Kara wasn't sure what frustrated her more; losing Hank Henshaw or being forced to go into work. She flew circled around the city all night, scanning the buildings and alleys and sewer tunnels with her super vision, listening to the myriad of Moises trying to locate him, and ultimately came up empty. She searched for hours, all the way until the sun had come up, desperate to find a clue to where Cyborg Superman had taken Metallo. In the end she was forced to give it up when Jimmy signalled her and reminded her he needed the article she was supposed to be writing on the Memorial reveal yesterday.

Kara reluctantly returned home, exhausted and starving, furious with herself for getting distracted. She promised Jimmy she'd have the article finished, but with all this business with Axis Environmental and Metallo and Hank she'd completely forgotten about her responsibilities as Kara Danvers. She changed into her civilian clothes, scooped up her bag and laptop and dashed straight to Cacto to try and meet her deadline.

She made the fatal error of skidding her morning coffee, arriving to work drowsy and unfocused as she slumped into her chair and hurriedly typed out her article to print it. She closed her eyes for a moment and was surprised when she found Jimmy standing over her with her printed article in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. "I finished the article on time boss" she told him, straightening her back stifling a yawn.

Jimmy kept his expression neutral as he cast a glance over her printout, red marks already scribbled over it. "You printed it on time, but I had to wait half an hour before I realised I was meant to walk over and collect it myself" he said calmly. Kara's eyes darted to the printout and then to her watch. She'd inadvertently blackout out at her desk and leapt 95 minutes into the future. She put her hand over her face trying to hide her embarrassment while Jimmy continued "as for the article, I think I counted twelve errors in the first page alone. And I didn't know this was how you wanted the world to know you were Supergirl?" he added.

She muttered a curse, slinking into her chair wishing it could help her disappear. "I'm sorry" she apologised, looking up at Jimmy expecting him to be mad at her sloppy attempt at finding a work/life balance.

Thankfully, Jimmy was in a forgiving mood as he gave her the cup of coffee. "Nia called in early to warn me about last night. Sounds like you were burning the midnight oil looking for an old friend of ours. Any luck?" he asked.

"No" she replied sadly, gratefully taking a slip from her coffee cup. The caffeine rushed into her system and woke her back up.

"Can I assume you'll be too exhausted to start working on the article for your story into Axis Environmental?" he queried. Kara was about to say she was on it when he held up the print out of Nia's story into last night, sharing the by-line with Kara. "Maybe I'll just pretend this was a joint piece of journalism" he offered.

Kara scanned the writing, the immaculate display of delivering facts in the form of a newspaper article requiring no notations from the editor. Nia had proven herself far more capable of doing her job than Kara had done. "Maybe you should just take my name off that article. She did a brilliant job."

Jimmy nodded, folding the printout back into his folder. "I get it, okay? You were distracted, both yesterday morning and evening. We all have those days. I think you earned a personal day."

"James" she said, opening her mouth to insist she was fine. But when she did the yawn escaped and there was no fooling anyone.

"Go home, get some sleep" he told her. He held up her article telling her "I'll make the edits ready for the evening addition. Aside from the spelling errors and oversharing, it really speaks to people."

Kara nodded, forcing a smile as Jimmy patted her on the shoulder before returning to his office. She felt like she'd disappointed him, more than she'd disappointed herself. She continued sipping her coffee before taking Jimmy's offer of a personal day to go back to her apartment to get some sleep.

She decided to walk all the way home this time. She was too tired to fly and was struggling to stay awake even with the coffee she was drinking. She managed to pull her phone out and sent Nia a text congratulating her on her article. She responded right away checking in with her, so she replied she was fine and taking the day off to recharge. She weaved through the bustling morning city half in a daze, men and women brushing past her hurrying to work or wherever it was they were going. She cringed when she heard cars honking their horns around her, her hearing making her head hurt. It got worse when it picked up a high pitched whine that cut through her skull, making her sleepy daze even more disorientated.

Which was why she didn't see the man rising up from a crouch beside his motorcycle until she'd collided straight into him and spilt her warm coffee over his front.

The shock snapped her wide awake as she stared down at the mess she'd made, her mouth gaping open as wide as his eyes were as he stared at the huge stain along his shirt and trousers. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Kara stammered, panic flushing her face bright red as she looked around for something to clean it. Out on the pavement of a busy street there wasn't a lot of options.

"It's fine. I don't take my coffee in a cup anyway" the man sighed, looking at his soaking blue buttoned shirt and grey jeans covered in warm liquid. "I guess I should be thankful that was hot" he added, looking up at her as they finally saw each other's faces. He was an inch taller than her, lean build, short black hair falling behind his ears stopping an inch above the shoulder. His eyes were grey with hints of blue around the edges, almost mesmerizing as Kara stared at them.

Then she realised she was staring and pulled her gaze away. "I'm really sorry" she said again, chuckling nervously as she dropped the empty coffee cup and searched her bag for a tissue or something. "I don't normally walking around and…"

"Assault strange men with a cup of coffee?" he finished.

She broke into a laugh, failing to find anything to help. "No, I was on my way home from work and I wasn't…I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going" she said.

"I didn't make it easy" he shrugged, looking down at the bike next to them. It was a second-hand Harley Davidson resting on a stand, currently with tools placed around the engine dripping oil onto the pavement. "Blasted thing started leaking an hour ago and I've been struggling to fix it. If you hadn't hit me with your coffee first I most likely wouldn't throw oil over you instead."

Kara stared at the bike, picturing the last time she had to clean out oil stains from her costume. The memory made her shudder. "I glad you didn't" she said. "But I'm not glad that I, you know…" she added, blushing again. She looked around the street, a block away from her apartment. "Um, why don't you come with me to my place and we can try and clean this up" she offered, gesturing to his torso and trying not to point at his crotch.

The man raised his eyebrows, glancing down at his bike. "You sure?" he asked.

She nodded, impulsively saying "yeah. I have something that might help."

The man thought about it, looking down at his shirt before shrugging. He picked up his tools and followed Kara back to her apartment.

It was only when she walked through the apartment door it occurred to her what she was doing. She'd just met this stranger and already she was bringing him up to her apartment. She was so exhausted today she hadn't even thought to ask for his name. She was never this impulsive, ever. What was she thinking? "I'm sorry, I don't think I asked for you name" she said finally, moments after the stranger had walked through her door and closed it behind her.

"I don't recall you give yours either" he replied, looking at her curiously. Her cheeks turned even redder as she turned away, hastily searching through her drawers for a towel or answers to why she was acting so suspiciously. "My name's Jake" he said, flashing a kind smile as he held out his hand. "Jake White."

"Kara. Kara Danvers" she replied, answering his hand by giving him a small dishcloth. He looked at it blankly, possibly the most unusual answer to a handshake he'd received. Kara realised this and coughed nervously. "I swear I don't usually do this?" she said.

"Do what?" he asked, dabbing his shirt with the cloth.

"This" she said, waving her hands around. "I don't usually invite strangers to my apartment after just meeting them."

"I'm not judging" he smirked.

Kara opened her mouth, possibly to stammer more, but she decided it'd be better if she didn't and instead turned away and fiddled with her glasses. She could feel her heart pounding in her rig cage as she circled the counter, watching him out the corner of her eyes as he did his best to dry the coffee stain. "So, was that bike yours?" she asked, immediately regretting it. Such a stupid question.

"Yeah, it is" he said, ignorant of the humiliating look on her face as she stood awkwardly in her kitchen. He gave up on the cloth, telling her "I think your coffee is here to stay."

"Oh, um…" she said, thinking about what she could do to help. But she realised offering to take his shirt so she could rinse it in the sink might give the wrong idea. "I'm sorry, I guess coming up here was a mistake."

"I don't know" he said, walking over to the window peering down into the street. "It's not often you get a view like this" he said. "Better than my place."

"Oh? Where's…where's that" she asked, feeling like she was stepping on eggshells now. The situation was awkward enough, she wasn't sure how it could get worse. And yet she couldn't stop watching him out of the corner of her eye. She was even resisting the urge to use her x-ray vision, since she'd opted against asking for his shirt.

He glanced at her, noticing her avert her gaze immediately. "An apartment building on the opposite side of the city" he answered. "Maybe next time I'll take you there" he joked. She chuckled, blushing again. "So where were you coming from?" he asked curiously. "You said you were on your way back from work. Bad day?" he checked watch, correcting himself. "Bad half-day?"

"No, it's just…working from home" she said, pushing down her embarrassment to look at him directly. "I'm a reporter for Cacto" she told him.

He nodded. "That explains the coffee and the obliviousness" he said. "I notice a lot of you from that building run around either on your phones or otherwise distracted."

"You've been there?"

"I've walked past a few times" he shrugged.

She nodded, crossing her arms still feeling awkward. "So what do you do?"

"I'm an engineer. Was an engineer. Sort of between jobs at the moment" he explained.

"So you work in the city?"

"Used to. I was at L-Corp for a while, before…"

"What?"

"Doesn't matter" he said, shaking his head. He looked at his watch, casting a glance around the room saying "just to check, this isn't meant to be an extravagant pick-up attempt right?"

Kara's heart pounded as she quickly clarified "No! No, it's not, I promise, I'm not…"

"Okay, good" he said, releasing a sigh of relief. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm flattered and you are really attractive and…it's just I need to get to my bike" he explained, stammering almost as much as she was.

She nodded frantically, replying "of course, yes, um…yeah, you should go. I'm sorry about the coffee, again" she said, awkwardly leading him back to the door.

"It's fine" he said, nervously following her and stepping out into the corridor. Before he left he added "and don't worry about…" he gestured around him, the situation. "Not the most awkward first date I've been on" he muttered. Kara felt her chest tighten until he dialled back saying "Sorry, I don't know why I said that."

"Its fine" she replied, laughing nervously. "Maybe next time we could try something less awkward."

"Next time?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Her voice failed her as she failed to understand what she was saying, again. She clearly wasn't thinking clearly if she'd just impulsively asked a stranger out on a date. She went to apologise, but for some reason she found herself saying "maybe, I don't know. I don't usually…do this. I'm sorry" she apologised.

The man chuckled, looking down at his shirt and then the corridor. "Do you know Angelo's, that bar a few blocks from here?" he asked her. She froze in the doorway and sheepishly nodded. "Tell you what. I'm going to be there, this evening at eight we'll say. And if you want to, you could join me. And maybe we could call it a date. Sound fair?"

Kara stared at him, butterflies in her stomach as she quietly replied "okay. Yes, yeah, okay. Eight O'clock, Angelo's. Okay."

"Okay" he smiled, his grin wide as he slowly walked down the corridor. "See you then, Miss Danvers" he grinned.

Kara found his smile contagious, watching him go as she waved him farewell. "See you then, um…"

"Jake, White" he answered over his shoulder, mercifully facing the other way so he couldn't see the humiliation on her face as she slammed the door shut.

Kara stood by the door for five minutes staring at the wood, her stomach doing summersaults as her thoughts made her dizzy. She kept having to convince herself what just happened wasn't an illusion. He had just invited a man up to her apartment after throwing coffee over him and she'd just asked him out and he'd said yes. She had a date at eight o'clock that evening at a bar and this was real.

Or maybe she'd fallen asleep and had dreamt the whole thing. Kara hoped that was the truth. Because otherwise that humiliating display she'd just delivered had really happened and she wondered how she'd be able to look Jake in the eye after that. She ran to the bedroom to bury her face in the pillow and hope she'd wake up to something less mortifying.