Kara knows Alex is up to something. She can feel it in her bones, and she is going to find out what it is. She has to because like hell is she going to allow her dummy of a sister to leave her behind out of some form of sisterly love.
She notices the shifty way Alex starts to slink around the apartment, keen on keeping them in the dark but completely and utterly incapable of acting casually around her sister and her overprotective girlfriend.
This is day four. They weren't expecting to still be here by now, having planned on finding a new safe place but it didn't take them long to come to the understanding that this is the safest place for them at the minute and they don't really want to deal with the hassle of moving again.
For an FBI agent, Alex lacks the ability to be casual without looking like a mom trying to be hip in front of her child's friends.
"Hey, you! What's crack-a-lacking?"
Kara watches her sister swipe some papers off the table and into her own lap very obviously and gaps when she sees her little sister sitting down opposite her in front of the coffee table.
"Um…do you want a response to that?" Kara raises an eyebrow, completely befuddled by what her big sister seems to think is normal behaviour for an adult.
Alex processes her words and Kara can practically see the cogs turning as she does so. She takes a long pause before settling on an answer. "No."
She then looks back down and starts to flip through some of the papers that are still on the table and splits the pile in half so she can push some towards Kara, who takes them wordlessly, rereading the same information that she has already looked through twice before.
She decides right then and there that she is going to figure out what Alex is up to. It must be dangerous because she doesn't want her nor Lena to know about it, probably out of fear that they will insist on tagging along to whatever it is she wants to do.
Kara is just about to ask her about the papers she is keeping from her when Lena walks in from the bedroom, her phone pressed against her ear, her eyebrows furrowed in anger and her tone clipped.
"Yes, thank you. Bye."
Lena huffs as she puts her phone down and sags back into the sofa right by her girlfriend. She tilts her head back and closes her eyes, mentally recovering from a painful phone call.
Kara leans back and rests her head on Lena's thigh, content when her hand comes down to lightly stroke through her hair, scratching her scalp with gentle strokes. "Are you alright?"
Lena hums before answering, briefly considering pretending everything is alright before deciding that honesty is the best policy. "Honestly, no. I just spoke to the security agency that I hired to protect the house. They found out who did it."
"Who?"
"The head security officer. He originally blamed some low-level guard, but he was the owner's nephew so the owner himself looked at the tapes and did a second investigation. The head security officer did it and tried to set up the kid to cover his own back, he just didn't know that he was the nephew of his boss."
Kara shakes her head. "I can't believe it was the boss. Why did he do it? Did they find out?"
"They did. He was getting paid rather a lot of money. It was six figures from what they found." Lena stills her hand, simply holding Kara's head against the warmth of her leg, trying to ground her when she knows her girlfriend's mind must be whirring about.
Alex speaks up. "What is going to happen to him and what did they find on the cameras? What does Lord know about us that we need to plan around?"
Lena takes a deep breath before diving right in. "All I know is that he has been fired and blacklisted and that he is a massive idiot."
"In what way?" Kara peers up at her.
"He forgot to add any audio recording and the cameras couldn't pick up any details of anything. They just got a bunch of footage of us living our lives with no ideas of what we were doing or looking at or planning." Lena actually breaks a little smile at that. She does love it when arrogant men embarrass themselves.
Alex snorts. "What an idiot. If you're going to be doing something like that, at least do it right. If I was being paid six figures to do a job, you could bet your ass that I wouldn't screw up."
Lena fixes Alex with a blank stare, putting her on edge. Kara shoves her leg lightly to get her to stop. "You two need to behave."
Lena, ever the diplomat decides that she has found an ample opportunity to call Alex out on her shady behaviour. "I will when Alex tells us what she has been hiding for the last day and covering up extremely poorly. She mustn't be getting paid for it because as she said, we could bet our asses that she wouldn't screw up."
Alex visibly gulps, aware that she has been busted. "I don't think you really want nor need to know."
Both Kara and Lena seem to dislike that answer and within seconds, Alex is receiving twin death glares. She crosses her arms across her chest like she is trying to protect herself, but it doesn't deter them from staring at her, anger bubbling in their eyes.
"I suggest you change your answer."
Ok, so maybe her sister's girlfriend is really quite scary. She wouldn't admit that to her face though. "I will tell you tomorrow, I'm just following up on something."
"Yeah, whatever. That means that you are doing something dangerous tonight that we won't approve of or let you go alone so you want us to back off until you have had the chance to follow through with it on your own."
Alex has a deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face when Kara calls her out. "Does that mean you'll back off?"
"No, that means we're coming with you so you might as well fill us in on your plan."
Alex looks between them one last time then plonks the papers from her lap up onto the coffee table between them. "Alright, so here is the plan…"
"I cannot believe that you were going to come and break into Maxwell Lord's office without any help. You are a dummy, dummy." Kara whisper yells to Alex, following her down the dark hallways of Maxwell's headquarters.
"Shut up and follow me." Alex snipes back, not willing to talk about this until they have what they came for and are well on their way out of there.
Surprisingly, both Lena and Kara do what she demands and just quietly follow along behind her, sticking close to the edge of the hallways, ready to duck into one of the rooms if someone happens to get close to catching them.
They shouldn't though, Alex, ever the badass agent, planned this out around guard rotation to give them as much time as possible to get into the office and out of the building as quickly as possible. This needs to be done as discreetly as it can be.
It would have been much easier to do this with one person instead of three, but they need something to really make Kara's article solid and they need this to all be over. Alex needs her baby sister safe, and Lena wants to hurry up and move in with her girlfriend officially.
As much as Kara wants this all to be over, she does have another reason why she wants to get this article done and do an epic job of it. This is going to be freaking amazing for her career if she does it right. Not that she would say that to either Lena or Alex, they would probably blow a fuse.
They duck out of the way of the cameras, sticking to the shadows. Alex whispers at them to do exactly as she does. She peeks around the corner to see a camera swivelling in a steady rotation around the room. She waits until it is facing away from her and does a forward roll across the carpeted floor then ducks down behind a desk.
She watches with amusement as the other two women did the same thing as her. "Good job, guys." She whispers.
"Why the roll? If the camera was facing the other way, then we could have just walked." Lena looks like a confused little lost puppy right up until Alex has to stifle her laughter behind her hand.
"I just wanted to see if you would actually do it, I had to get back at you somehow for insisting on coming to a break-in." Alex smiles smugly at them but it drops when Kara gives her a solid wallop to the arm.
"Don't be a jerk, keep moving." Alex rubs her arm dramatically with a pout but sets to make her next move.
She waits until the camera turns again then ducks into the alcove of a doorway, waiting again for the camera before ducking into one further up the hall, doing a perfect zigzag in time with the camera's movement.
Kara goes right after her, one move behind and then Lena after her. They aren't as quick or as smooth as Alex is, but they get the job done and only feel slightly silly as they are doing it.
They make their way through the floors, up stairwell after stairwell, cursing Maxwell Lord's name at the sheer number of stairs in this building and their lack of planning that no staircase went up more than five floors before putting another staircase going up in a different place. It's madness and the architect of the building should have been fired.
Eventually, after much huffing and puffing, they make it to the floor below Maxwell Lord's office. "Ok, this is going to be the hard part. We won't be able to avoid the cameras in his office so I will trip them, so they go off. We will have maybe five minutes before a guard will be up to check the office and reset the camera. We have to be quick and efficient but make no mess, we can't have the security guard setting off any alarms. Got it?"
With nods of understanding, Alex takes them up to his office, stopping just around the corner of the doors to a little electrical box attached to the wall. With a bit of fiddling and the know-how knowledge, she has the camera off, so they head right on in.
The office is extraordinarily messy. They don't have to worry about making it look like nobody has been here because it already looks like a bomb went off in there. His files are strewn about the room and there are at least half a dozen moulding coffee mugs across his desk.
They don't let themselves take the time to be grossed out by his hygiene, they have time for that later when they are also criticizing his morals. It goes without saying that they need to take a different part of the room each, starting at opposite corners so they can cover more ground.
Lena is the lucky one that gets the desk, she picks around the crumbs to look at the file right on top. Right there in black and white, there is a file that specifically details an experiment requiring human trials. There is no way this isn't the same trials he is planning on conducting on unwilling participants.
With a little more digging she finds multiple more files, some with their names on them, probably all of the intel he has on them.
She stuffs them into her backpack and grabs anything that she thinks might be remotely helpful in bringing him down. She is about to give the others a heads-up when a light shines under the door, getting brighter as someone comes closer.
As the door knob begins to turn, squeaking as it does, she ducks down behind the desk, praying that whoever it is has a change of heart and leaves immediately.
Lena's heart pounds in her chest, her mind racing.
They really are in a sticky situation now, as good as caught in Maxwell Lord's office by security with pretty much nowhere to hide.
Her knees kiss the rough carpeted floor when she drops down, her hands splaying out to catch her fall, making them too fall victim to the rough floor.
Just as her head ducks down, Kara comes sliding across the floor to join her, bumping into her kind of painfully but Lena just grabs her waist and pulls her close. She makes eye contact with her and mouths, "Where is Alex?"
Strangely, Kara points up towards the ceiling.
"What?" Lena mouths again, keeping an ear out for the door opening. Whoever turned the knob seems to have paused, and by the sounds of muffled voices, they're talking to someone.
Kara leans in close, her lips brushing Lena's ear so she can whisper. "She climbed into the ceiling."
Of course, she did. Even in these circumstances, right when they might just get caught, Lena finds the time to roll her eyes at Alex. She just totally left them behind a desk so she can be the cool spy that can climb into ceilings at a whim.
The murmur is still coming from behind the door and based on the light shining underneath it, whoever is there hasn't moved so they have no way to leave.
They peek around the corner of the desk, looking for somewhere to hide, anywhere at all. There doesn't seem to be anywhere though, the office is a minimalistic design and the only real things in here are the desk, a couch and nest tables. There are also a couple of bookshelves but Lena doubts that Lord has actually read any of the books on them.
As Kara stares up at the ceiling, trying to figure out if they can climb up there too if they stand on the desk, Alex lifts one of the ceiling tiles slightly, right above them and peeks down.
She begins to whisper to them, "hey, they are right outside, stay down."
"No shit, we were about to just get up and start walking around again." Lena snaps, on edge and stressed.
Kara's hand finds hers from where it is wrapped around her waist, her grip tight with worry.
Alex doesn't react to her snippy tone, just whispers back down to them again. "I'm going to go and peek at who it is, maybe see if I can cause a distraction or something to get them to go away. Tuck yourselves under the desk more just in case though."
If there is anyone they're going to listen to in this situation, it's a government agent, she's the only one of them who has actual spy experience, so she better get them out of this or else Lena's going to be pissed and Kara's going to be pissed that Lena is pissed.
They do as she says and back themselves into the little nook that is meant for someone's legs and pull the chair into the desk as much as possible with them there. It's done just in time for the office door to swing open, bringing a flood of light into the dim room.
Due to the position of the table, they are hidden as long as the person doesn't come snooping too much. A quick glance would show there is nothing amiss so hopefully, this person is a lazy employee. Knowing Max, everyone working here is underpaid anyway so they might just get lucky.
There's no more talking, no sounds but the steady breaths of the person. Then the sounds of the light switch followed by the room being illuminated.
They're still hidden beneath the desk, their feet tucked in close and their hands grasping each other close, holding their breaths as slow footsteps draw nearer and nearer.
The steps are growing closer to them, closer to the desk. They can tell, the dull clomps of boots on the carpet tells them as much and their heart rates skyrocket even higher than they were before.
It's too late, the guard is heading right for the desk and they're going to get caught, they have no hope of getting themselves out of this one, it's not going to end well for –
The sound of glass shattering echoes across the building, coming from down the hall and halting the nearing footsteps in their tracks.
Kara and Lena release synchronised breaths of relief when the steps begin to retreat, heading down the hall, fast-paced and frantic, in search of the source of the destruction.
Alex pops up just above the desk once more, getting their attention with a sharp 'pssst'. Lena is the brave one that pokes her head out first, moving much faster when Alex signals that this is their chance to get out now while the guard is distracted.
She tightens her grip on Kara's hand and pulls, pretty much dragging her out from under the desk with her and towards the door. Kara scrambles after her, trying to keep herself from panicking as Lena pulls them out of the office.
They keep to the edge of the halls, trying to get back down the way they came so they can head out, but they hear more voices coming from around the corner, so Kara opens the first door she sees and pulls Lena inside.
She only realises how risky that was when they are fully inside what appears to be a maintenance closet, full of mops and cleaning supplies.
They can barely see, their eyes acclimatising enough for them to see that they don't have much space since there are sturdy metal shelves on two of the walls, stocked with rolls of toilet paper and bottles of hand soaps.
Since Lena and Kara share a brain cell, they are up and climbing the shelves to the ceiling almost immediately after they notice that they go all the way up to the ceiling, so they are able to use them like ladders.
Lena helps Kara up first, pushing a few things aside to make the trip easier and standing just behind her to make sure she doesn't fall or hurt herself since her wound is still sore, a bit of information she had to drag out of Kara since she didn't want to make Lena worry for her more than she already does.
When Kara gets to the top, Lena's steady hands resting on her calves to make sure she doesn't slip, she edges one of the ceiling tiles out of the way to give her space to climb up.
It takes a bit of effort and fighting through her pain, but she makes it up and watches as Lena makes her way up after her. All the while they are listening to the sounds of multiple people making their way across the floor, opening and closing doors.
They know they don't have much time before they look in here too so when Lena is in reach, Kara grasps onto her by her underarms, pulling her up as much as she can to move them along a bit.
The ceiling tile drops back down into place with a dull but satisfying thump.
Kara looks around the limited space, wide-eyed and on edge before turning back to Lena to whisper to her. "We have to find Alex and then get out of here, do you still have the backpack?"
In response, Lena holds the bag up, proud that she had remembered to grab it in her haste to get them out of there. "Yep, let's go. Try to stick to the frames so you don't fall through the ceiling." She points out the supports, those must be what Alex was using earlier to get around.
They move forward, choosing to go back on themselves to try and find where they had last seen Alex. Their movements are surprisingly swift and quiet, their journey pretty easy other than their overwhelming anxiety that if one of the supports breaks, they will fall through the ceiling.
How in the world did they get here? They are climbing through the ceiling of an evil corporation after stealing files, all to try and stop them from praying on vulnerable people and using them for human experiments against their will. This would make a great novel.
Lena has slung the straps of the backpack over her shoulders after checking that the files are safely zipped up inside, they don't want to get back to Alex's place and find out that all of this was for naught.
She watches Kara move ahead of her and can't shake the feeling that something is off with her. Maybe it's just the stress of the situation or maybe it's something completely different but something isn't right.
Her movements are choppy and forced, somehow uncharacteristic in a way that she can't describe but makes her chest pinch in worry for her girlfriend.
Still, they scramble on. Moving forward with a steady pace, their hearts pounding in their ears when they hear movement in the rooms below them. They just try their best to keep quiet and block it out.
In the distance they can see Alex climbing her way toward them, waving overdramatically to get their attention and bring them closer to her.
Alex glares at them when they get in range, bringing out a stern finger to shove into their faces as she angrily whispers at them. "This is exactly why I was going to come alone! That was way too close, and you guys have no idea what you're doing and now we have to try and find a way out of this mess!"
Kara holds her hand up, struggling to catch her breath and not appreciate the scolding she is getting. Alex can complain as much as she wants and yell at them to her heart's content once they are out of this wretched building, but until then she needs to play nice so they can find a way out.
"Another time, Alex. I need to get out of here pronto."
"I second that." Lena backs her up, just as annoyed at the immediate telling-off they got upon reuniting with their wayward spy.
Alex just gives them an exasperated look. "About that, I don't know how soon we will be able to get out of here."
"What do you mean?" Lena's eyes grow wide.
"I had to break a glass table in one of the other offices to draw the guard away from you guys and now there is a whole bunch of security traipsing the halls trying to figure out what happened, I don't think we'll be able to get out of here until the next shift change or when employees start rocking up in a few hours to start their days, we will have to camp out up here for a while."
Kara closes her eyes, disappointed and trying to find a flaw in her sister's logic, a reason that they can't stay up here, but there is none. Once again, they have no choice but to hide.
When she opens her eyes again a few seconds later, she finds Alex looking back at her, reading her like a book, just as Lena had. "I saw a boarded-out area up ahead so we can rest without balancing on the frames, we can talk more when we get there."
"Ok."
Alex leads the way, not a word spoken on the short trip. The little nook is actually a good place for them to chill out and get some of the anxiety out of their systems. It's just a little boarded-out area that is the perfect size for them to be able to sit down but there are support beams surrounding part of it, giving them a kind of privacy screen so if anyone were to think to check the ceilings and look up through the tiles, they wouldn't be able to spot them easily.
They each lower themselves down, giving their tired legs a break from crouching to stop them from hitting their heads since the crawl space isn't very tall.
Alex doesn't give Kara even a minute before she's starting her interrogation, Lena stuck somewhere between wanting to know what's wrong with Kara too and wanting to protect her since she looks uncomfortable.
"Spill, Kara. I know something is up. Tell us what's wrong."
"Nothing that can't wait until we're safely back at the apartment with a pizza delivery on the way." Is Kara's dismissive reply. Clearly, she's not in the mood for straight answers.
Alex's eyebrows furrow and Lena's hand reaches out to take Kara's in her own once again. "Darling, we just want to help, please let us."
Kara's eyes flit between Alex's and then Lena's. "You'll just worry, and it will make this whole waiting-it-out thing much worse than it needs to be."
Yep, there's no way in hell they are dropping it now, they want answers now because whatever it is, it must be bad.
"Tell us." It's a tone that Lena doesn't normally use with Kara. Everyone else that has even been on her bad side has, Alex included, but never Kara. It tells her that Lena is being deadly serious and that she does not want to argue with her.
Kara knows that it is purely out of worry for her so she can't hold it against Lena. She's always been protective of her, and she will always protect her, even from herself when necessary.
"It's just—" Kara can't even bring herself to say it, knowing the panic that she's about to cause.
"Just what?" Alex nudges her leg with her foot, a frown forming on her face when Kara winces.
"I think I busted open my wound again in the ruckus." She ducks her head as she says it, scared of the reaction she's about to get.
Alex and Lena have the same reaction, completely in sync they whisper shout. "Oh, shit!"
After the initial shock of the statement has set in, Alex pushes herself up onto her knees to crawl closer, a hand already reaching out to lift Kara's shirt to see what they're dealing with. A rush of blood pours out when she does.
"Kara, don't panic but this is bad," Alex informs her sister, who is looking anywhere but at her side, not wanting to see how bad it is for herself. "Here, we'll move over, you need to lie down."
They arrange her the best they can, Lena shrugging off her jacket so it can be balled up under Kara's head.
"Does it hurt?"
"Not really." Now that she's paying proper attention, Alex can see that Kara's hands are shaking and her breathing, while regular, is a little bit too fast for her liking.
"I think you're in shock. Just try and take deep breaths. "Alex looks to Lena then, pulling her own jacket off to press it to Kara's side, trying to slow the bleeding. "There must be a first aid kit somewhere in the building. I'm going to go and find one, you stay here and keep pressure on her wound. Don't move."
Before Lena can respond Alex is gone, leaving her alone with her bleeding girlfriend, unsure what to do and terrified to her core.
Lena holds Kara tightly in her arms, her eyes searching through the dark, praying that help will stumble upon them, preferably in the form of one Alex Danvers coming back with medical supplies but she will take any help she can get at this point, even if it means they get caught.
She is not ok with hiding up here with her girlfriend bleeding out in her arms just for the sake of not getting caught by Maxwell Lord of all people. She'll handle that asshole when it comes to it but they're getting out of here now.
"Alright, let's get you up. We're not waiting here for Alex, you need a doctor, and I don't care if we have to go and hand ourselves over to the security guards to make that happen." Lena begins to stand, her forearms already sliding beneath Kara's arms to get ready to haul her up, but Kara pushes her arms away.
"Lower your voice, it's not as bad as it looks, I think my stitches just tore when I climbed up here, so we just need to slow the bleeding a little, it looks worse than it is and I am more than capable of waiting for Alex to get the first aid kit, so sit your butt down and cuddle with me until she gets back." Even in a whisper, Kara's demanding voice is stern and makes Lena rethink her decision.
Lena gulps, suddenly unsure of what the best thing is to do. "I can't just sit up here waiting when you're hurt, Kara."
"I was hurt before, I've just set it back a little bit, this is in no way life-threatening. I promise you that if I think it's getting too bad, we will go down but until then we're going to sit up here and let Alex do her thing. We just need to focus on waiting this out so we can make our great escape in the morning."
Lena's eyebrows furrow, still worried and reluctant but now more open to listening to Kara now that she has knocked her out of her full-blown panic mode. "Ok, but you have to keep pressure on it at all times and tell me if anything, and I mean anything, feels wrong."
"Deal. Now, like I said, come cuddle. It will make me heal faster." Kara pressed her hand to her stomach tighter noticing that the bleeding is already slowing and her blood id drying onto her stomach, crusting uncomfortably.
From what she saw from the brief look she got, Kara is certain that it isn't too bad, just a tiny opening and the scabbed area around it also got torn off, letting it bleed freely down her stomach until it heals a little bit. Nothing to be overly concerned about in her book.
Lena does as she's told to do, settling herself as close to Kara as she can get, urging her to lie back down again and getting herself as close to Kara as she can, laying her hand atop of Kara's to make sure she is putting adequate pressure on her side, not that she doesn't trust Kara to do it, she just needs to be able to do something.
Kara threads her fingers through Lena's holding her hand tight with her own. "Try not to worry, I doubt Alex will be long, that woman is very good at her job. I saw her literally run up the wall in the office to get into the ceiling and it took her less than ten seconds to be completely hidden, it was both impressive and terrifying to watch."
"Has she always been like that?" Lena shifts, lying down fully so she can curl around Kara, hoping to keep her warm even though she hasn't expressed feeling cold.
Kara tilts her head, thinking. "Kind of, in a way. She's always been super active and weird but for a long time she trained to be a doctor, and even worked in a hospital for a while but then she got recruited and so she started out as an agent. She's been a lot happier than she used to be, she still works insane hours but nowhere near the shifts she used to pull because the hospital was so understaffed."
Lena is surprised, she already knows that Alex is a trained medic but a doctor? That's news to her. "I didn't know that."
Kara nods, mostly to herself. "Yeah, I barely saw her in those days, so I think it's a win-win, she gets a good job that she loves, and I get to see my sister more often, even if she annoys the hell out of me." She nudges Lena, a playful smile on her face. "You can be quite similar in that regard."
"Hey!" Lena whispers in outrage. "I detest that."
"It's alright, I love you anyway."
Lena's whole face brightens with those words, not used to hearing them but thrilled that she gets to. "I love you too."
They rest their foreheads together, basking in each other's presence and the love that surrounds them. It almost makes them forget that they are currently hiding in a ceiling while Kara's blood-soaked shirt clings to her skin uncomfortably.
Kara hums after a minute, drawing Lena's attention. "I like the house we were in before, I think we should live there."
Lena wasn't expecting Kara to talk about them moving in together so soon after deciding on it, she thought that it would be something that they put on the back burner until they have the article published.
"Do you think you'll feel safe there with everything that happened?"
"I think so, we can just clear the place out and then redecorate so we'll be sure that there is nothing malicious left behind. It would be nice decorating it with you, making the place ours."
A slow smile spreads across Lena's face. "That does sound nice."
"I loved the décor in there before but while I was in there bored out of my mind, I used to spend the day mentally rearranging the furniture and planning on what wallpaper would look good where and such. It will be a whole new house when we're done with it."
Lena knows she should feel guilty for leaving Kara there to be bored and alone all that time but doesn't regret doing what she thought was right to keep her safe. "You've got me sold."
Kara smiles at her, wide and excited then her face morphs into one of clarity. "Oh! I almost forgot, I had a great idea too when we were waiting to be allowed back in the house after I found the camera."
Lena gives her an incredulous look. "You have ideas at the oddest of times."
"Thanks."
"Ok, so what is it?" Lena can't help but roll her eyes at the happy way Kara responded to her.
"What if we planted a little vegetable patch in the sunny spot down at the back of the garden?" Excitement is flowing through her blue eyes so brightly that it fills the dim space around them, enchanting Lena with every look.
It's addicting, being around Kara with her optimism and never-ending positive outlook. "I think that would be amazing. We can even set up a greenhouse if you want?"
Lena is greeted with a look of pure love and adoration for that one and it makes her feel all gooey and tingly inside. She hopes to spend many years to come getting that look thrown her way.
"You're incredible."
Lena giggles a little bit, feeling like a blushing schoolgirl. "That's funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you."
That makes Kara giggle right along with her, her shoulders shaking with her laughter. "You're a sap and I love you."
"Whatever Danvers, that's what all the girls say." Lena drops her expression into one of indifference, a mask falling into place, well-practised and familiar.
"You totally didn't just say that to me." Kara turns her face away in mock despair, her fingers still looped into Lena's own throughout their whole charade.
Playing along, Lena uses her free hand to turn Kara's head back towards her gently, connecting their lips as soon as she's within reaching distance.
It's not deep and sensual, nor is it a chaste peck. It's a playful twist of their lips, full of nibbles and smiles, all semblance of the outside world temporarily forgotten.
They get lost in it, with nothing on their radar's except each other. That is until they hear a clatter coming from the room below them, shocking them out of their reverie.
They flinch back from one another, shocked that they could forget that they are literally hiding out, trying not to get caught. Lena holds a finger to her lips in the universal sign to be quiet, not that Kara was planning on saying anything anyway.
Each new clatter or bang below them makes the dread rising in them increase bit by awful bit. They don't really have anywhere to go from here, not while Kara is hurt anyway because Lena won't let her hurry off in case she hurts herself further.
It's continuous, loud and abrasive. They can't ignore it, as much as they really want to. They were just beginning to relax too, settling in for their wait and then this puts them right back on edge.
Kara swallows harshly, scared that they are going to get caught, that maybe the noises are from security looking for them and it is just a matter of time before they come looking for them up here. She'll never forgive herself if they get caught all because of her and her stupid busted open stitch.
Also, where the hell has Alex gotten to? Surely she should be back by now, she's been gone for a little while and she is the most capable of all of them.
Then, everything is silent.
Breath is caught in their throats. The shifting of a ceiling tile a little ways down captures their attention and not a word is uttered, not a muscle is moved as a head is poked up into their space, their face hidden by the darkness, the only light coming from the tiny gap where the tile is away from the frame.
Maybe they should shrink back and try to make themselves as small as possible in the hope that they won't get spotted. Or maybe they should get up and try to escape. Or they could do the third option, which is exactly what they are doing now.
They stare at the person, waiting for their next move with bated breath. Frozen in a mix of shock and fear.
The wait isn't long, but it feels like hours as the person ever so slowly pulls themselves up into the ceiling completely, blocking off any light in the space and heading in their general direction, clambering towards them with a grace that neither Kara nor Lena possessed earlier.
"Are you two playing dead or something?" Alex's whispered tone cuts through the air, forcing them to suck in very much-needed gulps of oxygen.
Lena moves first, her body loosening and briefly resembling melting butter. "My god Alex! You scared the shit out of us!" There is no bite to her hushed tone, just exasperated relief."
"Yeah, I got that, sorry. It took me a while because those idiots are everywhere trying to figure out what happened, their best guess so far is that a bird somehow got in and then magically escaped back out before anyone saw it." Alex chuckles, pleased with the lack of intelligence of the guards.
Kara breathes out a relieved laugh, "that's great, they won't be looking for us then."
"Nope, so that will make our exit at shift change remarkably easier, we can just slip out as all the interns come in, nobody ever remembers their faces and it will be early enough that nobody will care to look anyway."
They share smiles around their little trio, but they all look a little sinister in the dark, so they bring a swift end to that.
Alex clambers over to them, sitting down on Kara's other side. "Alrighty then, let's take a look at this wound of yours."
Alex digs a flashlight out of her pocket, flicking it on. It blinds Kara and Lena, making them squint.
"Wait. You had that this whole time and never thought to say anything?" Lena questions.
Alex shrugs nonchalantly. "I thought you'd be less likely to bone if you can't see what you're doing."
"Alex, she's injured!"
"I doubt that would stop her."
Alex leans over, peeking through a tiny slit she's created by lifting a tile up. Every so often she checks her watch, checking the time against the schedule she knows this building lives and breathes by. The shifts are about to switch, she knows that for certain.
Kara and Lena stand behind her, waiting patiently for Alex to give them the go-ahead. Kara's hand unconsciously rests over her wound, taped up by her sister not long after she had taken a look and determined that not only is the wound not too bad, but most of the blood had clotted and stopped the bleeding majorly.
Kara had figured that might have been the case before Alex confirmed it and doesn't think that she even really needed Alex to tape it up for her, but Lena wasn't completely convinced by Alex's determination of the injury and wouldn't rest until Alex had done something other than simply cleaning it out for her.
Now that the shock has worn off and the adrenaline in her system has ebbed away because of their long wait, she's starting to feel the pain of it, the soreness around the area and the tightness of her skin.
Lena sticks by her side, ready to help her at a moment's notice if she needs any help at all, or even just help her because it will, selfishly, make her feel better for being able to do so.
Alex's eyes are trained on the guards, watching them as they watch the clock, waiting for their time to leave so they can get home and go to bed, a sentiment that the ceiling gremlins hiding away above the poor guys share with them.
The instant the guards make a move and head for the stairs, Alex jumps into action, taking them along the frames, peeking down every so often to check where they are. When they get to an appropriate place, Alex lifts the tile completely and beckons Lena to come closer.
"You go first and then I'll lower Kara down, you help her from the bottom."
Lena nods right away, peeking down the hole and feeling reassured when she sees that they are hovering over a desk, so they don't have to drop as far down. She slides right down onto it with more ease than she expected before looking up and signalling that she's ready for Kara to come down too.
She grasps onto her waist as she gets lowered, stabilising her once she's on the desk then jumping down to help her get her feet onto solid ground. By the time she looks up again, the ceiling tile is back in place and Alex is right beside her, making her jump. Alex pays no mind though, just rushes out of the door, leaving them to hurry after her.
Alex is good, that they have to admit. They come out of the random office and are right by the stairs, dodging any cameras up here and giving them a clean shot down to the lower floors so they can merge with the interns.
She must have really done her homework when planning this heist because not only do they reach one of the lower floors just in time to mix in with the crowd of interns, but they actually pass the shift change guards as they are heading up to take the place of the night shift.
It takes no prompting for them to keep their faces low, but their postures relaxed, fitting into the growing crowd whilst masking their faces in case anyone thinks to check the cameras - which will probably happen when Lord notices that his files are missing.
They are out of the place quickly, taking the elevator the rest of the way down with a bunch of people that are way too tired to care about the new faces in there with them. The lobby is just as easy to pass, with not a single issue, which is a first for them.
The second they walk to Alex's car, which she had parked several blocks away to be sure that it wasn't spotted by anyone, and get in it, there is a huge weight lifted off of their shoulders.
Kara and Lena sink into the backseat while Alex drives. "Let's not do that again." Kara huffs.
"Agreed, next time I'll just go on my own, you two cause me more headaches than I need. I've already accepted that you pair are sending me to an early grave."
Lena pouts and lazily tugs her seatbelt in place, tapping Kara on the arm as she clicks it in place, so she looks over and sees, reminding her to put hers on too. "I would argue but I just really want to get back to your place and sleep for a million years."
Alex smiles briefly, starting the car and moving off. "Alright, I'll accept an IOU on the snarky comment."
"Excellent, I'll get it to you in approximately twelve hours."
Kara giggles at the interaction, her eyes already drooping but eyeing Lena's backpack with excitement nonetheless, a frantic need to tear it open and reveal the secrets of the folders to her now.
She's kind of mad that Alex and Lena had voted not to read them up in the ceiling in case they saw anything that would make them need to go and trash the building in retaliation, that's a risk they just could not take at that time.
Still, it will still be there after they get some shuteye and will still, most likely, be full of juicy secrets perfect for her article. If all goes well, there could be a full exposé on Ms Grant's desk within a few days, probably delivered by Alex because Lena is probably going to force her to stay in bed forever because of her injury.