right there." Kara tried to steel herself to what was about to come as she caught Winn's eyes as he turned in his chair towards her with a look of worry on her behalf. "I need to talk to you, don't disappear." She asked of him and received a soft salute back from the young agent before his chair turned around again to focus on his work screen. With another soft breath, Supergirl made her way past the main area and went through to the office where J'onn was now standing beside his desk. That he hadn't gone in and sat down, well she knew that wasn't a good sign. "Hey J'onn." She tried to start with the bright greeting, but all she immediately received was a nod to the door she'd just entered through and she was forced to turn around and shut it.
"It's good to see you Kara." His tone was oddly soft as he watched her move closer. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better." Kara smiled back at him. "Thank you for everything you did to help when I was sick." She offered up the thanks easily, after all she knew enough now to know that J'onn had given Alex and Winn the go ahead to include Lena in their 'super secret' operation and she also knew that wasn't something that J'onn did easily.
"By that do you mean thank you for opening the entire DEO to the possibility of enemy infiltration?" J'onn's eyebrow arched. "Or are you simply referring to the fact that I allowed a woman who until then I had just assumed was a colleague, to know what the rest of the world doesn't?" He continued, the arch turning into a frown. "Only to find out that she already knew most of it."
"I told her I was Supergirl, I didn't tell her anything about the DEO." Kara put up her finger to make the point softly. "Okay actually I forgot about wearing my glasses and she kind of..." She started to babble but when he put his hand up she knew enough about J'onn to stop talking.
"I really don't care about the details of how it happened, you told a Luthor that you were Supergirl." The Martian's tone was stiffening now from the warm, happy beginning. "Kara, I know I don't have the right to tell you who you tell, who you share your secret with, but I thought we'd reached a place where you understood that the care with which you choose those individuals must be imperative." He pulled in a breath. "Did you really think about this? And I am not even making a judgment on Ms. Luthor herself, more on the target that she is for so many people. Humans cannot take torture like we can."
It was a slight miscalculation that the Martian hadn't even realized he was making until his telepathy sent him a message of her reaction that was so visceral and so extreme that if he hadn't trained for years to control his gift he may well have staggered where he was standing.
As J'onn tried to catalogue the reaction he had just received, Kara's smile had fallen into a hard frown as she appraised the tall man weighing up her next words.
"I know she's human but no her ability to suffer through torture was not on my list of reasons to tell her or not tell her." Kara shot out this response first. "The truth is J'onn I didn't weigh any of the doomsday scenarios in my decision to tell her because honestly they exist no matter what I do, but in honest response to you bringing up that issue... if someone took Lena, and tortured her and she didn't know anything to tell them... I would still lose my sanity if I didn't immediately save her." She wasn't really sure how to explain this too him, after all she couldn't really explain it to Alex or even herself in some ways yet, it was something she was still working through. "What I can tell you is that I told her for me. I told her because I needed her to know, I needed to be honest with her so that I could feel my own sense of authenticity and truthfulness." She took another breath. "And when it comes down to it... Alex... Winn... if any of them are taken and tortured... it's the same outcome. I can't fault them for not having the intrinsic fortitude to suffer through horrible things to keep my secret, the same way I wouldn't blame you if you were being tortured and you told our enemy my secret."
Though J'onn was both intrigued and at the same time concerned for the emotive flare he had received from Supergirl through his senses and despite her words the Martian continued.
"Are you saying that from now on the DEO should put protecting Lena Luthor on their list of active duties?" He frowned at her somewhat. "Because all the other people on your list there have that. They have that because they are a part of this team. Lena Luthor is not a member of our team."
"She will never be a member of the DEO formally, but she is my team J'onn, so yes... any protection you can afford her, I would be very grateful for." Kara stood a little taller as she underlined the point.
"She hacked into DEO systems in 7.5 seconds." J'onn's tone was clipped.
"Because she was asked to provide her decryption program, she has never once violated your computers from the outside which apparently she could have done." Kara gave a soft shrug of her shoulders. "And Winn has told me she erased all trace of what she did and offered him some advice on how to change the system."
"I'm going to be honest with you Kara, we are going to be watching Ms. Luthor from now on, but it might not be for the reasons you want them to be." J'onn made it clear he was not backing down from his decision that Kara had been in the wrong this time.
"I don't tell you how to run the DEO J'onn." Kara spelled out back with a serious look of her own. "But by the same right, don't treat her like a criminal, I won't stand for you lumping her together with her brother just as everyone else does. I trust her, and if that isn't enough for you..."
"If that fact hadn't been enough for me, or the fact that Winn and Alex seem to at least on some level agree with you, she would never had stepped one foot into this building." He pointed out.
"So do what you have to do as the DEO Director, I respect that." Kara took a step closer to him.
"Good then you'll understand when I make the request of her for a full inventory of the out of city storage facility she has and details of her laboratory work." The Martian gave a nod.
For a minute, she locked her jaw taking the moment to still her initial words in order to remember that if nothing else J'onn liked to be a straight shooter and this could as much be his way of warning her what he 'had' to do as much as it was a tactic to 'scare and intimidate' her.
"You can make whatever requests of Ms. Luthor you want, this is between L-Corp and the DEO." Kara decided to play the middle ground. "Just don't expect Supergirl to try to force the issue. Because..." She saw the slight flare in his nostrils. "I am sure there are a dozen different ways that DEO goes about getting information on companies when they want to know something and that company isn't being co-operative. I just won't have anything to do with it, agreed?"
"Agreed." As it had at the very beginning of their conversation J'onn's face slipped into a softer and content look. "And Kara, I am more than aware that without Lena," He used the other woman's name deliberately softly. "We would be in the dark, working on a time line that had no end, other than the loss of your life."
"Which is why again I say thank you." Kara smiled at him her look softening as well. "For trusting my trust in her, when I know it made no sense to ever let her into this building." She bit her lip softly. "And I know telling her that I'm Supergirl seems like the craziest thing I may have done to date but instead of feeling like I fell off a cliff, it finally feels like my feet are on solid ground again, I know it was the right thing to do."
"Now for the part you're not going to like." A bright smile came onto J'onn's lips and his tone grew even lighter. "You're on light duties for a couple of days Supergirl."
"J'onn, but I feel great!" Kara's instant childish whine came back. "Do I have to go beat up a concrete block to prove it?"
"Please don't. The bills we deal with for you from the city don't need be any bigger right now. The main street repair is costing a fortune." He gave her a grin.
-x-
"Okay so you're smiling and you just came out of a meeting with the director. Should that even be a thing? Or is it that it's only been a day since you were helped home by your sister because she was fed up of your complaining in her med bay, and he just went easy on you?" Winn glanced over his shoulder somewhat suspiciously at Supergirl as she walked directly from J'onn's office to his work terminal.
"I'm fine, thank you for worrying." She smiled at him and propped herself against the desk to the side of his work area. "But I'm not really here to do work, especially as now I've been told I'm on the equivalent of couch duty, but I did come to see you because I need a favour and I'm afraid it's kind of rushed one."
"Ah so you come to me, Winn The Mighty with your worries and needs." He puffed himself up a little with a wide smile on his face.
"For a second there I thought you were going to bust into your Godfather impression." She gave a soft amused laugh. "But yes, Winn The Mighty, I come to you because you're the only one that can help me." She grinned at him more.
"Say that again." Winn literally beamed.
"Winn The Mighty." She stood up and took on her Supergirl pose and said it again in a serious voice for him.
"And the last bit.. how I'm the ONLY one that..." He prompted her with an eager nod.
"I come to you, Winn the Mighty..." She tried not to giggle as she said it again in a movie voice over type voice. "Because you are the only one who can help me."
"It is so cool to be me." Winn physically seemed to buzz with happiness. "Okay so what do you want?"
"Well I need you to create something for me..." Kara moved to lean again as she began her description.
-x-
As Supergirl landed on the balcony to Lena's office, she had already confirmed with a quick focus of her super hearing that Lena was there, but knowing the brunette didn't know anything about her coming, she tried not too feel too much like an invader of sorts as she moved across the patio and then up to the double doors.
For a moment she indulged in just watching as the brunette switched from typing on her laptop, to staring at print outs that were in front of her and then back to her laptop. The look of determination and concentration on Lena's face was so admirable that Kara couldn't help but worry that whatever this whole Switzerland trip was about, that it was big and it was also one of those things that even Lena Luthor couldn't be a 100% in control of which meant the brunette was worried and stressed that the outcome would be what she wanted.
Knowing she looked even more like a stalker just standing there watching her, she chided herself for doing so before she finally reached up and knocked lightly on the door frame hoping not to startle the brunette inside.
Lena had been, as Kara had seen, so engrossed in her work she hadn't any idea Supergirl had arrived, but she wasn't shocked in the scared sense at the knock from the patio. After all, someone knocking there was narrowed down to a very small number of visitors. A smile coming to red lips, Lena put the pile of papers she kept on her lap over onto the desk beside her lap top and gracefully pressed up, crossing over to the door. She padded across the carpet in bare feet, her heels abandoned under her desk.
"This is a pleasant surprise." She said as she opened the door.
"I hoped so, and before you have to say it I know you're super busy getting ready for your trip but..." Kara stood there with her in the doorway smiling at the brunette. "I needed to clarify are you going to Geneva or Zurich?" She smiled in that way only she could when she was asking a seemingly obtuse question.
"Zurich." Lena replied as she backed up slightly and keened her head for Kara to come in.
"Two minutes fifty two seconds." Kara grinned as she revealed the timing.
"Maybe I should cancel my flight and have you just zip me over."
"There are benefits to knowing a Super." Kara continued to grin. "But I don't do luggage." She teased moving in further with Lena out of the sight of anyone in the other buildings. "And I don't give frequent flyer points."
"Then I might as well stick with my private pod and free dinner." Lena chuckled. "You're looking great, are you feeling closer to 100% today?"
"Very much so." Kara nodded. "Thanks to you." She added again. "But for the record I wanted to get an estimate of how long it would take to get to you if there was a problem." She admitted the reason for the 'timing' of the flight. "And... to give you this." She reached behind her and released the clip that was keeping a small bag attached to her belt. She immediately held out the bag to Lena.
Lena looked genuinely intrigued as she reached out and took the bag, easing it open as soon as she had it. Reaching inside she pulled a white metallic looking cuff bracelet with a central green gem in the centre of it. Though observant green eye immediately saw the very slim hinge on the outer edge of the gem setting.
"Jewellery?" Lena gave Kara a quick look.
"Yes, but with a secret." Kara was smiling, with a hint of nervousness as she reached out and pressing a small button latch, the gem flipped up to reveal a glowing familiar red and blue S crest, the same as the one emblazoned across her chest.
Lena's look turned from intrigued to fascinated as she held the beautiful piece.
"Is this to ensure I don't forget you?" She offered up softly.
"No, I didn't think you were going long enough for that to happen." Kara shook her head softly back. "It's a alert button, you press the crest and well I'll know you need me and you'll know I'm already on the way to where ever you are."
"Kara... no.." Lena shook her head instantly. "I don't deserve this... you... you are the city's protector, the worlds... not my personal one."
"Yes, I am, if you want me to be." Kara couldn't believe how dry her mouth felt suddenly as she watched Lena running her fingers over the metal of the bracelet, over and over.
Lena's green eyes stayed on the cuff for a long moment before looking up into blue eyes.
"I accept." She pressed the cuff onto her slim wrist, easing the gem closed before reaching out her arm to see how it looked against her pale skin. "What do you think?"
"It's perfect." Kara literally beamed as she kept looking from the bracelet on Lena's wrist to the brunette's glowing face. She didn't even worry as much this time when again the world felt like it dropped out from under her and the two of them were just hanging in space. "I have to admit it's my cousin's original idea, and he hides it in watches but... for you it needed to be something beautiful."
"I'll wear it all the time." Lena smoothed her hand over the cool metal and drew in a slow breath. "I wish I could just shut everything down and say let's go get food, but I can't." She added softly. "I have so much to do for the company here before I leave tomorrow.."
"Lena, it's okay, I only wanted to steal a few minutes." Kara shook her head softly as she cut into her worries.
The brunette stopped and let out her breath with a nod.
"If you want, you can always stay... the couch is so comfortable and I have TV." She laughed. "Not to mention food can be ordered..." She stopped herself more than aware that she sounded just a little desperate to spend time with her friend.
"Will you get the work done that you need to if I'm watching Netflix on your couch?" Kara quirked one eyebrow.
"You know you're right, it was a bad idea." Lena shook her head and smiled at Kara. Feeling disappointment immediately.
"What time do you think you'll be done here? I mean you have to sleep right?" Kara pointed out suddenly biting her lip.
Lena looked away as she hated / loved the way Kara did that when she was preoccupied or unsure, especially as she was about to admit she had had no intentions of leaving her office until she left the next day at around mid day to leave for the trip.
"Lennnaa..." Kara dragged out her name in slight admonishment knowing from the look and the hesitation that the woman's plan was probably not to go home at all, just plow through the night into the wee hours of the morning and then pour herself into a plane to try and steal some sleep while they were 40,000 feet in the air and the WiFi was spotty. "You have to rest. Tell me a time, even if it's for a few hours, I'll come pick you up and I'll be your pillow." By the time she got to the last few words of her cobbled together plan her voice was soft and almost wispy with the idea that she might convince the brunette to agree.
Again Lena paused but not for a long before she looked back at Kara.
"Two?" She offered with a shrug.
"Perfect." Kara's grin was back and bright again as she reached out to link her index finger into Lena's on the hand that's wrist now wore the bracelet. "And if you finish up early, just text me, I'll be here in a heartbeat."
"Okay." Lena found herself nodding, even when in her head she was questioning just when she had fallen this far away from all her hard life had taught her. "Be safe Kara." She said gently.
"I will." Kara took a soft breath and then knowing she had to be 'good' and let Lena do the important work of running her company, she took a step towards the door but didn't yet let go of the link between their fingers. "I'll see you at two." She underlined again knowing she was dragging this out but not knowing how to not.
"We'll get food at my place." Lean lifted their hands up for a moment and gave it a little shake before uncurling her finger from the blonde's finally. "Go on, get out of here." She urged with a soft laugh as she turned and moved back towards her desk. "I'll see you at two."
-x-
"Okay..." Alex folded moved her hand to brush down the dirt and debris that covered her jacket as she looked at her sister who was pacing a little in front of her, her eyes taking in the whole scene that had evolved around them on a call out from the DEO. "Do you want to tell me how this could ever be described as 'light work'?"
"It was supposed to be a traffic accident, I move a car or two, you pull survivors out... no one knew about the guy with the ray gun!" Kara pointed out with a smirk as she surveyed the devastation around them. "J'onn is going to have a stroke isn't he? Can Martian's have strokes?"
"Technically no." Alex shook her head and then actually smiled. "He told you about the re-compensation claims the local government keep putting in over you didn't he. This one's going to be a big one for sure." She continued to tease. "You have any other talents you could employ to maybe work a third job?"
"How about you get a second before I get a third? You were the one who lured ray gun dude into hitting that transport truck and I know, I know..." She held up her hands. "Neither of us knew it was carrying a whole lot of hairspray... it went off like a bomb, better than a bomb because we've seen some dud bombs."
"How come we've never seen a dud ray gun?" Alex quizzed conspiratorially.
"The evil doer's test them before they leave the lair." Kara laughed as she answered, pointing her finger and making a 'pew pew' noise.
"Yeah I guess it's hard to test a bomb." Alex laughed at her sister's antics. "So you want to go grab something to eat while I start the paperwork?" The brunette held up her tablet.
"Actually I can't, I have somewhere to be in a little while." Kara gave a soft shake of her head. "Sorry."
"Somewhere to be?" The brunette frowned a little before glancing at her wrist. "It's 1:30 in the morning, do you have a breakfast date in Russia?"
"No." Kara shook her head to the ridiculous idea of 'Russia'. "But I do have somewhere to be at two, here, in the city." She clarified as she bent down to pick up another large piece of concrete debris and toss it off of the road they were standing on.
"Snapper has you on the midnight runs now?" Alex arched her eyebrow. "I'd quit." She summed up with a shake of her head. "He's testing you to see if you just fail out."
"I know that, he's a mean man." Kara vented her frustration about her boss at her day job but then smiled. "It's not Snapper, I'm meeting Lena for food before she leaves on a business trip to Zurich for a few days tomorrow and it's the last time we have a chance to see each other."
"You're meeting Lena, for food, at two am?" Alex isolated the details deliberately. "You can tell me, is she a vampire?" Her older sister said laughing softly. "You know what normal people aim to be doing around then?"
"Normal people like you?" Kara drew into question. "Waking Maggie up for extra curricular activities?" Kara stuck her tongue out at her sister.
"Sex the word is sex and no I'll be sleeping." Alex corrected her with a stiff shake of her head. "Alone, at my place so she gets some rest." She padded the answer.
"Well I'm trying to save Lena from spending the whole night at the office before she pours herself into a plane tomorrow. The plan is food and then a few hours sleep." Kara filled in trying to show her sister there was a bigger reason for the odd meet up time.
"That girl's gonna burn herself out by the time she's thirty the way she's going." Alex shook her head. "There are pills I can give you to slip into her drink, they'll put her down for a few hours if you like."
"I am not going to drug her Alex!" Kara flashed her a warning look. "Isn't that illegal by the way?"
"It's a technical point." Alex nodded but then shrugged. "Works though." She summed up before continuing. "What do you plan on doing while she's sleeping?" She arched her eyebrow at her sister. "Or are you just dropping her off at home after food?"
"Hovering in the corner watching her like a stalker." Kara stiffened again a little. "Sleeping, I do sleep as you know."
"You sleep, alone, in your gorgeous apartment, because you're single." Alex stressed almost cuttingly. "I admit Lena is super smart and no doubt an individual we need in our Ally list, but she's also a grown up, she doesn't need a guard dog."
"Why do you have to do this?" Kara questioned her suddenly as she tossed another chunk of concrete out of the way with more strength then she'd meant too sending it rolling into the ditch. "You can't do the normal thing and dig for details without lecturing me or making me feel stupid."
Alex breathed in slow and looked at her sister.
"I do what I do to make you question yourself and what you are doing." She offered back, feeling herself bristle in return. "I worry about you."
"I know you do." Kara relented the small point easily. "But I can assure you right now I have enough rolling around in my head to preoccupy me without you making me feel like I'm acting like a weird fifteen year old or something."
"That's not what I meant to do." Alex breathed out again hard. "You know what... forget it, do whatever you want to." She shook her head aggressively. "You always said I'm overprotective of you and interfere, so I won't." She held up her hand. "Have a good night." She turned and began to stalk off towards the closest SUV to put some space between them.
"Oh please..." Supergirl couldn't help but stalk after her and caught up to her by the door. "You can't not interfere Alex, so why don't you just say it? You think I'm making a fool of myself? That she's a grown woman and I'm still a naive kid who doesn't understand how these things don't work the way you want them too."
Alex locked her jaw as she brought her focus back to her sister.
"Some of what you said, you're damn right I think. But in there there's a hell of a lot of love, fear and worry." She retorted. "And not just for you,"
Kara was about to just let the words that were on the tip of her tongue spill out but just the way her sister stood there, tense and coiled like a spring, made her stop.
"Why aren't you going to Maggie's? You could both sleep, it's not that hard to do, it's really nice actually." Kara lowered her voice and leaned back against the side of the SUV so they didn't have to stare each other down anymore. She folded her arms across her chest and toed her boot into the soft earth of the highway's shoulder.
"Because she doesn't need to see me, like this, dirty, riled up and short tempered." Alex replied shaking her head. "I'm not ready for that, for that vulnerability, to find out she can't cope with who I am sometimes." For a rare time the older sister was honest straight away, no matter that it illustrated something 'bad' about herself.
"You don't think she's figured out you can be a pain in the butt by now?" Kara turned and smiled at her softly. "I think she's figured it out Alex."Alex looked at the blonde with a look of admittance for a moment."And maybe, just maybe... she's waiting for you to let her in more." The blonde added now leaning her shoulder against the SUV and looked at her sister. Realizing that what she saw Alex struggling with, well it was hard for her to admit it but Kara knew Alex looked scared. Not in the way she'd seen Alex look staring down danger, but the way she looked when her sister and Eliza would fight. Like she wanted to do nothing but run and hide. "Sometimes you know you're hard to read, not for me but I have the code book." She offered lovingly. "But Maggie, she's just starting to try and learn the Alex language... and if all you give her is silence it's hard for her to learn the words."
"I'm not ready for her to learn it all yet." Alex shook her head assuredly.
"Alex, that's okay too." Kara reached out and touched her sister's arm gently. "You don't have to change who you are, if Maggie is right for you she won't expect that of you either." She outlined softly. "Have you even talked to her about what happened in the last week?"
"No, not really." The brunette continued with the string of negative responses. "She's been busy and I.. I'm dealing the way I deal." She reached her hand to clutch the door handle on the SUV. "Go, enjoy your evening Kara. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"For sure." Kara nodded knowing enough about her sister to know when Alex was raising the white flag that she couldn't circle a topic anymore. "How about if things are quiet we have movie night at my place? You can even pick something from my veto list." She tried to offer up the small peace offering.
"Maybe." Alex said the small word and followed it with a single nod before she pulled herself up into the driver's seat of the large SUV.
-x-
"I'm sorry that's why I'm preoccupied, it's just I don't get how she can be sleeping with Maggie and not just talk to her about one of the worst weeks in her life when her sister almost died?" Kara stuck a fork in the last potato on her plate and then stuffed it into her mouth, her sad blue eyes looking at Lena for some words of wisdom or observation on how to make things better.
The CEO was still in her work attire; soft wool flared dress pants and a silky white blouse, though the throat bow was undone so the tails trailed down over her breasts showing off her throat. Supergirl had switched out her outfit after the flight to the condo, changing into a pair of jeans and a smart short sleeved baby blue polo shirt.
"You know your sister and I are a lot alike." Lena wasn't even sure if she should, let alone how she was going to explain that statement after blue eyes kept looking at her for more. Their chairs were close together at the corner of the large dining room table, meaning she had no where to hide in the close proximity. "The familiar is what you cling to because the unknown... it could be so... disappointing, hurtful, terrifying." She offered up the examples. "The old, the familiar as good or as bad as that is, you've at least formed calluses too." She licked her lips. "Alex can't feel vulnerable or scared because she's never allowed herself to feel like that because that would be weak and could put everything she fights for in danger, real or imagined."
Kara gave a soft nod as it was clear she was really trying to take in and digest the insight she was being given.
"Which probably means there isn't anything I can really do to help is there?" She asked the question in a softer voice. "I want too, but... this isn't really about me and her, it's about her and Maggie and well Alex and Alex."
"I don't know if it's even that complex Kara, this could all be about Alex, just Alex." Lena just shook her head. "Sometimes, the people we think have it all together, are focused and controlled, are only that way because they are so afraid, so lonely that they don't know what else to do."
For a moment Kara's blue eyes looked like they were about to well up with tears that would somehow reach a tipping point and pour out over her cheeks. But when she blinked them, whatever had been pooling there seemed to crash without the expected crescendo and then like a wave receded back from the shore again.
"Are you lonely?" Kara whispered the question in a quiet almost delicate voice.
"We're not talking about me, we're talking about Alex." Lena deflected with almost practised accuracy and speed.
Again the blonde looked like she was going to say something else, push against the defences that Lena had instantly brought up but instead she pushed up silent from her chair and moved around the corner of the table where they had situated themselves to eat.
"Let's get you to bed little spoon, you have a busy few days on the horizon." Kara's voice was soft and caring, matching the sudden tenderness of her voice as she leaned down from behind Lena to slide the cloth napkin that was tossed across the brunette's lap up onto the table, her chin settling against Lena's shoulder letting her breath tickle across the brunette's ear.
"I do." Lena said, one part of her wanted to just let her body sink back into the comfort and support that Kara offered, literally drown in it until she had to push up to breathe. Her body however stayed stiffer than normal as she went on, not letting herself give in just yet. "I'm sorry if I wasn't any help with your sister."
"You were, just talking to you about it, helps. I've never really had anyone other than Alex that I can talk to about how I'm feeling. People have so many expectations, I know you understand that but I also know that with you I can just be Kara, just like you can just be Lena." Kara stayed leaned over her as it slowly turned into an embrace now that the napkin was dealt with, selfishly more for herself in that moment. The thought that she might be invading Lena's space without context or a right too didn't even cross her mind.
"Yeah." Lena did her very best to make her reply sound 100% genuine even though inside she was feeling the usual turmoil that she did when Kara challenged everything she was and could be. "Let's put this day to bed." The cavalier embrace of Kara's arms around her body, the constant tickle of the blonde's breath on her ear where her head still rested on Lena's shoulder, all of it finally was too much and Lena found herself leaning into it as she had wanted too since Kara had first moved behind her.
"See, you always have the best ideas super brain." Kara didn't hesitate again as she turned and pressed her lips to Lena's cheek in a slow deliberate move, the contact lingering just long enough to underline how much it meant to Kara. Lena was blown over by the feelings the contact created, all the warring thoughts in her brain all stopped, and she was left just to enjoy the warmth that the chaste kiss caused to spread across her whole body. Closing her eyes the brunette tried to fully immerse herself in the feelings, she was surprised but not startled when she suddenly found herself being delicately scooped up off the chair and then being carried off towards the bedroom.
To be Continued in Episode Seven...
NB: Given the comic-verse agreed upon maximum speed of Mach 841, Supergirl could technically reach Zurich in much less that 2 minutes 52 seconds but she wanted a base speed for a comfortable flight and the knowledge that if Lena was in danger she could get there way faster. We actually did the calculations, yay Math!