Winn emerged through the portal, as his colleagues were entering the camaraderie phase that followed successful missions: there was joy, to be sure, but there was often a darker cloud above it; sadness at losing one of their own, or in this case, anger at having to go rescue an idiot and his friend at 3 o'clock in the morning. It wasn't the worst thing a DEO agent had ever done, but Winn still suspected he would need to introduce 'sorry I got kidnapped on an alien planet' Rice Krispies treats into everyone's immediate future.
Winn had seen the quiet post-mission celebrations before, but he'd never been part of them... until a now less-tidy-than-it-had-been pony tail of jet black hair whipped him in the face.
"Uh-okay," he said, not really sure where to put his hands as Lena hugged him, although he was pretty sure he should put his pistol down.
She released him, still somewhat startled, but otherwise brimming with glee. "We made it!" she exclaimed.
"We did! And it all went surprisingly okay! I mean, it didn't go entirely according to plan; but-" Winn holstered his newfound pistol, and turned around to find Alex, "-we escaped, we all came back alive, and we all get to not have our fingers broken. Yay us."
Alex silently made it clear that she was still on the fence about the whole fingers thing.
Winn pressed on, "Now, do we absolutely have to tell J'onn about this? I mean, we can just keep this between you, me, and... every single other person in the building, right?"
"Agent Schott!" J'onn J'onzz bellowed from the corner of the room, and every face turned his way.
"And he's already here," Winn said, dejected.
Alex - who was starting to lighten up now that the schadenfreude had kicked in - scoffed, "Someone set off a massive psychic energy generator about, say, half-an-hour before your little message played out. Woke him up."
"He's a telepath?" Lena interjected.
Alex's eyes widened slightly with fear, before answering Lena's question with an unstable "...No."
"Yeah, she does that," Winn said, returning Alex's schadenfreude for the first, and probably only, time of his DEO career, "it's fun."
J'onn continued, striding towards Winn with heavy, deliberate footfalls. "Do you mind explaining to me what the hell you were doing allowing an unauthorized civilian into this facility, and allowing her the use of top-secret alien technology?"
As J'onn finished his question, every eye that had turned to him turned back to Winn.
"Right! Yes!" Winn clapped his hands together, in a mixture of enthusiasm and prayer; and said, way too loudly, "First off: you'll be pleased to hear that our unscheduled security test was a resounding success."
"Security test?" asked J'onn, skeptically.
"Success?" asked Alex, even more so.
"Yes! Lena here-" Winn said, as though it wasn't obvious to everyone who she was, "-was kind enough to be our 'intruder' for the night, and we managed to uncover some key exploits."
"You know, I was happy to do it," Lena chimed in, in the tone of voice game show contestants use when they aren't going through to the final round, "Of course, I'm always happy to help the DEO in any way I can."
"Yeah, so now that we've identified the holes in our security, we can go to work plugging them-" Winn continued, before J'onn cut him off.
"Do you think I'm a fool, Agent Schott?" J'onn asked.
"No, sir, absolutely not," Winn replied instantly. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lena glancing over at him, stifling a giggle; until J'onn directed his gaze towards her.
"Ms. Luthor?"
"Oh, no," she said, genially dismissive of the idea; until J'onn raised an eyebrow at her, when she followed up, more seriously, with, "I mean, of course not..." and then, as Alex quietly but deliberately stepped into her field of vision, "...sir."
"Good. Because the only holes we seem to have in our security right now are the two of you."
J'onn hadn't raised his voice. It would have been better if he'd raised his voice. Winn squirmed uncomfortably; Lena, on the other hand, had never squirmed before, but was adapting well to this advanced class she'd found herself in.
J'onn pressed on.
"Now, what exactly made you think I would have authorised such a security test - which I did not - and what exactly did it have to do with compromising our entire operation, or forcing everyone here to endanger their lives performing a rescue operation?"
"That's a very good question, sir, and I can explain..." Winn stammered out.
And then... he couldn't.
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but not one word of explanation could pass his lips. He could feel every pair of eyes staring at him, as he just stood there in silence. He turned to Lena out of desperation.
"Don't look at me; this was your idea," she said.
Winn didn't so much hear the groan from the audience surrounding him as much as feel it, like an invisible force. He went back over the events of the afternoon in his mind, and had to admit defeat.
"Yeah, I- I- I- did... do that, but..." And again, the words failed him. From the look of the agents around him, the Rice Krispies treats would probably have to get upgraded to cupcakes.
"I'm waiting," J'onn said, expectantly.
"Me too," Winn instantly replied. J'onn sighed, angrily.
"Could we have the room, please?" he asked the surrounding agents; who then, begrudgingly obeyed. They'd clearly been hoping to see the show. "Alex, can you please give Ms Luthor a medical examination?"
Alex glanced Lena up and down. "She's fine," she deadpanned.
"Good. Please escort her from the building," he said.
"Come on, Princess," Alex shoved Lena forward, making her stumble as she was marched out. As they were approaching the door, J'onn added, "Take her to the lobby, but don't release her. Not just yet. Not until I say."
Winn watched them leave, a little worried. Lena had gotten better treatment on Slaver's Moon.
Once everyone was out the door, Winn relaxed a little. But not much.
"I'm still waiting, Agent Schott," J'onn informed him.
Winn walked over to one of the workbenchs, and laid his new pistol down on it. He was going to have fun dismantling that later. Maybe.
"I know," he said, quietly.
"You know I can't let you out of this without an explanation," J'onn said.
Winn knew that too. Alex or Kara, maybe; but not him. But they were heroes. They'd earned it.
"Can't you just... I don't know, read my mind?" Winn asked, leaning against the bench.
"Actually, no," J'onn said, and strolled over to sit beside him. "The signal-to-noise ratio on your mind actually gives you an immunity against my telepathy. You'll be giving an intelligence briefing, but your brain will be doing five minutes on why Tatiana Maslany deserves an Emmy."
Winn hesitated, trying not to take the bait, and failed spectacularly.
"You understand that she plays every character-"
"You don't need to convince me, Agent Schott," J'onn said, desperately trying get Winn to stay on topic; then he turned away, and said, so quietly that Winn would never be sure if he really heard him, "The woman's an incredible talent."
He turned back to face Winn.
"Now, take your time. Tell me why you did this."
"I didn't do this," Winn argued, "I mean, I did, but it's not like I said 'hey, let's go to Slaver's Moon'. In fact, I specifically told Lena that we weren't going."
"And yet, somehow, you went anyway," J'onn said.
"She wouldn't take no for an answer!" Winn said, as he leaped up from the bench, and started pacing. He thought better when he was pacing.
"Don't put this on her, Agent Schott. Ms. Luthor is not in a position to make requests from you. The question of what answers she would or would not accept is largely irrelevant. You did this because you wanted to." There was a hint of fury in J'onn's voice, but no more than that.
But he was right.
"And if I'm going to allow you to keep working here, I'm going to need to know why."
Winn stood still, silently, and J'onn kept the silence with him. For all Winn knew, he could have been standing there for ten minutes before he spoke.
"You see, the thing is, you have to see this from Lena's perspective."
J'onn's face gave nothing away. "Go on."
"She has no family. None. Dad's dead, her real mom's dead; there's only two people left; one's the leader of an anti-alien terrorist cell, and the other one's literally the worst human alive.
"She's only got two real friends, that she doesn't know are actually the same friend; and given how weird that is, I don't know how much that qualifies as having any real friends at all.
"All she has, all she really has, is her work. That's all.
"So then there's that." he said, gesturing toward the circle behind him.
"The transmat portal?" J'onn asked.
"Not that one. The one she built," Winn said, taking a deep breath, "It is... the most important thing she will ever do. That anyone will ever do. Ever."
"She could finish curing cancer tomorrow - finish curing cancer? Like she put the cure for cancer down because she was distracted by other things?" he said, looking around at the half-finished fragments of his own mind he'd left lying around, "She could finish the cure for cancer tomorrow, and it will still be a distant second to this. 'Cause, you know, letting rich people live basically forever is great and all, but it won't do us much good if we can't find a way to get off this rock.
"It's not just Nobel prize work. It's beyond Nobel prize. This is 'naming Earth's first off-world colony after you, get an entire wing of the Smithsonian dedicated to your life' type stuff.
"And we're taking it away from her. Telling her that she can't have what she's earned. That's she's only entitled to what we're willing to give her."
"This technology is too dangerous to be left in private hands, Agent Schott. I think that was demonstrated fairly clearly," J'onn interjected.
"I know that. But, you know, I doubt that'll be much comfort to her in five years when NASA or DARPA or whoever 'announces' that they developed this thing, and we've turned her into the Rosalind Franklin of space travel," Winn told him, holding back tears, "That doesn't sound like us, J'onn. That isn't who we should be.
"That doesn't sound like Truth, Justice, or the American Way."
"It's not. But sometimes, it's just what's necessary," J'onn said, "And you still know who Rosalind Franklin is."
"Well, that doesn't sound like a very good argument," Winn said.
"Perhaps," J'onn replied, "What about you?"
"What about me?" Winn asked, puzzled.
"You don't consider yourself one of her friends?"
"I'm the guy that's taking it away! I'm the guy that walked into her office and told her, 'no, you will forever be associated with murderers and sociopaths. We had a meeting.' Big opportunity for me, in fact. And you know what else? She let me. She just... accepted her fate."
"That isn't what you did," J'onn said, resting a hand on Winn's shoulder.
"It feels like I did," he replied.
"Which is why you decided to give her something else instead?" J'onn asked.
Winn sniffed loudly. He'd never been a particularly dignified crier.
"It was only supposed to be five minutes. And it's such a small thing. It cost us nothing," he said.
J'onn raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, almost nothing," Winn continued, "And she... had fun. Is that such a bad thing?"
"No. But you put everyone here tonight at risk, and I can't let it go without disciplinary action," J'onn said, apologetically.
"I know. This was my fault, and I'll accept whatever punishment you give. Just-"
J'onn stopped.
"Please... don't wipe her brain," Winn quietly pleaded.
J'onn rolled his eyes. "I have no intention of wiping her brain, Agent Schott. I would no more wipe Lena Luthor's brain than I would yours."
Winn switched from apologetic to apprehensive. "Um..."
"I'm not going to wipe your brain, Winn."
"Okay. Good to know," he said, smiling for the first time in what had felt like forever, even if it had only been a few minutes.
"How long until the operation at L-Corp is finished?" J'onn asked.
Winn shrugged. "Ten days? Three weeks, at the most."
"Good. Then you're suspended for the next month."
"Suspended?" Somehow, Winn was still shocked.
"For a month. With pay. Alex will finish up the L-Corp project while you're gone," J'onn insisted.
"Come on, at least let me finish the job-" Winn argued, even though he knew he was already getting off light.
"No. Agent Danvers is cut out for this kind of work in ways that you are not," J'onn explained, tersely; "This is where her value lies. You have other talents. If you want to continue to associate with Ms. Luthor, you're going to have to do so on your own time.
"Besides, when was the last time you had a day off?"
"I don't know... sometime before the election?" Winn said.
"President... Marsdin's election?" J'onn replied, "She's been President for nearly three years, Winn."
"Yeah, but I'm not really good at downtime, you know; and when you go away, no-one can really cover for you, so your e-mails stack up-"
"One month," J'onn repeated, "And no Guardian, either. If I see another one of Mr. Olsen's article's before then, I'm going to have a conversation with him that he will not enjoy."
"I'll let him know," Winn said.
"Now, go on. Go downstairs, and tell Alex that Ms. Luthor's free to go," J'onn said.
"Thank you, sir," Winn sighed with relief, and made his way to the door.
"After you go into the system and remove Ms. Luthor's profile from the security database," J'onn ordered.
Winn interrupted his exit, and turned back to him.
"Guess you'll always need me for the IT help-desk stuff?" Winn asked, half-rhetorically.
"Of course, Agent Schott," J'onn said, "Nobody does it better."
J'onn's expression gave nothing away; but Winn was so tired, he was left with only one burning thought.
Signal-to-noise ratio, my ass.
Author's note-
Okay, so this was going to be the last chapter; but I got to this point and saw that it was chapter length, so you're getting a chapter nine as well; which will be up in a few days.
And remember, comments are always welcome.