Chapter 8
Kara gently touches down on the DEO balcony, taking a little longer than normal to release Lena from her hold until Alex walks up.
"Hey Lena. Kar you ready?", Alex says, "Breifing in ten and then we move out".
"Yeah, I'll meet you there", Kara says, her arm still around Lena's waist. Alex nods and walks away as Kara turns to Lena. "Are you going to be on comms?", she asks.
"If you want me to be in your ear, of course", Lena says, putting her arms over Kara's shoulders.
"I do", Kara says, nodding emphatically, "I want you with me but also safe and I hope you'll feel less nervous if you can hear and see what's happening".
Lena reaches up on her tiptoes to kiss Kara, both of them taking comfort in the small moment, "You know me so well". Kara smiles, pulling her in for another kiss. "I have something else for you too", Lena says, lowering herself and sliding her hands from Kara's shoulders to interlock their fingers.
Kara squeezes her hand reassuringly, "What is it?".
"Come on", Lena says, leading the way to Alex's private lab, even though they have access to it. She pull a small device out of her pocket and holds it out to Kara, "Where is your space suit?".
In a split second, Kara is gone and back, the breeze rustling Lena's hair and knocking a file papers off a nearby table.
"Here", the blonde says happily holding out the suit.
Lena chuckles, "So this has a few upgrades".
"When did you do this", Kara asks, watching as Lena inserts the device in the suit and the nanites start to work.
"I couldn't sleep last night", Lena says, "I trust you and i know that you'll be ok. This is just further insurance. I didn't want to toss and turn adn wake you so I figured I'd do something productive".
"Oh, Lee", Kara sighs, pulling Lena into a hug, "Never worry about waking me. You know I don't need as much sleep as you and I want to be there for you".
"You are", Lena rebutts, "this is just me being able to be there for you, to help you out and I know normally you don't need as much sleep but with recovering your powers the more rest the better especially with a big mission like this".
"Thank you", Kara says, holding her close until the device gives off a small beep.
"Done", Lena says.
"What did you do", Kara asks, excited as she slides the suit on.
"Make it more durable yet flexible, some upgrades to the interfaces inside the helmet, and added thrusters for quicker and easier mobility", Lena says, checking to make sure everything looks right.
"Like Iron Man", Kara asks, grinning.
Lena sighs, "Yes like Iron Man".
"Thank you", Kara says, seriously.
"Of course, darling", Lena replies, sliding the helmet back off so she can kiss Kara, "Now come on. The sooner we're done with this the sooner we can go home and cuddle".
"Who knew pregnancy would make you so tactile", Kara teases, holding Lena close.
"You love it", Lena teases back.
"Absolutely I do", Kara smiles, pulling Lena in for a deep loving kiss, pouring love, strength, and trust into the connection. "Now let's go kick some bad guy butt", Kara says, hyped up, fist pumping as she pulls Lena into the conference room.
"Everyone know their roles?", Alex asks. Everyone nods, shortly, serious faces around the room. "Then let's head out. Alpha team you all are taking off from out roof, beta team L-Corp, team leaders go first, and we will have some agents on ground control signaling when to take off. We'll regroup in the skies and go from there. Let's end this now while we've got a low risk for casualties".
Everyone nods again and the agents file out of the room, leaving J'onn, Alex, Lena, Kara, and Eliza.
"You ready for this Kara", Alex asks, again.
"I'm great Alex. You tested me yourself and Lena made some upgrades to the suit. I'm ready", Kara says, shortly, still upset that her sister hadn't told her she'd be flying her old pod until this meeting in front of everyone. "Are you ready? You're sure you know all the controls", she asks, worry for her sister, outweighing anger.
"I'm sure Kara. I've flown it before", Alex nods, "everything will go smoothly, and I've got you to back me up".
Kara rolls her eyes, pulling her sister in for a hug, "You better stay safe".
Alex nods hugging her back until Eliza comes up, "Both you girls stay safe up there".
"We will", Kara says, hugging her mom before turning back to Lena.
Lena has her CEO mask on, calm, cool, and collected but Kara can see the fear in her glistening green eyes, "You come back to us?", Lena whispers into her ear.
"I promise. El mayarah", Kara says, keeping one hand on Lena's side, thumb caressing her stomach, as the other cups her sharp jawline to bring her in for a kiss, "I love you".
"I love you", Lena echoes, kissing back with all the feeling she can muster.
They break apart as J'onn clears his throat, "Both of you be safe. We will be here on comms and Brainy has the Legion ship on standby if needed. End this so we can go back to peace".
The Danvers sisters give him another nod before stepping into the elevator and heading to the roof.
Kara slides the helmet on, booting up the interface inside. "Hope pull up Lena's contact picture and pin it to the bottom right corner", she says and the AI does it. Kara wishes she had a picture of their baby, even if it was just a sonogram photo, something to put up there beside Lena's, a reminder of what she's fighting for.
Rustling beside her pulls her back to reality as she sees Alex slides her wallet back into the pocket, sans the picture she's now holding in her other hand. "I do the same thing", Alex says, "I can't usually carry a picture but I carved their initials into the grip of my gun and this picture is always in my wallet". Alex turns the photo so Kara can see it. It's a cute picture, Ruby on Alex's back and Sam with her arms around both of them. "I used to do this job because J'onn saved me and to protect you but it's so much more than that now. I do it to keep them safe, keep the world safe, give Ruby a place to grow up without worrying about alien attack without having to fear every alien she sees, and I'm good at it, even if my back doesn't agree with letting the agents practice takedowns on me", she laughs, "We're going to end this, to keep you and Lena safe, to keep Sam and Ruby safe, to keep National City safe".
Kara nods, holding out a hand to help Alex step into the pod, "We've got this".
"Let's give them hell", Alex winks, closing the pod and starting the engine.
Kara steps back, watching Alex take off and join the cloud of pods, all shapes and sizes and origins. She rolls her shoulders, looks the picture of Lena and pushes off.
Kara doesn't wait for the elevator, hell she doesn't even wait for the rest of the ships to reenter the atmosphere she just goes straight for the balcony, ripping her helmet off as she flies through the, thankfully, open door, straight into Lena, picking her up and spinning her around.
Once over her shock, Lena can't hold in the tears as she wraps her arms around Kara's shoulders, burying her face in the blonde hair. "You did it", Lena sobs, "it's over".
"It's over baby. You're safe. You're both safe", Kara says, still holding Lena up but letting one hand drift around to her stomach.
No one interrupts the couple, the agents in the command center focused on the straggling ships. Everyone cheers when they all get off the elevator, Alex leading the groups.
"Well, geez you couldn't have waited for the rest of us", Alex teases, walking straight to the couple still locked in an embrace.
Kara sets Lena on the ground but doesn't let go as she pulls her sister into the hug, "Thank you, Alex. Celebration tonight at our place. We'll order dinner".
Alex grins, "I'll call and ask Sam but yeah, that sounds perfect".
"See you then", Kara smiles.
J'onn calls for everyone's attention and everyone turns to him. Kara leaves her arm around Lena, not able to let go just yet. "Well done everyone", J'onn says, "While this wouldn't have been my first choice to handle this situation it was the only one and you all handled it well. Go home. Enjoy your night. We can handle debrief and reports tomorrow".
Everyone cheers and heads out.
"I can drop you off before I take Lena and Eliza home", Kara offers to Alex.
"Nah", Alex waves her off, "I rode my bike in, so we'll meet you there, say an hour".
"Sounds good", Kara nods, giving her sister another hug before turning back to Lena. "I guess I'll drop you off first", she says, tilting her head at where Eliza is deep in conversation with J'onn.
"Take me home, Supergirl", Lena says, wrapping her arms back around Kara's neck.
"At your service", Kara teases, scooping Lena up and taking off.
Alex doesn't even make it over the threshold before she finds herself with an armful of Sam.
"Hey it's ok. Everything went perfect", Alex consoles, feeling hot tears against her neck, "I'm right here".
"God I'm so glad you're ok", Sam says, "the news wasn't showing anything and I had no idea what was happening".
"I know, I know", Alex says. She carefully walks them forward, kicking the door shut behind her and leads Sam over to the couch.
After a few minutes of consoling and encouraging Sam that everything was ok, Alex asked, "Where's Ruby?".
"At a friends for the night", Sam says, wiping her eyes, "I wanted her to have something to take her mind off this".
"That's a good idea", Alex says, "how do you feel about going over the Kara and Lena's for dinner".
Sam chuckles, "That's a great idea cause I don't feel like cooking".
"Perfect", Alex says, kissing her forehead, "I'm going to call Ruby just tell her everything's ok and we can head out".
"I'm going to go clean up", Sam says.
Alex smiles wanly, kissing Sam on the forehead, "You're beautiful, but you do kind of look like a raccoon".
Sam huffs, slugging Alex in the shoulder, "You're mean".
"Hey", Alex defends herself, "I said you're beautiful".
Sam shakes her head, "I'm so glad you're ok".
"Me too", Alex says, kissing her, "I love you".
"I love you too", Sam replies, returning the kiss.
"Now go we don't want to be late", Alex teases, shooing Sam up the stairs, watching as she goes, laughing when she sticks her tongue out over her shoulder.
Alex turns back to the living room sitting down on the couch as she pulls up Ruby's contact.
"Alex. You ok?", Ruby asks as soon as the call connects.
"Hey kiddo", Alex says, "yeah I'm ok. Everything went fine. Mission accomplished. I just wanted to call you and let you know. Enjoy your sleep over. I love you kiddo".
"Thanks, I will. Love you too", Ruby replies, pausing for just a second, "Ma".
Alex takes a shuddering breath, tears not only welling in her eyes but instantly flowing steadily down her cheeks.
"That's ok, right", Ruby asks, "I mean you've been officially dating mom for almost a year and even before that you've taken care of us. I hate that I said it over the phone the first time but I didn't have the courage to do it face-to-face earlier before you left and…".
"No, no. Hey…its perfect if you want to call me…that, of course I'm… honored", Alex stutters, her voice breaking, "you don't have to, you can still just call me Alex but… I do think of you as a daughter and… god, I love you kiddo".
Alex sniffs loudly, causing Ruby to let out a wet laugh, "you're gonna make me cry".
Alex chuckles, "Enjoy your sleepover. I've got tomorrow afternoon off we can go play soccer and get ice cream, whatever you want".
"That sound great", Ruby says, "Love you".
"Love you", Alex echoes, hanging up and staring at Ruby's contact glowing back at her.
"Alright I'm ready", Sam says, coming down the stairs, "hey, you ok?".
Alex grins despite the tears still flowing down her face. "I'm great", she says, standing up in front of Sam, "she called me Ma, I'm perfect".
"She…Ruby did?", Sam asks, smiling. Alex nods, still crying and Sam pulls her in, "I told you she loved you".
"I know she does I just…still to actually call me that…I…thank you", Alex says, looking at Sam, "thank you for loving me, letting me love you and that kid, letting me be a part of your family and…". Sam cuts her off, crashing their lips together.
"Thank me? Thank you for loving us, for being the second parent I always wanted for Ruby, for being the partner I always wanted but never dared to hope for", Sam says, "I love you so much, Alex Danvers".
"I love you, Sam Arias".
"Hey glad you guys made it", Lena greets, stepping aside to let Alex and Sam in.
"Late", Kara adds, "and you say I'm the one with time management issues".
"Ruby's at a sleepover so I called and talked to her for a minute", Alex says, not mentioning the part where she cried for 30 minutes because the teen called her Ma and filled the last little bit of the hole in her heart.
"Ah I was wondering where she was", Lena says, turning back to the oven were they'd placed the food to keep it warm. "Food's here and should be warm. You would not believe the things I had to put up with to keep this one from eating it all before you got here", Lena teases, elbowing Kara in the side.
"It's just cruel to keep a hungry Kryptonian away from her favorite food", Kara pouts.
"I though potstickers were your favorite", Alex asks.
"Fine, second favorite", Kara admits.
"My chocolate pie doesn't make top two", Eliza asks.
Kara looks like she's going to cry if they make her choose, thankfully Lena saves her by handing her a plate. "Even if you let her pick 50 foods to tie for first, I don't think she could", Lena says, kissing Kara's cheek.
"Don't give her an out", Alex says, "Pick Kara".
"Stop teasing your sister and fix your plate", Eliza scolds, standing between her daughters. Alex huffs giving in until she sees Kara's smirk and tries to fight some more only to be stopped by Sam this time.
"Come on", Sam says, steering Alex by the shoulders, "fix your food and stop teasing Kara about hers".
After dinner the groups settles down in the living room, enjoying light conversation and the ability to just relax in each other's presence.
Sam and Alex had settled on the couch, Eliza in an armchair, and Kara and Lena in the other one, Lena on Kara's lap.
"Do you want to go get it?", Lena asks, speaking so quietly no one could possibly hear it.
Kara chuckles lightly, moving towards Lena's ear, "You have to move for me to be able to get up".
Lena smiles, turning to look at Kara. "Fine. Wait here", she says, kissing Kara's cheek with a huge smile on her face before standing and heading ot the bedroom.
"Where's Lena going?", Alex asks, pulling Kara out of her trance of watching the corner where Lena disappeared.
"Huh, oh, uh, she'll be back in a minute", Kara says, turning herself back to the conversation.
Alex gives her a weird look but she is thankful for Sam and Eliza for quickly pulling her back in.
Kara grins when she hears Lena soft footsteps padding back down the hall and stands abruptly as she comes around the corner.
"Ok what is going on?", Sam finally asks, "You two have been touchy-feely and grinning all night, and I know that's normal for you but this is like another level".
Lena looks shocked that Sam would actually come out and say that but turns to Kara, matching grins on their faces. "Maybe we've been a little extra…", Lena says, and Kara nods at her to go on. Lena pulls the bag from behind her back and hands it to the two very confused women on the couch. "This is for you guys", Lena says, "and there's one for Ruby too".
Sam and Alex both reach into the bag and pull out the t-shirts, getting the right ones since kara knew Alex would go for the black one.
Sam realizes first, wide teary eyes looking up at Lena in silence.
Alex seems to realize and looks back and forth between Sam's shirt and her own before pulling Ruby's out of the bag and reading the text on it. Finally, the phrases "badass aunt" on her own, "C-suite aunt" on Sam's, and "#1 cousin" on Ruby's make sense and she quickly looks up, her gaze quickly switching between Lena and Kara.
"Who?", Alex asks, her voice wavering, "Which one of you…who's carrying?".
"Me", Lena says.
"When?", Sam asks.
"You knew I'd been working in my lab a lot, you approved the very broadly labeled funds", Lena laughs, reaching to grip Kara's hand, "When we went to Argo, I brought back some research and information on the Matrix and birthing pods. I called in some very respected OBGYNs and fertility specialists as well as worked with Brainy to make sure. I inseminated before the trip to China".
Kara squeezes Lena's hand as she turns back to Sam and Alex who are still sitting in shock.
"God I knew you were brave dealing with Kara but to be pregnant through all of this", Alex says, shaking her head. She looks up at Kara and Lena, white-knuckled as they hold onto each other, seemingly worried about their reaction. Alex stands quickly, crossing the room and wraps her arms around both of them. "Congratulations", she whispers, "You two are going to be the best moms".
Lena cries, unable to form words, while Kara hugs her sister tighter, "Thank you".
Sam joins the hug, "I'm so happy for you two, and we are totally available to babysit whenever you want".
"Will the baby have powers?", Alex asks, stepping out of the hug.
"We don't know yet", Lena answers, "It won't happen invitro so right now we're just concerned about a healthy pregnancy and birth and we can use red lights if needed".
Kara grins listening to Lena talk about their baby, and wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to kiss the top of her head.
"Do you guys want to call Ruby?", Sam asks, "she's at a sleepover but I'm sure that this will take precedence".
Kara and Lena look at each other, and Lena recognizes the glint in Kara eye, "What's your idea?".
Kara grabs the t-shirt meant for Ruby and holds one shoulder while Lena takes the other, their other arms around each other. Sam takes a picture and sends it to the group text between the five of them, with the caption 'Kara and Lena got you something'. It doesn't take 5 seconds from the delivered message on Sam's phone for Lena's to ring.
"This is Lena", she answers, a grin on her face.
"AUNT LENA!", they all hear Ruby yell through the phone, "you're pregnant?".
"How'd you know it was me?", Lena asks, putting the phone on speaker.
Ruby thinks for a second, "It could be Kara but I know you're already so overprotective of her I don't know that you'd be able to handle it if she was pregnant too".
"Are you calling me a control freak?", Lena laughs.
"Just concerned", Ruby chuckles, "How'd you do it? When did you find out?".
"I would've thought your mom had given you the sex talk by now", Lena jokes, winking at Sam.
"Ew gross", Ruby says, "I know Kara didn't do it, although she is alien so who knows. I'm assuming you did some kind of DNA splice insemination thing".
"Smart kid", Kara mutters, "I didn't understand it even when you explained it to me".
"There is a lot of science behind it that I will explain if you want me to but I found out it worked in China. That morning before everything happened", Lena answers, "We told your mom and Alex tonight and wanted you to hear it from us".
"I'm totally available to babysit whenever you need it", Ruby says.
"That's almost exactly what your mom said", Kara laughs.
"Great minds", Ruby and Sam answer in unison.
"Now that's just creepy", Alex shivers.
"You love it", Sam teases, wrapping an arm around her to pull her close.
"Alright", Lena says, "enjoy your sleepover. We'll see you soon".
"See you soon", Ruby echoes, and hangs up.
"Well at least now I know why you didn't drink wine or pull out the scotch", Alex quips, "I was slightly concerned there for a minute".
Everyone laughs, settling back into their previously occupied seats and light conversation. Kara grins, kissing Lena's cheek and openly rests her hand over her stomach protectively.