May 29th 2017
"So... did I win?"
Lena snorted, looking up at Kara who was tracing all the cards on the bed with confusion in her eyes. "No, Kara. A full house beats a pair."
"Yeah, and three of a kind, too," Winn grumbled beside her, snatching his cards from the bed while Lena kept smiling fondly at Kara's puzzled expression.
It was surreal to think that Kara had almost died two days ago. That they were sitting here playing cards in the same spot where Kara had almost bled out less than 48 hours ago, and that the traces of Lillian Luthor's attack had already vanished, courtesy of Kara's alien constitution. But Alex had been very clear with her orders; Kara was to be confined to the bed of the DEO med-bay for the next few days, apparently going in full big sister mode when she said it (Kara's words) and heeding no protest. Which is how Lena and Winn had now ended up sitting beside Kara's bed, attempting to relieve her boredom by trying to teach her how to play poker. She wasn't quite getting it yet.
"We've been going for at least eight rounds, how do you still not know the rankings?" Winn shook his head as he watched Lena collect her winnings.
"Maybe I'm just not suited to gambling," Kara pouted, handing her cards over for Lena to shuffle.
"Kara, we're playing for jelly beans," Lena pointedly remarked, depositing the winnings of this latest hand on her increasingly large pile. "It's not gambling if there aren't any valuables involved."
"Uh, excuse me, jelly beans are very valuable."
"I think you mean tasty," Winn pointed out, snacking on one from his remaining few.
"And doesn't the DEO have plenty of these in the cafeteria?" Lena questioned amused.
"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to go there. I'm stuck here, remember?" Kara puffed out a dramatic breath. "The only jelly beans I can eat are the ones I manage not to blow on card games."
"Don't worry," Lena smirked. "I'll share my winnings."
"Really?" Kara grinned at her, her face brightening instantly.
"Yeah," Lena breathed. "Really." She swallowed, getting lost in those blue eyes that were staring so fondly at her, and she couldn't help her eyes from darting up and down the bed-ridden Kryptonian's face. Going over those lips that she'd stolen a kiss from a mere two days ago, while Kara was unconscious. Lena cleared her throat, tearing her eyes away before things got weird. Well, they were already weird, because Winn was giving her a look that suggested he knew far more than Lena was comfortable with, so she scrambled to keep the conversation going. She turned back to Kara, only to find her looking the other way, gasping an excited breath with her whole face alight with excitement.
"Kal!"
Lena looked up, finding the very familiar sight of man decked out in red and blue, the sight you basically couldn't escape if you lived in Metropolis, barrelling through the doorway and rushing up to the bedside.
"I came as soon as they cleared me, are you alright?!" The man's concerned expression was scanning Kara from top to bottom, seemingly unaware of Lena trying to recover from the shock of Superman suddenly barging in on their game of poker, while Winn was gasping for air and looked like he was having an orgasm.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, Kal," Kara tried reassure him.
"Of course you're not fine! You got hit with kryptonite, how did you even-" the man fell silent, as his eyes had finally caught sight of the other two people in the room: Winn still fanboying, while Lena was frozen mid-shuffle. "Ms. Luthor." He straightened up to his full size, the concerned fretting over Kara washing away in an instant as he put his hands on his hips and looked down on her. That wary expression that Lena was all too familiar with crossing hiss features. She sighed as she got up.
"Superman," Lena nodded, attempting to be cordial.
"Hey, hi, you- I-" Winn was laughing and breathing like he was having an asthma attack, tripping over nothing as he rushed to round the bed and step up to the standing Kryptonian. "Wel- welcome back to Na- National City, this is great, we've met a few times, I don't know if you-"
"Yes, Winn," Superman spared a moment to flash him a smile, leaving Winn to grin and fumble with thin air. "Of course I remember, it's good to see you again. Now," he turned to look at Kara again, seemingly unaware of Winn melting into a puddle of incoherent fanboy, "did you find out how they got kryptonite?" There was a darkness in his eyes that showed just how serious he was taking this, but Kara just swatted her hand.
"No, we're not sure, but it was probably in Lex's vault. So how's Metropolis? You guys got hit pretty bad too, huh?" Kara smiled brightly, back to being happy at seeing her cousin, but Superman clearly wasn't done.
"Probably?! We need better than probably! Is... I mean..." he hesitated for a moment. "That small piece I gave you two weeks ago, you... you didn't lose it, did you? You didn't-"
"No, no, don't be silly," Kara laughed and waved her hand again, her eyes falling on Lena, who tensed as she saw what was about to happen. "Lena still has that."
Incredulous was a good word. It tended to describe disbelief very well. But the word didn't come close to doing the expression on Superman's face justice as he darted his eyes between Kara and the youngest Luthor. "You... gave that to her?" he spat the last word, boring his beyond incredulous eyes into Kara.
"I, uh... I didn't mention that, huh?" Kara chuckled sheepishly, looking anywhere but at the man's eyes.
"Kara, you can't- can't just-"
"Oh, please," Lena finally spoke up, having heard enough as she crossed her arms and faced down the wary Kryptonian. "I've been in here playing poker with these two for the past half hour. If I was trying to kill your cousin, trust me, I would've succeeded by now, Mr. Kent."
"Yeah, you would've," Kara chuckled fondly, momentarily distracting Lena as she found herself looking back at her and now being very acutely aware of the beat her heart skipped while staring at her beautiful blue eyes, but she snapped herself out of her ridiculous fantasies to refocus on her confrontation.
"Kent, wha- I'm not- you-" Superman had lost all composure, taken completely off guard as he looked back and forth between the two women.
"Hey, don't look at me," Kara held up her hands defensively. "I didn't tell her."
"Of course not," Lena sighed, already tired of this whole interrogation. "It was..." she faltered, noticing a slightly more composed Winn standing beside the Kryptonian man, furiously shaking his head with wide and pleading eyes. "It was basic deduction. You and Kara walked in to interrogate me the second I came to National City, Kara is Supergirl, you're cousins, it wasn't that hard to put together, really," Lena lied, giving the man a cool look of superiority, while beside him Winn visibly slumped with relief at not getting thrown under the bus for spilling Superman's identity. Superman, however, was looking less and less pleased with the situation as he glanced back over at Kara.
"You... told her who you are?" he asked in a tone so glacial, it was as if he'd bottled the Fortress of Solitude.
"Well, yeah, she..." Kara looked hesitant, furtively glancing at Lena before straightening herself in the bed and facing down her cousin. "She's my best friend." Instantly, Lena's heart started acting irrationally again, but Superman took a very deep breath, appearing to put otherworldly effort into staying calm.
"Kara, can I talk to you for a second? Alone?"
"Hey, look, I- I-" Kara looked ready to protest, glancing between her cousin and Lena, "I have nothing to hide from Lena, so-"
"It's about hero business," Superman stated firmly, turning towards the youngest Luthor. "I'm sure you understand?"
"It's fine," Lena waved a reassuring hand, silencing Kara before she had a chance to protest. "I'll just be outside." She had just rounded the bed to head for the door, when she had to stop to avoid running in to Winn, who had suddenly stepped right up in front of Superman.
"Um- Mr.- Superman, sir, I just..." Winn cleared his throat and then, of all things, put his hands on his hips in the same way the two Supers would, while the Kryptonian man's eyebrows raised in surprise. Winn straightened up and looked him squarely in the eye. "Lena's a hero, too."
There was a stunned silence that followed, nobody moving a muscle for a few seconds, before Lena yanked Winn away and told him not to be ridiculous, the two of them stepping out of the med-bay to give the two Supers time to talk.
But that image always stuck in her mind; the sight of Winn squaring his slim shoulders at the Kryptonian who was twice his size and standing up to the man who was his own personal hero.
It was that very same day that Lena went and bought a small plastic badge and had it engraved.
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February 20th 2018
If someone would've told Lena two years ago – hell, even a year and a half ago – that one day she'd be spending her evening at an alien dive bar on karaoke night in the company of several people she considered to be her friends and that – oh yeah, by the way – one of them was her girlfriend, she would've thought they were crazy. She might have even laughed and offered a friendly pat on the back of the clearly misguided individual for being a far more benevolent kind of crazy than the usual parade of death threats. Yet tonight, an alien dive bar in the company of her friends and her girlfriend who were animatedly debating what they would sing for karaoke night, was exactly where she was.
And no, she herself was absolutely not singing, no matter how hard Kara begged.
With Maggie dragging Alex to grab more drinks and Winn fussing over the song selections at the bar to try and pick the perfect one, Lena was left alone sitting at their large table with Kara. James had stepped away to call Jess – the only one missing from the group – and that had pulled Lena momentarily out of the cosy atmosphere. Because for the past few weeks, she and Jess had maybe had one or two rushed conversations between the huge workload coming from their delicate collaboration with Kamp Pharmaceutics and it was starting to feel like Jess was avoiding her. Lena knew she was probably being paranoid, but with James telling them that she'd been acting weird lately and now with her bailing on them tonight, Lena was starting to worry somewhat.
She hadn't even had the chance to tell her that Kara was her girlfriend yet for crying out loud!
Speaking of her girlfriend – which was still a surreal thing to say, I mean what the hell, Kara Danvers was her girlfriend – she turned to the side to look at said girlfriend, the blonde woman's eyes already on her as she adjusted her glasses.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Kara suddenly spoke up, fiddling with the straw in her fruity drink.
"Anything," Lena smiled, putting her hand over Kara's hand on the table. Just because she could.
"So I know we were, you know, already really close before we started dating," Kara started and Lena smiled widely because yes, she and Kara were dating and it still seemed too good to be true sometimes. "But isn't it supposed to feel different? Like, even now that we're officially together it doesn't really feel all that different from before, you know?"
"Well," Lena shrugged. "If you believe Maggie, we were acting like a couple even before we got together. So... maybe that's why things don't feel much different?"
"Yeah... yeah, that makes sense." Kara chuckled self-consciously.
"And I disagree, by the way." Lena smiled at Kara's expression. "Some things are very different. For example, I don't have to feel embarrassed whenever I end up staring at you. Also..." she leaned closer and pressed a kiss to Kara's lips. "I don't have to stop myself from doing that all the time."
Kara gave her one of those goofy smiles, that inexplicably proud feeling filling Lena's chest knowing the pink shade on the blonde's cheeks was her doing. "All the time, huh?" Kara teased her.
"You have no idea," Lena lamented. And of course they laughed at that but let's face it; it'd been quite the struggle. "Speaking of which," Lena started carefully. "Are we going to talk to Alex and Maggie soon?"
Kara instantly grimaced. "Um, yeah... one of these days."
"There's always the alternative..."
"No, no, I'm still not doing that," Kara vigorously shook her head. "We'll talk to them soon, just... okay, no, you're right; some things are different now that we're dating." Kara gave her a bright look, clearly fishing for her to ask what it was, and Lena smiled, going along with the blatant attempt at changing the subject.
"Do tell."
"Well, there's some things that I wanted to tell you but that would've been weird before, but now I can! Tell you, that is."
Lena arched an amused eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Like that your eyes look like the lakes on the plains of Argo, except a thousand times more beautiful."
It sounded like a cheesy line. Lena knew nothing of Kryptonian geography, but it most certainly was a cheesy line. But apparently no one had informed Lena's impressionable heart about this fact, since it took said cheesy line as a cue to start performing a routine even the US gymnastics team would have been jealous of. Kara seemed to mistake her silent staring as a bad thing, as opposed to what was actually happening; which was Lena trying to hide just how badly she was melting on the inside.
"Because the lakes... they... people used to say how beautiful they were, and- um-" Kara flailed her hands about, not realising she was just making Lena's internal melting that much worse by being the adorable dork that she was. "Just, you know, your eyes kind of remind me of that. Well, except when you cry, then they look more like kaleidoscopes, which is also really beautiful but- Oh gosh! Not that I like seeing you cry, not at all! You should never cry, or be sad in general, but I just meant that-" Kara fell silent as something strange happened. Her face fell, a downright crestfallen expression taking over, as she peered at a spot over Lena's shoulder. "Oh no..."
"What? What is it?" Lena turned around to see what the woman was staring at and when she did, her stomach dropped.
There, on the TV hanging behind the bar, was a breaking news report going on about a convicted criminal dying in prison. The sound was off, but they could still see the bold headline announcing the death of the notorious criminal known as Toyman. The notorious criminal whose real name was Winslow Schott Senior. Lena's eyes wandered to the bar where Winn was still standing in front of the song selection screen, frozen in place with his eyes locked on the TV hanging behind the bar. Lena got up and she heard Kara doing the same, but Winn suddenly marched out of there, all but running out of the ugly backdoor as it fell closed behind him. Lena was already stepping around the table but James suddenly reappeared from the side.
"Hey, hey, I got this," he motioned to the two of them before running after his friend. And Lena was left staring at the TV with a pit on her stomach as she stared at the picture of the deceased Toyman.
The picture of Winn's dad.
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"What do you mean, you don't want me to come?!"
Lena stood frozen right outside of the main entrance of L-Corp with her phone pressed against her ear, effectively obstructing the revolving doors. But she couldn't care less about that right now. What she cared about, was Winn telling her not to come to his dad's funeral.
"Look, it's... it's not safe, okay?" Winn's voice sounded small from the other end of the line. "I don't want a repeat of what happened with Morgan Edge. You know, in- in case..."
"In case your dad turned into a ghost," Lena finished incredulously.
"Shhh!!" The loud hiss took Lena by surprise. "Don't say..." there was a pause, almost as if Winn was looking over his shoulder. "Don't say that stuff. He- I mean... someone might hear you," he finished with a whisper.
Lena realised that he was just trying to look out for her, that he was scared of endangering her sanity by exposing her to yet another hostile ghost. But the sting in her chest was still sharp, as the man was effectively asking her to avoid him at a time like this. Lena already felt bad about leaving the alien bar the other night without having a chance to talk to him, but now Winn was telling her to continue staying away from him. And for how long?
"But Winn..." she started helplessly.
"Just don't come, Lena."
"But-" she was cut off by the sound of Winn hanging up on her. She looked at the screen, slightly incredulous, but mostly with that same twisting feeling in her gut that she'd felt the other night after witnessing Winn's dad appearing on the bar's TV screen.
She was a little too rattled to immediately come up with a solution to this problem. To figure out how to get rid of a hostile ghost without even talking to him or seeing him. It was definitely the fact she was rattled that didn't allow her to come up with a solution immediately. Because there had to be a solution here. I mean... there couldn't not be one.
Right?
Lena shook her head as she finally stepped through the revolving doors and entered her building, thinking how this day just kept getting weirder by the minute. First Jess completely no-showed this morning, leaving Lena to scramble to get to Kamp Pharmaceutics in time and replace her in a scheduled meeting. Then she was unexpectedly put in front of a familiar face, as apparently the interim CEO of Kamp Pharmaceutics after Robert Van de Kamp's death was none other than Samantha Arias, who she'd briefly known from their time together at Spherical Industries. Then, as if all that wasn't enough, the woman had ended up confessing that she had blanks in her memories and Lena had agreed to help her figure out what was going on. It was a pretty stupid thing to do, considering the numerous mysteries she was already trying to solve, not to mention that Samantha Arias was in charge of a company which they were in the middle of a delicate collaboration with. But the woman had said that she didn't know who else to tell, and then they'd talked about how big Ruby had gotten and apparently Lena was a pushover now.
And after all that, Winn calls and tells her that she shouldn't come to his dad's funeral. Things truly couldn't get more troubling today.
"Ms. Luthor!" Lena looked up, frowning at the sight of Titus jumping up from the front desk and running up to her while motioning in agitation. "The police came in here five minutes ago!" he all but panted. "They had a search warrant, Ms. Luthor, I- I had to let them through!"
Lena huffed, steel settling into her eyes as she started taking angry strides towards her private elevator.
"No, no, Ms. Luthor!" Titus called after her and Lena snapped around on the spot.
"What?!"
"They... they didn't go upstairs," Titus said quietly, almost unnervingly twitching in place. He motioned to the side, to the small and poorly lit side corridor just behind her, and Lena's nostrils flared.
"My private lab?" she asked sharply.
Titus barely had time to nod before Lena marched her way over, blood rushing in her ears as her anger threatened to spill over. Because as amusing as Maggie's ongoing feud with detective McConnell was, when the man's prejudice against her last name showed itself in such blatant fashion, the whole thing got a lot less funny. The first thing she noticed was the door to her private lab standing wide open. Which was very strange, since she and Jess were the only two with the clearance to open it. But as she stepped through, things got even stranger. There were at least a dozen cops standing in her private lab all looking towards the back of the room, and Lena's anger completely boiled over. Because it was called a private lab for a reason. Because these invasions born out of nothing more than prejudice was something she had started to hope she could leave behind.
"What the hell is going on here?!" she snarled, causing the countless officers to turn her way.
The first thing she noticed were the wary looks they all gave her. The second thing she noticed was that it was indeed Frank McConnell who was responsible for this invasion, as the man was crouched at the other end of the room. The third thing she noticed, hit her like a punch to the gut. Because detective McConnell was crouched near the dented and severely damaged personal safe that Lena kept her most valuable possessions in; the small door of the safe hanging crookedly off its hinges, with tiny wires plastered all over and the residues of smoke hanging in the air indicating that her safe had been forced open with explosives.
"How good of you to join us, Ms. Luthor," the detective drawled as he straightened up and turned towards her. And that's when Lena noticed the small lead box he was holding, the green glow escaping from the opened lid and illuminating the man's victorious expression.
And before she could fully process what was happening, one of the many officers started handcuffing her.
"Ms. Luthor," the detective announced, stalking over to her with what was definitely a smug look on his face. "You have the right to remain silent."
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Prison sucked.
And fine, technically the small holding cell in the back area of the NCPD wasn't a prison, but it was close enough for it to unequivocally suck. Not to mention that the countless hours she'd spent in here were already feeling like whole days. She'd finally been able to call the head of L-Corp's legal team earlier and Paul was probably on his way to the station right now, but still Lena couldn't sit still; pacing back and forth and even tapping her foot impatiently whenever she paused to lean against the metal bars of her cell. She sighed as she watched the officer on the other side of the room standing with his back turned while cataloguing her belongings. She could see the young man put aside her watch and her scowl only deepened.
I mean, it's not like she would use it to summon Supergirl right now, but the whole point of having an emergency signal was that it could be used at all times. Also, the sight of her watch slash Supergirl beacon was leaving her very annoyed at the whole 'one phone call' ordeal. Because despite her phone being all the way across the room among the items that the young officer was handling, she still heard it buzzing several times over the past hour, probably displaying worried messages about where she was. So yes, getting a lawyer was definitely a priority at this time, but it would be nice if she could also tell her girlfriend she didn't need to worry.
"Have you ever been kidnapped?"
The young dark-skinned officer on the other side of the room turned around at that, blinking owlishly at the sudden question. "I... what?"
"I was wondering if you've ever been kidnapped, officer..." she squinted her eyes at the small name tag on the man's uniform, "officer Brooks."
"I..." the man looked around, as if he was going to get advice from a bystander on how to answer. "No?"
"Well, you're very lucky. I've had the misfortune of experiencing it a couple of times." She let the words hang in the air for a bit as she regarded the dumbfounded policeman. "The worst part was that it was my own mother doing it last time. Can you imagine?" Lena stared intently at the man across the room, who cleared his throat.
"Ms. Luthor, I'm not really supposed to talk to y-"
"But," Lena continued undeterred, "the other troubling thing was that I couldn't let anyone know what was going on. Everyone just assumed that I was voluntarily aiding a criminal organisation. Can you imagine the frustration? Being that powerless? Can you imagine it, officer Brooks?"
"I guess," the man drawled, standing awkwardly still and seeming pretty confused.
"As it turns out, not everyone thought I was evil. Someone was actually trying to help me. But she had no idea where I was or what was happening to me, so obviously she was very concerned. Can you imagine, officer Brooks? So desperately wanting someone to be okay, but having no idea of knowing? Can you imagine?"
"Okay, what- what's the point of all this?" Brooks finally asked, crossing his arms.
"The point is that while I understand the logic behind limiting a detainee's ability to communicate with the outside world, there's someone who is very worried about me right now." As if on cue, the buzzing of Lena's phone could be heard behind officer Brooks. "Surely you can understand not wanting people to worry about you? You can imagine that, can't you?" She kept her eyes firmly locked on the young officer, but he simply frowned back.
"When your lawyer gets here, he can call whoever you want for you," he stated stoically.
"Which he will only do after he gets through the pile of bureaucracy I'm sure they have lined up for him. Officer Brooks," she paused, waiting for the young man to meet her eyes again. "You know a quick text wouldn't end the world, right?"
"Yeah, that- that's definitely not allowed."
"Neither is talking to me, but that hasn't resulted in anything nefarious happening just yet, right?" The man shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another, not responding immediately like he did before and Lena saw her opening. "Do you-"
The wall on the right side of the room exploded.
Lena jumped back instinctively and saw officer Brooks disappear behind a curtain of dust. The dust of the blast died down gradually, but before it was completely gone she could already see a head of blonde hair whipping around with concern, the woman's red cape following her erratic movements.
"Lena?!" Kara's superspeed brought her in front of the metal bars in an instant, the gust of wind she produced clearing the air behind her and revealing a terrified-looking officer Brooks pressed against the opposite wall. "What did they do?!"
"Supergirl," Lena pronounced her name emphatically, because she wasn't sure Kara realised there was someone else in the room; what with her wide and panicked eyes and distressed breathing. "I don't think it was necessary to-" Lena flinched when Kara unceremoniously ripped the cell's door off its hinges and threw it to the side. The loud metallic bang seemed to snap officer Brooks out of his shock and he jumped to his feet, scurrying out of the back room as fast as he could.
"Are you okay?!" Kara continued to fuss, pulling Lena out of her cell and looking her over as if she fully expected to uncover a mortal wound somewhere. "Did they hurt you?"
"What? Of course not," Lena frowned. "I was arrested, not kidnapped by a supervillain." Lena tried to give the woman a reassuring look, but Kara clearly wasn't paying attention. She kept looking her over with worry in her eyes and didn't seem intent on calming down any time soon.
All of a sudden the small back room echoed with the sound of a blaring siren. Kara snapped around immediately, scanning the area for any sign of danger. Lena was pretty sure it was just an alarm but before she could say as much to the panicking Superhero, the door officer Brooks disappeared through swung open and seemingly half the NCPD flooded into the room. The countless agents in uniform all had their guns out as they stopped at a safe distance from Lena and Kara, forming a human wall between the two women in front of the cell and the door behind them. Kara immediately stepped in front of Lena and spread her arms protectively as if she was going to have to shield her from a storm of bullets, but obviously the police corps weren't dumb enough to just go and open fire on Supergirl.
"LET ME THROUGH!! LET ME THROUGH, GODDAMN IT!!" The loud and angry voice was soon followed by detective McConnell himself aggressively pushing his way to the front of the formation made up of blue uniforms, with officer Brooks trailing behind him. "LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!!" he barked, motioning to the countless officers who hesitantly did as they were told. The man turned back to face the cause of the commotion and breathed out, as if putting every ounce of willpower into containing his anger, slowly putting his hands on his hips in a much more frustrated variation of Supergirl's signature pose. Kara immediately mirroring his stance did not seem to amuse him. "What's the meaning of this?"
"That's what I was going to ask," Kara shot back, unlike detective McConnell making no effort to hide the angry disdain in her voice. "Why are you harassing Ms. Luthor again?"
"NO ONE-" detective McConnell swallowed, forcibly lowering the volume of his voice with what seemed to be inhuman effort. "No one is harassing anyone," he said through gritted teeth. "A search warrant was issued for the headquarters of L-Corp, we found evidence of Ms. Luthor's involvement in the terrorist organisation known as Cadmus and then she was arrested. Now," McConnell dared to take a step closer, "why are you trying to break out my suspect?"
"What evidence?" Kara demanded.
"Supergirl, we don't disclose details of ongoing-"
"WHAT EVIDENCE?!"
The entire corps seemed to flinch, all of them collectively taking a step back, but McConnell was the only one to hold his ground, despite the fact that Lena had clearly seen a blue glow momentarily emanate from Kara's eyes, even from her shielded position. She put a hand on Kara's back, trying to calm her down from this bout of erratic anger.
"Supergirl," she whispered, "you don't have to-"
"Kryptonite," McConnell suddenly stated. Lena could feel Kara's entire posture tense, while McConnell looked oddly smug as he crossed his arms. "Ms. Luthor was found in possession of kryptonite."
Kara teared her eyes away from the victorious smirk of the detective and looked over her shoulder, sending Lena an unsure look. "Did they... was that the..."
"Yes," Lena sighed. "They blew up my personal safe." Kara let out something between a sigh and a groan, her entire figure slumping as she covered her eyes and shook her head. McConnell's self-satisfied smirk gave away his misunderstanding of the situation.
"So as you can see, Supergirl, we were merely-"
"I gave her that!" Kara huffed as she threw up her hands.
The silence that followed was deafening. The sound of a pin dropping would've come across as a gun shot, as the stunned faces of about two dozen police officers stared at the caped hero. McConnell was the first one to even move a muscle, glancing back at officer Brooks before facing Supergirl again with an almost comically bug-eyed expression.
"But... why?!" he forced out.
"That's none of your business!" Kara proclaimed stubbornly. "So just give Ms. Luthor her things back and we can all forget this whole thing hap-"
"No!!" McConnell's anger rose back to the surface, his fists clenching as if he had to physically remind himself that trying to deck a Kryptonian was a terrible idea. "Things don't work that way, Supergirl! We don't let suspects go because someone vouches for them!"
"You're holding her because she had kryptonite, and I'm explaining to you that she didn't get it from or for Cadmus," Kara hissed, the uncharacteristic venom in her voice still present. "So give her her things back."
"How would you know what she uses it for?!" McConnell barked, his self-restraint seeming to crack a little further. "Do you watch her every minute of every day?! Do you know what she's doing in all those labs of hers?!"
"Give her her things back, detective!"
"Her employees know, and they sure as hell don't trust her, otherwise Ms. Huang wouldn't have blown the whistle on her!!"
"What?" Lena's heart sank all the way to her shoes. She tried to step past Kara, but the hero's hand clenching protectively around her wrist stopped her. "What did you-"
"Lena." Kara briefly glanced at her, still holding her back. "Not now."
The sudden sensation of being treated like a child made Lena's eyes go cold. She ripped her hand free from Kara's grip and stepped back. Her caped girlfriend frowned in confusion, but at that point McConnell suddenly stepped uncomfortably close to the alien woman. Kara's head turned back, frowning apprehensively at the scrutinising look the detective was giving her in this new excessive proximity.
"Supergirl..." The man whispered intensely. "Is she blackmailing you? Because whatever it is, I can guarantee you that the NCPD would be willing to do anything in our power to help you with-"
"No one is blackmailing anyone," Kara stated loudly. "Now give. Lena. Her. Things back."
Lena looked on as the detective and the Superhero stood there locked in an angry staring contest for several seconds. The many police officers shifted nervously glancing between the two of them and between each other, but then McConnell clenched his jaw and turned his head halfway around.
"Brooks." He nudged his head sideways, and the young officer immediately complied.
As the sounds of plastic bags being collected permeated from the table to the side, the rest of the room remained completely silent. McConnell had resumed his staring contest with Supergirl, except this time his contempt was clearly visible, while Kara simply stood there; her arms crossed and her face an example of condescension. Lena's attention was pulled away from the scene when officer Brooks appeared beside her and nervously shoved several plastic bags in her hands that contained her things, many of them still having an official police label attached to it.
"Is that everything?" Kara asked Lena, her eyes still locked with McConnell as she took a step backwards.
"Yes, I... I believe so," Lena responded, rifling through the bags containing her watch, her gun, the picture of herself and Lex holding surfboards and the small lead box that symbolised Kara's trust.
She was about to open her mouth again when Kara, with zero preamble, suddenly scooped her up in her arms. Lena barely had time to clasp one arm around her neck and notice the last disdainful look Kara sent towards detective McConnell, before they left gravity behind and took off through the hole in the wall, the wind suddenly blowing around Lena's ears.
She clutched Kara's shoulders tightly with her right hand and pressed the plastic bags to her chest with her left, her knuckles turning white in the process as her insides contracted in the worst way possible. The impromptu flight thankfully didn't take very long, Kara slowing down only a few seconds later, and soon Lena could feel them dropping altitude. And as she dared to take a peek downward, she noticed the alien woman was lowering them atop the roof of one of National City's many skyscrapers.
As soon as Kara landed and lowered her feet to the ground Lena aggressively pushed herself out of the woman's hold, taking deep breaths while she took a few steps away and tried to temper her anger, as well as the churning feeling in her stomach that always came from any form of flying.
"Lena?" Kara's voice sounded unsure. "Are you oka-"
"First of all," Lena put up a silencing finger, taking one last deep breath before turning to face her girlfriend. "You know I hate flying and I'd appreciate a warning next time."
"Oh... right. Sorry."
"And second of all; you can't just do that!!" Lena bristled, her anger spilling over. Kara looked completely dumbfounded.
"Do... do what?"
"You can't just break into the NCPD and start ordering the police around!"
Kara frowned as she stepped closer, still looking confused. "Wait, you're... you're mad that I got you out of jail?"
"Yes!"
Kara's confusion mixed with offence, as she crossed her arms defensively and stared Lena down.
"You can't go around bending the rules just because you're worried about me! I could've just waited for Paul to arrive and get me out of there, and after that they wouldn't have gotten anywhere since there are no laws against owning kryptonite! But no, you had to come barrelling in and make a scene!"
"You told me yourself that McConnell had it out for you," Kara protested. "Did you expect me to not get worried after finding out that he got his hands on you?"
"Got his hands on-" Lena scoffed incredulously and shook her head. "You can worry all you want, but you keep doing this, Kara! You don't use your head! You do things like flying around in your regular clothes, and threatening the police all because you're worried about me! Don't you think the fact that they take it seriously when they find kryptonite somewhere is a good thing?!"
"Wait, what- what does the regular clothes part have to do with this?!" Kara sputtered, clearly getting annoyed herself.
"Kara..." Lena deflated, her anger slowly subsiding as she tried to bring this tactfully. "It took time for me too, okay? I had trouble accepting that you were going to be in danger and that I wasn't going to be able to do anything about it. I had a lot of trouble, in fact," she huffed softly. "But I think it's time you understand that you can't protect me from everything."
"Wait, wait, wait, those things are not the same!" Kara protested, her hands moving to her hips. "I have to be in danger sometimes, because I need to protect this city! But you don't need to be in danger, I can protect you!"
"Not always, Kara." Lena stepped closer to her girlfriend, trying to dispel the awkward tension they'd created for themselves. She really should have broached the subject more diplomatically, but her feelings for Kara were apparently always hard to contain even when they were angry ones. "I know from experience how the thought of something bad happening to the people we care about can consume you. You... you know exactly what it did to me. The thought of you getting hurt, or... or dying." Lena swallowed, uncomfortable as ever, but at least Kara seemed to be less on the defensive. So Lena stepped closer to her and came face to face. "But you have to let it go, Kara. I know you've lost people before, just like me, and I know it still hurts, it does for me too. But you have to accept that something bad could happen, even if you don't want it to."
"But I can protect you!" Kara insisted, more frazzled than before. "What's the point of having superpowers if I can't protect my girlfriend?" Kara huffed out a deep breath, while Lena took a moment to look at her shoes and thus avoid showing the twitch of her lips at hearing Kara calling her her girlfriend. Because yeah, Kara was her girlfriend. Kara Danvers was her girlfriend.
Focus, Lena!!
"I'm not saying your powers can't be useful," Lena reached out for Kara's arm, the alien woman's distress devolving into an increasingly sad look. "Or that I don't want you to save me when it's really necessary. But that's what this is for." Lena picked through the little plastic bags collected in her hand, holding up the one with her Supergirl-summoning watch. "If I'm really in danger, I swear I'll press the button and I'll be more than happy for you to save the day. But honey, you can't go on like this." She deposited the evidence bags on the rooftop, bringing up both her hands to hold Kara by her arms. "You keep having panic attacks whenever something almost happens to me; after the chemicals on the plane, after I got poisoned. You didn't want me to come to Maaldoria, even though I could've made the mission easier and now you're interfering with the law because you can't handle the thought of me being in even the slightest bit of danger."
"But McConnell-"
"Is an asshole, yes, I know." Lena smiled at her girlfriend, Kara begrudgingly cracking a small smile. "But he's not a murderer or a kidnapper or anything like that. So tell me honestly, looking back on it, wasn't wrecking the NCPD a little bit excessive?" She kept looking at Kara, who huffed a little breath and kicked at the roof, looking a lot less Super and a lot more Danvers.
"In my defence," Kara grumbled, "I've had a really long day, okay? First the whole exploding casket thing at the funeral and then I had to chase flying monkeys around the DEO and then I find out you're in jail. So, yeah. I'm a little stressed out."
"Flying monkeys?!"
"Yeah," Kara waved a dismissive hand around. "This devotee of Toyman built a bunch of dangerous toys, but we caught her in the end." Lena shook her head, still not used to how casual her friends could be about some of the ridiculousness that found its way into their lives. "Okay," Kara let out a deep sigh, "so I'll try not to panic. When- when you're in danger, I'll try to be reasonable and calm and... yeah." Kara let out a deep breath and swung her arms by her sides, almost as if needing to dispel lingering energy. Then she glanced to the city skyline, looking like she was planning their next flight already. "So how about we-"
"Kara," Lena interrupted, the alien woman pausing her movements. "Two more things. First; don't ever treat me like child again. With McConnell," she explained at seeing Kara's confused face. "Telling me 'not now'?"
"Oh," Kara cringed. "Yeah, that... I mean, I didn't- I was just really angry at... yeah, okay. I'm sorry." Kara shot her an apologetic look and Lena managed a small smile before moving on.
"And second; I know you don't like doing this, but..." Lena sighed, already foreseeing trouble on the horizon, but this was important. "But you... I mean, I really think that you should tell Jess that you're Supergirl."
Kara's expression immediately shifted, looking at Lena as if she'd grown an extra head as she stepped back and away from her. Lena twitched as she noticed Kara's heels being very close to the ledge. She knew logically that wasn't a problem, but Kara wasn't the only one with protective instincts.
"What are you- No! No way!" Kara put her hands on her hips and yeah, she looked downright offended now.
"Kara, hear me out," Lena kept her voice as calm as possible. "It's the only way to make her understand. How else would you explain to her why I had kryptonite stashed away?"
"Who cares! Why should I tell her my secret, when she clearly doesn't trust you?! It would be like- like rewarding her for assuming you're evil! She got you arrested!"
"Which only happened because we kept secrets from her," Lena pleaded, taking another step forward despite the ledge of the building being visible now and despite the sight of the precipice beyond it making her stomach turn. "She didn't know why I had kryptonite lying around, she couldn't have known. If anything, I think it's commendable that she's willing to throw me under the bus just to protect you."
"Your life isn't any less important than mine," Kara immediately stated, crossing her arms and looking very unhappy. Lena sighed and tried counting to ten in her head (dr. Talbot was persistent like that), refraining from protesting since she knew that wasn't going to help her case right now.
"That's not the point, Kara. The point is that she was looking out for you, she was looking out for Supergirl. The fact that she didn't understand there was nothing to worry about is on us, not on her."
"That's debatable," Kara grumbled.
"Suppose it was me," Lena insisted. "Suppose you'd never told me you were Supergirl and I did something stupid because I didn't know it was you. You wouldn't hold that against me, would you? You would still believe in me?"
"Always," Kara proclaimed, not missing a beat.
Lena nodded, not sure Kara would understand the swell in her heart that single statement could cause. "Well, I don't hold it against Jess. And look, I of all people understand that no one should force you to tell your secrets, or should spill them in your stead. God, don't I know it," Lena huffed quietly, the ever-present shadow of Cadmus and Roulette always at the back of her mind. "But you trust me, right?"
"Of course," Kara shot back immediately and, again, Lena wasn't sure she'd do the swell in her heart justice with words.
"Well, I trust Jess. And look... if it helps..." she shrugged looking helplessly from left to right, "I'll tell her about the ghost thing too."
"What?" Kara blinked, looking perplexed. "Why?"
"Why not?" Lena shrugged. "Like I said; I trust her. And if I have to tell her my secret to prove to you that I mean that, then so be it."
Kara frowned at her, searching her face for something. "You don't have to do that," she mumbled, her defensiveness ebbing away as her arms slid down to her sides.
"But I should anyway," Lena insisted resolutely, surprising herself for how much she meant it. "If there's anything we can take away from all this, it's that... keeping secrets from the people we claim to trust will never do any good." She nodded to herself before searching Kara's eyes, a pensive, almost pained expression going through them as the Superhero just stood there for a second. Then her expression softened, the corner of Kara's lip pulling up ever so slightly as she just nodded at her.
"Okay," she mumbled. Lena let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding, because now that it had come down to it, the thought of having to continue to lie to Jess didn't seem excusable anymore. Kara, for her part, looked downright awkward as she fiddled with her fingers after all that. "Why does it feel like we just had a fight?" she huffed, shuffling her feet around. Lena finally allowed a full smile to break through, stepping up to face Kara and reaching out to grab her hand. She smiled wider as Kara lifted her head to meet her eyes.
"I think I'd call it an animated discussion."
"Hm." Kara nodded but didn't seem entirely convinced, huffing out another breath in the process. "Still... you really need to stop making me feel like an idiot." Kara broke out a small smile, and Lena responded by tucking her girlfriend's hair behind her ear.
"You're not an idiot. You just tend to think with your heart." Lena pressed her hand to the symbol on Kara's chest for emphasis. "Which is lovely, but you should remember that it's your brain that was designed to do the thinking." She pointedly tapped the side of Kara's head, who huffed adorably in mock offence.
"Nerd."
"Softie."
They smiled at each other, Lena's hands sliding down to Kara's arms while the alien woman's hands had somehow ended up on Lena's hips. They stood there looking at each other while the breeze that the rooftop exposed them to played with their hair, but Lena was quickly forgetting her distaste for heights. What did you expect when Kara was standing this close and looking at her this intensely? Lena wanted to say something but hesitated, not only because they'd just dealt with a good number of difficult subjects but also because she didn't want to keep pestering Kara with something that clearly made her uncomfortable. Lena couldn't keep her thoughts to herself anymore though, because Kara was now indulging in the habit Lena had been forced to snap herself out of so often; the woman unabashedly staring back into her eyes. She also licked her lips and now Lena really couldn't keep quiet anymore.
"So, have you thought about-"
"Can we talk to Alex and Maggie? Today?"
Lena blinked, stunned at the sudden words. "Really?"
"Yeah... you were right. We shouldn't put it off anymore. I can't put it off anymore." Kara's grip tightened minutely, but it was enough to make Lena shiver, the jolts of heat going up and down her body devoid of much of the usual accompanied embarrassment, but Lena actively stopped herself from getting lost in Kara's eyes again.
"Good," Lena breathed, using the nodding of her head as an excuse to look at the floor. "But..." she put a tiny bit more distance between them, even if every cell in her body seemed to have suddenly given up on mitosis in favour of waving picket signs around at the injustice of Kara's touch being taken away. "Jess first."
"Right. Yes, okay." Kara swallowed, looking like she shared Lena's problem of cells unionizing. "Jess first," Kara agreed with a nod. She cleared her throat as she stepped past Lena and started picking up the little plastic bags with Lena's belongings, giving the youngest Luthor a chance to take a deep breath. When Kara stepped back up to Lena she crouched halfway down, froze, and then straightened back up. "Oh! Um... we're going to fly. So... I'm warning you. Like I promised."
"Good to know." Lena struggled to repress a snort at the dorkiness of her girlfriend, but when Kara bent down again and scooped her up in her arms, the humour quickly drained at the thought of racing through the air again. Lena tightly gripped her arms around Kara's neck. "Just... fly slowly, okay?"
"As you wish." Kara shot her a bright smile, which briefly calmed Lena's nerves. But they came back full force when the Superhero carefully hovered a few inches of the rooftop and Lena could see the view of the city expand beyond the ledge. She didn't think twice to bury her face in Kara's shoulder and close her eyes. Then she heard a humming in Kara's throat and a rumbling below the crest that her elbow was currently pressed against.
"I can feel you laughing!" Lena exclaimed, the sound muffled by Kara's shoulder.
"Sorry." Lena could almost hear the grin on Kara's face. "You just look adorable right now."
"Shut up and fly, Supergirl."
They lifted off, but the sound of the wind blowing past her ears was not enough to entirely block out Kara's beautiful laugh.
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Jess had never shed so many tears.
In fact, she was never really in the habit of crying over anything unless there was a Pixar movie involved. (People could judge all they wanted, but 'Inside Out' really got to her, okay?!) Of course there were exceptions here and there; she'd cried for a solid hour after learning her dad had died in that car accident. She couldn't help embarrassing herself with a few tears after Alana had gotten arrested. When Ms. Luthor had disappeared during the Daxamite invasion and those assholes in PR had kept insisting how she clearly had to be dead, Jess had needed to lock herself in the bathroom for a minute to choke back her emotions, before striding back out to prevent the board from taking over L-Corp amidst the panic. So there were cracks here and there, sure.
Today however, it felt like her tears could've formed an ocean. They even came in waves.
First, when Ms. Luthor and Ms. Danvers walked into L-Corp's top floor office and made sure to lock the door behind them, Jess felt scared. After all, Ms. Luthor was supposed to be behind bars right now and as conflicted as she was about the possibility that the woman she'd admired for so long was proving the majority of National City's population right, she felt fear settling in, because there was no way she could've gotten out of the NCPD that fast. But before that feeling could take over, both Ms. Luthor and Ms. Danvers started talking at the same time. It was all pretty confusing and garbled – almost as if neither of them had decided what exactly they were going to say before walking into the office – but then, after a confusing minute of aimless words and helpless glances being exchanged, an all too familiar crest appeared from under Ms. Danvers' clothes, bursting through the confusing mess of a conversation to shine an illuminating light on everything. With the blonde woman's glasses coming off and Ms. Luthor's confusing monologue about kryptonite not being kryptonite but it being trust instead, and with Supergirl hesitantly shrugging at her while still partially dressed as Ms. Danvers, Jess stood there like a statue and stared.
And then it clicked.
Ms. Danvers was Supergirl. And Ms. Luthor never did anything wrong.
That was the first wave.
Jess was pretty sure she cried for an embarrassing amount of time, forcing out apologies in snippets and hiccups as she tried to make Ms. Luthor understand that she was sorry, she was so sorry for getting her arrested and making assumptions and being like every other idiot in this stupid city and there had to have been more to it, but the memory of the whole thing was just a blurry mess of tears and incoherent sentences at this point. Jess knew for a fact, though, that Ms. Luthor had hugged her and kept repeating that it was okay and that it wasn't her fault. If anything, it made Jess want to kick herself even harder for ever assuming the woman was anything other than a goddamn saint.
But when she thought it was all over, when she'd finally calmed down from her worst outburst of sorrow since her father had died, her father was suddenly exactly what they were talking about. Jess was stunned at first, listening to Ms. Luthor tell fantastical tales of dead people wandering around the world as ghosts and how she could see them, all while Ms. Danvers – with her glasses back on and her shirt freshly re-buttoned – just stood behind her and nodded in agreement at everything. And then Ms. Luthor talked about her 'second case', as she called it. About a man named Huang Fu and how he was worried about his daughter and all of a sudden Ms. Luthor was saying things she shouldn't know, that she couldn't possibly know, things that only her dad had known, and if 'Coco' had made her tear up a little, then the whole concept of dead relatives hovering nearby being real was ten times worse.
It was the second wave.
Questions might have been appropriate, the 'how?' and the 'when?' and the 'no seriously, how?!' all seeming valid, but it wasn't words that came out of her; it were rivers worth of tears and significantly more mucus than she cared to remember. Ms. Luthor was gracious enough to hold her through it all, and once she'd calmed down, once the ridiculous amount of tears had subsided after hearing of this ridiculous concept, Ms. Danvers was kind enough to hand her a handkerchief, appearing in front of her with a burst of above-human speed.
"Wow." Jess blinked sheepishly while trying to wipe her face to a slightly less gross state.
"I know. It can take some getting used to." Ms. Luthor smiled at her, and by all accounts her insides had to be completely dried out by now, but Jess got emotional all over again. She valiantly tried to smile back.
"Right..." she huffed out an approximation of a laugh. "And here I thought you two couldn't be more perfect for each other."
Crap.
"I mean..." Jess stammered, mortified to the bone, because selling out Ms. Luthor to the police was one thing, but selling her out to her crush was definitely taking it too far. "As friends! Because- you know- with, um- great powers and all that... you're perfect as friends, I meant. Like-"
"Jess." Ms. Luthor smiled at her again, but much wider and much brighter than before. "If you hadn't been avoiding me for these past weeks I would've told you sooner, but... um..." she briefly directed that rare unbridled smile of hers at Ms. Danvers. "...Kara's my girlfriend now."
Jess looked on as Ms. Danvers linked her hand with Ms. Luthor's and made supernovas blush by how intensely she beamed at her.
Cue the third wave.
And look, to an outsider it may appear strange to be this invested in your boss's love life (Ms. Danvers definitely seemed puzzled by her outburst), but if anyone deserved to get the girl, it was Ms. Luthor. In fact Ms. Luthor deserved the world, but – considering her brother's antics – that would make for some terrible PR, so the girl would have to do. The embarrassing tears kept coming out, but she supposed that's what happens when your personal hero didn't go bad after all, turned out to be more of a hero than you could have imagined and got the girl of her dreams, who – oh yeah, by the way – happened to be a hero too.
When it was finally all over, when the tears and the mind-blowing revelations finally stopped emerging, Jess composed herself, saving a lot of burning question for later as she walked the two of them out of the office. She promised her boss she would head home, remembered to ask how much she could tell James about this – Ms. Luthor mentioned he knew both of their secrets already, and now she really needed to have a word with him – and when Ms. Luthor insisted that she come to their repeat of karaoke night, she finally managed a full smile.
"Sure thing. I'll see you there, Ms. Luthor."
"Jess... one more thing." Jess paused in the doorway. "Considering everything we just told you, I think that – outside of business hours at the very least – it is high time you stopped calling me Ms. Luthor. Just Lena will do."
And Jess felt that, if not for the others, she could be excused for this one. Because after unlocking her boss's private lab for the police this morning, after working through the day as if she wasn't dreading what would become of L-Corp, after the guilt and the worry eating at her, after breaking down repeatedly at unlikely secrets just now, she thought her emotional state being all over the place was only natural.
So yeah, she feels like she could be excused for this one.
For letting the fourth wave crash over her.
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It was quiet in the slightly shabby apartment complex near the centre of the city.
Most people were already home, the halls free from prying eyes, except for that one guy from the third floor who worked overtime and was getting home just now, and he was the only one to raise his brow at the woman seated on the floor right next to the door with the number nine on it. For once though, Lena didn't give a damn about what the public perception of her might be right now. What she gave a damn about, was for Winn to stop ignoring her.
"I'm not leaving until you open the door, Winn."
There was a shuffle on the other side of the door, something Lena might have perceived as progress if it weren't for the fact that Winn had audibly moved closer to the door quite a while ago. Except now, after twenty minutes of silent treatment, she finally got a response.
"It's not safe," the muffled voice sounded from beyond the door.
Lena straightened, her head ceasing to lean on the wall. "These things never are. Just let me help." She swallowed, aware that not only Winn but also the ghost of the man's father might be listening in, but they had to solve this somehow.
There was another shuffle, followed by another brief silence as Lena leaned closer to the door that shielded her from her friend. "Look," the muffled voice returned, "you've already got this whole Roulette thing to deal with and I don't want to make it worse. You have enough people trying to kill you or threatening your sanity as it is."
"So what's your grand solution here?" Lena scoffed. "You're just going to avoid me forever?"
Another shuffle. Another silence. "I don't think we have a choice..."
The rage came out of nowhere. Logically, the man had a point. The odds that someone like Toyman would try to control her for nefarious purposes were high, dangerously so. But Winn suggested abandoning him, suggested that she'd lose the second friend she'd made in National City, that they'd never see each other again because of her power, which was a curse almost as often as it was a blessing. Maybe the long two days she'd had featuring arrests, jailbreaks and the revealing of intimate secrets had something to do with it, but suddenly all Lena saw was rage, jumping to her feet as she banged her fist on Winn's front door.
"WINSLOW SCHOTT SENIOR, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!! I KNOW YOU'RE DEAD, BUT I CAN SEE GH-"
"Shhh!!" The door flew open and Winn was suddenly clasping a hand over her mouth, glancing back at the door he'd slammed shut just as fast as he'd opened it. "Are you insane?!" he hissed in a hushed tone. "My dad's a madman, Lena!! If you think Roulette is bad, that's only because you haven't met-"
"I don't care!" She pushed his hand away, matching his hushed tone as she took in his shoddy appearance and the bags under his eyes. And the rage only grew. "I'm so sick and tired of ghosts controlling my life! I don't care if he's dangerous or if I'm going to get blackmailed again, I don't care! You're always going on about what heroes are and what they do, but I have my own theory." She kept staring until Winn would meet her eyes. "A hero is only as good as her sidekick. And..." she swallowed, her voice softening. "I can't do this shit without you, Winn."
Winn looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You'd do just fine..."
"Really?!" she scoffed angrily. "Because I wasn't the one who got Pam's will to her sister! I didn't save Nell Maverick's life! Kara loves to credit me with saving the world twice, but you were right next to me both times! And even if you hadn't been... even if you weren't the biggest reason I had any sort of success in all of the crazy stuff we get up to... you're my friend first." She swallowed as she tried to force Winn to look her in the eye, an icy determination slipping into her voice; "And I'll be damned if I let a deranged family member take anything else away from me."
Winn finally met her eyes, misery written all over his face still, but then he puffed his cheeks and let out a big sigh as he hung his head and let his hand go through his hair. He hesitated, almost looked like he was about to say something, but then he just wordlessly reached behind him and opened his apartment door, shuffling to the side to let Lena in.
She didn't hesitate stepping inside, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel at least a little apprehensive. With Roulette she'd had the good luck of only having been blackmailed so far and with Morgan Edge they'd gotten away with tricking the man, but that didn't make the prospect of another hostile ghost any less intimidating. She looked around, waiting for the man who she'd seen on TV two days ago to make his presence known, but nothing happened. Winn's tense stare was fixed on her as she moved around, looked around the man's kitchen, his bedroom, even the bathroom. She came to a halt back where she'd started right in the middle of the living room, shrugging as she glanced around one more time.
"Nothing..." she turned to Winn. "He's not here."
A whole range of emotions passed over Winn's face before he forced out a huff. "Good. That's, um- that's good."
"I'm sorry, Winn." Lena took a step closer as Winn shook his head.
"No... no, don't be." He scoffed as his hands returned to his pockets. "I mean, he would've probably been bad news. Would've probably wanted you to build him some exploding toys or something." He shook his head as he looked off to the side. "I just thought... I thought that maybe..."
"You hoped he wanted to say goodbye." Lena stepped closer again, seeing the ghost of the same misplaced hope in his eyes as she'd had in regards to her mother.
"It's stupid," Winn mumbled unsteadily, looking at the floor. "I mean, he blew up his own casket for pete's sake, there was no reason to- to-"
"It's not stupid," Lena took another step.
"It's just that... all those people we helped wanted to say goodbye and- and even Maggie f- finally g- got an apology and I- I just- I thought..."
Lena closed the gap and pulled him in for a hug, holding on to him tightly as he broke down and cried in stifled sobs. She held on like she knew what he was feeling, because she did. She held on tight because she knew exactly what it was like to hold out hope for a parent, no matter how many times they proved they weren't deserving of it. Because she knew what it was like to stand in the aftermath of a parent's death, just like when she'd been standing next to her mother's dead body in the middle of Camillus Lane, and be both devastated at the loss and relieved that they couldn't hurt anyone again at the same time.
"Look, Winn," Lena pushed him back, holding on to his shoulders as he wiped at his eyes. "I know that this sucks. I know what it's like when you're suddenly left without any parents, I know how lonely it can feel. But you don't have to feel that way, okay? You told me yourself, not that long after my mother died, that the past didn't matter anymore. That I had a new family now. I..." she swallowed, because she wasn't the one who got to be emotional right now. "I don't think I ever told you how much that meant to me. But you know that goes for you too, right?" She forced him to look at her. "You still have a family. We are your family; me, Kara, James, Maggie and Alex. You don't need to worry about your father being a criminal or your mother being a heartless bitch who would abandon her child, because you have a new family now. A better one."
Lena was staring intently at Winn, hoping he would understand the seriousness of her message, but she was caught off guard when he suddenly started laughing. Lena frowned in confusion as he got his snorts under control. "Um... I really appreciate all that, but... me and my mom actually made up."
"Oh..."
"Yeah. It's a long story." Winn snorted again while Lena crossed her arms and turned slightly red. They stood there in silence for a second, Winn still looking amused and Lena feeling embarrassed at insulting the man's mother.
"Soooo, correct me if I'm wrong here," Winn started, his cheesy grin slowly making its return. "But I'm pretty sure I heard you say that a hero is only as good as her sidekick." Lena rolled her eyes. "So does this mean you're finally admitting you're a hero?" he asked, his signature enthusiasm shining through, and Lena let out a sigh.
"Don't make a big deal out of it."
"Finally!!" Winn exclaimed, of course making a big deal out of it. "My mission can be completed at last!!"
Lena frowned. "What mission?"
"Assigning you your Superhero name, of course! You can't admit you're a hero and then refuse to have a Superhero name."
Lena pursed her lips at the matter-of-fact tone of his statement. But quite frankly she'd had a long day, she didn't feel like bringing Winn down from his silly excitement and to be perfectly honest she was running out of excuses to dodge the issue anyway.
"Fine. But!" she held up her hand before Winn could start a victory dance, "you better come up with something decent. No name shall become official unless it is approved by the hero in question."
Winn wasn't deterred in the slightest, nodding enthusiastically. "Deal. Oh! Or maybe we can just call you that!"
"Call me what?"
"The HERO!! The Helper of Ethereally Rogue Ones!!"
Lena rolled her eyes again. "I appreciate the Star Wars reference, but I think you can do better."
Winn grinned at her and Lena smiled back, the relief of avoiding both a hostile ghost and the loss of her friend finally hitting her. And she realised that this was how it was going to be now. It wasn't just Kara she would refuse to lose anymore. It was all of her friends too. Just like she'd done with Jess earlier, she wouldn't let any one thing or any one secret stand in the way anymore. Roulette, Cigarette and any other force working against her be damned.
If Winn could face down Superman for her, she could face down her fears for him.
"So are you and Kara coming to karaoke night later?" Winn suddenly asked. "My mom's coming too," he added with a happy grin.
"Yeah," Lena smiled, but hesitantly cleared her throat right after. "But we might come a bit later, um... there's something we need to go do first..."
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"Look, Maggs, I'm really sorry." Alex wrung her hands together as she watched Maggie bent over her precious plant.
"Bonsai trees are one of the most delicate plants in the world, you know?" the detective grumbled as she kept fussing over the little thing and checking every last part of it.
"It was an accident!" Alex kept protesting. "I bumped into the dresser and it just fell off."
"Hm," Maggie grunted. "And here I thought baby-proofing our apartment could wait a little longer."
Alex scoffed at that. "It can wait for a very long time, if we never actually sign up for-"
"Still not doing the sperm dump thing, Mrs. Danvers," Maggie grumbled, back still turned.
"Not what it's called, and we're still not adopting," Alex replied stubbornly.
"I think I preferred it when you were apologising."
"No, I am sorry about the tree, but I just-" she was silenced by the sound of a timid knock on the front door of their apartment. "Don't move, I'll keep apologising in a second," Alex said as she marched to the door. Maggie just hummed and didn't even bother to look over. Alex sighed as she opened the door, but was surprised by the sight in front of her.
"Oh, hey," Alex said surprised, as she glanced between Kara and Lena, who were standing there looking unusually serious. "Is everything okay?"
"Um... yeah," Kara started hesitantly. "Can... can we talk?"
"Of course," Alex ushered them inside, frowning at both of their serious expressions. "Don't mind her," Alex motioned to her wife who was still turned away from them, having eyes only for her tree. "She's being unreasonably salty."
"You tried to kill Olga."
"It was an accident!" Alex protested, before huffing out a breath and crossing her arms as she turned to Lena and Kara who had taken a seat on the couch. "So you're sure everything's okay?" she asked warily. "Please don't tell me someone died again."
"No, no," Kara laughed nervously, "nothing like that, it's... it's just..." she hesitated and she briefly glance to her side, where Lena raised her eyebrows as if to urge her to continue. "So... you know that- that Lena and I have been dating for a while now..."
"Of course I know, you won't shut up about it."
"Alex!" The Kryptonian gave her sister a scolding look, but the duo quickly reverted to their serious state. "Well... the thing is... you know, we've been going out to dinner and we went to the movies and stuff, but..." Kara swallowed harshly, as she avoided eye contact. "...but we kind of need your help, because... we want to... you know... do... other stuff..."
Alex frowned in confusion. "You're already out of ideas for dates?"
"No, it's... it's, um... we don't know... how... um..."
Kara kept searching for her words, but Lena wasn't paying attention. Because behind Alex she'd noticed Maggie suddenly straightening up and turning around with that signature mischievous smirk in place, and Lena could already feel her embarrassment rising.
"Oh my god," Maggie drawled as she stepped next to Alex and let her eyes dart between the two women with a gleam of enthusiastic sadism. Lena scrunched her eyes closed and had to suppress a groan. "You're telling me," the detective started incredulously, "that after a year and a half of pining, an eternity of being all lovey-dovey, and four weeks of officially dating, you two still haven't had sex yet?!"
"Maggie!" Alex scolded her wife, slapping her on the arm with a laugh. "Come on, that's not what this... this is... about..." her words slowly died out and her face fell, as she watched the Kryptonian and the Luthor just sit there with their heads bowed while doing their best impression of a pair of tomatoes. "Oh, no," Alex aggressively shook her head. "Nope, no way, not happening."
"Alex!" Kara looked incredulous as she watched her sister make a beeline for the door. "Where are you going?!"
"I'm a good person! I don't deserve this!" Alex aggressively wrestled her way into her jacket. "Just- just- just talk to Maggie and- and- and then- then we're never speaking of this again!" She turned to her wife. "Call me when it's over." The door slamming behind her left only the sound of Maggie's amused snickers and Kara's offended gasp at her sister abandoning her.
"I told you we should've just done our own research," Lena mumbled.
"I'm not watching porn!!" Kara protested.
Maggie wheezed for air at that, cackling loudly while the two girlfriends shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "Oh, man..." Maggie tried to get her laughter under control as she wiped her eyes. "We just had to go and fall for a pair of prudes didn't we, Luthor?" She kept snickering for a while, as Lena just shook her head.
"Can we just... get this over with?" Lena mumbled, her head just about ready to start giving off steam.
"Alright," Maggie clapped her hands as she contained her snickering. She theatrically put a chair in front of the duo and smugly took a seat, looking like she was enjoying this situation way too much. "Welcome to Maggie Danvers' Very Awesome Lesbian Sex-ed Class."
Lena and Kara shared a look, both of them wishing this torture to be over already.
"So! Lesson number one..."