National City was beautiful in the evening. It was also one of the cleanest cities I had ever been in, so that was always a perk. There were tons of trees and flowers, and the sun was always shining. There were beautiful parks and man-made lakes everywhere. Even the more rundown areas of town were filled with a rich history and had a beauty to them. The highway looked like a golden river underneath the orange glow of the setting yellow sun. It was majestic looking as we drove from Lena's to mine, the sun setting behind us, coating us it's in warm, magnificent splendor.

Lena and I lived on opposite sides of the city. Her penthouse was only a few blocks from her office whereas I lived just a little east of the city. My commute was never long, then again, I tended to fly wherever I needed to do. If I absolutely needed to, I'd grab an Uber or take the bus. When you're essentially your own transportation system, owning a car doesn't make sense. I knew how to drive if I ever needed to – however Alex would disagree with that.

"Why are we turning? My exit isn't for another few miles," I asked curiously as I read the enormous, green sign for "Beeline Parkway".

"I know how to get to your apartment, darling," Lena chuckled, never taking her eyes off the road, but letting her hand slip to my knee to give it a small yet tender squeeze.

"Then why are we…" I trailed off, still slightly confused and slightly flustered from Lena's touch.

Maybe we were stopping to get dinner? I thought to myself.

I thought we were going to get dinner once we got back to the apartment, but I definitely wouldn't complain if I was fed earlier. I had only had three cinnamon rolls, two danishes, four fruit snacks from Alex's desk, half a granola bar that I stole from Alex, 2 burgers and an order of loaded French fries, half of Lena's French fries, a few of Alex's onion rings – at this point I thought she was literally going to kill me – two cupcakes from a bakery J'onn and I stopped at after patrolling, a hot dog from my favorite hot dog stand at the corner of 3rd and Washington, and three pieces of pizza that were left over from Alex's lunch the day before. I hadn't eaten in like two hours and I was absolutely starving. I had no idea how Lena wasn't hungry. She had a whole-grain blueberry muffin, a small burger, and a few French fries. No wonder was she so tiny…she didn't eat anything!

"If I'm staying at yours until we figure this out, then I'm getting some real coffee, and -"

"Hey! I have real coffee," I interrupted her defensively.

"Cute, but no. And you need some actual food."

"Snacks are actual food!"

Lena shot me a playful look. "Again, cute." Lena peered over at me playfully. "Ice cream and pudding packs don't count as 'real food', Kara."

"I also have Fruity Pebbles…" I defended.

"Exactly my point."

I scoffed at her playfully and rolled my eyes just as we pulled into the grocery chain's relatively empty parking lot. There were only a few cars in our row and in the row next to us. It was getting later, and so I expected that most people were probably at home, feeding their families. I sighed internally at the thought of food.

"Oooo, the infamous Lena Luthor is actually going grocery shopping?" I asked, undoing my seatbelt and fawning over her jokingly.

"Not my first choice, but seeing as you only have, what seems to be, weak tea and popsicles, I have to do the hard thing," she teased, reaching for her purse in the back seat, and lightly brushing the side of my arm.

I shook my head, trying to recenter myself.

"I have coffee," I insisted with a playful huff.

"Darling, Maxwell House is not coffee. My Irish tea is stronger," she pressed.

I got out of the luxury car and sped to the driver's side just as Lena was getting out. I held the door open for her, pretending to be all serious and professional. "Miss Luthor," I mimicked, in true butler fashion.

She swatted my arm. "You're a dork," she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes as she pushed the door shut behind her.

"But I'm your dork," I responded, stepping beside her as we started to cross the lot.

"Yes. Yes, you're my dork," she answered, turning towards me as we passed the overflowing cart return.

The automatic sliding doors whooshed open, and Lena grabbed a shopping cart while simultaneously snatching three sanitizing wipes from the dispenser, wiping across the handle with them bunched in her hand. I took advantage of her momentary pause, skirting to the front of the cart, and stepped onto the lower rung, ready for a ride just as Lena began to push the cart forward. Lena stopped the cart abruptly; my weight caused the cart to go off balance forcing me to step back down on the ground.

"Are you always this juvenile?" she questioned through a laugh, crossing her arms in front of her.

"This is a highly regarded adult activity," I defended, tightening my grip on the edge of the cart, patiently waiting for Lena to resume her position so I could step back on.

She raised her eyebrow at me.

"I'm waiting," I sang.

"You're such a child," Lena relented, grabbing the handle of the cart and continuing to push after I jumped back on.

Lena rounded left to the produce section.

"BIRD FOOD!" I exclaimed in fake disgust. She really should have known better than to take me to the store.

"You need to eat more than potstickers and pop tarts…"

I hopped off the front of the cart without warning, causing Lena to clip my toes as it jerked forward.

"Kara!" Lena exclaimed in surprise.

"There is nothing wrong with potstickers or pop tarts," I asserted.

Lena rolled her eyes. "Kara, you need vegetables and protein."

"There's fruit in the pop tarts!" I defended.

"You get the cupcake confetti ones."

"Well… well… there's veggies and meat in the potstickers…"

"Pork-sautéed cabbage doesn't count."

"It's a vegetable!"

"It's a health hazard."

"Nuh-uh. Alien physiology!" I retorted with a wide grin.

She shot a quick look around us to make sure no one overheard my outburst, and then gave me a chastising look as she lowered her voice to respond. "Even your alien physiology needs to be taken care of, at least a quarter of the time."

"But I don't like the green stuff," I whined.

"You've never had me cook you dinner."

"You can cook?"

"Yes, I can cook," she replied in a tone that implied the word 'obviously' should have been included.

"Wow."

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow as she approached the broccoli. "What's 'wow'?"

"I just didn't think that the all-powerful billionaire extraordinaire would cook her own meals, that's all," I teased, turning my attention to the nearby carrots.

"Really? I'm not that pretentious."

It was my turn to crinkle my eyebrows at her with slight amusement.

"What?"

"I love you, but yea… you kind of are."

"Whatever." She turned her eyes back to the vegetables.

"Do you really think you're going to have time to make dinner when you're going to be at the DEO? I mean, I know you have good intentions, but Lena, I practically had to drag you out of there tonight. You work yourself to death most days," I reasoned.

She appraised a bundle of asparagus before returning it to the shelf and looking back at me. "I know that. But right now, there's a little more incentive to stop at a certain time and go home to get some rest."

"Yea?" I quirked an eyebrow. "And what is that?" I asked, watching as she grabbed a bushel of strawberries and set them inside the cart next to a purple oblong vegetable that looked rather suspicious.

"You."

My heart instantly melted.

"This substance is powerful, Kara," she explained, guiding the cart to another part of the produce aisle.

How much more rabbit food was she planning on buying?

"And something Brainy and I did find out today was that it likely affected your physiology."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," she began, "that even though there are no outward signs of you having residual effects, you still need to take it somewhat easy. At least for the time being."

I groaned. I was Supergirl for crying out loud. I didn't take it easy.

"It means that you need sleep and to eat at least halfway decent and you need to get some heavy exposure to the sun. Artificial sunlight isn't going to work. It means we've got to have you make some changes, at least for a while."

"Lena, I just can't stop being...you know."

She nodded, putting something green in the cart. "Do you like any vegetables?" she asked, completely off-topic.

"Not…really."

Lena rolled her eyes again, walking us out of the produce section and into the bakery. My face must have lit up like a Christmas tree because Lena shot me a scolding look.

"I know you can't stop what you do, Kara. No one would expect that of you. But we do need to make sure you're taken care of a little more than usual."

"Right, eat better, sleep…sun" I repeated, reaching for a box of freshly-made chocolate chip cookies to go with my 6 pack of chocolate cupcakes.

Lena gave me a pointed look as grabbed two pies at the last minute before heading back to the cart. "Do you plan on eating all of those?"

"Well…yea?"

Lena shook her head. She knew better than to argue with me over my food habits.

"Good thing you're going to eat some vegetables."

"What? No… No…" I whined. "I thought those were all for you…."

She chuckled. "Hardly."

I gave her a little grunt of dissatisfaction.

"You can pout all you want. You're still going to eat them."

"Fine," I huffed, vaguely aware that I sounded like a five-year-old.

We rounded to the dairy and meat sections. I could see Lena going through her mental list as she started grabbing items and putting them in the cart.

"So, it's more than just needing sleep and nutrients and sun, Kara. Alex and I have to do a few tests."

"Tests?" I inquired, picking up the skim milk Lena had put in the cart and swapping it out for 2%.

"Yes, some tests," she confirmed, sighing when she saw the dark blue cap on the milk instead of pink.

I smiled, pretending I didn't know what she was sighing about, trying to appear absolutely innocent. "What kind of tests?"

"Well, that's something I have to talk to Alex about tomorrow," Lena explained, walking back over to the milk and getting a small quart of skim for her.

"I thought you were just trying to figure out what the substance was so we could figure out how I can beat it?"

"We are," Lena nodded, heading towards the coolers of meat. "But we're probably a long way off from that, to be honest. Since being away from it all, I've been able to think about it a bit more. I don't think this is going to be as quick as we might have hoped. I texted Brainy some thoughts I had back at the penthouse and he agrees. We're going to set up a new plan of action in the morning. But our number one concern is you."

"And J'onn. He got hit, too. Alex and James also were exposed –"

"J'onn is a priority, yes, however, he hasn't been experiencing any major symptoms since the blast aside from the first few hours afterward. Alex and James didn't get exposed the way you and J'onn did."

I grabbed a couple of packages of bacon and some ground beef, seeing Lena's irritation spike slightly as the food caused the bottom of the cart to rattle. Lena's bounty consisted of chicken breast and some lean-looking beef and a couple of pork chops.

"Why do you want to eat things that will give you a heart attack?" she asked as she set her items next to mine with more care than I had exhibited.

"You worry too much. It just tastes so good," I smiled. "Besides, if bacon wasn't good for you, it wouldn't taste so good. It's natural selection, or, something."

We rounded the corner to the bread, coffee, and tea aisle so Lena could get coffee with a pretentious foreign name.

"So why am I being monitored but J'onn isn't?" I asked, reaching for a box of peppermint tea.

"I told you. He hasn't experienced any symptoms," Lena replied definitively.

"Neither have –"

"You have a headache," Lena interrupted.

"What? No I don't," I lied.

Lena turned toward me and cocked her head.

"How did you know?"

"Crinkle," she answered, pointing up at my furrowed brow. "Also, your eyes are a bit glossier."

"It's not even that bad. It's just like a low hum," I offered.

"A low hum? So it's a headache…"

"I don't get headaches," I argued.

"But you have one now."

"Fine, I have a headache. I can't have a headache. I'm …" I looked around me just in time to see a couple of teenagers grabbing some chocolate sauce. I took a deep breath. "I just…can't".

"I know, Kara. But we can't rush this," Lena explained, resting her coffee beside the milk before reaching for my hands. "I know this is scary, but I'm right here. You are not going to go through this alone," she paused. "Do you trust me?"

I looked down at her, weighing her question. Did I trust her? Of course. I trusted her. I trusted Lena with every atom in my body. Aside from Alex, she was the person I trusted most.

I wanted to find the right words to express that it wasn't about trusting her. There was no question about that. But this, vulnerability, making cautious choices, thinking ahead about basic day-to-day things…that was so far outside of my normal experience. In the end, there were no words. I took a breath, and I nodded.

Lena lifted her hand up to my cheek and stroked the flesh there with the pad of her thumb. "I got you, Kara."

I leaned into her touch, my eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment.

A deep cough disrupted our moment. I opened my eyes to see a man, well into his sixties, looking at us with much disapproval while he tried to elbow his way to a can of instant coffee. Obviously a man of poor taste, even by my coffee standards.

I rolled my eyes at Lena. I never understood why people were so bothered by affection and closeness and just pure love. Lena was my best friend. I mean, we were quickly heading toward something more, but first and foremost, she was my best friend. And my best friend was comforting me through something pretty difficult. Humans could be very annoying sometimes.

I turned my head into her hand and kissed her palm before grabbing her hand with mine. I paid no more attention to the man, but smirked as I grabbed some chocolate sauce and threw it into the cart on the way.