The mood inside the DEO had dropped very tense following Jake's release and Alex's suspension. Almost nobody had spoken about what happened in over two hours as they returned to work. Alex ran a tight ship so Brainy didn't have any trouble keeping everything running smoothly. That gave him plenty of time to analyse the footage recorded by the spyware installed inside their base, tracing the IP address to the website it was being streamed to. The site was publically available and it already had millions of viewers re-watching it. The now acting-director put an order in to terminate the site and the footage, but he was aware the damage was already done. Nevertheless he forced himself to watch the footage again, replaying his own interviews with Jake White leading up to Supergirl's private discussion before ending on Alex committing an unprovoked assault on him.
J'onn stood nearby, refusing to look at Brainy's monitor when the event took place. The man hadn't spoken a word since Alex left the building, quietly observing everyone else lost in thought. Brainy wondered what the Martian was thinking in his silent contemplation. It was so secret the ex-director was disappointed in Alex, a woman he trained personally during her time here, a leader he mentored. It was logical to assume there was some passionate anger towards her actions, believing they reflected on him in turn. Brainy wasn't exactly happy about his former boss's choices either. Her actions derailed his attempts to resolve the Jake White dilemma to a failure, made his work irrelevant. Yet he tried not to hold her completely responsible for her actions. It was, after all, a frustrating situation and Alex was only human.
The others had all dispersed to digest everything that had transpired in their own way. Olsen returned to work, his job necessitating him to get ahead of this story, while also calling his sister to speak with her. Lena left to return to her company, vocally fuming over Jake's manipulative actions. Kara disappeared not long after Eliza took Alex home. Nobody had heard from her since. Nia was the only one who stayed, getting both something to drink before returning to her seat beside her boyfriend. Brainy wordlessly thanked her as she passed him a cup, looking at her fondly as she sat down and stared determinedly at his monitor. She was as determined to find out how Jake managed to pull this stunt off as Brainy was.
While he was scrubbing, Nia looked up at the silent J'onn Jones hovering over them. She'd been tiptoeing around him for two hours but she finally found the courage to ask him "how long are you going to stay mad at Alex?"
He turned his head to glance at her, his expression passive and cold as he replied "I'm not mad. I'm…disappointed."
"I know" she nodded, her expression offering more sympathy. "She made a mistake. She hates herself for it. I'm sure she regrets it."
"I'm sure she does, but it should never have happened in the first place" he growled. He began pacing around the table examining it, like it was showing him his whole career in the DEO. "I put my trust into her. She carried the trust of everyone in this department. To betray that trust like that, betray the principles she stands for…I trained her better" he sighed.
"No student can live up to the expectations of their mentors" Brainy muttered. He didn't mean to say that stay through out loud, something one of his teachers had said during his time in the Legion of Superheroes. They were discussing the unreliable goals heroes make for themselves. Everyone wants to be like their idols, not realising that not even those they worship can live up to the image they themselves project. It was foolish of J'onn to believe Alex could meet his just as much as it was for Alex to set herself by his standards.
J'onn glanced at him, understanding the statement all too well. The comment made him rethink his reaction to Alex's mistake and he came to hate himself for it. He sighed, lowering his head in frustration. He couldn't forgive her yet, but maybe he had been too hard on her. "Have we determined how the boy planted the spyware?" he asked them, opting to change the subject.
"It wasn't him" Brainy said, scrubbing through the footage answering the question. Nia blinked in confusion looking at him, following his gaze as he brought it to the beginning of the footage. "We've been assuming Jake planted the camera sometime after he was brought in" he explained. He played the footage which clearly showed Jake being brought in and led to his chair where the officers promptly handcuffed him to the table before leaving him in the room.
Nia watched the footage. "Just because he was handcuffed then doesn't mean he was..." she started, before realising the obvious clue she automatically overlooked which Brainy noticed almost immediately. She slapped her head at how simple and stupid she was. "The footage was recording before he was brought into the room" she sighed.
"Correction, before Jake was brought into the building" he nodded.
J'onn walked over and leaned over the pair of them to survey the footage himself. He was right, the footage started a few minutes before most of them arrived to see the young man get brought in. that raised an alarming quandary. "If Jake didn't plant the camera, then how did it get there?"
Brainy sat back, already coming to the same conclusion. "The only people who have been in that interview room all day have been DEO personnel" he said, slowly turning his chair to look around the room at the countless agents and staff busying themselves. Both Nia and J'onn looked around too, the unease growing between the three of them as they realised that Jake White indeed couldn't have planted the camera they found.
Somebody inside the DEO had done it for him.
Alex crashed down onto the sofa in her apartment almost as soon as she stepped inside, dropping the box onto the kitchen counter along the way. Eliza made her customary scan of the place, silently passing judgement on her daughter's living conditions which the young woman didn't have the energy to deal with. "Can I assume you've at least stocked the fridge since my last visit?" Eliza queried.
"Of course" Alex sighed, refusing to get back up while her mom went about making them both something to eat. She came back a few minutes later with a glass of orange juice and some sandwiches. "What, am I six years old?" she asked.
"I didn't think you were in the mood for something cooked" she replied.
Alex reluctantly got up and walked to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of wine. She sensed her mom's glare across the room and replied "I'm looking at the end of my career. I deserve a drink."
"You're not going to lose your job over this" she said optimistically.
"I assaulted a suspect in my custody" she replied realistically. "J'onn is right, I abused my authority. I abused my position and attacked an unarmed man unprovoked. Colonel Haley was right to suspend me. If I was in here position I would've sacked myself on the spot."
"But they didn't, so you can still turn this around" Eliza said. "You just have to show them you made a mistake and convince them to reinstate you when this is all over."
Alex sighed, taking a large sip of her wine. She made it sound so simple, but she knew convincing the board that she deserved a second chance was anything but. She'd been skirting her authority throughout this whole investigation into Jake White. She wasn't sure how many chances she had left. She poured her glass for her mom and sat at the counter silently nibbling on the sandwiches she made her. "I can't believe I let him get under my skin like that" she complained.
"You told me he was dangerous and manipulative" Eliza said, looking at her daughter with a worried expression. "He had the camera ready, taunted you…he must've planned to get you to lose your temper."
"And now all charges against him have been dropped and he's free to move around the city" she huffed. If this was his plan, letting himself get caught only to humiliate them all and get away scot free, then it worked like a glorious charm. But she couldn't get the look of disappointment of J'onn's face out of her head. "I thought I was better than this" she muttered. "Beating up suspects…J'onn taught me better."
Eliza reached over and squeezed her arm tenderly. "He'll come around and forgive you" she promised. Alex asked her how she could be so sure. "Because he sees you like a father looks at his daughter" she admitted. "And no farther can help but forgive their children eventually."
Alex looked at her in surprise. This was the first time either of them had referred to J'onn as the farther figure he had become for Alex. Knowing that made it worse. She always hated disappointing either of her parents. But it gave her hope she could make it up to him. "You know what I don't understand?" Alex asked, turning the topic away from her failures briefly. "Why now? Why did Jake choose now to come back?"
Eliza stiffened as she sat in her seat thoughtfully. "Who knows what men do what they do?"
"Everything Jake has done seemed to be for a reason though" she continued, walking around the kitchen thinking aloud. "His motives have been direct. He wants to make Kara pay for what happened to his fiancé. He killed Maxwell Davies to keep him from revealing he worked for the man, that TITAN Industries was the source of his suit. He bombed his apartment to send us a message and cover up his involvement, planning a trip back to the UK to give himself an alibi. He dated Kara to get close to her, attacked the DEO to access our files on Supergirl, got hired at L-Corp to steal the kryptonite formula…everything has a purpose. So why did he chose now to come back?" she wondered. "Why not wait a week, or a month, or returned sooner? He could've waited a year for the investigation to run cold before returning. So what made him come back right now?"
Eliza fell silent as she watched her rack her brain. She believed this was a clue, that there was something planned they don't know about. But Eliza had another theory, one she hoped wasn't true but deep down knew it was the only answer. Unfortunately, it meant telling the truth. "You really believe his return is significant because he has plans?" she asked. Alex nodded. Eliza nursed her wine glass before suggesting hesitantly "what if he returned because…because of us?"
"Us?" she queried in confusion. "What, like our investigation into the Blacksmith? We weren't exactly getting close to identifying him. We arrested the Sentinel of Liberty but she didn't have anything to…"
"Not the investigation" she said, shame bringing colour to her cheeks. She looked at her daughter and gestured for her to sit down. "There's something I need to tell you." Alex returned to her seat and looked at her mom, who suddenly became uneasy under the redhead's gaze. That made Alex worried. "When you told me about this boy, what he did, what he planned to do to Kara…I made a call. A choice. I did it without telling you because I knew you…you would've disapproved."
"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, her worry getting stronger.
Eliza fixed her gaze onto the young woman and swallowed her nerves, explaining "I hired a man I came to know back when your father worked for the DEO. He specialised in making people…disappear so they would no longer be a threat" she said.
Alex's eyes widened as the moisture left her mouth. "A hitman?"
Eliza nodded. "I was only looking out for the both of you" she said. "J'onn told me how afraid you'd both been, how dangerous this man was. I couldn't allow him to bring harm to either of you, so I made a choice. I made a choice to protect you, protect my family." She trailed off as she turned away, standing up bringing her wine glass with her. "The deal was made and I paid the man an advance. He was reputed to be reliable, amongst the best. I was to await his call once the job was done and pay him the rest. Money wasn't the issue, not when my children's safety is at stake."
Alex narrowed her eyes, making the prediction "he never called back?"
Eliza took a gulp of her drink. "I got the call yesterday evening" she explained. "but it wasn't the man I hired who called me." the colour in Alex's skin went pale as Eliza shakily detailed "he stayed on the line long enough to tell me the man I hired was dead, that he had failed, and that he knew it was me who hired him. He claimed to be surprised, expected you to have ordered the assassin" she told her. "I didn't appreciate the gravity of what I had done until I found out he had been arrested this morning, after getting off a plane. As soon as I heard him speak to you in that interview room I knew for certain it was him on the phone. He had the gall to call the man I hired an amateur, which believe me was not the case. But the insinuation was there." she gulped down the rest of her drink, turning back to Alex with an expression of shame and guilt. "If you are looking for a reason for his return, I fear that reason was me."
Alex stared at her mother for a long time. She couldn't believe any of it. Her mom would never have done anything like this. But she recognised the same protective instinct she had, something she got from her mother. She was contemplated removing Jake from the board outside of legal means. She looked up at Eliza, not sure whether to be angry or sympathetic, disappointed or proud. So she just climbed out of her seat, circled around to the older woman, and hugged her. Maybe children couldn't help but forgive their parents in the end.
Eliza embraced her daughter, feeling relieved she didn't hate her for what she did. They pulled away and looked at each other, words unable to express what they were feeling. "I don't suppose there's any way to trace the man you hired and maybe build a case to get Jake arrested?" she asked jokingly.
Eliza chuckled shaking her head. "The man was found a few hours ago. I had a contact follow it up. There's no way to prove who the man was, let alone prove who killed him. They checked into his place of residence too. No signs of struggle, or indications of a fight. In fact his property was put up for sale not long before he boarded his plane" she said.
Alex found that curious. If he was selling his place that would mean he had no intention of returning home. She filed it away for later, noting it as a curious detail. She turned back to her mom telling her "whatever he's doing here, he's not here because of you" she insisted. "And I do appreciate you trying to protect us" she added. Eliza smiled, relief in her expression as she stroked her cheek. "But I don't think we should tell Kara about this" she advised. Alex could understand what her mother was trying to do but she doubted Kara would agree with her.
Eliza nodded. Unfortunately she thought the same thing. She hoped the young woman was going to be alright and promised to call her first chance she got. But right now Alexandra needed her. Alex suggested she send her a text anyway, just to show they're both thinking of her.
Kara's mobile pinged as the text message from Eliza reached her. She didn't read it, left it in her hidden pocket as she kept vigil hovering over the city. She'd been here since before the sun set, watching over her home silently. She hadn't moved, hadn't eaten, and hadn't spoken since she took up her watch. Through her super-hearing she listened to numerous 911 calls, almost all of them answered by the emergency services. She listened to screaming voices, calls for help, but tonight many went unanswered. The few she responded to were solved in seconds, a quick blur in and out before returning to her station to continue monitoring. She hoped they wouldn't worry about her odd behaviour tonight, but she needed to be here. She needed to keep watch.
She chose her spot well, hovering fifty feet over the city high enough to see almost everything. There were better vantage points, but this gave her the clearest view of the Empire Hotel, her enhanced vision able to penetrate its rooms and scan it's windows with her x-ray vision. She saw residents go about their night. Some went to bed early, some showered, and many sat and watched television. She saw a man invite a woman into his room paying her money to spend the night with him. She witnessed a couple of women get wasted on drugs and alcohol a few floors below. She saw a fight break out in a hotel room between two men over a woman, her hearing confirming she was the first man's wife and the second man was his business partner. A few of the rooms were empty, approximately eighty percent of the hotel was occupied.
She kept her focus on the only room that interested her. One guest, sitting alone speaking on the phone. He was talking to a real-estate agent in the UK, organising the details of putting his house on the market. He was patient, claiming to be back in a few weeks. Her heartbeat told her he was lying, but she couldn't be sure. Not with him. Jake White put the phone down and sighed, looking out of the window of his hotel room. He approached the window scanning the horizon. She doubted he could see her, but she could see him as he rubbed his shoulder briefly before pulling the curtains closed.
It didn't stop her from watching him, prepared to keep watch all night just to be sure her friends and her home were safe from him.