"Don't you think you're being a bit hard on her?"
Kara had walked in to Lena's office at lunch time, slinging her bag down on one of the nearby couches. Lena was sat typing away heavily on the computer as Kara sat down in front of her. The Luthor eventually stopped typing when Kara stared at her.
"Kara." Lena sighed heavily, "You're trying to be the parent that is always forgiving of their child no matter if they do something bad." She closed the lid of her computer, "Yes, she needs help and yes we will give it to her but at the same time, she needs to be punished. If I don't punish her, she will be like that girl at school who keeps bullying her."
With crossed arms, Kara sighed, "And what will that be?"
"A spoiled brat. That does not bode well with me. I'm a billionaire, I could give her everything she can dream of but I'm not like that. I never have been. She has a monthly allowance, she has clothes on her back and food in her stomach. She has a roof over her head and love from her mothers. What more could she want?" Lena stood and walked over to a small fridge in the side of the wall. She pulled out a box of salad and walked back over to her desk.
"I get it, I do but-"
"But what?" Lena asked, holding her fork in the air, "She needs to remain grounded, not in the punishment sense, in the sense of, she needs to remain humble and not expect everything to go her way all of the time. And I know this is new to you and I can teach you all you need to know."
"You didn't know a thing when you started out!" Kara bit back, instantly recoiling from what she said. She nervously pushed her glasses up her nose, "I know that wasn't your fault."
Lena now had her arms crossed and did not look pleased, "I learned because I had to. But I can teach you what to do and what not to do."
"But you did-" Kara began nervously shifting in her seat, "You acted like a child earlier when she asked not to talk to you."
"She asked not to talk to me because she had attitude. How do you deal with that? You don't rise to it. If you act like they are back to them, it makes them less likely to bite back."
"I'm sorry." Kara scoffed, "She is a teenager and you have no idea how to handle a teenager. That's what I saw earlier. You don't know how to handle her and so you reacted the same way she would. That's what I saw."
"Okay, okay, maybe I don't know but like any parent you have to learn as you go along. I'm sorry Kara but I'm going to be really blunt with you right now." Lena said sternly.
"Why..." She stuttered, "Why do I hate where this is going?"
"If you raised Lori yourself, she would be showered in candy and would be allowed to get away with anything, right?"
Kara's jaw opened and closed a few times, "She would have learned discipline. And before you say to me that she would have had more of a chance of being bullied then-"
"I would be right." Lena replied. Her voice was surprisingly soft, stunning her into a silence, "You would have given her the world and everything she would ever want. She would have been the bully. Yes or no?"
"You can't predict how a child will turn out. After all, you were-" Kara stopped herself mid-sentence, "That was out of line. I'm sorry."
Lena took a deep breath before continuing, "You give a child everything they want. Money, expensive clothing and more than what they need...They won't be humble. They will have mommy and daddy to fall back on. It's like their parents will protect them from every single thing because they have the money to."
Kara shifted uncomfortably where she was sat as Lena continued, "And like I said before, if you give a child just what they need and nothing more, they will be humble and grateful for everything that they have. They then pass that on to their children and so forth. That's how you make the world a better place."
The Kryptonian remained quiet until she remembered something, "You say all of this...But this is the first time you have properly punished her. What about the rest of the times she has been bad?"
Lena cleared her throat, "Take away their technology. That works."
"Have you done that with Lori being grounded?"
"She can only have her phone at school and when she gets in, I take it off of her."
Kara gasped, "That is mean!"
"And effective." Lena said pointedly, "Parenting 101 with Lena Luthor. Whod've thought?" She giggled slightly, "But now she is a teenager, and especially after everything that has happened, of course she is acting out because how else can she?"
Kara hummed quietly in agreement.
"We are here for her no matter what, but when she does something bad, it can't go unpunished." Lena sighed.
Later that night, Lori arrived home like normal but zoomed out of the door before Lena could say anything to her. Lena, being thoroughly annoyed at Lori disobeying her, picked up her phone and called her daughter's phone.
Surprise, surprise, her phone went straight to voicemail.
As Kara walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, she caught Lena's scowl, "What did I do now?"
"Lori was here, and she zoomed out." Lena said pointedly, holding her phone in hand.
"And?" Kara questioned before Lena raised a brow, "Oh! She's grounded, right! I'll sort her."
Lena sighed heavily and poured herself a glass of wine.
The first she had had in weeks.
As she swallowed the liquid it felt so good, but she still was annoyed at how Lori had left without a word.
When Kara followed Lori's heartbeat, she followed it to a really rough part of town. She felt dread creep down her spine.
"Why would you come here Lori?" Kara asked herself as she walked into, "A bar?" Kara questioned outloud before her eyes widened, "Oh no."
Kara stormed her way through, trying to locate Lori and when she did, she was not pleased.
Lori was sat at the bar flashing a fake I.D, and she seemed to be slogging the drinks down her neck as though they were pop.
Kara grabbed the teens arm and yanked her away from the bar, "You young lady are in a lot of trouble."
"On the contrary Miss Danvers." A familiar voice spoke behind her.
As Kara turned around, Lori kicked the backs of Kara's legs. She forced her to kneel down and kept her there using her own inhuman strength.
"You walked into the wrong bar." Lilian smirked, "It was the perfect trap, your own flesh and blood, betraying you. How betrayed do you feel Kara?"
The hero felt her breathing picking up as a green glow suddenly illuminated the entire bar, "Lori, whatever she has told you or promised you...It isn't true." Kara felt so ill, so vulnerable. Lori, however was also powerless. The Kryptonite didn't appear to have much of an effect on her.
Suddenly, Lori was hit over the head by something heavy, thus knocking her out.
"No." Kara gasped, before snapping her head back to Lilian, "She doesn't deserve any of this."
"It was quite easy to get her here. Promise her a better life than this one and she came running to her grandma." Lilian then smirked, "It's funny what children do when you promise them something better than what they know."
"What do you want Lilian?!" Kara snapped.
"I just wanted to see my granddaughter and to take her away from you and Lena. That's exactly what I'm going to do." She sneered before Kara was hit around the head herself.
When Lori woke up, she found herself in a cage in a very dark room. Kara was nowhere to be seen. She felt the sting in the back of her head, wincing as she touched it. She then tried to find her phone. When she did find it, it had no service.
She had no idea what she was going to do. She held back tears as she suddenly felt really cold. The teen jumped when a door opened, echoing throughout the whole room.
Kara's body was dragged in and she was dropped in the middle of the room, unconscious.
It was at this point that Lori realized, she had made a huge mistake.