Winn was sitting at his desk going over some new data when he noticed Alex storming out of the elevator. He quickly got up and made his way over to her, "Hey, are you okay?" She brushed his hand off her shoulder with a scowl, "Do I look okay?" His reply was slow, "No...so what's wrong?" She stepped towards him and poked his chest harshly, "You want to know what's wrong?" He rubbed at the spot, "Ow. Yeah, of course. Did something happen with Maggie?" Her face increased in redness the longer he talked. She was about to say something more when a loud, "Agent Danvers!" boomed from the floor above them. They looked up to see J'onn leaning over the railing with a scowl on his face, "Conference room. Now." Winn looked between the two, "Both...both of us?" J'onn nodded, "Yes, Agent Schott. Both of you." Winn nodded and hung his head as he made his way up the stairs, Alex taking them two at a time. When they got into the room, J'onn quickly closed the door behind them with a sigh, "Agent Danvers, what seems to be the problem?" She took a piece of paper out of her pocket, unfolding it with as much care as was possible, "This is the problem J'onn. The information on this paper." He read it and the further he got into it, the more his face fell. He touched the comm on his earpiece, "Agent Vasquez, call Mr. Olsen and let him know his presence is required at the DEO immediately." Winn startled at the mention of James, "What's going on? What are you guys not telling me?" J'onn looked his way, not quite meeting his eyes as he replied, "You will know what's happening once Mr. Olsen gets to the DEO, Agent Schott."
He felt a small smile overtake his face as his friend walked into the room. However, it slipped when he remembered just why they were here, so he turned back to J'onn, "Now that James is here, can you please tell us what exactly is going on?" Alex stepped forward, "You know what happened with Jeremiah. Well, before we caught him, Kara and I had a fight. It was our biggest one ever. I...I accused her of not acting like a member of our family, and I spoke harshly. Well, I decided to give her a few days to let the both of us calm down and think about what we had said to each other. About what I said, really. So I went to her apartment to tell her just how sorry I was. But she wasn't there. Her clothes were gone and it looked like she hadn't been there for a few days. I looked around for her, but there was no indication of where she had gone besides this note which was laying on her kitchen island." She turned to J'onn and with a choked voice asked, "Could you please read her letter out loud? I...I can't. Not again."
He nodded solemnly and proceed to read its contents to both James and Winn. As he went on, Winn got less confused and thought more of how his relationship with Kara had changed. It had been a while since they stopped being as close as they once were. True, he had kept a secret from her. He had helped James become Guardian and had lied to her by omission. But, it wasn't that bad, was it? And then he remembered how they had fought. She just wanted to keep them safe. And Winn could understand where she was coming from, as he too had been lonely growing up. Ever since his father had tried to kill his boss, friends were quite hard to come by for the young boy. Added to his natural awkwardness, most friends he had would eventually leave him. Except Kara. Beautiful, wonderful Kara. She had been so full of light when he first met her before her interview with Cat Grant. And that shine had only grown when she became Supergirl. But then he had ruined it. He got feelings for her and when he eventually told her, she said they could only ever be friends. And he was resentful of that. That she could like James, who only saw Supergirl, but she would never she him like that, when he saw Kara Danvers. He had liked her, no loved her for herself before he even knew about her powers. And as time passed, they had become friends again.
She supported his decision to work for the DEO, even though she wouldn't be working with her best friend anymore. And then they fought, because he wanted something more from his life than just to be the weirdo tech guy. He wanted to be a hero, and he got a taste for the heroics of working with Guardian. Until he got mad at her because she was concerned for his safety. Since then, they had slowly drifted apart. He threw himself into his job, both at the DEO and with Guardian. He went on a few dates with a wonderful blonde named Lyra. But he slowly stopped talking to her, answering sentences with short sharp words. In fact, the last time he had spoken to her, he told her he was only talking to her because Mon-El asked it of him as a favor. He spared no words to ask her how she was, how she was doing at CatCo, how her relationship with Mon-El was going. And hearing J'onn speak of how Kara had shut down Mon-El filled him with anger. Not directed towards Kara, but at Mon-El. How could any man treat her like that? Make that ball of pure sunshine feel bad for not being in a relationship with him? She didn't deserve to feel guilty for not liking him in that way. And when she told him "No" the first time, Mon-El should have respected that, and backed off. But he didn't and so Kara had to use force.
How could he have been such a bad friend that she didn't even feel like she could text or call him? He should've known that she was fired. Regardless of fights, he would have been there for her if she had asked. He would've shown up at her door with a cheesy action movie, potstickers, and ice cream. Or at least...he liked to think he would have. But he had acted like the worst friend ever, and now she was gone. It wasn't only his fault, but he had to own up to the fact that he hadn't been there for his best friend in the whole world, for the only person who cared where he spent his Thanksgivings. Something was off though, "James...did you know that she had been fired?" His friend rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh yeah actually. Her termination paper came across my desk since it needed my signature." Alex startled, "You fired her?" James shrugged nonchalantly, "I had to. HR had already done the paperwork and Snapper was adamant that she be let go for breach of contract. So yeah." Winn stood from his seat, "Did you at least give her the paperwork yourself?" He shook his head, "No, of course not. It's not the CEO's job to hand deliver termination packages. I had Miss Tessmacher do it." Winn paced back and forth, "So had your personal assistant hand her a paper with your signature on it telling her that she was fired. And then you didn't think to tell me or Alex?"
"Well, yeah. I didn't want to see her, Winn. Everything has been weird between us since she found out that I'm Guardian. She didn't want to talk to me or support my decision on it, so I stopped talking to her. She'll come back, I know she will. After all, she's Supergirl and she needs National City just as much as National City needs her." He finished with a nod and J'onn had to restrain Alex to keep her from lunging at him. "You complete and utter moron ! She needed us! We weren't there for her when we should've been and now she's gone and from the looks of the note, she isn't coming back. At least, not voluntarily. Not until she wants to. You know how much she needed her job to feel normal, and you had no second thoughts when you signed those termination papers." James shrugged again, "Look Alex, obviously she didn't need the job as much as you think she did. She was constantly coming into work late, writing subpar stories that honestly should've been written better considering she has a journalism degree, and leaving the office during work hours to go meet up with Lena Luthor," he spat out the name with disgust, a sneer taking over his features. Sneer in place, he dumbly continued, "Maybe now that Kara is gone, Guardian can finally get some recognition in this city for being the hero instead of Supergirl."
This time, J'onn did nothing to hold Alex back and Winn watched as she launched herself at him with a fierce cry. She quickly got the upper hand, her years of training overtaking the few months of experience that James had. By the time Winn and J'onn managed to pull her off of him, he was missing a tooth or two and had two very nasty looking black eyes. Alex was huffing and puffing, "I'm going to find Kara, and I'm going to bring her back. And when I do, you stay away from her! She doesn't need toxic people like you in her life! You can move back to Metropolis and go see how they like Guardian. Oh wait, they don't need or want you because they have Superman. You better hope that she isn't hurt or in trouble, because if she is...it's going to be your head of a platter." She stormed out of the room, pulling out her cell phone along the way, presumably to tell Maggie what happened. Winn looked over at J'onn, "I'm going to help look for her, please don't ask me otherwise." J'onn nodded, and Winn looked over at his former friend, shaking his head in disgust before heading back over to his desk to compile data to make a search algorithm.