Chapter 8

Author's Note: Guess who's back!?

"You're kidding right?"

Oliver couldn't help but to sigh at Mon-El's tone. The Daxamite seemed to insist on being deliberately obtuse just to make things for difficult. Despite Oliver thinking he had come to at least some degree of agreement with the alien after the business with Mxyzptlk, over the week that followed Mon-El had seemingly reverted back to his original hostility.

After the... incident at Kara's apartment, Oliver had decided that he wasn't going to sit back and passively allow things to unfold. Going behind Kara's back like he planned to might not have been the ideal thing to do, that much Oliver would admit, but he really didn't have a lot of other options. So, the next morning, not long before J'onn would be welcoming Jeremiah back to the D.E.O., Oliver had gathered Mon-El and Winn into the storage room that had all but become Oliver's own space.

He had expected that the two men would be at least somewhat amicable to his plans. Winn clearly cared a lot for Kara and Oliver had managed to build something of a rapport with him during the search for Cadmus, and given Mon-El's obvious feelings towards the Kryptonian Oliver was sure he would be willing to help protect her. Though, as soon as the three of them had gotten behind closed doors and Oliver had begun explaining things…well, he might have overestimated their compliance.

"Look," Oliver began sternly. "At the least, you have to agree that the timing of all this is suspicious. Kara has a blind spot when it comes to her family, she refuses to even consider the possibility that the rescue wasn't a coincidence." At the still somewhat reluctant looks on their faces, Oliver pressed on. "I'm not saying we jump in with any accusations, but at the least, we need to keep a closer eye on Jeremiah, at least until we can be sure he isn't a threat to Kara."

That seemed to have jarred something in them both. The two men took a moment, looking across at each other, and Oliver could sense the silent conversation that was occurring between them. After a few moments, they both turned back to him.

"If you were anyone else I'd think you'd been watching too much TV," Winn began. "But…I trust your gut, I know you're only doing this because you wanna look out for Kara as much as we do. We're in."

Nodding in appreciation, Oliver moved to speak, but Mon-El got there first.

"So, what's your plan?"

XXX

The plan seemed to be working well enough. Oliver had given strict orders to Mon-El to not let Kara out of his sight until told otherwise, and Winn was to be on high alert for any suspicious activity on the D.E.O. mainframe. The archer himself had decided to become the second shadow of Jeremiah Danvers. Ever since he had walked into the building Oliver had been tailing him, just out of sight enough that Jeremiah had no idea, but close enough he could hear and see everything that was happening around the former-now-current agent. Thankfully, his presence at the D.E.O. over the last week had made the agents accept him as part of the furniture. Between his naturally intimidating nature and the all-access pass given to him by J'onn, no one had questioned his actions.

A part of Oliver wished that he didn't empathise with J'onn, Kara, and the others, the way they were all so keen to let Jeremiah back into their lives without questioning it at all. Reluctantly though, he had to admit that it was a natural reaction. Yet, he had done it with Black Siren, wanting so badly to believe that she was his Laurel. That was his edge, Oliver concluded, he had been wronged by such similar events so many times that even his jaded worldview had a much firmer sense of confidence than usual.

Then, he had seen Jeremiah hack into the D.E.O. mainframe the second J'onn had turned his back. all those suspicions had suddenly become a lot more potent. He hadn't been able to get a look at what it was Jeremiah was looking at on the computers, the view from the doorway hadn't been ideal. Whatever it was though, Oliver could tell that Jeremiah had been wearing the look of a man who didn't want to be caught.

No soon as he'd managed to slip away, he'd gathered Winn and Mon-El back into the storage room and caught them up on the situation. Mon-El's anger had spiked immediately, and he'd shot off to find Kara the second Oliver had finished his briefing, despite the archer's protests. Biting his tongue in aggravation Oliver did his best to will his frustrations with Mon-El away before the Daxamite returned.

"Winn?" Kara's voice suddenly washed over his ears. "Mon-El said you wanted to see…"

Sucking in a breath, Oliver turned to face the Kryptonian, seeing the frustration in her face immediately. He should have expected it, but for some reason, Oliver had hoped Kara would have cooled off a little since the catastrophic end to dinner the previous night. Her endless capacity for forgiveness clearly didn't extend to people who "insulted" her family.

Oliver didn't even get a chance to speak before Kara span on her heel and started heading for the door.

"If this is what I think it is…"

She didn't get the chance to reach the door before Mon-El stopped her.

"No, no, turn around." The Daxamite took her shoulders and spun her around, gently guiding her back towards Oliver. "Back to there."

Even with the begrudging look on her face, Kara allowed Mon-El to push her back into the centre of the room. The Kryptonian stopped in front of Oliver, her glare still bearing down on him. The guilt he had been feeling since Jeremiah's rescue only doubled in the presence of Kara. He now had a legitimate concern, and breaking that news to her would be crushing. He could almost see it, just behind her eyes and even through the anger, that tiny spark of fear because Kara could already tell that he had found something.

"We found something." Oliver did his best to sound sympathetic. "I saw Jeremiah hack into the D.E.O. mainframe." He spoke slowly, doing his best to break the news as gently as he could. "I couldn't tell what he was accessing but…"

"Wait, wait, stop." Kara cut over him, her voice less firm than Oliver had expected. "Were you spying on Jeremiah? Is that why Mon-El has been following me all day? Why Winn has been acting all cagey? Did you put them up to this?"

"Kara, you're missing the point." Mon-El tried to push the conversation back in their favour.

"He actually broke into the D.E.O. systems." Winn spoke up, making a vague gesture to the data on his tablet. "It sure as hell looks like Jeremiah is spying on us."

Acceptance washed over Kara's features, her eyes drifting to meet Oliver's. He could see the gears turning behind her eyes, for once not lost in their brilliant blue as he watched everything sink into place. The concern that had been mounting since Jeremiah's rescue crashed down on top of Oliver like a tidal wave as Kara pieced together all the evidence the same way he had, albeit it so much later. In only a few moments Oliver observed Kara shift through; confusion, anger, disappointment, heartbreak, and finally back to anger, before she managed to compose herself.

Kara didn't say a word as she turned on her heel and marched back towards the door. From the looks they were sharing both Winn and Mon-El had no intentions of stopping her, so in one long stride, Oliver was at her side and lightly grabbed her arm. The Kryptonian froze in place, her head snapping around and throwing a glare at Oliver. That anger was a little too familiar to him, he saw something similar in his own eyes all too often for him to be comfortable seeing it in Kara's.

"Kara," Oliver began calmly. "If you march up there, guns blazing, and before we have all the facts it might not go our way. Do you really want to risk a fight with Alex and J'onn?"

"Oliver," Kara began with a frightening calmness. "Take your hand off me, right now."

"Do you trust me?" Oliver spoke firmly, ignoring Kara's protests.

"I said…"

"Kara." He cut over her, his tone close to the one he used when he had been scolding the recruits almost a year ago. Catching himself, Oliver softened his tone before continuing. "Do you trust me?"

Kara held Oliver's gaze for a few moments, and Oliver watched as Kara seemed to visibly cool off. The two of them stayed like that for what felt like so much longer than the few seconds it really was, but looking into each other's eyes, silently sharing a connection that neither of them fully understood, the rest of the world may have well not existed to them. In her eyes, Oliver saw recognition and resignation. The acceptance of all that had happened, the disappointment it brought, Oliver felt his heart shatter for Kara at that. Then, Kara let out a shaky breath.

"I do." Kara spoke in a whisper. "I trust you, Oliver, completely."

XXX

Kara was surprised by how little she felt following Oliver's revelation about Jeremiah. She had expected to be bubbling with rage and betrayal for days, that she wouldn't be able to focus on anything but what Jeremiah had done to her, and to their family. Instead, she just felt…numb. It was only thanks to Oliver that she hadn't immediately stormed up to Jeremiah the moment that she found out he had hacked into the D.E.O. mainframe, that she had given herself enough time to reach the numbness. As terrible as it felt, Kara supposed it was better than the raw anger she had expected.

Even with the time and levelheadedness that they had, there was still nothing concrete that Winn could find on further investigation. Oliver had insisted that they have access to as much information as possible before confronting Jeremiah, that the more evidence they had the less chance Jeremiah would have to talk his way out of it. That hadn't turned up anything. The three of them, Mon-El had set off to make sure Jeremiah didn't stumble onto them, had sat in that storage room for over an hour while Winn worked away at the D.E.O. systems, only able to prove that Jeremiah had accessed a few case files pertaining to Supergirl and Agent Danvers.

Beyond that there was nothing. Kara had almost hoped that her doubts about Jeremiah would be dissuaded by that revelation, but it had done nothing. If Jeremiah could hack into the D.E.O. mainframe then he could easily hide what he had been doing with that access. Thanks to Oliver she saw clearly, her feelings for her family no longer clouded her judgment.

Then Alex had stumbled into the locker room, looking for Kara, and she hadn't been able to lie to her sister, despite the pleading look Oliver had given her.

She had told Alex everything. Oliver's doubts, what he had seen Jeremiah do, Winn's confirmation that he had successfully broken the D.E.O.'s encryption. Once she had started she couldn't stop.

"I know." Alex answered, her face an unreadable mask. "He told me and J'onn earlier. The access codes had changed so he just did a workaround."

Kara paled, Jeremiah must have realised that they were onto him and come clean to Alex before she and Oliver could react. She glanced across to Oliver, seeing the sympathy in his eyes, they both already knew where the conversation was going. Kara supposed it was easier for her, to see the doubt Jeremiah had cast, while she might have viewed him as a father figure he wasn't her blood. It was different for Alex, Jeremiah had been such a colossal part of her life that words couldn't describe, but then to lose him the way that they did must have been to Alex what the loss of Krypton had been for Kara. She had watched as Alex struggled to come to grips with the fact that Jeremiah was still alive, seen her abandon everything to try and find him. She should have known her sister would never have been able to accept the truth.

Alex spoke again, glaring at Oliver and Winn. "You two are unbelievable." She turned her attention to Kara. "But you are something else."

"Alex," Kara moved towards her sister before she could leave. "I am just as hurt, an…and scared as you are, I share the same feelings, but I also see clearly now. Jeremiah was with Cadmus a long time and we have never faced an enemy more dangerous, so we owe it to ourselves to look at every angle. Even if it makes us uncomfortable."

"You sound just like him." Alex didn't even hesitate before she answered, glaring across at Oliver. "You know I could almost understand you being in the honeymoon phase with your boyfriend from another world, but you don't have to take his side against your own family like some lovelorn school girl."

"Hey!" Oliver's voice cut across the room before Kara could even formulate her reply. Within a moment, Oliver was by her side, and Kara could almost have sworn that she saw him move to take her hand before hesitating. "This is not about me, or you, or Kara. It's about the truth. And the truth is that Jeremiah lived with your enemy for years, and even you have to admit that him breaking into the D.E.O. mainframe is at the least suspicious."

Alex's glare only intensified at Oliver's interference. "I know you might not understand this, but he missed out on over a decade as our father." Alex gestured between herself and Kara at that, telling Oliver firmly that their argument did not involve him. When the archer didn't react, Alex turned her focus back to Kara. "I don't blame him for wanting to catch up, however he can."

"Then why not just ask us," Kara attempted. "We're right here. He spent an hour with J'onn today, w…why does he have to wait until he's alone to access the system?"

"You really don't trust him, do you?" Alex scowled.

"No." Kara asserted firmly. "I don't trust Cadmus. And I will do what I have to do to protect us."

Alex sighed lowly. "Well, then I guess you've chosen your side." With that, the agent turned her back and headed towards the door.

Kara threw an exasperated glance at Oliver before trying to reach her sister one last time.

"This is not about sides."

Alex whirled around immediately. "No, it is. Because you're either part of the family or you're not."

Oliver saw the heartbreak in Kara's eyes at Alex's words, and once again he had to fight the urge to capture her hand in his own.

"You don't mean that." Kara's voice lost the edge it had held until then.

"He's my father."

"He's mine too."

"Then act like it!" Alex raised her voice for the first time, and Kara recoiled a little at it.

Stunned by her sister's words, Kara did nothing as Alex turned on her heel and left the room in a hurry. The cold sting of what she had said lingered much longer.

XXX

"How are you holding up?"

Kara looked up from the Kryptonian tailor-made training dummy she had been attacking relentlessly. She didn't need to look up to know who it was, she had recognised his voice immediately. Kara dimly wondered if Oliver had that effect on everyone or just her. Ignoring that thought, Kara briefly met Oliver's eyes over the dummy before returning to attacking it.

If Jeremiah's betrayal had made her feel numb, her fight with Alex had been heart-breaking. She hadn't expected Alex to be as easily convinced as Winn or Mon-El, but she had thought that after everything they had been through together that Alex would have believed her. Instead, her sister had put her suspicious down to Oliver, blaming him for Kara's apparent lack of trust in her family. It was a bitter insult, that Alex really believed that she would turn against her family just because of some crush. Kara hadn't even realised that Alex had noticed her affections for Oliver, but she certainly hadn't expected to be called out on them like that. Even so, whatever she felt for Oliver had no bearing on her concerns about Jeremiah. She had looked at the evidence and made her own decision. Of course, Oliver had been the one to guide her, to help her, but that didn't make it his fault.

"That bad, huh?" Oliver spoke again, taking a few steps closer, his ever observant eyes watching as she ruthlessly pounded the dummy. "I've been there, Kara, and the one thing I've learned is that you can't blame yourself."

Her anger intensified, and one particularly heavy punch took a chunk out of the training dummy.

"I don't blame myself." Kara ground out, turning to face Oliver. "I blame Cadmus. For stealing Jeremiah, for breaking my family apart, for taking away my sister's trust in me."

With each word Kara had taken a step towards Oliver, the two merely inches apart when Kara came to a stop. Oliver could feel the rage emanating from her, the anger, the betrayal, the heartbreak, he recognised it a little too well. That rage needed to be directed, focused, harnessed. It was how Oliver did what he did, by focusing that darkness within him, forging it into his crusade. From the raw look in her eyes, Oliver could tell that Kara hadn't felt that level of rage before.

"Kara," Oliver's tone sympathetic yet firm. "We are going to stop them. Whatever it takes, whatever the cost. I swear to you, I'll make them pay." Without his realising, Oliver had captured Kara hands in his own while he spoke.

The Kryptonian stared at their joined hands for a moment before looking up and meeting Oliver's eyes.

"How do you do it?" Kara asked before Oliver could respond she pressed on. "How do you feel like this and go on?"

Swallowing hard, Oliver answered. "Because it's the duty of the strong to protect the weak. This life, Kara, it…it scrapes away little pieces of your soul, one loss at a time, but we keep going because we have to."

It was another one of those moments, the ones he and Kara seemed to share all too often. One of those times where words failed them and just the presence of the other was enough. Enough to answer all those questions, disperse all those doubts, to make the whole world seem so much simpler than the complicated mess they both knew it to be.

Then, the moment was shattered.

"Guys," Winn's voice came over the P.A. system. "We've tracked down Supergirl's radiation signature. Cadmus is moving the bomb."

Kara sighed a little and Oliver separated their hands.

"Time to go to work." Oliver smiled grimly