Heart of Steel ~ Winn Schott

The Last Son of Mars (Part II)

"You know what, that was better than the time I stopped a holdup at a pizzeria and the owner gave me twelve pizzas."

"That was good pizza."

Kara stood in James' office, watching as he sifted through the crisis shots he'd taken that day. They were all of people. People in trouble, people being saved, people who hadn't quite made it that far.

They were really all spectacular, but Kara could tell that James didn't like any of them. He picked through them one by one, his face showing nothing more than mild pleasure at each one, but after a few minutes, he stopped at the one he had clearly been waiting for.

The one of Kara in the convenience store.

The one with her arm out, and the man willingly placing the gun in her open palm. The one that ended in no casualties and was more than she could've hoped for with no powers.

"I just," Kara said, readjusting her sling around her shoulder. "I felt so useless without my powers. I still do a bit, but that was just... incredible."

James nodded, leaning back on his chair. "You know, when you take a picture of someone, it's permanent. And you've captured the truth of them in that moment, and you can keep that. Forever." He pointed to the picture of her on his computer screen. "And, the truth of this moment is that you don't even need powers to be a hero."

Kara smiled, staring at the photo. It was probably one of the most powerful ever taken of her, but she wasn't sure if James should share it.

"Maybe, we keep this one between just us two."

"And why's that?"

"It's just, people were worried, there's no point in pretending otherwise. And if this photo gets out that I was there and I chose to help a corner store rather than the dozens of people who needed medical attention,"

"But you couldn't have helped them."

"They don't know that."

James looked down, his face unreadable, but Kara was sure she caught hints of joy somewhere. "Yeah, ok. It's a fair point."

He stood up and Kara moved forward, wrapping her good arm around him. His arms snaked around her side, careful of her elbow and they stood like that for a few minutes, Kara drinking in his offered support, James being secretly glad that Kara didn't have her powers for fear of being squeezed to death with one arm.

They stood like that until the door to James' office banged open and they broke apart, turning to see Winn standing in the doorway.

"I accessed the DEO file on Superman," he said, watching them with a shocked irritation. "Basically, uh, you'll get your powers back with a Kryptonian version of extreme adrenaline."

The room went silent after he finished talking, the tension strong enough to smell. Kara and James stood awkwardly, putting as much distance between each other as they could without taking any steps.

Winn dropped the file he was carrying onto a table next to the door, then turned and left without another word.

Kara sighed, trying not to look at James and she followed Winn out of the door.

~~~~~~

Alex crept through the corridors, forcibly reminded of the hour she'd spent earlier doing the same thing, both with Donovan and without. The walls were now bathed with red light and the air was heavy with fog. However that was possible, she didn't know, considering not much had changed since she'd last beaten these paths.

She tried not to think too much about Donovan. Somehow, she knew that he hadn't survived, and while he'd gone into the mission willingly, Alex had naturally felt guilty about the whole thing. It was kind of stupid, because she knew it wasn't her fault that he was... gone. But she still couldn't help herself because she'd lead the mission.