It's a hot one in National City, and Lena and Sam are enjoying a day at the zoo with Ruby. The twelve-year-old is excitedly pointing out otters who are playing with objects frozen into blocks of ice. The adults stand nearby fanning themselves, Lena under a large hat and quickly fading.
"Is there a bar someplace at this establishment?"
"Lena," Sam chuckles, "There's no bar at the zoo."
"Oh." Opening the map she has been using as a fan and studying it, Lena frowns. "Perhaps I should have asked for more details before I agreed to this little expedition. When you and Ruby took me to the Renaissance Faire, I was happily surprised by their beverage selections. It was the highlight of the day."
Arms crossed, Sam looks down at Lena. "The highlight of the day?"
Deadpan, Lena replies, "Yea, verily yea."
The two women hold eye contact for a few seconds before they both break out into a fit of laughter. They laugh long and hard enough that the sound draws Ruby over to them.
"Hey, what's so funny? What's going on?"
Fanning herself again, Lena replies, "Heatstroke, I think."
"Lena's brainpan is fried." Sam grins.
Ruby frowns as she looks back and forth between the adults, but then, as she spies something in the not too far distance, she immediately perks right up. "Hey, I see something that will help all of us."
"Is it a troubadour with a yard of mead?" Lena turns, looking in the same direction Ruby is.
"Enough you." Sam elbows Lena. "What do you see, sweetie?"
"There's an ice cream cart over there. Who wants ice cream?" At her own question, Ruby lifts her hand high.
"I could go for a popsicle," Sam says, raising her hand.
"The majority rules." Lena gestures toward the cart, and when an excited Ruby runs ahead, she adds, "Maybe they'll have some adult flavors."
"You are such a lush."
"If they had piña colada or mimosa flavored pops, they'd make a killing. Tell me I'm wrong."
"Well, okay I can't. I'd buy one."
"Thank you. I know a lot about four things, and three of them are: making money, alcohol, and science. Marketing mixed drinks combines those three."
"What's the fourth one?"
Smirking as they reach the cart, Lena says, "Get your popsicle, Arias."
Ruby ends up getting a vanilla ice cream dipped in a hard strawberry shell. Sam gets a cherry popsicle, and Lena a lemon ice cup.
"Hey, eat that fast and don't make a mess!"
Ruby nods back at her mom, her lips wrapped around her ice cream as she takes off back toward one of the animal enclosures.
"She's going to make a mess," Lena says, her phone in her hand as she takes pictures of Ruby.
"Kids are washable." Sam shrugs. "She just has to be happy and be a kid while she still is one." As Lena studies her, the younger woman's expression inscrutable, she asks, "What is it?"
"I wish you were my mom."
"Hey! I am not that much older than you." Sam laughs. "I was a young mom but not that young."
"I know. I just mean, Lillian never treated us like that. She was always so worried about appearances, more worried about them than our happiness. You're a good mom, Sam, a great mom. Ruby doesn't appreciate how good she has it, but I can appreciate it for her."
A little piece of Sam seems to melt faster than the popsicle in her mouth. "Thank you, but you turned out okay. You know that, right?"
"Despite my mother's best intentions, sure." Holding up her phone, Lena takes a few pictures of Sam.
"What are you doing now?"
"Trying to get you a date. Ruby's amazing mom deserves some happiness too."
Sam frowns. "What are you going to do with that picture?"
Lena shrugs. "Just put it up on my Insta."
"Let me see it first."
Lena turns the phone for Sam to examine the photo. In it, she is smiling, the popsicle in her mouth and the slight breeze blowing her brown hair.
"Okay, that's cute."
"Cute?" Lena shakes her head. "Sam, if I post this, this will get you dozens of proposals most of them indecent."
"Oh, it's not that bad."
"You've been stuck on mom duty for too long." Lena selects the picture she wants, adding a caption to the Instagram post.
Sam leans in closer. "What does that say?"
Smirking, Lena holds up the phone again. 'For the FBI Agent that's reading this, she's single.'
"What that supposed to mean?"
"It's a joke… mostly. I'm a Luthor, and between my brother's and my mother's activities, the government monitors me very closely. I'm not doing anything wrong, and it used to bother me endlessly that my own government was spying on me, but now I've decided to just have fun with it."
"Lena, the FBI isn't really watching you."
Lena just quips an eyebrow, dropping her phone into her pocket as she peels the top off her lemon ice and drops the lid into the trash.
"You're serious about this."
"Serious like a heart attack."
Sam sucks on her quickly melting frozen treat some more, wiping red drips from her hand with a napkin. "Well, I think you're nuts. The government has better things to do with their time than look at your Facebook posts."
"Instagram."
"Oh, that's entirely different." Sam rolls her eyes.
"Sam, I know all about espionage on the corporate level. I'm being monitored, and it isn't by another company. It's coming from inside this country. I'm telling you, it's the FBI."
"And I'm telling you, you're being paranoid."
"Paranoia doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you."
"Look, Lena—"
"Your daughter has ice cream in her hair." Lena points.
"What?" With a sigh, Sam takes several long strides toward the next animal enclosure. "Hold on, Ruby. I have napkins."
Somewhere, in a facility in an undisclosed location under National City, sits a government agent going through the routine of their daily tasks. Elbow on the desk and hand under their chin, they yawn. They read page after page of information before clicking through to photos.
"Sleeping hippos, sleeping lions, sleeping cheetahs, sleeping lemurs… I'm beginning to see a trend here. Sleeping hyenas, oh, the otters are awake. Hello, otters. Sleeping—" Sitting bolt upright, the agent is suddenly alert. "Jesus H. Christ. Hello."
On break, Agent Alex Danvers refills their coffee, catching Agent Zorel's eye as she does the same. The other agent hovers nearby, taking extra time to add cream and stir until they are alone.
"What's up?" Kara asks in hushed tones.
"She's trying to kill me," Alex whispers back.
Kara furrows her brow. "Who's trying to kill you?"
"Whoever it is they have me monitoring. You know those pictures she keeps," Alex swallows hard, "tagging?"
"To you?" Kara nods. "There was a new one?"
"She added a friend."
Kara leans closer to say something just as someone else comes into the breakroom, instead choosing to reach across and grab some napkins.
"My desk, five minutes," Alex whispers.
Kara nods once as Alex leaves.
Five minutes later, a pile of papers in her hand, Kara stops by Alex's desk. "Agent Danvers, I have a few things that require your signature."
"Of course, Agent Zorel. Let me see them."
Kara slides into Alex's cube, handing over the pile of nothing relevant and looking around while Alex surreptitiously clicks something on her computer to open the picture in question.
Wide-eyed, Kara leans in and stares at the picture of Sam. She takes off her glasses and stares some more. She cleans her glasses, replaces them, and keeps staring the whole time.
When it becomes clear Kara isn't going to look away on her own, Alex closes the picture. "Killing. Me."
"Yeah, but what a way to go." A hand on Alex's shoulder, Kara smiles down at her friend. "The highlight of my day is when my tinfoil hat guy puts tinfoil hats on his dogs. He even makes little tinfoil ear covers for them. Now that's dedication."
"Yeah, your guy is nuts. He's a first-class conspiracy theorist and UFO believer. I'm sure he believes in Area 51."
"Heh, yeah, nuts." Kara rubs the back of her neck as she looks away.
"My lady, she seems completely harmless, brilliant but harmless. We should just hire her if we want whatever it is she's doing."
"Maybe we tried, and she's refused to play ball. Maybe she has some family ties to another country you don't know about. Hey, maybe there's something particularly dangerous about that picture of the piece of popcorn that fell between her… what did you call them?"
One hand held out in front of them palm up, Alex rotates slightly in their chair and smiles as they say, "Huge tracks of land."
"Yeah, those. Alex, I really think those required further investigation on a federal level. I've got a badge and am willing to take on that covert mission. You know, under the covers and all."
Leaning back in their chair, Alex takes their stress ball and tosses it up in the air, catching and throwing it again as they speak. "I don't know. That looked like a dangerous assignment."
Kara snaps to attention and salutes. "Agent Zorel, reporting for duty."
Alex sits up. With the back of their hand, Alex slaps the other agent in the gut and they both laugh. "Goofball. Seriously, though, the heat outside is bad enough. What am I supposed to do with the level of heat this lady is sending my way?"
"Well, I have a couple of ideas." Kara grins. "I'll trade you for tinfoil dog-hat guy."
"In your dreams."
"I think this is more about your dreams. How are they doing? You have any—" Kara holds up a finger, her eyes going left and right. "I gotta go. Snapper's in the area."
Alex leans way-back in her chair, just the top of their head to their eyes sticking out of the cube as they look left and right down an empty aisle. They sit upright again. "How do you always know? I don't see him anywhere."
"And yet his ugly mug will appear any minute." Kara grabs back her pile of papers. "This is the Kara Zorel survival system. My flight mechanism is a finely tuned machine. Hey, ping me if you get any more pics of popsicle girl. I'll come up with an excuse to swing by your way. Later." With that, Kara steps into the aisle turns left and quickly disappears from sight.
About two minutes later, Snapper steps into Alex's cube, a sour expression on his face. "Danvers, have you seen Zorel? I have something I want her to do."
"No, Sir," Alex replies as they rise to their feet. "Have you looked in the break room? They have doughnuts in there. You know how Zorel feels about doughnuts."
Snapper narrows his eyes, harumphs, and leaves.
Alex waits a few seconds and then makes sure he's gone. When they see him at the far end of the aisle, Alex pulls out their phone and sends a text.
Alex: "Snapper's looking for u. He's got a job for u. Watch out."
Seconds later, there's a response.
Kara: "Noted. Thanks."
Alex: "I still don't know how u do it."
Kara: "I'm a lover not a fighter ba-be!"