February 22nd 2018
Lena was a morning person.
She hadn't always been, it was more something she became out of necessity. Something that naturally grew when you had an overloaded college schedule and ended up working an insanely demanding job after that. She would usually crash from working late the night before and once the beeping of her alarm startled her out of her sleep the next morning, all the thoughts running through her head the night before would come rushing back in, and she'd be ready to go.
This morning was different. And not only because she was awake well before her alarm was set to go off. Mostly it was different because she wasn't in her own apartment. It was different because she was propped up against the pillows behind her, clutching the sheets to her chest while she stared at the other side of the bed.
Staring at a very naked Kara who was happily snoring away.
The part where her thoughts of the night before were running through her head was the same, sure.
But boy, if those thoughts weren't completely different than usual.
Thoughts of watching Kara and the rest of the gang sing at karaoke night, thoughts of walking Kara home afterwards, thoughts of how all pretence of ignoring their embarrassing conversation with Maggie was completely forgotten once the door closed. Thoughts of intense kisses and clothes clumsily being pulled off. Thoughts of everything that happened after that...
If Lena was being honest, the word itself had still been scary to her before. Maybe it still kind of was. But as of right now, with the memories of last night forever etched into that one corner of her brain labelled 'life-altering moments', the word itself felt a little more apt. Still scary, sure, but bisexual felt a little less foreign and a little less alien. (Ha! Alien! Unintentional irony for the win!) Because after last night, a lot of lingering doubts and reservations she might have still had were put to bed. (More irony!)
Lena pulled the sheet further up and over her mouth, almost as if she needed to hide her giddy smile from someone. Maybe it was just instinctual – Luthors weren't supposed to be giddy after all – but Lena couldn't help the expression on her face if she tried, as she traced every part of the sleeping woman beside her.
The blonde hair sprawled out messily over the pillow like a halo, the side of Kara's face pressed into it, her shoulders moving up and down with every breath, the tiny bit of drool slipping out of the corner of her mouth, the sheet all tangled and haphazardly strewn over her lower back.
Lena tugged at her side of the sheet, exposing more of Kara's back in the process and Lena giggled to herself.
Okay, so maybe this was a good time to stop being silly.
Lena tried to look forward, tried to think of her duties for the rest of the day, but it was like trying to convince a toddler with a severe attack of the giggles to be serious. Except she was trying to convince herself, completely failing as she just kept glancing back at Kara and she just couldn't, she couldn't possibly contain the giddiness. Because come on, Kara Danvers was her girlfriend, Kara Danvers was laying right there completely naked and don't even bring up last night because otherwise – yep, now she was giggling again.
It was completely undignified, Lena stubbornly thought, utterly failing in her attempt at being stern with herself. She reluctantly slipped out from under the covers, trying to convince herself that it would help her to stop being silly, but in reality she just had too much nervous energy going through her to keep sitting still. She peered around the bedside area, locating her bra and her underwear as she tiptoed over and quietly slid them on, failing in her attempts at not looking at a sleeping Kara from this new angle.
Lena was starting to get worried about the state she was in, because surely people weren't... you know... built to be this happy? I mean, that's what this was, right? This feeling like she was floating on clouds while tiptoeing around the edge of the bed and fidgeting with her fingers, all while continuously throwing glances over at a still snoring Kara and feeling like any second her heart was going to burst out of her chest and start doing the macarena.
Lena covered her face with her hands, shaking her head at herself without ever losing her ridiculous grin. I mean, come on, Kara was going to wake up soon. She didn't need to get caught staring at her, so she should really get a grip. Lena kept pacing, trying to shake off her ecstatic energy but unable to keep from glancing back at her sleeping girlfriend. She needed to find some composure, maybe muster up some dignity, but honestly who needs dignity?!
This is so much better!
Lena almost jumped two feet in the air when the telltale buzzing of her phone sounded from somewhere nearby, pulling her out of her staring contest with Kara's bare back. At first she looked for her purse, but then realised she'd dropped it by the front door last night. Upon following the sound, she realised her phone had ended up halfway under the bed somehow, so she hurriedly snatched it off the floor and tapped the button to take the call. When she straightened up, she saw that Kara was still snoring and appeared completely unperturbed by anything going on around her. Lena's giddiness forced a smile back onto her face.
"Hello?" Lena whispered, reluctantly moving a little further away from the bed. "Hector, what- slow down, what do you-" Lena frowned, her assistant's rapid-fire slew of words taking her out of her bliss. She pinched her nose and let out a breath. "Alright. Yes, I'll be there as fast as I can."
She hung up with a sigh, glancing back over her shoulder at the sleeping angel on the bed, before shaking her head and attempting to shift into work mode. She collected her clothes off the floor and got dressed as quietly as possible, then searched for Kara's notepad in the drawers of her nightstand. She paused after scribbling an apology and an explanation that she was needed at L-Corp, biting her lip as she watched Kara shift and make a little sleepy noise. And once more, her giddiness refused to be contained, as she smiled brightly to herself as she left the apartment.
But not before drawing a little heart under her scribbled message.
Love could be silly like that.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I told Hector it was fine!" Jess bristled as she accompanied her boss back to the top floor office.
"And I told you to let me know when things get too much. Guess you're both not very good at taking directions."
Jess gave her a displeased frown, but Lena just thought it looked hilarious. Then again, anything seemed like a good reason to smile this morning. Lena was just giving the closed doors of the elevator a dopey look (as one does) but Jess suddenly sounded hesitant beside her.
"Are you okay, Ms. Luthor?"
Lena turned her head, giving the woman a confused smile. "What do you mean?"
"It's just..." Jess frowned, giving her a suspicious look. "You're never this chipper in the morning."
"Are you saying I'm always grumpy?"
"No! I- I didn't- mean that-" Jess shut her mouth as Lena let out a bright laugh, shaking her head at her CFO falling for that. "You're making fun of me."
"You catch on quick," Lena grinned widely as she stepped out of the elevator with Jess in tow and strode to her office. She smiled that very bright smile that refused to leave her face at Hector, who gave her a hesitant look before grimacing at the scowl he received from Jess. When they were right in front of the office and out of earshot from the assistant, Jess stopped Lena from stepping inside.
"Okay seriously, what's going on? Are you high?"
Lena snorted, the impertinence that would usually annoy her now only giving her the giggles. "Can't I just be in a good mood? Yesterday was just a very good day." She kept smiling that overly bright smile, while Jess seemed unimpressed.
"You got arrested," Jess remarked dryly.
"Yeah, but karaoke night was fun."
"Right," Jess drawled as she squinted her eyes, then shrugged. "Well, I guess it's good you can be this happy even without Ms. Danvers around."
Lena did absolutely not want to squirm and giggle and blush at the mere mention of her girlfriend, but alas, that's exactly what happened. Jess frowned at her again, then went wide-eyed as she looked her over.
"Oh my god," Jess drawled, her jaw dropping in an uncharacteristic foregoing of her professionalism. "You're wearing last night's clothes..." Her eyes met Lena's again, Jess's entire face lighting up as if she'd won the lottery, and Lena finally managed to get some of her corporate demeanour back.
"Jess," she pointed a warning finger at her CFO, Jess clasping her hands over her mouth as if she had to physically stop herself from blurting something out. "There will be no further comments on this matter."
Jess nodded to signify her understanding, her lips visibly pressed together as she motioned zipping her lips before holding her hands up defensively. Still looking as if she was putting an indescribable amount of effort into containing her excitement.
"Shouldn't you be headed to Kamp Pharmaceutics?" Lena pointedly asked.
"Mhm," Jess hummed, nodding vigorously with her lips still pressed together tightly and her eyes shining with barely contained enthusiasm. She turned around and walked towards the elevator, audibly squealing once she went past Hector's desk. The man frowned at her retreating form before looking back at Lena, who had to quickly wipe the silly grin from her face again. He looked thoroughly confused.
Lena turned around and stepped into her office, shutting the rest of the world out as she bit her lip and leaned back against the closed doors while staring at the floor, that stupid grin making its way back onto her lips again. It just couldn't be helped, she supposed. Today she was going to be happy.
"Happy to see me, Luthor?"
Or maybe not.
Lena lifted her head, the smile washing from her face as she was faced with none other than Roulette, who was giving her a condescending look as she stepped closer from her spot in front of the couch. If there was ever an effective way to evaporate her giddiness, this was certainly it.
"Roulette. I was under the impression you didn't appreciate my company," Lena hissed, her voice laced with ice and her eyes burning with contempt as she reluctantly stepped forward and into her own office.
"When it's unprompted, yes," Roulette showed a crooked smile, while Lena's anger and fear had now firmly brought her down from her previous state of bliss. "But I believe I also told you that you could be useful to me at some point."
Lena's insides turned to ice as she struggled to keep her cool mask in place, wondering if this was going to be it. If the ghostly woman was finally going to ask her to commit god knows what kind of atrocity and if Lena would have to finally use her watch to make sure Supergirl would 'conveniently' save the day.
"I don't need you quite yet, though."
The relief hit Lena like a truck.
"I'm here because I needed to drop something off. I finally managed to get that thing to follow me," Roulette drawled, her tone clipped as she glanced over her shoulder. Lena frowned in confusion, because there didn't seem to be anyone there, but she didn't have time to think about it; Roulette turning back to face her almost immediately. "I'd tell you to enjoy your day, but quite frankly I don't think you will." Lena had a snide remark sitting on the tip of her tongue, but Roulette was suddenly stepping past her and headed straight for the double doors of the office.
"Wait!"
Roulette stopped and turned back, an uninterested expression on her face and Lena didn't even know what she wanted to say. All she knew was that she needed something, she needed something about this whole mess to make sense, at least one single thing that she could have some control over.
"What are you gaining from this?" Lena questioned, crossing her arms and doing her best to be intimidating despite the fact she wasn't the one with power over the other in this situation. "You can't make money, you can't gain any real power. What is the point of-"
"You really don't pay attention, do you?" Roulette's amused tone cut her off, and Lena's fingers twitched in frustration. "I already told you that knowledge-"
"That knowledge is power, yes, you've made your slogan very clear," Lena bit back, trying not to think about how right they both were. How mystery and elusiveness was exactly what was keeping both Roulette and Cigarette a step ahead of her all the time. But at least Cigarette had a reason, had laid it out in no uncertain terms what Cadmus was doing and why they were doing it. Roulette, on the other hand, was hardly the scientific type. "Is torturing people really worth all this trouble? Is this what it's all about for you? Pure sadism?"
Roulette didn't even dignify her with a response, instead chuckling to herself as she shook her head with that same amused expression in place, as if Lena being confused was the most entertaining thing in the world. Lena gritted her teeth in frustration, but the thought that had seemed unlikely before was starting to gain traction in her mind. The thought that had become an afterthought after learning someone at Lord Technologies had helped Cadmus, and might even be Cigarette. But the thought of an alternative, of Cigarette maybe being this Mallory S. Moon person instead, was suddenly gaining traction. Because what if Roulette wasn't doing this exclusively out of sadism? What if the mysterious woman who had helped Roulette set up her second fight club was in charge of Cadmus now, and what if Roulette was doing all this out of some sense of loyalty? The thought of someone like Roulette having a sense of loyalty in the first place seemed laughable, but what if? What if?
"Look... are you maybe..." Lena hesitantly stepped forward, "are you doing all this for someone else?"
The amusement washed from Roulette's face in an instant.
"Listen... Veronica, I-"
"MY NAME," she snarled, furious eyes suddenly right in front of Lena's own, "IS ROULETTE!!"
Lena took a startled step back, taking in the manic anger that had taken over the woman's features.
"AND YOU ARE HERE FOR ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ONLY, AND THAT IS TO DO EXACTLY WHAT I TELL YOU!! YOU KEEP DIGGING INTO THINGS THAT AREN'T YOUR BUSINESS AND I'LL MAKE SURE EVERY GHOST IN NATIONAL CITY IS STANDING ON YOUR DOORSTEP BY NOON!! ARE WE CLEAR?!!"
Lena frowned, the unprecedented rage and fury throwing her for a loop as she looked over the nearly crazed expression of the ghostly woman whose chest was heaving with anger. "You-"
"ARE WE CLEAR?!!"
"Yes," Lena forced out, her frown still in place. She didn't get a chance to say or think anything else, because the next thing she knew, Roulette snapped around marched straight through the double doors of the office.
Lena stood there for a few seconds, cataloguing what had just happened. Unless she was missing something, unless she'd somehow grown a knack for stupidity overnight, she had to overthrow her leading theory on Cigarette's identity. Because Roulette's outburst, unsettling as it was, had just made it an almost dead certain guarantee that Cigarette was Mallory S. Moon. Lena was still processing that, was still in the middle of realising that – if she wanted to maintain her sanity – arresting the leader of Cadmus would have to be carefully paired with blackmailing Roulette into backing off, when she heard a strange noise behind her.
Lena turned around, that same weird squeaky sound repeating itself, and she couldn't pinpoint the source right away. But then her eyes fell onto the couch, the same couch that Roulette had been standing in front of just now, and her eyes widened. She stepped closer, looking at the small creature squirming and making noises on her couch.
Its skin was a dull purple, the colour fading into a pale orange on its stomach as if she was looking at a reptile. But the skin wasn't made of scales, looking much more like human skin, if maybe a bit rubber-like. The rest of its body looked very much human as well, with two arms, two legs and a face to match. Lena bent down, stretching out her hand just to be sure, while the small creature was squirming and its noises were getting louder. Lena's suspicions were confirmed as her hand went straight through the little arm of the creature, making no contact. She straightened back up while the small being started emitting louder and more distressed sounds.
There was a baby in her office.
There was an honest-to-god alien ghost-baby laying on her couch.
The baby opened its eyes and spotted Lena staring at him. Little eyes looked around, as if expecting someone else to be right there, but found no one. Then the baby started crying.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just four hours.
That was probably the worst part of all this; it had only been four hours.
The loud cries of the alien baby had been piercing into her ears for no more than four hours, but to Lena it already felt like days; almost as if the high-pitched wailing of the small creature had made a permanent home for itself inside her head.
She'd tried to console the baby at first. Had made cooing noises, tried saying that everything was okay (even though the concept of talking to babies was something she'd always found rather ridiculous), had tried to distract him by dangling a key chain; she'd done basically everything she could do with an infant that she wasn't able to touch. So that now left her here; four hours later, without any rest from the ever-present crying of the alien baby and with a headache that felt like it was going to split her head open.
She'd tried getting some work done – she could get back to the seemingly unsolvable problem of saving a ghost that couldn't tell her what he wanted later – but as it turns out, having an incessantly crying baby right across the room was counterproductive to one's ability to concentrate. She'd considered leaving, to maybe go back to the small office on the second floor she'd used last year, but in a way that she couldn't quite explain, it felt wrong to leave the alien baby all alone in here. Yes, her presence didn't seem to calm him down in the slightest and yes, her head was starting to feel like someone had used it as a basketball, but it still felt wrong.
"Hey."
Lena looked up from her desk only to see Kara shyly poke her head through the door, as if she didn't regularly walk right in on a regular basis.
"Hector called. Said you looked like you were having a rough morning," Kara explained as she stepped through, and Lena huffed out a breath because she suddenly understood Jess's annoyance at getting tattled on. "I figured you could use an early lunch."
Kara held up a bag of Chinese takeout and sent her that sunlight-worthy smile of hers and Lena thought the sight of her was something magical. Like someone had opened up a small box at the back of her mind and last night's memories were all but ready to come tumbling out, except then a particularly sharp cry from the alien baby made Lena wince and the lid snapped shut. She tried to smile anyway.
"You're a sight for sore eyes," she sighed, getting up from her desk and trying not to wince too visibly at every sound the small creature on the couch was making. She wrapped Kara up in a hug and the usual feelings were still there; the glowing warmth in her chest, the nervous skip of her heart, the sense of safety in Kara's arms. But it was different, too, because she now knew what the woman in her arms looked like naked and that was one image that wasn't going to be contained by any sort of mental box. But that aside, she also felt disappointed that the first time seeing each other after last night had to be tainted by both her throbbing headache and the depressing soundtrack of an alien baby's cries.
"That bad, huh?" Kara tried to joke, but as she stepped back it was clear Lena was failing at sending her a reassuring look, the woman's smile quickly turning to a frown. Kara slowly opened her mouth and paused before speaking, sounding very hesitant when she did. "You're... not feeling okay about stuff?"
"No," Lena admitted with a sigh, glancing to the side to look at the oddly coloured baby that was still crying incessantly, keeping its four-hour streak alive "Not at all, I'm... pretty far from okay, really." Lena huffed out a breath, shaking her head as she turned back to look at Kara, but she found the woman looking at the floor and seeming embarrassed for some reason.
"Oh. I see." Kara nervously adjusted her glasses. "Well, I mean, it- it doesn't have to be a big deal, right? We're both new at this particular type of... stuff... after all, so I'm sure we'll get better at it. I mean, what- what I mean is that, um, I'll get better at it, because I- you know, I don't really have complaints about last night, like, um, actually zero complaints, you- you're really-" Kara blinked owlishly when she was cut off by Lena's surprised laugh but the youngest Luthor stopped herself almost immediately, the sound only adding to the sensation of her brain being used like a baby rattle.
"No, Kara... oh, god." She snorted loudly at Kara's confused expression. "It's not that. Trust me, I... I too, have zero complaints."
"Oh."
Kara huffed out a nervous chuckle, seeming infinitely relieved as she tucked her hair behind her ear, and just when Lena thought there might be a limit to how much affection someone could feel towards a single person, Kara had to go and blush ever so slightly and Lena felt that proud sensation take- no. It was gone. There was a sharp cry on her right and all happy thoughts were replaced by that all-consuming sting in her brain again.
"So what's wrong?" Kara asked, setting down her bag of takeout on the table and searching Lena's eyes as the young CEO couldn't help rubbing her temples. Not that it had helped her much in the past four hours.
"It's a ghost," Lena sighed, looking past Kara towards the purple- and orange-tinted baby. "And he hasn't been quiet since I got here."
"Alright, buddy!!" The sharp sound of Kara raising her voice as she spun around sent another sting through Lena's brain. "I don't know what your problem is, but Lena is a hero and she deserves some respect!!"
"Kara-"
"I don't care how important you think your problems are!!" Kara kept waving her finger at thin air. "You don't have the right to-"
"Kara, can you shut up?!!"
The blonde spun around, indignation still nestled in her blue eyes. "But, Lena-"
"It's a baby," Lena explained, rubbing the side of her head in her continued attempts to vanquish her headache as she watched Kara's eyes go wide. "It's an alien baby and he won't stop crying."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
There was a stunned silence that followed (on Kara's part, the baby was still crying away), Lena feeling grateful that Kara had stopped yelling since the single stream of noise was already grating her nerves enough.
"Wait, but... couldn't you just leave?" Kara asked in confusion.
"I just..." Lena helplessly shrugged, gesturing to where the alien baby was still crying desperately on the couch. "I couldn't just leave him alone..." Lena felt stupid at the admission, but Kara gave her such a soft look and it reminded her so much of- no. Another sharp cry, another sting in her brain, and the image was gone. Lena sighed as she pinched her nose, barely able to appreciate the reassuring hand Kara laid on her arm.
"How about we call Alex?" Kara offered, and Lena blinked in confusion. "You know, she can go through the DEO's database and then at least we'll know what species he is, and we'll go from there."
"Oh. Yes, you're right." Lena swallowed, feeling stupid that that hadn't even occurred to her. Maybe the non-stop noises were messing with her head more than she realised.
"So what does he look like?" Kara asked, already fishing for her phone.
"Mostly human form. Purple skin, but it morphs into orange the closer you get to his belly button. The skin also looks a little like-"
"Rubber?"
Lena paused, looking in confusion at Kara who stood frozen in place. "How did you know?"
"Does he have little patches of skin between his fingers?"
"Um," Lena frowned, stepping towards the couch and reluctantly leaning closer to the piercing cries emitted by the distressed creature, her eyebrows rising in surprise at what she saw. "Yes."
"Oh, Rao." A heavy breath escaped Kara and when Lena turned around, she found her with an almost revering expression and with a hand covering her mouth. "I had no idea there were any of them on earth."
"You... know what he is?" Lena asked, wincing at the persisting cries before stepping further away from the couch again.
"He's from Topurah," Kara breathed, still with that revering look directed at the space on the couch that, at least to her, was empty. "It was only one solar system removed from Krypton. Me and my parents went on a diplomatic visit when I was ten." Kara shook her head as a frown formed. "But on Topurah children were treated as something almost sacred, I mean, they make the overprotective mothers of earth look like irresponsible teenagers. If- if there's a child of Topurah here, then there has to be a mother nearby. Are you sure he's here alone?"
"Yes, Kara," Lena huffed, returning to rubbing her temples, because it was surprisingly hard to maintain a conversation with the constant high-pitched noise in the background. "If there was another ghost in my office, I would have noticed it."
"Well, maybe... maybe she's still alive."
"If they're as overprotective as you say, then I doubt she would have left him by himself in Roulette's fight club. Besides, Mesut mentioned letting a mother and her child in before the explosion." Lena gritted her teeth, the sting in her head getting worse.
"But then she should be-"
"Kara," Lena interrupted curtly, her head feeling like it was about to explode. "It's probably the Corben effect. If she was in a coma and turned into a ghost at any point before dying, then she wouldn't have been able to become a ghost again when she died. Now," she closed her eyes tightly, trying to keep it together, "can the DEO help us find someone else from Topurah? If he sees someone of his own kind maybe it will calm him down, because I can't take this much longer."
"Well... I don't think so," Kara gave her a pained expression. "If the DEO had a record of someone from Topurah living on earth, I would definitely know about it. But maybe..." Kara trailed off, looking pensively to the side, but Lena's patience was now about as thin as the membranes that were preventing her brain from vibrating against her skull.
"What, Kara?! Maybe what?!"
"Well," she adjusted her glasses as she gave Lena an uncertain look. "When I was there, on Topurah I mean, they, um, they talked to us a lot about the planet's history and especially about the deity they worshipped, which was apparently very important to them. They had passed on this one song that represented their God through thousands of years from one generation to the next so that it would never be forgotten. It was so important, that-"
"Kara," Lena cut her off. "This is all very fascinating, but what does it have to do with anything?!"
"It was a lullaby."
Lena was smart. She would gladly remind anyone who'd forgotten about them of her academic records at MIT and she felt that, quite frankly, her company's accomplishments spoke for themselves. But her head was killing her right now, so she felt like she could be excused for verbally under-representing her intelligence in this moment. "Huh?"
"Their deity's song. It was a lullaby, kept alive by singing it to every new child of Topurah."
"And you- but- you were ten," Lena stammered, trying to get her faculties to work past the mind-numbing noise. "You actually... remember it?"
"I..." Kara frowned, uncertainty taking over her features as she scratched her neck. "I mean, the words were really strange, I don't think-"
"Forget the words. In infants, the auditory and olfactory senses have the most enduring retention."
"Huh?"
"Sounds and smells are the easiest to remember!" Lena sighed, looking desperately between Kara and the baby she definitely pitied, but who was also the bane of her existence at the moment. "So do you remember it?"
"I... I think so." Kara nodded, a steely determination in her eyes usually reserved for when she was wearing a cape, before she moved towards the couch. Then she paused and uncertainly motioned to the space beside the baby, suddenly looking more Danvers than Super again. "Is he... on this side? Can I...?"
"You're good," Lena couldn't help but smile, even as she stayed at a comfortable distance from the source of the continuous high-pitched screams and cries, watching as Kara carefully took a seat right next to the wailing baby.
Kara just sat there for a moment, unperturbed by the loud ghostly cries beside her as she closed her eyes and frowned. The crinkle on her forehead appeared, as Kara seemed to search her thoughts, seemed to scour the deepest trenches of her memory for the tune she once heard as a kid on a faraway planet. The silence extended, her hands folding in her lap where she briefly fiddled with her fingers, but then they stilled. Her eyes remained closed, but her expression smoothed out ever so slightly as she took a deep breath. And then she started singing a strange melody.
She sang softly at first, almost unsure if she was getting it right, but even before she started sounding a little more confident, the crying stopped. Kara was singing a strange, haunting, yet beautiful melody, but the incessant sound that had invaded Lena's office and had reverberated through her mind for the past four hours came to an almost immediate stop, as the oddly coloured baby on the couch opened its little eyes as wide as it could.
Tiny fists clenched and unclenched, the small being visibly entranced by the sound coming from right beside him, shifting his little head to look at Kara who was singing that alien melody. Lena sighed a breath of relief, the buzzing in her ears finally subsiding, but she jolted in surprise when the alien baby started hovering in the air. No, she was not hallucinating; the little purple creature was actually floating, turning over on its belly as it came level with Kara's closed eyes.
Lena watched as the baby squealed, the sound no longer desperate and sad, but a happy exclamation as the little being floated in front of Kara and lowered himself down, whether subconsciously or not, drifting into Kara's lap.
And then soft beams of light started seeping through his skin.
Lena's eyes widened ever so slightly as she watched the baby emit another happy sound, the light moving swiftly over his little body, taking almost no time in enveloping his tiny frame. As Kara continued singing that alien melody, the light in her lap started expanding, pulling away and detaching itself into small orbs. As the little alien form started to dissipate, Lena couldn't help but notice that even the orbs seemed smaller than usual as they hovered apart from each other and, after a few seconds, started fading. The small spheres of light kept fading, the dimming gleam revealing Kara's concentrated face behind it, which is all Lena could look at, for once foregoing letting her eyes go over every single fading orb.
The alien melody stopped, a mere instant before the last bit of glow disappeared, and then Kara tentatively blinked while opening her eyes, the room now void of any ghostly alien babies.
Krunah Nil-Ak had just passed on.
"Did it work?"
Lena huffed out a breath, intending it to be a laugh but it coming out much more honest and much closer to a sound that accurately represented her exhaustion. "It did more than work. He passed on." Lena swallowed, the complete and utter silence feeling like a precious gift as she strode over and slumped next to Kara on the couch, in the exact same spot where the child of Topurah had laid before. "Thank you," Lena murmured, pinching her nose and letting out another deep sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?" Kara's voice was soft and Lena could feel her shifting closer on the couch.
"I'm just so sick of this," Lena confessed, rubbing her forehead in a futile attempt to soothe her lingering headache. "I'm so tired of waiting to find out how my senses are going to be attacked next. What else isn't going to make sense this particular day, or what Roulette is going to have in store for me next. I'm just so sick of all of it." Lena rested her head in both her hands, elbows on her knees as she leaned forward and allowed herself to succumb to this rare moment of self-pity.
"Lena, I get it." Kara scooted closer to her, their sides touching as the alien woman put a hand on her back. "I've had to face a lot of situations that seemed desperate. Myriad, the Daxamite invasion, now Reign," Kara shrugged, her hand rubbing circles on Lena's back and an encouraging smile on her face that Lena was trying not to look at. "But we always manage, because we're a team! And I know you will find a way to deal with Roulette, just like me and the Superfriends did with all those other disasters. Because we've got your back." Kara was still giving her that encouraging smile, but Lena was avoiding it, keeping her head in her hands as she rubbed her temples and gritted her teeth to try and temper her irritation.
"Kara, I appreciate the thought, but it's really not the same."
"Lena, I understand-"
"No Kara, you don't," Lena cut her off, finally looking up at Kara who seemed surprised by the outburst, but Lena couldn't contain the burning feeling of how unfair it all was. Of how ridiculous the thought was of someone fully and comprehensively getting it. "You said it yourself; you have tons of people assisting you on your missions, but I have to figure this crap out by myself."
"Lena, you're not alone-"
"Yes, I am. When it comes to seeing ghosts, you're not the one being threatened. Winn, Jess and Maggie, they're not the ones who are putting their sanity in the hands of complete strangers. When you go out and you catch your criminals and fight your rogue aliens, you're protecting everyone and you can just... punch your way through. I have to help people and be prepared to protect myself from them at the same time, because if someone with half a brain and a less than ideal moral compass comes along they can control me completely. Roulette is hardly a genius but she has me in the palm of her hand anyway, do you have any idea how infuriating that is? I can't use my fists in these fights, my mind is all I have. And its being used against me every time."
Lena sighed, bitterly shaking her head.
"Your power gives you wings. Mine drags me through hell whenever it feels like it."
There was an awkward silence after that, Lena just sitting there rubbing her temples while neither of them said a word. But then Kara – because she was Kara – shifted nervously on the couch and put her hand Lena's knee.
"But... we're here for you anyway," Kara muttered softly. "I know we can't, you know, save you from everything. But look on the bright side," Kara's voice perked up and Lena could almost hear that smile of hers that was announcing a positive spin on this whole thing and she didn't want to hear it. "I was able to help you this time. Through the power of song I might add, another sign that musicals are definitely awesome." Kara chuckled. "And, you know, that baby is in a better place now and-"
"Kara, I'm not in the mood for this!" Lena snapped, jolting up from the couch and removing herself from Kara's touch and it's not that she was trying to be harsh, but her lingering headache and general sense of being powerless were putting her off from all this forced positivity. "I don't want to hear about your stupid musicals right now and there's no such thing as heaven!"
The silence was heavy then. Lena stood there with her back turned towards her girlfriend as she clutched her right elbow with her left hand while rubbing her temple with her right, a measured breath escaping through her nose. She heard another shift on the couch behind her.
"You don't have to take it out on me," she heard Kara mutter, not a trace of anger to be found in her voice, ever understanding as she was. But there might have been some hurt in there. Lena felt like kicking herself.
"No, I'm- I'm not, I just..." Lena let out a sigh, her right hand rubbing her neck. "I'm sorry. It's just that my head hurts like hell right now and this whole situation, it just," Lena threw her hands up in an exasperated motion. "It just sucks. Immensely." Lena let out another sigh, her hand returning to massaging her temple, and there was another short silence followed by the sound of Kara getting up from the couch.
"Lena... just tell me what I can do?"
"Can you... ask Winn to search the hospital's records for a patient that fits the description of someone from Topurah? To confirm the mother was in a coma?"
It was a weak excuse. Even Kara could see that.
"But, Lena..."
"Kara," a sigh so deep it could have come from her heels escaped her. "Please."
Lena didn't look back at her girlfriend while she just stood there gnawing on her lip. The silence let her know that Kara was hesitating, but eventually she heard the tell-tale signs of footsteps moving towards the exit. Lena kept her eyes averted, unable to look the other woman in the eye because on one hand, she wanted to knock the misplaced positivity out of her, while on the other she was too ashamed to look at her for even having that thought in the first place. So instead Lena just looked down, keeping her eyes on the brown bag of Chinese takeout that Kara had left behind, instead of watching her girlfriend walk out of the office.
If she had looked back, she would've noticed Kara fiddling with the pendant on her silver necklace as she stepped through the double doors.
=======================================================
Just half an hour.
That was probably the worst part of all this; it had only been half an hour since Kara had left her office. And Lena already felt guilty.
Lena was hunched behind her desk, the thought of how her mother would chastise her for not sitting ramrod straight only vaguely going through the back of her mind, her chin resting on her hand as she was in the middle of losing a staring contest with her phone. The thing was just sitting innocuously on her desk, the black screen unblinking as it taunted her, and Lena huffed a breath through her nose while she averted her eyes and admitted defeat. The silence that hung around her office after the four hours of hell were a blessing, but it also meant that there was nothing distracting her from the annoying voice in her head telling her that she should at least shoot Kara a text. (Mind your own business, Talbot!)
Lena glanced back down at her desk, the smug black screen still staring at her.
She begrudgingly picked it up, worrying at her lip as she wondered what to say. Why couldn't she just be diplomatic in these cases, she thought bitterly. Why did there have to be that sharp sense of resistance and irritation at the thought of apologising? I mean, she knew why; she hadn't been in the mood for positivity when there was nothing to be positive about and she didn't find that unreasonable, but she also hadn't been very nice about it. She wondered if she'd inherited her temper from her Luthor side. But it was fine, she could just apologise for being harsh; that she was sorry for. Lena paused with her finger over the black screen, because maybe chiding Kara for being positive wasn't entirely fair either.
Hypocritical, if nothing else.
Because where would she be without Kara's positivity? Where would she be without Kara's blind faith in the fact that she was nothing but good, or her insistence on acting like the human embodiment of sunshine? After all, her unwavering belief in everything being good and kind was one of the reasons why she lo- (no, don't even think the word, or it'll slip out in front of her) ahem, really liked her. It was what made Kara, well, Kara, and goddamn it, I'm such and idiot sometimes!
The loud huff of resigned determination she let out was cut off by the phone that she'd just picked up buzzing loudly with an incoming call, causing Lena to flinch and almost drop it to the floor. It was as if it had waited for her to make a decision, Lena couldn't help but think, as she managed to grab a hold of it. The twinge of disappointment was only a small one when she saw that it was Maggie calling her, thus confirming that her phone was in fact not sentient, before she put the inanimate object to her ear.
"Hey, Ma-"
"Luthor, we've got a problem!"
Lena frowned at Maggie's tense voice, which was being accompanied by the sound of screeching tires.
"Winn checked the hospital records and found an alien mother that matched Kara's description; she was in a coma for five days and right after she woke up, both her and her baby disappeared. But because he's a giant overachiever, he wanted to check the security footage and when he did, he found an encrypted file, and because he's a giant nerd who can't help himself, he broke into it."
Lena winced and distanced the phone from her ear when a car horn attacked her senses, along with Maggie's indistinct shouting, causing Lena to tentatively ask; "What are you doing?"
"Avoiding people who found their driver's license under a Christmas tree! But that's not important, the point is that Winn found Cigarette in the encrypted footage! When your mother was attacking the city, Cigarette was in the hospital stealing patient records!"
Lena blinked at the unexpected information, then shook her head in confusion. "But... why?"
"Aliens, Luthor! The hospital was full of aliens, remember?! I checked the records myself and they all match! Every last dead alien we identified at the Endless Winter Clinic was in the hospital the day of your mother's attack! But you have to get out of there, Luthor, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but-"
"Wait, wait," Lena pinched the bridge of her nose, because that didn't make any sense. But more importantly; "What are you apologising for?" Lena questioned.
"He saw me, Luthor! McConnell saw me comparing the hospital records and now every last police officer on the force is racing around town to bring those aliens into protective custody! I'm sorry, Lena, I'm so fucking sorry!"
"Shit..." Lena trailed off, her eyes horrified as she darted them across the floor of her office, the fear getting hold of her as she realised that Roulette would be coming for her. If every single police officer was rounding up every single Cadmus target, then it was obvious who Roulette was going to blame, who she was going to punish for what was happening. She'd made that promise just a few hours ago, hadn't she? Every ghost in the city standing on Lena's doorstep if she kept digging into things that weren't her business, that's what she'd said. "But that means-"
"I know!! I'm so sorry, Luthor, but do you have a place?! Can you go underground somewhere?!"
Lena swallowed down the fear that had been building inside her, that annoying Talbot-voice in the back of her mind telling her to count to ten, but she held on to Maggie's logical solution instead. "Yes," Lena nodded to herself, grabbing her purse from her desk as she calculated how long it would take to get to the Luthor Mansion, and its many cloaking devices. "I do, I think it's best if I go to-"
"Don't tell me!! If someone knows where you are, Roulette can spy on them until they slip up!! In fact, after you hang up, you should lose your phone."
Lena was already halfway to the double doors of her office when she came to an abrupt stop. "But... Kara..."
"I'll explain it to her, just make sure you get to safety!!"
Lena hesitated another second, the memories of this morning and the urge to apologise to Kara giving her pause, but on the other side of her brain the days spent with John Corben were an ominous reminder which, along with the unusually tense voice of Maggie, tipped the scales in favour of running. "Thanks, Maggie," she muttered earnestly.
"Be safe, Luthor."
The call ended just like that and after snatching her coat, Lena was standing in front of Hector's desk as she slid it on, demanding that Angela bring the car out front as fast as possible. As the assistant scrambled to phone her driver, Lena was marching to her elevator, wondering if it would be too conspicuous to dump her phone into the trash can in the lobby. The doors closed and the numbers started counting down to the ground floor, while Lena took another look at her phone, deciding it would be safer to just take the chip out. But just as she was about to open the back compartment her limbs froze in place, something that Maggie said suddenly ringing like an echo in the back of her head.
Every last police officer was rounding up the aliens that had been hospitalized on May 27th of last year.
Every last police officer. That included the rookies.
Which meant no one was guarding Brian.
Because Brian had never been at the hospital.
Lena had seen for herself how Maggie had guided the blinded alien towards the NCPD that day.
The confusion made its now familiar but equally unpleasant presence felt, because if it was true, if Cigarette and Roulette were targeting only the aliens who'd been in the hospital that day, then why make an exception for Brian? But the confusion was pushed to the background by the fear in her chest which was suddenly building up again, as the numbers on the display rapidly approached the ground floor.
It was very well possible that Maggie had had him picked up anyway, but she'd sounded pretty freaked out just now, and she might not have considered it. Lena tapped the screen and put her phone to her ear again, waiting for Maggie to pick up. The elevator reached its destination and Lena stepped out, her phone having the audacity to tell her that the selected number couldn't be reached right now. She tried again, her phone firmly pressed to her ear as she marched past Titus at the front desk and through the revolving doors, trying to force Maggie to pick up through sheer willpower. Which worked about as well as it had for Qui-Gon on Tatooine.
She was nervously tapping her foot in front of her building while attempting the call for a third time, when Angela pulled up with the car and Lena was opening the door before it was standing completely still.
"Get to the nearest helipad, as fast as you..." Lena's urgent words petered off, as a thought struck her. Brian's apartment was not that far away...
Lena glanced at her left wrist where her Supergirl-summoning signal was staring back at her, but her harsh words from earlier were eating at her, and Kara wasn't supposed to know where she was going. And good luck trying to keep that information from Kara when those honest blue eyes were looking at her while she was also feeling apologetic towards her. Lena shook her head and made a choice.
"Actually, can we make a stop at 14 Cajetan Avenue first? And please step on it."
Angela seemed surprised at the urgency in her voice, but nodded anyway. "Uh, sure thing. You in a hurry today, Ms. Luthor?"
"You have no idea," Lena mumbled, putting her phone to her ear again and attempting to call Maggie for a fourth time. It would be better if the detective was able to pick Brian up somewhere on the way, but to be honest Lena was already resigned to live with the alternative. Namely, spending a potentially extended period of time hiding in the Luthor Mansion with some random alien who had no idea what was going on. Talk about awkward situations.
Lena slid to the edge of her seat as they moved past a traffic light, because they were now only three blocks removed from Brian's place. Maybe this was going to be fine. Maybe, despite the guaranteed awkwardness, things would be fine and nothing bad-
"What do you think you're doing?"
Lena's entire body jolted away from the voice by her left ear, her body ending up pressed on the right side of the leather seat, as she watched the burning eyes of Roulette. Who was suddenly seated right next to her and whose anger seemed to be making her shake in place.
"Angela. Partition." Somehow Lena's voice remained steady as she gave her orders, her eyes never moving from the seething ghost next to her as her driver complied with her request, the tell-tale click of the partition making it to Lena's ears.
Lena didn't move as she kept staring at Roulette's face, which was no longer a mask of disinterest and condescension as Lena was used to. Whereas earlier today she'd seen a crack, a small burst coming through the placated demeanour of the ghostly woman, now the woman's outraged expression and heaving chest made it seem like she was ready to spit fire and raze villages to the ground. But Lena was well aware that the only thing she was going to eviscerate was her sanity. Her punishment for daring to save all the aliens that otherwise would've been killed and dissected by Cadmus. As the silence extended, the gears in Lena's head were turning in search for backup plans.
"Are you really this eager to lose your mind, Luthor?" Roulette hissed with an icy tone that contrasted with the fire in her eyes. Right at that second, the moving vehicle came to a full stop, and Angela tentatively knocked against the partition.
"We're here, Ms. Luthor," the muffled voice came from the front.
The mental gears were still turning, Lena coming to the realisation that for one, she was going to need Kara. Whether Roulette had spilled her secret already or whether she was going to right now, she needed to get away from her. Any chance of retaining her sanity rested on the possibility of making sure that Roulette couldn't follow her, so that no matter how many ghosts knew of her existence, they at least wouldn't be able to find her. It was not a permanent solution, she'd be putting her whole life on hold, but the unmoving and outraged stare of the woman in front of her made it clear that it was high time for contingency plans. At least Kara could fly her away to somewhere. The Fortress of Solitude could work.
But first things first. Brian.
Roulette just took in a deep breath, looking like she was going to make another threat or another demand – it was like those were the only things to ever come out of her mouth – but Lena didn't give her a chance, stepping out of the car and slamming the door shut behind her. She ran, or at least as close to running as her heels allowed her to, dashing up the metal stairs next to the building more resembling a motel than an apartment complex. She purposefully avoided looking behind her but did spare a glance for her left wrist, wondering how much practice Kara had with carrying two people, as she ran across the outdoor walkway on the second floor. The doors with faded paint kept flashing by, until she reached the one with the number 14 on it.
She knocked, the rapid sound of her knuckles against the wood not able to outmatch the pace of her heart, as she steadily avoided the movements she spotted out of the side of her eye which were telling her that Roulette was going to be in her ear within a few seconds. She held her watch up to her chest, ready to go once Brian opened the damn door, as she kept knocking impatiently.
"I'm here, I'm here, what's your pro-"
The alien man's door opened, not even a bolt to be undone as Brian's confused face appeared, and Lena had some serious reprimanding words sitting on her tongue about basic security measures, but she swallowed them in favour of more pressing matters.
"Um," Brian blinked at her. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, Brian, you need to come with me. I know this sounds strange, but there's someone after a lot of aliens and you are one of their targets. I don't have time to explain the details, but I need to get you to the police station right now." Lena was struggling to stand still with the amount of nervous, anxious, terrified and many other sorts of energies that were going through her, but Brian just looked wary and even more confused.
"I don't understand," Brian frowned and Lena was just itching to yank him out the door already. "What..." Brian suddenly fell quiet and his eyes shifted, looking over Lena's right shoulder and then her left. "Who are you guys?"
Lena barely had time to register the curious phrasing, when something solid hit the back of her head with brute force. She was vaguely aware of her knees giving out and the whole world tilting on its axis, still aware of the sharp sting on her right cheek when it collided with the floor.
Then everything went black.