To all who have taken the time to read this - thank you! I hope you've been enjoying reading as much I as I've been enjoying writing :) I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story so far; if you review, I'll get back to you as soon as I can! Happy reading, - PV

Chapter 3: The Barn

Come on, Kara. Think.

You're creative all the time, you write for a magazine!

This wouldn't even be the first time you've lied to Lena about things related to Supergirl. Not even the first time doing it to her face! …Why did this time feel different?

Lena was watching her, waiting expectantly. Kara knew that if she let the silence drag on too long, the expectancy in Lena's eyes would fade to disappointment. She'd seen the look before, but directed at others, never at herself. And she had no intention of changing that statistic tonight.

The truth? No, she couldn't. Kara dismissed the idea the moment it entered her mind. But… it did enter her mind, if only for a heartbeat. Rao, all of this would be so much easier if Lena knew that Kara and Supergirl were one and the same.

Not the truth. Kara looked down at her hands, which were cradled in her lap. Her mouth felt dry. She shrugged her shoulders, not looking up, hoping the nonverbal cue would buy her an extra few seconds to figure something out.

"Hey," said Lena, and to Kara's surprise, it wasn't accusatory, or frustrated. Instead, it was… caring. Kara looked up, and Lena leaned forward a little. She reached out and took one of Kara's hands in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Lena gave Kara a little smile, but Kara could tell that Lena was concerned.

"You doing okay?" Lena asked. "I wasn't going to say anything before, but…" Kara realized that Lena hadn't let go of her hand, and somewhere in the back of her mind, Kara noted that she rather liked the gesture. There was that thing again, that… uncharacterizable emotion, welling up inside her. Not now, Kara thought, forcing herself to focus on the issue that now confronted her.

"I'm worried about you," Lena finished, and Kara let out a little sigh. Why did this have to be so difficult? She wanted to retreat into her mind, her body language shifted to match the inclination. Though she didn't necessarily want to, Kara found herself gently tugging her hand free of Lena's, drawing her blanket-covered knees close to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"It's not - I'm fine, it's just - " Kara stopped, biting her lip a little. Lena looked at her, encouraged by Kara apparently beginning to open up. Inwardly, Kara wanted to scream. She couldn't lie to her face, not like this, not so directly. This wasn't how these conversations usually went between them, at CatCo or in Lena's office. There, Kara could typically explain away one of her absences (or sudden need to dash off without warning) with a flourish of her hand, some quick anecdote about work or Alex or James… but Lena already knew that this was more serious. Kara had been out on "medical leave" for three days already. And besides, there was something about the notion of looking into Lena's eyes tonight and telling her something that was blatantly false, that just felt wrong to Kara. Just the idea crossing her mind felt as though someone was twisting her intestines around.

So - the truth, then? As close as she could get to it. Kara swallowed the bitter taste of her dishonesty as she cleared her throat and began to speak.

"You know that Alex works with Supergirl, right?" she started, and Lena sat back, leaning against the far armrest of the couch. She rested one elbow on the back of the couch and intertwined her fingers in her hair, supporting her head.

"Yes," she said. "Alex works for that underground branch of government that deals with alien matters. What's the acronym again?

"The DEO," Kara supplied, glad that she, as Supergirl, along with the DEO had collaborated with Lena enough times that Lena at least knew that much, "That's right." She cleared her throat again and then pressed on.

"Well, um… they've been trying to find the leader of this anti-alien hate group who calls himself Agent Liberty," Kara said. Nothing that Lena didn't already know from the papers. She had to be careful not to give away any classified intelligence.

"They've been trying to track him down for months, and I guess last week someone gave them a tip about a possible location. Thing was, while the location was… remote…" Flashes of the building played in Kara's mind's eye, a barn-turned-warehouse in the middle of nowhere, near an old steel factory that had been shut down. "That meant that it wasn't exactly the easiest place to sneak into, there was nothing to use as cover in the surrounding area." That much was true.

"The DEO needed someone to go and take a look around, scope out the location so they could prepare for a raid, so Alex asked if I'd be willing to drive up to the compound and act like I was looking for an interview. I even had a fake article to use as cover. If I ran into anyone, I was supposed to ask if they had any comments on the recent rise in anti-alien activity. It's a relevant question," Kara acknowledged, "And given who the DEO knew was supposedly using the location as some kind of base, if I ended up talking with anyone, the question had the off chance of generating some useful intel." Kara paused; Lena was shaking her head.

"What" Kara asked.

"So you were just doing… what, reconnaissance?" she raised her eyebrow at Kara. "Don't they have drones for that now? Or other DEO agents, for crying out loud?" Lena exclaimed. "How is using the sister of one of the agents allowed in their protocol? It put you in unnecessary danger!"

"I wasn't - no, Alex and Supergirl were watching me the whole time with long-range spyware, and they could have gotten to me in less than a minute, they didn't just leave me alone," Kara said hurriedly, trying to hold on to all of the threads of the story she was weaving. "They'd tried drones, but the group using the compound had put some kind of force field up that was running interference on them any time they tried to fly close. The only way to get actionable visuals on the building close-up was to have someone physically walk up to it."

Agent Liberty actually had set up force fields that interfered with their drones, that part was true. But there had been no need for anyone to walk close to the building; Brainy had just hacked into the mainframe that was keeping the field intact and re-routed some code until he had effectively punched a miniature-drone sized hole in it, through which their tech could fly in and record data on the land.

"And that someone had to be you?" Lena interjected.

"I'm a somewhat-public figure due to my work at CatCo," said Kara, working actively to fill in the gaps of her own story. "There was a greater chance of whoever was inside the building believing the cover story if I showed up rather than just some random agent wearing a wire, claiming to work for a news magazine. It gave the whole thing credibility."

"Hmmm," said Lena, a small noise of disapproval. She still didn't like the scenario that Kara was laying out for her, apparently, but with a tilt of her head she seemed to acknowledge that this, at least, made some sense. Kara seized on this gesture and took it as a chance to plow forward with the tale.

"Basically," Kara said, rushing a little now, eager to be done with this, "I looked all around the place, called out a few times, said who I was and that I was looking to interview someone for my article, and eventually somebody did come to the barn door." She barely stopped for breath, but in the split second when she did, she noticed Lena's fingers clench a little, almost imperceptibly, like reflex.

"I don't remember a whole lot after the door opened," Kara said, "But Alex told me afterwards that as the door opened, the device they had hidden in my glasses picked up a big spike in data - presence of dangerous chemicals inside the barn, traces of radiation, even." There, Kara thought. Vague, but scary enough to get the point across. "Apparently this military woman that the president sent to monitor Alex's progress at the DEO saw the signals and ordered that the agents monitoring me, and Supergirl, take the compound right then, and extract me as they did it, instead of telling me to get out before."

There - now Alex is off the hook too, and I won't wake up tomorrow with an earful of a voicemail from Alex telling me how much Lena yelled at her for supposedly putting me in harm's way. Kara had been looking down at her hands as she'd spoken the last few sentences, but she glanced up at Lena, and was taken aback by the ferocity she saw there. Lena was livid.

"She gave the order to take the compound before you were extracted from the situation?" she said, and Kara decided to finish up with this story before she inadvertently gave Lena anything else to be mad about.

"Apparently it happened very fast, Alex and the group of agents moved in. They'd been in stealth aircraft nearby, out of range of the force field, which is why their presence hadn't been detected until that point. They came in, and I remember gunshots, there was an explosion - "

A burst of falling wood, as she - Supergirl - had descended right through the roof of the barn to assist in the fight that was already underway between DEO agents and the members of the anti-alien group that had been in the compound that day. Guns being fired, shouts, screams as scaffolding and equipment fell.

"Oh my god, Kara, were you hurt?" Lena exclaimed, and Kara found herself nodding before she could stop herself. The lines were blurring between the story she was telling and the one she was recalling. No, she told herself. This is important. Keep it separate, keep it together.

"I was knocked out by some falling debris, I think," said Kara. "I can't remember how it happened exactly, I just remember waking up back at DEO headquarters with Alex standing over me, looking all worried, kind of like you are now." She tried out a sheepish grin, but it didn't smooth out the deep furrow in Lena's brow.

Except, she did remember how she'd been hurt. It wasn't just humans they'd found in that barn. More flashes filled her mind: a green glow amid smoke and chaos. A weakening in her muscles that coincided with a metal-armored fist connecting with her jaw. Another figure emerging from the shadows, then another. Three in total, their faces filled with malice, their eyes… definitely human, but changed, somehow. And that green glow, surrounding her: its source unidentifiable, but the bone-deep ache it inflicted upon her unfortunately, terrifyingly familiar. Kryptonite. A lot of it. It had weakened her, and the three attackers had used this to their full advantage. Even in her condition, if they had been only human, she could have taken them on, but they'd been enhanced somehow. Not with a parasite, like last time with former DEO Agent Jensen - this was something else, and Kara knew that Alex currently had a lot of DEO resources being put towards figuring out the answer to how the humans had been altered.

More flashes: boots slamming into her ribs, her back, the inability to get enough air in her lungs, her vision a spinning mess of smoke and moving limbs and blood - her own blood? - and fire, something in the barn had caught fire and it was burning, her whole body felt like it was burning… Then, light. Bursts of it, as DEO agents bore down on her attackers, as Alex dragged her out of the barn and under the stars of the night sky and told her that everything was going to be okay…

"I was pretty shaken up," Kara finished. Understatement of the century. She shrugged and again felt the bruise in her shoulder. She ignored it, instead searching Lena's face for… what? What was she hoping to find there? What was she afraid of finding there? Anger? As far as she knows, I've just told her the truth, so she'd have no reason to be angry with me, Kara reminded herself.

Kara was surprised to find a knot in her throat when she tried to swallow, and a little blur to her vision. Tears? Really? Now? Come on, you've been through worse. You've lost battles before. Why was this one affecting her so much? Why was she finding it so easy to be vulnerable right now, to a degree that, to her memory, she had only allowed herself to be around Alex, and maybe J'onn, before? She blinked the tears away quickly, hoping that Lena hadn't seen, but one glance up and she knew, no such luck.

"Oh, Kara - " Lena said, her voice soft, the concern etched in the creases of her mouth, the slight hunch to her shoulders. Lena reached out her hand and grasped one of Kara's again, and Kara found herself comforted by the smoothness of her skin, the tenderness of the gesture.

"You went through a trauma," Lena said. "It's completely normal to be affected by something like that. You witnessed violence, your life was threatened, you were injured, for crying out loud," she pointed out. "And I'm sure it didn't help knowing that Alex was in danger too, even if she did have your back." Lena paused, looking away from Kara. "God, if I ever was face-to-face with that military woman who gave the order to attack the compound while you were still on site…" she shook her head, her jaw set, her tone serious, "Trust me, Kara, the might of Supergirl would have nothing on me in that moment," she said.

Kara couldn't help but smile. Lena was so… genuine. Right now, her words were harsh and her tone told Kara that she meant it, every syllable. The lamplight in the room framed her face so that her features were awash in a dichotomy of golden-glow and shadows, and a few strands of her now-fully-dry black hair fell across her eyes as she stared at Kara.

"Are you laughing at me?" Lena's eyes narrowed, but there was something playful in her voice, and Kara felt a bit of weight lift from the atmosphere of the room. The mood was shifting, finally, into something not quite so heavy.

"Laughing?" Kara raised her left hand in the air in a half-sign of surrender - she'd have lifted both, but the other was still being held by Lena, and she was just fine leaving that one where it was. "Not a chance," she said, and now they were both smiling wider. "I was just thinking, you should be careful not to let Alex see that protective instinct, or she just might try and recruit you to the DEO as well. Real warriors are hard to find these days."

Lena laughed aloud and the sound filled the space, in a good way. The lamplight seemed rosier, the room a little warmer. Almost subconsciously, Lena felt herself shifting positions, so her back rested not on the armrest, where it had been, but on the back of the couch, beside Lena, who also readjusted her body to accommodate the change. Kara rested her head on Lena's shoulder.

"A real warrior, huh?" Lena said after they had settled and a few moments had passed in easy silence. Kara realized that Lena was still holding her right hand, now tracing small circles on the skin with her thumb. Kara nodded emphatically.

"Are you kidding? The villains and evils of this world are lucky that you haven't engineered yourself a super-suit yet. Their fight would be over before it even began," Kara said, then paused, looking up at Lena from where her head still rested on Lena's shoulder. "Don't even think about that, by the way," she said. "I'm serious. The kinds of things that Alex and Supergirl and the DEO face, that's real, and it doesn't need to be your job."

Her backtrack had come out more strongly than she'd meant it to, and, sensing herself to be on the verge of rambling on, bit her tongue and fell quiet. It was just… as soon as she'd said it, the thing about Lena and the super-suit, an image of it had materialized all too easily in her mind's eye. The images started off positive: Lena, fighting alongside her and Alex as they tackled whatever foes came at them next. Being able to partner with Lena on missions, being able to speak candidly about her activities as Supergirl… then the images had soured, quickly. Lena being attacked by Agent Liberty, Lena - inexperienced in combat - being taken down in battle.

Lena at the mercy of three once-human figures in a burning barn, the scene all smoke and dirt and bruises already forming on her skin…

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Lena was saying, and her words snapped Kara out of it. "Of course, I have some basic training in hand-to-hand combat, Mercy Graves saw to that as I was growing up," she said - anyone who didn't know her well wouldn't have caught the slight catch in her voice there, but Kara did know her well, and she did take note of the falter there, as Lena said that name - "But all-out battle isn't really my thing." She made a gesture with the hand that wasn't holding Kara's. "I design the technology, I own the media company," Lena said with a flourish, and a nod to Kara. "That's how I contribute, and I do my damned best with it."

"That," Kara said, giving Lena's hand a squeeze, "And you're a woman in the public eye who every day successfully manages to make a name for herself and refuse to be held back by the notoriety of her family. You've got this iron will, and you're smart as hell, and - " Kara broke off suddenly, heat rising in her ears, along her neck, the flush full and unrelenting. Whatever it was, that feeling, that damned feeling, there was no pushing it down this time. Was that rushing the sound of her heartbeat in her ears, or the rage of the storm outside? Suddenly, Kara genuinely couldn't tell.

"Well, don't stop there," Lena said, and Kara could hear the grin in her voice without even turning her head. Then Lena shifted a few inches, so Kara's head was no longer resting on her shoulder. Instead, now, they could look at each other full-on, Kara's hand still cradled in Lena's, their bodies still leaned against each other, the closeness still there.

"Can this be right?" Lena said, her lips pursed but her mouth crooked upwards at the corner with the hint of a smile. "Can I really be witnessing the great Kara Danvers - star writer of CatCo magazine, the absolute kindest, most thoughtful, most - " the smile at the edge of her mouth widened a little, "Mind-bendingly optimistic, earnest person I've ever met - not to mention, now, apparently kick-ass accomplice in death-defying missions - at a loss for words?"

The strands of hair had fallen across Lena's eyes again, and this time Kara didn't hold her hand back as she reached up and delicately tucked them behind Lena's ear. Something warm seemed to take root in her stomach and grow. There was a storm outside, wild, unruly, freezing, but in here - right here - everything was entirely, dizzyingly still.

"Lena - " Kara heard herself say, the word rising in her throat and tumbling past her lips. What else had she been about to say? Kara didn't know, had no idea how to put words to the strange emotion filling her in that moment, somehow both familiar and entirely unknown all at once. She didn't know, but after a heartbeat - barely enough time for the word to have ended, certainly not enough time for her mouth to fully close following the last syllable - she didn't care, because Lena leaned forward, closing what little distance had been left between them, and kissed her.