Wednesday
"Does your wife know you're out here looking like a lesbian's wet dream?"
Kara snorted into her coffee, and she mock-glared at Jack as he settled down with a pleased smile. As usual, he wore nothing but top-of-the-line clothes that made Kara's plain white t-shirt and cargo pants look frumpy in comparison. She wiped at the whipped cream under her nose.
"I have a list of rules burning in one of these pockets that explicitly states what I can and cannot do on our impromptu day trip," she said.
"Your beloved is many things, but a sharer is not one," Jack said. "Also, what sugary disaster are you drinking this time?"
"A caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream. The lady behind the counter gave it to me for free."
"Mhm, and did she know you were married?"
Kara lifted her hand, and the ring sparkled in the sun peeking through the clouds. "We agreed we would wear our rings when we're away from one another. A bracelet means nothing to anyone outside of our circle."
"But you've never worn it until now," Jack pointed out.
"This just seemed like a fun time to wear it."
"Lee made you put it on, didn't she?"
"Yes," Kara sighed. Jack bit his lip to keep from laughing, and Kara changed the conversation. "Thanks for meeting me in Jump instead of Metropolis. I have an errand to run, and I figured we could make a day out of it."
"Does it have anything to do with the secret gift Sam wasn't supposed to tell me about?"
"As long as it doesn't get back to my wife, I'm okay with you two knowing."
"Does the big man know?"
"Of course. Bruce is supposed to be in National City. I haven't told Lee that he's surprising her for dinner."
"You spoil her. And it's no issue about the last-minute change. There's a store here that I've heard about and never had the opportunity to visit. They specialize in men, women, and otherwise."
"I do enjoy being an otherwise," Kara joked.
"Wonderful. Shall we head on then?"
"Absolutely."
Lena stared at the blown-up images in Cat's private studio. Cat idled in the background, watching the emotions play out on Lena's face. They took a total of fifteen pictures with the backdrop that Kara organized. The setting National City sun left Lena in an almost ethereal glow, casting her in soft yellows, reds, and oranges. There were a few shots that Cat purposely left out to gift Kara as a separate anniversary gift. Cat hoped the images and the magazine would jumpstart the revival of Lena, showing the world that Lena was human. Lex had become a monster, but the silent daughter, always in the background, grew into a vulnerable, empathetic, and kind woman. Something that was often lost when the name Luthor came up in conversation.
"I was four when my mother, Elizabeth, died."
The sudden announcement had startled Cat out of her musings, but she didn't let Lena know that. She got comfortable in her desk chair and waited, just as she did the day before in her office.
"We were at a lake near our home, and she'd gone swimming. It wasn't until a local passerby found me on the shore three hours later did it occur that something was wrong. My world got a bit blurry after that. I recall going from my bedroom to family services and then this massive plane where Lionel gently explained to me what happened. Death is a strange concept when you're four years old." Lena turned toward the large glass windows of the studio that overlooked the park. They were tinted, and the only person who could see inside was currently in another city. "When I landed in Metropolis, Lillian's first act of kindness was to take every item I had and throw it in the fireplace. I lost countless pictures of my family, drawings my big sister helped me make, and this stuffed teddy bear I never slept without."
"You had a sister?"
"We weren't blood-related, but Caroline's mother, Angeline, was my mother's best friend. We practically grew up together, even though Caroline was ten years older. We were close. Regardless, Lillian said I was a Luthor, and Luthor women did not get sentimental. It was the first lesson Lillian taught me that stayed with me throughout a good portion of my life. Emotions were tricky, complicated messes that left me numb when I should've been angry or scared. I can count on my hand the number of times I cried. When Lillian shipped me off to boarding school, Lionel had just passed. She wanted nothing to do with the bastard child, and I relished the opportunity to be free."
"How old were you?"
"Ten," Lena murmured. "The first crack in Lex's sanity had appeared. I was eager to escape from the pressure brewing under my brother's skin, and Lillian was happy to let me leave."
Lena sat on the couch and crossed her legs.
"Mount Helena Boarding School was the rebirth of Lena Kieran Walsh. It's funny how a wrong turn changed my life."
Lena groaned as she came to another street, which ended up being a dead end. She should've stayed with the others, but the bookstore was open again, and Lena wanted to see if they had her book. It was a quick in and out, and that was that. But her friends left her, and Lena was alone. It was her first year going out without a chaperone, and she'd already screwed up.
"Excuse me?"
Lena turned slowly and stared warily at the woman in front of her. She was familiar, but still, Lena hesitated with a scream on her lips. The woman, no older than twenty-three, watched Lena expectantly. When Lena didn't respond or give her what she wanted, the woman's face faltered, and she sighed.
"You don't know who I am," she said.
"Should I?"
The woman dug through her pockets, and Lena maintained her sense of detachment, not giving anything away. The woman removed a picture, handing it to Lena with a shaking hand. Lena didn't take the photo, but she glanced down at it. Her breath caught in her throat. It was an image of a teenager with Lena on her shoulders, Lena's mother, and Angeline. The woman mistook her silence for something else and dropped her arm. She put the photo back in her pocket and shook her head.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time."
"Who are you?" Lena asked with hope pressing against her heart.
"My name's Caroline," she said wearily. "Caroline Clarke."
Lena's eyes welled up, and she said, "But I called you Caro, right?"
"Y-you remember me?" Caroline stammered.
Lena didn't respond verbally. She crashed into Caroline's chest, wrapping her arms around her, and Caroline immediately returned the embrace.
"Oh, Leen-Bean," Caroline said, her voice cracking. "I've missed you so much."
"I've missed you too," Lena said. "How'd you find me?"
Caroline pushed her back and cupped her cheeks, glancing over her as if she were trying to memorize Lena's face.
"Gosh, you've grown so much."
"I'm thirteen," Lena said proudly.
"Fuck – I mean, fudge-
"My friends curse all of the time," Lena interrupted. "It's okay."
"Christ, I don't know what I'm doing. I've been looking for you since I was sixteen. When Mum passed, I got sent to live with my Dad in Edinburgh. Losing Elizabeth was hard on her, and losing you without anyone telling her where you'd gone was harder. She never recovered, and I," she paused, "found her one day after school. But in her letter, all my Mum talked about was finding you. And I swore to myself that I'd do what she couldn't. So, here I am."
"You've been looking for me since you were sixteen?"
"I would've started at fifteen, but I wasn't sure me being an angry teenager was the mood I wanted to find you in. Have you gotten to that point yet?"
"I don't think so," Lena giggled.
"Okay, good. Good. But this isn't – it was pure luck that I saw you when and how I did. My partner, Gavin, and I moved to Gotham a year ago. We hadn't made enough money to furnish our apartment, so all we had was an air mattress and a few chairs. But we made it work. Anyway, around two weeks ago, Gavin and I installed our first television. We see a news bulletin about the Luthor family, and as soon as I saw you with them, I knew it."
Caroline stopped and clicked her tongue.
"I know this was quite possibly the best way to get arrested had it gone wrong, but I had to try. I spent a lot of my inheritance on private investigators who weren't afraid of digging into the Luthor family. My boss gave me a hint about where you were, knowing how much it meant for me to find you, and I flew straight here. I got a bit distracted somewhere two blocks ago. Your school is hard as shit to find, and I felt like I was supposed to be looking for a castle. But everything here looks like that. It's been a long morning. Anyway, I'd gotten lost and was trying to retrace my steps when I saw you."
"You really wanted to find me?" Lena asked, trying not to fidget.
"Of course, Leen-Bean. I'm just sorry it took me so long to get here."
And Lena, for the first time in nine years, cried.
"Caroline got me back to school, and we exchanged emails. I found out that she and Gavin worked for Wayne Enterprises. Gavin worked security, and Caroline was a junior executive. Gavin fell into the older brother role better than Lex ever could, and he had this wicked sense of humor. God, I laughed all the time whenever we spoke on the phone. Neither of them let me feel alone, and I went to them for everything. My first crush, my first heartbreak, and all the shit I was supposed to go to Lillian about, I went to Caroline or Gavin instead. They were the first ones to know I'd gotten into Harvard. Caroline teased me relentlessly about being fifteen in college but also sent a picture of her and Gavin in shirts with 'Go Leen-Bean' on the front."
Lena plucked lint from her jeans and smiled wistfully.
"Boston was my saving grace. Many people couldn't believe a mother would send their child to a city alone, but I had a security team. And the school reluctantly gave me an entire suite after a strongly worded letter from Lillian. But during my last year, I got the craziest call from Caroline. She'd talked me up to a few people and got me a spot in an internship at WayneCorp. WayneCorp was just the scientific sector back then. If I made a decent enough impression, I could have a job by the end. It was extremely unheard of for someone under eighteen to work in a corporate office. But Caroline sent my thesis to Bruce and Vincent, head of the Biotech department, and they wanted me there immediately. I moved to Gotham that summer."
"You worked at WayneCorp? That was never in your long, long list of accomplishments."
"That information was entered under a different name," Lena said. "Lillian assumed it was temporary and that I'd join Luthor-Corp once I got the rebellion out of my system. But when I was with Caroline and Gavin, it felt right. The three of us were a family. Once I met Gavin's friends, they invited me everywhere I could go. I got my first, second, and third piercing with them, and they treated me like a teenager. For the first time in my life, I did normal things. I went to the movies, a carnival, to a skating rink, and I dyed my hair blonde. It was the greatest summer I ever had."
Lena laughed, eyes glinting with childish glee, and Cat had to remind herself that Lena was only twenty-six. Her life experience was condensed into a short amount of time, and it was jarring to realize just how young Lena was. Lena's eyes lost their shine, and Cat waited.
"Caroline and Gavin were murdered on the last day of my internship. We had plans to leave that next morning for the Hamptons, a trip they'd been saving for the entire summer. I was Caroline's emergency contact, and Gavin's parents had kicked him out when he transitioned. So I was sixteen and responsible for two people who had no one else. Bruce helped me organize the funeral, but I moved in slow motion the entire week. My department, Bruce, and Gavin's friends stood in the cemetery on the rainiest day in Gotham's history. It ended with everyone walking away. I didn't because Lex showed up with Lilian. It was a subtle confession that they were responsible, and I told Bruce I couldn't take his offer. He nodded and handed me a card with his number on it. I was on a plane back to Metropolis that night.
"I stayed in Metropolis a week before I was back in Massachusetts. Vincent got me into MIT for late admission as a last-minute favor, so I left. I threw myself into my classes and ran from the ghosts of happiness and contentment. Days before my seventeenth birthday, Lex broke. I wasn't the weird kid in college anymore. I was the freak sister of a psychopath. No one spoke to me, and I faded into the background. Well, no. I met my friend, Jack. He was my safe place, and we were in the early stages of knowing we were gay. So we jumped into this awful relationship, and we were together for about three years before I came out to him, and he came out to me. But outside of Jack, there was one person that never stopped calling to check on me."
"Bruce," Cat guessed.
"Somewhere down the line, Bruce became more than my biggest supporter. We spoke every day, even if it was just to hear each other breathe or work in the background. Bruce needed to know I was okay just as much as I needed to know he was okay. Eventually, Jack and I started this nanotechnology start-up in his garage, but then I got the email from Diana. She wanted a female researcher to join her recovery mission in Ireland. I, a twenty-year-old outcast, was offered another opportunity of a lifetime. And I took it. Diana spoke on my behalf and ensured that whatever I did on the trip would count toward my degree, and Jack understood why I had to go. But when we arrived in Ireland, all I thought about was my Mom, Caroline, and Gavin, and I was in a bad spot. Kara wasn't even on my radar before that night on the cliff, so I called Bruce. It was late on his end, but he answered. I never said anything, but knowing Bruce was there helped. I thanked him for not hanging up on me, and he promised to always answer. I hung up, and then the love of my life insensitively triggered years' worth of emotions with one question."
"Sounds like the perfect love story."
"It is. It was," Lena said distractedly. "Kara is my perfect partner."
Cat's phone vibrated on the desk, and she glanced down. She accepted the visitor trying to buzz in and smiled to herself. Lena never noticed, too caught up in her thoughts. Cat re-focused as Lena started talking again.
"Kara followed me to Metropolis when I gave into Lillian's desperate attempts to keep Luthor-Corp above water. I knew the media would paint me a certain way, but I wanted to continue my goal of helping people. Kara proposed to me several weeks later in the middle of dinner. She made this awful Irish stew, but I knew she tried her hardest. The proposal was worth it in the end."
"Why did she leave?"
"She'd made up with Eliza and Alex, but mostly Alex. They're in a good place right now, much better than it's ever been, but there are a lot of words that went unsaid. I think Kara's afraid of rocking the boat with her sister, and I've told Kara several times she needs to be honest. But Alex was lonely in National City, and Kara felt guilty. There was also the fear that Alex would relapse. It's an unnecessary fear, as Alex is one of the strongest people I hate to love, but Kara worries. Anyway, with her leaving and me working long hours, we married. Three years of phone calls, video chats, and waiting for Kara to fly to me got boring. I missed her, and I wanted to make a difference. So I moved here at the lovely age of twenty-six to make a difference with my superhero wife and –
Someone knocked, and Cat pressed the button to let them in. Lena's confusion faded to the most genuine kind of joy. Bruce stopped, his eyes giving away his smile, and Lena shot up. Bruce caught Lena as she jumped into his arms.
"You're here!"
"I am. We have a dinner reservation at Monty's."
Lena said something that was muffled into his collar, and Bruce snorted.
"You look fine," he said.
Cat chuckled under her breath, and Bruce lowered Lena back to the floor. Both were crying, but Bruce was more composed with his tears. Lena, however, was already emotionally off-kilter, so it made sense she was close to sobbing. Bruce wiped each tear that fell with the kind of love that only a father could produce. Lena sniffed and turned to Cat.
"If my wife comes by, tell her I'm out with my parole officer."
Bruce flicked Lena on the ear and opened the door, jerking his head. Lena jogged to grab her purse and waved at Cat before leaving. Bruce bowed a silent thank you, and Cat flicked her wrist dismissively. The two left her studio, and she looked down at her security cameras. Lena was gesturing animatedly with her hands as she spoke, and Bruce wore the same smile until they were out of the building.
"Those pictures were lovely, by the way. Cat did an amazing job, and I know they will look great in the magazine."
Lena blushed and put down her fork, shifting in her seat.
"I didn't know they would come out so…revealing."
"That's who you are," Bruce said, shrugging. "So it makes sense."
Lena didn't agree or disagree and glanced around the restaurant, feeling immensely out of place in her casual dress. Bruce reached into his pocket and removed a box. He placed it on the table between them, and Lena frowned.
"Is that the box Kara had yesterday?"
"Yes. Kara flew to Gotham early this morning before my flight and gave it back to me."
"Why did she have it in the first place?"
"I needed her approval," he said vaguely.
"Okay, then why did you send it through Cat?"
"Kara is afraid that the DEO goes through her mail, so she didn't want any packages to get flagged."
"Do I even want to know what it is?"
"Open it."
Lena grabbed the box and opened it, revealing –
"Wow, thanks. I've always wanted another pen."
"Turn it over."
Lena read the back of the pen, seeing the initials L.K.W., and she said, "Bruce, what is this?"
"I know you have a lot of names," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I- I've been thinking lately that my life is unpredictable. Anything could happen, and I'm not saying any of this to upset you. But I didn't want to leave this Earth with any misconceptions and regrets. So."
Bruce reached into another pocket and removed a thick envelope. He passed it to Lena, who took it warily. She put the pen down and opened the envelope, pulling out a stack of documents that'd been folded to fit. She unfolded them and froze.
"What… what is this?"
"I have a friend who drew these up for me. Alfred pointed out to me several weeks ago that there are things I would be unable to leave to you should anything happen. I," Bruce paused, "would like my daughter to inherit everything without the legal hassle. All the papers need are your signature. I was thinking that instead of going by Lena Luthor publicly and for business purposes, you could use mine." When Lena said nothing, Bruce squirmed and added, "I'm sorry. If I've overstepped-
"What if you change your mind? You've only known me for a couple of years-
"I've known you, Lena, since you were sixteen, remember? For the last ten years, I have watched you grow into a beautiful, smart, and incredible woman. I've walked you down the aisle, celebrated every win, and mourned every loss, and I have always answered every call. I don't need another decade to know that you are the closest thing I will ever have to a daughter. I love you, Lena, and I want you to succeed in everything you do. But most importantly, I'm proud of you. I'm proud to know you, to be in your life because I'm in awe of what you do every day. You've changed lives. You've changed mine, and I want you to be my legacy. You are the only person in the world who I want carrying my name long after I'm gone."
Lena stared at Bruce for a long time, searching, but eventually, she took the pen and signed her name on the bottom of the paper. Bruce released a breath he didn't know he was holding, and Lena gave the documents back to him. She put the pen back in its box and carefully put it in her purse. Bruce waited, but Lena never said anything else. She went back to eating, and Bruce followed her lead. Every once in a while, Lena would smile to herself, and Bruce pretended not to notice. They ate in silence for the rest of the meal.
Kara sat on the countertop, swinging her feet, and she shot a text to Lena.
Me: Hey, I'll be home before ten. Jack and I are finishing up our last errand.
Baby Girl: Can you bring home some champagne? I forgot to grab some while I was out.
Me: Sure. What are we celebrating?
Kara got the response and opened the attachment warily. Instead of what she expected, Kara laughed. It was a picture of Lena and Bruce with the documents in hand and Lena's signature for anyone to see.
Me: FINALLY!
Baby Girl: I'm so HAPPY! I can't wait for you to get home so we can make a toast to the newest Wayne in town.
Me: I love you, and I'm glad this happened. You officially have the most names in history.
Baby Girl: Shut up. Lena Kieran Walsh-Wayne is not that bad.
Me: Come on, that's a tongue twister. And you missed one.
Baby Girl: Zor-El is only for when I'm in trouble… Speaking of which-
The second attachment came through without warning, and Kara wondered if she could break the sound barrier to get home without getting in trouble.