Red Daughter stares off into the distance, her gaze fixed on something no one else can see ; a memory perhaps. Or at least that's what Kara supposes since one of her eyes seems to be out for the count permanently, its blue iris dull and unfocused. A familiar crinkle creases her brow and her lips are upturned in a concerned pout. She looks lost, worried, scared even, and Kara remembers this all too well, what it's like landing in an alien place, amongst strangers, when everything you know has been wiped out entirely. She wonders if she should have done more, if she should have been there night and day, guarding Red Daughter to make sure she wasn't alone upon waking. She isn't sure the answer is that simple.

Nobody in the room dares to move, Kara herself suspended to Red Daughter's next breath. The ground feels fragile beneath her feet, like whether the Earth will open up and swallow them all is linked only to her clone's next action. She fears that she might snap and kill everyone, and immediately feels guilty for this thought. Red Daughter was manipulated and brainwashed, none of what happened is her fault.

Finally, after an eternity of seconds, Red Daughter's gaze settles on Lena and she breathes out her name, soft, and full of wonder.

"Lena..."

Lena freezes for a moment, mouth opened in a silent gasp, taken aback, Kara supposes, by the reverence in Red Daughter's voice. To her credit, she recovers quickly, quicker than Kara would have, and steps closer to the bed with a tentative, but open, smile.

"Lena," Red Daughter says again, her tone still dripping with admiration, "where is Alex ?"

Alex takes a step forward, but with a discreet wave of the hand, Kara stops her ; this is not the Alex Red Daughter is asking after.

"He," Lena starts, swallowing harshly and glancing back at Kara with a hint of something indistinguishable in her eyes. Kara smiles softly and whatever Lena finds in this is enough for her to keep going. She nods firmly and turns back to Red Daughter. "Lex is dead," she says gently, her voice trembling only for Kara's attuned ears. "I'm sorry."

Red Daughter blinks, once, twice, then keeps her eyes screwed shut for a long minute before she opens them and focuses her gaze somewhere above Lena's left shoulder. "He was not a good man," she says. "He did bad things. To me."

"He did," Alex confirms softly, stepping around Kara to get closer to the bed. "But you are okay now, you're safe."

"This is a lie," Red Daughter refutes almost violently. "This is prison and my eye is broken."

Taylor scoffs before straightening up comically and Kara has to refrain from shooting them a death glare ; after all, they're right, the DEO is part prison. Instead, she reports her focus on Red Daughter, infusing her tone with all the kindness and patience she has. "Do you remember what happened ?"

Red Daughter nods sadly. "Alex tried to kill you. He killed me instead. But I am not dead. Is this why my eye is broken ?"

Kara scowls. Red Daughter's insistence on calling Lex Luthor Alex doesn't sit right with her. This twisted asshole shouldn't be associated with her sister in any way.

"There were some side effects," Lena explains gently, cutting in when Kara flounders for a beat too long.

"I should not be alive."

"But you are," Kara says, "and it's a gift. Once you feel better, we'll work on finding something good for you."

"Why are you showing kindness ?" Red Daughter asks abruptly. "I tried to kill you."

"You were manipulated," Kara says so fast that it's a miracle her words come out in a comprehensive form. "You are a victim of Lex just as much as I am. You deserve a chance."

"Alex told many lies about you Supergirl. You are not a monster, you are kind." Red Daughter delivers this with a strange solemnity, one that is both heartwarming and chilling.

"You know, you can call me Kara."

"No, I did not know that," Red Daughter replies endearingly, her tone tentative and rough in a way that makes Kara want to hug her. She isn't sure this would be welcome though, there is no handbook for this very specific situation.

"Thank you Kara," Red Daughter adds before repeating the name under her breath, "Kara," her voice this time confused, and tinged with a peculiar sadness.

Silence falls over the room and it's almost suffocating ; perhaps because Kara is still waiting for something more to happen, for Red Daughter to get angry, or maybe for her to reveal that her presence is a post-mortem scheme of Lex. She may want to give her a second chance, may think she deserves it ; but a part of her, engrained deep inside, can't forget what it was like, briefly dying at her hands.

Red Daughter surveys the room slowly, her good eye blinking furiously as it takes everyone in. Her shoulders are taut, her body tense, even as she reclines further into the pillow. "Kara," she finally says, repeating the name once more. "That is your name."

"It is," Kara confirms, nodding cautiously.

"And you are Lena," she continues, her voice softening on the familiar name.

"I am."

"You, I don't know," she says, pointing at Taylor with a scarred hand.

"I'm Taylor."

"Taylor," Red Daughter repeats with a sharp nod. "Taylor," she says again in this voice that Kara finds is so like and unlike her own ; a little rougher maybe, and then of course, there's the accent. "Kara, Lena, Taylor. And you are Alex," Red Daughter concludes. "The good Alex."

"That's me," Alex confirms with a slightly confused frown.

Red Daughter plunges into silence again. She seems to be mulling over something, something important. Eventually, she asks, "what is my name ?" and the questions slams into Kara like a freight train.

Her heart drops to the bottom of her stomach, she has no answer to that. She glances furtively at Lena, then at Taylor, who remains silent despite probably knowing the answer. She feels her discomfort growing as she looks at her clone who stares back at her hopefully like she holds all the answers in the universe. "What do," Kara gulps, "what do people call you ?"

"The Americans," Red Daughter says with learned disgust, a deep crinkle pulling at her brow, "they call me Linda. That is not my name."

"And Lex," Lena probs gently, "what did he call you ?"

"Alex, bad Alex, he calls me Красная Дочь."

"Red Daughter," Lena translates unnecessarily. "Do you want us to call you that ?"

"No, I do not want that," Red Daughter answers harshly. "It hurts," she adds in a whisper, her confession probably meant for herself only.

"Your people, in Kasnia, what did they call you ?" Kara asks.

"I have no people. I am alone."

"You have me," Kara corrects. "You have all of us."

Red Daughter averts her gaze to her hand seemingly studying the map of scars on her skin. "They call me снежная птица."

"Ghim nahv tiv zhizhaf," Kara whispers, shocked, for a second, by how easily the words come to her. "Bird from the cold."

At that, Red Daughter perks up, her hands going still on her knees. "What language is that ?"

"It's Kryptonese," Kara answers softly, "from my home planet, Krypton."

"Krypton," Red Daughter repeats, "bad Alex told me about it." She pauses, nags her lips between her teeth. "Say it again. Please."

"Ghim nahv tiv zhizhaf," Kara repeats.

"Ghim. Bird ?"

Next to her Taylor nods encouragingly and Kara glances at them, trying to get a read on what they're thinking. Taylor simply beams at Red Daughter and when Red Daughter smiles back, Kara knows they're about to take an important step. When Taylor feels their mother's eyes on them they school their face but it's too late.

"Ghim," she says, looking at Red Daughter.

Red Daughter turns to her with no hesitancy, like she's already taken the name for herself. "Ghim," she says, "that is my name."

"Thanks Rao," Taylor sighs, "I hate secrets."

"You knew my name before me ?" Ghim asks, puzzled.

Taylor runs their hand on their face in a gesture so reminiscent of Alex that Kara's heart ache for all the things she'll be forced to forget once her child gets back to the future. "It's complicated," Taylor says.

"That's one way of putting it," Alex grumbles. "Alright," she says louder, "everybody out I need to run some tests on Little Bird other here."

"Little Bird ?" Ghim repeats.

"That's a nickname," Alex explains, unsure of what Ghim is asking. "It's a family thing."

"Good Alex," Ghims says. "I remembered only your name when I woke up in the cold."

Alex hesitates for a second, stammers, looks back and in her eyes, Kara can see the memory of her death, can remember gasping alive to find her sister clutching her once dead body. She does put her hand on Ghim's, and Kara follows the gesture, trailing from Alex's face down her arm and to Red Daughter's, Ghim's, scarred figure, so similar to her own. "We're family," Alex says gently.

Lena stares deep into her murky cafeteria mug, swirling the off brand tea bag until the water takes on an appropriate brown colour. She's just on the edge of being too tired, not quite irritable yet but it won't be long. At least the cafeteria is mostly empty at this time of the day, it's quiet, and no one is here to think too much about how Kara and her are sitting a bit too close to each other, how she leans on her comfortably. Well Kara is probably thinking about it, but overthinking is a Kara thing.

They could all be home right now, in their respective apartments off course, Alex could have texted them with more news from Red Daughter, Ghim, Lena chides herself ; but somehow staying felt important so here she is, waiting, and stirring her cafeteria tea.

The name is going to take some getting used to. She isn't even sure how to spell it and knows for sure she won't be able to pronounce it correctly with her human vocal cords ; which doesn't mean she won't try, Ghim deserves as much.

"You can go home you know," Kara offers, considerate and soft as always. "I'll text you if anything happens."

Just as Lena is about to refuse, Alex walks into the room, expertly navigating between the metal tables without lifting her head off her tablet. She plops down on a stool across from them, grabs Kara's drink and gulps down half of it without a single word. A beat passes before she puts the cup down during which she eyes Lena curiously and clears her throat.

"There's nothing we can do for her."

"That was ominous as fuck," Taylor mumbles.

"Language," Kara hisses.

"I don't want to cause you pain," Taylor laughs, "but it's a lost cause."

"Don't say that. Lost causes are like challenges for Kara." Alex snorts, then takes another sip out of Kara's cup, keeping it out of reach when her sister tries to grab it back from her. "What I meant to say," she adds, picking up her previous train of thoughts, "is that there's nothing more we can do for her. Except maybe develop an implant for her eye if she wants it. I gave her some sleeping meds so she can rest and I think we should find her a place to stay."

"I have a guest room," Lena offers immediately, straightening away from Kara, vaguely aware of how eager she sounds at the idea of being helpful.

"Isn't that just my room…?" Taylor points out slowly.

"Of course not !" Lena exclaims in reply, mildly astonished by the stupidity of the question. "I have multiple guest rooms."

"How many do you have exactly ?" Alex probs, the beginning of a smirk pulling on her mouth.

"Three. Well two now that I've converted one in an office. That's a perfectly normal amount." Lena says, only somewhat aware of the fact that her voice slipped far into defensiveness.

"I don't have a guest room," Kara frowns, "let alone three."

"You don't even have one bedroom Kara."

"That's," Kara gasps, her mouth hanging open for a second. "That's fair."

"Are you sure you're okay if she stays with you ?" Alex asks, redirecting the conversation. "This isn't some quest to right your brother's wrongs, right ?"

Lena sighs. She isn't sure if she can answer this question without lying. All she knows is that Ghim deserves a fair chance to start over and if she's in position of helping, she doesn't see why she shouldn't. "I really don't mind if she stays with me. As you kindly pointed out, I have more than enough space."

Kara eyes her for a moment, her gaze piercing and almost overbearing. Sometimes she feels like she can see right through to her, like there's no point in hiding anything from her because if Kara stares at her long enough, she will uncover all of her secrets. She doesn't know how she feels about it, what it says about her that she'd lay bare her deepest darkest thoughts at the mere flicker of her blue eyes. Maybe one day it'll be a good thing ; right now, it makes it hard to breathe.

Kara catches on that too, of course she does, and she averts her eyes to look at Alex instead. "Then it's settled," she says. "Ghim can stay with Lena. I'll lend her some clothes and we'll figure the rest out as we go."

"Or we could take her shopping," Taylor suggests.

"No," Alex cuts before they can add anything. "She has a history of hating consumerism and we are not traumatising her so early into her normal life."

"Her life is anything but normal," Taylor protests immediately. "She literally is a clone of the most powerful being on the planet !"

Taylor's got a point, and Lena wants to point that out but before she can agree with them, they're back to talking at full speed, spewing words out in a way that is very similar to Kara.

"I'm not saying we should take her on a shopping spree but maybe she could choose just one thing for herself. Jeans and a t-shirt ! So she can start defining herself away from Kara and not by what makes her like her or not like her. She can't just be Kara's clone, that wouldn't be fair to her."

"That's a good point Alex," Kara muses, gnawing on her lips thoughtfully.

"Fine," Alex concedes begrudgingly. "But we're asking her what she wants first. No traumatising her under my watch."

"Yes Director Danvers," Kara jokingly replies, saluting exaggeratedly.

"Shut up Kara. This is nothing but the third lost alien that falls on my lap. At this point, I'm an expert."

Taylor gasps in over-acted offence but the rest of the conversation is lost to Lena. On her way down from her mock salute, Kara slides her arm on the back of her chair, her fingertips just grazing the top of her shoulder, and all her senses zero in on that single point of contact.

Kara visits Ghim again before leaving, spends a long moment just looking at her sleeping. She knows on the scale of things you shouldn't do, it falls on the side of creepy ; but this is her clone, and she's curious. Truthfully, she didn't thought she would wake up at all ; she was already preparing herself for another Bizarro, gloomily planning an intimate kryptonian burial for when everyone would have come to the same realisation as her. But Red Daughter, Ghim, is very much alive and she's going to need a lot of help. Her help.

It's selfish and she knows it, but Kara wishes for one normal day, just once. Or maybe a quiet one, since normalcy for her ended a long long time ago. No supervillains, no clones, and no future child ; she wants to sleep in, wakes up on the side of just late enough that she'll still be on time to her actual job, get lunch with Lena and watch a movie with Alex, no interruptions. That's the only thing she asks for. Well that, and maybe potstickers, she's hungry.

She does get her potstickers ; Lena asks her driver to make a detour on the way home. She firmly insisted that she shouldn't fly home and Kara let her. There was no need for the strong argumentation though, she was convinced the moment she thought of their thighs pressing against each other in the back of a town car. She doesn't even care that Taylor is squished on her over side, periodically stealing her food like it's a somewhat acceptable thing to do. She's sleepy and feels a bit dizzy and when the car stops in front of her building, she doesn't immediately register that she's supposed to get out and bid Lena goodnight. To be completely fair, Lena hasn't moved either and unless Kara contorts over her, she won't be able to reach the door.

"So," she says, clearing her throat and feeling more awkward by the second, "this is my stop."

Lena shifts to look at her and blinks. "Right," she says.

"Thanks for the ride." She clears her throat again. This is ridiculous, they're best friends. "Wanna come up for a minute ? I have that wine you like ?"

Lena stares at her for the longest second of her life ; Kara feels her atoms coming apart under her gaze. "Sure," she says eventually, her eyes glazing over to the side before they refocus somewhere on her hands.

Beside Kara, Taylor snorts then coughs over a laugh. "I'm gonna go do literally anything else," they say. "Just let me know if you're staying over so I don't panic search for you in the middle of the night."

Kara turns back just in time to see Lena furiously blushing. "I won't be staying over," she mumbles before launching herself out of the car. Kara follows wordlessly.

In her apartment, she pours them both a glass of wine, even if this particular brand Lena likes tastes like nothing more than fancy mouldy grapes. They sit at the counter, face to face, a plate of organic cheese crackers that Kara has absolutely no recollection of buying set halfway in between them. It's not quite like what it used to be, they blew everything up and the foundations they're standing on now are rocky and unstable, but it's nice. Lena is lit up from behind by the living room light and she glows delicately. She looks almost intangible, like if Kara were to reach out to touch her she'd encounter nothing but smoke ; so she doesn't move, and looks only.

As her eyes trail on the wine stain on Lena's lips, she can't help but wonder who they'd be in another life. If they were regular people, would they have even met ? Probably not. Kara's normal and Lena's normal are different, and right now, they'd be light years apart, never to cross path. It's weirdly comforting, in a way Kara doesn't quite know how to unpack, that even if she lost everything, she got to have Lena. It makes it worth it in a way that makes her feel guilty and more than a little uncomfortable.

She shakes her head softly and Lena catches her eyes, a questioning glint in her irises. "Do I have something on my face ?"

"Uh ?" Kara produces very eloquently.

"You're staring."

"Oh. Well no. Yes. You have wine. On your lips."

Kara coughs awkwardly, hides behind her glass and gulps down her own wine uncouthly.

Lena blushes, again, and raises her hand to go wipe her lips. Before she can complete her intentions however, Kara grabs her hand, momentarily forgetting her fear of her disappearing into thin air. "Leave it."

Their hands hang midair for a moment before they come to rest on the countertop and Lena smiles softly, almost to herself. "You look light years away," she says after a beat and another sip of wine. "What are you thinking about ?"

You.

"Just," Kara waves dismissively. "Normal people."

"Normal people ?"

"Yeah," Kara breathes. "I mean my life will never be normal because my planet exploded and 99% of my people were wiped out, but you know, normalcy, what it could be like if I at least weren't Supergirl." She chuckles stiffly. "Sorry, that was dark."

"It's okay," Lena says slowly, like she's mulling over every syllables before agreeing to let them out. "I want to know about that." She coughs, takes another sip of wine. "I want to know all about you."

"Really ?"

"Yeah. Believe me, I wish I didn't," Lena says with no spite in her voice. "It's unfortunate, this need of knowing and being known. But I still want to know about all the parts you hid from me. If you want to."

"I sleep fly," Kara whispers, delightfully choking in the heavy atmosphere that descended on them. She feels drunk, and it can't be from the wine. "What would, what would your normal be like ?"

"If my mum weren't dead, I'd still be in Ireland. Probably. I'd have a berry farm."

"A berry farm ?"

"Yeah," Lena shrugs, "normal people stuff. And I think, I think I'd know all about stars, and at night I'd look for you. I'd know you're out there." She blinks, glances down at her empty glass. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that."

"You can take it back if you want," Kara offers in a breath, even if Lena's words are already engraved in her mind and playing on repeat.

"I won't." She sighs. "Can you take me home please ?"

"I thought I wasn't allowed to fly."

Lena tries to glare at her, but her gaze comes out soft and sleepy.

"Fine," Kara says, disentangling their hands. "Come here."

Lena rounds the table to wrap her arms around her neck ; she doesn't wait for Kara to fully lift her in a bridal carry to bury her head in it. Kara waits for a full minute, hovering in place in her kitchen. "I'd look for you too," she admits eventually. "Even on Krypton, even if I had everything, I'd look for you too."