A/N: Life got in the way of me continuing this any sooner, but I finally been able to write. The next part starts a few months after the last part.
-A few months later ….
"How is this not getting any easier?" Supergirl asked as she picked herself off the floor of the training area.
"Clearly you are a slow learner." Her sister said.
"No I'm not. I thinking you are increasing the difficultly." Supergirl said. She then looked at her sister and asked. "Are you making this more difficult?"
"Last month you told me that was impossible." Alex reminded her.
"That's not a denial." Kara said.
"You know if you can complain this much, the training can't have been that bad." Alex countered.
"You have a really mean streak." Kara said walking to the door.
"Where are you going?" Alex asked.
"Home."
"No you're not. You have another five levels to clear."
"But it is after seven." Kara said. "And I'm hungry."
"Well, you can eat after you are done." Alex said stepping out of the room and sealing the door, moments before Kara was hit by an energy beam.
-00-
"Hi." The teenage Alex said when her mother and aunt entered the apartment.
"Hi." Her mother said wearily.
"What's wrong?"
"Your aunt is a sadist." Kara said collapsing onto the couch.
"It's for your own good." Her sister said before noticing her son wasn't around. Looking at her niece she asked. "Where's MJ?"
"Out with friends."
"Why aren't you out with friends?" Kara asked.
"They aren't my friends and I had homework to do." She said.
"I thought you were friends with MJ's group?" Kara said.
"Different group." The teen shrugged.
"Have you eaten yet?" Kara asked.
"No. I was waiting for you."
"Well then choose what you want, your aunt is treating us." Kara said.
"Why?" The older Alex asked.
"Because you made me burn all my energy." Kara reminded her. "And you made Alex wait until after eight to eat."
"Well if you hadn't skipped training last week it wouldn't have been so hard." Her sister countered.
"I was saving the world." Kara argued.
"You were rescuing a cat from a tree." Her sister reminded her.
"And that cat meant the world to that kid." Kara countered.
"Well I am not going to go easy on you if you skip." Alex warned. "You should take a leaf out of Alex's book. She volunteers to train."
"Well you don't shoot her." Kara countered before asking. "Shouldn't you be ordering pizza by now?"
"I thought you were letting me choose what we had." Her daughter said.
"Yes." Kara agreed. "As long as there is a cheese feast pizza you can order what ever you want."
"Okay." The teen said typing away on her phone before saying. "It'll be here in thirty."
"Don't know if I can make it." Kara said.
"You had a cake in the car." The older Alex reminded her.
"Yes, one cake only." Kara complained.
"That's plenty to get you through to dinner." Her sister said unsympathetically.
"I'm going to take Chewie for his walk." The teenage Alex said standing.
"Want some company?" Kara asked.
"It's fine." The teen said putting the leash on Chewie. "Besides you'd stop for doughnuts."
"She knows you so well." The older Alex said as her teenage namesake left. Once the door was shut Kara looked at her sister and asked.
"Did she seem a little off to you?"
"Hard to tell."
"And what did she mean not her friends?" Kara pressed.
"Probably the basketball team." Alex shrugged. "You remember what the teams were like in high school."
"I guess."
00
"Why are you up so early?" Kara asked her daughter when she saw her in the kitchen early the next morning, already dressed.
"Chess team meeting before school." The teenage Alex said.
"Everything okay?" Kara asked.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"I don't know. You just seemed a little off last night and now you are going in early."
"I was tired last night." The teen shrugged. "But I'm fine. Or I will be if I'm not late. Are you going to be back late again tonight?"
"No. I'll be home early." Kara said. "So why don't we go out and do something?"
"Like what?"
"Anything you want." Kara replied.
"Okay." The teenager said before hugging her mother goodbye.
"Just you and me for breakfast then." Kara said looking at Chewie.
-00-
"You wanted to see me." Kara said entering Cat's office.
"Yes, sit down." Cat said.
"Sounds bad." Kara replied before glancing at Cat's screen and guessing what was about to be said. "You're killing the series?"
"Yes."
"But so many bodies haven't been identified and we have-" Kara started only for Cat to hold her hand up silencing her.
"You need to refocus." Cat said. "Barely anyone reads it anymore. The only way you can help find the families is if people are paying attention. For that to happen people need to care. So find a new way for people to connect."
"Any ideas?" Kara asked.
"You have to make it relevant. Unfortunately people don't pay attention to anything for more than a minute anymore, so you are going have to change the focus. Figure out what drives people today."
"Okay." Kara said dejectedly.
"How are things going with Tycho?"
"Well it is still unclear if he is real or not. But in a way it doesn't matter as nothing will stick. I mean Stagg tried to blame him for everything, but nothing leads directly to Tycho so the DA won't do anything. Right now it just feels like we are waiting for Tycho to do something. And I hate waiting."
"I'd noticed." Cat said dryly. "But if you can't go after Tycho you can prepare for what he might do."
"Only if we knew what he wants, which we don't." Kara replied.
"Perhaps you need to step back and look at the bigger picture." Cat suggested. "Every week you have been drilling down further and further. You need to think outside of the box."
00
"What's up with you?" Alex asked when she entered her office and saw Supergirl sitting at the desk, an empty box of doughnuts in the table.
"Cat is stopping my series trying to identify the bodies."
"Why?"
"No one is following it, I need to come at it from another angle."
"Makes sense."
"Only I can't figure out what that angle is. I mean we can't labour Tycho as we just sound like conspiracy nuts."
"On that note, I have something for you."
"What?"
"The IRS have just released all the manuscripts from the Stagg interviews."
"And?"
"Well there is a lot of it, but I assumed that wouldn't bother you. There is a copy on this." Alex said passing her a tablet. "My guys are scouring, but you may spot something."
"I'll read through it." Kara said.
"Anything else bothering you?"
"Yes, maybe. I don't know. I'm worried about Alex."
"Why?"
"She's way too focused on school."
"And that's bad?" Alex asked.
"It is if it is at the expense of fun."
"Maybe she took to heart the lecture I gave MJ about how important this year was and it stressed her out. Or maybe she is getting nervous about her SATS results. Or maybe she misses Kara." Alex suggested.
"Or maybe all three. I just wish she'd talk to me about it."
"Maybe she is trying to protect you?"
"Maybe. We are going out tonight so maybe she'll open up." Kara said. "Do you think MJ will want to come?"
"No idea. I think his language skills have regressed. I got ten syllables from him this morning." Alex sighed.
"What did you do to upset him?"
"Nothing. Well to start with. Then I mentioned his homework and I think that cost me five syllables."
"Maybe I can extract words from him tonight." Kara said.
"You are Supergirl not god." Alex reminded her.
00
"You're back." The teenage Alex said when she saw her mother sitting in the kitchen talking to Chewie.
"I told you I would be." Kara pointed out as Chewie ran over to the teenager.
"I know, but sometimes Supergirl things come up." The teen reminded her as she picked up Chewie.
"Well not tonight." Kara said. "So what do you want to do? If you don't have any ideas why don't we going bowling?"
"Just us?"
"Well I was going to invite MJ and Alex. And if they don't want to come, we'll leave Chewie with them so he has some company."
"Sure." The teen said less enthusiastically.
"Or it can just be us." Kara said.
"It's fine." The teenage Alex shrugged.
"You sure?" Kara asked frowning.
"I'm sure. I'll just put my school stuff away." Alex said moving to her bedroom. As she returned to the lounge Chewie was excitedly waiting by the door.
"You ready?" Kara asked.
"Yes." The teen said before following her mother out of the apartment, Chewie running circles round their legs.
"Have you been feeding him sugar?" The teenager asked her mother.
"You think I'd share my sticky bun?"
"Good point." The teen conceded as they left the apartment block and walked across the street.
"And I took him on walk." Kara said looking down at the dog. "He probably just missed you, so he is about to be in for some disappointment."
"He'll get over it, Alex normally has lots of food." The teen pointed out.
"That's true." Kara agreed as she opened the front door. Chewie immediately rushing to the kitchen.
"Hi." The older Alex said when she saw her niece and sister enter the room.
"Hi." Kara smiled before looking at her nephew and said.
"We are going to go out bowling. Want to come?"
"No." MJ said bluntly before walking out of the kitchen.
"What was that about?" Kara asked her sister.
"No idea. But you are clearly no longer the cool aunt." Her sister said.
"That hurts." Kara said. "Want to come with is?"
"No, I have work to do." Alex said. "But have fun."
"Just us it is then." Kara said to her daughter before glancing back at her sister and asking. "Can you dog sit?"
00
"You suck at this." The teenage Alex pointed out as her mother's ball ended up in the gutter again.
"I'm just a little rusty." Kara said before stepping up for her next attempt. As she released it she knew it was bound for the gutter again so quickly looked round before pursing her lips and breathing hard, causing the ball to swerve back to the middle of the lane before knocking down all the pins. Turning she said. "Told you."
"I saw that." Her daughter said, a look of scorn on her face.
"What?" Kara asked trying to look innocent.
"Unbelievable." The teen muttered as she picked up her ball. Her attempt only clipping two pins, consigning her to defeat.
"I win." Kara said happily. "Which means I pick dinner." She added earning a glare from he daughter who bowled her last ball, again only clipping a couple of pins. "You tried." Kara said wrapping an arm over her daughter's shoulders as they walked over to the shoe rental desk.
"And you cheated." The teen said.
"All I did was breathe. I'm allowed to breathe." Kara said. "So want to tell me what's bothering you?"
"You cheated."
"I meant in general." Kara pressed.
"It's just school."
"What about it?"
"It's hard. I mean maths is easy, but English and history and Spanish are really hard."
"Can MJ help?"
"MJ? The guy who spends no time on school work?"
"Good point, what about Martin?"
"He's stressing about extra activities for his college applications."
"What about me?"
"You're busy. I can do it, it just takes more work and time."
"I know you heard your aunt hammer home to MJ the importance of the next two years, but you need to have fun as well." Kara reminded her.
"I will."
"Good." Kara said. "So do you and MJ have any plans, as in fun ones, for this weekend."
"Not really, but can I see Frax?"
"Of course you can." Kara said handing in the shoes and getting their ones back. "You can see him whenever you want." She added as she passed Alex her shoes.
"I wasn't sure if you had any plans. I didn't want to ruin them if you did."
"Was I meant to have plans?" Kara asked worried she had forgotten something.
"No." The teen said. "But sometimes you make big plans."
"Do you want me to?"
"No."
"Okay, well I have not made plans." Kara said.
"So you are happy with me seeing Frax?"
"Of course." Kara said leading her out of the building.
As they walked out down the street they heard sirens close by causing Alex to ask.
"Don't you need to go?"
"No. It's fine." Kara said. But as several police cars zoomed past with sirens and lights the teenager saw her mother's agitation and said.
"Go, I can go home."
"You sure?"
"Go."
"Love you." Kara said before disappearing.