Hey kiddies!
Thanks for all the positive feedback on the first part, glad to know you're all on board the USS Kalex! Now you get another nummy treat. Small note, I obviously had to choose which one of them would get to keep the name Danvers in this AU, and which wouldn't...so I chose Kara, she is still Kara Danvers. Alex's last name is Grey, which if you love Chyler Leigh even half as much as I do, you will totally understand why it's perfect! Enjoy, and yes, there will be lots more parts to come :)
…...
I'd Carry a Plane for You
Part 2
…...
When Alex's alarm went off the next morning, she couldn't reach it because of Kara's dead weight on top of her. The feeling of her sweet, beloved alien's soft skin pressed against hers everywhere was beyond heaven; but the high-pitched trill of the alarm clock was ruining it, Alex hated the sound of her alarm clock, but she deliberately didn't change it to something more pleasant because the fact that she hated it was the only thing that got her up in the first place.
"Kar...wake up baby," Alex hummed, scratching her nails lightly up and down Kara's back, savoring every inch of her silky skin, the curve of her spine. Her girl. Her sunlight. Her everything. Hers.
"I am awake," Kara mumbled against Alex's neck, wrapping one arm a little tighter around her hip so she was even less able to move than she had been a moment ago. "I'm just not moving. No moving."
"But the alarm..." Alex whined. She seriously hated that shrill electronic beeping. How could it not be bothering Kara, with her supersonic hearing? In response, Kara lifted her head, reaching across Alex's body and hitting the alarm clock a little too hard, smashing it to bits.
"Oops," Kara murmured sleepily. Alex giggled.
"I'm lucky you didn't accidentally crush me into the ceiling last night, huh? That would be really hard to explain to the landlord." Alex was grinning like an idiot, sifting her fingers idly through Kara's long hair, loving the feel of it sliding between her fingers. She always had. Kara was beaming back at her just as brightly, her smile shining like the sun.
"I'd never hurt you, Lexie," the blonde girl said seriously, propping herself up on one elbow on the bed, her free hand grazing Alex's cheek, tracing the curve of her jaw.
"I know," Alex said simply. Kara leaned down and kissed her, and all at once they were both completely and thoroughly awake, their bodies shifting together with every breath. Kara could feel both of their heartbeats starting to rise again.
"No no nooo...we can't, we can't get all riled up again right now," Alex groaned softly against Kara's lips. "It's morning, we have to get up and go do stuff..."
"No. No doing stuff," Kara murmured, lowering her head and scraping her teeth lightly against Alex's pulse point, making the dark-haired girl sigh and squirm underneath her. "Let's be sick today. I'm sick. No work."
"Kara..." Alex half-whimpered, half-whined, unable to stop herself from wrapping one hand into the soft blonde hair at the back of Kara's neck and holding her there, it felt so good. "Ohhhh...we can't blow off workthough, baby...not now, we just can't...God I don't want to but we have to stop..."
"Whyyyyy?" Kara whined into Alex's neck, drawing out the word like a cranky four-year-old at naptime.
"Because my job is to track down the mysterious flying alien that saved a plane and made national news last night, and your job is to report the story on the mysterious flying alien that saved a plane and made national news last night," Alex sighed. Saying it out loud helped snap her out of her sexy delicious bubble and sit up in bed unwillingly. "We have to be there to do as much spin control as we possibly can. Frame it right. Try to keep you anonymous." Kara groaned in frustration, knowing that Alex was right but hating it.
"Wanna take a quick trip to the Phantom Zone?" The blonde girl asked teasingly, still grinning like a goofy kid. "Time doesn't pass there, ya know, so we can pick up all the pieces of this shitstorm when we get back. After we do everything we did last night a couple thousand more times." Alex sighed, a pouty little smile on her face as she leaned in and kissed Kara one more time, then determinedly rolled out of bed and pulled on her robe to avoid any further temptation.
"We have to go to work today, Kar. I don't want to either, but we have to baby. I'm getting in the shower, 'kay?"
"Want some help?" the blonde girl smiled innocently.
"Kara, stay," Alex said sternly, like the other girl was a puppy. Kara pouted and made the appropriate sad puppy eyes. "Baby, please don't pout. We have the rest of our lives for earth-shattering naked sexytime. But first we have to make sure we have a 'rest of our lives' by dealing with this media blitz of you flying through the air holding a plane over National City Bridge. Right?"
"Ughhh. Right," Kara conceded with a sigh, flopping down against the pillows in defeat. "Fine, go shower. I'm making waffles. Soooo many waffles." The blonde girl brightened as she thought about breakfast, realizing how absolutely famished she was.
"Good idea, boo," Alex smirked, knowing how much Kara needed to eat on just a regular day to fuel her Kryptonian metabolism, and wondering how much more she'd have to stuff her face today. That was all me, the dark haired girl thought with a smug smile. "Go make your waffles. I'll see you in the kitchen in twenty minutes."
"Okay," Kara sighed, climbing out of bed and pulling on her robe, then cupping Alex's face for one last electric, heart-pounding kiss that made the dark-haired girl's pale face flush pink. "See you," Kara smirked, pulling away with a little wink.
"You are evil, Kara Danvers."
"You love it," Kara replied happily.
"Yeah."
…...
Being in separate rooms for all of twenty minutes did help them both calm their racing hormones and pull themselves together for the work day, and when Alex came out of the shower they somehow managed to eat breakfast without any makeout breaks, because they really really didn't have time.
"Be good today, bluebird," Alex sighed; it was a childhood nickname she'd given her little alien years ago, because of her beautiful blue eyes. They both smiled goofily as they put their dishes in the sink and grabbed their stuff for work. "Try not to, you know, react when Cat Grant starts spinning wild conjectures about the whole plane incident. Just be normal. Don't give her a reason to put a big floating question mark over your head. And I'll try to throw Hank and DEO off course as much as I possibly can without drawing any attention to myself, either."
"Lexie," Kara frowned, folding her arms over her chest and tapping her foot, a position she unconsciously went into when she was preparing to debate something she felt strongly about. "Maybe we're blowing off a huge opportunity here. With the DEO, you know, and me. Maybe you shouldn't try to throw them off track. Maybe you can just casually say to Hank, hey, how about that flying girl who saved the plane last night, she's just like Superman. And he'll say, yeah, it would be so completely awesome if we could get her to come and work with us. And you say, no problem chief, 'cause she's my girlfriend!" For the first time, Alex didn't argue back with Kara's not-so-gentle nudging toward letting her identity be known to the DEO. Instead, she took Kara's hand and pulled her close, one last time before they went out the door, wrapping both arms around her neck.
"You're my girlfriend," the dark-haired agent smiled, leaning in and giving her gorgeous alien one last, light kiss on the lips, careful not to let it deepen out of fear they'd never make it out the door.
"I am," Kara nodded, not even caring when she felt the bright pink blush rising in her cheeks. "So completely and totally yours. I was from the moment I stepped out of my pod and saw your big brown eyes looking back at me. I think..." Kara wrapped her arms around Alex's hips and pulled her closer; not to melt her bones with another heavenly kiss, but to press their foreheads lightly together, like they'd been doing since they were thirteen years old. Instead of making their hearts thump harder, the familiar, loving touch calmed them both. "I think it wasn't an accident that I spent twenty-four years sleeping in the Phantom Zone...and it wasn't an accident that my pod crashed next to you that day, right smack in the middle of nowhere." (It hadn't really been the middle of nowhere; just a few miles outside town, where there was nothing but ocean and rolling hills as far as the eye could see). "I was never meant to come here for Kal-El. The universe sent me to you, Lex."
"Thank you, universe," Alex murmured, winding her fingers into long blonde hair one last time before walking out the door, eyes closed as she savored the memory of that first moment, when she gave her whole heart to Kara without the slightest reservation. "Thank you..."
…...
It had started out as a completely unremarkable Saturday afternoon. Thirteen-year-old Alex had finished all her homework in the morning; she was a complete nerd under her tough-girl exterior, but tried very hard to keep her street cred by pretending not to give a crap about school. But some weekends, she just needed to stop pretending, and be by herself with some very thick book or another that was way, way beyond her grade level. She liked going for hikes into the hills behind her house to read; no one from school would see her geeking out, and it was so quiet and peaceful and the sun shone so warmly on nice days, like this one. So, Alex had grabbed one of her Dad's astrophysics texts and shoved it in her backpack with some snacks and a water bottle, and a blanket to sit on, and headed out into nature, enjoying the stillness and the faint cawing of seagulls from the beach just across the hills. She'd been quietly reading under her favorite tree for over an hour when it happened—a flash of glinting glass and metal shining in her eyes that made her look up at the sky, as it zipped across her field of vision and crashed into the gully just over the hill, sending up a huge cloud of dust.
Alex gasped and dropped her book, immediately running towards the dust cloud, sure that some small airplane had just crashed. It had been moving so fast, and the sun had been right in her eyes, so she hadn't really seen it clearly. But what else could it be? She sprinted up and over the hill as fast as she could, scared that someone could be seriously injured and in need of medical attention; but when she got to the top of the hill and looked down, she stopped short.
It wasn't a plane. It wasn't a missile, or a fallen satellite, or anything that Alex could put a name to. There below her was a strange but beautiful small white craft, with a clear dome that opened to reveal a girl with long blonde hair, just a kid, no older than Alex herself. She was blinking and looking around, appearing unhurt; but Alex still felt compelled to run to her, to make sure. She just crashed from the sky, she must at least be in shock.
"Hey! Are you okay?" Alex panted, reaching the pod just as Kara was stepping uncertainly out of it. The blonde girl was dressed strangely, odd cuts of fabric all in white, just like her tiny aircraft.
"Yes...I think so," Kara said cautiously, glad not to be alone but still wary and a little woozy, having just woken up from her extended hypersleep to find that she was 24 years late in her arrival, according to the pod's internal time log; yet she was still the same thirteen-year-old child she'd been when she left Krypton. She was very confused. She wasn't even sure whether this was the right planet. "Sorry, can I ask you...where are we?" the blonde girl questioned, awkwardly but politely.
"Midvale," Alex said cautiously, her eyes running over the strange girl again as if trying to make sense of her. She was obviously disoriented, but she had such a sparkle in her big blue eyes, Alex felt transfixed, totally unable to look away. "Um, my house is just a couple of miles that way," she pointed down to the small two-lane country road in the distance. "I'm Alex Grey," she added, sticking out her hand and attempting a casual smile, as if greeting beautiful girls who fell out of the sky was no big.
"Hi," the blonde girl said uncertainly, looking at Alex's outstretched hand as if it were baffling to her somehow. "I'm Kara Zor-El." She still didn't know what the proper response was to a human holding out their hand like that; so she just reached out and grazed her fingers lightly over Alex's. They both blushed slightly and pulled their hands back.
"Um, don't you know how to shake hands?" Alex asked warily, trying not to let herself think what she was thinking, because what she was thinking was completely insane and impossible. Kara raised an eyebrow at her uncertainly; then she held up both her hands—like she was in a police shootout—and waved them back and forth a little. Alex burst out laughing. Kara blushed five times brighter.
"That was wrong, wasn't it?" Kara asked worriedly. "I'm sorry, I'm just really confused right now."
"Don't worry, I'm right there with you," Alex assured her with a smile, reaching out her hand one more time and squeezing the blonde girl's shoulder in reassurance. "Kara, um...where did you come from?"
"I don't think I'm supposed to tell," Kara frowned uncertainly. The fact that she was twenty four years off schedule made her doubt everything else her mother had told her before she was shot out of the docking bay, moments before her planet exploded into stardust. "Alex? This may sound like a very strange question, but..." Kara trailed off, biting her lip uncertainly. Alex just raised an eyebrow in response, waiting for the other girl to find her tongue again. "Midvale..." the blonde girl said slowly, "is it...are we...on earth?"
"Okay, wow, this is happening," Alex murmured to herself, feeling her heart begin to race inside her chest with wonder and excitement. Then she looked back up at Kara and said, "Yes. This is earth. Is this...I mean...did you come from another planet, Kara?"
Kara wavered, biting her lip as she weighed what she could say, what she should say. She was supposed to keep her identity secret. But she was also supposed to be with Kal-El, and it was supposed to be twenty-four years ago, and she was still queasy and disoriented from her abrupt awakening from hypersleep. The dark eyes looking questioningly into hers were open and warm, full of light and curious intelligence and compassion. Kara could see that right away. On impulse, she decided to trust Alex Grey.
"Yes. I came from a...a very long way away. My planet was dying. My parents sent me here to save me, but...I was supposed to be with my baby cousin, I was supposed to watch over him, and now I don't know if he ever even made it here, since it took me twenty-four years to get here, he could be grown up by now or he could still be lost out in space somewhere too..." Kara was babbling, a habit that Alex would grow quite accustomed to in the coming years; but at the moment she was gaping and just trying to follow along.
"Wait, stop. What do you mean it took you twenty-four years to get here? You're just a kid, you couldn't have spent twenty-four years anywhere. You are a kid, right?" Alex asked suspiciously, wondering if perhaps this girl was a grown woman from a planet where everyone looked like a kid forever.
"I'm thirteen," Kara answered. Alex smiled.
"Me too." They grinned at each other in silence for a moment. "So then how...?"
"I don't know for certain, but based on my pod's internal chronometer...I'm pretty sure I was in the Phantom Zone," Kara frowned anxiously.
"The what now?"
"The Phantom Zone. It's a place outside time, if you're there you never age...and you never die. It's where my people sent our most dangerous criminals...to be trapped with their regrets forever." Kara shuddered as her mind was suddenly flooded with a tactile, sensory awareness of where she had been, how easily she could have been trapped there, asleep, forever...and she began to shake, her breathing and heart rate shooting up rapidly.
"Hey, Kara, it's okay. Don't freak out. You're safe now, it's gonna be all right..." Alex tried to soothe the panic from Kara's clear blue eyes, but the blonde girl didn't seem to be able to hear her, lost in a trance-like state of frightened disorientation, her breathing becoming shallow and her cheeks flushing pink with the rapid pounding of her heart.
"It's okay Kara," Alex said again, more quietly, as she took a step closer and wrapped her arms tightly around the trembling blonde girl. Kara pressed her face into Alex's hair, which was cool and smelled sweet, like the fragrant nectar blossoms in her mother's garden back on Krypton. No. Krypton wasn't there anymore. Kara started to cry, she was so confused and overwhelmed and the only thing she knew for sure was that Alex's arms were around her, and that meant she was safe; it was safe to cry. She wrapped her arms around the dark-haired girl and clung to her, trying to be as light with her touch as possible, remembering even through her tears and confusion that her mother said she would be stronger here, that she would have great power. She had to be careful. She didn't want to hurt Alex.
They stood there holding onto each other until Kara calmed down and stopped crying; when she finally raised her head from Alex's shoulder, the dark-haired girl gave her a glowing smile and brushed a few tears away with her thumb. Kara smiled weakly back, even though her face was still streaked with tears, and leaned her forehead against Alex's for the very first time. They both closed their eyes for a minute, totally content, neither feeling the need to fill the peaceful silence between them.
"Do you feel a little better now?" Alex asked gently.
"Not a little. A lot," Kara smiled shyly.
In a sudden flash of wind just like the one that blew over the hill when Kara's pod crashed, a blue and red figure streaked out of the sky and landed right next to them with a whomp that made the ground shudder. Alex grabbed Kara and pushed the blonde girl behind her on reflex, ready to defend the sweet, innocent alien girl by any means necessary. Before her brain could begin to process the deep chuckle from the figure in front of her, her dark eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped. If she had known her day was going to turn out like this, well, she wouldn't have bothered toting her dad's heavy book all the way out here.
"You're...you're...Superman," Alex stuttered, her tense stance in front of Kara relaxing in shock as she realized there was no threat.
"Who?" Kara asked uncertainly behind her. The caped man smiled and looked over Alex's head at his young cousin, still dressed in her Kryptonian travel clothes with her pod still steaming just a dozen feet away. Clearly he'd made good time.
"Hello, Kara," the man of steel held out his hand, and Kara grabbed it, confused and utterly certain at the same time.
"Kal-El?" She asked warily, looking up wide-eyed at her impossibly large and grown-up baby cousin. "You...you did make it here all right..."
"I did indeed. I have to admit, after all these years I'd almost lost hope of ever seeing your face on this planet, little cousin."
"Cousin?" Alex squeaked, her eyes growing wide again as she looked back and forth between little Kara, and larger-than-life superhero standing over them. "Your cousin is Superman?!" The man of steel looked questioningly at the dark-haired girl.
"Oh, um, this is Alex," Kara spluttered hastily, her hand unconsciously finding the other girl's and threading their fingers together. Alex gripped hers just as tightly. "She's...she's...she's my friend."
"Well look at you, little Kara Zor-El. Not even on earth half a day and already making friends." The girls both grinned shyly at the imposing hero's gentle teasing. Then Kara's face grew very serious.
"Kal...I failed you. I was supposed to be here, to take care of you, to help you grow up. I...I'm so sorry..." Kara looked miserably down at her feet, tears welling up again silently.
"Hush, little one. You bare no blame. I grew up just fine with a normal human family, just like every other kid on earth. And you will too." Superman ruffled his little cousin's hair, and she looked up again with a weak smile, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "Come on, there are some very nice people waiting to meet you. Their home will be your home. They will love you as their own." He reached his hand out for Kara's, but Alex stepped in between them again, panic rising in her voice now.
"Wait, stop, please. Don't take her back to Metropolis. S-she can live here, she can live with me! My parents won't mind, they always wanted more kids but my mom had to have a hysterectomy and then"—Alex was the one babbling now, suddenly on the edge of hysteria at the idea of Kara being whisked out of her life so quickly, all the way to the other side of the country. They had barely known each other an hour. But she didn't want Kara to go. And Kara didn't either, judging from the way the blonde girl's fingers were still gripping hers tightly.
Superman laughed and laid a reassuring hand on Alex's shoulder. "Calm down, kiddo. I'm not taking her to Metropolis. I'm not taking her away."
"Y-you're not?" Alex half-choked with relief.
"No," the man of steel shook his head, still smiling at the two young girls in front of him, the light and the dark, yin and yang, gripping each other's hands like they would never let go. "I'm only taking her a few miles down the road, actually. You live here in Midvale, Alex?"
"Yeah," Alex nodded, with a huge sigh of relief at his declaration that Kara wasn't going anywhere.
"Well Kara is going to be living with the Danvers now. Do you know them?"
"The biologists? Yeah...their house is just a mile or so down the beach from mine," Alex nodded. It was a small town. Everyone pretty much knew each other at least a little. "So...Kara's going to be living...right in my neighborhood?" There was a wary note of hesitation in her voice, like she was waiting for the catch, because it all just seemed too good to be true.
"That's right." The two girls looked at each other and beamed. Then suddenly Superman was down on one knee, so he was on their eye level, looking at Alex with a serious, though not unkind expression. His eyes were as blue as Kara's. "Now, Alex...I have to ask you to promise me something. It's unfair to ask a child to keep a secret so huge, but we simply don't have a choice. Kara's true identity can never be revealed to anyone, ever. The Danvers once helped me understand and control my powers—they'll do that for Kara as well—but the fact is they've known my true identity for years, and always kept my secret. No one else was ever supposed to know that Kara is anything other than a foster child. It seems the universe chose you to welcome my cousin to this planet, so I have to trust that you are meant to be her solace, her confidant, and that you understand the seriousness of this secret. You can never reveal Kara's true identity to anyone, ever—not even your parents. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Alex nodded vehemently. "I promise. I promise," she repeated emphatically, looking at Kara now, making the promise to her, not to Superman.
"Thank you," Kara smiled, lighting up like the golden yellow sun that bathed her new planet in its light.
"Come on, Kara. The Danvers are waiting." Superman held out his hand to his young cousin. Kara looked up at him, then back at Alex.
"The house where I'm going—you know where it is?" the blonde girl asked her new friend, even though she'd already said she did, Kara just had to make sure.
"Uh-huh," Alex nodded. "Maybe...maybe I could come by and visit you tomorrow?"
"Maybe you could come tonight?" Kara asked hesitantly, not wanting to seem too needy. But Alex's huge smile told her that wasn't going to be a problem.
"Sure. I'll just have to ask my parents if I can come over after dinner, but I'm sure they'll say yes. I mean, who wouldn't want to give a nice welcome to the new foster kid in town, right?" She winked, and Kara giggled.
"Okay, well...I guess I'll see you later, Alex."
"See you soon Kara." They squeezed each other's hand one more time. Then the man of steel was scooping up his little cousin in one arm, and shooting up into the clouds with her. Alex rubbed her forehead absently, in the spot where Kara's head had rested against hers. "Wow," she murmured, smiling dazedly. Her entire world had just been flipped upside down...but it didn't feel that way. It felt like she only just realized that everything had been upside down before, and now things were finally how they were always meant to be. She daydreamed about the sparkle in Kara's blue eyes all the way home, smiling like an idiot.
