Sorry sorry sorry! I've been super busy at work so haven't had any time to write. Thank you for those that still commented and asked me where I am. You can find me on Tumblr to bother me, lol. Thank youf ro your kudos, also. And don't worry about long comments, I love them. They actually inspire me and motivate me to write.
Remember, write to the CW using snailmail to make sure they know how much Mon-El needs to be shot into space and never come back.
Thank you and here's your new chapter!
"Hi, um, I'm Kara Zorel." Kara put her basket of random goodies on the edge of the table, giving her poor arms a chance to rest. "I'm here to see Mr. Lord?"
There were two receptionists sitting at the reception area, both typing away on their computer and Kara could see, neither of them were paying too much attention to her. One was busy on the phone and shot Kara an apologetic look, while the second receptionist seemed to just be… ignoring her. Or something.
"Hi. Sorry." Kara said a bit louder.
The one ignoring her let out a loud sigh, then gave an unimpressed sniff. "You can leave that right here. Deliveries are supposed to be dropped off down at the security desk-"
"Oh, oh no, I have to deliver this to Mr. Lord and um, an invitation for Friday night's party, directly. I called ahead?" Kara fidgeted nervously. "Cat Grant's orders."
"Oh." The receptionist still looked unimpressed with her but had changed her tone a bit. "Mr. Lord did say to be expecting something from Catco. Hold on, please."
She pressed a button on her phone, her voice becoming overwhelmingly saccharine.
"Mr. Lord, the invitation you were expecting is here."
"Thank you, Janice. She probably had someone deliver it personally… bring them up and just come in."
Janice gave the other receptionist at the desk a quick wave to show that she was heading off, before motioning for Kara to follow her. Kara almost tripped a couple of times trying to keep up with her large gift-basket in hand.
"Mr. Lord, Catco has a delivery for you." Janice's sugar-sweet voice announced as she pushed through the doors to Maxwell Lord's office. Kara walked forward, trying to look around the basket, and only being able to see the blurry figure of Maxwell Lord and… possibly someone else sitting in a chair in front of his desk, through the cellophane of the gift basket that was obscuring her vision.
"Hi Mr. Lord, I'm Kara Zorel, Ms. Grant's personal assistant and she sent me over to-" Not being able to see in front of her because of the large basket and with her reputation of being a klutz, it was inevitable that Kara would trip on something and went flying. And just her luck, she would do it right in front of the person the gift basket was for. Kara just hoped, as she fell, she hoped that she could save the basket-
"Got you!" A familiar voice said, while strong arms wrapped around her and the basket securely.
"That was an amazing catch, doctor." Maxwell Lord gave several slow claps, looking extremely sleazy in Kara's opinion as he leered at the person holding her.
"I'm so sorry, I couldn't see in front of me and I didn't know there was a… a…" Kara trailed off as she was caught in the soft brown eyes behind those square black glasses, and the gentle smile on Alex Danvers' face. "Alex?"
"Fancy CATCHING you here." Alex waggled her eyebrows, setting Kara laughing and blushing.
"You two know each other?" Maxwell walked forward until he was standing maybe a bit too close to them, making Kara squirm out of Alex's embrace.
"Um, yes, we're neighbours." Kara laughed nervously. Kara held out the basket to Maxwell Lord, still blushing and could see Alex smirking at her out of the corner of her eyes.
"For you, Mr. Lord. From Ms. Grant."
"Fantastic." Maxwell Lord nodded, taking the basket from Kara.
"Oh, Mr. Lord, let me get that for you-" Janice simpered.
"No, it's fine, Janice. Thank you. Please close the door behind you on the way out." The clear dismissal made Janice pout, but she left quickly.
"Are you doing okay?" Alex asked quietly. Kara jumped a bit, not realizing Alex had moved a bit closer to her.
"Oh, um, pardon?"
Alex smiled fondly at her, and the smile seemed so familiar that Kara felt herself leaning in closer automatically, like it was muscle memory, but shook herself out of it. What in tarnation was she doing?
"Your work? Your concussion isn't giving you any problems, right?"
"Oh, gosh, I'm like, one hundred percent better, I'm fine." Kara waved her arms around, trying to project an air of calm, but she was horrified that she was being so spazzy and she could hear the little Kara Zorel in her brain that served as an inner voice, screaming at her to stop being so awkward.
"I'm going home after this anyways, I'll take a taxi."
"Why don't I drive you home?" Alex offered. "I'm just parked downstairs. And I'm a bit worried, cuz you kinda fell back there."
Kara had to protest. "I just tripped over something. I'm fine."
"No," Alex darted her eyes over to Maxwell, then looked back at Kara trying to pour out the need for Kara to understand that she needed a bail-out. "Please, Kara. I insist."
"Ms. Zorel, is it? Thank you for the gift basket." Maxwell cleared his throat. "I've texted Cat already and told her that I would definitely be there."
"Thank you, Mr. Lord." Kara replied politely.
"Alright." Maxwell looked at her again, raising an eyebrow. Why hadn't this young woman left yet? Kara looked at Alex, giving a tiny nod, and the doctor grinned at Kara's willingness to play along.
"Mr. Lord, I think I'm going to have to take off." Alex looped her arm in Kara's. "Kara's suffered a concussion recently and I want to take her home. I'm kind of worried that she's tripping over everything."
Kara blushed, wondering if she should say that she's always like this anyways.
"Oh, but you made the trip out." Maxwell protested. "I haven't even finished my pitch yet and I can promise you, it's a good one."
Kara could feel the annoyance radiating off of Alex's body, even if Maxwell didn't seem to catch on to it.
"No, I think I have everything. Really, I'll tell you my decision soon."
"Well, since we're going down, let me take you down the long way through our labs so you can see what you'll be working with." Maxwell chuckled.
"I do have to get Kara home-"
Maxwell flashed a smile that both ladies were sure he thought was charming, but came off as kind of creepy. Then he set his eyes on Kara which made the blonde extremely uncomfortable.
"I'm sure Ms. Zorel wouldn't mind. She looks just fine."
Kara seemed to know instinctively that Alex was going to snap so she squeezed Alex's arm, distracting the good doctor.
"I don't want to be the reason you cut this visit short." Kara said quietly to Alex. Kara could see a muscle in Alex's jaw twitch before her lips relaxed into an easy smile.
"Alright, if you insist." Alex waved her free arm. "Lead the way, Mr. Lord. Show me your labs."
"I promise you you'll be impressed." Maxwell flashed a smug grin as he took the front, letting the two women follow behind him. Which worked for Kara and Alex since they could check in with each other quickly.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not made of glass. And I had a good day." Kara scoffed.
Alex rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Of course."
"So why are you here for this meeting? If you don't mind me asking." Kara stuttered.
Alex leaned in, speaking close to Kara's ear and making the blonde shiver. "Maxwell Lord's been trying to recruit me since we met in Geneva during a conference."
"We'll cut across the R&D floor. You'll get to see the new high-speed train we have set up." Maxwell turned back to look at them, holding the door open. There was only really room for one person at a time to go through so Alex let Kara go first, then Maxwell brought up the rear, smoothly placing his hand on Alex's lower back to guide her in. Kara saw this, could see Alex's tight smile and Kara bristled at Maxwell touching her-her. Well. Alex wasn't hers. Her neighbour? Her friend? Why was she jealous? Oh my god, she was jealous. She was jealous of Maxwell. Why was she jealous of Maxwell?
"Kara, are you alright? You look a little green."
Alex's face filled her vision and she stumbled back, almost tripping again if Alex hadn't caught her arm and pulled her back. In her defence, Kara was weak against that face. It really wasn't fair at all.
"Do you want to stay in the lobby, Ms. Zorel?" Maxwell was back, looking very concerned now. "I would never hear the end of it from Cat if anything happened to you."
"Um. No, it's fine." Kara smiled. "I'm okay."
Alex had an arm around Kara waist, and could Kara really be blamed with how inviting Alex's warmth was? Kara leaned in gingerly.
"Alright, let's do the tour. Maybe we can go a bit slower? I don't need to breeze through." Alex rubbed a hand up and down Kara's back.
Maxwell nodded and lead the way, still smiling as charmingly as possible as he pointed out his new maglev train, monologuing about it proudly. He also fired the head scientist on the spot when he noticed that tungsten alloy was used instead of another metal. He seemed quite smug about that as he lead the way, probably thinking he was impressing Alex.
"I run a tight ship here, Dr. Danvers." Maxwell smiled back at Alex. "You'll have near unlimited resources to do whatever you want to your heart's content. You just need to deliver."
"I always deliver." Alex shot back.
"You seem to disagree with my methods." The mix of charm and arrogance might have been attractive to a lot of people, but not to the two women in front of him. "They get results, though. I reward my staff when they do good, but I have to show you that if there's no delivery, they're easily gone."
"Then maybe you should fire yourself."
Kara looked up at Alex in horror. She had not just said that!
Maxwell narrowed his eyes at Alex. "Oh?"
Alex shrugged. "You had three years to look over his work and I'm sure, even if he's the head of this project, he would have had quarterly reports, half-year reports, annual reports for you to look over. And I'm sure that with such a big project, there was NO WAY you wouldn't have known that he used Tungsten. But you let him, for some reason."
Alex pinned Maxwell with a hard look. "I don't like it when I'm set up for failure and if that's what you did with that man, then I don't think I would be a good fit here."
Maxwell seemed surprised, and impressed by Alex's observations.
"Well, you're right, I might have set him up." Maxwell shrugged. "I was looking to fire him and that was the last straw. I can afford an expensive lesson."
Alex rolled her eyes, but before she could answer, one of the walls exploded inwards and an armour clad person stepped through.
"Hello!" The armored figure growled. "I'm looking for someone with a background in nuclear fission."
Nobody said a word, frozen in place by the sudden appearance of the person who had duked it out with Shadow Agent, and also had had entanglements with Superwoman before, with neither party coming out on top. He was definitely dangerous.
"No volunteers?" Reactron asked mockingly. He cast his gaze around, his eyes falling on a man in a lab coat. "I guess you'll have to do!"
Alex pushed Kara backwards gently, taking steps forward. Kara felt like a giant weight was dragging her stomach to the ground, knowing what Alex was going to do, reaching out to grab her-
"Stop!" Maxwell called out, his voice interrupting whatever Alex was going to do. "You don't have to hurt anyone."
"I need… this man."
"Looks like what you need is a mechanical genius. Compared to me, that guy's a dope. Don't take him. Take me." Maxwell spread out his arms. Reactron huffed, pushing away the man he had grabbed. He picked up Maxwell and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of meal.
"Oof. So, no dignified exit for me, huh?" They heard Maxwell joke before Reactron left the way he came.
In the silence, everyone could hear Alex's next words. "That idiot."
Kara smacked her on the arm gently, suddenly furious. "That idiot? You're an idiot!"
People started moving around again, Maxwell's secretary calling for the police, security finally bursting through the door.
"What?"
"If Maxwell hadn't decided to be a hero, you would've done the same stupid thing!" Kara pushed Alex, feeling so… so deeply upset at the thought of what could've happened. That Alex would be gone, that she would be in danger, that she would be in trouble.
"I couldn't let him just take someone!" Alex points out.
Kara knew Alex was right, but she just didn't want to think about it, why Alex being in danger made her feel so awful. Before Kara could retort, Superwoman had arrived through the hole in the wall, looking around furtively.
"Is everyone alright?" Her hero persona was fully on, eyes pausing only briefly on Kara, then Alex, before continuing on.
"They took Mr. Lord!"
Superwoman nodded imperiously, then was out the building. They could hear people running towards them from the hallway, and instead of the expected police, the FBI poured in, quickly taking control of the situation. One immediately honed in on Alex and Kara.
"Hi, I'm Agent Vasquez." The woman nodded to them curtly. "Could I get your names?"
"Um, I'm Kara Zorel." Kara fidgeted nervously, even though she knew that she didn't do anything wrong.
"Dr. Alex Danvers." Alex replied.
Agent Vasquez nodded importantly. "I want to talk to the both of you, but separately. Could you come this way, Dr. Danvers?"
Alex reached out and squeezed Kara's forearm reassuringly before leaving for a bit to talk to the Agent. Within minutes, they were back.
"Okay, you both can go." Vasquez waved them off.
"That's it, just like that?" Kara raised an eyebrow.
"Unless you want to stay for a couple of hours?" Vasquez raises an eyebrow.
"We're fine. Thank you." Alex wraps an arm around Kara's waist and leads her out quickly.
"That was weird." Kara frowned, wondering if investigators just… let people go. Everyone else didn't seem to have been given that leeway.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth is the saying, right?" Alex got in the elevator and went down to the first floor, before they could take another elevator down to the basement.
Arriving at ground level, Kara and Alex could see that the entire building was crawling with police and FBI agents. A police officer and an FBI agent who seemed to be in charge were arguing loudly in the lobby. The agent paused in his argument with a police officer to spare the two of them a look before going back to arguing.
"Agent Henshaw, you have no right-"
"You call your superiors. We've already squared this up with them and you're wasting my time-"
They got into the elevator going down to parking and Kara tried to stay angry, but it was hard with Alex's arm still around her waist. They stopped at an SUV and Alex opened the door for Kara.
"Oh, nice car!" Kara got in, looking this way and that at the interior.
"Thanks," Alex hopped in on the other side. "It's got lane assist and basically drives itself sometimes."
"Oh, but don't try and distract me with your fancy car." Kara put on her seatbelt as Alex did the same.
"Want to press the button to start the car?"
"DO I." Kara pressed the button and got distracted for a bit more, before turning her head to glare at a chuckling Alex.
"There's also a panoramic sunroof." Alex pointed at a button on the ceiling. Unable to resist, Kara pressed it and gasped as the ceiling pulled back to reveal the sky through tinted glass.
"Wow! Wait. Stop trying to distract me!" Kara said, without much bite in her tone. She couldn't help the smile that pulled at her lips.
"One last thing. You can hook up your phone to the sound system so you can play your music. Here, use the this, bluetooth takes forever." Alex glanced down and pulled up an AUX cable that had gotten stuck between the gearbox and her seat. Kara clapped her hands in glee and took the cable, plugging it into her phone and starting up the music.
Halfway through a Bruno Mars song, Kara stopped and glared at Alex again.
"You cannot blame me for trying to distract you." Alex kept her eyes on the road and off Kara's disapproving face.
"You were going to just give yourself up to that guy!"
"Well, Superwoman came at the right time-"
"What if she hadn't come?" Kara was flashing back to a week back, when that alien had grabbed her. Kara would be lying if she said that hadn't affected her at all and she'd be lying if she said the thought of Alex going through that wasn't giving her all sorts of anxiety. Alex's hand found Kara's, fingers twining together as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Hey, hey, hey," Alex's voice was gentle. "It's okay. I'm fine."
"What if you hadn't been?" Kara gripped Alex's hand tightly. Alex turned her head briefly to give Kara a smile, eyes darting to her face, then back to the road in front of her as she seamlessly indicated a turn and smoothly merged into the left lane.
"But I'm okay. The what-if's and the maybe's will only drive you crazy. Like sometimes I think, what if things didn't go well for you when you had been taken?" Alex clenched her teeth together, the thought almost unbearable. "I think, what if Shadow Agent hadn't been fast enough? What if she hadn't been on time?"
"You think that?" Kara asked quietly.
"Yeah." Alex nodded, then with an apologetic smile, retracted her hand from Kara's to put both hands on the steering wheel. "I do. We're… friends. I care about you, Kara Zorel."
Kara looked at Alex, her heart feeling so full. And maybe this was fine, that she still had Alex in her life like this. Leaning back into the comfortable seat, Kara starting singing along softly to the next song on her playlist, Somewhere Out There, grinning at Alex when she joined in.