"Ooof!" As a weight hit her chest, Lena's eyes flew open. One arm slapped down colliding with something soft, the other pinned under the rest of whatever had struck her. Panicked, remembering the hand of the goddess reaching out for her, Lena scrambled backward dragging the heaviness along with her. She felt something grip her shoulder as something else put pressure on her legs. Just when the fear was becoming overwhelming, confusion replaced it.

"Mommy!" The voice was young. "Mommy, wake up, it's breakfast time."

A boy, in the three to five range, though Lena was not an expert, climbed up Lena's torso until his face became so close to hers as go out of focus. Shaggy brown hair hung over equally brown eyes, and he gripped her cheeks between his chubby palms. Leaning even closer, he planted a somewhat sloppy kiss on her lips and pushed back, a smile of pure adoration appearing on his face as he beamed down at her.

"Oh, Dear God. What's going on?"

"It's your birthday!" The child responded, his enthusiasm still unbridled. "It's time for birthday pancakes! Come on. Come on. Get up!" Sliding off of Lena revealed he was actually fairly slender and wearing tan footy Pajamas with puppy dog faces all over them. The boy took Lena's hand in an attempt to lead the less than eager CEO from the bed, but she wasn't coming easily. Instead, she sat up, allowing her eyes to explore the room.

The bedroom was large, but it wasn't the one in her penthouse. The furniture here was a light oak, the walls a silvery gray. Light streamed through the wall to ceiling sliders that opened to a balcony. She slid her fingers across the soft duvet cover which was totally unfamiliar, but the rest of the room nagged at her. Though the furnishings seemed out, it still felt like part of her.

Finally, giving into the child's urgings, Lena climbed out of bed and turned a bit as she took a few steps through the room. Whatever had been tickling at the back of her mind became more solid. "Wait, we're in National City. This is my home, house, in National City, isn't it?" She looked down for confirmation at the boy who only looked up at her, seemingly confused at the question.

"Did you have a nightmare, Mommy?" He asked.

"Definitely," she replied.

Wrapping his arms around her legs, he rested his head against her waist and said, "It's all right, Mommy. I've got you."

The gesture was sweet and oddly comforting, and Lena reached down stroking the little boy's hair. "Thank you."

"Do you feel better?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Actually, I do."

"Good. Birthday pancake time."

"Birthday pancakes?" Lena shook her head, allowing herself to be led by the hand but pausing when she caught sight of her reflection. Though she wasn't old by any means, she was older. One hand pressed against the dresser top, she leaned closer to the mirror. Laugh lines touched the outside of her mouth and the corners of her eyes. The words crow's feet weren't accurate, definitely laugh lines and she smiled, showing she was right. "Good Lord. How old am I?"

"Thirty-five."

Jerking her head back, she looked down at the child. "Thirty-five?"

He nodded.

"Thirty-five," she repeated. Looking into the mirror again, her smile returned. She stood upright, turning to examine herself more fully. Her nightie was dark green and hung to about knee-length. It was a bit more modest than anything she usually wore but still expensive and flattering. She was still toned, and her ass looked good. Pressing her hand to her stomach showed it was mostly flat and firm. "Huh, and you've had a child. Well, good for you. Not bad for thirty-five, Lena. I wonder how much help you've had."

"I help you, Mommy."

Smiling down, Lena said, "I'm sure you do, Aiden." She looked away; then her head snapped back to the boy. "Aiden. Your name, it's Aiden."

"Yes!" Leaping at Lena, his knees tucked up so that they struck her, Aiden grabbed for Lena.

She caught him, grunting slightly as he collided with her in a way that suddenly felt all too commonplace. "Aiden, my son, Aiden."

"Yes, Mommy." He smiled.

"I…" Lena shook her head, not knowing what to say but somehow knowing this person, knowing him more and feeling more for him with each passing second. She pulled him in, holding him close in an attempt never to lose him, to never lose this feeling. "Aiden."

"Mommy." He held her tight in return, choking her slightly as he wrapped his arms around her neck until he said, "Can we get breakfast? I'm hungry."

Lena laughed, turning him so the child was on her hip and she freed a hand to wipe tears that had begun to run down her face. "Of course. Let's go feed that belly of yours, little man."

When she poked at his stomach, Aiden squirmed and wiggled, giggling happily.

As they headed toward the door, Aiden said, "Wait. Wait. You forgot your Neuron."

"I forgot my what?"

Aiden pointed back to the bedside table.

Wandering over that way, Lena found what looked like a watch with a plain silver face and a red band. She held it up.

Aiden nodded.

She placed Aiden on the bed and put it on, the watch screen coming to life with the face of a woman and speaking.

"Good morning, Lena. Happy Birthday. Today is a vacation day. It is 9:17 AM. Would you like to know the temperature, your vitals, stock information, email update, and other data?"

"Uh…no, no thank you," Lena replied, shaking her head.

"Very well. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Goodbye." The watch screen went blank again, the woman's face disappearing.

When Lena looked back at Aiden again, he leaped from the bed into her arms.

They walked together down the hallway descending the stairs into the living room, an odd sense of déjà vu overcoming Lena the whole time. The living room was spacious with sliders to the front of the house on one side and an entrance to the kitchen on the other. Near the sliders, there was a cabinet built into a wall with a set-in TV that took much of that wall. The carpeting was oatmeal in color and a thickness that begged you to run around barefoot. There was a dark brown sectional couch, seating for four on one area and three on the other. Large end tables sat at both sides, most of the lighting seeming all to be set into the ceiling. There were two armchairs in the room, their material matching the throw pillows on the couch, and one was almost adult-sized and the other even smaller. Right next to each of these was a small bookshelf filled with children's books of varying ages. The only lamps in the room sat next to each of these chairs.

"That's your chair," Lena said, pointing to the smaller of the chairs.

"My reading spot," Aiden agreed.

"You love to read," Lena said wistfully.

"Mommy, are you all right?"

She nodded. "Still a bit sleepy, baby."

"You need your coffee."

Lena laughed. "That sounds about right. Let's go get Mommy some coffee. The kitchen is…that way." Lena pointed through an archway across from the sliders in the living room and headed that way. She had only hit the tile floor when she stopped.

The tile in here was nearly as light as the living room carpeting, just a shade darker than the cabinets. There was a massive center island with a butcher block top one length and tiling along the other. Along the tiled side were high-backed stools, seating for four. Steel, high-end appliances finished the look, though most of the refrigerator was covered with colorful pieces of paper, children's artwork affixed with magnets. It was something Lena had only ever seen in a magazine spread, and definitely never in a home in which she had lived…except she had. She knew this. This was right. This was home.

It wasn't any of that, no inanimate object that froze Lena in her tracks. It was the back of the person who was cooking that caused her breath to catch. Wearing pajama pants and a ribbed, gray tank top, the woman's reddish hair hung messily at shoulder length. As the woman shifted from side to side, Lena watched this person's hips and tried to make sense of what she saw and felt: closeness, casualness, intimacy, desire. Blinking rapidly as this last emotion hit, Lena was more than happy to place the squirming child on the ground.

He ran up to the stove, slamming into the legs of the person cooking. "Mama! Mama! I woke her up! Now we can have breakfast!"

"Easy fella." The woman cooking laughed and flipped two more pancakes before turning. "Sorry, I couldn't keep the beasts at bay anymore. They're starving. How'd you sleep, beautiful?"

"I…I…I…" Staring at a slightly older Alexandra Danvers, Lena couldn't form a coherent sentence.

Tugging at Alex's hand, Aiden waited until she looked down at him and said, "Mommy had a nightmare."

"She did?"

He nodded.

"Awww." Alex lifted the boy into her arms, carrying him over to Lena. "You have a bad dream, Lee? Are you okay?"

"Oh, my God." Lena tried to calm her breathing.

"Sounds like a doozy." When Alex leaned in for a kiss, she only met air. "Hey, you okay?"

"I…" Lena shook her head, pointing at her own face.

"Hey." With a bright smile, Alex stepped in closer and wrapped an arm around Lena's waist. Trapping the other woman in place against her body, Alex pressed their foreheads together. "You know, I'm not scared of your morning breath after all these years. I love you, birthday girl." Pressing her mouth forward, her lips captured Lena's for several seconds. When she pulled away, Alex mushed her lips to one side and said, "Yeah, you were right. You could use to brush."

Before Lena could even think how to respond, Aiden said, "Mama, that's not very nice."

"Well Mommy has dog breath," Alex said, hanging her tongue out of her mouth and panting.

"Woof!" Aiden replied eagerly, hanging his tongue out of his mouth and panting along.

"Do dogs eat pancakes?" Lena asked.

"Crap, pancakes!" Alex hastily handed the child back to Lena and rushed over to give the food attention.

"Mama, that's a bad word," Aiden scolded.

"Yes, yes, I know. Mama has a potty mouth. Only your Mommy is a lady. Lee, would you like to reprimand me also?" Alex looked over her shoulder.

Eyes wide, Lena shook her head.

"Huh. Okay, well, maybe later in private." With a wink and a grin, Alex went back to cooking.

"Oh, dear Lord."

"Mommy, you pray a lot today."

Nodding, Lena replied, "It's a good day for praying."

"Mommy." Grabbing a piece of folding construction paper from the table, Aiden waved it about. "I made this for you, for your birthday." He smiled broadly.

"Oh, you uh…you did?" Lena took the paper staring at the words, 'To My Mommy. Happy Birthday.' That were written very neatly on the front in crayon with a picture of a birthday cake with lots of candles on it. She smiled nervously, swallowing. "Thank you, Aiden. Did you get help from…um…" Lena made an awkward gesture over toward Alex.

"No, I did them all by myself. My teacher, Mrs. Hardgrave, she says I make the neatest letters in the whole class."

Slowly Lena's smile became more sincere. "I'm sure you do."

"Woof! Woof! I'm a doggy!" Aiden said, sliding out of Lena's grip to the floor.

"You certainly are a squirmy thing."

"Woof! I'm a doggy."

"Are you sure you're not an eel?" Lena asked. "Eels are much squirmier than dogs."

"Woof! I'm thirsty. Woof!"

"Ah…right." Lena looked around the kitchen, seeing a glass drying in the rack by the sink as she placed the hand-made birthday card on the center island. Grabbing the glass, she filled it with water and held it out to the boy. "Here you are."

"Woof! I'm a doggy."

"Huh. Dogs don't drink water?"

Looking over her shoulder, Alex said, "Lee, he wants it in a bowl on the floor. Are you sure you're all right today, sweetie?"

"Oh um…" Lena nodded, walking over to the cabinets until one felt right. She opened it, finding a selection of breakfast bowls. She dumped the water from the glass into the bowl, placing it on the floor near the center island. "There, dog water."

"Woof!" Aiden agreed, lapping at it messily.

"Careful," Lena warned Alex. "Your pet is getting water all over the floor. Don't slip."

Alex laughed while plating pancakes. "Well, we all can't make perfect little ladies. Mind getting me the butters and the syrup, sweetie?"

"Butter and syrup. That I can do," Lena replied looking twice at Alex, not sure what else to say, but happy to have the out. She walked over to the fridge, opening it and finding the requested food easily. It was exactly where she expected it to be. It was exactly where she knew it would be.

Closing the fridge, she stared at the pictures hanging there. They were done with crayons and pencils, some colored and some good-old number two. They ranged from children's homework to artistry. Lena's favorite was a set of stick figures, two women in the middle, the spindly hands obviously grasped together. One had black hair and the other red. On one side was a child with black hair and on the other a smaller one with brown. With careful strokes of her fingers, Lena ran her fingers across the images and felt even closer to home.

Her eyes caressed each image that hung on the refrigerator. That Christmas tree was from spending last Christmas with Grandma Eliza and Grandpa Jeremiah. An HRC equality magnet held a kids report card in place, and somehow she knew it was straight A's without looking inside it. The school schedule for 2028-2029 hung from the mouth of a turtle magnet. On the bottom part of the fridge, chunky and colorful plastic letters spelled words and twisted in every which way. On the top, small and neatly ordered black letters on white backgrounds stood closely together spelling out words like: home, family, love, science. There was a hand turkey from Thanksgiving with only three fingers and a thumb because Aiden had used the hand of J'onn J'onnz…who was Alex's Martian boss at the DEO. As she circled the fridge, she found a picture on the side, a photograph of herself younger, closer to the age of which she thought…use to think…used to be…her younger age and of Alex. They were both smiling and leaning close together, each with a tropical flower in their hair.

"Hawaii."

"What was that, Lee?" Alex asked, flipping pancakes.

Hurriedly putting the butter and syrup on the counter, Lena yanked the photograph from the fridge magnet and all. She turned to Alex, holding it out. "Hawaii. We went to Hawaii together."

"Uh-huh," Alex said, grabbing a dishtowel and wiping her hands while her gaze went from the picture back to Lena.

"We argued about this. I listed a half-dozen destinations in Europe that would be better, more appropriate, but you said you were paying for the trip. You said you always wanted to go to Hawaii, and Hawaii was in your budget. You said you were paying for the trip if I was paying for the…paying for the…"

"Lee, honey, you're starting to scare me. Sweetie, what's going on?"

"Wedding," Lena said, slapping the picture into Alex's chest, forcing the other woman to grab it to keep the image from falling to the ground. "We had a wedding and went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. We're married."

Head tilting to the side, a deep frown settled around Alex's mouth as worry filled her eyes. "Lena, we need to call someone. Tell me what you're feeling so I know who to call."

Wrapping her arms around herself, Lena stepped back. "No one." When Alex's hand gripped her elbow, Lena shirked it off and stepped further away.

"Please, Lee, don't run from me. You know I won't hurt you."

"What's wrong with Mommy?" Aiden asked from the floor.

"Nothing," Alex assured him. "She's just a little…here." She handed him a piece of bacon from the drying plate. "Dogs eat bacon."

"Woof!" He grabbed it, digging in.

"Lee I…" Alex saw Lena by the exit near the living room and hurried after her. "Honey, wait up. Lena, sweetie, talk to me. Let me help you."

"I'm fine. I don't need help," Lena replied walking away.

"The hell you don't." Grabbing Lena's wrist, Alex turned the other woman back to her and held her in place. "Lee, tell me what's wrong?"

Grabbing her hand with her other one, Lena pulled and yanked, pulling her hand free as she yelled, "Nothing! I just have to pee! I'm fine! I'm completely fine! I'm normal! This is normal! Stop badgering me!" Lena kept responding while she raced away and up the stairs, down the hallway, into her bedroom, and into the attached bedroom, closing and locking the door behind her. Heart pounding, she stood leaning with her back to the door. "The bathroom is en-suite. Oh, God. I knew the bathroom was en-suite. This is my house. This is my life. I'm remembering this."

Wandering over to the sink, Lena splashed some water on her face. She patted it dry with a towel, staring at herself and feeling much more at home with the reflection than she did earlier. Perhaps it was the running of the water, but she actually did have to use the toilet, so she did so. Once done, she stopped by the sink again, seeing two toothbrush heads by the electric toothbrush machine. Somehow she was certain which one was her, so she snapped it into place, brushing her mouth clean and rinsing. Her hair was next, brushed out and put into a ponytail with one of the hair ties from the drawer on the top left side as she knew they'd be. Staring into the face in the mirror, she now only saw herself, Lena Luthor, exactly as she expected to be.

When she exited the bathroom, Lena wasn't surprised to see Alex waiting for her, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe.

"You're not leaving this room until we talk," Alex said.

Lena nodded. "Where's Aiden?"

"Lori has him."

"Lori…my daughter Lori."

Standing upright, Alex's body language went rigid. "Well, she's my daughter too."

"Right, but I gave birth to her."

"Lee, are you mad at me? Is this because of that mission last week that I…?" Running her hand through her hair, Alex slowly turned in a full circle. "Damn it, Lee; you said we were good. I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, but classified is classified even from your wife."

"I have a full security clearance."

"It was on a need to know basis, Lee."

"I needed to know!" When Lena yelled, they both took a step back. Shaking her head, Lena said, "I'm sorry. You're right. I said that was done. I shouldn't have…This isn't about that." Lena dropped to a seat on the bed, folding her hands in front of her and staring at them.

Alex walked up to the bed and cleared her throat, pointing next to Lena and when her wife met her gaze and asking, "May I?"

"Of course."

Alex sat. Carefully she reached across and slid two fingers between Lena's clenched hands. "Talk to me, Lee. Don't shut me out."

Lena nodded. "I had a dream."

"Was I in it?"

"Oh, you had a starring role. It was about the mech."

"You dreamt about your mech?"

Lena paused trying to order her thoughts that felt so jumbled. "It was about the day we found it, the day at the warehouse."

"Oh, Lee." Pulling her hand free, Alex slid that arm around Lena's shoulders and put her other hand over both of Lena's. "Aiden was right. That was a nightmare. Are you all right?"

"Disoriented," Lena admitted. "Have you ever had a dream and woken up, not sure if you're awake or still dreaming, not sure if you were dreaming before or not?"

"Sure, I guess. Sometimes dreams are tricky. It was pretty vivid?"

"Incredibly. Darling, it felt like I was there. There were sounds, smells, things I touched that were all so…you ruined my suit and those beautiful four-inch Lois Vuitton stiletto's I was wearing. Oh, I was so pissed at you."

"I was pretty pissed at me too. I never properly got to see you in those stilettos." Alex grinned.

"Darling, you've gotten to see me in other four-inch stilettos." Lena paused a bit uncomfortable. "And garters…and nothing else."

"Lee," Alex breathed her wife's name, leaning closer. "Mmmm. You know what I want to do for your birthday?"

With a small chuckle, Lena retreated a bit. "The same thing you want to do on the other 364 days of the year?"

"What about leap year?" Alex's mouth found Lena's neck, nipping at the other woman's throat.

Pushing back her wife, Lena stared for several moments but then grinned. "On that day, we rest."

Alex pouted. "Spoilsport. Okay, you do seem better. So it was just a bad dream? Because in the kitchen you seemed really out of it. Lee, it was like you barely even remembered our wedding."

"Oh God no, Alex. I remember it. We had it up in L.A. James was the wedding photographer, of course. Your father walked you down the aisle." Lena smiled. "It was only eight months after we ended Cadmus and got him back. Winn walked me down the aisle and…Winn walked me down the aisle? Does that seem odd?"

"Why should it. You and Winn are great friends."

Lena nodded. "You're right. Winn and I are great friends. I'm sorry, darling. This damn dream has still got me so unsettled."

"Do you want to talk about it more?"

Lena shrugged. "It's like I said; it was the day we got the mech and all of Lex's drones. It's the day I didn't…I failed to…"

"Hey, you did your best."

"Did I?"

"Lee, where's this coming from? You climbed into that damn thing, not knowing if you'd live. You sent everyone else away expecting to die and stayed to try and stop that bomb. That was one of the fucking bravest things I've ever seen. That was the moment my eyes opened up to you. That was the moment I started to fall in love with you, even though I didn't know it at the time. You know that."

"I…thank you, darling. This dream though, I can't shake the feeling that there was something else I could have done, but I didn't."

"Lee, it's just a dream."

"Is it?" Pulling free of Alex, Lena stood and began to walk out of the room.

"Hey, where are you going?" Alex asked hurrying after Lena.

"Nowhere, just feeling unsettled." Taking Alex's hand, Lena led her down the hallway toward the stairs. "Walk with me?"

"Of course."

"In my dream, I think there was something else in the mech."

"Like what, some other piece of technology?"

"Like…" Lena shook her head. "I have no idea. I can't remember now."

"Dreams are like that," Alex agreed. "Hey, maybe you should keep a notebook next to your side of the bed. If this happens again, write down whatever you remember when you first wake up. How does that sound?"

"Good idea. Right now all I know is that there was something there and I could have done more; I could have saved…"

On the way down the stairs, Alex and Lena paused, shifting to one side. Aiden and a little girl, a few years older than Aiden, were coming up the stairs. She was holding his hand and taking the lead while he slowly made his way up the stairs. The girl stopped, black hair in a ponytail, Supergirl pajamas on, and she stared dead on at the two women. She had one green eye and one brown one.

Lifting just the eyebrow over her green eye, she said, "Your son is soaking wet. He was drinking water out of a bowl on the floor, but he's done now. The floor is also soaking wet. I'll get him dry clothes."

"Lori," Lena said, blinking several times as years' worth of information suddenly flooded her mind and emotions swept through her.

"Mother." Lori replied as she began up the stairs again, her brother in tow. She had only made it three steps before she stopped, turning and speaking over her shoulder, "Oh, Happy Birthday. Maybe we could teach this one to drink out of a glass before he turns five?"

"Just go change your brother, smarty pants," Alex said.

"Of course, Maternal Unit Number Two." Squeezing Aiden's hand, Lori said, "Come on Fido, let's see if we can't find you something dry and maybe a Milkbone."

"Woof!"

As the children wandered up the stairs and out of sight, Alex sighed. "I swear, Lee, she is so you."

"I think she's perfect," Lena replied, a smile touching her lips.

"Oh, so does she."

As they made their way down the stairs, Lena turned into the living room and stopped. "So in the dream…in the dream…"

"Go ahead, sweetie."

"I don't know," Lena admitted, biting at the pad of her thumb. "I just keep feeling like I could have stopped that bomb. I could have stopped the Kryptonite. I could have saved those cops."

Alex was shaking her head, trying to stop what Lena was going to say next.

"I could have saved Maggie."

"Lee, baby, no. You did everything, took every last second you had, and you were willing to die to try and save her." Grasping both of Lena's upper arms just above the elbows, Alex pulled the other woman in closer to her. "Baby, you tried everything."

"But still your girlfriend died, and you married me. How convenient was that?"

"Oh, my God, really, Lee?" Stepping away, Alex ran her hand through her hair. She held one hand there, gesturing a bit wildly with the other hand. "Is this some kind of mid-life crisis or something? I remember turning thirty-five, and my birthday was just us, kids, family, and my parents taking the kids so we could go away for the weekend. You know, normal couple stuff."

"We're a normal couple?"

"Uh, well…okay, that's a fair point," Alex admitted as her hands fell away, body language stilling. "I'm a secret agent, and you're the CEO of a multi-billionaire organization. Plus with your mech and drones, you have Luthor Tech security that assists the DEO in protecting the planet from alien insurgents. Speaking of which, I'm supposed to try and convince you to turn over the mech technology to us for—"

"Not going to happen," Lena said, her head shaking as she crossed her arms. "I adore you Alex, but one of those things running around is dangerous enough. It's proprietary equipment and licensed under L-Corp. With the DNA encryption, it will be Lori's one day, but I am never turning it over to the government."

"Are you done?" Alex asked.

"Until you ask again, yes," Lena agreed, loosening her shoulders, her arms hanging straight down again.

With a peck on her wife's lips, Alex said, "Fine, then let's fight about this next month."

"Fine. I'll put it on my calendar."

Alex grinned. "Have your people call my people. I know the answer will always be no, but I mainly ask so I can tell James I'll ask and then tell him you said no again. I like to get his hopes up. He's such a sad little tin man. I think he's going to cry and rust himself into place one day." He voice stiff and creaky, Alex barely moved her lips as she added, "Oil me."

"James, of course, James would ask because he's Guardian which I know."

Alex nodded.

"And Winn built his suit for him which I also know because he works at the DEO…with you…and I have clearance to know that…because I'm a consultant there."

"Lee, you're scaring me again."

"What? Why? I'm fine. I'm totally fine," Lena assured her wife.

"You know who Kara is?"

"Your sister? Of course, I know who Kara is. She's my best friend. She lives in Los Angeles, works for the L.A. Times. She's Supergirl." Eye's widening, Lena repeated, "She's Supergirl."

"You seemed surprised."

"No, I…No, I knew that. Alex, it's like I know all of these things, but I don't know them until I know them, until I use the information. Like that fight we had about your mission, as soon as you mentioned it I was so mad at you, but until you said something about it, I didn't even know the mission existed."

"Really?" With a sideways grin, Alex scratched at the back of her neck, further mussing her hair. "Now I wish I hadn't reminded you. That was one hell of a fight."

"I remember…now. I won't forget it again."

"Fuck," Alex mumbled under her breath. "Sweetie, maybe we should call J'onn and M'gann to watch the kids and bring you in for some tests. I'd like to get your blood work done, full screens, get an MRI. I'm really worried."

"Oh, it's just this damn dream, Alexandra."

"Full first name? Well, now I think you're mad again."

"I'm not, darling. I swear. It's like I'm caught half in between this dream and half between our lives. I'm just…"

"Talk to me, Lee," Alex pleaded. "What do you remember?"

"Well, in the dream—"

"No, about us. You remember us, don't you Lee?"

As Alex's eyes softened again, it touched Lena's heart in an unexpected way. Soft was neither a word she associated with Agent Danvers nor was gentle…but they were. Alex had a rough exterior, kept most people at a distance, but when she let you in Alexandra was a kind and loving soul who wrapped those closest to her up in emotional gauze, protecting them from the world, keeping them safe, loving them unconditionally. That was her wife, Alexandra Luthor-Danvers.

"I remember after Kara…left."

"Hmmm." Alex nodded.

"I remember you showing up in my office with lunch that first day. You were rude and intrusive. I hadn't seen you since…"

"Since Maggie's funeral," Alex finished.

"Yes. You looked like crap, Alex."

"I felt like crap. I'd just lost my girlfriend and my sister in different ways. Kara had made me promise to look in on you, take care of you, though now I know she really wanted us to take care of each other. She knew I wouldn't accept anyone checking up on me. So I brought you lunch to make sure you'd eat instead of just working yourself into a guilt-induced early grave."

"I couldn't even look you in the eyes. I was certain you hated me."

"Never, Lee." Alex gently massaged Lena's shoulders. "I put you in an unfair situation. If I hated anyone, it was myself. You looked so broken after what happened. I'd brought more tragedy into your life. I understood then what Kara saw when she talked about you. For the first time I really saw you, and I understood why Kara loved you."

"It wasn't just my rack?" Lena joked, but she wiped a stray tear that had escaped onto her cheek.

"Oh, I noticed that when you pulled your jacket off that day at the warehouse, right before you tossed it in my face. Even though we might die, even though there was a crazy-ass mech and a bomb right there, suddenly there were your boobs and my brain kind of short-circuited. You, they, interfered with my survival instinct."

"Well, they are pretty fabulous."

"So are you." Alex pulled Lena in close, holding the other woman. "That first lunch led to so many more, to us working together, long scientific discussions, working to take down Cadmus, and before we knew it, we were having dinner and never even talking about your mother or my work. Suddenly we were friends just spending time together. At some point, it became more, and we didn't notice, or at least we didn't acknowledge it. It snuck up on us and—"

"And that damn mission inside Cadmus!" Lena snapped, pushing Alex away and stepping back.

Wide-eyed, Alex stared at her wife. "Lee, that was ten years ago. You're bringing that up now?"

Arms stiff at her side with hands balled into fists, Lena stood with her head tipped back and her eyes closed. Still, tears spilled out of the corners of her eyes and rolled freely down her cheeks. "I thought you were dead, Alexandra. You lost coms. You removed your tracker. Everyone else came back from that mission but you."

"Lee, I came back."

"A day and a half later."

"With Hank Henshaw, your mother, and my father." Alex stepped forward, trying to wrap her arms around her wife again. "Hey, what's—?"

Suddenly, Lena struck out, her fists pounding against Alex's chest, drumming down and forcing the other woman back. "I thought you were dead! Do you know how that made me feel?! Do you know how it felt to sit in that control room and wait all that time and think I'd never see you again!? I can't lose you!"

Staggering back with a hand on her chest, Alex stared open-mouthed. She stood silently for several moments before only saying, "Lee?"

"I…" Crying again, Lena turned her back to Alex. It took several breaths before she could speak again. When she did, she had gained a semblance of control. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from. That memory was so vivid, just like living it all again. It was like a day and a half of feeling like you were dead, and I was alone, like I'd been a fool to never admit my feelings for you, and then seeing you again filthy and grinning like an idiot so damn proud of what you'd accomplished, of having brought down Cadmus and of bringing your father home."

Tentatively, Alex reached out a hand and placed it on Lena's shoulder. "You just hit me."

"Hurt a lot less than when I hit the Kevlar that first time."

"Hurt me more," Alex grumbled, rubbing at her sore chest with her other hand. "Lee, we don't hit. We use our words, not our hands. What was that?"

"Fear, absolute, uncontrolled fear and…" Lena sighed, letting hear head fall forward. She scrubbed at the tears on her face.

Alex stepped in closer, both of her hands gripping Lena's shoulders and gently rubbing as her front pressed against her wife's back. She nuzzled the other woman's hair, inhaling that familiar scent and finding much-needed comfort there. "Babe, you're the bravest person I know. You never let fear control you. Something going on in that giant brain of yours or is it that giant heart?"

Lena shook her head, patting one of Alex's hands as she pulled away. Head muddled, she walked over to another wall in the living room. Framed pictures stood out there, some beautifully done portraits and others casual family moments. There was Alex and Lena's wedding, one with the whole bridal party: Alex and Lena, Eliza, Jeremiah, Winn, Kara, Jess, Susan, a woman who Lena didn't…Sam! Of course, her name was Sam. That was odd to have forgotten one of her best friends for just a moment. She was engaged to James. There was another wedding photo of just the two of them, just Alex and Lena, both in wedding dressing and smiling as if two people had never been happier. Lena remembered that day, and she had never been happier until…Lori. This photo was from the hospital, Lena looking like she'd been dragged backward through the bushes by her heel, Alex curled around her like the proudest and most protective mum in the world, and that beautiful little girl lying in Lena's arms with Alex's hand on Lori's torso. Lena swallowed hard as the love rushed through her just as it had that day, unconditional love at first sight. To the left was a similar photo but this time it was Alex who was exhausted and haggard, tears of joy on her face and Aiden in her arms. On one side was Lena, proud and more in love with them, if that was possible, than she had been before, and on the other, a three-year-old Lori sat watching this newcomer to her life still considering what role he'd play in her environment. Picture after picture, memories and emotions flooded Lena as her life rushed back in, the holes filled as uncertainty vanished.

Turning, tears that had filled her eyes spilling uncontrolled down her cheeks, with trembling lips Lena said, "Oh my God, Alex, I love you."

Alex nodded. "Babe, I love you—" She grunted slightly as Lena bolted into her, arms wrapped around in a death grip as if Alex might try and escape. "Okay, it's okay, baby. I'm not going anywhere."

Lena just nodded into her wife's neck. Still, it took several minutes for the usually stalwart CEO to calm from the storm of emotions that had assaulted her. Each time Alex relaxed, tried to move her wife back enough just to get eye contact, Lena gripped Alex's shirt tighter and dug in. Eventually, the redhead accepted she was going to have to wait this out and just stood still. Though Lena was more likely to meet her wife with ice than fire when upset, Alex had seen the fury on an occasion or two…or three. As unpleasant as Lena's rising temperament was, at least this would be short-lived by comparison.

Finally, sniffing, gasping around her words, Lena stepped back.

"Better?" Alex asked.

"I…I love you."

"I love you too," Alex said with a smile, wiping away her wife's tears with a thumb. "So now that makes you cry?"

Grabbing a tissue from where she knew it would be on the side table next to the couch, Lena wiped her nose. "Tears of joy."

"I'm going to remind you of that the next time I do something idiotic that causes this reaction."

Heading into the kitchen to throw out the tissue, Lena asked, "Do you have plans for something like that in the immediate future?"

"Hey, ask J'onn or Lucy. I'm not in charge."

Turning, Lena glared at Alex through the opening between the kitchen and the living room, "Mrs. Luthor-Danvers, that is a load of—"

"Whoosh!" Wearing all red now, Aiden ran between his parents and through the living room. "I'm the fastest man alive! Whoosh!"

"Barry Allen, no running in the living room!" Lena yelled out.

"I'm not Barry Allen; I'm the Flash! Whoosh!" Aiden yelled, still running.

"Alex?"

"I've got him." Grabbing Aiden, Alex swung him wide and dropped him onto her shoulders. "Bad news, Flash, Mommy knows your secret identity. I think we need to take this race into the playroom, okay?"

"We need to run!"

Looking up at him, Alex replied, "No running in the living room." Then she put one finger over her lips before she held her son tightly on her shoulders and raced toward the playroom.

When the telltale patter of big feet sounded, Lena yelled, "Alexandra, I can hear you!"

Wiping her hands together, Lori entered the kitchen and announced, "Well, your son is changed after rejecting almost every pair of pajamas he owns. Can we have pancakes now? I'm really hungry."

"Oh, right, breakfast. Hold on, sweetie." Grabbing dishtowels from the second drawer on the left, Lena threw them onto the water on the floor. "Careful. We didn't get around to wiping up the floor yet."

"What have you been doing?"

"Um…reminiscing," Lena replied as she opened the stove where the pancakes and bacon were warming. She pulled out the pancakes with a potholder that hung on the stove, then grabbed Lori's favorite Supergirl plate and put three silver dollar pancakes on it before putting the rest back into the oven. Grabbing silverware and a napkin, she gave them all to her daughter. Lena looked around for a moment before saying, "Wait, let me get your apple butter."

"Thanks, Mommy," the little girl replied, carefully cutting her pancakes into strips.

"Do you want some melon?" Lena asked while peering into the fridge.

"Yum."

"Me too," Lena agreed, pulling both things out. She put Lori's apple butter into a small bowl, then slid it in front of the child for dipping. Opening the container of melon cubes, Lena put some in each of two bowls. "Orange or Grapefruit juice?"

"Surprise me," Lori replied around bites of pancake.

Taking down a mug and pulling out a pod, Lena filled up the Keurig and started it brewing. "I'll get you some coffee," she quipped.

Pausing in her eating, Lori watched as her mother left the bowl of melon on the kitchen island for her and then wandered off to the refrigerator again. "That would be a surprise," Lori admitted. "Can I at least have decaf? Caffeine is bad for a child's heart."

The orange juice container in hand, Lena smiled at her daughter as she grabbed a juice cup from a cabinet and poured a glass. "The coffee is for me. Here's your juice."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Placing the juice on the counter, Lena called out, "Alex, Aiden, come get breakfast!"

"No one by that name in here!" Alex yelled back from the playroom.

There was a pounding of little feet, and then Aiden appeared just short of the kitchen. "Whoosh! I'm The Flash, and me and Vibe are fighting bad guys!" When his mommy had only managed to open her mouth, Aiden turned and ran back the way he'd come with a yell of, "Whoosh!"

Sighing, Lena rubbed at her face. "You know, twenty minutes ago he jumped on top of me to drag me out of bed because he was starving."

"Twenty minutes ago he was bored," Lori said, nibbling on a piece of melon.

Wiggling one pointing finger at her daughter, Lena said, "You, my darling child, are wise beyond your years."

"I know."

Lena wiped up the floor, dumping the wet washcloths into the sink and then called out, "Flash, Vibe, superhero pancakes in the kitchen!"

"Yeah!" Aiden's feet pounded as he raced toward the kitchen. "Whoosh!" He turned the corner and hit the tile floor. Seconds later, his feet skidded out from under him as his footy pajamas hit the slick flooring. He skidded a bit and finally landed with a thud in a sitting position on his butt.

Lena gasped. "Sweetie, are you all right?"

Aiden sat stunned for a moment before announcing, "I fell down."

Lori snickered.

Covering her mouth to camouflage her own mirth, Lena nodded and asked, "Are you hurt, darling?"

Walking in behind Aiden, Alex picked him up. "I've got you, buddy. You're fine, right?"

"Mama, I fell on my behind."

"Yeah, that happens. Even The Flash falls on his behind. Want some pancakes?"

"Kiss it?" Aiden asked with a grin.

With an eye roll, Alex asked, "Couldn't hit your head, huh?" She lifted him, planting a kiss on the seat of his pajamas and then quickly traveling kisses up his side until she nibbled on him, tickling him and making him squeal shrill and loud.

"Good Lord, you two," Lena said, pulling the food out of the oven again. "Lori, why do we have to live with these ruffians?"

"Don't ask me," Lori replied. "You married one, and she brought the other one home."

"Your child speaks," Alex said, placing Aiden in a seat. "Lee, get him pancakes?"

"Of course."

"Aiden, what kind of blood do you want to drink?" Alex asked as she went to the fridge.

"Saturnian!" Adien popped up briefly in his chair before settling down again.

"It's not alien blood, Aiden; it's just milk with—"

"Lori," Lena said shortly, raising one eyebrow at her daughter.

"It's Saturnian blood," Aiden said with assurance.

Lori looked back at her parents, verifying Lena was plating pancakes and Alex was pouring milk, and whispered, "No it isn't."

"Yes, it is," Aiden whispered in return.

"No, it isn't," came the whispered response.

"Yes, it is."

"No, Mama puts food dye in your—"

"It's Saturnian blood!" Aiden shrieked.

"Hey! Enough, both of you," Alex said, hands on hips as she gave her child a glare that had leveled many a cadet at twenty paces. "Today is your Mommy's birthday. I expect better behavior from you both because you've been raised better, but I definitely expect better from you today. Now apologize."

"Sorry, Mama," they both muttered.

"To each other," Alex clarified.

"Sorry, Aiden," Lori said while Aiden was saying, "Sorry, Lori."

"Better, now eat your food."

Lena brought the plate of pancakes over to Aiden, all cut up, but paused before putting them down. "Are you going to have butter and syrup?"

He nodded.

"Take off your pajamas."

"I'm The Flash."

"I know, but if you don't take off your pajamas, you'll get them covered in syrup. Please take then off, Aiden."

"I'm The Flash."

"Aiden—"

"I'm The Flash."

With a sigh, Lena looked over her shoulder. "Alex?"

"Got it, Lee," Alex said kissing her wife's cheek and putting a glass of milk, complete with one drop of red food coloring and a flexi-straw, down near their son. "Aiden, are you wearing cool underpants today?"

He nodded.

"Are you sure? I think they're your white ones."

Pushing to stand on the chair so quickly that Alex had to rush around behind him, Aiden fumbled to undo the zipper. Alex helped him pull off the sleeves as he unveiled his underpants and sung out, "Teenage Mutant Ninja underpants!"

"Oh, those are cool, buddy. You were right." She sat him back down, his pajamas dangling by his ankles. "I'll get your syrup." Moments later, she came back with melted butter and syrup, pouring them on top.

"You're very clever, Agent Luthor-Danvers," Lena said kissing her wife's cheek, a plate of pancakes in each hand.

Taking a plate, Alex turned and kissed Lena on the lips. "I've learned a lot of negotiation skills. I've learned from some of the best in the business. Come on. Eat something warm while you still can."

When Lena grabbed her coffee cup, and Alex just stared up from the table with sad eyes, Lena gave an eye roll and then handed over the coffee before making a second one. "Happy Birthday to me."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lee. I'll—"

"Kidding, kidding," Lena said, urging Alex to sit back down. "You let me sleep in. That was the best gift you could have given me. I think you could use the caffeine more than I could. How early did Aiden wake you?"

"Before six," Alex admitted, smile as she took a sip of coffee.

"On a Saturday?" Lena shook her head. "It's all that alien blood he consumes. It's affecting his DNA."

Sipping his milk, Aiden said, "Saturians are super strong and have psychic powers. That means they can read your mind."

Alex nodded, cutting up her pancakes with her fork. "He's right. Good work my little scientist."

"The actual name for "Saturians is the H'ronmeerca, and they're cloned genetically modified descendants of Green Martian workers created for Saturn colonies." Blowing into his cup through his straw, Aiden giggled at the bubbles that appeared.

"Alex, what are you letting him get into at your lab?"

"Hey, you said anything he could read he was allowed to read," Alex said with clear defensiveness.

"He can read…what was that word again?" Lena asked.

"H'ronmeerca," Alex supplied.

"Hmmm." Lena nodded. "I feel like we're missing a vowel somewhere."

"It has plenty of vowels, Lee." Alex took a sip of her coffee. "It's the placement of the vowels in the word that's the issue."

"Mama, can I go to the lab with you today? I don't have to go to school."

"No work today. It's your Mommy's birthday. We're all taking the day off."

"Even Mommy?" Aiden asked, eyes wide as he looked up from his food.

"Yes, even Mommy," Alex assured him. "I think the President is going to declare it a national holiday."

"Is this what you say about me when I'm not around, Alex?" Lena asked.

"I'm joking, Lee."

"She does," Lori said, sliding out of her seat. "May I be excused?"

"You are a traitor," Alex accused in a whisper to her daughter.

"Dishes in the sink, please," Lena reminded her daughter.

Lori nodded, clearing her dishes and then heading back to Alex. She tugged at her mama's sleeve and then whispered, "I'm going upstairs to see if that thing is charged, okay?"

"Okay," Alex whispered back. "Do you need any help?"

Lori shook her head.

"Okay, let me know if you do. I love you," Alex said, giving her daughter a quick kiss.

"I love you too."

"Hey, wash your face upstairs. You have an apple butter mouth."

"Where? Here?" Suddenly Lori mushed her mouth against Alex's cheek, smearing apple butter on her mama. "Think I got it."

"Ugh!" Alex rubbed at her cheek, grabbing her napkin to try and get it all off as she watched Lori leave the room. "Lee, your daughter just smeared apple butter all over my face."

"Not my daughter," Lena said, sitting with coffee and pancakes in hand. "My daughter is a perfect lady."

"Sure, for you. Around me, she acts like a kid." Alex smirked.

"I can't tell if you're complaining or proud." Lena took a sip of her coffee.

"Both. Both things can be true."

"Oh, my melons," Lena said, getting back up from the table.

Glancing over at Aiden, Alex said, "Really, Lee? We have company." When Lena returned looking confused, and with a bowl of honeydew in hand, Alex laughed. "Okay, my bad. I'm the one whose mind is in the gutter."

"Usually," Lena agreed.

"You seem much better. How do you feel?"

"Fine." Lena smiled. "I honestly think I just had a very bad dream and was having problems waking up from it. It's never happened before, but maybe it was some kind of sleepwalking thing. I don't know."

"We'll keep an eye out for it."

"Absolutely. That was awful. If that happens again, we get me tested. Right now I say it was just a bad dream."

Alex sipped her coffee. "Still, I'm going to check in with work, make sure we don't have any reportings like that today or anything on file. We live in National City. When weird stuff happens, we should look for an odd explanation. This isn't some small town in Kansas."

Quipping an eyebrow, Lena said, "Small town in Kansas?"

"Okay bad example," Alex admitted. "You know what I mean, though."

"I do. I appreciate you checking up on this. We've been at the center of too many plots for us to just assume this is nothing. Especially now with the kids, I don't want to take anything for granted."

"I don't ever want to take this family for granted," Alex agreed, kissing Lena.

"Hmmm." Rubbing at her wife's face with a thumb, Lena said, "You have a sticky cheek."

"I told you. It was your daughter."

"That sounds unlikely."

"Talking about me?" Lori asked as she reentered the room.

"Tell your mother you put apple butter on my face."

Lori looked from Alex over to Lena and held out a smallish wooden box. "Happy Birthday."

"Oh, thank you, darling," Lena replied standing, taking the box, and pulling Lori into her arms, holding her close for several moments. "You didn't have to get me anything."

When Lena released her, Lori said, "I made it for you. Well, Mama and I made it together."

"Oh, did you now."

Lori nodded. "We made it in her lab."

Obviously concerned, Lena said, "Alex?"

"It's fine sweetie. It's safe. We were perfectly safe the whole time. I promise."

"Of course you were. They're just both so…" Lena waggled a finger back and forth between the children. "…eager."

"Oh, I know. They like my work much better than yours. For some reason, guns and aliens are more interesting than contracts and corporate takeovers."

"I have labs," Lena argued. "I have extensive and well-equipped labs."

"Which you're never in," Alex countered.

"Not…never."

Alex tilted her head. "Lee."

"No, no. I was there just last…" Brow furrowed, Lena's eyes scanned left as she bit at her lower lip.

"Hey, how about we let Mommy open her gift?" Alex said, saving Lena from her own admittance.

Grateful for both the rescue and the gift, Lena nodded and lifted her daughter into one of the high-backed stools with only a slight strain. "Someone's getting bigger."

"I want to see! I want to see!"

"Ooof!" Alex flinched as Aiden struggled across the seating and half-crawled into her lap, catching him as he nearly fell with his pajamas around his feet still, then recoiled as she lifted him into her lap. "Sweetie, would you get me a moist rag? Someone's sticky."

Chuckling, Lena grabbed a new cloth from a drawer and came back with it damp. "Thank you for saving the pajamas."

Alex nodded, wiping their son clean while he didn't seem interested in making the process easy for her.

"Now, what do we have here?" Lena said, popping open the wooden box to reveal the contents.

Inside was a disk, copper in color, less than an inch thick, and maybe three inches around. Lena took it out exploring it with both eyes and hands. It had some heft to it, and she moved it back and forth a bit finding nothing shifted inside. She looked at the underside. It seemed to be a base that extended out a bit and would allow the disk to stand upright. From the top it was clear it had two pieces: a solid center with the letters A-Z raised around the surface with a blank area between the A and the Z, an exterior ring with an arrow on it pointed toward the blank spot. The exterior ring fit snugly against the inner-piece and looked as if it might spin in place.

"You made this?" Lena asked, one eyebrow raised.

Lori knelt on her butt on her seat, elbows on the center-island and chin resting on her folded hands. She bit her lower lip but didn't answer. Eyes sparkling, she stared at her mother expectantly.

Looking up at Alex, Lena said, "She made this in your lab? Should I be frightened?"

"Oh, come on Lee. It's just my lab at the DEO where I do bio-engineering on alien species and occasionally tinker with extra-planetary technology. What's there to be worried about?" Alex grinned.

Gaze going back and forth between mother and daughter, Lena said, "I'm frightened."

"Oh Mother," Lori said with infinite patience as she gently patted Lena's hand. "It's completely safe. We followed all of the safety protocols. You know Mama wouldn't let me do otherwise, and the DEO wouldn't allow anything dangerous out among the civilian population."

"That's your mini-me." Alex smirked at her wife. "She's right though."

"Oh, all right." Lena placed the disk on the island grasping it between thumb and forefinger as she noticed just the slightest bit of give in the outer ring, confirming it did indeed turn. "It's not like this thing is alien technology or something. So, how does it work? What does it do?" She continued to touch the disk for several moments before glancing up. When she did so, she did a double-take at the nervous look her wife and daughter shared. Withdrawing her hand quickly, she said, "Oh, good Lord, it's alien tech?"

"Cool! What does it do? Can I play with it?" Aiden made a lunge for the object.

Alex yanked him back before he could connect. "It's not your present. It's Mommy's, buddy. You wait for your birthday."

"Can I get an alien tech for my birthday, Mama?" He asked looking backward up at Alex, one hand on her cheek as brown eyes stared into brown eyes.

"Ah, sure you…" Alex hesitated, looking over at her wife who merely looked back with lips pressed together and one eyebrow raised. Alex smiled and looked down at their son again. "We'll talk about it, buddy."

"That means no," Lori said.

"That means we'll talk about it," Alex said again, this time with a bit more force and directed at her daughter. "Why don't you just enjoy Mommy opening your gift right now." Alex tipped her chin back at her wife. "Go ahead, Lee. You're gonna love it."

With a sigh, Lena nodded. "So any hints?"

"It's what you love the most," Lori explained, still with that glimmer in her eyes.

"Well, that's my family, all of you." She grasped the outside of the disk again. "Do I just twist it?"

"Turn it to the A," Lori instructed, her breathing increasing with her excitement.

"A for…?" Lena waited.

"The first letter in the alphabet," Lori deadpanned.

Alex failed to stifle her laugh, and when Lena shot her a look added, "Oh come on, Lee. She's so you."

"Yes, and I appreciate it more times than others."

With an audible click, Lena twisted the outer ring, the dial, till the arrow settled on the letter A and stuck into place. A hum filled the air, and Lena pulled back her hands with an edge of concern. A glow settled over the disk, and moments later it materialized into an image, three-dimensional recognizable, and about three inches side by six inches tall. It was people, four very familiar people. They sat together, moving slightly, happy, smiling, going through a very short set of motions that only lasted for a few seconds before the scene repeated.

Hand covering her mouth, Lena gasped as she watched the display loop through several times, never uttering another sound.

Apparently sensing the solemnness of the moment, Aiden pointed with his hand very close to his face and whispered, "I see me."

With a gentle squeeze and a kiss on her son's cheek, Alex replied, "You sure do, buddy."

"Oh, my God." Lean reached out, wrapping her arm around Lori's shoulder while never breaking her gaze from the device. "It's all of us. How did…? What…?" She looked over at her wife. "Alex?"

Alex merely pointed back at Lori.

Lori smiled. "Mama helped me with the DNA, and Uncle Winn isn't a bad engineer. Well, he's not bad for someone's who's not a Luthor." Lori smirked. "The key was the DNA Extrapolator that Mama had brought home from a mission."

"DNA Extrapolator?" One eyebrow in the air again, Lena asked Alex, "Do I want to know?"

"It's not dangerous. It doesn't make clones or anything, as you can see." Alex gestured toward the device sitting out on the table, their little holographic family portrait going through its repetitive scene. "It just makes a 3D rendered image. The really neat thing is since it looks at the DNA, it literally does an age progression, and you can stop the rendering at the age you choose."

"Mommy, I look a lot like you when I grow up. Uncle Winn said 'hot damn', and then Aunt Lyra said something in a language I don't know, and he ran out of the room. They're so funny."

"A laugh a minute, kiddo." Alex smirked, rubbing her daughter's hair.

Instantly, Lori began to fix any loose strands.

"Accurate age progression of a child's image?" Lena bit at the pad of her thumb. "Alex, this has some very interesting applications within the law enforcement field."

"Way ahead of you." Alex pointed as she spoke. "We've already reached out to the FBI to—"

Grabbing her mama's hand to interrupt the subject change, Lori said, "Turn the dial, Mommy."

"There's more?" Lena asked.

"A few," Lori confirmed. "There's room for more too. That's up to you in case you want to add more people to it and, you know, in case there are more of us."

"Another baby!?" Aiden jumped up, the top of his head colliding with Alex's jaw.

"Ow! Damn…" Alex grabbed at her face.

At the same time, Lena said, "No. No more babies. I think we've got our hands filled with you two."

"But I want to be a big brother."

"And I don't want a concussion," Alex said putting Aiden down on the stool by himself as she went to grab an icepack from the freezer. "But we don't always get what we want."

"You all right?"

Alex nodded, waving off her wife's concern as she dug through the freezer.

"Well, let's just see who's at B," Lena said, turning the dial.

The dial clicked into place and settled pointing at the letter B. The image shimmered, flickering out. The glow was almost immediately replaced, though. This time the image was of a single person, his smiling face showing as brown hair hung slightly over his eyes. Though there was no sound, he seemed to giggle as his hand covered his mouth before the image started all over again.

"Me! Me! Me!" Aiden said, hopping up and down on his butt.

"Indeed," Lena agreed with a broad smile, looking back at Alex. "You got up just in time. He's getting bouncier."

Alex stood with an icepack, wrapped in a towel, under her chin. "Not quite in time."

"Are you sure you're all right?"

Alex shrugged her response to her wife. "I'll be fine. I've gotten worse many a day at work. The kid just hits like an Almeracian."

"Almeracians have strength and invulnerability equal to Kryptonians," Aiden supplied.

"Question." Lena raised one finger. "How does this thing know Aiden needs a haircut? I feel like he always needs a haircut."

"We built a program to control those variables like age, weight, hair growth, even scars." Lori ticked things off on her fingers. "Don't tell Uncle Winn I said this because it will go to his head, but he's actually a really good programmer. When I'm CEO of L-Corp, I'll hire him."

"Good to know Winn has some job options," Lena said turning the dial again.

"He might need them if J'onn finds out he's running a Minecraft II server on government equipment," Alex mumbled.

Lena turned the outer ring again. As the image on the disk shifted, the next hologram became clear. A smile that was lovely if a touch smug, enough of the girl's upper torso was showing to see crossed arms. Her black hair was down and hung over her shoulders, but it was off her face with a hairband. Though the image was small, the different colored eyes were still visible, and the eyebrow over the green one raised as the image progressed.

"That's a good picture of you," Lena noted.

"I know."

"Humble, just like her mother," Alex whispered as she leaned in close to her wife.

Lena slapped at Alex playfully, missing entirely, before she turned the dial to D. This time when the image formed it was the dark-haired elder Luthor-Danvers. Her pose mirrored her daughter's down to the slowly raising eyebrow.

"Amusing. I see what you did there," Lena noted. "So we're doing this by age then?"

"Age before beauty," Alex replied.

Lena snorted.

"Ouch. That's insult to injury, Lee."

"Oh, I'm sorry, love. Let me see." She moved the icepack, checking under her wife's chin before kissing the red spot then kissing her wife's lips.

"Gross. You guys aren't going to get all weird and gross, are you?" Lori asked.

Looping her arms around Lena's waist, Alex replied, "So gross you're spending the night over at Uncle J'onn's and Aunt M'gann's."

"Yes!" Aiden cheered.

"Are our bags packed yet?" Lori asked.

"Why are our children so clingy?" Alex joked.

Chuckling, Lena handed Alex back the icepack and twisted around in Alex's grip, turning the dial again.

The last image showed a woman with elbows bent and disappearing below view. Her head was tipped back slightly, and she seemed to rock back and forth a bit as she stood proudly. She nodded once, gaze level, and red hair swaying slightly with the motion.

"You couldn't smile?"

"I smiled in the family portrait. Anyway, this looks more like me. It's more…believable."

"You're unbelievable," Lena countered. "Well, this is the most amazing gift I've ever received outside of all of you. You're right. I love it and—"

"Turn it again," Lori said, patting her mother's hand once more.

"Oh, there's more?"

With that lip bite back in place, Lori raised her eyebrows.

"Color me intrigued. Is it Aunt Kara perhaps?" Jerking slightly, Lena turned a bit in her wife's arms and mumbled, "Did you let her play with your sister's DNA?"

"Just turn the dial, worry wart. You know, I'm with them every day when they get out of school, and somehow they've made it to this age. It's almost like I know what I'm doing with our children."

"Well, it's like you know." Lena turned the dial again, a somewhat austere looking man in his fifties coming into view. He had no hair, and his blue eyes were striking. He held rather still, not doing much more than breathing and shifting slightly. Though initially startled, Lena relaxed after just a moment. "Oh, it's my father. I thought…I'd forgotten how much he and…"

"You okay?" Alex asked.

Lena smiled in a way that didn't touch her eyes. "I haven't seen my father in twenty-five years. Seeing him like this now, I suppose I hadn't realized how much my brother had grown to look like him."

Alex squeezed gently. "We can add anyone you want to this, anyone who's DNA we can get, okay? We can make them any age you want to."

Kissing Alex's hand, Lena said, "Thank you."

"Turn it again," Alex replied, nuzzling Lena's hair.

This time Lena didn't ask, she just twisted to the G. The image turned, and there she was. Well, it looked like Lena, almost like her. The hair was dark, the smile the same, but this image had a sense of serenity to it. It was positioned leaning casually to one side, hair hanging over one shoulder, looking relatively relaxed.

"Age progression?" Lena asked, looking at Lori.

Her daughter only smiled back rather secretively.

Lena examined the latest image again, her brows furrowing when she noticed something she hadn't earlier. "Oh, it is me. Both of the eyes are green."

"No it's not," Lori said, her smile growing even broader.

Lena's eyes moved from the image to her smiling daughter then back to the image again. "Okay, well I'm at a loss. There's only the two of us."

"Not always," Alex said with a nudge.

"Not always?" Lena twisted around, looking at her wife's kindly smile.

Alex nodded.

Returning to look at the image again, Lena fretted on her lip until her eyes grew wide. "Wait. Are you saying this is…?"

"Mamó." Lori rubbed a finger along the edge of the disk. "Are you surprised, Mommy?"

Lena's whole face slackened, her mouth hanging agape. "Where on God's Green Earth did you find my mother's DNA?"

As Lena turned on her, Alex stepped away and rubbed at the back of her neck. She chuckled, admitting, "That wasn't easy, but someone was insistent. She said the gift for you wouldn't be right unless we included your whole family. Luckily, your mother, your mother Lilian, had packed many of your father's personal belongings without going through them. We found several letters from a Miss E. Healy, and the name listed as your mother's on your birth certificate was Erika Healy, so we know those were from her. We were also lucky enough that your dad was one of those guys who used a letter opened and opened letters on the side, so the envelopes were still totally sealed, the DNA intact."

"Wait, are you saying you got DNA from my mother's saliva on envelopes that were, what, at least thirty-years-old Alex? Is that even…? Okay, obviously it's possible. This is outside my field of study and quite fascinating. Explain this."

"As if you could stop me." Alex grinned. "Look, it starts with the old 'steam open the envelope trick'. The goal is to extract both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA that's been left behind. The more…forcefully the person licked the envelope, the easier it is. The biggest issue was getting enough nuclear DNA to create the genetic portrait for the…well, the portrait."

"And it worked." Leaning forward so that her face was level with the image, Lena stared at a woman she hadn't seen since she was four-years-old.

"Honey, we have her DNA profile in the system now. If you want, we can do an age progression to see how she'd look now if she were still with us. We could even do a portrait with her and the kids."

Spinning around suddenly, Lena asked, "We could do that?"

Grasping Lena by the shoulder, Alex kissed her briefly but soundly. "Absolutely."

"I would love that. When can we—?"

Suddenly Alex's watch started to play, "We Are Family" as everyone, but Alex groaned at the disco beat.

"You need to change that ringtone, Mama," Lori complained.

"Shush, it's Aunt Kar. Answer. Kitchen display," Alex instructed.

From the ceiling, a flat-screen TV dropped down and then Kara's face appeared. The blonde was slumped back on a couch and wearing a blue t-shirt with v-neck. On it were a series of diving penguins across a light background. She was eating ice cream out of the container, and when the call answered she dropped the spoon in long enough to wave excitedly and smile. "Hey, guys! Good morning."

"Hi, Aunt Kara!" Lori replied.

"Ice cream for breakfast?!" Aiden looked over at his parents. "I want ice cream for breakfast."

"When you're a grown-up," Alex replied. "You look far too good for a weekend morning, Kara. You always have."

"It's a blessing and a curse." Kara grinned. "Happy birthday, Lena. Has my sister been taking care of you?"

"I slept in."

"Wow, that is a happy birthday for you. What about you kids? Are you taking care of your mommy?"

"Aunt Kara, look!" Lori picked up the hologram imager with Lena's mother's image on display. "Mommy opened her gift. We still need to get your DNA, though."

"Uh, yeah." Sitting up straighter, Kara set her ice cream down out of view as her gaze flicked over to her sister's for a moment. "We'll just have to figure that out the next time your Mama or someone comes to visit."

"They have your DNA on record at the DEO." Lori shrugged. "Can't we just use that?"

"Uh, no they don't." Kara shook her head.

"Yes, they do."

With a nervous laugh, Kara said, "No they don't. Why would they have my DNA on file there? That's just…That's crazy talk."

"They have it because you're…" Turning to her left, Lori looked down at her little brother who looked up curious to see what would be said next. Looking back at her aunt, and with one eyebrow raised, Lori said, "Because you're Mama's sister, right Mama?"

"Oh, Rao," Kara said, slumping down into the couch.

With a throat clearing, Lena took the device from her daughter and placed it onto the island. Arms crossed she whispered, "We're talking about this later, young lady."

Hands held palm up in front of her, Lori shrugged and whispered back. "What? It's just a pair of glasses. It's not my fault."

"What's going on?" Aiden asked.

"Hey, Aunt Kara hasn't seen your underpants. Why don't you show them to her," Alex suggested as she lifted him to stand on the stool.

"Dada!" He pointed down then turned around with his mother's help. "My butt in a half shell!"

Kara laughed, mood instantly picking up. "Thank you, Aiden. Hey, guys, did it come yet?"

"Did what come, Kar?"

"The same thing I send every year so we can blow out the candles together." She pushed on the face of her watch. "It says it's been delivered."

Lena and Alex shook their heads at each other, and Lena said, "It must be with security at the front gate. I can call down."

A tone rang through the house, soft but in every room.

"Apparently that won't be necessary," Alex noted. "They've brought it up. I'll go get it." She placed Aiden back sitting on the chair and then left the room.

"I'll get candles," Lena said, opening a drawer in the kitchen and pulling out a box.

"Do you have enough in there?" Kara joked.

"I'm younger than you," Lena turned her back to the children and silently mouthed, "A lot."

"I think I'm aging pretty well," Kara said smirking.

"It must be your good DNA." On the last two words she turned and glared at her daughter, her voice getting a bit louder and sharper.

Kara's and Lori's gaze met, both wide-eyed.

"Okay, got it," Alex said walking in with a box that was about a foot across in both directions and a few inches deep. "This is heavy, Kar. It's going to take us days to eat this." Alex began to pull open the box, removing the contents.

"Hold on. Let me grab mine." Kara stepped out of the view of the camera. There was an odd noise, like a rush of air, and then she was back perhaps three seconds later with a large cheesecake and candles in hand. "I almost forgot the candles. Had to go back for them."

"Wondered what took you so long," Lori deadpanned.

"Stop it," Lena said quietly, nudging her daughter. "Where do we keep matches, Alex? I didn't see them with the candles."

"We decided they shouldn't be in reach of young scientists and moved them into the cabinet over the refrigerator."

"Right. Thanks." Lena went to retrieve the matches, and by the time she returned, the box was open. Inside was a chocolate swirl cheesecake, already cut into sixteen slices. It was probably two inches thick and delicious looking. It was pretty much identical to the one Kara had carried into her living room. "Okay, that is huge. Maybe we can send some of it back to your sister."

"We'll eat it!" The children said simultaneously.

"Hey, we found something they agree on," Alex noted. "Maybe we should buy cheesecake more often."

When, everyone put their candles into place, and Alex began to light theirs, Aiden asked, "Where are your matches, Aunt Kara?"

"Oh, um…hey, what's that behind you kids?" When the kids turned, she quickly slid her glasses down, lit the candles with her heat vision, and slid her glasses back into place in perhaps two seconds later. "Huh, my mistake. It must have been a bird."

Squinting at her aunt and the now lit candles, Lori said, "Maybe it was a—"

"Lori," Lena warned.

For several seconds Lori was quiet and then she said, "Plane."

Lena sighed loudly.

"Hey, let it go," Alex said, squeezing her wife's arm. "It's out there now. We'll deal with it. It's not a problem. Just blow out your candles and enjoy the day with your family, okay?"

"Fine."

"What are you going to wish for, Mommy?" Aiden asked.

"Patience."

"Lee." Alex shook her head.

"If she tells us it won't come true," Lori said.

"Sure it will. Birthday wishes always come true, right Lena?" Kara smiled, leaning closer to the candles, preparing to blow them out with Lena.

Lena smiled and nodded. "I'm going to wish for the same thing I always wish for, my family." She walked over, kissing First Aiden, then Lori. Then she and Alex kissed. "I love you all so much. There's nothing else I could ever want than to have you in my life."

In return, everyone gave her their love.

"Now hurry up and blow out your candles before you cake is nothing but wax," Alex urged.

Taking a deep breath, Lena leaned toward the cake. With her wish in mind, she closed her eyes and prepared to blow.

Eyes opening, Lena found the interior of the mech to be poorly lit. Very little daylight came in through the small viewing hatch, and the track lighting was a joke at best. It sounded hollow, and even her small movements seemed to echo back to her too quickly in the confined space. The air was stale smelling like plastic and metal that had been closed up for too long plus a fresh smell of electronics that she had always loved until this moment. The disorientation was by far the worst effect. A second earlier she'd been at home with her family enjoying her birthday celebration, and now she was suddenly back in that damn dream again.

"What the…What the fuck!?"

"Lena Luthor."

Head-turning left, Lena zeroed in on the voice. A woman, blue-skinned with glowing golden eyes, stared out of the computer screen. Lena blinked several times as the memory began to crystallize. In her dream, there was something else, someone else, in the mech. This was that someone.

"Rama Kushna."

The face on the screen bowed her head slightly. "It will take several minutes for you to acclimate yourself to this timeline again fully. While you do so, you will be able to make a decision. You are at a—"

"Put me back."

"Lena Luthor, right now—"

"You took me away from my family. Put me back!"

"No."

"Wh…What?"

"Lena Luthor, you are at a crossroads. That future is attainable by you should you choose to avail yourself of it. However—"

"Yes, that, I want it! Put me back!"

"However, first you must complete the challenge put before you. You exist in this time. You must live this life going forward and earn your way there. The choice is yours."

Lena nodded emphatically. "Anything, I'll do anything. I just want my family back."

Gesturing toward her left, the goddess said, "Simply complete the challenge and lose."

"Fine. Whatever. I'll do whatever it takes to… What challenge?" Lena was nodding.

"The challenge your brother set before you. If you win you stop the bomb, the Kryptonite is dispersed, and no one in the warehouse dies. However, if you lose the game your brother has programmed, then the bomb will kill those inside the warehouse. Alex Danvers' girlfriend Maggie Sawyer will die. The Kryptonite will be dispersed through National City and other locales nearby sending Kara Danvers from the area. Feeling alone, and on her sister's instructions, Alex Danvers will befriend you. You two will fall in love and marry. You will have two children. That will be the future if you fail to beat your brother's game. It's your choice."

Open-mouthed, Lena stared at the face on the screen and shook her head. "You want me to let people die? You want me to force Alex and her sister apart?"

"I have no desire for any of this, Lena Luthor. I have merely shown you the future that awaits you should you fail to defeat the challenge your brother has given you. You have free will and may decide how to proceed." Again, the goddess gestured to her left.

"But…no. But my children, Aiden and Lori, they need me. I have a life waiting for me with Alex, with our family." Lena smiled, sickly and sad, rather desperate. "I need them. How can I not choose…?"

"You have free will. Make your choice, Lena Luthor."

"What the fuck kind of choice is that!?" Lena snapped. "Lose my wife and have my children never be born or let some people die, send my best friend away from her home, force her to lose her family again!? Fuck!"

The goddess merely stared unfazed, unmoved.

"I…I can't. You can't ask this of me."

"I ask nothing. I've shown you your future. That is a gift. What you choose to do with it is up to you. You have a choice."

"A gift!?" Lena's laugh held no humor. "This isn't a gift; it's fucking torture. You call yourself a goddess, some kind of divine being, and you treat people like this? How can you be so…so fucking…?" Wiping at the tears from her face, it took Lena several moments to continue. "No matter what I do, I lose. How can I choose?"

"If you do nothing that is a choice."

"And people die." Lena nodded. "How can I let people die? How can I let someone Alex loves dies? How can I hurt her like that?"

"Then you will defeat your brother's challenge."

"I…but my children." Wrapping her arms around herself, Lena cast her eyes down. Tears continued to run down her cheeks. "I can remember Lori inside me, the first time I felt her move. It was like the wing of a butterfly, such a soft little flutter rippling across my body. Too soon she was kicking, stomping, pushing. The less active I was, the more active she was. At night, Alex would hold us both, a hand on my abdomen feeling our baby."

When Lena looked up, the goddess merely watched her impassively. The CEO wiped at her face again, pushing tears away.

With a small smile, still sad but full of love, Lena continued speaking. "Lori's birth was the most incredible day of my life until three years later. I was a nervous wreck when Alex went into labor. She said to me, 'Lee, you can't micromanage this. Let the doctors do their work.' She was right, but that didn't make it any easier. When that little boy was born, and they laid him on her chest, I don't know which one of us was crying harder. My God, they were both so beautiful, my Alex and our little…our little…" As her brows furrowed and the smile fell completely away, Lena's breathing became heavy and uneven. "Why can't I remember his name?"

"You are beginning to acclimate to this timeline, Lena Luthor."

"Acclimate to…" Eyes widening as she sucked in breath, Lena said, "I'm forgetting."

"There is nothing to forget."

"I'm forgetting my children. I've forgotten my son's name."

"There is nothing to forget, Lena Luthor. Your children are not born. You cannot forget that which does not exist. The further forward in the timeline the concept, the sooner it will fade. You are acclimating to this timeline."

"No." Lena lurched forward but stopped almost immediately as she was held fast by the harness. "No, you…you stop this! You put him back, do you hear me!? You put him back!"

Head tilted to the side, the goddess replied, "Lena Luthor, I have taken nothing. You have no children. You have no wife. There is nothing for you to forget. You are—"

"No! I have a son. He's…I can't remember, but my daughter's name is…Oh, my God…" Fumbling and slapping with the harness, Lena hurried to free herself. "Fix this. You have to fix this."

"Lena Luthor—"

"Don't you fucking 'Lena Luthor' me, you bitch!" Finally getting her harness open, Lena surged forward and grabbed each side of the monitor. "I have children. I have a son and a daughter, and I love them. Don't you take my family from me! Don't you take my family from me!"

"Lena Luthor." The goddess paused, taking a moment to watch the crying woman. "You should decide what choice you will make while you still have a concept of that potential future. If you wait too long, you will only know now."

"What color?"

"Please clarify your question."

Lena let go of the monitor with one hand to scrub tears from her face. "His hair, his eyes, what color are they? I know he exists. I love him, but I can't see him anymore. I can see eyes, mismatched eyes, but I don't think those are his. They're my daughters, aren't they? What did he look like?"

"You should choose. Soon the concept of your wife will fade also."

"Alex." Grabbing the cellphone from its holder, Lena cradled it lovingly. "Oh, darling, look at you. You look so young, so beautiful and so young. Can you believe we were ever like this, love? Can you believe we ever fought over stupid things like shoes and my last name? Then we shared a last name, and I had a whole closet just for shoes in our home." Gently, Lena traced the surface of the screen with her finger. She caressed it three times before tears began to obscure the image. Wiping it with her shirt, she added, "I don't know how to say goodbye to you. I don't know how to let you go. How do you say goodbye to the first person you remember ever truly loving you unconditionally?"

When Lena looked up at her, the goddess replied, "You will not have to say goodbye. The Alex in that future will never love you because it will not come to pass unless you defeat your brother's challenge."

"Oh, God." Hand over her mouth, Lena shook her head. "That's worse."

"You wish this pain?"

"Oh, I've lived with pain. I've lived my whole life with pain, but I haven't truly known love. Now that I have, I don't know how to live without it? How do you live without love?"

Golden eyes blinked several times. "Lena Luthor, it is time to choose."

Lena sighed. "There is no choice."

"You wish your family."

Choking down more tears, the noise Lena made could hardly be called a laugh. "Of course, I do. I love and miss them so much. Feeling them fade away is agony, but they deserve a mother, a wife, who wouldn't let innocent people die for her own selfish desires. No, the woman Alex loves is in that warehouse, and I can't hurt Alex like that. I don't understand how souls or spirits or whatever work, but maybe Alex and Maggie will have children, and my children will come into the world that way."

"Then you choose to give up the future you have been shown."

With a shuddering breath, her eyes shut, Lena said, "I choose to do the right thing."

"Why?"

"Because it's the right thing!" Eyes open, Lena stared at the face on the screen. "If you don't fucking understand that, I can't explain it to you, you bitch! You don't do the right thing because of what you'll get, because of what anyone will do for you. You just do it because it's right. That's how the world works, how it's supposed to work." Looking down at Alex's frozen face staring back at her again, Lena blinked away tears and touched the screen once more. "Now go. Go and torture someone else. I hope you're just as miserable for the rest of your existence as I am. You deserve it."

"Thank you, Lena Luthor."

Tears streaming down her face, Lena looked back at the phone in her hand. "Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry."

"Miss Luthor? Oh, my God. What's wrong?" Agent Danvers said, tensing suddenly.

"Alex," Lena whispered. Her hand covered her mouth as she shook her head. Leaning forward, the CEO looked through the narrow opening that served as her only window to the outside world. The drones hovered in place again, moving slightly, and she could see birds in flight streaking across the sky again. Even the occasional cloud drifted by slowly. Time had started again. Looking up at the screen, Lena was greeted not by the blue face of a goddess, but the grinning features of her madman of a brother. "Oh, my God. Oh, God, it's started again."

"Miss Luthor, talk to me." Agent Danvers peeked through her driver's window briefly before lying down again. "What's going on? What can I do?"

"Call me Lee."

"What?"

"My name, call me Lee."

"Uh…" Agent Danvers nodded. "Okay, Lee. What do you need?"

Eyes closed, tears ran down Lena's face as she whispered, "My future."

"What was that?"

"I said…fuck."

"You can't do it, can you?" Alex asked. "You can't beat him."

"I…Alex, I…"

"It's all right, Miss…It's all right, Lee. You did your best. That's all anyone can do. Don't be scared. I won't leave you. You won't be alone, okay?"

Looking down at the gently smiling face of Alex Danvers, Lena wiped tears from her face again. "You're a gentle, wonderful person Alex. You know that, don't you? Maggie is very lucky to have you, to have your love."

Alex laughed a bit. "Well, I guess I don't have to worry about you ruining my tough guy reputation at this point. How much time do we have left, or do I not want to ask?"

Placing the phone back in its holder, Lena began typing again as she said, "Damn, three minutes and eleven seconds. Not much time."

"No, it's not," Alex agreed, running a hand through her hair. "So, um, what do you want to do with the last three minutes of your life? Anything you want to get off your chest?"

Lena typed away quickly. "Um…be happy, Alex."

"Be happy?"

"Yes, you're a wonderful person, so be happy. I know your career is important to you, but so is your family. I don't mean just Kara. Good Lord, Kara!" Lena looked back at Alex, then shook her head. "No, no time for that now." She went back to typing again. "You've already sacrificed so much of your life for your sister. She's an adult now. It's time for you to take care of you, take care of Alex. Settle down, get married, have some kids."

"Well, I tried to…kids? Um, I think I only have like two minutes left to live. I don't know about you, but I can't even do the things to make kids, even if they're not technically the things that make kids, in two minutes. You know?"

"Oh, I know, darling." Lena grinned briefly at the phone. "Neither can I in case you're…never mind. Got you." Lena's eyes narrowed at the screen.

"Got who? What's going on, Miss Luthor?"

Sighing, Lena looked at the phone again. "Alex, I'm not exactly sure how I know this, but you're going to be a wonderful mother. Promise me you'll do something about that, okay?"

"But I—"

"Promise me!"

"Okay, okay." Alex held a hand up. "What are you going to do to me if I don't, right?"

"I'll figure something out." With a final flurry of keystrokes, Lena moved one of her chess pieces on the screen.

On the larger monitor, the face of Lex Luthor suddenly burst into motion again. "Double checkmate! Oh, Lee, you got me again! You win!"

"Did he say you win!?" Alex sat up and then dropped down very quickly again in her car. "Miss, Luthor, did you just win?"

"Yes, we did, Alex. We won."

"We won!?"

Lena nodded.

"Hey, Lee, best two out of three? What do you say?"

Head snapping back up, Lena stared daggers at her brother's grinning face on the screen.

Suddenly, the image of Lex Luthor burst out laughing. "Oh, I bet you look pissed! Did that upset you? Hahahahaha! Oh, Lee, you always did need to work on your sense of humor." Lex wiped away one lone tear that had leaked from the corner of his eye. "Don't worry, old girl. You won fair and square. I bet it was close, though, wasn't it? Well, the mech and drones are yours now, and the bomb is yours to set off wherever you think is best. Check out the specifications. Those Kryptonians will never know what hit them. Lee, I'm so proud of you. You're going to make this planet great again."

"Lex, you poor, poor sick man. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

"Miss Luthor, is it safe?" Agent Danvers asked.

"Alex, let me just verify that I have control of the—"

Suddenly a bright golden light flashed starting at the mech and emanating outward. It washed over the drones, the warehouse, and the agent's car. The mech powered down, slumping to its haunches. The drones hit the ground falling like so much dead weight. Inside the car, Alex Danvers lost her connection with the woman inside the mech. Though the agent still had a signal, trying to call went straight to voicemail. Sliding out of the passenger's side door, Alex headed out of the back of her vehicle and carefully made her way into the mech's line of sight waiting for several heartbeats. When there was no reaction, she dashed across and made it all the way to the mech.

"Miss Luthor!" Alex ran up, one hand resting on the small glass-like opening on the mech, but not able to see inside. She grabbed her flashlight and shone it inside, seeing the slumped and unconscious form of Lena Luthor there. "Miss Luthor!"

"Danvers!"

Turning, Alex saw several figures making their way toward her from the warehouse, some helping others. "Maggie! Are you—?"

"We need medical. We took some hits," she replied, her arm wrapped around her body. "Who's in there?"

"Lena Luthor. She got you all out, shut these things down. I'm calling for backup." Turning away from the cops, Alex called in for support which, happily, answered almost immediately. "This is Agent Danvers. This situation is contained, but we need medical on site. The mech and drones are down, but I've got four injured cops here, and the civilian is…fuck! I don't know. She's stuck inside the mech." Alex shone her flashlight inside the mech again. "I can't even tell if she's fucking breathing in there. If she is, I don't know if she's getting air. The thing seems to be powered down. Bring the jaws of life, or send Supergirl if she can make it. Just get me someone to get Miss Luthor out of here. Just hurry. She fucking saved us all, so hurry!"

Disconnecting, Alex stared inside the mech for several seconds. Suddenly, she ran back to her vehicle. She unlocked the trunk as she went. Running back, she tossed her med kit at Maggie's feet and took her crowbar and tried to pry the mech open. After several unsuccessful attempts, she tried to smash the window with it. That failure proved it wasn't glass.

Smashing the ground with the crowbar several times, Alex screamed. "Fuck!"

"Hey, chill, babe. The thing is a fucking Luthor Corp. robot. You're not getting in there." Maggie dug through the med kit, pulling out gauze and cling.

Sitting with Maggie, Alex grabbed medical supplies. "Let me see. Where were you hit?"

Maggie pulled up her shirt, showing off her side.

Nodding, Alex said, "It's a through and through, and it doesn't seem to have hit anything vital. That's good."

"Hurts like a motherfucker."

"Of course it does. You've been shot. We'll have to get you cleaned and stitched up later, but for now, let's just get a field dressing on it. Hold this in place." Alex put a gauze pad on the front of Maggie's wound while putting another on the back. She began to wind cling around the woman. "God, I'm so worried about her."

"Who?"

"Lee."

"Who?" Maggie repeated.

"Lena, Lena Luthor. She climbed into that damn mech and saved us all. She saved thousands of people. Damn it. What if she doesn't make it?"

"Babe, it's not your fault."

"Maggie, it is literally my fault. I threw her on my back and carried her out of her office to save your life. I pretty much kidnapped the girl to stop that bomb."

Eyebrows high, Maggie asked, "Pretty much?"

Tying off the cling, Alex admitted, "Okay, so I kidnapped her with the President's blessing. If Lena dies, I killed her."

"If she dies, her fucking nut job of a brother killed her, but I get it." She patted Alex's hand. "Hey, I'm good. Ramirez took one to the leg. Help him out?"

Alex nodded, moving onto the next cop. She was helping the fourth when a rather shaky Supergirl landed awkwardly, stumbling and nearly falling. "Supergirl!" Alex jumped to her feet.

"Agent Danvers." Hands on her knees, Supergirl took a moment to catch her breath. "I got here as quickly as I could. I'm still not at my strongest."

"It's fine. She's in there."

Nodding at the mech, Supergirl advanced on it. "I remember this thing. I'm glad it's not moving."

"Me too," Alex admitted. "Normal bullets hurt too."

"I'll take your word for it." Supergirl concentrated, staring at the mech. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"I can't hear her breathing or her heart beating. I don't see her breathing and…hold on. Please step back." Examining the mech again, Supergirl looked over it very briefly and then hit it in just a few spots with her heat vision. The front fell open to reveal the limp form of Lena Luthor.

"Lena!" Alex rushed the mech, grabbing Lena and pulling the slack body out. She lay Lena on the ground, head over her mouth. "She's not breathing." Tilting Lena's head back, Alex put her mouth over Lena's and exhaled twice, making the younger woman's chest rise. She put her fingers to Lena's neck. "No pulse." Placing one hand on top of the other in the middle of Lena's chest, Alex began to administer quick compression after quick compression, each just over two inches deep. She fired them off rapidly, over 100 in the course of a minute.

Crouched next to the women, hands holding the back of her head while she rocked, Supergirl was keening slightly and occasionally saying, "Oh, Rao no. Oh, Rao no." When Maggie came and put hands on her shoulders, the hero stood and wrapped her arms around the shorter woman, eager for comfort.

It was another two minutes later when the ambulances arrived. The first paramedics hurried out, one with a defibrillator in hand. Alex stepped back, updating them on the situation, Lena's condition, how long she'd been doing CPR, and then stood helplessly by while they got to work. Each time Lena's body jumped from the shock that was administered, the onlookers jumped with it.

After the fourth shock, one of the paramedics said, "I got a pulse."

"You got a pulse?" Alex asked.

The paramedic nodded, pulling gear from his bag.

"He's got a pulse!" Alex announced.

"She's okay?" Kara asked.

"Well…" Alex nodded a bit noncommittally. "They've got a pulse. We don't know how long she went without oxygen. We'll have to wait and see—"

"She'll be all right," Supergirl said, pushing the tears off of her face as she watched the paramedics place the oxygen over Lena's face. "I'm going with her to the hospital."

"You need to go rest," Alex countered walking over to her sister so they could talk quietly. "I'm going to the hospital. I'll watch over her. You need to go back to the DEO and get under a sunlamp."

"No. I shouldn't have left before. If I'd been here, she wouldn't have been stuck in there. This is my fault. She's my best friend. I need to make sure she's okay. I know you don't trust her, but—"

"You're wrong."

"Alex—"

"No, I mean you're wrong about me not trusting her." Looking around briefly, Alex said, "Kara, you've been right about her. Look, if you want to, I think you should tell her who you are. She put her life on the line to save people she doesn't know, or if she does, people who haven't treated her fairly. That girl's a hero. Hey, when she wakes up, and she will, you think maybe I could get a chance to apologize to her? I kind of dragged her out of her office kicking and screaming today…and apparently broke a pretty expensive pair of shoes."

"Oh." Supergirl nodded. "She has really expensive shoes, Alex."

"I know, right? Who spends that much on shoes? All of the shoes I ever owned combined; I haven't spent that much on them."

"Well, she is a billionaire," Supergirl grinned.

"Yeah, well…hey, your ride is going to leave. I need to go too."

Supergirl turned, then hugged her sister and hurried after the ambulance.

Alex went over to the ambulance where Maggie had entered and asked, "Room for one more?"

Maggie grinned. "Sure, pop a squat, Danvers. SG head off with Miss Luthor?"

"Yeah. I'm sure we'll catch up with them at the hospital."

"I doubt it. I think Luthor has her own wing. Hey, you okay? You look kind of…weirded out."

"It's Lena," Alex admitted.

"You think she won't be all right?"

"I think she knew something bad was going to happen to her."

"How so?" Maggie asked.

"Well, right before she beat the…crazy thing she had to do to save everyone, and I'll tell you about it later, she got all upset. I thought it was because she couldn't win and we were all going to die, and I tried just to calm her down. I didn't want her to be hysterical."

"Like you do."

"Like you do," Alex agreed. "Anyway, she just kept typing and then she told me you were lucky to have me, and that I was wonderful. Then she said she knew family was important to me, and that I'd be a great mother one day. She made me promise to do something about that, about being a mom."

"She made you promise to have kids?"

The ambulance lurched into motion, and Alex steadied herself and then shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. It seemed weird, but I thought we were going to be dead in like two minutes, so I just agreed. Now I think maybe she found something out in there, like maybe if she won she'd die anyway, and maybe she didn't want me to feel guilty or something. Does that make sense?"

"Maybe, I guess? I don't know. I kind of feel like crap."

"Right." For about a minute, Alex was quiet and then she asked, "Maggie, do you want to have kids?"

"Do we really have to do this right now, Danvers? I've got a hole in my side. The only thing I want is not to deal with another giant robot, or poison spitting alien, or anything like that for the foreseeable future. I just want some nice, normal crime. Is that so hard to ask for? I'm not asking for no crime, just guys with bats and guns. That's all. Can we drop any other conversation until I have only the normal number of holes in my body?"

"Right. Sorry." Turning to the back of the ambulance, Alex let the conversation die and just stared out the window.