Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She’s on the plane again. Lena Luthor glances at her surroundings, feeling a shred of familiarity in the back of her head but still taking in all the details like the first time. She’s travelling business class with her feet propped up for the cross-country journey. She has the window seat, a red-head with half her head shaved sits next to her. Her hand closes on the scotch sitting to her right, and she checks her phone with the other. The lock screen shines 1:05pm. That small shred of familiarity becomes anticipation. She is simultaneously unaware and waiting, suspended between the vivid memory of the incident and the slight freedom that the dreamscape lends her. Lena follows the memory, peering outside the window just as the jet engine blows.

The plane pitches violently to the right, and Lena’s scotch goes flying. Immediately, oxygen masks drop from overhead. She scrambles to place it over her face, the plane already descending violently to the surface. She hears the other engine blast and feels her stomach drop as the altitude falls faster.

Then she’s there.

Lena sees the flying woman cut through the clouds and watches her duck under the plane’s body, out of sight. The plane breaks through the clouds, plummeting toward the ocean right outside National City. She screws her eyes shut, fear and nausea mixing in her stomach. She thinks of Lex, she thinks of Sam. This sucks. The thought passes her mind at the same moment the plane levels out. Lena’s stomach catches, and she opens her eyes. The left-side engine is still shooting out flames, but the aircraft was drifting along like the captain had gotten control once more. There are a few more breathless moments of falling until the plane lands in the water with a big splash. Lena looks around the cabin to see most everyone uninjured.

The red-head beside her stands from her seat, asking everyone if they needed a doctor. Lena unbuckles her seatbelt and looks out the window again. The flying woman breaks the river’s surface to climb up the wing and catch her breath. Her back faces Lena, and she takes in the light pink cardigan along with soaked khaki pants. She notices the woman’s blonde hair cascading down her back. The flying woman turns her head just slightly, but before Lena can catch a glimpse of her face her phone rings.

Lena checks her phone but doesn’t see an incoming call, only the display showing 1:07pm. The ringing continues louder.

She snaps from the dream with a quick inhale.

Groggily, Lena pulls herself up into a sitting position and fishes for her phone in the mess of sheets around her bed. She’s almost blinded by the bright UNKNOWN CALLER notification. Ah, you again. She slides her thumb across the screen and holds it to her ear. She doesn’t extend a greeting, but it seems like one isn’t needed.

“Lena Luthor.” The voice on the other end sounds robotic, siphoned through various apps to make identifying it difficult. “Luthor Corp suffers under your helm. Give up the company or lose your life.”

“L-Corp,” Lena sighs, rubbing her eyes. “If you’re going to threaten me, please at least do your research. Also, do you know the time? Waking me up this late at night is only going to make me stay at the office longer, which I’m sure is the last thing you want?”

There’s a slight pause. “Your obsession with aliens—”

“Good night.” Lena hangs up. It’s a little past three in the morning, and she settles in under the heavy blankets once more. For a moment she stares up at her ceiling, playing the memory of the near-plane-crash over in her head again.

Interrupted by a phone call or not, the memory-dream always cuts off at the same place: a split second before she and the flying woman make eye contact. She hadn’t been able to see the woman’s face as she had taken off into the sky again at the sound of approaching helicopters. Lena has the dream often and it frustrates her every time.

Sighing, Lena slings her legs out of bed. Might as well get to work early.

---

Kara dreams of flying. She dreams of breaking through clouds. She dreams of spiraling toward the yellow sun. It feels incredible like it always does, better than anything she’d ever felt in her life, including the time she won that pie eating contest in college. Kara tears between the skyscrapers of National City, stopping abruptly then blasting into the sky. She raises one fist in a familiar pose. She climbs and climbs before she crests the top of the Luthor Corp building, the tallest one in the city and peers down. In place of National City’s streets, she sees Midvale’s fields

It’s a gorgeous amalgamation of the places she loves, and Kara’s chest fills with affection. She knows she wants to do right by them. Like Clark. Kara hovers above the hybrid city, feeling at home in her skin, in her position above, in her role as a watcher. It’s a feeling she has often, one that is equal parts sad and hopeful.

Sad because of what usually happens when she uses her powers.

Hopeful because of the time she saved Alex on the plane.

Alex. Kara focuses her hearing on someone saying her name. Was Alex calling her?

 “Kara? Kara, wake up! Don’t you have an interview today?”

A large pillow hits Kara square in the face, and her dream ends abruptly. Even as she wakes, her body still feels suspended in the air. Cloud nine. Today will be a good day. She pulls herself out of bed, stretching deliciously slow in the morning sun. Glancing over, Kara sees her bedroom door ajar and her sister Alex standing there with arms crossed over her lab coat.

“Alex, when I gave you a key to my place that didn’t give you permission to just come in. What if I had a girl over?”

“You’ve walked in on me and Maggie many times.” Is the snarky reply.

Kara grimaces. “Please don’t remind me.”

“I’m not here to talk about my shitty ex anyway. It’s nine in the morning, and you have a job interview in an hour.”

“Oh, shoot!”

Times like these make Kara grateful for her powers. She speeds around the apartment, showering in a blink then throwing on different clothing combinations. In less than a minute Kara stands triumphantly in front of Alex with white shirt buttoned to the collar and what she calls her ‘lucky’ khakis. She grins at her sister and starts for the door, but Alex catches her collar.

“Glasses, Kara.”

Taking to the sky only happens in Kara’s dreams. In reality she uses a beat-up bike for transportation anywhere in the city. Alex hates the rusty thing that Kara bought during her sophomore year in college, but she never needed to repair Old Reliable even five years later as she pushes him toward her third interview of the week.

It’s for a job less interesting than the one yesterday which was less interesting than the one before that.  It’s the second week searching for a job. She started looking immediately after getting fired even though Alex tried to make her take a week off. She actually had a good gig at a local newspaper until her creepy co-worker, Mike, tried making one too many passes at her. It resulted in a shattered nose for Mike and a pink slip on Kara’s desk. She took being fired in stride. She saw it as a chance to expand her horizons past what she had been doing for three years. Kara wants to help people and knows that somewhere, someone out there needs her. If it’s simply making a cup of coffee with the correct number of sugars, she can be happy. Well, maybe not like that.   

Kara rounds a corner with Old Reliable and collides into a figure. The impact sends them both to the ground, and as Kara scrambles up to dust herself off she can see she interrupted a mugging.

The person she just hit with her bike slowly rolls over onto his stomach, exposing a glimmering knife in his hand. Kara hears someone clear their throat in front of her. She turns her head and sees another knife at the base of her neck. Facing her is a sunken visage with loose folds of skin over his cheeks sneering at her. Behind him, an old woman lies on the ground surrounded by three more nasty looking criminals. Kara takes a moment to extend her hearing and focus on the woman’s heartbeat. Alive, but by the sight of the wicked blade now slowly pressed against her, wouldn’t be if she didn’t careen in when she did.

Kara slowly raises her hands. “Sorry,” she says carefully. She can feel her own heart thundering in her ribcage. “I didn’t mean to hit your buddy. You should check on him though.”

The knife digs a bit into Kara’s skin. She knows it won’t break her but doesn’t want him to find that out. She figures she has seconds before he slides the blade across her throat. She acts.

---

“I want options on my desk by week’s end,” Lena says. She’s walking along a sidewalk holding her yoga mat under her arm, phone to her ear. After getting to work around four in the morning, she sat at her desk and picked at the prototype locked away in her desk. Lena decided to take a quick break at the gym afterwards, and it’s on her walk back that she’s having the conversation about hiring a bodyguard with her assistant. “They’re getting bolder. One actually called me last night.”

A pained cry turns her attention to an alley in front of her. She hangs up just as Jess is about to give her input and runs toward the noise. It registers that this could very well be a trap. It also registers that this could be a genuine threat. When Lena rounds the corner, she can’t believe what she sees: a small woman facing off against four burly men.  

The woman holds the wrist of the man who had let out the yell, actually bending it grossly backward. For a second, Lena thinks to intervene. Then she sees a knife clatter from the man’s hand.

The three figures at the back advance quickly with a shout, but the woman moves quicker. Lena watches as she uses the man’s now-limp wrist to swing his body around and slam him into his companions. Two dive out of the way, but one is completely barreled over. The woman dodges a thrown punch then slams a fist in the back of the other thug’s head. He crumples to the ground, leaving one more. They circle each other, both crouched low like wrestlers. The woman propels herself forward like a human gunshot and Lena watches the man get thrown off his feet and slam into the wall. The brick cracks with the force of the impact. The man slumps to the ground. There’s a moment of silence before she takes off running toward another fallen figure. Lena sees the figure is an old woman. She follows without hesitation.

“Is she alright?”

The woman jerks to look up at Lena. She doesn’t look like someone who would be able to accomplish the feat that she did. She wears glasses, now at the end of her nose and her blonde hair is pulled into a ponytail with a few flyaway strands. The woman opens her mouth to speak. She closes it. She opens it again, now doing an impressive impression of a fish out of water. Lena raises an eyebrow.

“Y-yeah,” the woman stutters. “She’s alive, but I think she needs a hospital.”

“I’ll call an ambulance.” Lena starts dialing on her phone.

“I should fly—erm, I mean, take her myself!”

Lena scoffs. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She quickly rattles off the intersection to the operator. “One is on the way,” she tells the other woman. Silence once more. At this proximity, Lena sees the faint outline of her biceps under her button-down. She works out, sure. But enough to throw a grown man into a wall?

The woman hoists the old lady up and leans her against the brick. She turns to Lena, wearing a sheepish expression that definitely does not coincide with the power she just saw. “How much did you see?” She asks.

“Pretty much all.” Pause. “You’re very impressive. Have you ever thought about protecting people for a living?”

The way the woman jumps, Lena wonders if she had been struck by lightning. “My interview!” She squeaks and runs for a knocked over bike. She rights it before jumping in the seat. She takes one more look at Lena. “I’m sorry for leaving you like this, but I have somewhere I need to be! Thank you for calling the ambulance, and it was nice meeting you!” Then she rides off.

Lena watches her go, equally confused but with a whisper of a smile on her face. She pulls out her phone again. “Jess, cancel the bodyguard search. Also, do you think you could find someone for me?”

Chapter Text

Kara bombs the interview. She has a sneaking suspicion it won’t go well from the moment the secretary gives her a displeased once-over and sends her in without even asking for her name. The interviewer is nice enough (or feels sorry enough) to sit through the slot’s remaining two minutes before gently informing her that she won’t be hired. Kara thanks her for her time anyway.

She waits until she exits the building before letting her shoulders slump. Her usual smile drops into pout, and she goes to call Alex. She knows her sister will have words of comfort. She pulls out the phone, and it immediately lights up in her hand with an incoming call. It’s not a number in her contacts, but Kara answers anyway. “Hello?”

“Kara Danvers?”

Kara tucks the phone between her ear and shoulder and undoes the lock on her bike. “Yes?”

“Hello, my name is Jess. I’m calling on behalf of L-Corp and its CEO Lena Luthor asking if you’d be available to interview for a position at the company.”

Kara is in the middle of mounting the bike when the request registers in her mind. In her shock, her foot completely misses the pedal. She flails to catch herself on the handlebars and plant herself on the ground, preventing Old Reliable’s irreparable destruction. The phone slips, and Kara yelps bouncing it from one hand to another until she catches it firmly. She puts the phone by her ear again. There’s silence on the other end. Then Jess clears her throat.

“Miss Danvers?”

“Hi, yes! I’m absolutely—yes, absolutely.” Kara hears the scratch of pen on paper.

“Excellent. Are you free now?”

Once again, Kara catches herself before she swerves into traffic.

She doesn’t have need directions to L-Corp. No one can miss the sleek, towering building with the name jutting proudly from the side. Kara remembers passing L-Corp riding to her old job. In the mornings the top of the building is shrouded in mist while the sun reflects violently off the windows in the afternoon. Kara only knows the rooftop in her dreams.

From the lobby, Kara feels the sophistication of a renowned tech company. The furniture is silver and white and modern with ridiculously shiny floors. Kara stares at her own mussed reflection for a second. I look like a mess! They’ll never hire me if I look like a mess! Kara isn’t a stranger to feeling out of place, but it still sends nerves racketing through her bloodstream. She redoes her ponytail and smooths out her button-up.

“Kara Danvers?” Kara looks up at the face of a lovely young woman, dressed as sleek and sophisticated as the office. She has long brown hair, loose and falling down her shoulders. In one hand there’s a fastened folder. She holds out the other. “I’m Sam Arias, L-Corp’s CFO.”

Kara knows she’s gaping but can’t stop. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Arias.” Sam appraises Kara with a once-over. The look is accompanied with a smile, one that Kara can’t place.

“Sam is perfectly fine. Come sit, we have a contract to discuss!” Kara gapes a little longer but follows Sam as she leads her toward a connecting café and motions for her to sit. There aren’t many other people in the café, and those who enter only order a coffee before disappearing around the corner.

Kara watches Sam pull a small sheaf of papers from under the table, presumably from the folder Kara saw earlier. Sam thumbs through a few sheets. She pulls some in front of her, jots down a few words. Sometimes she glances up, making eye contact with Kara. More nerves hit her every time Sam glances and she rubs her palms down her khakis. Time moves slower in the few seconds Sam takes to herself. After what feels like an eternity, a small stack of papers is passed in her direction. Kara pulls it toward her. “Are you sure you don’t want to look at my resume?” She tries inserting a mote of joking sarcasm in the question but only manages to let out another shaky chuckle.

Sam laughs, full with her head thrown back. “I don’t think it’ll make a difference one way or the other since we have an offer on the table already.”

“I don’t understand,” Kara says. She doesn’t know how long she’s been at L-Corp, but Kara feels as if she was swept up in a whirlwind that hasn’t put her down. “How am I being offered a job without you knowing my skill set? Did a guy named Winn contact you about my senior robotics project because—”

Sam holds up a hand. “We’re not interested in your engineering abilities though that’s definitely a bonus…” She jots something down on a legal pad. She picks up the contract and reads aloud. “Blahblahblah, to protect L-Corp’s CEO, Lena Kieran Luthor, hereto after referred to as ‘Bosslady’—” here Sam takes a moment and snickers. “As her bodyguard.”

Kara’s heart stops. “As her..?”

“Bodyguard.”

“Body…”

“Bodyguard.” Sam raises an eyebrow and passes the contract back over. “I was told you’re the woman for the job.”

“I—” Kara shakes her head frantically. “I’m sorry, Ms. Arias, you were told wrong… ly. Wrongly. I don’t—I don’t protect people. I mean, it’s not a skill you should hire me for because, I mean honestly…”

 Without another word, Sam shows Kara the final section on the contract’s final page.

“I’m in.”

“A bodyguard for L-Corp’s CEO?”

Kara shrugs and stuffs another potsticker in her mouth. “It’s so much money, Alex! And It’s not like I can’t do it!” She sees Alex give her a glare from across the couch. She makes a show of searching through the takeout containers she knows are empty.

“You know who runs L-Corp, right? It used to be Luthor Corp! It’s run by a Luthor!”

“She doesn’t seem like Lex. Do you want another beer?” Kara offers. She gets up without an answer to raid her fridge anyway.

“Kara,” Alex says, sounding exasperated.

“Alex!” Kara returns, popping from her bent position and sighing. “She’s announced her support for Alien Amnesty. And it’s not like she knows Superman’s my cousin.” She grabs the beer and hands it to her sister. “I’ll be fine.” When Alex’s incredulous look doesn’t go away, Kara goes for something she knows will distract her. “Did I tell you about the really cute CFO?”

---

Lena tells Jess to let Kara Danvers in the office even if she isn’t in yet. She passes the evening in the usual fashion: a glass or two of wine, emailing investors and business partners overseas and skimming a threatening text message before bed. On a normal day the text doesn’t bother her. Every night it’s the same drivel: shaming her for her pro-alien stance, claims that she’ll suffer for her decisions. At the very least, the message makes her laugh. Tonight, she accompanies the laugh with a rather smug look.

When she informs Sam on her plan earlier in the day, the other woman agreed easily. It had been Sam who initially pushed her to take safety measures and Lena who stubbornly refused.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Lena had said.

Sam looked up from her tablet. “About time,” she had replied. “I figure you told Jess to start a search?”

“No search necessary. In fact, you should interview her.” Lena glanced down at her watch. “She’s on her way.”

Sam had raised an eyebrow but didn’t question. When she came back from the interview, the eyebrow had risen further. “Kara Danvers? Glasses and khakis Kara Danvers?”  

“Don’t tell me you didn’t see her biceps straining in her shirt.”

Sam had barked a laugh and left the conversation alone.

Lena anticipates a three AM call following the threatening text. The calls come less often than the texts, but when they do it’s for multiple days. Her phone stays silent throughout the night, and when Lena wakes to incessant knocking at her front door she sees she overslept. Intense light reflects off the vanity opposite the picture window that takes the entire left side. It had been a while since Lena had been home this late into the morning.

The knock sounds again with a little more force. “Ms. Luthor?”

Lena pauses in rising. The voice doesn’t belong to Jess nor Sam. It’s concerned in an oddly fresh way. There is a mix of annoyance and amusement that underlies Sam’s concern while Jess’s concern is laced with concern that only comes via a professional relationship. The knocking sounds again. Lena pulls on her silk robe and leans against the threshold of her bedroom door. From there Lena can see her living room, the adjoining kitchen and enough of the door that she can duck back in her room if it’s a trick.

“Ms. Luthor?” A knock. Pause. Another knock. Lena hears muffled speech then the snap of her door flying off its hinges and slamming into her kitchen island. Immediately following the door is a familiar figure: blonde, ponytail, dressed in another well-pressed shirt under an argyle vest. “Ms. Luthor?” She calls again.

“Ms. Danvers.” Lena watches bemused as Kara whips her head around to make eye-contact. Lena wiggles her fingers in greeting. “Good morning.”

Kara’s face flushes adorably. She launches into apology. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry about your door. Jess and Ms. Aria—I mean, Sam were worried about you, and I figured that it’s part of my job description to check on you if you don’t show up at work and—” Kara’s brow furrows, and Lena fights back a smile. “You’re her!”

Lena pushes off the doorframe and approaches. She notices the blush now crawling up Kara’s ears. “I’m her,” she confirms. “Lena Luthor.” Lena holds out a hand. “L-Corp’s CEO and your charge until the individual behind all this blackmail is caught.”

Kara’s grip when she shakes Lena’s hand is gentle. Once again, Lena is dumbfounded at the disconnect between Kara’s strength and her overall… vibe. It’s partially why she felt strongly about choosing her. Of course, there are bodyguards with years on their belt protecting the rich and famous, but Lena could see a measure of genuine kindness in Kara Danvers she’d be missing otherwise. It bubbles to the surface with her continued apologies for the door.

“It’s quite alright,” Lena says after she quiets Kara with a raised hand. “It’s good knowing the lengths you’ll go to assure my safety.” One phone call later, Lena’s door is being fixed. Kara alternates her stare between Lena and the people who arrived at a moment’s notice to assist her. “Since that’s taken care of, shall we go?”

They take Lena’s Range Rover after Kara meekly informs her that she rode her bike to Lena’s complex.

“Remind me to give you access to the company cars,” Lena had responded absentmindedly. Kara only sputtered in agreement.

When they arrive, Jess is waiting for them in the lobby. “Good morning, Ms. Luthor,” she says and jumps in to talking about the day’s schedule. “Sam sat in for the first meeting with the R&D team concerning the latest developments with the device.” She passes Lena a manila folder. “These are the suggested improvements and changes. There’s a representative from Lord Technologies to discuss the separation of your companies. Ms. Danvers, you will accompany—”

Lena hears her phone chime lightly in her pocket. She holds up a finger to excuse herself and take the call. Jess nods and continues explaining Kara’s duties for the day. Lena wanders to an unoccupied space near the café and answers. “This is Lena Luthor.”

“I see you.”

Lena fights the way her spine stiffens. “Do you now?” She asks. “I’d really like your opinion on this top and skirt combination.” She casually shifts her glance to the sidewalk passing in front of the building and across the street. The crowd moves at its normal pace. No one sticks out. At the very least the caller is hiding.

The voice chuckles. The sound jumps and crackles over the voice-changing software, shifting octaves and chilling Lena’s blood. “You’re nervous,” it rasps. “At least Lex knew how to hide his fears. Though him keeping it all inside probably caused his breakdown.” The easy way the voice speaks lights something hot and angry inside Lena.

“Don’t you dare bring my brother into this!” She snaps.

“The Luthors have always been weak,” The voice responds evenly. Lena hates the pleased note in sentence. They’d gotten a rise out of her. “And soon you’ll fall just as he did.”

Lena tears the phone away from her ear and hangs up. She starts storming for the door. Through the blood pounding in her ears, Lena can hear someone say her name followed by footsteps. Kara comes up beside her.

“Ms. Luthor, are we headed to that meeting?”

Lena speaks over Kara’s question. “Jess, I’m going out. Please reschedule my meetings and tell the rep that I’m not feeling well.”

“Yes, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena makes an internal note to give Jess a hefty raise. She sweeps out of the glass doors onto the sidewalk. She whips her head around at the passing crowd, looking for anyone walking away at an exceptionally fast pace or their head hung a little too low. Lena curses under her breath, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. It’s not hard to ignore a threat or slander if the slanderer is only re-hashing words used by every other media outlet. What Lena can’t stand is the slandering of her brother.

She starts off down the street, not having a destination in mind. She’s only mildly aware of Kara trailing a bit behind her. Is she saying her name? Lena sets her jaw. If the voice is watching, she doesn’t want to show the effect they have on her. She plasters a smile on her face and turns to Kara. The other woman stops in her tracks, tilting a little forward at the abrupt pause. Lena looks Kara up and down. “We should go shopping.”

--

An hour or two in, and Kara doesn’t know how to feel about Lena Luthor. Being introduced to your boss by breaking her door in and seeing her dressed in a pink silk robe and fresh-faced is not what she expected. And now, as Kara accompanies the CEO through an outdoor shopping center, she’s even more at a loss. Kara follows Lena into stores she would never have set her foot in otherwise and ones she had never heard of before. Lena also makes her carry the bags.

They stop at a smoothie stand. “Do you do kale?” Lena asks casually as she’s perusing the menu board.

“Do I do what?”

Lena glances at her. She smiles again, and Kara can feel the blush in her ears. “What kind of smoothie do you want?”

“I’m okay,” Kara insists, but at Lena’s perfectly raised eyebrow she assents. “Mango?”

They take a seat near the stand, and Lena slides on the sunglasses she’d just bought that are definitely more than Kara’s monthly rent. They drink in silence for a bit. Then Kara decides to try to make small talk. “I like your glasses.” And immediately regrets it.

Lena raises an eyebrow. “I like them too. Hence why I bought them.” She returns to her drink, and they don’t speak for the rest of the afternoon.

Since Kara left her bike at Lena’s apartment, they ride to the complex together once again in the Range Rover. The pull up to the front where Old Reliable is sitting locked up to the rack. Kara gets out of the car and glances at Lena who still has her eyes on the road in front of her. “Thanks,” Kara says.

Lena doesn’t look at her. “I assume your journalism skills will be useful in finding out who is threatening and blackmailing me. It’s not news that I have many enemies. Narrow them down, if you would. Consider it homework.” She spares Kara a quick glance.

“How do you know I have journalism skills?”

Kara can’t see past the sunglasses but knows that Lena rolls her eyes. “It’s not hard to do an internet search, Ms. Danvers. Maybe you’re not as good at your job as I thought. Well, have a good night anyway.” She drives away, and Kara decides she’s not a big fan of Lena Luthor.

Chapter Text

Lena is already parked in the apartment’s secure garage when she notices the shaking of her hands. She curls them into fists and clenches her eyes shut before taking deep breaths from her diaphragm. She remembers when she first used the technique at home. Her mother had sneered. “Is this what I’m paying that man for? Breathing exercises?” She’d asked and started sending Lena to a different doctor. Before her first presentation in front of a board of executives, Lex coached her through the breaths, whispering “inhale, exhale” quietly.

Her project got approved.

Even now, Lena’s hand itches for her phone. He’s still on her speed-dial (which he’d made fun of her for. “Who actually uses speed-dial anymore, Lee?”), but she knows that the line is dead. It has been for a while, the low-monotone present every time she needs his voice.

Lena returns to her apartment and makes a beeline for her wine cabinet. She’s pouring herself a glass when there’s a chime from her pocket. Another thing Lex made fun of her for was her use of custom ringtones, but Lena feels glad for the first few notes of a Destiny’s Child song. She sets her glass down and answers. “Hello, Sam.”

“Have you eaten yet?”

“I had a smoothie.”

“Great, I’m coming over with food.”

In ten minutes, Sam sits on Lena’s couch with her feet in her lap, papers in one hand and half a calzone in the other. Lena eats her salad in silence while Sam rattles off what she missed that day. There are no questions from Sam. There usually never are, and it’s in these moments that Lena feels less lonely.

“And the Lord Tech Rep is coming tomorrow and won’t take any more excuses.” Sam places the papers on the coffee table and picks a piece of pepperoni from her calzone. She drops it in her mouth. “You okay?” She asks then. “I mean, you leave work often enough but never when there’s a slew of important meetings.”

“Another threat. But it’s not important.”

Sam nods. “So you decide going out where you can easily get hurt is the solution.”

“I had my bodyguard with me.” Lena pretends she doesn’t see Sam’s incredulous look. She doesn’t question it, either. “I was safe, don’t worry.” Her nightly threatening text comes right on time: the familiar dig against her competence with her favorite yet rarely used insult, ‘You’re not a real Luthor’. Her adoption is hardly a secret so the words only bring a wry smile to Lena’s face. She leans over and shows Sam the message. “Looks like I can narrow my blackmailer down to everyone in the world.”

“You are way too casual about this.”

“Would you rather I cower? If I’m to take them seriously, they should do a better job.” She sees a small smile flicker on her friend’s face. Sam shrugs.

“In their defense, it’s really hard to scare you.”

Sam leaves after another hour, and Lena retires. Her sheets are soft, her pillow deep, and the bed’s other side empty. She lays in her bed, watching the way the weird concoction of moon and lamplight spills in through her large glass windows. It’s around midnight, and there are brief intervals with cars driving past. She remembers a former girlfriend finding comfort in the city’s sounds. Lena feels the opposite. Knowing others still bustle about, maybe furthering themselves, makes Lena want to work. She turns over, forces herself to sleep and when the phone call comes, she lets it go to voicemail.

Lena doesn’t feel any better in the morning. Part of her thinks to take another late day, but then she has a flashback of Kara Danvers kicking her door down and dresses for work. She only arrives to the office five minutes late, a fact she pats herself on the back for. Jess meets her at the first floor elevator and rattles off the schedule as they ascend. She has a few minutes before meeting with the board and an hour prior to talking with the Lord Tech Rep.

“Ms. Arias says to expect a sour mood from him,” Jess says. Lena nods. It’s never something she can’t handle. Jess tacks on, “And I stopped Ms. Danvers from paying you another visit.” Lena shoots her a grateful look, and Jess laughs.

Above their heads, the lightbulbs in the elevator sputters out. Lena looks up. “Make a note to tell maintenance—” she hears a snap and then they’re falling.

Lena and Jess tumble to the floor in darkness. All Lena hears is metal on metal screaming, and all she feels is a heavy weight closing in on every side, preventing her from doing anything to prevent the oncoming collision. She feels anger first: anger at the cowardice of whoever thought to kill her in an elevator, anger at the disregard for Jess’s life at the expense of her own. She feels a flood of many other emotions: regret, sadness…

When she begins to feel fear, the elevator slows. There’s a groan as the plummet turns into a drift and the drift becomes a complete stop. Lena immediately scrambles toward Jess. The secretary is knocked out cold, and Lena sees a trickle of blood coming from the crown of her head. She raises Jess to lean on her and pounds on the elevator doors. “There’s someone injured!” She yells.

“Hold on!” The voice is muffled, and Lena steps back. She hears more metal grinding, and the doors are pushed open. The elevator stopped with the top half opening up to what looked like the lobby, the bottom half still facing the ominous elevator shaft. Leaning down into the elevator is Kara Danvers. “Ms. Lu—”

“Jess is hurt! Take her, I’ll call an ambulance.”

Without further prompting, Kara scoots further forward, dips down into the car and hefts Jess from Lena’s side onto her shoulder. She disappears, and Lena gets an ambulance dispatched by the time the bodyguard reappears. “Need a hand Ms. Luthor?” She asks, holding out her own. Lena grips her hand. Kara looks at her with a small smile. “One, two…” Kara’s arm flexes under her pink cardigan, and she lifts Lena up with ease. Lena’s heartbeat at first quickens with a slight fear of being dropped then changes to a different reason entirely when Kara quirks an eyebrow at her. She sets Lena on her feet. Lena looks around. The lobby of L-Corp is empty save for the three of them.

Lena looks at Kara curiously then at the empty lobby once more. “How did you…” she points at the elevator.

Kara gapes for a moment, looking in a frantic way between Lena and the elevator. “I—I mean, the firemen were here and stopped the elevator then they had… they had a really really big fire to get to so they couldn’t stay!” Lena observes the blush race up Kara’s neck in amusement. “I just helped you and Jess up.”

“The help is appreciated, Ms. Danvers.” She places a hand on Kara’s shoulder and stays by Jess until the ambulance comes. The secretary is a little conscious by the time she’s lifted onto a stretcher. “You’ll be alright, Jess,” Lena says, clasping her hand. “Take as much time as you need.” She watches Jess go then turns to Kara, clearing her throat. “We have meetings to attend.”

---

Kara observes Lena’s interaction with Jess curiously. She’s seen and heard the CEO’s formality that borders on standoffish and was surprised to see and hear concern from behind the elevator doors. The concern is magnified in the minute that Lena has with her secretary while the ambulance is on the way. Kara watches Lena take a handkerchief from the pocket of her blazer and gently wipe at the dark blood congealed on Jess’s forehead. When the paramedics come, Lena holds tightly to Jess’s hand, and Kara hears Lena talking quietly to one of them about where she can pay for the hospital bills. It’s only when the ambulance disappears down the street that Lena turns toward her again. Immediately, her expression cools, her back straightens and her chin tilts high.

“We have meetings to attend,” she declares and walks away, devastatingly confident. Kara stares after her for a second before following. Lena pulls her phone from her blazer, dials a number. “Sam. Yes, yes, everything is alright. Lift the lockdown and call the fire department. I’m headed to the board meeting.”

It surprises Kara that Lena doesn’t push her more on the circumstances of the elevator save. She’s thankful anyway. Of course, there were no firemen, just Kara leaping down the elevator shaft, propelling herself forward and down until she got a grip on the car and pulling, resisting with all her might until she could zip around with her superspeed and tie some thick cords around it so it was suspended like in a spider’s web. She doesn’t know if the lack of questioning means Lena believes her or means she can see right through her.

Before Kara could further stress about the latter possibility, Lena stops in front of two doors. Kara stops behind her. “Ms. Luthor?” She asks.

“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” She responds. “I just escape death, and I have to talk stocks and publicity.”

“They’re probably just as shaken up as you,” Kara returns gently. “It’s not every day their CEO nearly dies.” She feels the hairs on her arms stand up when Lena turns her head and gives her a droll look. She walks into the room without another word. Kara barely catches it to follow.

The abject disregard at what just happened to Lena the board exhibits makes Kara furrow her brow. They are coming out from under the table and still have the audacity to reprimand Lena.

One particularly slimy, receding hair-lined man clears his throat as he slides back into his chair on the opposite side of the room. “Ms. Luthor, it appears your efforts to restore faith in L-Corp’s stocks have failed…”

Kara stands close to the door and listens to the board telling Lena of her failures and demanding answers. Somehow, the other woman answers each question with a patience Kara can only assume comes from years of practice. She smiles when the men scoff at her, laughs at a joke made at her expense.

“…And how do you plan on making sure we’re not the laughing stock of the technological world?” One woman who looked at least one hundred years old asks.

“We start with the press conference in a week,” Lena responds with a sweet smile. “There the shareholders concerns about my working with the government for Alien Amnesty will be addressed. The plan for expansion into National City’s suburbs will be revealed as well.”

“And you think this will be enough?”

“Coupled with the fact there will be a media circus surrounding the failed assassination attempt on me this morning, I believe so.”

They shut up.

Lena leaves the room looking unscathed, but Kara can hear her elevated heartbeat and the stuttered gaps in her breathing. It takes twenty seconds of them walking to the next meeting for Kara to realize she’s doing breathing exercises. She remembers the next meeting is with someone from Lord Tech, and she straightens her back and tightens her jaw. She may not be Lena Luthor’s biggest fan, but she believes the woman should be cut a little slack. Kara readies herself to stand behind the woman and act like a shadow. A broad, pink, bespectacled shadow.

She follows Lena into the second room where a man already sits in a chair nearest the door. He swivels around, and Kara immediately doesn’t like the look of him. He’s man-spreading for one, leaned back in the chair with his elbows back on the arms to push out his chest more. “Ms. Luthor,” he drawls, mouth drawn in an shit-eating grin.

Kara feels Lena tense next to her, and she slowly moves to stand by her side. The man raises a bushy eyebrow, the same shade of gray as the ridiculous pouf on his head.

“And…” he motions to Kara vaguely with a wave of his hand.

“Kara Danvers,” Kara moves in front of Lena and extends her own hand. “Bod—”

“An intern I’ve been taking to meetings with me.” Kara furrows her brow at Lena’s interruption. She doesn’t return the eye contact. “I was told I’d be meeting with a representative,” she continues. “This seems below your paygrade, Mr. Edge.”

The man, Mr. Edge, smiles even wider and takes Kara’s hand. “Morgan Edge,” he says. “CFO of Lord Tech. I’m pleased to see that L-Corp continues hiring beautiful secretaries.” Kara sets her jaw and squeezes Edge’s hand. His smile grows tight, and from the corner of her eye she thinks she sees Lena’s eyes go wide.

“Ms. Danvers,” she says, and Kara breaks the handshake. Kara smiles sweetly and moves to her place by Lena’s side.

Edge flexes his hand for a second. “To answer your question, Ms. Luthor, this is above my paygrade, but since you skipped out on the last representative, I decided to make the stakes higher.” He leans further back in his seat. “This separation is a big deal after all.”

Kara follows Lena to seats on the opposite end of the room. She crosses her arms and fixes Edge with a glare. His cockiness seems to return with distance from Kara and he resumes his slumpy, gross posture.

“All of your borrowed warehouses—”

“Were returned to Lex before his arrest,” Edge interrupts. His tone and posture radiate boredom which irks Kara. “The second those engineers confessed to being accomplices with your brother, we did our best to keep the Luthor Corp name out of it.” He shrugs. “I still don’t understand our actual separation. We turned those kids over to the authorities and denounced theirs and Lex’s actions.”

Lena plasters on that smile that Kara saw in the board meeting. “With the magnitude of my brother’s charges and my visions of starting L-Corp anew, it’s best if our companies go their separate paths.” She slides a manila folder across the table. “Now if you could sign these final provisions, I won’t take up more of your precious time.”

The response is polite in every sense of the word, but Kara sees it affect Edge. She notices the slight narrow in his eyes and the barest uncomfortable shift in his chair. He takes the folder, opens it and begins to skim the documents. He shakes his head. “Lord Tech stocks will plummet if I sign this.”

“I understand your concern. It mirrors mine with my own company’s stocks. This is the result of meeting with my board of executives and the interest of both companies.” The smile again. “Will it help if I give you a mention in the press conference?”

Edge scowls. “You’re testing me, Luthor.”

“Mr. Edge,” Lena uncrosses her ankles and leans forward. Kara almost holds her breath as she feels the sheer power emanate from the other woman. “I’ve negotiated as much as possible with the representatives I’ve met with before today. Any issue with the agreement can be taken up with them.” She pauses and slides the sleeve of her blazer back. “I fear you are now wasting my precious time.”

Kara ridiculously enjoys the shade of red that Edge turns. He signs the document in a speed and fury that Kara can only compare to an angered Daxamite. They tended to get just as testy. Edge stands and tightens the tie around his throat. “You’re insane, Luthor,” he scowls. “You’re more of a lunatic than your brother is.”

Lena only smiles, but Kara hears the stutter in her chest. Kara stands and places her hands on the desk. “You should go before security throws you out,” she says.

Edge’s eyes flicker to Kara then to Lena. He exits swiftly.

“For someone wearing a baby pink cardigan, you cut an intimidating figure.” Kara glances at Lena, still seated, watching Edge round the corner and leave her sight. She stands then and retrieves the documents.

“If we want to talk enemies, I think that guy should be at the top of the list. Or the executive board. Do they always treat you like that?”

“More often than not,” she replies with a shrug.

“That’s not okay!”

“Ms. Danvers,” Lena interrupts. “While I appreciate the sentiment, please believe me when I say that it is okay, and if it wasn’t I’d ask you to assassinate them.”

Kara blanches. “I—that’s not part of the job description.”

“Then since you’re so knowledgeable about your job, you should know that it does not involve you sharing your opinions about my company.” Lena leaves the room, and Kara begrudgingly follows.

“You wanted me to narrow down your enemies! I’ve narrowed them down to Morgan Edge and your board. It’s classic villain, wanting to take the company from its CEO. They all tried to get a rise out of you with the—the sexist jokes and Edge bringing up Lex. That was totally uncalled for! You’re definitely not like him and—”

Lena stops abruptly, and Kara nearly runs into her. Lena mutters something under her breath, and if Kara wasn’t Kryptonian she wouldn’t have caught: “I wish I was like Lex.” Oh, no. Probably shouldn’t have said that. When Lena faces Kara again, she’s wearing the fake smile. “Ms. Danvers, thank you for this morning. I’m not sure what I would have done without your help.”

“It was mostly the firefighters,” Kara responded, hoping the heat she feels in the back of her neck isn’t visible. “Like I said I just—”

“You may go home. I will not need your assistance for the rest of the day.” She walks away, brusque and swift, leaving Kara with a feeling of guilt bubbling high in her gut. She feels a pull in the direction Lena escaped, but the guilt builds a wall that prevents her from following. She does as she’s instructed and goes home. At intermittent moments throughout the rest of her day, Kara extends her hearing to Lena’s office. She hears nothing out of the ordinary, the clicking of computer keys, the sip of coffee. Every now and then, Lena lets out a deep sigh. When the sound registers in her mind for the third time in the same number of hours, Kara smiles. She eats dinner and crawls into bed. She extends her hearing once more, across town where she remembers the location of Lena’s penthouse. Silence. Kara sits up in bed frantically and listens to the rest of the city. She hears Lena sigh deeply. Kara zeroes in on the sound. Lena is still in L-Corp. Kara furrows her brow. It’s not unlike CEOs to take long days, but something about it doesn’t sit well with Kara. She throws off her sheets, superspeeds into her clothes and leaves her apartment.

---

Lena knows she won’t go home tonight around five in the afternoon when Sam pokes her head in to leave and pick her daughter up from soccer. So, Lena stays seated at her desk, creating and changing her own schedule while answering emails and looking over project proposals from R&D and planning appearances and...she sighs. She feels great determination in accomplishing Jess’s tasks along with her own, believing that she needs to work so Jess doesn’t worry about an impending workload like Lena knows she probably will.

She sends a second apology email to a Japanese business partner after sending her another rejection meant for her engineers. Lena rubs a hand over her face. She’s lost track of time and the number of defeated sighs.

There’s a knock at her door.

Lena immediately freezes. Her eyes find the analog clock she insists on keeping in her office. It’s close to midnight. It is possible that a few of her engineers are still crunching numbers, but that wouldn’t bring them to her office, especially this late. She straightens up in her chair. “Come in.”

Kara Danvers pokes her head in. Lena frowns. “Ms. Danvers,” she says. “I—I thought I gave you the rest of the day off.”

“Right…” Kara takes a moment and gives Lena an attempt at a smile. “Sam told me you’re having a late night and—”

Lena leans forward. “I haven’t told Sam I’m staying late.” She notices the blush race up Kara’s face. “Why do you insist on lying?” She asks.

“I don’t, I just… I have a friend in engineering. She saw your light on, and I don’t think you should stay here alone.”

The right wall of her office is entirely made of glass, offering a look out into the main engineering floor of L-Corp. It’s something she installed right at the beginning of her control over L-Corp, a symbol of transparency. The main lights of the engineering floor blinked out around eight in the evening, but as a former engineering student, Lena knows the weird preference for dark corners to do math. “Who’s your friend?” She asks, turning back to her computer.

“Winn Schott,” Kara replies. “I didn’t mention him before because it wasn’t relevant.”

Lena nods. “If you insist on watching me work, make yourself comfortable.” Kara is nothing if not persistent. She watches out of the corner of her eye when Kara crashes on the small armchair near the door she entered. Her eyes dart around, seemingly taking stock of the entire room. If Lena didn’t know better, she’d think Kara is taking note of exits or something similarly akin to her job.

The silence lasts all of five minutes until Kara speaks.

“So… what do you do at L-Corp?”

Lena takes a second to process the question. Did Kara just ask a CEO what she does for the company?

Then Kara’s eyes go wide with realization. “That’s not what I meant!” She rushes out but doesn’t elaborate. Kara’s lost expression doesn’t change, seeming, in fact, to worsen until Lena can practically see her brain shutting down. She decides to answer the question to spare her.

“It’s a lot of talking with investors, business partners and greenlighting projects.”

Kara nods, the deer-in-headlights look still in her eyes. “I did engineering in college,” she blurts.

“Did you now? How are you not already working for me?” Lena props her chin on her hand, quirking her eyebrow again and smiling. It pleases her when she sees a darkening of her blush. She’s too easy to tease.  

“I was a journalism minor. Got a job in that right from graduation.”

“Mm, then you probably know everything about me.”

“A little.”

“And yet here you still are.” There’s a measure of bitterness in the way Lena says this, but she offsets it with a smile.  

Kara must pick up on the note because she shakes her head almost vehemently. “I don’t look people up like that. Just the big things like how your mother bought the hospital not too long ago.”

“So her name can be on the side.”

“It’s a nice name.”  

For a long moment, Lena looks at Kara. Not even five minutes ago, Kara was blushing and stuttering. Now she holds herself tall, squaring her shoulders in a refreshingly confident manner. Lena scoffs and briefly breaks eye contact. “Well I think it’s quite a shame you didn’t pursue engineering.”

Kara shrugs. “I still love it,” she confesses. “Sometimes I work some numbers for Winn just for fun.” She sighs and presses three fingers to her temple. “Please don’t tell him I told you that.”

Lena studies her again, an idea forming in her mind. “I’d like to make a deal with you, Ms. Danvers.” When Kara doesn’t respond, only look at her with that mixture of interest and confusion. Lena takes it as a cue to continue. “Help me catch the blackmailer. If we put him behind bars, you get a job as an engineer.”

Kara laughs then, a nervous, shaking sound. “You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly serious,” Lena replies. “Engineering seems to be a dream of yours. Sleeping through a night without a threatening phone call is an immediate dream of mine.” She ignores the way Kara’s eyebrows shoot up at the mention of threatening phone calls. “The result favors us mutually, I don’t see a reason for you to say no.”

A pregnant pause later, Kara’s face splits into an absolutely sunny grin. Lena almost swears the sun rises with the smile. “Then yes!” She exclaims. “Absolutely yes. We’ll get the bastard, that I can guarantee, Ms. Luthor!”

Lena herself holds back a smile. “Then I can guarantee your job.” She reaches down and looks through a shelf on her desk. From it, she pulls a two inch three-ring binder. “You might want to start with my board.” The look of shock on Kara’s face is easily the highlight of Lena’s day.

They work through the night, Kara leaving at intervals to get herself and Lena some coffee. Lena practically feels the bags under her eyes grow in size and depth, but Kara maintains her usual chipper attitude. It would irritate Lena if she didn’t have the caffeine in her system to appease the bubbling of annoyance. Before she knows it, sunlight streams in from the window to her back and Sam enters with her own daily schedule ready to place in Lena’s hands.

“You look like hell,” Sam comments.

“Long night,” Lena returns shortly.

Kara comes around and slides Lena’s mug across the desk. Sam glances back and forth between them.

“Glad to see you’re getting along!”

In the afternoon, Lena makes rounds on the engineering floor. She brings Kara along under the guise of needing her bodyguard present ‘just in case’ but takes the time to observe her in the environment she could possibly be in soon. Lena sees curiosity and the joy of a child in Kara’s eyes. At one point she jumps at a man working on the new fuel-efficient jet engine that Lena announced a little over a month ago shouting “Winn!” gleefully. Winn looks shocked which turns to fear when he sees Lena. It doesn’t bother her. It’s actually amusing.

The other engineers nod in her direction as she passes or whisper amongst their colleagues. Lena takes a moment of pride. It was undoubtedly difficult to pull the company from the ashes that Lex left it in. One scandal followed the next which followed the next, all ranging from Lex dealing with terrorist organizations to Lena herself being an Alien to explain her support for Alien Amnesty. Lena faced all of the fire with the signature Luthor confidence and now she stands on the floor of something that she made herself.

Lena has no plans for returning home that night either, and Kara doesn’t show signs of leaving her side.

“You know, me, Winn and a few other friends have a weekly game night if you ever want to come.”

Lena glances up from some blueprints she’d been asked to review. “I don’t do friends.”

“I think my friends could change your mind. I think they’re pretty super.”

“And you?”

“Me? Oh.” Kara shakes her head. “I’m nothing special.

The response is too humble and Lena doesn’t believe it. She stares Kara down for a bit. In the end she gives a non-committal headshake as well. “Me neither.”

“That’s not true!” Kara jumps on Lena’s words faster than lightning. “You’re my age and you’re already a CEO of your own company. You’re constructing buildings, creating all new technology. You fight the press. You’re a business and political force, and that’s definitely nothing to sniff at.” She gives a firm nod as if that settled it all.

Lena’s phone rings before she can respond. “Well he’s early today,” she mutters and slides the answer button across.

“Ms. Luthor.”

Lena places the phone on her desk and puts it on speaker. When the voice continues, Kara perks up.

“I hope you enjoyed your little adventure yesterday. It’s a shame about your secretary, but that’s what she gets for collaborating with someone like you.” The mention of Jess boils an anger deep in Lena. “And that will be the fate of everyone around you. Unless you give up L-Corp.”

“Sorry, I’ll have to decline your kind offer.”

“So be it. Then I’ll be paying you a visit very soon.” The call ends.

“How often does that happen?” Kara asks from across the office. Her arms are crossed, and she has the look in her eye from the night before. Like she’s daring something to happen. Like she’s tempting fate itself.

“Often. I get a text or a call every day except yesterday which I suppose is rather polite of the blackmailer.”

Kara’s frown deepens. “He said he’ll pay you a visit soon, Ms. Luthor. I don’t think it’s the time for nonchalance.” She crosses the room and plucks the schedule Lena had created herself off the desk. “Your press conference is in a week. Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

“No. But it is also for baiting the blackmailer to make a move so—”

“What?! No! That’s a horrible idea!”

 “Good thing I don’t pay you for your ideas then.” Lena settles into her chair and checks her cuticles.

“But this is part of my job as your bodyguard, isn’t it?”

“Every part of your job is job is lined up in the contract and surely does not involve concern for my decisions.” Lena knows the risk too well and having it explained doesn’t sit well with her. “You’ll be with me throughout the event keeping a lookout. If there’s anything suspicious, we will act accordingly.” She swivels her chair away from Kara’s line of sight. “I’m afraid this is not up for discussion.”

She hears Kara throw up her hands and mutter something under her breath. When she asks, “Did you say something?” Kara only grudgingly replies:

“No, Ms. Luthor.”

Chapter Text

Kara flips through the binder Lena gave her with as much care and interest as she can muster on another late night. The board members are as leech-y and mean as Kara expects, but it annoys her when she can’t find true motive. Kara isn’t a detective by any means, she’s barely a bodyguard. The names and degrees and years on executive boards start to blend together. When she misreads ‘graduated Stanford’ as ‘gravitated toward Saturn’, she shuts the binder and starts pacing the office.

She likes Lena’s office. She likes how spacious it is with the two leather arm chairs against one side of the wall and the comfy looking couch next to the door and across from Lena’s desk. The space is open, much unlike the CEO herself. There are moments where Kara thinks she’s getting through to Lena, moments where she smiles and maybe teases, but when Kara prods or tries to act casual back, she grows cold. Kara looks at Lena then, and sees Lena is already looking at her. “What?” She asks, smiling.

Lena looks back at the computer. “Aren’t you supposed to be researching?” she asks.

“I was, but it’s boring,” Kara responds easily.

“Ha!” Lena types furiously at her computer. “Welcome to my daily existence.” She mutters something under her breath, but Kara catches her murmur, “I just want to work on my prototype.”

Kara leaves her place by the window that looks out onto the construction floor and slowly makes her way to Lena’s seat. She plops down on a chair directly in front of her. Lena pauses in her typing and looks up with a raised eyebrow. It’s a look that Kara sees often on Lena’s face. There’s a mixture of curiosity and expectance in her green eyes. The fluorescent lights in the office cause darker shades to swim in the irises. Kara always had a thing for green eyes.

Lena maintains the eye contact for a second. She turns away with a small blush evident on her cheeks. Less than another second passes before she perks up again. “Actually, could you take a look of something I’ve been working on?”

Kara only wonders why Lena has to look at her like that.

Lena reaches down into some space in her desk and resurfaces with something between her fingers. It looks like a panel of fabric: a dark navy or black shade. She passes it to Kara. It feels like something that Eliza would have bought at the local crafts store.

“This is…”

“Something that the government asked for.” Lena leans forward in her seat, smiling with her posture still impeccable but bent toward Kara eagerly. “Lightweight bulletproof fabric. I’m unsure what they could use it for, but it’s been fun playing with the molecular make-up of it all.”

Kara thinks it’s the first time she’s heard Lena speak so fondly or excitedly. She looks at the fabric again, un-folding it and spreading it on the surface. Feeling it between the pads of her fingers, Kara is more and more impressed. With some level of her X-Ray vision, she notices the placing of certain fibers and the weave of specific synthetic strands. “This is incredibly well-made,” she offers, knowing that it’s something that Lena probably heard every day.

“Thank you,” Lena answers. When Kara looks up to smile encouragingly, Lena’s excited and well-deserved smug grin has faded into a smaller and gentle smile. “If you’d like a microscope to get a better look, take one from one of the labs or the construction floor.”

Right. Humans need those.

Kara ends up resuming her spot across Lena, squinting one eye into a microscope and fiddling with knobs she’d never used before. They make the image under blurrier instead of magnifying anything, but Kara continues.

Lena’s typing stops. “Are you having trouble adjusting the lens?” She asks.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” Kara looks up from the microscope and smiles sheepishly.

Lena comes around, heels hitting the floor in extremely confident strides even in no more than five steps. She pulls the microscope toward her, and her long fingers deftly work the knobs. Kara sees Lena the scientist. Lena looks up from the microscope. “Now don’t move anything,” she says with a smile, then walks with the same confidence back to her seat.

Kara can swear she’s blushing again and still doesn’t know why. She peeks through the microscope. It shows more than it initially did, but she still enhances her own vision to supplement the microscope. It really is an ingenious design, but Kara can see places where the synthetics could be improved. She tells Lena as much.

“How so?” She does the thing where she places her chin in her hand in an expectant and curious manner.

“Well—”

They spend over an hour talking chemistry and physics and robotics. Lena is so effortlessly intelligent that it’s dizzying for Kara. She thinks about the strategy games that she played as a child on Krypton and how she wants to introduce them to Lena. She’d be a much better opponent than a grudging Alex. She barely bites her tongue with the sad remembrance that like most things in her life, she has to keep it secret.

They’re just coming off of some nerdy joke that Kara remembers from her senior lecture, and she takes the comfortable pause. “Ms. Luthor, I think you’re very brave.”

“For?”

“Supporting Alien Amnesty.” There are layers unspoken in the statement. Brave for defying the orders of her board, brave for inciting sudden distrust in business partners and investors. Brave for defying her family.

Something shifts in Lena’s expression. She blinks slowly, looking like a pleased cat basking in sunlight. Her smile is slow and sweet too, like pouring molasses. “It’s the right thing to do,” she says simply.

The two of them talk and work until dawn begins squeezing through spaces between skyscrapers. Kara leaves Lena for a quick bathroom break and when she returns, Lena is resting her head on her arms, asleep. Kara speeds to her apartment and returns with a quilt bunched up in her arms. She drapes it over Lena. Something catches her eye on Lena’s computer screen. It looks like a tabloid article by the sensational line, in dark black, all caps font: L-CORP AND LORD TECH SPLIT OVER LITTLE LUTHOR’S LOVE FOR ALIENS. WHAT WOULD HER BROTHER SAY?

If anyone took some time and actually researched, they’d know that the split came as a way for Lena to preserve her family’s company because of Lord’s and Lex’s connection. The headline grates on Kara for more than the glaring lack of journalistic integrity. She looks down at Lena, breathing softly, resting after a night of working both her and her secretary’s job. A secretary whose hospital bills she even offered paying. The headline pulls Kara further in the direction of Maxwell Lord, and she pulls out her phone to send a quick text.

When Lena wakes with the quilt over her, Kara pretends she doesn’t notice the reverent way she folds it up or the slight tremble in her voice when she thanks Kara for it.

They continue the routine of spending their nights at L-Corp, Lena working and Kara doing what she can in keeping herself busy. No threatening calls or texts come during the week, at least none that Kara hears or Lena tells her about.

“You should get some sleep.” Sam stands with her arms crossed, looking back and forth between Kara and Lena. “Both of you. If you won’t because I’m worried about you, which I am, the press conference is in three days.”

“Already?” Lena yawns.

“A break is probably a good idea,” Kara agrees. She’s seated on the couch again, legs over the arm, playing a game on her phone. “You know, the game night offer with the Superfriends still stands.” Both Sam and Lena give Kara a look. “What?” Kara asks. “They’re super and they’re my friends!”

Lena smiles. During the week, Kara started seeing Lena’s demeanor soften. Where she raised an eyebrow, she teases her slightly with a different look or her words. “The invitation is kind, but I do miss my bed…”

Kara’s stomach twists. While it’s been nice not hearing from the blackmailer, the fear of the voice still lingers. Kara knows that eyes still watch L-Corp and with each day getting closer to the press conference, Kara feels whatever nefarious plan being thought up is getting more and more deadly… or Wiley Coyote levels of dastardly. “Right, that’s probably a good idea too.”

A notification bar pops up on her phone: Come by.

She slings her legs off the couch. “Do you mind if I take my lunch break early?”

Kara passes the front door of the National City Daily five times before she leans against the wall behind the bike rack. She’d only quit a little over two weeks ago and already felt like a stranger. Entering the building would feel awkward at the very least, so she just texts: Meet me at the front so Snapper doesn’t kill me, please 😊 and waits.

 “Damn, when I said I owed you a favor for your help on the Superman piece, I didn’t know you’d cash in so big.”

She maintained a few friends at the Daily, one of them being the now-editor, James Olsen. Tall, lean, and intelligent, he was handsome if you were into that kind of thing which Kara was not. He passes a press badge into Kara’s hands.

“A badge to interview Maxwell Lord? What are you up to, Kara?” He raises an eyebrow and smiles. “It’s definitely not for any of the jobs I pointed you towards…” He’d given Kara a short list of magazines, websites and blogs in need of reporters with Kara’s experience. He’d even offered to speak to her supervising editor about keeping her job. We don’t deserve you, Danvers , was a line he’d throw around. It felt nice to be appreciated for one of her skills.

She shrugs. “For a job but not a reporting one.” At James’s curious look, Kara holds up her hands. “You said ‘no questions asked’ when you offered the favor, James.”

He mirrors the motion. “Fair enough. Just try not to put me on the blacklist.”

The Lord Tech building is maybe three floors short of L-Corp which makes Kara weirdly pleased. She has her old press badge around her neck. She flashes it quickly at the secretary.

Kara gets past Lord’s secretary with equal ease and soon she’s standing in an office that’s double the size of Lena’s with windows overlooking the city. On instinct, Kara glances to the left, where Lena has her observation deck. Maxwell Lord instead sports a trophy case filled with his doctorates, plaques and medals from the Mayor and other distinguished politicians. Kara makes a mental note of Lord’s priorities.

 “Ms. Danvers.” Maxwell Lord walks around a long, mahogany desk and extends a hand. “Mr. Olsen speaks very highly of you. I, personally, am still a big supporter of his work so when he asked for a quick favor, I couldn’t say no.”

Kara shakes the hand. “Mr. Lord. The pleasure is all mine.”

Lord motions to the large leather chair across from his desk, and Kara takes a seat as he rounds the desk once more. He reclines in his own chair, steeples his fingers together and gives Kara a sunny smile. She returns the smile nervously and pulls out the notebook she keeps in her bag.

“What’s your opinion on the separation of L-Corp and Lord Tech?”

Lord raises an eyebrow. “I thought the Daily already had me interviewed about the unfortunate decision made by Ms. Luthor.”

“This is from a different angle,” Kara assures him. “And, also, opinions can change. We want to get your official statement as of today.”

Lord shifts in his chair and sighs. “Lord Tech was a trusted partner of Luthor Corp for many years. When Lex Luthor was arrested on charges of treason, we did our best to maintain our reputation. Sadly, Ms. Luthor’s decision to divorce the companies,” here he breaks to laugh heartily, but it only makes Kara uncomfortable. “has only resulted in bad press for both of us. We’ve tried time and time again to make the ‘marriage’ work, but that silly Luthor Pride always wins out in the end.” Lord finishes off with a sullen shrug.

Kara tilts her head. “From our reports, it looks like Lord Tech is the only one of the two that has suffered losses in stocks.” She tunes her hearing to Lord’s heart as it quickens. She notices, too, the sudden red, angered blush on his face. “For the new angle then: what are your thoughts on the threats being sent to Lena Luthor because of her stance on Alien Amnesty?” It’s a shot in the dark, a risky one at that, and Kara focuses on Lord’s heart again. She doesn’t detect a spike in anything that would portray nervousness. The hitch in his breath, Kara guesses, is from shock.  

“That’s… new, I have to admit.” He says. “And this has to do with me because…”

“Because you have been very vocal about being against Alien Amnesty. It must feel like a breath of fresh air that L-Corp is finally getting punished.”

Lord takes a deep breath. His expression morphs into a small smile. “This is a very interesting angle. Let me give you a piece of advice.” He leans across the desk. “If you want to talk about hatred of Aliens, I suggest you look into Lex.”

“Lex Luthor? In a high maximum security prison Lex Luthor?” When Lord rises out of his seat, Kara knows the interview is over. She shuts her notebook and makes a show of placing it ‘just so’ in her backpack to prolong her exit. In that moment, Kara extends her x-ray vision and super-hearing one last time. She lands on the same quickened heartbeat and sweat on Lord’s brow. 

“He has more people on the outside than the police would like to say.” There is that note of finality that Kara knows too well even after only being in the journalism business for two years. She has to pause on that fact. Did that make her a good or bad journalist? 

Kara returns to L-Corp about an hour after normal business hours, and Lena is still sitting at her desk. She’s not working on anything in particular. If anything, from an outsider’s perspective it looks as if she’s staring longingly out of the window. When Kara knocks on the doorframe, Lena jumps a little bit in her seat. 

“Some lunch break,” Lena says, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, well.” Kara tells her about the interview with Maxwell Lord, leaving nothing out except for Lord’s suspicion of her brother. “Someone in that company, either Lord or Edge is guilty,” Kara finishes. 

Lena doesn’t say anything for a long while, and when she does it’s a soft thank you and a dismissal. 

The morning of the press conference is rather chilly, so Kara slips on a starched button-up and an argyle vest over it. Lena told her to meet at the press conference location, at the park right across from L-Corp. Kara is already dreading the bike ride, but when she leaves her apartment building, she notices Lena had sent her driver to take her over. 

Lena herself is the picture of class in a velvet coat over a black a-line dress. She hands the coat off to Sam and nods slightly to Kara. Kara smiles and offers her a wave before heading off to the side of the stage and melting into the crowd. 

Lena begins speaking, giving a brief history of L-Corp and iterating their tenants of hard work, progress and giving back. Kara does a good show of ‘good audience member’, nodding and clapping at all the right places. Her super hearing is extended to three city blocks and her sight scans the pockets of other audience members, finding only wallets and phones.

“It is my belief that my support of Alien Amnesty is a step toward progress, not technological progress per se but societal progress…”

Kara glances up at the stage and smiles. 

The shot comes then. 

In one fluid motion, there’s a click slide and release. And Kara’s superspeed is almost a breath too late. She appears to catch Lena as she crumples from behind her podium and as chaos erupts in the park. Sam rushes to Lena’s other side. 

“Call an ambulance,” Kara says with more calm than she feels. “I’m gonna go catch this guy.”

Sam’s eyes are wide and worried, but she does as Kara asks.

Kara jumps into the crowd, extends her hearing again. In the middle of the fleeing crowd, no one can see as Kara speeds to the source of the gunshot. 

Lena was shot from the third floor of an abandoned parking garage. From the vantage point, Kara can see the shooter’s line of sight. Kara knows this is the place where the shooter stood because of the acrid smell of gunpowder and the open duffel bag in the same spot. 

“Rao!” Kara exclaims, running her hands over her face. 

Kara finds out Lena is being treated at the National City Technological Hospital from the billboard sized LED screens covering the shooting. “You don’t even give her a second,” Kara murmurs bitterly.

There are uniformed officers stationed outside of Lena’s hospital room, and even with Kara’s L-Corp badge it takes Sam’s approval for her to enter.

“The shot grazed your right shoulder.” A doctor is currently at Lena’s bedside, showing her charts, probably at the CEO’s request. 

“Then it wasn’t supposed to be fatal.” Both the doctor and Lena look towards Kara. “The shooter used a sniper rifle, Ms. Luthor. If they wanted to kill you they would’ve.” The gravity of Kara’s statement settles into the room. Kara knows if she hadn’t been there to deflect the bullet it wouldn’t have been a kill shot either. The intended target was her right side, not her heart.

Lena scoffs. “Well they should have ended it when they had a chance,” she says bitterly. “Now there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Kara is so shocked she laughs. A giggle bubbles up from Sam’s lips too. The doctor awkwardly chuckles and hastily leaves the room. 

Kara finally gets a chance to look at Lena. Her dress is off in favor of a baby blue hospital gown. It only covers her left side as her right arm is tightly bandaged and in a sling.. Kara’s chest aches with guilt as she settles into the chair by her side. 

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, reaching for Lena’s uninjured hand. Her eyes go wide for a moment, but she doesn’t stop Kara from taking it. “I should have been faster. I…”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lena says, and her voice is so soft with a chastising touch that Kara does feel a little bit embarrassed. “If I recall, you were there to catch me when I fell.” 

Kara blushes. 

“Um…” Kara looks over to Sam who is blushing bright pink and standing at the door. “Lena, I’m gonna go pick up your stuff. I’ll… I’ll be back.” She hustles out of the room without another word. 

Sam’s interruption seems to break whatever spell had been cast over Kara and Lena, and they look away from each other, Kara at least feeling a little silly. 

“I’m going to plan a gala,” Lena says all of a sudden as a means of changing the subject. 

“You’re what?” Kara stops looking at her beat up shoes and snaps her attention back to Lena. 

“I’m going to plan a Gala,” Lena repeats. “To spite whoever tried to scare me today. I will host as many public events as it takes to bring those snakes out of the shadows.” 

Kara hesitates but nods anyway. 

Later that evening, as Lena is getting ready for bed, Kara gets a call from Alex. 

“I went by L-Corp today hoping you weren’t part of what happened at the press conference but of course you were.”

“I’m her bodyguard, Alex. I’m sure it would be a fireable offense if I just left her alone.” Kara shakes at a vending machine, and it drops two bags of doritos instead of the M&Ms she wanted. Kara looks around, notices no one is there and shakes the machine harder. 

Alex sighs on the other end. “Is it wrong that I’m happy that Lena was shot instead of you?”

“What!” Kara says in protest. “That’s so mean! I’m bulletproof!”

“Yeah and if you’d gotten shot and the bullet crumpled on your face, you’d be exposed.” 

Kara rolls her eyes and doesn’t dignify her sister with an answer. Three bags of M&Ms join the chip bags. She scoops them up out of the machine. “Did you call just to lecture me?”

“No. Jonn is being assigned to Lena’s shooting.”

“Jonn J'onzz Jonn?” Kara asks, popping a bag of Doritos into her mouth. “I can ask him for information about the shooting then!” 

Another sigh. “Yeah. I guess you could.”

Jonn J'onzz  is Alex’s supervisor at the FBI. He’d grown rather fond of Kara and her ‘quirky’ ways as he put it once before, and anyone who Alex respects Kara automatically loves. A few prods later, Kara gets Jonn’s number, and she makes her way back to Lena’s hospital room. When she returns, Lena has that pleasantly surprised look on her face.

“I told you you could go home,” she says.

“I know,” Kara responds. She plops back down on the chair and opens the second bag. “But I’m staying.” When she looks over to Lena’s bed, she sees the prototype she’d shown her earlier in the week on her meal tray. With her one good hand, Lena is turning it over, looking for bad stitching it seems. 

Lena sighs. It’s a little too similar to Alex’s resigned exhale for Kara’s tastes. “Fine. Then I need you to answer a few emails for me.” She motions to the side table where a small laptop sits. “Also, Sam told me she ran into your adoptive sister today. Alex? She found her incredibly charming.” A suggestive eyebrow raise.

Kara’s jaw drops. “What! Alex didn’t tell me anything about that! I need to call her back.” 

Kara returns to the lights dimmed and Lena slumped against her pillows, fast asleep. On the side table with the laptop, Lena had left Kara instructions on how to word her emails. Those take no more than three minutes and soon Kara is left alone with nothing to do but look at her boss… friend? She looks at the laptop, open to a generic search engine then back up at Lena. In a few clicks, Kara has a page on the Luthor family open. Quickly, she closes the tab. She promised Lena she wouldn’t. Instead, she looks up the address of the parking garage and spends a good hour and a half tracing its history back. 

Lately, the garage belonged to a no-name construction company based outside of Metropolis. Kara finds a few employees but no manager or anyone of a higher position. 

On instinct, Kara texts Jonn asking after any more information on the shooter’s hiding place. While she waits she control shift ts back to the Luthor family wikipedia. Kara bites her lip and looks up at Lena’s resting form. Just a quick scan wouldn’t hurt. 

Two minutes in, when Kara’s guilt begins to flare, her phone lights up. Jonn didn’t respond directly to her message, just sent her an attachment with a thumbs up emoji. When Kara clicks it, she sighs. 

The property, beginning two months ago, belongs to Lex Luthor. 

Kara deletes the message and continues her scrolling, making sure to delete the search history before she falls asleep in the chair. 

-- 

Lena wakes, and her eyes are drawn to the chair next to her. Kara Danvers was still there, Dorito dust on her fingers, snoring softly. She presses the call button for her doctor and immediately asks to be discharged. 

“Ms. Luthor, with good conscience, I can’t release you a day after admission!” 

“Please, doctor,” Lena says sweetly. “I wasn’t horribly hurt. You said it yourself 

A snort makes Lena jump slightly. She turns to see Kara rising from her sleep. “Whahappun…” Kara murmurs. Lena rolls her eyes. 

Another sound draws Lena’s attention. From the threshold of her hospital door, a bald man with serious eyes wearing dark clothing is showing his badge to the officers in front. When they let him in, he introduces himself.

“Agent J'onzz ma’am,” he says smoothly. Lena sees Kara give the man a happy wave to which he returns a friendly smile. “I’m with the FBI. I just wanted to introduce myself to you and let you know that I’m working very hard on your case with Agent Danvers.” 

A red-haired woman with an undercut also wearing dark clothes enters to join Agent J’onzz. Danvers. Lena looks at Kara who winks at her and shrugs. 

“Alex Danvers,” the woman says stiffly.

“Ah,” Lena croons. “Well-met Agent Danvers. My CFO’s description of you is rather spot-on.” 

They may be only related through adoption, but Lena swears that Alex and Kara blush the same way. 

Agents J’onzz and Danvers request to speak to Lena’s doctor, and the three of them leave the room, presumably to talk about her discharge. When she turns to make a comment about Alex to Kara, she sees her face scrunched up staring intently at the door as if trying to hear through it. Lena tilts her head, watches Kara but doesn’t say anything.

When Lena’s doctor returns with her discharge paperwork, Agent J’onzz and Kara’s sister have already left. “I have agreed to discharge you on your condition that you will stay home and not overwork yourself.”

Kara helps Lena out of bed with an offered hand. “She will,” Kara says confidently. Lena stifles a smile. There’s enough surety in Kara’s tone that Lena almost believes her.

The doctor leaves, and Lena slips her coat on while Kara cleans up the snack carnage from the night before.  “I wish your sister and her lead agent would have stayed,” Lena says. “I’d like to thank them.”

Kara shrugs again. “Maybe you can invite them to that incredibly dangerous gala you’re planning.” 

Without looking at Kara, Lena nods and replies. “I’ll start the guest list off with them. That’s a great idea, Ms. Danvers.” Kara huffs. Lena smiles and meets her eyes finally. “Will you please smooth that crease on your brow? Everything will be perfectly fine. If they didn’t kill me yesterday, I doubt they’d kill me there.”

Despite Lena’s words, she sees Kara fitz and fiddle and look like she wants to say something so bad. But when Lena looks at her expectantly, she looks away like a child caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. So Lena lets it go. 

They’re led to the back exit of the hospital where Lena’s driver is already waiting. As Lena gets in, Kara gets that look on her face again where she concentrates and tilts her head toward something unseen. Lena decides not to ask, but the unsaid question is answered when they exit the back employee parking lot and are immediately swarmed by press. 

Lena straightens in her seat and casts her stare dead ahead. There is consistent tapping and muffled yelling through the tinted windows. She catches a few words: stepping down, regret. Lena’s jaw clenches. She wishes she could roll down the window to let every shark out there know she doesn’t regret what she said. She doesn’t regret her stance. But everything is a game of chess, so Lena will bide her time. 

The driver loses the press after a block and a half. He takes the turn toward her apartment. Lena clears her throat. “Could you drop us off at the office?” Wordlessly, the driver corrects the course.

“Wait!” Kara interjects with a sound close to a squeak. “I thought you were supposed to be resting at home! I told the doctor you wouldn’t be at work!” 

Lena nods. “That’s the expectation. No one would expect me to be back at work, but they’d wait for me at home. I guarantee that.”

And as they turn on L-Corp’s street, Lena isn’t surprised to see her theory is correct. There are barely, if any, cameras stationed outside the sleek silver building. She casts Kara a knowing look to which she responds with a sheepish aversion of her eyes.

They park without issue and before she knows it, Lena is back in her office overlooking the assembly floor. 

“I need you to do some clerical work concerning the gala for a bit if you don’t mind. It’s a little bit last minute, so I’m going to need the list of people who can attend and the people indisposed quicker than usual.” 

Lena settles into her chair and winces as she agitates her arm just slightly. It doesn’t go unnoticed to Kara, however, who is immediately at her side, fussing. “You shouldn’t be working,” she says again, and while it was charming the first time, Lena is beginning to find it a little bit tiresome. 

“Ms. Danvers,” Lena says. “I’ve given you a task. I’d rather you do your job instead of playing nurse.” 

Begrudgingly, Kara does as Lena asks for the next few hours, checking lists and making calls and only sometimes giving her those puppy dog eyes. By the end of the day, they have a pretty sizable list of investors, scientists and supporters of Alien Amnesty, the cause which Lena has decided to make her gala benefit. 

Kara sighs and hangs up the last phone call. “It’s pretty risky to--” With a look, Lena shuts her up. “Yup, right okay. Planning a gala.” She stands and picks up her vest. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay, Ms. Luthor. I should…” 

Something in Lena flutters and panics and she says, “Wait!” 

Kara pauses. “Yeah?”

The request sticks in her throat, but she swallows and whispers it. “I… can you accompany me home? If I recall, when I’m safely in my home is when your duty for the day ends.” 

She looks away just as Kara’s face melts into a small smile. “Yeah, I can do that,” she says. 

Lena thinks that’s the end of her requests, but when Kara finishes walking Lena to the door of her penthouse, she slowly takes her sleeve. “Would you… just for tonight.” Kara is already nodding, but Lena feels like she should make her case. “I’m just...  after what happened and all… I have pajamas and an extra toothbrush and a guest room that pretty much nobody uses…” Kara gently pushes Lena into the apartment with a soft hand on the small of her back.

“I already said yes, Ms. Luthor,” Kara says. She stops near her kitchen island and turns to face her. “Do you have people around at all?” 

Lena shrugs, taking off her coat and hanging it in her closet. “I’m not a popular woman.”

“I don’t understand why not.” 

“Then you’re a fool.”

Kara mimics the rise and fall of her shoulders. “Maybe.”

Something akin to shame creeps across Lena’s skin. She changes the subject quickly, asking Kara what she’d like to have for dinner and then subsequently ordering three pizzas and a full Chinese food order. 

They eat on Lena’s couches with some period drama she’d seen a million times. Lena can see Kara’s brain trying to keep up with the courtly politics of the movie but then easily get distracted by the plate of fried rice Lena hasn’t even touched.

“Are you…” Kara starts, and Lena motions for her to go ahead. In this oddly domestic space, Lena has a chance to see Kara in a bit of a different light. She’d already changed into a pair of gym shorts and an L-Corp fundraising t-shirt that Lena dug from the bottom of a drawer. 

Kara already looks comfortable in Lena’s space. She’s cross-legged on the couch, a dribble of sweet and sour sauce on her chin. Her hair is still tight in a pony-tail, which Lena doesn’t understand but won’t say anything about. 

It’s awkward but also a little comforting. She’s only ever had Sam come over and even then she has to leave to take care of her daughter. Lena hadn’t had anyone over like this since… her last girlfriend, the one who didn’t care for the sounds of the city. Or did she sleep through it? Even that was a long time ago. 

The movie ends and after Kara gives a half-hearted “I liked it!”, Lena says something she’d been thinking all day. 

“Thank you, Ms. Danvers. For being there yesterday. For catching me, for staying by my side last night… everything.”

Kara smiles. “Yeah, of course. It’s my job.”

Right. Lena feels stupid. She becomes aware it’s her turn to speak when the conversation lulls and gets a little too awkward. “G-Good Night, Ms. Danvers. You know where your room is, and the uh, towels are in your guest bath and…”

Kara backs up. “Good night, Ms. Luthor.” 

When Lena wakes in the morning, Kara is already on the couch, freshly showered, hair finally down. She’s wearing the same clothes she slept in and the back of her shirt is dark with water. 

“Good morning, Ms. Luthor! What’s for breakfast?” 

The chirpiness so early would usually cause Lena to grumble and do nothing but make herself coffee. Even now, Lena offers a forced “Good morning,” before gravitating to the coffee pot. She hears Kara walking up behind her. 

“Let me guess, you make killer french toast.”

Lena glances over. “Oh, I don’t usually care about breakfast.” 

There’s a beat of silence. Then an appalled “WHAT?” from Kara which makes Lena wince.

“Ms. Danvers please. It’s eight in the morning.”

“Oh right, sorry.” Kara  starts to wander around the kitchen, opening cabinets and pulling out ingredients from the pantry. 

Lena sighs and pours herself the coffee. She takes a long, long drink. “What on earth are you doing?” She finally asks. 

“Making you pancakes,” Kara says simply. “It’s a Saturday morning. There needs to be pancakes.” 

Lena wraps both of her hands around her cup of coffee. “Oh. Would you like help?” 

Kara shoos her away from the kitchen. “Let me work, lady.” 

The pancakes are somehow burnt and undercooked at the same time, so Lena ends up ordering from a crepe place downtown. Kara, of course, is unnecessarily apologetic but by the second bite of her nutella filled dessert-for-breakfast, her disastrous attempt is forgotten.

Lena is filling up her cup for the second time when her phone rings from her pajama pocket. She’s determined not to answer calls during the weekend, but the caller ID forces a response. She slides her thumb across the answer call button. 

“Hello, Mother,” Lena greets.

“Lena!” Lilian Luthor’s voice is sickly sweet even with just saying her name. “I heard you’re putting on a soiree at the end of the month. Am I going to get my invitation?”

Lena tucks the phone under her ear and ignores the looks of askance on Kara’s face. “Mother, you’re always invited to every event that I host. I just don’t know if I can expect you to come.”

“You should still send me an invitation. It’s only polite.”

“I will, Mother.”

The call ends quickly after that, and Lena resumes her spot across from Kara at the kitchen island. 

“Should we put your mom on the list of enemies?” Kara asks, mouth full of chocolate spread. 

Lena takes a bite of her own Jam filled crepe and chews for a moment. “She’s rather harmless. A little crazy but harmless. Any assets she has are in a bank’s possession, just like Lex’s.” Lena gives Kara a sour smile. “That’s what happens when you use your money for nefarious purposes.”

Kara’s eyes are wide, but she nods. 

--

Despite Lena’s reassurance, Kara adds Lilian Luthor to her mental list of growing enemies. 

After breakfast, Kara changes back into her work clothes. “Thank you for dinner… and breakfast.” She’s still a little bit embarrassed from her attempt to make pancakes which Lena could probably still by the sheepish add-on. 

Lena looks up from the iPad she’d brought out to the kitchen for email answering. There’s a look of confusion there that immediately turns to what Kara thinks is panic. “Ms. Danvers I… have a bit of planning to do for the gala still. I’ll pay you overtime and…”

Kara settles back into her seat easily. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be scared.”

“Scared? I’m not--” Lena pauses. “Thank you.”

Kara nods and whips out her phone. “I’ll just call Alex to bring some clothes over for me.”

Chapter Text

“Kara, you’ve been at Lena’s house for four days already!”

“I know, but Lena is lonely! And a little bit… nervous. It’s why she hasn’t been to work.” Kara is yelling at Alex through her open passenger window as she’s cradling another bag of clean laundry. This was the second time Alex had to drive over to Lena’s penthouse, and there’s clear irritation on Alex’s face. 

She huffs, nods and drives away with a final warning of “be safe”. 

Kara doesn’t know why Alex is stressed about Kara doing a good thing for a friend. The first time she asked, Alex simply expressed her concern since Lena had been the target of an assassination. 

“Alex,” Kara had sighed. “I. Am. Bulletproof.”

“And you could be exposed and in danger for it.”

They got into a fight that evening over Alex’s supposed ‘danger’ of ‘exposure’ and Kara shooting back with ‘I can’t change that I’m not human’ and ‘I’m supposed to be proud of it’. 

But they’d made up and Kara doesn’t want to keep thinking about it now. She and Lena are in the middle of watching some show about some English Monarchs who weren’t even real and there’s magic involved somehow. She knows if she misses any more of it she’ll be lost for three episodes and ask Lena questions every five seconds. They already have a rule that Kara needs ‘processing time’ before asking. 

When she enters Lena’s penthouse again, she’s pleased to find she’d paused the show entirely. 

“Don’t look so happy,” Lena says with a warning glance. “It’s just to save us time from the rewinding I knew I would do.” 

Regardless, Kara leaps over the back of the couch and nearly bounces Lena off. Her arms shoot out immediately to steady her. “Sorry,” she says, a little pink in the face. Lena’s hands landed around Kara’s shoulders, and there’s a disapproving glare in her eye. 

“Put me back,” she says sternly. Kara hopes she doesn’t imagine the color to Lena’s cheeks as she does. 

Lena insists on having gyros for dinner whatever the hell those are, but Kara really enjoys the fact they’re just wraps and Lena is satisfied at how healthy the meal is. 

They watch a few more episodes before Lena turns off the TV for the night. 

“Hey,” Kara shifts to face Lena. “Tomorrow is my weekly game night with my friends and--” 

“Oh.” Lena stands to throw all of their garbage down the chute. “Yeah, of course, you can go to your game night. I’ll be alright tomorrow night…”

Kara shakes her head fervently. “No, that’s not it at all. I actually wanted to invite you.”

Lena finally makes eye contact with Kara as she’s making her way back to the couch. “I-- I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she says. “I don’t know your friends. Isn’t it going to be a little… awkward?” 

“I’ve already asked, and they’re cool with it!” Which is partially true. Kara asked her friends if it was cool to bring a friend, and they said yes. But they don’t know it’s Lena.  

Lena bites her lip. “Okay,” she says after a moment of silence. “Yeah, I’ll go.” 

“Great!” Kara jumps up. “We’ll go a little early to Alex’s place so you get a chance to meet everyone before Winn absolutely destroys you at Catan.” 

Lena scoffs. “Don’t count me out yet, Ms. Danvers. The Luthors are a competitive family.”

Kara laughs, and she’s glad it makes Lena smile. “I won’t go easy on you then,” she promises. “Good night, Lena.”

Kara definitely makes Lena blush with that one.

Kara feels excited to the point of near-giddiness as they approach Alex’s apartment. The last person she’d introduced to the Superfriends was Mike, and that obviously didn’t go well. At least with Lena, Kara is confident that they will all get along. 

Kara practically skips to the apartment door, Lena trailing behind by a few feet, hissing at her to not go too far. 

Alex opens the door, and whatever greeting was on her lips dies only to be replaced with a curious look. “Ms. Luthor. Kara didn’t tell me that you were the friend she’d be inviting the game night.”

“Alex!” Kara shoots. “Mom would be ashamed of your hospitality!” 

Her older sister winces. “Sorry,” she says.

“The apology is mine,” Lena speaks up from next to Kara. “I should have asked Kara to make sure I had an actual invite.”

“You do!” Kara protests. She’s shut up by a sharp look from Lena. 

Alex nods and waves her hand in a dismissive manner. “You do,” she agrees. And then she starts to look a little… embarrassed? “I just don’t know if you’d like chicken bacon pizza for dinner…”

Lena laughs slightly. “I’m not a stranger to pizza. I actually think chicken bacon is also Sam’s favorite…”

“Yeah, so move it!” Kara interlaces her hand with Lena’s and drags her across the threshold where the rest of her friends are waiting. They react just as Kara expected they would. Winn shoots straight out of his seat and stutters a greeting. James looks up and waves, flashing a charming smile. 

“Hope you like losing,” he says. 

Kara almost quips back, but she notices James’s eyes have drifted down. She follows his eyes. She hasn’t let go of Lena’s hand. With a shocked yelp, Kara throws her hand down. 

“Hey! Watch those guns, Ms. Danvers.” Lena shakes out her hand. “I need that hand tonight.” 

The blush races down the back of Kara’s neck.

Lena huffs and takes a seat next to Winn. Alex has a stack of pizza boxes in her hands and passes Kara her three. They start to dig-in and take their turns around the Monopoly board. 

Kara has always been at least okay at the game, but Winn and Alex have the financial acumen to take the lead and stay pretty much neck and neck. Winn takes the victory, Alex coming in second and Lena third. Kara leans across the coffee table. “Thought you were gonna bring the fire, Luthor.”

Lena leans back. “Bring out the next game,” she says. 

They’re in the middle of Settlers of Catan when the TV that’s been playing in the background gets their attention. The Breaking News banner scrolls across the screen where big white words announce “LENA LUTHOR: TARGETED BY BROTHER?” Alex scrambles for the remote to change the channel, but Lena places her hand on her wrist and shakes her head. 

Everyone puts down their cards and turns their attention to the TV. 

The news reporter stands in the park where Lena was shot. In the background, Kara can barely make out the parking garage and the break in the treeline where the shooter had his opportunity. “I’m standing now at the spot where L-Corp CEO Lena Luthor was shot almost a week ago during her press conference. The FBI has been investigating the shooting and now have come out with few pieces of evidence that connect the near-assassination to Lena’s brother, the infamous Lex Luthor.” 

Kara’s eyes shift from the screen to Lena whose shoulders have slumped. She stares at the board where she had already started to build the longest road. 

“A local National City gang with connections to the Luthor brother are the main suspects behind the shooting, sources close to the FBI has said and that is the thread of evidence that the federal authorities are following.” 

Alex takes the remote at that moment and switches the channel to a home and garden show and turns to Lena. 

Lena shakes her head before anyone says anything. “Let’s finish the game,” she says firmly. “Kara, it’s your turn.”

When they’re being driven back to Lena’s place, the CEO spends the entire drive on her phone. She grumbles, sighs, taps furiously at the screen. This keeps up even until they enter the apartment and Lena trades out tapping at her phone to her tablet. 

Kara doesn’t know what to say or if she should say anything. The night of her secretly researching the Luthor family comes back, and the shame settles in the base of her throat. 

“Lena…”

Lena holds up a hand to silence her. “I was shot from a parking garage, correct?”

Kara nods. 

Lena turns her tablet. On the screen is the same ownership report that Kara requested from Jonn. “Lex owns it right now.”

Kara nods again.

There’s a moment of silence where Lena turns the tablet back around and then places it facedown on the counter. “He can’t be behind this,” Lena says. “All of the calls I get slander him.” 

Quietly, Kara sits across from her. “I don’t know,” she says. “That could just be a tactic to throw you off. The fact that it used to be Lex’s is pretty compelling evidence…”

Lena’s face falls and her posture slackens. “I just wish it’s not him,” she murmurs. “He always defended me. Against the men in the science industry, our mother…” Lena bites her lip. “I can’t bring myself to believe it’s him.”

Her voice rings with such a deep sadness and conviction, that Kara finds herself believing her. She reaches over and takes Lena’s hand. “Okay,” she says. “Then where should we start?”

Lena’s eyes go wide, and she rounds the counter to wrap Kara in a hug. Kara hugs her back. When they separate, Kara catches Lena wiping away tears  with the back of her hand.

“Jack Spheer,” Lena says.

Kara raises an eyebrow. “CEO of Spheerical? Why would he want you dead?”

“No, I mean I’m invited to an opening of a club he has a stake in. A few more of our college cohorts will be there as well. I could list a few old ‘friends’ who might want me dead or at least might have connections to that no-name construction company.

So they devise a plan. Lena would work some of her magic to get Kara another press badge since Kara isn’t sure her reporter contacts wouldn’t give her the same favor. They’d go to the ribbon cutting separately, Kara as a normal reporter and Lena as Jack’s friend. They’d reconvene afterwards and compare notes. 

“So you should go back to your own place. I’ll have someone drop off the badge for you in the early afternoon. The ribbon-cutting is at six thirty, don’t be late.” 

Lena’s eyes are wild but focused at the same time. Kara can see that this is starting to become more than catching Lena’s blackmailer. They need to clear Lex’s name too. 

--

Lena spends the first night in a week without Kara, and she finds herself missing the humming and insistent patter of her feet on her wooden floors. She writes in a request for Press access and gets the promise of a badge in the early afternoon the next day. 

As Lena is settling down to bed, she feels Kara’s lack of presence a little more solidly. Her phone chimes with a text message. Lena expects the anonymous caller as she does every night, but the screen shows Kara’s name. Fearing the worst, Lena picks up.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Kara’s voice is the welcome chipper Lena has missed, but there is an undertone of something else. Nerves?

Lena pulls the blanket over her and lays her head on the pillow. “Yes?”

“I wanted to call to tell you goodnight.” 

It sounds a little absurd but undoubtedly sweet. Lena chuckles softly. “Good night, Kara.”

Her laugh is reciprocated over the phone. “Good night, Lena.”

Lena sleeps soundly that night even though a soft part of her heart is anxious to see Kara the next evening.

ally. 

The next day, a fully recovered Jess delivers Lena a new dress and news that she had already been to Kara’s apartment to drop off the press badge. “She had to ask about tonight’s dress code,” she whispers conspiratorially, and Lena laughs. She sees there’s something else Jess wants to say, so she prompts her with a look. “Something must have changed for you to have grown fond of her so fast.” 

Lena tries to hide her smile. “She’s starting to grow on me.”

Lena got a quick look at the guest list once she’d accepted the invitation and knew the entire affair would feel like a college reunion. As she exits her car and is swarmed by reporters, the feeling increases ten-fold. Jack Spheer and Veronica Sinclair are the big names crossing the threshold other than her but she sees business majors turned investors and stock-holders and other scientists who had gone on to fund public grants and private companies. 

“Ms. Luthor! What do you have to say about the accusations presented against your brother?” “Ms. Luthor, do you believe in the accusation that Lex is the one trying to assassinate you?” “Is there anything you want to say to your brother in prison?” “Ms. Luthor!” 

Lena moves quickly through the crowd of cameras and mics, smoothly refusing to give comment after comment until she clears the hoard. 

Jack’s new club, called the Earworm (a rather disgusting name, but Lena wouldn’t judge) is thrumming with neon lights inviting patrons to drink, party and enjoy. There is a central main bar, manned by five bartenders in front of three tiered alcohol shelves. Around the bar is the entire dance floor, illuminated by passing strobes, a few bar tables and stools interrupting every ten feet or so. On the second floor, the VIP lounge is shrouded by glass partitions and velvet rope closing off each booth. That’s where Lena is headed, but first she needs to find Kara. 

One individual waves for their place at the bar, and it takes Lena a moment to register the sunny face of Kara Danvers. Kara Danvers in a suit. Kara Danvers in a suit that is blue and pressed and fitted complete with a skinny black tie. Lena attributes the quickening of her heart to her increased speed going to meet her. 

“Hey!” Kara greets. Lena watches her eyes skim over Lena’s dress. Red, also very fitting. “You look… pretty great.”

Lena laughs. “Same to you, Ms. Danvers. Now, the game plan.” Kara shakes herself presumably to refocus. “I’ll go up to VIP and talk to Jack. We’re old friends so it shouldn’t be hard to convince him to catch up. Everyone down here should give you an objective look on… this entire situation.”

Kara leans against the bar, lets her eyes roam over the crowd. “What about you?” She asks.

“I already told you, I’ll talk to Ja--” 

“No, I mean this is a really crowded club. I’m actually your bodyguard, not a reporter.”

Lena waves her off even though her chest warms at Kara’s thoughtfulness. How silly, she was only rightfully thinking of her job. “I’ll call if I need you,” she says easily and sweeps off back into the crowd and climbs the stairs to her designated booth. 

It’s soft, black velvet and on the tabletop there’s a bucket of ice with two bottles of champagne branded with the Earworm Club logo. She pops one open and pours a glass. Looking over the dance floor, Lena finds Kara’s form moving through the crowd, doing some sorry excuse for a dance before starting up a conversation with a pretty woman and taking her to the bar. Lena wonders how often Kara goes to clubs to pick up women. 

“As I live and breathe, Lena Kieran Luthor!” 

Lena looks up. Right on time, Jack Spheer sidles up, lifts the velvet rope and sits across from Lena at her booth. “I thought the rope was a guaranteed privacy,” Lena says. 

Jack scoffs. “Don’t be like that, Luthor,” he says. “A lonely woman in a VIP booth warrants a visit by her old friend. Besides, your entrance turned tonight’s opening about your great survival of an assassination attempt.” 

Lena rolls her eyes, her walls fall, and they catch up, talking about work mostly. Jack has always been one of Lena’s closest friends. They pulled many an all-nighter in college and even tried dating. That never took. But Jack still had the same charm, cocky smile and genuine interest in the things that Lena had to say. Lena finds that she missed Jack. They should talk more often. 

“About what you mentioned before…”

“About your loneliness in this booth?” Jack wiggles his eyebrows at her. “Would you like me to remedy that for you?” 

Lena holds up a hand. “I meant the assassination attempt.” 

Jack’s posture falls, and his face grows serious. 

“I believe it has something to do with our separation from Lord Tech.”

“So you don’t believe it’s Lex’s doing?”

“No.”

For a second, all Jack does is nod. “You know, Maxwell Lord has been a little bit desperate lately.”

This piques Lena’s attention, and the interest in her eyes prompts Jack to continue.

“He tried to buy the newest Spheerical building, but I didn’t let him. There are interesting rumors about him buying up buildings to run illegal activities. I mean, I doubt it’s true, but it can’t hurt to make sure my good, honorable name isn’t tarnished.”

“Of course,” Lena deadpans, but her mind races with what Jack revealed to her. 

“Okay, Lena.” Jack stands up from the booth. “You clearly need something a little stronger than that champagne. I can hear your brain working, it’s making my head hurt.” He picks up the bucket of ice and passes the unopened bottle to a passing waiter. “I’m gonna get us something different.” 

--

Kara’s eyes follow the man who slides into Lena’s booth and leers at her. They begin to talk, he makes Lena laugh, and that makes Kara a little bit hot under the collar. She huffs, and turns her face away from the scene. Lena can take care of herself, she tells herself. If she needs, she’ll call. Kara has a job to do. 

She slides her way across the dance floor, trying to match faces to names she’d researched. Her eyes fall on a tall woman sauntering her way toward the bar. Kara follows her, flashing the press badge as she asks, “Ms. Sinclair?” 

The woman who Kara remembers as Veronica Sinclair turns. 

“I’m with National City Daily. Can I get your thoughts on the Earworm Club’s opening? There are a lot of big name folks in here tonight.” 

Kara pretends to write and listen while Sinclair expounds on her opinions on the popular and not-so-popular people Jack Spheer invited to the opening. 

“Uh-huh, I see,” Kara says, getting a little bit impatient. “Lena Luthor has also decided to make an appearance today. A pretty bold move after being shot only a week ago. How do you feel about her being in the public eye again so soon?”

There’s an instant shift in Sinclair’s features. The snooty up-turned nose turns into a sorrowful, almost practiced expression. “Lena and I go back forever! It’s so scary to see something like that happening to her. I just got invited to the gala she’s planning in a few weeks. I really hope nothing bad comes from it!” 

Kara’s eyes narrow slightly, and she thanks Sinclair for her time. The woman disappears into the crowd without a single care in the world. Could it be possible she had some sort of stake in Lena’s downfall that Kara hasn’t recognized yet? She darts her eyes back up to the club’s VIP lounge where Lena is suddenly alone. Kara bounds up the steps to meet her.

As Kara approaches the booth, she sees the same man had returned to sit across from her. They have a bottle of vodka they’re splitting, and Lena already looks a little red in the face. It’s almost the same shade as the dress she’s wearing. Kara clears her throat. 

The man makes eye contact with her first. “Hello there,” he says cautiously. “You must be…” 

“Kara!” Lena stands halfway up her seat to take her arm and pull her into the booth. “Jack, this is Kara Danvers. She’s been working for me at L-Corp recently. A new engineer.” 

A new engineer. Hearing the title that Kara has wanted since quitting her journalism job sends warmth to her cheeks. Surely it’s not from Lena’s insistent squeeze of her bicep. “That’s me,” she says. “Kara Danvers. Engineer.”

Jack’s eyes linger on the way Lena is holding Kara and raises an eyebrow with a small smile. 

From Kara’s side, Lena groans. “No, Jack. It’s not what you think. We’re not together. Kara is only a friend. Just an employee.” 

Employee didn’t sound nearly as good as engineer. Kara deflates just a little. 

 The small talk ends as Jack is whisked away to talk to other people of import, and Kara tells Lena she has information to discuss. 

“I’ve found out something interesting as well,” Lena agrees. “Meet me at my place in half an hour.” She whips out her phone, presumably to call her driver.

Kara ends up hailing a cab.

When Kara enters Lena’s apartment, the CEO is already at her kitchen counter, scrolling through something on her iPad. “We need to take another look at Maxwell Lord,” she says without looking up.

“New information from Jack?”

Lena nods. She tells Kara what she learned from Jack, about the buildings that were bought as fronts for possible illegal practices. At the end of the information dump, Kara is still skeptical. “How do you know Jack’s information is trustworthy?” She thinks back to his smarmy smile as he poured Lena a shot of vodka. 

“Because I trust him. He has nothing to gain by giving me false information.”

Kara couldn’t necessarily argue with that one. “Well, I just talked to Veronica Sinclair who was a regular sweetheart.” The sarcasm in her voice actually makes Lena laugh. “But now that you bring up what Jack told you, I think she’s harmless.”

“I wouldn’t say harmless, but she wouldn’t try to kill me.” Lena closes down her iPad and reaches up into her cabinets to pull wine glasses and her half bottle of cabernet. “I say a nightcap for a job well done.” She begins to pour.

Once again, the image of Jack and Lena crawls across Kara’s mind. “I think I should go home, actually. Maybe get started on the Lord lead again…” 

As Kara makes a move to pick up her suit jacket, she feels Lena’s small hand close around her wrist. 

“Come now, Kara. We had a good night, let’s celebrate! You don’t have to drink, just stay with me.” Her green eyes have grown a little darker from the intake of alcohol and maybe something else, but Kara can’t read into it. She’s only her employee after all.

Despite that, Kara’s heart melts. She stays.

Kara ends up carrying Lena to bed after her second glass of wine. Kara made a show of drinking as well but alcohol didn’t affect her Kryptonian physiology. And it never tasted any good. So once Lena had fallen asleep on her couch, a late night talk show playing, Kara took off her heels and scooped her up. 

From the while she’d spent at Lena’s place, Kara knows where her room is, but she’d never been inside. 

It’s decorated in the minimalist style that’s prominent throughout the rest of her apartment with a white desk pressed to one wall and a bookshelf near the entrance to her ensuite bathroom while her other wall is literally made of window. Her bed is a queen, and Kara is a little bit amused to see it’s undone. There is some chaos in Lena’s life after all. She sets Lena onto the mattress… then realizes her dress is still on. That can’t be comfortable. 

Kara looks up at Lena’s ceiling and squeezes her eyes shut. “Rao, help me,” she mutters and sets to unzipping and slowly undressing Lena. She keeps her eyes trained on Lena’s face, but that doesn’t do anything to stop the steady, hard beat in her chest. The dress is off, so Kara throws the comforter over her body, telling herself she just imagined seeing white lace. 

As Kara leaves Lena’s room, her phone buzzes to life. Cursing, Kara goes to turn it off, then sees the number is unknown. The anonymous caller. Without another thought, Kara answers the call.

“Lena Luthor.” The voice crackles across the line. “You’ve been lucky thus far. But I promise, next time, I won’t miss.”

Kara grinds her teeth. “And next time,” she says. “You won’t get away.” 

There’s silence on the other end for a beat, then they hang up.

Chapter Text

Kara returns to L-Corp the next day with the purpose of speaking to Winn about his hacking ‘hobby’. It’s not an intervention. On the contrary, Kara is certain that Winn can help her find more information about the rumors Jack Spheer shared with Lena. She’s hounding him on the production floor, while he’s waving his arms frantically and telling her to “be quiet for God’s sake!”

“Come on, Winn,” Kara whines, jumping in front of his work-station. Winn squeaks and tries to reach around or push Kara away, but both of them know that she’s leagues stronger than him. “It’s just one innocent search. It’s for your boss! It’s for your job security.”

“I’m not hacking into Maxwell Lord’s real estate details, Kara!” Winn says. “I don’t care how much you ask or how many Superman comics you buy me, I won’t do it!”

It turns out it takes fifteen Superman comics to get Winn to do what she wants.

He hunches over his work computer with Kara standing behind him: a broad shadow blocking him from the sight of his supervisor. Even knowing Winn’s capabilities, Kara is still impressed when he’s able to work through Lord Tech’s security in three minutes.

“Well that’s interesting…” Winn mutters. Kara immediately invades his personal space.

“What? What’s interesting?”

Winn shoves her away with a grumpy noise. “Take a look here,” he says. He turns the screen toward Kara and highlights a line of a spreadsheet with his cursor.
From what Kara can see, the spreadsheet shows Maxwell Lord’s building acquisitions all the way from the early 2000s. There are buyer’s documents and seller’s documents. What Winn shows Kara is the latter. A transfer of the deed to the questionable parking garage from Lord to…

“Lex Luthor?”

Winn scrolls to the far end of the spreadsheet to the date of the deed transfer. Kara’s eyes narrow. Lord transferred the property to Lex just three months before his arrest.

“Thanks, Winn!” Kara takes a picture of the document on her phone, gives Winn a big hug and hops back in Lena’s company car to bring her the information.

“I knew he was holding something back in the interview!” Kara says, pacing back and forth in front of Lena’s TV. Lena is sitting with Kara’s phone, zooming into the screenshot to read the nitty gritty details.

“According to this agreement, since Lex is incarcerated the building is Lord’s responsibility.” Lena puts the phone on the coffee table and picks up her iPad. She clicks through a few windows, opens a spreadsheet. Kara just stands there, watching her furiously work, a crease forming in her brow. Kara starts to call the crease her ‘thinking line’ in her head.

Lena leans back and sighs, wiping a hand across her forehead, smoothing out the thinking line. “He owns my hospital now as well.” She clicks down a page. “There’s an individual who is mentioned many times but each time their name is redacted.” Lena turns the iPad toward Kara and picks up the phone with the screenshot.
The file that Lena turns toward Kara with the redacted names has a header that’s familiar. She squints at the picture again then back at the file. It’s the same name as Lex’s bank.

“What?! I don’t know about you, but that feels like enough evidence to book this guy! Should I call Jonn?”

Lena holds up a hand to stop the oncoming tirade. “We need something a little more substantial.” She puts her chin in her hand and fingers tap delicately against her cheekbones. “I can have drinks with him,” she says finally. “Maxwell has always had a…” She pauses. “Fascination with me.”

Kara feels her face heat up and her jaw clench. She hates the idea. She hates the idea the more she thinks about it. But Kara knows, logically, that Lena is right, and she has the charm needed to possibly get a confession out of him. “I want to be close by,” she says, keeping a hard edge to her voice.

There’s a pause where they lock eyes and all the breath in the room is taken away. Kara inhales shakily and breaks her gaze first. “It’s my job,” she mutters, looking at a specific swirl on Lena’s granite countertop. Whatever tension is in the air breaks and dissolves as Kara’s memory from the night before covers both of them like a fog.

“Right.” Lena looks into her lap. “Your job.”

---
Lena chooses a low-cut black dress for her meeting with Maxwell that night. She matches it with a red lip and dark eye make-up. Looking in the mirror, Lena feels a smug satisfaction knowing how weak men can be in the face of a beautiful woman.

Her eyes fall on her closed door where Kara is waiting on the other side. She bites her lip. Lena couldn’t be imagining the way her eyes narrow when she brings up Jack Spheer or Maxwell Lord. She also couldn’t be the only one of the two of them who feels a run of electricity dancing around her heart whenever they look at each other.

She glances away and scowls at herself in the mirror. Kara is only doing her job, she said it herself and rather forcefully. So she chides herself for even entertaining the thought, tugs the dress down to expose a little more cleavage and strides out of her room confidently.
But there’s no mistaking the change in Kara’s demeanor, the way her eyes take in the dress then snap back to her gaze. The clench of her jaw and shudder of her breath.

Lena tries to hide her smirk. “Good?” She asks.

That breaks Kara from whatever stupor she’d fallen in. “Maxwell Lord is going to be sorry he messed with you,” she says, smiling. Back to gentle Kara.

“Hn,” Lena flips her hair over her right shoulder. “He’ll be more than sorry.”

Kara’s smile widens, and Lena feels like she isn’t imagining anything at all.

When Lena enters the Lord Tech building , she’s immediately escorted by one of the receptionists to the big, cylindrical elevator that leads straight to Lord’s office.

“Mr. Lord is eagerly expecting your arrival,” the woman says with a deep incline of her head.

Lena returns the gesture. When the elevator doors close, it whirrs to life and ascends with the ease of all of Lord’s latest technology. It’s gaudy, a physical manifestation of everything she hates about the man. Standing in it feels like she’s stepped in a pit of tar and the higher she rises, the more her stomach sinks.
She looks out into the National City skyline. Kara is somewhere close. At least, that’s what she told Lena when they parted ways ten minutes ago. Lena couldn’t fathom where Kara could be so that she could keep Lena safe (Kara babbled something about Jonn J’onzz and his ‘connections’), but she believes her. She believes her with her whole heart.

The elevator beeps and opens up into Maxwell’s office which looks more like a penthouse than a place where important decisions are made.. There’s easily a forty foot walk down a green velvet runner-like carpet toward his mahogany desk that spans twice the length of her own.
All around them are floor-to-ceiling windows that peer out into the National City Night. Lena can tell he likes the feeling of, quite literally, lording over everyone else. Bile bubbles up Lena’s throat when she sees Maxwell Lord has watched her since her entrance. He stands from his cushy seat and walks around with both of his hands extended. On instinct, Lena extends her hand in the lady-like way, and it’s kissed. A cold shudder passes through her body, and she knows it has everything to do
with his eyes trailing down her body.

“As I live and breathe,” he rasps. “Lena Luthor. CEO of Luthor Corp. The phoenix risen from her brother’s ashes.”

Lena holds back a sharp remark. “Maxwell Lord,” she says, trying to imitate her mother’s sugar-sweet drawl. “It’s been far too long.”
Lord keeps Lena’s hand clasped in both of his, and he squeezes a little too tight. “Well with the divorce of our two companies, I can’t really blame you.” He releases her hands and walks back behind his desk. There’s a rustling and a clinking of glass that tells Lena he’s rummaging around an alcohol fridge. Sure enough, he emerges with a bottle of scotch and two glasses. He fills both glasses to about two fingers before he sits again.

Politely, Lena takes the glass but waits until Lord takes a sip of his drink first.

“You know, it’s horrible business.”

Lena raises an eyebrow in the middle of her first sip. The warmth of alcohol is the first comfort she’s felt since walking into Lord Tech.

“What happened to you last week. The attempt on your life.”
Lena hopes he doesn’t notice how she tenses. She shrugs. “The work of a coward and nothing more.”

Lord laughs. “Is that why you planned a gala to take place so soon? A sort of challenge to these ‘cowards’?” Before Lena could even reply, he’s already wagging a finger at her. “For all you know, the person targeting you is working with you in close quarters. They could be the very people you trust in your inner circle.”

It’s a blatant, vitriol-fueled lie. Lena bites her tongue even harder and just settles for a pointed look. Still, despite it all, Kara’s sunny smile passes through her mind unbidden. Then, following it, the insecurity. She remembers how eagerly Kara took the job, remembers how easily she let a stranger into her life, into her home. It’s a well-known fact that Lena Luthor is a private person. What made her accept the human embodiment of sunshine? Loneliness?

“Either way,” Lord finishes his first glass of scotch and pours another before reaching over to top of Lena’s glass. “Whoever is behind all this sounds pretty powerful. I’d be very careful about who I’d cross if I were you.”

Another threat. Lena forces a smile. “Whoever is behind this greatly underestimates what it means to have me as an enemy, Maxwell.”

Lord has the grace to look a little bit nervous.

After the pause, Lord starts talking about his favorite topic: himself. Lena tries to keep up, tries to take a look around the office to find any sort of hint or clue to his involvement with the blackmailer. The more she looks, the more frustrated she becomes. What did she expect to find? A script for the threatening phone calls?
She checks back in when Lord asks her a question. Something about her latest project in clean energy air travel.

“It's a project that Lex was very passionate about.” Lena decides to name drop her brother in an attempt to get a reaction. There is none, at first. They look at each other, Lena trying to dig some truth from behind the facade. She watches as Lord sets down his glass.

He crosses his arms tightly and glances out the right-side window. Very softly, he inhales. “I’ve always admired Lex…”

The glass shatters.

In a rush of adrenaline, Lena drops to the ground as more gunfire rains into the office. In the chaos, she’s almost sure she hears the drop of Lord’s body as well. Is he dead? Is she about to die?

Lena hears a sound akin to a tornado’s touchdown and sees a wall of black-and-white… plaid? She looks up with wide eyes and catches Kara’s gaze as she shields her with her body. “How--” She asks breathlessly. Another sound registers: the pinging of metal. Bullets. Bouncing off of Kara’s back.

With a grunt, Kara scoops Lena into her arms, and Lena wraps holds onto Kara’s neck instinctively.

“Hold on tight,” Kara says and, before Lena can blink, she’s flying through the National City skyline.

Suddenly, Lena remembered her fear of flying. Her arms tighten around Kara’s neck, and her face buries itself into the fabric of her shirt. “If you drop me, I’m going to kill you,” she murmurs.

Her voice should be taken away by the wind. But she feels the rise and fall of Kara’s chest as she laughs because of course she can hear.
In a moment’s time, the wind stops blowing through her hair and clothes. She pulls her face from Kara’s neck and sees they’d alighted on the balcony of Kara’s apartment. She sets her down gently, and Lena gets the first good glimpse of her. Kara Danvers. Alien Kara Danvers. Alien Kara Danvers with her button-up falling from her shoulders. Alien Kara Danvers with her button-up falling from her incredibly broad, muscled, shoulders…

“Oh shoot!”

Lena’s attention snaps back to Kara who has realized the state of her dress. Lena wants to say something, anything, but all she can do is stare.

Kara holds up a finger and, in another blink of an eye and the wind of her super speed, she returns dressed in a Metropolis U hoodie. They make eye contact again, and Lena’s heart skips a beat.

“I’ll catch him,” Kara says then takes off into the night.

--
Kara torpedoes in the direction of Lord Tech and extends her hearing. A set of footsteps and a pounding heartbeat grabs her attention. Quickly, she adjusts her angle toward a new skyscraper under construction that is conveniently across from Lord’s office.

She spots a man with a black duffel bag taking the steps two at a time toward the ground floor. Swooping down, she picks him up by the collar. “You’re coming with me,” she declares to the panicking man now suspended a good thirty stories up.

When Kara returns to her apartment she sees Lena had let herself in. Right. Lena. That’s going to be an interesting conversation.

She opens her balcony door and tosses the man onto her rug.

“Did you..”

Kara watches Lena take in the blindfold and arm restraints she’d fashioned out of man’s own clothing. “It’s all I had…” she says sheepishly.

Lena shakes her head and bends down to be at eye level with the man. She’s oddly calm. Too calm. In a smooth motion, Lena removes the blindfold. The man blinks into the fluorescent lights. He finds his voice soon enough.

“W-who are you?” He squeaks. “Where’s the crazy lady who flew, I--”

Kara interrupts him by walking into his line of sight as well. “Hi,” she says with a slight wave.

The man immediately scrambles back as far as he can. “You’re crazy, man! What the hell are you? Are you going to eat me?”

Kara frowns. Why did humans always think aliens wanted to eat them? She opens her mouth to retaliate, but Lena cuts in.

“Open the bag,” she commands Kara. The steel in her voice lowers the temperature in the room considerably. That has to be the only reason Kara feels a shiver down her spine.

She crosses the room and hauls the duffel bag next to Lena. She crouches and unzips it. Inside there is a deconstructed automatic rifle with what looks like a sight. Kara didn’t even know automatic weapons came with a sight. She gives the man a look: eyebrows raised and lips pressed together in an unimpressed line.

The man pales. “I can explain,” he whispers.

Lena drops down on Kara’s couch and tosses a leg over the opposite knee. “We’re waiting,” she says.
“I’m not an assassin or anything, I swear. I got the duffel bag and a message threatening me, my job and my family if I didn’t…” He gesticulates as much as he can with his hands tied behind his back.

“Do you have the message?”

“It’s in the bag.”

Lena glances over to Kara and gives her the go-ahead nod. Kara rustles through the bag, under the gun, behind the sight and checks the side pockets. She can hear the man’s heartbeat speed up and his hard, nervous swallow. Her fingers grab something paper, then. “Got it.” She picks up a folded piece of yellow legal paper and unfurls it. Sure enough she sees the outlined threat. Whoever wrote the letter knew the corner the man’s office sat in, the name of his wife, her workplace, his kids and school. Kara grimaces and passes the letter to Lena. “So you thought it was in your best interest to take a gun and try to take out two of the most powerful people in National City? Why didn’t you go to the police?”

The man looks down. “If they knew all of this stuff about my family already, I figured they would know if I went to the cops. I… took my chances.”

Lena finishes reading the letter and hands it back to Kara. Her eyes linger on the would-be assassin. “You work for the National City Safe?”

Kara looks up with wide eyes. The National City Safe was Lex’s bank. The same bank dealing with the property transfers. Kara has to stifle a groan. No matter what they do, they only get more questions instead of answers.

“I do,” he says meekly.

Lena sighs. “Alright,” she says. She stands and smooths out the skirt of her dress. “My friend here will drop you off at the local police station,” she says. She hands him the letter. “Here is your proof of your blackmail. Turn yourself in or face a very lengthy lawsuit from me.”

After some incessant nodding and “Thank you, Miss, I promise I’ll do as you ask…” Kara lifts the man by his bound arms and takes him downtown (so to speak). She sets him right in front of the station door and drops the duffel bag next to him. She plants her hands on her hips. “Now don’t get into trouble.”
The man just looks at her without saying anything.

Kara coughs awkwardly and flies off.

She lands back on her balcony, and Lena is there to let her in.

“Our guest is where he needed to go?”

“Yep.”

There it is, the awkward silence. The silence filled with Lena’s new knowledge of Kara’s identity. The identity she’d kept secret from everyone in her life except her sister. She didn’t expect her boss (and friend?) to be the second person to keep her secret.

“So…” Lena says. She leans against Kara’s kitchen island and crosses her arms. That’s her tell that she’s closing herself off again.

“Yeah…” Kara rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. “I guess we should talk.”
Lena motions with one of her crossed arms, and Kara moves to mimic Lena’s position on the back of her sofa so they’re maybe three feet apart. If Kara shifts just right their shoes could touch. When she looks up at Lena’s face, it’s expectant. So, she begins.

“I’m…”

“An alien.”

Kara nods. “Specifically--”

“Kryptonian.”

Kara balks for a moment. “How did you know?”

Lena smiles a tight smile. “I’m a Luthor. You can say that we have a…” Here, Lena looks up and down Kara’s form in a way that makes her a little self-conscious. “...Special interest in Kryptonians.”

Despite herself, Kara laughs. Yeah, that makes sense. “For the longest time I wanted to just… be normal? But recently I’ve been thinking: I have this amazing power,
and I want to share it with the world. I want to protect people like I protected Alex.”

“How did you protect Alex?” Lena asks with a curious head-tilt.

Kara feels herself blush. “I… uh, it’s embarrassing.”
Lena nods and lets it go. There’s a long pause before Lena speaks again. “I understand why you didn’t tell me,” she says. “I’m a Luthor and, of course, my brother has a long-standing feud with your…”

“Cousin,” Kara supplies.

Lena raises an eyebrow but nods.

“That’s not why I didn’t tell you,” Kara says. “I mean, maybe it was at first but it didn’t take long for me to find our that you’re, you know, not Lex and actually pretty great and--”

“Well, you made quite the first impression.” There’s that look again. The steely look that lets Kara know Lena can probably see right through her.

All Kara can do is give her a soft laugh.

“Thank you,” Lena continues. “I know it’s your job but--”

Kara shakes her head emphatically. “No, you’re welcome. I’m sorry about before. I didn’t mean to be standoffish.”

Another eyebrow raise.

This time, Kara looks away. She doesn’t know how many of those looks from Lena she can take. “You can stay here tonight. Let me get you something to wear.”
Lena doesn’t protest or say anything, so Kara takes that as a yes. She slips into her bedroom and takes a moment to catch her breath. It’s been a while since she’s flown that much, and, at this point, Kara knows all of her weird feelings and breathlessness aren’t just from the excessive use of her powers.

No, no, no, Kara can’t have a crush on Lena. That’s just, so wrong on so many levels. She’s her boss and Alex would absolutely murder her. And it’s not like Lena has feelings for her anyway. Kara takes a deep breath and starts rifling through her drawers. She picks a blue shirt at random and takes it back out to Lena in the living room.

Lena shakes the shirt out then gives Kara the third eyebrow raise in the last ten minutes. Kara hates that her heart stutters.

“What?” She asks.

Lena turns the shirt around, and Kara almost laughs out loud. It’s a Superman shirt.

“Are you trying to be passive aggressive Ms. Danvers?” There’s a small smile on her face.

Kara shrugs. “Not on purpose.” She returns the smile. “I don’t have a lot of rooms like you do, so you can take my bed.” She leads Lena through the threshold and motions. “Home sweet home,” she proclaims. When Lena doesn’t respond, Kara glances over then follows her eye-line to the window across from her bed. Right. Lena still went through something pretty rough tonight. “I promise it’s locked,” she whispers.

Her words seem to shock Lena out of whatever stupor she’d fallen in. “Of course.” Kara notices the fake smile immediately. She reaches forward and places a hand on Lena’s shoulder.

“What can I do?”

Lena bites her lip. “I’ll be alright.”

So they split up, taking turns in the bathroom to change and freshen up before bed. Kara crashes on her couch, and she’s maybe an hour and a half in to her YouTube binge when the door to her bedroom creaks open again.

“Kara?”

She sits up immediately. “Lena?”

“I…”

Kara takes one step and speeds up to Lena, looking absolutely adorable in the big Superman shirt and a pair of Kara’s basketball shorts. “What’s wrong?”

Lena looks down at her feet. “You’re bulletproof.”

Kara doesn’t say anything, waiting for her to continue.

“If you were with me and someone tries to shoot in again…”

It clicks in Kara’s head. “Do you want me to be in the bed with you?”

“If you don’t mind.”

Kara shakes her head. “I don’t mind at all.” Kara follows Lena back into the bedroom. Lena sits at the edge of the bed. For a moment, Kara can swear she’s about to say something. She doesn’t and instead slides back under the covers. Kara walks over to the other side of the bed, the side closest to the window of course and joins her.

She shuffles deep into the comforter and turns to the center of the bed out of habit. There Kara finds Lena looking at her. Not just looking, staring.

“Your pajama top is inside out,” Lena whispers and turns away from Kara.

Not knowing how to respond, Kara just sleeps.

---
When Lena dreams that night, she dreams she’s on the plane, and it’s already going down. She clutches her armrest and shuts her eyes tight.

Then, as it always does, it levels out. The dream plays itself through the way it usually does, the plane lands perfectly on the water and the red-headed doctor stands to check on everyone around them. Lena looks out the window. She sees someone.

And she can’t imagine it now. It’s Kara.

Chapter Text

When Lena wakes up, the first thing she notices is Kara’s leg entwined with hers. The second thing is how little space she has left on the bed. Thinking back to the night before she could swear that she and Kara had equal shares of space. The soft feeling of safety is replaced with a cocktail of amusement and the slightest annoyance. Enough to frown but only for a second. “Scoot,” she grunts, putting her hands on Kara’s shoulders and pushing. But Kara is solid, all muscle. All alien, Kryptonian muscle.

Lena can imagine Lex’s laugh now.

Not gaining any progress with Kara other than a disgruntled murmur, Lena sits back against the headboard to gaze at her strange bedfellow. This was her savior on the flight to Geneva? That would make last night the second time Kara saved her. No, the third. The falling elevator. Kara saved her then as well.
The same voice from the night before, the voice that offered the seed of doubt speaks again. Why does a Kryptonian want to get close to you? It asks. Lena bites her lip. She doesn’t know. She should have known who you were. Your name is on the building for gods’ sakes. She knew your brother’s reputation and stayed. What’s her ulterior motive? She doesn’t have an answer for that question either. If Kara wanted to work as an engineer she could have applied to any other company in the city. With her resume they would have hired her immediately.

Kara shifts in her sleep, apparently determined to push Lena onto the floor. Casually her arm drapes over Lena’s lap.
Somehow, with that simple movement, the doubt fades.

On the bedside table, Lena’s phone buzzes to life. She reaches over to grab it. No Caller ID. Lena declines the call, but less than a minute later it’s ringing again. Rage rising in her chest she answers. “Listen here!” She says in a harsh whisper.

“Lena.”

Her heart stops. “Lex?”

“Hey, little sis. We should talk. Can you go somewhere private?”

“How do you know I’m not already?”

He laughs the knowing laugh that makes Lena smile involuntarily. “You whispered when you picked up.”

So Lena untangles herself from Kara’s askew leg to escape into her kitchen. She presses the phone to her ear. “Lex, where are you? How can you call me right now?”
“Some of the guards owed me a favor,” he responds smoothly. “But I don’t have a lot of time. Have you been using my cards? My accounts? It’s okay if you are, I just need to know.”

Lena furrows her brow. “What do you mean?”

“My assets are frozen,” Lex says. “My lawyers told me this morning. Unauthorized use, they said.”

The gears in Lena’s head begin to turn. “From when?”

Lex hums thoughtfully. “Maybe starting a month ago.”

“A lot more recently than the threats I’ve been getting.”

“Threats,” Lex repeats. He does that annoying thing where he falls into his thoughtful silence for so long that Lena is certain he’s died over the phone. “Interesting. The nay-sayers are threatening the Luthor legacy it seems. And it looks like you’re our only hope.”

Lena nods then realizes he can’t see her. “Seems like.” Lena is overcome with the urge to burst into tears and talk to Lex. About how much she misses him. About how scared she’s been. About Kara. Not about her true identity of course but just about how she thinks Kara is the most incredible person she’s ever met. How she feels safe with Kara. About everything.

But before she gets out another syllable, a muffled voice speaks on the other end and Lex sighs. “My time’s up,” he says. “I missed you, little sis. Stay out of trouble, catch those rat bastards.”

“I mis--” The line goes dead. Lena numbly places the phone on Kara’s counter and sucks on the inside of her cheek to keep those annoying tears in.

“Lena?”

She swipes at the corners of her eyes and turns. Kara sleepily slumps out of the bedroom, stretching her arms over her head. If Lena didn’t feel so hopeless in that moment she might have appreciated the clear lines of muscle disappearing into Kara’s pants.

“Good morning,” she says.

“Mornin’.”

Kara starts up some coffee in the most precious twelve cup glass pot that Lena has ever seen. From the cupboard, Kara pulls two mugs and hands one to Lena. It says, in curled silver font, I Woke Up Like This.

With hot Donut Shop (Whatever that means) coffee in hand, eggs sizzling in a pan and some white bread in the toaster, Kara turns on the big screen that Lena remembers from that very first game night. And just like that night, an angry red banner declaring UPDATE scrolls across the screen.

“Last night National City watched in shock as glass rained down from the top floor of Lord Tech’s mighty skyscraper.” The scene flashed onto the screen, a police helicopter darting toward Lord Tech shining a spotlight onto the gaping hole that had been shattered through the sheer number of bullets used. “Maxwell Lord was sitting in his top floor office alone when a lone gunman fired into his building.”

Lena exchanges glances with Kara. Alone?

“Lord suffered a few scrapes from falling and one or two grazes by bullets but is overall alright. He will not be returning to work just yet but is instead deciding to take a short break from National City. The hunt for the gunman is still ongoing.”

Another glance. Shit.

Kara stands with a speed that jolts Lena. “I knew I shouldn’t have let him go!” She shouts. “I was soft! I was a soft idiot who believed his sob story about his job and his family and the threat. You should have told me to knock him into the next galaxy!”

Lena wonders vaguely how strong Kara is, really. She reaches over and places a hand on Kara’s elbow. This stops her in her tracks almost immediately. “Let’s think about this,” she says.

Kara shakes her head. “Nope. I’ve decided.”

Lena stays silent and waits.

“You’re going to stay with me until this is all over.”

Kara’s decision settles over the room, and Lena turns her words over in her head a few times. Of course that’s the more logical and safe option considering everyone knows where Lena lives and the gunman, escaped or not, was carried through the city, forgoing streets all together and can’t know the location of Kara’s place.

“Yes,” Lena’s heart immediately says. Out of her mouth comes, “What if it doesn’t end soon?”

“It has to.”

“But what if it doesn’t?”

“Then you’re sticking with me forever.”

Lena bites her tongue to keep a stupidly broad smile from breaking over her features. “Forever?” She asks.
Kara blushes prettily.

In the end, Lena stays. Of course Lena stays. It makes the most sense for her safety. For the first week that Lena and Kara share their space they establish a domestic routine.

Lena wakes first and starts a pot of coffee while she answers the first of the day’s emails. Kara joins her a few minutes later when the sound of percolating and smell of the brew entices her from their warm bed. Yes, their bed. After the first night, Kara tried to take the couch again, but Lena shook her head adamantly. She feels safer with Kara’s warm body near hers, the steady slow beat of her heart like a promise. And she tells Kara as much.

“I sleep better with you around.”

Kara paused from dressing the couch to look at her with slightly wide eyes.

Lena shrugged and darted her eyes away to stare at the threshold of the bedroom door. “I feel safer. You know. Bulletproof.”

The coldness in her voice extinguished the sliver of light in Kara’s eyes, but Lena convinced herself it can’t be helped. Not because she’s an alien but because Lena is a Luthor with many enemies. More enemies than her brother if she counted his friends who disapproved of her softer stance with aliens.

It’s better this way. That’s been Lena’s mantra for the past week when Kara gazes at her softly from the dim light of the bathroom or across the marble countertop like she’s doing at that moment.

“What?” Kara asks curiously.

“Hm?”

“You’re staring,” she says. “Have I got something on my face?” She smiles faux knowingly.

Lena laughs and turns her eyes away, hoping Kara doesn’t notice the embarrassed flush on her face. “Not exactly,” she says, scoffing. “I was just informed that you have a package at L-Corp that we need to pick up.” She clicks out of an email and stretches her arms over her head.

Kara makes a show of thinking which Lena politely allows her to do. “I guess I could make some time,” she says.

Lena rolls her eyes. “I’m glad I was able to fit into your incredibly packed schedule,” she replies teasingly. No, She chides herself. Professionalism.

She calls her driver since Kara herself doesn’t have a means of transportation and soon enough they’re on their way. When he makes a jovial comment about Lena looking ‘well rested and in better spirits’ Lena finds that she can’t exactly argue with that statement. She started to notice the returning healthy color to her cheeks and the diminishing bags under her eyes. She’d stopped receiving phone calls in the middle of the night.

She would have chalked it up to her better sleeping habits thanks to her temporary roommate, but when she checks her phone in the morning there isn’t any notification that she had missed a call. Maybe it has something to do with the attack on the Lord Tech building. Maybe her blackmailer feared angering the same woman who flew his gunman to the edges of the stratosphere. Maybe he finally decided to stop. Lena doubted the last scenario but would take any modicum of hope she found.

The trip to L-Corp is pleasant, and, as they near the impressive building, Lena finds that she missed this. The commute, her office and all of her business. Maybe she could sit at her desk for an hour or two. She glances at Kara. If her bodyguard would allow her, of course.

As normal, Lena and Kara are dropped off at a back entrance and Jess is there to escort them up the elevator.

She talks animatedly about Sam’s successful few weeks as interim CEO and how “we can’t wait for you to come back of course but Ms. Arias and I insist on you taking as much time as you need away from the office” and proclaiming “in fact, we both agree that it’s better for you in the long run to take breaks like this. Not that I’m in any sort of position to tell you what to do, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena laughs and places a placating hand on Jess’s shoulder. “I missed you, friend,” she says softly.

Jess smiles and pats her hand as she opens the door to the mailroom. A delivery driver finishes placing his packages in their correct department carts and scoots out of the way with an apologetic smile, giving Jess space to find the correct box. “From The National City Daily for Ms. Danvers.”

Kara coughs lightly when she takes the package. “This is exciting,” she says. She can’t even wait to open the package, unraveling the twine and picking apart the brown paper while Lena watches fondly. When Kara coughs again, she chuckles and leans forward to pat her back.

“Watch it,” she warns. “Let’s pick up a smoothie on the way ho--”

The bright green light that emits violently from the box makes Lena shield her eyes.

“Rao!”

Lena hears Kara curse with barely a breath before hitting the ground of the mailroom. “Kara!” Lena feels a sharp pain in the back of her head then… nothing.

---

When Kara wakes, she sees the shelves of the mailroom above her. The ache in her body makes it hard to turn her head and even more difficult to speak. Her mouth is dry, her lungs rattling as she gasps out. “Lena…” she says. “Lena…” The blur in her eyes doesn’t hide that Lena Luthor is gone out of her sight.

A man leans over Kara and helps prop her up. She recognizes the wise eyes and tight jaw. “Jonn,” she mumbles. “Jonn, where’s Lena?”

Jonn looks behind his shoulder and makes a dismissive motion. “You okay there, Danvers?”

“I’m fine,” Kara insists, pushing at Jonn’s shoulder with a weak hand. “Where’s Lena?”

Jonn backs away from Kara and speaks to the people she can’t see. “Take her to Headquarters. Put her under the sun lamps.” And he leaves.

Kara fades in and out of consciousness for the next five minutes until she’s in a black van. Someone in a hazmat suit switches on a soft yellow light and immediately Kara feels strength coming back to her muscles.

With a gasp, she rockets up in the stretcher.

“Ms. Danvers!” One of the suited people exclaims. “Please lay back!”

“Where are you taking me?” She demands, curling a hand into a fist. The suited figure backs up into one of the walls of the van.

“Calm down…”

“Honestly, Kara. Do you think that we’d be powering you up with the sunlamps if we wanted to kidnap you?”

Kara’s turns her head at the second voice, vaguely familiar. The individual takes off the mask and shakes out her shaved hair. “Alex,” Kara splutters.

Her adoptive sister nods. “Now can you please relax and get your energy back so you can talk to Jonn?”

“You’re taking me to the FBI?”

“Something like that,” Alex provides.

Seeing someone she finally knows, Kara reclines again, taking a deep breath and allowing the simulated rays from the Yellow Sun to soak through her skin. She tries to ‘relax’ like Alex had asked her to do, but the absence of Lena stirs a worry in her chest.

In another five minutes time, Kara hears gears grind and metal chains pull up what she assumes to be a rather heavy garage door. The truck rumbles in and sunlight stops streaming into the two little slats on either side of the van walls. Kara smells concrete, hears the heavy thump of combat boots running. She can make out a few words from hushed conversation outside. One of them: Kryptonian.

Kara tenses and grabs Alex’s arm. “Where are we?” She asks.

Before Alex can answer, the back of the van swings open and Jonn J'onzz stands in front of a small, armed retinue of guards. He jumps gracefully into the back and holds out his hand for Kara to shake.

“Kara Zor El,” he says. Kara shakes his hand, a little numb at hearing her Kryptonian name. “My name is Jonn J'onzz and I’m the director of the Department of Extranormal Operations.”

As Jonn and Alex walk Kara through DEO headquarters, passing under numerous American flags and stone staircases, Jonn explains the history of the DEO in protecting the country against Alien threat and their unwitting surveillance of Kara courtesy of her own adoptive sister.

Alex is at least respectful enough to look ashamed when this news bomb is dropped. Kara tears her eyes away from Alex with a tight jaw. They’ll have to talk about that later.

They enter a large room with multiple screens displaying live feed of the outside of DEO headquarters and throughout the city. One screen shows something that looks like nothing more than a desert landscape. In the center of the room there’s a contraption five feet in diameter that projects holographic images with a bank of computers surrounding it. More DEO agents man the computers, speaking into headphones to whatever field agents are dispatched at the moment.

Jonn and Alex cross the bank to stand at the projector. Kara stays on the opposite side and looks around her, still in awe over the size of a government agency she didn’t know existed.

Jonn clasps his hands behind his back. “Lena Luthor has been taken.”

Kara doesn’t react other than with a further tightening of her jaw.

“By who, we can only guess.” Alex takes over at this point. She clicks a button and the projector whirs to life, displaying a 3D rendered image of Lena Luthor, all high cheekbones and regal features. “With the numerous recorded threats and the attempt on her life at the press conference--”

“Two attempts,” Kara interrupts. “There’s good reason to believe the shooting into Lord Tech’s Tower was meant for Lena .”

Alex raises an eyebrow but nods. “We’re assuming the perpetrators are the same.”

“Ms. Luthor has been of interest to the DEO ever since she took over the family business.” With Jonn’s stoic face and similar manner of speaking, it’s hard to discern if he said “family business” with a little more steel than the rest of his sentence. “Her stance on Alien Amnesty is admirable of course, but we can’t afford to be too generous. She might have hired this blackmailer and the ‘assassins’ to stir controversy and up L-Corp stock.”

“Lena wouldn’t do that!” Kara protests. Her loud proclamation garners incredulous looks not only from Jonn and Alex but some of the DEO agents who had subtly moved their headset to the side to listen in. “She’s sincere about wanting Alien Amnesty. She’s not like…” Kara recalls her casual dismissal of any family tie Lena had with Lex and Lena’s muted, almost sad response. “She’s not like that,” she finishes finally.

Jonn smiles a wry smile. “Of course, Kara,” he says. “We’re only offering alternate explanations.” But Kara can tell that he doesn’t believe it.

“Regardless of our feelings on the matter,” Alex says. “We have an informant who’s willing to share information.”

“And how do we know this informant isn’t just trying to throw her under the bus?” Kara crosses her arms defiantly.

Alex replies, “He offered to speak to us freely. No negotiation, no deal on our part. He’s just worried about her.”

It’s Jack Spheer. Kara is almost sure of it. His affection for her is obvious, and, while Kara harbors a deep dislike for him, that shouldn’t get in the way of the fact that Lena needs both of them. “Fine,” Kara says. “Take me to him.”

Jonn nods and leads the way, past the briefing room and down another long hallway. The natural light let in by the carved windows fades away to artificial white lamplight and the hallway itself gets narrower. The further they go, the more certain Kara is that the DEO needs a makeover so it looks more inviting to visitors. They descend a flight of stairs and pass through a metal detector. Kara takes her phone and gives it to the agent on duty, but when she holds out her hand to receive it the agent shakes her head. “Sorry ma’am,” she says. “No electronics near the prisoner.” Kara looks to her right where both Jonn and Alex were taking off their earwigs and phones.

“Prisoner?”

They make a right and enter through a heavy steel door. It doesn’t take long for Kara to see it’s a viewing room with one-way glass taking up the top half of the left-hand wall. Kara looks through to the other side: the interrogation room. She huffs.

“Lex Luthor is your informant?” She spins to look to Alex who shrugs.

“Like I said, no deal, no negotiation.”

“Except for the fact he’s out of Arkham.”

“The DEO is an extremely secure facility, and he’s our best lead,” Alex reassures. “Especially since the Lord Tech sniper escaped before we could take him to HQ.”

“If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t even have had the chance.” It isn’t often if at all that Kara expresses anything other than admiration and affection for her sister, but there’s something about the secret of the DEO and the thinly veiled judgment behind her last words that fires Kara up.

“Danvers. Danvers,” Jonn steps between them, holding up both hands. “We’re wasting time here. Both of you go in and get the info that we need.”

Kara bites her tongue. “Sorry Alex,” she murmurs.

“I’m sorry, too.” Somehow that eases a bit of Kara’s pain.

Alex leads Kara out the viewing room’s second door then down a separate hallway to the entrance of the interrogation room. When they enter, Lex Luthor doesn’t show any change in emotion.

Alex sits in the chair across from Luthor while Kara inserts herself in a far corner. Alex makes a show of opening a manila file and flipping through a few pages. “I hope you’re enjoying your few hours of freedom Mr. Luthor.”

Lex smiles. “Nothing beats the feeling of a gulp of fresh air, but I suppose this will have to do.”

Alex doesn’t respond. She lands on a blank sheet of paper and clicks a pen open. “So. You claim to know who has kidnapped your sister?”

“I don’t specifically know who has Lena, but I know who’s behind it all.”

Silence falls over the room. Kara curses the Luthor habit of dramatics. “Who is it?” She asks impatiently.

Lex finally looks at Kara. His eyes, deep brown not like Lena’s but a similar intelligence behind them. “Lilian Luthor.”

Alex writes the name down. “Your own mother? How can you be so sure?”

“Connections,” Lex dismisses. “She noticed Maxwell Lord’s shady business dealings.” Lex leans back in his chair, placing his manacled hands on his lap. “I’d transferred some real estate to her out of guilt. She said she felt neglected. But then, my assets were frozen from unauthorized use… transferred out off-shore to an individual pretending to be me embezzling my own money.” He looks at Kara again. “Then buildings were being bought under my name or transferred from Max. I’d put money on the guess that that was mother dearest working. She must have offered L-Corp once Lena was taken care of.”

“You’re accusing one of the biggest names in Technology and a member of your own family for pretty grievous actions.”

Lex smirks. Kara notices another similarity between the siblings there. “No one is a bigger name in Technology than the Luthors.”

“That’s your endgame.” Kara speaks up again, walking forward to stand next to Alex and glowering at the other Luthor. “You want to get rid of L-Corp’s competition.”
Lex shrugs. “What do my motives matter? I also want to tell you what I know because they have my sister.” He pauses and his smile grows. “I can tell you love her. You have that fierceness in your eyes.”

Kara presses her lips together but doesn’t say anything to confirm or deny it. Lex eventually breaks their gaze.

“I have an idea of where they’re keeping Lena as well. It’s a warehouse Maxwell ‘gifted’ me before I was arrested… before he framed me, I should say.” Lex gives the address of the warehouse easily and watches Alex write it down.

“If this lead pans out, we’re going to owe you one, Luthor,” Alex says.

Lex hums. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he drawls.

The next half hour is spent gearing up for the rescue mission. Jonn goes off with a few field agents to strap on bulletproof vests and multiple firearms, a few of which Kara swears are lasers. She grabs Alex’s arm when she passes to get ready herself.

“I’m coming with.”

Alex looks at Kara up and down. “You’re not a field agent, Kara…”

“Yeah, I’m better.” Kara emphasizes her point by puffing out her chest. “I’m--”

“Bulletproof.” Alex sighs and motions for Kara to follow. They have a similar conversation with Jonn and in the end he’s leading them away from the group.

“Fine, but we’ll have to take measures so you’re not recognized.” They enter what looks like a laboratory and Jonn crosses the room to rifle through a few drawers. He emerges with a face mask and a hood attached to a cape. “Hide your eyes and obscure your face… the two most discernible features in a person, Kryptonian or not.”
So while the DEO ends up looking like total badasses, Kara ends up resembling something more like a ren faire cosplayer. She notices Alex trying not to laugh and scowls. “It’s not funny.”

“Sorry, Green Arrow.”

Before they leave, Jonn briefs them on the plan, a frontal team consisting of Alex and Kara flanked by four agents breaking down the front door while Jonn and a team of his own take the back entrance. Using the holographic projector they go through multiple scenarios and come up with ways to counteract any retaliation. By the end, Kara is antsy. She wants to save Lena already.

“Supergirl.” Kara’s head snaps up at the name that sounds vaguely like her cousins but her own.

“Y-yes, Director?”

“Your main objective in all these scenarios is to get Lena Luthor out of there safely. No funny business. In and out.”

Kara nods numbly. When the team is dismissed from briefing, Jonn wraps an arm around her shoulder. “Good to have you on the team, Danvers.”

“Good to be here,” Kara says. “But Supergirl? Really?”

Alex jogs past and slaps Kara’s back as she goes. “What’s so wrong with being a girl?”

The drive to the warehouse is tense. Agents fiddle with their magazines and the straps of their vests. In their earwigs (and through Kara’s super hearing) Jonn’s voice comes. “Closing in on target, everyone ready.”

Once the van stops, all of the agents flow out like water released from a dam. Kara and Alex file out last and the two teams split up to their respective entrances.
Lex should have called the warehouse the hangar instead with the mere size of the building. The hangar door is shut tight with a chain and lock, but there are grimy four-paned windows offering a murky look inside. Kara moves to the front at Alex’s signal and casts her enhanced vision through the walls and window. “Seven men,” she relays. “Lena is in there… tied a chair…” Then her vision blurs. Kara grunts and backs up. “And Kryptonite… close to Lena.”

“We’ll dispatch the henchmen and grab the kryptonite,” Alex says. “Stay out of sight until we give the word.” Kara nods and, without much more fanfare, Alex uses the butt of her rifle to smash in the window. “FBI!”

Kara presses herself to the outer wall. She hears commands of “Stand down!” and “On your knees!”

Then Kara hears a gunshot and Lena’s scream. She leaps through the broken window and flies forward. Time slows around her as a result of her speed, and she sees the bullet heading toward Lena. The closer she gets, the weaker she feels since she’s closing in on the Kryptonite as fast as she’s closing in on Lena.

Push further. Almost. There. Just get to Lena. Protect Lena.

Kara’s body drops, hand reached out, the bullet suddenly between her fingertips. “Ouch.”

“Supergirl!” There’s the sound of combat and the click of a box that accompanies a semi-surge in energy. “Look out!”

Kara leaps to her feet in time to catch a blow from a familiar faced thug. The bank worker. He looks at Kara, eyes wide with fear but not recognition. “Sorry,” Kara says then throws him across the hangar. He bowls over two of his companions and one more sees an opportunity to try and get Kara from behind. She ducks under his punch and lands one in his gut, sending him to the ceiling. There’s a crack of bones and a pathetic yelp as he falls into multiple bales of hay, hopefully softening his fall. “Anyone else?” Kara asks exasperatedly, throwing her hands up.

The rest of the men promptly hold up their hands and follow further instructions from the DEO.

Jonn joins Kara and unties Lena’s restraints. “I thought we told you to wait until the Kryptonite was dispatched,” he says grumpily.

“Sorry Jonn,” Kara apologizes. “I just heard a gunshot and I…” she smiles sheepishly.

“Saved my life yet again.”

Kara looks away from Jonn toward Lena Luthor, alive if a little disheveled. “I mean…” Kara shrugs. “I told you I would protect you right?”

Released, Lena stands from her chair and regards Kara in a way that makes her nervous. Lena takes a small step forward so they’re within a breath’s reach. After a long pause, she wraps Kara in a hug. “Thank you,” she whispers, gripping the back of her shirt.

Kara returns the hug. “Anytime,” she croaks, throat inexplicably dry.

Jonn calls Lena away to get checked out by a medic and Kara watches her go, a little stunned despite herself.

Alex comes up next to her and touches her shoulder to break her out of her stupor. “So about what Lex said… you being in love with Lena…”

Kara just nods, still looking at the other woman. “But… I… we’re just friends.”

“Well, it’s easy to go from friends to lovers.” Alex crosses her arms. “One of you just needs to take one step closer.” As she says this, Lena turns and casts a smile in Kara’s direction that makes her heart speed up in her chest. She thinks back to Lena stepping closer to her, staring into her eyes looking as if she wanted to say something, confess something.

“One step?” She asks.

“One step.” Alex pushes Kara, and she stumbles forward. “Kind of like that.”

With a feeling like lead in her legs, Kara steps forward again, and again until she is at Lena’s side. The words are on her lips. How worried she was, how determined she felt to get her back. How she never wanted to let her go again.

“Kara.” Lena takes her hand. “Or should I say Supergirl?” She smiles knowingly. “Director J'onzz wants to talk to the both of us back at the…” she looks at him. “DEO?” He nods wordlessly. “Come, let’s get out of here.” She lets go and walks away, Kara pathetically reaching out to try and grasp her hand again.

Another step, but Kara can’t seem to take it.

Chapter Text

On the ride back to the DEO, Kara doesn’t make eye contact with Lena. The other agents are buzzing with the excitement of a job well done, but the main piece of the mission’s success acts as if she’s about to be reprimanded by a principal.

And Lena’s there, at the edge of Aher awareness, glancing towards Kara every now and then between short conversations she’s having with Alex about nothing particularly important. No words are ever spoken her way.

The van pulls into the cavernous parking space, and the agents disperse to their locker rooms

Jonn intercepts the three women ready to follow with a raised hand. “No time to waste,” he says gruffly. He turns on his heel and starts off in the direction of the interrogation room.

Down the staircase, through the metal detector, Lena doesn’t flinch when the DEO’s aesthetic turns into that of a dungeon.

Kara’s eyes flit to her, going along, blissfully unaware that her brother is closer than he’d been in months, unaware that Lex’s tip ultimately saved her life more than Supergirl or anyone in the DEO had. Kara waits for Jonn or Alex to say something, to warn Lena, but she senses no intention to in a shift of breathing or heartbeat.

“Lena,” Kara starts at last.

Lena whips out a hand suddenly, causing Kara to walk into the outstretched palm. Lena’s hand is warm against her sternum, and Kara stutters out, “Wh-Wha--”

“Please watch where you’re going, Supergirl.” Lena reaches up with a long finger, touching Kara’s chin and turning it so Kara is facing front again. A solid iron wall stares back at her. “We don’t want you hurt now do we?” She flashes Kara a smirk and continues following Jonn and Alex along the hallway’s curve.

They reach the viewing room, and the flood of emotion that Kara expected from Lena doesn’t come. She’s dead silent, her green eyes trained on the man sitting still as a statue like Kara and Alex had left only a minute ago.

“Danvers, Supergirl.” Jonn breaks the silence. “Go into interrogation. I think we have all the pieces to finally put this damned puzzle together.”

Alex nods and leaves with no fanfare, but Kara lingers on Lena for a moment longer. Sadness and sympathy well up in her chest. She wants to reach out, say something, do anything.

“Don’t insult me with your worry.” Lena’s voice pulls Kara from her thoughts. “I’ll be fine. Now go.” There’s no malice in her words. No absence of her normal warmth makes Kara believe her. Almost believe her. She nods silently and exits the viewing room to join her sister and Lex.

Kara makes her way back to a corner of the interrogation room while Alex begins her intimidating shuffle of documents.

“I have to hand it to you, Agent,” Lex says. “You’re a hard person to read. Should I be feeling relief that you’re back so soon or mourning the loss of my dear sister?”

“Your sister is alive.” Alex’s tone doesn’t exactly match the reassuring words.

As Lex takes in the admission, there isn’t a sigh of relief or any indication of a spike in nervousness. For all of his compliments on Alex’s stoic demeanor, the elder Luthor holds himself with the same easy confidence. Never wavering.

Alex finally pulls a paper and passes it across the table to him. “This is the face of the man who kidnapped Lena Luthor.”

Casually, Kara zooms into the picture while still keeping her distance. It’s a mugshot of the bank worker; the sleaze who Kara didn’t pound into the ground out of misplaced kindness. The fear Kara remembers in his green eyes is replaced with something darker and more sinister. His mouth, which Kara remembers trembling in fear, is pressed in a hard line. His chin juts out almost proudly.

Alex slides over an accompanying document: a file with the man’s demographic information along with a list of what looked like screenshots of comments made on forum threads. “His name is Cameron Reed. A known Anti-Alien zealot if social media is to be believed.”

Lex leans over and glances at what Alex laid in front of him. “Small potatoes,” he says dismissively. “No small time extremist would dare put their life on the line for the near guarantee of being caught.”

“So you’re still pushing this theory of your mother and Maxwell Lord working together?”

“I mean it makes sense doesn’t it?” Lex shrugs. “The warehouse where you found Lena that is supposedly under my name?” He reaches over and taps the picture of Reed with his manacled wrists. “Tell me where this young man works?”

“National City Safe,” Kara pipes up from her corner.

Lex nods sagely. “A bank. Now what did I say happened to my assets? Ah yes, my control of them was illegally transferred over to Mother Dearest. That would be easy to do with an Anti-Alien bank worker who worships the ground the Luthors walk on. I do have to admit, having Maxwell transfer back property to break ties and look like a media darling while tarnishing my name was rather clever.” He smirks the arrogant, trade Luthor smirk. “Not more clever than me, however.”

Kara hated to admit it herself, but Lex’s theory makes a lot of sense. The transfer of the deed to the hangar to Lex put the elder Luthor high on the DEO’s list and effectively canceled suspicion of Lord Tech. But if Lord and Lilian Luthor still shared the place…

“So the weapons found at the hangar? And the Kryptonite?”

“Not mine. Planted. However you want to slice it. Though I do wonder why Lord would have Kryptonite around unless he was planning for…” Lex’s eyes snap up to meet Kara’s. “Someone.”

“Unlikely,” Alex deflects. “You might be innocent in this case, Luthor, but it’s not hard to forget your obsession with Kryptonians.” She rises from her seat. “A plot from two techno-geniuses to control National City’s infrastructure together. Who woulda thought?” She gathers up the papers. “Thank you Mr. Luthor. Your ride back to Stryker’s Island will be here shortly.”

Kara pushes off the wall and starts to follow Alex to the exit. She stops in front of Lex, for the first time truly looking him in the eye. “Just because you helped us get Lena back doesn’t negate the fact you threatened to blow up Metropolis a year ago and had the firebomb to do it.”

Lex smiles a smile so soft that Kara can hardly believe it was from one of the world’s greatest masterminds. “I never said it does,” he replies.

“Let me see Lex.”

Kara’s eyes dart up to the open interrogation room door. Lena stands there, misty-eyed, hands clasped together in front of her chest.

Alex stutters, “Ms. Luthor please…”

“It’s the least you can do since I was kidnapped today!”
Alex looks helplessly at the one-way glass that doesn’t answer back. She sighs and steps aside. “Come on, Danvers,” she mutters to Kara.

She watches as Lena flies into the room and embraces her brother tightly. Kara tries to ignore the ache in her chest seeing the tears flow freely onto Lena’s cheeks. She follows Alex out of the interrogation room as the red recording light on the ceiling of the room flickers off.

---

“Lena,” Lex murmurs with a happy sigh as she pulls away from their hug. He looks at her and grins. “I hope the board isn’t giving you a hard time. How have you been?”
Lena looks at her brother for the first time since he was taken to Stryker’s after the trial. He’s skinnier than she remembered although Lex had always been slim. There’s the same intelligence and cunning behind his eyes, but they’re darker-rimmed from lack of sleep in a prisoner’s cot. He’s even starting to get a little bit of stubble on his upper lip and chin. It was scratchy when they hugged.

“That’s what I should be asking you,” she says breathlessly.

“I’m fine, little sis,” Lex replies. “Like I told that DEO agent earlier, nothing beats a bit of fresh air… but I’ll take what I can get.”

“When I visit you next we should take a walk,” Lena continues. “Unfortunately I don’t think they’ll let you go very far, but I’m sure I can convince them for a lap around the grounds.”

Lex reaches out and takes Lena’s shaking hands. Lena’s always hated to see Lex like this: a shadow of his former self. Yes, Lex is a mastermind criminal who deserves every bit of jail time he was given. That doesn’t mean Lena doesn’t love him. That doesn’t mean Lena doesn’t remember how he taught her to breathe when she would panic or how he would defend her against their mother. Lena wouldn’t forget that Lex was a good brother.

They talk for a little longer about nothing in particular, stock numbers and the new season of their favorite show until there’s a muffled knock on the door. “Ms. Luthor… your brother has to go now.”

Lena looks at Lex helplessly, feeling like the little girl who needed her brother’s guidance. Lex gives her a confident smile and stands with a little difficulty thanks to his shackled legs. He wraps her tight in a hug again.When he pulls back, there’s a smirk dancing on his lips. “So,” he says softly, conspiratorially, “A Super and a Luthor, huh?”

A blush races up Lena’s face. “I don’t know what--”

“Ah, my mistake.” Lex backtracks while holding up his hands. “I thought I was being perceptive for once… that the softness and vulnerability had to come from somewhere.”

Lena scoffs indignantly.

The door opens and Alex Danvers walks back in to escort Lex away. “All I’m saying is,” he says, “You could do a lot worse.” He laughs and laughs and laughs… then is gone.

Lena listens to the fading footsteps, and the feeling of losing her brother yet again settles into her heart. Lena isn’t even aware she’s crying until she feels strong arms wrap around her shoulders. She buries her face in Kara’s neck and stays there until her breathing evens out and she can’t cry anymore.

“It’s alright. You’ll see him again…” Kara soothes.

Lena’s shoulders start to shake again, but she realizes this time she’s laughing. Had Kara been murmuring to her the entire time? Comforting her about the man constantly at odds with her cousin and would be at odds with her if he wasn’t locked behind multiple inches of cinder block and steel.

The arms pull back. “Are— are you okay?” Kara asks. Lena looks up to her concerned expression and puts a hand over her mouth to stifle her chuckles.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m just… thinking about something Lex said before he left.” How could Lena not be soft and vulnerable around Kara when she makes her feel so inexplicably safe? She takes a moment to take a solid look at Kara’s eyes. Gentle but protective. Her gaze travels down to the DEO-issued sweater and dark cargo pants. Kara’s stance is open, ready to embrace Lena again if she needed. And Lena didn’t need her touch at the moment as much as she wanted it. And oh, did she want it.

Kara nods. “I understand why you love him,” she says. “He really helped us out to save you.” She has a look on her face that Lena can’t figure out. Her eyes dart around and she’s shuffling in place, hands in her pockets.

Lena places her hands on her hips. “Kara Danvers,” she says darkly. “Did you listen in on a private conversation I had with my brother?”

“I wanted to make sure,” Kara protests, a dark red blush shooting up her neck. “That you were okay!”

Chuckling, Lena reaches out and touches Kara’s cheek. “Sweet of you,” she croons. “So what do you think of Lex’s assessment? Think I could do a lot worse?”

It’s finally out there. The unspoken hanging in the air between them, no more than three feet apart.

Kara looks down then, suddenly, takes a purposeful step toward Lena. She’s only two inches taller, but Lena feels like she’s being towered over, and her breath catches. “I think you can do better,” Kara murmurs. The whisper is further muffled by the pounding of Lena’s heart.

“That’s absurd,” Lena scoffs. “You’re a bonafide superhero who’s saved me from death more than once.”

A shy smile comes over Kara’s face. “It’s my job,” she teases.

Lena rolls her eyes. “Oh really? My mistake then.” She turns on her heel to walk away but is grabbed immediately, stopping her in her tracks. Kara spins Lena around and pulls her in until she crashes against her solid chest. Lena looks up at Kara, bewildered.

Kara kisses her.

Lena’s world upends itself at the shock of Kara, soft, wonderful Kara, kissing her with a deep intensity she’d only seen behind her eyes. There’s a lot behind the kiss: a sigh breathing finally, a clamoring to get closer, closer, a tentative tilt of the head that wonders if they’re going too far.

Kara pulls away, and Lena realizes she’s breathing more laboriously than after the fist fight with her kidnappers. She tries not to smile a smug smile.

“A Super and a Luthor,” Kara breathes.

“A Super and a Luthor,” Lena agrees. “We could rule the world together.” Kara’s eyes widen and Lena stifles a laugh.

There’s a crackle overhead and an awkward cough from an intercom follows. “Guys we need the interrogation room for our next guest…”

Kara groans, and Lena buries her head in her shoulder, embarrassed. “Doesn’t the DEO have more than one interrogation room?”

“Whatever you’re thinking about doing, absolutely not. Get out and go home if you want to continue sucking face!”

Kara laughs and reaches down. Once again, Lena’s world turns upside down when Kara picks her up under her knees. “Hey!”

“Sometimes Alex has good ideas,” Kara says to her, grinning confidently.

Chapter Text

Kara wakes up with Lena in her arms, and an overwhelming feeling of happiness settles in her bones. She snakes one arm around Lena’s waist to pull her into her chest and presses a kiss to the top of Lena’s head.

“Morning,” Kara whispers.

Lena whines and cranes her neck up. “No,” she declares and hides her face in Kara’s neck. “Just because you wake up with the sun doesn’t mean I do.”

“Yeah that’s fair,” Kara concedes. 

It had been three days since Kara and the DEO saved Lena from the hangar. Three days since Kara found out that Lena’s lips taste like coffee and something close to black forest cake. 

They’d spent the better part of their extended weekend in Kara’s apartment, Kara’s bed more specifically, pointedly ignoring all of the revelations that came with Lex’s interrogation.

There had been a moment or two, when, in the few short intermissions they shared, Lena looked at Kara with a troubled expression and a question on her lips. Kara took that as an invitation to kiss her silly and melt the look away. 

“Coffee,” Lena demands, patting Kara’s shoulder. 

“Coffee.” Kara rolls out of bed, slips on her shorts and walks out into her kitchen to put on a pot. 

Lena exits the bedroom as Kara is pouring their mugs. She’s putting her hair up in a bun, and Kara almost overfills her mug admiring the way the sun glints off Lena’s irises and turns the shade of green more emerald than anything else. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Lena says. She sits at the counter and accepts her mug with both hands. “About how to best catch my mother.”

Kara takes the seat next to Lena. “You sure you’re ready?” She asks. “It’s not… I don’t know… too fresh?” 

Lena laughs humorlessly. “What? The knowledge that my mother is a snake in the grass? I’ve known that since I was sixteen.” 

“Yeah, well.” Kara shrugs. “It’s one thing to know she isn’t on the short list for Mother of the Year but another to put her in jail.” 

Lena reaches over and places a hand on Kara’s knee. “It’s time Lilian Luthor gets her comeuppance.” She stands to walk to the living room, leaving her coffee and Kara who looks after her, trying not to worry.

Soon, Kara’s living room is littered with sheets of paper filled with guest lists, seating arrangements and catering possibilities. It’s almost amusing how much planning the Spite Gala (Lena’s term) takes considering the choice of canapés and alcohol didn’t matter when Lilian would be in chains. 

“It needs to feel like an authentic event,” Lena insists. “And Luthors don’t do things halfway.”

“I’ll say,” Kara quips from her place on the couch, wiggling her eyebrows.

She yelps when Lena beans her with a crumpled paper ball. 

By evening all of the gala’s fixtures are ordered along with three pizzas to get them through making calls to guests. 

“James Olsen is a yes,” Kara says triumphantly. “He also said he’d pass on Cat Grant’s number if we want to add her to the list.”

“I didn’t know you had friends in such high places,” Lena says, still staring on her phone. 

Kara shrugs and slides off the couch to sit next to Lena. “I guess my small stint as a journalist was more successful than I thought.” She peers at the other woman’s fingers, speedily typing out a terse email. From the bit she’s able to see, the rest of the world had missed Lena Luthor in their meetings and business deals the last three days. 

She locks her phone once the email is sent and catches Kara’s gaze. “Can I help you?” She asks, a teasing lilt to her voice.

“Everything okay?” Kara returns gently.

Lena sighs and rests her head on Kara’s shoulder. “How did you know you were into me?” She asks instead of answering the question. 

Kara almost protests, almost pushes Lena to talk about something clearly bothering her. Then she sees aversion in her expression, the slight worry of her lip and thinks otherwise. Kara scoffs. “How did you know you were into me ?”

Lena smiles. “When you offered your home to me. You had such confidence that we’d catch the blackmailer… and even if we wouldn’t, you basically told me you wouldn’t give up. You’d be willing to stay with me forever.” 

Kara leans her head on top of Lena’s and presses a soft kiss to her temple. “Well that’s embarrassing,” she says jokingly. “I knew I was into you when I watched you dominate those old farts in that board meeting.”

“That was basically the first time we met. That is embarrassing”

Kara bursts into laughter. She darts her hands out, fingers dancing across Lena’s ribcage. Lena shrieks and tries to repel the tickles. “Kara!” She laughs. 

“I don’t take well to being made fun of, Ms. Luthor!” Kara says in a faux-stern manner. Her eyes twinkle and her attack continues until Lena’s phone buzzes next to them. 

Lena finally swats Kara away and picks up the phone. She stares at the screen and pauses. 

“What?” Kara asks.

“It’s my mother.” 

Kara watches Lena’s face harden, the playful smirk smoothing out into a severe line and posture straightening as quickly as her walls rise again. “Will you--” She asks, but Lena swipes accept before she can even finish her question. 

“Mother. It must be quite the occasion for you to call me at this time in the evening.” 

Lilian Luthor’s voice is warbled even as Kara stretches her hearing to hear the whole of the conversation. “Lena, darling,” she croons. “When the mail was brought in this afternoon, I noticed I still haven’t received an invitation for that party? You haven’t forgotten about me, have you?”

“Of course not.” Lena sighs a deep, exaggerated, annoyed sigh and lolls her tongue out in Kara’s direction. “I’ll make sure the invitation is sent as quickly as possible. I’m planning for the event in two weeks’ time.” 

Lilian laughs a short, derisive laugh. “And when did you start planning? I love you, Lena, but I don’t think even love is a viable excuse for attending a shoddy affair.”

“Don’t worry,” Lena replies smoothly. “I have a talented team ensuring the gala will be an event people will talk about for a long time.”

There’s a pause on the other end. “I’m sure it will be.” The line goes dead. 

News of Lena Luthor’s extravagant affair spread throughout National City almost overnight, even earning a small spot on the evening news only two days after Lena’s conversation with her mother.

“Bold and daring or short-sighted and dangerous? Lena Luthor, CEO of L-Corp is sending out a massive amount of invitations to a Gala she is throwing barely a month after an attempt on her life. This could be the biggest event in National City’s modern history, but some speculate an ulterior motive from the--”

Lena sighs in annoyance as Kara clicks off the TV for the night. “Honestly,” Lena huffs. “Can I do one thing without suspicion of an ulterior motive ?” She puts the words in quotations. 

Kara gives her girlfriend (girlfriend!!!) a sidelong glace. “To be fair, you do have an ulterior motive…” She smiles a sheepish smile when Lena only crosses her arms and huffs louder. 

“What has Alex and J’onn said about the DEO’s presence at the Gala?” She asks instead, impatiently.

“They’ll be undercover as guests, and there will be DEO agents disguised as security.” 

Kara watches Lena scribble down some notes then transfer some of those notes to a laptop. “We’re still missing a few items for the silent auction and confirmations of dessert…” 

“You’re doing that thing again.” Kara reaches out and places her hand on top of Lena’s frantic typing one. “Putting a little too much stock in details…”

Lena shrugs. “I already said…”

“I don’t think that’s it.” Kara shakes her head softly, firmly. “You get that same look on your face like you do when you fidget with your fabric sample, Lena.”

She clenches her fist tightly. “I’m fine,” she insists. 

Kara pulls her hand back and raises both in surrender. “You’re fine,” she agrees, though her voice doesn’t carry the same heartiness. Her eyes stay trained faithfully on Lena’s face until she looks up and sighs loudly. 

“Why do you look like someone kicked your cat?” 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Kara says, tilting her head. 

Lena scoffs. “Never mind, you look like a kicked cat.” 

“In my very limited experience…” Kara scoots close so her thigh touches Lena’s. “Something that makes a relationship work and grow is communication.” Her head tilts even further toward her shoulder. She flutters her eyelashes and watches Lena’s face slowly flush. 

“It sounds like you already know what’s wrong,” Lena mumbles. 

Another shrug. “Maybe, but I won’t know for sure until you say it.” 

Lena flexes her hand and shuts her laptop. “I’m worried about what’s going to happen,” she whispers. “My mother is a powerful woman, Kara. Who’s to say she won’t use some of her connections to get a slap on the wrist? Then she’ll continue to…” She takes a breath, and it sounds shaky. “She’ll continue to make sure that I don’t sleep at night. She’ll make sure I never feel pride in my accomplishments just…” Lena wrings her hands together. “Just like when I was a child. I’m a grown woman with two degrees, and she makes me feel eight years old.” 

Kara wraps an arm around Lena’s shoulder when she notices the shine of a tear at the corner of her eye. “We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kara promises fiercely. 

In her arms, Lena laughs a watery laugh. “You know how much I appreciate the heroics,” she says. “But I think you underestimate Lillian Luthor.”

Kara falls into silence and that silence stretches for almost a full minute “Maybe,” she says at last. “I don’t know a lot about your mother, but I do know a lot about you. You’re here now, after all of that insecurity, after Lillian tried to make you just like her, and you’re still fighting.”

Lena turns and puts her face in the juncture of Kara's shoulder. “I don’t know how much fight I have left in me.” 

“Well you don’t have to fight alone anymore. You have me. You have Alex, J’onn, Sam. You have Lex.” Kara winces slightly when she hears Lena heave a rough sob. “So many people love and care about you.” 

Another silence settles over them. Then Lena murmurs, “Do you really think Alex likes me?” 

Kara laughs.

The next day, Kara and Lena are driven to the DEO at Jonn’s request. “We’re finalizing the witness statement from the man who took Ms. Luthor.” They walk past multiple groups of agents and ascend the flight of stairs right before the holo-projector. They enter a science lab with all of the tables with their equipment pushed to one wall. Alex is stationed at the one desk they kept in the middle, bent over and typing away. 

“Is it good news?” Kara glances over at Lena who asked the question with a whisper of hope in her voice. When Alex looks up, Kara also notices the softening at the edge of her sister’s usual hard scowl.

Alex waves toward the center of the room and a handful of images pop up and hover in the air. “I think so.”

Kara walks forward, and Lena follows at her side to get a closer look. There are bank documents, text messages, something that looks like a contract and multiple deeds to multiple buildings. Kara sees the address to the warehouse among the deeds with a sloppy signature of Lex Luthor. 

“This is Lillian Luthor’s paper trail,” Alex continues, joining them. She clicks a button and cycles to the first document. This spreadsheet looks familiar, and Kara notices a name, previously redacted, highlighted in bold. “This proves last minute transfer of deed rights to Lillian. And our Cameron Reed signed it.” The next documents mirror the change in the first, actually, finally, filling in the piece they were blinding throwing darts at. Kara looks at Lena who has her hands clasped in front of her, her hopeful look growing.

“So what does this mean?” Lena asks, sounding hesitant.

Jonn approaches and places a hand on Lena’s shoulder. “This, combined with Reed’s confession, gives us an airtight case against Lilian Luthor.” Lena’s shoulders visually sags. 

“Well then,” she says after a moment. “Then there’s only one thing left to do.” Lena pulls her phone out of her pocket. “Make sure the cakes for the gala are extra sweet.”

---

The rest of the week flies by as final preparations are made at the L-Corp’s rooftop event space. Lena spends most of her days personally attending to matters despite the insistence of Sam and Jess to rest. 

“I’ve rested enough,” Lena would say curtly and move on with the day. 

As quickly as she sent the gala invitation to her mother, she received a reply in the mail, the RSVP x’d out in the affirmative in a thick pen, Lilian’s signature following right at the bottom. Without a second thought, Lena had snapped a photo of the card and sent it off to Alex. Maybe the handwriting sample will help the case she said. 

We’ll take all the help we can get is the reply. 

And, as always, Kara was as present as Lena’s own shadow, giving her enough space to work and ‘Do your CEO thing’ as she’d say but close enough to comfort Lena with her proximity. At least she knew to keep any worries to herself. 

By three nights before the event, the L-Corp gala’s guest list grew to over one hundred and fifty people. Enough people that Lena had to make a few cuts. 

“Is it wrong that this makes me feel powerful?” She asks. 

“No, but it does make me afraid of you,” Kara replies and sinks deeper in the bed with a yawn. 

At the end, seventy-five of National City’s biggest and brightest in the technological and business world send their final RSVPs, and media attention skyrockets until it reaches a breathless high. 

The night before, Lena can hardly sleep. 

She keeps repeating the conversation she had with Kara in her head. She isn’t alone. There are people who believe her and care about her. And maybe, for a stronger heart, that could have been enough. But Lena is aware of her emotional deficits and finds herself almost spiraling. After spending so many nights sleepless and alone, it’s surreal that the end is near and she’s with the woman who made that possible. 

Lena turns and lays her head on her forearm. She looks at Kara, splayed out on her stomach like a parachuter, hair messy and tangled all around her face. If Kara was human, Lena would be worried about the time it took her to get ready in the morning. Knowing she’s Kryptonian, however, Lena knows the answer ranges from three to seven seconds. 

Is fate cruel or kind for putting Kara Danvers in Lena’s path? Watching her sleep now and knowing how her lips feel on her skin, her first answer is sweet. Remembering the smirk on Lex’s face and feeling the pang in her chest when Lex smirked, “a Super and a Luthor” makes her want to believe fate at least thinks it’s funny. 

“You know I’m grateful for you?” Lena whispers. She reaches over and tries to smooth a bit of her hair. 

Kara mumbles in her sleep. 

“Hopefully after tomorrow, we can be normal… do normal things like actually sleeping in for once.” Lena reaches over and tries her best to brush the tangled mess. She stares at each line, dimple and freckle that had been casted there from the rays of the yellow sun. Lena imagines Kara, splayed out in the back of Alex’s truck soaking in all of the heat and power… and then subsequently choosing to not use it. Lena can’t imagine having to hide such an incredible power and still coming out of it kind and not resentful. 

Maybe one day, she could teach Lena how to trade her hard exterior for something softer and trusting. And that will be easier once her mother isn’t a problem anymore. 

Lena takes to counting Kara’s freckles until she falls asleep.

Lena puts any last minute issues that involve food or any other part of the gala’s facade to Sam. When she goes up to inspect the rooftop space, she’s checking all of the pieces of tech that she placed throughout the week. All of it seems like standard security equipment: cameras wrapped around decorative lamp posts, retinal scanners right at the entrance and a projector showing pictures of L-Corp’s latest projects and press photos from the last conference that went awry. Kara, by her side, looks up at the sky, large gray clouds starting to roll in to black out the sunlight.

“Let Sam know we need to start setting up the tarps,” Lena says. “The RSVP did emphasize rain or shine.” 

Kara nods and gives a faux salute before jogging off lightly to deliver the message. 

While the sky grows darker with both the weather and the setting sun, the air itself grows heavier with the weight of not just rain but anticipation. Lena sees a duo of guards taking posts at the entrance to the verandah. The one on the right gives her a curt nod and an encouraging smile. Lena returns it when she sees it’s Alex.

Soon after, the first wave of guests arrive. These are the small-time company CEOs, the ones who supply L-Corp with their slabs of aluminum or whatever alloy they need at that moment. They immediately float up to Lena and start talking her ear off. Some of them compliment her bold move of throwing the gala after everything that had happened. Some offer their security companies. 

Lena brushes off their concern with a well-placed dazzling smile and confident reassurances. “I have been working with the FBI, but as I’m not a seasoned investigator, I figured I would leave it up to them and not worry myself.” 

The people flocked around her ooh and ahh at her ‘bravery’ and then disperse not long after that to get themselves a refill of expensive champagne. 

A steady stream of guests arrive right on the heels of the first, reporters this time. They ask Lena the same tired questions, trying to probe her about her latest projects, asking about any updates about the search for the assassin. She’s practiced at evading these questions as well, and as the gala begins to fill up to the point where the patrons are able to mingle amongst themselves, Lena begins feeling a sense of dread. 

Fat drops of rain begin to fall on the tarp and roll off before splattering on the pavement. Still, the rain clouds hold back from completely unleashing their wrath. 

James Olsen walks in, arm in arm with a woman almost half his height. Cat Grant, the namesake and matriarch of CatCo Entertainment. Lena gives the woman a quick once over as the other people at the gala all of a sudden become drawn in by the gravitas of her power. Right on their heels is Kara.

Lena remembers Kara’s suited look when they had gone to Jack’s club. The medium blue hue of the jacket offset the ivory shirt and obsidian tie. The jacket returns, but this time it's open over a pink dress shirt, and there’s no tie. Instead her shirt is unbuttoned at the throat and then again, revealing an expanse of her chest that Lena had mapped with her lips many times over. 

Kara gives her a small, almost embarrassed wave before disappearing into the crowd when Cat Grant calls her over like she’s some kind of assistant. Lena hopes her glower is only internal. 

“Everything is going well so far.”

Lena glances at Sam who stands next to her with a champagne flute in each hand. She offers one to Lena which she gladly accepts. “Any sign of my mother?”

Sam shakes her head. “Any sign of Kara’s super hot sister?” 

After pointing Alex out to Sam, Lena wanders through her crowd and does one last check on the equipment. The light camera, check, the projector check, the scanner… 

The retinal scanner’s screen is dim, like a blinking eye. Lena turns her scientist brain on. She checks the switches and the wiring but all appear in good working order. Yet something is obviously wrong, and it takes another pass for Lena to pinpoint the fritzing outlet. “I thought I--” Lena murmurs to herself. 

“Lena, darling!” 

The sugary sweet drawl sends a cold chill up Lena’s spine. She plasters the smile back on her face and turns with her arms outstretched. “Oh, Mother, I’m so glad you could make it.” 

Lillian Luthor wears a dark dress with a lace neck that crawls up below her chin. Her face is lined with years of disapproval and seemingly permanent frown lines. The attempt at a smile is almost grotesque. Lilian looks past Lena at the retinal scanner. “What’s the matter? Is something amiss?”

Lena shifts in front of the scanner. “I’m only making sure everything is in perfect working order,” she responds smoothly. 

“Well, that’s good.” Lillian sniffs and tugs a little bit at her collar. “You really did pull it all together in such a short amount of time. I wouldn’t expect less from a Luthor.” She reaches out and pats Lena’s cheek.

A cold shock stabs down Lena’s back, like a bucket of ice water was poured down the nape of her neck. From a Luthor . Her mother called her a Luthor. She opens her mouth, but Lillian is already gone, chatting up possibly the oldest investor L-Corp has. Lena feels woozy, impossibly so.

 Then with a low moan, the power on the verandah and throughout the entire L-Corp building shuts down. 

The assembled crowd gasps in slight alarm. Lena feels fear creep up her throat. L-Corp is one of the most advanced buildings in not just National City but the entire West Coast. Such a small storm should be irrelevant against its power. The group of security who had their stations at the front, including the few DEO agents who they planted, move to herd and protect the guests. 

Lena jumps when a hand closes around her bicep. 

“Lena,” Kara whispers in her ear. 

“Kara!” Lena hisses back. “What’s going on?”

Kara’s hand tightens. “One x-ray vision scan coming right up.” Kara’s broad shadow moves in front of Lena. She pauses. “To the left, there’s--” 

Another whir vibrates through the roof and the generators that were beginning to come to life power down pathetically. A clamor of boots fills the silence of the petrified crowd and two silhouettes move into Lena’s periphery. 

“Hey, fellas!” Kara says. There’s an edge to her voice. She shifts her stance. “I don’t think I remember seeing you all at the security briefing.” 

They close the distance to Kara quickly. She shoves Lena back, and Lena stumbles into one of the planters flush against the wall. 

When the fists start to fly, Lena ducks away. She gets on her hands and knees and begins to crawl toward the projector screen. It takes all of ten seconds before Lena hears two solid thumps on the ground and the pained groans of people who weren’t Kara. She smiles slightly. Kryptonian steel always wins against human knuckles. 

Click.

Lena pauses at the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked. She turns her head slowly. One of the men Kara knocked down had rolled onto his side. He holds a silver pistol with the barrel leveled right at Lena’s head. 

“LENA!”

As the lights flicker back on, the gun goes off. Lena lunges for the projector. Her hand flips the switch, and she squeezes her eyes shut, waiting for the pain. But the pain doesn’t come. She wrenches them open and sees Kara there, standing with her hands clasped over her stomach. Then Lena sees something that she had never seen before: Kara’s blood. 

The veins on Kara’s hands and neck pulse green and there’s a look of surprise and pure pain spreading across her face. She glances back and smiles a little embarrassed at Lena. “Kryptonite,” she murmurs before collapsing. 

Lena sobs out Kara’s name. The projector had gone off, deploying the electrified net that Lena installed for a situation like this. Like this. She never expected her mother’s goons to have Kryptonite laced bullets. 

Security swarms the men, throwing off the net and arresting them immediately. 

“Help!” Lena calls desperately, eyes darting around to the gathered crowd, some with their hands over their mouths and others with their gaze cast down. Their expressions are too close to mourning for Lena’s taste. “Please, she’s hurt!”

Alex falls to her knees next to Lena. She discreetly pulls out a syringe from her pocket and inserts the needle in Kara’s arm. She leans over her sister’s body. “Get an ambulance!” She yells. One of the undercover DEO agents nods and runs off, presumably to grab the van with the yellow sun lamps instead. “Are you okay?” Alex asks Lena. 

Lena nods numbly. 

“Good. Let’s get your mom, then.” 

Wordlessly, Lena gets to her knees and throws out a fist to hit the projector once more. It sputters to life and images flash and scroll on the large canvas screen. It’s not the pictures of the plane engines or the new skyscrapers that the company had begun building in Metropolis. Instead, it’s the paper trail. 

It starts with the construction deed to the parking garage, the one gifted to Lex from Lord. More acquisitions flit across the screen, most of them innocuous buildings (like Lena’s hospital) transferred to buffer the truly suspicious ones (like the warehouse) which scrolled in last.

The crowd murmurs. 

And the video begins to play. It’s Cameron Reed’s confession. He’s leaning forward, his shoulders hunched until they’re almost collapsed against his chest. “Lilian Luthor came to me asking to help her.” His voice is tinny through the speaker. “I was upset with Lex for abandoning us.”

“Us?” Alex’s voice warbles out next.

Reed nods. “The Anti-Alien coalition. He took his beatings and didn’t fight back when they wanted to throw him in prison. But Lilian understood. All I had to do was move some property rights and transfer some money to her but keep Lex’s name.” There. The final nail in the proverbial coffin. 

In the following deadly silence, there is more clamoring and a soft “unhand me” and two DEO agents haul Lillian Luthor in front of her daughter. 

Lena stands from her knees slowly, deliberately. “Mother,” she says coldly. 

“Lena,” Lillian huffs. Her face is red, and she trembles. “Lena what is the meaning of this?”

“Why did you do it?” Lena’s voice breaks slightly, but she clenches her jaw against the urge to scream. “You sent assassins after your own daughter. I lost months of sleep because of you and your threats. You’re my mother. You’re supposed to be my defender.” 

Instead of pleading, instead of insisting that she had her information wrong, Lilian’s face hardens against the accusation. And that’s all the proof Lena needs. 

She scoffs and turns her head. 

Jonn J'onzz approaches with a pair of handcuffs. “Lilian Luthor, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, fraud, and embezzlement.” Jonn and the DEO agents tug Lilian away. The rest of the security begins to escort the rest of the guests away from the verandah toward the elevators that would take them back to the lobby. A federal arrest is more than enough to dampen the party. 

But Lena can’t even slump down and mourn the loss of her mother. A flustered Cat Grant is the last person to re-enter the glass door to the L-Corp building and when her small frame disappears into the elevator, Lena is fast-walking to Alex saying “Where is she?”. 

The DEO van is parked at L-Corp’s private entrance, and Alex throws open the doors. It takes all of Lena’s self-control to not push past her and run to Kara’s side.

“Danvers.” An agent looks up from leaning over Kara’s forehead. 

“How is she?” 

The Agent steps aside, and Alex takes her place. She puts a hand on Kara’s forehead. She meets Lena’s eyes, who stands at the back of the van, worrying her lip. 

Alex sighs. “She’s fine,” she says. 

Lena sobs out in relief and joins Alex on Kara’s opposite side. The veins in her forehead are still pulsating, but the color is duller. Her breathing, once shallow, is soft and sweet like she’s sleeping. Lena knows the way that Kara breathes in her sleep all too well. The first night they spent together and Kara dozed off with her solid arms wrapped around her waist, the sound of her breath was so comforting that Lena followed her into sleep only minutes later. It was the first Lena had slept that well since the threats began. The pattern continued each blissful night. It’s almost a relief to see her like this. Maybe if she believes Kara is only asleep, she can relax. 

Lena leans down and presses her lips to her crown. 

Like something out of a fairytale, Kara’s eyes open at the brush of Lena’s lips. Her mouth curls in a loopy smile. “Hey, there,” Kara croaks. “Did we get her?”

The shock makes Lena’s mouth dry. Her confusion must be clear on her face because Kara’s smile only widens. It almost looks teasing. Lena swallows thickly.  “Yes. Yes, we did.” 

Kara’s entire posture relaxes, and she sinks into the padded gurney. “Nice.” 

She stays under observation at the DEO for three days. In hours, Kara is already sitting up with a bowl of Top Ramen in her hands. When Lena comes to visit her, pillow and blanket in hand, Kara’s face brightens. “What you got there?”

Lena shrugs. “You stayed with me when I was healing. I thought I’d return the favor.” 

Kara glances around the medical bay. The walls are crowded with different panels and screens, the floors are bare, not even a metal chair sits next to Kara’s bed. 

She shifts and pats the space next to her. 

Lena’s face grows hot. She glances behind her at the glass walls and door that look out into the rest of the DEO. Most of the agents are already gone for the evening, but that doesn’t stop the lingering fear Lena has of someone walking in on them.

“We’re not going to do anything.” Kara’s tease has Lena’s attention shooting back to her.

She scoffs. “I know that.”

“Then? What’s the hold-up?” Kara waits, silently, seemingly patiently for Lena to go through her internal struggle and smiles when she hoists herself up next to her. “This blanket looks comfortable.” Kara takes it and spreads it out for both of them. She opens up her arms and gives Lena the same raised eyebrow and half smile. 

Lena melts immediately. She buries her face in Kara’s chest. “I thought I lost you.” 

The breath Kara takes is shaky. “Yeah,” she says at last. “I know Kryptonite makes me weak. But being shot with it?” Kara shudders. “I don’t want to do that again.”

Lena’s hand splays out on Kara’s sternum and moves it down to the place on her stomach where she’d been shot. The Kryptonite had left her skin raised in a wide scar. “Does it hurt?”

Kara shakes her head. “I just feel… bad.” Her nose wrinkles. “Almost sick. Gosh, I haven’t been sick since I was a kid.” 

Lena’s heart wrenches. She tilts her head up, lips brushing against Kara’s jawline. Her heart almost bursts with everything she feels for Kara. She feels grateful for everything Kara has done for her. She feels guilty for letting her get hurt. She feels relieved to have Kara safe. She wants nothing more than her safety forever.

So Lena rolls all of those feelings up into one phrase. “I love you, Kara.” Lena never expected her first confession of love to occur in the middle of beeping monitors. But the confession still feels right and perfect because of Kara. “I need you.”

“Ha,” Kara laughs. She picks up Lena’s hand and brings it to her lips. Kara kisses her knuckles. “I love you too, Lena.” She bends her head down and presses her lips gently, ever so gently, on hers. “And I need you more than you know.”

The next two days are filled with continuous physical therapy for Kara. At the end of the first day, she’s able to run two full laps around the DEO’s indoor track and Lena keeps close at hand, watching the way her chest rises and falls. She calculates and records all of her vital signs from her heart rate to muscle expansion and her overall oxygen intake. From a purely scientific perspective, Kara Danvers is quite the physical specimen (even though watching her sweat and pant sends her mind wandering in impure directions). Lena would be surprised if she’s not back in the sky a day early. 

The only thing that prevents Kara from leaving observation is the lingering amount of Kryptonite in her veins. Every day Kara spends about three to five hours under sun lamps. This leaves Lena with not much to do as Kara mostly sleeps during this time. 

That’s how Alex introduces her to the DEO laboratories. The amount of equipment in the warehouse sized space stuns Lena, and she knows she looks like Kara seeing an all you can eat buffet when Alex basically gives her free reign of the place. 

“Bring whatever projects you want to feel at home. Just don’t blow anything up, okay?” She gives Lena a half-wave and disappears to fulfill her other duties. 

Despite the permission, Lena only brings two things with her to the lab: a roll of fabric and a sewing machine.

She spreads out all of her plans across the lab tables that she pushed together and works. Lena easily loses track of time the first night. When the lab doors hiss open and Lena sits up, she feels her back crack slightly at the sudden change of position.

“Working hard or hardly working?” Kara had changed into a soft black sweater and red flannel pajama pants. Every session under the sun lamps bring back a little more color to her cheeks. The sight of Kara getting stronger, her shoulders pulling back just a smidge more and more each day, makes Lena’s heart flutter. 

She smiles, stands and greets her with a chaste kiss. “Come to take me to bed, Danvers?” 

Kara’s arms wrap around Lena’s body. “Only if you’re done working.” It’s moments like that, the insinuation that she won’t rush Lena and also cares about her work that makes Lena more than willing to drop her plans and return to the med bay with her. She pushes at her chest softly. “Almost,” she says. “Care to sit with me for a few more minutes?” 

Kara perches herself on a nearby table and swings her feet back and forth while Lena runs more tests and writes down more numbers. 

“What are you working on, anyway?” Kara asks after some silence. 

“You’ll see soon. It’s for you actually.” 

Kara jumps down from the table and walks to stand at Lena’s shoulder. “Is that…?”

Lena guards the project with her body. “Hey! No peeking allowed.” 

Kara pouts, and Lena’s hesitation propels her to beg again. “Pleeeeeeeease?” 

With a sigh, Lena steps aside and holds it up. 

Kara’s eyes widen. “Whoa…”

“I’m not sure if you wanted to keep the same color palette as your cousin but…”

“Lena,” Kara interrupts her. Lena’s heart stops with anticipation. “Lena. I love it.” She reaches forward. “Can I?” 

“It’s not done yet…” Lena doesn’t understand the sudden shy shift in her voice. “I haven’t added the superspeed resistant threading, and I have a few ideas to curb the dangers of Kryptonite…” She hands it over anyway at Kara’s expectant smile. 

She holds the suit in front of her body. It looks like a scuba suit at its best angle and a blue potato sack at its worst. No emblem or cape attached, either. Lena snatches it back. “It’s not my best work. Yet. But it will be.”

Kara hugs Lena tightly. “Why are you making me a supersuit, Lena?” 

Lena smiles into her shoulder. “I keep thinking about what you said. How you want to share your power, use it to help people like you saved Alex… and me.” She pulls away and meets Kara’s wide, realizing eyes. “I was on that plane too, you know.” 

“I didn’t… you were?” 

Lena places her hands on Kara’s chest. “I dreamt about that day often. They always said the pilot performed a perfect water landing but… I looked out of my window. And I saw you, standing on the wing of the plane. Then I blinked, and you were gone. You saved my life that day, and you haven’t stopped saving it since.” Lena feels Kara’s heart flutter underneath her palm. “I want to be a part of your story. I want to do my part to save people, too.” 

When Kara kisses Lena, she drops the prototype and threads her fingers through her hair. Kara lifts Lena and places her on the desk, sweeping off all of the blueprints she had lined up. She swallows Lena’s protest with a well placed knee. 

“Lena Luthor.” Kara reaches forward and traces a thumb over Lena’s lips. She drags her hand down and cups her cheek. “I will always, always protect you. I promise.” Kara leans over Lena’s body, and Lena is swept away with the intensity of that promise.

Chapter Text

Even after Kara fully heals, she and Lena return to the DEO labs to work on the new Super suit. Of course, only Lena puts in the actual work, enforcing the suit’s frame, attaching bullet-proof tech cells into a crimson cape and enforcing the entire suit with a weave that is invulnerable to every kind of friction. Kara simply tries on every version and puts it through a series of combat tests. She tears up about four prototypes before she’s able to fly around the world and take a few blasts from DEO rocket launchers without issue.

The last piece of the proverbial puzzle comes in the form of an emblem. Kara finds Lena puzzling over a piece of draft paper. She had drawn Clark’s S and its five-sided enclosure and was in the process of making the design sleeker.

“I’m not sure if you wanted the same symbol,” Lena says. She frowns and plants her hands on her hips. “I’m only going off what they called you: Supergirl.”

Kara walks up by Lena’s side. She taps the design. “The ‘S’ doesn’t mean ‘Super’,” she says. “The S-Shield is a symbol of hope.” She smiles fondly. “I taught it to Clark… it might have been an old coat of arms for our family…” Even a mention of Krypton and the House of El as fleeting as this makes Kara’s heart ache. “I want to keep it. I want to be the symbol of hope too.”

Lena wraps her arms around Kara’s waist and lays her head over her heart. “...I’m proud of you,” she says, after a pregnant pause.

Kara sets her chin on top of Lena’s head. “You make me proud of who I am.”

Lena sends in the last blueprint that evening.

---

The week after the Gala, CatCo News runs a special report about Lillian Luthor and her crime, what they call Family Fraud. And, in true Luthor fashion, Lena decides to throw a viewing party.
“Kara, darling, will you get the door? I think Winn and James are here.”

Kara lifts the vacuum over her head and takes a quick speed-step to the door. “Careful,” she says to her friends, ushering them in. “I just cleaned the living room. If you drip on it I’m dropping you out of the window.” James gives her a good-natured laugh while Winn’s eyes widen with barely concealed concern.

After the Gala, Kara revealed herself and the nature of her powers to her friends. It was an easy choice, even when Lena expressed her initial reluctance.

“I trust them,” Kara insisted.

Lena’s uncertainty couldn’t last long against the power of her conviction.

It’s then become a casual thing among the Super Friends: mentioning Kara’s powers, and Lena notices each word anyone speaks about it makes Kara glow brighter.

Alex enters soon after with the customary sacrifice of pizza boxes, and Sam knocks five minutes later. Perfectly five minutes later. Kara’s face goes through what Lena assumes are the five stages of realizing her sister is in a relationship: confusion, shock, disgust, acceptance and happiness.

She distributes the boxes across Lena’s kitchen counter. “Nice place you got here, Luthor,” Alex says kindly.

“Thank you. Have I ever told you about the time Kara kicked down my door?” She links her arm through Alex’s and tells her the story in hushed tones while Kara protests, saying it’s ‘embarrassing’.

They chat and exchange grievances about their past week of work and food orders gone wrong, and Lena’s heart grows looking at the group that had taken her in at one game night unflinchingly and hasn’t blinked nor questioned her presence since.

Seven o’ clock hits, and the group crowds around Lena’s television. They pass plates and drinks back and forth as an ominous tune plays with the title card of Family Fraud scrolling across the screen.

A female voice begins: “The legacy of the Luthor family is one fraught with controversy. The Luthors started as business magnates (“With old money,” Lena cuts in, snidely) who revolutionized the technology industry. With nothing but their charm, they got their foot in the door and began making important relationships with important people. Those important people, in turn, gave the Luthors the loans they needed to surpass them in a matter of years.”

Accompanying this introduction are black and white images of Old Metropolis, skyscrapers being built at ten times speed and newsboys passing out papers about the “Era of the Luthors”.
The images jump to the present with a video from a Silicon Valley summit of their hovercar prototype. There’s grainy news footage of Lex, amid flashing lights, in his best blue suit and red tie, answering questions with a confident smile.

Then a quick cut to Lex in handcuffs. Lena grits her teeth.

The female voice says ominously, “And as the son falls from the grace of the family. A new leader rises.”

Lena watches herself on her television screen. It’s her first press conference after Lex’s arrest. Her answers, her demeanor are cold and calculated: the image of Luthor severity.
“But Lena Luthor will soon learn that her sharp business acumen is not the same as being part of the family.”

Lena sees James wince and Alex scowl. Kara clenches her fist next to her. She slips her hand in Kara’s, opening the fist and lacing their fingers together.

The rest of the program is a decently in-depth analysis of the crimes of Lillian Luthor against Lena and the framing of Lex.

The digs the program takes at Lena continue in more subtle ways but by the end, whenever they come up, the group dissolves into soft laughter instead of the first awkward half-glances at each other.

“Lena Luthor proved that she is no one to be trifled with and no one is exempt from her retribution. Her ruthlessness may be a good trait for Lena Luthor to have: there are still a few anti-alien terrorist cells that have lauded her adopted mother’s agenda.”

A slowed-down video of Lillian’s arrest plays last. It’s a parallel image of Lex’s, and that sends a shiver down Lena’s spine. Pictures flash across the screen of groups of human protestors waving signs with sloppily written slogans of: Lex Was Right and Humans First Always. The narrator finishes the last bit of her spiel, something about how, despite all of this, L-Corp’s stocks are at the highest they had ever been and the bright outlook for their next quarter.

“I must say,” Lena says at last. She takes a drink of her wine that Sam had gotten her halfway through the report. “Dramatics aside, the journalistic integrity is pretty air-tight.”

After everyone leaves Lena’s apartment, she and Kara are left rinsing out the wine glasses amid the soft glow of the living room lamp. It’s painfully domestic, Lena realizes, as she passes the lst glass over to Kara to dry.

“Have you ever wanted a normal life?” Kara asks. She jumps up onto the counter and swings her legs.

Lena scoffs. “I have learned ‘normal’ isn’t something that fits my lifestyle.”

Kara’s smile is small, a stark contrast from her usual full-toothed grin. “I guess there’s a difference between being-CEO-of-a-company-abnormal and my-girlfriend-is-Kryptonian normal.”

It takes a jump and Kara’s strong hands on her waist, but Lena joins Kara on the counter. “This again?” She chides. “You giving me an out is becoming insulting.”

Kara’s sheepish look makes Lena gravitate toward her and leans on Kara’s firm shoulder. “It’s just not going to get easier if you’re with me. That’s all I wanted to express. I know you’re not only doing it for me, I mean, you’ve made your stance known for a long time, but--”

Lena places a finger over Kara’s lips in a shushing motion. “You’re right I’m not only doing this for you, but having someone you love strengthens your resolve, in a way.”

“You love me,” Kara says, teasingly and sing-song-like.

Lena turns and slides onto Kara’s lap. Her arms go around her neck. “I do love you, Kara Danvers.” And Lena knows she’ll never get tired of saying those words for as long as she will live.

---

Kara’s first real call to action happens during a very inconvenient time. A blast shakes Lena’s apartment, and Kara picks up her head from under the sheets. She gives Lena a remorseful look. “Duty calls.”

She falls off of her and Lena’s bed and scrambles to get her clothing on while Lena bolts toward the closet.

“Okay,” Lena says breathlessly. She smooths down her hair and holds out the suit. “The suit should work fine if the most frequent test run was any indication. Remember: the cape is fire-proof, the boots are steel-toed for any hand-to-hand combat and your S-Shield--”

Lena is interrupted mid explanation as Kara snags it in a millisecond of superspeed and stands before her in it a breath later, hands on her hips, in an already triumphant pose. “How do I look?” She asks.

Lena takes a step toward. “I think the world should see your beautiful eyes.” Her hands go up, plucking the glasses off of Kara’s face and undoing her messy ponytail so her hair falls down over her shoulders and back. Lena sighs shakily. “I really wish you didn’t have to go out and save the city right now…”

Kara grins and sweeps in for a kiss. “We can mess around while I’m the suit after I kick some bad-guy butt.” She trails a hand up to Lena’s chin, winks, and dashes for the balcony.

She leaps from the railing and free-falls for a few seconds, feeling the wind rush through her hair and into her ears. Power surges through her, seeping into her pores, sending her heart racing in pure excitement. Kara twists into a head-first dive, then rockets upward with a sound like a shot.

Police had been swiftly dispatched and the sirens lead Kara toward the origin of the blast. She sees the smoke before the raging inferno that has engulfed the entire rooftop of National City Safe.
The sight almost overwhelms Kara. Where does she even begin? A static buzzing in the neckline of her suit breaks through her paralysis.

“Hello? Kara?”

“Lena? You’re in my suit?”

“Not quite yet, but I do have a line of communication through your suit if that’s what you mean.”

Fire trucks pull in and the firemen jump out to scramble for their hoses while EMTs gather around crying citizens seated on the sidewalk. Everyone at the scene begins to notice Kara, hovering, not making a move. They begin to whisper.

Lena’s voice crackles over the suit again. “Kara, you’ve done this many times. Use your instincts. You want to help people. You’re meant to help people. This is your chance.”

Kara inhales deeply. Lena is right. This is her moment. She feels the scope of the world narrow around her. The screaming of orders from the cops and firemen fade. The insistent blazing rage of the fire filters out, and Kara focuses her senses inside of National City Safe. There are still three people inside.

Faster than a sonic boom, Kara flies upward and drops feet-first to shatter the skylight. She lands in the middle of the lobby.

Two NCS employees are huddled beneath the counter, wrapped up in each other in a cocoon of fear.

Kara rushes to them and, with one strong heave, she throws the splintering wood across to the opposite wall. She throws her cape over them before taking them up to the sky and depositing them safely on the sidewalk with the rest of the victims in the fire.

“Kara,” Lena says. “The fire is going to start consuming the other buildings if it’s not put out now!”

The firemen are struggling with the fire eating every piece of wood around the threshold and slipping into the bricks to break down the old facade as well.

Kara licks her lips. She’d never done this before but knew it was possible. She finds a place where the fire seems to be less intense and blows out a gust of freezing air. The flames immediately recede, and Kara continues to use her cold breath until the firemen regain control of the rest of the fire.

Once it is nothing but smoke, Kara recognizes the slow applause that is building from the gathered crowd. Her cheeks redden as she realizes it’s for her. She holds out her hands in a ‘please stop’ motion. “Oh, no,” Kara says sheepishly. “Please I-- I just wanted to help.”

“Get used to it,” Lena says, with an amused tone. “You’re National City’s hero now.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it,” Kara says, faintly. She descends back onto the concrete. “Is there anything else I can do?” She asks one of the firemen.

“You’ve done everything you could have done and even more,” she replies. She orders the hoses to be pulled back into the truck and orders another round of checkups for the citizens. She looks at Kara again, up and down, and her eyes fixate on the S-Shield.

“Supergirl,” Kara says before she can ask. “I’m Supergirl.” In a last minute decision, Kara straightens her posture and places her hands on her hips.

The firemen smiles and nods. “Supergirl,” she repeats. “Well, thank you, Supergirl.”

Before Kara can respond, another explosion shakes the city block. Her gaze snaps to the direction of the sound then takes off toward it.

The front of this second building was blasted open and another group of citizens were running out in fear followed by the sharp blast of gunshots. Kara swoops down to pick up a mother and child away from the commotion, depositing them three blocks in the opposite direction. “Are you alright?” She asks, and, when they nod yes, she flies back to save the rest.

In the second it had taken her to get the two out of the way, the road had caved inward and a giant monster of a man stands in its crater with a gatling gun squeezed between his elbow and side and hundreds of bullets strapped across his chest. Another weapon sits at his lower back, something that looked like a plasma cannon.

Kara lands with one knee and the opposite fist on the ground. She stands slowly, regarding the man. “And.. who exactly are you?”

The man stands himself up to his full height, about nine or ten feet. He laughs a deep, almost condescending laugh. “Little girl,” he says. “Get out of my way.”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts over the suit’s communication. “Be careful. There’s talk of a group of villains breaking out of Riker’s not long ago. This man matches the description of one of them.”

“Easy,” Kara says, pulling herself up to her own full height. She’s still easily four feet shorter than him. “He’ll be in the back of an extra-large police car in no time.”

The convict switches the guns on his back, and Kara feels something in her legs grow weak. A substance in the barrel of the gun, with its dull green coloration exudes an energy that makes her dizzy. Kryptonite, she realizes. How did he know?

Lena’s voice crackles over her earpiece once more. “Your S-Shield! Touch your S-Shield!”

The Kryptonite gun powers up with a powerful whir. As it discharges, Kara slams her fist into the center of her suit. She feels some cells in its neckline crawl up over her throat, over her chin and completely ensconce her face. The screen that had come over her eyes zeroes in on the incoming blast of Kryptonite. Kara, not knowing what else to do, puts her hands in front of her face. She feels the impact against her chest but what would have been a debilitating blow to her instead feels like no more than a hard punch to her sternum.

She doubles-over briefly and exhales. “Lena, you absolute genius,” she breathes into the new helmet of her suit.

“Well thank you,” Lena replies, sugary sweet. “Now, send him back to where he belongs.”

Kara laughs. She plants her feet in the road and shoots forward.

Kara Danvers has always dreamed of flying. She’s dreamt of spiraling toward the yellow sun. Sometimes she’s afraid she’ll look down from the National City skyline and see Midvale’s fields, proving it all to just be that, a dream. With the wind whipping through her hair, Kara soars higher to the tallest peak in the city.

There, on the balcony of the L-Corp’s highest office, she sees her: Lena Luthor, reclined on a lawn chair with a book in her hand. As Kara slows to a stop in front of her, Lena smiles and winks.
She alights on the balcony. “Ms. Luthor.”

“Supergirl,” Lena replies lightly. “On your daily patrol?”

“Yes, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena sighs and stands from her seat. She approaches Kara and frames her body with her arms, settling her hands on the balcony. “Then get on with it.” She gives Kara a chaste kiss on her nose. “And make sure you pick up dinner on your way home.”

The flutter of Kara’s heart almost makes her drop from the balcony. She gazes at Lena and knows this is not a dream.