Kelly and Esme enter the Tower's elevator and Kelly presses a button on the control panel. As the elevator car reaches their desired destination the doors slide open. In the Tower's Lounge and Game Room they see a familiar figure sitting on one of the small sofas at the opposite end of the room.
"Auntie Lena!"' Esme exclaims running over to give her a hug.
"Lena!" Kelly says.
"Esme, Kelly!", Lena gets up from the small sofa, pick ups and hugs her Goddaughter, and walks over with her in her arms to hug Kelly.
"What are you doing here all alone?", Kelly asks.
Lena sets Esme down. "I don't know. I guess I just needed someplace to get away for a while, clear my head."
"Mommy, can I go play?," Esme asks Kelly.
"Sure thing, sweetie. Have fun," Kelly replies.
Esme skips away. "Love you, Auntie Lena!"
"Love you, too, baby," Lena replies.
Kelly and Lena sit down across from each other on the two adjacent small sofas. Concerned, Kelly asks, "You okay? Anything you want to talk about?"
Lena looks wistfully at Kelly. "Can I ask you something personal, Kelly?"
"Of course, fire away," Kelly responds.
"How many times have you been in love? I mean really, truly head-over-heels in love," Lena inquires.
Kelly smiles. "Well, if we're talking more than just silly infatuation, crushes, or commitment challenged romances… twice. How come?"
Lena takes a deep breath, stares blankly, and sighs. "Well, I'm not sure... I've ever actually been... in love."
A look of sympathy and concern forms on Kelly's face. "What's really troubling you, Lena?"
Lena refocuses her melancholy gaze on Kelly. "After my mother passed away, I found myself in a new home with a new family. I was frightened and shy. Even though Eliazbeth was an incredibly loving and caring mother I was still very young when she died. I don't feel like I had a fully developed understanding of what a loving family was, and in my formative years my perception of what that meant was seriously warped by living as a Luthor."
"That had to be an incredibly difficult way to grow up," Kelly says compassionately.
"I certainly didn't realize it that back then," Lena adds, "but after everything I went through with Lillian and Lex I grew to realize that they both had bizarre, twisted concepts of love. I desperately tried to escape the shadow of that life, but I sometimes wonder if I got out too late."
Kelly's expression softens, becoming very nurturing as she says, "Lena, you are an amazingly strong, warm, loving, and compassionate person. You overcame the preconceptions that dogged you because of your name, uncovered the truth of your heritage, and embraced the life you wanted to lead as opposed to living a life that others charted for you. You helped build a family here that not only loves you, but is inspired by you everyday."
Lena gives her an appreciative smile. "And I feel so incredibly lucky that this family never gave up on me even when I pushed them away with every fiber of my being, but..."
"But...?", Kelly queries.
"Am I destined to be alone?", Lena mutters meekly. "Is there anyone out there I'm meant to love, share all of myself with and who will love me and want to share themselves with me? Even more than that, I wonder if I'm even capable of experiencing that kind of love... the kind you and Alex share... the kind that Nia and Brainy have."
"You've been in relationships before," Kelly states. "From what Jimmy told me you and he had a pretty serious relationship."
Lena nods affirmativey. "We did and your brother is an amazing person. We had undeniable chemistry and a very passionate relationship, but ultimately we had very different goals in life and differences of opinion we were both too stubborn to overcome."
Kelly grins broadly. "That does sound like Jimmy."
"It was very me, too," Lena admits ironically. Kelly giggles reassuringly.
Lena's expression dims. "Aside from Jimmy, I really only had one other serious relationship, with a man named Jack Spheer, which I broke off to come to National City because I was so desperate to redeem the Luthor name." Lena's face gets sorrowful as she continues, "Unfortunately poor Jack died when he tested experimental nanotechnology on himself and it went horribly wrong.
"Lena, I'm so sorry," Kelly says sympathetically.
"Thank you," Lena says with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Jack and I were pretty serious before I closed myself off to focus on redeeming my family name. For so long I sacrificed everyone and everything important in my life to bear the burden of rehabilitating the Luthor name, and now I wonder if I've just reached a point in my life where I'm not meant to find love."
Kelly looks at Lena with a compassionate smile, leans forward, places a hand on her knee, and says, "It's never too late to find love." Kelly takes her hand off of Lena's knee, sits back, and continues, "The tricky thing about love is that, more often than not, it has a tendency to find us when we least expect it. When Jimmy got shot and I came to National City to be with him I certainly wasn't looking to fall in love. Coming here, finding Alex, falling in love again after suffering through the loss of my first fiancé, and to not only find love but become a wife and mother... never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that walking into that hospital would lead me to where I am today."
"Honestly," Lena begins, "even if I was looking I wouldn't know where to start. Our lives are so complex and not exactly conducive to relationship building. Not to mention my name is still Luthor, I'm a witch, and every member of my family is a super hero." An ironic grin takes shape on her face as she concludes, "I'm not entirely sure, but I'm fairly certain that that is the trifecta of first date awkwardness."
"I'm not a super hero, yet!", Esme interjects from the other side of the room.
"You're super and you're one of my hero's, sweetie," Lena replies to her sweetly.
Kelly chuckles, "I see your point." She stands up, walks over, sits down next to Lena, and resumes, "But even with all those hurdles to clear, if you leave yourself open to the possibility, if you take the risk each day to just put yourself out there and live a life that invites love, when you find the right person the rewards will far outweigh any of the potential anguish of the journey."
Lena looks at Kelly with a hint of anguish on her face and says, "It just feels like everyone I care about has found someone... you and Alex got married, Nia and Brainy are engaged, J'onn and M'gann bonded... I guess I'm just really tired of being alone."
"You know, there is this amazing person we both know, that you may not even realize, could be the very person you've been searching for," Kelly says in a lighthearted tone.
"Who?", Lena asks tremulously.
"Kara has told Alex several times how tired she is of being alone, too," Kelly informs her.
"Kara?", Lena reacts awkwardly.
"Have you ever stopped to really consider how you feel about Kara?", Kelly quizzes her.
"I...," Lena stammers, "Kara..., but I'm not...".
Kelly interjects, "Lena, love isn't about labels. Identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, or any other way is the badge of community that gives a voice to those who are ostracized by the unfounded fears and misconceptions of closed minded people. Love… love is feeling and connection. It's the overwhelming desire to care for and protect someone you cannot live without from the moment you first open your eyes each day to the moment you lay your head down on your pillow each night. It's dreaming of a world where time stands still so you can soak in the unending majesty of the seconds you share as if each were a lifetime unto themselves and then striving each waking moment to achieve that impossible dream. It's knowing that regardless of how many people are truly important in your life that there is that one soul whose mere presence makes you tingle inside, gives you butterflies in the pit of your stomach, lights a fire in your heart that burns so intensely that you know to face a world without them would be unfathomable. Finding love in this life is challenging, messy, and so often we impede ourselves from recognizing it by locking doors in our hearts and souls that scare us."
As Kelly speaks the filmstrip of Lena's life plays itself back in her mind. She thinks back to the moment she first met Kara, on the old Earth, in her office at L Corp. She was so taken by how genuinely nervous, kind, and sweet she was. She fondly recounts Kara's frequent unexpected visits to L Corp to check in on her, their regular brunches and coffee breaks when Lena took over at CatCo, her sometimes tense interactions with Supergirl when Kara was desperately trying to protect them both despite how much pain she knew her deception would cause them, but most of all, as her emotions swell up inside her, she recalls all the tender, compassionate moments of support and encouragement that Kara has always been there to provide when she was in pain. Those times Kara held her close on the sofa in her office to comfort her when she felt her most vulnerable. Those moments when she desperately needed a shoulder to cry on, or a strong, safe, warm embrace to make her feel safe and secure in her weakest moments. Kara was always there. Kara promised she would always be there to protect her, no matter what. Regardless of the turbulent path their relationship took Lena always knew, deep down that...
William... was right... How could she not see it? She always felt it. It was always there. Kara is her anchor... Kara... is her home, her heart, her love.
"Kara!", Lena murmurs as tears begin to well up in her eyes. "Oh, my... I... Kelly?" She puts her face into her hands and begins to sob.
Esme comes over to the sofa, puts a hand on Lena's arm, and asks, "Auntie Lena, why are you sad?"
Lena lifts her face from her hands and through her tears says, "I'm not, beautiful. I'm happy… and a bit scared."
Esme hugs her.
Kelly puts her arm around Lena's shoulder, squeezes her tightly, and exhorts, "It's okay, Lena. The hard part is over. What did I tell you... never saw it coming."
Lena, holding Esme tight, sniffles a bit, and giggles. "Kelly, I'm in love with her. What do I do now?"
A communication tone goes off from wrist devices that Kelly and Lena are both wearing. Kelly looks down and reads, "Kara needs our help."
Lena recomposes herself in an instant. "You take care of Esme. "I'll contact Andrea to pick me up and we'll meet the team at Kara's coordinates."