Hidden Lives ~ Winn Schott [1]

Chapter 4 - Alien A Mano (And Unlikely Bar Companions)

The week following Kara's threat assessment seemed to be going smoothly. Granted, Lily was only ten minutes into Monday, but she was hopeful. The weekend had flown by. She and Alex had spent most of the weekend together, just goofing off and pretending that Alex was still on speaking terms with her sister.

It had taken the entire weekend of coaxing, but Alex was going to see Kara tonight and hopefully, things would go smoother this time.

Things seemed to be looking up, so of course, she ended up spilling her coffee thermos on her shirt. I jinxed it, she thought as she furiously tried to scrub at the stain. Five minutes of scrubbing later and it looked the exact same, maybe a shade lighter. Lily frowned, tempted to bang her head against the desk, before remembering that she had a spare uniform in her locker.

This eased her worries considerably, but there was still a dull burning pain on her chest where the scalding liquid had hit.

She changed in the locker room quickly before returning to her office. Lily tried to focus on work and succeeded in doing a few routine touch-ups to the firewall. She was just beginning to get into the swing of work when there was a ringing in her ears followed by a dull throb behind her eyes.

Taking that as her cue for a lunch break, she grabbed her small lunchbox and headed to Alex's lab. She always preferred to eat in there so they could laugh or complain about their days together, depending on the mood.

There was a distinct singed scent as Lily entered the lab, and she coughed. "Yikes, Alex. What did you set on fire?"

"That would be me." Lily took in the charred sleeves of her friend's shirt, and the soot on her arms and cringed.

"What happened?" She asked, leading Alex to the locker room for a change of clothes, her lunch forgotten on one of Alex's desks.

"I was running some more tests on that skin sample. It turns out borax lights it on fire." Alex ran a hand through her hair as she spoke, leaving a sooty trail on her forehead.

"So your shirt was covered flaming soap?" Lily asked, trying, and failing to stifle a grin.

Alex bumped shoulders with her. "You know this doesn't even break my top ten craziest days here."

Lily laughed this time, a big raucous laugh. She hadn't laughed like that in a long time, it felt nice. Ever since she'd talked to Kiera about the company, it was like a weight off her shoulders. "I'm not surprised."

"Do you remember when David rigged the coffee maker to explode?" Alex made a face at Lily's words.

"How could I forget? Hank smelled like chocolate for days."

They shared a laugh, remembering the young agent who'd thought Hank would appreciate an April Fools prank. Somehow he'd managed to rig the coffee maker to spray liquid at the first person to use it, thankfully it had been full of lukewarm hot chocolate and not scalding coffee.

"Whatever happened to that guy?" Lily mused as they continued down the hall.

"I think he's a pencil pusher in Metropolis now."

Lily laughed again, "I'll bet he's happy to far far away from Hank."

Alex nudged her playfully, "I would too if I pulled a stunt like that."

They arrived at the locker room, and Lily pushed the door open with Alex following.

"It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one with a wardrobe malfunction today." She called as Alex changed.