Lily's work phone rang as she waited on the Catco elevator.
"Larken here."
"Lily, where are you?" It was Alex, sounding worried.
"I was tracing the hack, what happened?" Concern spilled from her as she spoke.
"There's been an attack." Lily's eyes snapped up, finding Winn's across the crowded office, "it looks like another Fort Rozz escapee."
"Where?"
"Plastino Chemicals." Winn moved towards her as Alex spoke, sensing her distress.
"The chemical plant just out of town?" Lily questioned, trying to gather all the details.
"Yes. Get here now. Hank's sending a team to the plant and I want you there with us."
"I'm headed there now," Lily said, hanging up the phone. She jabbed the elevator button again as though maybe it would speed up the process.
By this time both Winn and, surprisingly, Kara have made their way over to her.
"You know those ears of yours are going to get you in trouble one day," Lily commented as Winn wrapped an arm around her shoulders comfortingly.
Kara shrugged, "Alex called me too. I thought I'd offer you a lift."
Lily nodded, thankfully. Flying with Kara would be much faster than waiting on an elevator that felt like it was never coming.
"What happened?" Winn asked as the trio moved to a more secluded corner of the office so Kara could take off without being noticed.
"A Fort Rozz escapee attacked a chemical plant. Hank needs all hands on deck." Lily said, leaning into Winn. It felt nice to be able to tell him the truth.
Lily sent Alex a quick text, that she and Kara would meet her and Hank at the plant. She kissed Winn on the cheek and then Kara whisked them off.
———
The only people on the scene, when they arrived, were a few stunned security guards. The plant felt dark and eery as they entered, bathed in pale blue light flickering from overhead.
It wasn't hard to find the scene of the attack, the alien had left a body behind, a security guard unfortunate enough to have stumbled across the alien. Lily's stomach churned at the sight and she looked away to avoid losing her lunch. Lily had seen more than her share of corpses in her lifetime, it was something you never got used to.
Kara looked squeamish as well. Thankfully, they didn't have to try to make conversation after the gruesome sight, because at that moment Hank and Alex appeared around the corner mid-argument.
"—will ask me before contacting any unnecessary assets." Hank was saying.
Alex glared at him as she replied, "all due respect, Sir, but she isn't unnecessary. She might be the only person who can give us firsthand accounts of these species."
"Sir," Lily spoke in greeting, and to alert the other two to her and Kara's presence.
"Larken," Hank made an expression that passed for a smile, but it became a grimace as he turned to Kara. "Ms. Danvers."
"Supergirl." Kara corrected impulsively, before looking away as she turned scarlet. "I mean..." she stuttered, trying to cover her fumble.
"Kara," Alex stepped in hastily, tossing her sister a lifeline. "Take a look around, see if you notice anything."
"Don't touch anything," Hank added as Kara moved away.
He turned to the two of them, "this facility manufactures sodium hypochlorite and ammonium nitrate."
Lily glanced at the other two uneasily, "ingredients for a chemical bomb?"
Alex and Lily began to drift around the room collecting biological samples, as the other agents interview the remaining guards. Kara did a circuit of the room before returning to the body in the center. She looked squeamish but determined.
"What's this?" Alex leaned down closer inspecting the body, and, with a long pair of tweezers, pulled a sharp blade from the guard's chest. But it wasn't like any blade Lily had ever seen before, it was yellowish in color and didn't seem to have a handle.
Lily peered at it as Alex held it up, "it almost looks...organic?" She said the last word uncertainly. It seemed like such an odd observation.
Alex nodded thoughtfully in response, "I think you're right. I'll have to run a few tests on it, but that seems like a logical conclusion."
Alex dropped the blade into an evidence bag as the other agents packed up the scene. It took a few threats and some taxpayer dollars but the security guards agreed not to say anything. This was both to keep the public from panicking and because the DEO did not technically exist.
They used FBI vans and FBI uniforms, but it was still best to make sure no one said anything. Alex and Lily rode back to the DEO together, looking after their samples to preserve the chain of custody. Kara had left the scene in a hurry to deal with another emergency.
"I thought maybe I could make everyone forget about the oil spill if I double down on my saves, and well... Winn found a cat up a tree." Kara had flustered on the last few words, clearly embarrassed that she was relegated to getting cats from trees until the public forgave her.
Lily had laughed, waving her off. "We've got this, go save fluffy."
Kara nodded thankfully, said goodbye to Alex, and took off.
They made a beeline for Alex's lab as they got off the transport. Lily had made no progress with identifying the second hacker, and with no other current assignments, she was helping Alex.
The samples were set haphazardly, in no particular order, on one of the empty lab tables (most were buried under piles of used and unused equipment). Lily grabbed the bag containing the dagger and they set to work.
She slipped on a pair of blue rubber gloves. She then carefully extracted the dagger from the bag, wary of its sharp edge. Lily reached for a clean q-tip and gently swabbed the flat part of the blade. She inserted the swab into a machine for analysis and passed the dagger on to Alex, with the comment, "now for the fun part."
Lily winked conspiratorially as she spoke. The waiting was the worst part of the science game, especially for someone who could be as impatient as Lily could. She normally passed the time making conversation with Alex, but no topics came to mind.
"So Winn was the hacker," Alex commented eventually, as she adjusted the focus on her microscope. "Kara told me," she continued as Lily gazed at her steadily, questioningly.
"Yes." Lily said carefully, "are you going to tell Hank?"
"Are you?" Alex tossed the words to her, not accusatory or angry, simply curious.
"Eventually. I just want to make sure he doesn't get in trouble." Lily shifted from foot to foot, wishing she had something to occupy her mind other than this conversation.
"Yeah..." Alex commented, her focus once again returning to the microscope as she moved to focus on a different part of the blade. "That's odd." She unfocused and refocused the microscope as though it would give her different results the second time around.
"What is it?" Lily moved closer to Alex.
In answer, Alex moved from her seat and motioned for Lily to take a look through the lens. Lily pulled the stool closer to the table and sat down, peering curiously through the microscope.
That is odd, she thought, echoing Alex's earlier statement. "It looks like a piece of bone," Lily murmured aloud.
"Exactly." Alex was quick to corroborate her findings. "Which begs the question, is it his bone or someone else's? It's an odd material to use for a weapon."
The mass spectrometer Lily had used earlier beeped and printed out a list of results. Lily read it over quickly.
"Well," Lily said waving the paper for emphasis. "According to these results, apart from some human blood, the only thing on the dagger are skin cells that are definitely not human."
"You get this to Hank, I'll call Kara. Maybe she can help us figure out what we're dealing with here." Even as she spoke Alex was pulling out her phone and presumably dialing Kara's number.
Lily grabbed the papers and left for Hank's office.
"Sir," she called apprehensively as she knocked. She didn't even know if he was in there. Sure enough, after a few minutes of no response, she moved on to see if she could locate him elsewhere in the building.
She eventually found Hank in the hub, where he was talking with another agent.
"Sir?" She called uncertainly, not wanting to interrupt anything of vital importance.
Hank looked up once to check who was speaking, nodded to the agent, and made his way towards her.
"Something to report, Larken?"
She nodded, "yes, Sir. Ale—Agent Danvers and I determined that the dagger is organic. It appears to be made of bone."
Hank nodded. "I trust Agent Danvers has notified her sister?"
Lily nodded, looking away, uncertain if she should be ashamed or not.
Hank only nodded again, "we leave for the mountain in five."
"Are you sure, Sir? Wouldn't it be easier to have Kara—"
Hank held up a hand to silence her, "five minutes."
"Sir." She agreed reluctantly.
She found Alex in her lab. Pouring over one of the blood samples from the scene.
"Doc?" Lily knocked on the door frame to gain her friend's attention.
Alex waved her over without looking up. When she finally did meet Lily's eyes her own were shining with excitement. "I was on the phone with Kara and I had this wonderful idea. So I tested the blood samples from the scene, I thought we could potentially use a blood sample to isolate a weakness."
Lily nodded, "and did you?"
"Not exactly...but I found something arguably more interesting." Alex leaned back in her seat, stretching her back that had been in one position for far too long.
"Are you going to tell me or are you going to make me guess?" To anyone else, Lily might've sounded annoyed, but to Alex, the amusement in her voice rang true. They were in a time crunch, however.
"This alien, whoever they are, isn't carbon-based like we are."
Now Lily's interest was peaked, all of the aliens they'd run across before even with their powers and weaknesses had had relatively similar internal chemistry to humans.
"That's new," Lily commented.
"It's chlorine-based," Alex finished her thought.
Suddenly a light bulb went off in Lily's head and all the pieces snapped into place. "Where is the—aha" Lily cut herself off as she found the paper she was looking for. A list of the chemicals housed at Plastino. She ran a finger down the list, murmuring as she went, "carbon...nitrogen...chlorine." She thrust the list at Alex, pointing to one item in particular. "Here, DDT. It's mostly chlorine."
"Of course," Alex latched onto Lily's train of thought. "He's not building a bomb, he's...eating." Even though that was almost certainly the answer, it was still odd to say.
"Larken, Danvers." Hank's shout rang through the lab, reminding Lily why she was there in the first place.
"Hank wants us to go to the mountain to meet Kara."
Alex looked annoyed by the continued subterfuge but nodded obediently.
"Well, we shouldn't keep the warden waiting." Alex used Lily's nickname for Hank with a wry smile, a small act of revenge for having to lie to her sister once more.
Lily smiled, a little sadly perhaps. Thinking of how the lies seemed to be piling up in both of their lives, but a smile nonetheless. It had all seemed so much easier a few hours ago when she'd been telling Winn about the DEO and it felt like there weren't any more secrets, but of course, there were still secrets. There would always be secrets.
Lily was finally pulled out of her head as they met Hank in the garage for transport to the mountain. She and Alex briefed him on their most recent discovery as the van moved over a seemingly endless stream of potholes.
Lily gritted her teeth as the vehicle lurched once more, wishing she could just fly to the mountain like Kara. The ride passed in silence after they briefed Hank. The road to the mountain was tedious at best, and the icy tension between Alex and Hank was suffocating.
Lily breathed deeply, and perhaps a little melodramatically, as they reached the mountain. She was just glad to be out of that car.
Kara was near the computer banks when they arrived. Bouncing a little in her heels, as she waited expectantly.
"Alex," Kara chose to ignore Hank in favor of addressing her sister. "I just remembered, my mom—on Krypton." Kara's words tumbled together as she tried to explain her thought process. Finally, she just came right out with it, "I think I know what alien you're looking for."
If Hank's eyebrows had gone any higher, they'd have leaped clean off his face. He coughed in disbelief, still not entirely convinced that Kara needed to be here at all.
"They're called Hellgrammites."
Lily moved to the computer to scan the Fort Rozz roster for the species Kara had indicated. One hit.
"According to the Fort Rozz roster, there was a Hellgrammite prisoner onboard."
Hank nodded, the fact that the computer corroborated Kara's story was definitely a step in the right direction. Especially in terms of proving Kara's usefulness to him.
Growing more confident in her story, Kara began to explain the little she knew about the species. "They're insect-like creatures, but they can camouflage themselves into any shape. Human included. And they can grow blades made of bone out of their wrists."
Lily pulled up a photo from the archives for reference. She resisted the urge to cringe at the image, bugs really weren't her thing.
Lily moved back to stand by Alex as Kara pestered Hank about being allowed into the field.
"You couldn't have defeated Vartox without me."
"That could've been a fluke, you're not going back into the field until we've finished assessing your abilities." Hank was stubborn and set in his ways, this was a fight Kara was unlikely to win.
"I broke the sound barrier, I can dodge missiles. What more do you need to know?"
"Too much brawn and not enough brains, Ms. Danvers."
Kara looked dejected. She clearly wanted to help, she was just still learning on the how.
"Agent Danvers." Hank nodded to Alex, this appeared to be some sort of pre-arranged signal because Alex led Kara towards the training rooms.
"Sir," Lily stepped up beside Hank as the other two left. "What is Alex going to do?"
"Like I said earlier, Agent Larken." Hank explained, "Ms. Danvers relies too much on her superior strength. She needs more than simply punching until someone falls over."
Lily didn't like it but she knew Hank was right. Still, as she glanced towards the training room, she had a sinking feeling that this wouldn't go well.
"Sir, could I take the rest of the evening off?" Lily asked apprehensively. Tracking the Hellgrammite could easily run late into the night and she didn't want to be late to meet Winn.
Hank raised an eyebrow, Lily didn't generally have much of a personal life beyond Alex and rarely took time off.
"I have a personal engagement, Sir." She continued, feeling like a teenager who'd been caught breaking curfew.
Hank waved her off, with an almost smile. "It's good to take time off once in a while."
Lily sighed as she took a transport back to the city if only Hank could be that understanding with Kara.
———
The walk from the DEO to her apartment was frigid. A cold front had swept in during the day, and now, as dusk was descending, it only got colder. Lily wrapped her jacket tighter around herself as a particularly strong gust tossed her hair into a tangled mess.
She was grateful to finally mount the stairs to her apartment, and even more grateful to shut the apartment door behind her. She kept her coat on for a few minutes as she let herself warm up.
Lily had just curled up on the couch under a blanket, with a book and a nice hot cup of cocoa, when the doorbell rang.
"Coming," she called, untangling herself from the blanket. She was greeted with a familiar mess of dark hair wearing a cardigan. "Winn," she murmured, surprised.
"We didn't exactly pick a time tonight, and I didn't want to be late..." his voice trailed away into embarrassed silence.
She waved him inside with a smile, opening the door a little further.
"It's a little early for dinner, how about a movie?" Lily moved to the couch as she spoke, folding the blanket and putting the book on the coffee table.
Winn nodded, looking adorably awkward as he also moved towards the couch. "A movie sounds nice."
Lily bent down to grab the box of movies she kept under the coffee table. She passed it to Winn, "take your pick."
Winn thumbed through the movies for a minute before looking at her with a playful smile. "I can't believe you don't have the second Star Wars trilogy."
She shoved him lightly, "I only keep good movies in that box."
"Really?" Winn commented, holding up a copy of Titanic.
"It's a guilty pleasure," she muttered snatching the disk from him and holding it to her chest.
Winn laughed, "I hope this doesn't mean I'm competing with Leonardo Decaprio."
"More like Kate Winslet." She said with a wink.
"Wha—uh," Winn stammered, unsure how to respond to that.
"Relax, hot Schott. I'm kidding." He laughed with her now, his cheeks still partially flushed in embarrassment but there was a light twinkle in his eye that warmed her heart.
"This?" He asked, pulling The Princess Bride out of the box.
"That's perfect," Lily smiled at a movie that had defined most of her childhood. The case was wrinkled and smashed in many places from being dropped one too many times over the years. It was a well-loved case, never sitting in the box long enough to collect dust. "'You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you.'" She quoted as she placed the DVD in the player.
Winn finished the quote without a moment's hesitation. "'You seem a decent fellow, I hate to die.'"
She cuddled into his side as the movie began to play, and they relaxed into the couch. As the credits scrolled by and the grandpa began to read the story, Winn yawned, stretching and casually wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Lily had to stifle a giggle, it was such a teenage boy move to make, but she still found it adorable. It was warm and comfortable, pressed next to him, that she felt herself beginning to drift off. The day had been stressful and it was nice to finally relax. She fell asleep to the sound of clashing swords as Inigo and Westley fought near the Cliffs of Insanity.
———
"Lily."
"Shh," she nuzzled closer to the warmth, trying to drift back to sleep. The warmth chuckled, the sound vibrating the surface, making it hard to sleep. "Hmm." Lily hummed finally stretching and moving away from the warmth.
The warmth turned out to be Winn.
"Hi," he chuckled again as she rubbed her eyes and blinked up at him.
She glanced at the screen to the closing credits scrolling, "did I miss the whole movie?"
"Yeah, how tired were you? Or was the movie just that boring?"
She held a hand to her heart, wounded. "First of all, that—" she gestured to the TV "—is one of the greatest movies of all time. I just, work was...a lot today." She stumbled to find the right words. Sure they'd cleared the air about the DEO, but didn't mean he was ready for her to just unload on him.
He rubbed a comforting hand on her arm, "do you want to talk about it?"
She shrugged, "I mean, if you're sure you won't run screaming."
"If I can handle Kara, I can handle this." He smiled at her sweetly, gently trying to lighten the mood.
"There was a body," she started slowly, unpacking the worst part of the story first. "It's not the first one I've seen, but it just reminded me how high the stakes are in this job. What's on the line if I mess up."
He cupped her cheek tenderly, "you're going to mess up, and that's okay. Because it's not just you, it's a team. It's you, and Alex, and Hank, and all the other agents. You catch their mistakes and they catch yours. And it isn't just them, I'm here too. If you need me."
"Thank you," she spoke softly as her eyes began to water. Both from all of her fears and from Winn's heartfelt support.
He simply smiled at her again, there wasn't anything else that needed to be said.
Grumble.
Lily's stomach grumbled loudly.
"Maybe we should finally make dinner," Winn suggested lightly.
This second foray into the kitchen went considerably better than the first. Lily now knew well enough to keep Winn away from anything that he might accidentally set on fire.
She sent him to the opposite side of the kitchen to chop vegetable while she flipped on a burner and got to work.
All in all, the stir-fry came together quickly and nicely. They had one near miss when Winn tried to add the veggies to the pot and dropped a few of them into the fire instead, causing the flames to lick up dangerously for a moment before burning back down.
After that Lily ordered him to sit on the kitchen stool and stay there until she was finished. He pouted, but listened. Making a much better conversation partner than chef.
Talking and chatting idly made the time go by in a flash, and in seemingly no time at all she was dishing the food onto plates while Winn set the table.
She asked him about his day as they sat down to eat.
"Well," he started. "I didn't actually do much work after you left. We had this great idea to help fix Kara's reputation."
"Yeah, fluffy the cat." Lily remembered the name of the cat that Winn had called Kara away to rescue.
Winn made a face at her words, halfway between a laugh and a grimace. "Fluffy the snake."
Lily laughed, "who names their snake fluffy?"
"Exactly, that's what I said." Winn spoke, clearly pleased that someone agreed with him. "Thankfully, the rest of it went better than that. Kara will be the public's sweetheart again in no time."
It was nice how easily they slipped into conversation about Kara and the DEO. It quieted a nagging fear in the back of her head that all the secrets coming undone would be too much for him.
She smiled at him gently as he continued to speak about various people and things that Kara had saved over the course of the afternoon.
"What?" Winn asked and Lily realized that she'd been caught staring.
"Uh," she reddened slightly. The explanation sticking in her throat. "I'm just happy that all of this worked out."
"Me too," Winn reached across the small table to grasp her hand.
The words she wanted to say next were no less difficult to get out. She opened her mouth twice before finally speaking. "Do you want to make it official?"
Winn looked surprised. Pleased, but very surprised. "Definitely."