As the week went by, the imminent threat of Gemma subsided and started to lull Kara into a false sense of security. By Friday, she was bright and bubbly, carefree on the surface. Lena, on the other hand, was a different story. The longer there was peace, the more on edge Lena felt. She knew that this was Gemma's buildup, and she could feel the tension crackling in the air like the calm before a storm. The clock was ticking on how long Lena had to figure out a solution, but she didn't have any idea how much time she had left.

Lena spent her evenings after chess locked in her room, analyzing case after case and sifting through countless accusations brought against the Coopers, most of which ended in the Coopers paying copious amounts of money to settle the case so it would never actually come to fruition. She told her friends she had a lot of studying to do for extra credit assignments, and they were all quick to take her at her word. It made her feel a little bit guilty, but she told herself that it was just a little white lie for the greater good.

They weren't even halfway through the day on Friday when Lena found herself leaning her chin on her hand in class and tuning the sound of her teacher's voice out in favor of daydreaming, which in turn made her eyelids feel heavy. She wanted more than anything in that moment to be able to fall asleep in class, but she held herself to incredibly high standards, and there was no way she'd forgive herself for falling asleep in class the way other students could.

"Hey, Lena," Kara whispered, nudging her friend's shoulder and snapping her out of her tired daze. The teacher had announced that the rest of the period could be used to work with other students on the homework for the night, and other groups of students around the room were beginning to chatter amongst themselves quietly. When Lena met Kara's gaze, the blonde's eyes widened. "Are you okay?" she asked then, her expression changing quickly from an inquisitive smile to a concerned frown. "I noticed you looked tired earlier but you look like you're practically sleepwalking. You have been sleeping, haven't you?"

"Of course, I've been sleeping," Lena muttered quietly, offering Kara a reassuring smile. "I'm used to a busy schedule. It's just like I said earlier, I just have a lot of assignments to get done this week." Kara seemed to accept her answer and nodded, and Lena let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Anyways, what were you about to ask me?"

"Oh, right!" Kara perked up, her eyes glimmering as she slid the homework she was working on toward Lena. It was a blank photo of the United States that they were supposed to label with states and capitals. Tapping Texas with her pencil, she asked, "Isn't this one Britain?"

Her face turned beet red when Lena started to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Kara asked defensively, drawing the paper back toward her slightly.

"Kara, first of all," Lena said, her hand hovering over her mouth and nose as she tried to stifle her laughter, "that's Texas. Second of all, that's a map of the United States. Which it clearly says at the top of the page. And Britain is a country."

Kara mouthed a quick oh as she scrawled the word Texis on the page. She looked back at Lena for confirmation and found that the raven-haired girl was looking at her with an eyebrow cocked, and she merely gave Kara a small shake of her head with a smile.

"It's spelled with an 'a,' not an 'i,'" Lena said softly, her tone less jovial and teasing than it had been before. "I'm sorry for laughing, I know you didn't have education about our country growing up, I was just surprised. You didn't learn about which countries were involved in the world wars?"

"World wars…" Kara said on autopilot as she stared with her eyebrows furrowed in thought at Florida. "I mean, we just didn't learn about them in detail, that's all," she said, shrugging. "Countries and wars and… stuff like that… we learned about later on." She cringed inwardly at her response, knowing that she was a terrible liar. She knew all about Krypton's wars and history in solid detail. She knew the name of each city-state and their locations by heart. But this wasn't Krypton. This was Earth. And she was supposed to be acting like she'd lived on Earth her whole life.

To her relief and surprise, Lena bought her response. Kara appreciated how sensitive Lena was to what she was going through. Even if Lena didn't know she was Kryptonian necessarily, she knew things had been different for Kara growing up and she was more than willing to accept that about her and help her adjust to life in a completely new place. Kara found her eyes resting on Lena for a bit longer than she had originally intended them to, as her mind fished for some other question to ask that wouldn't be so risky. Unfortunately, her best guess for Florida was France, and she had a feeling she was wrong about that one too. She'd just have to have Alex help her later.

Lena glanced her way and Kara found her eyes quickly snapping back down to the map. Had she been staring long? She hoped Lena hadn't noticed or thought it was weird. She felt heat rising to her cheeks as she hunched over her paper, deciding to cheat off of the student on her other side on just a couple of states so that Lena wouldn't be suspicious or notice her flustered expression.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Over lunch, Kara insisted that everyone come to her and Alex's room that night to have a game night. Winn was almost fully recovered from his concussion and it was still too soon for any major exams to be popping up. The only question mark in the equation was Lena, who constantly seemed to have far too much on her plate despite the year just starting to pick up pace. Looking at all of their pleading faces, Lena found herself laughing and agreeing, knowing it would be good for her to relax and spend time with friends despite the gnawing feeling that she was running out of time.

As she dragged herself to chess with Lex, her hands trembling from the amount of caffeine in her system and her head spinning with exhaustion, she hoped she'd catch a second wind before game night started. Pausing outside of her brother's door, propped open with the deadbolt, Lena took a deep breath and forced her hands to steady and her mind to focus before she walked in and sat across from Lex at his chess table. She hadn't spoken with him about Gemma since the information he'd given her earlier in the week. He hadn't offered, and she hadn't pried. She still didn't know whose side he was on, and she didn't want to poke a bear that may still be asleep for all she knew.

Twenty-seven seconds. That was how long it took for Lex to give her one glance and ask, "Did you get hit by a bus? You look horrible."

"Gee, thanks," Lena grumbled as she took her turn. "I've just been busy."

"This early in the year?" Lex shot back without missing a beat. "Lee, you know you can tell me anything. Is this about your friend, Kara?"

Lena snapped her gaze up to his. She should've known better than to think she could hide under the scope of his calculating eyes. He was perceptive, and he knew exactly which buttons to push. She remained silent as she moved one of her pieces and quietly took one of his pawns off of the board.

"Oh, relax," Lex rolled his eyes. "You really think I care more about Gemma than I do about you? I'm not going to help her hurt your friend, if that's what you think. You've been weird since I mentioned I can sympathize with her. I can understand her desire for revenge, but that doesn't mean I want anything to do with it. So, come on, spill. What have you really been up to?"

Lena looked up again then, feeling a combination of surprise and relief seep through her. It was no shock to her that Lex could come to these conclusions by simply analyzing her body language, but she was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was on her side. She watched for a moment as he took his turn, a thoughtful look on her face as she paused to gather her thoughts.

"I've been going through all of the old Cooper court cases to see if there's any lead on why Gemma's mother died, how, or who could've killed her. It's been a week already and I'm not even through an entire year's worth. It's just taking a lot out of me, but I'm not going to ask you to turn on your girlfriend."

Lex let out an uproarious laugh, and Lena cocked an eyebrow at him curiously.

"She's not my girlfriend," he said, chuckling. "And besides, she's certainly not family. In any case, I see no problem with going through court cases. After all, it is public record. She is well aware of the fact that even I, for instance, could go through those records if I wanted to."

Lena's eyes widened. "Do you mean…"

"Well, you clearly can't go through all of those cases by yourself, it'll take you until you're eighty if it doesn't kill you first."

"Well, thank you," Lena sighed, smiling gratefully.

"Sure thing," he said, giving her a quick smile. It quickly fell into a more serious expression, however. "But speaking of family…"

"No," Lena said bluntly.

"You didn't even hear what I was going to say," Lex said, his voice lacking emotion aside from a slight tinge of annoyance at being cut off before he'd even explained.

"I don't care," Lena muttered. "If it has to do with Lillian, I don't want to hear about it."

"You don't get a choice, princess," Lex said, his tone teasing but with a bit of an edge that told her he wasn't kidding. "She's visiting on Sunday. Apparently, she wants to check in, see how things are going, whatever."

"Are you serious?" Lena asked incredulously. "What reason could she possibly have for that? She's never cared enough to check in before. Will father be here, too?"

"She said he's too busy with work and won't be able to make it, and honestly, I have no reason why she's coming, but she'll be here. Maybe you could bring one of your little friends along with you to diffuse the tension since father won't be able to be a buffer? She might be less inclined to rip into you in front of some kid she doesn't know. She's all about her appearances, after all."

Lena bit back a laugh. "Why the hell would I subject them to that?"

She was surprised to see Lex's eyes soften. He smiled a little and said, "I mean, friendship goes both ways, you know. Seeing as how you aren't sleeping because you're breaking your back over one of them now, I just figured it might be nice to bring one of them along. It's not like it's a secret that our mother is atrocious. I'm sure they wouldn't want you to go through this alone."

Lena eyed him cautiously. "You always know the right things to say," she said, sounding good natured, although her eyebrows remained slanted in a guarded manner. "Checkmate."

"Well played," Lex commented as he stood up from his chair, gesturing to the side of the chess table to indicate that she should do the same. "Think about what I said. And I'll send you a list of the cases I get through. In the meantime, you need to get some sleep. Go take a nap or something."

Walking out of his room, she glanced at her watch to see that there were still a few hours before her friends wanted to meet up. Lex had a point; she did need to rest, and she was sure her friends wouldn't want a groggy and grouchy Lena hanging out with them later. Heading back to her room, she plopped down on her bed, and within moments of her head hitting the pillow, she was fast asleep.

Kara, meanwhile, was sitting in the library with Andrea, working on a project for another of Kara's classes that she didn't share with Lena. Kara was looking through books for information and giving it to Andrea to incorporate into the PowerPoint presentation they were making. Once they finished getting information and the only thing left to do was finish and refine the presentation, they decided to take a break for a bit.

"Hey, how've things been for you lately?" Andrea asked as she relaxed back in her seat in front of the computer. "I know the adjustment was hard and all, but you seem brighter these days."

Kara beamed at Andrea. "I've actually been doing great, and it's all thanks to the friends I've made here, like you! I definitely had a rocky start, but I think things are finally starting to look up for me."

"That's wonderful to hear," Andrea replied, giving her a warm smile. "And I'm really glad I've been able to help you so far. I haven't had the best track record with friends, so it's nice to feel like I actually have one again."

Kara tilted her head curiously. "Well, you do have one. I am your friend. If you don't mind me asking, why are you so hesitant to believe that?"

Andrea averted her eyes from Kara's, shrugging. "I don't want to change the way you see anyone at this school…"

Reaching out, Kara gently placed an encouraging hand on Andrea's shoulder. "I believe everyone can be good, Andrea. You won't make me see anyone differently, the only thing that can come of this is you having someone who understands what you've gone through. You can trust that I'm a friend."

Andrea's eyes flicked back up to Kara's, mock surprise on her face. But just as Kara had been falling for the rest of the act, she was quick to believe that look, too. The blonde smiled at Andrea encouragingly, urging her silently to share.

"Well, you know Lena…" Andrea said slowly. She had to quell the smug smile that threatened to spread across her face when she saw a look of surprise cross Kara's face. "She was actually my best friend a while ago. When she was a new kid, we became friends a lot like you and I did. She didn't really have any friends and was sort of an outcast. We had a lot in common, so I befriended her one day, and we just clicked.

"We both had big goals, and one of mine is to find a medallion that my mother, who is gone now, spent a huge portion of her life searching for. I remember it merely from my memories of her, and I want to honor her by finding it. It's supposedly deep in a jungle somewhere. Lena promised to help me find it… we had this saying because we both loved the Titanic. You jump, I jump. But then… about a year later, I overheard her telling Gemma Cooper the same exact story. She was looking for the medallion behind my back for herself, and she stole my real, lived experience to use as her story. She wasn't even clever enough to come up with a better lie! I mean, who would make that up?"

"I can't believe Lena would do that," Kara said firmly, her eyes focused on the table. Her shoulders were tense and her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. She looked like she was just barely keeping her composure together, and Andrea had a feeling the only reason she was restrained was because she'd assured the brunette that it wouldn't change how she viewed anyone.

"I couldn't, either," Andrea said, her voice thick with emotion as she willed fat tears to brim and fall from her eyes. "That's why it's hard for me to make friends now… and that's why I'm pretty cold to everyone. I just couldn't believe she would betray me like that. I really can't trust a word she says."

"I'm sorry, I promise I'll finish my part of the project by Sunday, but I need to… I'm late for… I have a meeting," Kara blurted out pathetically, standing up quickly from the table. She froze when Andrea grabbed her wrist. Taking a deep breath to try to steady herself and focus her reeling mind, she glanced back at the other girl, who now had tears cascading down her cheeks.

"I thought…" Andrea mumbled, "you said we were friends?"

Kara felt sick to her stomach. Fuck. She needed to process what Andrea had just told her. But it wasn't in her nature to leave the girl sobbing, alone, and thinking she had no friends in the library. Sitting back down, Kara sighed.

"We are," she said softly, "but up until right now, I thought Lena was my friend, too. This is just… it's a lot to process. I understand your pain, your loss, and I know an 'I'm sorry for your loss' doesn't cut it. You deserve to find that medallion for your mother. That is not something anyone else should be able to take away from you. But, I'm just… I'm confused."

"You believe me, don't you?" Andrea pressed.

Kara frowned. "Truthfully, Andrea, I don't know. The Lena I know… I just can't wrap my head around it. And if you are telling the truth, I need to figure out how to come to terms with that. We can talk about this if you really want to later this weekend, but I just need a second to think. Is that okay? Do you trust me?"

Andrea nodded. "I get it. It's a crazy story. I'm telling the truth, Kara. Please just… don't fall into her trap, okay? If you want more of the story, we should get coffee tomorrow. I'm afraid there's a lot you don't know about her."

"I'll let you know," Kara said, finally breaking free from the conversation and heading out of the library before she could feel the need to stay any longer. Her mind was spinning and her glasses were doing nothing to block her powers, which she assumed was a result of her tumultuous emotions. Conversations scattered throughout the hallway bombarded her ears like sirens, and by the time she got to her room, she was practically jogging to escape it. As she closed the door, finding the room empty, she felt the energy drain from her bones and she sat down at her desk, burying her head in her arms and forcing herself to calm down.

Andrea's story seemed crazy, but given everything Kara had seen at the school so far made her think it wasn't necessarily far-fetched—if it had been anyone other than Lena. But Lena? Kara had no reason to think she was anything other than genuine. Sure, she was a Luthor, but that wasn't who Lena was at heart. And, frankly, Kara didn't understand what she had done to deserve to be treated like Lillian Luthor. It wasn't like she'd done anything bad to earn that treatment, aside from share their last name. But if what Andrea said was true…

If what Andrea said was true, so much of what Kara believed would be put on the stand. Specifically, Kara could see a clear parallel between what happened to Andrea and Lena's promise not to go digging into Gemma's past. Was it pure coincidence that Lena had been exhausted to the point of nearly falling asleep in class all week, and on Monday she'd promised not to spend her free time trying to figure out what happened to Gemma's mother?

Kara couldn't recall a time when she'd felt more conflicted than this. Even as she was being sent off from Krypton, she'd felt determined, prepared, as much as she could've been. Her parents had reassured her that she had a mission, and that she was more than capable of fulfilling that mission. But now, she felt confused and didn't know what to believe. Running a hand through her hair, she realized that there would be no way for her to know without spending more time with both Lena and Andrea and trying to figure out the whole story. Her intuition warned her that Andrea's story was bullshit, but it was Lena's words that rang loudest in her head.

Kara, don't be naïve.

…

When Lena awoke, she found that she still had about an hour to spare. Fixing up her hair, she made her way over to her desk and opened her laptop. Typing her password in, her computer opened up to a list of private tabs with PDF files of the Coopers' cases. She also found that she had a message from Lex, telling her that he'd managed to get through a few cases and letting her know where he'd left off.

Launching into research, Lena quickly breezed through a couple of minor disputes that weren't of interest. She was beginning to think that she wouldn't find anything until later on when a couple of cases caught her eye. They were back to back cases, both of which hadn't ended in settlements. The first was brought against Gemma's mother by a woman named Myza Nok-Ur, who claimed that Gemma's mother possessed high amounts of a concentrated chemical in violation of federal law, and she claimed that the chemical had been used to enhance a bullet which ultimately killed her son, Qonn-Ur. The case did not name the chemical component, which Lena found to be odd. Admissible evidence should have been public record, but the spot where it should've been was almost too conveniently missing from the PDF file.

Myza claimed that Gemma's mother was the one who had discovered how to properly produce the chemical synthetically, and along with having a hidden massive arsenal of the substance from its original source hidden, she was capable of producing more. She explained that she and her son were alien immigrants, and once again, the name of their planet was mysteriously left off of the record. Her son had gotten tied up in gang work because he thought it was the only way to help his mother pay the bills, and Gemma's mother had supposedly supplied white collar criminal organizations with the chemical along with a large sum of money so that they would be able to take out Qonn-Ur and any aliens like him, if there were any left.

To Lena's surprise, Gemma's mother was found guilty. The government seized the arsenal, but her knowledge of how to produce the synthetic chemical was never uncovered. It seemed that it died with her. Gemma's mother was sentenced to life in prison, but she died before she ever stepped foot in one. The very next case was a murder accusation brought against none other than Myza Nok-Ur, for the cold blooded and premeditated first degree murder of Beatrice Cooper.

The Coopers, this time, claimed that Myza snapped after Beatrice was sentenced to life in prison rather than death, and took it upon herself to kill Beatrice the same day the trial ended, in her hotel room—of course, being as rich as she was meant that she had plenty of time to gather herself before formally being sent to prison, despite having been found guilty of indirectly killing a minor.

However, the actual evidence was inconclusive. If Myza had killed Beatrice, she had avoided leaving any DNA trace, and had easily staged it as a suicide. The Coopers fought tooth and nail to try and convince the jury that it had been the work of Myza and that Beatrice would never kill herself, but in the end, Myza was found innocent, and Lena was sure it must've been the only trial the Coopers had ever truly lost. Why, then, did it not receive more media attention? Even the Coopers could only do so much to have things buried.

Frowning, Lena opened a new tab to search for information on Myza. To her surprise, she found articles about Myza's death, which came about six months after she was found innocent. She had been killed in her home by a bullet coated in the same chemical—one again unnamed—that had killed her son. Upon further investigation, it was found that the chemical was, in fact, the synthetic form which Beatrice had discovered how to produce. It was unclear who still had the knowledge and capability to produce the chemical, but one thing was certain; it did not truly die with Beatrice.

Lena sat back in her chair, her eyebrows furrowed as the gears in her head churned to put the puzzle pieces together. Whether or not it had been Myza who murdered Beatrice, it was clearly Myza's kind and her son's gang that the Coopers butted heads with regarding her death. Furthermore, it was pretty apparent that Myza and her son were aliens who were likely the last of their kind. But some things didn't add up to her. If they were the last of their kind, why go to such lengths to find out how to keep producing the chemical? Why continue to seek revenge once Myza was gone? And what on Earth did Kara have to do with it? It wasn't like Kara was an alien, why would she hide that from Lena? Besides, everything had taken place before Kara even moved to the United States. What connections could she possibly have to Myza or Qonn-Ur's gang?

Just then, Lena was shaken out of her thoughts by a knock at her door. Quickly shutting her laptop, she stood and headed to the door, glancing at the time to see that it was nearly time for game night. Opening the door, she found a smiling Kara with a couple bags of chips and candy.

"I was just headed back from grabbing some snacks and I figured I'd stop by and see if you wanted to just head over with me now? Everyone else will be coming by pretty soon!"

Lena gave her a small smile. She'd finally started to crack the code; putting the pieces together could wait.

"Of course, I'll come over now!"

Lena was too wrapped up in her spinning thoughts about everything she'd just read to notice the confused and slightly hurt looks Kara was occasionally throwing her way as they walked down the hall, her eyes studying the Luthor as if she could figure out who was telling the truth by merely watching Lena walk. She wanted desperately to believe that Lena wasn't going against her wishes behind her back, and that she hadn't gone against Andrea's wishes behind her back, either. But, it was like Andrea said, who would make that up?

A/N I'm baaaack! Sorry this chapter took me so long, I actually had about three quarters of it written and my computer died before I could save it, so I lost the entire thing and had to rewrite. I was pretty unmotivated to rewrite it for a while.

Anyways, I just got a burst of inspiration and came up with a lot of neat plot points and twists down the road, and I thought this was a great time to start giving you guys regular updates again!

I hope you enjoy this chapter, shit is about to hit the fan folks!

Thank you all for the kind words and reviews so far, I appreciate all of your suggestions and will definitely be working to incorporate your critiques and suggestions into the plot!

Until next time!

Nana