Alex was beautiful. Uncaring of the water soaking her clothes and hair, Kara stared through the window of Flight 237. Rao, it had been so long since she'd seen her.

Unfortunately, a glimpse was all Kara could afford. Rotors beat the night air, and a bright, white beam of light cut the darkness. The news 'copters were out in force. Kara had to leave. She lifted her arm from the wing of the plane, extending it toward Alex for a heartbeat.

Alex didn't return the gesture. In fact, she turned away.

Nothing had changed then. Kara wearily pushed away from the plane and took off. She kept her altitude high enough to avoid detection from any other planes in the area. It took only moments before she landed on the balcony outside her apartment.

Her phone vibrated as she stepped through the French doors and into her living room. Once. Twice. It rattled non-stop for over a minute.

Kara waited until it stopped before unlocking the phone's screen. Then she laughed. Of course. There was one pithy text from Diana: I taught you better. We must practice flying again soon.

It was an old argument between them. More of a running joke now. She responded quickly. With or without a plane on my shoulder?

The other texts were equally amusing; although, not for the same reason. Each of the remaining texts were from Cat Grant. The first, a query on whether Kara had seen the rescue on the news. The final, a sharp demand for her to be at the CatCo offices early the next morning for a staff meeting. Kara acknowledged the request before tossing the phone onto the couch.

She needed a shower. The rescue hadn't been planned. Far from it. While Kara did use her powers outside the protective shield surrounding Themyscira, helping planes safely land wasn't in her workout regimen.

And food. Kara's stomach roared. Detouring long enough to retrieve her phone, Kara used her favorite online app to order a dozen pizzas. If she used superspeed to clean up, she'd be back and relaxed on the couch by the time they showed up.

Unfortunately, Kara had underestimated the delivery time. She'd barely dragged on her favorite Stanhope College sweats and hoodie before the doorbell buzzed. More than ready to devour her order and think about ice cream for dessert, Kara whipped open the door.

Her stomach would have to wait.

"Kara." Even tinged with exhaustion, Alex's husky voice brushed along Kara's nerves like an electrical current.

"How did you find me?" Why had Alex come looking after all this time? She hadn't appeared to have forgiven Kara when she'd spied Kara sprawled across the wing of the plane earlier. And Alex – the whole Danvers family – had maintained a chilly radio silence since Kara had run away the year after Kal had dumped her on the Danvers' front porch.

Alex's heart rate spike. Kara noticed the lines around her eyes tighten. "Can I come in?"

One evasion deserved another. Kara silently stepped back, giving Alex just enough space to slip into the apartment.

"Nice place." Moving across the room, Alex peered at the artwork on the walls. Paintings Kara had done of Argo and Themyscira. She seemed ill at ease, hands rubbing restlessly on her pant legs and avoiding Kara's gaze.

Kara was in no mood to help Alex gather her courage. She merely leaned against the back of the couch and waited.

She didn't wait long. "What the hell were you thinking today?" The words exploded into the air between them. "What if someone recognized you?"

An old refrain. One she'd heard countless times as a Danvers daughter. Kara shrugged.

"Kara!" Alex threw her arms out, her frustration clear.

"I'm glad you're OK, Alex." She wasn't indulging Alex in her fears. Kara Zorel was an Amazon warrior and the last daughter of a dead world. "How have you been? How are Eliza and Jeremiah?"

The questions stopped Alex's tirade. Not her scowl. That remained as she glowered at Kara.

Words dripping with bitterness, Kara continued. "I would have let you know I was in the area…but you never answered any of my cards or letters." One on each of Alex's birthdays.

"They're fine." Alex stuffed her hands into her coat pockets. "I don't see them much. Not since I joined the FBI." Her lips twisted. "Mom wasn't thrilled I left academia."

The FBI. Kara knew better. Alex didn't hunt human criminals. She hunted aliens. The knowledge burned in her chest, threatening to engulf her heart. "An agent." She desperately wanted to lash out. To challenge Alex. Instead, Kara walked into her kitchen and poured a glass of milk. "Can I get you anything?" Along with weapons training, Kara's Amazonian mentors had drilled her in etiquette.

"No. I…" Footsteps followed Kara; although, Alex remained outside the small kitchen area. "Kara, what's going on? What happened to you? Where did you go?" The questions rang through the apartment.

It was too much. The glass shattered in her grip. Milk soaked her dry clothing and dripped onto the floor.

Dripped and dripped.

Like Kara's tears on her last night in Midvale.

Lightning and thunder crashed. Kara huddled against the wall, tears squeezing out from tightly shut lids. Each sizzling crack and roll. So loud. So violent.

"Hey." Alex slid onto the bed next to Kara. She didn't say anything else. She simply slung an arm around Kara and pulled her onto her lap. Tucking Kara's head under her chin, Alex rocked them.

It didn't stop the noise, but Kara slowly relaxed into Alex's warmth. "Thank you." Alex was a wonderful protector. She smiled. "I wish you could have met Mother and Father. And Aunt Astra. She would have loved you."

"The General?" Kara had told Alex all about her family. "I'm not in her league. Or your parents."

"You are the perfect addition to the House of El." Kara couldn't believe Kal, who was far more human than Kryptonian after his time on Earth, had found such a wonderful bond mate for her. "When we bond, you'll even be an El. Alex Zor-El."

She didn't register the way Alex stiffened beneath her. Kara only knew there was a problem when Alex shoved her off her lap and stood. "Kara, I'm your sister." Her eyes had been so sympathetic as she she'd denied everything that had grown between them. "We can't ever be together that way."

"Kara?" Was Alex's voice the slighted bit concerned? Surely not.

Turning away, Kara grabbed a kitchen towel and gathered up the shards of glass and wiped up the puddle of milk. She focused on moving with plodding human speed as she threw away the towel and glass. Washed away the milk clinging to her fingers.

It was easier to regain her emotional control when she wasn't looking at Alex. "How long have you been in National City?" Kara asked, cursing her complete inability to confront Alex. To ask all the things she truly wanted to know.

A knock interrupted their painful and stunted conversation. This time, she looked through the door. "I ordered dinner," she announced as she strode to the door. "You're welcome to stay."

There was no immediate answer as Kara retrieved the armful of boxes from the gangly teen at the door. "Alex?"

"Yeah." The word sounded torn from Alex's throat. "I'd…I'd like that." At least se didn't appear angry any longer. Kara was too tired for that.

The rescue. Alex's whirlwind return to her life (followed, Kara was sure, by her swift departure). It all weighed her down until Kara felt as if she were swimming through the thick, sticky waters of Rao's Sacred Fountain in Kandor. "Make yourself comfortable. I know you said you didn't want anything earlier, but…"

Back in the kitchen, Kara heard Alex flop onto the couch. "Scotch, if you have it."

"No alcohol, I'm afraid. It doesn't do anything for me." And tasted like battery acid. Humans had the weirdest taste in drink. "I've got soda, water, and juice. There might be some wine as well." Diana enjoyed it whenever she visited.

"Soda's fine." The television clicked on.

A local news channel reporting on Kara's daring rescue. "Still no word on exactly who the mystery woman…"

Kara plated a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza for Alex. A favorite, Kara remembered. She even tore open a packet of crushed red pepper included in the box and sprinkled it on the same was a younger Alex had enjoyed.

Her own plate resembled a jigsaw puzzle of pizza. The layers stacked precariously high.

Plates, drinks, napkins, and silverware filled a heavy silver tray. "Here you go." Kara placed the tray on the coffee table. "Anything good on? If not, I've got Hulu and Netflix." The words were different, yet the situation was familiar.

"You…uh, want to watch a movie?" Alex held out a plate covered in sandwiches and chips. "I made enough for both of us." Her shy smile charmed Kara completely – and was the first time Alex seemed willing to spend time with her. "Come on. Curl up with me. I'll even let you pick."

Lost in the memory and the alluring fantasy of Alex in her home, Kara took the cushion next to Alex. She curled her feet under her and leaned into Alex's shoulder. "There's more pizza, if you want it. And I've got…"

"No. This is fine." Alex leaned forward and grabbed the smaller of the two plates. When she straightened, she'd turned to put her back against the armrest – and plenty of space between them.

Kara's plate remained on the coffee table. She stared desperately at the television where the inevitable rerun of Friends now played.

"When did you move to National City?" Alex played with her pizza, taking only single, tiny bite.

"Are we playing Twenty Questions?" Kara didn't believe for a minute that Alex hadn't known Kara had moved to the city. Or that she and the DEO hadn't been tracking Kara since she'd left the shielded safety of Themyscira. Acid burned her stomach.

This wasn't what she'd imagined when she'd grabbed Alex's plane out of the air.

Setting aside her own plate, Alex shrugged. "If you want." She pulled her knees up to her chest. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Her mischievous smile wormed its way through Kara's reluctance.

Mirroring Alex's position, Kara pulled the soft flannel blanket from the back of the couch and spread it across their legs. "I've been here almost a year." Until this moment, curled next to Alex and sharing (in theory) information, Kara hadn't realized she'd been in National City so long.

"What about you? Have you been in National City long?" Alex hadn't answered the first time Kara asked, and Kara was thirsty for information. Even if she already knew the answers. She'd tried to stay away; to hide from any news of Alex and the Danvers family.

For over nine years, Kara had huddled amid the Amazons. Away from technology while she learned to harness her powers. Her only contact with the outside world the cards and letters she sent (and later received back unopened).

Her first week in National City, Kara hadn't been able to resist the lure of the Internet. Search after search. Some legal. Most…less so, thanks to her advanced understanding of things humans only dabbled in.

"Alex?"

None of Alex's thoughts or emotions leaked into her expression. "Since I left medical school. Four…I guess maybe five years now." She barely paused. "Where did you go, when you left Midvale?"

Kara was good at keeping things hidden, too. Diana had drilled her until the urge to fidget and stammer became a sunny smile and a quick wit. "Nowhere and everywhere," she lied easily. "I ended up in Coast City. It's got a great art community." She waved at the art on the walls. "They didn't ask a lot of questions about my past."

She waited and watched as Alex absorbed her reply. "You spent this whole time in an art commune?"

Flashing a grin, Kara shrugged. "Why'd you leave medical school? You always wanted to be a doctor." And run a practice to help people like Kara. Kara gripped the blanket as tightly as she dared without punching her fingers through the fabric.

She'd hit a nerve. Alex's jaw clenched visibly before she shrugged. "It wasn't what I thought it would be."

Or the classes didn't come with enough Scotch. Kara had read Alex's final arrest report for driving under the influence. She also knew that Alex had finished her degree after joining the DEO. A physician who spit on the Hippocratic Oath by killing those from other planets or locking them away without due process in DEO black sites.

"Finally get over that crush? Are you seeing anyone?" Kara had definitely hit a sore spot, and Alex had taken off the gloves.

Grin hardening despite Herculean effort, Kara fought to keep voice level. "Not at the moment." Not ever. Kara was already committed. Something Alex knew very well but had clearly chosen to ignore.

"It's been years, Kara. Give it up!" Alex snapped.

"It's been years!" The words echoed in Kara's mind, merging with another voice shouting them at her.

Cleo stared at Kara. Tears streaked her face as she took Kara's hands and dropped to her knees. "I love you, mikrós ílios. She has dishonored your traditions and broken your troth. I will not. I will spend eternity proving myself worthy of your heart, Kara Zor-El."

The devotion in Cleo's eyes, the pleading in her voice… Kara pulled away and pressed a hand to her mouth to hold in her pain. She wanted to say yes. Diana and the Amazons had given her a home. A family to replace the one she had lost. Yet Kara was still alone. "I can't," she whispered. "Kal-El betrothed me to Alex; I am bound to her, regardless of her denial." Bound forever. There had been no divorce on Krypton. Kara was the last daughter of the House of El. Honor and tradition were all she had left of her culture. "I'm so sorry."

"I can't." Kara repeated her response to Cleo. "You know that, Alex. You were very clear that you would never accept our…" Her voice wavered. Broke. "I know you'll never wear my bonding bracelet," the delicate, jeweled bracelet she'd handmade under the tutelage of Io herself, with boulder opals that had reminded Kara of Alex's eyes, "but you don't need to mock me or my Kryptonian traditions."

Unable to play their game any longer, Kara stood and grabbed the plates. Neither of them was eating, and Kara knew she wouldn't eat later. Her stomach, once growling like a grizzly, was now twisted into knots. "I guess holding a plane was harder than I thought. I'm tired."

She didn't come right out and demand Alex leave. However, Queen Hippolyta would have sentenced Kara to a week as Antiope's sparring partner for the breach of manners. Kara dumped the pizza into a trash bag with slow, dull movements.

Alex gripped her shoulders, and Kara's eyes slid shut at the warm weight. At the strength.

Before she could give in, could lean into them, they were gone. The front door closed with a soft thump, reminding Kara that Alex would always walk away. Taking Kara's hopes and dreams with her.