Heart of Steel ~ Winn Schott

This Isn't Your Apartment

"No, no one knew she was pregnant."

"But surely Peter did, I mean they were married."

Frankie looked at Lou, barely hiding a snicker.

"Why should Peter know? Everyone knows the husband is always last to find out anything, that's always how it works."

"But Frank, I watched the episode again last night and Maria specifically said, 'I told Peter.'"

Frankie opened her mouth to retaliate but shut it again quickly when she saw her boss enter the room.

"Lou, you'd better go. Crawface is coming." She warned, turning back to her computer to try and hide the fact that she had done little to no work. Crawford seemed to sense something was going on but didn't walk over, merely sneering in her direction. A clear indicator to start concentrating. Louise turned away and walked off trying to look as innocent as possible, whistling jovially.

Opening the file she was working on, she quickly started typing notes on the very basic assault case she had been assigned. The task was way under her level - something the new kids normally handled - but she had a sneaking suspicion Crawford was trying to see if she was still capable of her job. Whatever it was, she didn't want to give him another excuse to try and fire her.

It had only been a week since she'd last been sure her job was in danger, but luckily that had straightened itself out eventually. All she'd gotten was a stern talking to from Crawford.

Make sure you never, ever do anything like this again. I employed you for one reason only and that reason is that you have real talent. Your problem is that you don't care to show it. I know you, Francesca. You're better than this. Be better than this. I'm giving you one last chance and if I catch you slacking off again, I will have no choice but to fire you.

She still shuddered at the memory. It had to have been some kind of record to get off that lightly with him. She quickly returned to her report, determined to have it finished by lunchtime. Scrolling through the details, she noticed that this particular offence had been stopped at the scene by none other than Supergirl, a name that was popping up a lot in her co-worker's cases.

She couldn't help but be proud of her sister. She had been stopping crimes all over the city and was now becoming a regular discussion topic in the office break room. It seemed as though she had decided to go public and was now getting involved with helping the NCPD, FBI and other government agencies.

She'd also noticed that Kara and Alex had been acting strange recently. They were spending a whole lot more time together than they usually did and both had seemed to be too busy to answer her calls every now and then. It wasn't anything big she just, couldn't help but feel that they were up to something. She knew it was none of her business and it was probably nothing but, she couldn't help the way she felt.

Finally straightening out the report, she emailed it to her department head, trying to shake the doubt in her stomach. Hoping that there was nothing going on, she reached into her bag, feeling around for her purse. Not coming up with anything, she turned on her phone's torch to get a better view.

Rifling through the junk, she found nothing except a deep, lingering urge to clean the mess from the bag. She thought back to where she could have left it, sighing when she realised it was probably in Kara's apartment. She had been over briefly last night, citing some crap excuse that she couldn't remember, but it had led to being essentially kicked out rather hastily. She grabbed her phone again, dialling Kara's number.

The phone rung for a minute before, unsurprisingly, going to voicemail.

Frankie sighed yet again. She needed her purse, but something told her she shouldn't go into Kara's apartment without asking, even though both Kara and Alex seemed to have no problem rocking up at her apartment unannounced.