"So Aric knows you inside out, and he still loves you, but you have doubts about your dad?"

"With Aric I wasn't worried about rejection. It was only the second time I'd met him. I didn't care if he hated me afterward, as long as he got rid of Alice. Turns out that getting rid of her was never part of the solution. Afterward, when i told him...when I told him how I felt, he said it was just transference. He made us spend a month apart. It took some convincing that my feelings were real. I think he expected me to change my mind. But he also said that I needed time to adjust to my new reality, and he didn't want to take advantage of me. God, I wanted him so bad. But I waited."

Kara knew the month she was talking about, though she hadn't at the time. It was the month he'd spent on the west coast curing anyone who'd been infected. The weeks he'd crashed on her couch, his face a mask of exhaustion. The virus had introduced Beth to Jessica. Which had put her in touch with Trish and, ultimately, Aric. Kara began to weigh how unlikely that chain of events was before considering the chain of events that brought her and Aric together.

"So what you're worried about is that your father will reject you when he finds out what you did. You don't trust him to love you, even though Aric loves you, and your sister loves you."

"I don't need trust with Aric. I feel it in the gray place. It washes over me like...I don't have the words to describe it. I don't have that with my dad. I may not have it with Aric anymore either."

Kara had been using a good portion of her brain power to stop herself from bawling like a baby as Beth described what she and Aric had. But Beth's last sentence turned her around 180 degrees.

"What do you mean?"

"When I found out about you...when I found out who he asked to help Jess, that Supergirl was his ex-girlfriend, I didn't handle it well. I was intimidated. I was jealous. I confronted him about it."

"You thought we were..."

"No, I didn't accuse him of anything specific. I don't know what I thought, but the words what can I possibly offer him that Supergirl couldn't? kept running through my head. How am I supposed to measure up to you?"

Kara had no idea what to say. She had a good idea what NOT to say. Give me back my boyfriend if you can't handle him wasn't going to take them in a good direction. But it was what was passing through her mind.

"I'm the last person to ask any questions about relationships. But when it comes to me and Aric, he wasn't dating Supergirl, he was dating Kara Zor-El; and she has just as many flaws as any other woman on the planet. Two planets, if Krypton was still around. That yellow sun that's in the process of setting gives me some amazing abilities, but none of them in the relationship department. I wish it did. It could at least have given me the ability to shut my mouth and think about what I was about to say before saying it. Then Aric and I might..."

She didn't finish the sentence, but she didn't need to. After a brief silence Beth finished it for her.

"Then you and Aric might still be together."

Kara nodded her head as her gaze traveled to Tyler's head.

"You still love him."

She nodded again, not attempting to make eye contact with Beth.

At least she's honest, Beth thought.

Beth tried to keep the accusation out of her voice. "He said you broke up with him. That you broke his heart."

Kara's face stayed tilted down at the snoozing mutt in her lap, her tears reappearing as she continued to nod.

"I have enemies, and not the small variety. That won't come as a shock to you. That puts anyone close to me in danger if my identity is revealed. And because of who I am and what I can do, a committed relationship has to take a back seat to, I don't know, a meteor heading towards Earth. Add to that all the lies I have to tell to whoever I'm dating if I'm still keeping it a secret. And that's just for a regular, powerless human boyfriend."

Kara sighed before continuing. Her acute hearing could hear Beth's heartbeat. She could hear Tyler's too, but his was steady. Beth's had increased whenever Kara talked about her time with Aric.

"It took a year before I found out that he's special. It took another year before I found out how special. It was like a weight coming off my chest. I could be completely honest. He understood the burden that powers place on us, the obligation to make the world a better place. We could be a team. We could do so much good together. But he wouldn't. He'd help people, but on a smaller scale. I didn't understand it. He could cure entire nations. He could turn nuclear weapons to dust. Things on a global scale. But he refused, and he wouldn't tell me why."

Kara was beginning to have trouble talking, the words catching in her throat. "The things I said to him. The things I called him. You can't imagine. That beautiful man, and I..."

It was as far as she got before the power of speech deserted her. Her sobs were all Beth could hear as she watched the Girl of Steel cry her eyes out.

I didn't tell Kara. I haven't told anyone. Not yet.

Aric hadn't told her, not then and not since. Kara didn't know why he was so gun shy. He'd let their relationship wither rather than admit to his biggest shameful secret.

Then why did he tell me? Beth wondered, except that he'd brought it up as he convinced me to choose life instead of death. And I reminded him of it later?

Beth reached over and wrapped her arms around Kara, which Tyler took as his cue to sit up and insert his large nose into the equation.

Beth's voice dropped to a whisper as she spoke to the woman whose head was resting on her shoulder.

"When he was younger something happened. It's not my secret to tell, but I can say that it was bad, and he blamed himself. He still does, and he's so ashamed of it that he never told anyone. It's like me and my father. He thought if he told you that you wouldn't love him anymore. But if he had told you then, I think you would have understood why he was so hesitant when it came to the big things."

Beth could not see the blood drain from Kara's face as her heart sank lower and lower. She'd accused him of being a coward. Of not caring. Of any other thing that came into her head on the off chance that it would hurt him. And all that time he'd been dealing with something traumatic in his past. When she'd ended their relationship with the coup de gras, we want different things, he just nodded and walked away. And to her everlasting regret she had not gone after him or called him back.

"Gods, I messed everything up. I hurt the one person who didn't deserve it." Kara said, choking out the words. "You don't know what I put him through. Kal tried to talk me off the ledge. I should have listened to him."

Beth had gone into this meeting with no preconceived notions as to how it would go. If someone had told her that she'd end up comforting Supergirl, she wouldn't have believed it.

"I tried to convince Aric that it wasn't his fault, but his guilt runs too deep. And it's not like he can talk to a therapist, not without revealing more than he'd like. So he's been dealing with it on his own all this time."

Kara wiped her nose on her sleeve. She started speaking as she turned and looked at Beth. "But you know the details. He told you."

"He told me to save my life. Actually, after he'd saved it.

I was going to tell him not to heal me. I thought it was better to just slip away. No more pain, no more guilt. An ending that I'd earned with every action I'd taken since my seventeenth birthday. He convinced me to stay, using the story as a teaser. I asked him about it afterward, and I guess it was just the right time. That, and the fact that he's felt my love in the gray place, just like I felt his. But it was still hard for him."

Kara's breath had caught when Beth had mentioned her choice. "You thought it was better to die?"

Beth nodded. "Yes. Better for me. Better for everyone. Aric's not the only one that carries a lot of guilt. I didn't go looking for it. But when the universe offered it up to me on a silver platter I took it as a sign that it was the right choice. I was wrong of course. Which was the lesson Aric wanted me to learn when he told me what happened. Death doesn't fix anything, it only brings more pain."

Death. Kara's mind latched onto the word immediately. Beth hadn't meant to share any details, except that Aric had taught her a lesson about death, and used a traumatic event from his past to do it. Even someone who had not been an advanced student in mathematics in Argo City could do that calculus. Kara had no interest in the entire story, not unless Aric wanted to tell her himself. And not if it made her feel worse that she was feeling right now.

"How does he even keep talking to me?" Kara asked. "After what I said. After what I did. He's always been there when I needed him. My sister Alex thinks of him like a brother. She loves him like one. The three of us get together and you'd think we were a bunch of goofy teenage siblings from the way we act. We're still like that, though it took a year for us to reconnect."

"He told me that you two stay in touch. That you're one of his closest friends. So whatever else happened, he still cares for you."

Kara laughed as she wiped the tears from her face.

"He's teaching me to generate my own oxygen so he can take me to see the ice cliffs on Pluto. He's trying to teach me. I'm not getting the hang of it."

Beth waited a second as she studied Kara's face. When she spoke her voice dripped skepticism. "You're just fucking with me now, right?"

Kara shook her head. "Nope. Pluto. Ice cliffs. He's been there. He never told you?"

"Un. fucking. believable," Beth said, articulating each syllable. "Pluto."

"He promised to take me there once. That was before...we never got to go. He mentioned it again last year, as a present for my 37th birthday. Or my 175th birthday, depending on whether you count the years I was asleep."

"He was going to take me someplace for my own 37 birthday in January," Beth said. Some of the jealousy began to return, but only as a shadow of its former self. "If he brings up Pluto I think I'm going to take a pass."

Kara laughed. "It's a long way. Kal's been there, and he says it's worth the trip. But he held his breath the whole time, and Aric thinks that'll ruin it for me."

Beth knew that Aric needed some sort of connection to a place to open a portal there. Either a direct personal one, or a memory that someone shared with him. Probably a dozen other ways that she still didn't know about.

"Did Kal share a memory of it with him?"

Kara shook her head. "No. Immune, remember? Both of us."

"So how did he get there?"

Kara thought about it for moment. "You know, I never thought to ask."

It could have been worse, but not by much; at least that was Jessica's opinion. The layers ran ten deep before ending at a trust.

"Brock Industries - United States: light industrial, United Forge - Australia: manufacturing, Fabrica - Portugal: manufacturing/fabrication, Allied Weave - Canada: textile, Scibright - Germany: science, Evoexport - Ireland: import/export, AltaTex - Paraguay: textile, Techgenics - United States: technology, Digiscape - South Africa: digital services, Deliverse - France: import/export," Jess said into her phone as she read from her list.

"All over the map, spread across a shitload of economic sectors," Trish answered. She didn't try to keep that information in her head. If any of it was important Jess would have said so. "Those were the layers? What about the trust?"

"Smith Legacy Holdings Trust. Set up in Cyprus in 2009. We have the name of the Trustee, but not the beneficiaries."

"Let me guess, the trustee's name is Smith?"

"Fazil Nicolau. It's fake, I'd bet money on it. But here's the thing; Fazil means Noble, which is similar to Noah, and also Nigel. And guess what names pop up in our ten bullshit shell companies?

"I'll take Noble, Noah, and Nigel for $100, Alex."

"Right you are. Noble Ashgrove, United Forge; Noah Randall, Allied Weave; Nigel Vance, Evoexport. All of them set up in Cyprus. The formation agent's names are different, but Julia said they shut down and then reopen the next day under new names all the time. Has to be the same people that did them and the trust."

"How about the rest of the names?"

"Nothing that I can find so far. But it looks like the trail ends with Fazil Nicolau, whoever he is. And it looks like he was keeping tabs on the flow of money as it passed through the pipeline. Probably making sure no one was lining their pockets on the down low."

Trish's voice sounded pleased. "Excellent. What's our next step?"

Jessica's voice on the other hand sounded highly skeptical. "Our next step? You plan on helping with this? You?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Jessica smirked. "You hate data mining. You can barely sit still to read a menu."

"Some of those menus are really long. And it's not one of my strengths, I admit it. The bailiff may fire when ready."

"I'm just saying."

"How about we move on to you just saying what somebody's next step is."

Jessica defaulted to her action of choice. "Go to Cyprus? Bust some elbows until we get a name?"

"Assuming that the trail stops with Smith Legacy Holdings Trust, and the name of the beneficiary is genuine."

"Assuming that, yeah."

"Are any of those formation agents still in business?"

"Just one. Mediterranean Business Solutions. They're the ones that set up the trust. They've been around since 2002."

"Then I believe we've found our starting point."

"That we I actually believe."

"What do you mean they won't pay for the damage?" Meg asked her oversized Captain after he hung up his phone and gave her the bad news. Her mind still retained a clear image of what until recently had been a spotless, blemish free, dark green, four year old Kia Optima. Now the only thing that could be said about the vehicle was its age and color. It still sat in the CPD evidence garage, it's matching driver's side door stored only a few feet from it's front bumper.

"They claim that the damage wasn't work related," John said. His sympathy for the woman who had been targeted just like he had was plain for all to hear.

"Bull fucking shit it wasn't work related," she replied in language that she rarely used. "It was that asshole Van Dyke's men who did it, and we know why. The three dead men that we're investigating is why."

"We know that," John said as his hands defined the radius of that we to include just the two of them, "but we —this time his arms extended outward to indicate the entire CPD— still don't have direct evidence of that connection, not any that we want to share at the moment anyway."

"So what the hell am I supposed to do, drive around in a car with three doors on it?" Meg asked, her voice rising with each word.

"I'm working on it," John answered, as he adopted a more reassuring tone. "The door's a goner. The rest's not too bad. I have a cousin in Joliet. This is right up his alley. Let me talk to him."

A degree of skepticism appeared on Detective Chander's face and colored her words. "A cousin? In Joliet?"

"Yeah. Technically, his alley usually involves taking cars apart, whether the owner likes it or not. But this is just that played in reverse. Give me some time. Otherwise, I'll talk to the Commissioner. I'll go all the way to the fucking Governor if I have to, but my hand to God we'll do the right thing."

Meghana took several deep breaths before replying. "Ok then. Thanks Cap."

"I know it's just a car, but it's the first new car that I bought myself," Meg said to Barbara. They hadn't discussed it at length, or analyzed it. They hadn't agreed on anything concrete; they had just sort of reattached as they were walking out of the conference at the Commissioner's office. It was well into the afternoon, which was making slow steady progress towards evening; but they were still working off the catered lunch and neither of them had an appetite for food. Both of them very much had an appetite for sex, but neither felt that their relationship, which had taken such a bad hit the day before, had reached terra firma yet. Babs had driven them back to the long structure on Addison Street which housed Meg's ancient desk and John Dorazio's office, and then waited in the coffee room. She could tell by Meg's face when she returned that the news had not been good. Barbara allowed the attractive detective time to sit silently as they drove west. CPD District 19's headquarters receded in the background. Barbara took a breath before asking how it went. Meg's statement about her pride in being able to free herself from her parents automotive clutches, and the passive aggressive obligations that came with it, were her last words on the topic.

"My first car was an 88 Land Rover Defender," Barbara said as her mind went back ten years. "I think I spent more time working on it than I spent driving it. But I was so proud when I put the plates to that ugly fucking thing. My dad and I worked on it for six months. My fingernails were a sorry sight for almost that long afterward, but it ran like a dream when we were done."

"You worked on it yourself?"

Barbara nodded. "My dad taught me. We did everything. Engine, Transmission, Brakes and suspension. He had an ex-con who was going straight do the upholstery and the paint job. Then my dad gave him a reference so he could get a real job. They still keep in touch."

"That was nice of him," Meg answered. She tried to picture a fifteen or sixteen year old Barbara Gordon working on a car engine, her hands covered in grease and grime.

"That's how he is. It's his way of giving back. He's not rich like Kate's father. You'd laugh out loud if you heard what he gets paid. It a joke. He doesn't have any high end connections. But he knows people, and he uses the network he has to help someone when he can. Like Marco."

"Marco was the guy who did your car?"

"Yup. He has an auto body shop in Garfield Ridge now. Him and his brother. You walk into his office there and you'll see a picture of the three of us standing next to my newly painted Land Rover."

Meg glanced at Barbara. "What color did you paint it?"

"Baby blue. It was the original color, as close as we could get to it."

"I would like to see that picture sometime," Meg said as her face broke into a smile.

Barbara Gordon repaid the dark haired beauty's smile with one just as radiant. "We'll have to arrange a field trip then."