12 Days of Christmas

Part 5 - Love at First Sight

Kara waits, glare burning (though not literally) into the back of Eliza's head.

"Lena looks well," Eliza says. "I read about some advances L-Corp has made in the field of medical nanobot technology. It's pretty exciting stuff."

It's small talk, the kind of thing strangers would share or people avoiding a different subject. Kara is tired of avoiding. It's been an entire month of Kara practicing this conversation mentally, an entire month of being certain that if Eliza tries to make Kara choose between Lena and her, she won't like the outcome.

"I'm not a child," Kara says. She thrusts out her chin and stands with arms folded across her breasts. She's too angry to let her arms flail loose in a fragile house of some of her best memories. "I can take care of myself."

The way Eliza steps back, eyes wide and mouth chewing on air in the search for words, makes it clear only one of them was prepared.

"I heard what you said. I'm not a child, and your ignorant bigotry isn't welcome in my life." There, she's said it. She's drawn a line, set a boundary. The next move is Eliza's.

That move is confusion, as she pulls out one of the kitchen chairs and sits, staring up blankly at her younger child. "Kara, I have no idea what you're talking about. What are we discussing here?"

"I heard what you said about Lena."

"About Lena? I haven't said anything about—"

"I heard you and Kelly last month, talking in the kitchen when you thought we'd already left. You think she's just like the rest of the Luthors, that she's going to hurt me, but you don't even know her. Honestly, Eliza, I expected better from you."

A long silence permeates the air as that sits between them. Then Eliza nods. "Well, now, I don't blame you for feeling that way, or at least I wouldn't if that was what I said."

The way Eliza sits there primly, hands folded and legs crossed as she stares, makes Kara falter. She's been expecting excuses or more aspersions toward Lena, but an outright denial was not in any of the scenarios she's practiced. In the end, it only makes her angrier. Bias is one thing but added dishonesty is a whole new low.

"I heard you," Kara says, digging in deeper. "I heard you clearly, so don't try and deny it."

"Let's make sure we're on that same page. What did you hear, Kara?" Eliza's voice is patient, pandering. It's the voice she used when Kara first came to Earth hurt, confused, and painfully alone. It's the voice of a mother dealing with a child.

Right now, it's a voice that makes Kara's anger bloom. "You said that you trusted me, but you didn't trust the Luthors. It was ignorant and hurtful. It wasn't the kind of thing the woman who helped to raise me would say."

There are no more denials. Eliza just rolls her hand in front of her, encouraging Kara to continue. "And then?"

Something in that question makes Kara hesitate, but she knows what she heard, and being in the right fills her with confidence. "And then nothing. I was so mad that I left. I was afraid I'd do or say something I regretted."

"And came back today to call me a bigot. Lovely." Eliza sighs, and in her most disappointed voice, the one that makes Kara flinch away from certainty, she says, "Kara, I will admit that I said that, but it isn't all that I said. Sit down, please."

Kara does, though she tries desperately to hold onto her anger. "If you say anything negative about Lena I'll—"

"I wouldn't dare. Lena seems lovely, the exact kind of person any mother would want in their child's life. Lena isn't the problem. Lena's family is the problem."