Hey ho, Supergang!
Thanks for all your continued feedback, it's so much more fun that way. Here's your weekly Kalex fix, enjoy! Slightly more action coming back around in this chap, so as Cat Grant would say... "I advise you to strap in." Lol. :)
…...
I'd Carry a Plane for You
Part 8: Family Ties
…...
It was early afternoon on Christmas Eve, and Kara and Alex were just coming home to the Danvers' house from the Midvale Winter Carnival, their giggling and snowy foot-stomping on the front porch audible to all their parents inside the house, even without the help of super-hearing. When they came in the door they still had snow in their hair, and big fat smiles on their faces.
"Did Kara win the Polar Bear Plunge again?" Mrs. Grey asked affectionately as the two girls shook the snow from their hair and kicked off their boots by the front door.
"Twelve years in a row," Kara grinned proudly, though Alex thought she was a little too smug about this one—it wasn't as if she actually had to put any effort into jumping into the freezing ocean on Christmas Eve and staying in longer than any other human competitors. "Truthfully, half the reason I bother coming home for Christmas every year is to defend my reigning title."
"Yes, Kara certainly has a unique skill set," Dr. Danvers remarked in a would-be casual voice; but she gave her foster daughter a very stern look over Mrs. Grey's head, silently reminding her to keep quiet about her powers in front of her clueless future in-laws. Kara hated lying to Alex's parents, they had already practically been a second set of parents to her for the last twelve years anyway; but she knew Eliza was right, and Alex was right, this was a really big risk and now was not the time to rush into it. The blonde girl sighed and hastily changed the subject.
"Soooo are those pies out of the oven yet? I can definitely smell pie. Hopefully one that's just for me." Kara smiled brightly. Alex laughed and kissed her.
"You just had six funnel cakes and four caramel apples at the festival," the dark-haired girl teased, twisting a lock of Kara's long hair around her finger and giving it an affectionate tug. "Are you planning to leave any holiday treats for the rest of the town?"
"Maybe not the whole town...but definitely for you," Kara smiled, stroking Alex's cheek, which was still pink with cold from the brisk winter weather outside. "You need to eat more, Lexie. You promised. I don't want to be able to see your ribs anymore when we get back to National City." Alex resisted the impulse to crack a Supergirl joke about how Kara could see her ribs no matter how much weight she put on; but she held herself back, hating the secrecy from her parents as much as Kara did.
"I am eating, baby. You've seen me eating. A person doesn't just gain ten pounds in three days, you know," Alex shook her head with an affectionate smile. "Relax...I'm good." Kara narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, then leaned in and kissed her girlfriend slowly, holding her face lovingly in both hands.
"How about if I give you some extra sugar..." She purred, and Alex smiled goofily against her lips.
"Yes please," the dark-haired girl cooed, slipping her winter-chilled hands up the back of Kara's shirt and resting them against her always-warm skin, just another perk of having a solar-powered Kryptonian girlfriend. "I'm always healthier on your extra-sugar diet..." They didn't forget themselves entirely, they knew their parents were still there, the dads sitting by the fireplace and the moms icing Christmas cookies at the dining room table; but that didn't stop them from always having their hands on each other, one way or another. They were kissing so lightly, so relatively tamely, in consideration of their parents; but there was still something about the slow, deliberate, savoring way they connected with each other that was just so intimate, it was almost heartbreaking. That was when a flash went off in their faces, and they both jolted and looked over to see Eliza Danvers taking their picture with a completely unrepentant grin.
"Eliza!" Kara moaned, sounding about as adolescent as Alex had when her mom found out she was just getting over being sick. "Right now? Really? This is the picture you want to send your friends?" The blonde girl huffed at her foster mom, sounding slightly mortified. Being around their parents, their childhood home, always seemed to have this effect, at least a little. They may be intergalactic, para-military badasses out there in the world...but here in Midvale they were just Kara and Alex, two smartass, goofy kids who'd been climbing in each other's bedroom windows since they were thirteen.
"No, dear. That one was for the grandkids," Eliza smirked.
"Wow, there's been a lot of grandkids talk in the last couple of days," Jeremiah Danvers chuckled as he got up from his seat by the fire and took his wife's phone out of her hands. "How about we all just drink a lot more eggnog, and let the kids be kids for as long as they can? They have the rest of their lives to think about grown-up stuff."
"Yes. Thank you Jeremiah. I am on team Jeremiah," Alex nodded vigorously, practically running across the room to get herself a cup of eggnog to show her accordance with this plan. Kara snickered.
"I'm on team pie," the blonde girl shrugged unrepentantly. "Whoever gives me pie can talk about whatever they want."
…...
In the end, everyone had both eggnog and pie—it was Christmas Eve, after all. True to her wish, Kara got one chocolate pecan pie all to herself, while all the rest of them shared a second, and still had leftovers. Mr. and Mrs. Grey had seen Kara eating like this since she was a kid, and had long ago accepted, in a deliberately passive and not-too-thoughtful way, that the blonde girl simply had an excessively fast metabolism. They turned on the news since nobody really wanted to talk while they were eating pie, anyway; and after some local coverage and boring financial reports, the Midvale Evening News was interrupted by a national breaking bulletin...from CatCo. Of course. Alex almost choked on her eggnog, and Kara jumped up from the table on reflex when they saw the shot now being broadcast on the Danvers' TV screen: Astra, floating alone above National City, calmly gazing around as if she was waiting for something.
"A mysterious woman who seems to have the same powers as Supergirl..." The news anchorwoman was engaged in rampant speculation about what the woman in black might want, what she might be doing there, floating just above the skyscrapers of National City. Kara and Alex looked at each other with the same regretful, but focused expression, their game faces already on.
"There goes Christmas Eve," Kara sighed.
"Right..." Alex nodded hesitantly, looking back and forth between the TV screen and her parents uncertainly. "Kara has to...um, she has to go..." It was unprecedented, really, the instance of Alex not being able to think of the perfect lie instantly to cover their black ops, DEO, alien-hunting trail. But this was their parents. This was Christmas Eve. Where could she possibly say Kara suddenly had to run off to?
"Just tell them, Alex," Kara said calmly, taking off her glasses and handing them to her girlfriend for safekeeping.
"Kara!" Mrs. Danvers said sharply, in her most authoritatively maternal tone. "I think I need to speak to you privately for a moment..."
"There's no time, Eliza," Kara shook her head, reaching across the table and squeezing her foster mother's hand briefly. "I have to go now. I'm sorry. I have to. And everyone in this room is my family...we have to trust each other. Tell them the truth, Alex." Kara leaned in and gave her girlfriend one last kiss for courage before she got up and ran out the door, without her coat, without her winter boots, without her purse, or car keys, or anything. A second later, Alex heard the whoosh of her leaping into flight.
"Okay," Alex sighed determinedly as she turned back to the room, with a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression for a moment as she grappled with where to begin. "Mom, Dad, there's something really important you need to know..."
"Alex!" Eliza Danvers reprimanded sharply, looking angry and scared all at once. "This is not your decision to make."
"I know that," Alex nodded calmly. "But with all due respect, Dr. Danvers, it's not yours anymore either. You raised Kara, and you will always guide her...but she's an adult now. This is her call." Dr. Danvers opened her mouth to argue more, but her husband—the other Dr. Danvers—put a hand on her arm to stop her.
"Alex is right, honey," Jeremiah said gently, squeezing his wife's arm. "I know you're scared. But think what Kara would say if she were here—she'd ask us to have faith in people. Like her friends Winn and James in National City. She trusts them...and she trusts Susan and Thatcher too."
"Oh for goodness sake, someone just tell us what's going on!" Mrs. Grey finally piped up, a mixture of worry and impatience and total confusion in her voice. "What is this big secret about Kara? Where did she just run off to without her coat, on Christmas Eve? There's almost a foot of snow out there." Alex looked from her mother, back to her unofficial mother-in-law, silently asking for her blessing one more time. Eliza just shook her head and closed her eyes, like she was bracing for a high-impact collision.
"Okay Mom...that's a very good question," Alex said slowly, turning her attention back to her parents. "I'm going to tell you something that deep down...deep down, I think you've always known. Where did Kara just run off to in a foot of snow without her coat. How has she won the Polar Bear Plunge every year since we were thirteen. How did she sneak in my bedroom window all those years. I'm holding her glasses in my hand." Alex waved the cute little hipster-ish glasses, which Kara was supposed to be practically blind without, in front of her for emphasis. "You've been watching her eat like a heavyweight boxing champ for over a decade...and she's always as thin as a rail anyway."
"Alexandra, what are you trying to tell us?" Mr. Grey asked in bewilderment, looking completely befuddled. But Alex could see the gears clicking in her mom's head...she was already there. She didn't want to know, but she knew. All of a sudden, Susan Grey just knew.
"Okay, Dad...Kara left here about, what, two minutes ago?" Alex sighed, looking at her watch. "So, in about two more minutes...she's gonna show up here," she pointed at the TV screen, where Astra was still hovering over National City on the live news feed. "And kick some alien ass." Mr. Grey was still staring at his daughter blankly. It was the same look of pure, uncomprehending confusion he'd given her the first time she'd brought home a female date in high school. It wasn't that he thought it was so awful; it was simply that it had never, ever occurred to him. He was the epitome of the absentminded college professor, so smart and somehow so dumb at the same time.
Alex glanced back up at the TV screen, which was now split between the live feed of Astra, and a photo-still of Kara, dressed in her Supergirl uniform, shaking hands with the National City Fire Chief after she'd just lifted a fallen wall off four trapped firefighters. It was a much more close-up shot of her than any James had taken; she was getting so much more notoriety now, it was impossible for them to keep total control over the press. Her face was clearly visible, her bright smile, her twinkling blue eyes.
"Dad...look at her," Alex said gently, gesturing to the TV screen. "You know her." She jokingly held up Kara's glasses over her face on the TV screen. "You've known her since she was thirteen years old." For a long moment, no one spoke.
"Kara..." Thatcher Grey gazed at the screen disbelievingly. "Is...Supergirl?" At that moment, Kara flew into the TV shot where Astra was hovering above National City, and the news feed cut out the split-screen photo of her now that she was there live, and about to do battle with an unknown alien threat (unknown, at least, to the public). Mr. Grey sat back down in his chair, in front of his half-finished slice of pie. Mrs. Grey looked back at her daughter anxiously, and Alex squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"Please be okay with this, guys, because you can't tell anyone...like, ever." Alex bit her lip, waiting for her parents' response.
"Alex, how long have you known about this?" Her father asked after a moment's silence.
"Um...always?" Alex smiled weakly.
"Can I get anyone more eggnog?" Eliza Danvers asked, desperate for the tension to be broken and the moment to be over.
"Screw the eggnog. Scotch?" Her husband asked, raising one eyebrow at the room.
"Yes please," Alex smiled gratefully.
…...
"Astra!" Kara yelled through the rushing winds above the towering skyscrapers of her city. "What do you want?"
"To speak with you, niece. No troops, no alien army, no fighting. I merely wish you to listen. Your brave one is well, I take it? She is strong. Her wounds were not fatal." Astra smiled, almost approvingly.
"You don't get to talk about her!" Kara screamed, her hands balling up into fists though she restrained herself from throwing the first punch. Kara Zor-El did not start fights. She only finished them.
"I thought I was simply forbidden to touch her or look at her. Now I cannot speak of her, either?" Astra grinned teasingly; but there was warmth in her teasing. Like an aunt, not like an enemy. "I feel as if we were back on Krypton discussing your latest schoolyard crush."
"Don't do that!" Kara yelled, her eyes filling up with tears as she looked at her aunt, and her heart turned inside-out with conflicting emotions. "Don't talk to me like you care. If you cared about me, if you even had a heart, you wouldn't have become a murderer."
"Kara, I swear to you by the name of Rao, I would never have attacked her had I known she was your mate," Astra said earnestly; and Kara actually believed her. Which just made everything harder.
"That doesn't matter, Astra! You've killed people! You killed people before you even left Krypton! What about their families, their children? Did you care about them? I won't let you hurt another person on this planet. Earth is my home now, and I will not let you destroy it!" Kara's eyes blazed, her body was surging with furious adrenalin, desperate for a fight, though she was normally so focused on avoiding physical violence whenever possible.
"Is that what you think, sweet Kara?" Astra asked sadly, shaking her head. "That I came here to destroy Earth? You are wrong, little one, just like your mother. I tried to save Krypton; I might have succeeded had I not been banished. But now we are both here—together, we can save this planet from sharing Krypton's fate." The older woman smiled hopefully, determinedly.
"You're out of your mind," Kara shook her head angrily, her eyes burning with tears. "You can't save a planet by waging war on it."
"You do not know the full story, Kara. You cannot understand," Astra pleaded.
"I understand that you can't kill people to save people," Kara said evenly, regaining her composure as this simple truth flowed out of her, strengthening her moral resolve against someone she once loved, someone she hated that she still loved, someone who looked just like her mother. Astra shook her head sadly.
"Your naïve optimism will be the downfall of this planet...you will fail, just as your mother failed Krypton."
"No. I won't," Kara snarled, punching her aunt so hard she flew almost a quarter mile through the air, smashing into the corner of the CatCo building. She didn't want to start a fight, truly; but her aunt was a dangerous criminal, and Kara couldn't just let her walk away. Astra zoomed back at her in an instant, shooting out her laser vision, and Kara met the beam with her own, both of them trying to blast the other one backwards. They fought their way across the skyline of National City, high-powered news cameras following their progress from the top of the CatCo building.
Back in the Danvers' living room, Mrs. Grey was gripping her future in-law's arm so tightly, Eliza's hand was starting to go numb. They were all staring up at the fight on the TV screen; Kara and the frightening woman in black blasting each other around the sky, crashing into buildings, each hit looking deadly. Alex was on the phone with Hank, speaking in low voices in the corner of the room; but she crossed to the couch and laid a gentle hand on her mother's shoulder.
"Mom, it's okay. I know it's scary to watch. But Kara can handle herself, believe me. Just wait, she'll be back here on the couch in time for Christmas carols and hot chocolate." Alex smiled reassuringly. Her mom just looked up at her wide-eyed.
"I don't know how you stand it," the older woman whispered.
"Susan, when you saw Supergirl on the news—before you knew it was Kara—did you ever worry that she would get hurt, that she would fail?" Eliza Danvers asked gently, knowing that Alex's mom cared for Kara as a second daughter already, the same was she herself cared for Alex. Really, they had all been family for years.
"Never," Mrs. Grey shook her head. They smiled at each other in commiseration.
"Hold onto that," Dr. Danvers advised her, squeezing her hand. "Kara is Supergirl. She didn't just put on a cape and start punching bad guys. She's bulletproof. She can fly. She can shoot lasers out of her eyes. Alex is right...Kara can handle herself." Eliza smiled proudly.
"When she gets back, you really have to tell her that," Alex grinned as she ended her call with Hank, promising to keep each other updated. "She was really worried you wouldn't approve of her coming out as Supergirl and using her powers."
"Well I didn't, at first," Eliza acknowledged, with a wistful expression. "I still saw her as that little orphan girl from across the galaxy...my little girl, who needed to be protected from the world so carefully, for so long."
"And now?" Alex asked curiously.
"Now...I see it's the world that needs Kara's protection. She doesn't need me anymore...she's a hero." Eliza looked proud and sad at the same time.
"You know, superheroes still need their families, too," Alex smiled gently. "Especially when they have warm chocolate-pecan pie waiting upon their return."
"Yes! More pie. I'll make more pie," Eliza jumped up from the couch, thrilled to have something to do.
"I'll help you," Susan offered, the same tone of relief in her voice.
"Alex?" Jeremiah Danvers held up a scotch tumbler to her. "Will you join me and your dad for a drink?"
"God yes," Alex sighed, sitting down and grabbing for the glass. She kept one eye on the fight flickering across the TV screen...but she knew that at the end of the day, Kara would be sitting beside her on the couch again, stuffing her face with pie and regaling them all with tales of her adventures. She clinked glasses with her dad and future father-in-law, and took a big gulp, toasting to Supergirl.
…...
At the same time, in National City, Astra was gaining the upper hand over her niece. They had crashed through three levels of a cement parking garage, hiding them from view of all the news cameras. Kara wasn't technically hurt; but she'd had the wind knocked out of her so hard, she could barely breathe, let alone move. And Astra was on top of her, smiling smugly with a little shake of her head.
"You should have joined me when you had the chance, little one," the older woman murmured, sounding almost regretful as she pulled a glowing green dagger from her belt—the same one Hank had stabbed her with the night Alex got hurt, and Vartox had stabbed Kara with before that. The Kryptonite blade seemed, to Kara, to pulse as it glowed; and each pulse made her head feel like it was being chopped in half, her muscles going weak and limp. The blonde girl looked up at her aunt incredulously; the older woman was still smiling, looking completely unaffected as she drew the blade closer to Kara's skin, as if trying to decide where to stab her.
"How...is it...not affecting you," Kara managed to choke out, half-blinded by pain and still not getting a full breath since crashing through three stories of concrete. Astra smiled smugly as she gestured to what Kara had thought was just a piece of jewelry, two small glowing blue crystals connected by a thin silver chain across one side of her chest.
"A little something Non created for us. You see, no force on this planet can stop my army now." The woman who looked just like Kara's mother gazed down at her with the Kryptonite blade held right up to Kara's throat, a flick of the wrist away from spilling the blonde girl's life all over the cold, broken chunks of cement surrounding them.
"I still love you," Kara choked, her eyes going slightly out of focus with dizziness from the proximity of the Kryptonite pressed against her skin. "Even...if you kill me...I still love you..." Her breath was shallow and shaky; she wasn't even trying to get up, she couldn't. The whole world was spinning, she couldn't even tell which way was up. "Alex...I'm so sorry," she whispered, closing her eyes. She waited...but nothing happened. Astra was just sitting there, pinning her to the ground with the glowing green blade held right up to her throat; but she wasn't moving. Finally, after about twenty seconds that felt like a lifetime of pain to Kara, her aunt pulled the blade away and put it back in its lead-lined case on her belt. The blonde girl gasped in a full breath of air, finally, and started to cough, half-choking from oxygen deprivation. Astra wasn't going to kill her. She couldn't do it.
"Do not confuse my kindness for weakness, niece," Astra said, but Kara could hear the regret in her voice, the uncertainty. "Myriad cannot be stopped. If you stand against Non, he will kill you."
"But not today," Kara panted weakly, her vision coming back into focus as the Kryptonite's glowing aura was extinguished from the air around her. She gave her aunt a wobbly smile. Astra looked determinedly away, but Kara could still see the tears in her eyes.
"Not today," the older woman agreed tonelessly. Then, without warning, she shot into the air, through the three-story hole in the parking garage and away into the sky. Kara slumped backwards against the pavement, panting, and tapped at her tiny bluetooth earring.
"Alex...will you please...send Hank...to come and get me?"
The last time Kara had had an encounter with that Kryptonite blade, she had needed five hours under the solar panels in the DEO before she began to feel like herself again; but that time it had sliced her skin and entered her bloodstream, giving her a much higher dose of exposure than simply having the thing close to her, even touching her, for just a few moments. It barely took an hour this time before Kara pushed one of the side panels up and climbed out, steadying herself slightly as she walked out of the sunroom.
"Hey, hey, take it easy tiger. Let one of the docs look you over before you start walking around the place like someone who didn't get rolled in here on a stretcher an hour ago," Hank Henshaw teased his young protege with a poorly suppressed smile. Kara knew he was proud of her. But she also knew that her family was waiting for her back in Midvale; waiting to see if she was okay, waiting to see if they would be together for Christmas Eve.
"I'm okay, chief. It's not like last time, I only got a little bit of radiation. I just wanna get home for Christmas before it's over." Kara smiled, making a brave attempt at looking normal though she was still slightly pale and queasy-looking. The emotional turmoil of almost being murdered by her once-beloved aunt was making her feel sick to her stomach, too, but Hank—J'onn—didn't know the extent of this, since his telepathy didn't work on Kryptonians. He did know that being forced to do battle with one of her last two remaining blood relations had to be taking a toll on her, though; a person didn't need telepathy to see that.
"One scan. Five minutes. Then I won't have to worry about you falling out of the sky halfway back to Midvale," Hank teased her gently, clapping a hand to her shoulder. Kara rolled her eyes, but she still smiled weakly, knowing how much he cared for her safety.
"One scan," she agreed grudgingly.
Ten minutes later, she was floating through her childhood bedroom window again, just like she had done so many times in high school after sneaking out to spend the night in Alex's bed, and sneaking back to her own house just before daybreak. They had never done anything sexual back then; they just slept better together than they did apart. Alex's heartbeat was Kara's lullaby, and Kara's soft singing never failed to wipe away all of Alex's nighttime worries. The blonde girl smiled wistfully at the long-ago memories as she slipped in through the window and closed it gently behind her. She may have climbed in this window a thousand times before; but never dressed as Supergirl. She padded lightly down the stairs, smelling the fresh baked pies before she even got to the landing.
"Hey," she smiled at her family tentatively as she reached the bottom of the stairs, one hand hanging onto the railing uncertainly, like a sheepish child unsure of how much trouble she was in. She needn't have worried—everyone jumped up at once to greet her, and she was immediately engulfed in emotional hugs that would've left a normal person gasping for air.
"So...just to be clear...no one's mad at me?" The blonde girl asked, with a shy smile as she looked around at them all. They didn't look mad.
"Sweetheart, how could we be mad at you for being a superhero?" Mrs. Grey asked, beaming as she patted Kara affectionately on the cheek. "We're all just so proud of you. And glad you're back home safe and sound."
"Eliza?" Kara looked at her foster mom tentatively. They'd talked about her new life as Supergirl a few times on the phone over the last few months, but this was the first time they'd actually seen her decked out in her superhero uniform, as iconic and larger-than-life as her cousin in Metropolis.
"You've always looked good in blue," Dr. Danvers joked, smiling with a shake of her head. Kara beamed. "Oh! We have more pie. Do you want more pie, sweetie?"
"Thanks...maybe later," Kara sighed, still feeling drained and slightly nauseous from the fight, the Kryptonite, and the intense emotions of her aunt trying to kill her, and then losing heart. Kara would never lose heart. She could save her aunt from the darkness, she just knew it. She had to find a way.
"What's wrong?" Mrs. Danvers, Mrs. Grey and Alex all asked at once, alarmed to hear the blonde girl saying no to food, especially her favorite pie fresh from the oven. Kara chuckled a little.
"Nothing, I'm just tired. Can we just...sit by the fireplace for a while? I flew over 800 miles today. I need a break."
"Sure, baby," Alex murmured protectively, stroking Kara's long hair back from her face and kissing her forehead. "Do you want a fire, hmm?" In answer, Kara just looked over at the fireplace, already stacked with a few logs waiting to be lit, and zapped them with her laser eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Grey both jumped for a second, having never seen Kara's powers displayed up-close before. But it certainly did cut down on fire-building time, and they all gathered cheerfully around the Danvers' fireplace with cocoa and Christmas cookies. Eliza turned the radio on to the local Midvale station playing its traditional Christmas Eve carols, and Kara curled up on the couch with her head in Alex's lap, exhausted.
"Do you wanna change out of your uniform, bluebird?" Alex asked gently, her hands already threading soothingly through Kara's hair. "I think you'll be more comfy in your PJ's..."
"In a minute," Kara murmured. But in a minute, she was fast asleep, snug and warm in Alex's lap with the comforting, familiar sounds of the holidays and her childhood home all around her.
