It had been a stressful few weeks. It was the political season which kept Kara busy at CatCo, and Supergirl had been busy with a woman who used, of all things, insects to commit her crimes. Kara shivered. She could still feel the bugs crawling over her skin. Slipping into bed beside her sleeping wife Kara tried to relax. All she wanted was a quiet night and some sleep. Sleep hadn't been coming easy to her since Lena's kidnapping. In the stillness of their bedroom Kara would often slip into thinking about what happened, how she could have so easily lobotomized that woman who'd taken her pregnant wife to use as bait against her. Everyone kept telling her that she had been angry and scared but would have never actually done it. They all tried to pacify her instead of listening to how she felt, everyone but Sam. Sam told her that when it came to protecting that one person you love that much and your child, slipping into the darker corners of yourself is natural. Sam had been there after all. So she didn't try to make it easier on Kara, she listened and let Kara vent and told her honestly that yeah it would not have been ok, but it would have been understandable.
Wrapping her arm around Lena, Kara pulled her wife close and nuzzled into her neck, inhaling Lena's scent. She sighed softly and closed her eyes. Lena and their children were her everything. Tuning out the rest of the world Kara listened to the sounds that centered and grounded her. Streaky's soft sleep purring from where he was curled up in their closet on Lena's stupidly expensive cashmere sweater. Andrew's slow and steady heartbeat as he slept in his room down the hall. Lena's heartbeat right beside her.
Kara's eyes flew open at the sound. There just under the slow familiar rhythm of Lena's heartbeat was a second heartbeat. It sounded muffled, like listening to something underwater, and it was fast, like listening to a hummingbird beat its wings. Kara sat up and looked down at Lena, just listening to that sound. It was the sound of their baby's brand new still developing heart. Tears welled in Kara's eyes as she gently reached out to put her hand on Lena's stomach. Then she shifted, careful not to wake her wife, and pressed her ear to Lena's belly.
"Hello baby." Kara whispered. "I hear you in there. You sound so strong. I can't wait to meet you, but take your time. You're safe in there, safe and protected and oh so loved. You keep growing strong in there, and when it's time your Mommy and I will be here to take care of you." Kara closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to Lena's belly. "I love you little one."
Lena sniffled softly.
Kara's head jerked up and she was surprised to find jade eyes watching her. She smiled sheepishly. "Hi."
"Hi." Lena whispered back.
"I didn't mean to wake you." Kara said as she moved to lay beside her wife and take her into her arms. "Or make you cry."
"I don't mind waking up to you talking to our baby." Lena said as she snuggled into Kara. "And I cry at everything these days. The cat sneezed and Drew told him Rao bless you and I cried."
Kara laughed softly and then kissed Lena's temple. "I can hear her heartbeat." She told her wife softly. "It's fast and strong."
Neither of them had a Y chromosome to pass on so they knew the baby would be a girl. Knowing that Kara could hear the baby's heartbeat filled Lena's heart with joy. She was really in there. They're beautiful little girl was really in there, growing safe and sound.
"Don't move." Kara said just before zipping out of bed and out the window.
Lena barely had time to sit up and blink before Kara had returned. She laughed softly at the handheld device in Kara's hand. "Where did you get a doppler?"
"I borrowed it." Kara said as she sat on the bed beside her wife. "I'll take it back to the medlab tomorrow."
Lena placed her hands over Kara's as Kara moved the wand of the fetal heartbeat doppler across her stomach. It took several moments to find but when the device did pick up the baby's heartbeat Lena gasped. It was fast, but she knew that was a good thing, and it was strong. Lena closed her eyes and just listened, her mind wondering. Would she look more like her or more like Kara? Would her eyes be blue or green? Would she have dark hair or light? Fair skin like Lena's or a warmer tone like Kara's? Whose smile would she have? What would her laugh sound like?
"Kara." Lena said softly, her voice full of joy and tears.
Kara set the doppler aside and smiled before kissing her wife and whispering, "I know."
Pregnancy was weird. Now that Lena was in her second trimester Sam was free to wear her expensive perfume again and Kara could eat potstickers again. Lena being sensitive to the smell of fried foods, especially potstickers, had put an almost permanent pout on Kara's lips. She was feeling far more energetic than she had been the first few weeks of her pregnancy. She buzzed around CatCo and L-Corp like a bee on redbull, and more than once Andrew had to sigh, shake his head and say, "Mommy, no, I need a nap."
She was starting to show and Kara couldn't keep her hands off her. The baby bump, the fuller breasts, and the designer maternity dresses Lena was starting to wear often caused Kara to randomly drop things or walk into desks. Second trimester sex was amazing! Lena had read enough about pregnancy to know it had to do with improved blood flow, but she felt it was more than that. Kara had always made love to her as if she were worshiping her but now it was like Lena had become Rao himself.
Kara ran the tip of her tongue around the darker areola of Lena's breast. After all these years together she thought she knew Lena's body perfectly, but her pregnancy had thrown Kara's road map right out the window. Not only were there obvious changes like the baby bump and the fuller beasts and larger nipples, but Lena seemed to like different things now. Lena had always loved when Kara sucked and nipped at her breasts, when she would blow a gentle but cold breathe over wet skin, when she would gently pull on a nipple with her teeth. Now she prefered just having Kara palm her breasts with a bit of pressure. She liked the stretch of an extra finger, or a little more pressure when Kara cupped her hand between her legs. When she came she came harder and it lasted longer, and that sometimes posed a problem.
Lena's hormones had led to more encounters outside their home, like now. Kara licked around Lena's breast, her hand up her wife's skirt, in the bathroom of Lena's CatCo office. Lena had worn a form fitting dark blue dress with a neckline so low it boarded on inappropriate for work.
There was a knock on the door. "Ms. Luthor?" Eve's voice called out. "There's a locksmith on the way. I'm so sorry, I don't know how the lock managed to break."
Lena snorted softly as jade eyes sparkled while she watched Kara. "It's alright, Eve." She managed to say without giving away the pleasure on her face. "These things happen." Lowering her voice so only Kara could hear her she said, "I can't believe you busted the lock on my bathroom door."
"I can't believe you wore this dress to work." Kara replied.
Lena laughed a wicked laugh. "Better hurry, love. We don't have much time."
The first time Lena feels the baby move she isn't really sure what it was she'd just felt. It was the oddest little flutter that had her looking extremely confused. It had happened while they were spending the weekend in Midvale for Eliza's birthday and when her mother-in-law asked what was wrong and Lena explained, Eliza had hugged her and reassured her that it was the baby, and that soon she would be feeling proper kicks and elbows to organs. Eliza told her how Alex would wait until she was asleep to start kicking her, and how the only way to settle baby Alex down was for her father to sing to her.
"John Mellencamp, Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Hall and Oats." Eliza had said. "He'd start to sing and she'd stop kicking and I could get a few hours of sleep."
Sam smiled and looked over at Alex with heart eyes. "That explains your taste in music." Then she looked over at Lena and said, "Wait until she gets hiccups."
"Hiccups?" Kara repeated. "She can get hiccups?"
"It's the strangest feeling to feel someone else's hiccups." Sam said with a nod. "Or the first time you see her little foot or hand pressing out against your skin. Now that's freaky!"
"Oh!" Ruby jumped in. "We should watch Alien!"
"No!" Lena and Kara said in unison.
The first time Lena feels the baby really truly kick she's sitting at the head of a long table in the middle of an L-Corp board meeting. Since taking control of the company Lena had been able to change the look of the company, there were more women and more people of color. Her chief operations manager for R&D wore a hijab and proudly showed off pictures of her daughter as she trained and competed in ice skating also wearing a hijab. Her marketing manager had been a refugee from the Congo, his mother risking everything to get her son out before she lost him to the violence of war. The brilliant young man who ran her public relations department was raised by a single Cuban mother who work in a supermarket during the day and then cleaned offices at night after putting him to bed, he and his husband were thinking of adopting. The head of her legal team was a quick witted but soft spoken black woman from Freeland who could answer a legal question before Lena had fours words out of her mouth.
But there were a few old white male faces that were still around no matter how good Lena made retirement seem. She had just very sharply, almost viciously, put one of those men in his place after he'd condemned Sam's choice to invest in something that wasn't a degentrafaction project that would have made his personal company millions while displacing hundreds of low income families as well as an alien refugee community. She and Sam had basically tagged teamed the old man and when they'd finished he'd muttered something under his breath about Lex being ashamed of what Lena had done to Luthor Corp. That's when Lena had turned a little more vicious, and a lot more Luthor, before reminding him that his retirement package was waiting for him to take any time he was ready, and that she had a good feeling about him being ready now.
She had been brilliant and powerful, every bit a Luthor, every bit the powerful CEO she was, and apparently the baby had really liked that because she'd kicked Lena hard as if to give her mother her approval. Sitting in Sam's office Lena rubbed her hand over her ever growing stomach and laughed softly, "Are you going to grow up to run L-Corp like Mommy and Auntie Sam? Hmm? Are you going to be Mommy's little CEO, baby girl?"
Lena had been expecting strange food cravings, but nothing to out of the ordinary had hit her just yet. Though Kara teased that her eating more kale was strange given she was carrying her child. Mostly she missed her old favorites like sushi, and baked brie with apple slices, and wine. She did however have a food obsession.
"Kara Zor-El Danvers Luthor!" Lena's raised voice rang out from the kitchen.
Alex blinked as she and Kara looked up from their game of dominos at the same time. "What the hell did you do?"
Kara looked frightened, really frightened. "I have no idea."
"Where the hell is the rest of my pie!" Lena yelled.
Kara's eyes went huge. "Shit." She looked at Alex and explained, "Mom's been making her pies. It's all she practically wants to eat. But she said last night that she didn't want any more of the cherry pie so I might have finished off the rest of it this morning for breakfast."
Alex laughed hysterically.
"It's a good thing you're bulletproof." Sam said, laughing just as hard from where she sat on the sofa playing with Andrew. "You never eat a pregnant woman's food, Kara."
"She said she didn't want anymore." Kara replied helplessly.
Sam shook her head. "Doesn't matter, you messed up kid."
Kara quickly got to her feet and carefully made her way into the kitchen were an angry Lena stood in front of the refrigerator. She was unbearably cute in her leggings and soft gray sweater, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, her feet bare. Even the angry look on her face made Kara want to sigh and aww at her, but she knew better. Well, she mostly knew better. She was still learning to navigate the adorable minefield that was a pregnant Lena Luthor. "There's a whole razzleberry pie left."
Sharp jade eyes turned to look at Kara with a huff. "I don't want razzleberry pie. Raspberries are gross."
"You like raspberries." Kara said lamely.
Lena slammed the refrigerator door closed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I liked them before your daughter took up residence in my body and took control in a hostile takeover."
Kara very carefully made her way closer to her wife as if Lena were a wounded animal who might strike out unexpectedly. "I'm sorry I ate your pie, Lee. What can I get you to make up for it?"
"Mochi." Lena huffed but allowed Kara to put her hands on her crossed arms and uncross them. "From Japan." She added. Slowly she began to relax and her anger was soon replaced with excitement. "Oh, and gelato from that place in Milan, and some of those amazing macarons from Paris we had on our honeymoon, and oh, some of those honeyed figs and dates we had in Greece."
Kara laughed gently. "Anything you want baby from anywhere."
Twenty minutes later Lena was curled up on the sofa with Kara and happily munching away on her snacks from around the world. She was all but purring as Kara massaged her feet and caves.
"Wow, you are like super pussy whipped." Alex teased her sister.
"Like you wouldn't jump if Sam gave you that crooked little grin of hers." Kara replied with a chuckle.
Sam couldn't help but giggle.
Alex blushed because it was true.
They had tried to prepare Andrew for the new baby as soon as they knew Lena was pregnant. They got him a ton of books on how to be a big brother and what it would be like to have a new baby in the house and started reading them to him before they told him the news. When they did finally tell him that there was a baby sister in Mommy's tummy Andrew's response was to ask Lena if she'd eaten the baby. So they had to reassure him that she hadn't. He seemed to be really excited by the idea of being like his Aunt Alex, who was Mama's big sister just like he would be the baby's big brother. Whenever Streaky would curl up on Lena's belly and purr, Andrew would tell him to be gentle because there was a baby in there. Whenever Andrew spoke to the baby he called her je, which was Kryptonian for sister. It had left both of his mothers in tears.
When they started to decorate the nursery, which Kara insisted they do themselves and not hire people, they decided to redo Andrew's room too. Kara, Alex, and Ruby had painted the baby's room a warm gray with a huge pink stripe bordered in white a quarter of the way down the wall from the ceiling. After she was born they would paint her name and initials in the stripe. The crib was a white four poster crib, all the wooden furniture was also white, but the softer furniture like the rocker recliner and the bedding was pink. Across the hall in Andrew's room they had painted one wall with chalkboard paint and the other three in white and blue stripes. When they'd asked him what kind of bed he'd wanted he said one with his name on it. So Lena had one custom made with his first name incorporated into the headboard and a large L on the footboard.
Kara laughed once it was set up and dressed in the dinosaur bedding Andrew had picked out. "That's his Luthor genes showing."
"Shut up." Lena replied with a laugh of her own. In the corner of the room was a space where Andrew could hide away and play or read, and of course there was still the large rocker recliner where he could cuddle up with his mothers.
As they continued to prepare for the new baby, as they continued to prepare Andrew for the new baby, Lena's mind kept drifting back to a memory that often left her unsure and full of doubts. When Lillian had resurfaced in her life after she'd moved to National City she'd said something that Lena just couldn't shake now.
"No Parent truly loves their children equally." Lillian had said. And from Lena's experience that had been true. Lillian had loved and adored Lex while Lionel had always doted on Lena. Though she tried not to Lena let her past experiences cloud her thinking now that she was inching closer and closer to becoming the mother of two. She was afraid that what her mother said was true, that she would love one child more than the other, no matter how many times she told herself that the fear was irrational. She knew deep down she would love both of her children with all her heart, with everything she was. She would not be the kind of mother Lillian had been to her. And once she'd claimed that fear another would take its place.
She had been her father's biological child all along. She was his blood, of course he loved her. But Lillian, Lillian had adopted her, had been forced to raise another woman's child as her own. When their shared child was born would Kara love Andrew any less? Would it matter to Kara that their daughter was of her blood and Andrew wasn't? That their daughter would be Kryptonian and Andrew wasn't?
Lena paused outside Andrew's room when she heard Kara's soft voice.
"Said the kitten to his mother, just as sweetly as can be, when the baby kittens come will you still love me? Of course said mother cat, you're my angel, and all the kittens in the world won't change my love for you." Kara read as she snuggled with Andrew on a heap of pillows under the fairy lights in his special cuddle-slash-reading spot inside his semi-permanent blanket fort.
Lena stood there tears welling in her eyes as she continued to listen until the end of the book.
"Said the boy to his mother just as sweetly as can be, when the new baby comes will you still love me? Of course said his mother, so don't you worry my little honey bun, I will love you forever, I will love you wherever, I will love you more than ever when the new baby comes." Kara finished and set aside the book. She tickled Andrew's belly and kissed his nose as she asked, "Hey Drew, what's Mommy to me?"
Andrew smiled as he snuggled into his mama. "Your sun."
"And what are you?" Kara asked him as she held him close.
"Your moon." He answered.
"And what's the new baby?" Kara asked next.
"Your stars." He answered with a yawn.
"That's right little one." Kara replied as she hugged him and kissed his temple. "My sun, my moon, and my stars."
Lena wiped away her tears and bertated herself over her doubts. Of course Kara's love for Andrew wouldn't change. She hated her mother for causing her to have these concerns, as if she didn't have real concerns to worry about. Kara's love should never ever be called into question.
"Lee?" Kara said softly when she found her wife crying in the hall. "Baby are you alright?"
Lena threw her arms around Kara and hugged her as tightly as she could. "I'm sorry."
Kara blinked as she wrapped her arms around her love. "Sorry for what, love?" That just made Lena cry harder. "Hey, hey, baby it's ok, it's alright, whatever it is, it'll be ok I promise."
Kara was as supportive as she could be. She reassured Lena when her emotions got the better of her. She massaged lotion and cocoa butter into Lena's itchy skin. She made sure Lena had her pregnancy pillow so she could sleep, kneaded away the pains in her lower back when she needed her too. She rubbed her swollen feet and fetched anything her wife asked for no matter what it was and where she wanted it from. It was the least she could do. Lena was carrying their child. Her child, a child of El. Lena Luthor, the little sister of the man who tried to wipe out the last of her lost people, was helping to insure the continuation of the legacy of Krypton. How could she not do anything and everything Lena wanted or needed? And how could she not love this incredible woman?
Even if showing Lena her love was staying out of her way as Lena nested. There wasn't a room safe in the whole apartment from Lena's urges to purge, clean, and organize.
"Lena!" Kara called from the bedroom.
"What?" Lena replied from the nursery.
"Where's my supersuit!?" Kara asked as she stared at the compartment where her suit should be.
"What?" Came Lena's second reply.
Kara rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the closet and into their bedroom to search for her suit. She could hear the commotion downtown even before her cell phone buzzed with a message from Alex. "Where. Is. My. Super. Suit!"
"I, ah, put it away." Came Lena's response.
"Where?" Kara growled softly.
"Why do you need to know?" Lena asked as she came out of the nursery.
"I need it!" Kara replied as she used superspeed to search the house.
Lena stood in the hall with her arms crossed. "Na huh. Don't you think about running out the door in some daring do. We have been planning this dinner with the other couples from our lamaze class for two months!"
"Lee!" Kara almost sounded like she was whining. "The public is in danger!"
"My evening is in danger!" Lena countered.
Kara stopped in front of Lena and huffed. "Tell me where my suit is woman. We're talking about the greater good!"
"Greater good?" Lena snorted as she looked into Kara's beautiful blue eyes. "I am your wife. I am the greatest good you're ever going to get."
"Lena!" Kara whined.
"Let Sam handle it." Lena said, putting her swollen foot down. "Now get ready for dinner. We don't want to keep everyone waiting."
"Alex is right." Kara said in defeat as she watched Lena waddle off towards their bedroom. "I'm super whipped."
I'm not sure I used it right but according to
Sister: /ie/ [je] gendered noun: feminine. variants: O}E u}E