Chapter 6

"Wait. So, you built a prison on the island you were marooned on for five years?" Kara asked, a little stunned. "Isn't that a little…"

"Ironic? Masochistic? Totally insane?" Oliver smirked as he cut over her. "John said something similar."

The mint-chip had long since been eaten, the empty carton now sat on the coffee table with a single spoon resting in it. A second bottle of wine had joined the first and now that was almost empty too, even though Oliver was only on his second glass. Unsurprisingly, Kara had drunk more of it than he had, being as the alcohol didn't affect her she was far less concerned about her pace. Oliver was a lot more reserved about it, taking much slower and less frequent sips, Kara had to reason that he was cautious about consuming alcohol.

Kara wasn't too sure of how long it had been since Oliver had arrived at her apartment. After he'd agreed to stay and talk they hadn't moved from the sofa, just lost in the enjoyment of the other's company. Oliver seemed a little more relaxed than she had ever seen him before though, the perpetual tenseness in his shoulders was gone and his lips hardly seemed to falter from a smile, and Kara couldn't help but to be a little proud of herself for it.

Ever since they'd started to fall into more comfortable conversation about their lives, Kara had been trying to poke a little into the 'real' Oliver Queen. Perhaps it was the journalist in her or perhaps it was just because she wanted to get to know him better, Kara wasn't sure, but regardless she had been doing her best to avoid coming off as a little too blunt. There'd been some openness from Oliver though, not as much as Kara would have liked, but she could appreciate his need for secrets.

Most of what he'd actually spoken about was after he had become The Green Arrow, or 'The Hood' as he had first been called on his return home. He had told her about training Barry, and Kara couldn't help but to laugh along with him as he'd regaled her with the story of shooting the speedster (it had made Kara even more thankful for having impenetrable skin). He'd told her about his friends; Roy Harper, Laurel Lance, Tommy Merlyn, and so many of the people who had given their all to his crusade.

Despite the almost light air around them, the conversation had hit Kara hard. It had been a little strange for her, seeing and hearing him open up the way he did, the usually impregnable stone walls of The Green Arrow had dropped, and Kara had managed to have a conversation with Oliver Queen instead. She had to wonder how many other people had seen this side of him, the man beneath all the anger and bravado. That man, Kara had decided, was one she would definitely like to get to know better.

"As prisons go that's…secure." Kara smiled a little, still somewhat thrown by the revelation. "It seems like the D.E.O. has at least one breakout a year."

"Well, I am yet to have that problem." Oliver smiled back. "Not that anyone could get off the island if they escaped, but that's the point, right?"

"I haven't meet a prison that can actually hold its inmates." Kara answered, thinking about all the trouble she'd had since becoming Supergirl. "I mean, half the bad guys I fought last year were escapees from Fort Rozz."

"Military base?" Oliver questioned before taking a sip from his wine, his eyes not leaving Kara as he did.

"Kryptonian Supermax." Her response went unanswered by Oliver, and Kara could practically see the gears grinding behind his eyes as he mentally sorted the new information. "And most of the criminals who escaped wanted me dead because my mom sent them there. Small universe, huh?"

It had become something Kara almost had to laugh about. The ridiculousness of it all. Fort Rozz had been home to the worst of the galaxy's worst, escaped the Phantom Zone because of her, and unleashed a frightening number of criminals onto Earth, but just to top it off they had all wanted to kill her because of what her mother had done. The odds of it all were astronomically low, she'd actually gotten bored one particularly crime free afternoon and done the math, but still it happened. What else was she to do but try and laugh it away? It wasn't as though getting angry about it would make a difference.

When she met Oliver's eyes though, she could see something in them. Not pity as she'd almost expected, but understanding. It wasn't a reaction she was accustomed to, there was no one who could have known that pain. Yet, there was Oliver Queen, those captivating blue eyes Kara just couldn't look away from betraying empathy that was foreign to her. How could he understand?

"I know a little about having to deal with the sins of your parents." Oliver spoke as if reading her mind. He swallowed then, taking a breath before continuing. "It feels like this weight, constantly pushing down on you and no matter how hard you try, you can never get used to carrying it. You can work out until every muscle in your body aches, repent to everyone they wronged, fight every single one of those demons they left behind but it…it's never enough."

And there it was. Everything Kara had hoped for, because Oliver did understand. She'd never been able to fully realise it herself, to put into words exactly what is was she felt after learning the truth about her parents. Her mother and her father had both kept secrets, done things that just didn't match up with the people she had known them to be, and Kara had never thought anyone else would really understand that. Oliver had done it, like it was any other day he'd been able to explain her own feeling to her better than she had ever been able to realise.

"Oliver, I…" There were no words for her to use, no real response that she could give.

"You know, Barry told me a little about you, how you ended up on Earth." Oliver spoke, his eyes dropping from Kara's for a moment as the index finger of his left hand began to tap against his leg. "I've seen a lot, doing what we do. A lot of pain. A lot of suffering. But I… I never got a chance to tell you…to say sorry."

When Oliver met her eyes again there was something else in them. Gone was the understanding and empathy, replaced by true heartbreak. It hadn't escaped Kara's notice that Oliver avoided talking about his family, and after what had been said she could only draw one conclusion. Even with that, the look in his eyes told her that he knew about Krypton, because those eyes were just how she saw her own in the mirror some mornings.

She couldn't answer him. There was nothing that could even come close to expressing the cacophony of thoughts in her mind. The sadness, the frustration, the longing for a home that could never be satisfied, the connection she had suddenly discovered with Oliver Queen. Kara's mind was never an easy place to be, but then, sat on a couch just across from a man who almost seemed to understand her, things seemed to much more complicated, yet infinitely simpler at the same time.

"Kara, you…you're incredible. To have gone through what you did and to come out so…optimistic, so untainted by it all. I don't think I could have done it." Oliver continued.

It was then Kara realised how close the two had moved. It was both that had done it. They'd started the evening on opposite ends of the couch, using the armrests and cushions for back support, and now they'd all-but met in the middle. Bodies angled towards each other, Kara's legs crossed under her, two sets of blue eyes glistening in the lamplight as they looked into each other.

There was nothing left to be said. Kara's eyes dropped from Oliver's, inching down to his lips, her mind suddenly equally as focused on them as it had been his eyes a moment ago. The way Oliver moved a little closer told her that he had done the same. They were both, in that moment, connected, in a way neither had felt before. Their minds not questioning the way their bodies decided to gravitate towards each other, inching a little closer.

Kara's eyes drifted shut then, her own Oliver's lips slowly closing the remaining few inches between them. She could practically feel the heat coming off him, the electricity that sparked between them. A moment that she had too easily lost herself in and then…

Sirens.

They both pulled apart, the sound piercing into the room through the open balcony doors. Kara didn't say a word as she super-sped her way into her uniform and took to the skies, after all, the mission came first, right?

XXX

They didn't talk about it after that, Oliver had made sure of it. The week that had followed had been completely void of even a hint of the events of that night. He'd known full well that Kara wouldn't be the one to broach the subject, she was far too nervous about it, and Oliver had no intentions of being the one to do so. He couldn't afford the distraction, not now, not ever. He had allowed himself to drift a little too close, to open himself up a little too much to a woman from a planet he would never even see. What had nearly happened with Kara was something Oliver needed to make sure would never happened again.

Yet, he'd enjoyed the evening. Spending time with Kara, learning about her, allowing himself to let someone else in, it had been oddly liberating. Even with everything they had talked about, he had felt more like Oliver Queen then than he had in a long time. Maybe even the first time in 10 years. Kara was incredible, it hadn't been a lie. When he really thought about it Kara made sense. When he had been though his crucible, he had come out ruthless and angry at the world. Kara had experience heartbreak on a scale Oliver could never fully understand but she dealt with it by seeing the best in everything and everyone, the naivety and gratuitous happiness made a lot of sense when he really thought about it.

Still he couldn't let himself get any closer to her. Kara had said it herself, they were from different worlds, quite literally. So, he had done what he always did; thrown himself into his work. For a whole week Oliver had worked in tandem with the D.E.O., pouring over the Cadmus casefiles, looking into everything they could. The Green Arrow had hit the streets to interrogate known sympathisers, Oliver and Winn had searched databases, satellites, and anything else they could think of.

Cadmus was an interesting opponent if nothing else. It had long been one of Oliver's beliefs that large groups of people were incapable of keeping secrets, it was the reason he was so protective of his identity, and yet Cadmus seemed to have resources everywhere but no weak links. Lillian Luthor was the one promising lead they had, and only because of her daughter Lena. The moment Oliver had brought that one up Kara had shot him down, stating that Lena was nothing to do with the group, especially after she had been falsely accused of aiding Cadmus a few weeks prior.

Even with that, Oliver still wanted to question her. He had managed to narrow down a handful of locations that were likely to be Cadmus safehouses, and a little light recon had helped to confirm his suspicions, but there were still a lot of locations and potential allies of the organisation that he couldn't fully eliminate or confirm. Though, Kara was the one holding him back. She hadn't said much to him, in fact they had hardly spoken the last seven days, but they had more or less patched things up, and he wasn't too keen to have to apologise to her again any time soon.

Then again, he had posed the question to Winn as they had been working, Kara had asked for his help to track down her adoptive-father, surely, she would forgive him easily enough if he got results?

"I don't know, man." Winn answered, looking up from his computer. "Kara remembers, Kryptonian brain, you know? Pretty much means she'll never forget a thing. If you go after Lena and it doesn't pan out, you…you might be screwed."

Drumming his fingers again the desk, Oliver pondered the answer. They were beginning to run out of leads, there was only so much more information to pour over and after that no amount of work would change anything. What they really needed was a new injection of facts, someone who could give them enough of a push in the right direction that they might be able to tick a few more things off the list.

With a heavy sigh Oliver rose to his feet, mind made up and a plan in place. The look Winn gave him was an understanding, if a fearful one. The I.T. genius had clearly recognised the look of determination in Oliver's eyes and deduced his plan, even if Oliver wasn't wholly convinced of it himself.

Donning the Green Arrow suit once more, Oliver took to the streets. The D.E.O. had loaned him a bike identical to the one he owned back on his Earth, and it had made navigation a lot easier. Over the last week he had come to know National City fairly well, stalking xenophobes from rooftops had certainly aided with that one. From what they knew of her, Lena Luthor would be working late, and the L-Corp building wasn't hard to find at all. Much as Queen Consolidated had been, the building stood near central to the city, the emblem proudly emblazoned across the top few floors for all too see.

With a few well-placed arrows, Oliver was at the balcony. The glass walls confirmed their suspicious, and a few words to Winn cut the power to the building. Stepping through the partly opened door, The Green Arrow stood tall.

"Lena Luthor." The voice modulator warbled. "I need your help."

XXX

Kara didn't get the alert until a little too late. She hadn't been looking at her phone, too busy working late on an article for Snapper and trying to avoid Oliver. Things had been…strained between them since the kiss that had almost been. Okay, so maybe strained was an understatement but still. There had been a silent realisation between the two of them; their lives were complicated enough, they couldn't let things get any more difficult. But then, Kara's subconscious had argued, why did being around Oliver that night feel so simple?

Either way, it had gone undiscussed. Oliver hadn't even attempted to bring it up, and his reluctance intimidated Kara enough to not say anything at all. She'd just thrown herself into her work, just as she knew Oliver had done, and they had managed to find a vague semblance of normality.

Her need to be distracted was what Kara blamed for missing the alert on her phone. After thwarting two separate robberies at the building, Kara had convinced Winn to set her up to be notified if anything suspicious happened at the L-Corp building. As soon as the security team there registered something, the bug Winn placed in their server would send out an alert to Kara's phone. She'd finally pulled it out of her bag when her eyes had begun to strain from all the reading, and the flashing bubble on the lock screen had made her eyes go wide:

L-Corp

Security alert. 15mins ago

She hadn't hesitated after that. Leaving everything at her desk and rushing to the roof to head for L-Corp, one of the few perks of working late was that she didn't need to worry about being seen, there was only a skeleton crew on staff. It had taken less than a minute for Supergirl to arrive at the balcony to Lena's office, and when she did, it was an odd sight.

There had been nothing on the approach. None of her powers had picked up anything out of the ordinary. The same was true at Lena's office, the raven-haired C.E.O. sat on her couch looking over some files. Gracefully landing on the balcony, Supergirl stepped through the open door, eyes alert for trouble.

"Lena?" Supergirl called her name.

"Supergirl." Lena looked up from her paperwork with a smile. "If you're looking for your friend on the hood he's already left."

Wait what?

"Ol…" Kara caught herself. "Green Arrow was here?"

She had told him, out and out the moment he had mentioned it, that Lena Luthor was off limits. Kara knew that her friend wasn't involved with Cadmus, that Lena had already been cleared of any involvement by both the media and the D.E.O., and that (despite their resolution) Kara really didn't want Oliver interrogating Lena.

"Green Arrow?" Lena almost scoffed. "That's what he's called? A little on the nose, wouldn't you say?"

"You're alright?" Supergirl asked, crossing the room in a few strides. "He didn't hurt you?"

Lena practically recoiled at that, throwing an incredulous look at Supergirl. "Hurt me? Don't be ridiculous, save for giving me the shock of my life he hardly came close to me."

"Then…what did he want?"

"My help, apparently." Lena gestured to the array of files on her desk at that, and it was only then that Kara realised it was all information related to Cadmus. Suspected weapons caches, potential sympathisers, suspicious locations, all the things Oliver had been working on for the last week. "He said that I might be able to give them an 'inside perspective'. After all, if anyone could figure out what mother is up to it's me."

"I'm sorry, Lena." Supergirl took a final, tentative step towards her friend. "I told him to leave you out of this, that you've already been dragged though…"

"Supergirl, it's fine." Lena cut over her, causing the hero to stand a little straighter with surprise. "If I can help track down Cadmus and my mother then it's my duty to do so."

So, Lena was okay with it. Kara had to take that as a consolation. Oliver had still ignored her wishes though, ignored her outright demand that Lena be left alone. Though, she mused, that wasn't exactly how it had been phrased. What Kara had actually told Oliver was that he wasn't to "interrogate Lena like some common criminal", which he technically hadn't done. Undoubtedly, he'd use that in his defence.

She was still going to be having a serious discussion with Oliver the next time she saw him.

XXX

It was late morning when Kara arrived at the D.E.O., Monday had finally rolled around meaning that Oliver had only a few more days before the time Thea had managed to buy him with City Hall would be up. He wanted nothing more than for them to have some success in locating Jerimiah Danvers before then, at the very least Oliver had managed to give the search a little more direction though, and that would be consolation enough if they couldn't make any more progress…or so he hoped.

Despite it all, Oliver didn't want to disappoint Kara again. He knew she would never actually say it, Kara would just reassure Oliver that he'd done all he could do, that he'd managed to help them enough with what little time they had to work with. As much as her ability to see the best on people was annoyingly predictable, Oliver had to admit that it was somewhat comforting. That said, unless they made a significant discovery in the next few days, Oliver knew he would be leaving Earth-38 having failed Kara and her family.

Footsteps behind him broke his thoughts and Oliver drifted back into the world around him. Oliver didn't have to turn around to know that it was Kara approaching him; the pattern of the footfalls was one he recognised immediately, it was a strange skill, being able to identify a person by the movements they made but one he had nonetheless. There were a few words exchanged behind him, and Oliver's attention was kept to the monitor before him, checking on the leads that he had been given by Lena Luthor.

He barely got a chance to tune into Kara's conversation with J'onn when…

"Holy Cadmus cream egg!"

Seriously?

Oliver turned to Winn, jumping from his own seat and heading to the other man, his eyes briefly meeting Kara's as she did the same.

"Cadmus? You've found something?" Kara asked, standing at Winn's other side, looking up at the large central monitor.

"This isn't one of the locations we were watching." Oliver thought aloud as he looked at the images on Winn's computer. "Where is this?"

"Remote warehouse just on the edge of the city limits." Win answered, pulling up satellite surveillance. "Looks like a convoy coming out of one of the suspected weapons storage facilities."

Something began pulling at Oliver's subconscious as he read over the information on the screens. He couldn't tell what it was, his keen skills were alight but it evaded him still. It was almost too obvious, too intentional, like they were being taunted.

"Tell Alex to set up a back-up team." Kara spoke, turning away from the two men.

"You're not going alone." Oliver wheeled around to face her, fully intending on joining Kara himself.

"I'll take J'onn, we'll get there faster."

With that she was gone, disappearing into the bustle of agents as she headed for the exit. A groan of irritation escaping his lips, Oliver turned back to the monitor bank, forced to watch as Supergirl and Martian Manhunter (he still thought that was a weird code name) headed for the convoy. The impatience was almost painful, he wasn't used to being so useless during a mission, and Oliver had to wonder if he was feeling the same things Felicity felt every time he and the team were out on the field.

"She'll be fine." Winn spoke, pulling Oliver's attention. "Kara's like invulnerable, nothing can stop her."

Oliver didn't reply, simply watching the GPS dots zoom across the digital map in front of him. Even when Kara and J'onn arrived at an old industrial testing ground all he was able to do as listen to their comms and try and figure out what was happening. The gunfire made him flinch a little, until Oliver reminded himself that Kara's skin was bulletproof. In silence he and Winn watched the feed, as the two blips that represented J'onn and Kara zipped around, until finally they stopped, side-by-side.

"Oh my God." Kara's voice came through over the comms.

"Kara?" Oliver called, straightening up in his chair even more. "What is it?"

"It's…we found Jerimiah."

Author's Note: So, one more chapter down. I'm currently debating how long Oliver should hang around Earth-38 for to assist Kara and the gang. For sure he's seeing out the events of 'Homecoming' but I'm now debating whether he should stay for 'Exodus' too, so lemme know if you guys want us to spend some more time on 38 before heading back over to Earth-1.

Beyond that, please drop a review if you have anything at all to say, hearing from you guys really does motivate me to keep writing.