Boom.
Lily rubbed her eyes sleepily as Hank ordered yet another missile launched at Kara. She glanced over to see Alex also rubbing her eyes, it was no wonder considering Hank had dragged them out of bed at the crack of dawn to test the limits of Kara's powers.
"Is that the fastest that she can go?" Hank complained as Kara dodged the onslaught.
"Are these tests mandatory for everyone?" Kara asked over comms, "or is it just because—"
Hank cut her off, "it's not because you're a woman, Ms. Danvers. The DEO requires months of tests and training before allowing operatives into the field. We've accelerated the process in your case, but we still need to be sure."
"I was going to say 'alien'," Kara muttered, a little deflated from Hank's lecture.
Lily grimaced, Hank had that effect on people. He always managed to make you feel like a scolded child.
"We need to be sure you're in full control of your powers. You're no good to us if destroy half of National City on accident."
There was another boom as Kara flew by even faster this time.
Alex laughed as she spoke, "my sister just broke the sound barrier, Sir."
Hank didn't look impressed in the slightest. "Fire again," he barked the words, motioning rapidly with his hands to speed the process.
Lily sipped her coffee, not awake enough to interfere in the conversation.
After a bit more coffee and a few more earth-shattering booms as Hank launched yet more missiles, Lily finally felt awake enough to talk. She sidled over to Alex, who was making notes on a small clipboard, the glass whiteboard she'd previously been using had been shattered by Kara's sonic boom.
"Anything interesting?" Lily asked peering over Alex's shoulder.
"No." Alex shook her head thoughtfully, "it's all at or below Clark's levels. Which is to be expected since she hasn't used her powers in over a decade." Alex's last comment was more of a mutter to herself as she made another note.
Now that Lily was more awake she could truly appreciate that, while noisy and cumbersome, the missiles may have indeed been the best way to test Kara's powers. Their speed and destructive power could very well be comparable to that of some of the Fort Rozz escapees.
Kara landed lightly next to them, looking sore but exhilarated.
"How many missiles is that?" Kara asked resting a head on Alex's shoulder with a sigh.
Alex shook her head. "I lost count after the first dozen."
"Ugh." Kara stretched dramatically, "can't he just accept that I know what I'm doing?"
Lily and Alex shared a look before laughing sarcastically.
"Hank doesn't do trust very well." Lily spoke up first, "he barely trusts us and we've been here for years." It was a bit of an exaggeration, but true enough in this case.
"Hank always wants to see for himself," Alex added, bending down to pick up a piece of the shattered whiteboard. She quickly copied what is said onto her clipboard.
"Sorry about that." Kara offered awkwardly, motioning to the former whiteboard.
Alex shrugged her off, picking up another piece, and repeating the process.
Lily nudged Alex playfully, "Alex loves jigsaws and you've just given her a thousand-piece puzzle."
Kara laughed as Alex stuck her tongue out.
While Alex's attention was focused on another glass shard, Kara leaned towards Lily and whispered. "I'm really glad Alex had someone like you here."
Lily was taken aback by Kara's warm smile, she'd been worried that the Kryptonian would be more hostile about the whole kidnapping ordeal. Lily's cheeks flushed under Kara's kind gaze, still not used to affection from anyone other than Alex.
"It was nothing," Lily responded awkwardly, avoiding Kara's gaze for fear she'd turn even redder.
"Ms. Danvers," Hank barked. "If you're done gossiping we have a test to finish."
Kara groaned, stretching again, before flying off.
Another boom shook the camp and Lily sighed, this was going to be a long day.
———
It was noon when Hank finally let them go back to their location in the city. Kara had been called off to deal with a fire in the port, and there was no point continuing without her. Lily's neck was stiff and sore after staring at the sky for a few hours straight, and she rubbed it as she moved down the hall to her office.
She wanted nothing more than to have a relaxing lunch, but in the chaos of getting up a few hours earlier than usual, she'd forgotten to pack one.
She grabbed her purse, intending to make a coffee shop run when her phone buzzed.
Winn: Are you free for lunch?
Lily smiled to herself as she read the text, she could practically hear the hesitation in his words. Wondering if he was pushing too far too fast. Lily wondered that too occasionally, but something just clicked when she was with him.
Alex's words flashed tauntingly in her head as she stared at her phone. Would they click this well if she told him everything? As her thoughts strayed to her brother, her job, and all the other secrets she was keeping she almost said no.
Her stomach grumbled in protest, reminding her why she was halfway out the door with her purse in hand.
Lily: Have you ever been to Noonan's?
It was about halfway between the DEO and Catco, no more than a 10-minute walk either way.
She played around with the phrasing for a minute before realizing she was overdoing it and just hit send. She poked her Hermione bobblehead anxiously as she waited for a reply.
Winn: A million times. So it's a date?
Lily: See you in 10
Lily headed absently towards the locker room before remembering that she hadn't actually changed into her uniform yet today. Mentally smacking herself, she moved towards the front entrance instead. She paused for a moment as she passed the hub, half of the screens were always devoted to various news channels so they could keep an eye out for alien disasters. One of the headlines jumped out at her, Supergirl: Hero or Ecoterrorist?
She couldn't hear what the newscaster was saying, but Lily had to assume the fire at the port hadn't gone well. Lily quickly pinged off a text to Alex. She'd probably already seen the news already, but Lily wanted to make sure she could be moral support for her sister if she needed to be.
She resumed her path to the door, gratefully turning her thoughts toward lunch.
———
Noonan's was crowded when she arrived after all good food meant a busy lunch rush. Thankfully, Winn had gotten there first and saved her a seat.
"Hi." She greeted as she sat down, still a little awkward. This was the first time she'd seen him since he'd kissed her cheek. "Thanks for getting a table."
He smiled, shrugging. "My friend, Kara, always drags me here so I know the owner." He explained conspiratorily.
Lily laughed, even as a stab of guilt went through her at Kara's name. "Well, since you're the expert, what do you suggest we get?"
Winn adjusted a pair of nonexistent glass and glanced down at the menu. "Wellllll." He drew out the word climactically, "they have very good sandwiches here."
Lily laughed again, it was not the answer she'd been expecting. "Two sandwiches it is."
Their hands lay next to each other on the table as they waited for someone to take their order. Her fingers brushed his lightly, unsure if holding hands was a step too far, but he seemed to get the idea and laced his fingers through hers.
It was a comforting warmth, having his hand pressed against hers as they sat together at the small table.
"How was work today?" She asked gently, trying to keep the calm mood.
He sighed, leaning back a little, but didn't remove his hand from hers. "Stressful."
She squeezed his hand lightly, nodding. "you have no idea." Lily smiled sarcastically, "I was up at the crack on dawn because my boss wanted to get started as soon as possible."
Winn squeezed her hand back in support. "Well, my day beats that—"
The waiter came by then and Winn ordered them two turkey sandwiches.
At the momentary break in the conversation, Lily's gaze wandered around the room, eventually settling on the plasma above the bar. The news-anchor she'd seen earlier was interviewing Maxwell Lord about Supergirl's fumble with the dock fire.
Lily sighed, she knew Maxwell well enough to know that whatever he was saying about Supergirl was for his benefit and no one else's. They'd met on more than one occasion, there'd been a time when he and Lex had been for lack of a better word, close. But when Lex attacked Metropolis, Maxwell had stepped back. Yes, he was self-serving, but not to the point of megalomania.
She shook away the bad memories that threatened to drown her at the sight of his face.
Winn must've noticed where her gaze was because he commented, "they're being too hard on Supergirl. She's new at this."
"Huh," it took a moment for his words to fully register as she shoved the memories back down. "Yeah, she seems like she's really trying."
"Exactly." He clapped his free hand against the table, clearly passionate on his friend's behalf.
Lily giggled, his energy was infectious and it warmed her heart to know how much he cared about his friends.
"Aw. Do you have a crush on Supergirl?" Lily teased lightly even though she knew the real answer.
Winn's cheeks reddened slightly, embarrassed at the insinuation. "No." He mumbled, looking away like a scolded child.
"Good." She squeezed his hand again, "I'd hate to have competition."
Now his cheeks turned really red, and his smile stretched wide, clearly pleased by the statement.
They stayed like that, just smiling and chatting idly until the food arrived.
"Mmm." Lily swallowed her bite before speaking, "that's an exceptional sandwich."
Winn laughed in response, "I told you."
The rest of the meal was spent in satisfied silence as they scarfed their food down.
Tell him, the thought pinged around her head as she finished her food. This really did seem to be going somewhere, and she couldn't build an entire relationship on a lie.
"Winn." Something in her tone must've been graver than she intended because he looked her in concern when she spoke.
"Is everything okay?" His hand found hers again as he spoke.
"Yeah." She squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I just need to tell you something, can we meet up for dinner tonight?"
"Of course." He still looked worried, but less so than a few moments ago.
She was saved the trouble of coming up with a reply when her phone rang. Alex's name flashed across the screen and she answered the phone hastily.
"Hello?"
Lily had barely gotten the words out when Alex barreled into a response, "there's been a firewall breach. Hank wants you to look into it ASAP."
"The firewall?" She echoed, confused. No one had messed with her firewall in a long time. Winn glanced up at her words, an odd expression on his face.
"Yeah, the system was probably glitching, but you know Hank would never take that chance."
"Ok. I'll be there in a minute." She hung the phone up quickly. Honestly, she was glad to leave, the awkward air that had permeated the room at her words was stifling.
Lily turned to Winn apologetically, "I have to go. There's an emergency at work."
He nodded, but that odd expression remained. Unease threatened to grow in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed it away.
"I'll see you tonight." She kissed him on the cheek and was gone.
———
The firewall breach turned out to be much more severe than Alex had said. It took Lily only a few moments to figure out what had been taken, thankfully nothing, but a lot longer to figure out who had gotten in. They'd managed to penetrate the first firewall but had been kicked out by the secondary firewall, meaning that no government secrets had been taken.
It was still alarming that someone had gotten through at all, even if they hadn't been successful in the long run. Someone somewhere had plans that involved the DEO and that couldn't be a good thing...
When Lily was finally able to track the hack she ran the numbers twice just to be sure of what she was seeing.
There had been two hacks. One had piggybacked on the other, so at first glance, it looked like just one. The original hack had a very familiar signature... Suddenly all the pieces clicked together in her head.
Winn...
His reaction at the restaurant when she'd mentioned a firewall suddenly made sense and she wanted to bang her head against the keyboard. It was going so well.
Lily shook the thought away, she had a job to do. After another twenty minutes of staring at the screen and making no progress on the second hack, she knew what she had to do.
It was early afternoon, if she hurried she could still catch Winn at Catco. She didn't really want to do this in a public place, but she knew she couldn't put it off another minute.
She spent the entire walk to Catco mentally playing out the confrontation in her head. Would he deny it? Would he accuse her right back? Why had he done it?
Her thoughts kept running in circles as she walked and it was all she could do to keep her face blank. Whether she wanted to scream or yell or cry, she wasn't sure, but if she stopped clenching her jaw her expression might break.
She'd walked to Catco, but when she arrived she was out of breath as though she'd jogged the whole way.
It was only when she saw the security desk in the lobby that she realized she hadn't thought this through. She rubbed her face with her hand before pulling her phone out.
Kara picked up on the first ring. "Hey, Lily. Does the DEO need me?"
Lily shook her head as she spoke even though Kara couldn't see her. "No. I'm in the lobby, can you let me up?"
"Yeah, of course. Is something wrong?"
"No. Yes. It's complicated, I just need to get up there."
"Ok." Kara sounded like she had a million more questions to ask, but for now, she called down to the desk to buzz Lily up.
Lily leaned against the back wall of the elevator as she wondered, not for the first time if this was really the best course of action. But then the doors were opening and Kara was there, and there was nowhere to run.
"What do you need?" Kara asked in place of a greeting.
"I have to see Winn."
Kara blanched at the name, clearly surprised that Lily knew it at all. "How do you know—"
Lily stopped her. "I promise I'll explain, just right now I have to talk to him."
Kara nodded reluctantly, stepping back and allowing Winn's desk into Lily's line of sight.
Lily marched over. "Winn."
Winn looked up in surprise, multiple expression flashing across his face. "Hi." He tried a poker face, but he looked scared.
"We need to talk."
Winn nodded gravely, "I suppose we do." He stood up, pausing the video game he'd been playing and motioned for her to follow. They ended up in a cramped alcove that Lily suspected was generally used for more intimate things.
"You hacked into a secure government server!" She accused without warning.
"You hacked me first." He shot back just as accusatory.
"I had to see if you were a threat." Winn blanched at the last word, and something in her heart tugged, but she was too mad to listen to it. "You were helping Supergirl and H—my boss wanted to know if we could trust you."
Something clicked behind Winn's eyes and he tossed an accusation at her that she had not been expecting. "When you came to my apartment, that was part of the job too. Was this...?" His voice trailed off as he looked between the two of them and suddenly all her anger was gone.
Lily had been used by too many people not to understand what Winn meant. There was still fire in his eyes but he let her grab his hand as she spoke. "Never. This was all real." His posture relaxed a little, still wary but clearly wanting to believe everything she'd said.
Lily sighed, now was as good a time as any to come clean. "I suppose you want the full story." He nodded once, no less wary. "I work for the DEO. I don't know how much Kara has told you—" his eyebrows shot up, clearly surprised that she knew Kara's identity but he let her continue without comment. "We monitor and police alien activity on earth. I run IT, so it was my firewall you hacked." She couldn't resist being personally offended by that fact. "I was at your apartment that day because I was sent to do a threat assessment of you. It all went out of control from there, I didn't expect to fall for you..." She mumbled the last part quietly.
Winn drew in a long breath before he spoke. "Kara told me about Alex and the DEO," he paused picking his words carefully. "I wasn't going to look into it, but when I saw your trace on my computer I had to do something about it." He rubbed his neck awkwardly, as though it sounded stupid now. "I had no idea it would be you on the other end."
"You're lucky it was," Lily replied, a bit of the fire from earlier returning. "Do you know how much trouble you can get into for hacking an agency that isn't supposed to exist?"
Winn's posture which had relaxed earlier, became standoffish as her words hit the wrong way.
She rubbed her temple gingerly before speaking again. "I'm going to have to explain all this to my boss, but I'll make sure you don't get in trouble."
As the conversation cooled off, Kara appeared nearby and Lily had to resist sighing exasperatedly. "How much of that did you hear?" Kara looked at her and smiled sheepishly. The answer clear on her face, she joined Lily and Winn. Not quite in the alcove because there wasn't room but close enough for a normal conversation.
"How long has this been going on?" Kara asked, trying, and failing, to sound politely curious.
They shared a glance before Winn answered, "a few weeks."
Kara turned to Lily, "and you did a threat assessment of me." Kara didn't sound angry, just disappointed and that was worse because Lily was used to disappointing people.
Lily looked away as she answered, unable to look Kara in the eye. "It was Hank's orders and Alex already punched me for it so maybe don't Kryptonian super punch me—"
Winn turned to Lily, concern on his face. "You said that was a work accident."
"Not exactly, look it's fine I basically invited her to hit me." It was not the first or last time Lily was punched on the job. She tried to get the conversation back on the rails. "I'm sorry I betrayed your trust, both of you." She glanced at Winn and away again, to find him still studying the fading bruise on her cheek. She squeezed the hand she hadn't realized she was still holding.
Kara shook her head. "I trust you and I trust Alex."
Lily smiled at her tentatively.
Winn was studying her like there was more he wanted to say.
Kara seemed to pick up on this as well because she said, "I need to go, Ms. Grant needs another latte."
Winn waited until Kara was out of sight before opening his mouth, he closed it several times before finally mustering the courage to speak. "You did an assessment of me, so that means you know everything about my life and my...my father." His voice trembled on the last word as though it hurt to say.
She nodded, unsure if there was a right thing to say.
"And you still chose to start this?"
So many secrets jumbled around in her brain, demanding to be spoken, to be heard, but she swallowed resolutely before speaking. No one trusts a Luthor.
"Winn." His hand was trembling and she squeezed it gingerly. She placed her other hand on his cheek and his eyes met hers. "You are not your father." His eyes met her, wide and trusting and in pain. She drew him closer to her in the alcove. "Your father left a terrible legacy behind, but you are not a part of it. Look at all the good you've done, you're working with Supergirl."
Winn chuckled wryly at the last part, "my dad would hate that."
Lily smiled, sensing that the mood had changed for the better. She hugged him fiercely, and if she felt a few quiet sobs escape him, neither of them mentioned it.
They stayed that way for what felt like a few minutes but could easily have been half an hour. As they broke apart Lily rested her forehead against Winn's for a moment, savoring each other's comforting warmth.
"I should let you get back to work." She spoke eventually. Slowly untangling herself from him.
He grabbed her wrist as she pulled away, "will I still see you tonight?"
Lily shrugged noncommittally, "if you still want to."
In answer, he pressed his lips against hers gently.
"So that's a maybe for tonight," she commented playfully.
He laughed. "Now shoo, I have work to do."
"I would love to but..." Lily gestured to Winn's hand which was still wrapped firmly around her wrist.
"Right, yeah," he withdrew his hand quickly, looking flustered.
Lily was still smiling to herself as she walked away.