"Kara?" Cat asked surprised as she looked up from her desk and saw her former assistant hovering in front of her.
"Good morning Ms Grant. Here's your latte." She said placing the coffee on Cat's desk.
"Have you suffered some sort of brain damage?" Cat asked.
"No, I don't think so. I hope not. Why?" Kara asked nervously.
"Getting my lattes is no longer your job." Cat pointed out.
"James mentioned you still didn't have a permanent assistant." Kara explained. "But if you would prefer me to take the coffee away I can."
"No, I'll keep it." Cat said sipping the drink. "How are you?"
"Better thanks."
"You had people here worried."
"I know and I'm sorry."
"It was hardly your fault, unless you were ingesting bio-hazardous material." Cat said. As a silence hung in the air Kara suddenly felt like she was expected to reply and said.
"Um, no...I wasn't."
"Well then." Cat said before staring so intently at Kara the Kryptonian felt like Cat was boring a hole into her. Eventually Cat asked. "Should you be back at work?"
"I've been cleared by a doctor." Kara said. "And I'm not contagious." She added guessing Cat might be worried by germ transfer.
"Sit." Cat ordered causing Kara to drop to the couch as the media mogul continued to stare at her. Eventually Cat commented. "You seem to have lost your bounce." Not sure how to respond Kara just sat silently until Cat said. "Speak."
"It's just I always thought having powers was a good thing. Even after the Red Kryptonite I never viewed powers as a bad thing."
"But now?"
"Now I'm scared of losing control."
"No one wants to lose control." Cat pointed out. Her words seemingly causing Kara to spring up and pace round the office.
"But I don't have that luxury. When I lose control people get hurt. When I had been exposed to Red Kryptonite I threw you off a balcony and broke Alex's arm. This time I broke Alex's hand." Kara said.
"So you are afraid that whatever caused you to loose control this time will happen again and you will hurt or kill some one?" Cat asked bluntly.
"Yes."
"And your solution to this?" Cat asked. "Give up being Supergirl? That won't help, you have powers regardless. Alternatively you could submit yourself to Max, I am sure he has plenty of gadgets he could use on you to suppress your powers and exploit your DNA for his own purposes. Is that what you want?"
"No. But there must be another option." Kara said despondently.
"There is. Have faith in the rest of us. Have faith in your friends and family to notice when something is wrong and let them help you. More importantly be honest. How long were you suffering for before you came and collapsed in my office?"
"Several hours." Kara confessed.
"Yet you know you don't get sick. Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because I don't want to be a burden."
"Because?"
"I don't want others to suffer because of me."
"Interesting." Cat said sitting back.
"Interesting? Why interesting?"
"Justifiably, given your past, you have a deep rooted fear of abandonment. I believe the real reason you don't want to lean on others as much as you should is because you don't want them to have an excuse to leave you." Cat paused for a second. "I know I may be guilty of fuelling that thinking from the way I treated you after Adam and my incorrect handling of the situation when I first guessed your true identity. However, your family and friends are much better people than I am. They won't abandon you. Lean on them and trust them and you will be fine."
-00-
"Hey Alex, I didn't expect to see you in." Lucy commented as she walked past Alex's lab and saw her working.
"Why?"
"I just assumed you'd be at home, I don't know, sleeping, or spending time with your family."
"Kara's at work and-"
"Wait Kara's at work? Already?"
"Yeah, she is back to normal, physically at least." Alex said. "I am hoping being at work will help her feel normal again and at the very least if Cat Grant is running her ragged she won't have time to dwell."
"I take it she is still taking Lord's words to heart?"
"She is." Alex said. "Hopefully she just needs time."
"If you need any help let me know." Lucy said.
"I will." Alex agreed.
"But I still don't get why you are here, especially if Kara is at work." Lucy said.
"Well, mom and dad are resting before their flight." Alex shrugged. "So I thought I'd come in and try to figure this out."
"Figure what out?" Lucy asked.
"I'm trying to reverse engineer the substance Kara was exposed to."
"Why? And isn't that kind of risky? I mean if Kara flies in won't it start all over again."
"It is in quarantine so the exposure risk should be minimal. I also worked with Hamilton to put in a few extra safeguards so we are as confident as we can be it is safe. But if the worse did happen now we have the cure we can at least treat her." Alex shrugged. "But in answer to your first question, if I can figure out what it was I can start to work out what it was for and then try to come up with a suitable human friendly antidote."
"You think it was to create super humans?" Lucy guessed.
"I don't know, but possibly. It just seems prudent to be prepared for anything."
"I agree." Lucy said before asking. "You talk to your dad about it?"
"No." Alex said. "He told J'onn everything he knew from Cadmus so we wouldn't get anything from it. And if there is a chance he is not fully on our side, for whatever reason, at least we reduce the risk of the work getting out."
"Your dad has done nothing to indicate his is under any influence from Cadmus." Lucy reminded her.
"I know, but he was there a long time." Alex sighed.
"True, but right now if I had to pick which father was hiding something I would pick mine, not yours."
"I'm sorry." Alex said.
"Don't be." Lucy said. "We had issues long before this. Recent events have just brought all of that to the surface. I hope it is paranoia, but deep down….I don't know, my gut feeling is we can't rely on him."
"Sometimes you have to have faith in people." Alex reminded her.
"Is that from the Kara rulebook?" Lucy asked.
"Oh yeah." Alex smiled. "But sometimes she is right."
"But sometimes she is wrong." Lucy said. "Case in point, Maxwell Lord."
"Actually, not even Kara trusts him." Alex reminded her. "Did you find something?"
"Nothing concrete, but Vasquez and I have been going through all the logs from when Lord was here."
"And?"
"He played everything by the book, no unauthorised access to our systems, no stealing of samples. However, just after Vasquez told us about Kara's involvement in the spillage he subtly did something with his phone. From the security footage we can't see what if anything he sent or to who, however the timing seems a little suspicious."
"So what do we do?" Alex asked.
"Keep digging." Lucy said. "In the mean time if you need anything just call me."
"Thanks." Alex said.
-00-
"Are you sure you are going to be okay?" Eliza asked as she and Jeremiah were bidding farewell to their daughters at the airport.
"I'm fine." Kara smiled as she hugged the pair. "Besides I've got Alex."
"You sure?" Eliza pressed, still worried about Kara.
"I'm sure."
"And you?" Eliza asked Alex as she pulled away from Kara and looked at her eldest.
"Me? I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Alex asked.
"Oh, I don't know. The broken hand, getting beaten up my Max's goon, the going without sleep for days, the working yourself into the ground." Kara listed earning an eye roll from Alex who said.
"It's not my fault you are such high maintenance."
"Hey, I'm not that high maintenance." Kara protested.
"You can't even cook." Alex replied.
"Like you can." Kara shot back. "And unlike you I have phobias of kitchen appliances to blame."
"That's what you are going with? You can't cook because of scary popcorn makers?" Alex asked in disbelief.
"Good to see some things never change." Jeremiah smiled as he watched Alex and Kara. The comment causing both daughters to turn and look at him. "But even though you both apparently think you are still teenagers I'm going to miss you."
"You could come and visit more." Kara pointed out.
"Or at least embrace modernish technology and Skype us." Alex added.
"He's getting better." Eliza assured her before drawing Alex in for a hug and whispering. "I know you can't talk about your work. But you are never alone. I will always be there for you. Don't fight the world alone."
-00-
A week later
"Senator, General." Max smiled as he walked into the room they were waiting in.
"Lord." Crane said looking at him. "I assume that you have made progress. After all, all three of us being seen together is a big risk."
"Trust me the risk is worth it. You will want to see my progress."
"So you have actually made progress?" Lane asked. "I ask as it seems like your recent efforts have been spent saving Supergirl."
"Thanks to being involved in the saving of Supergirl I got the information required to overcome the slight problem we were having with the project." Max said.
"And you couldn't have done that without saving Supergirl?" Lane pressed.
"As much as I hate to admit it, no." Max confessed. "The progress was actually made, albeit unwittingly, by Alex Danvers, who, if it were not for her misguided loyalty would be a real asset to our work. Regardless though, I learned enough while I was there to modify our compound and give our subjects new abilities for seventy-two hours."
"Seventy-two?" Crane asked.
"It appears the human body can not handle the long term effects of Kryptonian abilities and after approximately seventy-two hours their cells degrade."
"And?" Lane asked.
"They die, massive coronaries or strokes. The good news is the autopsies show no signs of what we have been doing. As far as the pathologists can tell they tragically died of natural causes."
"An army that lasts seventy-two hours was not the aim." Lane said clearly annoyed.
"True, but instead I have created the ability to give you a strike squad that naturally disbands after seventy-two hours giving us absolute deniability?"
"Something that could be very useful." Crane commented mulling over the possibilities. "It may not be what we set out for, but for now it is a capability we didn't have before."
"Good to see your visit to the DEO was not a complete waste." Lane finally conceded, still not happy with Lord's progress.
"It was anything but a waste. The short time I spent there gave me more information than I have managed to gather in the last year. Plus I started to sow the seed." Max smiled.
"What seed?" Lane asked.
"The seed of doubt." Max said. "Once again Supergirl has unwittingly proved that she can not be controlled. As a military man you know the danger of not controlling ones assets."
"The DEO is not a military organisation." Lane reminded him.
"True, but they do have working there an influential Major."
"You got Lucy to see the threat that Supergirl poses?" General Lane asked hopefully.
"I highlighted the threat to her, we just need to let the doubt sink in. The better news is I am fairly sure Supergirl was listening."
"What good will that do us?" Senator Crane asked.
"She is beginning to lose confidence in herself. Regardless of your views on aliens, Supergirl does genuinely mean well. If she thinks she is a danger to others she will look for a solution."
"A solution you can provide?" Crane asked.
"Who is better placed to come up with a solution? A solution that will end Supergirl whilst providing us with a perfect specimen."
"And if she refuses?" Crane pressed.
"We continue with our original plan and if Supergirl happens to get accidentally exposed and loses control in a rather public way, then you can force the issue of her being controlled." Max smiled.
-The End?
A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. At some stage I hope to do a sequel. I appreciate all the comments. For those I couldn't thank through messenger thank you for taking the time to review. In particular thank you Anna and Supergirl for the continual supportive comments.