Chapter Twenty-Three: Locomotive

May was heavy with humidity, bringing a thick reminder that the summer to follow would be even less forgiving. Eliza Danvers was to be buried in a plot directly beside her husband Jeremiah, who rested under a willow tree so large that its canopy offered more sanctuary than any flat piece of earth could. She would be lowered into the ground in only a few hours' time, and Kara couldn't get her goddamned tie straight.

The blonde growled with her frustration, which rolled out of her low and hollow like the sound of battlefield cannon fire. With another impatient huff, she yanked the silk stitched necktie and threw it with all of her might against the walnut bureau, where it fell rather slowly and unceremoniously toward the base of the mirror, almost as if she had pitched a feather like a fastball.

Behind her, the walk-in closet door in the bedroom opened. Lena stepped out in a belted black knee-length dress that silhouetted her shape appropriately for the somber occasion ahead. She crossed the bedroom, barefooted and silent, and ran her arms through Kara's from behind her with a soft sigh. The blonde standing in front of the mirror softened then, and covered the arms looped around her front with her own. They stood quietly like that for a long while, transferring tactile messages against fabric and the skin that lay beneath in subtle, loving swipes of thumbs and gentle squeezes. Lena soon spied the discarded black necktie on the bureau and sucked her teeth with a quick "tsk".

Taking the tie into her hands, Lena moved to stand in between Kara and the mirror and drew it across the back of the blonde's neck once more. Kara watched the smaller woman's face as she concentrated and patiently folded the tie, looping the length of it into a perfectly square knot at the base of her throat.

"There." Lena said as she folded Kara's shirt collar down and smoothed her hands flat against the collarbones that rested beneath. Her eyes searched the weary blue pools before her and found them to be overflowing. Where bright crystalline hues once danced over high pink cheekbones now sat sad, mournful grayish steel discs. Clearly fatigued, they scanned her features slowly the longer she investigated.

"I am so sorry…" Lena tried consoling her as gently as she could. The space between them was a vacuum where it seemed everything she gave to the other woman fell right into; unable to reach her at all. It was something that Lena was sure only time would seal back up again, but you wouldn't hear such words coming from her lips. No, she knew well enough that those who grieve are aware of their pain and need no reminding of how "time heals all wounds." Having heard it many times herself when her brother was sent away to prison, she'd not turn around and spout the same unfeeling nonsense at the woman she loved.

Kara leaned her top half forward and let her forehead come to rest against Lena's as she dragged in an arduous sigh. Tears… they wanted to come out of her eyes again. Truthfully, Kara was fed up with it. Damn it all to hell if I ain't done cryin'… She lamented within her painful silence. It's not that she found weakness in crying, but her constant weeping did tend to cause her some rather painful headaches. The racking sobs and choking on breath had passed—thankfully—for a day or two now. The anger and resulting despair that came next also went rather quickly, because she didn't know who or what to be angry at, if she was being honest. Burning hatred for the universe as a whole felt a bit silly, and Kara eventually supposed that if she didn't know why both of her mothers were taken from her so soon in life, then being angry about it would do little to provide her with an answer. If there even was such a thing as an answer. So, Kara pushed hard past every reactive feeling of resentment or indignation and carried on as best as she could.

Despite her staidness, tears continued to drip from her eyes like a leaky spigot. They just did what they damn well pleased, it seemed, whether it was eating breakfast—or however many mouthfuls of it she could manage at Lena's persistent supplication— or when she brushed her horse, when she tossed feed, mucked a stall, washed her hands, brushed her teeth, or showered… there wasn't a single task or activity leading up to now that Kara could do without even the subtlest of crying.

I don't want to do this… everything hurts. How am I gonna stand up all day? I slept… so why's it feel like I didn't? I don't want to do this—

"Are you ready?"

—but I guess I might as well get it over with.

Kara sniffled roughly with a shrug of her shoulders. "As ready as I'll ever be." Her hands then dropped to grab Lena's and brought them up to peck a sweet kiss upon the backs of each. Then she set her jaw and lifted her shoulders with a deep breath. "You lead, I'll follow."

"Don't worry, I'll be with you the whole way."

The absolute nerve of the sun.

It was sweltering by eleven o'clock in the morning as Kara and Lena exited the church with Alex and Sam close behind. Baby Ruby had done nothing but sleep peacefully throughout the entire service. She's so small. She has no idea… Kara thought to herself as she stared at the tiny face nestled in the bend of Sam's arm. The amalgamations of whiplash from such high and low vibrations of emotion were starting to meld together as time went on. Kara was over the moon with her niece one moment, and then stricken with a profound and unbearable sadness the next. She'd been exhausted to the bone before, of course… but emotionally? Dead on her feet. Checked out. Damn near loopy.

They each stood at the large front doors of the church where funeral goers filed into the middle aisle of the sanctuary and began to filter out. Friends and neighbors paused to stop and offer their condolences as they left one by one. Kara felt faint for a moment as people continued to take her hands and either squeeze them, shake them or pat them. However endearing or pure of intention they each seemed to be, it was beginning to be a lot of physical touching and she was starting to feel quite sure that her tie was perhaps too tight around her neck. The steady flow of bodies that spoke words and furrowed their brows sympathetically at her began to blur together, when all of a sudden, one such body came to a complete stop in front of her and captured her attention.

Kara lifted her eyes and refocused them with a dizzying effort on the person standing just an arm's length away from her. The woman's face was gaunt with age and had sharp edges to her cheekbones and jawline. The peculiar white streak in her nutbrown hair sure seemed to help the woman stand out in a crowd. Kara squinted as her brain crawled on all fours in its search for an answer. The question: Who was she? Kara wanted to reach inside and scratch at the tickling sense of familiarity in her mind the longer she stared at the woman. It was when the stranger spoke that Kara's world came to a screeching halt.

"I'm so sorry for your loss." The woman offered. Her words didn't exactly ring full of empathy, but perhaps Kara had become so mournfully tone deaf by the afternoon that it was just hard to tell. Even still, the blonde was perplexed.

"I know you…" Kara said, squinting harder and drawing her eyebrows together.

A hint of a smile played on the woman's lips for a split second before she dropped her expression back to its previous and appropriately austere state. She paused before replying, "Your mother used to have that same crinkle in between her eyes."

With that, nearly all of Kara's breath vacated her floundering lungs.

"I do know you—" The words fell out of her at barely a whisper. Kara's stomach whirred to life again with a sinking feeling as the woman in front of her cast her eyes downward and turned toward the handrail. "Wait!" Kara's breath returned with a short gasp, as well as every cell in her body shouting in unison to leap toward the mysterious woman. "…Who are you?"

"Perhaps now is not the best time." The stranger replied curtly before she took the steps. She had hardly turned her head in an effort to offer an answer, and it irritated Kara to no end.

"But—" Kara started to protest, but a hand that hooked around her bicep promptly stopped her. The blonde looked back to find Alex latched onto her, wearing a puzzled and also slightly concerned look. Her sister bobbed her head as if to say, "What the hell is the matter?"

Shit fire and save matches, I'm losin' it—

"Ladies, we're moving outside now." The church pastor said softly at their backs, finally pulling the double doors to the sanctuary shut. Thankful for the interruption, Alex released her hold of Kara's arm.

"Are you alright? Why are you hollerin' at people?" Alex's tone was patient, but also drenched with worry.

Kara shook her head in disbelief. "Was I…?"

Another bob of Alex's head. Maybe it had been the heat? Or maybe her grief came with hallucinations now? Great. What would it be next, random plague of locusts?

"I—" Kara clapped her mouth shut and then squared her feet. "It's fine. I… I'm fine."

Instead of touching her, Lena stepped around to Kara's front and surveyed the blonde's face. She seemed to be searching for panic but found only bewilderment. Kara merely nodded with a practiced calmness and pushed the bizarre exchange to the back of her mind. She had more pressing things to be concerned about right now, like burying the last mother she would ever have.

The world was an oven.

The heat was damn near unbearable in her layers of funeral attire. Kara swiped at a bead of sweat as it dared to trail into her eye where she stood at the mouth of the open grave before her. She was at least thankful for the shade provided by the great willow that loomed overhead. Eliza's casket was lowered down in silence, as Kara, Alex, Sam and Lena looked on. Ruby gurgled disquietedly in Alex's arms and fought to suckle at the tip of her mother's thumb for a moment. Everything became still after that. As the sun scorched across the sky further into the afternoon, the cicadas began to sing their shrill song almost loud enough to garble any softly spoken word. There were many decades old oak trees scattered across the cemetery which they clung to, screeching their looped call from the hard bark of thick trunks. It pierced a ringing into Kara's ears, and she bristled visibly.

How long had they been standing there?

They were gathered closely with their arms looped over shoulder, huddling inward toward the newborn in their middle. Oh, how they collectively cherished her despite their grieving—celebrating new life where one had been lost. After the drying of eyes and several more long embraces, Kara and Alex walked in front on their way toward the wrought iron gates of the graveyard.

The blonde noticed her sister quicken her pace beside her for some reason, though she lacked the strength to lift her head and discover why. It wasn't until Alex's feet stopped moving in the feathery and overgrown grass that Kara shot her eyes upward. Approaching them was a man in a black dress shirt and wool felt gambler hat to match. His boots glinted in the sunlight, snakeskin more than likely. Kara almost backpedaled instinctively when she recognized him.

"My deepest condolences." Morgan Edge said as he pulled the hat from his head by its crown, placing it over his heart in a display of empathy. "Have y'all thought any on my offer?"

The four of them came to an immediate stop in front of the man just on the inside of the iron partition fence. Alex gripped her hands into fists so hard that her knuckles cracked.

"You… slimy son of a—"

"Alex, please don't." Sam begged.

Kara's skin ran ice cold despite the thick heat surrounding them. She witnessed her sister's jaw churn and grind like a millstone for a beat, and then one foot came forward, bringing her one step closer to the man grinning behind a soggy, half-chewed cigar.

"Lemme tell you somethin'…" Alex snarled, jabbing a finger at the man. "My mother has not yet been in the ground for a day and you're wanting to swoop in like the buzzard that you are, and pick clean the bones of what little we have left." Then she took another step toward him. Unsure of what else to do, Kara reached a trembling hand out to pull her away, but her sister quickly yanked free of her.

"I think it would be awfully naïve of you, young lady, to think that I am a man without means. Luckily for you, I am also a tolerant man, so I'll forgive you of your rudeness…" He straightened then and placed his hat back upon his head, giving it a sharp tug at its brim over his eyes. "But I'll be having that ranch land."

"Over my dea—" This time when she took another step, Kara lunged with both hands and pulled her nearly off her feet.

"We'll bring you the papers in the morning." The blonde interjected rapidly, struggling to hold her sister back who was seconds away from flying off the handle.

"What?! Kara—"

"Just… leave us alone." She didn't need to ask twice, as the quick dart of her eyes at her sister was warning enough for him to concede. Kara knew that Alex was not foolish enough to jeopardize her fast track to detective with a scoundrel like Morgan Edge, but he didn't know that. For all they knew, he still saw the wild and angry, kick-your-ass-at-the-drop-of-a-hat teenager who made it her business to outpace every boy in her class—in every subject, and every sport.

The grin on the man's square face slithered wide, showing rows of impossibly straight teeth. "Bring 'em by my office in town before noon tomorrow." With a click of his tongue, he turned with a swagger of a walk down the narrow gravel path away from the cemetery.

Once he was out of earshot, Alex spun in Kara's hands. "What the hell Kara, I thought—"

The blonde waved her palms outwardly in an effort to stop her sister. "I've made up my mind, but I do need your help with something…"

Alex's demeanor shifted with a landslide. She then took a deep pull of a breath and pinched the bridge of her nose with a thumb and forefinger. "Please tell me it involves Morgan Edge spitting out his teeth in single file…"

Small chuckles escaped from both Lena and Sam standing closely behind them. Even Ruby chimed in with a squeak, and then a sneeze.

Kara smiled. "Nothing quite as violent, but I reckon just as satisfying…"

Red, glowing halos of light grew larger against the barn's large wooden door as the back of a horse trailer inched closer toward it. Kara balled her raised hand into a fist to signal Alex to hit the brakes and she began to unlatch the hinged metal doors on the trailer, swinging them open one at a time. Moments later, a second trailer backed carefully alongside them and came to a stop. Kara heard the crunch of dirt and rock under boot heel as Alex appeared in the red glimmer of taillights.

"Leave it running?" Her sister asked, wringing her hands together nervously.

"Yeah, let's be quick—" Kara began to reply when Clark loudly stumbled in the dark—right into the wheel well of the thirty-foot stock trailer, banging his knee with a holler.

"God da—"

"Hush!" Alex snapped reactively at Kara's cousin.

He bent and rubbed his knee with a pained grimace, full of teeth. "Sorry… Hank said he'd be right behind me with the Sundowner."

Both women tossed their heads around to look at the wide path down the middle of the ranch. No Hank. No third trailer. Kara shook her head and decided to carry on, her heart pounding like a jackhammer as she pulled the barn door open hard on its track.

"Y'all sure this ain't illegal…? Clark asked quietly, his voice barely coming over the sound of the running diesel engine of his three-quarter ton pickup.

Alex sighed exhaustively. "Tomorrow it would be. Technically, Kara and I still own this place and everything in it."

"Then why're we doin' this like we ain't supposed to be?" He asked, scratching at the crown of his head with the bill of his cap.

"I told you already, if Edge knew we were taking the horses with us he'd probably back out of the deal, and then it's likely the bank would just end up taking the ranch. This way, Kara has a shot at another life… one that's away from here."

Clark toed his boots into the dirt thoughtfully as he pursed his lips and nodded. Finally, the sound of a third truck coming down the path echoed off the front of the barn. Its goosenecked twenty-six-foot slant stock trailer reversed flawlessly toward the open barn. Hank did have decades of experience hauling livestock, after all.

Kara jogged back toward the first trailer with her arms wrapped around a saddle and a blanket thrown over her shoulder, hoisting them at Clark with a quick whistle through her teeth. "Quickly… here—" Clark bellowed a surprised "oof" as he caught the gear with his arms. "Saddles, pads, tack and blankets first… As much of it that you can fit anywhere, wear it if you have to." The blonde instructed.

Clark nodded his head and then stopped mid-turn toward the trailer to face his cousin again. "So uh, you gon' marry that girl or what?" He asked over the leather of the saddle in his arms.

Kara drew her eyebrows together at him as if questioning why he'd ask her such a thing, now of all times. "Yes, Clark…" She answered, scrunching her nose. Kara knew why, because she knew her cousin like the back of her hand. It was clear that the question had been on his mind for some time, and the best way he knew how to get an honest answer out of her was to ask it mid-task, catching her completely off guard.

A bright beam of a smile landed on his face, which made Kara stop in her tracks and grin at him. They bubbled into laughter quietly together, suspending a moment for their nerves to lessen from the stress and nervousness of their secret mission.

"I knew you'd come to your senses one day, girl." Hank's gravelly voice preceded him, and soon the rest of his body appeared with arms out wide toward the blonde.

Kara ran the short distance between them and threw herself into him. "Thanks for coming…"

He responded in kind with a few firm, loving pats against her shoulder and squeezed her tightly once more before taking a step back. "Let's get to it now- I've got a friend with the gift of gab keeping Edge on the phone with the prospect of buying several head of cattle, none of which he actually wishes to purchase… So, its best we take advantage of what time we have now so as to keep the man unawares. I'm not sure where he's got eyes, but I have a creeping suspicion that they're everywhere."

Clark, Kara and Alex nodded swiftly in agreement and began jogging in and out of the barn transporting all manner of tack and saddle to the trailers. Earlier that day Kara had regaled her sister with the plan she had devised to leave town with money enough to start anew somewhere else, for which latter part she hadn't yet had time to explore, but she knew one thing for certain; Ducky would never set hoof on Edge land. She had scoured Morgan Edge's proposal in the days before with Lena's help, looking for any sign or miniscule detail about the "contained property" of the ranch, to which they found none. It was a vague descriptor that fortunately did not specify said "properties", living or inanimate. The majority of the offer, in fact, seemed to be rather vague, all besides the terminology used when describing the land's "structures", for which they were sure Edge meant to demolish in order to extend the reach of his grazing pastures for his longhorns. What they couldn't take with them—by noon tomorrow—would be lost to them forever.

Kara mourned the thought of the house she grew up in being torn apart and removed from the face of the earth, but after mulling it over for days and agonizing on whether or not she was making the right decision, she had settled on it. She realized that no amount of sentiment or fond memories should mean that she keep herself locked away and sheltered from the rest of the world. Especially when the fight to keep everything from going under would almost certainly drain her of whatever life she had left. Her deep-rooted sense of duty and loyalty had fought hard, but the promise of a brighter future had won.

They hurried as fast as their feet would take them with as much equipment as they could fit in trailer compartments and truck beds, all the while keeping in mind that Edge was still a weasel who they wouldn't be shocked in the slightest to find spying on them.

One by one they began to halter and harness the studs first, slant tying them inside the long stock trailers. They worked steadily to secure the half dozen of them comfortably in the first thirty foot carrier, then the broodmares in Clark's trailer and the rest including Ducky, Reign and Mister in Hank's twenty-six foot hauler. Kara dusted her hands after latching the last of the trailer doors shut and gave a toss of her chin over at her sister.

"Everything good with your friends?" The blonde asked.

"They're waiting up for us- stalls all bedded and ready." Alex affirmed as they jogged back to the cabs of their trucks. The now oldest Danvers woman and newly assumed matriarch of their family stepped up onto a side rail of the passenger's side of Kara's pickup and threw an arm in the air to signal their departure. Each truck and trailer followed in a caravan out of the ranch and down the long oak-lined road to begin their tired exodus. The bottom of Kara's stomach threatened to fall out as a wave of nausea traveled upward, but she managed to swallow it back down with a dose of hope for what came next. She watched as her headlights illuminated the dark and unlit road in front of her as her anxious nerves stirred just beneath her skin. Suddenly, a hand on her shoulder squeezed gently.

"It's going to be okay." Alex smiled from her side of the cab. "We've got you."

Kara relaxed finally and exhaled a long held breath. Her jittering leg ceased its anxious bouncing against the floorboard of the truck where it gave a dull -thump- with each rap of her heel. A wave of calmness came over her then as she set her gaze back to the road in front and thought of the future once again. Everything… Kara thought. I've got everything to look forward to.

Their pilgrimage to Austin had been a smooth one, and Alex's friends who owned the stables they were to board their decently sized herd at were indeed waiting to receive them. They were to each be sold from there along with the broodmares, though that would be months in the making. Prospective buyers would be vetted to the point of mild to severe annoyance if Kara had anything to do with it. She'd not let a single thoroughbred go unless she knew for certain that the standard of care was to her liking. However, each of their own horses would be staying. Ducky had expressed some anxiety and near unwillingness to be shut behind an unfamiliar stall door, but Kara managed to soothe him enough—and herself included—to leave him behind for the next little while. The sun had just begun to rise when the Danvers sisters bid Clark and Hank goodbye with several more hugs and many more words of gratitude.

The blonde perched her hands upon her hips with that natural "accomplished" sort of stance and then turned to her sister. "Tired yet?" Kara teased.

Alex rolled her eyes in response. "I have a newborn. I am beyond tired." Suddenly she paused for a moment, amusing herself with a quirk of her chin. "Actually… it could be worse, I think. Ruby is sort of the perfect baby. She hardly cries and all she does is sleep."

Kara chuckled. Images of Lena holding her infant niece as she talked softly at her from the days before flashed across her vision like a runaway film strip. Kara sighed, "I'm glad to be closer to her now."

Alex beamed a warm, full toothed smile back at her. "Me too." The unanticipated loud -pop- from the passenger's side door of Kara's truck made her cringe for a moment, as if it were nails on a blackboard. "Lord, child, when are you gonna fix that…?

"I dunno, maybe when its actually broken?" Kara retorted with a small laugh as she rounded the opposite side of the truck and got behind the wheel. "And don't call me that."

"What—?" Alex began a smart comeback as she climbed in. "You'll always be my kid sister."

Kara resisted the urge to screw her face together with a "euggh"— but it was what Alex said after that made her aware of the bones in her body once again.

"You're just so much more now. It's like I'm finally seeing the real you."

With a deep breath, Kara turned the key in the ignition. The veil of protection from her awkwardness had begun to wear thin, and besides, the road to that conversation no doubt held many tears. There was no time for that now, especially not where Kara was headed. "Listen, I'm gonna drop you back at the house and then drive back to town. I just wanna get it over with."

Alex's head spun like a top. "What? No. I'm coming with you—"

The blonde shook her head firmly, gripping the steering wheel tightly in each hand. "Like you said, you have a newborn now. Go home. Get some rest."

"Kara seriously, it's alright- I can—"

"I need to do this." Kara blurted, and then blinked apologetically at her sister who sat stunned in the passenger's seat.

A grave expression crawled across Alex's face. "I'm just worried he might lose it if he found out we emptied the place…"

The blonde shrugged. "Don't be. I've been throwing straw bales heavier than him since I was sixteen."

Alex cackled into an uncontrollable laugh that filled the cab of the pickup. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she dried them with the back of her hand. Kara hadn't heard her sister laugh like that in weeks, and she knew it had to have felt good. Proud, bouncy chuckles bubbled up in Kara's chest when Alex finally managed to speak again.

"Alright…" Alex cleared her throat, her smile still pleasantly affixed to her face. "Just be quick and careful about it, okay?"

"Always."

The bedroom door gave a subtle -creak- as Kara inched it open as quietly as she could. The silent scene that lay inside revealed Sam on the bed, fast asleep with a book laying on her chest and Lena, slowly rocking baby Ruby in a chair by the window. Kara was absolutely stricken at the sight. Her slightly audible gasp of surprise must have reached the dark-haired woman in the chair, because her eyes drew upward toward the door and squinted with a smile. Lena happily mouthed the word "look" as she gave a careful gesture with her brow down toward the sleeping infant in her arms.

Kara suddenly grasped the full meaning of the phrase "leaping heart", because her own thudded so hard inside of her chest that if her ribs had not been there to cage it, it would have without a doubt leapt free and clear of her body. She then gave a small wave through the space of the ajar door and quietly moved her lips around the words "I'll be back soon."

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, Kara would give new meaning to the word.

Soon…

The memory replayed over and over on a loop as Kara drove back to town, ready to sign and hand over the ranch's deed of sale to Morgan Edge. His business office was situated strategically in one of Main Street's corner buildings and was a gaudy display of old west sentiment. A large, wooden stagecoach wheel hung against the front door, where a cast iron hub bore the brand of a capital "E" at the center of its spokes. When Kara passed through the threshold, an unfriendly tang of cigar smoke and mildewed leather bombarded her nostrils. The loud -clunk- of the heavy door behind her drew more attention than what she was comfortable with… Or perhaps it was her state of hyper-vigilance that could make the sound of her breath as loud as the puff and chuff of a full steam locomotive. Though, if Kara knew anything about those train engines of legend, she knew them to be unstoppable moving forces of steel.

She would be a woman of steel, and nothing—not even an act of God—could derail her.

All of the sudden, a gruff voice which came from the back of the office gave an obnoxious hack and pull of a snort through a nose. Shiny, snakeskin leather boots appeared from under an archway. Kara felt a chill grow in her cheeks as the blood began to drain from her face, but it was when she laid her eyes upon him that her panic stopped dead in its tracks. Morgan Edge walked with a strut toward her, that same shit-eating grin she'd seen on the day of her mother's funeral draped crookedly across his face. But the closer he got, the less imposing he seemed up close. Kara realized that she was nearly as tall as he was, and her shoulders might have even been a bit broader. His hair appeared to be thin and graying on the top of his head and his pompous strut began to shift into what looked like a limp.

There was no doubt in her mind that he must have seemed so large and monstrous that night so long ago not only because of his rage, but also because of how young she was, and how much smaller in size she was at the time. Morgan Edge read the realization on her face as clear as day and shrank for a split second, the slight falter in his hidden limp all but giving him away. He'd shrunk, because Kara had grown. She hadn't spent countless hours pushing her body to its limit to ever be afraid of another hostile man ever again. Kara stood across from him now, seeing for the first time the try-hard, loud-mouthed, and arrogant imp that he was… and all of what used to scare her and keep her up at night melted away.

All she needed to do now was ink her name next to his and their business would be concluded, save for the exchange of money. Kara set her jaw and stuck out the envelope in her hand at him, ready to be done with it.

"I have one condition." The blonde said from behind her clenched teeth. The more she looked at him, the more her anger slowly began to rise to the surface. It roiled beneath her skin uncomfortably, reminding her of just how much of an unwelcome feeling it truly was. Thankfully for him, Kara wanted to be done and gone more than she wanted to deck him in the face. Besides, she wasn't a violent person by nature and would be hard pressed to strike someone even in her own defense… but God help the person who dared to attack her, or her family. Kara squinted at him, wondering whether the man would be so stupid.

Morgan Edge dragged a gnarled hand to his temple and rubbed there with a grand huff of vexation. "Of course, you do..." Then he squared his feet and dropped his hand to hook it with the other around a belt buckle, which was of course two sizes too big for his narrow hips. "Well, spit it out then."

"I want cash. Do that, and you will never see my face again." Kara spat back at him.

A scowl grew under sharp daggers for eyes. The real estate mogul and once prominent figure of her nightmares seemed to be determined to stand there and stare for as long as possible; an obvious attempt to make her feel uncomfortable and small. He failed miserably.

"Fine." He replied with a slap of his thigh and wheeled into a spin back around toward the room he had emerged from. Kara heard the loud clunk of a safe handle and various shuffling sounds for another several moments before he appeared again with a stuffed canvas bag in hand.

He tossed it at her just short of reach where it fell at her feet, and a few green stacks of wrapped bills spilled out of its opening. Kara snarled at the blatant display of disrespect, but in all honesty, she expected about as much. A pleased chortle rang out as she bent down to scoop the contents of her future back into the bag. That wild feeling that lolled between "be done with it" or "deck him" leaned back toward the latter, but only for a moment. The image of dark and silky fine hair webbed through each of her fingers and two glittering eyes staring into her soul, one green and one blue, were enough for her to swallow her pride and take her leave of this bad business for good. Kara stood and gestured with a tilt of her brow toward the envelope.

"You don't want to count it?" He barked at her with another laugh as he pulled the papers free and signed them each on a nearby desktop, making sure to drop the pen just as haphazardly as he had dropped the bag of money.

Kara grinned, capping the ink pen after signing and dating her name. "I don't need to. I know where you live." Though she had nearly missed it, there was an unmistakable upward rumble of a shiver along the man's spine. She knew then that Morgan Edge wouldn't be able to tend to his herd, wash his hands, eat his supper, or rest his head at night—quite possibly for the rest of his life—without remembering that Kara Danvers, did indeed, know exactly where to find him.

Before he could utter a response, Kara was out the front door and clicking her heels against the stone walkway toward her truck. The rest of her life was now laid out perfectly on a track before her…

…and she was a locomotive.

Lena balanced a hip against Sam's writing desk as she thumbed through page after page of Sam's latest finished manuscript. She hummed with a deep and thoughtful sense of intrigue at times, which made the brunette sitting opposite her cock her head with a hard tilt and a laugh.

"I forget how fast you read sometimes." Sam mused at the woman nearing the end of the stack of pages.

Lena turned the corners of her lips up into a concentrated smile at that, and eventually turned with a satisfied sigh and sat the book down gently upon the desk. Her arms folded over her chest with a flourish. Lena Luthor not only kept and maintained a highly coiffed air of mystery about herself, but also possessed an expert level skill of what she liked to call, "drawing out a moment".

Sam could hardly contain herself.

"So?! Good? Bad?" The brunette stopped, taking in her best friend's sly smile and reserved posture. "You're teasing me… stop it." She jabbed playfully.

"It's fantastic." Lena replied at last. "You're going to sell a ton of these."

Sam nearly jumped out of her seat and waved her fists excitedly in front of her own elated grin. "You think so?" She asked, giving her nose a bit of a scrunch.

Lena tossed her beautifully thick eyebrows skyward and gestured at herself with a fanciful point of her finger. "Marketing genius, remember?"

Sam nodded. "Right."

They both shared a laugh, which was then followed by the sound of a tiny, electronic cry that came from the baby monitor at the far end of the desk.

"She's probably hungry…" Sam said as she stood and crossed the room toward the door, dropping every other thought in her mind other than that of her daughter.

"Sam?" Lena called out after her suddenly. The brunette halfway out of the door stopped and turned back with a curious look in her russet eyes. "Thanks for everything." Lena said, smoothing her palms together quietly so as to give them something to do. The creeping anxiety of Kara having confronted the man who upended her life so spectacularly and so horribly had reached her hands once again, especially now that they were no longer occupied by Sam's book. She might have been a wreck, but Kara would be back soon and then everything would be alright.

Wouldn't it?

Sam smiled knowingly and tilted her head. "Of course. You know I love you, right?"

Lena dipped her chin with a nod to hide its trembling. "I do. I love you too."

With another smile, Sam carried on down the hallway, leaving Lena to mill about in her book scattered writing office. Where Lena was clumsy towers of hardcovers or rows of paperbacks smushed together on a shelf so tightly you couldn't slip a piece of paper between, Sam was chaotic piles of both. All shapes, all sizes, and all genres, on every available surface. Lena was about to turn back around and scan her eyes over the bookshelf next to the large cherry wood writing desk when a gentle brush of air fell against her elbow. Someone had rushed back in through the door, swinging it open with a breeze. Sam more than likely, possibly in search for a quick read while she fed her newborn. When Lena picked up her best friend's e-reader and turned to hand it to her, she nearly dropped the damn thing.

Kara had carried her momentum through the door and crashed into Lena, winding her arms around her as if she hadn't seen her in years. The blonde certainly had a knack for saying hello, but this felt different. The way Kara tucked her face into the small space below Lena's throat and squeezed her around her middle felt more like relief than anything she had ever known. "Everything is going to change now… just trust me." Kara's words reflected in her mind just as clearly as the night they had been spoken against her lips.

"M'fhíorghrá…" Lena uttered shakily as Kara backed her against the desk and proceeded to hug her tightly again. Her hand flitted upward to the back of Kara's neck where the small baby hairs there were soft against the inside of her palm. Lena felt the slow drag of lips up the length of her neck before a breath skated across her cheekbone and brought with it an earth-shattering kiss. Their greeting had been unintentionally rough as soon as the blonde had entered the room and laid eyes on her, but now after the initial tactile shock had subsided, Kara was so soft.

When the blonde laid her forehead against Lena's and drew a long and slow breath in, Lena's entire world slowly fizzled back into place. It took the shape of Kara. It was Kara.

"Let's go."

Lena quirked her brow against the one resting upon her own. "Where do you mean?"

With a blink, a tear escaped. "Anywhere. Everywhere."

—Two Months Later—

The sound of waves from the open window of the beach house on Cinnamon Shore filtered in with the soft July sunlight. Somehow less harsh along the coast, Kara had risen early to draw the downstairs curtains back and prop open the windows before the heat of the day filled the air. They had spent several weeks at Port Aransas and found it to be a much deserved and long-awaited escape from reality with no return date in sight. Not yet at least.

Not long after their arrival, Kara received a phone call from Alex with the story of how Morgan Edge had stormed her precinct back in Austin half-cocked and ready to explode after his discovery of the empty ranch. She had asked Kara if there was anything else that she wanted so she could try and secure it for her before the house was demolished and the land deconstructed, but Kara declined. Everything she wanted from her past fit inside a single box.

"You should have seen his face when I told him how awfully naïve of him it was to not inspect a property before purchasing it…" Alex had admitted with a fit of laughter into the phone.

Since then, the days had turned into weeks, and Lena had never felt more taken with Kara. It seemed everything the blonde did, she did so with a free spirit. She was more uninhibited and carefree than Lena had ever seen her before. They talked together and sang together, made love and fell asleep together… they read together and walked together, and swam naked in the ocean together. It was pure and perfect, unfiltered bliss.

Later that day, Lena gingerly padded her bare feet down the carpeted steps of the condo right on time as she did every day after a shower. They would wake in the morning and eat, then walk along the beach and come back to shower and spend the rest of the day together. The dark-haired woman normally spent the few hours after noon reading with her legs tucked underneath herself in the small loveseat under a window in the living room. Kara had observed this routine long enough to know that Lena never spent more than two days on a single book.

The blonde was keeping herself busy in the kitchen reaching in and out of the food cupboards, gathering ingredients for what she had in mind to make for dinner that evening. She watched Lena float down the stairs out of the corner of her eye and held her breath when saw her hands fly to her hips. She had chosen to wear one of Kara's button-down shirts again, as she claimed they were more comfortable than anything else she had and would live in them if she could. This one fit loosely on her frame and had its baby blue sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Kara saw that she only wore black underwear beneath, and suddenly it was as if the air became very thin around her.

Lena huffed with a sense of exasperation and bent down to pick up a book that had been laid flat on its pages, somehow bereft of its bookmark. Kara continued watching as inconspicuously as she could manage as the raven-haired woman spun around in the living room, searching for the missing page marker.

"Babe?" Lena called out to her.

"Yes?" Kara replied with a small smile, doing her best to not appear so amused. It was a thing that was easier said than done, apparently.

"My bookmark is missing- the wooden one you carved last week? It was in my book and now it's gone. I could have sworn…"

Kara reached into one of her back pockets and retrieved the thin wooden bookmark as Lena trailed off in her search. It had been a gift that Kara had carved from a piece of driftwood that she'd found on the shoreline the week before. Now equal parts grin and nerves, Kara moved into the living room and stood just a few paces behind Lena.

"I found it." Kara said toward the woman who had a hand shoved between the cushions of the small couch. Lena spun around to face her eagerly.

"Ah! That's grand, thank you, love—"

When her delighted fingers reached the bookmark held in Kara's outstretched hand, Lena noticed a small row of letters carved into it where there hadn't been any before. When Kara let go, a string that was looped and tied through a small, drilled hole fell taut out of her hand. There in the daylight, swinging from the end of the bookmark… was a ring.

Lena paused as she took the wooden bookmark from the blonde's hand to read it more closely. Upon further inspection, the intricately carved lines in the smooth grain of the wood made out the words:

'Marry me?'

Lena clapped a hand over her mouth and watched in shock as Kara lumbered down to one knee, pulling the ring free of its string. Her eyes sparkled a clear, piercing blue in the soft light from the window as she looked up at her. Neither of them said a word until Kara took Lena's left hand with her right.

"I gotta tell ya… That damn rental car changed my whole life." Kara began with a small breath of a laugh through her nose. "You showed up and turned everything I knew upside down, and God, I could spend the rest of my life thanking you for it. So, I'd like to do that- if you'll have me, of course. Lena, will you—"

"Yes!" Lena nearly shouted and then covered her mouth again quickly to trap any more happy outbursts.

"You- you have to let me ask…" Kara admitted in a whisper and masked a giggle, trying her absolute best to keep a straight face. They had laughed so much together recently that it was hard not to. It's not like being happy like this was hard. Loving Lena Luthor had been the easiest part of her every day.

The raven-haired woman dropped her hand from her face to reveal a smirk and turned the wooden bookmark to show the blonde the words carved there into its face.

"I mean, you kinda did…" She teased with a wink.

Kara pulled the bookmark from her fingers and tossed it onto the couch next to them and then smoothed Lena's slightly smaller hand flat to hang in the air with her own. "No flimsy bookmark could ask of you what I'm asking of you… I'm talking about the rest of our lives. You might have to take care of me if I hurt myself at work, or if I get sick, or you might get upset with me whenever I can't tear myself away from something after you've asked me five, six, seven, eight times- but listen to me, I want all of it. I want to share a life with you, and I want everything that comes with it."

It was hard for Lena to control the muscles in her face, which desperately wanted to twist and contort with tears, but she nodded her understanding and stood quietly as Kara squeezed her hand once more and dotted a featherlight kiss over her knuckles.

"So, if that all sounds like somethin' you also want… Then I'd like to ask you—"

Lena's chest ached with her held breath.

"Lena Luthor, will you marry me?"

At last, the quivering of her chin won out and Lena screwed her eyes shut with a quiet sob, her head nodding up and down feverishly. "Yes."

A small, beautifully cut emerald which sat in the heart shaped setting of a Claddagh ring pushed its way onto her finger, fitting her perfectly. Its deep green hue complemented the porcelain of her skin. Lena marveled at it as Kara rose to her feet in front of her.

The taste of tears mingled with their kisses. Small whimpers and shudders of sobs fell into one another for a short while until they parted for a breath. Lena let a small laugh escape and shook her head slightly against Kara's jaw where it had come to rest.

"What is it?" Kara asked.

Lena sniffled slightly and reared her head back to smile at the blonde. "Speaking of things to be aware of if we're to spend the rest of our lives together…" Kara's brow furrowed with her curiosity where the small, crinkled lines between her eyes appeared, just as Lena knew they would. "If you ever want another ride from this again—" Lena gestured at herself from head to toe with a wave of her hand. "Then don't. touch. my books." Her eyes narrowed playfully then at the blonde.

Kara threw her head back with a laugh and then kissed Lena on one of her rosy cheekbones. "Oh darlin', that I can do."